USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Part II > Part 11
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The Bridgeport Lumber Company, located at the foot of Gold street, was organized in 1882, with these officers : C. H. Hawley, President ; R. S. Neithercut, Vice-President ; F. V. Hawley, Secretary and Treasurer. They are successors to C. H. Hawley. The business was started about fifty years ago by Charles Hawley, who, having several partners and changes, continued the same until his death in 1850. Then Julius Hawley, who had been in the business with his brother Charles a number of years, bought the enterprise, and, under the name of Smith and Hawley, carried on the establishment until he was succeeded by his son, C. H. Hawley, in 1876; and he continued it until May, 1882.
They manufacture moldings and house trimmings generally, and deal in all kinds of lumber.
The Granniss and Hurd Lumber Company, is located on Simond's dock. They are successors to Lyon, Curtis and Company ; the mill having been established in 1846 by the latter company. In 1866 Mr. Granniss purchased a portion of the stock, but the firm name continued the same until 1882, when Mr. Lyon having died in 1874 and Mr. Curtis in 1879 the new com- pany was organized. The present officers are : C. A. Granniss, President, and F. W. Hurd, Secretary and Treasurer, with a capital stock of $75,000. They are dealers in lumber, and manufacture a great variety of building material and cabinet ware in all kinds of wood, employing about seventy-five men.
William F. Swords, lumber merchant and manufacturer of building material, is located on the corner of East Washington avenue and Water street. The business was started in 1852 under the name of Swords and Stilson. The latter died in 1874, and Mr. Swords continued the business. In 1879 he built the present buildings with all modern improvements. He employs from 75 to 100 hands and conducts a large business for this part of the country.
The Pequonnock Manufacturing Company, located at North Bridgeport, was conducted some years by William R. Bunnell and his brothers James F. and Thomas F. Bunnell, and it was prominent among the first industries in the city.
Wm. R. Bunnell had been for a time connected with the celebrated New York Mills, near Utica, N. Y., where he had gained much practical knowledge in the manufacture of muslins. So interested did he become in the business that he sold a fine grazing farm of 1,100 acres, stocked with 3,000 merino and Saxony sheep, in the towns of Burns and Ossian, Alleghany Co., N. Y., and in 1834 bought the interest of his uncle, Dr. Thomas Fitch, of Philadelphia, in the woolen mills at North Bridgeport. Subsequently the three Bunnell brothers greatly enlarged the establishment, added another mill, imported many English and Welch operatives, and introduced the most improved machinery of the time. They made a high grade of broadcloth, as well as cotton goods. They conducted the business with much success until under the Polk administration the repeal of the tariff brought financial ruin upon them and hundreds of other manufacturers, in 1846. Retiring to the city of Bridgeport Mr. Bunnell resided for many years
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Bridgeport.
afterwards in Lafayette street at the head of Liberty street. He was well known as a man of strong religious principles, of strict integrity in all his business trans- actions, and of active Christian benevolence. For ten years he was a city and town assessor, and for eight years clerk of the First Congregational Church. He died November 6, 1872, at the age of sixty-six years.
The Monumental Bronze Company was organized and established in this city in the early part of the year 1874, located on corner of Barnum and Hal- lett streets, and has proved a successful enterprise. About the year 1868 Mr. M. A. Richardson was placed in charge of the Sherman cemetery grounds in Chautau- qua county, N. Y., and during several years of service there became impressed with the need of something more durable than stone for monumental use. His studies in the matter led him first to investigate the qualities of stone china as an article for such use, but after three journeys to Trenton, N. J., and other researches in the matter, turned his attention to the practicability of using galvanized iron for this purpose. In testing this material he made at Buf- falo a small monument, placing stained glass tablets upon it with an inscrip- tion, but after three years he found the stained glass, which he had been told would endure against the weather, pealed off, and hence was of no value in this kind of work. During this time his investigations, by a chance observation, were directed to the qualities of cast or molded zinc, and soon after he came to the con- clusion that this was the article to meet his purposes, and with this he galvanized his monument and took it to his home in Sherman and began to solicit capital, for the purpose of producing this kind of monument. He found Mr. O. J. Willard willing to become partner in the business, and they went to Patterson, N. J., in May, 1873, where they contracted with a firm to manufacture this kind of monu-
THE MONUMENTAL BRONZE COBRIDGEPORT CT
WORKS AT BRIDGEPORT
MONUMENTAL. BRONZE COMPANY.
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History of Stratford.
ment. Mr. Willard made a trip into the country and obtained about thirty orders, but at this point the work ended, because the contractors failed to produce good castings. Another experiment was made in Brooklyn, N. J., to obtain the cast- ings, but it failed. After several other failures, these persevering men built a shanty, put in a furnace, hired a molder, and at the end of three weeks produced some very good castings for their purpose, which astonished the other parties who failed, and had proclaimed that these castings could not be made. Some further efforts being made to interest capital having failed, the matter was given up as dead, and to be buried without a monument. Soon, however, a contract was made with Mr. Wm. Walter Evans of Patterson, N. J., cashier of the great locomotive works, giving him the exclusive right to manufacture for the United States and to sell the same to Mr. Richardson's and Willard's agents at a stipulated price. He proceeded with the business about a year when he sold his interest to Wilson, Parsons and Company of Bridgeport, in the early part of the year 1874. When the enterprise began in Bridgeport, it is said one man could do all the work then to be done, and the full development of the present methods had not been obtained, but by various experiments previous and afterward the system was per- fected. Soon after the company came here Mr. Daniel Schuyler was admitted as a partner, and the firm of Wilson, Schuyler and Company continued until the year 1877, when Mr. A. S. Parsons became a partner and the name was known as Schuyler, Parsons, Landon and Company, and the business increased more rapidly until 1879, when it was formed into a stock company with a full paid cash capital of $300,000, under the title of the Monumental Bronze Company. Since then the business has rapidly increased, and the company are now able to produce anything in the monumental or statuary line, however great the size. The com- pany have established manufactories in the following places : one at Chicago, known as the American White Bronze Company ; the Western White Bronze Company at Des Moines, Iowa ; the St. Thomas White Bronze Monument Com- pany, at St. Thomas, Can .; and the New Orleans White Bronze Works, at New Orleans.
The one great claim of the company in favor of their work, is durability far beyond any stone that can be obtained, aud of this quality there is certainly great need as exhibited by the decaying stones in all the cemeteries and burying. places in the United States. The present officers of this company are : President, A. S. Parsons, formerly contractor in the Wheeler and Wilson Sewing Machine Com- pany ; Vice-President, E. N. Sperry, of New Haven ; Treasurer, W. O. Corning, from New York ; Secretary, R. E. Parsons, from Norwich, Ct.
Lieberum Brothers are cabinet makers, at 315 Water street. They com- menced their business here in 1865, occupying one floor, 100 feet by 25, where their manufactory now stands, and now they use the whole building, four stories, for manufacturing, besides three stories of the building at 3 and 5 State street, each floor being 120 by 54. as salesrooms. They produce all styles of goods in their line, special attention being given to upholstering. A skillful undertaker is also employed, and careful attention is given to this branch of the business. The brothers came from Germany to this country about 1855 and resided in Birming- ham, Conn., for seven years, and came thence to this city in 1861. William Lieberum has represented the First Ward, in which he resides, in the Common Council, and is a mason and odd fellow. August Lieberum, the junior brother, is also a mason and a member of the knights templar.
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Bridgeport.
David Ginand, in the business of cutlery and edge tools at 43 Wall street, established this enterprise here in 1868. He occupies a floor 15 by 50, the front being the salesroom and the rear the manufactory. He produces to order any style of knives and gives special attention to repairs on all kinds of goods in his line. He is a native of Germany, but has resided in this country thirty-two years. He has been a member of the board of education for the last eight years, and is a member of the St. John's masonic lodge.
The Smith and Egge Manufacturing Company is located at 188 Lafayette street and was organized in the spring of 1874 and incorporated in September, 1877, with the same officers as at present, namely, Friend W. Smith, President, and W. H. Day, Secretary and Treasurer.
They employ from one to two hundred men, who are under the superintend- ency of Mr. Frederick Egge. There is probably no concern in this city so well and favorably known to the United States Government as this establishment. They have for several years past manufactured all the post office mail locks in use in the United States, and in all probability will supply them for several years to come. They also originated the system of carrying the mail key attached to the person of the carrier or route agent by a length of chain, and also in like manner fastening it to the mailing table in every post office in the country. For this use they have supplied the government with over 300,000 feet of chain, and the loss of keys is now very seldom reported. They have also supplied Mexico, Hayti, Chili, and St. Domingo with mail locks and keys. Since every lock bears on its face the imprint, "Manufactured by the Smith & Egge Co.," they have given a wide-spread fame to Bridgeport, and the city has doubtless realized material advantage from the celebrity. In addition to mail locks and keys they have supplied the government with all the postal punches for use in connection with the postal notes, and each of these also bears the name of Bridgeport, Conn. They have also furnished the Post Office Department with all their cord fasteners and label cases, numbering many hundred thousand. They have also had large dealings with the Treasury and Navy Departments of the government.
For the general trade they manufacture a great variety of articles, prominent among them are the giant padlock, giant drill check, and giant metal sash chains. The giant metal sash chain is a noticeable article. About eight years ago they conceived the idea of making a chain that could be sold at a popular price as a substitute for cord for hanging weights to windows, and they filed out the first samples by hand and were the originators of the chain represented in the accom- panying cut. It has been adopted by the United States for their public buildings
and is in general use in all parts of the country. To produce it cheap enough and fast enough to meet the demand, Mr. Frederick Egge invented a machine, into which the metal being fed, the links are cut out, put together, shaped, and the completed chain drawn out under a strain that tests its tensile strength sufficiently to discover any flaw in the metal, and at the rate of five feet a minute, without any human hand touching it. It is a marvel of ingenuity and does the work of several men. The firm keep several of these machines running continuously. They are
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History of Stratford.
also sole proprietors of the metal from which the chain is made, it being known in the market as the giant metal, and is said to be superior to any other for the pur- pose. Besides this and other chains they make special goods for large consumers, and for years have manufactured in this line sewing machine hardware for the Singer Machine Company, Wheeler and Wilson, Domestic, Estey Organ, and other companies. They have also for several years made the universal button hole attachment, and have lately put on the market a family button hole attach- ment that is capable of being applied to all the leading machines, enabling the sewing machine to do what it has not heretofore done successfully, that is, to make the button holes for the family without very much additional expense. They have also much valuable and special machinery made by and for themselves, not found in any other establishments in this or any country, and they employ many highly skilled mechanics. The company have a representative in New York and in Chicago, but their business is mainly conducted through their office in this city, and both the president, secretary and treasurer give it their constant and personal attention. The original firm was composed of Mr. Friend W. Smith and Mr. Frederick Egge. Mr. Smith is well known as having been postmaster of Bridgeport eight years, during both terms of President Lincoln's administra- tion. Mr. Egge has won for himself the reputation of being one of the best and most ingenious mechanics in the country. Mr. Warner H. Day, who came into the concern, bringing additional capital, in 1877, has twice been, and is its secre- tary and treasurer. He is well known in Bridgeport and in New York City, where he was engaged in the wholesale hardware trade for many years.
Joseph Keller and Company, manufacturers of square and upright pianos, are located in the building of the coach lace company. They established their business here in 1884, employing fifteen hands and increasing them as they were able to turn their own resources, being content with the daily production of one piano until the natural increase of their business permitted them to further enlarge their facilities. They make only one grade of instrument, the difference being only in the style of the case. Already their instrument is being acknowl- edged as most superior, and besides four awards of minor importance they received the first premium at the New York State fair in 1885.
Mr. Keller's reputation as a practical musician and piano maker is the very best, he being one of a family including the father and seven brothers, all either manufacturing or employed in manufactories of pianos. He was in New York City thirty years, commencing as an apprentice at the age of twelve years, and worked in some of the leading manufactories until he established himself in Bridgeport as above stated. He was also educated as a pianist and organist, which enables him to study and perfect the tone of his instruments. Every part of an instrument he has made hundreds of times with his own hands, which has qualified him for the personal inspection he gives to the smallest details of his business.
The company have met with success far beyond their most sanguine expecta- tions, so much so that their orders are greater than they can fill for months to come. Although they have spacious rooms, yet enlargement has become neces- sary and is soon to be secured. All this is owing to the manner of constructing their instruments and the effect secured. All the wood parts of their instruments are double, cross-grain veneered, both within and without, the material thoroughly kiln-dried, and while able to resist any atmospheric changes the instruments
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are novels of taste and beauty; while possessing a beautiful finish, noth- ing in the whole work is neglected, but manufactured by skillful workmen from the best material to be found, the principal aim being to make a first-class piano in every respect with special attention to its durability. These pianos unite every advantage produced, containing every valuable improvement science has suggested, including a number of their own inventions. In each piano the plank, or pin-block, is composed of five thicknesses of maple wood, the grain running in different directions, through that the turning-pin is held all round by endwood, the advantage being that changes of temperature do not swell or contract. This departure tends to keep the instrument in tune longer than by the ordinary method,-a great point in piano economy,-and by this system of crossing the grain of the wood all danger or liability of splitting the rest plank is removed. Their tone combines the greatest possible volume and richness, together with a beautiful and refined sweetness and purity, and remarkable for its extraordinary prolongation and singing quality, as well as perfect evenness throughout the entire scale; touch of the greatest lightness, elasticity, and pliancy, enabling the performer to control the instrument perfectly, and to vary the tone from the softest whisper to the most powerful fortissimo.
Hincks and Johnson, manufacturers of fine heavy carriages, such as coaches, landaus, broughams, coupés, hansom cabs, established their business on Broad street in May. 1879, as successors to Wood Brothers, who, with Stephen and Russell Tomlinson, gained a well deserved reputation during seventeen years of successful labors in the business. Mr. David Wood was among the first to commence a manufactory of heavy carriages in this country, beginning in 1828, under the firm name of Tomlinson, Wood and Company. Mr. Hincks is a native of this city, and Mr. Johnson was engaged in New York for a term of years before starting the business here. They occupy the original edifice built in 1831, with such additions as have been made from time to time, and now cover over two acres of ground floor, giving employment to 100 or 150 hands. They turn out complete about 200 of the larger carriages or coaches yearly, and of other styles a greater number, being, in fact, the largest establishment of the kind in New England and the second in this country. The departments for construction in wood and iron work each in itself would make a large business. They were the first to introduce recently the London hansom cabs, making some changes from the English design, and have already sold a large number of them in the most populous cities of the country. All their business is transacted at the office of their manufactory.
The White Manufacturing Company is located at 95 Cannon street, and produce coach lamps, carriage mountings and hardware. The officers are : George H. Johnson, President ; William B. Hincks, Treasurer ; H. S. Wilmot, Secretary ; Thomas Boudren, Superintendent.
This enterprise was started in 1832 by Rippen and Sturges, who were suc- ceeded by George Rippen, and he was succeeded by White and Bradley, who in turn were succeeded by Thomas P. White and Company. This firm was merged into the present White Manufacturing Company, which was organized as a joint stock company in 1861, with a capital of $40,000. They employ sixty hands in the manufacture of the finest grade of carriage lamps and mountings, and hearse trimmings. They have the reputation of making only the best class of goods, which are sold in every State in the Union, and also in Mexico and Cuba.
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History of Stratford.
THE ATLANTIC HOUSE AT BRIDGEPORT.
The Atlantic House is located on the corner of Fairfield avenue and Water street, and was erected about 1861, but has been enlarged since that time. It stands across the street from the New York and New Haven railroad depot, and is a first class hotel. The building, although plain in style, is an ornament to that part of the city.
Mr. Peter Foland, the proprietor, is a native of Schoharie county, N. Y., where he married. Miss Annie Eliza Kilmore. He resided in Albany about thirty years, where he kept the Dunlap and the Mansion Houses on Broadway, and also the Foland House on Washington avenue, where the. State House now stands. In Albany he served a term as alderman. He left Albany and was proprietor, for a time, of the Nelson House at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and from that place came to Bridgeport in 1880, where he has earned, a high and honorable reputation as pro- prietor of the Atlantic House; and as a public citizen. Many of the best class of citizens reside in his house. : He is efficiently assisted by his son, Mr. Worthing- ton Foland, who has always resided with his father. His daughter, Ida, married Mr. Holland H. Terriff, of Albany, and they reside with Mr. Foland.
HARL
Elin Horpe
THE ELM HOUSE AT BRIDGEPORT.
Peter Foland
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Bridgeport.
The Elm House is located at 36 John street, it having been a private dwelling until within a few years. In 1884 it was enlarged and became decidedly in public favor, and has been very prosperous since. It is conducted as a temper- ance house.
Mr. J. R. Rockfeller, the proprietor, is a native of New York State, a member of the societies of odd fellows, royal arcanum and knights of pythias, and is having success in this enterprise.
Recreation Hall is located at Main street ; was erected by Hon. P. T. Barnum for the purposes of recreation and amusement. It is 200 feet by 80, two stories, built with brick, the front being Philadelphia brick with terra cotta finish, ornamented with griffins and statuary. The arrangements in the interior of the building are very complete on a large scale. Mr. H. G. Husted is the originator of plan and equipments, and is the lessee of the building.
The Balloon Ascension of September 6, 1852, was made at Bridgeport, by the largest balloon ever used in the United States. It was made of French flag silk, 100 feet in height, and 72 in diameter, and held 3500 feet of gas, half of it being supplied by the Bridgeport Gas Company, and the rest manufactured in a tank by Monseiur Petin. The balloon was one of three of the same size and workmanship, and made for an aerial trip across the Atlantic ocean, but failed to accomplish that journey. It ascended to an altitude of 23,500 feet, continued its aerial journey one hour and a half when it landed in the ocean, off the village of Bridgehampton, L. I., about six miles out. The persons who ascended in it, were : Monseiur Petin, aeronaut ; Gustave Reynaud, machinist ; J. W. Dufour, inter- preter ; and Mr. Seetch, a school teacher of East Bridgeport. After battling with the waves for two hours, they were rescued by a life saving crew, thus narrowly escaping a watery grave, and returned to Bridgeport four days from the time they made the ascension. The cost of this balloon was $3500, and it was a total loss. Monseiur Petin returned to Paris and engaged in ballooning in the interest of the French government. Gustave Reynaud remained in Bridgeport for a time but died while on a visit to his native country. The only survivor of the party is J. W. Dufour who resides now in Stratford, Conn. But few old Bridgeporters but that remember Petin's signal when beginning his most grand ascension on that occasion ; "Six inches let go." "Six inches let go." Mr. Dufour says that while thousands of feet high in the air they could distinctly see the fish in the water of the Sound.
The Newspapers of Bridgeport.
The Republican Farmer was started as a weekly newspaper in 1790 at Danbury, under the name of the Farmer's Miscellany. After various fortunes and absorbing one or two rivals it was removed to Bridgeport in 1810, by Stiles Nichols ; and has been consecutively published here since by Stiles Nichols, Stiles Nichols and Son, Pomeroy and Nichols, William S. Pomeroy, Pomeroy and Morse, W. S. Pomeroy again, Pomeroy, Gould and Company, and Gould and Stiles, the present owners. The "Daily Farmer" was started January 1, 1750, by W. S. Pomeroy, and has been published since that date except for about a month
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in the summer of 1861, when the office was mobbed and sacked for alleged oppo- sition to the civil war. The present proprietors became sole owners in 1870. It has always been a staunch Democratic paper, supporting Jefferson and his suc- cessors, and Jackson and all the later Democratic administrations ; has steadily grown with the increase of the population of the town and county, and is a wide- awake newspaper.
The American Telegraph was started here by Lazarus Beach, a printer, bookseller and stationer, in 1795. It was issued weekly from the office at the corner of Wall and Water streets, opposite the old Washington Hotel.
The Bridgeport Herald, a weekly paper, was commenced about the year 1805 by Samuel Mallory. Copies of it are now extremely scarce, much more so than those of its predecessor, the "Telegraph," of which quite a number have been preserved.
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