USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Part II > Part 15
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Mr. Barnum has been Mayor of Bridgeport, a member of the Legislature four times, president of the Pequonnock National Bank of Bridgeport, president of the Bridgeport hospital, president of the Bridgeport Water Company, and Commissioner of Seaside Park.
He gave nearly one hundred thousand dollars to Tufts College, Mass., with which was erected and stocked "The Barnum Museum " of Natural History. He has been a total abstainer from intoxicating drinks for forty years, and from tobacco twenty years. Hence he is a very active man, attend- ing to a great amount of labor, retaining a marvelous memory of the details of his whole business life. Scarcely a fact, or joke, or anecdote has escaped ; and all are ready in his mind at a moment's call.
East Bridgeport by Personal Observation."
Bridgeport, about 1830, was a very aboriginal town, just creeping out of its small beginnings, after being cut loose from old Stratford. The old salt works and their plant were then visible, and the old pottery works, located south of what is now Lumber street, were then in full blast. The saddlery business of
10 This history of East Bridgeport is by permission taken from the manuscript of General William H. Noble, contributed to the Historical Society, and although containing considerable detail in the description is for that reason the more valuable.
CHARIOT HOU
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DOR UREA MORAL SIONS
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LONDON CIRCLE
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WINTER QUARTERS OF THE GREAT BARNUM-LONDON SHOW.
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Lyon and Company and the carriage works of Tomlinson and Company were about the only industries in the place of any consequence. All Golden Hill north of Golden Hill street was farm land, and the whole territory west of Main street and north of Golden Hill street was the same, much of it being wooded land. Where Washington avenue now is was a narrow road, running most of the way in a ditch.
When General William H. Noble first became acquainted with Bridgeport he came to the place for the purpose of taking passage for New York on the little steamboat John Marshall, commanded by Captain Benson, of Fairfield. The size of that boat can best be estimated by its inability to cope with the tide at Hurl Gate, for when she arrived at Hallett's Point she essayed three times to go out of the eddy, but each time as she struck the current was nearly upset by its force, and was finally compelled to lay up until the tide had flowed in from the Sound. In 1833 General Noble came to reside in Bridgeport with his father, the Rev. "Birdsey G. Noble, who took, for a private school, the house on Courtland street which is now occupied by the Rev. G. B. Day. At that time the only houses in ·that part of the city were the one just spoken of, the old red house of the Kirtland family on the southwest corner of Washington avenue and Courtland street, the house on the opposite corner, which was then owned by Isaac Sherman, Sen., afterwards the first mayor of the city of Bridgeport, the house now occupied by Mr. Horace Nichols, and the front part of the house now occupied by Major Wil- liam L. Hubbell, but at that time belonging to Captain E. Rossiter. The street now called Courtland street should be called Kirtland street, since it was laid out by Samuel C. Kirtland, one of the most enterprising citizens of Bridgeport, who, from his personal resemblance, was often taken for the Hon. Daniel Webster. The house on this street occupied by the late Russell Tomlinson, was then called the Van Polanen place, and was occupied by the widow of a Mr. Van Polanen, who had been Belgian or Dutch Consul to this country. The old lady was remarkably fond of cats. She subsequently built with Colonel O. B. Hall, the house on State street now occupied by the Misses Hunt and David C. Peck, Esq. All the space then between Courtland street, State street down as far as the residence of Doctor Nash, and Fairfield avenue to within about fifty feet of Broad street, was essentially a swamp, and the major part of it was offered some years afterward for a very small sum to the city by David B. Nichols for a public square, but was not accepted, although such a statement is almost beyond belief at the present time. The old brewery, in which much of the enterprise and money of Bridgeport was sunk, still stood and was operated by a gentleman named Samuel Swan, where now stands the hotel and the block of buildings on Harrison street owned by the estate of the late George Keeler.
The first enterprise in real estate in Bridgeport was commenced about that date by Lemuel Coleman, who bought a big stone-walled orchard and meadow lying between Pequonnock street, Washington avenue and the residence of the Hon. William D. Bishop. He removed the stone wall, built a nice picket fence further from the street, making the place desirable for residences. The first house on this improvement was built by Jesse Sterling, and is that now occupied by his daughter, Mrs. P. C. Calhoun.
While the Rev. Mr. Noble was occupying the Day place on the hill and looking around to find a site for a large private school, he decided on the property now known as East Bridgeport, which was then, all the way from Nichols street
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to Old Mill, open farm land, with the exception of two dwellings and some woods. From a point on Nichols street, about two hundred feet east of Kossuth street there was a high wooded bank, extending up to Sterling street with but one angle At about Sterling street it met a line of woods running through Granny's Hollow -now occupied by Noble avenue-including Washington Park, and sweeping thence below Sterling street, consisting mostly of large, beautiful forest trees. From this Granny's Hollow, at about the junction of Sterling street and Noble avenue, there ran a high, partially wooded bank, following up the line of the harbor.
The area essentially between Barnum avenue and a line about one hundred feet south of Sterling street, East Main street and the harbor, of about fifty acres, belonged, at that time, to William Wright, United States Senator from New Jersey. Benjamin Brooks owned about seventeen acres just north of it, and Isaac Keeler, - an old Revolutionary soldier, a like tract just north of Mr. Brooks. From this. were taken-just north of Maple street-the stone with which was built the old Bridgeport bank. Judge Joseph Wood owned about twelve acres near the south- west corner of the above described fifty acres. South of this the late Isaac Bur- roughs, from whose daughter, Mrs. Catharine Pettengill, the Bridgeport library received so munificent a donation, owned about fifteen acres upon the harbor, running back to East Main street, in the locality of the present Burroughs and Howe streets. This whole territory was, in 1834, one of the loveliest pieces of country that could be found. Its girdle of woodland along the harbor running northward to the old Berkshire Bridge, and that of which Washington Park is a part, extending to about Burroughs street, were fine pieces of forest, furnished with all the apparel and undergrowth of such territory. The channel of the Pequonnock river washing at high tide as far back as Knowlton street, quietly flowed from Noble's bridge around a sharp point much inside of the present position of the dock at the elbow of Knowlton street. From the bank above it of about twenty feet in height, the slopes of which were covered by a thin growth of evergreen and deciduous trees, there was an unobstructed outlook over the harbor, Golden Hill, the Sound and the Point, which formed a most charming view of land and water. At that time everything was quiet and still as if it were twenty miles from any habitation of man. The channel along this bluff, and especially at the elbow below the railroad bridge, was a famous fishing ground. North of Cedar street there was no dwelling between that street and Old Mill,. except a small cottage now standing on the corner of Pembroke and Hamilton streets.
About 1835 the Rev. Birdsey G. Noble bought the fifty acres of Senator Wright and the year after he applied to the General Assembly for a bridge charter across the harbor from this property. It was originally intended to put the bridge across where now the Centre bridge stands, but such was the determined opposi- tion by the people, kindled by the fear of creating uptown and downtown com- munities, like Norwalk and Old Well-now South Norwalk-on a promise of aid from the then owners of the property now occupied by the Grannis and Hurd lumber company, it was concluded to build the bridge at its present loca- tion. The promise of aid was never fulfilled, but Noble's bridge was built on its present site as a toll bridge and so continued for many years. The next year, and for a year or two afterwards, an effort was made by the Rev. Mr. Noble and his son, William H. Noble, to get a charter for an extension of East Washington
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EAST BRIDGEPORT IN 1852.
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avenue through nearly on the line of Barnum avenue, to Washington bridge, on the Housatonic river. This effort was bitterly and successfully opposed at every trial by the town of Bridgeport, the town of Stratford and the old or lower bridge company, that bridge being a toll bridge. This opposition isolated that district from commercial connections and no improvement was made upon it until in 1836 William P. Green, of Norwich, through the agency of his brother abolitionist, Mr. Jocelyn, of New Haven, made a purchase of some seventy acres belonging to Benjamin Brooks. On this he commenced the improvement that is known as Walter and Green streets, building a few small houses. He also built a dwelling for his agent, George Walter, whom he placed on the property just north of Arctic street on Pembroke.
After this no improvements were made in East Bridgeport until the death of the Rev. B. G. Noble, in 1849, when the above mentioned fifty acres and the bridge property came into the hands of William H. Noble as creditor of his father's estate. On taking the title of this property he applied to the next Legislature for a foot bridge charter, to follow the line of the railroad across the harbor, and after great opposition from the town of Bridgeport and the old bridge company, secured the same and permission from the railroad company to attach this bridge along the line of their track. He built the bridge in 1850. This was the first advance towards all the improvements that have taken place in that part of the city of Bridgeport. It opened a short and easy route for laborers and those who wanted dwellings in any part of that district. Lewis Curtis, Ali Andrews and others owning property on the upper borders of the Yellow Mill Pond at once cut their fields into streets and building lots and offered them for sale, thus laying the foundations for their fortunes. William H. Noble had mapped all his land into streets and building lots as they now stand, with the exceptions of a few altera- tions. A few lots were sold from the map, and among the rest a piece to Carmi Hart of nearly an acre, which now forms a part of the triangle between Sterling street and Crescent avenue, where he built a foundry for the manufacture of rail- road car wheels. This was the first industry established upon that side of the harbor, but it was from that time an obstruction to all improvements in that part of the town until the foundry was torn down.
The Hon. P. T. Barnum saw Mr. Noble's advertisements and decided to join him in the development of that real estate district. He purchased an undivided half of the property, and agreed to furnish the money to buy as much more land as might be deemed expedient, he to own three-quarters and Mr. Noble one- quarter of all that should be purchased. This bargain occupied about fifteen minutes at the Museum in New York, and it was put into writing, occupying about half a letter sheet, and Mr. Noble came home with about $20,000 in his pocket, and with it was purchased eventually nearly the whole area between Berkshire road and Sheldon street, Pembroke Lake, Church street and its exten- sion, and Burroughs street. A new map of this property was made, Washington Park was laid out into its present shape and devoted to public use, the ground now occupied by the M. E. Church at the northwest corner of the park was given to that society with a donation in money, for a church. At that time sites were offered to any denomination that would erect a church, but the above was the only one that embraced the offer. Crescent avenue to the mill-pond and all the other streets were graded, trees were planted on all the streets as they now stand throughout East Bridgeport ; houses, stores and manufactories were built. In
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1852 a charter was obtained for the center bridge, running from the foot of William street across the harbor and over the Housatonic railroad to where Middle street now extends. The bridge-which was a draw bridge with a covered foot-way, as indicated in the accompanying cut, was built by Messrs. Barnum and Noble at a cost of $16,000, being a toll bridge until bought by the city.
The first building put up by Barnum and Noble was the coach factory on William street, which was recently torn down. It was a very conspicuous object on the landscape in its day. The next was a sash and blind factory, the chimney of which-the original structure having been burned-is now used by Mr. James House in his manufactory. About a dozen houses were located on different parts of the property, and all this was done in about a year. Soon after a clock com- pany was organized and a building erected for them on ground given by Barnum and Noble, on the site where the present eastern building of the Wheeler and Wilson company stands. The company not meeting with success, Mr. Barnum was induced by fraudulent representations, to replace them by the Jerome Clock Company of New Haven, to whom he gave, in his effort to sustain them, his endorsements to the amount of $400,000. This, for a time, put an end to Mr. Barnum's improvements in Bridgeport, but soon after the Wheeler and Wilson company finding this great empty building, purchased and fitted it for their use. From this time dates the great prosperity and growth of Bridgeport. It not only brought new business to the toilers of the city, but also a lot of new inhabitants, men of vigorous mind and liberal enterprise, and a class of educated, skilled mechanics, unequaled anywhere in the country. Through the influence of this manufactory upon the fortunes of Bridgeport, the city has been enabled to take the lead in all enterprises of an industrial character, and to constantly enlarge and multiply the structures occupied by their workers. It brought in such men as Nathaniel Wheeler, J. D. Alvord, William H. Perry, George W. Bacon, S. C. Kingman, Frederick Hurd, Albert Eames, Isaac Holden and a number of others, later, who have been intimately associated, not only with the Wheeler and Wilson industry, but with the enterprise and improvements of Bridgeport, and the advent of new industries. They have been a power, pushing Bridgeport into prominence and prosperity and giving it fame throughout the land.
The entanglement of Mr. Barnum with the Jerome Clock company compelled a division of the property held in partnership by him and Gen. Noble, and Mr. Barnum's portion was immediately mortgaged to cover his liabilities. His struggle to rid himself of this trouble is a memorable financial feat, surpassed by few persons in the country. During the time he was accomplishing this Mr. Noble continued to work for the advance of East Bridgeport. In one way and another two hotels were built ; one which was burned and the Staples House, now the Pequounock Hotel, in the place of it, and the brick block opposite to it, and many other houses. The crisis of 1857, and the agitations of the public mind previous to the war put an end, for the time, to progress in East Bridgeport, except that which resulted from the great industry of the Wheeler and Wilson company which rapidly increased in every direction. Then Mr. Barnum recovered the control of his property, and even during the war of the rebellion there was no retrograde tendency. .
Elias Howe, Jr., was brought to Bridgeport through the Wheeler and Wilson company, and before the war, had purchased Mr. Barnum's " Iranistan." Full of patriotism, he became a soldier in the 17th Conn .- the regiment that was com-
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manded by Col. Wm. H. Noble-as long as his weak legs could carry him. When be returned he purchased of Mr. Barnum a large tract of what was called the Bur- roughs property, and on it erected the Howe Sewing Machine Factory, and after- ward bought additional land of Mr. Noble upon which he erected the present main shop, as illustrated on page 737.
Since the war great additions have been made to the original layout of East Bridgeport by the purchase of the town property, where the old Alms House stood on William street, by Mr. Barnum ; and of the Stillman, Lathrop and Stewart estates by Messrs. N. Wheeler and W. H. Perry, extending the area to the Huntington road and Old Mill Green. This had been laid in streets by those proprietors.
The Old Mill Green-now Pembroke Green-is being constructed into a public park including about 20 acres. Noble street has been changed to Noble avenue and extended to Beardsley Park. This tract of about 150 acres was accepted by the city on the gift of Mr. James W. Beardsley, the title to the whole being conditioned upon the outlay of $30,000 upon it by the city within ten years. An expenditure of about $12,000 has already shaped its fields and knolls into a picturesque landscape and is fast becoming one of the famous parks of this Park City.
In addition to the industries already mentioned as located in East Bridgeport, there have been established, the great Union Metallic Cartridge Company, the Bridgeport Brass Company, the Winchester Arms Company, the Hotchkiss Manufacturing Company, and later, the Glover Sanford Sons Hat Company, the Silver Steel, now the Farist Steel Works, the Armstrong Factory, and various cutlery works and several smaller enterprises, which make East Bridgeport, alone, a great manufacturing city. Then, also, West Stratford, a borough adjoin- ing East Bridgeport, is the result of these industries, and will soon become a part of the city of Bridgeport.
About 1870, the old " Point Burying Ground " as it was called-quite an old place of burial-made way for the march of improvements and the relics were transferred to the Pembroke Cemetery. This old ground was located between Maple and Arctic, and East Main and Pembroke streets.
The highways, named Barnum and Noble avenues, were named after the original proprietors. Noble avenue has recently been extended to Beardsley Park, and Barnum avenue will eventually be extended direct to Washington bridge on the Housatonic river. William, Harriet, Clarence, Ogden and Sheldon streets were named for General Noble and his family, and Brooks street for the General's father-in-law, Benjamin Brooks, who at one time owned nearly all the land between Pembroke Lake and Pembroke street, East Washington avenue and Sheldon street, which was called by him Cow Park. Caroline, Helen and Pauline streets were named for Mr. Barnum's daughters, and Hallet street for their mother's maiden name. Sterling street was named for Charles F. Sterling, the brother-in-law and law partner of General Noble, a Bridgeport man of marked talent and literary ability. Jane street should be Jaynes street as it was named after Bishop Jaynes of the M. E. Church, at the wish of a gentlemen who bought the first lots on that street. Kossuth street was named in honor of the Hungarian patriot, who about that time was in this country. Knowlton street was named in honor of Wm. S. Knowlton, the builder of the original and present Center bridge, the first railroad foot bridge and the docks now occupied by Messrs. Wheeler and
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Howes. Walter and Green streets were named for Mr. Green and his agent, George Walter, who established a small colony on those streets. From Mr. Walter the Walterville district takes its name. Burroughs and Howe streets were named for Isaac Burroughs and Elias Howe, Jr., the successive proprietors of the contiguous land.
The first church established in East Bridgeport was the old St. Mary's Church, in 1852, the wooden structure still standing on Crescent avenue, and now used as a parish school. On October 14, 1877, the new St. Mary's, on Pembroke street, was dedicated. Next, on September 12, 1853, the Washington Park M. E. Church was organized, and the edifice built, that year, aided by a donation of the lot and $500, from Messrs. Barnum and Noble. It was rebuilt in 1867, and again in 1883. St. Paul's Church was organized at the house of General Noble, June 4, 1858, and named by Mrs. Noble. Worship was held for a time in various places, and the corner stone of the present edifice was laid October 6, 1868, by Bishop Williams- The Park Street Congregational Church was organized January 15, 1868, and held its services in Bethesda chapel until October 17, 1871, when its present place of worship was erected. The East Washington avenue Baptist Church was organized January.30, 1874, and bought the Bethesda chapel which it has used since, for a place of worship. The Advent Christian Church, organized in 1849, holds it services in East Bridgeport ; and the West Stratford churches and mis- sions owe their existence to the growth of " New Pasture Point."
Of the older portion of New Pasture Point, but little is said here, because its settlement antedates that of the town of Bridgeport, and has been particularly described heretofore in this book.
The beauty of this whole region, of old and East Bridgeport, was admirably described by Dr. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale-College in his " Travels in New England," in 1815. He, says : "There is not.in the State (of Connecticut) a prettier village than the borough of Bridgeport. In the year 1783, there were scarcely half a dozen houses in this place, It now contains probably more than one hundred, built on both sides of Pughquonnuck river, a beautiful mill stream forming at its mouth the harbor of Bridgeport. The situation of this village is very handsome, particularly on the eastern side of the river. A more cheerful and elegant piece of ground can scarcely be imagined than the point which stretches between the Pughquonnuck and the old mill brook, and the prospects presented by the harbors at the mouth of these streams, the sound and the sur- rounding country are, in a fine season, gay and brilliant, perhaps, without a parallel."
Gen. William Henry Noble, son of the Rev. Birdsey Glover and Charlotte (Sanford) Noble, was born in the home- stead of his grandfather, John Sanford, Esq., of Newtown, Conn., on the 18th of August, 1813. His father was then, and for fifteen years after, rector of Christ Church, Middle- town, having been graduated at Yale in the class of 1810, and studied theology at the General Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City. On his father's side Wm. H. Noble was descended from Thomas Noble of Westfield, Mass.,
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through John, the pioneer of New Milford, and seven genera- tions of his family lie side by side in the old burial ground in the southern part of New Milford ; on his mother's side, from the Sanfords of Newtown, descended from the pioneers of Connecticut.
His early education was completed at the celebrated military school of Capt. Alden Partridge, U. S. A., formerly a superintendent at West Point, which stood at Middletown, Conn., on the grounds now occupied by the Wesleyan Uni- versity. There during four years he received general literary and scientific instruction with the rudiments of a military education. As a boy, with the cadets of this school he carried his musket in the ranks of the procession which celebrated in New York city the 50th Anniversary of American Independ- ence.
His father having become one of the founders and trus- tees of Washington (now Trinity) College, Hartford, he entered the freshman class there at the age of 15, remained until the springtime of the sophomore year and left to join the sophomore class of Yale, from which college he was grad- uated in the class of 1832 with honors. After a short interval he took the school of the Rev. Ambrose Todd, of Stamford, and there remained for a year and a half, an inmate of his family.
He came to Bridgeport early in 1834 as a teacher of French and Spanish in the School of his father, who occupied for that purpose the house on Golden Hill, now owned by the Rev. G. B. Day-but very soon entered the law office of Judge Joseph Wood as a student, and was admitted to the bar of Fairfield county in 1836. In that year he was instru- mental in securing the charter of the city of Bridgeport and the charter of the Housatonic Railroad Company, and was Secretary of that company for a number of years.
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