USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > A history of the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 37
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pool, Eng., to this country about 1678. His name first appears in the records of Branford, or East Haven, Conn., 1679. In 1705 he was taxed on £128 estate. In 1708-9 on {157-the highest on the list of that town. He was a prominent and influential man. In 1679, at the age of thirty-three years, he married Sarah Hemingway. Their sons were Samuel, born 1685 ; Rev. Thomas, born 1702, and Rev. John, born December 21, 1705. John was educated at Yale College, mar- ried in 1724 Mary Lewis, of Stratford (Old Mill) and was settled as the first minister of the Church of Christ on Greenfield Hill (Fairfield) at its organization in May, 1726. This was his only settlement. His ashes repose in the Greenfield Cemetery under the slab with this simple inscription :
" Here lies buried the body of the Rev. Mr. John Goodsell, who departed this life December 26th, 1763, Aged 57 years."
Rev. John and Mary (Lewis) Goodsell had ten children, of whom Epaphras was the fifth, or of the sons the second. He married --- Burr and had six children, three of whom were sons and of whom Zalmon was the youngest. Zalmon married Eliza Cornwall, of Brookfield, Conn., where he spent most of his life and raised a family of two sons and five daughters. Hon. E. B. Goodsell was the second son of Zalmon and was born in 1817, as has been stated, in the same house in which he died.
Captain William Goodsell of Bridgeport was an older brother of Zalmon. He was in the butchering business here in the early part of this century and the pio- neer in that line. He lived on Main street where Congress street enters it. His slaughter house stood on the bank in the rear of the present C. W. Fox property extending over tide water supported by high posts. In later years we have heard a great deal about Captain Goodsell's " old slaughter house yard " in the contro- versies of Mr. Benjamin Ray vs. others as to title of land in that vicinity.
Captain William Goodsell married Prudence Nichols. They had sons-Burr (born 1803), George of New Haven. Conn., William and Henry-and daughters.
Jane married Nathaniel Paddock Crosby.
Elizabeth married William H. Bissett.
Maria married Starr Sherwood.
None survive except Burr, the oldest, who now resides in Hartford.
Burr Goodsell and Pad. Crosby were famous saddlers in the palmy days of that industry, and William H. Bissett a well known harness maker.
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New Haven. He engaged in the employ of Messrs. E. Birdsey and Company of Bridgeport, dry goods merchants, where he remained seven years, and then formed a partner- ship with Mr. David M. Read under the name of Hall and Read, which continued twenty years, and was then dissolved in 1877.
In 1878 Mr. Hall had erected, fitted and arranged spe- cially for his business, the building where he is now located, under the firm name of W. B. Hall and Company, corner of Main and Cannon streets, and although ample at first he has had it twice enlarged, and has a contract made for a third and spacious addition. At present the floor space for the retail department is 130 feet by 90, or including a por- tion of the basement, 10,500 square feet, in actual use every day. The arrangement of each and every department is very complete, business-like and convenient ; but the need of more room is evident on any day of middling favor for shopping. The proprietors' office and the book-keeper's desk are favor- able for consultation at any moment required, the well ordered business arrangements being such that it is not neces- sary for the proprietor to hide out of sight at a distance in order to secure quiet sufficient to conduct the work of the establishment.
This is a first-class dry goods house; the sale of im- ported goods-specially silks of various styles and qual- ities - being a large department of the house. Also the sales by mail and express has grown into surprising pro- portions. It is a matter of credit to Bridgeport that a dry goods house of only eight years standing is now deliv- ering goods in every State in the Union amounting to tens of thousands of dollars ; it being a matter of actual history, that Bridgeport, through one of its leading dry goods stores, as well as by its score of mammoth manufacturing houses, is being published in fame all over the great States of the nation, and that the riches of the Republic of America are flowing into it. This may well be called a family dry goods house, because of the great number of families it regularly supplies with merchandise, thousands of dollars' worth of goods being sent to each of a score or more cities in this fam-
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ily trade ; Chicago, the Queen of the West in commerce, being one of them. The department of ready made ladies goods, especially cloaks and dresses, is very large, two cutters of these goods being constantly employed; and their custom-made work keeps a number of the most thoroughly practiced hands employed steadily. The storage department of the house is a wonder. Here, in the basement of the building, goods, hav- ing been bought in large quantities, are kept in stock until wanted in the salesrooms; and each morning the clerks go down and select such goods as they need for sale that day. To build up such a house is a fitting reward, and well worth the steady efforts of any man for forty years, as has been the case with Mr. Hall.
Rev. Gideon Hawley" son of Gideon and Eunice (Jackson) Hawley, was born in Stratfield, November 5, 1727. His mother died when he was three days old, and his father about three years after. He was graduated at Yale College in 1749, and having early in life resolved to be a missionary to the Indians, was licensed to preach by the Fairfield East Association May 23, 1750, and commenced his missionary career at Stockbridge, Mass., in 1752, under the patronage of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, then pastor at that place. Here he labored until the next spring when he was sent by " the Commissioners of Indian affairs" at Boston to establish a mis- sion on the Susquehanna among the Iroquois nation. He re- turned to the East the next year and was ordained as mis- sionary to the Indians, at the Old South meeting house in Boston. Shortly after, he returned to his field of labor on the Susquehanna, at the place called Oughquanga, where he continued until May, 1756, when he was obliged to withdraw from that country on account of the French war.
In 1757, the Commissioners of the society for propagating the Gospel, persuaded him to visit the tribe of Indians at Marsh- pee. Here he was installed April 10, 1758, and here he passed the residue of his life-nearly half a century-in the most benevolent and self-denying labors for the salvation of the Indians. He died October 3, 1807, aged So years.
16 Sprague's Annals i, 497.
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Alfred Charles Hobbs." the third son of John L. Hobbs, was born in Boston, Mass., October 7, 1812. His father, a carpenter and joiner by trade, came from London, England, to Charleston, South Carolina, to do the work on a dwelling house for the governor of that State. His mother came from Welch Pool, a town in Wales, and was living with her brother on Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, where she became ac- quainted with Mr. Hobbs, and they were married. After the work on this house was completed they removed to Boston, Mass., where he established a shop on Water street, on a part of the land now covered by the Boston post office. The son well remembers, when about three years old, that his father left Boston with a party to settle in Florida, leaving his family to follow as soon as a house could be built. The party landed at Mobile, the father went up the river to St. Stevens, pur- chased a place and commenced building a house, but died very suddenly before it was finished, leaving his family in Boston destitute. Young Hobbs lived with his mother until ten years of age, going to school occasionally, playing truant quite often, and in many ways trying to earn a few pennies, which went into the grand fund for family support.
In the month of February, 1822, he left Boston with James Fowler, of Westfield, Mass., then a member of the legislature, to do chores and work on the farm, where he found that a Boston boy 100 miles from home was a fit sub- ject for training by all the other boys, but within a month he had tried titles with so many and came off the best that he soon led the van in the frolics and fun of the place. In accomplishing the work he had to do-rising with the sun and milking the cows often after dark-he had learned, at the end of the four years, all he desired to know of farming, and returned to Boston to find another occupation. He obtained a place in a dry goods store in Cornhill, but soon went to learn the trade of wood carving, having an older brother over him. This place did not suit and he tried next a carriage
11 At a regular meeting of the Fairfield County Historical Society held February 12, 1856, it was, on motion,
"Resolved, That Mr. A. C. Hobbs be and is hereby requested to furnish a sketch of his professional career as an expert with locks, and to furnish his portrait, both to be in the History of Stratford and Bridgeport."
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body maker, but the owner, Mr. Willard, in a short time failed, and this caused another change to the rudiments of carriage painting, which consisted in rubbing off the paint from old carriages with pumice stone and cold water. This employment did not suit and the next proposition was to be a sailor. He secured a position on board the ship Leonidas, bound for Charleston, S. C., and thence to Havre, France, but on arriving at Charleston it was decided to return to Boston, which was pleasing news to the would be sailor, as he had enjoyed sufficient of that sort of life before the mast. He then tried tin plate work, and then coach trimming and harness making, which also failed to satisfy, and having ar- rived at the age of sixteen years he resolved to leave Boston, and therefore went to Sandwich, Mass., and finished an ap- prenticeship at glass cutting at the Boston and Sandwich glass works. After remaining in that place about eight years he returned to Boston and established the glass cutting busi- ness for himself, occupying a part of a building on Brom- field street. One part of this work, the cutting of glass door knobs, and a new method of fastening the knobs into the socket by which they were attached to the locks, was in- vented and patented by Mr. Hobbs, and this business brought him for the first time in contact with some of the lock makers, and he was finally induced to enter partnership in that busi- ness under the name of Jones and Hobbs, but a very short time satisfied him with that enterprise. During this time spent in Boston, which was about five years, he had joined the fire department at the time that the volunteers disbanded because the mayor would not allow them to have their own way, and he assisted in forming the first paid fire department in Boston. The first position he held was clerk of company No. 13, but in consequence of change of residence he left that and joined No. 7, and from that was appointed foreman of No. I. He was also a member of the Washington Light Guard, doing both fire and military duty. He was also pres- ident of the Boston Musical Education Society, and a member of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association.
After giving up the firm of Jones and Hobbs an arrange- ment was made with Edwards and Holman, lock and safe makers, to open a store in New York and sell their locks and
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fire proof safes. This arrangement did not prove satisfactory to Mr. Hobbs, but during the time thus employed the con- struction of locks was carefully studied and those locks that others valued seemed worth but little to him. He soon became acquainted with Day and Newell, the prominent bank lock makers, and made an arrangement with them to take the entire charge of selling their bank locks. In order to succeed in this line it was necessary to prove to bankers that the locks they were using were not secure. Therefore he made a very fine set of tools by which he could demon- strate the proposition that their vaults and safes could be opened. Equipped with a lock and his box of suspicious implements, he made his first call on a bank at Stamford, Conn. They had on their doors what was known as a Jones padlock, which was considered invulnerable. It held an iron strap over the key hole of an Andrew's bank lock, which had cost the bank $150. In addition they had what is known as a Warded lock, making three locks, any one of which was considered quite secure against being opened without the proper key. Also a supposed secure lock was placed on the outside door of the bank. After a long conversation with the bank directors it was decided that if the lock on the outside of the door and the vault could be opened in two hours with- out injuring the locks, they would purchase a new lock. Mr. Hobbs then, after examining the key holes, selected a few instruments from his assortment, opened the outside door and the three locks on the vault in twenty-three minutes. No further argument was needed, the new lock was purchased and their vault made secure. This occurred in January, 1847. From that time until 1851 his whole attention and time was occupied in visiting banks, including nearly all in the United States. The following letter is of interest.
" TREASURY OF THE UNITED STATES. WASHINGTON, 22 February, 1850.
"We hereby certify that Mr. H. C. Jones sold to the Department one of his best, large, patent combination locks, which was placed on one of the doors of the money vault in this office. Mr. Jones seemed confident that it was impossible for his said lock to be picked, and said many things to prove his confidence in its perfect security. Having become satisfied that Mr. Jones's combination lock had been picked in New York and elsewhere, we lost confidence in the one of his on the vault door, which we reported to the treasurer. The department authorized
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the purchase of a lock exhibited by Mr. A. C. Hobbs, agent for ' Day and Newell's Parantoptic Bank Lock.' After the same had been carefully examined by some of our most skillful and competent mechanics it was put upon the vault door in the place before occupied by Mr. Jones's combination lock.
"We further certify that Mr. Hobbs did, without having seen the key or interior, pick and open the said Jones lock without the least injury to the same. WM. D. NUTT."
In the year 1848 Mr. Hobbs was at the bank of Lancaster, Pa., putting on a lock that he had sold them. As the cashier came in the bank with his morning paper, he said, " Mr. Hobbs, there is something for you," throwing down his New York paper, in which was an advertisement from a Mr. Woodbridge, of Perth Amboy, offering $500 to any one who would open his lock then on one of Herring's safes in the Merchant's Exchange reading room in New York. Mr. Hobbs said to the cashier, "That is my money." " What," said he, "do you think you can open it?" " Yes," said Mr. Hobbs, "and I leave for New York as soon as I have finished putting on this lock." Away went Mr. Hobbs to New York, found Mr. Woodbridge, saw the lock and safe with a card on the door offering the reward of $500 to any one who would open the lock in thirty days by any instrument of their own, or he would let them have the use of the key for one dollar per hour, first having the movable bits taken out and dis- tributed. There being twelve bits to the key would give 479,001,600 changes, or different ways of putting the bits together, leaving but one way only that would open the lock. In order to have the test fairly conducted, there were three arbitrators appointed to attend and decide upon the arrange- ment for the trial. Mr. Woodbridge had unlimited confidence in his lock and thought he knew all about making and opening it. The arbitrators agreed that if Mr. Hobbs did not open the safe he should write a certificate that " He had access to the lock for thirty days and could not open it, and therefore considered it perfectly safe and recommended it to the pub- lic." Mr. Woodbridge had a check on the Mechanics' Bank of New York for $500, signed by his father. This was put in an envelope and placed in the safe, to be the property of the one opening the safe.
Mr. Hobbs then said to Mr. Woodbridge, "You don't own that money. It is a check of your father's, and I do not
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want it under such circumstances. Let the arbitrators open the safe, take your check out and give me my certificate, withdraw your advertisement, and call it square. But if you leave it there I will surely take it." Mr. Woodbridge, with a derisive laugh, said, " Go ahead, I will risk it." Mr. Hobbs, knowing the general construction of the lock, had his instru- ments all made, and arranged with the janitor of the room to have the use of it at night. Mr. Woodbridge had so con- structed the lock that if any attempt was made to withdraw the bolt before the tumblers were all in their proper position, any key or instrument that might then be in the key hole could not be withdrawn, and by that means the opening of the lock would be made impossible. After the room was cleared at nine o'clock in the evening Mr. Hobbs began his work on the lock, and at half past eleven had the measure- ments of the required position of the tumblers all marked out and the bolt ready to be withdrawn. Instead of having any- thing that could be held in the key hole he had a piece of bent wire with which he could withdraw the bolt, and left the safe in that condition through the night. He called on Mr. Woodbridge quite early in the morning and told him there was some trouble with the lock, and requested him to be at the room by ten o'clock sure. Mr. Woodbridge seemed quite happy and evidently thought his trap had caught something in the lock. Mr. Hobbs also notified the arbitrators to be there at ten o'clock and then returned and sat down by the safe, with the piece of wire hanging out of the key hole, to prevent any one touching it. Sometime before ten o'clock the room began to fill up, and all were wondering about the result of the night's work. Some thought it must be a failure and others expressed doubts. The arbitrators came, but Mr. Hobbs answered no questions. Soon after ten o'clock Mr. Woodbridge came and there being quite a crowd around, he called from a distance : " Hallo, Mr. Hobbs, what is the trouble?" "There is something the mat- ter with the lock," said Mr. Hobbs. "What is it?" said Mr. Woodbridge. Mr. Hobbs then carefully moving the wire, pulled the door of the safe open and said, " Your lock wont keep the door shut."
The arbitrators handed the check and certificate to Mr.
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Hobbs, who went immediately to the Mechanics' Bank, ob- tained the $500, and destroyed the certificate, leaving Mr. Woodbridge in charge of his lock and safe, a wiser man than he was the day before.
Mr. Hobbs continued traveling and selling bank locks, and as it was important that he should carry his box of what might have been called a set of burglars' tools to demonstrate the insecurity of the locks in use, it was also advisable to have with him letters and documents which would secure him from trouble or difficulties of suspicion while among strangers. On proposing to go to Europe he received the following :
"OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE. NEW YORK, April 18th, 1851.
" ALFRED C. HOBBS, EsQ.,
" Dear Sir :- Understanding that you are about to go to Europe on profes- sional business, and that it is your intention to attend the World's Fair to be holden at the city of London, I thought it would be acceptable to you to have in your possession a few lines from me by way of recommendation.
" I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance since my first connection with the police of this city, and I can unhesitatingly bear ample testimony to your character as a gentleman and a citizen. Having been for many years connected with the manufacture of the most celebrated locks in this country, I know that your knowledge of their structure is unsurpassed, and would highly recommend you to the authorities and police of whatever European city you may visit. Wish- ing you much success, I have the honor to be
Your friend, GEORGE W. MATSELL, Chief of Police."
Mr. Hobbs had often heard of a wonderful lock that was placed in the window of the celebrated lock maker, Bramah, of London, and the offer of 200 guineas reward to any one who should open it without the key, and having seen several of the Bramah locks he felt quite sure he could open this one for which the reward was offered. Therefore he left New York in April, 1851, on the steamship Washington, for South- ampton, with the lock of Day and Newell to exhibit, and also his small chest of tools to test the locks of European make. While landing at Southampton the custom officer requested him to open the small box, which he did, but the expression of the face of that official when he saw the contents cannot well be described. However, handing a letter to Mr. Croskey, the American consul, who stood by, an explanation of the purpose of the implements soon made all things right, so that
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the mischievous box was passed. This box or trunk was fifteen inches long, eight wide, and eight deep, having six trays in which the tools and instruments were carried. Dur- ing a few hours spent with Mr. Croskey he desired to know what was to be done, and after hearing the explanation, and Mr. Hobb's binding him to say nothing about it, Mr. Croskey said that for the first time he had heard an American express a desire to have anything he knew kept quiet, and if anything could be done to raise the comparative standard of the Amer- icans he would be delighted, for their show at the Crystal Palace was very poor, consisting as it did of a few barrels of shoe pegs, some bunches of brooms and a few American car- riages.
A few days after Mr. Hobbs arrived in London he called on the American minister, Mr. Abbott Lawrence, with whom he had been acquainted in Boston, and informed him some- what with the object of his visit. The locks of Day and Newell had not been on exhibition long before they attracted considerable attention, especially by many of the exhibitors of locks, and much to the annoyance of Mr. Hobbs. His reputation as an expert on locks having gone before him, he was asked many questions which did not receive direct answers, since he carefully avoided saying anything about what he intended to do or what he had done. He visited and examined the great variety of English locks, and having several times stopped at the window of Bramah, where the prize lock was exhibited, became more satisfied about opening it, but said nothing to any one about opening or picking locks. A short distance from the Day and Newell show case, in the Crystal Palace, was a case that contained a very good assort- ment of Colt's revolving breech rifles and pistols. One day there was quite a crowd gathered around it and presently one of the guards came and said to Mr. Hobbs that His Grace, the Duke of Wellington had come to see Colt's revolvers, but the attendant was not there, and asked if he could open the case and explain them to the duke. Knowing where the key was kept he complied with the request. Being through with this exhibition the duke said : " Now, Mr. Hobbs, what have you to show me?" His Grace was then led to the case con- taining the locks, and upon their exhibition he expressed
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much pleasure, taking Mr. Hobbs by the hand he said, " With your permission I shall come and see you again." The next morning about ten o'clock he came with the Marchioness of Duro and another lady, and said : "I am so inuch pleased with your wonderful lock that when I told the ladies they immediately desired to see it, so I have brought them." After having seen the lock the duke wanted to re-examine the rifles and pistols, and Mr. Hobbs explained them as before. The duke, taking Mr. Hobbs by the hand, said : " I shall want to see you and talk about America." In about ten days he came, and taking a seat near the lock case with Mr. Hobbs, the conversation lasted some time. Then the duke said : " Now, Mr. Hobbs, I want you to explain that model of Ni-a-gā-ra Falls" (that stood near by). After this explanation His Grace again shook Mr. Hobbs' hand and thanked him for his atten- tion. A short time after this, at one of the queen's drawing- rooms, as the American minister was passing, the Duke of Wellington (who was standing near the queen) said : " Mr. Lawrence, I am pleased to see you. I have seen the great American lock. It is one of the finest things in the exhibi- tion, and Mr. Hobbs is one of the cleverest of men." A few days after, Her Majesty, the Queen, with Prince Albert, sev- eral ladies in waiting, the Prince of Wales, with attendants, came to see the locks, having the day before notified Mr. Hobbs that they were coming. From that time to the close of the exhibition Mr. Hobbs was favored with visits from many of the Royalty to see the GREAT AMERICAN LOCK.
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