USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. I > Part 34
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
The Knights of St. Patrick is a prosperous and excellent club whose mem- bership is of citizens of Irish birth, and has been highly popular from the start. It established itself first at the corner of Crown and Temple streets, opposite the Young Men's Republiean Club, where it splendidly fitted up for its pur- poses an old and historieally famous house. When that was purchased by the United Illuminating Company in 1906, the elub removed to 223 Orange Street, where it has a still better elubhouse.
Another club of the same nationality is the Knights of Columbus Club. whose home is now at 436 Orange Street. It is a strong organization, providing the best amusement and social facilities for young men and old in the large and growing Knights of Columbus eirele.
There is an abundance of collegiate elubs, but the Graduates' Club, admitting to its membership graduates of all colleges, belongs distinctly to the. eity. It
N
NEW HAVEN COUNTRY CLUB
281
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
oeeupies at 155 Elm Street one of the oldest houses in New Haven, remodeled for its purposes. Organized in 1895, it has in its over two decades had a most prosperous existence. Naturally, its membership is mostly of Yale men, but it extends a true Yale hospitality to the graduates of any college who enter its membership. Its president this year is the Hon. John K. Beach.
New Haven has a group of three clubs whose motive is mostly athletie. The oldest of them is the Country Club, organized just previous to 1897, and soon after acquiring grounds and ereeting a fine elubhouse on the shores of Lake Whitney. There it has an excellent golf course, tennis grounds and other ath- letie facilities. The New Haven Lawn Club exists to meet the needs of those who wish more eentral and perhaps milder athletic exercises. Its clubhouse on Whitney Avenue is an attractive place'for social gatherings of its members and their guests, and it has an ample equipment of tennis courts. The Raee Brook Country Club, organized in 1910, has a delightful modern clubhouse near Raee Brook in the upper part of Orange, with golf links and other athletic advantages, and accommodates especially the growing number of men in West Haven and western New Haven who seek advantages of this character.
The Congregational Club, sometimes classed as a church organization, has a more distinetly social purpose. It was founded in 1883, its objeets being, in the words of its constitution, "to promote the better acquaintance of its members with each other, and the general interests of Congregationalism and Christianity in and about New Haven." It accomplishes these objects, and fellowship besides. Its first president was Rev. John E. Todd, and in its twenty-five years distinguished clergymen have alternated with prominent laymen, it being against precedent to elect for a second term. The president for the current year is the Hon. Robert O. Eaton.
VI
The successful fraternity has always had a definite purpose, worthy ideals. Amid the host of such fraternities in New Haven the Trades Union stands out. It is the inelusive co-ordination of many societies, formed to conserve the interests of many trades and industries. As far baek as 1860 there were labor organizations in New Haven, but for nearly two decades they were no more than social clubs of men with a common interest. It was in 1877 that the first union with a vital purpose was formed. There was a union of the cigar makers, and there was a union of the tailors. That year they wanted to help the striking cigar makers of New York City, and held a pienie for the purpose. That was the first sign which indieated an amalgamation of the trades. The following year the Typographieal Union entered their alliance. Gradually the plan grew to ereate a eentral body which should formally co-ordinate these and all other labor organizations of the city.
It was in 1881 that this took shape in the Council of Trade and Labor Unions.
282
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN
afterward changed in title to the Trades Council of New Haven. H. H. Lane was its first president. The organization has been active and growing in the thirty-seven years since, and has adopted and held to a high standard. It has held many publie meetings, at which it has listened to such men as Henry George, John Swinton, Heber Newton, Prof. William Graham Sumner and Pres- ident Hladley of Yale. It has founded no less than three daily and two weekly papers in New Haven, and has assisted several papers outside of the city.
From the beginning it has taken an active interest in publie affairs. I 1881, accepting the general theory that municipal ownership of water supply was best for a city, it urged establishment by the city of its own waterworks. It also urged the formation of a Bureau of Labor Statistics. It has resisted from the first all efforts of political interests to control or swing the vote of its membership in any given direction. It has been diseriminatingly loyal to the interests of fellow workmen in other eities and states. In 1883 it gave a banquet in honor of the French delegates to the Boston Industrial Exposition, and since that time has had the friendly interest of the workmen of Paris.
It was in May, 1884, at Hartford, that the Connectieut branch of the American Federation of Labor was formed, and in this the New Haven Couneil took an active part. It afterward had a leading influence in the promotion of labor organizations throughout the state, and in indneing their affiliation with the state and national bodies. At present it includes over thirty locals, representing most of the different erafts and trades, with a total membership of over 10,000 men and women.
Never was the organization more awake" to its opportunities, nor a greater factor in the life of the eity, than under its present offieers and at the present time. It has been a foree, not only in the eity but in the state, and has won the attention and respect of the legislature as a eivie rather than a political body. Within the past year. Patrick F. O'Meara, president of the New Haven Trades Council, has been appointed a member of the State Board of Arbitration and Mediation, a notable recognition not only of the man but of the organization. In New Haven the Trades Conneil and its forty allied organizations are recog- nized as making an important factor in the city's eivie as well as industrial affairs, and as tending to exert a strong influence for the welfare of the community.
In the last year the council has participated in such efforts as the sueeessful opposition to the widening of Temple Street for the benefit of a few motorists, for the establishment of a eomfort station and for the promotion of the Liberty loans. In the matter of growth it has had a prosperous year. and especially have its women's organizations shown vigorous progress. Its present offieers are :
President. Patrick F. O'Meara, delegate from the Plumbers and Steamfitters ; vice president, Frank A. Fitzgerald, of the Hoisting and Portable Engineers ; recording secretary. Joseph J. Reilly, of the Typographieal Union; financial see- retary, August F. Striby, of the Bakers and Confectionery Workers; treasurer, Daniel B. McKay, of the Street Railway Employes ; organizer, Ira M. Ornburn,
RACE BROOK COUNTRY CLUB, NEW HAVEN
283
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
of the Cigarmakers; sergeant-at-arms, Francis P. McCabe; board of trustees, John A. Dunn, Bartholomew Saverty and George Lewis; executive board, Eliza- beth Dunnigan, E. L. Warden, John J. Landrigan and Thomas Mann.
Within a year the council has secured headquarters befitting its importance, and greatly facilitating its work, in the Sagal Block at 215 Meadow Street. As now furnished, this is one of the finest homes of labor in New England, giving ample room for business headquarters, meeting halls and social enjoyment.
CHAPTER XXVIII
MIERIDEN
COLONIAL ORIGINS AND HISTORY, ITS NAMING, INCORPORATION OF TOWN AND CITY, LATER GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT TO THE CITY OF TODAY
At the sharp northeastern point of New Haven County is a town whose ap- pearance on the map is most misinforming of its importance in the state and county. It is the town whose dynamic foree is the virile young City of Meriden, and it owes its place in the state and much of its history to its inclusion of that city. There are but 16.38 square miles of it altogether. It is irregular in shape as well as small in area. Two of its sides are straight, but they follow no com- pass cardinals. On the north and west it is notched like a circular saw. But the notches stand for history or striking features of topography. It is a town of character.
Meriden always stands out in the view from afar. From the heights of New Haven, of Carmel, of Totoket, there ever loom up in the bine distance the Hang- ing Ilills, with their sharp "Old Man of the Mountains," West Peak, the highest point in New Haven County. Or perhaps Lamentation, lower but longer. first catches the view. Between them is a pleasant valley. And though the heights as striking features have their part, it is with the valley that we have to do.
West Peak, the pride of Meriden aspirants, is a watchtower worth achieving. From its thousand feet above the sea one can spy out the whole country, with nothing effectual to obstruet the view. To the far west of the county he can pick out, one by one, the points that form the multi-terminals of the Berkshire and Litchfield highlands, and further south is that striking range which ends them all with sentinel West Rock at its point. To the east is Highy, the mount in which Middletown rejoices, just beyond Meriden's own Mount Lamentation. Southeast there are Totoket and its associate points, watchtowers for Branford and Guil- ford. And almost dne south the old Giant sleeps, his northern contour not signally different from that which New Haven gets from the southward. Beyond, blue in the sunlight or gray in the storm, is the ever changing sea that reminds Meriden it is an inland region. But it is an inland region in which to rejoice.
Meriden's early history is as distinctive as its face. It is young and yet it is old. Though considerably lacking of six score years as an incorporated town, it has beginnings which make it dare to rise in the presence of communities like Plymouth and Hartford and New Haven. For the place Meriden and the name
284
Courtesy of IT. Wales Lines Co.
MERIDEN TOWN HALL
1
285
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
Meriden had their standing as early as 1660, and have their lines all the way from that day to this. It has been said that Meriden owes its settlement to the Hartford colony, and in a manner it is true. It has been as vigorously claimed that it is a part of the New Haven family, and that also is the case. Prima facie evidence that the latter is so is found in Meriden's present inclusion in New ITaven County. But this did not come about without some friction of the fam- iliar sort between Hartford and New Haven.
That purchase which in 1638 Davenport and Eaton made from Montowese the son of the sachem of Middletown, indefinite as it was in its boundaries, seems to have been conceded to run on the north to about the center of what is now Meriden. The region between the present northern boundary of Wallingford and that line, then or somewhat later known as Pilgrims' Harbor, was conceded to Wallingford from the first. But from there northward to the present line between Meriden and Berlin Hartford claimed the territory.
This region was not, at first, settled by many people. About 1661 Jonathan Gilbert, pioneer, came down from northward and acquired, by virtue of purchase from the Indians, a large tract-practically the whole of the upper part of Meri- den-which he called Meriden Farm. He and those who followed him, whatever they paid for the land, seem not to have been as fortunate in holding their title as were the Davenport purehasers. There is doenmentary record that they made that purchase from the Indians at least three times over, and tradition has it that some of the land was purchased five times.
In connection with this "Meriden Farm" hangs a tale about the naming of the place. The reference works loosely state that the city we now know was named Meriden from the little town of Meriden in Warwickshire, England, and the trusting let it go at that. But that town has not, either in its charaeter or its surroundings, any likeness to the Meriden we know or the Meriden which was two centuries and more ago. None of the Connecticut pilgrims, moreover, had any connection with that town. Mr. Curtis, Meriden's aceurate historian, has been at considerable pains to look up this question, and the summary of his conelusions is interesting. He says that, though he finds no evidence to support the theory that Meriden was named from the town near Coventry, he believes there was an English place which gave it the name. This was not a town, but was, as was Meriden in the beginning, a farm. And it was in topographieal features very like to the place of old Jonathan Gilbert's settlement. This was Meriden or Meriden farm, about three miles south of Dorking, in Surrey County. Only three miles from it is the parish of Oekley, where Rev. Henry Whitfield, the Guilford pioneer, was pastor for many years, and where Rev. John Davenport and Rev. Thomas Hooker frequently visited. Mr. Curtis's conclusion, then, is that some of the early pilgrims who came from or were familiar with that very locality in England, struck with the similarity of the places, named Jonathan Gilbert's farm Meriden. Or perhaps he did it himself. As to the significance of the word, Mr. Curtis, fully aware that an English name was never given with- out a reason, digs to the roots of "meri," meaning pleasant, and "den," meaning
286
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN
vale. And it is a pleasant vale, though its rural look has been ever since most of us can remember blotted beneath brick bloeks and city pavements, and the smoke of factories joins with its trees to make shade.
So Jonathan Gilbert was the lord of Meriden for many years, and his estate went to his son-in-law Captain Andrew Belcher, and in turn to his son, Governor Jonathan Belcher. The three generations had to do with the tavern which Jonathan Gilbert originally established there. For this, be it known, was on the "Old Colony" turnpike which ran between Hartford and New Haven, and that was then, as now, one of the most traveled roads in Connecticut. So it was that Meriden became one of the familiar spots to all the travelers, at least, of the colony, for the trip from capital to capital, in those days, was too long to make without stopping to gain refreshment for man and beast. And the man, the tavern slates showed, required the more refreshment.
In the course of time, we may assinne, the owners of Meriden farm found that they had more land than they wanted, and neighbors gathered in the viein- ity of the Old Colony road. With their names the older historian is more con- cerned. One should be noted for the place-name he has left, Edward lligby, who bought the tract which includes Highy Mountain to the east of the Meriden tract. That height made a natural division between the towns and the connties, but it also made a sort of connection. There is strife between Meriden and Middletown to this day, but it is the strife which exists between ambitious neighbors.
For a good many years the neighbors were few and seattered, this by reason, seemingly, of the fact that the broad acres attracted wealthy, at least ambitious farmers. So we find in those early days such a group as Bartholomew Foster, with 360 aeres, John Merriam, with 300 acres, and Nathaniel Roys, with a tract large enough to be dignified as a "grant." By 1724 settlers namned Robinson, Parsons, Aspinwall, Andrews, Rich and Scofel had come to join the group that made up the upper, or Meriden section of the town.
What was to be the center of the city of Meriden still had its distinctive name "Pilgrims' Harbor." Mr. Curtis thinks this also was imported from the same English loeality which produced Meriden. He finds a "Cold Harbor" in Surrey County, named so after a cold spring it contained. In Pilgrims' Harbor also there was a spring. The spring is gone now, and the natural beauty of the old valley is hidden by city pavements and the like, for this is the center of the city of Meriden. Harbor brook has met the obseurement of the stream which is set- tled upon by a city. So have the lowlands along the south branch of the brook, called in those days "Dog's Misery," been brought to grade and building lots. What now we know as South Meriden was then Falls Plain. In these localities such names as Royce. Hall, Curtiss or Curtis, Yale, Hooper, Mix, Atwater and Hull were among the founders. and these and others still stand as landmarks, so to speak, in a multitude of modern names which all the world has brought to Meriden, as it has to most other New England communities.
These parts of the Meriden that was to be did not unite in strength, however,
34
Courtesy of H. Wales Lines Co.
CURTIS MEMORIAL LIBRARY, MERIDEN
287
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
very early. But they did feel a sort of community spirit as early as 1728, when by petition of the people in the three villages and the act of the general court the "North Farmers" lands were set off as a parish of the town of Wallingford. Thus they gained their religious independence. For their civil they waited un- til 1806. The town so formed had the same boundaries as the old parish of Meri- den. The City of Meriden, which is confined mainly to the section of old known as Pilgrims' Harbor, that is, the valley of the brook, was not incorporated until sixty-one years later. It has, however, had in its half century a record of re- markable achievement and progress.
Wallingford, the mother, kept ahead of the child-if Meriden may properly be called the child of Wallingford, for several years. Wallingford and Meriden had together, six years before the separation, 3.214 people. Four years after Meriden eame to stand by itself, it had 1,249 people-was, in fact as it appeared, no more than a husky country town. In the next thirty years it had increased only 631. Not until the eensus of 1850 did it pass Wallingford. Its progress after that was rapid, a good index of the importance of, its manufacturing and general industrial development. It had more than doubled in the next decade, and by 1870 had become 10,495-that being the first census after it became a eity. In ten years more it had almost doubled again, in 1890 it had grown to 25,423, in 1900 to 28,695. Its eentury, or soon after, found it a city of 32,066 people, and it is in 1918 estimated at approximately 35.000.
We have, then, the old town and the new city, whose history is very aneient and interesting, whose modern development, even, is very recent. It is known far and wide as the "Silver City." The development of the manufacture of goods from silver and similar metals gave the eity its fame, to be sure, but it should be noticed that among the thirty-two lines of mannfacture and 120 factories which make the industrial Meriden of 1918, silver is only one and its factories are only nine. Its manufactures at the present time are feeling the universal inflation, but Meriden, less than most of the larger cities of Connecticut, is subject to a present feverish aetivity which may be expected to die down after the present flame has passed. Its prosperity is substantial, like its people. Its foundations as well in manufacturing as in citizenship, religion, education, finance and arehi- teeture, rest on the "seven glad hills."
The town which was formed from the parish of Meriden early in the last century had its own church and a few seattering schools. The eity that now rises has two Congregational churches instead of the one, and in addition five Baptist churches, two Protestant Episcopal, four Methodist Episcopal, seven Roman Catholie, three Lutheran, one each of Universalist, Jewish, Peoples' Undenomi- national and Christian Science. As auxiliaries to these are the City Missionary society, the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations.
The town of Meriden has the modest area of 10,473 aeres. In the center of it, a municipality wholly surrounded by country, is the city of Meriden, an ir- regular octagon, approximately two miles wide and two miles long, composed of five wards. The Town of Meriden had in 1916 a grand list of $24,582,884, all but
288
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN
about two millions of it being within the city. Without the city limits agriculture continues to be the principal industry, the growing eity serving as a promoter of prosperous market gardens and dairy farms. The city has a low tax rate, only eight and three-fourths mills in 1916.
Meriden is a most accessible city. On the main line between Springfield and New Haven, it has frequent service from the railroad. That roeky and winding railroad which some years ago wandered from Cromwell across to Waterbury still has a station in the city, though it is hardly regarded, locally, as a publie service utility. Meriden's most generally used transportation service, however, is electric. That part of the old Meriden and Waterbury line which is between Meriden and Middletown was some years ago electrified, and is now run as a swift suburban service between the two cities. It swings from Meriden north- east through Westfield in the town of Middletown, and enters that city over the tracks of the line to Berlin, which has also been electrified. Southward an electric line runs to South Meriden, Tracy, Yalesville and Wallingford, and westward and northward there is a winding line which runs through to New Britain by way of Milldale, Plantsville, Southington and Plainville, connecting for Bristol, Lake Compounce, Waterbury and New Haven. There is also a line to Berlin. The town has postoffices at Meriden, Station A and South Meriden, with ten sub stations.
Meriden has five publie parks, two of which will compare favorably with those of any eity in the state. The planners of the city did not find room for a "green," but there has been since 1880, near the center, a breathing space of fifteen acres-City Park. It is a handsome and well kept public square, beauti- fully shaded and attractive. It has been, moreover, a foundation.
Central in Meriden's park system is the name of Walter Hubbard. There is hardly an institution or a good work in Meriden in whose foundation or con- struction the searcher will fail to find the hand of this man, who for more than half a century was in a large sense Meriden's leading eitizen. But great as was his part in the city's industrial foundation, material as was his work in many other ways, he did no nobler or more lasting service than his part in making this park possible. So it stands to exalt his name-a thousand aeres of commanding height and delightful woodland and meadow, in many ways Connectieut's greatest park.
It was Walter Hubbard, too, who in 1901 purchased the greater part of what is now Brookside Park, extending for three-quarters of a mile along both sides of Harbor Brook, named it and gave it to the city. It is a beautiful spot of shade and ponds and grass, another of the notable parks of the state.
Bradley Park, in the southwestern part of the eity, is another breathing space, and provides relief from the heat, and the blessing of green grass for a congested seetion. Hanover Park in South Meriden has been a commercial en- terprise, conducted first by the Meriden Street Railway Company. later by the Connecticut Company. It is an amusement resort of the somewhat common type, but has many attractions and serves a useful purpose.
Courtesy of II. Wales Lines Co.
STATE ARMORY, MERIDEN
289
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
Meriden had its disastrous fire, only a year later than Chicago's great con- flagration. Perhaps, for a eity of only 10,000 people, a fire loss of $150,000 was as serious as Chicago's thousand times that. That was the point at which Meri- den turned from the volunteer to the paid fire system. The city now has a fire service composed of one truck and five hose companies, with motorized equip- ment of the latest type and the most efficient fire fighting agencies. In connection with this the city has its own very adequate water supply system, whose con- struction was commeneed in 1867. An excellent gravity supply of water is secured from sources in the Hanging Hills, and to meet the great factory needs there is a pumping station across the border of Berlin. Meriden now gets its water from four large reservoirs, so situated as to grade that they sufficiently supply fire, factory and residence needs for all altitudes in the city.
Meriden's sewer system is in its eharaeter a model for larger eities. At first it may have seemed a misfortune, now it should be viewed as a blessing, that no large water course was at hand to give the cheap and easy means which many cities so negligently and shortsightedly adopt for the disposal of their sewage. Meriden was compelled to find another way. To be sure, when it commenced its sewer system in 1892 its problem was a comparatively simple one. The system employs broad irrigation and filtration, the sewage being, by a considerable feat of good engineering, siphoned beneath the bed of the Quinnipiac River and con- veved to filtration beds on the desert below South Meriden. This plant, eon- strueted at an original cost of nearly $150,000, has been extended as the city's needs have increased, until it has cost more than double that.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.