USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 22
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The Falls Company purchased the mill at the Falls, which had formerly belonged to the Thames Company. This has since been enlarged to almost three times its former size and power, and has kept on from that time to the present, without any suspension of its acitvity or check to its prosperity.
These companies were established by Mr. Greene, chiefly upon his own credit, and were kept while he lived under his management and direction. The business has been gradually extending, and for several years each mill has had 15,000 spindles in operation.
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The manufacture of paper at the Falls has of late years been connected exclusively with the name of Hubbard. Amos H. Hubbard entered into the business in 1818. Paper was at that time made in the old way; not by machinery, but by hand, sheet by sheet. Mr. Hubbard very soon furnished his establishment with the modern improvements that diminish the amount of manual labor required. In 1830 he successfully introduced Fourdrinier's machine into his factory. This was the first paper-making machine used in Norwich.
The brothers Russell and A. H. Hubbard were in partnership in this business for twenty years, but dissolved in 1857. They had two mills-the old wooden building erected by Messrs. Huntington and Bushnell in 1790, and a modern one, built of brick and stone, both of which, with various lots, tenements and water-privileges, were sold by A. H. Hubbard in 1860 to the Falls Company. Mr. Hubbard then removed his establishment to Greene- ville on the Shetucket.
According to the census of 1860, the great cotton mill at the Falls em- ployed 125 males and 375 females; producing annually six and a half million yards, valued at $450,000.
The Falls Company has from time to time purchased the various privi- leges in its neighborhood, and now controls nearly the whole water power at Yantic Falls, and at the old paper-mill above the falls. The nailleries, foundries, pistol factories, the paper, flour and oil mills, have all disappeared, their seats and privileges passed over to this company, and their various crafts transferred to other localities. In this valley of the roaring waters, in 1860, Cotton reigned the sole and undisputed king.
This sovereignty has been recently invaded by the occupation of a hitherto unemployed mill-seat near the railroad bridge. Here a large brick building, erected by C. A. Converse in 1864, furnishes accommodation to a grist mill and the thriving cork factory of Messrs. J. H. Adams and James E. Learned.
The cork-cutting business is one of the specialties of Norwich, this being the place where an ingenious machine for transforming sheets of bark into well-shaped corks was invented and set in operation, and where the business is prosecuted with a success that promises to make it one of the permanent industrial pursuits of the town.
The corks used in this country had been mostly imported from Europe, where they were all made by hand. Vast quantities were required to supply the market, and a machine that would abridge the labor and cheapen the article was a desideratum. This furnished by the machines invented and patented by the brothers Crocker, of Norwich.
William R. Crocker, the first inventor, after many experiments, brought his machine into successful operation, and procured a patent for it, bearing the date of October 30, 1855. This machine produced from twenty to thirty finished corks per minute, turning them out in better condition than those made by hand. In 1859 the inventor went to Europe, accompanied by a younger brother, to dispose of rights in his patent. On their return in the steamer Hungarian, they both perished in the wreck of that vessel on the coast of Newfoundland, February 15, 1860.
But the business of cork-cutting, commenced by them in Norwich, has been continued by Messrs. Barnes & Spalding, the proprietors of their pat- ented machine.
Another machine of different structure, but for the same purpose, was invented by a third brother, John D. Crocker, and patented in 1862. This patent is the one employed in the factory at Yantic Falls.
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Uncas Mill .--- In the early part of the century, at Bean Hill, in a turn of the Yantic and on both sides of it, we find a grist mill of ancient date, the fulling mill and carding machine of Erastus Huntington and Eber Backus, the stone ware factory of Armstrong & Wentworth, and the machine shop of James Burnham. Mr. Burnham constructed carding machines, looms, and other kinds of machinery, but died on the island of Madeira in 1813.
The establishment of Huntington & Backus was purchased in 1828 for $9,000, by a company organized that year and called the Norwich Manufac- turing Company. This company established a woolen mill on the premises, since known as the Uncas Woolen Mill. The ownership has since been several times changed. In 1859, F. B. Loomis, proprietor, the census reported the annual produce 150,000 yards of doeskins, valued at $175,000. Mr. Loomis sold out in 1860 to Wm. Elting & Company. The Elting Woolen Company has since been organized, with a capital of $150,000.
Another woolen mill, at a lower point on the river in Norwich-Town, was run for several years by Peter Lanman. The site is now occupied by a mill of larger size and a group of neat tenements built by A. T. Sturtevant.
Timothy Green, of New London, who was then printer to the colony. opened a printing office in this town early in 1773, and in company with Judah Paddock Spooner, his brother-in-law, prosecuted the business until 1778. At that time the people of Vermont had just completed an independent State government, although they were in the asserted limits of the State of New York. Upon invitation of the government of the new State, Green and Spooner removed their office from Norwich to Westminster, Vermont, where they established the first newspaper printed in that State, under the title of "The Vermont Gazette, or Green Mountain Post Boy." The motto of this paper was indicative of the spirit of the times:
"Pliant as reeds where streams of Freedom glide; Firm as the hills to stem oppression's tide."
The other printing office established in this town in 1773 was by a com- pany consisting of Alexander and James Robertson, who had emigrated from Scotland to Albany, and from Albany came here, and John Trumbull, a native of Charlestown, Mass. In the month of October, in that year, they issued the first number of "The Norwich Packet, and the Connecticut, Massa- chusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island Weekly Advertiser." "The Packet" was continued by this company until 1776, when the Robertsons, being Tories, were obliged to leave Norwich. They went to New York, and on the conclusion of the war took up their residence in the British province of Nova Scotia. Trumbull conducted the paper alone till his death in 1802. The title was then changed to the "Connecticut Centinel," and printed but a short time for the benefit of his widow, Lucy Trumbull.
On the 29th of November, 1791, Ebenezer Bushnell issued the first num- ber of "The Weekly Register." In the issue of that paper of the 7th of June following, Bushnell announces that he has associated with himself Thomas Hubbard "In the Printing and Stocking Weaving business." This firm continued until October 1, 1793, when Bushnell retired, leaving the busi- ness in the hands of Hubbard. In 1796, the office was removed from the
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Town to the Landing, then called Chelsea Landing, and the title of the paper changed to "The Chelsea Courier." On the 20th of November, 1805, Thomas Hubbard retired from the paper, leaving as his successor his son, Russell Hubbard, who soon changed the title to "The Norwich Courier," by which title it has ever since been known. In February, 1817, Mr. Hubbard formed a co-partnership with Theophilus R. Marvin, and under the firm of Hubbard & Marvin, the "Courier" was continued until 1819, when Marvin removed to Boston. In April, 1822, the paper was purchased by Thomas Robinson and John Dunham, and continued by them until March, 1825, when it passed into the hands of Dunham, who retained it until 1842. In September, 1842, Dorson E. Sykes assumed the control of the "Courier," and retained it until March, 1859, when he retired, and the paper was pur- chased by George B. Smith. In the August following, Smith's affairs were involved in bankruptcy, and the "Courier" was managed by his trustee.
In 1803, John Sterry and Epaphras Porter issued the "True Republican," of which Consider Sterry was editor, and continued the same for about four years.
In January, 1829, the "Norwich Republican," by Boardman & Faulkner, made its appearance. It soon passed into the possession of Adams & Faulk- ner; they retiring, it was published till April, 1835, by Melza Gardner. At that time it was purchased by Marcus B. Young, its political character was changed, and L. F. S. Foster assumed the editorial charge. The "Republican" was discontinued in 1838.
In May, 1835, James Holbrook issued the first number of "The Norwich Aurora." He continued its publication till June, 1838, when Gad S. Gilbert purchased it and conducted it till March 24, 1841. From that time until August 8, 1844, it was successively conducted by William Trench and Trench & Conklin.
From 1843 till 1848, "The Norwich News" was published by William Faulkner.
Of the other newspapers which have had an ephemeral existence in Norwich, the following may be mentioned :
"The Canal of Intelligence," by Levi Huntington Young, commenced in 1826. "The Norwich Spectator," by Park Benjamin and M. B. Young, commenced in November, 1829; revived in 1842 by John G. Cooley, and con- tinued for a short time. "The Norwich Free Press," by M. B. Young, February, 1830. "The Norwich Gleaner," by B. F. Taylor, in 1845. "The American Patriot," by the friends of General Taylor, 1848. "The Norwich Tribune," by Charles B. Platt and Edmund C. Stedman, in 1852. "The Nor- wich Examiner," by Andrew Stark, in 1853. "The State Guard," by the same publisher, in 1855.
In August, 1859, the press of Norwich was as follows: "The Norwich Courier." published by the trustee of the estate of George B. Smith. "The Norwich Aurora," by John W. Stedman. "The Morning Bulletin," by Man- ning, Perry & Co., established in December, 1858. "The Weekly Reveille,"
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by Walter S. Robinson (suspended). "The Free Academy Journal," pub- lished by the students of the Free Academy.
For the Norwich Jubilee in 1859 the following article was prepared by Ashbel Woodward, M.D., president of the Connecticut Medical Society :
Of the physicians generally of the American colonial period, little is now known. As a class they were unambitious to participate in the deliberations of public councils, or take the lead in advocacy of popular measures, so that only few names became prominently identified with local or general history. Many devoted to the duties of their calling the undivided energies of long and laborious lives, reaping only a scanty pecuniary recompense for the present, and no place at all in the grateful recollection of posterity. Respected and loved by cotemporaries with that respect and love which strikes such deep root and blossoms so beautifully in the chamber of suffering, they were too frequently forgotten when their own generation had passed away.
No systematic account of the early physicians of Norwich has hitherto been given. The materials for such a work are fragmentary, and collectible only with great difficulty and labor. Public records afford little assistance, while the scanty aid they might otherwise render is still further impaired by the general absence of the titular appendage from the names. Another peculiar circumstance of the present case cuts us off from one source of information, which, in many localities, is highly fruitful. During the early colonial period (as has almost always been true in the infancy of nations) the professions of theology and medicine frequently met in the hands of the same incumbent, the cure of fleshly ills being esteemed an incidental con- comitant to the cure of the more dangerous maladies of the soul. These clerical physicians, exercising their double vocation amid a people justly celebrated for affectionate attachment to the expounders of the divine oracles, were often minutely remembered and described for after time, in virtue of the popularity of the priestly office. But in Norwich, the two professions were kept entirely distinct from the beginning, so that ecclesiastical writings in all the multifarious forms they then assumed, are wholly unavailing to the biog- rapher of her early doctors.
Of some of these, almost the only memorials are the precarious inscrip- tions of moss-grown and neglected tomb stones. Others whose days of toil and nights of watching in alleviation of human pain were otherwise forgotten, still live in the hearts of their descendants, and in traditions floating downward in the same current with their blood. The names of several enter largely into cotemporary records, whereby we may infer the prominency of their influence, though the various proceedings they shared in, and the trusts imposed upon them must here be passed in silence as too commonplace for exhumation in our brief tribute to their memory. Yet it should not be for- gotten that, as a citizen, one may be pre-eminently useful, and still perform few actions whose recital either interests the attention or quickens the pulses of postrity.
The medical profession in ancient Norwich was more than respectable; was distinguished. As practitioners and teachers, several of its members had few superiors on the continent. As reformers of abuses and fearless advocates of salutary though unpopular changes, they held pace in the fore- most rank. In the year 1763, prior to any attempts at medical organization elsewhere on the continent, Theophilus Rogers, with ten others, petitioned the colonial legislature for the charter of a medical society. This movement, made in advance of the age, was negatived in the lower house. Still it indi-
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cates one of the most important crises in the history of the profession. The presentation of that unpretending Norwich memorial was the initiative step in a series of efforts which have since resulted in the permanent establish- ment of many flourishing State associations, and within a few years of the national society, which has contributed in a high degree to purify the ranks. elevate the aims and make a real unit and fraternity of the profession in America. In the attempt alluded to, it was not the object of the petitioners to secure any immunities or exclusive privileges for themselves, but to pro- tect the health of the community by additional securities. At that time there was no authority in the state legally qualified to confer degrees in a way to discriminate the man of solid acquirements from the ignorant pretender. Many, without either study or natural aptitude for the exercise of the calling, by shameless vauntings imposed upon a credulous populace, and by assuming their title brought discredit upon honorable men. Our Norwich memorialists wished to strike at the root of this disgusting and rampant empiricism. To shut down the flood gates through which their ranks were inundated by incessant streams of ignorance and charlatanry, to establish a standard of education by making a respectable amount of attainments an indispensable requisite to the acquirement of the title, they asked for the appointment of a committee legally authorized to examine and approve candidates, if found qualified. Thus Norwich, though unsuccessful in her first attempt, was the pioneer in the cause of American medical organization.
As early as 1785, when there were but two medical schools in the whole country, Drs. Philip Turner and Philemon Tracy issued proposals for the delivery of a series of lectures to students on "Anatomy, Physic, Surgery, &c." As additional incentives to induce the "rising sons of ÆEsculapius" to improve the facilities proffered to them, they tendered the free use of a "complete library of ancient and modern authors," together with "the advantage of being present at capital operations, dissections, &c." The prospectus goes on to state, "Every attention will be paid by the subscribers to render their lectures both useful and pleasing, their constant endeavors will be to facilitate the instruction, direct with propriety the judgment, correct the errors, and increase the knowledge of the pupils in their study."
Another interesting point in the history of Norwich was the long and bitter controversy between the advocates and opponents of inoculation for small pox. At that period this disease was the most formidable scourge of humanity. There was no place of refuge from its ravages, nor means of mitigating the fury of its poison. Inoculation having been practiced with suc- cess in Turkey, had recently, through Cotton Mather's influence, been intro- duced into the colonies. Commencing in 1760, for many years several of the more prominent physicians of Norwich struggled assiduously to establish the practice against the inveterate prejudices of the community. A popular vote authorized pest houses, passed after the lapse of a third of a century, shows how obstinately the public contended before yielding to the superior argu- ments of the profession.
The following account of Lincoln's visit to Norwich, prepared by Mr. Francis J. Leavens, has never been published :
One morning in March, 1860, I was standing with three or four of my classmates of the junior class in the Norwich Free Academy when one of the older boys of the senior class came up to us and said, "Boys, if you want to hear a regular western stump speaker, go down to the Town Hall tomorrow night." "Who is he?" we asked, and the answer came, "A man from Illinois named Lincoln, and they say he is great."
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A man from Illinois named Lincoln meant nothing to us. We had never heard of him, but we had heard of stump speakers, though we had not seen or heard one. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show had not begun to make its annual visits to New England, and none of us had been west. "Stump speaker" sounded good to us and we decided to go.
Boys are not apt to be late at anything likely to interest them, and four of us were among the earliest arrivals at the Town Hall. We seated our- selves on the front bench, and when Mr. Lincoln took his place behind the bar that ran along the front of the platform he was not six feet away from us. In fact, when he leaned forward and swung his long arms in gestures it seemed as if we were in danger of being struck.
I will not attempt to describe his appearance; that has been done by many who were intimately associated with him, while artists and sculptors have faithfully portrayed his form and features. I remember that he was dressed in a black suit and that he wore a wide turnover collar and a black silk sailor's tie, both of which were striking and unusual in this region.
At this distance of time I cannot undertake to report what he said, but we four boys sat on that front bench till ten o'clock, our eyes never leaving him, notwithstanding we had to keep our heads raised at an uncomfortable angle as he towered above us. I have heard many famous orators since, but never have I listened to one with such rapt attention, and no one ever made such a deep and lasting impression upon me.
His speech was richly illustrated with stories and was frequently inter- rupted by vigorous applause. One story I remember was about a young farmer who in some way opened up a nest of large and active black snakes, and as Mr. Lincoln described the terrible combat that followed his body swayed, his long black arms and his fingers were writhing and twisting till even the Laocoon itself was not more realistic. That picture is as plain in my mind's eye today as it was fifty-seven years ago.
The next morning two of us on our way to school reached a cross street and looking down saw two other boys approaching who had also been there. In an instant, without a word, four pairs of arms were writhing in the air and any stranger who had seen us would have surely thought us crazy. All that day, and for many days, those writhing arms were the countersign, and "snakes" the password for the boys who had heard Abraham Lincoln.
After the meeting was over a large number of citizens adjourned to the Wauregan House where Mr. Lincoln was entertained, and had a most enjoy- able after meeting with refreshments and more stories from Lincoln. About midnight, as it was known that Mr. Lincoln had to leave for New Haven at six the next morning, the company reluctantly broke up and bid him good night.
There was left, however, one gentleman, Mr. John F. Trumbull, of Stonington, who had come some distance to attend the meeting and was spend- ing the night at the Wauregan. Mr. Trumbull had a very considerable repu- tation as a political speaker and story teller, and after the others were gone he and Mr. Lincoln sat and talked for an hour in the parlor and then went up stairs together. When they reached the door of Mr. Lincoln's room some- thing interesting was unfinished, so Trumbull went in and they talked on till the town clock in the Baptist church nearby struck two, when Mr. Trum- bull apologized and went out. Mr. Lincoln had removed his coat, vest, collar and shoes and was rapidly preparing for bed when there was a knock on the door and there stood Trumbull. "Oh!" he said, "I have just thought of one more story I must tell you." And they sat down beside each other on the bed and swapped stories for three-quarters of an hour more. It was
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nearly three when the final adjournment took place, and Lincoln was called at five to make ready for New Haven.
This latter part of the story was told me years after by my friend, Col. H. H. Osgood, who was a member of Governor Buckingham's military staff. The Connecticut State elections at that time were held in April, and Lincoln's speeches in our State were part of the campaign for Governor Buckingham's re-election.
It was through the efforts of Colonel Osgood that Mr. Lincoln came to Norwich. He had heard of the wonderful impression made by the Cooper Union speech, and, as Hartford was one of his first assignments in New England, Colonel Osgood went there and heard him, then, procuring an intro- duction, invited him to come to Norwich. Mr. Lincoln was pleased with the invitation, but said that it was absolutely impossible, as his route had been carefully laid out and there was no possibility of taking on another engage- ment. At that time railroad trains were very few and very slow, but Colonel Osgood was familiar with time tables, and he looked over the speaker's schedules and at last said, "You can do it. You can come between Providence and New Haven." "Young man," said Mr. Lincoln, "demonstrate it." So thoroughly did Colonel Osgood demonstrate it that Mr. Lincoln promised to come, and he did come. I shall never cease to be thankful that I was per- mitted to see and hear him.
Once again I saw him. It was in the spring of 1864, during my vacation from college. I was making a visit with relatives in Baltimore and they took me for a day in Washington. We went, of course, to the White House, and while looking about in the East Room, which is always open to the public, the usher stationed in the hall came to me and said, "The President is just coming in from the War Department. If you would like to see him, just come and stand in the doorway of this room." It was at a dark period of the war, heavy fighting had been going on for several days, but without any satisfactory results. The porch door was opened and the President came in, but oh! how changed. His step was slow, his shoulders were bent, and his face told most plainly the story of the great burden that he was carrying. He started slowly up the broad staircase, when a small man who had been standing in the hall ran quickly up behind him and spoke to him as he reached the broad stair, introducing himself as a professor in some fresh water college in Ohio. I could not hear much that he said, and I think that the President heard none of it, for he stood there very quiet, but with such a faraway weary look in his burdened face that I felt his thoughts were with the boys in blue and the boys in gray fighting the battle of the Wilderness, while the little man's tongue babbled on. Why is it that there are some who will rush in where angels dare not tread ?
A year later, during my spring vacation, the dreadful news of the assas- sination came one Saturday morning. It was like a national stroke of par- alysis, men stopped whatever they were doing and little business was resumed that day. That Saturday night, three other members of the Broadway Church, with myself, having secured several pieces of black cloth, by working till midnight, managed to drape the interior of the church, and Sunday morn- ing Rev. John P. Gulliver, who always rose to a great occasion, preached a masterful discourse on the text, "It must needs be that offences come, but woe unto him by whom the offence cometh."*
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