USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 10
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The first press was completed in about six months and on January 3, 1883, was shipped to W. W. Ames of DeRuyter, New York. This machine has been in constant use for thirty-six years and is still doing good work and owned by the original purchaser. Since then over seven thousand presses have been sold and are in operation in practically all countries of the world.
In 1899, the local shop, employing some two hundred and fifty men, was unable to handle all the business of press building, and arrangements were made with the Standard Machine Company of Mystic to build certain sizes of machines. Later this work was taken to the Narragansett Machine Company, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Throughout the years of its manufacture, the Babcock Printing Press, of whatever style or design, has established a reputation for strength, reliability, economy, accuracy and speed that has placed it in the offices of the leading printers in every State in the Union, Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Philippine Islands, Canada, Mexico, South America-many European countries, South Africa, India, Dutch East Indies and China.
The unquestioned excellence of the Babcock Printing Press is due to the untiring industry and inventive genius of Mr. Fenner. Through all the years of the establishing of the business, a fourteen-hour day was the ordinary day's work for him, and in fact there was never any limit to the time he was willing to give to the interests of the business. Between 1882 and 1915 he was granted about one hundred patents, upon valuable inventions for improving printing machinery, all of which are the property of the company.
With the purchase of the shop in which the machines of the company have been built since its incorporation, The Babcock Printing Press Manu- facturing Company is re-established, and upon a manufacturing basis that cannot fail to bring increased success. The officers of the company express their appreciation of the fine spirit which has actuated every man connected with the press work during the years of their connection with the company and particularly to those who have so loyally and unselfishly served to the utmost during the three years when the company suffered the loss of invalu- able service in its management, and the disastrous World War made it the patriotic duty of all business manufacturing not for war purposes to be cur- tailed to the utmost limit. Throughout the trying period of the war the business was successfully maintained and is now efficiently organized for progressive development upon a constantly increasing scale.
The present officers are: President and manager, James E. Bennet ; treasurer, Mrs. George P. Fenner; secretary and assistant treasurer, Wilfred D. Wells; chief engineer, Fred S. English; general superintendent, Howard L. Hetherington ; sales manager, Charles W. Britcher.
James E. Bennet is very prominent in the printing trade, being secretary of the Printing Press Manufacturers' Association of the United States, and has been connected with the company for about twelve years. Wilfred D. Wells has been connected with the company for over thirty years, and F. S. English, Howard Hetherington and C. W. Britcher for nearly twenty years each. These men are thoroughly trained to carry on the business to a greater
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magnitude than it has ever before reached. When the plant is in full oper- ation, a force of about four hundred men is required.
The property of The Babcock Printing Press Manufacturing Company covers about seven acres of land on which are buildings with floor space aggregating about 180,000 square feet. The foundry work turned out by this plant has been for years considered of exceptional quality. The Babcock Printing Press Company's plant ranks as one of the finest machine building plants in New England.
The foregoing accounts give only a very partial view of the process by which New England thrift and perseverance and New England business methods have succeeded in developing the county.
In Norwich, the J. B. Martin Company produces one million yards of velvet annually ; the U. S. Finishing Company prints 85 million yards; the Totoket Mills have a capacity of 2,000,000 yards a year ; The Falls Company, five and a half million yards; the Shetucket Company, six million yards; the Ponemah Mills twenty-two million yards a year. The Aspinook Company at Jewett City, the Ashland Cotton Company, the Slater Mills, the Palmer Brothers' Quilt Mills at New London, Montville and Fitchville, with a capacity of 14,000 quilts a day, and at Baltic the huge cotton mills, combined with many other mills throughout the country, furnish occupation for a consider- able part of the total county population.
The casual visitor will see that these mills are more than manufacturing plants ; they are little worlds in themselves, with a community spirit, with recreations, civic organizations, social activities that promote the welfare of all members of the families of the villages.
It is not the purpose of this article to make comparisons or to enter into disputed questions as to the relation of labor and capital, but for the sake of conveying to the reader a true picture of a New England manufacturing village, the following account of life in Taftville is presented. Inasmuch as the Ponemah Mills Company is by far the largest in the county and one of the largest in the country, it presents an interesting picture of the co-operative spirit on a large scale.
The Ponemah Mills was chartered in 1866 under the name of the Orray Taft Manufacturing Company, by Mr. E. P. Taft, and associated with him were Cyril Taft and James S. Atwood, who in company with Mr. Moses Pierce formed the Occum Power Company. The charter, secured in 1866, with later amendments is broad in its character, including rights in four towns -Franklin, Sprague, Bozrah and Norwich, and is a proof of the broad vision of its founder. In 1867, after some financial difficulties, a reorganization took place, and John F. Slater, Edward Chappell and Lorenzo Blackstone became associated with the original members.
The first mill, now called Mill No. I, had originally 80,000 spindles, all American made. The preparatory machinery was originally American, but replacements have been imported from England. The mill from the first made fine goods, such as had previously been imported into the United States from
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Manchester, England. Fine lawns, organdies, mechanical cloths and fancy goods for ladies' wear, men's shirtings, ginghams, mixed silk and cotton goods, and tire yarns for the highest grade cord tires are a few of the products of the company. The original 80,000 spindles have been increased to 161,000 and the original 1500 looms to over 3800.
The mills now include Mill No. I, a five-story structure 750 feet by 75 feet, with an ell; Mill No. 2, built in 1880, 500 feet by 100 feet ; Mill No. 3, 200 feet by 120 feet ; Mill No. 4, built in 1910, 600 feet by 200 feet, with 2300 looms. For power, the mills have 2500 horsepower developed at full water by its water power, and the difference of 1500 horse power needed for oper- ation is developed by steam, which develops further any deficit in water power due to low water.
During the war, the mill was busy making cloth for balloons and air- planes, etc., on government work. Today one may see in the office the first sample made to match the linen sample submitted by the government. This substitute for linen was made necessary by the loss of the vast linen supplies at Riga after the Germans had captured that port. This original sample was 36 inches wide, 68 by 68 threads to the square inch, weight four yards to the pound, and made from three-ply 80 yarns for warp and filling. Its strength may be seen from the required test of over 70 pounds to the square inch before breakage. It was furthermore almost non-stretchable. For a number of months before and during the war, the mills operated as many as 1,000 looms on aircraft cloth, balloon and airplanes. It was estimated that one loom pro- ducing about 150 yards of airplane cloth a week would only provide for the wear and tear supply for one airplane.
To a novice there is a fascination in tracing the steps by which the cotton passes on through the bale breaker and blender. the picking and carding machinery, the drawing and doubling process, the combers ever drawing and parallelizing the fibres, the fly frames consisting of slubbers, intermediates and jacks, the ring frames which draw and twist and thereby spin the thread, the spoolers, the warpers, the slashers which starch or dress the yarn so that it may resist the friction and wear of the loom in the weaving process. To an untrained observer it seems incredible that a pound of cotton can be spun out to a length of nearly one hundred miles. On the whole, the most wonderful thing about the material part of the manufacturing process is the combination of strength and delicacy shown in the machinery, the result of long experience, countless experiments, the long evolution of inventive genius combined with farsighted business sagacity. The evolution of the cotton industry is one of the most interesting chapters of human progress. Such a history must be written by the expert. But what these steps have meant to mankind in the way of cheaper and better clothing, in furnishing of pro- ductive labor for many thousands of people, in the indirect benefits conferred upon many other forms of business, even the casual observer may perceive.
The Ponemah Mills form the nucleus of a whole community life. In its mills, its homes, its farms, its reservoirs, its electric plant, its many community activities, it is a model village, interesting as a community no less than a
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manufacturing plant. The company owns five hundred tenements, with an estimated population of 3500. It owns four miles of streets, eight miles of sidewalks, covering nearly a square mile of land. It has its own water supply, for fire protection-each hydrant has about 75 pounds of pressure-its own electric power. It sells some water and electricity to adjacent residents who seck this convenience. It has two reservoirs, one of 86,728,000, one of 24,445,- 500 gallons. It has constructed a complete sewerage system of over eight miles in length ; every house has modern plumbing. The dairy farm contains an accredited herd of tested Holsteins and furnishes bottled milk at current rates. A co-operative boarding house furnishes adequate and inexpensive board for such residents as do not take houses.
The financial offices are in Providence. The secretary and treasurer is Mr. J. A. Atwood, who is also treasurer and large owner in the mills at Wauregan and at Danielson. The payroll is $30.000 per week, about one- fifth the total payroll of all the industries in Norwich. The average wage of operatives, without including oversight, salaries, etc., is $20 per week for all workers.
The annual product is approximately twenty million yards of cloth of a value of five and one-half million dollars, one-fifth of the whole manufactured product of Norwich. In the management of the mills, efficiency is revealed not only in the product of the mills but also in the no less important work of the community life as a whole. In general it is the policy of the manage- ment to do whatever is for the welfare of the village. If the village "pays for itself outside the mill fence," it is satisfied, and does not aim to make a profit from the various community enterprises enumerated above. For in- stance, it is estimated that many of the mill houses yield less than two per cent on the cost of construction. The rents charged are surprisingly low. A seven-room tenement rents for $1.66 a week, with running water and sanitary plumbing. If the tenants desire a bathtub, a charge of five cents a week is added. If the tenants desire to use steam heat, twenty cents a week extra is charged ; for electric lighting, five cents per socket is charged for elec- tricity used from the middle of the afternoon to midnight; no meters are in- stalled. Young couples or old, with one worker in the family, may secure a tenement in a four-family house for $1.18 per week. For a two tenement seven-room house (standard type), the rental, including light and water and bath room, is $2.50 per week.
Statistics regarding wages are of interest: In 1899 the average weekly wage for one class of operative was $11.24 for 58 hours' work. In 1916 this had risen to $17.09. At the peak of war wages, the average wage of these operatives in 1920 was $38.15. Today the average wage is $29.49. The length of the working week was lessened in 1913 to 55 hours, and as a war require- ment or condition in 1919 to 48 hours.
The attitude of the company towards the help is in all things benevolent and co-operative; accommodations are furnished for all the many clubs that exist on the initiative of the workers. The management believes, and very
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wisely, it seems to the writer, that the most helpful enterprises are those started by the operatives themselves.
Ponemah Mills provides two free beds at the William W. Backus Hos- pital for all its villagers. These beds are of special help in maternity cases, and in the many other cases discovered by its trained nurses. Two trained nurses, with proper rooms for emergency use, exercise a most helpful super- vision of the villagers. Whenever an illness occurs in a home the case is at once reported to a nurse, who before noon visits the home, provides for first aid, advises a physician in case of need, and thus is a great help in the pre- vention as well as the cure of disease. A complete card index of all cases is filed, and a detailed report is made at stated intervals. The office keeps its hand in this way on the pulse of its village for the betterment of all its resi- dents. In the past year over eight thousand special cases for approximately 4000 individuals were personally treated.
The village has its own Red Cross Chapter-this of itself is unusual. The Chapter by its annual roll call raises enough to support one free bed at the William W. Backus Hospital, to do a useful home service work, and in general to offer help to any one in the community who may be in distress.
The company, as might be expected from its other activities, is a cheerful contributor to every enterprise that tends to uplift the villagers. As one visits the plant and realizes that the Ripley Farms was sixty years ago a rural, un- developed waste; that the original John Sullivan, who helped cut away the brush for the first survey, is still a resident of Taftville; as one views the orderly and systematic arrangement of the village, the well kept homes, the prosperous operatives, it becomes evident that the gap between capital and labor, if it is ever to be bridged, will be crossed by such organizations as Ponemah Mills. The care for the welfare of the operatives, with the freedom given them in initiating their own social life, the efficient business system by which community enterprises are managed, furnish an object lesson in good government that might be studied with great profit by many of the municipalities of our land.
It is also true of many other industries in New London county that the welfare of the helpers is of first importance to the administrators. Only lack of space prevents us from describing in detail some of the other manufacturing concerns with which our county is so well supplied. As the children of these manufacturing villages enter our schools they come to have the true American spirit. And the hope of New England, composed today of a popu. lation which is largely of foreign parentage, consists in perpetuating New England ideals, even if the old New England families are declining relatively in numbers.
CHAPTER XX
FRATERNAL BROTHERHOODS
Masonic-Odd Fellows-Other Orders.
This chapter will deal principally with the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, as perhaps they come closest to the lives of more people in New London county than any others. Moreover, the great age of the one and the many years which have accrued to the other, give them a dignity and a prestige that justifies their selection as representative organizations where space cannot be given to all. The record is brought down from the forming of the "Mother Lodge" of Masons in Colchester, to practically the present, and will long be useful as a work of reference as well as a source of pleasing information.
There are fourteen lodges in New London county subordinate to the Grand Lodge of Connecticut Free and Accepted Masons. They are in numerical order as follows:
Wooster No. 10, Colchester. . 157 members
St. James No. 23, Norwich. . 308 members
Union No. 31, New London .711 members
Somerset No. 34, Norwich. . 542 members
Pythagoras No. 45, Old Lyme. 77 members
Asylum No. 57, Stonington I4I members
Charity and Relief No. 72, Mystic 363 members
Mt. Vernon No. 75, Jewett City 190 members
Pawcatuck No. 90, Pawcatuck. . 195 members
Brainard No. 102, New London .736 members
Oxoboxo No. 116, Montville 173 members
Bay View No. 120, Niantic 108 members
This comprises a total of 3,001 affiliated Master Masons reported to the Grand Lodge in 1922 from the twelve lodges of the county.
Wooster Lodge, No. 10, the most ancient of all Masonic lodges in New London county as indicated by its number, was the tenth organized under authority of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, Free and Accepted Masons. This is the "Mother Lodge" of the county and is widely known in that role. The lodge is located in Colchester, and reported to the grand lodge in 1922, 157 members. The regular communications of the lodge are held on the third Friday of each month. The principal officers of the lodge are: Elmer H. Foote, worshipful master; Edward H. Norton, senior warden; Charles F. Kramer, junior warden ; Cyrus E. Pendleton, treasurer ; William T. Curry, secretary.
The first lodge of Free and Accepted Masons instituted in Norwich, Connecticut, was chartered by St. John's Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in the year 1767, as appears in the records of said grand lodge now in possession of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Columbia Lodge was chartered by Massachusetts Grand Lodge, Joseph Webb, grand master, on July 23, 1785, the petitioners being Philip Turner, Bela Turner, John Richards, Samuel
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Mott, Jeremiah Harris. These lodges have long been out of existence.
The oldest Masonic lodge in Norwich now active is St. James, No. 23, which was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, May 18, 1793. Communications were held in the town of Preston until 1846, when the following entry appears in the records: "The Brethren deeming it inex- pedient to try to keep up the organization of the lodge any longer, sent information to the grand .lodge and they sent a committee who took the charter, jewels and implements and placed them in the hands of the grand secretary of the grand lodge of Connecticut."
The original charter of St. James, No.' 23, was revived September 12, 1872, under the authority of Luke A. Lockwood, grand master, and was regranted June 16, 1873, under the old name and number to the following petitioners: H. Hobart Roath, H. Clay Albro, S. Alpheus Gilbert, Allen Tenny, P. St. M. Andrews, A. D. Smith, C. H. Dillaby, Nathan S. Gilbert, James Kirker, I. W. Carpenter, George W. Miller, Costello Lippitt, J. L. W. Huntington, Charles Webb, Hugh H. Osgood, W. H. Hovey, John Irish, Ansel A. Beckwith. The first worshipful master was Joseph J. Wait.
The lodge has since rechartering been located in Norwich, and has a present membership of 308. Regular communications are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. The five principal officers are: William J. Honey- man, worshipful master ; Frederick J. Prothero, senior warden ; Alexander H. Abbott, junior warden; Albert S. Comstock, treasurer; Walter M. Bucking- ham, secretary.
Concerning Union Lodge No. 31, of New London. There is a tradition that a Masonic lodge existed in New London, prior to the Revolution, and there is a record preserved in the history of St. John's Lodge at Boston, Massachusetts, under date of January 12, 1753, which recites that "the petition of several brethren residing at New London in the colony of Connecticut for dispensation to erect a lodge there was granted." There is no record of the forming or working of this lodge, nor is mention made in the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut of there being a subordinate lodge in New London prior to the October session of the Grand Lodge in 1795, when Elias Perkins is recorded as a member from Union Lodge of New London.
The original charter of Union Lodge, No. 31, Free and Accepted Masons, bears date of May 20. 1795. being granted upon the application of Amasa Learned, Elijah Bingham, Elias Perkins, Lyman Law, Moses Warren, William Richards, Richard Law, Jr., Lemuel Lee. The first worshipful master was William Richards, 1795. The lodge has had a continuous ex- istence for 127 years, 1795-1922, and now numbers 542 members. Meeting nights are the first and third Wednesdays of each month. The principal officers: W. Everett Eagles, worshipful master; Robert Ferguson, senior warden ; Walter M. Slocum, junior warden ; Frederick C. Burrows, treasurer ; Robert H. Byles, secretary. Union Lodge owns its own property, a large building on Union street, in which lodge meetings are held.
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Somerset Lodge, No. 34, Free and Accepted Masons, of Norwich, was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, May 25, 1795, with the fol- lowing members: Elijah Clark, P. Coit, Stephen Culver, Cushing Eells, Jeremiah Harris, Giles L'Hommedieu, Ebenezer Huntington, Samuel Hunt- ington, Daniel Lathrop, Gordon Lathrop, Simeon Lathrop, David Nevins, Robert Niles, John Richards, Benjamin Snow, Asa Spaulding, Elisha Rich- ards, Elisha Tracy, John Trumbull, John Turner, Philip Turner.
The first master of Somerset Lodge was Asa Spaulding, a lawyer ; Ebenezer Huntington, the first senior warden; Benjamin Snow, the first junior warden. The lodge charter was revoked by the Grand Lodge, May 9, 1838, but was re- stored May 14, 1845. The first stated communication of record was held June 8, 1795. Peter Lamman was the first candidate initiated. The lodge met in private rooms at first, the first lodge room being Captain Nathaniel Peabody's "brick store chamber," which was fitted up in due form and first used in 1801. On June 5, 1850, the lodge rented the Odd Fellows' lodge room, which was used until June 19, 1865, when Uncas Hall was dedicated to Masonic uses.
The regular communications of Somerset Lodge are held on the first and third Wednesdayys of each month. The membership as reported to the Grand Lodge in 1922 is 542. The officers are: Alexander Pinlayson, wor- shipful master ; Herman Stelzner, senior warden; William W. Tannar, junior warden; Herbert M. Lerou, treasurer; Arthur M. Thompson, secretary.
Pythagoras Lodge, No. 45, the next Masonic lodge to be chartered in New London county, is located in Old Lyme, and has a present member- ship of seventy-seven. The lodge meets in regular communication the first and third Monday of each month. Officers: Edward Hopper, worshipful master ; Carleton L. Hopper, senior warden; Alfred S. Howard, junior war- den ; George Griswold. treasurer; Edward C. Plimpton, secretary.
Asylum Lodge, No. 57, Free and Accepted Masons, is located in Ston- ington, and numbers 141 members. Stated meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. Officers: Ernest F. Williams, wor- shipful master ; Albert P. Fort, senior warden ; Allan C. Slade, junior warden ; Frank R. Tracy, treasurer ; Carl B. Seamon, secretary.
Charity and Relief Lodge, No. 72, Free and Accepted Masons, is located in Mystic, meeting in regular communication the first and third Tuesdays of each month. The lodge reported to the Grand Lodge for 1922 a member- ship of 363. Officers: James Orkney, worshipful master; John A. Irving, senior warden; Charles S. Sawyer, junior warden; Edward H. Neubury, treasurer ; Charles C. Dodd, secretary.
Mt. Vernon Lodge, No. 75, Free and Accepted Masons, is a Jewett City institution, meeting in regular communications the first and third Tuesdays in each month. The 1922 membership of the lodge is 190. Officers: Norman B. Parkhurst, worshipful master ; Frank D. Browning, senior warden ; George T. Bell, junior warden; Everett H. Hiscox, treasurer ; George H. Prior, secretary.
Paweatuck Lodge, No. 90, Free and Accepted Masons, is located in Paw-
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catuck, and has a present membership of 195. The lodge meets in regular communication the second Thursday of each month. The principal officers are: Harry Sutcliffe, worshipful master ; Archie Knott, senior warden ; Frank L. Friend, junior warden ; Elbert W. Clarke, treasurer ; D. E. Hoxie, secretary.
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