USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Meriden > An historic record and pictorial description of the town of Meriden, Connecticut and men who have made it > Part 32
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yet in the evening of their lives with vigor little changed, and with capacity for fun as keen as ever, they would meet at stated dates and live again the old days in retrospect, whiling away the hours with story after story of other times: and perhaps now and then a spoon would tinkle in a glass with a melody most be- witching : but of this the writer cannot tell as he was never there. He only knows that he has heard that one cold night when the hour was late, and the time had come to say good night, one of the famous guard left his friends, wended his way to his home and had snugly tucked himself in bed before he remembered his pa- tient nag left tied in the tavern shed more than a mile away.
The turnpike was opened in 1799 and the event was hailed with as much joy and created as great excitement as did the railroad thirty-eight years later.
The layout of this highway was adopted in 1798 by the General Assembly on the petition of Senator Hillhouse and others and work was immediately begun. The damages awarded to property owners at the time, and recorded in a volume, preserved in the office of the secretary of state in Hartford, make it possible for us to eliminate the hundred years that separate our day from that of 1806, and start at Ann street and walk north, noting the different houses just as one might have done a century ago.
First we would have seen over on Curtis street, the old Parson Hall house, oc- cupied by his grandson, Dr. Theophilus Hall, and north of that, on the other side of Ann street, the Daniel Hough place, and north of that the Benjamin Curtis homestead, where the old man and his family were still living, and a few hundred feet further on, the new house, the residence of his son Benjamin, Jr., while just across the road we would have observed the Capt. John Webb dwelling, and back of that, and fronting on Broad street (the new turnpike), his nephew, Benjamin Hart's new house (now the home of Mrs. Juliette Y. Curtis). Just north of this place, in the fork of the roads (and surrounded on all sides by highways, for the road running west to Colony street, already described, was still in existence), stood the home of Amasa Curtis, in which he and Isaac Lewis kept store. Across the street to the west and a little north was Seth D. Plum's tavern.
All these places have been described before, and the risk of repetition has been run so that the view of the village street may be made clear in one's mind. Al- most opposite the Plum place on the east side of the street but a little to the north, stood the Jeremiah Farrington homestead, which, although much altered, is still standing, and now the dwelling of Frederick W. Ives, No. 391 Broad street.
When this street or turnpike was cut through it left the house of Samuel Yale in a peculiar plight. He had bought a lot on the east side of Curtis street which then ran north and continued down to Liberty street. It is difficult to pic- ture in one's mind just the situation : the house must have stood so that the west portion would, if in existence, stand somewhere near the east part of the old
34I
EARLY HISTORY.
Methodist church (now occupied by the Meriden Curtain Fixture Co. office, 440 Broad). The turnpike took a course just east of the Yale house and left it with no backyard. As the land from this house to the church was a public green, with streets on the east and west sides,1 the house became an eyesore, and at a town meeting held May 17, 1808, it was voted "to make an accommodation with Samuel Yale, to have his house at the south end of the green removed to some other place, so as to accommodate the public, and voted to buy the land where house stands." The house was accordingly removed to the northeast corner of Broad and East Main streets, and reposed there until the Bassett brick block was built, when it again started on its travels and found a final abiding place a little to the east ; it is perhaps the old building still standing there and said to have once been used by Samuel, Jr., and William Yale for manufacturing tin ware.
South of this old house, before its removal, stood the center district school house in what is now the northeast corner of the old cemetery,2 and where stands the house of Dr. Frederick P. Griswold, No. 481 Broad street, was located the homestead and shoe store of John Butler.
On the other side of the street to the northwest stood the church, with Ros- well Cowles' Sabbath day house south of it, and two or three other small houses like it north of the church on the other side of the street. East of these buildings on the corner was the tavern belonging to Dr. Hough; on the southeast corner of Broad and East Main, stood the store of Amos White, and the building served as his dwelling as well; while east and southeast of it was another collection of Sabbath day houses.
North of Amos White's store on the other side of the street was a triangular piece of land which had been formed in this way: in 1782 Samuel Hall, son of Rev. Theophilus, had deeded to the town a strip of land for a highway, beginning at East Main, just one hundred and sixty-five feet east of his house (later the tavern) and running due north to Liberty street.1 The land from the house to this new street was the garden of both Samuel Hall and Dr. Hough until the turnpike on Broad street was cut through in 1799: this we learn from the descrip- tion in the deed when Dr. Hough bought the property in 1792. At the same time that this new street was opened, the town closed the north end of old Curtis street running from just west of the meeting house, north to Liberty street, and also
1 Saml Yale was given only $57 damages by the turnpike company for thus disturbing the house lot. 2 This site was later occupied by the Baptist church built about 1831 and when the new church was built in 1848 this old building became the academy where many still living received their education. On March 23, 1805, the selectmen sold to Seth D. Plum a "strip of highway lying a little south of the meeting house, running north and south from the school house to old Sabbath day house belonging to Roswell Cowles & is 1 rod & 4 links wide at north end where Sabbath day house is and 1 rod & 8 links at the South end." Wall. land records, Vol. XXXII., p. 18. On Feb. 22, 1831, Amos Curtis, acting as agent for the Center school district sold this school house site to Wm. Yale for the Baptist society.
1 Wallingford land records, Vol. XXIII., p. 67.
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A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
opened up a highway from the meeting house, running west and meeting Liberty street at what is now the town hall site: viz. East Main street.
On the triangular piece of land east of the tavern, was a barn for the conven- ience of the stage coach line.
Just opposite the old brick bank building on Broad street and just south of the house known as No. 544, are still to be seen the foundation walls of an old dwell- ing built probably in 1792 by Moses Barns,2 sometimes of Cheshire and then of Reading, Mass., and finally of Meriden; but in 1806 it was the homestead of Jarius Mix ; later it was the dwelling of Isaac Lewis, who bought it about 1813, and afterwards it was the home of William Merriam and is still remembered as a boarding place where Episcopal clergymen were carefully looked after. Mrs. Merriam has the reputation of having been the first milliner in Meriden ; the house disappeared a number of years ago.
The second house north of the Barns place is known as the Beckett home- stead, but it was built in 1792 by Jared Benham and for many years he dwelt there ; it will be noticed that it does not stand square with Broad street, because it was built to front on the highway deeded by Samuel Hall in 1782.
On the other side of the street stands the old Willard house built about 1787 by the parson, but as already stated, formerly located one hundred feet north of its present site. In 1806 it was the home of Samuel Yale ;1 west of this at the corner of Liberty and Broad streets was the Ambrose Hough place already de- scribed and now the home of Walter B. Hall.
North of this house was the old Jerome homestead, occupied in 1806 by Levi Curtis and at that time it was probably the last house on Broad street going north, for the Edmund Wilcox place, No. 721, was built about 1813 by Archibald Pium, and the old Belden house, No. 692, was probably erected in the same year by Ira Andrews, and the Asahel Curtis dwelling, No. 1065, just south of Britannia street, was probably built by Joel Yale in 1807.
In going west from the meeting house we would have come first to the home- stead of Samuel Tibbals, only a hundred feet or so west of it, and the old house has only recently disappeared ; further down the road, and probably on the site of Dr. John Tait's house, No. 244 East Main street, stood a dwelling built by Yale I. (the eldest son of Dr. Hough) but in 1806 the home of Gardner Tryon: on the other side of the street on about the site now occupied by a small building, once the office of Dr. Archer, stood a house occupied by Joseph Farrington, and west of the Tryon dwelling, perhaps where George Clark's residence now stands, No. 222, was the home of Burrage Yale, who afterwards moved to South Reading, Mass., and became a manufacturer of tinware. At this time his father, Amerton
2 He died in 1816 and his inventory contains the first notice we have of a stove in Meriden. The item appears as stove and pipe $10.
1 Wallingford land records, Vol. XXX., p. 426.
MAP OF THE VILLAGE OF
MERIDEN 1806
MAMBROSE HOUGH'S MILL
BUTLER'S TANNERY
AMBROSE HOUGH
OLEW CURTIS
WALL ST.
SAM'L, YALE
ST.
ASOLONY
SLACKSMITH SHO
STEPHEN PERKINS
GARN
ST
-
MAT ESTE-PRESENT_ LAYOUT
LIBERTY
COWLEB
STONE CUTTING YAR
ROSWELL COWLE
SELOEN WRIGHT
JOS. FARRINGTON
SAM'L TIBBALS SABBATH OAY HOUSE
EEN- CHURCH
JOHN BUTLER
CHRISTOPHER ATWATER
SAML. YALES SHOPS
0
GRAVE YARD
BR m
DOVE SI-PRESENT LAYOUT.
JEREMIAH FARRINGTON
S T.
AMASA CURTIS
BENJ. CURTIS JR.
BENJ. HART
JOHN WEBB
OR
CURTIS
BENJ. CURTIS
TURNPIKE
DANIEL HOUGH HOUSE
WTO FIRST MEETING HOUSE
- DRAWN BY H.W.GEER-FROM SKETCH FURNISHED BY THE WRITER -
THEOPHILUS HALL
ST.
SHOP
HOUSES
OR. HOUGH'S
TAVERN
EAST
TIMOTHY
RICHARDS
BURRAGE YALE
N GARN
CARONER
TRYON
SABBATH DAY
BARN
PERKINS
GILES O. GRISWOLO (IOE)
ST.
BARN
JAREO BENHAM JARIUS MIX SHOP
#DAN COLLINS
ELI BARNES
SABBATH DAY HOUSES
R
ATWATER HOMESTEAD
OLIVE
SAM'L. YALE OSCHOOL HOUSE
SETH PLUM
STORE
AMOS WHITE
MAIN
343
EARLY HISTORY.
Yale, was probably living with him, who had served in the Revolution and was noted as a musician, being a skillful performer on the violin and flute.
Only one of the old houses of 1806 on East Main street is still standing, and that is located just west of the homestead of E. B. Everitt. Its number is 194, and when the town was incorporated it was the dwelling of Timothy Richards, and near at hand he had a shop where he made hats. He sold the house in 1807 to Elisha A. Cowles and it was probably here that the Major first started in the mer- cantile business, for the windows bear the appearance of at some time having been used for displaying goods. It was afterwards owned by Samuel Tibbals, and was for many years the home of John Mecorney; it is now the property of E. B. Everitt.
On the south side of the street, opposite the Mecorney residence, was the dwell- ing of Selden Wright, and on the town hall site, stood the home of Roswell Cowles, the brother of the Major, and the property consisting of house and two acres, was sold to the town in 1853 by Roswell's widow. His stone cutting yard has already been described as occupying the site across the street where now stands the Wilmot place.
Where stands St. Andrew's church was the old Nathaniel Merriam place (in 1806 the home of Giles O. Griswold) and on the site of the north part of Main Street Baptist church was the homestead of Simeon Perkins, afterwards occupied by Sherlock, his son ; the old building now stands on Veteran street.
Doubtless there were other houses in the central part of the town in 1806 that have escaped the notice of the writer, but in the main the buildings mentioned con- stituted the village of Meriden. Accompanying is a map which at a glance ex- plains the plan as related in the text.
Some of the early town votes are interesting and those relating to the running at large of geese, cattle and boars illustrate the primitive conditions of the time.
One of the first votes after the town was fully organized was one instructing the selectmen to open the street now called Griswold: this was on Dec. 1, 1806. On Feb. 23, 1807, it was voted that the books of the public library be kept by the town clerk (who was then Isaac Lewis) and that they be loaned out for four weeks only, and any one who kept a book longer than this was to be subject to a fine of 25 cents and an increasing forfeiture of one cent per day until returned.1 Previous to 1807 Britannia street, east of Griswold, ran around the south side of the swamp and the marks of this old section can still be plainly traced : on May 25, 1807, it was voted to change the layout by running it directly across the swamp.
In those days one was permitted to work out one's taxes by assisting in re- pairing the highways and on Nov. 16, 1807, it was voted that the rate allowed for this work should be 75 cents per day in the spring and 67 cents in the fall. On Nov. 14, 1815, the rate was changed to $1.25 in the spring and $1 in the fall.
1 A full account of this first library will be found in an article by the writer on page 46, Part II.
344
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
On May 6, 1811, it was voted to sell strips of the old highway made no longer necessary by the opening of the turnpike to Middletown which had been built in 1809. On Nov. 9, 1813, it was voted to close the highway from foot of hill run- ning to Elisha A. Cowles no longer needed on account of the opening of the South- ington turnpike in 1812. This was that part of old Liberty street which ran across the present site of the Main street Baptist church and coming out at the South Colony street bridge.
On Sept. 15, 1816, it was voted that the town bell (located in the church steeple) should be rung at 9 and 10:30 o'clock a. m. and I o'clock on Sundays and on all other days at 12 noon and 9 o'clock at night. On Oct. 4, 1824, it was voted to close the road from East Main to Liberty streets that had been laid out in Samuel Hall's land in 1782.
On Aug. 3rd, 1812, a large liberty pole was erected on the green, presumably somewhere near the church.1 Among the papers preserved by Mrs. Hiram A. Yale is a bill of expense incurred in the undertaking which include the following :
To Asahel Merriam for oxen half a day .34
To Paid Dan Andrews for mending chain broke in service .25
Paid for ensign 8.00
Paid for halyards 1.25
Paid for 10 lbs. powder 8.78
Paid for carting pole .50
Paid for waggon & time to Middletown 1.00
Paid for Wm. Yale's bill for entertaining on Aug. 3. 10.00
Paid for 2 quts rum .67
Paid for cannon 2.00
These items with others paid to various persons brought the total cost of pole ensign and entertainment to $58.18.
Imprisonment for debt was common in those days and the following is a copy of a letter written by one who was in torments dire.
"New Haven Oct 6 1825
Mr Samuel Yale Sir
Please to lett Mr Lawrence know what you think Lewis will do about keep- ing me here after Monday and Please Be to see Father or some other But speak to him first about Being a Bondsman till Monday for I dont want to stay in close confinement till then. Please to send me word about all I have writ
Yours respectfully Samuel Tibbals Jr.
Please take this trouble for me and I will pay you all you ask."
1 Many still living remember a flag pole which stood where the elm tree now stands just south of watering trough at junction of Broad and East Main streets.
345
EARLY HISTORY.
In the year 1812 an association was formed for the detection of thieves and bringing them to their just deserts. Before the writer as he pens these lines is a copy of the constitution of the society which is headed.
"Constitution of the Meriden Association for the .
Detection of Thieves and Recovery of Stolen Property"
The main object of combining in this way seems to have been to bring horse thieves to justice. Article VII. reads, "It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep a box of tickets, with each member's name written thereon for the purpose of drafting men, to pursue the thief or thieves, and to recover property stolen." The articles would lead one to believe there had been much crime of this nature committed and that the society was more or less a "Vigilance Committee."
The sources of information relating to the life of the people in this quiet coun- try village during the early years of the last century are not abundant and doubt- less events were few and far between and little of interest transpired that would appeal to us to-day or that made much impression on those who were then ac- tive on the stage of life. That Meriden was to have a life different from most quiet country farming communities was hardly dreamed by any one of that period. There was one man who insisted that the day would come when a corner lot in the village of Meriden would bring as much as a thousand dollars ; but he was considered crazy and no one paid much attention to his vag- aries or dreamed that his wild prophecies contained an element of truth, until he was dead and gone, and building lots had really begun to creep up to a figure that approached the hallucinations of his cloudy brain: then people remembered his sayings, and wondered if he did not know more than was suspected during his life.
The source of the increase in real estate values in Meriden was, of course, in the manufactures and the story of the beginnings and early growth of the indus- tries of Meriden deserves a chapter of its own.
346
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
CHAPTER XX.
There was little about the town in its early days which indicated that some day it would grow to a place of considerable size : it was simply a quiet, peaceful com- munity, bent on getting a living as best it could from the rather sterile soil; and that the farms were not as productive as they once had been seems to be indicated in various ways.
The houses built after 1790 until a considerably later date were not so capacious and roomy as those of an earlier period, and the inventories of estates had also be- gun to dwindle in amounts, and many of them were pitifully small when compared with those of the first settlers. Evidently the feeling became prevalent that some other resource besides farming was necessary to make the town a growing, thriving place, and this feeling soon manifested itself by the establishment of many small shops and factories.
As early as 1802 there was a shop of some kind standing on a part of the land now occupied by the Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Co. A deed dated in that year con- veyed from John Hooker to Eli Barnes a tract of land at the southwestern corner of Colony and Main streets, containing eighteen acres, most of the extent being in an easterly and westerly direction and it was bounded on the south by the land of the firm of Rice, Yale & Co. What they made or who the parties were is not cer- tain, but the Yale was perhaps Samuel Yale. He seems to have been the first man- ufacturer in Meriden, if we do not consider those who owned grist, fulling and sawmills. Mr. Perkins in his history ays that in "1791 Samuel Yale began to manufacture cut nails. He and his son worked in a small shop on the hill, near the present site of the Center Congregational church. Their little machine was worked by their own hands, and each nail was 'headed' separately and by hand. About the year 1794 the same Mr. Yale commenced the manufacture of buttons on a small scale. They were made of pewter, and would be considered by us a very rough article." This shop was probably on land adjoining the old Methodist church on Broad street, for in 1808 he sold to Seth D. Plum a piece of land where his blacksmith and tinshop then stood, which was evidently a part of the same tract on which the old house was presenting such an annoying spectacle to the public, and which was removed at about the same date. He probably then established his bus- iness on Liberty street near Ambrose Hough's mill ; he died in 1810 and his sons, Samuel Jr. and William, carried on the same line in a building still standing back of the Bassett block at the northeast corner of Broad and East Main streets. Wil- liam, who died much earlier than Samuel, Jr., viz. in 1833, apparently at that
347
EARLY HISTORY.
time owned a small shop just north of his dwelling. This house is still standing and known as No. 447 Broad street, and now occupied by James H. Kelsey. These brothers, William and Samuel, were for many years quite extensively engaged in manufacturing metal buttons and tinware, and must have employed many hands for they sent travelers, or peddlers as they were called, into various parts of the country, and the writer has been fortunate enough to examine a number of papers and documents,1 which reveal a little of the character of the business, and the man- ner of conducting it. Following is a copy of a contract with a peddler that is in- teresting :
"Articles of agreement made and entered into by and between William and Samuel Yale of Meriden in New Haven county on the one part and Amos Francis of Wallingford in said county on the other part witnesseth, viz. I the said Amos Francis agree on my part to hawk, peddle and vend such articles as the said Yales shall deliver me for that purpose in any part of the United States they shall see fit to send me for the term of ten months from the Ist day of October next and to furnish a good horse, waggon and harness and to be faithful in their said em- ploy during said term of time to be fully completed and ended ; And we the said William and Samuel agree to pay the said Amos Francis for his said services thirty dollars per month certain wages, forty dollars per month, if said Francis clears it over and above the first cost of his load and expenses, and one-half of all profits over and above said forty dollars that he, the said Francis, shall actually clear. Dated at Meriden, this 3rd day of Sept., 1816
William Yale, Samuel Yale, Amos Francis."
The following is somewhat different from a modern communication of a traveling salesman to his employer.
"Newburgh, West Branch of the Susquehannah River,
May II, 1814.
Worthy Patron :
Where to begin or end my uncouth epistle I know not, but upon reflection will try to compose my mind while I inform you that I shall sink one hundred dollars at least unless fortune turns the scale in my favor.
R. Baldwin and I have traversed the country from Dan to Beersheba, be- sides going to Albany, and I have not sold either buttons or spoons to any amount. The reason which people give for not purchasing those articles is
1 Through the kindness of Mrs. Hiram A. Yale, widow of the son of Samuel Yale, Jr.
348
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
that the embargo is repealed, an armistice on foot and peace at the very door, when all these things are to be showered down upon them as Manna was to the Israelites.
Moses [Baldwin] has gone to Pittsburgh to see what may be done there while I am cruising about here & there wherever the spirit moves as I thought it would hardly quit cost for me to go any farther. Tin goes extremely well.
Your well wisher till Death, Warren P. Stone.
Mr. Samuel Yale."
President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, made a trip up this valley on the way to the White Mountains in the early part of the last century, and has this to say regarding these salesmen :1 "The manner in which this ware is disposed of puts to flight all calculation. A young man is furnished by the proprietor with a horse, and a cart covered with a box, containing as many tin vessels as the horse can conveniently draw. This vehicle within a few years has, indeed, been frequently exchanged for a wagon; and then the load is doubled. Thus prepared he sets out on an expedition for the winter. A multitude of these young men direct themselves to the Southern States, and in their excursions travel wherever they can find settlements. Each of them walks and rides alternately through this vast distance till he reaches Rich- mond, Newbern, Charleston or Savannah; and usually carries with him to the place of his destination no small part of the gain, which he has acquired upon the road. Here he finds one or more workmen, who have been sent forward to co-operate with him, furnished with a sufficient quantity of tinned plates to supply him with all the ware which he can sell during the season. With this he wanders into the interior country ; calls at every door on his way; and with an address and pertinacity, not easily resisted, compels no small number of the inhabitants to buy. At the commencement of summer they return to New York : and thence to New Haven, by water ; after selling their vehicles, and their horses. The original load of a single horse, as I am told, is rarely worth more than three hundred dollars ; or of a wagon more than six hundred. Yet this business is said to yield both the owner and his agent valuable returns." "I have seen them on the peninsula of Cape Cod, and in the neighborhood of Lake Erie: distant from each other more than six hundred miles. They make their way to Detroit, four hundred miles farther ; to Canada ; to Kentucky ; and if I mistake not to New Orleans and St. Louis." The Rev. President waxes eloquent in his description of the damage to the character of these agents and paints with a feeling pen their generally demoralizing conduct while engaged in this business : but as the career of a salesman was then a novelty in this country, it is possible that the author
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