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 33
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1 Travels in New England and New York, Vol. 2, pp. 53-4.
349
EARLY HISTORY.
was unduly alarmed and that they were not so black in their actions and heart as he believed.
His remarks were given in his sketch of Berlin which was then a much more important place in the business world than Meriden, and where the manufacture had been begun a long time previous to the Yale venture in Meriden. The pion- eer in Berlin was William Pattison, a native of Ireland, who settled there about 1740. Of Meriden President Dwight says, "a small neat village on a handsome eminence in the center of the parish. The remainder of the township is distributed into farms." "The business of manufacturing culinary utensils from tin plates has been considerably extended ; and is becoming a source of wealth to the inhab- itants. Fruit trees usually blossom here on the Southern declevity of the hills, in the valley at the bottom, three or four days earlier than at New Haven."
The Yales continued in the business for many years, and both accumulated for the times considerable property, and were held in high esteem in the com- munity : the son of William, General Edwin R. Yale, was also extensively engaged in this manufacture, and his shops were back of his homestead, No. 405 Broad street. He left here finally to engage in the hotel business in New York where he was for a number of years proprietor of the United States Hotel and later of the Mansion House, Brooklyn.
Another early manufacturer of tinware in Meriden was Partrick Clark, who as will be remembered, bought the old Jonathan Collins place on North Colony road, of his father-in-law in 1806. He evidently at once engaged in the busi- ness, for in 1813, he was enough of a factor in the "tin world" to be one of the signers of an agreement to maintain prices-doubtless the first document of the sort ever drawn up in this vicinity. It is as follows :.
"June 16 1813 We the Subscribers each and every one of us agree not to sell off tin ware Plain & Japannd below the prices affixed to the several articles.
Shubael Paterson, Orin Beckley, Saml Paterson, John Dunham 2ยช, Samuel Gilbert, John Goodrich Jun., Aziel Belden, John Bucknum, John Hubbard, Benjm Willcox, Samuel Kelsey, Partrick Clark."
This agreement was followed by a list of the articles manufactured with the minimum prices annexed. Evidently all these names were those of Berlin men with the exception of Partrick Clark, and possibly later the names of the Yales were attached, for the original of the above was itself a copy, and was found among the Yale papers, where, perhaps, it was preserved as a memorandum.
Partrick Clark's shop was just south of his house where he was engaged in manufacturing many years. His sons, Samuel, Partrick, Jr., and for a while, Judge James S. Brooks, engaged in the business in a shop that stood on the pres- ent site of the Meriden Savings Bank on East Main street: the old wooden build- ing was built there more than fifty years ago. For many years the firm located here was known as Stedman & Clark.
350
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
Another prominent manufacturer in the early days of the town was Partrick Lewis, who in 1826 bought of Dr. Isaac I. Hough, the old tavern, and not only performed the functions of "mine host," but also started a store in the old build- ing, probably in one of the additions, which plainly show in the illustration that they were not of the same date, as that part covered by the gambrel roof. He was then only twenty-five years old but was enterprising and energetic ; and he also began at this time the manufacture of tinware in a small shop on or near the spot now occupied by Birdsey & Raven's store, No. 294 East Main street. He took as a partner Elias Holt, also an enterprising and resourceful man, and began to enlarge the business, fitting up a barn in the rear of the brick block which for- merly stood just north of the residence of Eli C. Birdsey: here they made tea and coffee pots, candle sticks, molasses gates, etc., etc., and soon finding their quarters too small they built a shop just west of the junction of High and East Main streets, which to-day is a dwelling house and was once occupied by Charles Parker and later by George C. Merriam. Mr. Lewis also built the brick block just referred to, which was devoted to a general mercantile business. This was the site of the store and dwelling of Amos White. The young men did a large business for the times, and but for some untoward circumstances which they could not control, they would have built up a large industry.1
But fate was unkind or human judgment was at fault, for on January 6, 1834, on the petition of Mr. Lewis, the firm of Lewis & Holt was compelled to go into bankruptcy with liabilities of more than $75,000.
A copy of this petition is before the writer as he pens these lines, and contains a formidable list of creditors. The failure was considered a bad blow to the com- munity, for the citizens were proud of the enterprising young manufacturers whose products embraced a wide variety of articles for household uses in tinware. Sym- pathy seems to have been particularly felt for Mr. Lewis, for he was a man of integrity and honor, and it was he who, when he knew the crash could not be averted, insisted that the bankruptcy proceedings be taken at once rather than con- tinue and make a more disastrous failure later. Capt. Almeron Miles took the business and carried it on for a while but eventually Charles Parker bought the factory at the corner of High and East Main streets, and later when he had begun to manufacture in the factories which are the nucleus of the extensive works southwest of this spot, he altered the shop into a dwelling.
Mr. Lewis, when profits were large and the future looked rosy with promise in the year 1830, built the dignified old mansion at No. 497 Broad street, now the home of Eli C. Birdsey ; it was the first fine dwelling to be erected in Meriden, and was well and carefully constructed, and the carved mantels and door casings and paneling, and the mahogany stair railings and general details show that the thought of failure was far from his mind.
1. These facts are from memoranda furnished the late Dr. Chapin by the late Isaac C. Lewis.
35I
EARLY HISTORY.
PARTRICK LEWIS, NOW THE ELI C. BIRDSEY HOUSE.
352
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
Mr. Holt also built a substantial and pleasing dwelling in the same year, which stands on the east corner of Main and High streets, and is now the home of Mrs. Russell Coe.
Noah Pomeroy came here in the year 1817, and immediately bought the old Benjamin A. Hall farm in East Meriden, with the homestead which formerly stood at the junction of Pomeroy and Murdock avenues and has since been moved a short distance eastward. He must have at once begun the manufacture of tin- ware in shops which he built across the street from his house to the east. The factories have now all disappeared, and one would never imagine from present
ELIAS HOLT, NOW THE MRS. RUSSELL COE HOUSE.
appearances that this was for many years the busiest locality in Meriden, for he engaged very extensively in the production of this line of goods, and employed more workmen than any other manufacturer in town, until 1845 when he retired with a comfortable fortune ; his sons continued the business for a number of years.
The manufactories so far mentioned were the more prominent ones, and they are all remembered by people still living, but an examination of the land records has revealed the fact that there were in those early days, a number of other men
353
EARLY HISTORY.
engaged in the production of tinware, metal and bone buttons and wooden combs, who probably in the aggregate sent large quantities of their wares into the markets.
Of course, the records will not disclose all these small shops, for one would not be mentioned in a deed without the owner sold his plant ; in a few instances they are included in the inventories of estates on the probate records.
In 1808 Sidney and Arba Merriam were manufacturing buttons in a shop that was located somewhere in the vicinity of the Parker Clock Co. plant in what we know as Crow Hollow and it was still in existence in 1815; in 1808 Seth D. Plum, as already related, bought Samuel Yale's old tin shop which stood near the present site of the old Methodist church and continued the manufacture until 1835 ; in 1814
MERIDEN CENTER ABOUT 1834, LOOKING NORTH FROM THE JUNCTION OF CURTIS AND BROAD STREETS.1
The building on the left, before which the stage coach is passing, is the Episcopal Church, the next is the Baptist Church (which stood at the northeast corner of the graveyard, afterwards the Meriden Academy), the third is the Congregational Church, beyond which stands the old Central Tavern.
Benjamin Buel was making buttons in a building on the land some yards north of the Calvin Coe homestead on Coe avenue, and it was later owned by Jesse Curtis and Spicer Leonard. In 1815 William Lawrence leased of Elisha A. Cowles a button shop south of "Harbor Bridge," "as long as grass grows and water runs,"
1 From Barber's Historical Collections of Connecticut.
23
354
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
and the same year Timothy Richards sold to Mr. Cowles a store standing near the latter's tin shop; this store stood on land just west of the present Record building site. In 1816 Enos Grannis mortgaged to Avery Hall a tin shop that was located somewhere on Ichabod Woods' farm which is now Walnut Grove cemetery, and in 1817 Edward Collins sold to Walter Booth a half interest in his tin shop, wnich stood on land now belonging to the State School for Boys near the driveway lead- ing from Colony street, and the inventory of Moses Barns who died in 1816 shows that he had a tin shop just west of his house ; he was then living in the old dwell- ing known as the Nathaniel Merriam place, standing where St. Andrew's church is now located.
In 1813 Asahel Curtis and Isaac Lewis were manufacturing buttons in a shop near the residence known as No. 1065 Broad street and at about the same date Enos H. Curtis was making like articles on Curtis street, and Amos Curtis was engaged in the same kind of business in a shop south of his house at the junction of Broad and Curtis streets, and Henry Peck was making tinware in a building that stood west of the Belden house, No. 692 Broad street. At an early date Lauren Merriam was in the same business in a factory that stood a little north of the junc- tion of Foster and Colony streets.
And in the year 1820 Abel Sanford was manufacturing spoons in a shop which stood somewhere on the farm now owned by Julius Ives on the hill just west of the village of Hanover, for in that year he sold his farm to Jesse Ives, reserving his spoon shop, and Ives sold the Meriden House corner to Sanford, reserving his tailor shop standing on it.
This list by no means exhausts the catalogue of these small shops located in various parts of the town, but further extension would but make patience cease to be a virtue and could serve no useful purpose.
In the year 1819 Amasa Merriam leased to Lauren Merriam and Edward Col- lins under the firm name of Collins and Merriam the right to erect a dam twenty rods northwest of their comb factory which had evidently just been built ; this shop stood where the present Parker Clock Co. plant is located in the west part of the town, and in 1822 we find on the town records John B. Collins of Hartford selling to this firm his invention for sawing ivory for combs. This was apparently the be- ginning of the ivory comb business in Meriden which was for a time an important industry.
In 1827, Collins having died, Merriam sold a half interest in the business to Walter Webb and Albert Foster and it was then continued under the firm name of Walter Webb & Co., and for a number of years the manufacture was carried on in two adjoining shops, one of which is to-day used by the Clock Co.
A few hundred feet west of this spot, on the north side of the turnpike, stands an old house, on an elevation considerably above the road, that was built probably all of a hundred years ago by Noah Merriam, and in it as early as 1829, Albert
355
EARLY HISTORY.
Foster was living, and manufacturing bone and metal buttons and other articles, in a shop just across the street, and the outlines of the foundation of the building can still be seen. At the same time John Sutliff was manufacturing goods of a like nature in a factory that stood east of the ivory comb shop, in the point formed by the junction of Johnson avenue and the turnpike: it was afterwards used by Dana Lewis as a button shop and burned down many years ago : some of the foun- dation stones may still be seen. West of Albert Foster's factory, at a point just east of the fountain, stood a small shop that was used by George Bull for mak- ing German silver spoons at about the same date.
The two small plants of Sutliff & Foster were the beginnings of Foster, Mer- riam & Co. and for a while they ran independently, and then forces were joined and Hiram Foster and Asaph and Nelson Merriam were taken in as partners and the enlarged firm finally located on their present site in the decade following 1840.
Near the main entrance to Hubbard park on the north side of the road, stood until a few years ago, an old stone building known as the Julius Parker foundry : it was built about 1831 or 1832 by Jonathan Leonard who came here from Canton, Mass. ; the land was owned by William Johnson, and Leonard leased the right for a term of years to erect a factory and occupy it, and here he carried on the business of casting various kinds of articles and was successful and enterprising.1 He sold the shop to Charles Parker and in 1835 bought of Homer Curtiss a plant which the latter had built in the east part of Meriden in 1831 in partnership with a man named Walker, and here for a number of years Leonard continued the manufacture of the same class of goods he had produced in Crow Hollow. In the first number of the Meriden Weekly Mercury, dated March 24, 1849, appears an advertisement signed by Jonathan Leonard in New Haven in which he offers for sale "the Water Privilege and Factory owned and occupied by him for the last fourteen years in the easterly part of Meriden." Eventually the shop came into possession of Charles Parker and doubtless the original building is buried somewhere in the depths of the Parker spoon factory.
Mr. Perkins, in his history, says that Julius Pratt began to manufacture ivory combs in Meriden in 1822, and the factory was at first located on Harbor brook on the south side on land now occupied by Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Co. and the old dam which formerly stood there furnished the water power : but finding it not suf- ficient for his purpose, he bought in 1824 a tract of land on Broad street which is now covered mostly by Pratt's pond: here he built a dam, and a factory on the south side, probably, and again began the manufacture of combs, and in the same year he admitted as partners, Thomas Howard, of Providence, R. I., Alpheus Star- key, George Reid, John C. Rodgers and George Spencer, of Saybrook, and Fenner Bush, of Meriden: not finding the premises large enough, the firm, known as Howard Pratt & Co., in 1828, bought of Walter Booth ten acres, which gave suf-
1 Eugene Leonard, his son, gave these facts to the writer.
356
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
ficient room for a raceway, and a new factory at present occupied by Miller Bros. Cutlery Co. on Pratt street. The firm did a large business and was prosperous, notwithstanding misfortunes by fire, etc. Mr. Pratt was a man of resource and enterprise and ranked high in the community ; his home stood just south of the dam and the old dwelling is still there, while just north of the dam stands the house built by his partner, Fenner Bush. The firm continued in business many years and was later known as Julius Pratt & Co. Mr. Perkins gives a description of the processes of manufacture, in his history, and Mrs. Breckenridge writes en- tertainingly in her "Recollections" of both Mr. Pratt and Mr. Bush and relates facts pertaining to the ups and downs of the business. According to the table at the end of this chapter Mr. Pratt was making cutlery also in 1845.
Philo Pratt & Co. was the name of another comb manufacturing establishment that was located at Hanover: the building stood on land closely adjoining the present Meriden Cutlery Co. plant at the south end and the business was finally absorbed by Walter Webb & Co., and this latter company took possession of the factory and sold the old one in Crow Hollow to Charles Parker, where for a num- ber of years he made locks.
When Julius Pratt gave up the factory where Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Co. is now located, it was leased by the owner, Elisha A. Cowles, in 1828, to N. C. Sanford & Co., of which firm the following gentlemen were partners, viz: Fenner Bush, Julius Pratt, Nathaniel Sanford and Howell Merriman, and this company began the manufacture of augers. They stayed there until 1832 when they moved to Hanover and bought the plant of Carter, Goodrich and Bishop, who for some time had been making bone buttons in a factory located just south of the old ten- ement houses near where the road turns and comes out at Archer's Corner. The remains of the old raceway can still be seen west of the road after leaving the bridge, and running south to where the factory was standing. The firm of N. C. Sanford & Co. afterwards moved to Yalesville and the shop they built is now oc- cupied by the Jennings & Griffin Co.
In 1834 the plant on Harbor brook abandoned by N. C. Sanford & Co. was sold to Homer Curtiss and Harlow Isbell, trading under the name of Curtiss, Isbell & Co., who had previously been located in a plant west of where the Meriden House now stands, just back of the Lewis block. This firm was enterprising and suc- cessful in making door latches, locks and builders' hardware. Mr. Isbell finally moved to Kansas and Mr. Curtiss then formed a partnership with a Mr. Morgan and the new company was known as Curtiss, Morgan & Co. and continued to do business at this stand until January, 1854, when the firm, to the great regret of the whole community, was compelled to make an assignment through endorsing for Curtis L. North.
Benjamin and Hiram Twiss began the manufacture of clocks in 1828 and located their factory near the east end of Pratt's pond where it could be seen
357
EARLY HISTORY.
from Broad street and they built for power purposes a dam which formed a pond still known by their name: after a number of years the business was moved to Canada.
In East Meriden, or Bangall, more than seventy years ago, Orsamus Crocker built a factory in the point of land formed by the junction of Cone avenue and Middletown turnpike, which was designed for the making of clocks, but the bus- iness proving a failure, it was occupied later by Crocker on the upper floor making wooden combs and drawer pulls, while William J. Ives made suspenders on the lower floor. Isaac C. Lewis was at one time engaged in making britannia ware in the same building.1
David W. Ropes began the business of manufacturing table cutlery in Meri- den in 1845, and located in Hanover just north of the Walter Webb & Co. factory and later he formed a partnership with Julius H. Pratt and Walter Webb under the firm name of Pratt, Ropes, Webb & Co., and in 1855 the business was merged into a corporation bearing the present name of Meriden Cutlery Co. and there it has since continued, a successful and prosperous concern.
Henry T. Wilcox came to Meriden in 1829 and entered the employ of Julius Pratt & Co. About 1845 he built a small shop a little south of his house, No. 400 North Colony street, where for a number of years he made coffee mills, spring balances, steelyards, iron bit braces and door knockers. The first shop was burned in 1851, and a second built on the same site was burned in 1853.
Undoubtedly, many of the early industries have been omitted in the forego- ing pages, but sufficient have been given to show that Meriden had become a per- fect hive of manufactories by 1850 and this in the face of the fact that there were few advantages such as are usually considered necessities when a community is engaged in industrial pursuit : that such a situation should have developed was due wholly to the genius of the people ; they were determined to succeed and they did : and as one looks over the roll of manufacturers of Meriden since 1800, one is conscious that there have been some great men among the number-men who with more natural advantages would have achieved much bigger results.
Some of the difficulties of manufacturing in Meriden in the early days will be realized when it is remembered that there was a very limited amount of water power in the township, which probably accounts for the great number of tin shops which did not require such power : added to this situation it was necessary to cart all finished and raw material to and from Middletown and New Haven, until the railroad was opened in 1838.
The population of Meriden during the first fifty years was as follows :
1810, 1,249; 1820, 1,309; 1830, 1,708; 1840, 1,880; 1850, 3,559 ..
J This factory, then owned by Ives, Lewis & Co., was destroyed by fire, Thursday night, June 27. 1867. The Recorder tells us there were three buildings in the group, and they were used for making hoop skirts, skirt tape and webbing.
3,58
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
Out of the 1,249 persons in 1820, 105 were engaged in manufacturing and of the 1,880 people in town in 1840, 406 were working in factories, either as employer or employee, or 211/2 per cent .- a very large proportion. To show the difference between the two communities at this date it may be stated that Wallingford, with a population of 2,204, had only 118 engaged in manufacturing, or about five per cent.
A Gazetteer of Connecticut and Rhode Island by Pease & Niles, published in 1819, has this to say about Meriden :
"A spirit of enterprise and activity in business characterizes the inhabitants of this town. Various manufactures and mechanical employments are carried on ; but those of tin ware and buttons are the most important. There are five distinct Factories of the former, and equal number of the latter, for making metal buttons ; and I Factory for ivory buttons. There are also I Factory for ivory combs ; and 2 block tin or hard metal spoon Factories. The wares and manufactures of these establishments, like those of other towns in the vicinity, are sent abroad for a mar- ket. This furnishes employment for a number of hands ; and it has been estimated that there are 20 to 40 persons that are constantly employed in vending the wares that are manufactured in this town. Most of them are employed in the southern and western states, which afford an extensive market for the products of our in- dustry. And this market will not be likely soon to fail, for wherever slavery pre- vails, mechanical ingenuity and industry will be excluded. In addition there are 12 Cider Distilleries, 2 Grain Mills, I Fulling Mill, I Carding Machine and 2 Tan- neries. There are 2 Mercantile Stores and 2 Taverns."
The Gazetteer of the U. S. published in 1833 has this to say about Meriden : "An important manufacturing place but with little water power: $1,000,000 an- nually produced : I company has 2301 hands in making britannia coffee pots, spoons, coffee mills, waffle irons, signal lanthorns: $200,000: other manufactures are wooden clocks value $50,000 ; ivory, wood, boxwood and horn combs value $40,- 000 : auger bits and rakes value $20,000 ; tin ware value $90,000 : another manufac- turer of britannia ware $250,000 ; there are other manufactures of Japanned ware, shoes, boots : some very useful inventions have originated here ; first branch of manufacture extensively engaged in here was that of tin ware."
In 1833 the Meriden Bank was organized with a capital of $100,000, and opened for business at once or very shortly after in the old brick block on North Broad street still known as the "bank building."
A very large percentage of growth was shown by Meriden in the decade from 1840 to 1850 when the population rose from 1,880 to 3,559 or nearly 100 per cent.
The following table of manufactories in Meriden in 1845, compiled by Howell Merriman and filed with the Secretary of State, is a fitting ending to this account of the early industries. The writer has sketched a short account of the early man- ufacturers of britannia ware, which will be found on page 37, Part III, of this book.
1 Probably an exaggerated statement.
359
EARLY HISTORY.
"A statement of the different manufacturers in the Town of Meriden, as rendered by the Secretary of State, agreeable to an act of the Legislature passed at the May session, 1845.
Kind of
Manufactures.
No. Hands.
Manufacturers.
Capital
Invested.
Amount Goods
Manufactured.
Capital
Invested.
Amount
Manufactured.
No. Hands.
Tin Ware,
17
L. T. Merriam,
$2,000 $10,000
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