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 34
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Tin Ware,
2
Samuel Yale,
1,000
2,000
Tin Ware,
32
Stedman & Clark,
18,000
32,000
Tin Ware,
20
Goodrich & Rutty,
7,000
35,000
Tin Ware,
3
Hiram Bradley,
2,500
6,000
Tin Ware,
4
Burr Andrews,
2,000
7,000
Tin Ware,
4
H. W. Curtiss,
1,200
4,000
Tin Ware,
12
N. Pomeroy,
10,000
15,000
$44,200 $112,500 96
Britannia Ware,
7
Bull, Lyman & Couch,
3,000
9,000
Britannia Ware,
8
James A. Frary,
4,000
15,000
Britannia Ware,
3
De Witt Kimberly,
1,500
4,400
Britannia Ware,
2 Enos H. Curtis,
1,000
1,500
Britannia Ware,
2
Edwin E. Curtis,
600
1,000
Britannia Ware,
2
Lemuel J. Curtis,
I,200
3,200
Britannia Ware,
8
Thomas R. Holt ,
5,000
10,000
Britannia Ware,
5
Isaac C. Lewis,
3,000
5,000
19,300
49,100
37
Ivory Combs,
45
Julius Pratt & Co.,
80,000
100,000
Ivory Combs,
35
Walter Webb & Co.,
60,000
80,000
140,000
180,000
80
Cutlery,
50
Julius Pratt & Co.,
15,000
25,000
15,000
25,000
50
Coffee Mills,
12
Chas. Parker,
3,000
20,000
Coffee Mills and Stillyards,
3
H. T. Wilcox,
1,500
5,460
Coffee Mills,
2
Foster, Merriam & Co., 1,000
2,000
Coffee Mills,
3
Almeron Miles,
1,000
3,000
6,500
30,460
20
Steelyards, etc.,
2 Henry M. Foster,
500
2,000
500
2,000
2
Boots and Shoes,
12
John Butler,
6,000
7,400
Boots and Shoes,
21/2 Ira Preston,
300
425
Boots and Shoes,
11/2 Amasa Sizer,
200
350
6,500
8,175
I6
Cigars,
5 Clark & Aamson & R.K.C. 2,000
3,600
Cigars,
3 Blake, Johnson & Curtis, 1,000
2,400
3,000
6,000
8
Trunks and Harness,
2
R. H. Beckley,
500
1,200
Trunks and Harness,
2
Chas. Stedman,
600
2,000
1,100
3,200
4
Brass Foundries,
IO
Foster, Merriam & Co., 4,000
10,000
Brass Foundries,
12
Jared Pratt,
10,000
20,000
*14,000
· 30,000
22
Hardware,
4 Wm. L. Coan,
1,700
4,000
1,700
4,000
4
Door Handles, casting, etc. 25
Isbell & Curtiss,
I 2,000
25,000
2
F. A. Gale,
500
1,500
Tin Ware,
Names of
* A clerical error in the original manuscript made this amount read $1,400 instead of $14,000.
360
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
Kind of
Names of
Manufacturers.
Capital
Invested.
Amount Goods
Manufactured.
Capital
Invested.
Amount
Manufactured.
No. Hands.
Door Handles, casting, etc. 38
Charles Parker,
$14,000 $26,000
$26,000
$51,000
63
Augurs, Rakes, etc.,
28
Sanford, Newton & Co., 12,000
20,000
12,000
20,000
28
Ink Stands, etc.,
3
Stillman & Eastman,
800
2,500
800
2,500
3
Carriages, Wagons, etc.,
9
Ezra Ives,
4,000
4,500
Carriages, Wagons, etc.,
7
J. W. Russell,
2,000
4,500
6,000
9,000
16
Tools, Pumps, etc.,
20
Oliver Snow & Co.,
8,000
14,000
8,000
14,000
20
Castings, Scales, etc.,
14
Jonathan Leonard,
11,800
19,000
11,800
19,000
14
House Joiners,
20
Asahel Laurence,
5,000
15,000
House Joiners,
I2 Redfield & Butler,
3,000
10,000
House Joiners,
4 John Davidson,
1,000
2,000
House Joiners,
5
Wm. D. Coan,
2,000
5,000
II,000
32,000
41
Flour Mills,
2
Almon Andrews,
2,500
3,600
2,500
3,600
2
Clothing,
7
S. S. Green,
700
15,000
Clothing,
I3
E. and E. A. Rice,
1,000
2,000
Clothing,
4
Wm. Green & Mr. Wood, 500
1,000
2,200
4,500
24
Stone Cutter,
4
Stevens & Peck,
I,200
2,000
1,200
2,000
4
Tin Face Buttons,
4
Lewis & Hough,
200
750
200
750
4
Window Blinds,
2
Elias Baldwin,
250
500
250
500
2
Lumber and Boxes,
3
Edwin Birdsey,
500
2,000
500
2,000
3
Blacksmiths,
4
Stephen Atkins,
2,000
4,000
Blacksmith,
3
A. R. Johnsons,
300
2,450
2,300
6,450
7
Suspenders and Webbing, 23
6
Samuel Cook,
500
2,000
4,500
12,000
29
Wood Combs,
7
Orsamas Crocker,
1,000
2,000
1,000
2,000
7
Stone,
20
Jared R. Cook,
2,000
10,000
2,000
10,000
20
Bone Suspender Buttons
14 Harry Griswold,
6,000
10,000
6,000
10,000
14
Total
$350,050 $651,735
640
Wm. J. Ives,
4,000
10,000
Suspenders and Webbing,
No. Hands.
Manufactures.
İM
MECHANIC'>
--
STREET
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STREET
MARNE
HAnon
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PARKER
VILLAGE
pear
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MERIDEN
Harker
PIPPILA
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PANOVO
IANATT
Scale of foat.
et't
LUB ISHED BY RICHARD CLARK, OF PHILADELPHIA, IN 1851. E. M. WOODFORD,
SURVEYOR.
1
.
NORTH
MARKET
Haren
361
EARLY HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXI.
MERCHANTS.
Mention has already been made of a few of Meriden's early merchants, viz : Amos White and Amasa Curtis and Isaac Lewis, and to them should be added the firm of Butler & Olds, succeeded by John Butler alone, who ran a boot and shoe store on Broad street nearly opposite the Baptist church, and the business was carried on by him for many years.
Major Elisha A. Cowles began his first mercantile venture in the old Mecor- ney House, at 194 East Main street, as has already been mentioned: in the year 18II he was in business on the corner bounded east and north by South Colony and East Main streets, for in that year he admitted Joel Merriman to partnership, selling him a half interest; but in 1813 the firm was dissolved. In 1815 Mr. Cowles bought a piece of land just east, where the Rogers block now stands, and, according to one authority, he erected that building in 1840, in com- pany with Dr. Isaac I. Hough, and it was run as a railroad restaurant for a num- ber of years ; it was originally a gable-roofed structure. In 1846 Mrs. Cowles sold it to Hervey Rogers, and he ran it as a hotel for twenty years or more.
Major Cowles apparently sold everything that a country store could be ex- pected to carry in stock, and he was in the undertaking business as well, for the writer has come across one bill for such services. In 1830, with James S. Brooks, he bought seven acres, which included the site where the Meriden House now stands, and these two gentlemen then engaged in business some- where on this corner, and later, viz., in 1836, he was also in company with Randolph Linsley, but located on the East side of Colony street ; he was in part- nership with Henry C. Butler on the Meriden House corner in April, 1838, and the writer has discovered one bill from Cowles & Butler for coffee, chickens and goslings, that was receipted by Curtis L. North in the same year, showing that that arch hypocrite was already in town.
Major Cowles was a shrewd and successful merchant and was interested in several of the manufacturing ventures of his native town as well, and he and Judge James S. Brooks probably had more to do with having the N. Y .. N. H. & H. R. R. Co. tracks laid through Meriden in the present course than any other men in Meriden; while the residents of the center were fighting tooth and nail to prevent the tracks being laid in that part of the town, for
+
362
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
fear of damage to their cattle and live stock, Major Cowles and Judge Brooks were quietly urging the present layout. The Major was one of the Board of Directors of the New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company from 1835 to 1840, and it must have been a proud moment for him when he saw the first train of cars come puffing into the station in Meriden, in November, 1838.1 This was as far as the trains ran until Saturday, December 14, 1839, when the road was so far completed that a train was conducted from Belle Dock in New Haven to the Engine House in Hartford. Some idea of the small amount of business done by the railroad at first may be gained when it is stated that the gross income from passengers and freight for the first nine months was $24,000. The first railroad station in Meriden stood on the east side of the track a. little north of Main street, but it was evi- dently only a tempo-
rary affair, and Rockey's History of New Haven County says it was located in the Rogers block from 1840 to 1842. In the latter year it was changed to the rear part of what was afterwards call- ed Conklin's Hotel, which fronted on Main street, just across the street
MAJOR ELISHA A. COWLES.
From an oil painting owned by his grand- daughters, the Misses Churchill, of Berlin.
building. On No- vember 18, 1853, William Hale sold to the railroad a tract of land2 which had been his garden plot and which we now know as Winth- rop Square, and in the following year the railroad com- pany erected the brick station on it which continued to stand there and be used for that purpose until the present one, on the other side of the track, was ready for occupancy, in September, 1882.
Major Cowles died in March, 1846,
from the Rogers leaving a good estate for a country town in those days. Judge James S. Brooks, a much younger man, was a worthy coadjutor in Major Cowles' efforts, and was a director in the railroad from 1841 to 1863, and acted as president in 1856, and signed the annual report as president in 1859.
1 Walter Stickney was a passenger on this train, which only came as far as Harbor Brook Crossing. 2 William Hale sold his garden plot to the railroad company for $3,000, and immediately placed the sum with Curtis L. North for investment. On the very next day North failed, and thus another man was added to the list of his victims.
363
EARLY HISTORY.
Naturally, the location of the railroad track so far west of the center of the town, drew business to what was then known as West Meriden, and eventually the "Corner" became the real commercial center of Meriden, and the stage coach line was soon driven out of business by its steam competitor, and its shares, which had once been deemed a secure and profitable form of invest- ment, soon became worthless.
Howell Merriman was another of the early Meriden merchants, and his dwelling and store stood where the building now occupied by W. W. Mosher is located, No. 13 Colony street : just to the left of his entrance may still be seen a stone bearing the inscription, "Howell Merriman, June 1, 1827." When he opened the store the writer has been unable to learn, but an examination of his account book, written in a neat, legible style, reveals his methodical habits and painstaking accuracy, and gives his inventory in 1831 and again in 1832, and shows that he carried a stock of dry goods, notions and jewelry : among the latter articles are mentioned three diamonds. He continued in business a number of years and finally entered a firm composed of Joel I. and Henry C. Butler, located in the Collins building, who conducted a sort of private bank, by discounting notes and arranging the placing of loans. Mr. Merri- man1 was also interested in several of the local manufacturing ventures : he died in 1858.
A picture of the business center, near the railroad station, in 1842, is shown in the accompanying reproduction of a poster distributed to the traveling public in that year by Nelson Merriam and Henry M. Foster. The observer is supposed to be standing just south of where the Morse & Cook building is now located, on the east side of the brook : on the extreme left is shown the building which Major Cowles and Dr. Hough erected, now known as the Rogers block, and for many years after the Major's death used by Hervey Rogers as a hotel. Opposite stands the hotel just opened (says the poster), and in front of it is waiting the stage coach to convey passengers to Middle- town. This building was famous afterwards as Capt Conklin's hotel, and in the rear, just behind the engine tender, can be read the words, "Railroad Re- fectory ;" and under this sign was also the entrance to the ticket office and passenger station: upstairs in this annex, which was afterwards enlarged, was the famous Conklin2 Hall, where political caucuses and meetings were held. Here also the young people held their balls and assemblies, and here, too, the hardened criminal, or one who was blushing for his first offence, was brought, either defiant or humble, before the justice of the peace for trial.3 Just to the right of this hall in the background, stands the dwelling house and store of
1 Father of Mrs. John L. Billard.
2 Known later as Burdick's Hall.
3 Up-town people at this time used the old Academy hall for an assembly room.
)
f
es 6, s, as nd
ng. ced her
n
2
--
MERIDEN MOTEL MERIDEN, CONN.
The Subscribers respectfully annonnce to their friends and the public generally that this new and spacious establishment; eligibly located at the Depot of the Hartford and New Haren Rail Road; is now open for the reception of Company.
The House has been furnished throughout with New Furniture, and every arrangement has been niade to promote the comfort and convenience of Guests. Particular attention will be devoted to all Parties of Pleasure.
A REFECTORY is connected with the House, where a variety of Refreshments are. prepared for the accommodation of PASSENGERS BY THE CARS.
A Mail, Stage runs to and from this place and Middletown daily.
Good Conreyances are always in readiness to carry Passengers to any of the adjoining towns. Every effort will be made to render the House worthy of a liberal support.
N. MERRIAM H. M. FOSTER.
P. S. Superior accommodations for Stabling. Travelers wishing to leave their Horses for a length of time, may rely on having them well provided for. .
MERIDEN, November, 1842.
PRESS,
365
EARLY HISTORY.
Howell Merriam, and on the extreme right of the picture is the freight station of those days. Capt. Conklin's hotel fronted on what we now know as Main street, but at that time called the Waterbury and Southington turnpike : the picture just misses showing the old wooden bridge which formerly spanned Harbor brook, a little to the right of the tree, and over which the stage coach will soon be rumbling and towards which the ducks in the brook are paddling.
Before Lewis & Holt's failure in 1834, the brick block at the southeast corner of East Main and Broad streets had been sold to a firm named Potter Shipman & Lewis, and these gentlemen were carrying on a general mercantile business in what was then the real center of Meriden; in 1836 the building was bought by Eli C. Birdsey, as well as the Partrick Lewis residence, just south of it, and for several years he conducted a successful dry goods estab- lishment in the front part of the brick block, while Alanson Birdsey carried on a grocery store in the basement in the rear, with an entrance on Main street. Eli C. died in 1843, and the business was then carried on by his son Linus and John Ives, under the firm name of Birdsey & Ives. „. Mr. Ives2 afterwards went into business by himself, and erected the brick block, in 1854, which he now uses as a dwelling, No. 489 Broad street, and here conducted a dry goods es- tablishment for many years; after the war he admitted Col. Chas. L. Upham and Philip C. Rand as partners, and later removed the business to the building now occupied by Howard Bros., and later to the Winthrop Hotel block."
Another prominent merchant at the same time was Harrison W. Curtis, who was also a tinware manufacturer and made his goods in shops back of his house on the south corner of Broad and Charles streets. He first started his hardware store in Franklin Hall, just after it was completed, in 1854,3 but some time after moved one of his tin shops to the northeast corner of East Main and Center streets, and there installed his store and continued at that stand until his death in 1869. The business was then bought by Birdsey & Miles, and the present firm, Birdsey & Raven, is a lineal successor."
In Franklin Hall was also located for a while the firm of N. P. Ives & Co., which dealt in such a variety of merchandise that it included the finest kind of Boston tripe at one end of the list, and, at the other, an unexcelled line of the most improved farming utensils.
H. D. Basett built the brick block at the northeast corner of Broad and East Main streets, in 1857, and for many years he was there engaged in dis- pensing groceries.
1 The present Eli C. is his son.
2 Mr. Birdsey then took William J. Ives as partner.
3 Built by Russell Coe.
From map of Meriden, 1851.
1111
367
EARLY HISTORY.
The old Hough, or Central tavern, after the failure of Partrick Lewis, had a variety of ups and downs, passing through a succession of hands. In 1837, according to a town vote, it was known as Smith's Hotel, and, whether due to the quality of its liquor or to friction with the Church authorities, a special town meeting voted to adjourn to the tavern and there wind up the matter that had brought them together. After Mr. Smith had departed Evelyn Beck- ley was proprietor, and he was followed by a Mr. Douglass and Ira Twiss. In 1844 it was in the charge of a firm of partners named Andrews & Warren : but the glory of the place was departing, and it finally degenerated into a common drinking place. From the day the railroad was opened its doom
CURTIS L. NORTH'S STORE.
was sealed, and could good old Dr. Insign Hough have returned to his former haunts and beheld the low estate to which the tavern had descended, he would have been the first to exclaim, "Ichabod, thy glory hath departed !" To the great relief of all, it ceased to be a place of entertainment in 1873.
Mention has been made of the store on the Meriden House corner, con- ducted by Major Cowles and Henry C. Butler, and their clerk, Curtis L. North. A picture of the collection of buildings standing there in 1851 is shown in the annexed cuts. They are reproductions of illustrations that ap- peared in the map of Meriden of that date. Eventually North became the owner of the store: and as he was energetic, enterprising and shrewd. he
368
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
built up a large business and added to it an insurance agency and so-called private bank ; he was forceful, and gained a wide constituency, and became the State agent for several large fire insurance companies, and his business extended all over this section.
R. B. Loomis, now living in Hartford, was then a young man and in the em- ploy of Mr. North, and has told the writer many facts relating to the disaster which befell Meriden through the mad course of Mr. North. Had he possessed balance, and less recklessness, he would undoubtedly have had a great career in the business world; but he was unwise in his speculations, and at last became involved in a quarrel with the Meriden bank, and on ac- count of some fancied slight, he made the attempt to break the bank by buying up all the notes of that institution that he could lay his hands on; but unfor- tunately his calculations were not carefully planned, and he succeeded only in wrecking himself and friends.
Mr. North had been, apparently, a very religious man ; he was a prominent leader in prayer meetings, and his unctuous efforts in this direction so im- pressed his fellow church members that to this cause, perhaps, we can ascribe the fact that he drew into the maelstrom of his mad speculations and business ventures Homer Curtiss, Mrs. Elisha A. Cowles, Luther Webb and a host of others. Mr. Curtiss once said that "Mr. North's most successful ruse was to visit the home of some friend, and engage in an earnest religious conversation, which would be followed by an impressive prayer and supplication to the throne of grace." Before departing, and while the odor of sanctity was fairly oozing from his pores, he would ask for and usually obtain the endorse- ment on a note which had been the mainspring of all this religious fervor.
At last the crash came, and Meriden was astounded, and the state as well : · the following is from a diary of the period :1
"Saturday, Nov. 26, 1853.
The past week has been a deeply painful and gloomy one for our com- munity. It seems as if the foundations of the business world were breaking up. No less than seven failures have taken place within the past week, in- cluding our most enterprising business men and some substantial citizens who were considered rich, and were rich. And it is all occasioned by one man, Curtis L. North, who, after pursuing a reckless course of hazardous business, accompanied by great extravagance in living, has succeeded in drawing in the means of a large number of persons who usually had a reputation for sagacity and foresight : and so he has at length failed, and carried down with him a host of others. During this week there have been the following fail-
1 Kept by the late George R. Curtis.
369
EARLY HISTORY.
ures : Curtis L. North, or the Meriden Agency Co .; P. J. Clark, Curtis, Mor- gan & Co., Walter Webb, Luther R. Webb, Mrs. Rosetta Cowles and others of less note; of course the whole community is in a state of great excitement, and time will alone tell the tale."
This of course was written immediately after the event was known, and things did not prove quite so black as then thought.
Mr. North erected the house now owned by Edmund A. Parker, corner of Washington and Colony streets, one of the best built dwellings in Meriden. His banking building had just been completed and the money was all sub- scribed to begin business at the time of the failure.1 It stood on the site now occupied by the Home National Bank, but is not shown in the illustration, which was made in 1851. The picture shows, on the right, the insurance office, which occupied a site where Circle Hall now stands, but it finally wan- dered away to the north corner of Camp and Colony streets. On the corner south of the insurance office is seen the dwelling2 occupied by Mr. North until he built his new house in 1853. This old dwelling, when the Meriden House was built, slunk away, abashed, to Veteran street, and the banking house, at a later date was moved to 38 West Main street, and is now used by John A. Thomas to cater to the wants of sportsmen. Back of the insurance office, on the hill, will be noticed the old Corner Schoolhouse, moved to King street about 1868. Southwest of the dwelling, and on the west side of a sort of half quadrangle stood Mr. North's store, which is seen in the second illustra- tion, and it was here that he began business: at that time its front, dignified by four square columns, faced easterly, but when the Meriden House was built it was turned at right angles to face Main street, and it is now (lopped of its two wings), the store of F J. Wheeler who has occupied it since 1862.
Mr. North was never successful after his failure for any length of time, although his plausibility and versatility sometimes gave him a seeming tem- porary prosperity. He died a few years ago in abject poverty. The fol- lowing appeared in the Republican under date of November 3. 1869.
"Curtis L. North, formerly of this city, and very well known among the old residents of this place (some of them in fact knowing him too well for their own happiness and pecuniary welfare, is now in Brooklyn, being settled down in the insurance business. His office is at the corner of Fulton and Broadway, New York. He is rapidly improving, and is superintendent of a
1 Extract from diary of Mrs. Benj. H. Catlin. This was known as Meriden Savings Bank and Building Association, and was continued after North's failure. It was an institution somewhat like our modern Building and Loan Associations.
2 This house was built about 1843 by Ezekiel A. Rice, who, for three or four years was the owner of one acre of ground at this corner, which contained the store. The latter was built by Major Elisha A. Cowles, some years earlier.
24
370
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
Sunday school and a leading member of the church. He recently put a $500 bill in a potato and presented it to his pastor.
We understand that he is making money at the rate of $50,000 a year. He informs his friends in Brooklyn that he has effected a satisfactory settlement with his creditors here.
What say the victims-is it so?"
In the Connecticut Whig, a weekly newspaper, then published in Meriden, by the late Senator O. H. Platt and R. W. Lewis, under date of January I, 1853, appears the notice that the project of building a new hotel is being taken hold of with vigor, and the same paper tells us in September that the Meriden House has been started and that A. S. Lawrence is building it for a company of Meriden gentlemen. Funds were lacking, for a much better hotel was being constructed than had originally been planned, and it was not fully completed until 1855. It was opened on the evening of December 19, that year, with a banquet, at which most of the prominent gentlemen in town were present. J. S. Parmelee, who had been managing the McDonough House in Middletown, was the first proprietor, and William M. Bates1 was the clerk.
It was deemed as good as any in the state, and the furnishings were con- sidered very fine, and Meriden was justly proud of its new hotel. The first gas plant in town was connected with it, a manufacturing plant and storage tank eighteen feet in diameter having been built in the rear of the hotel for supplying the means of illumination, and naturally its installation produced a sensation in the community. But the hotel was really better than the de- mands of the times warranted, and Mr. Parmelee was compelled to close its doors in November, 1856. It was opened again January 31, 1857, by Fred W. Bartholomew, of Wallingford, Mr. Bates lending his assistance to see that it was started under favorable auspices. It ran afterwards, spasmodically, under a succession of proprietors, which included W. Lilley and Wm. H. Crossman, until Stephen J. Ives took the management, and then it started on a successful career for a number of years. In 1881 a fire damaged the top floor, and when the building was repaired it was leased for offices for two or three years. In 1885 it was bought by William B. Ives, who replaced the story that had been destroyed, and again rented it for an hotel, first to D. W. Crippen and then to Lohman & Sinclair. For the last twelve years E. M. Smith has been the tenant, and has conducted a successful and popular house of entertainment.
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