USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Winchester > Annals and family records of Winchester, Conn.: with exercises of the centennial celebration, on the 16th and 17th days of August, 1871 > Part 41
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61
It is a prevailing habit to carp about the faults and vices of our foreign laborers and domestics. The first question is, what could we have done without them in our rapidly enlarging community, in which every native born robust man could have found better employment than precarious day labor, and every healthy intelligent girl could go into a school or factory, where higher wages could be earned, and better dresses worn than at domestic service. Better, it doubtless might have been, that the good old time had continued, when a trade required from five to seven years apprenticeship, instead of six months as at present; when the young farmer's son worked out by the month to carn his first investment in land, and the smart farmer's daughter, besides doing the household drudgery, spun her two runs of yarn each day, and went to conference or singing school at night, on a stipend of four-and-sixpence a week ; but those times liad been played out long before the advent of Patrick and Bridget. It was Patrick, with his unreasoning muscle, who brought the railroad to our doors, and then cheerfully, though unskillfully, took up and carried forward the lost art of hard drudgery, which the discontented and fretful employer, not owning a gang of fat healthy negroes, could obtain from no other earthly quarter. It was Bridget who became the angel of the kitchen - an imperfect angel to be sure - but considerably more charming than the slatternly home-raised hired help; the remnant of her race, who, in later times, shirked the hardest drudgery of the kitchen on her careworn mistress, and combed out her carroty locks in the parlor in presence of the mistress's guests.
There is a prevailing tendency to berate the Irish beyond reason. - Glaring faults they have, as a result of grinding oppression and cruelty to which they and their fathers have been subjected for centuries. They have also virtues, which are to be developed only by patience and con- siderate kindness. They are ignorant, and must be enlightened by education and moral culture. They are among us and of us, and they bid fair to outnumber us in half a century, unless the Yankee race
444
ANNALS OF WINCHESTER,
becomes more prolific in the future than in the present era of barrenness among native women.
Roman Catholic worship was first instituted in Winsted in 1851, by Rev. James Lynch, from Birmingham, in the schoolhouse of the west district, which was attended by about forty Catholics. Land for a church lot was secured the same year, and in 1852 Rev. Thomas Quinn entered on his pastoral duties, and commenced the erection of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Until its completion mass was celebrated on the sabbath in Camp's Hall. Rev. Philip Gilleck succeeded Father Quinn in 1853, and supervised the completion of the church so far as to render it suitable for divine worship. The Rev. Thomas Henricken, now Bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island, succeeded Father Gilleck in 1854, and in 1855 was transferred to Waterbury, when Rev. Richard O'Gorman succeeded him in the pastorate. He was succeeded in 1856 by Rev. Lawrence Mangan, and he in 1860 by Rev. Daniel Mullen, who was soon after transferred to the chaplaincy of the 9th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers. He was succeeded in 1861 by Rev. Philip Sheriden, who remained in the pastorate until 1864, when Rev. Father Leo da Saracena, of the Order of St. Francis d'Assissi, who had succeeded Father Mullen in the chaplaincy of the 9th Connecticut Volunteers, was appointed to the pastorate by Bishop McFarland of Hartford.
Under his energetic supervision, the parish was thoroughly organized, and additional lands were purchased, with buildings thereon for a parish school, and a residence for the sisters of the third order of St. Francis, by whom the school was organized, and has been successfully conducted, the number of children in attendance being from fifty to sixty. In 1866 he secured the purchase of other adjoining lands for the institutions of his order, on which he proceeded to erect the brick monastery standing immediately west of the church, the church itself having been donated to the order by Bishop McFarland in November, 1866. In January, 1867, other land and buildings were purchased and fitted up for the Academy of St. Margaret of Cortonia, an institution for educating young ladies in the higher branches. A fine grove in the rear of the church and monastery has also been purchased, in which it is designed to erect a future residence of the sisters of the order.
The buildings stand on a hill sloping down to Main street on the south, so elevated as to command a splendid view of the surrounding village and valley.
The institution was incorporated in 1866, under the name of "The St. Francis Literary and Theological Seminary," and is now (1872) conducted by the following officials :-
445
AND FAMILY RECORDS.
ST. JOSEPH'S R. C. CHURCH. Pastor-Rev. Fra. Leo da Saracena, O.S.F.
ST. FRANCIS' R. C. LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
President-Rev. Fra. Leo da Saracena, O.S.F.
Vice-President-Rev. Fra. Isaiah da Scanno, O.S.F.
Secretary-Rev. Fra. Diomedes, O.S.F.
ST. MARGARET'S R. C. ACADEMY FOR YOUNG LADIES. Instructors-Sisters of St. Francis.
ST. FRANCIS R. C. PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. Instructors-Sisters of St. Francis.
SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS' CONVENT. Rev. Mother Josephine Todd .*
John D. Howe and Willard S. Wetmore having, in 1850, purchased from the heirs of Luman Wakefield, deceased, two adjoining tracts of land on the west border of the east village, proceeded to lay out four streets thereon. and to divide the adjoining lands into quarter-acre lots. The streets laid out were - Grove street, running westerly from the east village park, Walnut street, Oak street, and Chestnut street, running parallel with each other, northerly from Main to Grove streets. They were accepted as highways by the town in 1851.
An epidemic building fever set in about this time, which expedited the rapid sale of these and other newly-opened lots. The source of this epidemic is traccable to an association of homeless men in New Haven, who sought to aid each other in providing homesteads by combining their limited resources, and loaning the same, as they accrued, to the members of the association offering the highest bonus, in addition to six per cent. interest therefor, and applying the loaned money to buildings to be erected on lots mortgaged to the association as security for the loans. Each associate on joining the institution took up any number of shares at his option, and contracted to pay in monthly installments of five per cent. until the stock taken was fully paid up. The amount monthly paid in was at once loaned to the stockholder who offered the highest bonus in addition to legal monthly interest, and the money borrowed, less the
* The foregoing details are gathered and condensed from materials furnished by Rev. Father Leo da Saracena.
446
ANNALS OF WINCHESTER,
bonus, was to be applied to building a house on a lot owned by the bor- rower, and mortgaged to the association for security of his loan. The theory was that each stockholder of a series was eventually to become a borrower of a sum equal to the amount of his stock. When- this point was reached, or before, the whole capital of the series would be filled up, and the principal of each borrower's note be paid by a surrender of his fully paid stock, leaving the balance of profit, if any, to be divided to each of the series pro rata.
One series of stockholders being thus paid off and discharged, the same process of paying in and loaning out in due course of time discharged and paid off the next series, the third, and so on, as long as accessions of stockholders and borrowers could be secured. The whole thing looked rose-colored on paper. There were wise financiers who could mathema- tically demonstrate that however large the bonuses paid on loans, both the borrower and lender would be equally benefited.
On the promulgation of this financial discovery the General Assembly of 1850 gave it their blessing and sanction by authorizing the establish- ment of savings and building associations without limit of number or cap- ital, and with a perfect abandon of prudential restraints and prohibitions. The principle of requiring each stockholder to become a borrower was discarded. The associations were allowed to receive deposits from out- siders, either on interest or without, and to make temporary or permanent loans of the same to outsiders or members, on personal or mortgage se- curities, and at any rate of premium added to interest they could extort from needy borrowers.
Institutions under this law were speedily organized all over the state. Our community, by reason of its chronic local jealousies, could not work together in one company, and so formed two: "The Winsted Saving and Building Association" in the East Village, and "The West Winsted Sav- ings Bank and Building Association" in the West Village, which went into operation in May and July, 1852. The rich and the poor went into money making and homestead building with a rush. The rival com- panies stimulated each other. Our moneyed men, who had before loaned their funds on legal interest, found, in the workings of these institutions, a mine of legal extortion, of which they speedily availed themselves. They collected in their six per cent. loans, and made these institutions the dis- pensers of their funds. The banks had ceased to discount accommo- dation paper, and scrimped their business customers, in order to make western loans on protected circulation. The school fund had very limited incoming funds, and could loan them in New York state and elsewhere at 7 per cent. Honest, unsophisticated savings banks were mainly confined to the cities. The poor man and the man loaded with debt had no other resource but these disguised shaving mills. Their monthly loanings were
447
AND FAMILY RECORDS.
competed for with blind desperation, and were taken at premiums of from 20 to 33 per cent. over and beyond legal interest, the premium being de- ducted from the principal in advance, and the interest made a monthly charge.
The stockholder was bound to pay in on the first of each month a five dollar installment on each thousand dollars of his stock. If a borrower, he bound himself to pay five dollars more on the thousand of the principal of his loan, and five more as interest thereon. He was told by those who ought to have known better - if they did not - that there was a talismanic ยท working of the financial scheme, which would come out all right in the end, and make him tlie easy owner of a homestead. This system of grind- ing had some features of plausibility about it by which improvident men were encouraged to embark in the scheme, and induced to assume monthly liabilities which they could not discharge out of their monthly earnings without starving their families or running in debt for food and clothing.
But their charters permitted them to run another grinding mill without restraint or limitation. They could receive funds deposited at a legal rate of interest, and loan them out on short paper, secured by endorsers or collaterals, to the highest bidder, without limit of premium. The pre- miums discounted generally ranged from one to two per cent. a month, and in some cases higher, owing to the necessities of borrowing stock- holders to meet their monthly dues.
The machines, at the outset, worked smoothly. There was a phrenzy of money making sentiment in their favor which silenced criticism, and put down all opposition. Series after series of stock were taken up. First series shares soon rose, not in value, but in estimation, based on apparent profits, to double the investments paid in. Men more far-seeing than avaricious began to sell their shares to their more sanguine associates ; but still, little of friction was manifest. Borrowers still contrived, by hook or by crook, to pay up their monthly dues. This went on for two or three years before serious discontent became manifest. Some of the bor- rowers, to be sure, had already been driven to a forfeiture of their stock and a loss of what they had paid in, but their associates were slow to per- ceive that the same fate awaited their own ventures. At length discontent and alarm became general. Large numbers of borrowers ceased to pay their monthly dues, and defied the companies to collect them. Fore- closures were resorted to by the companies, and on trial of these the de- fendants raised questions as to the legality of the loans. The courts, im- pressed with the magnitude of the interests, and the nicety of the legal questions involved, were slow to decide, but finally sustained the legality of the loans ; and the legislature passed an act affirming past illegal con- tracts, and limiting the extent of usurious robbery thereafter to an equiva- lent of twelve per cent.
448
ANNALS OF WINCHESTER,
By this time, the associates, much reduced in numbers, were ranged in two well-defined antagonistic classes, the rich speculators, who had retained their original stock, and bought in the stock of many of the smaller non- borrowing associates, and the rebellious borrowers who had not yet been ground to powder. There was, moreover, a small class of borrowers who heroically continued to pay their monthly dues. One after another of the borrowers made the best terms they could with the speculators and got rid of the concern, rather than waste their money in law suits. The persis- tent rebels were foreclosed. The surrendered and foreclosed homesteads were sold by auction, not to the public at large, but within the ring of . surviving associates. The prices realized in these sales were uniformly below the cost of the buildings, and many of them did not pay half the pledged indebtedness ; but they were mainly bid off by parties who could hold and rent them until, on a change of times, they could sell them at a large advance on the cost.
The legislature, in the meantime, had set about amending the organic law by enacting such provisions as should, at the ontset, have protected the borrowers from the cruel extortions to which they were subjected. One of these provided that, in the future, no association should be formed unless all the stock should be owned and held by borrowers to an amount equal to their stock when fully paid in. Another act, in 1868, subjected the association to the scrutiny and supervision of the bank commissioners, and utterly abolished the system of bonnses on loans, and provided for an equitable liquidation of claims, and a winding up of such associations as were played out, and prohibited the formation of new ones under the law of 1850.
Some of the associations had a tenacity of life and sharp practice which defied extinguishment by previous enactments. These, by a law of that year, were required to pay into the state treasury one-fourth of one per cent. annually on their stocks and deposits; and by a law of 1860 they were prohibited from receiving deposits after 1861.
Whatever may have been the operations and results of these associa- tions elsewhere - in Winsted they were oppressive and disastrous. The rich were made richer and the poor were made poorer. More than a hundred ill-contrived and poorly built dwellings were erected, in whole or in part, by means of funds from these associations, very few of which re- main in the hands of the builders. Our two associations, so rich in promise, and so baleful in performance, breathed their last contempora- neously about 1860.
The following new streets, in addition to those already referred to, were laid ont and accepted at the dates specified :-
Meadow street, from Lake to Main street, was laid out in 1850, and accepted by the town in 1851.
449
AND FAMILY RECORDS.
The west part of Willow street, which originally ran over the site of the Naugatuck passenger depot, was moved to its present line in 1849, and the three houses then standing on its south side were moved to the bank of the river.
Bridge street was laid out and accepted in 1856, and Elm street was extended northerly along the west border of the agricultural park the same year.
Center street and Case avenue were accepted in June, 1853.
Spring street, from Prospect street west to the residence of Mrs. Ellen A. Phillips, and the part of Rockwell street running thence south east to Pratt street, were accepted in October, 1853, but the latter had been graded and built on some two years earlier. The northerly section of Rockwell street, extending to Lake street, was graded and accepted in 1856. Each of these three highways, and the working of them, was granted to the town without claim for compensation.
Union street was opened and accepted as a highway in July, 1854.
The part of the new road from Winsted to Riverton, starting from near the east abutment of the Daniel B. Wilson bridge over Still River, and running northeasterly to Barkhamsted line, was laid out and accepted in August, 1858.
North Main street originally ran north and south through the center of the public green or parade ground in the east village. Preparatory to enclosing this ground as a park, the two streets now bordering the enclosure on the east and west sides were laid out and accepted by the town in 1858, and at the same time the central highway was discon- tinued. The area was enclosed and graded, and the trees and ever- greens set out soon afterwards by voluntary subscriptions of citizens residing in the vicinity.
57
450
ANNALS OF WINCHESTER.
We compile from the assessment list of 1840 the items and amount of taxable property, and amount thereof in the Society of Winsted, as follows :-
No.
Real Estate.
Valuation.
176
Dwelling houses,
$79,850
At 3 per cent.
8,168
Aeres land,
127,026
19
Factories,
24,500
7
Stores,
3,600
4
Mills,
3,425
$238,401
752.03
Personal Estate.
At 6 per cent.
838
Neat cattle,
11,392
104
Horses,
4,869
509
Sheep,
509
4
Carriages,
325
199
Clocks and watches,
1,137
Silver plate,
50
Money at interest,
14,053
Bank stoek,
2,500
Turnpike stock, .
400
$35,235
2,514.10
Assessments of business,
247.00
152
Polls, .
3,040.00
$12,553.13
Deduct for indebtedness, .
407.67
$12,145.46
CHAPTER XXXII. FROM 1851 TO 1861.
1851.
PRIOR to 1851 only three churches existed in Winsted : the First Con- gregational, the Methodist, and the Episcopal. The Congregational house was located in the East Village, and was attended by members from all sections of the society. The Methodist house was located in the West Village, and was mainly attended by residents in the West section.
On the 14th of May, 1853, a meeting was called to consult in reference to the organization of a second Congregational church and society to be located in the West Village, and a committee was appointed to investigate the subject, and report to an adjourned meeting on the 21st. The com- mittee reported on the 27th that the large increase of population, and the prospect of a more rapid accession in the future, rendered an increase of religious privileges and accommodations indispensable to the well-being of the community ; and recommended an early organization of an Ecclesias- tical society, and the location and building of a house of worship; and thereupon a society was duly organized under the corporate name of " The Second Congregational Society of Winsted." The original corporators were : James Humphrey, Timothy Hulbert, Phelps H. Parsons, James Cone, John Cone, Elizur B. Parsons, William S. Phillips, and Joel G. Griswold, not belonging to the first society, to whom were added, by cer- tificate of withdrawal from the first society, John Boyd, John Hinsdale, Moses Camp, Wm. F. Hatch, Sherman T. Cooke, Geo. Dudley, Caleb J. Camp, James R. Alvord, John W. Bidwell, John T. Rockwell, Abram G. Kellogg, James Welch, Elliot Beardsley, James C. Smith, Charles C. Spencer, Joel J. Wilcox, Lyman Baldwin, Jenison J. Whiting, and James Birdsall.
The church with which the society was connected was made up mainly of members of the First Congregational Church regularly dismissed, and was organized with the advice of a council of neighboring churches. The
452
ANNALS OF WINCHESTER,
first religious services were held in Camp's hall late in November, 1853, and conducted by Rev. C. H. A. Bulckley, of New York, who continued to supply the pulpit through the months of December and January follow- ing. On the 8th of February, 1854, a unanimous call of the church and society was extended to him to become the pastor, on a salary of one thousand dollars a year, which was accepted on the second of April follow- ing, and he was soon afterwards installed by an advisory council of neigh- boring churches.
The religious exercises of the church continued to be held in Camp's hall until 1857. In the meantime, the building of a church edifice was delayed by the difficulty of obtaining an eligible lot on which to erect it, until March, 1856, when the site of the present house was purchased, on which the house was built during the year following, and was dedicated September 16th, 1857.
Mr. Bulckley continued his pastorate of the church until May 7, 1859, when his resignation was accepted. During the same year the chapel immediately north of the church edifice was raised and covered in. Early in February, 1860, the steeple of the church was blown down, and nearly half of the roof was crushed in by its fall. It was rebuilt and the chapel finished the following season at a cost of five thousand dollars, which, when added to the previous cost of the buildings and ground, made up the sum of about twenty thousand dollars. As a token of the kindly feeling subsisting between the Congregational and Methodist churches, it is worthy of note that immediately after the disaster above mentioned the Methodist church cordially invited its unfortunate sister church to occupy their pul- pit with its minister, either one-half of each Sabbath, or the whole of each alternate Sabbath, until its repairs should be completed. The First Con- gregational church in the East Village extended a similar invitation. These invitations were gratefully acknowledged, but declined in order that the Sabbath-school of the church might be kept up by meeting for wor- ship in the old quarters at Camp's Hall.
In August, 1860, the church and society extended a call to Rev. Arthur T. Pierson to become their pastor, which was declined. On the 7th of September following an unanimous call of the church and society was ex- tended to Rev. Hiram Eddy, which was accepted by him on Nov. 6, 1860, and he was soon afterwards installed. The repairs of the church were completed so as to re-open the services there early in January, 1861. Rev. Mr. Eddy having received from Governor Buckingham the appoint- ment of Chaplain of the Second Regiment Connecticut Infantry, applied on June 16, 1861, for leave of absence for two months, which was granted, and provision made for the supply of his pulpit. He was taken prisoner by the rebels on the retreat from Bull Run, and went the round of rebel prisons, from Richmond to Columbia, S. C., thence to Charleston
453
AND FAMILY RECORDS.
and back to Salisbury, N. C., where he was exchanged, after an imprison- ment and the cruelest treatment for fourteen months, when he returned and resumed his parochial duties. In 1864 the organ now in use was purchased by individual subscriptions at a cost of two thousand dollars.
On the 16th of October, 1865, Mr. Eddy's resignation was presented to the church and society and accepted. On the 16th of May, 1866, Rev. Charles Wetherby, of North Cornwall, was called to the pastorate on a salary of $1500, and a free parsonage, which he accepted, and was in- stalled soon afterward. He continued his pastorate until October 9, 1871, when he was dismissed at his own request.
On the organization of the Second Congregational church in 1853, Rev. Ira Pettibone, who had succeeded the Rev. James Beach in the pas- torate of the First Congregational church, tendered his resignation, which was accepted, and the Rev. H. A. Russell, a licentiate from the Yale Theo- logical Seminary, was called to fill his place, Feb. 11, 1854, and was soon afterwards ordained. He was dismissed Aug. 28, 1858, and was suc- ceeded by Rev. James B. Pierson, who was called Dec. 30, 1859, and dismissed March 11, 1862, after which Rev. M. McG. Dana, a licentiate of Union Theological Seminary, supplied the pulpit about two years, until his call to the pastorate of the First Congregational church in. Norwich, Connecticut, in December, 1864. The pulpit was supplied for several months by Rev. L. M. Dorman, afterwards settled at Manchester, then by Rev. Mr. Page from Durham, for about one year. Rev. J. B. R. Walker, then recently from Holyoke, Mass., supplied the pulpit from March, 1867, to April, 1869, and was succeeded, as a supply, by Rev. H. E. Cooky, from April, 1869, to April, 1870. Rev. Thomas M. Miles, the present pastor, on a unanimous call of the church and society, was in- stalled on the 10th of November, 1870.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.