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 48
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The business was profitable, and was vigorously prosecuted until the close of the war, when foreign competition paralyzed it, and compelled its abandonment.
LEATHER.
In the last century, the regular shoemaker - as distinguished from the cobbler and cat-whipper - was also a tanner. He had his vats, under cover, in or out of doors, in which he tanned his own and his neighbor's skins, and made them into boots and shoes on the same premises with his tan vats. Of these tanneries there were in the last century three or more in Old Winchester, to which the traveling currier periodically resorted, and curried, or smoothed and softened the sides of leather when taken from the vats. The oak bark then solely used for tanning
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had its outer surface shaved off, and was then pounded, or crushed under a heavy circular stone attached to a ten-foot shaft, stationary at one end, and rolled round a circle by a draft horse,-the bark being distributed along the circular track, and kept there by a man or boy with a rake. Two of these, owned respectively by the Wade and Blake families, con- tinued in operation, by water power and modern improvements, until about 1850. Both are now abandoned. There was a like establishment in Winsted, erected and owned by Elias Loomis, at the close of the last century, at the foot of " Dish Mill Hill," where the Woodruff tannery now stands, which was abandoned many years before the present works were erected.
About 1800 it was practically ascertained by trial that hemlock bark possessed the astringent and other properties requisite for tanning ; and in consequence the business was thenceforward conducted on a larger scale in the Green Woods region.
Colonel Hosea Hinsdale and Col. James Shepard came to Winsted in . 1802, and erected a large tannery on Spencer street, where the fish pond of John T. Rockwell has lately bren excavated. The business was suc- cessfully prosecuted here by Col. Hinsdale until 1851, when he sold out to J. S. and J. T. Rockwell.
In 1807 Col Shepard sold out his interest to Col. Hinsdale, and in company with Asahel Miller, erected the original tannery, on the site of the present tannery of George Dudley & Son. This establishment was owned and managed successively by Shepard & Miller, Abiel Loomis, and Alanson Loomis, until purchased by George Dudley in 1832.
In 1820, another tannery was erected by Horace Ranney, at the corner of North Main street and the Cook bridge, taking its water power from the west wing of Cook's dam, which was successively owned and managed by Ranney & Hawley, Norman Spencer, Jonathan K. Richards, Charles B. Hallett, and others, and was abandoned as a tannery in 1857.
In 1821, Horace Ranney erected another tannery, on the site of the present Woodruff tannery, on North Main street, now owned by George Dudley & Son, which was successively managed by Lewis & Foster until 1834, by James A. Ayrault until 1841 ; since which it has been owned and managed by Frederick Woodruff until his recent sale to Dudley & Son; it having during his ownership been carried away by a flood, and afterwards rebuilt and enlarged.
The tannery business of Winsted has, since 1850, been confined to preparing sheep and calf skins for book-binding and similar purposes, and has become one of the prominent branches of our manufactures. The skins are imported from England, after having been split into two or more thicknesses, salted and packed in hogsheads, ready for the vat. The bark is finely ground in a mill in the second story of the building,
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and passed to a large receiving vat, where it is soaked in water until the tanning principle is extracted, when the liquor, or tea, as it is termed, is drawn off into a line of receiving vats, and the exhausted bark is thrown out. A paddle, or flutter wheel is fixed over cach vat and con- nected by gears with a line of shafting propelled by water power. A suf- ficient number of vats are filled with the hemlock tea ; the right number of skins are thrown into each vat, and the flutter wheels are set in motion and operate on the surface of the liquid, creating a current which keeps the skins in constant movement, and perfects the tanning process without hand labor. The tanned skins are then smoothed, trimmed, assorted, and packed for market; the whole process requiring less than three weeks' time.
This branch of business was originated in Winsted by George Dudley, before 1850, in the works he purchased from Alanson Loomis in 1832. In 1853 he rebuilt and enlarged his works, and added two three-story buildings for dying the skins when tanned. In company with his son he has recently purchased and now carries on the Woodruff tannery on North Main street. During the present year, 1872, they have consumed in both tanneries 6,000 tons of bark, and have turned out 432,000 skins.
In 1851, J. S. & J. T. Rockwell, previously engaged in this branch of tanning in Colebrook, erected the four-story tannery on the site of the Hinsdale premises. These works, now owned by John T. Rockwell, are believed to turn out nearly the same amount of work with the larger tannery of the Dudleys.
WOOLEN CLOTHS.
Joseph Platt is believed to have been the first clothier in the town. He built a clothier's shop and fulling mill in the Danbury Quarter, be- tween 1783 and 1787. The establishment had a brief existence. It is not mentioned in any deed on record, and its precise locality is un- known.
The first clothier in Winsted was Daniel Marshall, (see p. 307,) whose shop stood on Lake street as it then ran, nearly opposite the house at the corner of Lake and Rockwell streets, and the fulling mill in the rear on the Lake stream. Mr. Marshall died in 1794, and Daniel Wilcox be- came the owner until his sale of the premises to the Rockwell Brothers in 1813. A carding machine was added to the establishment about 1804. The Rockwell Brothers, in 1813, erected additional buildings and began the manufacture of broadclothis and satinets. The business was enlarged and vigorously prosecuted during the continuance of the war of 1812, and moderately thereafter until 1830, in the hope of mak- ing it a paying business, but with doubtful success. In 1835 the works were burned down, and never rebuilt.
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About 1816 another clothier's works was erected by Ansel Wilson, on the site of the Strong Manufacturing Company's new factory. Chester Soper purchased this establishment about 1830, and a few years after erected a woolen mill on the premises, în which he manufactured broad- cloths until about 1838. The works were afterwards carried on by John Thornton and others until 1845, when the woollen business was abandoned and the building afterwards used for making joiners' tools.
Another clothier's works, built about 1814 on the Naugatuck branch in Old Winchester, and carried on by Alva Nash and others until 1828, when it was converted into a woolen mill for making broadclothis and satinets by John M. Galagher, who failed within a few years and was succeeded by Isaac Bird, who continued the making of satinets, until the establishment went into the hands of the Winchester Center Mfg. Co., in 1854. This Company confined its operations to making woollen knitting yarn until the establishment was burned down about 1860, and was never rebuilt.
The Home Manufacturing Company, a joint-stock concern, was organ- ized in 1846, and the same year erected the factory building on Mad River now occupied by the New England Pin Co., and went into the manufacture of broad cloths and doeskins. It labored under the disadvantage of having no stockholders acquainted with the business, and was unfortunate in selecting overseers of the manufacturing depart- ment. No profits were realized; and in 1850 the concern was wound up. The establishment was sold to Anson G. Phelps, who operated it in connection with his woolen mills at Wolcottville until 1852, when it was purchased by the Hartford Pin Co.
Not one of the foregoing enterprises proved successful, and most of them ended disastrously.
CLOCKS.
Samuel and Luther Hoadley, and Riley Whiting began the manufac- ture of wooden clocks about 1807, in a small factory building immediately south of the east wing of the stone bridge on Still River. The machinery was carried by a tin wheel on an upright iron shaft. The cog-wheels were of cherry, the pinion was of ivy, or calmia, and the face of white-wood - all home products. . These, with a little wire, a very little steel, brass, tin, and cordage, made up the staple of material in the old one-day shelf clock which they produced and scattered all over the United States and Canada.
The Hoadleys retired from the business -- Luther dying in 1813, and Samuel, the same year, going into the army. Riley Whiting, the remaining partner, prosecuted the business with energy and final success. In 1825, he tore down the old grist-mill on the north wing of the bridge and built the brick factory, recently burned down, and engaged in making cight-day brass clocks. Mr. Whiting died in 1835, and in 1841 the
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concern was purchased by Lucius Clarke, and has since been conducted by Clarke, Gilbert & Co., W. L. Gilbert, The Gilbert Manufacturing Company, and "The William L. Gilbert Clock Company," incorporated by the Legislature of 1871. In 1870, the brick building erected by Mr. Whiting, and a large wooden one adjoining, was burned down; on the site of which the company erected a spacious three story brick factory building, and in 1872 a similar building on the south side of the road, where the original wooden clock factory building stood; the two making the largest manufacturing establishment in the borough.
CARDS.
At the beginning of the war of 1812, two establishments for making hand and machine cards were started, one by Coe, Miller & Co., in the Shepard & Miller Tannery, and the other by the Hoadley Brothers in their grist-mill. Both companies used one set of machines for cutting and bending the teeth, and another set for pricking the leather, and the teeth were inserted in the leather by children at their homes. Other machines shaped and turned the handles on which the hand card leathers were fastened by tacks. Two canses put an end to this branch of manufacture ; one, the return of peace in 1815, and the influx of cheaper cards from England, -and the other, the invention by Mr. Levi Lin- coln, of a combined machine which, in one operation, pricked the leather, cut and bent the teeth, and stuck them through the pricked leather ..
WAGONS AND CARRIAGES.
There were, doubtless, wheelwrights and wagon-makers in Okl Win- chester at an early day, but the compiler has no knowledge of them Randall Covey had a wagon maker's shop at the Centre from 1817 to 1821.
Joseph Mitchell was probably the first wheelwright in Winsted. His house and shop, now torn down, were directly opposite the residence of Sheldon Kinney on Main street. He made cart wheels and bodies from the beginning of the century, or earlier, to about 1830.
Selden Mitchell, son of Joseph, above, made light wagons in the basement in rear of the Kinney house above mentioned from 1809 to about 1820.
In 1813, Shubael Crow and Ebenezer R. Hale erected a carriage- maker's shop on the site of Jolm T. Rockwell's tannery, in which wagons and chaises were made until after 1830 by Crowe & Hale, Crowe & Bandle, Henderson & Ball, and others, - the premises having been used from 1823 to 1826 for manufacturing pails, tubs, and keelers by Hinsdale & Dimock.
Wagon making was subsequently carried on in Winsted by James Hermance from 1838 to his death in 1840, and by G. W. Gaston from 1849 onward to 1872.
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MANUFACTURES.
In 1851, Walter & Son erected a large carriage shop on the corner of Elm and Center streets, which has since been managed successively by Erwin M. Walter, Uriah S. Walter, W. H. Stickney, and others, aud is now owned and managed by Franklin Lincoln.
In 1856 the Winsted (Joint Stock) Carriage Company was organized and carried on a large business in Southern wagons and buggies until the opening of the War of the Rebellion, occupying the old Soper woolen factory. In 1866 the company was re-organized with a reduced capital, and Marcus Baird, Walter Stickney, Wm. S. Holabird, and others, as stockholders, and was wound up in 1867.
The Gilman Carriage Company was organized with a capital of $25,000. in 1867, and purchased the factory property of the Winsted Carriage Company ; and soon after, on the burning down of the factory building, erected a spacious establishment on the same site with facilities for a large business. This establishment was burned down in 1870, and the operations of the company were thereby suspended.
Another carriage establishment was erected on Case Avenue in 1870 by Walter Stickney, Bennet Palmer, and Wilbur F. Green, with capacity for a large amount of work.
WHISKEY.
A company of grain speculators, at the close of the War of 1812, found themselves loaded with several thousand bushels of rye, bought at a high price, in the hope of selling it at a still higher, if not extortionate, rate, to needy consumers of the article. The price in market fell with the return of peace. Nobody wanted to buy ; the article was growing. musty on their hands, and they -shrewdly, as they thought-resolved to turn it into a commodity that never lacked consumers. So they built a whiskey distillery half way up Wallen's hill, ea-t of the clock factory, and a sty for forty or fifty swine to be fattened on the de-alcoholized mash. The rye was ground at the mill where it was stored; the breathing hole of hell vomited it; pestilent smoke, the whiskey trickled from the undying worm of the still, and the swine bloated and fattened on the mash, until the frowzy grain was converted into vile whiskey and viler pork. The most bloated drunkards around home wouldn't drink the foul whiskey, and so it was sent away to markets where sots with less delicate stomachs could be found ; and the pork, not being relished at home, was salted, packed, and shipped for negro consumption in the Carolina market. On the voyage to Charleston, it became so tainted and offensive that it was thrown overboard to prevent a pestilence on the vessel. On stating the profit and loss of the whole transaction, the profit was found to be a minus quantity, and the lo-s positive and total of the whole investment. The distillery building and hog sty were taken down and removed, and not a trace of their location remains.
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LINSEED OIL.
An Oil Mill was erected by Bissell Hinsdale, on Mad River, a little west of the Clifton Mill works, about 1816, which was worked only a few years, and was removed before 1830.
HIAY AND MANURE FORKS.
The Spring Steel Hay and Manure Forks were introduced as a substi- tute for the coarse and clumsy articles previously in use, soon after the war of 1812. They were made here in numerous small shops by handi- craftsmen, no machinery, save the sledge and hand hammer, propelled by muscular arms, being used. Large quantities were made, not only for supplying the country stores, but for the New York and Philadelphia markets. The three Browns, Orrin, Harris and Isaac, Oliver White, Ju- lius Weaver, and others, were engaged in this business. Establishments grew up in other places in which the tilt-hammer eame into use for draw- ing out the tines, which made the hand labor operation unremunerative ; and the business was, in a great measure, abandoned here about 1850.
FOUNDRIES.
The casting of iron clock bells was begun in Winsted by the Hoadley Brothers, about 1810, as a secret process in a detached building, from which outsiders were rigidly excluded. The skilled founder of the estab- lishment ran away after some two years service. In 1812 Nathan Cham- pion commenced the same business in the Jenkins scythe shop that stood on the Strong Manufacturing Co.'s premises, and afterwards built a shop near the Winsted Manufacturing Co.'s works, in which he made other small castings.
In 1834 Nathaniel B. Gaylord erected a foundry on the site of the Strong Manufacturing Co.'s works for casting stoves, plows, gears, and general custom work, which he operated until 1846, after which it was carried on a short time by Calvin Butler, of Canaan, and was then abandoned.
In 1847 Taylor & Whiting erected a foundry in connection with their machine shop now owned and operated by the Foundry and Machine Company, which is now the only establishment in the borough.
In 1853, John Boyd erected another foundry for large castings in con- nection with his machine shop adjoining Lake Street bridge on Mad River, which was discontinued in 1854.
MACHINE SHOPS.
In 1831, George Taylor erected the original building of the present Foundry and Machine Company's establishment on Main street for mak-
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ing woolen machinery as a specialty and doing general job work in that line. Two years later he associated with Ambrose Whiting as a partner in the name of Taylor & Whiting. They did a large business in carding machines and spinning jacks for some twenty years. After the retirement of Mr. Whiting in 1857, the concern was organized as a joint stock com- pany with the name of The Winsted Foundry and Machine Company, by which the business is still carried on.
In 1823 James Boyd and James M. Boyd began making saw mill cranks, mill spindles, and various other branches of heavy forging in a shop then built on the west side of Mad river, in rear of the Beard-ley house. To this business James Boyd & Son added in 1830 the making of finished coach axles and mill screws. In 1851, after the death of Mr. James Boyd, the junior partner erected the present machine shop on the site of the old shop, for the purpose of enlarging the mill-iron and axle business of the old firm ; and in 1853 built the foundry last referred to as an appendage to the establishment. The works were purchased by the Clifton Mill Co. in 1857, and were a few years after employed in the manufacture of monkey wrenches. They are at present idle.
About 1840, Reuben Cook & Sons went into the manufacture of finished axles at their iron works, and in 1852 organized "The Cook Axle Co.," which enlarged the business and erected the brick factory building on the site of the old Cook forge, for this manufacture.
In 1864 the company was dissolved and the business resumed by R. Cook & Sons, and is now continued by Charles and John R. Cook.
HOES, SHOVELS, AND CARPENTERS' TOOLS.
About 1828 Samuel Boyd engaged in the manufacture of steel hoes and shovels, and erected the original buildings of the Clifton Mill Company works on the south side of Mad river. He also manufactured in these buildings nail hammers, socket chisels, and draw shaves until 1833, when the business was discontinued.
In 1852 John Boyd, Louis R. Boyd, and Daniel B. Wheelock began to manufacture planters' hoes for the Southern market in the brick scythe works at the corner of Lake and Meadow streets. It was a new business, and encountered serious difficulties, one of them being the anti-slavery proclivities of the first and third partners, of which the Southern custo- mers were duly notified by competing manufacturers. The obnoxious partners withdrew from the concern, and it became a decided success under the name of "The American Hoe Co." The hoes became the leading article in the market. They were sent to England and duplicated as to the style and finish by English manufacturers, but their work proved inferior in working quahty.
The establishment was enlarged by the erection of grinding and polish- ing works on two other water powers, and in 1855 employed more hands
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than any other concern in the borough. In 1868 the establishment was purchased by Horace and Ralph W. Booth, and was continued in opera- tion by L. R. Boyd, until paralyzed by the slave-holders' rebellion. It remained idle during and after the war until 1866, when it was purchased and resuscitated by the Winsted Hoe Company, which has also purchased the Clifton Mill works, and added to hoe-making the manufacture of socket chisel-, draw shaves, and wrenches.
BOLTS AND NUTS.
The Clifton Mill Company, soon after the purchase of Samuel Boyd's works on the south side of Mad river, engaged in the manufacture of nuts and washers, and about 1855 added carriage bolts and nuts to its other manufactured articles, adding for that purpose the three story building on their premises, and also the Boyd machine shop at the foot of Lake street. On the purchase of their works by the Winsted Hoe Co., the nut and bolt manufacture was discontinued.
Another carriage bolt manufacture was started on the premises of R. Cook & Sons by Franklin Moore and Edward Clarke about 1867, which is still in active and successful operation, under the ownership and man- agement of Mr. Moore.
TABLE CUTLERY.
In 1852 the "Eagle" works, a joint stock company with a capital of $25,000, was organized and put in operation under the supervision of Albert Bradshaw, an English cutler, in a brick factory building on the Lake stream adjoining the Connecticut Western depot grounds. The busine-s not proving successful, operations were suspended about 1854, and in 1856, the establishment was purchased by Rice, Lathrop & Clary, under whose ownership the brick factory building was burned down, and a smaller wooden building was erected on its site; and soon afterward the auger factory building on Mad river, near the corner of Main and Coe streets, was purchased. This building was burned down and rebuilt about 1866. Mr. Clary died in 1861, and Mr. Rice retired from the concern in 1862. George F. Barton came in as a partner with Mr. Lathrop in 1861, and retired from the partnership in 1872, leaving Mr. Lathrop the present sole owner. The concern has been impeded and crippled by two successive fires, but is still carried on with a reduced business.
POCKET CUTLERY.
In 1853 Thompson & Gascoigne ( Englishmen) carried on a small pocket cutlery business in the factory of the Eagle Co., which was soon after taken up by Beardsley & Alvord, and gradually enlarged and made profitable. In 1856, they built their cutlery works at the Lake outlet,
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and have since transacted a large and prosperous business in the name of "The Empire Knife Company."
In 1854, C. F. Clark, an Englishman, started a pocket cutlery concern in the attic of the Cook axle factory. which was taken up by Horace Phelps, and after a trial of one or two years, was abandoned.
AUGERS.
The Winsted (Joint Stock) Auger Company was organized in 1853 with a capital stock of $10,000, and immediately after erected the factory on Mad river near the corner of Coe and Main streets, at a cost beyond their capital. It was managed inefficiently by men unacquainted with the business, and was wound up before 1860.
STEEL FIRE IRONS.
Benjamin & Edward Woodall (Englishmen) began making, of highly polished steel, shovels and tongs and other fire irons, about 1850; and in 1854 organized the " Winsted Shovel and Tongs Co.," under the agency of Justus R. Loomis, they bought the Halsey Burr scythe shop and water power, and erected the factory building now used as a feed-grinding mill by Frederick Woodruff, on North Main street. The concern lacked capital, energy, and business skill, and was closed up about 1857.
PINS.
In 1852 Erastus S. Woodford, J. B. Terry and others organized " The Hartford Pin Co." (Joint Stock), and purchased of Anson G. Phelps the woolen factory building on Bridge street, opposite the Naugatuck Railroad depot grounds, and began making pins the same year. The company at once came into conflict with the Howe Pin Co. of Birmingham, in respect to a patented sticking machine for sticking the pins on paper, which im- peded operations until the question of infringement was settled by litiga- tion in the U. S. Circuit Court. In 1857 the factory property and ma- chinery of the company became the property of James R. Keeler, who conveyed the same to "The New England Pin Co.," organized in May of the same year, and composed of said Keeler, Hector Armstrong, C. O. Crosby, and John G. Wetmore, stockholders, and with a capital of 100,000 dollars.
Under this organization the business has been vigorously and pros- perously conducted to the present time and bids fair to continue one of the leading manufacturing interests of the place. The company also manu- factured percussion caps for a few years, and afterwards shoe laces and braids.
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JOINERS' TOOLS.
The Winsted Plane Company, organized in 1851, entered on the man- ufacture of Joiners' tools in the old Soper woolen factory building, and continued until about 1856, when it became insolvent and was wound up.
LUMBER.
The Clifton Lumber Co. was organized in 1854, and erected the build- ing near the Naugatuck depot, now occupied by the Winsted Printing Co., for planing lumber and manufacturing doors, sashes, and blinds by steam power. The concern was wound up in 1857.
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