USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Centennial, 1836-1936. A brief account of the more significant events in the history of the county of Middlesex and of the growth of the Middlesex Mutual Assurance Company > Part 2
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LOOKING UP MAIN STREET IN THE 60'S
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teresting details such as petitions and memorials. An illuminating commentary on civic purchasing methods of the day is illustrated by a memorial as follows :
"The memorial of John Hurlbut to the town or selectmen of the town of Middletown: Gentlemen- By the desire of Deacon William Rockwell, I purchased and let him have, two books for records for the town of Middletown, and looked for the pay from him, but the town, he says, did not allow him for them, and says that I must look to the town. I therefor pray the town to consider the thing and grant me the pay for them, which cost me nine pounds ten shillings, paid in rye at seven shillings and six pence per bushel. Pray that your memorialist may be heard and you'll oblige yours to serve John Hurlbut."
Another town statute permitted swine to run at large from the 10th of May until June 10 and from August 10 to September 10, provided that they were well "wringed in the nose." A third vote, illustrative of the 18th century town government "at work," was the one carried on January 20, 1766 as follows : "That there shall be paid one shilling and six pence out of the public treasury for every fox that shall be killed in the town bounds of Middletown by any of the inhabi- tants of this town this year, and on making it evident to the town treasurer that they were taken, catched, and killed in the town, and producing the skin with the nose on, which he is to cut off and pay said sum to the owner."
"Down to the Sea in Ships" was dramatized in Middletown with greater frequency and volume as the years lengthened during the eighteenth century. The music of the adze and hammer chorused louder and
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louder as the fame of Middletown's shipbuilders spread. And by 1776, 17 out of 50 residents of Main Street were identified with the sea in one way or another, either as merchants, ship-owners, shippers or rope- makers; and of the total male residents it is safe to say that at least one-third were dependent upon some branch of shipping for their livelihood. Trading was first done with the river and coastal ports, but later a prosperous business was built up with the West Indies, exchanging principally all types of agricultural products, lumber and rum for molasses and other native products. It was the happy combination of agriculture and Yankee flair for trading that brought wealth, education and refinement to Middletown and to other Middlesex County towns on the Connecticut river, as well as many coastal towns, during the 18th century and during the early part of the 19th.
Land around Middletown, stretching an average of 25 miles north and south and 14 miles east and west, or nearly 250,000 acres, gradually but constantly was taken up and cleared by hardy pioneers so that by 1785 there were six towns in this strip which were incorpo- rated as Middlesex County. These were Middletown, incorporated in 1784, Chatham, Haddam and East Haddam, all formerly parts of Hartford County; and Saybrook and Killingly taken from New Haven County.
In this predominantly agricultural country high- lighted by village store gossip and port trade, families of six or eight or more toiled from "dawn to dusk" to "get ahead" with crude hand tools on tracts of land averaging 70 acres. To make the tillable portion of their
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farms (about 10 per cent) yield its maximum, crop rotation, and the extensive use of manure, seaweed and fish, were generally practiced during the 18th century. At night the toilers rested in houses ranging from the small two-room variety of the poorer class to the mul- tiple room rambling dwellings of the middle class and well-to-do farmers. Gambrel roofs-so named because of their similarity to the hind leg of a horse -- were the symbols of successful farming.
But success in terms of wealth was only relative, since no one had much idea of his net worth due to the frequent fluctuations in the value of specie as well as the various types of currency. Social life for the poor and middle classes in the 18th and early 19th century period, differing little from earlier colonizing days, re- volved around the white meeting house churches with an occasional barn raising party to brighten the routine.
Later, with the gradual increase in wealth of a com- paratively few leading families, enriched largely by their maritime and early manufacturing activities, the Wash- ington Hotel was built. The social life of the town pivoted around this hotel, where cotillions and recep- tions were held. One of the most elaborate receptions ever held at the Washington Hotel was in honor of General Lafayette on his journey through New Eng- land in 1825. The prestige of this small group was further evidenced by the spaciousness of their homes and an amazing variety of furniture and bric-a-brac, which included many curios brought back from the West Indies. But rich or poor, all traveled on the very poor roads, which in most instances extended only from a farm to a boat landing.
As the Connecticut River satisfied the needs of com-
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merce, the building of good roads long lay dormant, until at last the inland towns insisted on better means of communication than the mere trails existing, and so in time came the coach roads and then later the canals and railroads. Even as late as 1814 there were only 246 carriages in Middletown and 549 in the entire county- this despite the fact that Middletown's population of 5037 in 1776 was larger than that of either Hartford or New Haven, ranking it with the most important towns in the entire country, when only Philadelphia, New York and Boston could count more than 15,000 inhabitants. This prestige of population, of wealth and urbanity of manner developed largely by foreign trade and the educational advantages of nearby Yale Univer- sity remained until about 1800, when both Hartford and New Haven surpassed her in population.
Scarcely a single activity in which men engaged within the bounds of early New England escaped Mid- dlesex County, particularly Middletown, its focal point.
Negro slaves first made their appearance as early as 1661 when shipowners, chiefly from New London and Middletown, found it profitable to bring in small num- bers from Africa and the Barbadoes as part of their exchange for grain, barrel staves and lumber for rum and molasses. But few persons held more than two slaves until the middle of the 18th century, and by 1784 further importation was prohibited. In 1680 there were only 30 slaves in all Connecticut. Their increase reached a climax in 1774 when there were 6562, or one slave for each 29 white inhabitants. From climax to complete
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MITCHELL
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CIVIL WAR DAYS
extinction encompassed only 74 years, ending in 1848, when slavery was forbidden by the Legislature.
During the slavery period, which began first with the sale of Indian captives after the Pequot War, with more Indians added at the close of King Philip's War in 1675, most Connecticut masters treated their slaves kindly, permitting them to occupy a corner of the church gallery on Sundays. Although they had no legal control over their slaves, their claims were almost always respected. The Indian slaves were generally an indolent lot, described by President Dwight of Yale as having "too little enterprise to steal anything of importance." This laziness served them well, for they were rapidly released until the last Indian slaves were freed in the 1690's.
Connecticut may look with pride upon its slavery record. For 50 years before the rise of the Abolitionists both masters and the Legislature were cooperating effectively toward its curtailment and final abolishment. In fact there were but 25 slaves recorded in the state when the Abolitionists, about 1830, began their ener- getic campaign to end negro bondage. The highest num- ber of negro slaves recorded in Middlesex County was 208 in 1790, declining to I by 1840-a record to which every son of Middlesex may point with justifiable pride.
Middletown has excelled in war as well as in peace, sacrificing of her brave sons in all wars since the destruc- tion of the Pequots in 1636. Outstanding service was rendered in the Revolutionary War by Captain Return Jonathan Meigs who marched his fully equipped com- pany to Boston as soon as word was received of the Battle of Lexington. In the next month (May 1775) Samuel Holden Parsons and a number of others aided
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materially in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. In the War of 1812 Middletown gave another famous son, Commodore McDonough, whose heroism on Lake Champlain has continued through the years to reflect honor upon the city. Of the part played in later wars, more in a later chapter.
In commerce, Middletown excelled all Connecticut river towns and ranked high with all other port cities. Here was established in 1795 a custom-house office which collected all customs from the districts embracing the counties of Hartford and Middlesex. It was made the sole port of entry for all Connecticut river towns in 1799, these towns and landing places being ports of delivery only. Its water borne commerce continued to flourish until Jefferson's Embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812 brought it practically to a standstill. It revived to some extent after this war, but by the middle of the 19th century went the way of all Connecticut commerce to the East River, Port of New York.
[III]
T HE DECLINE OF COMMERCE abruptly halted the growth of Middletown after the War of 1812, while other cities which had previously turned to manu- factures over commerce were expand- ing their industries by attracting young men from neighboring rural areas. Middletown had developed almost no manufacturing outside of ship- building and the making of muskets and swords in a crude hand fashion prior to 1810. In that year the first
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woolen mill was started by the Middletown Manufac- turing Company, and is believed to be the first manu- factory to use steam for power. Later, but prior to 1836, were started Watkinson's woolen factory, Phoenix Mills for grinding dyewoods, Nathaniel Starr's Sword Works, Simeon North's pistol factory, in 1823 the Sanseer Manufacturing Company, (now a part of the Russell Manufacturing Company), Allison Brothers soap manufacturers in 1826, W. & B. Doug- las (in 1832, now a part of the Union Manufacturing Company, New Britain) and the Russell Manufactur- ing Company in 1834. During the War of 1812, Mid- dletown was one of the chief sources from which the government secured its supply of powder, rifles, mus- kets and pistols.
When the business leaders of Middletown saw com- merce slipping away, they made haste to develop manu- facturing, and made a good start, but other towns be- ginning earlier in this development had surpassed it. Viewing with concern the rapid growth of nearby indus- trial centers, the discussion started in earnest on the construction of railroads as a means of recouping its loss in maritime trade. At a special town meeting Octo- ber 31, 1835, William S. Camp, a Middletown mer- chant (later president of the Middlesex Mutual Assur- ance Company) was appointed "agent for the Presi- dent and Engineer of the Hartford and New Haven Railroad Company with instructions to see the several proprietors of land on the proposed railroad route and to procure from them, on the best terms for said com- pany release deeds of such lands as may be wanted by said Rail Road". More about rail developments will appear in a later chapter.
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From 1802 the turnpike companies had been active building toll roads and before 1836 had offered so much competition to river traffic that little or no profit was made by the Union Company-a concern organized in 1800, to improve navigation from Hartford to Say- brook and which by 1806 had completed a six-foot channel from Hartford to Middletown. Prior to 1818 most river vessels were under sail, but after that a number used steam, and by 1825 six steamboat compa- nies were each operating a small number of boats by steam.
In the banking field, Middletown early took high rank, having two well managed banking institutions of the sixteen which had been established in the state prior to 1834-Middletown National Bank (organized 1801) and the Middletown Savings Bank (organized in 1825). The Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, New Haven National Bank and Union Trust Company (New London ), all starting in 1792, were the only banks chartered earlier than the Middle- town National Bank. Other banks established in Con- necticut prior to 1834 which are still active in business include: Phoenix State Bank and Trust Company (1814), Society for Savings ( 1819), and Connecticut River Banking Company, all of Hartford; Windham County National Bank (1822), Danielson; Norwich Savings Society (1824), Norwich; Merchants Bank & Trust Company ( 1824), Norwalk; Danbury National Bank ( 1824), Danbury; Thames Bank & Trust Com- pany (1825), Norwich; Savings Bank of New London; and the Windham National Bank ( 1832) at Willi- mantic.
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THIS MURAL ON THE WALLS OF THE COMPANY SHOWS MIDDLETOWN OLD AND NEW
Before the organization of these banks, banking was carried on by the wealthier merchants or other prominent men who accepted deposits, made loans and shipped local goods to the West Indies and Southern States. When the goods, or the articles brought back in exchange for them were sold, these merchant bankers received enough to give them a sizeable profit for the risks assumed.
From the very earliest days Middletown has ranked high in education. Freedom in a new land of boundless resources soon bred a desire for more than the three R's for the masses, with the languages reserved to the clergy and the other learned professions. Just as the earliest settlement at Mattabesec was quick to provide instruction in the fundamentals of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, Middletown was early in the establish- ment of the new type of public educational institution keyed to a new social environment-the High School, established in 1840 through the diligent efforts of Dr. Charles Woodward and Hon. Samuel D. Hubbard, members of the board of education.
As early as 1825, citizens of Middletown gave Cap- tain Alden Partridge two buildings (known later as North and South College of Wesleyan University) into which was moved from Norwich, Vermont, the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy, founded six years earlier by this former mathematics teacher and superintendent of West Point Military Academy. Unable to secure from the Connecticut Legis- lature a charter authorizing the granting of Academic Degrees, the school was removed to Norwich, Vermont, but within the next two years the Methodist churches
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of the northeastern states started a college in the same building called "Wesleyan", named after John Wesley the great founder of Methodism, and "University" be- cause of the original ideas of its founders eventually to establish around the first nucleus a group of profes- sional schools. This purpose has not been carried out as the college authorities are still well content to improve its work each year, until today in those courses in litera- ture, science, philosophy and the arts which make for general culture, it admittedly has no superior in all the land in the group known as the "small colleges."
In addition to Wesleyan there were prior to 1840 several private schools established, notably one organ- ized by Isaac Webb, a former tutor of Yale College, in the beautiful Colonial building known for years as Webb Hall of Wesleyan University, but unfortunately destroyed by fire some years ago. Among the pupils in this school was Rutherford B. Hayes, one-time Presi- dent of the United States. In another private school taught by the Reverend Enoch Huntington, fourth pas- tor of the First Church, President Dwight of Yale Col- lege received excellent training. In 1835, the Middle- town Institute was launched, being in charge of Dr. Daniel H. Chase, the first graduate of Wesleyan Uni- versity. Yale College, though not started in Middle- town was founded in Saybrook in 1701, which became part of Middlesex County when incorporated in 1785, and from it portals issued forth many men prominent in the educational, professional and industrial life of Middletown, the county of Middlesex, the state and nation.
Middletown has also been prominent in religious matters from the very earliest settlement when meet-
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ings were held under an old elm which once stood at the entrance of the old graveyard. One of the first votes in town meeting was to build a house of worship, which was completed in 1652 in the form of a crude log cabin 20 feet square by 10 feet high surrounded by palisades as a protection against attacks by the ferocious Mo- hawk Indians, who lived on the present site of Glaston- bury. Though afflicted to a degree by all of the contro- versies that swept over the religious life of the colony and state, Middletown was noted, perhaps more than any other town, for its freedom of thought in religious matters. Thus Middletown, by a secession from the First Church, became the first home of the Separatists or Strict Congregational movement, more or less gen- eral throughout the eastern part of the state in the first half of the 18th century, which rejected all relations between church and state. After a split-off which formed the Baptist Church in 1795, the remaining members later ceased to be Separates or Strict Congregationalists and became the Second Congregational Church of Mid- dletown, the first religious organization to introduce Sunday School and Y. P. S. C. E. into the religious life of the community.
The Baptist Church was organized by members of the Separate Church who believed that a religious or- ganization should consist only of baptized believers such as the New Testament describes. Taking the Bible literally as their only guide for faith and practice of religion, they retained their separate principles while gradually absorbing the greater portion of that church.
The opposite doctrinal extreme of the religious life of Middletown was first represented by the Universal- ist Church, organized in 1829. Unlike most other
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churches they bound themselves to no established creed or form but did agree to take the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament for their guide, and to look to their Heavenly Father for instruction, protection and sup- port.
Roman Catholics, Swedish Congregationalists, German Lutherans and United Presbyterians also es- tablished churches in Middletown after 1836, all but the United Presbyterians still worshipping in their own churches to the present day.
The first of Methodism heard in Middletown was preached by Rev. Jesse Lee, December 7, 1789. Two years later a society was organized which remained part of a circuit until 1816 when it became a "station" or a permanently established church with regular pastors.
The first stockaded church in Middletown became the scene of the organization of the First Church of Christ, sixteen years after it was built, or in 1668. The Second Church of Christ was established by the Episco- palians in 1740 and completed its first edifice in 1755. On August 2, 1765, the first American Bishop, Right Reverend Samuel Seabury first met the clergy in this Church after returning from his ordination, and it was here also that he held his first ordination of deacons.
In a brief way, the background of Middletown and Middlesex County has been sketched as it was prior to 1836 except as to actual physical description. Streets were narrow, dark at night-muddy in the spring and dusty in the summer. Ox carts, men and women in car- riages, on horseback and on foot, moved about slowly on the streets to do their tradin', stopping now and then for a bit of gossip and again in a tavern for a nip of spirits. The hitching rail held the vehicle of locomo-
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tion instead of the emergency brake. Controversy was heated on the railroad question, occasionally drifting to slavery. No longer was it necessary for men to be on guard to watch the stealthy Indian. A new country was in the making; whole families were venturing westward to the Western Reserve, and beyond, seeking adven- ture and still greater opportunity. But those who re- mained, held by family ties and their trade or business, as well as by their homes and the rare beauty of the ever-changing Middlesex panorama were bending their energies toward the development of manufacturing, the expansion of trade, accumulation of capital and the fur- ther development of both the physical assets and social sides of community life. With more to lose each year, fire began to be looked upon as one of the most sinister enemies, which could wipe out the capital of a lifetime within a few hours. A few business men of vision were seriously considering this problem and were soon to reach a solution.
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Chapter Two Protecting Capital
T HE MOTIVATING FORCE behind nine tenths of man's activities is the twin desire-to have and to hold. Acquisitiveness is everywhere ac- cepted as a fundamental human trait, exemplified as eloquently by the child who saves his pennies or seeks to acquire a larger or more valuable supply of marbles or toys as by the man with a million who seeks to add another to his fortune. To have, to possess-the first motives that stirred the prehistoric savage to take the first awkward step in his evolution from a wild man to a civilized being.
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To have is but half the story; to hold is of equal importance. Thus developed the law protecting private property, and thus arose centuries ago those first crude systems which were the seeds of the sheltering tree of property insurance which today are well-nigh universal throughout the civilized world. Thus insurance, al- though of comparatively recent origin, in the main, is so closely interwoven with our daily existence that few realize the romance of its conception and later develop- ment. It reaches back to the first banding together of families into tribes for mutual physical protection. Mu- tual insurance on property today is but an outgrowth of that aged idea of mutuality of interest. From tribes, this interest expanded into towns, cities, nations-and as a concomitant of it grew up physical protectors of those who labored-the soldiers, paid for by taxes levied on the people.
The birth of property insurance was many cen- turies ago. King Hammurabi of Babylon established a code of laws for protection against fire as far back as 2200 B. C., but actually little was done about it until 600 B. C. when the Assyrians recognized the necessity for some form of insurance. Then agreement was that the sufferer from fire should be indemnified by a fund for which every one in the community would subscribe after the fire. This plan, followed in medieval Europe, did not work fairly because while some were generous, as a rule most persons gave too little.
Before the Christian era the Chinese operated a plan of marine insurance, unique in its conception. Mer- chant boats traveled up the commercial highway of the Yangtze river which had numerous and dangerous rapids. A merchant risked bankruptcy in the event he
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shipped, say, 100 packages of valuable cargo in a single boat. So there came into being the idea of assembling a large number of boats into which the merchant dis- tributed his packages pro rata. Under this plan, if one or several boats went down shooting the dangerous rapids, the loss was such a small percentage of the whole that it could be reasonably borne.
That great race of traders-the Chaldeans-also devised a plan of property insurance, but one which was less effective than the Chinese plan-in fact was quite impractical. They entrusted to certain individuals their wares for shipment to foreign lands. In turn, these trustees of the goods bound themselves and their fami- lies for the safe delivery of the goods. In the event the individual carrier of the goods failed to make safe delivery, he was ruined and became virtually a slave to the owner of the goods until the debt was repaid. If he lost his life and the goods as well, or died before the full payment of a debt for lost goods, the burden of payment rested upon his family. After working this system for a number of years, the Chaldeans became thoroughly aware of its impracticability and in its stead adopted the mutuality of interest principle by binding themselves together under a system like that adopted in Lloyd's Coffee House in London, centuries later. But long before the English adopted the mutual idea, as still operated today by Lloyd's, the Indians (in India ) practiced it more than 2000 years ago, as evidenced by such writings as "estimating the tax to be levied on the trader", and a well known charge in the transit of goods for securing the goods carried. Similar arrangements were also made in other early centers of civilization in Egypt, Greece and Rome.
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