USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume III > Part 12
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There were three other banks organized in the State by New York bank conspirators, who subscribed for stock under fictitious names, issuing a large amount of circulating bills, which they placed on the money market. Of these the Easton and Litchfield were short-lived: in less than a year from the time of their organization they were in the hands of receivers. The Woodbury Bank had an existence of a number of years, but its charter was finally repealed by the Legislature in 1859. The Bank of North America was dissolved by an injunction obtained by the bank commissioners, but was afterwards reorganized and known as the Ansonia Bank.
The financial panic of 1857, while it was short, was very destructive. The cause of it was directly due to the exces- sive railway building throughout the country, accompanied by undue expansion of currency. The banking institutions had made large loans on collaterals, which during the sum- mer of 1857 declined rapidly in value. The collapse in August of a prominent New York life and trust company, coupled with the suspension of Western banks, precipitated matters ;
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the prices of stocks went down with a rush, manufactories were closed, and laborers thrown out of employment.
The failure of the Illinois Central Railroad Company to meet its pending obligations was the final blow that caused the money panic to be universal. The general suspension of specie payment by the Connecticut banks took place Oct. 14; the circulation of their bills was reduced in six months from over ten million dollars to about four million; most of this took place between Aug. 16 and Nov. I. Specie payment was resumed, however, on Dec. 14. While the financial panic had been a trying ordeal to the Connecticut banks, only six- teen were obliged to pass their usual dividends. Their stand- ing for soundness and stability had been severely tested, but with few exceptions they had been able to maintain the par value of their notes on the money exchanges of New York and Boston, which placed them high in the confidence of the citizens of their own and neighboring States.
The Legislature in 1860 chartered the New Britain Bank to transact business in the town of New Britain; this made seventy-three banks of discount in the State, having an aggre- gate capital of $21,626, 167.
The savings institutions had a slow growth during the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1847 they numbered nine, having deposits amounting to $3,221,591.33. A little over a decade later, in 1860, there were thirty-seven, with deposits of $18,132,820. In this amount was figured $1,567,536 invested in savings and building associations. The organiza- tion of these depositories for the people's moneys was author- ized by the Legislature of 1850. Within four years there- after, thirty-four associations had begun operations under the law; two years later they numbered nearly fifty; the financial
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panic of 1857 reduced their number to twenty-seven, and in 1860 all but five of these were in process of liquidation.
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CHAPTER XV
THE TEXTILE INDUSTRIES
T HROUGH the efforts of General David Hum- phrey, the primitive woolen industries of Con- necticut were largely extended and placed upon a substantial basis. While a resident at the Spanish court, he improved the breed of
native sheep by the introduction of Merino rams. This caused a craze among the New England farmers : fine fleeces commanded as high as two dollars and fifty cents a pound; Merino sheep were sold at from one thousand to fifteen hun- dred dollars a head; but on the declaration of peace in 1815, the falling prices of wool caused them to be sold as low as one dollar apiece. The stagnation in the wool market continued for nine years; the blooded flocks of sheep were either broken up, or interbred with native stock.
Notwithstanding the fact is disputed by some antiquarians, to Connecticut belongs the credit of establishing the first woolen mill in the United States; her industrial experiment at Hartford, mentioned in a previous volume, was not only unique in national history, but antedates any other enterprise of similar character. A century previous to the establish- ment of this mill, the records state that Gabriel Harris of New London left by will four looms with their tacklings, also a silk loom; it is only fair to infer that his business consisted of custom-work.
The foundation of the factory villages which now dot the surface of New England, utilizing her streams and peopling her villages, was laid in 1803 by General Humphrey; he pur- chased in that year a mill privilege on the Naugatuck River, now located within the limits of the town of Seymour, and here he erected buildings. Owing to a residence in England, he was cognizant of the demoralizing influences of factory industry; also, being of a far-sighted and broad-minded char-
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acter, regarding manufacturing largely in the sense of a phil- anthropic enterprise, he intended as the manufactures grew that there should be no decadence in the character and quality of the citizens engaged in them. To further these views, he was instrumental in having the Connecticut Legislature pass an act constituting the selectment of the towns visitors to the manufacturing establishments within their jurisdictions; they were empowered to enforce measures for the proper care and moral well-being of the employees. This, in connection with the building of schoolhouses, and modern tenements with market gardens attached, caused Humphreysville even from its start, and for many years afterwards, to be known as an industrial paradise.
The Humphreysville Manufacturing Company was incor- porated in 1810; at the opening of the War of 1812 it was the best equipped mill in the United States. The production was chiefly broadcloths, which sold at four dollars and a half a yard; cotton goods were also manufactured. Employment was furnished to about one hundred and fifty persons. Ac- cording to President Dwight in his "Travels," there were in 18II "several buildings equipped with four breakers and finisher cards, two jennies, a billy with forty spindles, a picker, four fulling mills, two shearing machines, four broad looms, eight narrow looms, and eighteen stocking frames. There were three churches, fifty or sixty dwellings, and three mer- cantile stores" in this first model factory village of New Eng- land.
The fathers of American woolen mills were Arthur and John Scholfield, who arrived in this country in 1793 from Yorkshire, England, their entire capital being the plans for models of parts of textile machinery, which information they carried in their heads. After operating in Massachusetts, the
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two brother in 1798 leased a water privilege at the mouth of what is now the Oxoboxo River (Montville), this name being a perversion of the original Indian name Opsobosket. This was a historic spot, as it was the site of a saw-mill erected in 1653 by John Winthrop, who afterwards utilized it as a bloomery which became known as the "Old Forge."
The Scholfields improved the shop located on the property, and put in operation the first woolen machinery in Connecti- cut for the manufacture of cloth by water power. Three years later, Arthur removed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His brother operated the mill until 1812, when his lease expired; the woolen business was carried on at this location for a num- ber of years, but it eventually became an oil mill. John Schol- field, whose death occurred in 1820, seems to have possessed a passion for erecting new mills; in 1806 he purchased a water privilege at Stonington, also in 1814 one at Waterford, where mills were built; the same year, higher up on the Oxo- boxo stream, he purchased the site of the oldest woolen estab- lishment in that part of the country, a clothing mill having been operated there by Joseph Otis in 1790. Scholfield enlarged the building and equipped it with machinery. It was at this mill that his son Thomas manufactured the first piece. of satinet made in the State; this fabric become widely known as the "Scholfield satinet," and its manufacture was continued a number of years by his descendants. This textile was also manufactured by Delano Abbott, at an early date, in Vernon.
During the War of 1812, the price of broadcloth advanced to eighteen dollars a yard, and a woolen mill became a verit- able gold mine; but peace had hardly been declared when the market collapsed, on account of the inferiority of Ameri- can cloth as compared with that of English manufacture,
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which could now be imported. The Legislature, in four years beginning with 1812, chartered twenty-six companies, whose united capitals amounted to $4,210,000, for the production of woolen and cotton fabrics; the manufacturers importuned Congress for protection, and the tariff act of 1816 was the result. The statement was made by Andrew W. Magill and William Young, two Connecticut woolen manufacturers, in a letter to the Congressional Ways and Means committee, that there were in the State twenty-five establishments engaged in the manufacture of woolens, and these gave employment to twelve hundred persons; that $450,000 capital was invested, and the production amounted to 75,000 yards of narrow and 25,000 yards of broad cloths.
Among the early woolen manufacturers was the Middle- town Woolen Manufacturing Company, organized by Isaac Sanford and others previous to our second war with Eng- land. It produced from thirty to forty yards of the choicest broadcloth daily, using only the finest of merino wool. The machinery was run by a twenty-four horse-power engine, and it was the first mill in Connecticut to utilize steam for man- ufacturing purposes. There were at this time mills in Litch- field County, one at Wolcottville (now Torrington), two at Goshen, and one at Winsted. The former was established by James Wolcott in 1813, and manufactured a fine quality of goods; after running a score of years under this management, it changed hands and became known as the Wolcottville Man- ufacturing Company. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1844, but was rebuilt, and the name of the company was changed to the Torrington Manufacturing Company. A change of owners in 1853 caused it to become known as the Wolcottville Knitting Company. The Winsted venture was started in 1813 by the Rockwell brothers; a line of broad-
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cloths and satinets was manufactured, but the enterprise was not a success, and the buildings being destroyed by fire in 1835, the project was abandoned.
Elisha Pitkin in 1770 established, on a water privilege on the Hockanum River, the first wool-carding machine run by water power in the State, and probably the first in the country, under a patent for making "cloth without yarn." Felt was first made there in 1807 by Joseph Pitkin, a son of Elisha. A privilege was purchased on this river in 1814, and a manufactory for satinets was started. In 1836 the present Hockanum Company was organized. In 1869 the manufac- ture of fine worsteds for men's wear was begun; a near neigh- bor to this plant is the Rock Manufacturing Company, which was established in 1824 by Colonel Francis McLean.
Seven years later saw the erection of a mill by the Frank Company; and by a division of the Rock Company, the Leeds Company came into existence. On the site of the Springville mill in 1819 stood a full one-set mill; the Leeds Company was afterwards consolidated with the Rock, and the Springville with the Hockanum Company. The New Eng- land mill commenced business in 1837, manufacturing sat- inet; four years later it was burned; on its being rebuilt fancy cassimeres were made, which was an innovation in Rockville manufacturing, as it required a new and better class of skilled workmen.
In 1836, the Saxony, now Snipsic, mill was built; the Panola, American, and New Frank also went into operation in that year. The Rockville Warp Mill, at which cotton warp is spun and colored for the use of satinet and cassimere manufacturers, was started in 1853 by Joseph Selden.
There has been for over half a century at Talcottville a mill manufacturing union cassimeres. The manufacture of
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satinets in the decade between 1840 and 1850 was extensively carried on in the town of Stafford; the success of the enter- prise was due to Eliot A. Converse. The largest woolen industry in the township is located at Stafford Springs, and is known as the Warren Woolen Mills; fine worsted coatings are here produced.
In the northeastern part of the State, a woolen factory was started at Mechanicsville in 1827; it was operated by differ- ent lessees, and finally destroyed by fire in 1843. It was not until 1858 that another attempt was made; the Mechanics- ville Company then began the manufacture of fancy cassi- meres.
A mill was erected in 1826 for making woolens, by the Pomfret Manufacturing Company, at what is now Putnam. A year later the Rhodesville enterprise was started, and although its early success was retarded through losses by fire, it eventually became prosperous and formed the nucleus of the present Morse Mill, of which the Powhatan Mill erected in 1872 is a part.
The Connecticut woolen manufacturers, in competition with foreign countries, labored under the disadvantage of possessing only primitive machinery. The introduction in 1824 of Goulding's carding machine marked the first per- ceptible step towards progress; but it was not until 1870 that the American manufacturers, by the adoption of a self- operating mule, were enabled to successfully compete with their English brethren. They were also largely aided by the protective tariffs granted by the general government. As will be seen, the woolen industries were largely centred in Tolland County, with Rockville as the natural centre; there are however various isolated plants scattered throughout the State, many of which are of recent date. At the outbreak
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of the Civil War there were ninety-three establishments in Connecticut engaged in the manufacture of satinets, cassi- meres, stocking yarn, hosiery, blankets, flannels, carpets, and felting. The most prominent of these was the Hartford Car- pet Company, established at Thompsonville in 1828, and it has gained a reputation for its products second to none in the country.
Connecticut in 1900 ranked seventh in the United States, in the amount of her woolen manufactured goods; at the beginning of the last decade she was fifth, but was passed by Maine and New Jersey. She ranks fourth in woolen goods proper, and sixth in worsteds, her combined productions amounting to $12,637,032.
The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney-who, though a resident of Connecticut, was a son of a sister State-coupled with that by Hargreaves of the spinning jenny and Arkwright of the spinning frame, gave an impetus to cotton manufactures. These inventions were the primary causes for the successful advancement of the modern cotton manufacturing interests of the country. The arrival of Samuel Slater in Rhode Island in 1790 was the initiatory step towards placing the American cotton man- ufactures on a similar basis with those of England; though Bagnall asserts that before this date there were six cotton mills in Connecticut, located at Norwich, New Haven, Beth- lehem, East Hartford, Suffield, and what is now Vernon. They had produced cotton cloth, and were still carrying on the manufacture prior to 1805. This year marks an era in the history of the country; for our foreign relations gave rise to a condition of affairs favorable to domestic manufac-
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tures, and the cotton industries received an impetus from which they have never receded.
These industries in their infancy were established in the eastern portion of the State; this was due to the fact that the first promoters were Rhode Island manufacturers. The streams that unite with the tidal waters of the Thames River at Norwich, also the banks of the Quinebaug, Shetucket, and Moosup Rivers with their tributaries, which nature, aided by man's handiwork, had endowed with valuable water privi- leges, were eagerly sought by the pioneers. This resulted in more than seven-tenths of the cotton spindles in the State being located in New London and Windham Counties.
Samuel Slater, the generator of the Rhode Island cotton industries, with his father-in-law Ozias Wilkinson, erected in 1806 the first cotton mill in eastern Connecticut; it was called the Pomfret Manufacturing Company, and Smith Wilkinson, a brother-in-law of Slater, was made resident agent. The frame of the building was raised on the fourth of July in the presence of two thousand persons, who were regaled with free punch in honor of the occasion.
The next decade witnessed the erection of numberless cot- ton mills: wherever the streams afforded sufficient water power, a site was selected, and building commenced; the hills and valleys resounded with the buzz of the saw and blows from the hammer.
At Jewett City (named in honor of Eleazer Jewett, a pioneer in milling interests) John Wilson in 1811 conveyed the real estate and water privileges to the Jewett City Cotton Manufacturing Company, in which the Slaters afterwards became interested.
The town of Sterling was a field for early cotton manufac- turers. The Sterling Manufacturing Company was started
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there in 1808; ten years later they were running sixteen hun- dred spindles. Here was also the American Manufacturing Company on the Quanduck, and a small mill on the Moosup River; loss of buildings from frequent fires caused a decline in the industry.
In the adjoining town of Plainfield, the Union Manufactur- ing Company, the Andrus Factory Company, and the Central Manufacturing Company were early in the field. The latter became the property of Norwich parties, and its name was changed to the Kirk Mills. Two years after the starting of a mill at Quinebaug Falls saw the establishment of the Thompson Manufacturing Company at Thompson, now Grosvenordale. A few years later the Masons became associ- ated with the management, and it became known as the Ma- sonville Company. Dr. William Grosvenor, a nephew of the Masons, undertook the active management in 1848; twenty years later a factory that had been started in Fisherville in 1828 was purchased, and a consolidation was made and in- corporated under the name of the Grosvenordale Company, having a capacity of 65,000 spindles. The Connecticut Man- ufacturing Company was organized in Thompson in 1811; after various vicissitudes, the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1849.
The pioneer cotton spinner of Willimantic was Percy Rich- mond, who in 1822 acquired water privileges at the lower end of the borough. In 1826 there were four mills in successful operation, the most prominent of which were the Windham and Smithville Manufacturing Companies. The Killingly Manufacturing Company, organized in 1814, and the Dan- ielsonville Manufacturing Company, were noted early cotton industries in the town of Killingly; besides these was the Stone Chapel Manufacturing Company, located on the site
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of the Attawaugan Company, who also operated the Ballou Mills in Killingly and the Pequot Mills in Montville, making a line of sheetings, shirtings, and cambrics.
As early as 1790, Dr. Joshua Lathrop established at Nor- wich, the natural centre of the cotton industries of the State, a cotton factory on the town plot, having five jennies, one carding machine, and six looms; it is worthy of note that this was before the invention of the cotton gin, and the improve- ments in machinery by Arkwright and others.
Samuel Slater was not successful in obtaining water privi- leges at Norwich Falls, but Cartwright's improvement of the power loom was hardly reproduced in America before several cotton factories were in active operation in Norwich and vi- cinity. In the city proper, on the Yantic River, is located the Falls Company; they own the water privilege where William Williams, Jr., & Co. began the manufacture of cotton fabrics in 1813. The present company make a variety of cotton goods, such as tickings, awnings, ducks, domets, denims, and covert cloths; this class of goods is also manufactured by the Shetucket Company on the river of that name. At Greene- ville, another suburb of Norwich, a mill was organized in 1837; the water privileges were purchased of the Thames Company. On the same stream is the Occum Company. The promoters of this company were instrumental in calling the attention of Cyrus and Edward P. Taft in 1865 to the facili- ties offered for the manufacture of cotton goods; this resulted in the establishment of the Ponemah Mills, which is said to be one of the three largest cotton plants in the United States. This company also operates another mill four miles from Taftville, and its percales and fine lawns for printing have a reputation second to none in America.
The Potoket Mills Company, located at Occum in the town
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of Norwich, occupies a privilege that has been in operation since 1866. In the towns adjoining Norwich are the Uncas- ville Manufacturing Company, situated on the Oxoboxo River in Montville; it was incorporated in 1848. The mills of the Bozrahville Company were formerly within the limits of Norwich, and are among the oldest in New England; the power is furnished by the Yantic River, and what is known to the trade as twills are manufactured.
On the Pochaug River, near the village of Voluntown, is located the Griswold Cotton Mills Company. The White- stone Company with mills at East Killingly produce a cotton cloth used for flour sacks.
There are a number of cotton mills throughout the State that have followed in the footsteps of the early promoters, but as early as 1814 an organization was formed in what is now Westport. It was known as the Saugatuck Manufactur- ing Company, and was incorporated in that year by the Gen- eral Assembly; they manufactured woolen goods as well as cotton. In 1818 the name was changed to the Richmondville Manufacturing Company. In the spring of 1844 John Lees and John P. Dryden became interested in this enterprise, but the buildings and contents were totally destroyed by fire. In 1878 they were rebuilt and were occupied by the Lees Manu- facturing Company.
The name of one of the early promoters of the cotton industries of New England is represented in Connecticut. A son of Oliver Chace, the agent of the first mill at Fall River, owned and operated the Moodus Mills at East Haddam, and it is still managed by his descendants. The Spragues also operated a mill at Baltic for years; it was destroyed by fire in the fall of 1887.
The modern triumph in the cotton industries is the manu-
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facture of thread. Less than forty years ago the housewife was persistent in using only foreign threads; in fact, the opposition to American products was such that to introduce their wares the manufacturers had to label them in imita- tion of imported thread, and pack them in soldered leaden boxes, in order to protect them against their imaginary voy- age across the Atlantic. The ultimate success of the industry is largely due to Connecticut manufacturers. In 1848 Gar- diner Hall began the manufacture of cotton thread in South Willington; his son Gardiner became interested in the enter- prise, and the Thread Drawing or Finishing Machine, the Automatic Spool Printing Press, that printed labels in four colors by one operation, and the Tension Regulator, which takes the thread from the spool without turning it, are but a few of his many valuable inventions.
In 1854 The Willimantic Linen Company was organized by Hartford capitalists; the name soon became a misnomer, for they engaged in the manufacture of spool cotton. The abolishment of the popular prejudice against American cot -. ton threads is due to this company. The English manufac- turers claimed that much depended on the state of the atmos- phere in the making of threads, and that a good article could not be produced in this country, on account of the dryness of our climate; but Yankee genius devised a plan by which moisture was imparted to the air, making it preferable to the natural humidity of the English atmosphere, as it could be controlled.
The labor and ingenuity attendant on thread making can- not be better illustrated than by the statement, that to make a perfect six-cord cotton thread, from the time the raw material is taken from the bale until a finished article is produced, the fibres by sundry operations are doubled (as the
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technical phrase is) or intercombined over twenty millions of times.
The success attained by the Willimantic Linen Company, coupled with the protection given the industry by the general government, caused the foreign manufacturers to establish branch factories in this country. Owing to the great superi- ority of the Willimantic six-corded thread, however, it enjoys the patronage of the leading sewing-machine manufacturers, and is also used by the manufacturers of straw goods, knit goods, clothing, and hats, throughout the country.
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