USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Danbury > History of Danbury, Conn., 1684-1896 > Part 20
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
1817 .- Captain John Foot, with one Mr. Hodge, manufac- tured hats for the firm of Wildman & Starr, employing six or eight men, and getting up about six hundred dozen per annum. Elias Boughton, Abel Hoyt, and others carried on hatting in Danbury about this time. The hats were then eight or nine ounces in weight. The price for making them-that is, the Russia hat-was 92 cents, or 5s. and 6d. Yankee currency.
The manner in which hats were packed and sent to the market deserves mention. Two hats were taken and rolled up together in a paper, then put into a linen bag, and in this shape, to the number of six or eight dozen, they were put into a leathern sack ; they were then ready for transportation to the city by stage.
In bowing hats by hand, the Saxony and other fine wools could not be used, consequently the home material and all coarse wools were used in making the very few wool hats required.
1818 .- A machine was constructed for bowing hats. It was of wood, dish-shaped, somewhat after the pattern of an old-fash- ioned fanning mill, and took in enough for two bats at a time. This was thought to be a great improvement, but upon thorough trial it did not work well, and workmen continued to use the " bow," " catgut," and "pins." John Fry and Alvin Hurd went into the manufacture of fine beaver hats.
1820 .- Mr. Hurd left the firm and Ephraim Gregory became associated with Mr. Fry. They immediately established a hat store at Charleston, which afforded a good market for many years. This hat store was kept open until the firm closed up their business in 1838.
1821 .- Grant, of Providence, R. I., took out a patent for form- ing wool hat bodies with the vibrating and revolving cone, but the revolving cone had in reality been invented before by one Mason, of New Hampshire. This rendered Grant's patent in valid. He, therefore, upon Mason's threatening a law-suit, de- stroyed his first patent, claiming in turn only the vibration, according to an act of Congress passed a short time before. The vibration was an improvement as far as this. In Mason's inven- tion the wool coming in a web from the machine wound itself straight round the cone, leaving a hole in the "tip" after the body was formed; then, too, when the bodies canie to be " planked" they were found to be compact and firm one way only, whereas in Grant's method, in consequence of the cone
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vibrating and revolving at the same time, the web was spread around, thus avoiding the hole in the tip and rendering the body strong and compact. Soon after, Alvin Hurd being in Provi- dence, Mr. Niram Wildman (an old and respected citizen) sent there requesting Mr. Hurd to negotiate with Grant for the pur- chase of a right. Grant refused to sell, alleging that the machine was not yet brought to perfection. Mr. Wildman then went to Providence himself, from whence, after having thoroughly ex- amined Grant's patent, he returned, and in connection with Rory Starr constructed the more improved and scientific double cone for forming two hat bodies at once. Grant, in concert with Townsend, the chief stockholder, then brought a suit against Wildman for infringement of patent. The case was appointed to come on at New Haven, but when the parties met a compro- mise was entered into, in which Mr. Wildman was to have, for a stipulated sum, and the benefit of the improvement, the use of two machines. The suit being withdrawn, Mr. Wildman imme- diately put up one of his machines in the old factory on Main Street, and commenced the forming of wool hat bodies, con- tinuing in the business until 1844, during the last three years of this time forming large quantities for Eli White, Esq., of Water Street, New York.
The other machine was loaned to a Mr. Sprague, who put it up in the Sturdevant factory, a little out of the village. The wool bodies were taken and napped with fur, making the well- known " napped hats" then in vogue. In forming hats by this machine all fine wool could be used, and the Saxony was much in demand. The machine in its perfection would form hat bodies at the rate of three hundred per day.
1822 .- Up to this time the manner of coloring hats was as fol- lows : The hats were taken from the plank shop and placed, two or three dozen at a time, in a round kettle, from which they were taken by hand once every half hour until the operation was completed, which generally took from eighteen to twenty hours. It was very tedious to watch the kettle so long, but many things were resorted to to while away the hours, and often after mid- night, when all was still, the old colorman would indulge in a roast chicken (there were roosts about), with perhaps a little different liquor than that contained in the dye kettle to wash it down. The first invention of any importance in this line con-
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sisted of a square kettle with two sacks ; these were filled with hats and let into the kettle and drawn out by a tackle made for the purpose, so that while one sack was in the liquor the other was out on the " dripping-board." This was thought to be, and in reality was, an improved method, but was entirely super- seded by an invention of Joel Taylor,* a hat manufacturer and native of our village, made somewhere about this time (1822). Six dozen hats were placed upon a large wheel with pins and turned by a crank ; the " dye-stuff" was contained in a copper kettle, shaped like a half moon, underneath. The hats on one half the wheel were in the liquor receiving color, while those on the other half were out cooling. When the colorman wished to reverse this he had only to turn the crank. This manner of col- oring hats, though very simple, took the lead of all the rest, and in all the country there was a great demand for "Taylor's wheel." It was in general use for many years, and may be found in numbers of small shops at the present day. Mr. Taylor has the names of some two hundred persons to whom he sold rights to his coloring wheel, and the amount realized by him altogether reached $5000; but as the business increased and everything else connected with it was carried on in an extensive manner, it was found that some other way must be devised by which to color the immense number of hats turned off. In the present mode the hats, with the exception of a few of finer qual- ity, are thrown promiscuously, without blocks, into an immense kettle filled with "dye-stuff," heated by steam, where, on account of an improvement in the liquor, they are colored in a few hours. Fifty dozen are colored at one time by this method.
1824 .- Among the manufacturers of this period were Isaac H. Seeley, White & Keeler, Hatch & Gregory, Joseph Taylor, Hugh Starr, and Taylor & Dibble.
1825 .- Fry, Gregory & Co. conducted at this time an extensive trade, working up $80,000 worth of stock per annum ; capital
* Joel Taylor, a direct descendant of Thomas Taylor, one of the first settlers of Danbury, was born February 18th, 1795, and died June 8th, 1870, aged 75 years. He was a son of Joshua, who was an officer in the War of the Revolution. From Barber's " Historical Collections of Connecticut" we quote the following : "The Hatter's circular Dye Kettle and Wheel was invented in Danbury in 1823, by Mr. Joel Taylor. It is a most important invention for Hatters, and has come into gen- eral use both in this country and Europe." James S. Taylor and Mrs. Adelaide Holden, of Danbury, are his children.
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invested, $50,000 ; hands employed at making, thirty ; trim- ming, ten. This firm also had a store (now occupied by Mr. Osborne) in West Street, where the hands employed traded, receiving orders instead of cash for their work.
In 1833, Fry, Gregory & Co. sold out their make-shop to Will- iam Montgomery, who had commenced hatting in 1832 with Edward S. Brockett. Mr. Montgomery made the hats for Fry, Gregory & Co., who having finished and trimmed them, sent them to their store in Charleston for sale. Mr. Montgomery carried on the fur hat trade until 1853, when building a large factory in connection with the buildings already on the ground, he entered into the manufacture of wool hats, in company with Charles Benedict and Jarvis P. Hull. Mr. Hull soon with- drew from the firm, and it is now that of Benedict & Mont- gomery.
From an old bill dated New York, June 5th, 1825, we find that Joel Taylor bought of E. & H. Raymond one hundred Spanish wool bodies at 34 cents apiece.
1830 .- At some period prior to this year the silk hat was in- vented by a Chinaman. The Nouelliste of Rouen narrates the following in relation to it : " M. Botta, son of one of the profes- sors at the Academy of Caen, an intrepid traveller and confirmed archaeologist, one of the discoverers of the ruins of Nineveh, undertook a journey to China, and lived some time at Canton. This was prior to 1830. He used to wear there a beaver hat in the European fashion, which suited him so well that he was un- willing to change it. However, when it was worn out he applied to a Chinese hatter, and giving him all sorts of directions told him to make another like it. The man went to work, and in a few days brought a hat of the required shape, not of beaver, but of some stuff very soft and glossy. M. Botta, on his return to France, preserved this curious specimen of Chinese workman- ship, and wishing to have it repaired, intrusted it to a hatter, who examined it carefully, and was much struck with its mode of fabrication, which was altogether new to him. He examined the article with the greatest attention, and in a short time the fashion of silk hats came in. The inventor patented his dis- covery, and made a large fortune, but held his tongue about his debt to the Chinese tradesman, who, seeking a substitute for the beaver which he could not procure, devised the plan of replacing
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it by the light tissue of silk." The silk hat, therefore, had a " Celestial"' birth.
1835 .- Mr. Alvin Hurd, having learned the art of making silk hats from two Englishmen in the city of New York, returned here and set up the business in the shop of Starr Nichols, manu- facturing for the firm of Swift & Nichols, with five men em- ployed, thus introducing into Danbury the art of making silk hats. This branch of the trade increased so that in fact it be- came the most popular one of the day, and in the years inter- vening between 1840 and 1850 was carried on almost exclusively, Messrs. Tweedy & White, William Montgomery, N. H. Wild- man, and others being engaged in it. After 1850 it gradually decreased, and now nothing is done here at this branch, the soft hat taking its place.
During 1835 and several following years, Messrs. Fry & Greg- ory, together with Samuel Sproulls, kept in operation a large wholesale establishment in New York City.
1836-37 .- These times will be remembered by many, but by none more clearly than by the mechanics employed in hatting in those days. A general stagnation occurred in the money market, banks suspended specie payment, factories were closed, heavy failures in every community overwhelmed business men, all trades seemed to be paralyzed, provisions and the necessaries of life rose to an alarming price, poverty was common, and utter ruin seemed to threaten the entire nation. Hatting in Danbury was, of course, very dull, hundreds being out of employment at their trade for a whole year, doing whatever they could find to do in order to earn food for their destitute families. An instance may be mentioned. It being necessary to remove the water-pipe running through Main Street, a company of hatters were hired at $1 per day to perform the job, and set to digging. One man receiving for his first day's work a silver dollar, went and in- vested it in twelve pounds of flour. This job was considered by them all as a lucky affair. The trade received a heavy blow, and when it commenced again it was a long time before confi- dence was restored and former prosperity returned, and employ- ers and employed continued to feel the effects of its utter pros- tration for years.
1840 .- Hoyt, Tweedy & Co. had a factory at the north end of Main Street, and were also connected with the hat store estab-
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lished at Charleston by the Hoyts in 1816. Since 1840, under Edgar S. Tweedy, John R. Hoyt, F. T. Fanning, Lucius Hoyt, A. E. Tweedy, William R. White, and others, the firm has been known successively as that of Hoyt, Tweedy & Co., Tweedy, Hoyt & Co., Tweedy & Hoyt, A. E. Tweedy & Co., Tweedy & White, and now (since 1857) Tweedy, White & Co.
1841 .- After the napped hats had gone out of fashion, Messrs. Niram Wildman and John Fry went to Roxbury for the purpose of getting information concerning the wool hatting. They called on Colonel Lathrop in that place, who was then considered the best manufacturer of wool hats in this section of the country. Having obtained the necessary information, Messrs. Wildman & Fry returned and commenced the manufacture of wool hats in the old building some time since removed from the grounds of Mr. Fry, employing five men as makers and two women as trimmers, turning off from eight to ten dozen per day, the bodies being formed in the "old factory." Wildman & Fry subse- quently sold out to Charles Fry and David Wildman, who con- tinued the manufacture in a building in Main Street, since removed.
Since that time wool hatting has steadily increased in im- portance, and at the present time several of our largest and most flourishing establishments are solely engaged in the manufacture of wool hats, which find a ready market, and the demand for which is still on the increase.
We have then several distinct eras in the trade, a succession of monarchs, as it were, that in their turn flourished and re- signed.
1845 .- About this year a machine for forming fur hat bodies was patented by Wells, of the firm of Wells & Redfield, New York, and soon after improved upon by Burr, St. John & Tay- lor. The principle on which it was constructed was very simple. This machine and its operation may be described as follows : The fur, weighed out and contained in a box with compartments near at hand, is taken out and fed on an apron, working on rollers about four feet from the main machine, by which it is carried to a brush cylinder, concealed from view, eight or ten inches in diameter, and making thirty-two hundred revolutions per minute. Passing through this, it is forced with great veloc- ity through a copper mouthpiece, pyramidical in shape, on to a
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COWPERTHWAITE-BUILDING
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DANBURY NEWS.
McPHLEMY BROS. BUILDING. COWPERTHWAITE BUILDING. HARRIS BUILDING.
TREADWELL BUILDING
TOWN CLUB.
DANBURY NEWS
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
cone made of copper or zinc, perforated with minute holes and steadily turning round. Directly underneath this cone is a blower twelve inches in diameter, revolving fifteen hundred times per minute. This creates a vacuum, properly speaking, exhausting the air from under the cone, and consequently caus- ing the fur to collect upon it as it is forced out by the blower. When just enough has been fed on to form the body, the feeder is stopped. When the body is all formed, a cloth is wrapped about it, while another cone, called the mail, is placed over both ; the whole is then (by a simple contrivance) dipped into a tub standing near filled with warm water heated by steam. After it has been dipped the mail is taken off, the cloth removed, and upon turning the cone upside down the hat drops off. It is then passed between two iron rollers, or wrung out by hand, then rolled in a cloth, and after undergoing the process of hard- ening is ready for the planks. As soon as the body has been taken from it, the cone is wiped with a dry cloth, to remove the water adhering, that it may not destroy the vacuum, and it is then in a condition to form another hat body. Four attendants are required to each machine : a girl to feed on the fur, a boy to tend the cone, replacing one as soon as the other is removed, a man to carry off, do the dipping, etc., and one man to wring out the bodies and harden them. The average time required in which to form a hat body is two minutes, or at the rate of thirty per hour by one machine.
The improvement of Burr, St. John & Taylor consisted of the mouthpiece with the adjustable top, an iron which can be raised or lowered, shaping the mouthpiece (which being copper is easily bent), so as to throw the fur on to the cone as the operator may require. In the first invention it was necessary for the attendant to hold a piece of pasteboard before the fur as it came out, rais- ing and lowering it as the case demanded. Great attention had then to be given to the work, and frequent examination was necessary in order to ascertain the lay of the fur. The mouth- piece with the adjustable top was then a decided improvement. Like all other inventions this had to work against a strong prej- udice, and it was some time, even after it was improved upon, ere it was firmly established and ranked among the inventions really useful and worthy of patronage.
1846-47. - These were hard years for hatters, and many were
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out of employment for some time. Numbers hired out to farmers during the haying season and the time of harvest, but as times became more brisk they again found employment in the shops and the trade went on. Nathaniel H. Wildman was at this time manufacturing fur hats. He kept up the manufacture until a few years since, and is now engaged in a hat store at Augusta, Ga. Truman Trowbridge and Frederick Nichols each employed a number of hands.
1849 .- Mr. Nathan Benedict came from New York with one of the fur hat forming machines. When it was rumored that such a machine was to be brought here it created considerable excite- ment among the mechanics in the trade, and when it actually did arrive a majority of hatters were opposed to it. It was put up by Mr. Benedict in the old Hurlbut factory as an experiment, under the patronage of A. E. Tweedy & Co., but very little was done the first year, and the enterprise progressed slowly ; but as the public confidence in it was strengthened the old prejudice died out, and its popularity increased. Other machines were put up, and year after year the business of hat forming increased, until we have now eight of these machines in operation in the establishment of Messrs. Tweedy, White & Co. alone. Such in- ventions as this made a great revolution in the trade, altering and remodelling very much the system and process of making hats, doing way with much hand labor, and enabling manufac- turers to fill out their contracts more readily.
1850 .- During this year a needed reform in the manner of con- ducting the business was brought about. We refer to the intro- duction of the cash system. Prior to this time the business had been carried on almost entirely by the trade system. The work- man, instead of receiving cash as a return for his labor, obtained an " order" on some one of the merchants in the place, and tak- ing this with him he would present it like a check at the bank, and receive, not the hard cash, but certain articles of which he might stand in need ; so there was not a merchant in Danbury but was in some measure concerned or interested in the hatting business, many of them taking payment in hats, shipping them to New York for sale. Most of the transactions between the different firms were also carried on by trade. The trade or order system was an inconvenient and crippling management for both manufacturers and workmen, but more especially for the latter,
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tending, as it did, to leave the balance of power in the hands of the former, destroying the equality that exists in a measure at the present time. When the cash system was spoken of, one man is said to have exclaimed, in view of the coming event, " When we get all cash, where in the world shall I find means to obtain my coloring liquor ?" He had been so used to paying for it in exchange or trade, that to his mind it seemed at first thought impossible to buy or obtain it in any other manner, even though the almighty dollar be brought into the arrange- ment.
The cash system was found to work finely ; besides more amply and satisfactorily rewarding the mechanic for his labor, it gave greater facilities to manufacturers, infused new life into the trade, and removed the heavy shackles that had stayed its progress.
The cash system, in fact, made an entire revolution in the moneyed interests and financial operations of our village, and opened a wider avenue for all kinds of business, and a more extensive field for the hitherto crippled energies of the whole community. We may set down the introduction of the cash system, then, as an important event, not only in the history of hatting, but also in the history of Danbury.
1852 .- S. A. Brower & Co. started the business of paper-box making in Danbury. Until the soft hat came into use hats were packed in wooden cases alone. Now one dozen hats are placed in a paper box, and these to the number of six are placed in a wooden case. This mode of packing hats for transportation is a little more expensive than the former, but it is at the same time more safe, neat, and convenient.
Mr. E. S. Davis, who bought out Brower & Co. in 1852, now carries on the business quite extensively. At first the demand was very small, but as the manufacture of soft hats increased so did that of paper boxes. Mr. Davis now occupies the whole of the new building seventy by thirty, and three stories high (near Tweedy Brothers). Capital invested, $7000 ; sales per annum, $25,000 ; paid out to hands per month, $200 ; hands employed, eleven ; boards or straw paper used per annum, 125 tons ; num- ber of paper boxes of all sizes made per annum, 216,000. The " boards" are manufactured in the neighboring towns of Brook- field, Newtown, and New Milford.
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Danbury has also been the theatre of some of the most orig- inal and important inventions in the way of making hats by machinery.
1853 .- James S. Taylor, of this town, patented his machines for felting or sizing hats, to which their originality and perfect operation has been satisfactorily applied. These machines have been introduced into general use among the best and most ex- tensive wool hat manufacturers in the United States. The largest single day's work performed by these machines was, prob- ably, in the shop of Wildman & Crosby, in 1856, they having sized on two sets of machines fifty-four dozen hats in one day, the machines being operated by four men working only ten hours.
A Frenchman, J. Baptiste Lacille by name, and many others have invented machines for sizing hats, and sold their patents for large sums ; but the machines failed, not having been brought to perfection, and the Taylor machines have taken the place of all.
1854 .-- The firm of Crosby, Hoyt & Co. was formed in this year for the manufacture of wool hats. The partners were Judah P. Crosby, Henry T. Hoyt, and William B. Wildman. The two partners, Crosby & Wildman, made wool hats in a build- ing just north of the bridge on Main Street on the west side. This building was a grist-mill as early as 1792, afterward a sat- inet factory, and then used for forming wool hat bodies by Niram Wildman, later for the forming and finishing of wool hats.
The new firm built the main part of the factory now occupied by Rundle & White on River Street. On the death of Mr. Wild- man he was succeeded by his son, Alfred N. Wildman. The business was carried on until 1862, when, on the breaking out of the war, a large portion of their debtors being merchants of the South and Southwest, they were obliged to give up business.
1855 .- Abijah Abbott commenced the manufacture of band- boxes for Messrs. Benedict & Montgomery. Mr. Abbott now employs four hands, making thirty thousand large paper boxes per year, and consuming fifty tons of boards per annum. His sales amount to $5000 per annum. In this shop we were kindly shown a machine for cutting and creasing the paper boards, in- vented by Elizur E. Clark, the great New Haven match manu-
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facturer. It was originally intended for making match-boxes, but being perfected, was patented for its present use in 1857. The machine feeds itself, and has thirteen knives, which can be regulated so as to cut strips from the sixteenth of an inch to any required width. The machine is highly finished, nicely adjusted in all its parts, and was obtained at a cost of $375.
The making of wooden cases is a large item, and three firms- George Starr, George Stevens & Co., and Raymond & Ambler- are constantly employed, the former in addition setting up fur blowers, making and repairing blocks, and manufacturing all kinds of hatters' tools.
Another item is that of tip-printing. This consists in stamp- ing the design on the tip found in every hat. Dies or stamps of numerous patterns are used, and the vignettes are printed in gold leaf, Dutch metal, or printer's ink, according to the quality of the hat for which they are intended. Hats are now gener- ally bound by sewing-machines. When they were bound by hand, ten or fifteen minutes were required in which to bind a single hat. It is now done by the machine in one half minute.
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