USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Danbury > History of Danbury, Conn., 1684-1896 > Part 24
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Barnum & Green was another firm who carried on business in 1812 on the corner formerly the garden of the late F. S. Wildman.
Daniel Taylor, it is claimed, was the first man to make combs in Danbury. His factory was in the then Wildcat District, Bethel. In the same locality there were at one time seven shops in operation. Azarael and Charles Smith, Daniel Taylor, E. Hull Barnum, T. T. Dibble, S. B. Peck, and Ammon Taylor. In Bethel Village and Grassy Plain there were Daniel Barnum, George Clapp, Ammon Benedict, and several others. In 1820, and from then to 1837, there were many small shops scattered along the road from Beaver Brook to Newtown, and from New- town to Danbury by the Bethel Road. In 1852 the business died out, mainly because the comb-makers in Massachusetts combined
were mild, the rest of the month cold and blustering, with good sleighing. Decem- ber was quite mild and comfortable."
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
their capital and skilled labor, and killed off the small manu- facturers in other parts of the country.
MANUFACTURES OF TO-DAY. DANBURY MACHINE COMPANY.
The foundry business was begun by John H. Fanton in the spring of 1864. In 1869 he built the present factory on Canal Street. In 1872 Henry Fanton entered the firm, which then became known as Fanton Brothers. Henry Fanton retired from the firm to be succeeded by Charles S. Peck, and the firm became known as the Danbury Machine Company. It is an ordinary business partnership, not an incorporated company, and employs from thirty to thirty-five workmen.
ROGERS SILVER PLATE COMPANY.
This company was organized in 1886 with a capital of $10,000. In 1888 the factory was destroyed by fire, and soon after the company bought the site where stands their present factory. The business has developed very rapidly of late, until there is now $100,000 invested in it, with over two hundred employés, and branch offices in New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco. The President of the company is N. Burton Rogers.
MEDICAL PRINTING COMPANY.
The Danbury Medical Printing Company was organized in 1890 under the laws of the State of Connecticut. Its beginning was the New England Medical Monthly, a publication started in 1881 at Sandy Hook, Conn., with Dr. W. C. Wile as editor and proprietor. In 1886 Dr. Wile was called to a medical pro- fessorship in Philadelphia, where he remained a year. He then came to Danbury and commenced here the publication of the New England Monthly in a barn. To-day it has a fine three- storied brick building on Foster Street, all its own and filled with modern machinery. It is capitalized for $100,000, and has forty employés. It now publishes the New England Medical Monthly, the Prescription, and the Drug Reporter. Its Presi- dent and Treasurer is W. C. Wile.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
THE T. & B. TOOL COMPANY.
During the year 1891 a few of the business men of Danbury became interested in certain inventions of machines and pro- cesses for the manufacture of twist drills, which led to the organ- ization of the T. & B. Tool Company. This company acquired control of these inventions, and after a systematic study of the methods of manufacture of this product undertook to design a complete equipment of special machinery for this purpose. These machines were built for the company and installed in one of the buildings of the Tweedy Manufacturing Company on River Street, where there are now employed about seventy opera- tives, producing about ten thousand twist drills of various sizes per week, besides a variety of other tools for metal working. The consumption of these tools by manufacturers and builders of machinery and iron works of all classes is large, while their manufacture is carried on principally by some eight concerns, who not only supply the drills which are used in this coun- try, but have a large export trade, as outside of the United States their production is very limited. The system of manu- facture employed by this company is unique and original, and believed to possess important advantages over those of other manufacturers.
THE DUNHAM MACHINE WORKS.
This is an up-to-date industry, doing all kinds of model and experimental work, and designs and builds entire any kind of special sewing machine used in hatting or any other business.
THE TURNER MACHINE COMPANY.
This is another thriving industry. It fits out hat factories with all latest improved machinery, imports and deals in hatters' supplies and general merchandise, and makes a specialty of wood blocks and flanges. It has branches in England, France, Vienna, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, and Melbourne.
The architects of Danbury are Foster Brothers, W. W. Sunder- land, F. C. Olmstead, E. W. Gilbert, and the Danbury Building Company. There are fifteen firms of carpenters and builders, nine carriage manufacturers, five manufacturers of harness and
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
leather goods, three soda-water manufacturers, and ten manu- facturers of cigars.
All the various lines of business that are to be found in any city of its size are here in Danbury. The average increase of all branches may be suggested by the fact that where a century ago James Seil was the " only barber," and in 1840 Homer Peters filled the same position, to-day the list of barbers in Danbury numbers twenty-seven.
DOND
VIEWS ON MAIN STREET.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
DANBURY'S RAILWAYS.
As the town and its business grew, the demand for a better means of transportation began to make itself felt. There are in every age and every community, fortunately, progressive spirits who are always restless because they are always looking for something better than what is already possessed. Danbury was blessed with this element, and those who composed it chafed under the limitations of the stage coach and the slow plodding road wagons.
In 1825, when the Erie Canal project was being agitated, pub- lic attention throughout the country was directed to the subject of inside water communication, and the agitation reached Dan- bury, being drawn here by the progressive spirits of that day. It was proposed to run a canal from Danbury to tide-water at Westport. Even a survey was made, the line following near to that of the present railroad as far down as Redding, where it crossed over to the Saugatuck Valley and thence to Westport. It was proposed to use Neversink Pond as a feeder to the canal. The levels taken showed the Main Street at the Wooster House to be three hundred and seventy-five feet above tide-water, and Neversink to be twenty feet above Main Street. Much was said and done about the canal project, but it was finally deemed to be inexpedient because of the heavy locking that would be necessary, and was abandoned.
The next project under consideration was a railroad. This agitation began in 1835, the same year of the survey of the Hart- ford and New Haven Road, and in that year the charter was obtained from the Legislature. The charter was granted to "Ira Gregory, Russell Hoyt, Eli T. Hoyt, Edgar S. Tweedy, David M. Benedict, Ephraim Gregory, Curtis Clark, Frederick S. Wildman, Elias S. Sanford, George W. Ives, with such other persons as shall associate with them for that purpose." These
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
were to be incorporated as the " Fairfield County Railroad Com- pany," with a capital stock amounting to $200,000, or $300,000 if necessary. The road was authorized to run from Danbury by the most direct and feasible route to some suitable point at tide- water, either in the town of Fairfield or the town of Norwalk.
The charter was got and a survey made, and everything seemed to indicate a speedy completion of the road, but a generation was to pass before the hopeful projectors should see a railroad from Danbury to tide-water, and before that glad consummation a mountain of worry, opposition, and discouragement was to be painfully scaled.
The road as it was first contemplated and as it finally took shape were two different projects. Most of our readers are not aware that in Danbury's first inception of railway communica- tion with the outer world the somewhat colossal project of a through line from New York to Albany by way of this place was entertained, and that the Danbury and Norwalk Railway to-day is a part of that scheme, and all, in fact, that is left of it. The proposed route was to run from New York by boat to Wilson's Point, on the Sound, four miles below Norwalk. The harbor there was the best in that section, and would be accessi- ble for the greater part of the most severe winter. From the Point to Danbury the rail was to run, and thence to West Stock- bridge, Mass., where the line would connect with what is now the Boston and Albany Road, which was then building from Albany to West Stockbridge. This, of course, was before the day of the Harlem Road, and in the beginning of railway enterprise in this country. The survey was made by Alexander Twining, of New Haven, in the summer of 1835.
Two surveys were made : one along the Saugatuck River to Compo Point below Westport, and the other along the present route to Belden's Neck (Wilson's Point). The distance on the Saugatuck route was about twenty-three miles, and on the Nor- walk route to Belden's Neck it was twenty-six miles. In point of distance to New York, however, the latter route had the ad- vantage in that it was seven miles nearer to that city by the channel than the former. It is not necessary to speak further of the Saugatuck route, as it was abandoned.
The Norwalk survey as first made by Mr. Twining was con- siderably changed before the work on the road commenced. At
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
this end of the route it was first designed to leave out Bethel, running the road through Mountainville along the line of Sim- paug Brook, and coming into the borough across the South Street and parallel with Main on the east to Turner Street, where it was designed to have the station. Mr. Twining recommended, however, that instead of following the Simpaug, the road branch to the east, and run through Grassy Plain into Bethel, thus se- curing an important station with but little increase in distance. The suggestion was accepted so far as Bethel was concerned, but the route at the south end of the village was not materially changed. Some one did speak of the line which is now occu- pied, but it was scouted at the time. The great flat between the present lower railway bridge and Bethel was a bog, and one very wise citizen said at the time that two twelve-foot rails could be pushed down into it their full length without touching bot- tom. The route along the east of Main Street was strongly opposed by the owners of seventeen homesteads, who gloomily anticipated destruction to their cows and pigs by crossing the track.
While these surveys were going on the friends of the project had their heads full of a through New York and Albany line, and although their charter provided for a road from Danbury direct to tide-water only, they dreamed of the through line and worked for it.
The Hudson River for a railway line was not thought of- neither, in fact, was the route through Putnam County, now known as the Harlem Road ; and a railway line between the two cities by way of Danbury was not so much out of the way, after all.
The distance by the Hudson River, the most direct route, is one hundred and fifty miles ; by way of Danbury it is but four- teen miles greater, as the following will show :
Miles.
From New York by steamboat to Belden's Neck .. . 40
By railway to Danbury 26
From Danbury to West Stockbridge 68
From West Stockbridge to Albany 30
Whole distance 164
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
Mr. Twining recommended this through route, and Messrs. Aaron Seeley, Eli T. Hoyt, and Jarvis Brush, to whom the sur- veyor made his report, published a card endorsing the same.
It may not be uninteresting to our readers of this day to know what were some of the grounds on which was based a calculation in favor of a railway line from Danbury to New York, and we herewith give the views of the gentlemen above named, as well as their estimate of the through business. It presents most interesting reading, we think, to this generation, and the figures contemplated and those realized make entertaining comparisons. The committee advance these views in favor of direct rail com- munication with tide-water :
" The town of Danbury* contains a population of about six thousand ; and the village or borough of Danbury is the central point of business for a fertile and densely populated territory of two hundred square miles. The present amount of transporta- tion from this and the adjoining towns, as ascertained by inquiry of persons engaged in business, is seven thousand tons. This amount has actually been transported during the past year. These considerations alone, without taking into the estimate the impulse which experience has shown will be given by a railroad to all branches of business, enable us to state with confidence that the transportation upon this road, upon its first opening, will be ten thousand tons. The regular price now paid for freight to those exclusively engaged in transportation from Dan- bury to Saugatuck and Norwalk is $5 per ton. Assuming the minimum price for transportation upon the railroad to be $3 per ton, the annual revenue from this source alone will be $30,000, to which may be added for freight from the towns south of Dan- bury, which will probably be nearly equal upon either route, $2000, making in the whole $32,000 ; and the difference between that amount and the price now paid being $20,000 will be a clear gain to the public. The present number of passengers from New York to Danbury, as ascertained by a reference to the books of the proprietors of the stage lines and other sources, is ten thousand. The price of passage now paid, and which it is not proposed to diminish, is $1. The number of passengers from the intermediate towns, we estimate one thousand more, for which there is now paid from 50 to 75 cents ; estimating the
* This included Bethel.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
fare at the average price of 62} cents, the amount is $625, mak- ing the amount of revenue to be derived from passengers $10,625. These estimates are based upon the facts as they now exist ; but when we take into consideration the increased amount of transportation and travel to be created by the increased facili- ties for communication, it may safely be assumed that the income from all sources of revenue will be greatly increased. For in stance, we have stated that the present annual number of pas sengers from Danbury to New York is ten thousand. This in- cludes very few from the towns east of Danbury, and none from the southern portions of Litchfield County, and the eastern part of the counties of Dutchess and Putnam in the State of New York.
" In the instance of heavy articles also, the increased amount of transportation will, in our judgment, far exceed the estimate here made. We refer especially to the articles of coal and plas- ter, the former of which is now used in the interior to a very limited extent, but would, upon the opening of the proposed road, be extensively substituted for wood. In relation to the annual expenditures, the experience of other roads enables us to present an estimate upon which we may safely rely. The annual expense of repairs may be put at $2500. The cost of transporting freight to the amount with which this road will commence will not exceed 35 cents per ton. One trip and one return trip per day will be sufficient to accommodate all the passengers with which the road will open, which at $7.50 per trip, for three hundred and thirteen days, makes for the year $4695. The salaries of the officers in the employ of the company may be set down at $3000 per annum. The expense for drivers and keeping horses,* for freight wagons, etc., exclusive of pas- sengers' cars, $3500, making in the aggregate, for all expenses of the company, $13,695.
" We present the following recapitulation :
Income from freight .. $32,000
transportation of passengers. 20,000
$52,000
Deduct annual expenses of repairs, etc.
13,695
Net annual profit ..
$38,305
* It was designed to run the road by horse-power.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
" Thus yielding a dividend of nearly 10 per cent to the stock- holders."
There are some figures in the report of Mr. Twining's survey from Danbury to tide-water which are of full as much interest to us of to-day as they were to those who watched the progress of the scheme. It must be borne in mind that this was not a steam railway, but really a horse railway. In that day locomo- tives were in but little use in this country, and nothing, com- paratively, was known of them in New England. Mr. Twining's estimate for the grading of the road was $7869 a mile, or $203,389 for the entire distance.
In his estimate for the superstructure-that is, the track-is an item "horse-path," which was to cost $123 a mile. The horse-path was to be of plank. The following is his estimate for the appointments of the road :
Six carriages for passengers. $4,500
Fifteen wagons for burdens
5,250
Thirty horses 3,000
Harness. 600
Two depots, with carriage-houses and stables .. . 8,000
One half-way station, with ditto 2,750
Total
$24,100
It will be seen by the above that passenger cars could then be bought for $750 apiece, and freight cars were in the market at $350 each.
It was proposed to make two trips a day, each way. The cars were to be drawn by horses, two to each car. The time required to make the trip was estimated to be three hours. As to how the freight wagons were to run, or how many to a train, was not determined on, as the road was but then in its inception, and before matters progressed to any degree locomotives came into use.
While these estimates were being made the " through line" was not forgotten. Mr. Twining and the originators of the road were firmly convinced that the line would pay, and that it was a necessity. There was no rail route between New York and Albany, and in the winter when navigation was closed in the river there was no communication between the two cities except
--
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
by stage. The Danbury people sought to stir up enthusiasm at points along the proposed route.
In December, 1835, a public meeting was held in Kent, the next town above New Milford. It was a large meeting. Dele- gates were present from all towns along the proposed line, from Danbury to West Stockbridge. A proposed charter (granted the following year) had been drafted, giving to the company char- tered the right to construct a road to Bridgeport, or to the New York State line in the town of Ridgefield or to Danbury. The Kent meeting determined on the route to Danbury, and appointed Aaron Seeley, Peter Pierce, and Jay Shears a committee to em- ploy an engineer and have a survey made, and estimate of cost prepared.
In March following the committee secured the services of E. H. Brodhead, an experienced civil engineer, to make the survey. He entered upon his duties as soon as possible, and was accom- panied along the course by Mr. Seeley, of the committee.
Twenty-one days were employed in this work. The line in Danbury began at the Main Street bridge across Still River, and Mr. Brodhead's survey ran it through Beaver Brook District, thence along the line of the Still River to its confluence with the Ousatonic (Housatonic) at New Milford. From there it followed pretty much the line now occupied by the Housatonic Road, to West Stockbridge, where was met the railway known as the Boston and Albany.
The committee were very much in earnest. Should the capi- talists of the cities of Albany and New York prefer the west- ern route, say the committee, we appeal to the people of the Housatonic Valley to come forward in all their strength, and relying upon their own resources, to construct a road to tide- water.
The people of the valley eventually came forward in all their strength, and constructed a road to tide-water, but not as the committee expected, and certainly not as they desired.
While these movements were being made, Bridgeport, which was quietly basking in the mud and was not thought of by any one as a railroad point, suddenly crawled up on high ground and began to realize that there was danger of losing something. The something in question was all the business of the Housatonic Valley.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
When Bridgeport got on high ground where it could look off some other direction than seaward, it saw that by way of Dan- bury and Norwalk was so much more direct for a line to New York than by way of itself that should the road be built there would never be the ghost of a chance for it to get the business of the upper Housatonic Valley. It would all go the shorter route.
Danbury as yet had no road to tide-water. If Bridgeport could build a road from New Milford to itself, then it would stand a very good chance to take the business of the Housatonic Valley should a road be put through it. Alfred M. Bishop, father of William D. Bishop, was considerably interested in the proposed road, and came to Danbury to talk over the matter with our people. He offered to carry through the Fairfield County Railway if Danbury would raise $100,000 for that purpose. There were those in favor of doing it, of course, but there were so many more opposed to it that the scheme fell through. He next tried Bridgeport, and that city being a trifle more awake than we, or a trifle less honest,* we are not sure which, pledged $200,000 for a road from there to New Milford.
: This practically killed the Danbury route from New York to Albany. In 1840 the railway from Bridgeport to New Milford was completed and opened for use. Two years later it was ex- tended to the State line and became the winter route from Albany to New York via the steamer Nimrod, Captain Brooks, to Bridgeport, and as such was occupied for a number of years. It was ten years later that the Danbury and Norwalk Road took form. Work on the road was begun in the fall of 1850. Beard, Church & Co. were the contractors, Deacon John F. Beard being the senior of the firm. The total cost of constructing and equip- ping the road was $370,821. The equipment consisted of three locomotives, four first-class and two second-class passenger cars, eight box, sixteen platform, and three hand-cars. On March 1st, 1852, the road was so far completed to run trains. The station in Danbury was a subject of considerable discussion. The down-town subscribers wanted it in that neighborhood, while the up-town subscribers wanted it where it now is. As the
* When the time came for this money to be paid Bridgeport sought to repudiate, and the law was called in to force it to keep its word, which appeared to be equally as good as its bond.
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SAMUEL C. WILDMAN. STURGES SELLOCK. CHARLES HULL.
P. D. CROSBY. D. P. NICHOLS. AMMON T. PECK.
a
CHAS. ANDREWS. THOS. MOOTRY. STEPHEN HURLBURT.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
latter's stock was much more than the former's they carried the day ; whereupon the dissatisfaction was so great among the dis- appointed that the successful ones took their stock off their hands.
The following were the officers of the new road, as recorded in the first printed report of the company :
Directors : Eli T. Hoyt, Jonathan Camp, Frederick S. Wild- man, Charles Isaacs, E. S. Tweedy, William C. Street, L. P. Hoyt, William K. James, William A. White, Ebenezer Hill, Frederick Belden, D. P. Nichols.
President, E. T. Hoyt ; Treasurer, George W. Ives ; Secretary, E. S. Tweedy ; Superintendent, Harvey Smith.
The President, Treasurer, and Secretary were of Danbury ; the Superintendent was of Ridgefield.
Mr. Hoyt served as President of the company until August 25th, 1864, when he was superseded. He determined his salary, fixing it at $250 a year, and refusing any increase. Edwin Lock- wood, of Norwalk, was chosen President, and served until June 18th, 1873, when R. P. Flower was elected. Hyatt succeeded him, and held the office until the road passed into possession of the Housatonic Company.
Mr. Tweedy continued as Secretary until August 25th, 1864, when Harvey Williams was elected to the office. Mr. Ives served as Treasurer until that period, when the two offices were merged in one, Mr. Williams being both Secretary and Treasurer, and continued as such until 1886.
Mr. Smith served as Superintendent until prostrated by a paralytic stroke in 1859. John W. Bacon was appointed in his place July 14th, 1859, and served until January 1st, 1876, when L. W. Sandiforth was chosen. F. C. Payne is the present Super- intendent. He has served since 1887.
When the road was opened the rails for some distance this side of Redding were laid on the ground, the earth being frozen so hard as to bear the weight of the train. This was done because the completion had been delayed for a considerable time beyond that set for its finish, and people were anxious to see a train go through.
In 1844 the New York and Hartford Road was projected. It was to pass through Danbury, and thence to New York via White Plains, N. Y. We can now see what a splendid piece of
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