USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume I > Part 21
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(From rare old engraving in coll ction of H. B. Clark:
FIRE IN STATE HOUSE SQUARE, HARTFORD
About 1830. Burning building was on site of the present Courant Building; Old Hartford Bank, west side; Exchange Bank, east side. East (and real) front of State House, facing park where Post Office now stands. The whole was within the original "Meeting-House Yard." First Meeting-House was to rear of observer. Jail at northeast (right-hand) corner
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interested in Hudson Brothers' paper mill in Manchester (Oak- land), and mayor in 1836-1840; Ward Woodbridge, drygoods importer and cotton manufacturer, president of the Hartford Bank, the third wealthiest man in the city, of a family of promi- nent men including his brother Deodatus who was the grand- father of Richard M. Bissell, the president of the company today; Daniel Buck of Wethersfield and Hartford, merchant and with his brother, Dudley Buck, proprietor of a line of steamboats to New York; and Thomas Kimberley Brace, Yale 1801, wholesale grocer, president of the Aetna Insurance Company in 1819, mayor in 1840-1843. Walter Mitchell was general counsel and secretary. He was the son of Chief Justice Stephen Mix Mitchell of Wethersfield.
The office, which also was Mitchell's office, was fitted up at an expense of $21.25. The calf-bound record book in which the min- utes of the first meeting were written attests today the longsight- edness of these men for it has been used for the same purpose ever since then. The first investment was in Hartford Bank stock, fourteen shares at $400, leaving $9,400 in the treasury. Engaging no local agents at the outset, they did carry in the Courant the largest advertisement ever seen in its four pages, one-quarter of a page, headed by a picture of a large fire in a building near the Ferry Street dock. The first year's premium income was $3,000 and no losses; expenses, $530. The first two agents outside were appointed in 1810; the first outside the state, in 1811. They turned in little business; they were allowed in lieu of a commission the charge for the survey and 50 cents for each policy, which the insured paid. At the time of the expansion in 1820 Anson G. Phelps of New York, one of the country's fore- most philanthropists, established the company's office in that city. Timothy Dwight, son of the president of Yale, was the represent- ative of the company in New Haven. The first company the Hartford reinsured was the New Haven.
There was no other bank till 1814 and no other insurance company till 1819.
American conditions in 1814-national, state and municipal -make one of the most fascinating chapters in the country's his- tory, as detailed in the "First Century of the Phoenix National Bank" (1914). Items of it are essential to a comprehension of
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the salvation from economic ruin of state and Union at that period. Briefly, bills of credit issued by so-called exchanges or banks, of which Hartford had two or three, had been a last re- sort in the financial distress since the beginning of the French- Indian wars. Such issues having been prohibited by the federal Constitution and currency rapidly diminishing, Congress char- tered the Bank of the United States in 1791, and its bills became "regulators." When that charter expired in 1811, state banks created a political contest over the power of Congress and over alleged foreign control, with result that the charter was not re- newed. Its legitimate successor was not to come till 1816.
Therefore when war actually was precipitated in 1812, the only dependence was on state banks serving only local communi- ties, and when they had suspended specie payment in 1814, there was chaos throughout the land. While the British were burning Washington, the only banks had been falling like reeds broken by the wind-but not the Hartford or the new Phoenix. The cer- tificates worthless, the government was obliged to default; there was rioting in many cities. Contrary to law, fractional notes were circulated from banks, signed by outsiders, and then directly from outsiders, till the Legislature permitted the small denomi- nations. Inflation raged independently in the various states. Banks had to carry a frequently corrected table of relative values of the little slips of paper, and even that proved inadequate in the fall of 1814. Outside of a few cities, people were dependent upon ridiculous barter and were warring with each other over perpe- tration of fraudulent measurements.
At home here, although the bank was making much money on loans up-river, the keystone of actual prosperity had fallen with the ruin of foreign commerce. The Hartford Bank and its own courageous men were in dire straits. Caldwell had lost through the French spoliations, and Terry and others by the embargo and the war. Parallel tragedy in 1928 would be headlined : "Everything Wiped Out."
And still another locally distressing feature was to develop when the bold petition for another bank was presented. In the mad struggle of people and institutions for mere existence, re- ligious principles got mixed with politics and banking-and hap- pily the way was being opened to put an end to that sort of thing constitutionally. As previously remarked, some minds have not
NATHANIEL TERRY
First president of the Hartford Fire Insur- ance Company; Major, Governor's Foot Guards; a leading member of the Constitu- tional Convention of 1818
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Reduced Fac-simile of the Second Policy issued by the Hartford Fire Ins. Co., February 8, 1794.
Sum chaud$ 300_
WHEREAS Klim donkey Offtopic
or when che is may concern, wholy er partly, Frichal in For, dont make Afrance on this Houseo
against Fre, und all Dangers of Fire 1_moreover against all Damage which en Account of Fire may happen. auber by Tempel, Fire, Wind, own Fire, Neglipeace and Faute of owe Servants, or of Neighbours, wherber those Beaten of funhel cf , all external Accidente and Mistertanga ; ibeugly of and not thought of, to what Munch fever the damage by Fire might happen in the flow of one year communesing the ughthe day howary 590 and ending on the rightto doy Febuary 1995, 20th at twoder Ofbook of Mormonvia pily and vouing the til House of the Sum mundo-
And the Afurer, or whore It may concern, in cafe of Damage, or Hust, fhall ored to give noTrnof nor &e. count of the Value , but the producing this Policy Ball fuffice. And in cafe it Should happen that the ford the Whole or Part, are bunt and fallet Damage, on that Account, we do bereby premife punctually to pay and rally, within the Space of thece Munibe after the Fire fuall have happened, due Notice having been given to us, and no Deduction to be made from the Sum adund exept Tuo aod Lo Half per Cre", provided fad Lofa amounts to Five per Crus. woder which no Lofs et Damage will be paid, And'in cafe of a partil Lofs, all that thall be feund to be faved and preferved, fhall be deducted, sher the Deduchos of the Charges paid lor tbe faring and preferving ; and concerning which the Affured ball be Delivered on has Onds, without our alledging way:hung against It. And So we the ATurers are + ontested, and Laod Ourielves Lod Goods prefent and tu come, senonpring all Caw's and Exceptions contrary to thele Pre- KDO, for the true Performance of the Premises, the Confederation due une ws for this Afferance by the AS facd, at and after the Kare the onehalf perfor
Reciprocally fatturato all Diferences to two Persons, One to be taken by the Afored out of Three to be Daszed by I've Afure, the other by the Affuter or Afurer, out of Three to be named by the Afured, who bill have full Power to odjel the fame , but in cafe they cannot agree, then fuch two Perloas fall chook a Thud, and any Two of ibem agreeing, hall be obligatory to both Parues.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, We the ATurers bare fubferbed ou Names and Sures afured in Hartford the ~ 8th Dord February One Toutand Seven Hundred UN Ninetyfour
2800, Sin Jore Withaworthy Eight hundred Pounds For the Hartford This comune Company )
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yet discerned that Episcopalianism and toryism were not synony- mous. In the earlier fashion of thought, the Hartford Bank was "Congregational"-orthodox-even though among its directors were pronounced Episcopalians; among the promoters of the new bank were Episcopalians like Sigourney, Congregationalists like Russell Bunce. Now in those days, and for long after, it was the custom that concerns getting charters could be obliged to provide a bonus for specified industrial or public institutions; it certainly helped oil the wheels of legislation and supposedly aided general advancement. (The walks and fence around the State House were paid for in that way on the granting of a charter to the Manufacturers Bank in 1834, and coincidentally liberal sums went to silk companies, a sort of subsidy, when the silk craze was on.) Episcopalians were thinking of starting a college and like- wise of the needs of the Bishop's Fund; Congregationalists heard the cry of Yale for a medical institute, and the legislative lobby was to hear of a Litchfield bank plan.
The petition for the "Bank of Connecticut" with $1,500,000 capital, was drawn by Charles Sigourney, and he, Samuel Tudor and Ward Woodbridge were the committee to get signatures. The petition argued that it was better to form a new bank than to enlarge one whose capital was overgrown and whose influence was accumulating! Hartford had other resources than foreign commerce, namely industry and inland trade, and commerce it- self would revive. This was the prophetic view at the moment when the Courant was breaking its tradition by making a per- sonal appeal to the effect that holders of notes should keep them in circulation with faith in the real property of the now money- less promisors, and just before gold was to touch a 15 per cent premium. The state, financially worried, was laying a 2-cent tax; the city tax was 4 cents, on a list of $100,000.
Sigourney's petition was fuel to the long-threatening religious "Toleration" flame. Before it would be considered by the upper house, it contained a provision for the branch in Litchfield whose two representatives became directors, and also a compromise bonus clause for unspecified sums for Yale and its institute and the Bishop's Fund, "or to be otherwise disposed of for the use of the state and for any purpose whatever which to your honors may seem best." So far as can be made out from the state rec- ords of those days of close figuring Yale eventually received
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$20,000 and the Hartford Bank a like amount in payment of old loans. Episcopal college or fund does not appear. However, the "Toleration Act" and the revised Constitution were not far off.
(It may be noted that when the Government allowed $61,500 in partial reimbursement for the state's expenses in the war, the Legislature distributed part of it thus: Bishop's Fund, $8,785; Baptists, $7,687; Methodists, $5,125; Yale, $8,785; Congrega- tionalists, $20,500. As commutation on the Phoenix Bank bonus in 1825, the state granted $7,064 for the Bishop's Fund.)
The total of the bank bonus was $50,000 because the charter, in passage, provided for only $1,000,000 capital. Also it came through the flames with the appropriate name of Phoenix. Clauses in the charter that were to fester-similar to the amend- ment to the Hartford's charter-gave special stock privileges to the state and to charitable, school and religious organizations. Stock was quickly subscribed. Directors elected were Normand Knox, Ward Woodbridge, Samuel Tudor, Charles Sigourney, Daniel Buck, Thomas K. Brace, Moses T. Ryon, Jr., Jonathan W. Edwards, John Russ, David Watkinson and James H. Wells, the two last named being immediately succeeded by Michael Olcott and Russell Bunce. Knox, who was cashier at the Hartford, was chosen president; George Beach, to be the fourth president, like President Knox prominent in Christ Church, and founder of the Widows' Home, was chosen cashier. Ancestral land of Mr. Olcott across the way from the State House was bought and the first marble building in town was erected on the site which ever since has been the home of the bank, thrice rebuilt to meet increasing needs and still surmounted by the significant phoenix bird.
These same men, of the type which has been established in this story of the Constitution Towns, looked into the principles of mutual savings banks which were beginning to appear in Eng- land and this country where there were but four all told. Forth- with they incorporated the Society for Savings and on June 9, 1819, were organized with Daniel Wadsworth president, Elisha Colt treasurer, and James M. Goodwin secretary. Mr. Colt was state comptroller and his office in the State House was the bank's up to the expiration of his term of office, when he transferred it to his home at No. 10 Church Street, still doing business only Wednesday afternoons, for economy's sake. In 1834, after two
SO J. WATSON & CO
STO . WATSON & LO
OFFICE OF THE HARTFORD FIRE INSUR- ANCE COMPANY, HARTFORD (1859-1870)
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HARTFORD FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, HARTFORD
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other locations, a classic building was erected on Pratt Street after a design by Mr. Wadsworth. Increasing fast in popular- ity, it won the name of "Pratt Street Bank," by which it is still known to many, never having removed from that location but replacing one outgrown building by another till now the fourth, opened in 1927, is as classically beautiful in comparison with others as was the first one. Character of men and buildings has remained constant. The list of trustees and officers is like a roll of financial honor. The presidents since Wadsworth have been Ward Woodbridge, James B. Hosmer, Roland Mather, John Cald- well Parsons, Francis B. Cooley, Jonathan B. Bunce, Charles E. Gross and Charles P. Cooley.
The second insurance company, the Aetna, which soon came to vie in size and strength with the best, dates from this same period. Its traditional origin has to do with the amount of time that Secretary Mitchell of the Hartford Fire spent at his home in Wethersfield or on the way there. Threats to form a new company were carried out. Yet the board of directors chosen June 15, 1819, is evidence that again it was men of forethought and conservatism who conceived the idea: Thomas K. Brace, Thomas Belden, Samuel Tudor, Jr., Henry Kilbourn, Eliphalet Averill, Henry Seymour, Griffin Stedman, Gaius Lyman, Judah Bliss, Caleb Pond, Nathaniel Bunce, Joseph Morgan, Jeremiah Brown, James M. Goodwin, Theodore Pease, Elisha Dodd and Charles Babcock-Mr. Brace the president and Isaac Perkins the secretary. Mr. Brace resigning because of financial embarrass- ment was succeeded for two years by Henry L. Ellsworth, twin brother of the governor, but was again elected after his own affairs had been arranged. Its first-and the country's first- reinsurance was that of the Middletown Fire the very first year. It was the first company to establish agencies in large centers and its experience in times of national stringency in the '20s and of serious fires around the country would have disheartened any but the bravest. The banks helped as they were to do on other occasions and with other companies.
It remained for Joseph Morgan, an original director, to make a survey twenty years after incorporation, and thereby to place his name high among those of insurance pioneers. Taking in Chicago and New Orleans he covered 6,104 miles in ten weeks, and his average daily expense, all items carefully kept, was $3.29.
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He was succeeded as director by his son, Junius S., and he by his son, J. Pierpont, and he by his son, J. Pierpont, Jr., making this one of their formal connecting links with Hartford after they had become leaders in the world of finance. It was the first com- pany to issue a book of instructions to agents, the first to use a blank for proof of loss and the first to appreciate the value of out- line charts.
§
There was one question of local enterprise on which these men of the early part of the century did not agree, and that was the toll bridge over the Connecticut. The ferry, as previously said, was sometimes a cause of complaint but it was encouraged by the state and it yielded revenue for the town. In 1804 John Mor- gan and others petitioned for the right to build a bridge and the town engaged Major Caldwell and Major Terry to oppose them. Morgan was tenacious and in 1809 the bridge was built, at a cost of $96,000. A New York syndicate held 250 of the 800 shares (forty of which Aaron Burr sold to Ward Woodbridge and Grif- fin Stedman in 1833 for $100 a share). Each share was assessed $135 for the construction but soon the bridge was paying a divi- dend of $9. Windsor was especially distressed because, despite a rude draw, here was a check on navigation northward, and first and last many devices were resorted to for purpose of demon- strating that the bridge interfered with natural rights. The flood of 1818 swept away much of the bridge and, with the ferry com- petition, the company would not rebuild till the ferry was sup- pressed; then it expended $125,000 on a six-arch bridge 974 feet long, the arches resting on stone piers. The suppression act was repealed by the Legislature in 1836 and the town provided a lit- eral horse-power boat, but only to experience another suppres- sion in 1841. The next year it was doing business again but only pending the decision of the courts, which was in favor of the bridge. The suit had been brought by East Hartford people who had set up the ferry and who had to pay $12,363 after the United States Supreme Court had sustained the decision of the lower courts. The causeways were built at an expense of $150,000. The beginning of the next volume of bridge history was in 1889.
THOMAS K. BRACE
First president of the Aetna Insurance Company
KLIN CLARK
ETNAINSURANCEC
STATE STREET OFFICE OF THE AETNA INSURANCE COMPANY, HARTFORD (1837-1867)
A
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181
ETNA
INSURANCE COMPANY
1904
AETNA INSURANCE COMPANY, HARTFOR
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There was no bridge over Little River west of Main Street except a foot bridge at the foot of Pearl Street and three small bridges on the roads to West Division. In 1827 a vote was passed for a bridge at the foot of Pearl Street ten feet above the water, made of a mast supported on piers, with boards nailed on it and steps leading up to it at each end. A board walk ran from the bridge to Imlay's Mill. The Ford Street bridge was built in 1849 for $15,000 and the Front Street bridge in 1853 for $10,000.
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FIRST POLICY ISSUED BY THE AETNA INSURANCE COMPANY
XX
WAR OF 1812: NEW CONSTITUTION
INDUSTRY HURT BY EARLY EMBARGO-"HARTFORD" (BOSTON) CONVEN- TION-PARTIES BLEND IN "TOLERATION"-EARLY GOVERNMENT PRINCIPLES CONTINUED-SCHOOL FOR DEAF, RETREAT AND OTHER HUMANITARIANISM-CHURCH REVIVALS.
Altogether it is seen that Hartford's perseverance and genius were bringing it well through the difficulties of the times when in 1812 the second war with England came. No emphasis has been laid upon Hartford's loss through the depredations of Napo- leon's ships upon American commerce in his war with England, but many a man who was beginning to recoup after the century of wars had had to exercise the utmost personal and often un- accustomed exertion to prevent being financially sunk by "French spoliations." United States was still more or less a jest in European eyes, a playground for Frenchmen like Genet, a dis- united country, rioting. England, fighting Napoleon single- handed and distressed by desertions from her navy, thought to search American ships for seamen and then to impress English- tongued men who really were from America. Following the anti- federalist bent, President Jefferson, justly indignant, turned his wrath against England while the federalists, including New England, felt fully as much grievance toward the nation of Genet and his like. Jefferson's embargo seemed-but only seemed-to have affected New England much more than any other section; it was the last word in destruction for many enterprises. Eng- land's orders in council prohibiting transportation of goods in any but English bottoms was reminiscent of old days; but there were signs that England would quit her folly while Napoleon's France would not, when news came that war had been declared against England, the very day after England had repealed her orders. And this with Madison, of Virginia, in the presidential chair. Like most statesmen of the day, he was a pacifist and he
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had been deceived by Napoleon. His administration had de- stroyed such signs of national defense as had been left. Col. Wil- liam Hull of Derby, at Fort Detroit, was the first victim of such frightful inefficiency as that of Dearborn, in command of the Army of the North.
Madison, whose marine imbroglio had been worse than Jef- ferson's, called for the militia. Governor Griswold of Connecti- cut replied with a transcript from the Constitution Madison had helped frame, relative to the power of Congress "to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, sup- press insurrections and repel invasions." It was a clause writ- ten out of experience with monarchical power. Moreover the troops were placed under the command of such officers as the Government should name, despite the Constitution and in face of such an example as Dearborn furnished. The Legislature backed Governor Griswold and his successor John Cotton Smith. Another item was that New England's coast most of all invited attack, but the Government could not find the troops or ships to send there. State troops were raised and were sent along the shore, chiefly to New London, to do duty that was obvious and to do it well enough to cause the British to retire; but Congress had made no provision and there was no one to protect Essex when the enemy pushed his raid in April, 1814. Under the President's call for troops to be held in readiness that year, Washington was notified that Connecticut's quota of 3,720 was filled and while "in readiness" kept the enemy at bay. And she had been gener- ous with her money.
"Peter Parley" (S. G. Goodrich) gives this description of one of companies leaving for Fort Griswold, Groton, where Admiral Hardy had driven Commodore Decatur and his captured prizes to find place of refuge up the Thames, where this company was to serve six weeks and where detachments of various Connecticut companies were to relieve each other with short tours of duty :
"At 10 o'clock, we were mustered and began our march, all in our best trim : cocked hats, long-tailed blue coats with red facings, white pantaloons and shining cutlasses at our sides. Our glittering cannon moved along with the solem- nity of elephants. It was, in fact, a fine company, all young men, and many from the best families in Hartford. Our captain, Johnson, was an eminent lawyer, of martial ap- pearance and great taste for military affairs. He after-
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ward rose to the rank of general. Moseley, the first lieuten- ant, was six feet four inches high-a young lawyer, nephew of Oliver Wolcott-and of high social and professional standing. Screamed the fife, rolled the drum-as we en- tered New London !"
Massachusetts sent out the call for a meeting of leading men at Hartford December 14, 1815, "to devise, if practicable, means of security and defence which may be consistent with the preser- vation of our resources from total ruin, and adapted to our local situation, mutual relations and habits, and not repugnant to our obligations as members of the Union." The Legislature re- sponded heartily. There were only seven delegates from Con- necticut, all foremost men, and only one of them from Hartford, Chauncey Goodrich who, serving at the same time as mayor, had just ended his service in the United States Senate. The sessions in the State House were behind closed doors. Theodore Dwight was the secretary who later was to publish the details. There were to be recommendations to Congress but before the adjourned session could be held, peace had been declared. About a hundred men from the state had gone into the regular army. While the "Hartford Convention" was in session, a recruiting sergeant, with rattling drum, persisted in marching his detail around the State House calling for recruits. Materiel was placed in the Hartford Bank and the Governor's Foot Guard was under orders to respond to call should rioting break out. The people had their idea of the proceeding but were peaceful.
These are facts from records and from outside writers of highest authority which have been omitted mistakenly from state and local histories. Massachusetts, with painful memory of old days of stolen rights, had teemed with bitter federalism. Just before he fell in the duel with Burr, Hamilton, leader of federal- ists, had been impelled to write Colonel Trumbull (in 1804) : "You are going to Boston. You will see the principal men there. Tell them from me, as my request, for God's sake, to cease these conversations and threatenings about a separation from the Union." Public opinion in the South, before 1814, had been formed that New England might lose her temper. Exaspera- tion had increased. When the Enforcement Act was passed in Jefferson's last term and Gov. Jonathan Trumbull, 2nd, in the last days of his long governorship (1809) received a request to
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