USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume I > Part 39
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A very notable addition to this kind of institution was made when in the mid-'90s the Roman Catholics built St. Mary's Home on the beautiful West Hartford farm where Rose Terry Cooke was born.
In the last two decades of the nineteenth century the allure- ments for the young were many and bold. Compared with today, there was less wanton expenditure, less contempt for the conven- tional hours for sleep; but, taking the mass of youths as a whole, there was less ambition,-less opportunity and less disposition to get beyond the grammar school grades or the apprenticeship in the factories. Saloons, before the days of higher license fees, were so numerous as to embarass merchants and their patrons. There were gambling dens and brothels around the center of the cities, and "road houses" on the outskirts. Two low-class vaude- ville houses in the '80s nightly drew carousers. Such conditions were not uncommon throughout the country, and the better ele- ment in every city was grappling with the problem. Hartford was one of those where thoughtful men and women sought to get at the roots of the evils.
One who has known the Young Men's Christian Association and kindred organizations only of today can with difficulty imag- ine the real motives of many who gave their aid in the '90s. The principle was that of attraction instead of compulsion and of stirring enthusiasm rather than prescribing regulations. The Hartford "Y", whose beginnings we have traced, had played its part quietly but effectively, according to its means, since its first meetings in the First Church lecture rooms, its house on Prospect Street and its rooms on Asylum Street. Now it was to be put to the test; it was to enter upon an era when it should become with certainty an indispensable feature of the community its citizens were determined Hartford should be. The great encouragement came when Gen. Charles T. Hillyer gave the land upon which
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the present buildings stand at the corner of Ford and Pearl streets. And in his memory in 1892, his son, Appleton R. Hill- yer, and his daughter, Clara E. Hillyer, with a gift of $50,000 --- the second of the family's many benefactions-established Hill- yer Institute for a manual-training and trades school, the begin- ning of the exceptional educational department of the association today. The fund for the original building was raised by public subscription, Frederick K. Fox, a well known grocer, giving $5,000, and it was ready for occupancy in November of 1892. The rooms were thronged with men and women, leaders in the city. Col. Charles A. Jewell presided; Daniel R. Howe made the speech of presentation. Colonel Jewell who was president of the association from 1881 to 1891 and from 1897 to 1904, succeeding Charles E. Thompson, was always generous in his support, and the family name is borne by the auditorium in the main building. Mr. Howe, a foremost financier and man of affairs, was president from 1904 to 1913 and was likewise constant in his interest. There will be other chapters of the story of the association within the scope of this history and still others within the scope of future histories.
General Hillyer (1800-1891) was the son of Col. Andrew H. Hillyer of Granby, whose ancestors were among the earliest col- onists. After conducting a store in Granby for some time, Mr. Hillyer came to Hartford in 1853 where he organized the Charter Oak Bank and was president of it till 1879 when he was succeeded by his long associate as cashier, J. F. Morris. He was also con- nected with other financial institutions and became the wealthiest man in the town. Active in the militia from young manhood, he was adjutant-general from 1840 for six years. In the Civil war he served on the local war committee and was offered the colonelcy of the Sixteenth C. V., but declined because of age. Company B of the Twenty-second adopted his name because of the interest he showed, and after the war the Hillyer Guard was one of the leading companies in the newly organized National Guard. He believed in the future of the West, attesting his faith with a large amount of capital. In Illinois he bought at less than one cent an acre 60,000 acres of land that was in the possession of the Bank of England. His donations to other institutions besides the Y. M. C. A. were liberal.
Among the bequests of the decade which were to help on these
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various promotive enterprises were those of Mrs. Mary J. Keeney, Mrs. Susan Clark and of Lucy Morgan Goodwin, sister of Junius S. Morgan, wife of Maj. James Goodwin and mother of Rev. Frances Goodwin. Mrs. Goodwin was born in West Springfield in 1811 but at the time of her death in 1890, Hartford had been her home for many years and Hartford had enjoyed her benefi- cence, to be continued after her own constant and varied activities had ceased.
Back in the mid-'80s a group of young men formed St. Paul's Guild of Christ Episcopal Church and among other activities started a reading room at the corner of Main and Morgan streets. Believing that they could go farther into the "East Side" they opened another room on Front Street in 1888. They rejoiced in the comfort and pleasure evinced by the unfortunate men who came there every night. A superintendent was engaged, parti- tions were torn down and room was furnished for that Gospel Mission work which was much in vogue then, encouraged largely by the Moody and Sankey meetings. The name Open Hearth was adopted. To make it mean more the institution, incorporated in 1893, provided lodgings and furnished meals in tents erected near the house, and then provided work for men to do by which to earn their fare. Endowments came, including one of $10,000 by the will of Mrs. Mary J. Keeney; there was a men's Bible class and frequent entertainments were given by young folks from the "West Side." Women and children came with the men till provided for in another way.
To continue the story so interestingly begun: By 1892 the demand for more room was met by buying the historic old Bar- nabas Deane house on Grove Street, said by antiquarians and artists to be the city's finest specimen of colonial architecture then standing. At the opening, in April, 1892, hundreds of people gathered to admire the wide grounds, the wood yards, the lodging rooms, the quarters in the large barn, and the children's play- grounds. It had become the day of the genuine "tramp;" any unfortunate who wished to rise above that class found his oppor- tunity here. So many improved the opportunity that in 1908 a brick building, St. Paul's Hall, with dormitory, reading room and baths was erected on the grounds and was dedicated by Bishop Brewster. Superintendent John H. Jackson reported that the previous year 50,000 lodgers had been accommodated and meals
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furnished at a total cost of less than 2 cents for each man-a wonderful saving over the cost of maintaining a city lodging house, and this only a part of the good work. By the time of the World war, there were few unemployed; the hall was used by the Italians, for Americanization work and as a reading room. The property was sold to the Hartford Club, to be cleared for a greatly needed parking space, and with the proceeds a former saloon and residence building on Sheldon Street near Colt's factory, was made over for an up-to-date "hearth," to which the brick structure readily lent itself. There was abundant space and facilities were up to date. Charles DeLancey Alton, Jr., the president, the whole Board of Trustees and Superintendent Herbert F. Baker felt that they were ready for any need should need again develop as in the '90s. The public must now be called upon to assist in the enlargement, even though it is made necessary not by local condi- tions of industry.
In the early '90s some of the women, chiefly of the Episcopal churches, interested themselves in the women of the "East Side" -in what today would be called "social welfare." Superintendent B. N. B. Miller of the Open Hearth assisted. Rooms were secured on Front Street in 1891, which were given up for others on Temple Street the following year and Hartford's Shelter for Women was well on in its noble work. The need for the work decreased in time, the locality was being required for great mercantile business and in these later years the Shelter removed to Ann Street. There Gray Lodge was established, not for the friendless but for girls getting a start and having only small income. It is in charge of Miss Harriet T. Johnson, and must soon be enlarged.
The feature of the work which gave the institution its name is carried on, under these better conditions of the times, by the Woman's Aid Society on Barbour Street, which was organized in 1878 and chartered in 1881, by women many of whom also were interested in the original Shelter. The men who have aided included Rev. Francis Goodwin, Wilbur F. Gordy, J. G. Calhoun and Atwood Collins.
As just said, the children were not be lost sight of, in the crowding of the Open Hearth. "Social welfare" was all-embrac- ing. For the benefit of the younger boys and girls, this energetic group of women, drawing still others to their ranks, secured a quaint little brick house on North Street, just off the Valley rail-
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road tracks where the street and the then muddy river bank were the only play ground. The seemingly out-of-place brick house may have been a relic of those times when the great wharves were built near here and did not draw trade. The women trans- formed it and its small yard into a paradise for the little ones of the crowded tenements, and North Street's Social Settlement in 1899 took its place among the institutions which Hartford is proud of. Two women whose names must always be associated with that work because of their devotion were Miss Mary Graham Jones and Miss Catherine Howard. President Newton C. Brain- ard's letter issued in 1927, describing the need of a supplementary building, says: "Hundreds of boys and girls have come from the crowded tenements in the neighborhood to take what the Settle- ment has had to offer-games, classes, play in the gymnasium and playground. In such numbers have they come and keep coming that the settlement itself has grown almost as crowded as the surrounding tenements. From cellar to attic, every corner of the building is used every hour of the day and evening. But the walls cannot be stretched to receive all who would come." The site for the new building had been bought with the aid of far- sighted citizens of and for Hartford before this opportunity for others to give was set forth by the former mayor
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A study of the names of the people who were prominent in all these good works reveals that a large proportion of them were of Hartford County ancestry. Pride in such ancestry on the part of people outside the state as well as within was evidenced by the meeting here in 1899 of the Grant Family Association, for mem- bership in which 4,000 living descendants of Matthew Grant of Windsor were eligible, including the family of General Grant. The site of the old homestead and also of the homestead of Admiral Dewey's ancestor, the stone marking the first English settlement in the colony and many other points of interest were visited. Addresses were made at the Allyn House by Jabez H. Hayden of Windsor, Rev. Dr. Roland Grant and Secretary and Treasurer Frank Grant of Hartford. The story of this ancestry is given in the Windsor section of this history.
Town and city coterminous and suburban residences being
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built in the adjacent towns, a wide territory was becoming prac- tically one community, and already the question was being raised whether the original Hartford boundaries should not be restored by bringing in East and West Hartford. The first petition of that sort was presented to the Legislature in 1894, by the residents of the section just over the West Hartford line, which is Prospect Avenue. It was opposed by West Hartford as a town, as like propositions have been opposed in these present days when that town has its advanced form of government and improved civic conditions. Elizabeth Park was mostly in West Hartford, also the new golf club, and Farmington Avenue and Asylum Avenue were receiving attention which intimated the residential extension so soon to come. Parkville was beginning to build over the line and Elmwood to be like a part of it. Altogether the boundary physically was being obliterated. And yet it was but a few years since a Hartford man, only a little ahead of his time, had been ruined by buying and holding for a rise a considerable acreage on Farmington Avenue east of Prospect Street where now a beau- tiful residential section is fighting inch by inch the encroachments of business.
Referring to the homes being built in various parts of the city, Secretary Woodward of the Board of Trade wrote: "Every year skilled mechanics, conscious of capacity and desirous of inde- pendence, colonize on their own account. By a law of nature, under given conditions, cognate virtues tend to flourish in well defined groups. We look for energy, temperance, industry and self-restraint in men eager for a career and dependent upon themselves. Our local history illustrates over and over the cer- tainty with which men of this stamp succeed."
In many places in the business section the old was being torn down to make place for the new. The Catlin building on the northwest corner of Main and Asylum streets and the Melodeon building to the north of it-once the Fourth Congregational Church-were among those to go. A board of arbitrators was deciding that the New England railroad should build a station, beyond the tracks west of the New York, New Haven & Hartford's double-deck station, and cover it with iron. The Connecticut Mutual Life had bought the Pearl Street Congregational Church in order to extend its large building westward. The Travelers was putting a third story on its building on Prospect Street. The
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Society for Savings was replacing its structure on its original site of Pratt Street and the Unitarian Church was erecting a store and office building on the same street. In the factory district much building was being done.
The stores were an index to the wide spread of built-up area. The Business Men's Association was organized in 1898 with Dwight N. Hewes as president and in membership increased from forty to over 500, in five years. President Hewes was succeeded by Rufus H. Jackson, business manager of the Hartford Times, who, before his death in 1906, was also president of the state association. He was succeeded in office here by Irving C. Treat, a former Rockville man, of the firm of Clapp & Treat who still conducts a large hardware business on State Street, and he by Normand F. Allen of the Sage-Allen drygoods firm, followed by Isidore Wise of Wise, Smith & Company, and he by Foster E. Harvey of Harvey & Lewis, the opticians-marking the friendly relations that continue today between the large firms.
It also was marking a period when one particular generation of business men was succeeding another. Leverett Brainard (1828-1902) was still in advisory capacity, and his son, Newton C. Brainard, was to keep up traditions by being the city's chief exec- utive in the '20s. Leverett Brainard was born in Colchester in 1828. He was the first secretary of the City Fire Insurance Com- pany in 1853. In 1858 he was a partner with Newton Case and James Lockwood in the printing and publishing house of Case, Tiffany & Co., with which he was identified till his death, the name changing to Case, Lockwood & Brainard in 1868. He suc- ceeded Mr. Case as president in 1890. With all his important business affairs he gladly gave of his time to serve in the Legis- lature in 1884 and as mayor from 1892 to 1894. His business interests included directorship in several banks and insurance companies, in the Hartford Hospital and in the Willimantic Linen Company till its absorption by the American Thread Company. He was president of the Hartford Paper Company, the Burr Index Company and of the Printers' Employers' Association. His wife was a daughter of Judge Eliphalet A. Bulkeley, president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company, and therefore the sister of Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley who succeeded Thomas O. Enders in that presidency in 1879. His son, Newton, is now the president of Case, Lockwood & Brainard.
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Mr. Enders (1832-1894), who lived across the line in West Hartford, from the time he came here as clerk in the Aetna Life in 1844 was of those who took part in public affairs. He was representative in the Legislature in 1889 and 1891, from West Hartford. Withal, as president, he was putting the United States Bank on firm footing after a time of stress. Mr. Enders was a native of Glen, N. Y. How great was Senator Bulkeley's interest and participation in public affairs, the general history of his times attests.
Henry C. Dwight (1841-1918) was a name conspicuous through this period. Born in Northampton, Mass., he was cap- tain in a Massachusetts regiment in the Civil war. In the wool business here, he was associated with E. N. Kellogg, Austin Dun- ham and his sons and with Drayton Hillyer till he organized the firm which came to be Dwight, Skinner & Co. He served in both branches of the Common Council and was elected mayor in 1890. In the South School District he labored earnestly as a member of the committee, of which he was chairman from 1900 till his death, and the old Wethersfield Avenue School was named in his honor. In 1897 he was president of the Mechanics Savings Bank. On Governor Harrison's staff he was paymaster-general and he was active in various patriotic organizations.
The death of Richard S. Ely in 1894 removed one of the older generation, who spent much of his life in New York but kept up his interest in the old family mansion on North Main Street (he was a son of William Ely) and in local concerns. He had a beautiful summer residence, Deercliff, on Talcott Mountain and was one of the earliest breeders of Jersey cattle in America. Robert Allyn (1849-1896), owner and proprietor of the Allyn House with John J. Dahill as manager, was a son of a former mayor, Timothy M. Allyn, who left a large estate on his death in 1881. He had succeeded his cousin, Robert J. Allyn, at this famous hostelry in 1889.
William M. Corbin (1835-1894) was a man of public affairs in addition to being a manufacturer and banker. A native of Union, he was a shoe manufacturer when he removed to Hart- ford in 1881. At different times he served in both branches of the Legislature and was sheriff in 1884. In 1887 he saved a serious banking situation in Stafford Springs and became cashier of the First National Bank there. Also he was president of the
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Central Woollen Company. He was the father of William H. Cor- bin, the present executive vice president of the Chamber of Com- merce, former tax commissioner, long active in manufacturing and in school affairs and likewise in promoting Yale interests. Henry Eurotas Hastings (1861-1894) was interested in many concerns here and elsewhere and owned much valuable real estate, He came here from India where he was born, son of the president of Jaffna College, and made his home with his uncle, Dr. P. M. Hastings. He was especially concerned in banking and in the jewelry business, establishing the firm of Hansel, Sloan & Co., after buying the interests of Dwight H. Buell's heirs. His mother, Anna Cleveland Hastings, sister of President Cleveland, lived next to him on Elm Street.
Frederick S. Brown (1822-1894) was town and city collector for sixteen years. Previously he was in the cigar business. When chairman of the park commission, he set out the scion of the orig- inal Charter Oak which flourishes today just south of Trumbull Street bridge. Henry Kohn (1839-1917) furnished an illustra- tion of the opportunities this country offered. Born in Bohemia he came to Rockville in 1865 and later removed to Hartford after he had built up a reputation as a jeweler. Here he established the well-known business of his house in the heart of the shopping dis- trict, now conducted by his sons, and another store in New- ark, N. J.
Caldwell H. Colt, son of Col. Samuel Colt, widely known owner of the yacht Dauntless, died in Florida in 1894. He had not resided in Hartford for several years. He was commodore of the New York and Larchmont Yacht Club. The death of Benjamin Bliss in 1896 recalled the days when the drygoods firm of Benjamin Bliss & Co., predecessors of C. S. Hills & Co., (at the present location of Albert Steiger, Inc.), was one of best known in the state.
Seth Talcott (1831-1894), born in West Hartford, organized the firm of Talcott & Fuller, druggists, later Talcott Brothers when his brother George became a member, and then Talcott, Frisbie & Co. as Edward C. Frisbie succeeded George when he died. Seth Talcott was still the senior member of the large whole- sale house at his death. The business was continued for several years by his son, Charles A. Talcott.
Joseph W. Dimock (1801-1892), born in Rocky Hill, is best
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remembered by his activities in real estate. He was one of the first manufacturers of clothing to sell at wholesale. He traveled extensively by stage in the South, placing his products. Stephen Goodrich (1836-1893), a native of Simsbury, built up a large wholesale and retail drug business and assisted in organizing the State Board of Pharmacy. He was a director in the Farmers and Mechanics National Bank and the Orient Insurance Company and was for some time state bank commissioner. Samuel Coit (1822-1896), engaged in local developments in his later years, built the block of houses on the west side of Sigourney Street when that seemed a long way from the center. He was born in Plainville and in his earlier career had been interested with Bridgeport capitalists in developing in Washington Territory a silver-steel mine with a large plant in Bridgeport to make up the product. That proving unsuccessful he joined with George M. Bartholomew in a Virginia mining enterprise and lived in Washington till 1892 and then for a time in Texas. Erastus Phelps (1806-1891), born in Marlborough, was the builder of some of the finest residences and business blocks in the city, his activity covering a period of fifty years.
XXXIII
'NINETIES' INDUSTRIES AND CALLINGS
INVENTIONS THAT DRAW SKILLED WORKERS AND INCREASE PRESTIGE- MORE CONCERNS OF WIDE REPUTE-MEN OF PROMINENCE IN BANK- ING AND INSURANCE.
The real and lasting wonder of the '90s had to do with elec- tricity, but that series of local achievements is best reserved for consideration at the dawn of the coming century. What it was coming to mean in the way of bringing a new line of manufacture may be taken up here. A suit brought in 1891 by Charles G. Per- kins, who had concerns bearing his name here and in Manchester, against the Edison General Electric Company for infringement of an 1881 patent on a switch, was the first thing to draw general local attention to the awakening of a mighty power. Three years later, the court decision being adverse, the Manchester factory was closed, but Mr. Perkins was establishing the Perkins Electric Switch Company here, together with Waterhouse, Gamble & Co., under the same management, to make a still better switch than had been made in Manchester, patented by Addison G. Water- house, and also the Perkins lamp. That business was continued on Woodbine Street till removed to Bridgeport by the Bryant company of that city.
Just as that concern was leaving came from Kansas City- attracted by the reputation for workmanship-the Hart & Hege- man Company, founded by Gerald W. Hart and George S. Hege- man to make the first surface switch. Albert H. Pease became associated with them. In 1898 Mr. Hart established the Hart Manufacturing Company to make many new kinds of devices, Proceeding under the same name, the original company grew beyond the capacity of even a much enlarged factory, a branch in the south part of the city was built and the company became the largest in the business. Another chapter belongs in the period of 1927.
John H. Trumbull (now governor) and his two brothers, all of them electrical experts, were drawn toward the new industry
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SHOPPING DISTRICT, HARTFORD, LOOKING NORTH FROM "GOODWIN'S CORNER"
SHOPPING DISTRICT, HARTFORD
Main Street, looking south from near Morgan Street. Christ Church Cathedral on the right
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in 1899 and left here to build a shop in Plainville where today the governor is at the head of one of the best known plants in the land, specializing on the "T" safety switches. And the governor, as will be seen, is one of those who takes time from his regular business to do public service. The demand of the electrical concerns for porcelain caused the Hartford Faience Company, makers of high- class pottery and tiles, to devote their attention to turning out porcelain products.
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