USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 30
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The North & Judd Manufacturing Company continues on its original site of 1812. It included saddlery in its manufactures in 1840. In 1855 it was H. F. North & Company, taking the name North & Judd in 1863 when Lorin F. Judd became partner. Pocket cutlery is made by the Humason & Beckley Manufactur- ing Company, founded in 1853 by W. L. Humason. The Union Manufacturing Company was organized by T. W. Stanley in 1866 to make springs, butts and other metal articles. The Malleable Iron Works were established in 1863, the Wire Web Company in 1871, the National Wire Mattress Company in 1872, the Vulcan Iron Works in 1878, the Brand Manufacturing Company in 1885, the N. B. Schuyler Electric Light Company in 1885, the Skinner Chuck Company in 1887.
Concerns formed the past few years-and those now forming -will, it can be prophesied, gain as large a place in history as is held by the earlier ones today. Some of them, like the G. E. Prentice Manufacturing Company (1912) and the Beaton & Cadwell Manufacturing Company are making such articles as the others began with, and in the latter company plumbing and heating appliances; A. J. Heaton and Alfred E. Bradley laid the foundations in 1894. The J. T. Case Company, founded in 1887 to make the J. T. Case engine, is now the New Britain Machine Company, enriched by patents on almost human machines, and, in 1914, acquiring the Universal Machine Screw Company of Hartford. There also are the National Paper Company, the Buol Machine Works, the Minor & Corbin Box Company, the Taplin Manufacturing Company and the Vulcan Iron Works.
The great General Electric Company got its start in New Britain. In 1889 it was the American Electric Company, owned chiefly by New Britain men. Its purpose was to popularize the arc-lighting of the Thomson-Houston Company. E. W. Rice, a mere youth, subsequently president of the General Electric, came with Prof. E. J. Thomson of Philadelphia who, with the American Electric, was to have charge of the New England district. The arc-lighting was a novelty which required more capital than was forthcoming and eventually the business was acquired by capital-
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ists in Lynn, Mass. The capital was increased from $3,000,000 to $4,500,000.
The demands made upon the local industries by the World war were met by strenuous endeavor. The records of the year 1919 showed small dimunition of demands as peace-time orders replaced those of the war. The greatest anxiety was caused by the shortage of help. Increase in the building line throughout the country had its effect. The large dividends of war time were continued. The two factories that had contributed most for the needs of the government, largely in anti-aircraft guns and general munitions, were the New Britain Machine Company with 100 per cent of its product and the Stanley Works with 75 per cent of its products. Returning to their normal products, they required as many employees though with less night work. The Machine Company had increased capital from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000, with view to developing the "New Britain" farm tractor, and the adjoining government building was brought to give the necessary additional space. The Stanley Works was employing more men than during the war. Landers, Frary & Clark made more extensive additions than any of the others and increased capital from $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 for the develop- ment of new lines. They took over the Barnes & Kobert plant on Ellis Street. North & Judd, makers of men- and horse-equip- ments during the war, knew no decrease in orders for buckles and every sort of novelties in hardware. The Union Manufactur- ing Company made chucks just as it had been doing all along, and the American Hosiery realized an increase in demand for its fabrics. All of the executives through the period were active also in the civic features of the war work but none more so than George W. Traut who died in December, 1927. He left college to join his father when the Traut & Hine Manufacturing Com- pany was established and in 1908 succeeded him as president, continuing in that office till the North & Judd company bought the plant in 1924. Of that concern he was made vice president. His interest in education had caused him to remain on the Board of Education from 1906 till his death. He succeeded his father as a director of the hospital of which his father was one of the founders.
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Militariwise also the World war found New Britain ready. Since the reorganization of the Connecticut National Guard in 1871, the town has been well represented in it. Charles B. Erich- son, in that year, organized Company E (now H), of which he was captain till appointed to be colonel, and Company I was formed not long after. Both are units of the First Regiment, whose history in peace and war is a part of the general history on other pages. William W. Bullen, commanding Company E, had retired just before the Spanish war, but returned to serve as a sergeant during that affair, after which he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. After the organization of the second com- pany, the state built a large armory on Arch Street where now are the headquarters of the First Battalion of the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Infantry, of which H and I are units. For the Spanish war, three of the ten companies of the First as it left for rendezvous were from New Britain-D, Capt. Sidney M. Leonard; E, Capt. A. L. Hauerwas; I, Capt. Charles H. Moore. G. Arthur Hadsell, of Plainville, lieutenant-colonel, U. S. A., in the first American Expeditionary Forces in the World war, was a lieutenant in Company E. Companies E and H were with the regiment on the Mexican border in 1916, and for the World war were drafted into what became the One Hundred and Second Infantry, the experiences of which have been detailed herein. Lieut. A. J. Griffin was in command of E at that time and Capt. Alfred H. Griswold, whose part in the fight at Seicheprey is described in the general history, in command of H.
New Britain was one of the first cities in the state to erect a memorial for the World war men. In reality it was a symbol of "welcome home,"-in the form of an arch and court of honor at the West Main Street entrance to Walnut Hill Park. This year, 1928, was dedicated, on the top of the hill in the park- to be seen for many miles around and to be reflected in the beau- tiful pool at its base-one of the most notable memorials in New England. The design is by H. Van Buren Magonigle of New York. On the inner face of the parapet around the circular plat- form is a bronze scroll of honor, bearing individual tablets for each of the 123 who, out of the 4,000 who served on land and sea, made the supreme sacrifice. September 22, the day of dedication, is memorable. In the parade were the One Hundred and Sixty-
NEW BRITAIN'S WORLD WAR MEMORIAL Dedicated September 22, 1928, on the summit of the hill in Walnut Hill Park
MEMORIAL TO SOLDIERS AND SAILORS, NEW BRITAIN
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ninth, the First Squadron of Cavalry, the First and Second com- panies, Governor's Foot Guard, the Putnam Phalanx, United Spanish War Veterans, the American Legion and other patriotic organizations, representing different nationalities, followed by floats representing a score of organizations conspicuous in the up-building of New Britain. There was passage in review before Governor Trumbull, Mayor Angelo M. Paonessa and the com- mittees. The dedication address was by Charles F. Smith.
Military men and others who could not qualify for federal service or were exempt formed two companies of the First Infan- try, State Guard, commanding officers of which during the four years of duty were Frank L. Traut, Frank H. Johnston (formerly major of the Putnam Phalanx), William H. Spitler, and W. L. Williams. The Polish citizens raised a company to join the Polish Legion in France. The Red Cross work and the "Y" work was well up to the state and county standard.
For Liberty Loans there was enthusiastic support and in this the banks were an important factor. The bank which had been established on the eve of the Civil war, when some thought the town too small to support a bank of its own, now the New Britain National Bank under the presidency of A. J. Sloper, had the spirit and the resources which the occasion required. The Bur- ritt Mutual Savings Bank, of which J. E. Cooper is president, increased the confidence which had been felt ever since its found- ing in 1889. The People's Savings Bank, of which Leo Bojnowski is the official head, lived up to its patriotic name. The New Brit- ain Trust Company, founded in 1907, and the Commercial Trust Company of 1915 fulfilled the prophesies of those who had advo- cated the desirability of such institutions in the fast-growing town. F. G. Vibberts is the president of the former and John C. Loomis of the latter The records for 1928 show the introduction of two more banks as evidence of the increasing prosperity. They are the Fidelity Industrial Bank on West Main Street and the Commercial Trust Company. The Fidelity begins in a handsome home of its own. The Commercial, opening its new quarters adjoining the Burritt Hotel on West Main Street, has one of the most up-to-date banking buildings in New England. The New Britain Trust Company, near the close of 1927, made the largest
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cash deal in the history of the city when it bought for $900,000 the Booth Block at the corner of Main and Church streets.
The thousands of new dwellers in New Britain today can form no conception of how the town looked when it was a village. The formation of the borough helped in smoothing out the rough places, and, to carry the necessary improvements further, incor- poration as a city, widening the borough limits, became an essen- tial in 1870. Frederick T. Stanley was the first mayor. It required three active and eighteen supernumerary policemen to stand "watch," under orders from A. W. Spaulding, the first chief. Menace of fire had been guarded against by organized volunteers, proud of what they could do. On organization of the department, under Patrick Brennan as chief, there were 122 men in four companies, equipped with engine, jumper, two hose carts and one truck. In 1895 it was necessary to remodel the charter and provide for eight wards. Streets were well lighted after 1855 by the New Britain Gas Light Company which was incorporated that year and which is increasing in capacity in these times when lighting is a minor part of the business. George M. Landers was president till his death in 1895. The Connecticut Light and Power Company furnishes the electricity.
Compared with other county towns, New Britain had moved quickly in matters of public service. It voted for its water supply in 1857, F. T. Stanley, H. E. Russell and George M. Landers being the first commissioners. The first formal plant was immediately established at Shuttle Meadow in the northeast corner of South- ington, a dam was built and by October there were some six miles of pipes in service. The fall is about 175 feet. The supply was doubled in 1891 and ever since has kept pace with requirements. A filter plant and new pipe lines into the city are now being provided at an expense of about one million dollars.
New Britain also has an eye out for Newington, Plainville and Berlin, whose history, as seen, is so closely connected with her own; in securing additional supplies for herself she realizes that the needs of those growing communities must be kept in mind. At Forestville there is an elaborate pumping station. For safeguarding the interests on the higher land in New Britain, a reservoir was established in Burlington with a high-pressure station in the northwestern part of the city.
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COMMERCIAL TRUST COMPANY, NEW BRITAIN
POST OFFICE, NEW BRITAIN
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The town's finances were most carefully looked after. Augus- tus P. Collins, who was born in Andover in 1822, came to New Britain as a merchant in 1850 and made a fortune in general insurance, set an example for all successors in his term of serv- ice as treasurer, a position to which he was elected, after being town clerk, and held for thirty-five years, continuing after the incorporation of the city. Withal he was the first cashier of the New Britain National Bank and succeeded C. B. Erwin as presi- dent on the latter's death in 1885. He was secretary and treas- urer of the gas company from the date of its organization, direc- tor in several of the leading manufacturing concerns, trustee of the Society of Savings in Hartford and a most generous sup- porter of all good causes.
New Britain's first post office was obtained in 1825 through the perseverance of Thomas Lee who had the office at his store on Main Street near the head of East Main. So uncertain was the enterprise that the government would allow nothing toward it, nor did it exact revenue. Lorenzo P. Lee was the official post- master. After three years it was considered a success, a rider bringing the mail from Hartford. Today the city has a hand- some building on West Main Street, erected in 1909 when Ira E. Hicks was postmaster. The desire for better postal service in the 1840s almost as much as wish to furnish the infant industries transportation facilities explains the persistency of the New Brit- ain men what time the railroads were being built. Seth J. North of New Britain, Richard Hubbard of Middletown and Elisha A. Cowles were promoters of the New Haven road when it was being built to Hartford in 1839, and each strove to have it run through his town. Meriden won while Berlin and New Britain were given a station at Newington, a mile and a half from New Britain. In 1848 the New Haven & Northampton road was built through Plainville. The next year the Hartford & Willimantic was extended to Bristol and the Middletown branch of the New Haven was completed, connecting at Berlin. In 1865 this was extended to New Britain.
In 1909 the city was one of the first in the East to build a filtration plant for its sewage. The population was then 28,000. This being inadequate for a city of over 70,000, steps are being taken for enlargement. The 1927 grand list showed $114,100,-
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000, an increase of $3,535,000, chiefly in dwellings. The Amer- ican Hardware Corporation led the industrial list with $11,759,- 000; Stanley Works $8,395,000; Landers, Frary & Clark, $6,710,- 450; Fafnir Bearing Company, $1,469,000.
Chosen by reason of its excellent system as the home of the first normal school of the state, justifiably proud of its buildings and system today, New Britain would seem to have been favored with an exceptional unanimity of sentiment in the matter of edu- cation from its beginning. It adopted the district or "squaddam" principle soon after incorporation as a society in 1705. Previously there had been one school, at Christian Lane. When the separate New Britain Society was incorporated in 1754, a school was estab- lished in the north section and then one in the Stanley Quarter. A school society was organized in 1796. In 1856, when there were four districts, society and town being coterminous, New Britain was not affected by the law of that year by which the care of the schools was given to the towns.
In 1838 the parish had subscribed $4,000 for a county sem- inary for the training of teachers in common schools, thus being a leader in the whole country. The next winter Mrs. Emma Hart Willard, who had given such promise in her earlier days in her native town of Berlin and who since had distinguished herself as an educator in other states and had founded Troy Female Sem- inary, was home on a visit and had consented to supervise work in the Kensington districts for the season. Her method attracted wide attention, Secretary Henry Barnard of the State Commis- sion for Schools cooperating with her, and soon it could be said that Kensington had schools equal to any in the state. New Britain profited thereby.
As soon as the Legislature in 1849, at Doctor Barnard's sugges- tion, voted a normal school, New Britain was chosen as the place for the experiment because of the facilities it offered. The citizens contributed $16,250 for the New Britain Educational Fund Com- mittee which bought the town hall and erected a large building on the site. A central district was created and a system of graded schools, including a high school, was inaugurated, the schools to be in the normal school building which served this purpose for years. The system of free schools, for those in the large district
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, NEW BRITAIN
Where first Normal School was established. Auditorium to the left; Gymnasium to the right.
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and only nominal charge for those outside, in itself placed New Britain ahead of most towns. Doctor Barnard of Hartford was appointed principal of the normal school and David N. Camp was made a teacher. Rev. J. M. Guion continued as principal of the high school till 1852. During that fall, with Mr. Camp in charge, the grammar school was organized under C. Goodwin Clark. The graded schools all were under the supervision of the associate principal of the normal school, to which position John D. Phil- brick of Boston was called in 1852. When Doctor Barnard left in 1855, Mr. Philbrick was appointed his successor and Mr. Camp was made associate, he succeeding Mr. Philbrick in 1857 and resigning in 1866.
Mr. Camp resigned to go abroad to study educational institu- tions, returned to a professorship at St. John's College, became connected with the National Bureau of Education, established the New Britain Seminary in 1870, was mayor from 1877 to 1879, was representative in the Legislature, helped establish the New Britain Institute and was prominent in several corporations and an official of the New Britain National Bank.
The normal school was placed in charge of the State Board of Education in 1865. Two years later, by act of the Legislature, it was closed but was reopened in 1869 and in 1884 a new build- ing, for which New Britain paid one quarter, was dedicated, on the east side of Walnut Hill. In 1885 the seminary building (on Camp Street) was utilized for normal school purposes. An annex was provided in 1889. For the school today the state has just erected one of its handsomest public buildings, on Stanley Street. Marcus White is the principal.
Among those whose names are connected with the normal school was Prof. Ralph G. Hibbard (1837-1904). He studied under Prof. Francis T. Russell, at that time rector of the Epis- copal Church and later the founder of St. Margaret's School in Waterbury. Professor Hibbard was instructor in elocution at Wesleyan (which gave him the honorary degree of M. A.) from 1859 till his death; also he had courses at Yale and at Trinity and was widely known through the East for his readings. For forty years he had charge of the elocution department at the high school. He was president of the Charity Organization, an officer of the Burritt Savings Bank and was closely connected with other institutions.
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School-district consolidation was voted by the town in 1873, thus again leading in such matters. The high school building of 1896 at the corner of Kensington, Bassett and South Main streets, now on Franklin Square, was only one of the many monuments marking the path of progress; those of the Lincoln Elementary and the Robert J. Vance Schools, completed this past year, are the latest. The Nathan Hale Junior High School, replacing for such purpose the old Burritt School, was completed in 1928 by the addition of an annex. The Roosevelt School was opened in 1926. The Benjamin Franklin School on Clinton Street is in process of building. By the report of Stanley H. Holmes, super- intendent of schools, there are practically 20,000 children of school age, an increase of over 13,000 since 1907. Of these nearly 13,000 belong in the public day schools and the percentage of attendance is 94.18. About four thousand are in private schools. Over one thousand are enrolled in the evening schools and 800 in the summer schools. There are thirty-two schools in thirty- six buildings which include the Central Junior High School and the well established Trade School. Teachers and supervisors number nearly one thousand.
The Roman Catholics established their first school during the pastorate of Rev. Luke Daly and in 1877 erected another, on Lafayette Street, for girls. There are now St. Mary's, St. Joseph's, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus schools, and the German Lutheran school.
The problem of increasing immigration from central and southern Europe was becoming serious when there appeared in New Britain one Lucyan Bojnowski who changed the problem into a record which has commanded wide attention in this coun- try and in Europe. Father Bojnowski, born in Poland in 1868 and receiving a good elementary education in Russia, came to America in 1883 and worked as laborer in Hale's peach orchards in Glastonbury to earn money to enable him to study for the priesthood. Fighting against great odds he was graduated at St. John's in Brighton, Mass., and was ordained by Bishop Tier- ney in Hartford in 1895. In the fall of that year, the bishop, conscious of the problem in New Britain, sent him to this city to organize a parish. His first congregation included Poles, Lithuanians, Slavs, Russians and Ukranians whom he gathered
REV. LUCYAN BOJNOWSKI
VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL, NEW BRITAIN
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in St. Mary's old church, now a part of the great Corbin plant. At once grasping the situation, he chose for his church a loca- tion on the wooded hill in the northwestern part of the city where land was cheap and was near the industrial concerns in which his people worked. The church building was equipped also for a school. Six years later when there were 3,000 souls in his par- ish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, land on Gold Street was acquired and ground broken for the present imposing granite edifice. The year that that was completed he bought a house for an asylum for children and founded the order of the Children of Mary of the Immaculate Conception. Women freely volunteered to become nuns in the order and wonderful is the work they have accomplished here and elsewhere. Houses were bought for their residence, for the boys and for the girls.
For one educational means, he established a printing plant and began the publication of the Catholic Leader which today has a circulation of over twenty thousand weekly in this country and abroad, turned out in a thoroughly up-to-date establishment where many young men have learned a useful trade. His severe condemnation of labor-agitators brought down upon him the wrath of those in other communities and for a time his life was in jeopardy; fearlessness added force to his arguments for fair and honorable living. By 1910 the parochial school had drawn so many of those whom he had made eager to acquire knowledge of English and of American principles that he built the present large school building on Gold Street, with all the equipments, including parish hall and swimming pools, a place for social pleas- ure and recreation as well as for learning. Meantime, realizing the development, he had begun acquiring for the nuns more of the high wooded land until now they possess 260 acres so sightly and healthful that in the market they would command at least a million dollars. But Father Bojnowski does not want to see a foot of it sold. A large and attractive orphanage already has been built there and a cemetery has been laid out on North Bur- ritt Street. In 1925, the children having been cared for, he added to the North Burritt Street buildings, St. Lucyan's Home for aged and infirm men and women. And now, on the Orange Street property of the parish has been erected another parochial school near the first one, which was overcrowded. In all there are
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1,800 pupils in the schools, under charge of Rev. Alexander Kow- alczyk, a curate of the parish. Likewise a day nursery has been placed in the care of the sisterhood.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1917, the parish hall was crowded with people for a community farewell to 290 men who that after- noon were to start for France to join the allied forces. A stand of American colors was presented to the soldiers, the speech being made by a girl pupil of the school. There were addresses by Congressman Lonergan of Hartford and other citizens, some of whom were amazed and all deeply affected by the scene. Follow- ing the impressive ceremony, a dinner which was a feast and which had been prepared by the earnestly patriotic women of the parish was served. This a celebration of the one Puritan feast- day, in the home of the Puritans, by people lately from central Europe, when America was in death-grip with a European power -people already speaking English and sending their men forth under the American flag they so eloquently had given them! In the American army and navy there were 688 from this same parish. Of the men in the Polish Legion, thirteen gave their lives. For the needs of the families at home, Father Bojnowsky raised a fund of $76,000, not all of which was needed, so thrifty were the families and so helpful their neighbors.
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