USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 33
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W. W. Mildrum utilized agates found in this section for ship- surveyors' compasses. Samuel Bronson, builder of the first meet- ing-house, had perhaps the first mill in Kensington, a half-mile
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southwest of the present station. R. Moore & Sons, who had done a large cement business for export, eventually owned all the mill privileges on Mill River. With changes in ownership there was manufacture of woollens, German-silver ware, spun silk and hardware. The Peck, Stow & Wilcox concern, manufacturers of sheet-metal machinery, tools and forgings, of which Samuel C. Wilcox was chief promoter, succeeded in 1870 the concern of Rogers & Wilcox, which had been established in 1845, and came to take in factories in eight towns, subsequently removing to Southington. Fur goods, cotton cloth and agricultural imple- ments were made at sundry periods in Worthington parish, and in the south part, on another branch of the Mettabesett, Simeon North had a pistol factory which ultimately he removed to Mid- dletown. He enjoyed a Government contract. A brace of his gold-mounted pistols, presented by Congress to Commodore Mc- Donough, has found its way to the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society; another brace was presented to Commodore Hull. Nathan Starr had a sword factory near the pistol shop and a gun factory was continued by his son Reuben with a branch in Middletown. The Kensington mills of the American Paper Goods Company stand half a mile west of Berlin Junction, built in 1892. A short distance east of them R. A. and H. F. Wooding built in 1893, with a separate foundry, a plant which was leased by Roswell A. Moore and his son for making suspender trimmings. The pioneer in the brick industry in the vicinity of Berlin was Charles P. Merwin who with F. H. Stiles of North Haven in 1880 established a small plant not far from the railroad station. Mr. Stiles sold to Mr. Merwin. The latter died in 1894 and in 1898 a joint stock company was formed with R. C. Merwin as president. The Yale Brick Company was owned mostly by New Britain men.
The Corrugated Metal Company was a little ahead of its times with its metal shingles. It was succeeded by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company, incorporated in 1870, which Mr. Wilcox and Col. Charles M. Jarvis made famous for its iron bridges till its absorption by the American Bridge Company. In 1900 George H. Sage who had been secretary of the old company, with others, founded the Berlin Construction Company on Depot Road, of which Mr. Sage was president till his death in 1925. Colonel Jarvis who later was president of the American Hardware Com- pany, as told in the New Britain chapter, maintained one of the
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finest farms in the state and was a promoter of agriculture. The success of the Berlin Agricultural Society, which began its Har- vest Festivals in the town hall of Kensington in 1885, and of the local fairs was due largely to him and to Major Wilcox. The major for several years was commander of the First Company, Governor's Foot Guard in Hartford.
In the Revolution, Berlin contributed freely of her men and resources which included lead from the mine on Mill River in Ken- sington. Col. Selah Hart, regimental commander, was captured in Washington's withdrawal from New York and his family did not hear from him again for two years. Maj. Jonathan Hart continued in the service in the West after the war and was killed when his command was covering the retreat of General St. Clair on the banks of the Wabash in 1791.
In the Civil war there were 243 men in the service or 36 more than the quota, of whom 34 died in the service. There are hand- some monuments at Kensington and East Berlin, the former being one of the first erected in the state. For the World war there were recruits for the county regiment and men were taken for the National Army under the selective draft. There was the utmost activity at home, for the Red Cross and the Liberty Loans. For the first time in its history the town had a military company of its own, a unit in the First Infantry, Connecticut State Guard. The officers were Capt. William C. Shepard and Lieutenants Ed- gar L. Carter, Frank M. Bacon, C. C. Beach and C. T. Treadway.
On Meeting-house Terrace in Berlin stands an old building with the name Worthington School over the door. It is the church built in 1774 and the history it represents is more than that of the parish polity of the day. Not the least of its respected memories is this that it housed a public library-the Worthington. The books were kept behind the pulpit. They were books of travel and history for the most part, and it was from this collection that the Hart sisters got their appreciation of good literature, for their father, Captain Hart, clerk of the church, read the best of English authors aloud to his family gathered around the fireplace. In 1835 the books were in a small chapel, under the name of Berlin Library. When the building was sold in 1856, the books were kept first at one house and then at another. In 1863 they were
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in Rev. Charles Goodrich's study and William Bulkeley was libra- rian. Thence they were removed to the academy. When crowded out of there, Deacon Alfred North made room for them in his grocery store. In time the store was sold and the books had to go. A fund was raised by subscription, a building was erected and in 1892 it was dedicated for the Berlin Free Library, incorpo- rated. Emily S. Brandegee is the librarian. The mural decora- tions were by Robert Brandegee, a Berlin man of wide repute, especially as a portrait painter. In this connection, also, mention should be made of N. A. Moore, landscape painter.
East Berlin has its library which was established in 1899. Mrs. Philip Lotz is the librarian. In Kensington there is the Peck Memorial Library, given to the Library Society in 1904 by Henry H. Peck of Waterbury in memory of his parents. He was born here in 1838, son of Selden Peck, and remained on the farm till he was seventeen. In Waterbury he was merchant, banker and legislator. The site was given by Miss Harriet Hotchkiss and Mrs. Fannie Hotchkiss Jones of Greenwich, it being part of their old homestead. The society was organized in 1829.
James Gates Percival (1795-1856), one of the "Hartford Wits" mentioned in a previous chapter, was born in Kensington, son of Dr. James Percival. Graduating at Yale in 1815, he be- came a physician and was professor of chemistry at West Point. Occasionally indulging his natural bent for literature, the poems he wrote have given him high place, but they are only glimpses of possibilities of a nature none of his friends were able to under- stand. Withal, he assisted Noah Webster in compiling his dic- tionary, took up geology, made the first geological and mineralog- ical survey of Connecticut and was state geologist of Wisconsin when he died.
Among other distinguished sons not previously mentioned were these: John Hooker, descendant of Thomas Hooker, was born in Kensington in 1729 and succeeded Jonathan Edwards as pastor of the church at Northampton, Massachusetts. Governor Richard D. Hubbard was born in Berlin. Rev. Andrew T. Pratt, missionary in the Orient and instructor in the Theological sem- inary at Marash, spent his youth in Berlin. Simeon North, D. D., LL. D., born here in 1812, was for eighteen years president of Hamilton College, and his nephew, Edward North, was a profes- sor in that college.
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LVII PLAINVILLE AND SOUTHINGTON
ANCIENT FARMINGTON'S SOUTHERNMOST LIMITS NOW IMPORTANT IN- DUSTRIAL LOCALITIES AND HOMES OF TWO GOVERNORS-TOWNS' NAMES CARRIED FAR BY MANUFACTURING CONCERNS ESTABLISHED BY YANKEE INVENTIONS-FARMS SERVING AS MODELS-PERSONALI- TIES OF GOVERNOR HOLCOMB AND GOVERNOR TRUMBULL.
Perhaps because the soil was too sterile to attract many set- tlers, Farmington's Great Plain in the southwesterly part of its territory had a more orderly history as a settlement than the parishes in the vicinity of Great Swamp whose career is re- viewed in the chapters immediately preceding this. Its 6,000 acres remained a part of Farmington till incorporated in 1869. The name Plainville was chosen by Ebenezer Hawley Whiting, Lemuel Lewis, Edwin N. Lewis, John H. Cooke, George Cooke and Dr. Jeremiah Hotchkiss in 1829 when these men, as a com- mittee, petitioned for a post office in this district of Farming- ton. The petition was granted and Doctor Hotchkiss was appointed postmaster in February, 1830. The men most promi- nent in securing the act of incorporation were Theodore P. Strong and Henry D. Stanley and they were designated to call the first town meeting, held August 2, 1869.
The first man to settle on the Great Plain, was John Root, who is believed to have built a log house in the White Oak District in 1657. In 1695 the first rough highway was cut through from Farmington.
The first house built on the Great Plain, of which there is a record, was that of Mrs. Elizabeth Newell, referred to in her will in 1739. This became the property of her son, Joseph Newell, and then of John Root, Jr., the founder of a once numer- ous Plainville family. The house stood on the east side of Neal's Court until 1913. In 1740 Thomas Lowrey built at Red Stone Hill a house a part of which is incorporated in the house owned
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by James Burns. In 1759 Moses Hills built on East Street; in 1771 Allen Merrill at White Oak; in 1774 Asahel Hooker at Red Stone Hill, and in 1775, in the same locality, Richard Porter. In 1777 Salmon Root, a son of John Root, Jr., built in the present center of the town, a house still standing and commonly known as the Colonial Inn. During the same year, Samuel Root, a brother of Salmon, built a little to the eastward. His house was removed and rebuilt on Cooke Street. In 1780 Ladwick Hotch- kiss settled at Blossom's corner, on East Street. In 1783 Sam- uel Demming built a saw and grist mill on the Pequabuck, near the present iron bridge on North Washington Street.
In 1784 John Hamblin, founder of the Hamlin family in Connecticut, bought land at White Oak for £30. His house still stands, near the trolley station at White's Crossing. In 1785 Thomas Bishop settled at Red Stone Hill. In 1789 Phineas Hamblin and his brother, Oliver, sons of John, built houses at White Oak. The interesting old homestead at the corner of New Britain Avenue and Cooke Street was originally built, in part, just prior to 1794. The year following, this property was bought by John Cooke for £36. Mr. Cooke began to acquire land at White Oak in 1790 and upon his purchase in 1795, he enlarged the house to its present size and opened a tavern.
That portion of Scott's Swamp, within the limits of Plain- ville, was first settled by the Cowles, Newell and Root families. In 1770, Ezekiel Cowles bought forty-seven acres in this region for £40 and thereafter increased his holdings. His large farm ultimately descended through successive generations and is now held by members of his family. In addition to these first settlers, the Curtis, Twining, Phinney and Morse families came to the Great Plain prior to 1800 and located at Red Stone Hill and near by. And the Lewis, Porter and Gridley families had estab- lished themselves at White Oak at the same time. By 1814 Plain- ville had grown to be a village of approximately thirty families. From 1814 until the opening of the Farmington Canal in 1828, the growth was slow and until that waterway became a reality, there was no incentive for those dwelling here to engage in occu- pations other than farming.
The religious thought and life of this community continued to center in the Congregational Church at Farmington until
THE JOHN COOKE HOUSE, PLAINVILLE
THE JOHN HAMBLIN HOUSE, PLAINVILLE Built in 1785
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1839. In that year, the desire for a separate church took form, under the leadership of Deacon Roderick Stanley. A resolution signed by forty-seven citizens accomplished the organization of a local ecclesiastical society, the Second Church of Farmington, and plans were then made for a meeting-house. This building, located at the northwest corner of West Main and Canal streets, was completed in 1840. It was soon outgrown and in 1850 the present edifice on West Main Street was dedicated. In 1894 the ecclesiastical society was dissolved and on May 7, 1894, the church was incorporated as the Congregational Church of Plain- ville. The first pastor was Rev. Chauncey D. Cowles who served till 1843. His successors were William Wright, Joel Dickinson, Moses Smith (in the Civil war period), Alexander Hall, Dr. Joseph W. Backus (acting pastor), J. Edward Hermann, Clem- ent C. Clarke, Frederick L. Grant, Edwin C. Gillette, Charles S. Wyckoff and the present incumbent, J. Roy Wilkerson.
The Baptists organized and built in 1851, Rev. P. G. Wight- man pastor. The pastor now is Rev. Dr. Alexis D. Kendricks. The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour was founded by Rev. E. Livingston Welles in 1859 and the present edifice was dedicated the following year. In 1881 three churches were built-the Methodist, the Swedish Congregational and the Roman Catholic. There had been Methodist meetings in 1859 but formal organiza- tion was not perfected till 1880. Plainville was selected for the location of the Methodist camp-meeting grounds for the whole state. These grounds, with their attractive cottages and build- ings, have increased in popularity through the years, and the sessions which are held there draw many besides those of the Methodist faith. The first minister for the local Methodist church was Rev. George W. Mooney. Rev. Arthur A. Ball who came in 1924 is the present minister. The Swedish Congrega- tional Church was organized by Rev. A. M. Ahgren in 1881 as the Swedish Free Methodist Episcopal. Its building is on Camp Street. The pastor is Victor T. Oblom. The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mercy was organized in 1881 by Rev. Paul F. McAlenny and the church was built on Broad Street. Rev. John E. Fay is the present pastor. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Redeemers Church was organized by Rev. J. R. Cannon and in 1904 the church on Whiting Street was built.
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The Advent Christian Church was built in 1902 during the pas- torate of Rev. John S. Purdy.
It was voted in 1760 that the farmers "round about Great Plain" should have a school and a teacher was engaged but no schoolhouse was built. When the parish was divided into two districts, White Oak and Great Plain, there was a schoolhouse in each district. The Farmington School Society in 1842 created a third district, the East Plains, and changed the name of Great Plain to West Plain; the next year a third schoolhouse was built, on East Main Street, corner of Crown Street.
A two-story schoolhouse superseding the original building in the West Plain District was built in 1859 on practically the same site and served its purpose until burned in 1872. The loss re- sulted in the consolidation, in 1873, of the three districts and in the erection of the present wooden building on Broad Street, which was dedicated in 1874. In 1912 this plant was enlarged by the addition of a brick building adjoining. To accommodate a rapidly increasing population, a nine-room brick schoolhouse was completed on Linden Street in 1924 for grade and high school classes. The cornerstone of the new high school, located on East Street, was laid by Governor Trumbull, May 29, 1926.
In addition to the public schools, attempts have been made from time to time, to establish private schools in Plainville. The most noteworthy was the school undertaken by Miss Ellen French and conducted by her during the late '50s and early '60s in a room, a part of the Henry L. Welch store on West Main Street. A similar project was the proposed academy, founded by the Plainville Educational Society in 1866 but discontinued in 1871, due to lack of patronage.
Also there was a circulating library, organized about 1765, kept in the West Plain schoolhouse and owned by an association. In 1823 this library was incorporated as the Farmington Plain Library and thus continued until 1855. In 1885 the Plainville Library Association was organized and was succeeded by the Plainville Public Library in 1894. Within the next three years, ample accommodation for this institution will be forthcoming, made possible by gift to the town, under the will of the late George D. Mastin, which provides a building site on East Main
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DEACON RODERICK STANLEY (1780-1860) Founded the Congregational Church of Plainville in 1840
PLAINVILLE IN THE '60s. From a pen and ink drawing made at that time by Titus M. Darrow
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Street, together with the family residence standing thereon, and an ample book fund. This gift, together with the Henry D. Mil- ler fund, and the trust fund established by the local Woman's Club, assures to Plainville a library second to none among those of the smaller towns of Connecticut.
The settlers of Plainville devoted themselves to agriculture. It was not until about 1800 that manufacturing was undertaken and there were no stores here until 1829. The first business was that of milling, conducted by Samuel Demming in the building on North Washington Street already referred to. This business was soon acquired by Amos Moss and by him sold to Artemas Root in 1808. Mr. Root, in partnership with his brother, John Root, carried on the business until 1837. The Roots added cloth dressing and wool carding, in a building located on the north bank of the Pequabuck River near where Eaton's feed mill now stands. The making of tinware was begun at Red Stone Hill just prior to 1800, undertaken by reason of the demand for household utensils and in competition with the tin shops at Ken- sington. At least eight tin shops were operated in Plainville. The most prominent manufacturers were the Hookers, Asahel and his sons Bryan and Ira Hooker, Daniel Lowrey, Nathaniel and Uri Bishop, Lewis Foote and Asahel Morse.
During the early '30s, John Hurlburt Cooke built a shop on the New Britain Road where he was joined by John D. Hamlin, an expert maker of tools and small hardware. Mr. Hamlin even- tually built himself a shop at White Oak where he continued to make edged tools until his death in 1887.
Another industry that engaged the attention of a number of Plainville men in former years, was that of carriage building. The pioneer in this line was Elias Hills whose shop was located on East Street. His son Hiram was the first to engage in this business on a wholesale basis. He built a carriage shop on East Main Street, opposite the Baptist Church. Henry D. Stanley, Ebenezer W. Webster, Lewis S. Gladding, Horace Johnson, Aquilla H. Condell and Ransom Barnes were prominent in this line till it was discontinued in 1895 after two disastrous fires. In 1834 Hiram Hills established the hardware business now owned by his descendants. His first shop stood on Unionville
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Avenue at the north end of the Plainville Pond. In 1854 he acquired a majority of the stock of the Plainville Water Power Company, organized in 1853 for the purpose of building a dam on the Pequabuck, near the old Demming mill, and furnishing water power to such industries as this company hoped to induce to build factories here. Mr. Hills built a shop on the north side of the dam, where he made wood hames and articles for the building trade. In 1874 he was succeeded by his sons, Burritt and Edwin Hills, and his son-in-law, Lorenzo C. Strickland, who operated as Hills Brothers & Company until 1877. Other changes in ownership, resulted in the eventual purchase by Ed- win Hills, in whose family the ownership now vests. The grist mill, separated from the main business, was rented in 1876 to Andrus Corbin and George W. Eaton. The property was bought by Mr. Eaton in 1878 and is now owned by William S. Eaton.
The brass foundry owned by Irving B. Carter was founded by his uncle, Deacon Lucas H. Carter, in 1839. John C. Royce in 1837 started the manufacture of clock faces, in a shop at Blos- som's Corner. In 1845 he moved to the present junction of East Main Street and Norton Place. The firm of Clark & Cowles, for many years a leading manufacturing concern in this town, was founded in 1840 by Norris Clark. In this shop, clock hands and keys were made in large quantities together with builders' hardware, until the business was discontinued in 1902. In 1845, George Hills and Jared Goodrich began making clocks and in 1851 Mr. Hills engaged in the business of making clock frames and dials, in a shop on West Main Street. In later years, his son, Dwight B. Hills, was associated with him and continued the business here and in Forestville until 1904.
The Bristol Manufacturing Company, at one time our lead- ing industry, was incorporated as the Plainville Manufacturing Company in 1850 through the efforts of Jared Goodrich who was instrumental also in founding the Bristol Manufacturing Com- pany of Bristol, and the New Britain Knitting Company of New Britain. These three concerns were organized for the purpose of making knit underwear. John F. Chantrell and Benjamin Pollard, who had learned the trade of weaving in England, came here in 1850 and took charge of the work. The original build- ing, burned in 1857, stood where the deserted brick mill now
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THE ELLEN FRENCH SCHOOL, PLAINVILLE, 1863 Ellen French, Principal
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stands. This industry introduced an entirely new kind of manu- facturing and from its beginning, until closed a few years ago, furnished employment to a majority of Plainville's working population.
Many and varied lesser industries have come into being here since 1800, the majority of them surviving but a few years. It was not until 1899, when the Trumbull Electric Manufacturing Company located in Plainville, that the town became an indus- trial center in the larger sense of that term, due largely to the enterprise and town-loyalty of Gov. John H. Trumbull. A sketch of the governor's life is given elsewhere in these volumes, but it is to be said here that always his interest for the town has been as great as that for the state in his first term and now his second term as chief executive. At his home on the Farmington Road many people of distinction have been entertained, including the family of President Coolidge, whose son John is betrothed to Miss Florence Trumbull.
This company was incorporated as the Trumbull Electric Company in 1899 by John H. Trumbull, now governor of Con- necticut; his brother, Henry Trumbull, and Walter S. Ingram, then residents of Hartford. Mr. Ingram was the first president of the company and John H. and Henry Trumbull were treas- urer and secretary, respectively. Business was started with a capital of $2,000 and the manufacture of an electric cut-out, pat- ented by the Trumbulls, was undertaken in Hartford.
In 1899 the capital was increased to $5,025, Mr. Ingram re- tired, and the business was moved to Plainville, where the Trum- bull brothers had lived prior to their business venture in Hart- ford. Here the wooden building on Woodford Avenue, originally built for the ill-fated Pratt & Weir Chuck Company, became the home of the concern. Frank T. Wheeler of Southington joined forces with the Trumbulls and became president, and John H. and Henry Trumbull were elected to their former offices. The capital was increased in 1903 to $20,050 and the corporate title was changed to its present form. The first building in- cluded in the present plant was completed in 1905, and at the same time, the capital was further increased to $100,025. Two years later, the original wooden building was removed and the plant doubled in size.
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In 1911 the capital was increased to $500,000, made up of $200,000 preferred and $300,000 common stock, the former being retired in 1927. In 1911 Governor Trumbull was elected president, Frank T. Wheeler vice president and Henry Trumbull secretary and treasurer. These men hold their respective offices today, except that Stanley S. Gwillim is now secretary, having been elected to that office in 1917. In February, 1918, the com- pany became affiliated with General Electric Company but remains an independent unit. In 1920 it began the operation of a porcelain factory at Trenton, N. J., and in 1926 acquired the ownership of a plant at Ludlow, Kentucky, the better to care for its panel and switchboard business in the South and West. Today the company produces an extensive line of safety and open-knife switches, porcelain devices, and a varied line of pan- el and switchboards. Branch offices are maintained in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta and Jacksonville.
The Newton Manufacturing Company on West Main Street is engaged in the production of screw machine parts and auto- mobile accessories. This company was originally incorporated as the Osborne & Stephenson Manufacturing Company, in 1902. The present organization became effective in 1919 when Charles H. Newton was elected president and treasurer. The present capital is $100,000.
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