USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 34
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Standard Steel and Bearings began the manufacture of ball bearings in Hartford in 1915 as the Rockwell-Drake Corpora- tion, with a capital of $100,000, increased to $270,000 in 1916. The directors of the parent company were Hugh M. Rockwell, S. A. Drake and G. S. Sanford. Mr. Rockwell was president and general manager. In 1916, the works were moved to Plainville and the brick factory built by the company on Woodford Avenue was occupied. To review the history of these important transac- tions: The Marlin Arms Corporation, incorporated in 1915, acquired the Marlin Fire Arms Company of New Haven and under the leadership of the late Albert F. Rockwell of Bristol bought the Rockwell-Drake Corporation in 1917 and the Stand- ard Roller Bearing Company of Philadelphia in the same year. In 1917, the corporate title of this concern was changed to the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation, and in 1919 Mr. Rockwell organ-
RESIDENCE OF GOVERNOR JOHN H. TRUMBULL, PLAINVILLE
GOVERNOR TRUMBULL'S TROPHY AND EQUIPMENT ROOM
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ized the Standard Steel and Bearings, thus consolidating the Standard Roller Bearing Company and the steel mills then owned by the corporation, and acquired control of the Plainville plant by purchase in 1919.
This merger of plants links the town of Plainville with the pioneers of the annular ball-bearing business in America. The Standard Roller Bearing plant at Philadelphia, and later the factory at Plainville, developed the ball bearing to the point where American-made bearings gained and have held their supe- riority over the foreign-made product. During the World war the plants of the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation contributed largely to the support of the Allied Nations, producing shells, aerial bombs and other munitions, in addition to bearings. In August of 1923, the Philadelphia plant equipment and products were transferred to Plainville, thus returning to New England an industry that had had its inception in Boston in the last years of the nineteenth century. Since this consolidation of plants, Standard Steel and Bearings has further increased its prestige in the automotive and industrial fields by merging with it the Gurney Ball-Bearing Company, of Jamestown, New York, and the Strom Ball-Bearing Manufacturing Company of Chi- cago. Sales forces are maintained by each of the several fac- tories operated by this corporation, and service sales are under the control of the M. R. C. Bearings Company.
The Peck Spring Company, makers of springs and screw machine products, was organized in 1915 by Don C. Peck and his sons, Don K. Peck and Percy L. Peck, and was incorporated in 1920 with Don C. Peck as president. The Plainville Electro- Plating Company, incorporated in 1920, occupies the factory on Forestville Avenue, built by the late Charles H. Calor, the founder of this business. The Plainville Casting Company, founders of iron castings at its plant on South Canal Street, was incorporated in 1921, Henry S. Washburn president. The Peck- Harris Manufacturing Company, makers of metal stampings, of which Don K. Peck is president, was incorporated in 1926. The Plainville Electrical Products Co., Inc., builders of switchboards, was incorporated in 1922, Frederick L. Benzon, president.
The first store in Plainville was opened for business in 1829 by Ebenezer Hawley Whiting and his brother, Adna Whiting,
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on Farmington Avenue, just north of Blossom's Corner, on the east bank of the Farmington Canal. Here the Whitings had dug a "basin," thus bringing the waters of the canal close to the rear of their building, making it possible to unload boats directly into the store. The Whitings soon sold the entire property to Timothy Cowles of Farmington. In his behalf, this store was opened by Austin F. Williams and Henry Mygatt in 1829. The Whitings bought fourteen acres of land in and about the present center of the town and in 1831 built the large wooden building which stood in Central Square until 1923. Another "basin" was dug adjoining the north side of the building, and here, at Bristol Basin, so called, Ebenezer H. and Adna Whiting operated a gen- eral store until 1834 when Adna Whiting acquired the building and business and operated as sole owner until his death in 1862.
In 1834, George, Elisha N. and Harmanus M. Welch bought a half acre of land where the deserted knitting mill stands, put up a large building and opened a third general store. Just prior to this Mr. Welch had started a lumber yard at Whiting's Basin on Farmington Avenue. This business he soon combined with his store and moved his yard to the location now occupied by the Plainville Lumber and Coal Company. In the lumber business, Mr. Welch was associated with James L. English of New Haven and it is to this concern that the Plainville Lumber and Coal Company traces its origin.
These three general stores, made possible by the opening of the Farmington Canal through Plainville in 1828, and succeed- ing this, by the railroads in 1848 and 1850, with various changes in personnel, were practically undisturbed by local competition until the close of the Civil war. Thereafter new enterprises appeared in rapidly increasing numbers. The stores now in business which had an early origin, are as follows: George R. Byington, drugs, founded by Moody & Sanford, in 1854; Willis J. Hemingway, grocer, founded by Tuttle & Frost in 1864; Sam- uel J. Castle, stationery, business begun by Frank E. Burnam, 1870; succeeded by Walter & William Moore, 1876, and by the late postmaster, Marshall P. Ryder, 1877; Horace James, dry goods, founded by George L. Newton, 1873; George L. Newton, harness and wagons, who began business here in 1873.
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An adequate water supply for public and private uses had long been discussed when in 1883 a plot of ground for a reservoir was bought on the East Mountain, just over the town line in Southington. The Plainville Water Company was organized in 1884 with a capital of $30,000. William L. Cowles was elected president; Dwight B. Hills, vice president, and Edwin C. Chap- man, secretary and treasurer. The system was completed in the fall, including the installation of a complete system of fire pro- tection for the town. During 1911 the capital was increased to $60,000 and thirty driven wells were put down and a pumping system connecting them with a stand-pipe at the reservoir was installed, providing a more ample supply of water. This auxil- iary system has now given way to a connection with the New Britain water mains, which pass through Plainville, on the line from the Burlington reservoir to New Britain.
The first bank established in Plainville began business in 1853 as the Plainville Building Association. This institution was organized by Henry D. Stanley as a savings bank and loan association. Business was discontinued in 1856. No further attempt was made to establish a local bank until 1908 when the First National Bank of Plainville was organized. It was char- tered in 1909, with a capital of $25,000. Of this institution, Governor Trumbull was elected president. In 1913 the capital was increased to $50,000. The national charter was surren- dered in 1915 and the Plainville Trust Company was incorpo- rated. Of this institution, Governor Trumbull became presi- dent; Aquilla H. Condell, vice president; Archer A. Mac Leod, secretary and treasurer; Frank T. Wheeler, assistant treasurer. The capital was placed at $25,000, surplus $12,500, and the bal- ance of the capital of the national bank was returned to the stockholders. The present capital is $50,000 with a surplus and undivided profits of $141,633.
Frederick Lodge, No. 14, A. F. & A. M., was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts Bay in 1787 as Frederick Lodge No. 26. At the institution of the Grand Lodge of Con- necticut in 1789, the local lodge became Number 14, following the order in which the lodges that united to form the Grand
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Lodge were chartered. In 1852 the charter was surrendered. It was reinstituted in 1859, again disbanded in 1874 and re- instituted in 1876. Sequassen Lodge, No. 74, I. O. of O. F., was instituted in 1851. The charter was surrendered in 1858 and reinstituted in 1886. Plainville Grange, No. 54, P. of H., was organized in 1887; Pythian Lodge, No. 47, K. of P., in 1905.
The Fire Department was organized as Plainville Hose Com- pany No. 1, in 1885.
The Plainville Chamber of Commerce organized as the Plain- ville Business and Improvement Association in 1908 and reor- ganized as the Plainville Chamber of Commerce in 1921.
From colonial times until the close of the World war, the men and women of Plainville have borne their full share of the duties imposed upon them, incident to the wars in which our country has been engaged. In the French-Indian war Asa Bron- son of Red Stone Hill took part and Dr. Samuel Richards was assistant surgeon in the expedition against Cape Breton. The Plainville men who fought in the Revolution were Ira Hooker, Daniel Lowrey, James Lowrey, Moses Morse and Ladwick Hotchkiss. In the War of 1812, Plainville was represented by Salmon Hills, James Hills and Demas Warner. In the Mexican war, Julius Dorman of White Oak served during a part of the year 1847. During the Civil war sixty-six men served from Plainville. In the Spanish war Plainville was represented by fourteen men.
During the World war, 198 men and one woman served in the American Army and Navy from this town and a company, under the command of Capt. John H. Trumbull, later governor, served as a unit of the First Infantry, Connecticut State Guard. In this connection it is worthy of note that a Plainville man, the late Lieut .- Col. G. Arthur Hadsell, then captain of K Company, Twenty-eighth United States Infantry, with his men, was of the first of American soldiers, ever in history, to land on European soil for service in war-June 26, 1917. Plainville men, sur- vivors of the World war, organized Brock-Barnes Post, No. 33, American Legion, in 1919, named in honor of Private Francis Luther Barnes, killed at Seicheprey, and Miss Monica Brock, army nurse, who served in France and died in Washington, D. C., in 1918.
PLAINVILLE, FROM SUNSET ROCK, 1928
Principal buildings, from left to right: New High School; Linden Street School; Trum- bull Electric Manufacturing Company; Standard Steel and Bearings Company, Inc .; and Landers, Frary & Clark
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Plainville's population increased from 1910 to 1920 about 4,000 or 100 per cent, and will show nearly as large an increase in the 1930 census. The grand list is over $6,000,000. The thrifty town grows fast but there is no lack of interest in sur- rounding scenery. Sunset Rock-from which one of the pic- tures herein was taken-on the west slope of Bradley Mountain, toward New Britain, commands a wonderful view of the Quinni- piac Valley. In 1906 the timber rights on the mountain were sold to a lumberman. Thereupon an association of Plainville and New Britain citizens was formed and bought the property to preserve its natural beauty. This year, 1928, the association has given it to the state for a park in order that succeeding gen- erations may enjoy it as have the generations since earliest times. Norton Park of sixty-five acres, the gift of Charles and Elizabeth Norton, is now being developed.
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SOUTHINGTON
The uttermost limits of the "ten miles further" which in 1640 Farmington had been given "liberty to improve" was the present Cheshire line to the south, up to which Davenport's ex- plorers had come from New Haven, by the time any of the Hart- ford colony got there. It was comparatively poor soil for crops, but it was between the eastern ridge of the Holyoke hills and the western ridge of the Green Mountain spur-probably the orig- inal bed of the Connecticut-and was the upper reaches of the valley of New Haven's Quinnipiac. Through it, therefore, was the main trail from New Haven northward. The map shows that, whether or not, Hartford colony wanted the land badly enough to crowd down below Meriden's line as far as possible, but Southington itself got only seven miles depth, New Britain and what became Plainville having worked in on the "ten miles." Southington's date of incorporation, 1779, was nearly a hundred years ahead of Plainville's, but it had to be, because it was so much farther from the mother church. Of its original western land it allowed a two-mile strip to go with Waterbury's contri- bution to make Farmingbury which, at incorporation, became Wolcott, and it gained a little in 1740 by the jog into the Meri-
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den region. Its total acreage today is 24,310. It lived ever at peace with all men, the Indians included.
The Quinnipiac has tributaries from Crescent Pond in the northeastern corner and Eight-mile Brook from Lake Com- pounce in its northwestern corner which combines with Roaring Brook from the western ridge. Another stream, from the old Southington reservoir in Wolcott, joins with Ten-mile Brook of the town of Prospect to the southwest and turns back to flow into the Quinnipiac at the hamlet of Milldale on Southington's south- ern border. There is Nashaway Plain east of the Quinnipiac and south of Southington Center and Little Plain in the south- west section, near what is known to all automobilists as "South- ington Mountain," with its wonderful view of Meriden's Hang- ing Hills and its westerly slope down to Waterbury. Both ranges of hills have suggestions of silver and copper.
It was fifty-six years (1696) after Farmington's grant from the General Court before the first man acted under Farming- ton's "liberty to improve." He was Samuel Woodruff, and his descendants have continued in the same locality. From 1700 to 1712 settlers appeared at Clark's Farms near the center, and at Marion in the southwest corner. The houses of John Root, who had been the first to build a house in Plainville, and of Levi C. Neal were well enough built in 1720 to last through the gen- erations since. Bronson, Newell and Scott came down from Farmington and Barnes, Cowles, Clark and Smith from Wal- lingford and New Haven, and their settlement came to be called Panthorn. In 1724 the land was divided among eighty-four Farmington proprietors, though with them "Panthorn" was facetiously used as a synonym for "poverty." Winter privileges having been granted, Rev. Daniel Buck came to preach for the settlers; when parish privileges were allowed in 1726, Panthorn became South Farmington or Southington-the Third Society of Farmington. At the first town meeting in 1779, Jared Lee was chosen moderator, Jonathan Curtiss clerk, and Jonathan Root, Maj. Asa Bray, Capt. Zacheus Gillette and Ensign Peck select- men, with Timothy Clark treasurer and Samuel Andrus town clerk. In 1782 the society's population was 1,886 and Farming- ton's grand total 5,542. In 1830, the dismembered parent town's population was 1,901 and Southington's 1,844.
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The society's first church, Mr. Buck still pastor, was built about 1725, north of the present borough and near the present Oak Hill Cemetery. The second meeting-house was built in 1757, a little to the north of the present green and soldiers' monument. The steeple with a bell was added in 1797. The present church was built in 1830. The Plantsville congregation-to the south- was organized in 1865 and its church dedicated in 1867, with Rev. W. R. Eastman as pastor. The Baptists of the neighboring settlements began holding meetings in 1783 and built their church in Center Place, Southington, in 1792; after the different Baptist churches of the vicinity had organized in 1816, they looked upon this as the mother church. Rev. John Merriman was the first preacher and Rev. Nehemiah Dodge was the preacher when the church was built. The Plantsville Baptist Church was built in 1872, during the pastorate of Rev. W. C. Walker. In Marion a Chapel Association of the different creeds was formed and a chapel built in 1875. The Episcopalians began their services at the home of Capt. Daniel Sloper and were pay- ing rates in 1781 for the leadership of Missionary Samuel An- drews of Wallingford. There was union with St. Andrew's Church of Meriden in 1828 and their building was consecrated the next year. Some of the members returned to the original church, some went with the Unitarians, and from 1864 to 1875 there were no regular services. Then Rev. George Buck organ- ized a mission and today there is the edifice of St. Paul's Parish on Main Street, erected in 1892; the rectory was built in 1920.
From 1829 for a few years the Universalists held meetings jointly with those of Cheshire. The Unitarians were assisted in organizing in 1840 by Jesse Olney, writer of school books, and meetings were continued till 1855. The Methodists had their first class in 1816 but there were no formal services till 1858. Their Grace Church on the corner of Main and Berlin streets was dedicated in 1867. St. Thomas' Roman Catholic Church was built in 1860, on Bristol Street near Railroad Avenue, and has been considerably enlarged since then. The first resident priest was Rev. Thomas Drae. The Polish Church of the Holy Trinity on Summer Street was dedicated in 1923. The Evan- gelist Lutheran Society, after meeting at private houses for some years, built on Bristol Street in 1872. The German Zion Church also is on Summer Street.
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The records of the schools begin with 1798, at which time there were probably nine schoolhouses. The Grammar School Society was formed by private citizens in 1813 and had a build- ing of its own for the short period of its existence. The regula- tion "academy" was conducted in the old Baptist Church for ten years. In 1843 a building was erected for it, by the Congre- gational Society aided by the Sally Lewis fund. Addin Lewis gave $15,000 to the fund, after which the school was known as Lewis Academy. The new building was completed in 1858; since 1848 the school has been under town control and it was made a high school in 1882. It has played an important part in the history of the borough and the neighboring communities. A new high school building was erected in 1896. Mr. Lewis, after whom the school was named, was graduated at Yale in 1803. For a time he was an instructor in the University of Georgia and then, moving to Mobile, Alabama, he won the title of "father" of that city before he returned to New Haven for his last days. He was a cousin of Sally Lewis who at her death in 1840 left her estate of $3,600 for a school of higher order than those then existing. Besides the high school, there are now twelve school buildings in the town, those of recent date being very complete and substantial in construction.
The water power in the south part of the town attracted mill men, and Atwater's mill at the south end of Plantsville was the first to start. James Hazard had a fulling mill in 1755 which came into the possession of Capt. Enos Atwater in 1771. Mr. Atwater also had grain mills and after his death his descendants continued a very prosperous business for several years. Samuel Curtiss had potash works in 1755.
The development of the Peck, Stow & Wilcox of today is a story in itself. Increasing tinware manufacture through this section was much advanced by various inventions, first by Ed- ward M. Converse. In 1829 Seth Peck advanced capital for him and Romeo Lowrey also came into the company. When Mr. Peck, after a very successful career, died in 1843, Orrin and Noble Peck continued the business, and when Wyllys Smith joined, the firm name was changed to Peck, Smith & Company. Roswell A. Neal of Bristol brought the manufacture of steel- yards to the concern. Such was his industry and native ability
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that the business was extended through the South and West. He was president from 1861 till he retired in 1887, both of this com- pany and its successor.
Back in the beginning Solomon Stow, who had been making clock parts, first turned out machinery for Peck and then with his two sons set up a shop near the present railroad station. In 1833 he removed to Plantsville as S. Stow & Company, Wyllys Smith and Lowrey having come over to him from the Peck con- cern. Their business flourished. A second great competitor was appearing in Berlin in 1847. For this one it is necessary again to turn back a little. The industry of tool-inventing and tool- making, started in the Berlin section by Jedediah and Edmund North, had brought out several able men. Among them were William and Justus Bulkley who in 1823 had organized a com- pany which was continued after the death of Justus in 1844 by William and his son till the death of the father in 1878. Their inventions were valuable. Meantime Franklin Roys and Josiah Wilcox of the same town, both trained under the Norths, had started a factory in North Greenwich. In 1840 Roys organized F. Roys & Company in Berlin while the Greenwich factory made tools for the Stow company. In 1847 Wilcox with Roys as Roys & Wilcox Company bought the former Brandegee cotton mill in Berlin and proved to be powerful competitors in this industry. The Stow plant made bayonets during the war. Readjustment to the normal was difficult. In 1870 Samuel C. Wilcox, then president of Roys & Wilcox, and President Neal of the Stow com- pany, negotiated a combination of all three companies as Peck, Stow & Wilcox with a capital of $500,000. By 1880 their capital was a million. Prior to this consolidation, Marcellus B. Wilcox, Augustus R. Treadway and other capitalists had established a similar concern in Cleveland. This was absorbed in 1881 and the capital was increased to $1,500,000. Finding that with the western development it was better to transfer certain of the local production to Cleveland, the Berlin and Birmingham (Con- necticut) plants were sold. Headquarters are retained at the large plant in Southington.
In the line of bolts, which also was to give Southington a name, Micah Rugg, a blacksmith, in 1839 began making these for the trade, hammering out a hundred a day. He also made scythes and steel traps. In 1840 Martin Barnes was associated with
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him, an inventive genius whose devices were a greater benefit to industry than the world that has enjoyed the results can appreci- ate. At that time bolts were square rods and they and the nuts were laboriously threaded by hand, making the cost prohibitive except for especially particular contracts. Barnes first invented a machine for threading the bolts and then another for rounding the rods. Neither he nor Barnes secured patents but they revo- lutionized the industry. Southington was benefited in that others were attracted to the business and capital was freely invested. Julius Bristol and Henry A. Miller were among those who took up the manufacture locally.
It remained for A. Perrin Plant and his brother Howard, who came to Southington about 1850, to create the largest con- cern of the kind in the country. Their specialty was carriage bolts. Their factory obtained its power from what thereafter was known as Plant's Pond and that section south of the center henceforth has been known as Plantsville, a village in itself. The factories were burned several times and much of the busi- ness was removed to New Hartford. The local buildings were burned again in 1873 and were not rebuilt. A. Perrin Plant died and the firm was permanently dissolved. Howard Plant, who died in 1891, aged sixty-three, then gave his attention to his private affairs and to the affairs of the Baptist Society.
Other companies in this line were absorbed into the present Clark Brothers of Milldale,-the Aetna Nut Company and the Bourne-Fuller Company (formerly of the Upson Nut Company at Unionville), as mentioned further on. Clark Brothers was founded in 1851 by William J. C. Clark. Charles Hull Clark, one of the three brothers, had been in the business seventy-two years and president for many years at the time of his death in 1925. He was born in Southington in 1832 and at his death was the oldest man in town and the oldest bank executive in the state. In the Civil war he was second lieutenant in the Twentieth Regi- ment, Connecticut Volunteers, and was on the staff of Col. James Wood, commanding the Third Division, Second Army Corps. He was president of the Waterbury & Milldale Tramway Company, for incorporation of which he worked twelve years. For four of these twelve years he was elected a member of the Legislature. The bank of which he was president is the Southington Bank and Trust Company.
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The Upson Nut Company was organized in Unionville in 1854 by Dwight Langdon. At his death the business was bought by A. S. Upson and George Dunham who in 1866 sold to the Union Nut Company. A western branch was established by co-partnership with the Aetna Nut Company of Southington and Lawrence & Sessions of Cleveland as the Cleveland Nut Com- pany, and the Aetna and the Union Nut companies were ab- sorbed. In 1874 Charles A. Hotchkiss and Philip Gaylord of Southington started a plant in Cleveland. Andrew S. Upson bought Gaylord's interests and brought the concern to buildings vacated by the Lamson & Sessions Company, with the name Hotchkiss & Upson which continued till 1890 when the Hotch- kiss interests were absorbed by the Upson Nut Company.
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