USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
Irons for carriages were forged by hand till 1850 when H. D. Smith, of Hartford birth, a graduate of Yale in 1820 and prin- cipal of Lewis Academy at this time, succeeded in devising ma- chinery to do the work, thereby greatly reducing prices. The H. D. Smith Company was organized in 1850 and incorporated in 1891. The Thompson Forging Company was organized in 1903 by Thomas W. Thompson of Orange, Conn. The Tobrin Tool Company was organized in 1923 by William S. Thomson who had had much experience in the H. D. Smith Company. The Hartford Battery Manufacturing Company began extending its territory and increasing its plant in 1920. The Beaton & Cor- bin Manufacturing Company came into existence in 1890, making ceiling plates, radiator valves and the like. Albert J. Beaton and W. N. Corbin were the proprietors. This became a part of a New Britain company.
Returning to the earlier days of invention, J. B. Savage in 1846 was the first to make a specialty of cold-pressed carriage bolts. Eventually he devoted his attention to carriage hardware. Forged hardware and coffee mills were turned out in quantities by different concerns. Henry Smith and Edward Twichell had a patent safety shackle among other things and with G. F. Smith, E. W. Twichell and William S. Ward as members of the firm at different times the largest business of the kind in the country was built up, forged carriage irons predominating. Knives, plated ware and wooden screws were among the prod- ucts of the Southington Cutlery Company; bags and shipping
1204
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
tags the specialty of the Pultz & Walkley Company; carriage hardware of the Atwater Company, continuing today with auto- mobile forgings, and bricks, carpet tacks, buttons, piano hard- ware and a variety of similar things came from the plants of others.
The Southington Hardware Company, begun as a cutlery company in 1867, changed its name in 1908 and under the lead- ership of J. H. Pratt built the second largest concern in the town, giving most of its attention to wood screws, carpenter squares and household articles. The Blakeslee Forging Company, in Plantsville, the Tubular Products Company and the plant of the Stanley Rule and Level Company of New Britain are among others to whom credit is largely due for the steadily increasing grand list.
In war times the town was faithful to the last degree. In the earlier wars, it was still a part of Farmington and its men were credited to that town. In the Revolution there were 135 men; in the War of 1812, sixteen; and in the Mexican war, three; and on Memorial Park stand the monument and the can- non for 322 men in the Civil war when the population was but 3,300. In the World war, in addition to working up the selec- tive draft with enthusiasm and proving worthy townsmen and townswomen of the great War Governor-and likewise when the soldiers came home,-the men who could not go into federal service maintained an earnest company of the First Regiment, Connecticut State Guard. During the prolonged period, the officers were J. J. Miller and William E. Smith, captains, and G. E. Westbury, L. Clark Frost, Olin B. Kilbourn and Byron Allen, lieutenants. After the war, in 1919, one of the earliest and most appropriate memorials in the state was erected on Me- morial Park directly opposite the Congregational Church. It was the gift of Peck, Stow & Wilcox. On its base, which sup- ports a lofty flagpole, are given the number who served in each war, concluding with 425 in the World war. Not far from it is a captured German gun.
This Memorial Park, once a part of the church common, had become rather a dumping ground when in the '70s John Barnes, J. Frank Pratt, David Pratt and Dr. F. A. Hart put it in shape and the town finally assumed the care of it. It was known in
--
----
SOUTHINGTON CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH All-Wars Memorial on Memorial Park in the foreground
SOUTHINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
1207
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
those earlier days as "Pigweed Park." In addition to the memo- rials named there is a fountain given by Emma M. Bradley Yeo- mans Newell in memory of her father, Amon Bradley, who was a leading merchant, postmaster for twelve years, legislator and a citizen greatly interested in the high school and other public affairs. She also gave the drinking fountain for animals in the center of Plantsville, in memory of E. S. Yeomans, her first hus- band. Among her other remembrances were $5,000 for chimes in the Congregational Church and $5,000 as a nucleus for an his- torical building to be erected in connection with the library. Mrs. Newell died in 1917.
The site of the first church built by the settlers was marked by an inscribed boulder by Hannah Woodruff Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution, and the stone also commemorates the Revolutionary soldiers. The left flankers of Rochambeau's forces, on their march in 1781 from Newport to New York and thence to Yorktown camped on what has since been known as French Hill in Marion, and again on their return. They were here two days and one night on the first march and were enter- tained with a supper and ball at the Barnes tavern at the foot of the hill. This place has been marked by a memorial erected by the Southington Historical Society.
L. V. Walkley made a park west of the railroad track be- tween Southington and Plantsville and offered it to the town but it was not possible at that time for the town to take on the bur- den of upkeep. Mr. Walkley, who had had a dry goods store in Hartford, had started one in Plantsville in 1866. The venture had proved profitable. When the possibilities were exhausted he formed the firm of Pultz & Walkley in 1870, the senior mem- ber of the firm being the inventor of paper-bag machines. The business was eminently successful. In time it was sold to a combine for $1,200,000 and Mr. Walkley devoted himself to his farm east of Southington Center which became one of the most notable in the state.
A library there had been, after the manner of such institu- tions in many towns before the state law to encourage them was passed. There had been groups having books kept in various places, finally housed in the town hall. The Daughters of the Revolution had taken active part in arousing the public to raise
1208
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
funds for a building and led the subscription list with the first $100. Mr. Walkley gave one-half of the amount required and the present handsome building was opened in 1902. Mrs. L. S. Sloper was the first librarian, a position now held by Martha H. Jackson. It has 12,000 volumes.
. A hospital in the early future is assured. Mrs. Julia A. Brad- ley, widow of Franklin B. Bradley, died in 1919 and left her estate for hospital purposes. The accumulation now amounts to over $300,000 and is in charge of a corporation which has been formed.
Orson W. Stow was the father of the town's water-supply system. Having found water of exceptional quality in Humis- ton Brook on the high land in Wolcott, he interested one of the best engineers in the state, Theodore H. Mckenzie of Southing- ton, and reservoir work was soon begun. The town voted one- quarter of the cost; Peck, Stow & Wilcox, the Southington Cutlery Company, the Aetna Nut Company, H. D. Smith & Com- pany and the railroad company contributed; a private company was formed and the system was completed in 1884. The town's contribution was conditioned upon its right to buy all when it so desired. This right was challenged by the company when the town sought to buy in 1911 but the court sustained its right and the purchase was made for $222,757, including a thousand acres of land. Enlargements and improvements have been made as times required.
There have been newspaper ventures which have met with varying degrees of success. The Phoenix was well known in other offices through the state in the '90s. The present paper, the News, covers its field well under the editorship of Harold H. Parker. He has the support of the Business Men's Association, an organization which is gratified in seeing the increase in the grand list through keeping up traditions.
The Southington Savings Bank was incorporated in 1860. Its deposits today are about $2,300,000. The president is War Governor Marcus H. Holcomb. The Building and Loan Associ- ation, which was incorporated in 1912, of which Charles C. Per- siani is president, has assets of nearly $300,000. The Southing- ton Bank and Trust Company was incorporated in 1916 with a capital of $100,000. It has savings deposits of $1,100,000 and
1209
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
commercial deposits of about $1,000,000. The president is James H. Pratt. In 1925, the Plantsville National Bank, of which Clarence A. Cowles is president, was established.
The Southington Club and St. Thomas' Community House, of which Rev. William J. Doolan is superintendent, are located on Main Street, the latter near the library. There is also the Southington Country Club. The Businessmen's Association, to which reference has been made, is located in Oxley Hall.
An accompanying wood cut gives an idea of the center at the period when the Farmington Canal-the story of which is told in the Farmington chapter-gave promise of making Southing- ton an industrial and shipping center. Factories were crowding around the churches which looked out upon the old common. The churches and school building are still there, the common has be- come Memorial Park, the factories have moved out to get more room, the separate settlements are now villages, the Northamp- ton branch of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad recalls the days when the canal was extinguished, and the state highway carries more traffic than ever the canal could have done. The borough government was set up in 1889 to enable the center itself more definitely to regulate improvements and utilities, pre- serve old landmarks and direct the steady growth.
Compounce Pond continues to be a popular resort for all this section of the state. There in particular the people of adjoining towns meet for reunions, celebrations and political dinners, and many are its happy associations. One of them is that of the Crocodile Club in the '80s, which Burwell Carter of Plainville nourished. A group of Southington men and men from other towns held it together for many years. It was a distinction to be invited to its clambakes. The membership included J. B. Sav- age of Southington, John J. Jennings and Edward E. Newell of Bristol, Amos M. Johnson of Wolcott and S. L. Bloss of Beth- lehem.
And it was in that period that steps were taken to promote the agricultural interests. The Southington Agricultural Com- pany was formed in 1892, the stockholders being mostly owners of the former driving park. The farms now specialize in their products. That of Elijah Rogers, who has been president of the Connecticut Pomological Society, is located west of Shuttle
1210
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Meadow Reservoir. The abundance and quality of its fruit serve a worthy purpose in showing what Connecticut farms can do,-an important item in the councils of those now forming to make more of New England's qualifications.
Achievements of Southington men have been noted. No citi- zen of this or any other town has been held in higher esteem throughout the state than Marcus H. Holcomb who has been county commissioner, state's attorney, representative, speaker of the House, senator, judge of the Superior Court till he reached the age limit, and then governor for three terms through the critical World war period. Ever since then, declining to stand again for nomination, he has been court referee in exceptional cases and has achieved wonderful results in adjusting the affairs of large corporations. In his later days, still vigorous in mind and body, he has been able to indulge his love for travel to dis- tant places and always has been a welcome guest at public and private meetings and dinners.
As the whole state claims him, details of his career are better given in the biographical section of the history. There are many incidents to be treasured as earnestly as those in the lives of Trumbull and Buckingham, the other great war governors. When he was proposed for governor in 1914, he had given a letter to a delegate to the republican convention, saying that his name must not be presented; in reality, having retired from the bench he had made his plans for a trip to Europe. The letter fortunately was suppressed by its recipient and he was nomi- nated and elected overwhelmingly. After that it was the popular desire to keep him in office as long as possible. Intensely out- spoken, he did not hesitate to take firm stand for America's en- tering the war and he frequently was quoted throughout the country as voicing the sentiments of zealous Americans.
During the war period and until 1921, he allowed himself little respite from his exacting duties. He kept Connecticut in the lead in patriotic acts, himself conceiving many of them. As told in the general history, he inaugurated the military census and, despite discouraging remarks in Washington-later changed to praises,-he provided for a citizen soldiery for the state, carefully drilled and well equipped, as soon as it was ap-
1211
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
parent that the National Guard was to be taken over by the fed- eral government; he said he had seen enough of the peril in leav- ing the state stripped when the National Guard was ordered away for the Mexican border campaign in 1916. Other indus- trial states spy-infested, followed his example in this and in various particulars. He was guided by plain common sense and had no patience with red-tape which marked the doings espe- cially of the War Department when war was declared. He forcefully recalled that Connecticut always had been a sovereign state and it would judge as to its own interests and methods while loyally combining with the other states in federal duty.
The governor all the while has lived simply and, since the death of his wife, alone in his long-time home on the west side of the Memorial Park, across from the Congregational Church. He continues as interested in merely local affairs as he was in his young manhood when he first became one whom the people wished to have lead. His long life has been devoted to uninter- rupted public service, and in every hour of it he has been a sym- pathetic, unpretentious, hard-working fellow townsman of everybody.
-
-
-
-
SOUTHINGTON CENTER IN THE 1830s AND 1840s
1
LVIII BRISTOL AND ITS NEIGHBORS
STRIKING ILLUSTRATION OF HEREDITY IN INDUSTRIAL ACHIEVEMENT-
WELL DIRECTED INGENUITY TODAY-CONCERNS OF NATIONAL EMI- NENCE MULTIPLY-FORESTVILLE A PART-BURLINGTON, COLONIAL WEST BRITAIN-HARTLAND, "HARTFORD'S LAND"-STATE PRESERVES.
This history has followed Hartford pioneers far beyond their original bounds west of the Connecticut. It has traced the devel- opment of Farmington's extensive grant to its southern limits and has noted characteristics which have changed parishes into municipalities of renown. There remains only the west and southwest corner of the grant and of the present county-the sec- tion where Nature was most forbidding,-and with it the one northerly spot that was designated "Hartford's land."
Members of the Farmington flock of Rev. Samuel Hooker, son of Thomas, made bold in the 1650s to penetrate the dense forests of the westerly confines instead of following the trails to Great Swamp and the Wethersfield border. They found their way along the Pequabuck, across present Plainville and toward the sources of this stream which joins the ever-winding Farmington at Farmington. The deterring stories that the forest concealed many Indians were true as also the impelling stories that it was the choicest of hunting grounds. The hills to north, south and west were steep, the Pequabuck valley rough, sandy and rocky, but the place was beloved by Sachem Compound and his followers. One of the assets he stoically refrained from citing to the white men, and the worth of it to the natives was not to be known to the purchasers till over 200 years later when, in 1892, Dr. F. H. Williams of Bristol, eminent collector and student, discovered an excellent quarry of soapstone with many bowls in various stages of finish still attached to the ledge. Dwellers in a land with no good soil to till could turn their hands to the fashioning of valuable
1212
1213
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
articles. The same is the spirit which has made the name of the 1928 city familiar in commerce the world around. Compound also failed to mention a Swiss-like lake of great depth among the hills to the southward, but white men today give it his name as it has been handed down ("Compounce"), and refer to it as being in Bristol. This is because its owner, Gad Norton, had a Bristol address. He had that address through the goodness of the Legis- lature in changing the town boundary line when he was a member of the House, while the neighboring lake he made famous as a resort in the 1880s remained in Southington.
Among the Tunxis natives, Compound was next in rank to Nessahegan of Poquonock, the sachem of whom Windsor men bought their outlying territory, and Farmington bought most of the land from that town to Waterbury (Mattatuck) ; but Com- pounce's name is also on the early deeds and is first on the list in these later deeds, Nessahegan having passed away. The adven- turers bought to Farmington's west line, signing their names, John Wadsworth, Richard Brumpson, Thomas Barnes, Moses Ventrus, John Langdon and George Orvis, in 1663, but they did not take legal possession till nine years later. Again it must be remarked that one reading the names in these old records and the recurring family names in the press of today can but feel that this generation is in close touch with that of the Constitution makers -in character as in name. Daniel Brownson of Farmington in 1728 was the first to build a dwelling, at Goose Neck, near the corner of present West and South streets. Ebenezer Barnes, whose house lot and house name were long to be perpetuated, also came in 1728, and soon after, Nehemiah Manross, Abner Matthews, Joseph and David Gaylord and William Jerome. In the town which the General Court first named New Cambridge, Chippin's Hill (Indian Cochipanee) is at the northwest, Federal Hill in the center and Fall Mountain at the south. Forestville is situated on the Pequabuck west of Bristol. The "winter society" was established in 1742, the journey to Farmington church being so toilsome, and Rev. Thomas Canfield of Roxbury conducted the services. For regular settlement in the little church that was constructed, Rev. Samuel Newell of Calvinistic creed was three years in qualifying. The ten protesters broke away and formed an Episcopal society on Chippin's Hill. Mr. Newell continued till
1214
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
his death in 1789. The first church building was on Federal Hill sixty feet northeast of the present one; it was replaced by a new one in 1770 and that by the third in 1831. Enlarged and renovated, this one stands an impressive structure of the type of many which surmount New England hills.
The Episcopalians built a small house in 1754 opposite Mr. Newell's. James Nichols, a Waterbury youth from well-to-do family, was rector. Having been to England to be ordained, he had taken up work in this territory and as the Revolution came on freely denounced the whigs. "Tory Den," a rendezvous, was on Chippin's Hill. The fate of his loyalist friend, Moses Dunbar, who was executed in Hartford, is given in the general history. Mr. Nichols found safety in the western part of the colony after he had been haled before the court and had been tarred and feathered, returning in 1784 to reorganize his parish. Plymouth and Harwinton united in building on Federal Hill a mission house of the Bristol Trinity Church, organized in 1834. Rev. George C. V. Eastman was rector till 1862. In that year a new edifice was erected on Main Street and the old building was sold to the Forestville Methodists. In 1889 the church was removed to High Street and was remodeled.
The story of the town in the French and Indian wars and in the Revolution is part of that of the county as previously given. Aaron Gaylord and his family were in Wyoming at the time of the massacre. Gaylord had provisional command of the fort there and was killed. His wife Katherine and her three children were of the few who miraculously found their way back to Connecticut through the dense wilderness, barely escaping the hostile Indians and their white allies. She lived many years at her father's house on Fall Mountain. It is in her memory that the local branch of the Daughters of the American Revolution is named. Elias Roberts, father of Gideon the clockmaker, also a Fall Moun- tain resident, was another of the Wyoming victims. His wife Fallah made her way home, carrying her babe.
The western outlying part of the community had been known as West Britain in distinction from New Cambridge. In 1780 a proposition to combine the two societies in one town failed because West Britain opposed the building of a town house. The build-
1215
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
ing matter having been waived, five years later the General Assembly granted the incorporation and gave the name "Bristol." The first selectmen were Joseph Byington, Elisha Manross and Zebulon Peck of New Cambridge and Simeon Hall and Zebulon Frisbie of West Britain. Jealousies at once sprang up and in 1806 New Cambridge won in the General Assembly, its petition for a division being approved. The new Bristol was in area prac- tically the five-miles square, modern Bristol; the West Britain section was named Burlington. The plateau on Federal Hill where were the churches, the schoolhouse and the whipping post was the training ground for Capt. Caleb Matthews who assembled his men there periodically after 1747. By date of firm establish- ment of church parish, that of the Baptists is, next to that of the Congregationalists, the oldest. It was formed in 1791 by union with other dissenters from Congregationalism, in Wolcott and Plymouth, and its first house was built on West Street in 1802. The society had its origin in "Indian Heaven," a locality on Fall Mountain which was made a school district in 1798. The church was organized in Elam Todd's barn by a colony of Baptists who had come from New Haven.
Through the years, to be considered further on, while the dif- ferent sects were organizing, the men were exercising that fertile genius without which life would have been impossible. In addi- tion to the conventional grist and saw mills, the tin industry was tried, and cotton and tanning were attractive for a time. To work the iron found on Chippin's Hill, a forge was built on the Terry- ville road before the town was incorporated, but the product proved too brittle. However, the foundry business, with ore brought from Salisbury, was carried on by different ones. Gil- bert Bentley and Andrew Terry sold their large plant in 1879 to John H. Sessions and the great Sessions Foundry of today was the outcome.
It remained for clock-making to give Bristol its earliest pres- tige, dating from George Roberts on Fall Mountain in 1790. On horseback he sold his small product till his sons grew up to help him and by 1812 he was turning out a large supply, especially for the South. Joseph Ives in 1812 began working up a metal time- piece he had devised and Chauncey Boardman and Dunbar &
1216
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Merriam engaged in the business at about the same time. The introduction of shelf clocks in distinction from wall clocks, by Eli Terry of Plymouth-just over the western town line-about 1820, cut into the industry but not for long. Chauncey Jerome, Samuel Terry, George W. and Eli Bartholomew's shop in Polkville (or Edgewood), the Burwell shop, George Mitchell, Rollin and Iremus Atkins, Elisha Manross, Ephraim Downs, N. E. Welton and Smith & Goodrich were doing a very considerable business. Elias Ingraham, founder of the E. Ingraham Company, learned the trade at Mitchell's. According to the local historians, Judge Epaphroditus Peck and Roswell Atkins, these concerns and three in Forestville were making 100,000 brass clocks a year in 1836. Jerome's brass one-day clock had made sensation in England as well as in America, for it overcame the drawback in exportation due to shrinkage of wood in the works during an ocean voyage. In 1843 he built two large factories on Main Street. They and the large Terry factory were burned in 1845, after which Jerome rebuilt in New Haven where he had established a branch (to be- come the New Haven Clock Company of modern times) the year preceding. It was his devising the method for cutting clock wheels from sheet brass that had enabled him to make clocks by the thousand, at a retail price finally of 75 cents apiece wholesale. Late in the '50s he merged in an over-valued concern P. T. Bar- num, the showman, had become interested in; bad management resulted in bankruptcy; he and Barnum lost heavily and Jerome died a poor man.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.