USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 36
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There are many illustrations of how Yankee ingenuity could secure preeminence in world trade. Berlin furnishes its illustra- tion, through the Pattisons and the tin industry ; Bristol furnishes an equally unique one, through the Bristol Clock Company and the cheap metal clocks. The company began in a small way in 1843, aiming for the foreign market, the Jeromes, Manross, E. C. Brewster, J. A. Wells and Edward Fields having associated. Epaphroditus Peck and Chauncey Jerome, Jr., were the agents attending to the first shipment to Liverpool. Serious doubts had been expressed. A price had been set on the invoice high enough to be properly remunerative, but the English customs officers, sus- pecting it was too low, added 10 per cent and, on demurrer, seized the whole cargo. As quickly as word could be sent to Bristol,
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another and very large cargo was rushed over, to meet a like fate. The canny Americans allowed the Englishmen to exercise their legal rights and dispose of the goods at the high valuation; clocks kept coming, and soon the Government found it wise to relinquish to the Bristol Yankees the sale of clocks.
Another great clock concern was evolved from the association of William Hills, Chauncey Pomeroy, J. C. Brown and others in 1835 as the Forestville Manufacturing Company, in 1845 making more clocks than any of the others. J. C. Brown having become chief owner and having established J. C. Brown & Company, was ruined by a fire in 1853. Elisha N. Welch, the largest creditor, bought the plant and also Mr. Brown's share of the Forestville Hardware Manufacturing Company, the Otis shop and the Elisha Manross factory-to be known as the E. N. Welch Manufacturing Company, with adjuncts, in 1864. On Mr. Welch's death in 1887, the concern went into the hands of a receiver. It was re- organized ten years later under J. Hart Welch, on whose death in 1902, the property was acquired by President William E. Sessions of the Sessions Foundry. Reorganization as the Sessions Clock Company of today ensued, with extensive enlargement of the plant on East Main Street, Forestville. The president is W. Ken- neth Sessions, and the treasurer, Joseph B. Sessions.
Elisha N. Welch, who was born in Chatham in 1809 and early came to Bristol, began his career in his father's smithy, casting clock weights. Besides making the E. N. Welch Manufacturing Company the second largest clock company in the world, he was the promoter in 1850 of the Bristol Brass and Clock Company, Israel Holmes of Waterbury assisting. This included a sheet- brass plant between Bristol and Forestville, a lamp-burner fac- tory in Forestville and a spoon-and-fork factory in Bristol. In- cluded under his presidency also was the Bristol Manufacturing Company, makers of knit underwear, which had started in 1837 and had been reorganized in 1856 with John English succeeding Chauncey Ives as president; after J. Hart Welch's death F. G. Hayward became president and Pierce N. Welch vice president. E. N. Welch was a director in the Bristol National Bank and with four others furnished all the stock for the First National Bank of New Haven, of which his brother, Hermanus, was president.
The outcome of the Bristol Brass and Clock Company was the
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Bristol Brass Corporation of today with a capital of a million and a half and its large plant on Broad Street, Forestville. Alexan- der Harper is president, Julian R. Holley vice president and Albert D. Wilson secretary and treasurer. The Bristol Manu- facturing Company referred to, continued the manufacture of knit goods with plants in both Bristol and Plainville. After nearly a century of existence its doors were closed and the prop- erty disposed by a receiver in 1928.
Another of the world-known clock companies is that of the E. Ingraham Company. Elias Ingraham, of Hartford, worked in 1828 with George Roberts carving clock cases. In 1843 he was of the firm of Brewster & Ingraham which had a branch office in England. Andrew Ingraham was the partner in E. & A. In- graham in 1848, the present name being adopted in 1860, with Mr. Ingraham's son Edward as a partner. In 1880 it became a joint stock company, grandsons coming into partnership. Mr. Ingraham died in 1885 and his son in 1892. Walter A. Ingraham then became president and the concern, on North Main Street, has well maintained its unique history ever since. Of late years it has added watches to its list. The present plant is on the orig- inal site. Edward, Dudley S., William S. and E. Morton In- graham are the officers in charge.
The large concern of the Wallace Barnes Company of today, making springs of all kinds, microscopic and big screws and radio accessories, had an interesting first chapter. In the earliest days the making of the parts of a clock caused the establishment of sundry industries. Edward L. Dunbar, descendant of the set- tler, Dunbar, specialized in clock springs. In 1847 he bought of S. Burnham Terry the process for tempering. Wallace Barnes was in the same line. Soon (or in 1857) the firm of Dunbar & Barnes was working over-time to keep up with the demand for springs for women's hoops. A hall was erected known as Crino- line Hall; later it was the town hall. After the Civil war, Mr. Barnes took over the entire establishment and continued it till he died in 1893, an octogenarian. In 1897 the corporation was formed, retaining the valuable name and with Carlyle F. Barnes in charge and Harry C. and Fuller F. Barnes associated with him in official capacity. The main works have continued on the original site on Main Street, with branches in other parts of the town, including the rolling mills in Forestville. The officers are
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Fuller F., John S. and Harry C. Barnes. The Dunbar Brothers Company on South Street is an adjunct.
Edward B. Dunbar, born in 1842, son of Edward L. Dunbar, had joined his father in the manufacture of springs. When the elder Dunbar died, in 1872, the bell on the factory tolled for sev- eral years ninety-nine times at 9 o'clock each night. The busi- ness had then been incorporated as Dunbar Brothers. William A. retired in 1890. C. E. Dunbar was a member of the firm on the incorporation.
Edward B. Dunbar was active in public affairs, serving in both branches of the Legislature, promoting the high school, help- ing secure the free library, acting as head of the fire department, serving as director of the Bristol National Bank and its president from 1905 till his death in 1907, also as vice president of the sav- ings bank and president of the Board of Trade and of the Y. M. C. A. and was many years a deacon in the First Congregational Church. The Dunbar Brothers Company was incorporated in 1907 and today's officers are Fuller 'F. Barnes and Harry C. Barnes.
John Humphrey Sessions, born in Burlington in 1828, began with wood-turning in Polkville. In partnership with Henry A. Warner in 1854 he established the firm of Warner & Sessions and, as success was attained, moved to the center of the city. Mr. Sessions became sole proprietor. In 1870, his son and namesake in partnership with him soon after, he took over the trunk-hard- ware business which his late brother Albert had conducted, orig- inally in Southington. He bought out the Bristol Foundry on Laurel Street in 1879, as previously said, and, his son William E. coming in with him,-himself as president, his son as treasurer, George M. Eggleston as secretary and Joseph B. Sessions as assist- ant secretary-incorporated in 1895 with a paltry capital of $10,000 and a force of eighteen hands. The present site on Farm- ington Avenue was made the home of the fast-developing organi- zation, one of the greatest foundries in the East. Joseph B. Ses- sions is now president, Arthur F. Woodford secretary and W. Kennedy Sessions treasurer.
Meantime the trunk-hardware business also had increased. The Codling Manufacturing Company's plant on Riverside Ave- nue (formerly the Welch, Spring & Company watch shop), was
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bought and utilized till the new plant was completed in 1907, the largest of its kind in the country. The elder Sessions was presi- dent of the bank, of the light company and of the water company. It was largely through his generosity that the present Methodist Church was built. He died in 1899. His grandson, Albert H. Sessions, was then admitted to partnership in the hardware busi- ness which continued till the death of J. H. Sessions, 2nd, in 1902. In 1905, J. H. Sessions & Son was incorporated, the stock being owned by Mrs. J. H. Sessions and Mr. and Mrs. Albert L. Ses- sions. The officers were Joseph B. Sessions president, Frank E. Lamson vice president, Arthur F. Woodford secretary and Wil- liam Kenneth Sessions treasurer. Today these positions are held by Albert L. Sessions, Paul B. Sessions, John H. Sessions, 3d, and A. H. Craig.
The Root Company at Root's Island, making automatic count- ing machines, was incorporated in 1907. President John T. Chidsey, Vice President Fuller F. Barnes and Secretary-Treas- urer John H. Chaplin, with W. C. Hess and others, also conduct the American Supply Company, incorporated in 1915, and the American Piano Hammer Company, incorporated in 1921.
William Clayton of Sheffield, England, started a cutlery fac- tory in Whigville in 1866. It became Clayton Brothers of Bristol and made a specialty of shears. Mr. Clayton died in 1883. The ownership has changed but the name is retained in the title of the concern, which was incorporated in 1917, and is located on Union Street. C. M. Bowes of New York is the president and W. R. Bowes of Bristol the vice president and general manager.
John Birge, born in 1785, is another of those who did much for Bristol. He came as a farmer and carpenter from Torring- ton, and the manufacturing business he built up was always, for him, a sort of adjunct to those occupations. Having bought a patent on an eight-day brass clock, he began the manufacture in an old woollen mill, distributing his wares throughout this coun- try and abroad by peddlers. He was successful but none of these things detracted from his devotion to the Congregational church. His son, Nathan L., born in 1823, was graduated at Yale at the age of sixteen. He spent some years in teaching, at dry goods, as agent for his father in England, trading with Indians in the West, seeking gold in California in 1849, wintering in Hawaii and min- ing again. Returning home he established the knitting concern
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BRISTOL NATIONAL BANK, BRISTOL, 1927
BRISTOL TRUST COMPANY, BRISTOL
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of N. L. Birge & Sons. He was an official in the banks and in the water company at the time of his death in 1899. His son John, who was prominent in politics and was state senator, went on with the business, incorporated in 1899, as the Birge Company, till his death in 1901. The senator's eldest son, Nathan R., succeeded to the presidency and also held responsible position with the Gen- eral Electric Company at Schenectady, New York, where he now resides. George A. Bechstedt is secretary and William F. Stone treasurer and general manager.
The New Departure Manufacturing Company is one of the wonders of the industrial age. The company was not organized till 1889 when it began making, on $50,000 capital and under pat- ents taken out by Albert R. Rockwell, door bells that dispensed with batteries, a "new departure." Now it is bells, brakes, lamps, ball bearings and other accessories to vehicles, most of them "new departures" from the brains of genius. The concern has factories in Europe and its branches in West Hartford (Elm- wood) and Meriden are larger than the main plant of many a prosperous concern. In 1928 there is being put in operation the largest electric steel-forging plant in the East which will so increase the amount of material that additions will have to be built to all the plants. There will be increase from 160,000 to 175,000 in ball bearings. It has its own "Endee" Inn for its salesmen and its "Endee" Club for all connected with the con- cern. Mr. Rockwell (1862-1925), was born in Woodhull, New York, and from boyhood had to work for a living. While a mer- chant in Jacksonville, Florida, one of his employees was John F. Wade who was to be Bristol's first mayor and to be elected for subsequent terms. In 1888 Mr. Rockwell and his brother and Mr. Wade came to Bristol and began making bell push-buttons on Federal Street. The company with the present name was organ- ized on North Main Street the next year. Beginning in a small way, the company had reached the 5,000-employees stage in about
thirty years. In 1895 Mr. Rockwell left the company to become president of the Bristol Brass Corporation, continuing in that capacity till a year before he died. Also he was president and general manager of the American Silver Company 1910-1920. During the World war he was president of the Marlin-Rockwell Corporation which he had founded, with headquarters in New
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Haven and with thirteen plants, making machine guns. (More about this corporation appears in the Southington section of this history.) He was representative in 1907. His first gift to the city was that of land for the picturesque Rockwell Park and his second that of the Memorial Boulevard in honor of the World war soldiers, with appropriate monument, on condition that the new high school be located there, a condition which was met. He superintended the building of the school, receiving a salary of $1. In his later years he was involved in litigation over patents. In 1924 he removed to Farmington to live and later to New Britain. The new management of the company he founded went forward rapidly with more expansions and improvements till hardly a year passes without announcement of some new addition to facili- ties and space, like that of the electric-steel forging at the time of this writing. Under the presidency of DeWitt Page the man- agement concerns itself also over the housing and comfort of its thousands of employees here and elsewhere, with a generosity that finds its return in the class of work done by enthusiastically loyal people. Carefully studied experiments along these delicate lines between capital and labor have proved successful.
The manufacture of steel fishing rods, so well known by their name "Bristol," began modestly with the Horton Manufacturing Company in 1887; Charles F. Pope of New York was president and Charles T. Treadway secretary. Reed & Horton in 1874 had been making novelties but they sold out to the New Haven Clock Company and Mr. Horton went with them in 1880. When he had invented the steel rod in 1886 he returned to Bristol and started the company which has experienced such development, adding new features like the steel golf club. Mr. Treadway is now vice president.
The H. C. Thompson Clock Company is a reminder of Chaun- cey Ives and the days of the '40s. It is one of the enterprises he breathed life into and then sold. Mr. Thompson bought the plant in 1878 and introduced accessories. The joint stock com- pany was formed in 1903. Besides clock movements it makes meters, spring motors and specialties. William Muir is the presi- dent-treasurer.
Further illustrations of thrift, genius and skill could be fur- nished but the purpose of history is to give only enough to indicate
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WORLD WAR MEMORIAL AND HIGH SCHOOL, BRISTOL
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ROCKWELL PARK, BRISTOL
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the character and quality of what goes to make a community with such a record for development. Names have been emphasized herein, the better to indicate that Bristol is a preeminent exam- ple of that heredity in business-upbuilding which characterizes New England.
As said in the beginning, there was not much but ingenuity which could put the town in the van of progress, and even for manufacturing, the facilities had promised none too well in com- parison with certain other towns. One way in which nature did seem to offer special reward proved a costly disappointment. This reference is to the copper mine.
Rich veins of copper were unearthed by George W. Bartholo- mew of the Edgewood district in 1836. The ore sent to England having been smelted with profit, the Bristol Mining Company was organized. Andrew Miller, a new Jersey practical miner, ob- tained a half interest and sold half to English capitalists for $25,000. Work was well repaid till Miller's death by drowning. The concern failed. New York men took hold in 1848 and mort- gaged to President Eliphalet Nott of Union college for $212,152. A third interest was sold to Dr. Nott who thus held control. Ex- travagance-and there were rumors of "salting"-brought dis- aster. Next the son of President Woolsey of Yale, John M. Wool- sey, became interested and the distinguished Yale scientist, Professor Silliman, began extensive experiments. Incidentally, it will be recalled that in the case of the Granby mine it was men of learning who were attracted. The new Bristol Mining Company was organized in 1855 and when the panic came two years later went to the wall, even though a net of $2,000 a month was being realized. Mr. Woolsey foreclosed a mortgage and the mine shut down. Thirty years later Burton S. Cowles discovered that the crushed rock around the mine contained good ore. E. J. Hub- bard of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, cooperated in securing the prop- erty. The Bristol Copper and Silver Mining Company was in- corporated in Albany with $500,000 capital. The old Williams shaft, 250 feet deep, was pumped out and sunk 200 feet further. But the ore found was poor, the machinery was costly. The out- come was that Col. Walter Cutting in 1893 foreclosed the mort- gage which he held. A year later the great dam of the mine pond broke and much damage was done to bridges and the railroad in
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Forestville. Eventually the water privilege was obtained by the city for an auxiliary supply.
The opening of the railroad brought service that was appre- ciated by the industries but the increase in population from 1840 to 1850 (when it was 2,800) was only about 700. In the era of electric lines the town was fortunate in having the Bristol & Plainville Tramway Company which became somewhat unique in the state, after others had been consolidated, in that it retained its independence, from the time of its organization in 1895 till 1927 when it was merged with the Connecticut Light and Power Com- pany. In 1895 it had merged with the old Bristol Electric Com- pany (organized in 1885) to supply the town with electricity. It cost originally $6,000 and was valued at $3,000,000 in 1927.
By 1893 the ten-year increases in population were at a rate better than 30 per cent and a committee consisting of George S. Hull, Edward B. Dunbar, Frank G. Hayward, Jonathan M. Peck, Charles S. Treadway and William Linstead obtained from the Legislature a charter for a borough. Edward B. Woodward was the first warden. In 1915 with a population of about 15,000 a city charter covering the whole town was obtained. The present population is 30,000 (the largest per cent of increase in the state) and the grand list of the four voting districts is $50,000,000, the tax rate but 16 mills. As said, John F. Wade was the first mayor and was reelected subsequently, except for one term when he was in Europe on business, holding the office at the time of his death in 1927. He was succeeded by W. Raymond Crumb.
When the World war made its tremendous demands upon the factories of the county, Bristol responded with an immense en- largement of manufacturing facilities and of homes and knew no let-up in change to peace basis. In 1919 bank deposits increased over $2,000,000 and the grand list nearly as much. A realty com- pany, to capital of which the New Departure Company contrib- uted $200,000, contracted to erect 400 houses during the summer. A "two-for-one" savings plan was inaugurated by which interest would be paid on systematic savings and at the end of the period of five years interest would be paid equivalent to 176 per cent. The Bristol Brass Corporation, constantly enlarging in all de- partments, increased its capital from $500,000 to $1,000,000. Wallace Barnes & Company built their new five-story factory
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MA KENY.
CORNER OF MAIN AND NORTH MAIN STREETS, BRISTOL, 1895 Showing first trolley car
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and office building and its clubhouse. The New Departure was doubling its space here and in West Hartford and preparing the new plant in Meriden, also erecting its inn and clubhouse. J. H. Sessions & Son were adding to their main plant and increasing railroad facilities. The E. Ingraham Clock Company was in- stalling machinery in its new five-story plant on North Main Street. Dunbar Brothers replaced their South Street wooden building with one of brick, but kept the famous old bell to which reference has been made. Forestville which, since its beginning in 1833 had been the starting place first of Bartholomew, Hills & Brown (later the E. N. Welch Manufacturing Company) and then of other concerns which have been named among the leaders, was growing toward the city and the city toward it.
The banks reflect the prosperity. By 1925 the per capita savings in the savings association were $611. The Bristol Sav- ings Bank, incorporated in 1870, of which Miles Lewis Peck is president, has now $14,000,000 on deposit at 5 per cent. The Bristol National Bank, incorporated in 1875, of which William P. Calder is president, has capital of $200,000 and surplus of $250,- 000. The Bristol Trust Company, incorporated in 1907, has capital of $100,000 and savings deposits of $4,500,000, and the American Trust Company, incorporated in 1919, capital of $100,- 000 and savings deposits of $2,000,000.
The World war had found Bristol with a well trained body of men-Company D of the First Infantry, C. N. G. The tests of age, physical condition for the grueling work ahead and of need at home for employment or for families thinned the ranks some- what, but vacant places were well filled before the registration and selective draft came, and then more for the National Army. Those who could not go, enlisting others with experience but over- age, quickly responded to the call for the State Guard, and more units, including a machine-gun platoon, were formed than could be accepted. Drilling in the meagre quarters-for not yet had the state furnished the armory so long needed,-these men, in two companies, maintained that military credit the town was proud of; Clarence A. Woodruff, Ray K. Linsley and Ernest E. Merrill became majors and George E. Cockings and George F. Thomas captains. In the army William J. Malone, now judge of the city court and one who has served in the Legislature, was
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major in the aviation branch. Each year Bristol remembers Seicheprey Day-the first battle for the Americans, described in the general history, the battle where the Bristol men were among those who met the fierce on-rush of the Germans and suffered heavy loss. Their names are inscribed with the others on the memorial on the Boulevard. More than 1,400 men went into the service of whom nearly half a hundred did not return. This year, 1928, a suitable armory is being erected by the state on land bought by the city at the corner of Church and Valley streets. The Red Cross and Liberty Loan work was carried on with an energy which put the city's name high on the state's roll.
In the Civil war, when the population was only 3,400, Bristol sent 250 men into the service and names like those of Newell, Barnes, Peck, Manross, Dunbar and Hart were among those on the list. Fifty-four did not live to return home. The story of the county in that war is told on another page. The monument in the cemetery at Forestville to Capt. Newton S. Manross of K company of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers was erected by the students of Amherst College where he had just been appointed
a professor. The town had men in companies of several of the regiments and more than half of those in I company of the Twen- ty-fifth. The story of the escape of Capt. T. B. Robinson from a Confederate prison is one of the most interesting of the war. Immediately after the fall of Richmond a public meeting voted to erect a monument and it was dedicated in January 1866 in memory of those who had gone forth, the first soldiers' monument in the state and, it is said, the first in the country.
The history of some of the churches has been given. After much hostility the Methodists built their church in 1837. It prospered and the second church was built in 1880. The first pastor was Rev. Albert G. Wickware. In Forestville the Method- ists had their first church in 1855. The Roman Catholics con- ducted a mission near the north copper mine in 1840, and when the mine was abandoned built a church, in 1855, in the center and became a parish under Rev. M. B. Roddan in 1866. Adventist preachers came in 1842; the old Methodist Church was bought in 1880 and organization was completed. The German Evangelical Lutheran Zion church was founded in 1894 by Rev. H. Weber and the church on School Street was built in 1896. The Swedish
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