USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 44
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There were nine stores near the yard, dealing in West India goods and "domestics." Cartloads of cargo-pipestaves, salt beef, pork and fish, onions, potatoes, hay and other produce and horses by the score-were being brought from all the region to the Massachusetts line, and from the same wharves loads of wine, brandy, rum, salt, sugar, tea and coffee were being taken away. The church offered prayers when ships set forth and gave thanks when ships came in-this by request of the ship-owners. The young men improved the opportunities to sail to foreign ports and many a Rocky Hill home had the china, carvings and quaint relics they brought back. Navigation was taught in the "academy."
The ferry rights had been held by the original proprietors and, formally granted to Jonathan Smith in 1724, they were passed down in his family for nearly a hundred years. Early in the last century the care of the ferry was put upon the towns of Glastonbury and Rocky Hill. John Lyman Hills took a contract from them in 1866 to run a steam ferry ten years, with a bonus of $1,000, and this was continued by him and others. Martin F. Hollister in 1887 sought the privilege of an independent charter from the Legislature, was refused and took the matter to the
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supreme court which held that the privilege was for the towns to dispose of. Hollister would not pay on the contract which was made. Accordingly bankruptcy proceedings were instituted. One-half, or the Rocky Hill interest, was sold at auction to James H. Bolton of Hartford who thus and then acquired the franchise for $20.
Dividend and its Bulkeley mill, near the places at the south- east corner of the town, known as the "landing," "Tryon's Landing" (which was on the river at the road from Dividend over the hill, south of Hog Brook), "Shipman's Hill" (another name for Rocky Hill after Tavern-Keeper Shipman had im- proved the top of it), and "Mustard Bowl" (near the Cromwell town line) are names familiar to old residents. The sawmill property of Dr. Gershom Bulkeley remained in his family a hundred and fifty years and has ever continued to be a mill privi- lege, with a new and larger dam farther down the stream. Tools, horseshoes and finally drop-forgings have been the output. But- ler & Sugden built a foundry in Pleasant Valley in 1854. It was here that the fulling mill and the brick yard were located. A mining company, boring for oil near the south branch of Goffe Brook, in 1836, struck a sulphur spring and an inch of coal be- fore it stopped. Pewter and tinware, clock cases and hats were made here. It was Gen. Leonard R. Welles, proprietor of the old edged-tool works, who sold the plant in 1879 to Amos E. Whitney and Charles E. Billings of Hartford, later to be en- larged by the Billings & Edwards Company for the manufacture of machinery, after which the business was combined with that of Billings & Spencer and still later removed to Hartford. Hart & Company, shelf hardware, had their plant near the steamboat landing, succeeded by the Pierce Hardware Company, manufac- turing hollow ware. The Connecticut Foundry Company's plant was established near the railroad station in 1917 and already has been enlarged twice. The latest and by far the greatest en- terprise to locate in the vicinity is the Belamose Corporation of which Theobile Guerin of Woonsocket is president, manufactur- ing rayon products on an increasingly large scale. Two hundred and sixty acres of land were bought by the corporation and busi- ness was begun in 1925, at a time when rayon was little known
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by the general public in this country. It was the intent to aid the employees in building up a village but the value of land for suburban residence for Hartford people has so greatly increased that the operatives still come by bus from Hartford.
One of the most attractive streets in the town is Riverview Road, north of the center looking over the Connecticut Valley. A number of quaint and beautiful residences have been built there by Hartford people. Among the old houses is the residence of Rev. Dr. Calvin Chapin. The house of John Robbins, said to be one of the first in the country built of brick from England, is still standing. In addition to the parish house of the Congrega- tional Church and the library, which the town has now taken over, there is Grange Hall which also is the meeting-place for the lodge of Masons.
In the World war, descendants of those who had participated in the previous wars, together with those who had made their home here since, worked faithfully. An exceptionally large per- centage of young men went into the service and a unit of the State Guard was maintained under command of Joseph F. Kelly and Clarence Pratt. Raymond H. Dexter was an officer in a Hartford unit and, as said, Rev. Morris E. Alling was chaplain. George B. Chandler, who has since removed to Ohio, was a mem- ber of the Council of Defense. He had been representative, member of the National Committee on Industrial Relations, com- pensation commissioner and executive vice president of the Con- necticut Chamber of Commerce.
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GLASTONBURY
LAND OF INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY-PRODUCTS KNOWN AROUND THE WORLD-THE GROUP OF VILLAGES-OLD-TIME SHIPBUILDING-"SMITH SISTERS"-MARLBOROUGH'S RELATION TO THREE COUNTIES-ELISHA BUELL TAVERN.
Wethersfield settlers looked upon the lands bought of the Indians east of the Connecticut not so much for personal occu- pancy as for speculation. As a common the lands were laid out and divided among the west-side proprietors, few if any of whom at the time had thought of living there. Cause and character of the hegiras from that plantation to towns already forming have been given in the preceding chapter, and it can but be observed here that the troublesome Chaplin obtained next to the largest of the sections into which the east side was divided-to sell as opportunity should offer. Matthew Mitchell, who got in on the distribution in 1638, was already a squatter and received the most. Worried about the Indians he had brought his herd of cattle up from Saybrook to the southern corner of the east side about 1638 and John Hollister, not on the list of proprietors, built a house in that quarter in the late '40s. It was not till 1653 that there were enough residents to warrant a petition for right to drill independently here, and that would mean the presence of about ten men. Not till 1690 was a separate parish created and Rev. Timothy Stevens of Roxbury, Mass., called to lead the serv- ices, not to be formally recognized by the Government till the town was incorporated as Glassenbury, later Glastenbury, in 1692. The name was taken from the town in England where the first Christian Church in Britain is said to have been set up by Joseph of Arimathaea in 60 A. D. The spelling was changed officially in 1870.
However all this, it was a land of many advantages. In 1647 the Wethersfield men had 240 head of cattle grazing there. From
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the high ridge that marks the eastern boundary of the river val- ley, streams abundantly watered the alluvial soil along the high banks of the Connecticut. Roaring Brook runs from the north- east corner to Nyaug (South Glastonbury) in the southwest cor- ner; Salmon Brook from the northeast westerly to Naubuc, near the East Hartford line. From the present reservoir in the north- east section South Manchester gets water; from sources in Addi- son to the west of that reservoir East Hartford and part of Glas- tonbury are supplied. Near the eastern border Diamond Lake feeds a tributary to a stream flowing south into Middlesex County. Between the two Glastonbury streams are Nipsic Pond and smaller streams making their way to the large river. In 1673 an extension of five miles beyond the three-mile limit was bought, embracing the present Buckingham, and a large part of it was common.
Mention has been made in the Wethersfield chapter of the slight gap between the East Hartford and Wethersfield lines, that of Glastonbury on its north side being 120 rods further south than a straight line across the river to the east, from a point near the river running northeast to the true line, the triangle thus formed being still in Wethersfield jurisdiction. In 1684, just be- fore the separation, the case of Bulkeley against Hollister was before the General Assembly. Hollister contended that land acquired by Bulkeley caused an overlapping on the Hollister land at the extreme south of the assignments of sections and Bulkeley's really should crowd northward the 120 feet; in some way the decision was in favor of Gershom Bulkeley and the error in the north line was perpetuated. As to the western line, the account of the trouble over the river's shifting land from one side of the river to the other and the consequent boundary grievances has been recounted in the Wethersfield chapter. In 1803 a slice of Glastonbury was taken off to help make Marlborough.
Joseph Hill, Ephraim Goodrich and Eleazer Kimberly were the first to be elected selectmen. Kimberly was also town clerk and later colonial secretary till his death in 1709. There had been a log-and-mud meeting-house in 1641. A frame church was built in 1693 on land given by Samuel Smith and John Hubbard, near where the town hall now stands. Fire having destroyed it in 1734, a larger one was built, but further south, to accommodate
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the growing population at the south end. This old church was removed still further south and served as an academy and grange hall for many years. This was after the parish had been divided in 1836 and two churches had been built, one to the north and one in South Glastonbury. The one to the north was burned in 1867 and rebuilt on the same site; the one in South Glastonbury, overlooking the village, is still in good service. Meantime, in 1730, East Farms people had secured separation as a society named . Eastbury and had built a church near Nipsic Pond. Another was built in its place in 1819 but it was not till 1867 that a build- ing of exceptionally appropriate design was erected. No church in the county is more frequently pointed out than this one, for its white walls and spire, on the western slope of the long range of hills, are visible for miles around. Eastbury became Buckingham post office.
The oldest house in town is the one built by John Hollister in 1675 in South Glastonbury, west of Roaring Brook, now owned and occupied by James B. Kellam. That of Rev. Mr. Stevens, built in 1699, stands on East Main Street south of Hubbard Street, the property of Albert W. Moseley. Deacon Benjamin Talcott built in 1692, opposite the present high school. He also built a house in East Glastonbury, for his son Samuel; here was born Mary Talcott, of whom Admiral Dewey was a grandson. The third house in that village was built by Gideon Hollister.
Glastonbury furnishes striking evidence of what modern stu- dents of people are making much of-the devotion of New Eng- landers to their soil, even though so many of them were founders of towns in distant places. An exceptional amount of the land taken by pioneers was to remain in the possession of their de- scendants. Down to recent days and some even to the present, descendants of Governor Welles, George Hubbard, Francis Kil- bourn, Samuel Hale, Samuel Talcott, Richard Smith, William Goodrich, Edward Benton, Thomas Treat and James Wright (of Wright's Island), lived on ancestral land that was of the first allotments.
Rev. Asahel Woodbridge, son of Rev. Timothy Woodbridge of Hartford, was the second pastor of the First Society, remaining
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till his death in 1755. Rev. John Eells was the third, serving till 1791 and a tower of strength through the wars. Of the Second Society, Rev. Chiliad Brainard was the first pastor. On his death Rev. Nehemiah Brainard was installed, but like his predecessor he lived but a short time. Rev. Isaacs Chalker was pastor from 1744 to 1765 and was succeeded by Samuel Woodbridge, son of the First Society pastor. Rev. James Eells of Cromwell was the ยท next, continuing till his death in 1805. The church was rededi- cated in 1891 after renovation through the generosity of Mrs. Franklin Glazier of Hartford, Mrs. M. A. Glazier Chapin, for- merly of Hartford, and Frank D. Glazier of Glastonbury, in memory of Franklin G. Glazier.
Methodists, coming in 1796, suffered many discouragements before they completed their simple structure in 1810, at Wassuc, north of the school and south of the center of the town. "Father" Stocking was the founder. In 1847 a new church was built in East Glastonbury, replaced by the present one after a fire. A small brick church built in 1828 on High Street in South Glaston- bury was used but a few years and is now the library. The first church of St. Luke's Episcopal parish was built in 1801, near the center of the main town, the parish being divided in 1837. A brick church was built by St. Luke's in South Glastonbury and the old one eventually became Academy Hall. The parish of St. James erected its church in 1858 a little north of Welles Corner. St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church was built in South Glas- tonbury in 1878 and St. Paul's, organized as a mission in 1873, built on Naubuc Avenue in 1903. St. Mark's Lutheran Church built first on Grove Street in 1904 and then on Griswold Street in 1926, selling its former church to the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist.
The second entry in the first book of town records reads thus:
"The Selectmen of Glastonbury hirid Robbord Poog to be school master of this Towne, and the towne is to give him three pound on the first quarter and 2 pound for the second quarter, if the towne see fit to improve him the second quarter and keep his hors and find him bord during his keeping school. Robbord Poog began to keep school the 7 day of July ; and brought his hors the 5 day of July, 1701."
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It was voted to build a schoolhouse but they did not build till 1707 and then it was near the meeting-house. It was slow in its completion which was ordered by town vote in 1710, and
"It was voted also that a Scool should be keept in the whol year in this town the first for months at Naiog the other aight months at the north end of the Town."
The schools were in charge of the ecclesiastical societies till 1795, when there were eleven in all. Glastonbury and South Glastonbury became distinct societies in 1845; the records as such ended in 1855. In 1909 the Legislature once more placed the schools in charge of the towns, administration to be vested in a school board. The first school in South Glastonbury was in 1708 and at East Farms in 1714. In 1792 the academy which stood on the green was burned. Later one was built in South Glastonbury and among its instructors during its existence were Noah Web- ster and Elihu Burritt.
The only school of a higher grade than that of the district schools which has maintained a continuous history is that which was established as the Glastonbury Academy in 1869. For twenty-four years thereafter the school was administered by a board of trustees and the pupils were charged a tuition fee. In 1893 the property was transferred to the Glastonbury Free Academy, which had been chartered by the General Assembly in 1890. The Free Academy was made possible, with capacity much increased, by the establishment of an endowment fund, the gift of James B. and William S. Williams and Mrs. John S. Welles. In 1902 the corporators of the academy voted to turn over the property, with the exception of the endowment fund, to the town to be used as a high school. The Glastonbury Free Academy still holds the endowment fund, the income from which is paid semi-annually to the town. By careful investment the fund has increased to more than $30,000.
The Glastonbury School Board voted in 1910 to do away with one-room school's as soon as possible. In 1912, under consolida- tion, the plan of transporting pupils from one part of the town to another was adopted, the older children being brought by bus from the eastern part of the town to the high school. In 1915 five schools in the eastern part of the town were consolidated in a new building at Buckingham. In 1922 four of the six schools in the
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south part of the town were brought together in a new building on High Street. The other two were united in the new Hopewell building erected in 1925.
The main portion of the new high school was built in 1922 on the former site of the Free Academy, which had been removed to a lot adjoining the property of the Williams Memorial Building on the south. This old academy building is now used for the seventh and eighth grade pupils brought from other parts of the town. In contrast with a vote of December, 1700, to build a schoolhouse "eighteen feet square beside the chimney" is a vote passed by the town (while this is being written), to build a six- room school in Naubuc and an eight- or ten-room building on the high school property, these to cost $125,000.
The Glastonbury Public Library was established as a sub- scription library in 1891. In 1895 it became a public library receiving support from the state and the town. This library has always been maintained in rented quarters and is at present lo- cated in the Covell Building on Hebron Avenue. In memory of her husband, Bernard Trumbull Williams, Mrs. Williams re- cently gave $5,000 toward the building fund, the fund to be used for a children's room. The library has branches in the villages of the town and at the high school. The South Glastonbury Pub- lic Library Association was formed in 1927. The library is in- stalled in the old Methodist Church on High Street, which is owned by Mrs. Harvey L. Thompson, who leases to the library for a nominal rental.
Glastonbury shared with Wethersfield the benefits of ocean commerce, though not drawing from so large a territory. There was shipbuilding at Pratt's Ferry for many years where now the river flows. Among those who followed the business were the Sellews (especially Philip), the Hales, the Welles', Capt. Chaun- cey Gaines, Roswell Hollister and Capt. Martin Hollister.
But Glastonbury has always been primarily an agricultural town. As illustrating the important place which the town has occupied in the agricultural and horticultural field, it should be noted that in the early part of this century Hartford County stood first in the list of counties of the United States in the per capita value of its farm products. This distinction was made possible
FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, GLASTONBURY
1+
GLASTONBURY'S CIVIC CENTER Left to right: Free Academy, Williams Memorial and New High School
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principally by the very large acreage of tobacco and the develop- ment of the fruit-growing industry. The honor of bringing the horticultural interests of county and the state to the position which they occupy today belongs very largely to J. H. Hale, a native of Glastonbury. For a long period Mr. Hale was known throughout the country as the "Peach King." He began his career as a fruit grower in 1866 when he planted an eighth of an acre of berries. In 1900 his peach crop sold for over $100,000 and in 1901 he had 325,000 peach trees in his orchards. In 1893 he began to ship peaches in carload lots direct from his own side track in front of his orchards. In 1890 he established the peach- growing industry in Georgia. In 1888 there came to the Matson Hill section of the town a few natives of northern Italy. These men and others of their countrymen who followed them have made a marvelous change in the old farms of that part of the town. Those farms, some of them abandoned as the old cellar holes attest, have been made to produce enormous crops of fruit of all kinds. Much of this land, when the Italians came, was covered with chestnut forests. The new owners speedily con- verted the chestnut trees into railroad ties and poles for electric lines. Some of those first owners acquired large tracts of land. At one time one of these men, Bartholomew Carini, was the larg- est land owner in the town, holding about 1,500 acres.
Important as has been the fruit industry of Glastonbury its annual value has been greatly exceeded by that of the tobacco crop. In 1925 according to a bulletin of the Connecticut Agri- cultural College the farmers of Glastonbury raised 2,165,645 pounds of tobacco. This would mean a gross value of over half a million dollars.
The eastern boundary of Glastonbury lies approximately along the summit of the high ridge previously mentioned. In the northeast corner of the town this ridge is more than 900 feet above the river. Toward the south, the hills swing in on a wide curve to the westward and on the south line of the town the sum- mit is over six miles from the river and the elevation at this point is 700 feet. The hills, over a large part of the area, are of a coarse granite. In many places the raw materials forming the granite (quartz, feldspar and mica) were not well mixed and appear as considerable deposits of these materials in a more or
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less pure state. From the earliest times quarries have been opened along the ridge. Most of these have been abandoned. It is esti- mated that at not less than 100 places feldspar quarries have been opened. Only a few of these have been worked with profit. The last and largest of the feldspar quarries was owned and oper- ated by L. W. Howe. This quarry has yielded hundreds of thous- ands of tons of a good quality of "spar." The quarry was aban- doned in 1928 because of the discontinuance of the trolley line from Glastonbury to South Glastonbury over which there was regular freight service. There are at present four granite quar- ries being regularly worked. The Glastonbury Granite Company produces building stone, crushed rock and curbing. A large part of the granite used in the buildings of the Hartford Seminary Foundation came from this quarry. The other three are owned by George Slater, Carini Brothers and the Town Woods Quarry. These all produce curbing and gutter stone.
Since the incorporation of the town not less than sixty fac- tories have been established in Glastonbury. All of these with the exception of the present Riverside Paper Company were erected on the streams furnishing water power. Salmon Brook has a fall of about 600 feet in six miles and Roaring Brook a fall of about 800 feet in ten miles. The larger mills all supplemented their water power with steam. The factories now operating, with the dates of their establishment are as follows:
The Glastenbury Knitting Company factory was established by the Eagle Manufacturing Company in 1822 in the village of Addison, for making underwear. The company also has a fac- tory at Manchester Green. The number of employees in normal times is about 300. During the World war they made about 400,- 000 garments for the Government.
The Glazier Manufacturing Company, whose factory is in the village of Hopewell, is the successor of the Nayaug Manufactur- ing Company, which established the business in 1837. In 1860 the company sold its interest to the firm of Hollister & Glazier, who carried on the business until 1870, when Franklin Glazier became sole owner. At the death of Mr. Glazier in 1889 the busi- ness passed to his son, Frank D. Glazier. The present company was formed in 1909.
In the early years the Nayaug Company made mixed cotton
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and woollen goods. Since about 1880 the principal output of the mills has been tweeds and other fine woollen goods for women's wear. In the late war the company made a large quantity of blanket material for the English Government, and also turned out many thousands of yards of heavy overcoatings for the British, Belgian and Italian Governments. From June, 1917, to January, 1918, a large part of the plant was devoted to the production of olive drab melton for the United States Army.
The Angus Park Manufacturing Company of East Glaston- bury is the present owner of the factory established between 1830 and 1840 by the Roaring Brook Manufacturing Company. In 1862 the property was acquired by Edwin Crosby and Sereno Hubbard. Subsequently it passed to E. Crosby & Sons and later to the Crosby Manufacturing Company. In 1906 it was sold to the Park Company. Throughout their entire history these mills have been producing woollen and mixed cotton and woollen goods which have been used mainly for men's suitings. During the World war they produced about 200,000 yards of uniform cloth for the United States and French Governments.
In 1847 there was established in Glastonbury the first shaving soap factory in the world. James B. Williams, for many years Glastonbury's leading citizen, came to Glastonbury from Man- chester where, as told in the Manchester chapter, he was em- ployed in a combined grocery and drug store. In 1838 he acquired an interest in the business. In 1840 he sold his interest, with the exception of the drug department. He then took in as partners two of his brothers. The partnership was called J. B. Williams & Brothers. The firm began in a small way to make a shaving soap named "Yankee" to distinguish it from the French soaps then in use. In 1847 he sold his interest in the drug business to his brothers and moved to Glastonbury, where his father-in-law, David Hubbard, owned a small water power, which was turned to use. In 1848 he took into partnership his brother William S. Williams. Under this partnership there grew up the principal manufacturing industry of the town. In 1885 the present J. B. Williams Company was incorporated. It gained a world-wide reputation, there being at present seventy-two agencies covering most of the countries of the world. During the World war the company manufactured about one million tubes of "Sag Paste"
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