USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Naugatuck > History of Naugatuck, Connecticut > Part 6
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A few months before the Salem Society petitioned to be set off from Waterbury as a separate town, an event occurred in DeForest's finishing shop which more than any other single episode was to affect the course of the town's history. In the summer of 1843 Charles Goodyear, formerly for many years a resident of this place, begged his brother-in- law, William DeForest, to let Goodyear demonstrate the feasibility of using vulcanized rubber for shoes. Four years before this time the inventor had proved to himself the soundness of his vulcanizing process, but he had been un- able to convince other people to the point of investing money in its development, although DeForest had given him some financial backing. The appeal to DeForest brought together in the woolen shop office Milo Lewis, Samuel J. Lewis, both also related to Goodyear by marriage, and Thomas Elliott of New Haven. Supplied with a shoe form and pieces of rubber, Goodyear's seventeen-year-old daughter before the eyes of the curious onlookers put together a rubber shoe. This was then vulcanized. Exposure to heat and cold neither softened nor cracked the rubber. Impressed, perhaps in spite of themselves, the witnesses concluded that here was an article worth investing in.
In September Goodyear accordingly issued to Samuel J. Lewis & Company, the forerunner of The Goodyear's Metallic Rubber Shoe Company, license to make rubber footwear under his vulcanizing patent, and manufacture be- gan that same month. Some twenty-nine men and women started operations in rooms provided by DeForest. Towns- people in 1843 could not know that here was the industry that later would make Naugatuck one of the foremost rub- ber towns in the United States. It was the confidence of this
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handful of business leaders in the rightness of their judgment that launched an undertaking of immense importance to both Naugatuck and the world.
Plants like Milo Lewis' cotton mill built near the Nauga- tuck river we might suppose would ship in raw materials and dispatch their finished goods by boat. But navigation of the river was too interrupted by rapids to compete with trans- port by team over the well-kept turnpikes. The Straitsville Turnpike Company, organized in 1797 to run regular stages from New Haven to Litchfield by way of Straitsville, through Salem, across the ford of the Naugatuck river below Union City, and thence on over the hills to the west, by 1801 was in command of such a volume of traffic that Waterbury, in alarm, anticipated relegation to an unimportant up-country settlement. To counter this situation in 1801 the Waterbury Turnpike Company organized and built a fine road south- ward from the center along the east bank of the river to con- nect with the Straitsville turnpike in Salem. This new high- way benefited not only Waterbury proper but Salem as well. Straitsville gained more than other sections and gave evi- dence in the early years of the century of maintaining her lead as a commercial center. Though the coming of the rail- road in 1849 was to destroy Straitsville's prosperity and con- demn it to insignificance, before that time the village was the scene of great activity. The Collins tavern, completed in 1811, was a commodious inn, furnished with a tap-room and four great ovens to prepare food for the constant stream of travelers. Out of deference to American enthusiasm for things French in this period before the War of 1812, when LaFayette's memory was still fresh and any enemy of Great Britain was a friend of America, Ahira Collins, the proprie- tor, set up his sign to read "Collins Hotel," using the French word Hotel instead of the older English label, tavern or inn. Across the road a bowling alley stood and after 1834 Collins put up a general store, kept well-supplied from merchants in New Haven. Large horsesheds nearby permitted the stage-
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driver to water and feed or change his horses for the trip ahead.
Meanwhile as early as 1804 Chauncey Lewis of Salem cen- ter seized the opportunity to exploit a location on the turn- pike by erecting a tavern just east of the ford which crossed the Naugatuck. He built on land deeded by his father-in-law, Irijah Terrill, himself the owner of an old inn nearby. Chauncey Lewis, moreover, obtained from the selectmen of Waterbury permission to put up horsesheds on town prop- erty across the turnpike, for in 1805 the townspeople re- garded a well-run tavern and stage-way-stop a true public service. The thrill of watching the stagecoach roll up to the inn door, discharge its passengers, and take on new was part of every small boy's treasured experiences in those days. By racing down the hill from the schoolhouse every after- noon the boys might be just in time to see the steaming, pow- erful horses dash up and, soon after, dragging the heavy stage behind them, splash through the shallows of the river and away westward. Not even the arrival of the first steam cars years later gave such pleasure. Early in the century the stages rarely used the wooden bridge over the Naugatuck.
A long series of hotel-keepers succeeded Lewis, each in turn keeping up the reputation of the inn as a good place to stop. A large hall covering the whole width of the building occupied the upper story and here for three generations most of the town's important social affairs were celebrated. The long career of the hotel on Main Street overshadowed in time that of any other inn. Yet Daniel Beecher's Tavern west of the river also enjoyed considerable patronage and the Beecher place, not far from the toll gate on the turnpike, served as an inn until 1834.
While the taverns with their stagecoach travelers kept Salem in touch with the outside world, it was the general store that served as the local news exchange, where neigh- bors picked up and passed on local gossip or discussed more seriously political affairs of town and nation. Though, as
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elsewhere in small New England communities, stores were few, there was one general store in each part of Salem which supplied its own neighborhood not only with news and brief sociability but with articles which householders could not make at home or obtain from the factories nearby. The store- keeper sold anything from fancy drygoods to brooms or any special delicacies like tea or coffee, frequently making his deal by barter. For the storekeeper before 1844 was farmer or shopowner as well as merchant, and his books often read of five pounds of sugar sold in exchange for two bushels of rye or two days' work haying. He ran his accounts for such long periods that one wonders today how he ever knew whether or not he was solvent. Indeed, the first general stores, the one in Gunntown, the Culver store east of the river near the bridge, the Straitsville and Union City stores, were run more as conveniences than for money-making, and volume business was no special objective. Salem had no aspirations to being a trading center. Farming and manufacturing en- terprises consumed all her economic energies.
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CHAPTER VI
Every-day Life in Salem Bridge, 1800-1844
W HILE men in Salem were developing the water powers and effecting the changes in the economic status of the community just described, life in most other respects went on much as it had before 1800. The principal disruption to the even tenor of work, worship, and occasional social neighborhood gatherings grew out of the restlessness which led a number of families to migrate to the west. The Congregational church records tell the story in part: "dismissions" to New York State or to Ohio or to places unnamed-though probably to the newly opened lands of the Northwest Territory-multiply until the Soci- ety was badly weakened. Between 1800 and 1830, ninety-eight members removed from the town, a very considerable loss to the church which in 1829 had only one hundred and fifty sign- ers of the Covenant. Besides twenty-two the date of whose de- parture is not listed, twenty-seven persons left in the first dec- ade of the century, twenty-five in the second, twenty-seven in the third. Whether Episcopalians, Baptists, and Methodists removed in proportionate numbers we can but guess. The Baptists, organized about 1817, disappeared as a church en- tirely in the course of a few years; only the name "Baptist Meeting House Corner" on Fulling Mill brook, remained. The Methodists were too few to have their own church or a settled minister before 1849. But certainly the families, of whatever denomination, who pulled up stakes were the less well-to-do of Salem, or at least those whose interests lay in farming, not in tinkering in a shop.
Even in the 1820's the trip over the mountains was not easy, though the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 doubtless simplified the journey for householders who could afford to
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ship themselves and their belongings west by canal boat. Contemporary descriptions must have been widely read in Salem, as elsewhere, and comments on the advantages or drawbacks of emigration were awaited eagerly. Obviously many people felt alarm for the future of Connecticut if the exodus of energetic men and women were to continue in- definitely. A number of letters and verses exposing the false hopes of the emigrants were circulated throughout the state in the early twenties in endeavor to check the flood. For example, The Connecticut Emigrant, published in Hartford in 1822, set forth in verse an argument between Henry and Mary, husband and wife, and Hezekiah and Hepzibah, fa- ther and mother, over the wisdom of removing to Ohio, a "dialogue" which ends in Henry's decision to stay to enjoy the known benefits of life in Connecticut. But such appeals were too late or too unconvincing to keep many household- ers in New England. In 1782 Connecticut had nine towns with a population of 6,000 or more; by 1820 only New Haven, Hartford, and Bridgeport claimed over 5,000 in- habitants. From the unfertile hillsides of the Naugatuck val- ley families continued to move to seek the richer lands of the Ohio valley, leaving their cousins and neighbors to cut the woodlands and harness the power of the mountain brooks, to develop an industrial society uncongenial to the farmer.
The streams of departing families inevitably cast a shadow upon those left behind. The Congregational church by add- ing new members succeeded for some years in keeping its congregation at about a level, but there lacked the steady growth that the accessions of the first years promised. Doubt- less other factors than the drawing off of young men and women to the new settlements in the west contributed to the decline in the vigor of the Society. Indeed the course of af- fairs within the church had been troubled ever since the dis- missal of its first pastor in 1799. Complaints brought to the attention of the church against the unchristian or disorderly
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conduct of several "Brothers" and "Sisters" caused ill-feel- ing, even though excommunications were rare. That the financial standing of the church was suffering is shown by the request for dismissal presented by Pastor Dodd in 1817 in which he protested the inadequacy of support given him and pleaded necessity of looking to his future. The church was obliged to let him go and for the next six years was with- out a settled minister. And in 1831 so "low and languid" was "the state of religion among us" that the church appointed a committee to visit every member to exhort all "to make a unighted effort to awake from her slumbers . to be more faithful and watchful, Endeavoring to stir up each others missions in the social and personal duties which we are in Covenant bound to perform." The day of fasting and prayer, held soon after, further to arouse the church, was marked by a morning session in which the male members proceeded "to confess their faults to each other-a most in- teresting season." One hundred years later Buchmanites were to find the same kind of release in public self-abase- ment. But it was 1834 before the awakened members suc- ceeded in again establishing a settled pastor.
Still, the years of discouragement notwithstanding, the Congregational church was by no means without importance in the life of Salem. Though the pressure brought upon in- dividuals to conform to an exacting pattern of behavior was sometimes resented, unquestionably the admonitions of the elders, the pastor, or the whole righteous body of the church was a powerful influence in the town. Nearly one hundred and fifty years later it is hard to recapture imagina- tively the spirit that animated the Congregational com- munity. The moral obligation upon the brethren to watch over one another was not lightly undertaken.
For example, when in 1801 Brother Jared Byington, the town blacksmith and nail manufacturer, accused Brother Samuel Scott of slander, the whole Society debated the rights and wrongs of the matter for months. Special meetings of
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deliberation were called, not only on Sundays after the morn- ing "lecture," but on weekdays as well. When we remember that every man in this hard-working village began his day's work at dawn and expected to labor till dark in either shop or field, we can realize that it was not merely appetite for gossip that impelled the brethren. At length Brother Bying- ton succeeded in having a "Consociation" of the neighbor- ing churches called to pass upon the case. And for two days seventeen representatives from nine churches in New Haven County listened to evidence, held "conversation," and prayed for guidance before giving their verdict. Brother Scott, admonished to make complete public confession of his grievously unchristian conduct, submitted a statement which must have required moral courage to offer. As an example of the kind of public humiliation demanded of an erring brother, I quote it in full:
October 1, 1801
I Samuel Scott, acknowledge, before God and this church, that some days after my making a public confession before the church, for abusive treatment of brother Byington, I did in an un- brotherly manner, go to New Haven & there procure a writing from under the hand of Mr. Edwards, tending greatly to the in- jury of the character of said Brother; which paper I showed to a number of Gentlemen, contrary to all rules of brotherly love. And that by my conduct and influence, said paper fell into the hands of the grand jury, & of consequence, it became more public, & did eventually involve Brother Byington in a civil prosecution, both injurious to his character, and detrimental to his temporal interest. My conduct in this affair strongly calls into question the sincerity of my late confession, has greatly dishonored God, brot much trouble and blame on this church, and wounded my own reputation; and that notwithstanding my great offense against God and men, I have for a long time persisted in my wickedness, and refused to do honor to God and justice to my brother by a free and penitent confession of my fault. I have therefore great occasion of shame and sorrow, and deeply do bewail and confess my sin and shame before God and my brethren. In view of my
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criminal conduct in these respects, I humbly ask the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of my brethren of this church, and particularly of my brother Byington, whom I have so exceedingly injured, and of all men to whom a knowledge of my offences has come; and I promise for the future, by the grace of God assisting me, to watch and guard against all such conduct, and to treat my brother Byington, with candor and brotherly affection. On these reflections and this humiliation, I beg to be restored to the charity and kind treatment of this church, of my brother Byington, and all whom I have offended.
The Consociation then rebuked the Salem church for hav- ing been slow to act upon Brother Byington's complaint, but also urged that outraged brother to consider his conduct and return to his duty. A year later Brother Byington and Sister Elizabeth Lewis were excommunicated for breach of the seventh commandment. The shock of such distressful doings led the church in 1802 to appoint three men to act as ruling elders "to watch over the brethren and to attend to all mat- ters ... disciplinable." This duty the elders thencefor- ward pursued with zeal, and rash was the brother who dared risk their censure.
What did excommunication mean in those days? Being cut off from fellowship with the church, denial of commun- ion, and perhaps loss of right to Christian burial, if unrepent- ant at death-all this was a mighty penalty. On the other hand, now that the Congregational church no longer em- braced the whole community, excommunications could not extend beyond these spiritual punishments. While forfeiture of the respect of one's neighbors must have cut deep at a time when contacts outside the narrow river valley were few, a man did not necessarily suffer in his worldly estate. And there were ways out. So Brother Byington and others later excommunicated from the Congregational church defied their judges and made their peace with God by joining the Episcopal church. Conversely outcast Anglicans from time to time were accepted by the Congregationalists or Baptists.
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But the Church of Christ in Salem did not confine itself to disciplining erring members. It undertook also to establish safeguards against temptation. For full measure in observing the Sabbath, both Saturday evening and Sunday evening were decreed part of the Lord's day when neither "secular labor" nor "secular visits" were permissible. Use of "ardent spirits" except as medicine was decried. And in 1815 the church declared "that an attendance on dancing assemblies is inconsistent with the standing and welfare of baptized per- sons and the good order of Christian families." Could danc- ing assemblies have been introduced by Episcopalians or persons of no religious creed? That the Congregational So- ciety saw fit to condemn this "practice" suggests that many of its young people must have been indulging in the pastime. Not long after the imposition of this restraint, to strengthen the Society's hold upon the younger generation, the church opened a Sabbath School. The children were brought to- gether every Sunday from eight in the morning until the intermission of service at mid-day, and for encouragement to attendance, the church undertook to furnish "all such as
regularly attended . . with the Coleman Catticms if at their own expense." In spite of the niggardly-seeming char- acter of this overture, in view of the scarcity of books, chil- dren of the parish found the parish library, opened somewhat later, a considerable inducement to keeping a connection with the Sabbath School. The Salem Juvenile Library, an adjunct of the older Salem Library, could not begin to satisfy the demand for children's reading matter.
By the 1830's, however, the Congregationalists realized that the church had outgrown some of the severities of its first Covenant. Accordingly they adopted in 1833 a much milder Covenant which departed so far from the older Cal- vinistic creed of the "Elect" as to state that nothing but "criminal selfishness and unbelief" hindered any person from coming to God. The congregation, forming itself into a mission society, began to give heed to the state of religion
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outside Salem, and the church gradually emerged from its self-absorbed attentiveness to the moral shortcomings of its own members. While successive committees continued to exhort erring brothers to abandon the sale of "ardent spirits" -a labor always pursued in vain-evidence of greater for- bearance of Christian spirit in the church occurs. Most strik- ingly in contrast to the older Puritan conception of misfor- tune's being a warranted visitation of God's displeasure was the decision to give material help to the destitute in the So- ciety. The vote of 1839 to supply from church funds the wants of afflicted or impoverished families marks clearly a break with the thinking of the past when every man, prosper- ing or suffering by God's will, could expect no charity from his neighbors.
Moreover, about this time, though affected by accident of geography, the Congregational and the Episcopal churches in Salem were brought closer together. In 1831 the Con- gregationalists, finding the location on the east side of the river inconvenient, decided to move the meeting house west of the river to a site presented by Daniel Beecher as a town green. Almost simultaneously the Episcopalians chose to abandon the Gunntown church location and build a new edifice on the green in Naugatuck center. The meeting house and the new St. Michael's now rose one on the right, the other on the left of the green, and for the first time church members of a Sunday morning could greet each other as they entered one church or the other. Probably this new op- portunity for neighborliness henceforward brought the two congregations spiritually nearer, and from the middle thir- ties onward the cleavage between the two shrank steadily. St. Michael's installed a resident minister in 1833 and in the years immediately following saw the number of its communi- cants increase notably.
Perhaps the growing strength of the Episcopal church eased the way for the first Roman Catholics in Salem. In 1842 a first Roman Catholic family settled in town. The Mahers of
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necessity went to mass in Waterbury, but the mere presence of a family devoutly dedicated to a form of religion so remote from the Puritan concept was electrifying.
The social life in the village to people today would seem barren in the extreme-no newspapers, no moving pictures, no professional entertainers, rarely even the most innocuous sort of parties. The country store was the center of casual neighborly sociability: His purchases made, the farmer might settle down on an upturned box or barrel by the stove to pass the time of day with his friends, to ruminate about the weather, pontificate about the political state of the na- tion, or spar good-naturedly over some piece of local gossip. The many-partied telephone lines of a later generation failed to spread news as fast as it radiated from the general store. Here were cooked up the practical jokes on Josiah or Jed, and local wits outdid themselves to enliven every stray listener with the reports of horseplay they had engineered. The peddler returning from a several weeks' trip off into the hills had stories to contribute, while the oldtimers, who, as soldiers in the Revolution or War of 1812, had seen the world, might spin their yarns, with familiar anecdotes varied from time to time to prevent staleness. It was simple, homely stuff but to people of the countryside, removed from the main stream of life on the seaboard, it was satisfying. Oc- casionally young people and old joined in husking bees, quilting bees, or spelling bees at one house or another, and about 1820 singing societies began to meet. The Congrega- tionalists' disapproval of "dancing assemblies" put a damper on any nascent enthusiasm for balls, but even that pastime obviously came into vogue after the hotel ballroom was built. As early as 1797 Harmony Lodge of the Masonic order was launched, with Pastor Fowler himself preaching the in- augurating sermon from the text: "And the Lord stood upon the wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand."
In the face of the frowns of the church deacons, here and
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there considerable tippling went on, although hard cider or the old New England standby, rum, were the only "ardent spirits" to be had. Furthermore, dark rumor hinted of "gaming" in some places, and in Straitsville at the bustling Collins hotel after its completion in 1811 worldly travelers must have introduced pastimes new to Salem. Here a bowl- ing alley flourished after 1825 where local men as well as stagecoach travelers played. Boys of Salem Bridge every year found time to hunt partridge and pheasant, drop lines in the pools of the brooks for trout, in winter to skate and do "benders" on the wavering thin spots of ice on the mill ponds, and in summer to swim in the swimming holes. Lit- tle girls could pick berries or go on picnics. But leisure was rare for boys and girls and adults alike, and the business of living consumed all the hours of most days of the year.
As farming gave way to running the shops for the principal means of livelihood of Salem, communication with a larger world brought about some changes. Sons of makers of Yankee notions going out from the Naugatuck valley for several months of every year brought back new ideas; these peddlers served as liaison with the world beyond New England. More- over, young men who departed to New Haven for college training for the ministry did not always fall into the pattern expected at home, and their approach to the problems of religious duty and social intercourse made some mark upon the thinking of friends and relatives in Salem. Although not many fathers in these days could afford to train sons for the professions, the community had its share and so was drawn to gradual acceptance of new points of view.
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