USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 25
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 25
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > New Britain > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 25
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A turning shop, built in 1864, and occupied for a time by Jolm N. Bunnell, afterwards became the manufactory of the
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INDUSTRIES.
Standard Rule Company, organized in 1872, for making rules and levels. The business subsequently passed into the hands of the Upson Nut Company. The Ripley Manufac- turing Company, organized in 1872, besides occupying the old screw shop, have added a brick building, in which they manufacture paper.
The paper business has also been carried on by some other firms than those already mentioned. The Meach & Hart Cutlery Company, now the Upson & Hart Com- pany, make table cutlery. These various branches of busi- ness, with, perhaps, a few not mentioned, have conspired to make Unionville a thrifty manufacturing village.
There have been other industries, some of which have been successful, but which cannot be described without taking more space than can be allotted to this topic.
In New Britain the multiplication of stores, and the in- crease in the variety and amount of merchandise sold ; the erection of business blocks; the capital invested and the labor employed in market gardening, in raising fruits, and in farming generally; the development of special in- dustries, the success in professional life, and other matters intimately connected with present industrial development, might occupy several chapters, but they do not come directly within the scope of this work. The history of the prin- cipal manufacturing companies and other associations doing business under national or State laws will be given in another chapter.
CHAPTER XV.
SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS IN EARLY YEARS.
JOR many years after the first settlements of Farming-
F ton, New Britain, and Berlin were made, society was, to a great extent, homogencous. The people, generally, were engaged in similar pursuits, and to a considerable extent had . common aims. The differences in estates were much less than at the present time. The modes of living of different households were similar, modified by the peculiar circum- stances of each: There were some distinctions in society, it is true, depending partly upon ancestry, but more upon civil or military office, or position, or upon those qualities of mind which fit for leadership.
There were in all of the different parishes a few acknowl- edged leaders to whom deference was paid, and who were expected, as a matter of course, to fill the principal offices, or represent the town in the General Court. Their position was indicated partly by dress and other environment, and partly by manner and general bearing. Distinctions were recognized in seating meeting-houses, in precedence at social gatherings and elsewhere, but there was less of classification than in older communities. Rev. Samuel Hooker, Col. Fisher Gay, and Gov. John Treadwell, in Farmington, Gen. Selah Hart of Kensington, and Dr. John Smalley and Col. Isaac Lee of New Britain, were notables in their time. It is said of the two latter, that whenever they passed where children were at play, the play would be stopped, and the boys would make profound obeisance. The women of the leading fami- lies were also distinguished for dignity and courtesy.
Labor was not considered degrading, and all classes and nearly every individual in health had some definite work to which attention was given. In large families, as the chil-
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SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS IN EARLY YEARS.
dren grew up, each child was assigned to some special ser- vice on the farm or in the household, and all were expected to aid in contributing to the welfare and comfort of the family, or to the acquisition of property. The custom of engaging in some manual labor was so general that men in the learned professions frequently employed a portion of the time in the care of a garden or farm. Dr. Smalley and Mr. Skinner, the first ministers of New Britain, had farms which they cultivated with profit, working themselves with their hired men. The first lawyers and physicians of the place also had gardens or farms, which received part of their at- tention.
Young women assisted in household work or in the care of children, or if their services were not needed in these duties, they would engage in such work as could be readily per- formed at their homes. After mechanical industries were introduced, many young women were at work upon lace or bead work, forming hooks and eyes, or doing some part of other light manufacturing, which brought them a small in- come.
The clothing was adapted to the circumstances of the people, and much of it was made in the family. Sheep were kept on the farms, the wool was carded and spun, and the yarn sometimes woven into cloth at home. Flannel was made into dresses, underclothing, or sheets, or sent to the fulling-mill to be changed into fulled cloth for winter gar- ments. Flax was also a product of many farms. This was broken and dressed by farm hands, spun and woven into linen, the cloth bleached in the sun, and made into garments or bed-clothing at home. The spinning-wheel was an ordi- nary article of furniture, and wool, flax, and cotton were all spun in the family. Brown tow cloth was made for working trowsers and overfrocks, which were usually worn in the summer by the men while at work. In the winter a woolen shirt and buckskin breeches, woolen stockings and double- soled cowhide shoes tied with leather strings, took the place of the lighter clothing of summer, and a home-made woolen vest and coat completed the winter dress.
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
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For Sundays and holidays, the men in summer had a check or white linen shirt, home-made linen trowsers and vest, and in winter, a woolen suit usually of some dark color ; but often, the Sunday overcoat over the week-day suit served for Sun- days and public days. The Sunday overcoat and boots some- times did service for a dozen years or more. The dress of the women, at first, corresponded with that of the men, but as the town increased in wealth, and some of the merchants of Farmington began to import goods in their own ships, silks were worn by the women, and velvet and broadcloth by men of wealth. For many years the clothing of each house -. hold was made in the family. A tailoress or dress-maker would come to the home to cut and fit the garments for the different members of the household, and these would be finished by the mother and daughters, or by hired seam- stresses living with the family.
For diet, bread and milk were quite generally used for breakfast and supper some part of the year; when a more substantial meal was desired, ham and potatoes in the morn- ing, with eggs at times, were common ; at noon, the boiled dinner of salt beef, mutton, or pork, with potatoes and turnips, and boiled Indian pudding, was the established mid- day meal for three-fourths of the year, varied in the autumn by fresh meat for a time after the hogs or cattle were butchered. It was the early custom in all the hamlets which composed the town of Farmington for persons when killing animals to lend portions to their neighbors, who would return similar portions when they killed pigs or cattle, thus prolonging the period in which a supply of fresh meat was provided. Each farmer was accustomed to prepare a quantity of hams and sausages, and also to salt down in barrels beef and pork for the year's supply. Lambs and young pigs were killed for the table, and in case of the sudden arrival of company, nearly every family, at all seasons of the year, could provide a fowl for an extra meal. In the autumn and early winter, hominy or pudding, prepared from the first ripe corn, was a favorite dish ; and the hominy
*
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SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS IN EARLY YEARS.
or pudding left from dinner was fried for the next morning's breakfast.
Travel was limited to the immediate neighborhood ; some men living for a life time, in New Britain or Berlin, within a dozen miles of Hartford, never visited it. People passing from village to village, or to the meeting-house, walked, or rode on horseback. A whole family consisting of parents and children might sometimes be seen on one horse.
For some years the houses constructed appear to have been log-cabins, the crevices between the logs being filled with clay; but before the settlement of Berlin or New Britain was commenced, saw-mills had been established in Hartford and Farmington, and as soon as passable roads were made, boards from these mills could be procured, and more convenient framed houses be constructed. Log-cabins continued for several years in the western part of New Britain and Berlin, near the foot of the mountain. These were chiefly the abodes of persons engaged in cutting tim- ber or preparing pipe-staves and hoops for the West India market. In Farmington Street, along the Stanley Quarter road and East Street, and both north and south from Chris- tian Lane, framed houses were erected quite early. The tim- ber for these buildings was usually cut in the woods, drawn to the site selected, and hewn and framed while the cellar and foundations were prepared, and then, by the aid of neighbors and friends, the frame was raised and made ready for the covering. Some of the earlier framed houses were covered with boards and battened, but it was quite common to shingle both roof and sides. The shingles were prepared by hand from pine or chestnut trees, often riven in the woods, and the floors were sometimes made of boards similarly prepared. The first framed houses had but two rooms, or at most three, besides the pantry on the first floor. One of these was the kitchen with its huge fire-place. This was usually the largest room, and served as cook room, wash room, and general living room for the family. Most of the indoor life of the family during waking hours was passed in
20
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
this room, and in winter time it was not unusual for a bed to stand in one corner, in which some of the family slept. The "best room " was seldom used except when visitors were re- ceived, or on rare festive occasions.
As the families increased and the wealth and facilities for building were multiplied, the houses erected were gen- erally double, with two "front rooms," and a small entry and stairway between them. Under the stairway would be a closet in which saddles, bridles, halters, and whips would be kept ready for immediate use. This style of house, later, usually had a " lean to" roof on the back side, which covered the capacious kitchen, with a pantry at one end of it, and a bed-room at the other. In one of the front rooms, in the autumn, corn in husks as picked from the fields would be brought, and the annual huskings, in which all the young people of the vicinity participated, would take place, while at the close, doughnuts, pumpkin pies, and apples were
served in the other front room. The outside front door of the better class of houses was generally double or folding, with a scroll or figure of some kind over the top. The chambers were low, but quite large in the better class of houses, with small windows and bare floors. Rude stairs or a ladder provided means of ascent to the garret, where the years supply of corn was stored in the autumn, and where might frequently be found old articles of furniture, swords, old muskets, and other evidences of warfare.
The guns ready for use were usually hung up in the kitchen, with the powder-horn and shot-bag near. In this room, in the season, were suspended strings of dried apples, red peppers, squashes, and sometimes sausages and hams. In the corner of the huge kitchen fire-place, the farmer, or head of the family, often had his seat during the long winter evenings, and there mended his harness or shaped his ox- bows and put his tools in order.
In the cellar, the vegetables and apples for winter use were stored, with a generous supply of cider. Here also the beef and pork barrels were usually placed, and the amount
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SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS IN EARLY YEARS.
of salt pork and beef used through the year by some families would surprise modern housekeepers.
Though labor was considered honorable, and all classes participated in some kind of work, a few of the wealthier families had negro servants or slaves, who were employed either on the farm or in domestic service. These persons were seldom bought and sold, but were mentioned in wills and devises of property. They often became strongly attached to the families in which their lives were passed ; and were ministered to in sickness and old age by those whom they had faithfully served. As this class of servants passed away, "hired help" took their place. The farm hands were usually Americans or English, of limited re- sources, but with comfortable homes, who added to their small income by hiring themselves out for a part of the season. There were usually in each neighborhood two or three persons, or more, who became noted as skillful wood- choppers, mowers, cradlers, or thrashers; and could be hired by the day or month. Boys and young men from eighteen to twenty-five, of well-to-do families, would often hire out for the season, or for a few months, and thus in- crease the gains of the family. Girls and young women, dependent upon their own resources, went out to service, assisting in household work or in the care of children, earning a few dollars for their own use.
Notwithstanding the industrious habits of the people and their general handicraft, they found time for reading and mental culture. There were but few books, but these ยท were well selected, carefully read, and, in some instances, their contents were discussed and reviewed until treasured in the minds of the readers. In some cases, several neigh- bors would combine to purchase. expensive books, or sets, and the volumes would be exchanged or circulated from house to house. The proprietors' library, which was in circulation from about 1770, went into the greater part of the families of the New Britain parish, and was a stimulus to thought and inquiry. The discussion of civil and religious questions,
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
the general tone of the preaching, and the prevailing thought of the people, tended to produce solid character and reflect- ive habits.
There was, however, time for social enjoyment. Social gatherings of the people of a neighborhood were not infre- quent. The teas of the women and the suppers to which both sexes, and often all the adult members of families, were invited, were seasons of sociability and sometimes of con- viviality. The corn huskings in the autumn, the quiltings in the winter, and other neighborhood gatherings, primarily for rendering friendly aid, were seasons of friendly greeting and social enjoyment. Any occasion which brought several neighbors together, as raising the frame of a new building, " drawing" or moving a barn, or similar work which re- quired cooperation, gave an opportunity for free interchange of thought, and became a sort of holiday for young men, and older men sometimes participated in the enjoyment. Col. Isaac Lee was one of the leaders in athletic sports, and was for many years the champion wrestler of the town.
When the second meeting-house in New Britain was to be erected in 1822, the site, which was uneven, was graded and prepared for the building by the willing hands and teams of many parishioners, who were accustomed to assemble daily, with hired help and tools, and plow, scrape, and
shovel, until the site was prepared for the building.
Others
assisted in the preparation of the timber ; to avoid loss of time, the women of the parish, true to the ideas which enlisted the willing hands of their fathers and brothers, for several days prepared a bountiful repast, which was spread upon long tables placed in the orchard near the corner of Main and East Main streets. Here the men at noon sat down to dinner with their pastor, who was present and presided at the meal.
The taverns in Farmington, Berlin, in Stanley Quarter, on East Street, in Hart Quarter, on West Main Street, and later at the center of New Britain, while established primarily for the accommodation of travelers, were also rendezvous,
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SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS IN EARLY YEARS.
where neighbors and others gathered to hear and speak of the news of the day. These taverns, or public houses, required but few extra rooms, as the travel through the town brought few strangers here to pass the night. Some of these inns had a distinctive character. Noah Stanley's, in Stanley Quarter, and Joseph Smith's, on East Street, were, for a time, houses where military officers and privates were accus- tomed to gather on training-days and when recruiting was going on. The " State House," in Hart Quarter, while kept by Elizur Hart, was noted for its parties and social gather- ings. His house had a dancing hall, which was often used in the season for parties. The Booth taverns, near the center, were patronized more by persons who met to talk business or politics. As there were then no saloons or places, except taverns, where liquors could be bought to be drank on the premises, it is probable that a considerable portion of the income of some of these places was derived from the sale of drinks, and drunkenness, as appears from the records of courts, was not uncommon. The tavern in Worthington was the regular stopping-place of the post-riders, and after- wards of the stages between Hartford and New Haven.
Respect for the majesty of the law and reverence for God and for the Divine law, were enjoined from the pulpit and taught by the minister of justice. Offenses against public morals, or a violation of the statutes relating to the Sabbath, often met with summary punishment. The penal- ties for the less criminal acts were not usually heavy, but were promptly imposed. Official records and papers furnish abundant testimony of this practice .*
* In April, 1764, ten years after the New Britain parish was incorporated, the constables and grand jurors presented to one of his majesty's justices the names of persons who neglected to attend public worship, and they were arrested and fined.
On the 22d of June, 1768, Elijah Smith, a grand juror, in his majesty's name makes complaint "that . - of Wethersfield, being in New Britain, did vainly and profanely and repeatedly swear and rashly and wickedly speak and utter improper words, and being reproved by said grand juror, he wickedly said, etc." Being placed upon trial he confessed to the utterance of the words quoted, and
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
A strict regard for the Sabbath was characteristic of a majority of the people in each of the parishes of Farmington, Kensington, New Britain, and Worthington. At first the pioneers worshiped with the old church at Farmington, but after the Great Swamp Society was organized, the families from Kensington and from New Britain, as far northi as the present Smalley Street, with Beckley Quarter and the few families in what was afterwards Worthington, attended wor- ship in the meeting-house at Christian Lane. After the division of the society, the southern part of the town gathered at the Kensington meeting-house, a short distance from the site of the railway station, while the New Britain parish worshiped at the first meeting-house in that society.
At that time nearly every one of suitable age went to meeting. The meeting-houses were none of them as well protected from the inclemencies of the weather as modern churches, and they had no artificial warmth, but the sturdy farmers, with their wives and children, were present regu- larly and punctually. Early on Sunday morning the neces- sary farm and household duties were performed, and in good time, on horseback or on foot, the congregation gathered from the hamlets and separate farm-houses to the place of meet- ing. A cold dinner was carried in the pocket, or in a bag, and when wheeled vehicles began to be used, a bag or box of oats was often taken for the horse. Then after the long ser- vice, consisting of a long prayer and Psalm, with scripture exposition and sermon, extended sometimes to what would now be considered extraordinary length, and another long Psalm and prayer, the lunch was eaten, while the "news"
was fined six shillings and cost, two shillings and eight pence, or, in all, eight shillings and eight pence.
Samuel Dickinson, a Tithingman, makes complaint that " Bela Plum did on the 9th day of April, 1769, it being Lord's day, and he being in the meeting- house in the Society of New Britain in said Farmington did profane the same by laughing several times and scratching with a pin on the front of sd meeting- house, several times, looking at those that sat by him each time, and laughing and seemed disposed to provoke others to laugh, contrary to the peace of our Lord the king, and to the bad example of others and contrary to the statute law of the colony." He was fined.
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was talked over. The afternoon service, which followed that of the morning within an hour, was then attended, and after- wards the congregation might again be seen wending their way by different paths to the homes where cheerful open fire- places afforded warmth to the faithful worshipers.
Holy time with these people commenced with the evening of Saturday. Secular work was laid aside at sunset or twilight, and in a few of the families more strict than others, all ordinary daily duties relating to material things were, as far as possible, performed on Saturday .*
It was the custom in many families, after the late Sunday dinner, to gather around the fireside and "say the cate- chism," the questions being put by the father, and the answers given in rotation around the circle. After the even- ing chores were done, secular work was resumed, though generally only the more quiet kinds, as knitting and sewing in the household, sharpening the tools or other preparation by the men for the more active work of the week. In some of the parishes, the Sunday evening conference meeting was sustained with a good attendance.
While the seniors were strict in regard to the hours of the Lord's-day, the juniors were sometimes irreverent, even in the meeting-house. The galleries, with high square pews, being set apart for the young people, afforded a convenient place for play, and there would sometimes be a want of decorum even in prayer or sermon time., The boys would trade knives, fish-hooks and lines, and other contents of capacious pockets, and sometimes engage in games. The irreverence at last compelled the appointment of persons, " who shall sit conveniently to inspect the youth in the meeting-house on days of public worship and keep them in
* Deacon Elijah Hart, Deacon Timothy Stanley, and some others of similar views and habits, were aceustomed to have the farm work in the fields cease at four o'clock, Saturday afternoons, and the remainder of the day devoted to preparation for the Sabbath. The high boots were cleaned and blacked, faces shaved, Sunday garments were dusted, and all possible preparation was made for the following day.
..
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
order." In Farmington, in 1716, Thomas North, Samuel Orvis, and Simeon Newel, were appointed to this service.
After the revolutionary war there was somewhat of re- laxation in the strictness of morals which characterized earlier years. Misdemeanors were more frequent, and some of the older families and more strictly disposed officers dep- recated formally the habits of the times.
With increase of riches there came an increase of luxury, especially in the older parishes. Carpets were placed upon the floors of the best rooms, silks were worn by the women, and velvets and broadcloth by the men. Carriages were in- troduced, and gradually clocks and watches. In 1800, there were in the Worthington parish sixteen top carriages and eight open carriages; and in Kensington, there were five of the former and three of the latter, and one phaeton; while in New Britain, there were four open carriages and only two top carriages. The latter were brilliantly decorated and the cause of some comment on account of their elegance. As late as January, 1824, when, at the marriage of John Stanley, two Boston chaises, one belonging to Mr. Stanley and one to Seth J. North, were used by the wedding party, they were objects of admiration for their bright yellow and red morocco trimmings and general elegance.
In 1800, there were in Kensington three gold watches and eleven silver ones; in Worthington, one of gold and twenty-four of silver, while in New Britain there were four- teen silver watches, but none of gold.
There were at that time in Farmington more evidences of wealth than in either of the parishes of Berlin. During the period of the most active business in Farmington, and for some years following, when wholesale and retail stores were having a large and profitable trade, or between 1790 and 1820, the place was distinguished for its social life and attractions. Evening parties and assemblies, formal dinners and suppers, weddings, and other private and public gath- erings, helped to mutual acquaintance and friendship.
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