USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Norfolk > History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 > Part 22
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VARIOUS OTHER ENTERPRISES.
"Quite an extensive business was done for some years at the old Grist-mill, in the manufacture of wheat, rye, and buck-wheat flour, which was sold not only here, but in all the adjoining towns. The wheat and other grains were bought in all these towns, as well as in the towns of western Litchfield, Southern Berkshire, and Dutchess Counties. At one time,-about 1837,-there was a short crop of wheat in this region. The western wheat fields were then known only as part of the "Great American Desert," as the geog- raphys of that day called the western country. A large quantity of Odessa wheat, from near the Black Sea in
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Southern Europe, was brought from New York to Norfolk, coming up the Hudson river to Hudson, and made into flour at this mill.
Dea. Jonathan Kilbourn operated, in connection with his other business, mentioned elsewhere, a 'dish-mill' for sev- eral years, and turned out large quantities of wooden bowls, which were sold in all the region around, and many speci- mens still exist in the old homes. Those turned from white ash knots were especially fine and valuable, and knots in the great old sugar maples, soft-maples, ash, beech and birch trees were sought in the forests and brought a high price. These wooden bowls were turned with peculiar chisels,-a single large knot or block making a whole nest, in size from very small ones up to those nearly two feet across, which were used for a variety of purposes: bread- bowls, butter-bowls, chopping-bowls, etc. The grain of some of those turned from knots was very handsome, and the bowls very strong and durable."
In this heavily wooded country in the early days saw- mills were naturally quite numerous. In the extreme south part of the town, Hall meadow, it is called, mentioned else- where, Mr. Jeremiah Johnson for some years did quite a business with a saw-mill, cheese-box factory, etc., and later it was run by Philemon Johnson and others, using the water-power from the Naugatuck river. This plant, too, is now unused.
There was for a time a saw-mill and cheese-box shop in Meekertown, a little distance below Dolphin or Balcom pond, which is the source of the Naugatuck river. This mill long since disappeared. It was owned and operated by Joshua Beach, Amos Baldwin, Amos Gilbert, Myron Johnson and others, at various times.
There was also a saw-mill for some years a short dis- tance below the outlet of Tobey pond, west from the present Golf links. This, too, is gone and forgotten.
Mr. Joseph Gaylord and his successors for many years maintained a saw-mill on the Wood Creek stream, about a half-mile below the site of the mill of David Gaylord. This also is now unknown.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
At the outlet of Doolittle, or 'The Great Pond,' there was for many years a saw-mill, of which very little remains to even mark the place.
At the outlet of 'Benedict lake,' 'Smith pond,' or 'Little pond,' situated near 'The Great Pond,' different genera- tions by the name of Benedict for many years operated a saw-mill, from an early period until within a few years.
Dea. Dudley Norton and Jennison J. Whiting for some years operated a steam saw-mill on Dea. Norton's farm in the north part of the town, where a large quantity of pine lumber was cut. This, too, long since was gone.
For several years past a steam saw-mill has been in opera- tion in the west part of the town, near the Crissey pond and elsewhere, where large quantities of hemlock lumber are cut, the mill being moved from time to time from one piece of timber to another.
"The most unique enterprise was the building of a shop for the manufacture of cheese-boxes on the side hill a little way south of the Bridgeman mansion, on the rivulet which comes down from Dutton hill. This proved a 'dry privilege,' and the eight-foot overshot wheel failed to turn; the water supply proving too unreliable for practical use."
Mr. Philo Smith and his son, Obadiah, for some years operated a saw-mill and cheese-box shop on the stream south of their residence near Grantville. Of this also it can only be said, it has disappeared.
In those early days there was a great amount of "Eng- lish Dairy Cheese," as it was called, made in this town, · requiring a great number of cheese-boxes for shipping, but that industry also has entirely ceased, as cheese-making in Norfolk is now a lost art.
In 1853 Mr. Nathaniel B. Stevens and Augustus P. Law- rence, the eldest son of E. Grove Lawrence, built the 'Hoe Shop,' as it was called for years, on Patmos Island, as has been briefly mentioned, for the manufacture of Planters' Hoes. Aaron Keyes was for many years their Superin- tendent, and many thousand dozens were manufactured and shipped to all parts of the south. This was a new industry
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in this country when N. B. Stevens & Co. started it here, only one other shop, somewhere in the Naugatuck Valley, at that time making these hoes in this country; the supply having been imported from England. These Yankees soon produced a better article than the Englishmen, making a hoe with a solid eye, all drawn from one piece of metal, and finished with a tempered edge of cast-steel, and were in- tended to cut. The eye of the hoe had been riveted on by the Englishmen. They were a clumsy implement, ranging from the size of an ordinary hoe to the size of a small shovel, but much heavier than a Yankee's hoe. The negro fitted a stick for a handle into his hoe, and it was said that much of the plowing or breaking of the land through the south was done by the negroes with these heavy hoes. The break- ing out of the civil war spoiled this industry entirely.
Just over the Norfolk line, in the town of Canaan, a Mr. Burt in the early part of the century built a forge where a large amount of business was done at various times. Hunt- ington & Day put a puddling furnace in this old forge in 1843, and mention has been made of the iron which they sold to the Collins Axe Company. The dam for this forge was in Norfolk, and flooded quite a little land on what is known as the Ives farm, and the Holt, or Blackberry River farm.
In about 1835 Mr. Isaac Holt owned a saw and shingle mill that stood just below the Burt forge dam, on the line between Norfolk and Canaan. The 'Green Mountain Com- pany' operated this mill for a time; the members of this company being Richard Stevens, Roswell Kilbourn and Stephen Holt, as mentioned in Thomas Richards' reminis- cences of Canaan, published in the 'Connecticut Western News.'
It is difficult, not to say impossible, to learn fully about the early manufacture of iron and other articles in town. The records fail to throw much light upon it, and those who knew have mostly gone the way of all the earth. One con- veyance of a water privilege to Samuel and Warren Cone, already mentioned, indicates that anchors were made here,
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and that the dam, a short distance below Buttermilk Falls, that later furnished the power for Mr. Warren Cone's Scythe Shop, in earlier days furnished the power where anchors were made. The west end of this dam is still standing, and Dennis McCarty's wagon shop stands where the east end of the dam was built.
From the "Scrap Book of North Canaan."
"Squire Samuel Forbes was the original "iron prince," and pioneer in the iron industry in this section. His Canaan career began about the middle of the last century. The first forge he erected was located on "the island," a few yards east of the Forbes residence. Here ship anchors were made, weighing from one-half to two tons, and which were hauled by ox teams to Boston and other seaport cities, six-yoke ox teams being often employed to haul an anchor, and requiring from a month to six weeks to make the round trip. The ore was brought, in the earlier history of iron making, on horseback from Salisbury, where Squire Forbes originally discovered the iron ore deposits which have since made that town prosperous and famous. The first mining was done there in what is still known as the "Forbes ore bed."
"Besides his iron works in Canaan, Squire Forbes op- erated a forge in Salisbury where cannon were made for the revolutionary army. Besides anchors and cannon, he manufactured large iron soap kettles and other articles of iron. The anchor works, however, were the principal feature of his iron making, and gave employment to many sturdy men. The anchors were made direct from the smelted ore and hammered out with heavy sledge ham- mers, some of which weighed 56 pounds, requiring men of muscle and endurance to wield them. .
· Another forge that was in operation at the close of the last century was that of Colonel Burtt, a famous iron maker in his day. It stood a considerable distance east of the present fur- naces." It stood near the Norfolk line, as previously men- tioned.
"On the north shore of Lake Wangum, on the top of
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Canaan mountain, are vestiges of an old forge which was in operation for nearly a hundred years. It was abandoned many years ago. It was owned by the Hanchetts, who were skillful iron workers and made cannon for George Washington's armies."
From 1830 to 1840 Mr. Zalmon Parritt, a son of Mr. James Parritt, Quaker Parritt he was called, carried on tanning and shoemaking in Loon meadow, not far east from the old Frisbie place. He tanned heavy leather, which he sold in Hartford, and at times employed a number of men in mak- ing boots and shoes.
As will be seen from the foregoing chapter, although so many of the manufacturing enterprises have ended disas- trously, still the manufactures of the town have been nu- merous and not unimportant. Among the articles which have been manufactured in this town are: Flour and mill stuffs, lumber of all kinds, wooden bowls and dishes, shingles, cheese boxes and cheese casks, clocks, clock- plates and clock wheels, bar-iron, potash kettles, anchors and forgings, scythes, machinery, planters' hoes and cast- ings, military rifles, revolvers, axles for carriages, leather in great variety, woolen and cotton yarns, flannel, fulled cloth, broad-cloth, satinet, hosiery and underwear, the best in the world; sewing and embroidery silks, tapes, braids, lacings, etc., linseed-oil and cabinet furniture, tinware, sil- ver spoons, jewelry, boots and shoes, etc.
Statistics of the amount of products, kind and amount of manufactured articles, and the different branches of in- dustry in the several towns of Connecticut for the year 1845.
"Prepared from the returns of the Assessors of the towns. by Daniel P. Tyler, Secretary of State."
"NORFOLK."
"Cotton Mill, one. Cotton flannel manufactured, 2,167 yards. Value, $390.06. Hands employed, 1. Capital invested, $250.
Woolen Mills, two. Machinery, two setts. Wool consumed, 52 .- 274 lbs.
Broadcloth manufactured, 16,429 yards. Value, $29,858.
Satinett manufactured, 10,159 yards. Value, $6,772.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
Flannel manufactured, 508 yards. Value, $254.
Capital invested, $43,000.
Males employed, 29. Females employed, 11.
Scythe Factory, one. Number manufactured, 6,000. Value, $4,800. Capital invested, $3,000. Hands employed, 8.
Saddle, Trunk and Harness Factory, one. Capital invested, $550. Value of manufactures, $927. Hands employed, 1.
Sheep-skins tanned, 22,192. Value, $7,712.80. Capital invested, $4,254. Hands employed, 12.
Boots manufactured, 357 pairs; Shoes, 454 pairs. Value, $1,- 638.12. Hands employed, 3.
Lumber prepared for market, 732,000 feet. Value, $4,392. Hands employed, 6.
Firewood prepared for market, 951 cords. Value, $1,268. Hands employed, 5.
Merino Sheep, 2,166. Value, $2,018.
Wool produced, 5,285 lbs. Value, $2.034.
Horses, 169. Value, $6,532.
Neat Cattle, 1,905. Value, $23,050.
Swine, 716. Value, $6,531.35.
Indian corn, 4,112 bushels. Value, $3,289.60.
Buckwheat, 248 bushels. Value, $135.00.
Rye, 975 bushels. Value, $780.40.
Potatoes, 16,545 bushels. Value, $4,963.50.
Other Esculents, 3,255 bushels. Value, $813.25.
Hay, 3,511 tons. Value, $42,132.
Flax, 48 lbs. Value, $6.00. Fruit, 14,006 bushels. Value, $1,400.60.
Hops, 10 lbs. Value, $1.40.
Butter, 52,099 lbs. Value, $7,814.85.
Cheese, 256,247 lbs. Value, $16,656.05.
Honey, 260 lbs. Value, $52.00.
Beeswax, 32 lbs. Value, $9.60.
Cheese Boxes manufactured, 21,900. Value, $2,847. Capital invested, $3,629. Hands employed, 5.
Charcoal, 100,000 bushels. Value, $6,000."
The above interesting statistics were kindly furnished for this history by Mr. George Seymour Godard, Assistant Librarian of the 'State Library' at Hartford.
The woolen manufacturers of 1845 were J. & E. E. Ryan & Co., and J. S. Kilbourn & Son.
The manufacturer of Scythes was Capt. John Dewell.
The Harness manufacturer, Mr. Lewis Hill.
The manufacturer of Cotton Flannel, unknown.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
XX.
NORFOLK MERCHANTS- SCHOOLS-THE PARK.
The merchants of the town have been quite numerous, conducting business for longer or shorter periods, in a small or larger way. Some have been quite successful, others but very moderately so. The first merchant of whom the writer has heard was Samuel Dickinson, who kept a store on Beech Flats, where doubtless he dispensed "the necessities." It is said that a merchant of the olden time, in one of the adjoining towns probably, found conclusive proof of what 'the necessities of life' in those days were, by observing what his customers came for during a period of unusually cold stormy weather lasting several days, when it was with great difficulty that his store could be reached. The three necessary articles were shown to be New Eng- land rum, tobacco, and molasses.
The first merchant of any note in this town, and by far the most successful one in its history so far, was Mr. Jo- seph Battell, who came to Norfolk when eighteen years old, and not long after opened a store on Beech Flats, at the old Humphrey house; part of the identical building which was his store still remaining in the wing of the house as rebuilt for a summer residence by Mr. C. J. Cole. At that time Beech Flats was the business centre of the town, but not very many years later that glory departed, and Esq. Battell in about 1800 leased the land on the corner by Mr. Giles Pettibone's tavern, for many years known as Shepard's Hotel, where he built the store in which he did a very large business until his sudden death in 1841. Not many years after building the store, he built a fine resi- dence, where he continued to reside until his death, and which remained practically as originally built until remod-
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elled by his son, Robbins Battell, in 1855, and which, hav- ing been further improved, still remains in fine condition as the residence of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Carl Stoeckel.
Esq. Battell was a remarkably fine business man, widely known, beloved and esteemed for his kindness of heart and his readiness to assist others. He conducted a large profit- able business here for nearly forty years, amassing for those days, a large fortune. He was the principal merchant not only of this town, but drew also a large trade from all the adjoining towns, and for a long distance. In those days the farms in Norfolk and vicinity were at their best, the lands being practically new and productive, occupied by industrious, thrifty farmers, having good farm build- ings, well-fenced fields, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep in the valleys and on the hills. The land being adapted principally for grazing, butter and cheese were the staple products sold by the farmers. A considerable amount of maple sugar was also made every spring. Esq. Battell's store was the market place for all this region, the farmers' produce being shipped by him to New York by the Hudson or Connecticut rivers, taken chiefly by ox-teams from here to Hudson or Hartford, the teams returning loaded with salt and other merchandise. Large families of children were the rule in those days, which insured large flourish- ing schools, and plenty of the best of helpers in the house and on the farm.
On Sunday evening, October 23, 1831, Esq. Battell's store was entered by a burglar, while a prayer-meeting was in progress, which commenced "at early candle lighting," in the conference-room, and about fifteen hundred dollars in money was stolen. This unusual event made quite a commotion when known in the town. A reward of several hundred dollars was offered for the conviction of the bur- glar and the recovery of the money. Barzel Treat, long a resident of the town, he who played the bass-viol to assist the choir of singers in the church, soon became very zeal- ous in trying to discover the money, and went to consult a wise woman who claimed the ability to tell all events,
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past, present and to come, by looking into a small white stone. He reported that this wonderful woman said the money was buried at a certain place in the ledge, a little west from the meeting-house, and with others went and made a search, but at the first effort the money they did not find. He doubtless for a purpose claimed to have again consulted this wise woman; that she insisted that the money was buried in that ledge, and that he by looking into the white stone, had himself been able to see the place where it was buried. He with assistants instituted a thor- ough search, and after removing rocks and digging at the place indicated as he said in the white stone, the money was found. Suspicion that the said Barzel was the burglar had been in the minds of some from the first. He was con- victed of the burglary, served several years in the states- prison, and at the end of his term returned to Norfolk to claim the reward for finding the money, which reward doubtless he never received.
In the early history of the town Col. Giles Pettibone conducted a store in connection with his tavern; the store building, which stood at the north-west corner of the house, was made into a wing of the house years afterward.
Mr. E. Grove Lawrence and Mr. James C. Swift erected the building on the triangle near the fork of the roads by the bridge over Haystack brook, the lower story of which they occupied as a store, the upper story being used as a wool-sorting and storeing room for the woolen factory. After occupying this building for some years, in which Mr. Salmon Swift says he served as clerk, Mess. Lawrence and Swift sold out, erected and occupied as a store the build- ing which they sold to J. and E. E. Ryan & Co., that firm using it as a store for more than twenty years, since which time it has had various occupants; Mr. Matthew Ryan and his son, Charles M., having carried on this store continu- ously from the year 1836, when the Ryans commenced busi- ness here until their death, Mr. Matthew Ryan having died August 23, and his son, Charles M. Ryan, five days later- August 28, 1880. This store is now carried on, as it has
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been for several years, by Mr. Myron N. Clark, who is also the treasurer of the Norfolk Savings Bank.
The store on the opposite side of the street, on the site of Grove Yale's building, also had a great number of occu- pants during its existence. Dea. Mars in his notes says, "Mr. E. H. Dennison & Co. built the old store on the site now occupied by Grove Yale." The writer is unable to give the firm names, and the chronological order of the va- rious merchants who occupied this old building, which was erected about 1810. After Mr. Dennison, the occupants were, with various firm combinations, Everett Case, Bailey Birge, Elizur Dowd, E. Grove Lawrence, James C. Swift, George Brown, Nathaniel B. Stevens, James H. Shepard, Shepard & King, Myron C. Johnson as Shepard & John- son, and others. One of the early firms was Dowd & Law- rence. Then Dowd & Aiken, Edmund Aiken succeeding Mr. Lawrence.
Mr. E. Grove Lawrence received the appointment as Post- Master, under the administration of President Van Buren, and removed the Post Office to this store, to the chagrin and dismay of various candidates for the office who lived upon or near 'the Green.'
Mr. E. H. Dennison sold out his store down the hill, came up on the green and built for his store the building at the north-east corner of the green, and for his residence built the house just south, which Mr. Alfred L. Dennis rebuilt in 1852, which is now the parsonage. Mr. Dennison for some years conducted apparently quite a flourishing busi- ness here, but seems to have become financially embar- rassed, and gave up his business about 1829.
Not long after Mr. Dennison failed, Mr. Alpha Sage opened a store in the same place and did apparently a large business for a few years, buying the farmers' produce and selling goods, but this venture ended in a most disastrous failure, many farmers losing, what was for them, large amounts. This store built by Mr. Dennison was made into a dwelling house soon after Sage's failure, has been occu- pied as such by several families since, and is now occu- pied as the residence of Mr. George W. Scoville.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
After the death of Esq. Joseph Battell his adopted son and partner in business, Mr. William Lawrence, continued business for some two years in the Old Store, and in 1843 built the store at the north-east corner of the green, where he continued business about five years, when he sold out and retired to a beautiful home in Northampton, Mass., where he spent the remainder of his life. He was followed in this store by Daniel F. Bradford & Co. of Sheffield, My- ron H. Mills & Co., Peter Curtiss & Co., Mills & Crissey, Mr. Hubert L. Ives, W. E. and E. S. Beach, Landon Brothers, Mr. W. I. Sparks, Augustus P. Curtiss, and the present merchants, Collar Brothers. So far as the writer has knowledge, only a few of the successors of Mr. Wil- liam Lawrence have retired with a fortune to beautiful homes. The closing years of the history of 'the old store,' which was for a long period one of the most important business places in the entire history of the town, was not entirely uneventful or unworthy of mention. At different times it was occupied as a place of business; by Mr. James C. Swift about 1848, by Samuel Brown and Seth Miner as Brown & Miner, and later by Mess. Dowd, Curtiss & Co. as a general store; by Mr. Bradley Potter, a life-long resi- dent of the town, as an eating-house and temperance res- taurant; by Mr. O. N. Atkins as a peanut-stand, and as the Post-Office, when Mr. Giles Pettibone-Thompson was Post-master, and a part of the time when Mr. Aaron Gil- bert held that position. But 'the old store' did not, like some persons, become beautiful and attractive by age, but its glory had departed, and at length it was looked upon as an eye-sore, and privately declared to be a public nui- sance. At last one calm, still night about A. D. 1885, it most mysteriously fell down flat, and when the morning dawned it was seen to be an utter ruin. So far as the writer has been able to learn, no satisfactory explanation has ever been made as to the how or why the old store fell as it did. Whether it was a local earthquake, some other con- vulsion of nature, or a combination of natural and un- natural causes, must probably always remain a mystery.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
Some of the other merchants of the town were: Mr. James H. Shepard, who, after being in trade in the old store down the hill for several years, as has been already mentioned, upon the completion of the Stevens Block in 1856 conducted a general store in that building for a num- ber of years. John H. Welch & Co. had a drug-store in the same building, and John P. Hawley & Co., a Merchant Tailoring and Gents' furnishing establishment, at the same time in the Stevens Block. This building was enlarged and made a Hotel in about the year 1874, first called the Nor- folk House, kept by Mr. E. Y. Morehouse, and for many years past and yet it is the Stevens House, owned and conducted by Mr. E. C. Stevens & Son.
When the above change was made a drug-store was built a short distance north, and Mr. George Johnson has car- ried it on for many years, following in the steps of his predecessors.
Captain John Dewell kept a grocery-store for many years in 'the stone house' in West Norfolk. After Capt. Dewell's death in 1871, Capt. John K. Shepard had a store in West Norfolk for ten years or more, and was succeeded by Mr. Albert Cobb, who with his son, Frederick, is still there in business. Stevens & Hawley, and then Hawley & Sibley on Patmos Island, did for two or three years quite a brisk business, when manufacturing was flourishing in that vi- cinity, in about 1855.
During the days when South Norfolk was in its glory, Harlow Roys, and later S. D. Northway & Co., had quite an extensive country store there for a few years, James Oscar Northway being for a time the merchant.
Mr. Joseph W. Cone for several years did a good busi- ness near the grist-mill, as "Tinner and dealer in all kinds of Tin and Japan Ware, Furnaces and Stoves of every de- scription and variety, Vesper-gas Lamps, etc."
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