USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 61
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This mill, though of small account in comparison with the gigantic ope- rations of modern times, and by no means a money-making experiment to the proprietors, merits notice as one of the first cotton-mills successfully established in the county, and as leading the way to undertakings in the same line far more extensive and important. The title of this company was changed in 1819 to Williams Manufacturing Co. It continued only a few years in active operation, but its affairs were not settled and the partnership dissolved till 1833, when they sold out to Amos Cobb and others, agents of the Norwich and New York Manufacturing Co.
In May, 1813, William C. Gilman, "late of Boston," purchased a priv- ilege at the Falls, of Goddard & Williams, and in connection with the
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Iron and Nail Co. established a naillery, which went immediately into successful operation. In this factory the nails were cut by a newly- invented machine, with great rapidity, and while the novelty lasted, vis- itors were attracted to the falls to hear the clink of the machine and view the continual dropping of the nails.
The next company that was formed commenced business with promis- ing aspects upon a large capital. This was the Thames Manufacturing Co., incorporated in June, 1823. It consisted of six members, viz., Wm. C. Gilman, Samuel, Henry and John Hubbard, Wm. P. and Benjamin Greene. Five of these partners were Boston men, to whose favorable notice the water privileges that lay unemployed at the falls had been forc- ibly presented by Mr. Gilman.
This company purchased the naillery and several other water privileges at the falls, and erected a large cotton-factory, preparing for a business of considerable extent and value. The corner-stone of the building was laid with interesting ceremonies, and Judge Goddard delivered an address, welcoming the new company to that secluded seat.
ยท William P. Greene, one of the Boston partners, became a resident in Norwich,* and for a few years Mr. Greene and William C. Gilman trans- acted together the business of the company. Mr. Greene then resigned, and Mr. Gilman was afterward the sole agent of the concern.
The Quinebaug Co., for the manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, was chartered in 1826. The mill erected by this company on the She- tucket river was purchased by the Thames Co. before it went into ope- ration, and was considered by its new owners as the most valuable of their possessions. This mill was the beginning of Greeneville.
The Thames Co. purchased likewise the mill at Bozrahville, built by Messrs. Dodge and Hyde in 1815, and in their best days had the three mills,-in Bozrah, at the Falls, and on the Shetucket,-in successful operation.
Another company with similar objects and expectations, called the Nor- wich & New York Manufacturing Co., was incorporated in 1829. Some of the partners belonged also to the Thames Co., but they were distinct concerns. To this new incorporation the Thames Co. sold the Falls mill. This company purchased also the mills and machinery of Huntington and Backus on Bean Hill.
In 1833, a large cotton-mill, two paper-mills, an iron-foundry, nail-fac- tory and rolling-mill were reported in successful operation at the Falls.
But this prosperity was of short duration. Both the Thames Co. and the Norwich and New York Co. became involved in the mercantile dis-
* The first purchase made by the Boston Company was Jan. 25, 1823. William P. Greene purchased the Barrell property on Washington street, which he made his home for the remainder of his life, May 17, 1824.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
asters that so widely affected the business of the country, and went down in the financial crash of 1837. The two mills belonging to the Thames Co. were purchased nominally by Mr. Gilman,-the mortgages nearly equaling the value,-and conveyed by him to other parties : the Quine- baug mill to Mr. Caliph, and the mill at Bozrah to Mr. James Boorman of New York.
A period of great depression and stagnation of business ensued.
Fresh undertakings of a more enduring nature arose out of these re- verses. Two new companies were formed under the auspices of Wm. P. Greene,-the Shetucket Co. and the Norwich Falls Co. Both went into prosperous operation between 1838 and 1842.
The Shetucket Co. purchased the misnamed Quinebaug mill on the Shetucket. The building was burnt down in May, 1842, and the present mill, of far greater capacity, standing on the same spot, is called the She- tucket mill. It is the great cotton-mill of Greeneville.
The Falls Co. purchased the mill at the Falls, which had formerly belonged to the Thames Co. This has since been enlarged to almost three times its former size and power, and has kept on from that time to the present, without any suspension of its activity or check to its pros- perity.
These companies were established by Mr. Greene, chiefly upon his own credit, and were kept while he lived under his management and direction. The business has been gradually extending, and for several years each mill has had 15,000 spindles in operation.
The manufacture of paper at the Falls has of late years been connected exclusively with the name of Hubbard. Amos H. Hubbard entered into the business in 1818. Paper was at that time made in the old way ; not by machinery, but by hand, sheet by sheet. Mr. Hubbard very soon fur- nished his establishment with the modern improvements that diminish the amount of manual labor required. In 1830 he successfully introduced Fourdrinier's machine into his factory. This was the first paper-making machine used in Norwich.
The brothers Russell and A. H. Hubbard were in partnership in this business for twenty years, but dissolved in 1857. They had two mills,- the old wooden building erected by Messrs. Huntington and Bushnell in 1790, and a modern one, built of brick and stone, both of which, with various lots, tenements, and water-privileges, were sold by A. H. Hubbard in 1860 to the Falls Company.
Mr. Hubbard then removed his establishment to Greeneville on the Shetucket.
According to the census of 1860, the great cotton-mill at the Falls em- ployed 125 males and 375 females; producing annually six and a half million yards, valued at $450,000.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The Falls Company has from time to time purchased the various priv- ileges in its neighborhood, and now controls nearly the whole water-power at Yantic Falls, and at the old paper-mill above the falls. The nailleries, foundries, pistol-factories, the paper, flour and oil-mills, have all disap- peared, their seats and privileges passed over to this company, and their various crafts transferred to other localities. In this valley of the roaring waters, in 1860, Cotton reigned the sole and undisputed king.
This sovereignty has been recently invaded by the occupation of a hith- erto unemployed mill-seat near the railroad bridge. Here a large brick building, erected by C. A. Converse in 1864, furnishes accommodation to a grist-mill and the thriving cork-factory of Messrs. J. H. Adams and James E. Learned.
The cork-cutting business is one of the specialties of Norwich; this being the place where an ingenious machine for transforming sheets of bark into well-shaped corks was invented and set in operation, and where the business is prosecuted with a success that promises to make it one of the permanent industrial pursuits of the town.
The corks used in this country had been mostly imported from Europe, where they were all made by hand. Vast quantities were required to supply the market, and a machine that would abridge the labor and cheapen the article was a desideratum. This is furnished by the machines invented and patented by the brothers Crocker of Norwich.
William R. Crocker, the first inventor, after many experiments, brought his machine into successful operation, and procured a patent for it, bearing the date of Oct. 30, 1855. This machine produced from twenty to thirty finished corks per minute, turning them out in better condition than those made by hand. In 1859 the inventor went to Europe, accompanied by a younger brother, to dispose of rights in his patent. On their return in the steamer Hungarian, they both perished in the wreck of that vessel on the coast of Newfoundland, Feb. 15, 1860.
But the business of cork-cutting, commenced by them in Norwich, has been continued by Messrs. Barnes & Spalding, the proprietors of their patented machine.
Another machine of different structure, but for the same purpose, was invented by a third brother, John D. Crocker, and patented in 1862. This patent is the one employed in the factory at Yantic Falls.
Uncas Mill. In the early part of the century, at Bean Hill, in a turn of the Yantic and on both sides of it, we find a grist-mill of ancient date, the fulling-mill and carding-machine of Erastus Huntington and Eber Backus, the stone-ware factory of Armstrong & Wentworth, and the machine-shop of James Burnham. Mr. Burnham constructed carding- machines, looms, and other kinds of machinery, but died on the island of Madeira in 1813.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The establishment of Huntington & Backus was purchased in 1828 for $9,000, by a company organized that year and called the Norwich Manu- facturing Co. This company established a woolen-mill on the premises, since known as the Uncas Woolen Mill. The ownership has since been several times changed. In 1859, F. B. Loomis, proprietor, the census reported the annual produce 150,000 yards of doeskins, valued at $175,- 000. Mr. Loomis sold out in 1860 to Wm. Elting & Co. The Elting Woolen Company has since been organized with a capital of $150,000.
Another woolen-mill, at a lower point on the river in Norwich-Town, was run for several years by Peter Lanman. The site is now occupied by a mill of larger size and a group of neat tenements built by A. T. Sturtevant.
Yantic.
The village of Yantic lies in the western part of the town, close upon the borders of Bozrah and Franklin. At this point, just where the roads from Colchester and Windham meet and run together, a mill-dam and pond, a saw-mill, grist-mill, and carding-machine, with the usual gearing and machinery, had been gradually gathered into a group, and in the early part of the present century were owned by Uriah Tracy.
These improvements were purchased in different parcels, from 1818 to 1822, by John and George Tisdale, who added a factory and a stone dwelling-house to the premises, and began the manufacture of cotton cloth. The Tisdales were agents, or trustees, in this business, of Robert R. Baker, a native of Scotland, who had spent some time in Norwich, and seems to have formed the design of investing his capital in the busi- ness of the place, and enrolling himself as a regular inhabitant. After a few years, Mr. Barker, while traveling, it is said, in the western part of New York, suddenly disappeared, and his fate was never ascertained. The Yantic mill was subsequently sold, to clear off its mortgages and indebtedness, and purchased by Capt. Erastus Williams, who greatly en- larged the original building, and devoted it wholly to the manufacture of woolen goods. E. Winslow Williams, only son of Capt. Erastus Williams, is the present proprietor.
The aspect of the country in this neighborhood has been softened by the improvements of modern times. It was naturally a wild and frown- ing district, dark with impending woods, and intersected by a turbulent stream. The village consists at the present day of the Williams flannel factory, with its various tenements, appurtenances, and surroundings ; a fair proportion of mechanics and shops for merchandise, a group of pri- vate houses, a post-office, a school-house, an Episcopal organization called Grace Chapel, and about 300 inhabitants.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The census of 1860 reported 110 persons employed in the mill,-75 males and 35 females, and the annual value of products $150,000. This mill, with all its machinery, stock, and engines, and an adjoining house that accommodated eight families, was destroyed by fire, May 26, 1865. The older part of the mill had stood for nearly fifty years, and the flames performed their work with great facility, lighting up the hills and woods like an amphitheatre, and startling the village with showers of flaming cinders. The loss, though very heavy, served only as a stimulus to more enlarged enterprise. The corner-stone of a new structure, far more eapa- cious than the former, to be built of stone, four stories high, with towers and wings, and furnished with all the mechanical convenienees and safe- guards invented by modern science, was laid Aug. 16th, less than three months after the conflagration. This mill is designed for twelve sets of machinery.
The village of Yantic furnished an honorable roll of volunteers in the war for the Union ; and among them, one,-Capt. John McCall,-who poured out his life on the banks of James river, and by his patriotism, valor, and heroic death, has left a name for his native hills to cherish.
Bozrahville.
Pursuing our course along the Yantie, but still keeping within the nine- miles-square, we meet with the manufacturing villages of Bozrahville and Fitchville, both within the present town of Bozrah.
Bozrahville is one of the oldest manufacturing establishments in the county of New London. It originated with the Bozrah Manufacturing Co., which was formed in 1814 by Frederick DePeyster, Jonathan Little and others of New York, and David L. Dodge, then a resident of Nor- wich .* The capital came from New York, but Mr. Dodge suggested and managed the undertaking. Under his direction a stone factory was built for the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, several hundred spindles and looms set to work, and a thriving village planted in a waste place. Erastus Hyde of Bean Hill was also a partner and agent in this work.
In consequence of the great influx of European commodities, which caused the decline of the manufacturing interest all over New England, the Bozrahville Co. was broken up in 1824, and the property passed into the possession of the Thames Co., but the mill was kept in operation with only the suspension of a few months.
In 1837 it was sold by the Thames Co. to James Boorman and others
* " Five of us together (says Mr. Dodge) purchased a site for a cotton manufactory in the north-west corner of Bozrah, in the valley of the Yantic, six miles from Norwich town, obtained a liberal charter," &c. Autobiography of D. L. Dodge.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
of New York, who, under the title of the Kent Manufacturing Co.,* are the present proprietors. B. F. Tompkins, one of the partners, has had the chief agency of the company from its beginning. This mill is de- voted to the production of cotton goods.
M
Fitchville.
Of the village of Fitchville, its mill, its church, and its founder, we have heretofore spoken. Since that notice was written, (page 438,) the plans and labors of Mr. Fitch have been brought to a sudden close. He died Oct. 30, 1865, aged seventy-eight years and a half.
Few persons have had a more eventful life than Mr. Asa Fitch. As a youth, he was pallid and slender, often prostrated by sickness, and subject to distressing turns of the asthma,-a difficulty that clung to him through life. Sustained by his mental energy, he tried in succession, study at an academy in Lebanon, a clerkship in Norwich, and a mechanical trade, but broke down after each experiment. At the age of eighteen, in the hope of invigorating his constitution by a sea-voyage, he embarked as a passen- ger in the brig Walter, Capt. Brown, of New Haven, bound on a fishing and trading voyage to Green Island, Newfoundland, and Europe.
He landed from this vessel at Lisbon, just before the news reached that city of the battle of Trafalgar and the death of Lord Nelson, that is, in October, 1805. Finding the climate of southern Europe favorable to his health, he went from Lisbon to Alicant, and at first obtained employment in the office of the American consul. He remained nearly ten years at Alicant, occupied in mercantile affairs ; coming home on a short visit in 1809, to establish some commercial relations, and gradually acquiring the reputation of a substantial merchant.
In 1814 he removed to Marseilles, and there established a commission and banking house that soon became known and recognized as a link in the chain of commerce between France and the United States. It was patronized by the French Government at the outset. While at Alicant, Mr. Fitch had accommodated several of the royal exiles in certain mone- tary affairs, and now that they had returned to power, they displayed a commendable appreciation of his courtesy. He was welcomed to the best society in France, and often entertained at his table in Marseilles, nobles, statesmen and literary men of the first reputation in the country.
Being joined by his brother, Douglas Fitch, and his nephew, William D. Lee, the house took the firm of Fitch, Brothers & Co. Vessels from most of the large ports in the United States were consigned to this house. They were also agents of the U. S. Navy, furnishing supplies and making
* So called in remembrance of Kent County, England, of which the chief partners are natives.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
payments to the government vessels in the Mediterranean. They exe- cuted orders from America for the purchase of French goods, and had correspondents in the United States to receive consignments of French produce from the merchants and manufacturers in France. In this round of business, important interests were involved.
In 1828, Mr. Fitch left Marseilles and returned to America, in order to take charge of the affairs of the house on this side of the Atlantic. On the voyage he came near death through the entire prostration caused by continued sea-sickness, and never afterwards could be induced to cross the ocean. In New York, his office, with the sign of Fitch & Co., was in Exchange street. Here he embarked in a large real estate investment, purchasing several lots on Broadway, New and Exchange streets, upon which he subsequently erected stores, the rents of which were like a bank of wealth to the proprietor.
Withdrawing gradually from personal attention to the details of business, Mr. Fitch at length retired to his native place, and for the last twenty-five years has been assiduously occupied in the laborious improvement of a naturally rough and forbidding country district. Sitting down by the side of the old iron-works where his father and his elder brother had wrought, he built a mansion-house, a cotton-mill, a grist-mill, a church, a village, and purchased farm after farm, until his domain could be measured by miles, expending in these various plans and operations six or seven hund- red thousand dollars.
A characteristic of Mr. Fitch was his ceaseless activity. In body and mind he was alike energetic and alert. It was owing to this, and to his rigid attention to diet and regimen, that he lived so long, bearing up under complicated infirmities, and accomplishing so much actual labor. He was wonderful in planning, constructing and laying out work. The lives of such persons are full of action and incident ; they make changes and im- provements; they are benefactors to their race, but undertaking too much, they do not finish as they go, and often leave their most cherished projects incomplete.
Mr. Fitch was unmarried; of nine brothers and sisters, he was the only one that entered into no matrimonial connection.
Greeneville.
The Water Power Company was incorporated in 1828, "for building a dam and canal in order to bring the waters of the Shetucket river into manufacturing use." The sum of $43,000 was first subscribed by twenty- seven persons, Wm. P. Greene being the largest subscriber. The trustees were Calvin Goddard, Jedidiah Perkins, and George Perkins.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Mr. Greene had previously purchased the land in various parcels of different individuals : on the Quinebaug above the union with the She- tucket, and on the latter river from Sachem's Plain downwards, nearly three miles in extent, on either side of the river, in Norwich and Preston.
The west side of the river was an old Reynolds farm,-a grant to John Reynolds, one of the first proprietors of the town. It was here, just over the river on the Preston side, that the younger John Reynolds and Josiah Rockwell were killed by the Indians in 1676. A portion of this land was still held as inherited estate, and was purchased by Mr. Greene of Joseph Reynolds of North Kingston, R. I. The Lewis farm, bought by Mr. Greene in June, 1826, had been owned by a Reynolds until 1815 .* On the Preston side, the Holden, Spicer, Truman and other lots had been procured. These were all conveyed to the company.
The Shetucket dam was built of solid masonry, and a canal dug forty- five feet wide, nine feet deep, and seven-eigliths of a mile in extent. The village of Greeneville was laid out by this company, and the land sold and leased on advantageous terms. Large factories for the manufacture of cotton goods, paper, flannel and carpets sprang up with great celerity, and this lonely river side started almost at once into a populous and thriving village.
Various important changes have since taken place in the business of Greeneville. Factories for the production of certain articles have been established, and after a season of prosperity have declined and been relin- quished. But other industrial pursuits have been ready to take their place, and the population and resources of the village have steadily increased.
The Shetucket mill has been already mentioned. It is now the only cotton-mill at Greeneville. It employs 150 males and 300 females. Annual product valued at $400,000. A dyeing establishment is con- nected with the mill, and the goods produced are mostly colored or stripes. About eighty acres of land belong to this mill.
Greeneville has been particularly noted for the manufacture of paper.
The paper-mill of A. H. Hubbard, removed from the Falls in 1860, employs about fifty hands, and is devoted to the production of colored paper.
The paper-mill of the Chelsea Manufacturing Co., at Greeneville, pro- duces that description of paper which is used for books and newspapers. In 1860, when this mill was in operation to its full extent, it was claimed to be the largest paper-making establishment, not only in the United States, but the largest in the world.
The principal building is 375 feet in length, and several detached
* The house on this farm was the only family residence which then occupied the seat of the present Greeneville, which has a population of 3000 or more.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
buildings for various operations are connected with the works. There are twenty-six engines for grinding and cleansing the rags, and six for con- verting the pulp into paper.
According to the census of 1860, it employed 75 males and 105 females, and the annual value of product was estimated at $475,000. A large pro- portion of the operatives worked twelve hours on and twelve hours off, that is, from 12 A. M. to 12 P. M., or vice versa, and the mill was kept in ope- ration from Monday, 1 o'clock A. M., to Saturday, 11 o'clock P. M.
Messrs. David Smith of Norwich, and J. C. Rives, former publisher of the Congressional Globe at Washington, D. C., were for many years prominent proprietors of the Chelsea paper-mill, and under their control it achieved its greatest results. It was sold in 1862 to E. G. Bartow .* Other changes have since taken place in the ownership, and the mill has declined from its former flourishing condition. Laden with incumbrances and under assignment, it was sold at auction in March, 1865, and the equity of redemption purchased at a price very far below the original cost of the works.
Occom Company.
The capabilities of the lower valley of the Quinebaug and Shetucket rivers, as they approach tide-water, for manufacturing pursuits, have long been known and acknowledged, but they have hitherto been only partially developed and improved. The tradition is apparently authentic, that the elder Mr. Slater made an exploring visit to this region about the year 1805, and was satisfied with its water-power and adaptability to manufac- turing purposes, but meeting with no cordial appreciation or readiness of co-operation from the merchants and capitalists, he turned back to Rhode Island, and fixed upon Slaterville as the site of the second cotton-mill in America. Norwich was then expending her energies in commerce, and had given but little attention to those sources of wealth that were treas- ured among her hills and along her water-courses.
Of late years, the demands of the manufacturing interest have stimu- lated enterprise, and led to the development of a large amount of unem- ployed water-power within our bounds. Business, population and ma- chinery are gradually winding their way, guided by noisy streams, into the secluded haunts of the neighborhood, and eating out the heart of our most picturesque scenery. But this is a cause for congratulation, and not for complaint. The dash of falling waters, the songs of birds, and the roar of winds among the trees of the forest, may be more pleasing to the ear and imagination than the thunder and clang of looms and wheels, yet
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