USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 62
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* Mr. Rives and Mr. Bartow both died during the year 1864.
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it is a part of the mission of objects of taste to yield gracefully to those imperative interests that provide occupation for industry, markets for farmers, and comfortable homes for the multitude.
The Wequonuck Company* was formed in 1845, with a small capital of $8000, by Charles Bliss and others, for the purpose of occupying what has been called the Bliss privilege on the Shetucket river, not far from Eagleville. The rights thus obtained were not used by the company, and the charter lay dormant for nearly twenty years. A great difficulty, which long obstructed operations in this district, has been removed by the passage of a flowage law by the Legislature in 1864.
The Occom Company, on a much larger scale than the Wequonuck, was organized Oct. 14, 1864, chiefly through the exertions of Messrs. Moses Pierce and L. W. Carroll. The sum of $100,000 was subscribed by twenty individuals, and the charter authorizes an increase of capital to a million.
To this company the Wequonuck Co. assigned all their rights and priv- ileges. This, with other purchases, gave them about 800 acres of land in Norwich and Lisbon, and the control of the whole water-power-44 feet- between the Greeneville dam and Sprague. These privileges have been divided into two sections, with the center or seat of water-power in cach, two miles apart.
The upper privilege of fourteen feet is about two miles from Sprague. Here a dam of solid stone-work has been built, 800 feet long, connected with a rolling-way of 300 feet. Canals are begun each side of the river, and two extensive woolen-mills, with all the necessary appendages of fac- tory villages, are in progress.
The mill nearest the dam,-that of Joseph H. Converse & Son,-is built of stone, three stories high, and designed for six sets of machinery. The other, also of stone, to be four stories high, with seven sets of ma- chinery, is owned by a company of which R. G. Hooper is the general agent.
The lower privilege of the Occom Co.,-30 feet,-has been sold, with 550 acres of land, to Messrs. Taft & Co. of Providence, who design to make it the seat of a large cotton-factory.
When these prospective works are completed, it will make a cordon of mills and mill-villages in the eastern and southern part of Norwich, some of them large enough for independent towns, five in number, and two miles apart, viz .:
Sprague, Occom, Tafts,
Greeneville, Norwich Falls.
* Wequonuck, (abbreviated by the first settlers to Quonuck,) is the Indian name for the low land on the Shetucket, above and below the junction of the Quinebaug.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Fire-Arms.
The war of the rebellion, while it depressed some of the industrial interests of the place, gave a great impetus to the manufacture of fire- arms. Attempts had been several times made to establish large factories for pistol-making in Norwich.
The most considerable undertaking of this kind was that of Messrs. Allen & Thurber, (Ethan Allen and Charles Thurber,) who set up a pistol-factory at the Falls in 1842. They made revolving pistols, weigh- ing about a pound and a half each, firing six balls in less than six seconds. After a few years this company removed their establishment, with its operatives and their families, to Worcester.
In 1853, Smith & Weston established a rifle and pistol factory upon Central Wharf, and in 1854 secured a patent for a volcanic repeating pistol, but finding themselves restricted in point of room for their opera- tions, they removed to New Haven, where a company was formed to pur- sue the business on a larger scale.
The Bacon Manufacturing Co. next made its appearance in the city, adding a considerable number of mechanics to the population. The pis- tols of this company were the only fire-arms made in Norwich when the war commenced; but mechanical enterprise soon took a sudden turn in that direction.
In January, 1862, James D. Mowry contracted to furnish the Govern- ment with 30,000 rifle muskets of the latest Springfield construction. The barrels were made at Cole & Walker's, (Franklin street,) the locks by C. B. Rogers & Co. of West Chelsea, and other pieces at Mowry's factory in Greeneville.
The Norwich Arms Co. was stimulated into existence by the war, and soon grew to gigantic proportions, filling successive contracts and furnish- ing large supplies of musketry for the Government. This company had two establishments : one on Franklin street, (occupying the premises of Horace Walker,) where the barrels and bayonets were made,) and the other near the Shetucket, for the department of stocks and locks. They made, besides the Springfield musket, a new kind of improved rifle, the invention of Messrs. Armstrong & Taylor of Augusta, Ky. In this pro- cess each gun is composed of forty-nine parts, each part accurately fitting its place in any other of the guns. Any barrel will fill any stock; any screw will enter any hole for which it is designed ; and out of the heaps of finished parts a musket can be put together with great ease and celer- ity. The completed instrument weighs ten pounds. This company had a wonderful accumulation of machinery for its various operations, and hundreds of artizans were employed, regulating the machines and attend- ing upon them as they threw out their millions of pieces with rapidity and
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precision .* Heavy reports like thunder came from the proving-room, where the barrels were tested. They were loaded with heavy charges, and fired by a train, discharging the balls into banks of earth prepared to receive them.
The cessation of the war brought this establishment to a sudden close. The company failed, and the usual results of a great failure succeeded. The machinery stopped, the workmen were disbanded, the property was sacrificed at auction, and this great manufactory of warlike instruments, that at one time occupied a large space in the public interest, now belongs wholly to the history of the past.
Miscellaneous Notices.
The industrial pursuits of Norwich are continually increasing in num- ber, variety, and value. They are too numerous and variable to be cir- cumstantially described. We can only briefly notice a few which belong to the history of the past, or in which some new and interesting principle is involved.
Abner T. Pearce was at one time extensively engaged in the manufac- turing business in Norwich. He had a large foundry and car-factory in the place, and was also concerned in a car-factory near the eastern term- inus of the Erie Railroad. In the year 1853, he suddenly failed and absconded. After assigning his property and leaving the place, it was ascertained that he had issued spurious paper to a very large amount, and had pursued his business by means of forged signatures for several years. He fled to California, and afterward to South America, where, according to report, he died in 1864.
Christopher C. Brand in 1852 obtained a patent for a newly-invented whaling-gun and bomb-lance. A musket three feet long discharges a gun twelve feet in length, which strikes and soon explodes. A spacious brick building to accommodate these works was erected on Franklin street in 1860.
The manufacture of sewing-machines of the Howe patent was com- menced by Greenman & True, on Central Wharf, in 1860. This estab- lishment brought a considerable increase of population to the city.
A steam flouring mill, having a fifty-horse-power, was established on Central Wharf by Capt. W. W. Coit in 1855.
The Union Machine Co., Franklin street, and Caleb B. Rogers & Co., machinists, in West Chelsea, are companies organized on the joint-stock principle, with each a capital of $200,000.
* An interesting description of this Norwich Armory, with illustrations, was pub- lished in Harper's Magazine for March, 1864.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
At the southern extremity of the city we find the rolling-mill and other works of the Messrs Mitchell, bearing the company name of the Thames Iron Works. At Greeneville, near the eastern border of the city, is the Norwich Bleaching and Calendering Co., which has been many years in operation, employing many hands, but is now enlarging its works and preparing for a business of greater extent.
Between these, the City and the Falls are studded with manufacturing establishments of greater or less extent, far too numerous to be described. They spread also into the town-plot.
In this connection we must not fail to notice a stock company which has its seat on the western border of the town. Though as yet of no product- ive value, as a curious item of history, it must not be overlooked.
The Waweekus Hill Mining Company was first formed in 1851, and has since been organized with a capital stated at $500,000; Jesse Fill- more of Providence, President. This company is based upon the suppo- sition that the rocks where it is located contain gold, silver and nickel, and a lease for 100 years of about 100 acres of land, covering the location, has been obtained.
The idea of the metalliferous quality of the rocks was first suggested by G. M. Roberts, a young man whose attention was arrested to the sub- ject by what seemed to him a smell of sulphur when the rock was broken. Reuben Safford, the agent of the company, has dwelt for a considerable time alone upon the premises, and has made repeated essays in digging and exploring the bed of rocks, where the mine is supposed to be situated. The smelting and reclaiming process has not been initiated, and no pure metal has yet been discovered or produced.
CHAPTER L.
MAYORS OF THE CITY.
NORWICH was one of the five cities incorporated by the Legislature of Connecticut in May, 1784. It included Bean Hill, the Falls, the Town- plot, and Chelsea. The Mayor was at first chosen for an indefinite term. The succession is as follows :
1. Benjamin Huntington, LL. D. Elected July, 1784; in office twelve years ; resigned in 1796.
This first Mayor of the City was one of the most honored and honor- able men of that period,-a statesman of incorruptible integrity, conspic- uous for his patriotic service in the town, state, and general government. He was a State Counsellor during the Revolutionary war ; member of the Continental Congress in 1784, and of the Constitutional Congress in 1789, and in 1793 was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. In every station he was popular and faithful. His family was an attract- ive social center, but the members all removed to other scenes, several of his children gathering families around them at Rome, N.Y. Judge Hunt- ington himself removed thither in 1796, and there died Oct. 16, 1800. His remains were brought to Norwich and laid by those of his wife, who was a daughter of Col. Jabez Huntington of Windham. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Yale College, where he graduated in 1761.
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2. John McLaran Breed. Elected in April, 1796; two years in office. He died May 31, 1798, aged 50.
Mr. Breed was a distinguished lawyer, noted for enterprise, benevo- lence, and public spirit. In improvements of the city, made in the way of bridges, streets, wharves, and buildings, he took a leading part. His death in the prime of usefulness and activity was lamented as a public loss.
3. Elisha Hyde. Elected in June, 1798; in office fifteen years ; died Dec. 16, 1813, in the 63d year of his age.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Mayor Hyde was a lawyer of good repute, universally popular in his native town for his urbanity, genial temperament, and overflowing benev- olence of lieart. His wife, who was a daughter of Amos Hallam of New London, long survived her husband, and died at Black Rock, N. Y., Aug. 26, 1841, aged 87. They had two daughters,-the youngest, Ann Maria, died soon after her father, at the age of 24. Of this young person, lovely and beloved, a memoir, written by the companion of her youth,-Miss Huntley, afterward Mrs. Sigourney,-was published. The eldest daugh- ter, Sarah, born in 1776, married Capt. Z. P. Burnham, and is now (1866) residing with her son at Newstead, Erie Co., N. Y. She has been fifty- six years a widow.
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4. Calvin Goddard. Elected in February, 1814; in office seventeen years ; resigned in 1831; died May 2, 1842, aged nearly 74 years.
Judge Goddard was a native of Shrewsbury, Mass., and a graduate of Dartmouth College. He settled at Plainfield in the practice of the law in 1791, and served as member of Congress for two sessions, from 1801 to 1805. He removed to Norwich in 1807, where he purchased for his residence the Dunham house, which included in its grounds the burial- place of the Mohegan sachems. In 1815, he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court. He was a man of honorable character and high attainments. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Levi Hart of Preston, and a grand-daughter of Dr. Bellamy. Charles, oldest son of Calvin Goddard, removed to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1817.
Since 1831, the Mayor has been elected annually.
5. James Lanman. Elected June 6, 1831 ; in office three years.
Mr. Lanman was born in Norwich, June 14, 1769; graduated at Yale College in 1788, and chose the law for his profession, in which he soon acquired distinguished rank, and successively filled various important pub- lic offices. He was Senator in Congress from 1819 to 1825, and for three years Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. He died Aug. 7, 1841, aged 72. He was the oldest son of the first Peter Lanman of Nor- wich. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Samuel Coit of Preston.
6. Francis Asher Perkins: 1834; one year.
Mr. Perkins entered early upon a mercantile life, and experienced its usual vicissitudes of alternate success and disappointment. He was at one period a broker in Boston, and during the latter years of his life, suc- cessively cashier of the Norwich Bank and treasurer of the Savings Society. Through life he was devoted to the interests of religion and humanity. Upright in conduct, with a genial disposition and well-culti-
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
vated mind, he kept on fresh and serene to the last, a beloved officer in the church, a diligent student and acceptable teacher of Bible truth. He died March 27, 1863, aged 78. His father, Hezekiah Perkins, died in 1822. His mother, Sarah Fitch, was a grand-daughter of Joseph Fitch, the eighth son of the revered founder of the Norwich Church.
Mr. Perkins was the last Mayor over the old city, whose limits were coincident with those of the town.
7. Charles W. Rockwell. Elected in 1835; in office three years ; chosen again in 1846.
8. Charles James Lanman ; 1838, one year.
Mr. Lanman is a son of Senator Lanman, fifth Mayor of the city. He resided a few years in Norwich, but has since removed.
9. William C. Gilman ;* 1839, one year.
Mr. Gilman was a native of Exeter, N. H., and was first initiated into mercantile pursuits in Boston, but nearly thirty years of the most active and energetic portion of his life were spent in Norwich.
As a man of business he was acute in perceiving capabilities and ardent in the presentation of them to others; always prompt and persevering in promoting plans and pursuits calculated to develop the resources or ad- vance the moral and religious interests of the community.
The period of Mr. Gilman's residence in Norwich was marked not only by the stimulus given to manufactures at the Falls and on the Shetucket, and the increase of business in general, but by fresh interest in the cause of temperance, improvements in churches, and the establishment of Sab- bath Schools. All these undertakings were deeply indebted not only to his forecast, but to his advocacy and personal service.
Mr. Gilman was also a man of taste and research; one who delighted in collecting memorials of the past, exploring the antiquities of the coun- try, and commemorating the old heroic Red men of the land.
The failure of the large manufacturing companies with which he had been connected, led the way to his removal from Norwich about the year 1845. The later years of his life were spent in New York, where he died June 6, 1863. His remains were brought to Norwich for inter- ment.
10. John Breed, 1840 ; in office two years, and elected again in 1845.
* This was an exciting and warmly contested election,-made so by political parti- zanship. Meetings were held on the 3d, 10th and 14th days of June, and successive ballotings tried each day without resulting in a choice. The meeting was then ad- journed to the 24th, when the election was decided by 216 votes out of 378.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
11. William P. Greene, 1842; one year.
Mr. Greene was a native of Boston, but an inhabitant of Norwich for more than forty years. He was the second son of Gardiner and Eliza- beth (Hubbard) Greene, and born Sept. 7, 1795. He graduated at Har- vard College in 1814, and afterward studied law, but his health not being equal to the requirements of the legal profession, he removed in 1824 to Norwich, and engaged at once in business, as a partner and agent of the Thames Manufacturing Co., which had invested a large capital in the purchase of mill privileges at the Falls.
In this city he soon acquired and retained during life the esteem and respect of the community. He was an energetic and a large-hearted man ; literary in his tastes, but with profound sagacity in financial and business concerns. These qualities were united with a pure life and an entire absence of ostentation. As a beautiful result of his unobtrusive life and liberal disposition, he seemed to have no enemies. Slander never made him its mark, and his name was never mentioned with disrespect.
He was never possessed of robust health, and therefore seldom able to give his personal services in aid of public measures, but all charitable and noble undertakings having for their object the welfare of man and the honor of God were sure of his liberal aid and cordial sympathy.
In 1825 he was chosen the first President of the Thames Bank, and held the office for sixteen years. With this exception, and that of the single year in which he was Mayor of the city, he steadfastly declined, on account of his health, all appointments to public office.
He died June 18, 1864, aged 68. Seldom has the death of a citizen excited in the place so deep an interest and such profound regret. It was a loss that was felt in the circles of business and of public improvement : in the departments of education and philanthropy.
12. Gurdon Chapman. Elected 1843 ; in office two years.
Mr. Chapman died Jan. 18, 1859, aged 52. He was a native of Pres- ton,-a self-made man, by his own talent and industry acquiring property and influence.
John Breed; re-elected 1845, one year.
Mr. Breed was a son of the second Mayor of the city. For more than half a century he has been known as a prominent merchant of Norwich, engaged chiefly in the hardware line, but often entering into other depart- ments of business. The sign of "John Breed & Co.," representing the partnership of John Breed and his brother Simeon, was first displayed upon the store in Water street, where his father and grandfather had transacted business, the day that war was declared against Great Britain, June 19, 1812. Mr. Breed entered into several subsequent partnerships,
: Dgh-G E Perine
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but whether the firm was Trumbull & Breed, John & James Breed, or Breed, Prentice & Co., the old sign of John Breed & Co. has been dis- played in conjunction with its successor, for more than fifty-three years, until it is regarded as one of the antiquities of the place.
Mr. Breed had himself become so identified with the city, that he seemed a part of it,-always present at its public meetings, always inter- ested in the passing discussion, and always firm and downright in his posi- tions. He was a man of strong peculiarities and of impulsive character, with great originality and independence, carrying much of the vivacity of youtlı into the decline of life. Tall, with white locks, and wearing a white hat, every child knew him, and no face or form was more familiar to the inhabitants at large.
His name is commemorated in Breed Hall, which was erected by him with the design of furnishing a convenient hall for lectures, concerts, and other large assemblies, and thus supplying a desideratum which the inter- ests of the city required. This building was completed in February, 1860, Mr. Breed died suddenly, Dec. 3, 1865, in his 75th year.
Charles W. Rockwell, re-elected 1846; one year.
Mr. Rockwell is a native of the town, but a large portion of his mature life has been spent in business at the South and West. While a resident here,-from 1830 to 1850,-he entered heartily into the duties of citizen- ship, and was distinguished for liberality and public spirit. All enter- prises calculated to advance the interests of the community in business, mental culture, physical comfort, and religious improvement, found in him a cordial advocate and patron.
He was one of the original projectors of the Norwich and Worcester railroad ; forecasting its importance and embarking in its construction with an interest that merged his financial resources in the undertaking. This railroad, which has proved so beneficial to Norwichi, was constructed at a period of such pecuniary pressure in the country, that those who engaged early in the work suffered severely in their private fortunes before it was completed.
It is not often the case in this world, that they who expend their zeal and energies upon a great work, are the persons that reap the most ben- efit from it. They plan, and execute, and toil on with unceasing ardor to complete an undertaking, and then are swept aside, or pass away, while others enter into their labors, and enjoy that which costs them nothing. There is nothing discouraging in this ; it rather ennobles measures which otherwise would be but sordid,-teaching the generous mind to enter upon its beneficial task, whether personal advantage accrue from it or not; to do good, and pursue noble ends by noble means, without too solicitously expecting a reward, or indulging regret if it be withheld.
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13. John Dunham, 1847 ; in office two years.
14. Wm. A. Buckingham, 1849; in office two years.
15. La Fayette S. Foster, 1851 ; in office two years.
16. Erastus Williams, 1853; in office two years.
17. Wm. L. Brewer, 1855 ; in office one year. Wm. A. Buckingham, re-elected 1856; in office two years.
18. Amos W. Prentice, 1858 ;* in office two years.
19. James S. Carew, 1860; in office two years.
20. James Lloyd Greene, 1862; still in office.
This is the third instance in which the father and son have held the office ; the present Mayor being the son of the 11th.
Of these twenty presiding officers, ten are yet on the stage of life, and the last eight are residents of the city, (January, 1866.)
LL. D.
This honorary degree has been conferred upon four citizens of Norwich.
Governor Samuel Huntington received it from the two colleges of Dart- mouth and Yale.
Benjamin Huntington, first Mayor of the City, from Yale.
Henry Strong, also from Yale, " in testimony of his professional emi- nence."
La Fayette S. Foster, from Brown University.
Among the members of the legal profession, claimed by the town as natives, Henry Strong stands pre-eminent. As a lawyer and jurist, he was exact in detail, and yet profound and comprehensive; acute in dis- cerning the truth amid complicated statements, and persistent in his exer- tions to clear up a doubtful point. It may justly be said that he imparted dignity and respectability to the profession, preserving in his legal busi- ness as counselor, arbiter, and advocate, the same unyielding integrity that marked his private life. Native ability, untiring industry, and adherence to principle, harmoniously wrought together, formed his character.
* This was an exciting election. On the first day, 714 ballots were cast ; for A. W. Prentice, 351. As this was not a majority, no choice was made. At the second meet- ing, 932 votes were polled ; for Prentice, 492, which decided the election in his favor.
Ing & b Geo E Lerine New York
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
His disposition and habits were so retiring that his reputation was scarcely commensurate with his worth. He refused uniformly to be con- sidered a candidate for public office, otherwise the community would have assigned to him gladly the responsibilities and honors of high official trust.
Mr. Strong graduated at Yale College in 1806, was for two years tutor in the institution, and at a subsequent period was invited to become a mem- ber of the faculty as professor of law, but declined the appointment. He died Nov. 12, 1852.
Presidential Electors from Norwich.
Joshua Huntington, 1805,-5th presidential election; Thomas Jefferson elected : opposition candidate, C. C. Pinckney.
Calvin Goddard, 1813,-7th presidential election; James Madison elected : opposition candidate, De Witt Clinton.
Charles W. Rockwell, 1845,-15th presidential election; James K. Polk elected : opposition candidate, Henry Clay.
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