USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Oxford > History of the town of Oxford, Connecticut > Part 10
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Tanneries
When we consider how great the use of leather was in the early days, for clothing and harness, as well as boots, (rubber, of course, being unknown, Goodyear's vulcanizing process not having been in- vented till 1839) it becomes more apparent, what a part tanneries played in the life of the time. The 1819 "Connecticut Gazeteer" says that there were six tanneries in Oxford at that time.
Where these six early tanneries were located is uncertain. Tradi- tion has it that there was one back of the Stanton house on Capt. Wooster Road in Quaker Farms. Also, there was a tannery near the saw mill in Red City at Hogs Back Road. Another old tannery of which there is a record was in the "Punkups" section of which Sharpe says; "There was a tannery at "Punkups", (the section in the valley on the east side of the Housatonic River, from Five Mile Brook to Zoar Bridge). The tannery had its own original arrangement for grinding bark. It consisted of a huge block of granite, leveled on the upper surface, on which the bark to be ground was laid. A granite wheel or disc about a foot thick and five feet in diameter was rolled over the bark, it being propelled by a horse, hitched to the end of a pole that went through the center of the wheel, as a shaft. The whole contriv- ance was known as a ring mill, and was very similar to the cider mills of the day, except that the latter used a wooden wheel, weighing some hundred pounds, instead of the granite wheel. In fact, the mill at Punkups was used as a cider mill during the short cider season, and as a bark mill the rest of the year" Sharpe does not say just where it was located, and as it was not operated by water power, it may have been almost anywhere in the Punkups Section.
It is not shown on the Oxford map of 1868, and on that map the only tannery shown is on the Little River just south of where Devaux's garage is now located. It was operated first by Cyrus Fenn and then in 1856 it passed to Anthony B. Hinman, the water power being utilized in grinding the bark.
We have, therefore, accounted for four of the six tanneries men- tioned in the 1819 Gazeteer.
1. In Quaker Farms on Capt. Wooster Road
2. In Red City at Hogs Back Road
3. In the Punkups Section
4. Just south of Oxford Center
Where the other two were is unknown.
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Shoe Shops
Sharpe says, "There were, about the middle of the 19th Century, many shoe shops in the town, where shoes were made for city and southern trade. There was one near the south end of Riggs St." This is shown on the 1868 Oxford map, on the east side of that road.
Sharpe continues "There were several on the turnpike between Oxford Center and Southford", but no record has been found of them. He then states "There was one at least at Quaker Farms, the latter belonging to Horace Hinman who was in the business there until late in the 1860's."
There were really two shoe shops in Quaker Farms, shown on the 1868 Oxford map and also listed in the "Business Directory" given on that map. The Business Directory lists, "P. Hinman, Boot and Shoe Manufr. District No. 2." School District No. 2 was the Quakers Farms District and in that district his place is shown in the 1868 Map of Ox- ford, on Old Mill Road, (now Barry Road), about 100 yards downhill from Quaker Farms Road ( Route 188); the house being that formerly occupied by the late Mr. Samuel Pomeroy. It is to be noted that he made both boots and shoes, the boots being the heavy knee length leather boots commonly worn by all farmers.
The other place listed in the "Business Directory" was that of "Horace Hinman, Manufr of all Kinds of Ladies Kid Button Boots, Balmorals also Gaiters of Cloth, Morocco etc." His place is shown on the 1868 Oxford map on the west side of Quaker Farms Road just north of the road leading from Quaker Farms Road to and across Eight Mile brook; this now being known as Hawkins Road.
From the variety of the products turned out by him, it would appear that his must have been quite an establishment. Most shoes at that time were ankle height and fastened with special shoe buttons, and the actual buttoning up of the shoes was accomplished by the use of a button-hook, an implement possessed by every family until the early 1900's, but now a curiosity. "Balmorals" were a laced shoe, ankle height or a little higher named after the castle in Scotland which was a favorite resort of Queen Victoria.
Sharpe says there was one near the south end of Riggs St. This is shown on the east side of the road, on the 1868 Oxford map, but neither Sharpe nor the map indicate by whom it was operated.
"Highways & Byways of Connecticut" makes the comment that the shoe shops were located "alongside inns with their transient trade." This may have been true of those shops in Oxford Center, but probably not the two in Quaker Farms. The 1868 Oxford map shows one on the east side of Christian St. just south of the railroad.
In 1871, the price of boots was high, as advertised in the "Seymour Record". G. Hagner, Boot and Shoe Maker advertises "Fine French Calf Sewed Boots, made to order, $10.00"
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Casks and Kegs
The manufacture of wooden casks and kegs in Oxford for the West India trade for some fifty years, was a flourishing industry, starting about 1797 when John Limburner came to Oxford. The factories were known as "cooperages," and several of them were located along the Southbury Turnpike Road ( Route 67) between Oxford Center and Southford.
Besides the Limburner cooperage there were others run by Henry Smith, Willis Smith, Harvey Morris, and William Morris. The cooper- ages employed many men. On the turnpike, between Oxford Center and Southford, one was located where S. E. Hubbell lived in 1910 and an- other at "the Frazier place on the hill north of Red City". On the 1868 map of Oxford an abandoned road is shown running southwest off Route 67 almost exactly one mile from the junction of Hogs Back Road with Route 67 and ending at Hog's Back Road just west of the residence, in 1868, of D. J. McEwen, now the home of George B. Wesley. This road went over the top of "the hill north of Red City", and just off this abandoned road is shown the place of J. Frazier, where presumably the cooperage was.
Carriage Factory
Ebenezer Fairchild started a carriage factory in Oxford probably about 1830-35. He had learned the trade of carriage builder in the shops of the famous builder of carriages, James Brewster. He mar- ried Sarah Candee, daughter of Job Candee. He was quite successful in the carriage business chiefly with the Southern trade and it is said that his son Charles E. Fairchild remembered numerous shipments of vehicles to New York by sloop.
Tailoring
A tailor shop was operated by David M. Clark probably from about 1822 to 1839. He made clothing "for the Southern trade," and is said to have had quite a number of men in his employ. His shop was located in a long one story ell in the rear of his house on the east side of the Oxford-Southbury Road, just north of the old wooden Center School House. As he was born in 1797 and died in 1839, it is a fair inference that his tailoring business started not earlier than 1822 when he was 25 years old.
Hay Rakes
About 1840, Isaac Towner had a shop on the Oxford-Southbury Road, near Towner Lane for the manufacture of Hay Rakes, probably horse- drawn.
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Wagon Wheels
About 1860, William Tucker had a shop in Red City on the Oxford- Southbury Road, where he made wagon wheels, horse rakes etc.
Croquet Sets
About 1870, the game of croquet became exceedingly popular, and a turning shop for manufacturing croquet sets was opened on the Sey- mour Road just below the sawmill of Sheldon Church, south of Seth Den Road.
Copper Mines
"George Lum, born in Derby in 1809 came to Oxford in 1825 and settled on Bowers Hill". His house, still standing, is at the southwest corner of Bowers Hill Road and Freeman Road. Mr. Lum's grand- daughter, Miss J. Mabel Lum, a prominent citizen of Quaker Farms, was born there. She says that her grandfather, George Lum, started the copper mine (the shaft of which is still open) just off the southeast side of Copper Mine Road, back of the houses now fronting thereon. She states that the copper ore was of good grade, known as "Peacock", but small in quantity. This, with the cost of transportation to the near- est smelter, made the venture unprofitable, and the project was aban- doned. Bearing on possible date of operation of the mine, are the fol- lowing:
1. "The Humphreysville Copper Co. was organized in 1849. Mr. Raymond French had gone previously from Humphreysville to New York and made inquiries there in regard to the manufacture of copper, etc., and became satisfied that the business was a pro- fitable one. He then returned to Humphreysville and organized the company."
2. George Lum was but 46 yrs. old in 1849 and presumably knew of the formation of the Humphreysville Copper Co. in that year, and this may have prompted him to start the mine.
Miss Lum says that about 50 years ago, say around 1908, a man named Tuthill re-opened the mine, but again it was found unprofitable.
The 1868 Oxford Map shows another coppermine a short distance northeast of Pine's Bridge Road and about 1 /4 mile west of the Nauga- tuck River. It will be remembered that Ensign Samuel Riggs, in 1678, was granted "liberty to take up twenty acres of land at or near "Rock Rimmon" on the west side of the Naugatuck River and that Major Ebenezer Johnson, Jeremiah Johnson and a few others also purchased small tracts of land near Rock Rimmon, near what is now called Pine's Bridge.
Mr. Leon Mendelsohn of Pine's Bridge Road says that he has been unable to locate a mine shaft, but only a depression at the site. In the
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Oxford Town records there is a lease of the mine made out in 1850 from a man named Riggs to two men, Coit and Post, covering mineral rights, which provides that one seventh of the revenue was to be paid to Riggs, but no record has been found of any action taken under this lease, so altogether it seems unlikely that the mine was ever operated.
Paper and Boxboard Mills in Southford
Southford is so close to Oxford that undoubtedly many Oxford men worked in the paper and boxboard mills there. Up to about 1843, only a sawmill and grist mill were operated there, but in that year Daniel Abbott commenced "the paper mill and other factories" on Jeremy Swamp Brook." In 1855, a paper mill was built on Eight Mile Brook at the Southford Falls, and probably was added to from time to time. In 1863, Robert Bruce Limburner came to Southford from Washington, Conn. "and engaged in a new line of manufacture, making straw paper boards of all kinds in which he was very successful."
The 1868 map of Southbury shows two paper mills, one on Jeremy Swamp Brook owned by Hurd and Bartlett, and the other on Eight Mile Brook at Southford Falls, owned by R. B. Limburner. A raceway con- necting the two mills is shown also.
In 1870, Limburner sold his interest in the Southford Falls mill to White and Wells of Waterbury who built the new mill there.
Of the mill on Jeremy Swamp Brook, Sharpe says in the Seymour Record of July 1, 1871 "W. W. Smith is operating the paper mill which after running day and night for a year past cannot stop because of low water, and so a raceway is being excavated from the new dam on the east side, which will not only make an ample supply for the paper works, but will make immediately available two or three good factory sites with any desirable amount of power". (The "dam on the east side" is undoubtedly that at Southford Falls.)
The Diamond Match Co. of New York purchased the Southford Mill, at Eight Mile Brook at the Falls, March 11, 1901, buying it from White and Wells. The historian of that company says that the mill was a very small boxboard manufacturer, having one very narrow cylinder machine. He adds that in the early days rags were used entirely in the manufacture of paper. After the ground wood pulp paper process was developed in this country, the process for sulphite wood paper was adopted in the Southford Mill; exact date unknown. But from the reports of the Health Officer of the twon of Oxford for 1901, it would seem likely that the mill was using the sulphite process in that year, and the waste from that process was fouling Eight Mile Brook badly.
Thus in the 1901 Town Report, Dr. Barnes, Health Officer of the Town of Oxford, says "Ice from the ponds on Eight Mile Brook has not been condemned, but now the paper mill is again running, cattle will drink roadside water in preference to that stream."
In 1902 he says "No test has been made of the potability of the
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Boxboard Paper Mill, Southford, Connecticut, of the Diamond Match Company
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water, in Eight Mile Brook since the reopening of the paper mill above us, but the appearances indicate that for general purposes ice from that stream should not be gathered"
1903 "People should not supply themselves with ice from ponds on Eight Mile Brook"
1907 "The condition of the Eight Mile Brook below the paper mill is positively bad"
In either 1924 or 1925, the entire paper mill portion of the plant was destroyed by fire, leaving a warehouse and some minor buildings. In 1926, the property was sold to the Ansonia Water Co., and the oper- ation of the mill discontinued.
It is interesting to find that some of the girls working in such fac- tories boarded in the mill towns during the week, and transportation home was given them over Sunday. Thus, the following advertisement appeared in the "Seymour Record" Sep. 1, 1871;
"Girls wanted. To work at matches and match boxes in Clark's Match Factory in Woodbridge. Those who desire it will be car- ried home Saturday night and called for Monday morning provided they live within a reasonable distance of the factory.
F. E. Clark"
SOUTHFORD
In the early and middle 1800s, a cabinet-maker was known as a "shop-joiner", while the out-door wood workman of rougher work was a "jack" and his heavy plane a "jack plane". And going from place to place he was said to be "slapping his jack." A goodly number of these "slap-jacks" lived in the part of Southbury on the turnpike just north of Oxford; in fact, so numerous that the district was known as "slap- jack", until the building of the Union Church, when the place became known as "Union Village." But when a post office was established there about 1840, with John Peck as first postmaster, he had it named "Southford," a name which he with the assistance of Judge Phelps of Woodbury, coined, by taking the first syllable of Southbury and the last one of Oxford, and putting them together as "Southford"
THE CHEMICAL SPRING
In 1870 the country was still ignorant of medical matters and quack doctors flourished. Claims were common in advertisements of extra- ordinary curative powers of certain spring waters. So in the first number of the "Seymour Record" published May 1st, 1871, "the pool" near Little River is advertised in the following glowing terms:
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" The Oxford Chalybeate Spring Water (formerly known as the Pool)
cures Salt Rheum, Scrofula, Erysipelas, Scaldhead, Cancers, Sore or Inflamed Eyes, Chapped Hands, all Eruptions of the Skin, Kidney Diseases of all kinds, and has been very beneficial in cases of Female Weakness and irregularity. The Spring has been owned for the past fifty years by a gentleman who would not advertise its virtues and who would not sell or lease the property to others. Meanwhile the public eye and ear has been filled with patent medicine phrases and many have flung away their money in that direction. We give away the Elixer of Life to all who will go to the spring for it. Those who cannot come for it we will supply with it, put up in packages of one dozen quart bottles in a package, marked to any address and delivered to the Seymour Depot upon receipt of price ($2.00 per package) or C.O.D. . Suitable Bathing Accommodations are soon to be erected at the Spring. We are in possession of numerous testimonials from Physicians and others as to the efficacy of this water in the cure of the above mentioned diseases which we will send to any address upon the receipt of a stamp. Address
Geo. N. Candee )
Theodore F. Warner
T. F. Warner ) Proprietors"
THE END OF LOCAL INDUSTRIES
The Oxford Industries saw their best days in the first half of the 19th century and their death knell was sounded in 1849 when the rail- road came up the Naugatuck Valley to Waterbury, bringing with it coal to provide power immensely greater than any of the water powers of Oxford, and transportation with which Oxford could not compete. In addition, many of their best customers were the Southern trade which was effectively wiped out by the Civil War. As a result, one by one the Oxford factories folded up and the operatives moved to the sur - rounding mill towns and took jobs there.
For some fifty years Oxford had had quite a few small industries, all of which were craftsman shops, without any introduction of modern mass production systems which during the same period sprang up along the Naugatuck River. One thing in particular stands out, namely that all the Oxford industries (except the copper mines) were con- nected with, or used farm produce; the woolen mills getting their raw materials from sheep grown locally, kegs and casks from out of the
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nearby forests, shoes from leather of horses raised on the farms. This was widely different from the Naugatuck Valley industries, which manufactured metallic goods and rubber articles, the raw materials for which had no connection with farms or farming.
The chart of the population of Oxford shows a rapid decline from a maximum of 1763 people in 1830, when the local industries were at their height, to 1564 in 1850. One cause of this decline was probably the migration westward from Connecticut to New York State after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. A second, and more rapid decline occurred between 1850 and 1860, during which ten years the local in- dustries were almost wiped out by the arrival of coal and steampower along the Naugatuck River via the railway which opened in 1849. Ox- ford's population dropped from 1564 persons in 1850 to 902 in 1890.
CHAPTER 17
MEN OF OXFORD DURING THE PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY
SAMUEL WIRE
Samuel Wire was born at Greenfield Hills in Fairfield, Connecticut, February 8, 1789. He came to Humphreysville in 1802, when thirteen years of age, "to learn the clothing business", under Gen. Humphreys. The clothing business at that time did not mean the making of gar- ments, it meant the manufacture of cloth. Up to 1802 or 1803, the spinning wheel for flax and wool had been a necessary article in a well-ordered farmhouse, and it was often accompanied by the hand loom. The first mills made no cloth but only dressed and finished the cloth which had been woven on hand looms in the homes of the farmers.
Gen. Humphreys, in 1803 purchased the property at the Falls of the Naugatuck, with its two fulling mills and clothiers shop. He considered it of great importance to the interest of the country that manufacturing, especially of woolen cloths, should be introduced, and in 1806, he built the first woolen factory in the United States. President Dwight of Yale wrote in 1811, "The principal part of the labor in attending the ma- chinery was done by women and children; the former hired at from fifty cents to one dollar per week; the latter apprentices, who are regularly instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The wages of the men were from five to twenty-one dollars per month."
"In Europe, manufacturing plants were said to have been commonly seats of vice and disease. Gen. Humphreys determined to prevent these evils. From 1804 to 1810 none of the employees died and disease was normal. Immoral people were discharged. At the outset, dis- creet parents were reluctant to place their children in it, but soon they were offered in more than sufficient numbers." One of these boys was Samuel Wire.
In 1812 at the age of 23, he married Nancy Wooster, sister of Gen. Clark Wooster, who died after several years, and soon after, Samuel Wire commenced the manufacture of satinet warps in the south part of Oxford, and married Adeline Candee. He represented Oxford in the State Assembly at several sessions, and in 1847 he removed to New Haven. He died May 3, 1874, aged 86 years.
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SHELDON CLARK
On Chestnut Tree Hill in Oxford is a tract of land once owned by Yale College. This was given by Sheldon Clark who was born in Oxford Jan. 31, 1785 and died there April 10, 1840. His father died when he was very young and he was adopted by his grandfather, Thomas Clark. Sheldon Clark wished to obtain a liberal education, but his grandfather disapproved of such a course as a waste of time and money, so Sheldon had only about one year of schooling at South Farms, in Litchfield.
However, in 1811, his grandfather died, Sheldon being then 26 years old. At the advice of Prof. Silliman of Yale, Sheldon passed the autumn and winter of 1811-12 in a course of study in connection with the "reci- tations and discussions of President Dwight". Ten years later (1822) he called on Prof. Silliman and stated that the twenty thousand dollars left to him by his grandfather had increased to twenty-five thousand dollars, that he had no family and might never have one, and that he was disposed to appropriate at least a part of his estate to the en- couragement of learning. He therefore deposited $5000. to be placed at compound interest until it should amount to a sufficient sum for the establishment of the Clark professorship.
In 1824, he gave $1000. for the purpose of establishing a scholar- ship. In 1829, he presented to the college an excellent telescope cost- ing $1000. He was elected to the Connecticut State Legislature from Oxford in 1825 and served several terms.
In his will he bequeathed to Yale College "all my homestead farm where I now live, with its buildings and appurtenances; also all the land that was given to me by my grandfather, Thomas Clark Esq. on the east side of the road that runs north and south of Mr. Samuel Tucker, with its buildings and appurtenances, also all my land that lies north of the road that runs by where George Drake now lives; also my meadow that lies a few rods west of Rimmon School-house and also all my Red Oak farm. etc.
Funds being so liable to be lost by bad security, it is my will, that the lands I have given to said Corporation shall never be sold, but that they shall be let or rented, in such way or manner, as the President and Fellows of said Yale College, and their successors, forever, shall judge to be for the best interest of said institution." He then added this significant provision, "But no part of said donation or income shall ever be appropriated to erect or repair buildings" In other words, he wanted to be sure that his money should be used strictly for fostering and supplying the education of which he had been deprived. The will then continues: "I also give and bequeath to the Corporation of Yale College in New Haven all the money I shall have on hand and all notes I shall have due me at the time of my decease (except three hundred and thirty-four dollars for Chestnut Tree school district) to be appropriated for the benefit of said Yale College, as its President
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and Fellows, and their successors forever, shall think shall be for its best good and the most conducive to its prosperity and honor"
He died April 11, 1840 from injuries received by a fall from a scaf- folding in his barn. Under his extreme sufferings not a word escaped him as to his future prospects; he remarked only, that he had en- deavored to do all the good in his power. He is buried in "a secluded burying ground, which he had been instrumental in arranging on a quiet and beautiful plain, shaded by pines and watered by the murmuring current of a branch of the Housatonic. A neat marble slab records his name as a "distinguished benefactor of Yale College". Such indeed he was. His benefactions to the institution, included the funded interest that had accumulated to the time of his death amounting to full thirty thousand dollars; three times as much as any other individual had ever given.
This object was not accomplished without a long course of stern self-denial; with great industry and severe economy. The plain farm- er's house remained as it was and its furniture was of the humblest kind. But a warm welcome was given there to his friends and to strangers. His policy was to augment his productive capital, keeping his money always at work, loaning all the cash he did not need for his simple personal wants. His hoarding was not for himself, but to fur- nish the means of a superior education to the children of others, and to generations yet unborn. He died, unmarried.
JUDGE NATHAN WILCOXSON
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