USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Plymouth > History of the town of Plymouth, Connecticut : with an account of the centennial celebration May 14 and 15, 1895 : also a sketch of Plymouth, Ohio, settled by local families > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
Judge Bradstreet then delivered the following interesting and instructive address, which should be read by everyone interested in the history of manufacturing in Plymouth or Thomaston, who had not the pleasure of listening to its delivery, as it contains a vast amount of information unknown, or at least unrealized, by many :
"Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : The red man ground his corn in a mortar and cut the poles for his wigwam, and timber for his canoe with his rudely fashioned axe of stone. His wants never outran his necessities, and his necessities were satisfied with the requirements of a simple subsistence. His white successor landed upon the shore of New England 275 years ago with unbroken centuries of civilized life and refine- ment behind him and the promptings within him of an ambition to make the most of his surroundings and to rise as far as lay within his power in the scale of humanity. To care for the body, to cultivate the mind and prepare the soul for eternity, were all objects to him of deep solicitude.
The early settlers of the town of Plymouth whose one hundredth birthday we now commemorate were, as far as we can gather, men of this same general stamp. They vielded obedience to law and homage to God. They identified them- selves with every measure that made for the welfare of society, and studied the general interests of the communities in which they lived. The early settlers of this town must have been endowed with considerable mechanical ingenuity for that period, and a natural aptitude for manufacturing as attested by the large number of interests which in a small way were planted in different parts of the town.
Possibly the rugged nature of the soil compelled them to seek other methods of livelihood and turned their attention to
144
HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
the numerous small streams as agencies which they could enlist in their support.
In addition to this, moreover, was the general feeling strongly implanted in their breasts of independence in every sense of the word from the mother country.
The war of the revolution had only a few years before terminated which released them from British thraldom from a governmental standpoint, and it was natural that independence in every conceivable ramification should have animated their purpose. It is interesting in this connection to note that in 1So8, in the tenth congress, in the last moments of the session, when all business was over, William Bibb of Georgia, moved that the members of the House of Representatives would appear at their next meeting clothed in the manufactures of their own country. A spirited debate arose over this motion and it appearing that considerable warmth was likely to be engendered upon a matter which was really foreign to the business of the session, the motion was withdrawn without being pressed to a vote.
In the large cities the people formed associations which they called societies for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. Each man and woman who joined one of these was pledged to wear no garment of which the raw material was not grown and the fabric made within the boundaries of the United States. The State legislatures of the various states took up the subject. The House of Representatives of Pennsylvania passed a resolu- tion declaring it to be the duty of every citizen to encourage domestic manufactures of this country, and that members should come to the next session clothed in goods of American make. In Kentucky Henry Clay was the mover of a similar resolution which Humphrey Marshall designated as the trick of a dema- gogue. For this he was called out, a duel fought and both he and Clay were slightly wounded.
In November of the same year Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, desirous of appearing at the White House on New Years day with a suit of clothes of American manufac- ture sent the Collector of Customs of New Haven the following order :
' Homespun is become the spirit of the times. I think it a useful one, there- fore that it is a duty to encourage it by example. The best fine cloth made in the United States I am told is at the manufactory of Col. Humphreys. Send me enough for a suit.'- Mc Master's History of the People of the United States.
Col. Humphreys alluded to in this order had been an Aide of Washington and a representative of this Government to the Court of Spain, and while there, conceived the idea of importing into this country the fine merino sheep for their superior wool. The sheep about 1802 came into the country, some of them find- ing their way to Watertown. Col. Humphreys established a woolen mill at the present town of Seymour, then known as Humphreysville. The General Court of Connecticut appointed a committee to examine the experiment of Humphreys and report. The report was so flattering that the legislature thanked
I45
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
him for his patriotic efforts, exempted his mills from taxation for ten years, and his workmen and apprentices from poll taxes, road taxes and service in the militia.
The grist mill and saw mill were the natural pioneers in the new settlement, as at that time the grain was ground at Farm- ington and the lumber which went into the construction of their buildings was sawed in the Farmington mills and transported to the new settlement. To save this expense numerous grist and saw mills were erected in different parts of the new town as needs of the people required.
The first grist mill in the settlement of Northbury was built by John Sutliff, about 1730, just north of the present Terry's Bridge. Mr. Sutliff came from Branford to Northbury the year just mentioned. In his will, which was admitted to probate in Woodbury, November 6, 1752, he provided that this mill property should go to his two sons, John, Jr. and Abel, reserv- ing to his widow, Hannah, one-third part of the profit of the toll of the mill during her life.
John, Jr. lived on the site of Wm. A. Leigh's present residence. He bought out Abel's interest in the mill property afterwards, and in his will, which was probated at Waterbury, March 2, 1790, he demised one-third part of the grist and saw mill to each of his three sons, John, Samuel, and Daniel.
John, the 3d, lived where Edward Moses' house now stands.
It is somewhat remarkable that the first industry of which we can get a very clear record as having been started in Ply- mouth proved to be the one which eventually grew to be largest in the town and obtained the widest celebrity. I refer to the business of clock making. The inventive genius of Eli Terry coupled with the business energy of Seth Thomas prepared a foundation for a business of gigantic proportions ; brought an accumulation of wealth to their doors and crystallized their names in the two main villages of the town as Terryville and Thomaston.
There were a few clock makers in New England prior to 1776. Very few American clocks however, can be found, made before this time. These were made with a pendulum forty inches in length and were only adapted to a long case standing on the floor with a dial six feet from the floor. Very few wooden clocks were made before 1792.
Eli Terry, a native of East Windsor, now South Windsor, Conn.', obtained a knowledge of clock making under Thomas Harland, a clock and watch maker of Norwich, Conn. Mr. Terry made his first wooden clock in 1792. He came to Plymouth in 1793 and entered upon the business of making clocks, both of wood and brass. He made his first clocks by hand on the premises where William White's house now stands. Byron Tuttle has in his office at the present time one of the clocks built there. His first clocks built by the use of power were made in a building where Riley Marsh's now stands. The water was con- veyed across the street from Niagara brook. The demand for clocks at that time was so limited that only three or four could
146
HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
safely be commenced at one time, and most of these were delivered to purchasers who had agreed in advance to take them. These clocks were transported on horseback. The case for these was obtained from cabinet makers as a separate part of the clock. The machinery was very scanty, and consisted mainly of a hand engine for making the wheels similar to the one used by English clock makers two hundred years earlier. In 1803, Mr. Terry, finding that his clocks could be sold without his delivering them in person, made provision for manufacturing on a larger scale, availing himself of additional machinery and water power. This was the beginning of making clocks by the thousand. The large scale upon which he began to branch out exposed him to much ridicule, as the wise ones said he could never sell any number of them.
In December 30, 1807, Mr. Terry sold his water power to Heman Clark who had been his apprentice and purchased a water power and buildings at Greystone. In 1807 he began the making of four thousand clocks on contract as one undertaking. This contract covered a period of four years. In 1814 the short shelf clock was devised by Mr. Terry and he began their manufacture in Plymouth Hollow near Terry's bridge, having formed a partnership with his sons, Henry and Eli. The introduction of this shelf clock was the real foundation of the clock industry of this country. Henry Terry, son of Eli, continued the clock making business in this factory for a number of years, and then began the woolen business in the same factory, which he con- ducted for some time. He died in 1877.
In 1824 Eli Terry, 2d, built a shop on the Pequabuck where the shop formerly owned and occupied by the Lewis Lock Com- pany stood, which shop was destroyed by fire in 1851, and replaced by the present one. Mr. Terry at this time, twenty- five years old, was the eldest of four sons of Eli Terry above referred to. He died in 1841 at the age of forty-two, having accumulated by strict attention to business a handsome property. Silas Burnham Terry, a younger brother of Eli, 2d, erected a shop in 1821 for the manufacture of clocks at the confluence of the Pequabuck and Poland brooks. In 1852 he invented the ' Torsion Balance Clock' designed for a cheap clock, and a joint stock company was formed to manufacture this clock, and a new factory was built near the depot. This clock did not prove a success and the company abandoned the business.
In Chauncey Jerome's History of the American Clock Busi- ness written in 1860, he says of Eli Terry the elder that 'he was a great man, a natural philosopher and almost an Eli Whitney in mechanical ingenuity. If he had turned his mind towards a military profession he would have made another General Scott ; or towards politics auother Jefferson, or if he had not happened to have gone to the town of Plymouth I do not believe there would ever have been a clock made there.'
Seth Thomas commenced to manufacture clocks in company with Eli Terry and Silas Hoadley in 1809 at Greystone. In 1810 Mr. Terry sold out his interest, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Hoadley
147
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
continuing together until 1813, when Mr. Thomas removed to Plymouth Hollow and began there the manufacture of clocks in a small building which he purchased of Heman Clark as above referred to, which Mr. Clark had erected in 1809. This build- ing stood on the site where the case department of the company now stands. In 1853 the Seth Thomas Clock Company was organized. Mr. Thomas began the industry in Plymouth Hol- low with about twenty hands, settlement with the operatives at that time being made once a year. In the early days of clock making in Plymouth, after the industry obtained some magnitude, the clocks were drawn by horses to New Haven and Hartford for shipment to different parts of the country. All of the lumber and materials for the clocks were brought from these two cities. Mr. Benjamin Platt, now living, began driving team for Mr. Thomas in 1834. He tells me that frequently he had to make three trips a week to New Haven, a greater part of the time driving six horses. The business so successfully established by him over eighty years ago has continued as the main industry of that part of the town ever since, employing in flourishing times about 1,200 operatives with a monthly pay roll of about forty thousand dollars, and an annual production of nearly one million dollars' worth of goods. In 1834 Mr. Thomas built a cotton factory near the covered bridge, which was subsequently sold to the clock company, and he also built the brass mill near the depot about 1852 which is now owned by the Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Company. He died in 1859, having left as a monument to his memory these three large and flourishing insti- tutions, themselves emphatic witnesses to his indomitable will and untiring energy, and with a reputation unsurpassed for strict business integrity and business honor.
Chauncey Jerome, whom I have quoted, at one time became very prominent in the clock business. He began work with Eli Terry in Plymouth in 1816. A year or two later he began for himself, buying the movements and fitting up the cases for them. He removed to Bristol in 1821 and continued the enter- prise there. In 1844 he went into business in New Haven and organized the Jerome Mfg. Co., which was finally succeeded by the New Haven Clock Co. Mr. Henry Terry says of Mr. Jerome in his Early History of American Clockmaking, 'he was a man of considerable enterprise but by misplaced confidence in other men and by a disregard of rules of safety in pecuniary transactions he became bereft of his estate.'
In 1832 Stephen C. Bucknell, a locksmith, came from England and settled in Watertown. After continuing in busi- ness in a small way for a time, he sold out to Lewis McKee & Co., of Terryville. They moved the works into a building standing where the plant of the Eagle Lock Company formerly stood.
This building was burned in 1859 and replaced by a larger one. The progress of this company was slow, as the equipment of machinery was crude and the facilities for turning out and marketing the goods were few. They had no engine lathes for
148
HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
years and no plane for nearly thirty years. Their dies were forged by hand and faced by hand files. In disposing of their goods they met with difficulties. Trade at that time was almost exclusively in the hands of importers and their interests lay in discouraging American manufacturers. In 1841 Mr. Terry, the president, died and the concern was sold out to John G. Lewis and Sereno Gaylord. In 1849 Mr. Lewis died, and the Lewis Lock Company was formed to carry on the business. In the meantime William McKee & Co. had embarked in the lock business at Terryville, and sold out in 1846 to James Terry and Wm. McKee under the name of James Terry & Co. In 1854 the two companies were united under the name of the Eagle Lock Company, with a capital stock of $85,000, which has from time to time been increased from the surplus until it reached $375,000. This company under the management of James Terry, its first president, became eminently successful, and from that time to the present has been one of the most successful of Connecticut's industries, reflecting credit upon its management, yielding hand- some returns to its stockholders, and being the mainstay largely of the pecuniary interests of the village.
About 1847, Andrew Terry, second son of Eli Terry, 2d, built the foundry near the depot in Terryville for the manufacture of malleable iron castings, continuing in business alone until 1860, when he associated O. D. Hunter and the late R. D. H. Allen with himself, and formed a joint stock company with a capital of $16,000, under the name of Andrew Terry & Co. Mr. Terry enlisted in the army in 1861, leaving the management of the business to his associates, and ten years later he sold out his interests in the concern and went to Kansas. Mr. N. Taylor Baldwin and Mr. J. W. Clark were admitted to the company, Mr. Baldwin retaining his connection with the business until his death, and Messrs. Hunter and Clark still remaining in the active management of the concern. This company has always been characterized by a conservative yet energetic management and has proved very successful as a business enterprise.
In 1862 Eli Terry, the youngest son of Eli Terry, 2d, manu- factured clock springs in the shop near the bridge, built by S. B. Terry, and shortly after, the Inventors' Mfg. Co. managed by A. C. Felton of Boston, with S. W. Valentine resident agent, bought the factory for the manufacture of shears. The company was not successful, and in a short time was wound up. Since that time the property has been owned by William Wood and used as a shear factory.
About 1865 the Eagle Bit & Buckle Co. was formed for the manufacture of harness trimmings and conducted the business in the shop below the depot originally built for the clock business. The U. S. Government soon after this time threw upon the market an immense amount of harness material at such prices as destroyed the market and the company went out of business.
A chair shop stood at one time on the east side of the stream near the old upper lock shop. The dam was some fifty feet
149
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
south of the present one and the building was used later for a blacking shop by lock makers.
Ralph Fenn made chairs, spinning wheels and reels in the building above alluded to, and many of these articles are in existence to-day branded ' R. F.' About 1850 a hammer shop existed at Allentown where they made cast iron hammers.
Timothy Atwater was interested in the business. The build- ing was later destroyed by fire. Nails in those days were made by hand, and sold by count. Jason C. Feun has on exhibition at this celebration, the hammer used by Randall Matthews, one of the old nail makers.
The house in which Cyrus P. Gaylord now lives was built by his grandfather Cyrus in 1795. He also erected a building close by the house for spinning and weaving wool, also another building for carding, fulling and dressing cloth, which business was afterward conducted by Sextus and Joseph Gaylord.
Wool used to be brought from a long distance to be treated at this mill. The fulling process consisted of taking the cloth after being woven by the women and beating it in water for two or three days by machinery ; it was then hung in the sun to dry and shrink, thus making it tightly woven, then it was colored an indigo blue or black, after which a nap was raised upon the cloth by the use of teasels, the nap then being sheared smothly off by machinery and the cloth was subjected to a heavy pressure leav- ing it smooth and finished.
Cyrus P. Gaylord will exhibit at Terryville to-morrow the cannon ball used by his grandfather for grinding the indigo, also the shearing machine and press irons.
The elder Cyrus Gaylord above alluded to, at one time also did carding in a building near the dam now standing on the same stream a short distance from his house, Josiah Kimberly at the same time using a part of the building for a tannery.
Somewhat later Mr. Kimberly had a tannery on the same stream between the grist mill and Stephen Blake's. This tan- nery was afterwards conducted by Eber Kimberly.
Horace Munson between 1840 and 1850 had a sash and blind factory on what is now known as the Stephen Blake property.
Luman Preston, father of Junius Preston, now living, in 1815 built a carding machine and ran a carding mill on the premises afterward owned by Stephen Blake. He subsequently sold out the business to Chauncey Barnes. In 1818 Mr. Preston built a grist mill, a little north of the carding mill, which grist mill has been in operation ever since, now being owned by Mr. Christian Michael.
Mrs. Junius Preston relates that she remembers Mr. Preston wearing a queue which he dressed with a ribbon on Sundays, and which always amused the young people who sat behind him in church. He was initiated into Aurora Lodge of Masonry at Harwinton in 181 1 and was exalted to the degree of Royal Arch Mason in 1816.
Between sixty and seventy years ago Willis Hinman built a
150
HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
shop by the old marsh to manufacture clock cases. He subse- quently sold out the business to Burton Payne who conducted it for some time, he adding wagon building to the industry for a little while. Some years later William Yale & Sons manufac- tured toy wheelbarrows at the same plant for a time.
About 1810 Gaius Fenn, uncle of Jason C. Fenn, took out a patent on block tin faucets, and they were manufactured in a two story building on Town Hill which stood about fifty feet south of Mr. Fenn's present residence The business was after- wards moved to New Haven and thence to New York where a thriving business was carried on down to 1857. The same faucet practically is now manufactured by Landers, Frary & Clark, of New Britain, under the trade mark of 'Fenn.' Pewter tumblers were also made at one time on Town Hill, as well as round picture and looking glass frames and candlesticks. It is also reported that there was once a peach vat in this same section where men with boots, made for that purpose, used to tread the juice out of the peaches for peach brandy.
Joel Griggs in the early part of the '20's manufactured carts and plows in a building about ten rods east of the residence of Oliver Smith, on the opposite side of the street. He conducted this business until about 1852.
Theophilus M. Smith, father of Oliver and Miles Smith, came from Milford about 1805. He lived in the house once standing between Oliver Smith's late residence and John Burr's. The chimney is still standing there. He had a shoe shop in the rear, the old stone chimney of which is also now standing. He began the tanning business about 1820, twenty rods southwest of John Burr's house, continuing the business until about 1835, when he was succeeded by Miles Smith who continued it until 1857.
A hat shop formerly owned by Ozias Goodwin in about 1800 stood on the premises where the ice house now stands near the entrance to Shelton & Tuttle's carriage premises. This shop is mentioned in the survey of the east middle turnpike from Poland Bridge to Woodbury line which was made about 1804. Henry C. Smith, somewhere in the '20's, began the clock busi- ness in a shop in the rear of what is now the A. C. Shelton resi- dence. He failed in business about 1837. William A. Smith, brother of Henry, carried on the harness business in a building that once stood on the site of the present town building. His shop was afterwards moved to the rear of the present store of Beach & Blackmer.
Zalmon and Samuel Coley were the first carriage makers in town. Their shop stood in the yard east of Byron Tuttle's pres- ent residence. The shop was afterwards moved and part of it is now owned by Enos Blakeslee. The main shop now owned by Enos Blakeslee was built by Coley, Bradley & Co., about 1836. The partners were Zalmon Coley, Lucius Bradley, Joel Blakes- lee and Hart Fenn ; the latter being the father of Wallace B. Fenn and Mr. Wardwell's first wife. Coley, Bradley & Co. failed about 1840. They built most of their work for the southern
151
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
market and had a repository at Tuscaloosa, Ala. L. F. Comstock and James Bishop succeeded Coley, Bradley & Co. about IS50 and tailed in 1861 or 1862. Blakeslee & Boland carried on the business for two or three years, Boland then selling out to Blakeslee.
Augustus C. Shelton commenced carriage making in the building in W. H. Tuttle's present yard about 1837, building and enlarging from time to time The shop now standing was built about 1844. The large shop was taken down and moved in 1852. Blacksmith shop and engine room burned down in 1858, were rebuilt and burned again in 1894. Byron Tuttle entered the employ of Mr. Shelton August 26, 1847, for $13. per month and board. The next three years he worked for $1.00 per day and board January 1, 1855, he was taken into partner- ship with one-half interest. Their trade originally was with the southern market. From 1854 to 1860 every carriage was sold through their house at Chicago. Their western business proved a great success owing to large advance in price of their goods.
In 1864 they built a repository on Madison street, Chicago, which they occupied until April 1, IS70, when the business declining the building was disposed of and the partnership so far as the manufacturing was concerned was dissolved. From that time forward Mr. Shelton carried on the business in a limited way until his death in IS80.
David Shelton started a carriage business about 1850 in a shop recently occupied by William H. Tuttle. He moved to New Haven in 1874. Joel Blakeslee & Son began a carriage business in the brick shop now standing about 1856 or there- abouts, continuing until about 1865.
The father-in-law of Elizur Fenn, together with Freeman Cook and Wyllys Atwater, made the brick for the Andrew Terry & Co.'s Iron Fonndry. Their yard was about a mile north from Terryville. A small shop used to stand opposite the Niagara shop, the water being carried across the street. Heman Clark made clocks there.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.