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 13
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Stephen Talmadge, brother of Amzi, at one time owned the place opposite Geo. E. Shelton's, where William R. White lives, and had a hat shop there. He afterwards carried on the same business in a shop which stood between the present Episcopal parsonage and Mrs. Pierpont's house. This shop was after- wards moved to the place where Mrs. James Smith lives and now forms part of the house. He subsequently moved his hat business to the premises where Frank Blakeslee now lives and died there. Captain Darrow at one time made coffins on the premises just west of Abel Beardsley's. Walker Plumb had a cabinet shop in the building where for years Mrs. Huldah Warner carried on the millinery business. My earliest recollection of that corner repaints the vivid colors of Aunt Huldah's millinery store, with its front windows illumined with the gaily decorated hats and bonnets which she trimmed in the most æsthetic style. Col. Theophilus M. Smith at one time carried on tanning and
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currying south of the turnpike on Hancock Brook, about half a mile east from Plymouth Center.
Somewhere in the '40's James Warner, 2d, and his son, William B., built the red shop half way between the center and Thomaston where they carried on for years the business of sash and blind making. I think he was succeeded by Edward Parker, who conducted a number of enterprises there in a small way, such as making vises, button hole scissors, garden rakes, etc. In 1875 Augustus E. Blakeslee and Eugene Grant carried on the shear business there.
Jude Blakeslee, the great-grandfather of Bela B. Satterlee, as early as 1772 conducted a tannery in Plymouth Hollow in the old building, part of which is still standing at the fork of the roads leading to Waterbury and Litchfield. His son Bela Blakeslee afterwards conducted the same business there. A tan- nery at one time existed at the brow of Castle Hill opposite the Cornelius Stoughton place, J. C. Usher was the proprietor. One Melcher formerly had a shop standing between John Chase's- and C. Beardsley's residences where he made clocks. A cider mill also once stood in the same vicinity.
Nathan Tolles, who recently died at New Britain, had a shop at the John Taylor place near Dan Carter's where he made parts of clocks. He sold out to William Hoadley, brother of Silas Hoadley, who conducted the same business until about 1836, when the property was sold to Heman Welton, who made furniture knobs and bungs for oyster kegs, the latter occupation giving the name of Bungtown to that settlement.
Jacob N. Blakeslee had a flax mill near Morris Humiston's- present farm about 1828, and also had a small linseed oil mill. A little later he removed his mill to a spot about twenty rods below James Roberts' residence where he could get more power. Thomas Fenn later had a shingle mill at the same location, In the winter of 1838, Russell Reynolds, father of Henry F., built a lime kiln near Jericho Bridge on the west side of the river.
In 1827 or 1828 Bela B. Blakeslee carried on brick making in Plymouth Hollow. He was succeeded by Eli Barnes, and he in turn by his brother Selden Barnes. The property afterwards was purchased by Edson Thomas, who conducted the business for a number of years.
John Wiard, now living in Plainville, built the 'Stucco" House on road leading to Wolcott, and also built a shop where he manufactured sash and blinds. South of this place was another water power where in the '40's John and Punderson Mansfield carried on business in wood-work of some kind .. A Mr. Gibbs was afterwards taken into the firm. They were succeeded by Wilson G. Bradley, who made well curbs and buckets and did general jobbing in wood work.
About 1840 Israel B. and Andrew E. Woodward started a tannery at Plymouth Hollow near the covered bridge. They carried on a prosperous business for forty or more years.
On the stream which now serves as the outlet for the Thom- aston reservoir, Riley Ives at one time made parts of toys which
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he shipped to Bridgeport for sale. Further down the same stream Ransom Santord about 1840 had a small shop where he turned brass pinions and barrels for Seth Thomas clock move- . ments and made clock keys also. Still further down the same stream he built a grist mill in 1845, which he ran till 1877. During part of this time he made clock verges for Samuel San- ford in the same building.
In 1832 or '33 Marvin and Edward Blakeslee built the fac- tory at Heathenville for a clock factory. Jerome Woodruff afterwards made pianos there for a time, and the organ now in St. Peter's church was built there by a man named McCullom. Thus showing that a heathen county may be made instrumental in praising the Lord. Dr. Carrington and George Lamb after- wards made spools and thread in the same factory, and spooled thread there for a short time, when they moved to Waterbury. Charles Johnson, brother of Horace Johnson, late of Waterbury, the portrait painter, made machinery there somewhat later. Nelson Bradley made clock verges there for about one year.
In the early part of the century William Pierpont, uncle of Rev. John Pierpont, the poet, and father of Mrs. Huldah Warner, ran a mill for making cloth, on road to Northfield. Somewhere in the '20's Meigs Allen put in the first power loom in this part of the country on road to Northfield near present residence of Caleb Humiston. He ran it as a cloth mill for some years. A little north of this, William Huntington, father of C. P. Hunt- ington, ran a carding mill and dressed cloth in fore part of the '30's, afterwards Gilbert Fox and Dan Catlin manufactured rivets, the first concern of its kind in the country, and did quite a large business. Edward Guernsey and Dan Catlin afterwards manu- factured tobacco in a part of the same building. Van Housen ran a shingle mill about the same time on the site of Caleb Humiston's saw mill. From 1835 for a few years Z. Whitlock & Son ran a hoe and pitchfork factory in the same vicinity.
Benjamin Smith built the shop and dam now owned by T. J. Bradstreet on the road to Northfield, and at present operated as a saw mill, about 1830, and made plows. He also made several kinds of iron castings. The frames for the doors in cemetery vault at Plymouth were cast there. He was succeeded by G. Nelson Bradley, who made clock verges and other parts of the movements for two or three years. William Warner afterwards made sash and blinds there. Warner was succeeded by Samuel Sanford who made clock trimmings for about fifteen years. T. J. Bradstreet has owned the property for several years using it as a grist and saw mill.
Anson Beecher, father of L. Wheeler Beecher, now living at Westville, Conn., lived and owned a mill property on the main road to Litchfield, and near the Litchfield line. Seventy years or more ago he braided the first straw hat made in this country and taught several women how to make straw hats. He also invented some machinery for making hats, but did not follow hat making as a business. His main business was making lumber, lath and shingles, until sometime between 1840 and
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1850, when he sold his mill and bought another factory property on the same stream of water but a little nearer Plymouth Hollow. The present dam for the reservoir supplying Waterbury with water is but a few rods down the stream from where this factory stood and the water now covers the old site many feet deep. At this factory in 1850, Anson Beecher, in connection with his son Ebenezer B. Beecher, invented and began building match mak- ing machinery, and in 1853 commenced the manufacture of matches. A few years later this business was removed to West- ville in the town of New Haven. From that time the match business has been rapidly extended, and the firm of A. Beecher & Sons merged with other concerns and now called the Diamond Match Co., has its factories all over the United States, and are now building in England. This company has a capital of eleven millions of dollars. Anson Beecher died April 7, 1876, in the seventy-first year of his age, at Westville. The machines now used by the Diamond Company are mainly the inventions from time to time of Anson Beecher and A. Beecher & Sons. A letter from L. Wheeler Beecher conveying the above information to me concludes with the statement ' that I will discover that one industry started so long ago in old Plymouth has not yet died out.'
Robert and Henry Hotchkiss made clock cases for Henry Smith in a shop about one-half the distance between the house of James Roberts and his present mill. They suspended work about 1846.
Where James Roberts now lives on the Branch Stream, Dennis Smith about the same time carried on the wool carding business and cloth dressing. The Litchfield turnpike was not then open, and people had to pass over the hill in a line about due north from the present dwelling of Edward Morse. The work performed in those days by the carding mill was to card the wool and make it into rolls. The farmer then took the rolls home and the good housewife made it into cloth, which was taken back to the mill to be sheared and pressed and dyed. At that time calico, all of which was imported, cost about thirty cents a yard, making it too expensive for use, and linen and wool con- stituted the almost exclusive material for garments for all mem- bers of the family.
About a half a mile below the mill of Dennis Smith, George Blakeslee built a saw mill, where Joseph Newell's mill now stands. Ransom Sutliffe afterwards owned the mill, and he was in turn succeeded by Miles Morse & Bros. About 1833, George Jones and Garrett S. Blakeslee built a wagon factory at the site where the American Knife Co.'s works were afterward located. They manufactured the most expensive carriages of the day for the southern market. Other parties were afterward taken into the firm and in a few years the company failed. In 1841 Mr. Miles Morse began the manufacture of brass clocks at the same location, having as a partner Jeremiah Blakeslee. This business continued until 1849, when the factory was sold to the American Knife Co. for the manufacture of pocket cutlery. In 1850 Mr.
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Morse and Gen. Thomas A. Davis of New York City, built another clock factory on the West Branch of the Naugatuck and continued the clock business until they were burned out in Jan- uary, 1855.
Mr. Morse and Mr. George B. Pierpont conducted for many years the Pocket Cutlery business in the factory already alluded to, under the name of the American Knife Co., Mr. Pierpont retaining an active interest in its management until the close of his life. This plant is still used for making pocket cutlery, hav- ing passed through various hands into the ownership of Frank Catlin of Northfield.
Watertown, formerly Westbury, had in the early part of the century but little water power, and consequently manufacturing did not form so important a feature as in the other parts of the town. At one time a large and flourishing grist and saw mill was owned and managed by James Merwin on the site now occupied by A. N. Woolson. This property at one time was owned by Jeremiah Peck, who subsequently moved to North- field. He purchased the property October 24, 1836, of Friend Davis and sold the same to the Watertown Manufacturing Co., April, 1850, and they afterwards conveyed it to Everett & Davis, who manufactured umbrella trimmings and mouse traps. After some years the property was sold to A. N. Woolson, who has since conducted the same business with good success. Some thirty rods below this site, about eighty years ago, Timothy Steele formed a partnership with one Sedgewick to carry on the wool carding business, which busi- ness lasted but a short time. Some years later the Watertown Silk Co. began business upon the same location and was unsuc- cessful, and the buildings were destroyed by lightning.
At the foot of the hill on the road leading to Thomaston, Daniel Woodward built a tannery which was soon sold to the Watertown Leather Co., who manufactured, for a short time, gloves and mittens. At the present time the plant is used by Arthur Fox as a wood turning factory. Forty rods below this site General M. Hemingway established the M. Hemingway & Sons Silk Co., to manufacture sewing silk, which subsequently grew into a large and prosperous business. A few years ago Buel Hemingway, one of the General's sons. organized a com- pany known as Hemingway & Bartlett, for the manufacture of sewing silk, and built a large factory near the railroad station. These two factories at the present time form the principal manu- facturing industry of that town and are doing a large business.
About half a mile below the silk mills Leverett Candee & Son some twenty-five years ago built a wool carding mill. Afterwards this site was purchased by the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Co., who began the making of sewing machines, but the need of additional power and room and reduction in freights induced the company to abandon the business and move to Bridgeport.
About 1825 James Bishop and L. B. Bradley established and conducted for a few years the business of making wood
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clocks. They employed for a time quite a number of operatives. Their capital was small however, and the entire property with the machinery and tools having been destroyed by fire, after running for a few years the business terminated. During their stay in Watertown Jacksonianism flourished and they arranged the first political banquet ever held in the town. No ladies were invited and it is reported that the patriots had a 'rip roaring time.' The only other industry which I will mention in this part of ancient Plymouth was a hat shop which was built in the early part of the century by Alanson Warren on the site now occupied by William Wood as a residence. He did a good business for some years.
The foregoing, ladies and gentlemen, covers in a rambling and hurried manner the manufacturing interests of our town from its inception to the present time as far as I have been able to gather. Many mistakes will doubtless be found to exist, both as regards location and dates, and probably many industries have been overlooked. I fear, however, that I have already wearied you by too lengthy an address upon a subject naturally some- what dry and possibly to many of you uninteresting.
I think we can as citizens of this honored town find much cause for gratification in the thought that our ancestry, who occupied these hills and valleys, were men and women of indus- trious and enterprising traits of character, who made the most of their resources and left to their descendants the heritage of an honorable and useful life."
Mr. Pond-After listening to this able address by Judge Bradstreet, if there is a full-blooded, native born citizen of this town that does not feel proud of his native town clear down to the bottom of his heart, I am sorry for him. Why, it appears that we have manufactured nearly everything under Heaven from straw hats to bungs, and what in the world shall we do in the next hundred years? We are only a hundred years old and all that to our credit. I notice that we have with us in the audience a gentleman who represents the town from which Ply- mouth was set off-Watertown-and we should very much like to hear what he has to say of this town of Plymouth. I will call upon Henry T. Dayton of Watertown, to give us a few remarks.
Henry T. Dayton-(Mr. Dayton on stepping to the platform first took a drink. which created some amusement in the audience). He said : "We came dry and have grown dryer. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : There is only one reason that I know of to-night for my appearing before you, and that is that the town of Watertown may be represented here. I do not know that there is any one else here from Watertown. If there is I wish he would rise and I will immediately take my seat. Is there one here? I come before you very proud because I can call you children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and I pre- sume great-great-grandchildren, and as I look over this sea of faces may I not be proud to think that they are our children, although your mother was young, younger than you would like to have your daughter married and sent away from home. I am
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sure as we have heard the address that has been delivered here and see what this town has done, we cannot find much fault. I was struck with the remarks of our worthy chairman. I wondered what the rest of the world has created if the town of Plymouth in one hundred years had manufactured all these articles, and I presume the half of them have not been told. It is a mistake that I am before you. The chairman of the com- mittee of three who were asked to do a little something in the line of reviewing here has been called away, and a day or two ago I received a line from one of the committee, asking if we would have some one there to speak. We have been gathering curiosities for the exhibition. I said I would go and I am here as one of those antique things that has grown up from the past.
We are welcomed to-night to participate in Plymouth's cen- tennial, and your cordial words of greeting help to paint for us a picture on the distant horizon. We behold a fifteen-year-old mother parting from her infant child, mingling tears of sorrow with tears of joy-of sorrow because of the separation, and of joy because of the child's bright prospect in its new home. The daughter's name while under the parental roof was Northbury, but when removal was deemed advisable, that name was changed to Plymouth, a name so suggestive of the landing of the Pilgrims and of their early struggles and successes on New England's rock-bound shore. And now we rejoice that our daughter has reached the mature age of one hundred years and that she wears her hoary hairs as a crown of glory.
What, then, are we doing to-day? Mother Watertown is paying a visit to her first-born child on her hundredth birthday. The aged mother has driven up this steep ascent with the north- east wind in her face, in order to share in this joyous celebration, and to shout with all the rest, from far and near ; 'We heartily wish you many happy returns of the day.' The mother is glad to know that her daughter has done well in life, is now in thrifty circumstances and has healthful and beautiful surroundings.
A whole century has passed away ! During that long period, how numerous and important have been the changes! Then the iron horse had not invaded the foot of this hill ; then electricity had neither shed light on our way, nor brought us messages from absent friends ; then many of the ordinary com- forts which we now enjoy in our homes, were undiscovered. It has certainly been a century of wonderful progress; and the upward march is still being continued, for we observe the motto, 'Excelsior !' waving in the breeze and inviting to new endeavor and ever-increasing prosperity.
A former pastor of this church, the Rev. E. B. Hillard, said, some time before his death, 'The town of Plymouth was incorporated in 1795, Northbury society having first. with West- bury society, become incorporated in the town of Wotertown. The ecclesiastical societies in each instance took the initial steps, so that the town was in each case an evolution from the society.'
Therefore, as it was the religious society that made the first move, it is eminently appropriate that we meet this evening in a
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house of Divine worship, and it affords us pleasure that the religious life, as well as the civil, still exists and flourishes, and that the town authorities still desire to go onward hand in hand with the spiritual leaders in their endeavor to maintain that righteousness which exalteth a town, a state or a nation."
Mr. Pond-I am sure we are very grateful to Mr. Dayton for his remarks. We will mark him "Exhibit A," and place him on exhibition in town hall in Terryville to-morrow with the other relics, at his request. Is there any one here from Water- bury ; will you say a word for Waterbury? If there is we should be very glad to hear from him. There are many here from Thomaston. Here is a whole seat full, and others are all scattered about. We should be glad to hear from Thomaston. I will call no names. Please volunteer.
F. W. Etheridge-"Mr. Chairman, residents of Plymouth and friends : I suppose I stand here as ' Exhibit B,' represent- ing what has been called the baby town. I suppose that refers to that child that has so far outgrown its parent that it is now wearing the cut-over clotliing. In behalf of the people of Thom- aston and the committee which I have the honor to represent, I desire to thank you for the most cordial, kindly greeting and welcome which you have extended to us on this memorable occasion. As citizens of the town of Thomaston it affords us a large degree of pleasure to realize that we are kindred of the old town of Plymouth, which is just entering upon its second century of independent town government, after a career of prosperity of which its citizens may well feel proud.
We are glad to be present at this celebration and review with you the many interesting, and to many of the younger por- tion of the community, surprising events of more or less promi- nence which have occurred within your territory since your incorporation as a town. In the history of many nations of the old world one hundred years is but a brief interval, but with us, when we realize that only a little over four hundred years ago Columbus first set foot upon American soil, and that our Pilgrim Fathers-those hardy pioneers who loved liberty better than life and who encountered every hardship and danger that they might enjoy religious freedom-first landed on the shores of New England in 1620, only 275 years ago, and that every improve- ment wrought by the hand or ingenuity of man in this great continent has been made since that time; when we see these elegant structures, monuments of modern architectural skill, which adorn our cities and towns ; when we listen to the busy hum of thousands of looms, manufacturing cotton and woolen fabric formerly made by the tireless housewife in ye olden times ; when we see our great cities teeming with people, ranking with the first cities of the world ; the broad farms of the great West, capable, under the manipulation of modern machinery, of furn- ishing food for nations, and the thousands of astonishing inven- tions and discoveries of recent years, all the work of less than three hundred years-one hundred years of that time looks quite
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different to us, and we wonder how it has been possible to accomplish so much in so short a time.
These changes, Mr. Chairman, have been wrought by just such men of integrity, industry, ability and perseverance as past history reveals to have been residents of this town, and their descendants are to-day scattered throughout this vast country, many of them a credit and honor to their Plymouth ancestry, and they are equally with you proud of the old town which gave them or their forefathers birth.
We congratulate you to-night on the rounding out and com- pletion of the century, the first hundred years of an honorable record. We have a feeling of satisfaction as we meet with you here that we are welcome, that our coming is a home coming, though we left the sheltering roof of the old homestead twenty years ago against the wishes and earnest protests of the mother town, yet the people of Thomaston to-day still feel a deep interest in everything that pertains to the prosperity and welfare of Plymouth. As the youngest of the family, heir apparent to Plymouth, Watertown and a large slice of Waterbury; as the nearest in point of location and the most closely identified with the business interests of this section of the town at least, we feel entitled to close and friendly relations with the mother town.
We are glad that our family relations are so pleasant that Waterbury, our great-grandmother on her mother's side, is so well satisfied to expend such large sums of money to secure a water supply within our territory. We are equally glad that our reservoir is located in the town of Plymouth, though we earnestly wish it provided us better water in summer. We are thankful to Plymouth for the protection afforded; we regret that the drinking supply brought over from Thomaston to Plymouth is not more satisfactory. This (pointing to the glass) was not from Thomaston, or our friend from Watertown would not have tasted it so quickly. We can not account for this unsatisfactory thing except on the ground, Mr. Chairman, that it is unnatural for liquids to flow up hill, and to get up here it must come up. considerable of a hill, and often, we notice, with considerable difficulty.
Rich in historical interest and a pioneer in a number of manufacturing enterprises, which through years of persistent industry and ingenuity now furnish employment to skillful mechanics in many thriving towns, Plymouth has ever done her share in the advancement and prosperity of the country. Though having reached an advanced age, as reckoned in the annals of mankind, Plymouth is yet young, and in the possi- bilities of the future capable of attaining a yet grander record in the years to come, and while we extend to you our congratula- tions on the past, we earnestly hope that you may attain great honors and prosperity for the future.
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