USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Bristol > Our Yankee heritage: the making of Bristol > Part 17
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
The Liberty Bond Committee - also headed by Treadway - sold $5,663,700 worth of bonds, more than double Bristol's assigned quota.
In the late spring of 1918, the First Connecticut regiment took over a complete section facing the enemy - the first American troops to do so. While the Bristol boys were trying to drain the horrible swamp near Seicheprey where they were camped, the Germans launched a heavy barrage of high explosives and mustard gas. Planes
199
THE MAKING OF BRISTOL
flew over, knocking out a French observation balloon. At 3:15 in the morning, April 9, 1918, the 'Boches' attacked in waves, 3,000 strong, a confused desperate struggle with grenades, bayonets, rifle butts, pis- tols and fists, in which the green Bristol recruits faced their first bloody test. Three hundred Ger- man dead hung in the barbed wire, but when it was over only nineteen Bristol men answered roll call. Even after those scattered had re- turned, only forty out of two hun- dred and fifty were on their feet.
The Germans overran the hospi- tal far to the rear, but were finally driven back. Air-pilot Victor W. Page, a New Departure employee who reached the front shortly after this, wrote home that forests were uprooted, towns reduced to piles of stone, war materials worth millions abandoned. Hundreds of thousands of huge shells left behind in the German retreat were piled up like cordwood. Roads and fields were pockmarked with shell-holes ten to thirty feet across and equally deep. The corpses of men and animals were rotting in the fields and along the road. Hundreds of quickie graves were marked with rough wooden crosses or helmets on bayo- nets, the American tin khaki hat, the steel blue French helmets, or the Boche 'black coal scuttles.'
From his hospital bed, a Bristol bov wrote back, "We can't get away
from Bristol products here, the brass in our shells and cartridges, the but- tons and insignia of uniforms, the many implements we use. Before I was hit, I was riding down a Cha- teau Thierry road on an old bike I picked up in a battered town. It had a New Departure coaster brake, still good though ancient. At Vaux, on the one standing wall of a com- pletely demolished house I saw a Sessions clock ticking away. The Cadillac Eights and the Dodge cars have New Departure bearings, so does our Delco Motor plant here at the hospital. All these things have Wallace Barnes springs in them, and that goes for the light Browning machine gun I handled, as well as most of our weapons. This is also true of the new planes that are be- ginning to arrive. If we get 50,000 of them, the Kaiser will be done."
Of the 1,312 Bristol men who vol- unteered or were drafted - not in- cluding several hundred enlisted in Allied armies - fifty-two never came back.
"No city in America had earlier or more bitter experiences of the trag- edy of war than had Bristol," said Mayor Wade in 1924 when he set aside April 19 as Seicheprey Day to pav solemn tribute to the dead and dedicate the war monument, a thirty-seven and a half foot granite shaft, designed by Architect Harold A. Hayden, and erected at Mellon Street and the newly built Memorial
200
THE NEW CITY
Boulevard. The names of those who served are recorded on bronze tab- lets; those who fell, in stone.
Before war ended, Bristol was hit by the terrible flu epidemic that filled every hospital in the land and took more American lives than did combat.
The City had no hospital, although a Visiting Nurses' Association, organ- ized in 1908 by Mrs. Edson M. Peck and others, had opened a small first aid station. But Bristol lives were lost or people permanently crippled because the sick or injured had to be taken to Hartford or New Brit- ain. In the great emergency of the flu epidemic, the new Congrega- tional Church Parish House had to be turned into a temporary hospital.
The need for a proper institution became glaring, and Methodist Minister L. H. Dorchester organized the Bristol Hospital Incorporated to raise funds. Roger S. Newell do- nated a fine tract of land on the south slope of Federal Hill. Dor- chester soon left Bristol to accept a pastoral call, and Fuller F. Barnes of the spring company became president of the organization.
The brief 1921 recession made it difficult to raise funds, but a provi- sional thirty-six-bed hospital was opened in an ordinary dwelling house at George and South Streets. Growing steadily, by 1924 it was caring for more than 800 patients
but many applicants had to be turned away.
To the new fund-campaign in 1923, over eight thousand subscrib- ers contributed nearly half a mil- lion dollars. A modern 100-bed hos- pital on the Newell tract was opened in October 1925 and two years later a nurses' home and school were added. Thus over the years Fuller F. Barnes, through his loyal and persistent work and sup- port, built it into the great institu- tion it is today.
The war had brought in a new and varied population, Americans of many different extractions, An- glo-Saxons, Celts, French Canadi- ans, Germans, Poles, Italians, Lithu- anians and other Slavs. Some built their own private schools and churches and club rooms. Many were Catholics, and the 1855 St. Jo- seph's Church on Federal Hill had become too cramped, even though by this time Bristol had been di- vided into five parishes, each with its church.
Under Father Daly, Bristol had remained a mission of the New Brit- ain church, until made a separate parish in 1864. Bristol parish then took in the Copper Mines, Farm- ington, Plainville, Forestville, Terry- ville, Thomaston and Watertown. Reverend Michael B. Roddan, Bris- tol's first resident pastor, had a strenuous time of it traveling with horse and wagon to all these places.
201
THE MAKING OF BRISTOL
Reverend Thomas J. Keena be- came pastor of the Bristol parish in 1901. He moved the old rectory, converting it into a convent, and built the present rectory and St. Jo- seph's Parochial School, which by 1925 had four hundred students. He also secured a relic of St. Anne from Rome, setting up a special shrine, which has been visited by thousands of pilgrims from all New England.
The new church, erected in 1925 under the pastorate of Reverend Oliver T. Magnell, on the site of the 1855 church, and designed by Joseph A. Jackson of New Haven, is a magnificent granite structure of English Gothic, with massive twin towers. The interior, with a seat- ing capacity of one thousand, is wainscoted in wood and has hand carved confessionals, beautiful stained glass pictorial windows im- ported from Bavaria, religious paintings life-sized, bas-relief Sta- tions of the Cross, sculped by Victor Gulielmo. The main and side altars are constructed of fine Dalmatian marble, and the columns of Fior d'pesca, or Peach Flower, Carrara marble.
When the men got home from the Front in 1919, their city had nearly doubled in population. It was a city buzzing with great industries and new plants were still going up. During the next few years this rapid
expansion called for new schools, churches and other public services. Some of the city's finest buildings and institutions, like the hospital, Girls' Club and Boys' Club, got un- der way at this time.
In 1920 a fine high school build- ing went up on Memorial Boule- vard. Superintendent Karl A. Reiche and Principal Henry E. Cot- tle did much of the planning - the theatre, gymnasium, laboratories, library, art and music rooms, ath- letic fields and tennis courts. Five hundred and sixty pupils enrolled that first year.
Within eight years the new build- ing was badly overcrowded, and freshmen had to be housed in the old high school on Summer Street. By 1935 there were 441 students in the old building, 1,324 in the new. Fifty-two teachers were on the staff.
Among those who cared for the health of the children was Dr. Arthur Brackett, school physician for many years. Typhoid was no longer a scourge, though for many years after the water mains went in, he found it hard to convince pa- tients that their open well water was to blame for recurring sicknesses. One of the finest beds in his home was given to him by a grateful pa- tient whom he cured after the man had needlessly contracted the dis- ease. Dr. Brackett also looked after the patients in the poorhouse on Wolcott Street. This was the
202
DEN
BRISTOL HIGH SCHOOL, 1920 (Whitney Studio, Bristol, Conn.)
THE MAKING OF BRISTOL
old Gideon Roberts house, moved across the road, and when the doc- tor went there he often thought of the tragedy of young Candace, whose Diary Brackett's wife owned, and how needless the girl's death, had modern knowledge been avail- able to her.
Some of the new developments in Bristol were not so happy. Part of the hasty wartime housing was far from attractive and some of it poorly planned for happy and healthy community living.
The industrial expansion had been so rapid that this condition had been inevitable. For a time Bristol Brass, where employment had jumped over night from 300 to 1,000, had to erect a tent city on a nearby hill. It was neither comfortable nor healthy. But Albert Rockwell, who had gone into the company two years before he left New Departure, hastened to push the King Terrace Realty Company, to build small but comfortable workers' houses which soon sprang up between First and Sixth Streets.
Rockwell's exuberant urge to do things bigger and better was felt at once in Bristol Brass affairs, perhaps to the consternation of several more conservative directors. He stream- lined the organization' at once, slashed the last ties with American Silver, got rid of the unprofitable burner plant for what it would bring and, the first year he took hold
as president and manager, produced a bouncing profit of $161,671.17, the largest in the history of the com- pany.
In 1914 when Europe chose to ride the four terrible Horsemen of the Apocalypse into bloody war, the demand for cartridge cases, bullet jackets, shells, auto and truck parts, ship fittings and brass hardware zoomed. It was then that the Brass company payroll grew so rapidly, and earnings by 1916 totalled $642,- 048.08, six times those of the bo- nanza year 1906. Rockwell started building a modern mill with electric furnace and the most up-to-date equipment. Shortage of building materials held up the completion of this till war's end, but even without this added capacity, Rockwell per- formed the miracle of tripling pro- duction, from 12,000,000 pounds a year to 36,000,000 pounds.
Peace was another story. Most local industries moved on smoothly to supply depleted civilian stocks, but overnight, brass became a drug on the market. Even in 1918 Bris- tol Brass's total earnings came to only $20,000 so sudden had been the drop in prices. Things grew worse, and the concern was heavily in debt for the new mill, its housing devel- opment, its new restaurants and dormitories for war workers.
Refinancing failed and 1920 saw Bristol Brass $100,000 in the red. Rockwell tried in vain to prevent
204
THE NEW CITY
preferred stockholders from taking over the business, but he was forced out of the company in March 1924, and Alexander Harper, head of American Silver, was called to fill the gap. By then brass was in short supply again, and the company climbed back into its share of profits of the great postwar boom. Harper was so able, he stayed on as presi- dent for ten years until his death in 1935.
Wallace Barnes Company had no comparable peacetime difficulties. Under the management of Fuller Forbes Barnes, the concern grew steadily.
After completing his education at the Federal Hill School, Bristol High School, Andover and Yale, and a brief tour of Europe, Fuller Barnes started in 1910 as a millwright's helper in the plant, then as an assist- ant to Sarah Fosberg in the spring 'set-up' department. The following year he took over as secretary-treas- urer and two years later he became general manager.
The European war hastened the building of the Forestville rolling mill Carlyle F. Barnes had planned. Operations started in November 1915, with Lyman D. Adams as superintendent and the first year it turned out 1,500 tons of high-grade carbon steel needed for springs.
War in Europe made a great de- mand for springs for machinery and
weapons required by the British, French and their allies. New kinds of creep and detent springs for fuzes were developed. The company also turned out brass and bronze screw machine parts.
"We cut our eyeteeth on those foreign orders," remarked Barnes.
The war led to more precision in springmaking, closer tolerances, more strength and durability under heat and rapid-firing.
As a result, when the United States entered the war in 1917, the company already had the know-how and setup to make high quality springs for new kinds of machine guns. Of the 100,000 light and heavy Browning machine guns pro- duced during the war, fourteen of the component parts came out of the Barnes factory and millions of magazine springs for the expend- able clip of the Browning small automatic rifle were made.
A tough spring steel link to re- place cotton webbing in .30 calibre machine guns was developed. A new administration building added 60,000 square feet of floor space, and the C. G. Garrigus machine plant was taken over.
At times labor was so scarce Ful- ler Barnes and his wife worked at night, packing as many springs as they could. When Armistice was declared in 1918 1,400 employees, as compared to 300 in 1914, were on the payroll.
205
THE MAKING OF BRISTOL
With peace some war-materials machinery had to be scrapped, new machinery installed and production lines rearranged. Sales offices were opened in Detroit. The increased demand from the auto industry and soon from makers of mechanical re- frigerators, washing machines, vac- uum cleaners and radios, called for many more millions of springs. Sales grew from $400,000 in 1914 to $2,000,000 in 1922. By 1930, half a million parts a year were being made.
To meet growing Canadian in- dustrial needs, a small spring fac- tory was built in Hamilton, Ontario, not far from Buffalo. In 1926 a larger building was completed, and it became a major producing unit.
Detroit was one of the biggest users of springs, and customers there desired a plant nearby con- venient for experimental work. Rather than set up a new factory to meet the demands of the de- veloping midwest, Fuller Barnes sought a merger.
After an impartial appraisal of plants, in 1923 the Wallace Barnes Company joined with the William D. Gibson Company of Chicago and the Raymond Manufacturing Com- pany of Corry, Pennsylvania to found the great Associated Springs Corporation, with Fuller F. Barnes president. He also headed up the new joint Detroit subsidiary, Barnes- Gibson-Raymond, Inc., into which
was poured the best technical talent of all three concerns.
The Wallace Barnes division pur- chased the Dunbar factory, and in 1925 a substantial interest in the Washburn Wire Company of Rhode Island was bought for $2,500,000 to assure improved quality of neces- sary supplies increasingly required to meet customers' specifications. Subsequently the Cook Spring Company of Ann Arbor was pur- chased as part of the Detroit unit.
The new setup prospered. The exchange of know-how, with more resources for research and experi- ment, brought about important im- provements in steel and springmak- ing. A new engineering approach coordinated springs with the ma- chines served. Surface treatments provided better durability. Safety load was increased from 48,000 to 120,000 pounds per square inch and up to 450 degrees temperature. The new Barcoid steel, it is claimed, is the best made steel for razor blades, watch springs and metal-cutting band-saws.
The new technical knowledge helped all industry. As Fuller Barnes put it, 'The corporation has not only played an important role in advancing the art and science of springmaking, but has disseminated information of educational value to the general public, spring users and to industry as a whole.'
By 1928 business was booming.
206
-
WINDING HAIR SPRINGS - WAL- LACE BARNES Co. (top)
SHEARING WIDE- STRIP STEEL - WALLACE BARNES Co. (bottom) (Per- mission Wallace Barnes Div., ASC)
THE MAKING OF BRISTOL
The Garrigus plant, closed down in the bad year of 1921, was reopened, and a large reinforced concrete building, the largest unit to date, was built on Oak Street. Other plants were modernized over a two- year period.
In 1929 depression hit the land, a long bitter period, but except for the year 1932 the Associated Spring Corporation was never in the red. However, the Garrigus machine plant on Riverside was liquidated. For a time it was rented to the H. I. Bartholomew Company, then in 1936 was donated to the city for a technical department of the Bristol High School. New Departure and Ingraham donated machinery and tools.
Ingraham was another company which did well during the war. The manufacture of attractive low- priced watches was begun in 1913, and of eight-day alarm clocks in 1915. Ingraham also developed the 'unbreakable' watch face that prac- tically drove old-style glass faces from the market. The company's development of the unbreakable crystal was to provide a great con- tribution to the automobile industry and human safety. By the latest equipment and methods, produc- tion of all items was pushed up to more than 20,000 clocks and over 15.000 watches per day.
The venture into watches en-
abled the company to take war con- tracts for fine precision work on parts for weapons. Peace brought new opportunities, and after a short period of readjustment, operations continued to expand. The company developed a black enamel clock, a kitchen clock that sold in carload lots. Its development of marbleiz- ing had much influence on the clock and other industries. In the radio field it developed the Miracle Tone Grille for radios and staybent, sharp angle construction in fine veneered cabinet work.
Over the years, besides keeping its designs up to date, attractive and salable, the company has contrib- uted as much or more to the prog- ress of the clock and watch art as any horological company in the world. Its progressive engineering has made it recognized as one of the leaders and pioneers in the industry.
Among those active in promoting new businesses and products was William L. Barrett. In addition to his glass cutters, he developed a cut- ting and creasing rule business which he sold to H. I. Bartholomew in 1915. Barrett and Bartholomew then bought control of the Munro- Muzzy Pen Company of Newark, N. J., and brought it to Edgewood, to the old Bartholomew factory. Its budding success was ended by a fire in the hardening room. The place burned to the ground and destroyed
208
ASSEMBLING AN OVEN TIMER - E. INGRAHAM Co. (Photo by W. F. Miller & Co., Hartford, Conn.)
3.2
Twentieth Century Milestones At E. Ingraham Company
1. The 8-day alarm clock.
2. Convex glass on alarm clock dials, improving both the readability and appearance of the clock.
3. Casing the alarm clock bell inside.
4. Alarm shutoff at top of the case.
5. First alarm clock with one-piece case and back.
6. First unbreakable crystal on watches.
7. First one-piece winding stem for watches.
8. First non-jeweled pocket watch with reliable pull-out stem time set.
9. First tonneau shaped non-jeweled wrist watch.
10. First wrist watch that can be regulated without removing the movement from the case.
11. First electric clock movement completely sealed in oil.
Among items which maintained volume Ingraham sales from the year they were first made have been:
Large 30-hour Alarm Clocks (1890)
Non-jeweled Pocket Watches (1913)
8-Day Marines in Time and Alarm (1915)
Men's Size, Non-jeweled Watches (1930)
Self-starting Electric Clocks (1931)
Manual Starting Electric Clocks (1932)
Industrial Timers, Interval Timers, Defrosters, Roaster Timers, etc. (1935)
Small, Single Key Wind 30-hour Alarm Clocks (1937)
Ladies' Size, Non-jeweled Wrist Watches (1938)
THE NEW CITY
all machinery and tools with heavy loss.
At New Departure, after the seri- ous financial drains from outside ventures, DeWitt Page built the business up in fine shape. Capital stock was increased from $500,000 to $2,000,000. Page knew the busi- ness inside and out, having joined Mr. Rockwell in 1892, first as a ship- ping clerk and later in a great vari- ety of capacities.
The ball bearing venture had turned out exceedingly well. The automobile industry was now using bearings in every moving part. Other machinery was calling for ball bearings, and New Departure forged ahead to become the largest ball bearing plant in the world, the first to make steel balls by a cold forge process from wire or rod. It built up the specifications for fine steel, and it originated the first dou- ble-row, dual-purpose ball bearing resisting loads from any or all direc- tions, and other special types, such as the one-way angular contact Ra- dax.
The first ball bearings were made in 1906 and during the next ten years, despite various financial set backs, the company steadily ex- panded. A branch plant was opened at Elmwood, Connecticut, in 1913. By 1916 New Departure had be- come a booming concern, with a capitalization of $5,000,000 and on
May 15 Page maneuvered its sale to United Motors, organized that year by the great automobile promoter, W. C. Durant.
Three years later New Departure became part of General Motors. DeWitt Page of Bristol became a G.M. vice-president. Expansion was pushed, and in 1920 another branch plant was opened in Meri- den, Connecticut. Twelve years later, that plant absorbed the Elm- wood operations.
Minor early labor troubles had occurred, especially during the first wartime inflation at the outbreak of war in Europe, but New Departure, as did Bristol companies generally, made great progress in employer- employee relations. Wages in- creased steadily along with worker benefits - vacations with pay, free training programs, savings plans, workers' insurance, pensions, etc. In 1919 a cooperative store was opened, and the Endee Inn pro- vided an employee recreation cen- ter. The 1916 Endee Manor build- ing project, to meet wartime hous- ing shortages, built 101 homes in 101 days, which were sold to em- ployees at nearly cost, with only a 10 per cent down payment. Later the Bristol Realty Company was or- ganized to provide more housing.
The prosperity boom burst in 1929 and the dark clouds of depres- sion settled over the land - unem-
211
THE MAKING OF BRISTOL
ployment, wage cuts, bank failures, stock-market panic, suicides, loss of homes, apple peddling, distress, fear and international upsets, even the danger of a new world war. Bris- tol, along with the entire world, was hard hit, and worse than some communities because it was so highly industrialized, hence de- pendent upon healthy conditions in the country as a whole and on mar- kets abroad.
Several concerns closed down al- most at once. All were compelled to reduce payrolls although most companies staggered work hours so as to give as many people as possible some income. Of all the leading companies in Bristol, the E. In- graham Company and New Depar- ture showed the smallest falling off in employment and the least curtail- ment of hours. In the case of Ingra- ham, the depression actually stimu- lated the purchase of low-price watches in which it has pioneered and long specialized. The Ingra- ham wage scales, as reported by the company, were not reduced. The Wallace Barnes Company, because of the nature of its business, showed a heavy drop in customer orders and employment, but when Arthur Man- ross decided to sell in order to retire, the Wallace Barnes Com- pany was able to take over the Manross hairspring factory to sup- plement its forward progress.
All city employees took a 10 per
cent cut. Unemployment mounted steadily, but community and fed- eral resources were mobilized fairly promptly to cope with the problem. Many balls, entertainments and dances were staged to raise money to help unfortunates. By 1932 the city had a relief burden of nearly $300,000. Even in 1933 after the federal government picked up most of the burden, the relief outgo for the city was $237,000.
The biggest industrial loss to the city during this period was the Birge Knitting Mill, knocked down at auc- tion for only $15,000. Ironically, a few hours later it burned to the ground. The American Silver Com- pany, though it had made good profits for fifteen years and still hired more than a hundred people, went quickly in the red, and in 1937 the famous Spoon plant, that had survived more than three-quarters of a century of vicissitudes, was razed.
The Bristol Trust Company, stricken down January 1, 1932, was taken over by the Bristol American Bank and Trust Company, a divi- sion of the Bristol National Bank of 1875. The new combination be- came the Bristol Bank and Trust Company. Drastic measures were required to keep it afloat. Common stock was reduced from $300,000 to $100,000 and $200,000 was bor- rowed from the stockholders and directors in return for 5% second
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.