USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 3 The Beginnings of Roman Catholicism in Connecticut > Part 22
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 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Again in 1851 a new firm was organized in Waterbury which claims to have been the first to use steam power exclusively for the rolling of brass. Previously the Water- bury Brass Company had used auxiliary steam power more extensively than any of the others. Philo Brown had been one of the original partners in Holmes and Hotchkiss and was a member of the firm of Brown and Elton, which had in 1838 succeeded the earlier partner- ship. In 1851 he, with others, organized the partnership of Brown and Brothers. In 1856 this new firm bought half of the business of Brown and Elton, the other half being purchased by Holmes, Booth and Haydens. For thirty-five years Brown and Brothers secured large profits in the rolling of brass and its manufacture. After 1880
22
financial difficulties were encountered and in 1886 the company ceased operations.
The indomitable Israel Holmes, who had in 1845 assumed the presidency of the newly organized Water- bury Brass Company and had carried it to notable success, in 1853 severed his connection with that com- pany and organized a new concern, Holmes, Booth and Haydens. From the first it was markedly successful. This was the first company which, on a large scale, started out with a deliberate policy of manufacturing its own product. The first concerns had begun as makers of brass buttons and the rolling of brass had developed under their hand. Holmes and Hotchkiss began by rolling brass tubes for market; the Derby mill was organized to roll copper; the Wolcottville concern had been, at first, interested mainly in kettles; the other companies had also been organized with some specific object in view. Some of these had been driven to manufacture as they had facilities for producing more raw material than the open market could absorb. But Holmes, Booth and Haydens was organized to roll metal and then to manu- facture it on a large scale. Holmes had charge of the rolling mill. Hiram W. Hayden, the inventor of the spinning process, who had demonstrated his mechanical skill, was put in charge of the manufacture of goods. Henry H. Hayden marketed the product. The new com- pany engaged largely and successfully in the making of photographic plates, and later of lamps and of burners for the use of kerosene oil. On October 17, 1901, this com- pany joined the American Brass Company, about two years after the latter's organization.
23
.
X
THE first brass lamp made in Waterbury designed to use whale oil, of which there is a record, was made by hand in 1807. After this date lamps were both hammered and cast. Gordon W. Burnham, who in 1834 became one of the members of the new firm of Benedict and Burnham, then succeeding Benedict and Coe, had included brass lamps as articles of trade in his occupation as a peddler of tinware. The demand was not large until after 1855 when petroleum began to be refined and to come on the market. By 1860 it was generally known and rapidly came into general use. This created a demand for lamps. Hiram W. Hayden of Holmes, Booth and Haydens, and Lewis J. Atwood, who was for fifteen years in their employ and who later, in 1869, participated in the for- mation of a new company, were the two men who were most active in the attempt to adapt sheet brass to the making of lamps and their fittings.
The demand for lamps also led to the organization of the Bridgeport Brass Company, which now operates, next to Scovills, the largest self-contained and independ- ent plant in the state for the manufacture of brass wares. In 1853, John Davol, who had been associated with A. G. Phelps in the Wolcottville company, with two partners also from Wolcottville, organized in Brooklyn, New York, the Brooklyn Brass and Copper Company. From 1870 to 1890 their plant was in full operation and it was during that period the most formidable competitor in the trade outside the state. After 1890 its business fell off and in 1903 the land occupied was needed for the anchorage of the Manhattan bridge and the company went out of business. In 1865, Davol and his son also formed the Bridgeport Brass Company. The first interest
24
of the new company was in the manufacture of lamps, although it shortly began successfully to make clocks. After 1880 it prospered greatly and in 1936 it still holds a prominent place in the trade.
The organization of four other plants must be men- tioned. In 1869, Israel Holmes left Holmes, Booth and Haydens and with others organized Holmes, Booth and Atwood, a name which was abandoned by order of the court on account of its resemblance to the older associa- tion. This new firm, which became Plume and Atwood in 1871, bought a brass mill in Thomaston, which had been originally established in 1854 to roll metal for the making of clocks, and also a smaller concern in Water- bury. They produced various brass wares and have continued to be one of the important factors in the trade. Meanwhile in 1850, Holmes had been instrumental in the organization of the Bristol Brass and Clock Company. For forty years this did little more than to roll the metal which was used by it in the making of clocks. It became the Bristol Brass Corporation and since 1890 it has entered the market with sheet, rod, wire, and tubing.
Since the organization of Plume and Atwood in 1869 but two new companies which are still active factors in the brass industry have begun business in the state. One, the Seymour Manufacturing Company, located in Sey- mour, organized in 1878, now specializes in nickel silver and phosphor bronze, of which products it has a signifi- cant output.
The other new organization, later known as the Chase Companies, Incorporated, was formed in 1917 by a merg- er of three then existing concerns. The oldest, the Waterbury Manufacturing Company, had, in 1876, taken over an older company which had been mainly interested in the making of buttons. Later there was a
25
considerable expansion so that in 1900 the Chase Rolling Mill was built to supply the demand for material to be made into various brass wares. In 1910 the Chase Metal Works built and equipped one of the largest unified roll- ing mills in the country. The merger of 1917 was supple- mented four years later by the purchase of the Hunger- ford Brass and Copper Company, located in New York City, which controlled the most comprehensive selling organization in the country. In 1929 the entire enter- prise was acquired by the Kennecott Copper Corpora- tion, thus bringing into being the second "mine to con- sumer" organization in the country.
The first was the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which has become the largest copper and zinc producing and copper and brass milling company in the world. This company was, in 1935, in a position to produce approxi- mately half of the copper and brass rolling mill output of the entire country, and to make more brass and copper sheet, rod, wire, and tubing than any other company in the world. It has not extensively manufactured into con- sumer's wares the product of its mills.
The way was prepared for the Anaconda company to purchase the Connecticut brass mills by Charles F. Brooker, who was for thirty years the most important single factor in the trade. In 1864, Brooker began his career as an employee of the Coe Brass Company, or- ganized the previous year to acquire the idle plant of the Wolcottville Brass Company. In 1893 he became president of the Coe company, which at that time pos- sessed the largest rolling mill in the valley. In 1896 his company bought the plant of Wallace and Sons located in Ansonia. By this purchase Brooker came to control one fourth of the weight of metal in the whole valley. He had obtained, in 1893, a charter making possible the
26
merger of several existing corporations, but owing to conflicting interests it was difficult to bring the various concerns together. The first combination took place in 1899, but it was not until nearly two years later that Brooker's plans were completed. By the close of 1901, the Coe Brass Company had united with the largest plants in the valley, with the exception of Scovill Manu- facturing Company, in organizing the American Brass Company. Some plants outside the state were also ac- quired. At that time the company made more than two thirds of all the brass and copper rolling mill products of the entire country. In 1922 it was acquired by the Anaconda company. From 1890 to 1920, Brooker was the outstanding figure in the industry in the United States. He died on December 20, 1926.
XI
THE question may now be asked why this concentration of the brass industry has been effected in Connecticut, notwithstanding the entire absence of raw materials within the state and of any immediate absorbing market other than that developed within the industry itself. Continuously down to 1900 four fifths or more of the national output of rolled brass and of its manufacture was produced in Connecticut. In 1935 more than half of the national product-in some special items upwards of three fourths-proceeded from the state. Within the state itself this has continued to be much the most im- portant manufacturing enterprise. More than one seventh of the industrial product of the state issues from its brass mills. Of the total value of the state output of brass the city of Waterbury contributes nearly one half. Of Waterbury's industrial output two thirds come from its brass mills.
27
In the first place there was no intrinsic reason why this venture might not be made at Waterbury. There were old articles of copper which could be obtained there as well as anywhere. This scrap was at the start the raw material used. Plentiful supplies of wood were needed, and, at the beginning, were available in sufficient amount near by, though this condition was not peculiar to Water- bury. Power was needed, but at first the amount required was not large. Water power was used after 1808, and Waterbury was tolerably well supplied with streams that could be used. Yet, so were many other towns. In- deed, the valley of the Housatonic, but a few miles west of the Naugatuck, contains available sites and a much larger amount of water power. Even the Naugatuck affords better power sites than those at Waterbury. More- over, the weight of the product was not so great as to be a serious item. A peddler could carry on his back or in his wagon a considerable stock.
The first reason of distinct consequence seems to have been that the pioneers were residents of Waterbury or moved thither from the vicinity. This settlement seems to have been peculiarly confined in its economic pos- sibilities. When the entire region, including much more than what is now within the city limits of Waterbury, was acquired from the Indians, it was figured that only thirty families might find support thereon, for nearly all the soil was poor. The few good farms were early occu- pied. Conditions made it necessary for the rising genera- tion to leave or to engage in some industrial venture.
Waterbury was originally, or early became, the home of the Grilleys who had cast pewter buttons before 1800, of the Porters who with them first used rolled brass, of the Scovills who succeeded them, and of Aaron Benedict and Israel Coe who first entered into competition with
28
them. Indeed, of all those who before 1830 were at all prominent in the trade, there was but one outsider, David Hayden, who came to Waterbury in 1808 from Attleboro, Massachusetts, where he had been interested in the mak- ing of cast buttons. Success was not in sight at the outset. It took a year and a half for the first enterprise to get fairly started. That success was not assured is apparent from the fact that those who began the undertaking shortly abandoned it to their successors. The original participants began to drop out after four years and at the end of nine years none of them was left. It was the second generation that carried the business through to success and so founded the brass industry in Waterbury.
The determining factors appear to have been the initiative, energy, and application of the men whose fortunes depended upon success. As they persisted, their hope of profit was confirmed by experience. It is a notable fact that, of the ten firms to enter the business before 1865, only two were compelled to undergo liquidation. Inspired by hope of success, those who were active in the rising industry brought to the undertaking splendid ingenuity, enterprise, and perseverance. Difficulties that would have discouraged ordinary men were met and surmounted. Numerous trips, for instance, were made to England and even to the Continent to secure proc- esses, machinery, and workmen. Moreover, when a surplus of metal was in hand the undertakers devised many new processes and invented new applications of brass to produce marketable wares.
The localization of the brass industry in Connecticut has been due, in large measure, to the advantage of an early start, to the prompt creation of business channels, and to the extraordinarily effective control of the market which has been maintained from the beginning. Before
29
1900 the amount of rolled brass and of brass wire pro- duced for the open market outside the Naugatuck valley at no time amounted to fifteen per cent of the total pro- duction-indeed, the control of the production of certain brass wares has been even more effective. Brass has continued to be a comparatively high-priced material, and the unit of production has always been the pound and not the ton. The mills early took to the manufacture of the product of their own rolls and consequently further raised the market value of their wares. As successive difficulties were encountered-the need of machinery, the need of skilled workmen, the demand for capital, the question of transportation, the necessity of enlarging the market by manufacture- they were met by remarkable exhibitions of foresight, activity, and skill.
Furthermore, the stimulus of competition outside the industry has not been lacking. Aluminum, steel, even plastic materials have, since 1900, increasingly invaded sections of the field. To offset this, there has been prompt adaptation to the development of large industries to which brass has been an important contributor. Platers' metal has long been a staple supply for jewelry manu- facturers. Bearing metals are essential for machinery. Electrical fixtures and small motor apparatus make large demands. Plumbing fixtures and supplies find brass an essential. Heating and condenser tubes, particularly for ocean use, represent one of the most exacting needs. The airplane and automotive fields, like the radio, representing the later stages of industrial evolution, have furnished continued illustration of the vigorous exploi- tation of the serviceability of brass as a contributory material.
Nor should it be forgotten that, as the business grew, it became more and more dependent upon the mechani- cal equipment of tools, gauges, and special machines.
30
Many of these were devised and made at the plants of the brass companies. Others were procurable in the im- mediate vicinity. The historical importance of Con- necticut's development of machine and tool builders was not exclusively located in the machine trades. Finally, it should be realized that the brass-maker's art is essentially one of technique. The problem of produc- tion is not basically one of large tonnages but of exacting specifications in varying character applying to a large number of special lots of metal. Successful operation is essentially a problem of successful control of a vast array of interrelated details of shop practice. More than in most large industries of today, the English tradition of transmitted methods still obtains. No small part of the skill of modern management consists in the effective blending of these transmitted methods with the continual discoveries of the research laboratory.
Until recently the only labor skilled in the rolling and in the manufacture of brass was to be found in the Naugatuck valley. From the beginning, when the num- ber of skilled mechanics imported from England could be easily counted, to the present, a substantial control of this class of labor has been maintained. There was not a single brass plant in existence in 1900 in the United States, except the American Tube Works in Boston and the Manhattan Company of New York City, which had been organized without managerial ability or skilled workmen-usually both-drawn from Connecticut.
Loyal to the traditions of the trade, yet alert to the changing times, skilled craftsmen, expert research scientists, and able executives are actively maintaining the high character of workmanship, inventiveness, and business management which established the manufac- ture of brass as the foremost industrial enterprise in Connecticut.
31
ABEL PORTER & CO., 1802 Begins making brass buttons
HENRY GRILLEY, 1790 Pewter Buttons
AARON BENEDICT, 1812 Bone and ivory buttone. Started making brass ones 1823 ->
LEAVENWORTH, HAYDEN & SCOVILL, 1811 Fred'k Leavenworth David Hayden, J. M. L. Scovill, James Croft, Israel Holmes. V
BENEDICT & COE, 1829 Aaron Benedict, Israel Coe. Jas. Croft
J. M. L. & W. H. SCOVILL, 1827 Israel Holmes, H W. Hayden
HOLMES & HOTCHKISS, 1830 Israel Holmes, Horace Hotchkiss, Philo Brown
Howe Mfg. Co., Derby; Slocum & Jillson, Poughkeepsie,
1834
. N. Y., and Fowler Broo. Northford, Ct., developed successful pin machinery
BENEDICT & BURNHAM, 1834 & Chas. Benedict, G. W. Burnham A. S. Chase, F A. Mason, Geo. Somera A.
WOLCOTTVILLE BRASS CO., Israel Coe, Israel Holmes, Anson G. Phelps, John Hungerford, Geo. P. Cowles, John Davol -Torrington, Conn.
BROWN & ELTON, 1838 Philo Brown, J. P. Elton Sold to Brown & Bros and Holmes, Booth & Havdens
WATERBURY BUTTON CO., 1849
SMITH & PHELPS, 1836 . "Anson G. Phelps, Geo. P. Cowles. Thos, Wallace, Thoe. James. First at Derby-Co. founded at Ansonia in 1844
AMERICAN PIN CO., 1846
Davol organized Brooklyn Brass & Copper Co. in 1853
WATERBURY BRASS CO., 1845 Israel Holmes, J. P. Elton, H. W. Hayden. Lyman W. Coe. son of Israel Cos -
WALLACE & SON, 1848 Thoe. Wallace Co. failed in 1895 -- Plant sold to Coe Br. Co. in 1896
HUMPHREYSVILLE COPPER CO., 1849 Thoa. James, Seymour, Ct.
SCOVILL MFG. CO., 1850 The Scovill Brothers, F. J. Kinga- bery, Sr.
WATERBURY CLOCK CO., 1857
BROWN & BROS., 1851 Philo Brown-Failed in 1886. Geo. H. Clowes
COE BRASS CO., 1863 L. W. Coe, Chas. F. Brooker
ANSONIA BRASS & COPPER CO., 1854 Anson Phelps, Geo. P. Cowles
HOLMES, BOOTH & HAYDENS, 1853 Israel Holmes, G. W. Burnham, A. S. Chase L. J. Atwood
BRIDGEPORT BRASS CO., 1865 John Davol. F. A., Mason, Geo, Somer, : Kingsbury, Jr.
ANSONIA CLOCK CO., 1878 Brooklyn, N. Y
WATERBURY WATCH CO., 1880
WATERBURY MFG. CO., 1876 A. 8. Chase, Henry 8. Chase, Fredk. 8. Chase
CHASE ROLLING MILL CO., 1900 Henry S. Chase, Fredk. S. Chase
SEYMOUR-MFG. CO., 1878
WATERBURY BRASS GOODS CORPORATION
->
RANDOLPH & CLOWES, 1886 E. F. Randolph, Geo. H. Clowes
AMERICAN BRASS CO., 1899 Chas. F. Brooker
CHASE METAL WORKS, 1914
+
*
Y NEW HAVEN COPPER CO., 1855
Holmes, Booth & Atwood. 1869, Name changed to PLUME & ATWOOD, 1871 Israel Holmes, J. C. Booth, L. J. Atwood
VV
GENEALOGY OF THE NAUGATUCK BRASS INDUSTRY Reproduced by permission from Joseph Wickham Roe, English and American tool builders (New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company).
TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
QUI
SUSTINET
TRANSTULIT
COMMITTEE ON
HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
L DOUBLE NUMBER The Colonial Trade of Connecticut ROLAND MATHER HOOKER
PUBLISHED FOR THE TERCENTENARY COMMISSION BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1936
TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
L The Colonial Trade of Connecticut ROLAND MATHER HOOKER
I N attempting to determine the exact extent of the colonial trade of Connecticut, the direction of the trade, and the kind of goods transported, the stu- dent is greatly hampered by the lack of colonial records. In 1781, Benedict Arnold, in command of British troops, sailed up the Thames river, captured Fort Griswold on the Groton side, and after landing at New London, burned the city. In this fire were destroyed all the customs records of the colony, with the exception of some few in New Haven. This destruction is greatly to be deplored since, for the greater part of the colonial period, New London was the only authorized port of entry for colonial trade and the seat of the only British custom- house in Connecticut. As a result of this disaster, the historian of Connecticut colonial trade, as Miss Caulkins remarked in her History of New London, must be con- tented with grasping "those gleams and shadows that flit occasionally across the view in the investigation of other subjects."
These gleams and shadows consist mainly of various reports to the board of trade in England, of writings in
I
divers colonial diaries, of the acts of the general court, of the instructions sent to the colonial governors by the board of trade, of the action of the vice-admiralty courts, and of a study of the general British colonial policy in relation to trade with the entire British colonial world.
II
THE early settlers in the River Towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield soon discovered trade to be essential if the settlements were to prosper, as it was not possible to produce the various goods and commodities necessary for their well-being. Only by creating a surplus in some exportable product could they import the Eng- lish manufactured goods so necessary to them. Fortu- nately, beaver skins proved salable in England, and during the early years of the settlements, large stores of these skins were exported. As the Connecticut towns had no means either to build or to buy vessels large enough to make the voyage across the ocean, most of their exports were sent on small vessels to Boston where they were exchanged for the desired manufactured goods and trans- shipped overseas. Besides the beaver trade with England, a market for pipe staves, provisions, and livestock was found in the West Indies. These staples could be ex- changed for sugar, the chief crop, after 1660, of the Eng- lish possessions there, and for molasses which could be made into rum, available for trade in New Amsterdam or Boston.
The general court of Connecticut soon realized the importance of putting its export trade into the hands of responsible persons, and in 1638 granted to William Whiting and Thomas Stanton, of Hartford, the exclusive right to the beaver trade with the Indians. In 1640 Governor Hopkins obtained a special right to trade at
2
Waranocoe (Westfield, Massachusetts). Corn soon be- came a surplus commodity and was exported to Massa- chusetts and Plymouth. In 1644 Governor Hopkins and William Whiting were given the sole privilege of export- ing corn and were required to pay a fixed price for all corn so shipped.
William Whiting was the leading merchant of Hartford in the early period. He died in 1647, and the inventory of his estate shows how varied were his activities. Among his effects were goods which could be used for trade, such as wampum, ammunition, various skins, hoes, hatchets, shoes, nails, pins, paper, shot, fishhooks, blades, looking- glasses, pewter, bottles, brass ladles, bells, thimbles, boxes, knives, scissors, combs, jews'-harps, and brass kettles. Besides these minor articles, his executors listed the results of some of his trading ventures such as:
It: in skinns, and debts, vppon a voyage to Verginia, in anno 1647, yet due,
67. IO. 00
It: in Tobacko, at Verginia, 65. 00. 00
It: in the proceed of corne and porke, sould in anno 1648,
48. 00. 00
It: in oyle, soape, vinegar and other goods from Delawar, ye last yeare,
30.
00. 00
It: in trade at Long Iland,
30. 00. 00
It: in stock for trade at Waranoco,
IOO. 00. 00
It: in goods sent from England,
65. 19. 03
It: in prt of a pinnace,
40.
00. 00
It: in debts at Dillaware, wch are harserdous,
90. 00. 00
It: a hhd. of Beauer, very haserdous, at least in great prt, sent for England, in Trerice, valued at,
It: goods and debts at Piscataway, very haserdous,
50. 00. 00
150. 00. 00
This inventory shows that, although during the first ten years after the founding of Hartford trade had been
3
established with several communities, it was not very profitable owing to the large number of bad debts and the danger involved in transporting the commodities. The trade of Hartford during the first fifty years was very limited, and though such men as Whiting and Stanton were willing to take risks, they were disappointed in the results obtained.
Windsor, during this period, seems to have been no more successful than Hartford in its attempts to enrich itself through trade. As early as 1662 Michael Humphrey, one of the leading merchants, was trading with Samuel and Henry Rose, merchants of Saint-Malo. In 1679 Cap- tain Newberry and George Griswold had warehouses in Windsor, and at about the same period George and Christopher Saunders were traders to England and the West Indies. Yet the volume of trade remained small, owing to the difficulties involved, the greatest of which were the lack of roads and the consequent dependence on river and coastal navigation. Often vessels were wrecked as the channels were not well known and the vessels small and unseaworthy. While the Indians were at times friendly, they could never be trusted to remain so, and were a constant menace to safe trading. Since most of the settlers of the River Towns had been farmers in England and wished to remain so in their new homes it is sur- prising, considering the danger and lack of incentive, that the volume of trade was not smaller.
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.