USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1936 > Part 16
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When the Canal Company obtained in 1846 a charter to build a railroad, the towpath appeared to be the logical place for it. Although much grading for the road was provided for by its use, some divergences were made from this route, notably for a mile or more from Centerville to Mount Carmel, where the tracks ran alongside the traveled road. Some landowners had asked to have the line run in front of their homes rather than behind them; so the road was in front of the
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The History of Hamden
Mount Carmel meetinghouse and the Sherman house. By 1847 the road was completed as far as Plainville. A table of fares, published in 1849, read:
New Haven to Hamden Plains
4 miles $ .12
to Centerville 6 "
.15
to Ives 7 .20
to Mt. Carmel 8 .20
to S. Bradley's
IO .25 all Hamden depots.
HENRY AUSTIN
The erection of the old New Haven depot in 1849 had a special interest for Hamden because it was de- signed by Henry Austin, who was born in Mount Car- mel in 1804. He served an apprenticeship under Ithiel Town, the designer of Center and Trinity Churches in New Haven, the old State House, and the truss bridge at Lake Whitney. Mr. Town had collected what was probably the best architectural library in America, and the opportunity given Austin to consult this col- lection, along with that of working with so talented a teacher, prepared him for a distinguished career. He set up his own office in 1836, and in the course of fifty- five years spent in his profession trained so many other men that he was referred to as the "Father of Archi- tects."
Henry Austin designed the old Yale Library (now Dwight Hall), the old New Haven House on the present site of the Hotel Taft, where it was said that "even the garret chambers were fit for a Prince," sev- eral of the older bank buildings of New Haven- Tradesmen's, Yale, Mechanics, and New Haven Sav- ings-the imposing brownstone gateway of the historic Grove Street Cemetery with its bold inscription, "The
235
Wheels Begin to Turn
Dead Shall Be Raised," and many homes and white, wooden spired churches. In building his best church, the one in Danbury, he attempted to imitate Town's feat at Center Church, New Haven, of constructing the 210-foot spire within the tower and raising it into position with windlasses; but when the spire was within inches of its proper place, a guy rope gave way, and the structure turned upside down and crashed through the roof of the church. Austin built the New Haven depot at a cost of $40,000. The building stood at the corner of Chapel and Union Streets, with a tower at each end. The tower on Chapel Street was 140 feet high, with a bell and a clock, the latter a gift of James Brewster, president of the railroad and also founder of the New Haven carriage industry. A decided architectural inno- vation was the suspension of the main floor from a trussed roof by numerous iron rods, which many people viewed with misgiving.
Mr. Austin also designed the monument erected at Coventry in 1846 to the memory of Nathan Hale, Revolutionary War hero, best remembered for his dying words, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Henry Austin was a genial, kindly man, in personal appearance short and stocky, invariably wearing a black broadcloth frockcoat, and in his old age a brown wig, which contrasted oddly with his wrinkled face. He died in New Haven in 1891.
STAGE LINES
Travel by stagecoach or hack, even along the line of the railroad, was maintained up until 1890. In 1843 the Farmington Mail Stage left the Tontine Hotel in
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The History of Hamden
New Haven three days a week, immediately after the arrival of the New York boat, getting into Farmington at 7 P.M. Fares were:
New Haven to Hamden Plains 5 miles $ .25
to the Steps 9 .50
to Cheshire I4
.75
The Farmington and Plymouth line, leaving the Eagle Hotel at State and George Streets, twice a week, at 6.30 A.M., charged a 25c. fare to Hamden, and $1.25 to Farmington. About 1857 the turnpike companies sur- rendered their charters, returning the roads to the towns for maintenance.
Blacksmith shops were a necessary service in the hey- day of horse-drawn vehicles. Those in Hamden were located as follows: Ezra Cooper's in Centerville; Ed- ward Dickerman's in Mount Carmel, across the road from the meetinghouse and a little to the south; Sam- uel Todd's, near the corner of Whitney Avenue and Tuttle Avenue; Russell Leek's, on Dixwell Avenue, near Shepard Avenue, built in 1820, and later moved to the east side of the road, under the management of Elihu and John Sperry, until it was torn down to make way for the Northampton railroad; and Peter Neilson's shop was in Whitneyville on what later became Eli Whitney Park. The O'Connell shop on Dixwell Av- enue at Arch Street is the only one standing today.
GENERAL STORES
For many years there were only three general stores in the town: Kimberly's in Mount Carmel; Harvey Bradley's on Hamden Plains a few hundred yards north of the Methodist Church, from about 1830; and James Day's, on the west side of Whitney Avenue, a short
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Wheels Begin to Turn
distance north of the Whitney factory. Mr. Day came to Hamden in 1842, from Amsterdam, New York, and set up his store. The lake was at that time only a chain of three good-sized ponds, which provided excellent fishing. Mr. Day was himself an ardent fisherman, and he kept a number of flat-bottomed boats for fisherman's hire. These immediately became popular and were well patronized. Day's boathouse on the waterside across the turnpike from his store became the regular recrea- tional point for Yale students.
An old bill of Russell Leek's, for groceries and other necessities from his store, reads as follows:
To I gall. Rum
$0.62
To I gall. good Rum
.75
To 9 Load Sugar
I 35
To 100 Rye Flour and I gll Rum
3 73
To 21/2 Gll molases
I 44
To I gll cider Brandy
.44
To 1/2 pt. Blown Salt
.13
To pay for coulering
.97
To 1 gll rum
.75
The first two items would seem to indicate a refreshing candor on the part of the storekeeper!
TOWN OFFICERS
In the town election of 1835 the following offices were filled:
three selectmen,
treasurer,
seven tythingmen, constable and collector of state tax,
assessors,
board of relief,
six constables,
eight surveyors of highways,
six grand jurors,
sealer of weights and meas- ures,
five fence viewers,
eleven howards (haywards),
sealer of dry measures,
eleven poundkeepers.
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The History of Hamden
Ambrose Tuttle of Mount Carmel was at this time a justice of the peace, a position which he most ade- quately filled for more than ten years. He was grand- son to Nathaniel Tuttle; and his father, Jesse, born in Mount Carmel in 1759, built his home on the Cheshire Road north of the mountain. Jesse lived to be ninety years old and took an active part in the affairs of the town, as did his sons when they matured. Leverett shared his father's political affiliations, while Ambrose did not, and when the father discussed the qualifica- tions of the two sons for a certain town office, he said, "They're both pretty smart men, but Leverett is a leetle the best qualified." Although Leverett was a selectman six times and Ambrose but twice, Ambrose served his town well in many capacities. He was scarcely of age when he became a constable, and later an assessor of taxes. He was captain of militia in 1812, and acted as clerk of the church and the school. While justice of the peace he made the following entries regarding a case in which a man beat his wife:
For travel to make arrest, 3 miles $ .15
For arrest
.15
For travel with prisoner to court,
3 miles .75
For serving 7 summons for witnesses by reading .63
For travel to gaol with prisoner,
10 miles 2.50
4.63
Costs for witnesses, &c.
7.07
Total
11.70
TOWN MEETINGS
The town meeting, found nowhere but in New Eng- land, is still a government that is truly independent in
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Wheels Begin to Turn
a world where democracy is facing a desperate crisis. Hamden town meetings have always been forums in which every man who had an opinion or a question stood up unafraid, to voice it; and there have been many issues that had two sides well thrashed out with oft- times crude but telling oratory. If it is true that Con- necticut Yankees are characteristically hard-bitten, pinchpenny, tight-fisted, cantankerous, and penurious, because the glacier left the state such poor and pebbly soil, from which it was so hard to wrest a living-then equally typical is the trait of shrewd, persuasive, foren- sic oratory born and fostered in town-meeting argu- ments, examples of which could be chosen from Ham- den's records at random through the years. On the floors of Connecticut town meetings men have gained talent and experience for public office, so well that in the period between 1798 and 1889 there were in the United States Senate 34 Connecticut-born men repre- senting 14 other states; and in the House of Repre- sentatives, 187 Connecticut-born men, from 22 other states.
Hamden town meetings have shown more interest and excitement in local controversies than about affairs concerning the state and nation. An enormous amount of passion has been expended first and last on school matters.
While the first town meetings were held in the Mount Carmel Church, they began by 1788 to meet in more conveniently reached private homes in Center- ville-at Joseph Pardee's in 1788, Theophilus Good- year's in 1790, Jared Cooper's in 1798. In 1805 the citizens voted "to take into consideration whether we will Remove our town meeting or Build a town House or Remain as we are, at the next adjourned town meet-
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The History of Hamden
ing." They later voted to adjourn to Samuel Atwater's dwelling house. In 1806, they voted that public meet- ings were again to be held at the home of Jared Cooper. They named auditors of town accounts, Eli Whitney among them, and decided to have no more than five selectmen, to be chosen "by ballot by marking." In 1822, men worked out their road tax on the roads at the rate of 75c. a day and $1.50 a day for a man and team. The workers furnished their own tools and were expected to "do a good day's work." There were fre- quent town-meeting adjurations to the selectmen to oversee the work.
In 1835 a meeting "holden" in Jesse Goodyear's tavern, on the present site of the town hall, passed by- laws for the restraint of neat cattle, horses, and geese from running at large on the commons and highways of the town. This was the most important business of the day; next in importance was a vote to hold electors' meetings at the Centerville House (the name which Jesse Goodyear used for his tavern) and to remove the "town chest" to Uriah Foote's. This chest probably contained the town records. Mr. Foote lived at Cen- terville on property a part of which he had sold to Grace Episcopal Church for its second building.
Some of the entries in the records are quaintly word- ed:
The vote was rescinded and for nothing had. This vote is now invalid, void and of none effect. Voted . .. that we place boundary stones that will be permanent for a long time.
Deeds sometimes read, "for the consideration of Love and Goodwill," instead of the now familiar "one dollar and other valuable considerations."
Peter Nielsen's Whitneyville Blacksmith Shop
Gift of Arnold G. Dana
-
-
SO +SHOW
West Woods One-Room School
Photo by Carl J. Jensen
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Wheels Begin to Turn
For the care of the town poor, lawbooks belonging to the town were sold in 1799; and in 1809, "three lawbooks and five sermons" were sold for this purpose. It is interesting here to speculate upon how much better off the poor of Hamden became from the sale of ser- mons, and who was the buyer? That they could be sold at all was a high tribute to their composer! The 1804 town meeting had voted that "the town poor be voted off single," and in 1806 they were to be "supported by a Contractor." Legislation reducing the responsibility of the state for the care of paupers, and saddling the burden upon the towns more completely than in any other state, was passed by the General Assembly in 1819. The citizens of Hamden talked of setting up a town workhouse, but for many years they did no more than talk. In 1824 the selectmen were directed to pro- cure a workhouse and appoint a poor master "as the Law directs" (presumably the 1819 state legislation). Condi- tions at that time in the New Haven workhouse were troubling the selectmen who said that they were be- ginning to think "the vicious and virtuous poor should be separated."
Ten years later, in 1834, a special Hamden town meeting on "an almshouse and workhouse for the town poor" passed the following motion:
That the Selectmen be requested and empowered to purchase a situation at the expense of sd town for the purpose of converting it to a house of correction for the accommodation of the poor of sd town and all those who shall become disorderly, in consequence of which it shall be thought necessary to place them under the management and control of the keeper of said house, but if considered by the selectmen not proper or expedient at the present time, to contract with some suitable person or persons to support the poor of sd
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The History of Hamden
town for such term as they, the Selectmen, shall deem desirable.
By 1838, committees were still being appointed on the purchase of a town poorhouse; in that year, Alfred Bas- sett, Jesse Mansfield, Arba and Elihu Dickerman, and Harvey Bradley.
TOWN DEPOSIT FUND
In 1835 the town books recorded that "there has been an Act of Congress to regulate the deposits of public money." This was the money thereafter known as the Town Deposit Fund. It became available to the town as the result of President Andrew Jackson's hatred for the United States Bank and the subsequent closing of it. Jackson was the first President to come from the poor farmer class, and in order to decrease the power of the aristocratic group who controlled the Bank, he took Federal funds from it and deposited them in every state in the Union. By this measure, also, he was ap- pealing for the vote of the poor man who in most states had recently been enfranchised, in Connecticut in 1818. In July, 1837, Hamden resolved
that this town will receive its proportion of the money which is or may be deposited with this state by the United States in pursuance of the act of Congress entitled, "An Act to Regulate the Deposits of the Pub- lic Money" and on the terms specified in this state's act entitled, "An Act Accepting a Portion of the Surplus Funds Belonging to the United States, Pro- viding for the Safe Keeping of Them," and appro- priating the interest accruing therefrom for the pro- motion of education and other purposes.
Hamden's share of the fund was $4,278.85; Jared Bas- sett was named its agent for the town, Russell Pierpont
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Wheels Begin to Turn
treasurer, Roderick Kimberly and James Ford agents and managers of the fund. They were directed not to lend more than $500 nor less than $100 to any one person, to collect interest annually, and to foreclose on delinquent borrowers.
Several successive town meetings were held to act upon the disposition of the interest from this fund- one would allocate it to school expenses, and the next. would rescind the action; and promptly another town meeting would be demanded and the schools again fa- vored, until the patience of the selectmen was exhaust- ed, and they requested the townspeople not to ask "for any other special town meeting touching or in any way relating to the interest of the town deposit fund." In 1843 half the income was diverted to general expense, but in 1845 the whole amount was again voted to school use.
The town had its troubles with worthless currency. In 1810 the town meeting voted "that the treasurer receive of Hezekiah Johnson, town collector, ten dol- lars Gloucester bank bills at par, provided he settle his Rate book with the town within one week." A year later the treasurer was authorized to pay $2 for a coun- terfeit bill taken by Allen Dickerman, collector, and later it was voted "that the counterfeit two-dollar bill now in the treasurer's hands be destroyed." In 1825 it was voted "to receive bills on the Egle Bank which Eli Dickerman collected on his Rait Books before the bank failed."
TEMPERANCE
There was a great temperance movement about 1838, and reactions were felt in Hamden. In 1844 the East Plains Church voted that all applicants for membership
244
The History of Hamden
must be total abstainers "from all intoxicating liquor as a beverage," and the Mount Carmel Church took simi- lar action. The General Assembly of Connecticut passed in 1839 "An Act Relating to the Sale of Spiritu- ous Liquors," and it found Hamden in an ultimately generous mood, for although the town at first voted to license no more than four tavernkeepers, there imme- diately appeared a petition signed by thirty-three elect- ors for another town meeting in which this action was rescinded and a substitute recorded which permitted "every elector" to sell wine and spirituous liquor. In 1845, the General Assembly passed "An Act to Regu- late and Restrain the Sale of Wines and Spirituous Liquors," and Hamden's commissioners-Willis Churchill, Elias Ford, and Ezra Alling, 2d-tight- ened up the town's liquor privilege by denying a license to Sherlock Perkins of Centerville.
In 1844, Perkins had rented from Albert Goodyear and T. H. Bassett the Centerville House on the north- west corner of the crossroads, along with a "ball alley." In 1846 he rented the new Centerville House (Hotel), across the turnpike, from Arba Dickerman and Albert Goodyear, retaining the "ball alley," and secur- ing from the owners of the old Centerville House a pledge not to sell spirits during the term of the lease. The transfer of the old name to the new hotel created a confusion which was not soon removed; for in 1850 the tavern of Jesse Goodyear is again referred to as the Centerville House.
MULBERRY TREES
In the mid-eighteenth century a great interest was exhibited in the cultivation of native silk. Perhaps it
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Wheels Begin to Turn
sprung from the remembrance that James I had tried to force the Colony of Virginia to raise silk in prefer- ence to tobacco. President Ezra Stiles and a Mr. Aspin- wall introduced the cultivation in the North, experi- menting with it in the towns of Mansfield and New Haven. They received encouragement for their ven- ture from the General Assembly of 1783, which offered a bounty of 10 s. for every one hundred white mulber- ry trees planted, and 3 s. for every ounce of raw silk produced. The Connecticut Silk Society was organized in 1785. At one Yale Commencement the gowns worn in the procession were made of silk raised and woven in Connecticut.
There were at least two places in Hamden where this culture was tried. John W. Barber said, "About three miles north from New Haven, upwards of 100 acres of land are now [1836] in a state of preparation for raising mulberry trees, and extensive preparations are making for the silk business." In the garret of the old house at Cherry Hill, Mrs. Mix raised a goodly sup- ply of large yellow cocoons, from which silk of excel- lent quality was reeled and spun. Considerable silk was also made on the north slope of Mill Rock, on the farm of Charles P. Augur.
As early as 1760, Jared Eliot said, in his Essay on Tree Planting: "I observe in New Haven they have planted a range of trees all around the marketplace, . . . it is a pity they were not mulberry trees instead of buttonwood and elm."
HAMDEN TREES ON NEW HAVEN GREEN
Hamden has had an interest in several of the tree plantings on New Haven Green. When the last con-
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The History of Hamden
siderable planting was made in 1839 at the order of the Common Council, it consisted of 150 maples and a few elms on the upper Green, which had hitherto been almost bare of trees. Cankerworms had ravaged the elms in the previous year, so a marked preference was shown for maples, and Chester Alling of Hamden fur- nished the trees and set them out.
The first pair of elm trees, which were planted in front of the present location of the New Haven Public Library and which gave Elm Street its name, were set out by one of the Coopers, of whom there were many in Hamden. This huge pair was planted in 1686. Dr. Leonard Bacon makes the following reference to these trees, in speaking of the parsonage erected there for Reverend James Pierpont, the pastor of Center Church :
As the people were bringing in their freewill offerings of one kind and another to complete and furnish the building, one man (a poor parishioner, William Cooper by name), desiring to do something for the object, and having nothing else to offer, brought on his shoulder from the farms two elm saplings, and planted them before the door of the minister's home.
The trees grew to beautiful maturity and were not cut down until 1840.
The site of the Pierpont house has a further interest for Hamden, for it was there that "Squire" Simeon Bristol, the moderator of Hamden's first town meeting, built in 1800 a house for his son William, who after- wards became a Judge of both the Superior Court and the Supreme Court in the state, and of the United States District Court. He was also a Member of Congress. This house was designed by David Hoadley, the build- er of United Church. It had an exquisite classical por- tico, with a beautiful garden beside it, laid out in formal
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Wheels Begin to Turn
beds bordered with box. The house was razed in 1908 to make way for the Public Library. Mr. Bristol's son George Augustus married Mary Hawley, daughter of Stephen and Mary Bellamy Hawley, who will be re- membered as, respectively, one of the first ministers to candidate unsuccessfully in the Mount Carmel Church and one of Samuel Bellamy's daughters.
CHAUNCEY IVES, SCULPTOR
Chauncey Ives, born in 1810 in Hamden, decided by the time he was sixteen to be an artist. His family, in, typical Yankee fashion, felt that art was both effeminate and unprofitable; and to a Yankee, what was not profit- able was indeed useless! In spite of the family opposi- tion, Ives became apprenticed to a woodcarver, E. R. Northrop of New Haven, and thereafter studied with the leading sculptor of the state, Hezekiah Augur. He went to Boston, where he slowly established a modest reputation, but his real work was done after he was thirty, when, owing to a delicate lung condition, he made his home in Italy, coming back only for brief visits. His bust of Professor Benjamin Silliman, now in the New York Historical Society, and the one of Ithiel Town in the Yale Art Gallery, were considered his finest work. He was commissioned by the state of Connecticut to carve its contributions to the National Hall of Statuary in the national capitol. There today may be seen his "Roger Sherman" and "Jonathan Trumbull." A duplicate of the latter appears on the façade at the state capitol at Hartford. A statue of Bishop Brownell stands on the grounds of Trinity Col- lege at Hartford; his "Scholar" is in the Corcoran Gal- lery at Washington; and his "Flower Girl" and "Re-
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The History of Hamden
becca at the Well" are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city. His last public work, a bronze historical group called "The White Captive and In- dians," was unveiled the year after his death (1895) in Lincoln Park, Newark, New Jersey.
Some critics of Chauncey Ives, including his biogra- pher, said that he debased his art by producing many decorative parlor pieces. Among these pieces, similar to the Rogers groups, were his "Pandora," "Bacchante," "Shepherd Boy and Little Piper," and "Cupid with His Net." They appealed tremendously to the public, who bought all that he produced, making him a definite financial success, and doubtless vindicating in his own mind his choice of a profession as having been both wise and profitable!
Laredo Taft was forced by Ives's quite obvious im- portance to write a biographical sketch of him for his American Sculpture, but the following comments were not meant to be friendly:
The Garland about the "Flower Girl" in particular is a miracle of misapplied patience, and around the base is scattered equally painful vegetation. . .. "The Scholar" is a pretty schoolboy holding a bunch of pa- pers and apparently slipping from the stump. . . . Of all the dead in the National Gallery, "Trumbull" and "Sherman" seem the most conscious of being dead, the most solicitous to appear alive.
Such is success, when it is judged by a competitor!
SCHOOLS
After the General Assembly in 1795 created Con- necticut school societies, public education had been sepa- rated from ecclesiastical and other municipal interests.
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Wheels Begin to Turn
The school societies set up officers to receive money due the town from the state School Fund; and school visitors were named to supervise the schools and exam- ine the teachers. Management of the schools was left to school committees composed of one committeeman from each school district, each of whom provided a schoolhouse and teacher for his district. A clerk was appointed to record committee proceedings, and a col- lector to receive the taxes levied on each district. In 1821 the state was paying out every year to each school society $2 on every thousand in its tax list. There were two societies in Hamden: Mount Carmel and East Plains.
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