USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1936 > Part 18
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The exact location of the fertilizer works is not recorded, but quite understandably it was "in a remote corner" of northeastern Mount Carmel. Mr. Hall's house was on the town boundary with North Haven, and though he claimed residence in Hamden, he could enter the other town without leaving his house. During this period Russell Leek paid $6.75 to a concern at Oyster Point in New Haven for 9,000 fish; and it is reasonable to suppose that such a great quantity was bought in the interest of the fertilizer company.
JAMES J. WEBB AND "SPRING GLEN"
James J. Webb returned to Hamden with a fortune which he had accumulated at Santa Fe, New Mexico,
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in the mercantile business. He purchased on the Chesh- ire Road the large estate of the Vanden Heuvel's who were West Indies planters, and he transformed the place into a thriving dairy farm which he named "Spring Glen." He was immensely interested in the improvement of farming, and especially in a uniform standard for commercial fertilizers. In 1875 Mr. Webb helped in establishing the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. The Station's trial grounds have been in later years located in Hamden, on Evergreen Avenue at Kenwood Road. Inferior fer- tilizers were driven from the market as a result of the Station's activities. Mr. Webb was a stalwart leader in Hamden affairs-selectman, state senator, president of the New Haven County Agricultural Society and of the New Haven Farmer's Club, and member of the State Board of Agriculture.
THE COUNTY FAIR
The New Haven County Agricultural Society was an organization of prime importance locally, for farm- ing was by all odds the chief industry during this pe- riod. At their fair, held annually on New Haven Green, Mount Carmel invariably won the prize for the great- est number and finest quality of oxen exhibited. There was a keen rivalry for this honor between Hamden and Woodbridge.
Sterling Bradley, for so many years the keeper of the toll gate on the Cheshire turnpike at Mount Car- mel, was famed for his Durham cattle, and on county fair day a long procession of Hamden cattle starting from the Bradley place, wound its slow way to New Haven Green, gathering length as other farmers along
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the route fell into line with their prize entries. On one banner day, 125 yoke of oxen on the Green included 90 from Hamden, and the jubilant owners celebrated their victory by attaching the team to a plow and turning a furrow north up Whitney Avenue. The parade was led by marshals on horseback, and the oxen flaunted their blue ribbons. The plow was guided by ninety-year-old Elias Ford; and one can imagine that at the end of the long slow trip, Mr. Ford at least, was tired!
LIVESTOCK ON THE FARMS
From the earliest days of New Haven Colony, the raising of live stock had through the years been carried on by most of the families, and a man's estate was reck- oned more often in valuable cattle than in actual money. In 1663, in the inventory of William Gibbard's estate were included 2 oxen, 3 cows and a calf, I heifer, 2 beasts two years old, and I yearling, some sheep, 10 swine in the woods "if they are alive and can be found," 5 small swine at home, and 8 horses and colts.
In 1765, Caleb Mix's estate included I pair of oxen, I bull, I three-year-old steer, 2 steers two years old, 5 yearlings, 5 cows, I two-year-old heifer, 2 cows and calves, 31 sheep, 6 ewes and lambs, I horse, and I mare.
In 1773 Captain Daniel Bradley's estate included a horse, 3 cows, 3 calves, 7 heifers, and 3 swine.
Every farm had a sizable number of cattle. Oxen were used more extensively than horses, as they could be turned into meat after their working days were over. Great pains were taken to have young cattle come along to replace the old, and to prepare and preserve for table use a good supply of hams, beef tongues, dried beef,
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and barrels of salt pork and corned beef. The possession of so much cattle made it necessary to raise hay in quantity. In rotating his crops a farmer would make meadows of his best land, and he did not waste even his poorest swampy piece, which could produce hay suitable at least for bedding the animals. After the up- land hay was cut, long trips were made to the salt mead- ows to mow the coarse grass there, dry it, make rounded stacks of it, and later haul it in sleds across the winter ice. There were pastures in which the cattle could graze all summer, the owner visiting them occasionally to see that all was well.
Much of the milk used in New Haven after 1830 was supplied by Hamden dairymen. In 1840 about four hundred quarts a day were taken into the city. One of the larger producers was Griswold Gilbert of Ham- den Plains, who was then milking seventy quarts a day. Mr. Gilbert was seven times chosen as first selectman, in 1843 and again in 1851-57.
SMALL FRUITS
Attorney Benjamin Douglass set out an orchard of sixty-four cherry trees just north of East Rock, as early as 1775. The best-known cherry orchards in the town have been in the vicinity of Mix Avenue, where the name Cherry Hill was used because of the quantity of the fruit grown.
Peaches were raised more extensively before the year 1850, when a yellow blight attacked the trees. Many farmers were discouraged from further attempts to raise them, although some parts of Hamden Plains still managed to produce good crops. In 1862 Julius
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Gorham claimed to have sold a load of the fruit for $108, a single peach weighing twelve ounces. In a typical Yankee deal, made in 1855, William Church promised to supply farmers with peach trees free of charge on condition that he receive half the fruit for nine years! As the crop of 1860 was a bumper one with a yield of one hundred baskets to an acre, it is safe to assume that Mr. Church lost nothing by his hazard- ous speculation.
THE POOR FARM
In 1850 the townspeople, having at last sufficiently considered the matter of having a poor farm, called in half of the Town Deposit Fund which amounted to $2,139.421/2, and a town meeting of the following year voted to purchase the Jesse Tuttle farm. This place was situated in the northwestern part of the town, and was used for a poor farm for six years. In 1856 the town leased the Enos Brooks farm, comprised of 104 acres in the extreme northern part of town. Mr. Brooks died in 1860, and in his will he bequeathed the farm to the town of Hamden, subject to its use by his widow during her lifetime, and with the stipulation that the in- come from the farm was to be applied to the mainte- nance of roads and bridges. To this day the wishes of Mr. Brooks regarding roads and bridges have been carried out.
Soon after the town took over this property the Tuttle farm was sold, and town meeting sanctioned suitable buildings to be erected by the selectmen on the new poor farm, "to accommodate the paupers of the town at their discretion" (not the pauper's discretion, we assume!). The widow's interest in the farm was
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bought by the town, Mrs. Brooks accepting an annual payment of $ 100 in exchange for her rights. She went away and strangely enough, after an absence of more than twenty years, returned to the farm in her old age, and died there in 1880. The town placed a monument over her grave in the Central Burying Ground.
OTHER TOWN AFFAIRS
A town meeting voted in 1850 to open and work a public highway near James Ives's factory "whenever the sum of $150 shall be raised by subscription for working the same, either in money or labor." This road eventually became Broadway. Later it was voted "to pay James Ives $60 for land thrown out and work done to make highway acceptable by the town by its last preceding vote."
In 1853 a town meeting granted permission to the "Wallingford, North Haven and New Haven Plank Road Company" to run their road through Hamden, "provided said company permit the inhabitants of said town to pass the gates in their said town toll-free." But the road was never constructed.
Bridges had recently been an expensive care to the town, for a town meeting had voted to lay an additional town tax of two cents on a dollar for the rebuilding of several bridges carried off "by the late freshet."
Among the elected town officers were six measurers of wood, and as wood was the staple fuel and many Hamden farmers sold it from their land, the duties of these officials apparently were similar to those of supervisors of weights and measures. One such officer kept the following notes on one of his jobs:
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Measured two piles of wood, Length of wood 4 ft. 9 in. One pile was 790 ft. long, 5 ft. high " 831 " 4 " Total, 298 cords and 24 ft.
It can be seen that not every seller of wood could com- pute the number of cords sold! Statistics of this time show Hamden as selling about 1,465 cords of wood in a year.
Lewis Warner of Dunbar, who had been first select- man in 1839, was in 1849 Hamden's representative to the legislature. He had no means of transportation to Hartford, except to walk, which he did! leaving home at IO P.M. and arriving in time for the IO A.M. opening of business in the House.
Town taxes still were collected by the lowest bidder, Russell Jacobs doing the work for $50 a year. There were eleven justices of the peace-Leverett Hitchcock, Griswold Gilbert, Henry Tuttle, Loyal Todd, Ambrose Tuttle, Horace Potter, James Ford, Eli Dickerman, Richard Warner, Augustus Dickerman, and Alphonse Johnson. School visitors were David Thayer, Reverend Austin Putnam, Amos Bradley, Griswold Gilbert, Eli Smith, and Dr. Edwin Swift.
Dr. Swift came to Hamden in May, 1849, just after his graduation from New York University. For fifty years he was the community physician, who knew and shared the people's joys and sorrows, and he stood in an intimate advisory capacity on an equality with the ministers. Doctors were not highly paid in those days; in the settlement of an estate, thirty-nine doctor's calls were listed at 50c. a call, and the physician was paid in part in white cloth valued at $ I a yard. In the same settlement, $4 was allowed for a whitewood coffin.
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TEMPERANCE HALL
In 1851 the town meeting was held on the upper floor of the new "Temperance Hall," just south of the crossroads in Centerville. The building, erected in 1849, was owned by Eneas Woodin, Jesse M. Mans- field, Joel N. Churchill, and Leverett Candee. The lower story was occupied by the general store of An- drew T. Andrews, who was forbidden by the terms of his lease to sell spirituous liquors, wine, and cider. The hall derived its name from the Sons of Temperance, who met there. Probably many of the citizens objected to holding the town meetings in Goodyear's tavern or in the newer Centerville Hotel. With taverns on two Cen- terville corners, there was a general feeling on the part of the abstainers, well expressed by an old fellow named Hy Mathews, who was once asked why he was digging at the edge of the road there; he replied, "Im told that Hell is only six inches under the ground in Center- ville."
Signing the pledge was required by the Congrega- tional churches of new members in 1848 and Jesse F. Goodyear, the keeper of Centerville's principal tavern, was dropped from the membership of the Mount Car- mel Church because he sold spirits.
The wife of the pastor of this church, Mrs. Harriet Hubbell, attracted attention by writing a book, Shady Side, published in 1853. According to a local news- paper, "its general style was quite superior, and its de- scriptions of life in a country parish were drawn with such power as to make it one of the most famous books of its time." The Hubbells lived in the lovely old Miller house on Whitney Avenue in Mount Carmel for a time beginning in 1834.
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"THE CHAPEL" IN MOUNT CARMEL
In 1850 David Bradley, ordained a Baptist clergy- man in 1828, built a chapel on the turnpike in Mount Carmel opposite the head of the mountain, a little below Tuttle Avenue. Services were very different from those in the other churches, in that there was no reading of Scripture and anyone who wished to speak might do so. The group worshiping there were known as "Come- outers," because they had separated themselves from the Mount Carmel congregation. After David Brad- ley's death, his son Henry conducted the services, which were frequently interrupted by mischievous boys.
The most vividly remembered leader of this group was Lorenzo Peck, an ardent speaker, universally known as "Hallelujah Peck." He would stop people and earnestly ask them whether they were "saved." Once he boasted of how he had "preached a sermon you could hear up to Hen Tuttle's." After Mr. Peck's death the group disbanded and the building was de- serted. It finally collapsed in a heap of old weather- worn timber, which lay untouched for many years.
THE CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL
The story of the first Catholic Church in Hamden draws attention to the background of the Catholic faith in the state of Connecticut. Following the adoption in 1818 of the new Constitution, which guaranteed reli- gious freedom, Catholics felt encouraged to settle in the state. The first resident priest came to Hartford in 1829, and the first church in New Haven was begun in 1834. When Right Reverend Bernard O'Reilly was installed as bishop in 1850, there were only five Catho- lic churches and seven priests in the state.
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Ahead of the influx of more than a million Irish- Catholic emigrants who arrived in America within a few years around 1845 because of the famine in Ireland, a considerable number had come to Hamden in 1825 to work on the canal. The city of New Haven had in 1833 a population of 11,000-of which 9 out of 10 persons were Connecticut Yankees of colonial stock. In 1850 its population of 20,000 was one seventh Irish. A set- tlement of factory workers grew up in the north end of Hamden. Attendance of these people at the churches of their faith in New Haven was almost as great an inconvenience as it had been to the earliest settlers be- fore the formation of the Congregational churches. Arrangements were made for Father Matthew Hart, then a curate at St. Mary's in New Haven, to come out to Mount Carmel once a month to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice in whatever homes or other buildings were made available. The first of these services was held in September, 1852, at the home of Parsons Ives, across the road from the present rectory.
By 1856, Reverend E. J. O'Brien, the pastor at St. Mary's, felt that the mission was sufficiently large to have quarters of its own; and an old building was pur- chased of the Axle Company and turned into a chapel. It was later enlarged, and served the congregation for more than thirty years. Masses were said by priests from New Haven, Wallingford, Southington, and Meriden.
When Father Hugh Mallon assumed charge in 1867 in addition to his duties at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Wallingford, there were 225 Catholics in the parish. Thomas Cannon and James McGrail were named trustees, and served with an advisory board composed of John Kenny, Thomas Judge, James Leddy,
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Michael Burke, and Daniel Kennedy. Through the untiring efforts of this group, a church was built just south of the makeshift chapel. The cornerstone was laid on October 17, 1889, by Right Reverend L. S. McMahon, D.D., and in 1891 the church was dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Reverend John T. Winters became the first resident pastor, and although he was with his people but four short years, they loved him and appreciated his nearness to them and their spiritual needs while he lived so closely among them.
In a Golden Jubilee historical sermon preached in this church in April, 1941, Father John LaFarge hon- ored the founders of the parish and paid tribute to the church for its contributions to the life of the community throughout its history. He said:
At the celebration of the Jubilee, our first thought is of the opportunity to tell what people have done, during all the years that have passed. Ours today is the fiftieth anniversary of what God has done in the parish of Mt. Carmel; and this in a particular and spe- cial sense.
The story of a parish is not the same as the story of an ordinary human organization. Human organiza- tions live by the combined efforts of those who make them up. The State, for instance, is nothing more than the combined efforts of the men and women who com- pose it. If these men and women are great people, the State itself is great. The history of our country is the history of Americans. But there is nothing in the State, nothing in our country, nothing in any merely human society, outside of what its members have contributed to it. . . .
What we have before us today is the result of the faith of the men and women who have gone before us; some of them who passed out of this life before this Church was ever built. Long before the material foun- dations of this Church were put in place, its spiritual
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foundations were laid by the faith and zeal of the early missionaries in Connecticut.
We recall today with wonder the early days of the Hartford Diocese. We can imagine the discourage- ments and sufferings of those days, the hostility en- countered, and physical and financial hardships.
We recall the tremendous faith of the priest who first offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in this vil- lage, Father Mathew Hart, in 1852. There was little to encourage them in the conditions of those times; and they did not undertake to establish a purely human organization. As has done the Church in all times and all circumstances, they relied upon God to do the work and give the increase; their task, like ours, was simply to share in God's work, to cooperate with it as far as humanly possible, but leave the results to Him.
We may forget with the passage of time. Those of you whose memory reaches back into those earlier days may feel a pang at the thought of how many great souls are forgotten, how many noble deeds are no long- er thought of. We ourselves shall pass, and younger generations shall know us merely by a legend. . . .
We today are the heirs of all those innumerable deeds of piety and self sacrifice that were performed through these fifty years. Not a prayer has been said before this altar; not a communion offered; not a sacrifice made for the Church, that has not left its blessing for all time. Today in this celebration, we are reaping the harvest of those long years of piety and patience. . .
We may ask, Is a celebration like this just a passing event, inspiring and agreeable, or is there some perma- nent fruit to be derived from it? There are two great fruits that should come from such a celebration. They are unity and peace. These are the two goods for which the world longs at the present moment. They are the two blessings which are denied a tormented, divided and warring humanity. The altar in this Church symbolizes unity; unity with Christ, unity with one another, and with the Church.
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Within the walls of this little Church we see the entire Church of God in miniature. We are of differ- ent races and different origins, different professions, in- terests, characteristics. Yet we are all united. .
We are united with those we see around us, but we are also united with the generations that have gone before us. They have passed down to us their tradi- tions, which we in turn shall pass on to the generations to come.
The greatest hope, therefore, for the parish of Mount Carmel is that it preserve the spirit of unity in the future, which it has always possessed.
And so our gathering today is in the spirit of peace. Our parish brings peace not only among ourselves but for all the community around. For fifty years this little Church has breathed and radiated peace into the com- munity of Mount Carmel, peace with all, the non- Catholic quite as much as with the Catholic. It has brought a spirit of peace into a community religiously divided, with different groups and races, and yet one with one another in their daily life. Hence, our jubilee is not for ourselves alone, but it is for the entire com- munity a blessing and a pledge of civil peace, of secur- ity and of hope.
My concluding words, therefore, are to express a prayer. I do not pray that the work of Christ go on because it will always go on, provided we cooperate; but I pray that we shall cooperate in the future as we have in the past; and I pray that the spirit of unity and of peace which has characterized it in former years will continue for all generations to come, until it is merged with the unity and peace of Heaven.
CHANGED WAYS OF LIVING
In some respects living conditions were still primi- tive. Candles were used for lighting, as kerosene had not come into general use. But the legal ban on playing
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cards was ended in 1848, the telegraph came the next year, the parlor melodeon made for more sociability, and the paving of streets and roads, following Blake's invention of the stone crusher, made travel much more attractive. When the railroad was completed to Plain- ville, local people were granted a free ride over the whole distance.
The year 1850 was for Connecticut a turning point in economic progress. Migration from the state into the West was markedly lessened, and emigrants from abroad began to come in considerable numbers, and for the first time the growth in population approximated that of other states.
The churches were giving special attention to Sunday School activities, and the social as well as the religious life of the child was deemed a matter which the church should sponsor. The following notice appeared in a New Haven newspaper, June 4, 1859:
SABBATH SCHOOL CELEBRATION
JULY 4TH, 1859
The Sabbath Schools of Hamden are making extensive arrangements for an appropriate celebration of the Fourth. The Sabbath Schools and citizens of the fol- lowing named towns are invited to unite with the people and schools of Hamden in the Celebration: North Haven, Northford, Wallingford, Prospect, Cheshire and Westville.
The exercises of the day will take place in the beau- tiful grove of S. A. Dickerman, Esq., at Ives Station, commencing at 10 o'clock A.M. A number of the best speakers for such occasions will be present, also a fine Band of Music. Mounted marshals will be in attendance to receive the schools from abroad and con- duct them to the grove. Ample arrangements are in progress for supplying all present with suitable refresh- ments.
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So far as known, the Committee have mailed special invitations to the several schools of the towns herein named, but that none may be overlooked this general invitation is given. Officers of schools intending to par- ticipate with us are respectfully requested to communi- cate by mail with either of the undersigned within the next two weeks.
JAMES M. PAINE WILLIAM C. GOODWIN
The program for the celebration included a prayer, sing- ing, the reading of the Declaration of Independence, and the rendition of Hail Columbia by the band.
A Ladies Aid Society was formed in the Hamden Plains Church as early as 1845, and its constitution read:
The first object of this society shall be to carpet and cushion the altar.
It is considered expedient to restrict the refreshments to bread and butter, cake or pye, one kind of sweet- meats or a substitute of the same, and tea.
In a period when country tables groaned under the weight of bountiful fare, the ladies determined to stern- ly deny themselves, forbidding the pleasures of the palate to usurp the task in hand.
LAKE WHITNEY AND THE WATER COMPANY
The New Haven Water Company was incorporated in 1849, but because the city was unwilling to assume the responsibility of constructing the works, Eli Whit- ney, 2d, although he strongly believed that supplying the city with water should be a public enterprise, under- took the task as a private venture in 1860.
At the time when his father came to Hamden and established the Armory, the dam was but six feet in height and built of logs. The vibration of the noisy
HIC ESTETLVS NEVARILECTVS
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"The Transfiguration" Painted by Bancel La Farge
Ithiel Town's Covered Bridge at Davis Street
Gift of Arnold G. Dana
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waterfall was then so great as to seriously interfere with the delicate processes involved in the manufacture of firearms.
The new dam, erected by Eli Whitney, 2d, was thir- ty-eight feet high, constructed of planks, concrete, and stone from East and Mill Rocks, and included an apron which flung the waterfall sufficiently beyond the base of the dam to completely eliminate the vibration.
The cost of building the dam, which was five hun- dred feet long, the reservoir, and eighteen miles of dis- tributing pipe, amounted to $350,000. The reservoir, extending more than two miles to the north from Mill Rock, contains a minimum of 500,000,000 gallons. Three mills-the paper mill, the clock factory, and Waite's grist mill-were submerged, and twenty other buildings and three bridges had to be moved. Several of the roads were changed.
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