USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1936 > Part 22
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Reverend Charles W. Everest had obtained in 1864 a charter for waterworks in Centerville, and a hydraulic ram was operated on Mill River which pumped water to the buildings on the Rectory School property and some near-by houses to which a pipe line had been laid.
THE WALLINGFORD TORNADO
Hamden has been a friendly town to her neighbors and such things as boundary lines, responsibility for paupers, and other common sources of ill-will between towns have, when necessary, been adjusted without ran- cor. New Haven, Woodbridge, Bethany, Cheshire, Wallingford, and North Haven have lived beside us in
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peace. In 1877, when the tornado caused great distress in Wallingford, a Hamden town meeting voted $500 "to aid sufferers by the late calamity."
SCHUETZEN PARK
Centerville was not the only spot chosen in this period for the operation of amusement facilities. In the State Street section of Hamden, a very large plot of ground, approximately 543 by 720 feet, was acquired by a group of promoters, and soon another strip, 145 by 230 feet, was added. The organizers of the Schuetzen Park Stock Corporation were John Miller, Friederich Plueger, Frantz Doerschuck, Charles Volkman, Frank Tiesing, Roger Schlegel, Joseph Gilch, Friederick Buch- holz, Louis Luft, Charles Schneider, William Engle- hardt, and Christian Streit. They leased the property to Friederich Schaeffer of Jersey City in 1878, and he equipped it with a bar, tenpin alleys, and a shooting gallery. It was well patronized as a picnic and outing park for many years.
CARRIAGE POLES
Granniss and Russell, manufacturers located on Mill River at Ives Street and Broadway, made kegs used for shipping hardware, and also maintained a black- smith and wagon repair shop. In 1878 they developed a specialty of adjustable carriage poles, patents for which were secured under the names "Ives Carriage Pole" and "Bishop Pole." Their business in these items, if not extending from pole to pole, went as far as Maine and Georgia.
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The History of Hamden MOVING THE RAILROAD TRACKS
For many years railway accommodations for Mount Carmel people were limited to two open platforms, one at Ives Street, the other near the Axle Works. The railway agent at Ives Street was Riley Parmeter, who kept the general store there, and Willis Miller acted in the same capacity at the Axle Works. About 1874 a station was erected somewhat below the Mount Carmel meetinghouse, and Elam Dickerman was the station agent. Before this time he had been in the Axle Works and the Ives, Woodruff Company, and had helped his father, Orrin Dickerman, in the slaughter-house which he maintained at Clark's Pond.
At that time the tracks ran beside the Cheshire Turn- pike through Centerville and Mount Carmel, and com- plaints were many that the trains frightened horses on the road. William Durand and his wife brought suit against the railroad company for injuries they received in an accident when their horse ran away. The judge of the Superior Court, in awarding them $6,000 dam- ages, remarked:
The defendants located their road in such a way that travel on the turnpike is exceedingly perilous. It is an eminently dangerous place. It has been the scene of accidents. . . . It is remarkable that commission- ers should have consented to accept such a location of the road.
A town meeting in 1879 voted to borrow $15,000 to improve the turnpike, "and to secure the removal of the railroad tracks from their location adjacent to the highway to such a route as shall secure ordinary safety to public travel."
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Whitney Avenue, 1847-1880, Showing Railroad Tracks in the Road
Gift of Arnold G. Dana
Gift of Dr. George Joslin
Elam Dickerman's Depot Store
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TENTMEDICINES,
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CIGAR
JTS,SHOES.
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Within two weeks a special town meeting was called, and James Ives moved to rescind the action so recently taken. The vote was close, so close according to the town records, that
owing to the large number of persons present it was impossible for the moderator to determine the result of the vote by acclamation. The meeting adjourned temporarily to assemble in the open air, and upon re- quest of the moderator, separated into two divisions to be counted. The count having been made, the mod- erator was informed by the tellers that there were 282 in favor of the motion [to rescind], and 285 opposed.
So by the narrow margin of three votes, the town proceeded to pay the railroad $14,000 to move the tracks westward to their present position, beginning near the Hamden Plains Church and extending as far north as Lorenzo Peck's, at the corner of Whitney Av- enue and Todd Street.
This was one of the few bad bargains the town ever made. The railroad had paid $3,000 in the first place for the privilege of laying the tracks beside the high- way, had operated there much to the public hazard for thirty years, and then was paid a substantial sum to "move over."
WILLIS BENHAM'S LAWSUIT
A natural aftermath of the removal of the railroad tracks was a dispute about property rights involved. Willis Benham, who lived on Dixwell Avenue north of where the high school now stands, brought suit against First Selectman Edwin Potter, claiming that the old highway, fenced in and used by him while the canal and railroad were in use there, and which the town was
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The History of Hamden
now trying to reopen and use as a highway, should be his. Mr. Benham's claims were sustained by the court, and the town paid him $2,500 for the land.
The difficulties which the town experienced with the railroad, the turnpikes, and the canal were typical also of other American towns of the period.
A new depot was built in 188 I just north of the meet- inghouse on the new railroad line, and Elam Dickerman was the agent there for a short time. It is said that the new station was opened on a very rainy day, and that Elam stood out on the platform under an inadequate umbrella with a handful of tickets, ready for prospec- tive passengers. The railroad company asked him to learn telegraphy, but he would not be burdened with the task. Instead he purchased the old brick depot on the turnpike and operated a general store in it. When the building burned, Elam was given the old 1770 schoolhouse, which had not been used as a school since the new No. 3 building was put up in a more central location opposite the present Fitch Brothers gas station and nearer the mountain. Willis Miller entertained enough sentiment for the old school-the only one he had ever attended-to buy it and present it to Elam, who moved it to where his store had stood. Eventually it was moved over to Ives Street and used as a part of the house on the northwest bank of the river.
Old residents of Mount Carmel believed that the building was not a schoolhouse originally, but a "Sabba day" house for the Mount Carmel church.
POPULATION
There were five villages in Hamden in 1880, cen- tered about the churches and factories. Increasing num-
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bers of New Haven's population were moving out here into the suburbs. Some town officials expressed concern that many newcomers from New Haven were of such limited means that they very soon became a care and expense to the town. The population of the villages was approximately as follows:
Augerville, 62
Ivesville, 474
Centerville, 191
Whitneyville, 196
Hamburg, 477
Comparative figures for Hamden and New Haven for ninety years show-
Census
Hamden
New Haven
1790
1,422
4,448
1800
1,482
5,157
1810
1,716
6,697
1820
1,687
8,327
1830
1,666
10,678
1840
1,797
15,820
1850
2,164
22,529
1860
2,728
39,277
1870
3,028
50,840
1880
3,408
62,880
Writing in 1886, William P. Blake says: "The horse railways contribute somewhat to the increase of the population of the suburbs of the city, and when they become sufficiently powerful and farsighted to surmount the small natural obstacle of the Mill Rock trapdyke, there will be a rapid expansion of population upon the high plains beyond it."
Edward Davis operated the Whitney Avenue horse- car line which had its terminus at the Whitney Armory, for a period of ten years, beginning in 1877. Coming to Hamden in 1837, he at first lived on "Spring Glen,"
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The History of Hamden
the property later owned and so named by James J. Webb. He subsequently bought a place on the Hart- ford Turnpike, and began the systematic acquisition of considerable adjoining land, which he eventually sold to the New Haven Country Club. Previous to his operation of the horsecar line, he was a farmer and dairyman. He held town office once as an assessor, and one term as selectman. His sons William and James established the Davis Brick Company.
During the period of horsecar terminus at the armory, Norman Lyman of Waite Street used to ride a high-wheeled bicycle from his home to Blakeslee's store, which stood beside Day's boathouse. He left the bicycle there during the day, using the horsecar for the journey to his work in New Haven. Boys who hung around the store used to play with the fascinating vehi- cle. One of them, while riding it, had the misfortune to slip off from the store's rear veranda which overhung the lake, plunging into the water. He and his com- panions had a busy time fishing the clumsy vehicle from its deep bath, and thereafter removing the muddy traces of the episode before Mr. Lyman came to claim it.
The stage lines were still in operation. Jerome Dor- man managed the Hamden Plains line, and the Mount Carmel stage changed hands many times-E. P. Lucas, Collett, Burleigh, Ives, 'Neas Warner, and Harmon Wakefield being the drivers. Harmon Wakefield also did carting for the factories at Mount Carmel. He was said to have had a strong aversion to driving in the rain, creating situations often trying to the manufacturers. On one cloudy morning a messenger from a local com- pany came to Harmon's door, saying, "Would you be willing to do a job today, in spite of the very heavy dew?"
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Wheels Begin to Turn THE MOUNT CARMEL BOLT COMPANY
The Mount Carmel Bolt Company was established in 1880. One is not surprised to observe that James Ives was the president; but it is also interesting to note that all the officers were the same as those of the Mount Carmel Water Company. They began in the building on the west side of the Cheshire Turnpike, opposite Ives Street, where businesses have been continuous. They made stove and tire bolts, and rivets of steel. Edward McLane, the company's master mechanic, in- vented and patented an automatic machine to turn out what were gruesomely called "cold-pressed swedge- nuts," used on tire bolts.
"DOCTOR" HURD
The town of Hamden had profited by the expert and kindly services of Dr. Edwin Swift for many years --- services which could perhaps be better appreciated when compared with the services offered by a Negro who called himself "Doctor" Hurd. This healer settled on Arch Street in Highwood, in a 12- by 15-foot shed- like house in which he sheltered a wife and fifteen chil- dren. He said that he had been a slave, "born down in Virginny a long time before the War."
He enjoyed an incredibly large practice, being called from as far away as West Haven. He could neither read nor write, and was eccentric in dress. On his pro- fessional rounds he wore a silk hat, Prince Albert coat, dark striped trousers, and a pair of high gum boots, over which he slipped a pair of arctics.
Two signboards decorated the front of his house, one over the door and the other over the windows. They
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The History of Hamden
were embellished with crudely painted horseshoes. One of them read:
Dr. Hurd is sure to cure the dipther and scarlet fever, and if lose the voice can bring it back again and brest desease. $5 advance.
The other said:
I can cure all kinds sore throat and no questions asked. I can handle a case in 80 minutes. Give me a trial if your baby is sick. Also rheumatics cured.
His kit, which he carried in his left-side overcoat pocket, consisted of an old baking-powder can filled with "improved liniment," a sticky, greasy, dark-col- ored ointment, that might have been mistaken for good wagon grease, or if analyzed, would perhaps have proved to be lard and gunpowder, a favorite remedy of the Southern Negro for curing all ills that flesh is heir to.
To cure the "dipther" he rubbed some of his magic material about the throat; and for scarlet fever he gave the patient a bath of it. With this same cure-all he brought back the voice from the depths of silence and relieved "brest desease," the latter treatment requiring very hard rubbing with the ointment.
Doctor Hurd handed out slips of paper on which was written,
Notice! I will guarantee to cure any case of Scarlet Fever or Diphtheria in two hours unless the person is too far gone.
DR. DANIEL HURD.
He boasted that in all his long practice he had lost only two patients, and that both of them, previous to their
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Wheels Begin to Turn
last illness, had been victims of "fussing" by other doc- tors. He was called in too late, that was all. But his one weak spot was the necessity to explain why he had not been able to cure his deceased wife. His only explanation was that it was "in strawberry time," he was very busy, and somehow she died.
First he always gave a "zamination," grasping the right wrist and then the left. Then he placed a hand on the patient's forehead and requested him to blow two full breaths into his (the doctor's) face, so that he might detect stomach troubles. He claimed to be able to diagnose a fever merely by touching the patient's flesh. Believing that fever was at the bottom of all ill- ness, and that the part of the body affected could be located by touch, he concentrated his attention upon that area. For eighty minutes, sometimes a shorter period, he watched to see whether the fever was increasing or subsiding. He had only to poke his thumb into the "digest"-which he designated as "where the short ribs run together in front"-to find out what the patient had eaten for breakfast and what had created the internal commotion. It is hard to believe that this imposter prospered in Hamden up until 1893!
EAST ROCK PARK
The layout of East Rock Park, part of which lies in Hamden, was designed in 1880 by Donald G. Mitch- ell, New Haven author, known through his books as "Ik Marvel." For some years the Rock had been owned by Seth Turner, a hermit who lived in a stone house. In 1855, it was acquired by Milton J. Stewart who, in anticipation of another flood, built a boat forty feet long on the summit of the Rock. When the prop-
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The History of Hamden
erty was condemned and taken over by the city, the park officials thriftily made the boat into a huge flower pot. Mr. Stewart retaliated by building on State Street near Lawrence a row of twelve miserable and unsightly hovels which became known as "the dirty dozen."
In designing the park, Mr. Mitchell set down for succeeding generations to love and admire as great an unfolding tale of delight as any of his books contained. In spring, summer, and autumn, the miles of its drives, lined with trees and shrubs, laurel, dogwood, and cool dark ferns, display Nature at her loveliest. Unparal- leled vistas and panoramas can be viewed to all points of the compass-the city of New Haven and its harbor, the villages of Hamden, the majestic Sleeping Giant blue in the distance, Lake Whitney and the lower curves and twists of Mill River-which, seen from above, sug- gest the words of the poem,
Great, wide, wonderful, beautiful world, With the wonderful waters about you curled.
Driving up East Rock in horse-drawn vehicles on Sunday afternoon was a favorite recreation for many; and on the Fourth of July the walk to the top was well rewarded by a sight of the fireworks on New Haven Green. A flock of sheep used to graze picturesquely on the rounded sunny slope near the Davis Street gate in Hamden. Poets may endlessly sing of the natural beauties around us, but without putting a pen to paper, Mr. Mitchell yet brought to our hearts, without the need of words, the never-ceasing inspiration and love for all beauty and its Creator, which man since the world began has found in woods and flowers, lakes and mountains.
Men in front row, Samuel Hayes, Lyman H. Bassett, Allen Osborn, with Edwin McLane behind him
Bolt Company Employees
Gift of Arnold G. Dana
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Whitneyville Post Office, on Whitney Avenue at Augur Street
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Wheels Begin to Turn TOWN AFFAIRS
The practice of levying a special school tax was dis- continued, and after 1878 an annual appropriation from town funds was made. The Webster-Franklin Readers and Harper's Geography were adopted for the schools, and the school visitors, who still constituted the examin- ing board for teachers, took under consideration the pro- vision of free textbooks for poor children. They turned down someone's timorous suggestion of making Memo- rial Day a school holiday. Schools were apparently con- sidered less and less important when money was expend- ed from the town treasury. The cost of running Ham- den schools in 1875 was $6,175.67; then in 1876, $6,480; in 1877, $5,813.46; in 1878, $5,600; in 1879, $4,953; and $4,900.36 in 1880.
The annual town meeting of 1880 resolved that "in view of the extraordinary amount paid for counsel fees the past year, the selectmen be and are hereby requested to explain the necessity for such outlay; such explanation to be made now, or at the adjourned meeting in Jan- uary." The town fathers decided to explain later. This action is illustrative of the fearless use made by the citi- zens in town meeting of their right to question.even the highest officers, and demand answers.
ROADS AND BRIDGES
Three bridges were built over Mill River within a five-year period-an iron one at Centerville, south of the Web Company; another on Ives Street, replacing an old wooden bridge near Lucius Ives's house; and Pardee's bridge leading into North Haven, east of Centerville on Dixwell Avenue.
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The History of Hamden
The town voted to set up stone posts on the boun- dary lines with Wallingford and Cheshire, "provided these towns will bear half the expense." An appropria- tion of $1,000 was made for hardening Whitney Av- enue from Armory Street to the New Haven town line, and an equal amount was set aside for improving Dix- well Avenue, beginning with the New Haven line. Four dollars a day was allowed on road work for a man and team.
The vote on the sale of liquor was close during these years-246 to 201 for license in 1884, 220 to 204 in 1885, and 194 to 178 in 1886.
Dr. Edwin Swift and Michael Farrell were joint health officers, and they reported: "The health of the town is good. No epidemic has swept over any portion thereof. Malarial troubles, which for a period of eight- een or more years [from 1863] were the scourge of Hamden, are now but little seen."
The town continued to carry out faithfully the terms of Enos Brooks's will in regard to expenditure of the earnings of the town farm. In 1880 $200 was gained "from hay, grain, garden produce, cows, swine and chickens," and it was "worked out by E. W. Pinney, superintendent of the farm, on the Cheshire Turnpike between Mount Carmel Church and the store of Hobart Kimberly."
Selectman Charles P. Augur kept An Account Book of Supplies Furnished Outside Poor by Town of Ham- den, and some of the items are worthy of mention as a picture of conditions in this period:
Mrs. J., colored, Hamburg. 3 children. Husband "No Good." Destitute. $1. a week order for goods. Two year old died and was buried in the free ground of the
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Wheels Begin to Turn
Whitneyville Cemetery. Paid sexton for digging grave, $1.50.
I., native, wife and four children. Health bad. Have received help for several years. I. died at town house. Widow remarried. New husband is better than the old one. Two children sent to county home. Mrs. again a resident of the town house with her babe of about 7 months.
J. I., old bummer, belongs to East Haven. $18.10 paid by East Haven.
Miss S., native, imbecile. Board her for $I. a week. Later for $5 a month.
Mrs. G. Husband gone off with another woman, and left her with six children. Some coal and $I a week.
K., Hungarian. Taken to hospital in New Haven. Found under brick shed sick. About 25 years old. Been in country only six months. In town 3 days. Dis- charged and left town. Hospital bill $20.87.
Thomas. English. Lived in Centerville. About 35 years old. Wife and child. Partially deranged for some months, but is now considered dangerous. His wife not being able to support him and he having no relatives, was sent to the Middletown Insane Asylum.
THE James Ives
James Ives retired from business in 1883, at the age of seventy-eight, having spent fifty years in active man- agement of Mount Carmel industries. The firm of Ives and Woodruff became Woodruff and Miller. In the same year, Gesnar and Mar's shipyard in West Haven
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The History of Hamden
launched a three-masted schooner known as the James Ives. The principal owner was Henry Sutton, and the stockholders lived in New Haven and Mount Carmel. Hobart Ives was captain, and there was a crew of nine. The vessel carried coal and lumber along the coast, and her first run was to Baltimore. She was 140 feet long, 35 feet wide, and her hold was 1 1 1/2 feet deep.
James Ives's nephew and Lucius Ives's grandson, Frank G. Ives, died a comparatively young man. The account of his funeral, besides showing the high regard in which he was held, is interesting for the description of the floral tributes.
FRANK G. IVES
The services over the remains of the late Frank G. Ives were conducted at the Congregational Church Saturday afternoon by Rev. Mr. Higgins. A crowded church attested the interest felt on the occasion of this sudden removal of one of the most promising and re- spected of our young men. In his business relations, in his capacity as librarian of the Sunday School, and as a member of the Sons of Temperance he had won for himself deserving high regard. Excelsior Division, S. of T., attended the funeral in a body and contribut- ed a floral piece emblematic of the order. There was also a pillow from his mother and sister, a cross from the Sunday School, an anchor, star and white dove from his associates in business, and gates-ajar from his em- ployer, William Hitchcock. The bearers were A. E. Woodruff, W. C. Ives, T. F. Farrell, W. S. Ives, H. D. Clark and George Andrews. As a mark of re- spect the shops were closed during the afternoon and the stores were kept closed during the funeral services.
An indication of the importance of the Ives family in Mount Carmel is brought out in the account of a golden wedding anniversary:
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Mt. Carmel without its Ives's would be like Shakes- peare's Hamlet with Hamlet's part left out. That this family name lives and thrives here, is seen in the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Lucius Ives celebrated their golden wedding anniversary Tuesday. . .. Much of the suc- cess of the gathering was due Leverett Dickerman, Dr. Swift and C. A. Burleigh. . . . Some 150 per- sons participated in the festivities of the occasion, among them a neighbor, Mrs. Todd, upwards of eighty years old without a gray hair. Of the family, five chil- dren and six grandchildren-all that are home-were present.
The anniversary was held in the old homestead where Mr. Ives was born and has always lived [on the east side of Mill River, on Ives St.]. The grounds were brilliantly illuminated with Chinese lanterns, and the Centerville Brass Band enlivened the occasion with choice music.
Letters of congratulation and respect were received from Rev. Hubbell, who so firmly tied the knot fifty years ago, from Rev. I. P. Warren, D.D., of Portland, Me., and Rev. J. H. DeForest, of Osaka, Japan, both former pastors here; also Rev. A. Putnam of Whit- neyville. From Rev. J. Brewster came a magnificent display of calla lilies and cut flowers, whose fragrance filled the house. Rev. L. H. Higgins invoked the divine blessing, and followed by a brief presentation speech a magnificent loaf of cake, most artistically iced, bear- ing the dates, "1833-1883," the whole surrounded by fifty one-dollar gold pieces, and presented by friends outside the family.
Mr. Ives and wife have been members of the Congre- gational Church here for fifty years, and Mr. Ives a member of the choir for some sixty years. . . . The venerable couple share the good will and hearty wishes of the community where they have been so long and
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The History of Hamden
widely known. . . . Take it all in all, it was a red- letter day for the Ives family, as well as Mount Car- mel.
Back in 1868, the Ives homestead had been the scene of another golden wedding, of Jason and his wife. Jason was one of Elam Ives's thirteen children, and he with his brother Parsons drove the freight team in 1812. The newspaper account said in part:
The pleasant hospitable residence is located on the banks of Mill River, whose murmuring notes harmon- ized finely with the festive occasion, while the Sleeping Giant, Mt. Carmel, but a short distance to the north and in full view, not only added largely to the at- tractiveness of the scenery, but seemed to invest it with a mysterious and supernatural interest. . . . In these days of physical degeneracy, it was peculiarly interesting to behold the erect and vigorous figures of the bride and groom-examples of vigorous and tem- perate habits-true descendants of their parents. . . . The whole affair was interspersed with vocal and in- strumental music of a high character, to which neither the parties nor premises were strangers.
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