USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1936 > Part 27
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When he entered the Army for service in France, Dr. Walter Lay was obliged to give up his position as
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The History of Hamden
health officer, and Dr. George Joslin once more took over the responsibilities. In his 1915 report he credited Hamden with being the largest milk producer among all of the towns suburban to New Haven. Having an acquaintance with the inspection work done by the New Haven Board of Health, he testified to the excellent quality of the milk sold by Hamden dairymen.
Dr. Joslin also increased the garbage-collection ser- vice which Dr. Lay had begun in Whitneyville several years before, by instituting a route through Dixwell Avenue and its side streets to the New Haven line, and promising its extension throughout the town as neces- sity demanded. In his didactic way he commented: "Patrons of garbage collection service will please bear in mind that the garbage is fed to swine, and the swine refuse to consume tin cans, coal ashes, bottles and other unpalatable pabulum. Patrons will kindly refrain from putting such articles in the garbage can."
The garbage collection made possible an increasing number of pigs at the town farm, which thereby became a better-paying proposition than it had been in the past. Selectmen had complained in successive reports of 1903 onward, that the town farm cost too much. Although, on the average, there were but a few elderly inmates, nevertheless the expenses for the upkeep of the house and the farm implements had to be paid, however few they were. At one time a tool shed was built to pro- tect the farm implements from the weather, but the selectmen would not justify making the further outlay of $ 500 to install a bathtub and hot water, which would involve building a windmill at the "never-failing spring" on the property. They considered the farm a burden and "a white elephant upon the town's hands; but we have it and must make the best of it." That they
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did make the best of it in more ways than one by 1915 was indicated in the report: "At the town farm the general crops were fairly good, and the crop of corn was excellent. The inmates are being well taken care of by the new superintendent. From the collection of garbage we have been enabled to increase the number of swine raised, to fifty of various sizes."
The health problem of controlling the mosquito men- ace was initially dealt with by draining a section of the old canal near Dr. Joslin's, which was a breeding place, and a swamp in Whitneyville. The first drainage sewer was installed at St. Mary and Morse Streets after the low corner was filled in. Sanitary sewer needs were evident, and Dr. Joslin reported: "Through the enter- prise of some of the large manufacturing interests, the Dixwell Avenue sanitary sewer has been extended sev- eral blocks north into the town of Hamden." This ex- tension was owned by the Whitney Blake and the Mar- lin Rockwell Companies.
Theodore Whitney Blake acquired the Dixwell Av- enue site for the wire factory in 1912, adding the site of the old No. II school on the north. He transferred the land to the Whitney Blake Company in 1913, and the capital stock of the concern was increased from $ 100,000 to $250,000.
The Marlin Rockwell plant had developed as a war industry on property purchased in 1918 from the Mayo Radiator Company on Dixwell Avenue south of Putnam Avenue. The building was planned in January, and was rushed to completion in March under great difficulties. The excavation was blasted out of earth four feet deep with frost in one of the hardest winters in fifty years. The Radiator Company's purchase of the property in 1909 from Charlotte Munson had marked
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The History of Hamden
the end of a seventy-year ownership by the family of Henry Munson, who had acquired it in 1840 from James M. Ford, Hamden's representative at Hartford in 1859-60.
The Acme Wire Company was the earliest of the large interests to operate on Dixwell Avenue. It came there after its five-year occupancy of the Whitney Ar- mory site in Whitneyville. The founder and first presi- dent was Victor Morris Tyler, son of the president of New Haven's pioneer telephone exchange, established in 1888.
The first telephone exchange in Hamden was located by the Southern New England Telephone Company in Dr. Lay's story-and-a-half house in Centerville. The building later became the quarters of the Hamden Free Public Library.
War-time demands brought the purchase of the Web Shop in Centerville by the American Mills Company of Waterbury, a large and well-established concern producing elastic webbing. Originally the company was organized by brass manufacturers who were making the metal trimmings for suspenders. In the Centerville factory they manufactured cartridge and machine-gun belting, and straps for gas masks.
SCHOOL CONDITIONS
Another proposal to build a Hamden high school was voted down in 1916, as was also the suggestion that manual training classes be set up in the old Whitney- ville school and the Mount Carmel Bolt Company.
New schools were needed in Centerville, Highwood, and Newhall. The School Board reported that the population of the town had increased from 5,850 in
The Old Handen Plains Methodist Church
...... 444.
Centerville Crossroads in 1836
The Door Tree, in Sleeping Giant Park
Only the Giant Sleeps 409
1910 to 9,073 in 1916, the gain in one year being 776. They substantiated their figures with the building in- spector's report which showed the erection in one year of 64 one-family houses and 10 two-family houses. Through the efforts of the School Board, appeal was made to the state legislature, which authorized the issuance of school bonds to the amount of $ 1 50,000.
The schools of the town with the number of rooms and the attendance were:
West Woods
I room, 17 pupils
Mt. Carmel, No. I
I
25
Mt. Carmel, No. 4
2
85
Centerville
4
142
Mix
I
34
Putnam
8 293
Old Whitneyville
3 92
State Street
4 150
Old State Street I
43
Church Street
8
319
Dunbar
I
44
Highwood
8
273
Humphrey Hall
2
72
The nationality of these 1,589 schoolchildren might be roughly estimated from a tabulation made in 1917 which showed the distribution of foreign-born in Hamden's population :
Austria
2.6 per cent
French Canada
I.I
Other Canadian
2
England, Scotland, Wales
6.2
France
.4
Germany
9.6
Greece
.2
Hungary
I.I
Ireland
21
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The History of Hamden
Italy 30.7
Netherlands, Belgium .4
Scandinavia 4.5
Russia
18.7
Turkey
4.
All others
1.3
An epidemic of infantile paralysis in the fall of 1917 delayed the opening of school until October.
The school children patriotically purchased thrift stamps, amounting in six months of 1918, to $4,484. Junior Red Cross classes were organized, in which the children did sewing, snipping, and knitting, and made joke books for soldiers. The summer-school session for this work had the largest registration of any town in the state. The Junior Red Cross work was developed through the activity of the Hamden Red Cross Chap- ter which had been organized just before the war, and whose notable war work was conducted in the Center- ville parish house and the Mount Carmel No. 4 school.
HAMDEN SOLDIERS
Four hundred Hamden young men were called to the service of their country, and an honor roll bearing their names was set up on the lawn of the town hall. Incidentally the town hall was in bad condition. As far back as 1914, the north wall was reported to have set- tled several inches, causing the brickwork of the sides to be "badly rent." In 1918 the cellar walls were noticeably settling, making splits in the building.
In March, 1918, the Hamden War Bureau was or- ganized at a public meeting. A special town meeting held in June resolved
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Only the Giant Sleeps
that the Town of Hamden does recognize said War Bureau as the agency to conduct all war work in the town; does approve its constitution and bylaws, and appropriates the sum of $638.85, being the unappro- priated balance of the penalty tax received by the treas- urer from the State; to be expended for the benefit of the men who already have or may enter the war ser- vice from Hamden, and for expenses necessary to the Bureau.
The money was largely expended for postage, and gifts of razors and tobacco to soldiers.
When the war was over, a Welcome Home Day, June 14, 1919, was celebrated, under the auspices of twenty-nine organizations headed by J. Frederick Jack- son. A parade of nearly 100 automobiles and motor trucks ended at the town hall which was handsomely decorated in honor of the 150 boys who were the guests of the day. A sumptuous banquet was served, and the program of entertainment included music by school children, band and drum corps selections, and addresses by Selectman George Warner, Dr. Amos P. Wilder, and Reverend Harris Starr. Father Downes read the address written by Judge James H. Webb whose illness prevented him from attending. Taps followed the reading of the names of Hamden's honored dead. Danc- ing until midnight ended the program.
The committee decided to use whatever money was left over for the benefit of needy soldiers, and also to print an account of Hamden Men in the World War. Nine issues of a home news pamphlet publication called Hamden, had been sent to the boys while they were in service.
A. Frederick Oberlin, who later became the Hamden assistant town engineer, went to France as a first lieu-
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The History of Hamden
tenant, afterward becoming a captain in the One Hun- dred Second Regiment. While serving as the regiment's intelligence officer in the action at Seichprey, he suc- ceeded in getting back to Colonel Parker at Beaumont information about Company C, which was believed lost in Remieres Wood. Several runners had been killed in attempting to do this, and he was cited for "extra- ordinary heroism and sound judgment, when in abso- lute disregard of danger, he risked his life throughout the engagement. His conduct was marked by distinguished courage, resource and gallantry."
During the bombardment of Beaumont, he volun- tarily carried information of great value, five or six times, through an exceedingly heavy barrage until the end of the engagement. He was decorated with the Dis- tinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre, and re- ceived three citations.
Bernard Early, who gained national fame through the brave deeds which he performed in his close asso- ciation with Sergeant Alvin York, is a Hamden resident.
Brave deeds were done by scores of Hamden's valiant men, some recognized by official decorations, others un- known and unrecounted. But whether or not the world knew their worth, their townspeople's hearts were full of gratitude. These Hamden men fell in the service of their country:
John F. MacDermott
Edward Streeto
Robert B. Remington
Angelo Cavallero
Paul R. Farrel
Bamby Leo
Theodore F. Hesse Antonio Cardo
Maurice Collins
Francis J. Barrett
Arthur Parmalee
William Mueller
John Stevens Charles Mulligan
Joseph Williamson
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Only the Giant Sleeps
The town had established a fund of $8,000 for the erection of a memorial to its war heroes. A special town meeting in 1919 voted against the purchase of the square of ground east of the town hall.
Citizens were seating themselves on the stage be- cause all other available space was occupied, when the meeting opened. The veteran moderator declared him- self unaffiliated with any faction and able to discharge his duties impartially. Town Clerk Deane read the call of the meeting, which was to decide whether or not to purchase, for park purposes, the square opposite the town hall, bounded by School Street and Dixwell, Whitney, and Washington Avenues.
The first motion-to table discussion of the site-was lost by a goodly margin, and was followed by a motion that the recommendation of the Finance Board to pur- chase the site be adopted. This opened animated discus- sion plentifully sprinkled with lively argument, which in this particular issue contained no politics.
Those who favored the purchase pointed out that the town needed an outdoor meeting place, that a park in this locality would be a great public improvement, that, as the largest town in the county Hamden ought to have a public square, that such a place would be a suit- able memorial to our war heroes, and an inducement to outsiders to come to the town.
Those who were opposed to the acquisition of the property were chiefly interested in other projects for war memorials, either a monument or a community house or another site, some saying that this site was not practicable.
When the chair pointed out that the call of the meet- ing did not incorporate a memorial project, the question was perforce narrowed down to discussion of this site
414
The History of Hamden
only. Much fervent talk of civic gratitude to war he- roes and how best "to write their names forever in the hearts of the townspeople" showed that the voters were more interested in the choice of a war memorial than they were in the town's need for this property. There were not enough people in favor of the site to outweigh the combined opposition of those who for various rea- sons opposed it, so the motion was lost.
This is but one illustration of Hamden's character- istic behavior in important town matters-she neither takes action nor spends money impulsively, but always takes a reasonable amount of time to weigh and consider pros and cons.
One of the important results of the war was the adop- tion of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Federal Con- stitution, and whatever Hamden's sentiments in regard to it may have been, one may assume from her record of votes for local option that she heartily concurred in the attitude taken by the state of Connecticut in refusing to ratify the Amendment.
The Eighteenth Amendment became effective on Jan- uary 16, 1920, and within six months the Nineteenth Amendment, granting the ballot to women, was also in effect. In the election of that year, 526 Hamden women were made voters.
Rapidly growing expenses of the town were not alone those of the schools. It was necessary to float road bonds of $ 100,000 to provide for the construction and maintenance of town roads and a new concrete bridge over Mill River in Centerville. The fire companies received $ 10,000 in 1919 and an equal amount in 1920. The new Seagrave engine at Humphrey cost $ 12,694, twenty-two fire-alarm boxes amounted to $11,000, while $2,742 was spent for hydrants and their upkeep.
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Only the Giant Sleeps
Yet no matter what their cost, no one questioned the need for this fire protection in a town the size of Ham- den. A forceful reminder of this was given on January 13, 1918, when the Hamden Plains Methodist Church burned. Nearly all day the thermometer had stood just above zero and a heavy wind was blowing when the blaze was discovered. The fire, caused by a defective flue, was so far under way that all the valiant efforts of firemen from Humphrey, Highwood, Whitneyville, and New Haven were in vain. Working until dark, wet through and covered with ice, the volunteers suc- ceeded only in confining the blaze to the church build- ing.
The Humphrey Fire Company did more than fight the fire, for they gave the use of their building to the church for a period of two years. During this time the present brick church was erected on the site of the old edifice. Hubert Warner, a direct descendant of Sybil Tuttle, helped to spread the mortar for the corner- stone. Among the articles placed in it was the list of names of the thirteen World War soldiers whose church home this was, and not surprisingly, it included a Dor- man and four Warners.
The Census of 1920 showed the population of the town to be 8,611-4,381 males, and 4,230 females. Other interesting statistics were these:
Of Native Parentage 3,510
Of Foreign Parentage
2,388
Of Mixed Parentage 564
Foreign-Born White
1,974
Negro
175
Foreign Born
573
Illiterate 601Native White
I5
(Negro I3
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The History of Hamden
Women became more prominent in town activities after the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment. The Visiting Nurse Association was founded in 1919, and Julia Reynolds was the first nurse. Her services were in heavy demand at once, during the extensive epidemic of influenza which swept the town.
For the first time in its history, the School Board had a woman member, Mrs. Amos P. Wilder. Ray- mond Collins became chairman, due to the illness of Father Downes. Two innovations in the schools were a special class for mentally deficient children, and a class organized in Highwood for foreign-born adults who were beginning to read. The Americanization class- es were taught, with the exception of one paid teacher, by volunteers, many of them from Yale. In the second year, sessions were held for 75 nights in the Dixwell School, with an enrollment of 62, made up of adults and boys of working age.
These classes were largely promoted by the High- wood Italian-American Club, which had been organ- ized in 1915. Its average membership of 50 men has always been required to be American citizens, and the club's chief purpose has been Americanization work in Highwood, whose population is 75 per cent Italian. Through the club's activity, 200 foreign-born residents have become citizens. Much work with boys has also been done through the sponsoring of boy scouts and a baseball team which once won the New Haven City Championship.
The erection of new Hamden school buildings pro- ceeded with breath-taking momentum. In the seven years from 1918 through 1924, five new buildings were erected-Centerville and Newhall in 1918; Mount Carmel and Pine in 1921; and Spring Glen in 1924.
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Only the Giant Sleeps
Additions were made to four-two rooms at Dunbar in 1918, four rooms at State Street in 1919, and to New- hall and Church Street in 1923. Kindergartens were set up in the five largest schools.
Hamden Hall, a private school for boys, was organ- ized by John P. Cushing, who had been principal of New Haven High School for many years. He pur- chased the Morris Steinert property on Whitney Av- enue opposite Davis Street.
The New Haven Orphan Asylum was set up on seventeen acres in Whitneyville given by Frederick Brewster, grand-nephew of James Brewster, carriage maker and railroad magnate. During World War I, the property was cultivated as a vegetable garden in which the children hoed and weeded as their war activity. After the buildings were erected in 1925, on the "chil- dren's village" plan, the Mount Carmel Children's Home was absorbed by the institution. Mounting ex- pense and an antiquated plant had caused the Home to suspend during the war. They elected the same officers as headed the New Haven Asylum, through whose guidance children sponsored by the Home are placed under foster care and the cost is met by Home funds. Some assistance for these needy children came from Community Chest funds, after such funds became avail- able in 1920.
Two MEMORIALS
The failure of the town to purchase the ground oppo- site the town hall for use as a park was a great disap- pointment to many. But the need was appreciated by Lydia A. Bassett, who upon her death on November 13, 1921, left to the town three tracts of ground on Ridge
418
The History of Hamden
Road at Waite Street, subject to the life use of the Van Doren brothers. She asked that the ground be known as "Bassett Park" in memory of her father and grandfather. The grandfather was Theophilus Bassett, who lived from 1753 to 1829; he married Lydia At- water, who died in 1837. Her father was Theophilus Bassett, Jr. (1794-1870), and her mother was Electa Warner (1797-1858), the daughter of Ebenezer War- ner.
With efforts for a memorial park no longer neces- sary, public sentiment was now ready to settle upon a Memorial Town Hall as Hamden's lasting tribute to her military heroes. It was erected in 1924, at a cost of $160,000. These appropriate eulogies are inscribed upon its rotunda walls:
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
To the heroes of the Revolution of this community who fought and died for liberty and for the birth of a new nation, this hall is consecrated by the Town of Hamden. "What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted. Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just."
WAR OF 1812
To the men of Hamden on land or sea who confirmed the justice of the cause of liberty entrusted to them in the War of 1812. "For freedom's battle once be- gun, bequeathed by bleeding sire to son; though baffled oft, is ever won."
CIVIL WAR
To the heroes of the Civil War from the Town of Hamden, who offered their lives that our nation con- ceived in liberty might endure. "From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion."
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Only the Giant Sleeps
SPANISH WAR
To the men of Hamden who gave their services to their country in the Spanish War to free an oppressed people without thought of gain. "These are the torch- bearers, these are they who have dared the great ad- venture."
WORLD WAR
In thankful and joyful memory of the men and wo- men of this town who by the grace of God gave their lives in the war of 1917-1918 at the call of their coun- try for the cause of righteousness and peace throughout the world.
"When you go home, tell of us and say
For your tomorrow, these gave their today."
The new town hall, designed by Richard Williams, had quarters in the northeast corner for the Centerville Fire Company, which was the first to occupy quarters owned by the town. There were many flights of oratory in town meetings by advocates of bigger and better fire equipment. One excited speaker shouted, "Suppose we should have a great conflagaration!" At this time there were six companies in the town, the latest in the State Street district being known as the Annex. More than $11,000 was spent by the town for their upkeep in 1923, and $18,000 in 1924. A disastrous fire at the Economy Concrete Company on Dixwell Avenue gave the firemen a stubborn battle, and the loss was $ 100,000.
Later spectacular fires included, ironically enough, a barn owned by the chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, James Gillies, and the loss was $ 1,000, including some horses which could not be rescued from the building. Water was pumped from a hydrant on Ridge Road, and the water main was so small that twenty or thirty boilers in neighboring houses collapsed.
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The History of Hamden
A fire at the Dextone Company on Dixwell Avenue in the exact spot where the Economy Concrete Company had stood caused the loss of $ 1 50,000, and the unsight- ly ruins remained untouched for several years.
Firemen, school children, World War veterans, and other citizens participated in a great Community Field Day held at Legion Field in Centerville, under the auspices of the Mount Carmel Civic Club in 1919. Ath- letic events, prizes, music, and hundreds of spectators made the event a great success; particularly so because the insular villages of Hmden needed town-wide inter- ests to draw them together. The name of Legion Field came from the fact that after the war the Water Com- pany allowed Hamden Post, No. 88, Legionnaires to use the field for weekly Sunday baseball games.
The Mount Carmel Civic Club, organized in 1916 under the leadership of Miss Ella Bassett and Mrs. A. E. Woodruff, sponsored activities in addition to Community Field Days, including the establishment of street lights, library help, local improvements- and the planting in front of the library on Whitney Av- enue of memorial trees, each dedicated to a Hamden boy who lost his life in the war. Mrs. Arthur Woodruff was for fifteen years a forceful and diligent president of the club.
Mrs. William Brewster, whose efforts started the Mount Carmel library and helped the Centerville one, was equally interested in all Mount Carmel civic club life. She instituted in her family a custom of making birthday gifts which gave pleasure to the community as well. She gave her husband a present of an illustrated lecture by a noted traveler who brought no less a per- sonage with him than President Hadley of Yale, and the whole Civic Club shared the evening with the
-
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Brewsters. When her small daughter celebrated a birth- day, Mrs. Brewster imported a professional Punch & Judy show to perform on the spacious lawn for the delight of all the children in the community. It was said that on her own birthday Mr. Brewster gave her the money which financed their gift to Grace Church of its parish house.
THE TOWN'S BUSINESS
The town's business had so grown that the first se- lectman was made a full-time official at a salary of $3,000. Two new departments were organized-the Police Department and the Sewer Board. Up until this time, the constables had maintained law and order in a very general way as ordered by the selectmen.
The first full-time engineer, F. Walden Wright, was appointed in 1921, and intricate matters fell under the jurisdiction of his department. There were 150 miles of roads as well as bridges to maintain, new streets, real-estate developments, map making, drains, and now sanitary sewers also became an urgent necessity. The new Sewer Board recommended the purchase of the Dixwell Avenue sewer line for $17,500. New sewer bonds were issued to the amount of $ 100,000, and a tremendous project to serve Whitneyville, Highwood, and Dixwell Avenue to Benham Street almost concur- rently was begun. Fourteen miles of sewers and drains had been laid by 1924 at a cost of $350,000, and when a few years later the Spring Glen line was finished, the town had about fifty miles of mains which served 80 per cent of the town.
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