USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 29
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Manufacturing enterprise had an early beginning but a limited devel- opment in this section as compared with others. Timothy Cheney, as Benjamin Syman well as his brother Benjamin, was nota- ble as one of the first clock-makers in New England. In those days the usual time-
piece was the noon-mark on the kitchen floor, and clocks were rare and costly. Those made by Timothy Cheney and his brother had tall carved cherry-wood cases and wooden works, some of which, after
1 The north road was known in the older time as the Tolland Turnpike, which also had its lines of stages. One of the lines by the Green turned at that point, proceeding to Hartford on the Tolland Turnpike by Buckland's Corners, where for many years in the early part of the century a tavern was kept. This was the rallying-point for the people of this region to pay honor to General Lafayette when on his way to Hartford during his visit to the United States in 1824.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
the lapse of a century, are still keeping good time. In their workshop John Fitch, whose invention of the steamboat antedates that of Fulton, was an apprentice and received his first lessons in mechanics. Subse- quently Richard Pitkin started a cotton-mill, which went into operation only a few years after that at Union Village.1 Still later, Benjamin Lyman was a manufacturer of ploughs, carts, and wagons. He was the first in the State to manufacture cast-iron ploughs in place of those hav- ing the old wooden share and mould-board, and he was the inventor of the iron hub, which went into extensive use in drays and other wheel- vehicles. The excellence of the ploughs and wheels now in use is due in no small degree to the merit of these inventions. Mr. Lyman was also the first in this region to manufacture light one-horse wagons, - light for those days, - whereby the good wives of that time were saved the necessity of going on foot or choosing between the ox-cart and the pillion. Marvin Cone, also, during his long life was engaged in a simi- lar line of manufacture. The carriages and wagons from his factory were in extensive demand for their finish and durability. To this business the present firm - Cone & Wadsworth - succeeded. In 1851 a stockinet-mill was erected by the Pacific Manufacturing Company. In 1861 this company was succeeded by the Seamless Hosiery Com- pany, - Keeney & Colt. The mill was burned, a new one was built, and the business conducted by C. G. & M. Keeney. Addison L. Clark became associated with the Keeney Brothers in 1871, and since 1877 has been the sole owner and manager of the mill, now called the Man- chester Knitting Mill.
Early manufacturing enterprises on the Hockanum River created the settlement called Union Village. Near the present paper-mill of the Keeney & Wood Manufacturing Company was built the first paper- mill in Connecticut, with one exception.2 The news of the battle of Lexington was printed in the " Connecticut Courant " on paper made at this mill, then owned by Ebenezer Watson and Austin Ledyard.3 In 1778 the mill was burned by an incendiary,4 and the legal representa- tives of Watson & Ledyard brought their memorial to the General Assembly, stating their loss to be $20,000, and claiming that this mill had supplied the press of Hartford with eight thousand sheets weekly, and had made a great part of the writing-paper used in this State, besides large quantities for the Continental army and its officers. Permission was granted to hold a lottery to raise the sum of $7,500. In 1784, on a site a little farther west, Butler & Hudson erected a mill which afterward came into the control of John Butler. Of
1 Richard Pitkin, who started this cotton-mill, was a son of the Captain Richard, of the Revolution, mentioned elsewhere in this article. He followed his father into the army, a mere lad acting as teamster. In 1818 he was one of the delegates to the Convention which formed the present State Constitution. He was the father of the late Deacon Horace Pitkin, of Manchester.
2 In 1769 Christopher Leffingwell, of Norwich, was allowed a premium of 2d. a quire for the manufacture of letter-paper, and ld. for printing-paper.
3 The deed of the land and privilege was given to Watson, who, to secure it from his ereditors, made it wholly over to Ledyard. After Watson's decease the administrators applied to the General Assembly for a committee to adjust their accounts, and liberty to grant a deed of one half to Watson's heirs. The committee reported that there "is due Ledyard on the ex- piration of the partnership, Jan. 30, 1779, £171, 17s. 33d.," and that on settlement a deed of release of one half should be given to Watson.
4 Fire has always been the persistent foe of the paper-mills. Not less than thirteen have been burned here during the last forty years.
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this mill Timothy Keeney, father of Timothy Keeney of the present company, was foreman. After Mr. Butler's death Increase Clapp, Tim- othy Keeney, James B. Wood, and Sandford Buckland, who a short time before (in 1838) had formed a partnership under the name of Clapp, Keeney, & Co., purchased the mill property of John Butler's estate. This firm was the first to use paper shavings in the manufac- ture of paper. These shavings, which before had been taken from the 0 03 Word book-binderies in New York to the beach and burned, were bought at a very low price and converted into paper at a great profit. On the death of Mr. Clapp this partnership was dissolved, and in 1850 it was succeeded by the Keeney & Wood Manufacturing Company.
In 1794 the first cotton-mill put into successful operation in Con- necticut was built in Union Village. Of this mill Samuel Pitkin was the principal owner, John Warburton the chief designer and operator. The machinery was made under his supervision, and would be con- sidered at this day a prodigy of clumsiness. Sometime previous to this undertaking Mr. Warburton brought from England some valuable secrets about cotton-spinning which were of great service to the enter- prise. Tradition says that he brought important designs concealed in a false bottom of his trunk. The spinning of cotton was a success ; and people came from afar to see the wonderful machine capable of mak- ing the fabulous amount of twelve pounds of good yarn in a single day. At first the yarn was put out to be woven by hand-looms in the fami- lies of the neighborhood; afterward power-looms were introduced and cloth was made in the mill. In 1819 David Watkinson and brothers, of Hartford, having purchased this mill with a tract of land adjoining, erected a large stone mill, and a company was incorporated under the name of the Union Manufacturing Company. In 1854 this company erected a fine brick mill, which is operated in connection with the stone mill.
At Oakland, in 1832, Henry Hudson, of Hartford, purchased of Joseph Loomis the privilege already occupied by a saw-mill and grist- mill. These he converted into a paper-mill. In 1842 the property was deeded to his son, Melancthon Hudson, and in 1844 a second mill was erected. The Hudson paper-mills were managed by the Hudsons for thirty years, Melancthon Hudson being succeeded by his sons, William and Philip W. Subsequently the Cheney Brothers came into possession of the property, rebuilt and enlarged the old mill, putting into it the best modern machinery, improved the dwelling-houses, and adorned and beautified the grounds, making Oakland an attractive village. In former years the Hudson paper-mill filled large orders for the United States Government. In 1878 the property was sold to the Hurlburt Manufacturing Company, which has since been re- organized under the name of the Oakland Paper Company. Between Oakland and Union Village, in 1831, William Jones started a silk- mill, which was used afterward for the manufacture of satinet, and
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
still later was sold to G. H. Childs, who has converted it into a grist- mill.
Within the present limits of Parker Village a settlement was started in 1808 by John Mather, who built a small glass-factory and powder- mill. It required, it is said, twelve mien to operate these establish- ments ; and Mather was regarded the aristocrat of the region, on ac- John Mathu count of his ability to give orders to such a multitude. The powder was made by using hand - mortars for working the materials. Two kegs of twenty-five pounds each were the daily product of the mill. When fifty kegs were pro- duced, they were loaded into the team-wagon and started on the old turnpike for Boston, to be sold for part cash and part New England rum. In the old time the latter article was deemed an important force in building and running the mills. Some veteran manufacturers remember their apprentice days, when one item of their duty was to go to the store at eleven o'clock for the supply necessary for "dinnering the men." In 1830 Mr. Mather sold this property to Hazard, Loomis, & Brothers, then the powder monopolists of New England, who built a new powder-mill and introduced new methods of manufacturing. They also bought of Daniel W. Griswold another small powder-mill on the same stream, nearer Union Village. The latter privilege was sold, in 1840, to Keeney, Marshall, & Co., who erected thereon a paper-mill, which was burned a few years later, and then a new mill was built, now owned by White, Keeney, & Co. The Mather privilege, sold also in 1840 by the Powder Company, was bought by Lucius Parker & Co., who erected a cotton-warp mill, which is still in operation. Nearly all the powder-mills have had their destructive explosions. The last occurred in 1834, in the mills above mentioned, resulting in the death of six men.1
In 1850 the Pacific Manufacturing Company bought of Daniel Lyman a privilege three quarters of a mile east of Parker Village, and erected a mill to be used in connection with their mill at the Green. This mill was burned, and the privilege was subsequently purchased by Lydall and Foulds, who have a paper-mill and needle-factory here, and also a paper-mill at Parker Village.
In Buckland the first paper-mill was erected in 1780 by Richard L. Jones, who already had in the vicinity a powder-mill and an oil-mill, used afterward as a grist-mill, and later as a wire-factory. During the succeeding forty years the property passed to various owners, among whom were Joseph Chamberlain, who held it in 1825, Colonel Henry Champion, of Colchester, Samuel C. Maxon, and William Debit, by whom it was sold in 1836 to George, Henry, and Edward Goodwin. Subsequently it came into the possession of the National Exchange Bank of Hartford, and was sold, Oct. 15, 1868, to Peter Adams, who has expended a large sum in rebuilding and providing the best manu-
1 The record of deaths kept by the pastor of the First Church gives the names of these persons, and adds: " All but Bivins were killed instantly, and most of their bodies were shock- ingly mangled. A leg of Avery was carried about thirty rods against the roof of a barn with such violence as to break a hole through."
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facturing facilities. The mill is devoted chiefly to the making of writing- paper, and is said to be one of the largest in the country.
A short distance southwest of the Adams mill Aaron Buckland, in 1780, built a woollen-mill, in which he manufactured plain cloth, woven by hand-looms. Mr. Buckland sold the property, Sept. 28, 1824, to Andrew N. Williams and Simon Tracy, who sold the same, March 13, 1828, to Sidney Pitkin, of Lebanon. Elisha E. Hilliard, of Mansfield, first an employé, then a partner, of Mr. Pitkin, afterward became the " owner of the mill. He was also principal owner of the Charter Oak Mill, in South Manchester. Later, F. W. Clark was associated with Mr. Hilliard in the ownership and operation of the latter, which was sold, in 1881, to Cheney Brothers.
The pioneer manufacturer on Hop Brook was Charles Bunce. Hav- ing served his apprenticeship in a paper-mill in New Haven, he came to Hartford in 1788, and was employed by Hudson & Goodwin, printers and paper-manufacturers. He afterward worked in Butler's mill, and for four years was super- intendent of
Charles Bance
a mill in Andover. He then pur- chased of Elisha Pitkin an unfinished building designed for an oil-mill, which he completed ; and there he began the manufacture of paper. His oldest son, George, worked in his father's mill till he became of age, in 1811, when he became a partner in the business. The other sons, Heman, Charles, Walter, Lewis, and Edwin, engaged in paper- making ; other mills were built, and George Hunc for more than sixty years an exten- sive business in this line was car- ried on by members of the family. Lewis Bunce, with his sons, Henry C. and Edgar, had a flourishing mill, which was destroyed, with great loss, by the flood of 1869. For nearly twenty-five years George Bunce owned a mill on a site purchased of George Cheney. On retiring from business, in 1850, he sold it to Cheney Brothers.
Another notable paper-maker was Peter Rogers, who in 1832 leased of Robert McKee a privilege occupied by a powder-mill, which he converted into a paper-mill, making press-boards and binder's boards. Peter Rogers Mr. Rogers came to this country a poor boy from Amsterdam, in Hol- land. He worked for a time in Butler's mill, and was a partner, in 1825, with William Debit in the mill at Buckland. He died in 1841. Mount mcfee The same year his son, Henry E. Rogers, purchased the prop- erty on the expiration of the lease, and in 1849 erected another mill, which was burned in 1869. The Atlantic Mill was erected on the same site in 1881. The first mill was twenty-four feet by thirty, with two stories, and produced
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
but one ton of paper per week. The second mill produced one and a half tons per day, and was the first in the country to use printed- paper stock in making white paper, extracting the ink by a novel process. Two other mills were built by Mr. Rogers farther east, - the first in 1852, the second in 1860. The former was purchased by D. T. Ingalls & Co. It was afterward burned, and the present Oak Grove Mill was built on its site.
In the vicinity of the mills last named are the cotton-warp mills of the Globe Manufacturing Company. This company purchased the privilege in Globe Hollow, previously occupied by the satinet-mill of the American Company, and in 1844 erected there a mill which was used for several years in making cotton warp, and afterward sold to Cheney Brothers. In 1853 the Globe Company purchased the Eagle Hill Mill, erected in 1836 by another company for making satinet, and continued the manufacture of cotton warp. After the decease of Joseph Parker, agent, the mill owned by F. D. Hale, on the site of the old cotton-mill of Richard Pitkin, became also the property of the Globe Manufacturing Company.
At the Highlands, once included in the old Wyllys farm, the Case Brothers have established their business. In 1862, A. Wells Case pur-
WYLLYS FALLS.
chased the privilege, and a mill built by Salter & Strong. In twelve years three mills were destroyed by fire and one by water. Two, built respectively in 1874 and 1884, are now in operation, making press- boards, binder's boards, and manila paper. Two others are operated by the same proprietors in the west part of the town on the sites formerly occupied by Bunce's mills, in which the Case Brothers learned in boyhood the art of paper-making. The romantic beauty of the Highlands is sur- passed by that of few other localities in New England. On the south-
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east the hills are crowned with forest ; in other directions a full view is afforded of Manchester, Hartford, and an extensive portion of the Con- necticut valley. Here the stream falls sixty-five feet over the rocks into the valley below, grass-covered, and enclosed for some distance by wooded bluffs, - a miniature Yosemite, admired by all observers. At the base of these bluffs are excavations that have been made for ore (sulphide of copper), which, being found in limited quantity, was once supposed to indicate the existence of valuable mines. In the original division of the land, the place where the copper-mines were supposed to be was to remain undivided, " to lye for the general benefit of the pro- prietors." Above the falls are the mineral springs, containing - accord- ing to analysis by Professor Barker, formerly of Yale College -- a large percentage of bicarbonate of iron, with sodium, calcium, magnesium, and other elements. In 1869 enterprising parties erected here a com- modious house, intending to make the place a pleasure-resort. This building, just as it was completed, shared the fate of the mill below the falls, as well as of much other property that was swept away at the same time by the flood.
The manufacturing enterprise most remarkable for its growth is that of the Cheney Brothers. Near the close of the last century Timothy Cheney removed to a farm about a mile south of his former home at the Centre, and, improving the water-power, built a saw-mill and grist-mill on the stream, and near it the house yet known in South Manchester as the Cheney homestead. When lie died, in 1795, his son Timothy re- turned to the former home at the Centre, while George, another son, occupied the later house, and there passed his life, an influential citizen in his generation, as his father had been before him. George Cheney was married to Electa Woodbridge, Oct. 18, 1798. Their children were George Wells, John, Charles, Ralph, Seth Wells, Ward, Rush, Frank, and Electa, wife of the Hon. Richard Goodman, of Lenox, Mass. Several of the sons, after the manner of New England boys, left home in youth to engage in various pursuits. John and Seth became artists of rare skill and genius, and gave their energies chiefly to their profession, but had part in the business enterprises of their brothers. Seth W. Cheney A CHENEY CLOCK. died, greatly lamented, in 1856, aged forty-six. Charles and Ward were for several years merchants in Providence; but later, Charles went to Ohio, where he bought a farm near Cincinnati. The brothers who remained at home became afterward interested in experiments in silk-culture. In March, 1836, they built a small mill known as the Mount Nebo Silk Mill, and began the manufacture of sewing-
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
silk, -their first venture as silk-manufacturers. On the rise of the Morus multicaulis speculation, Ward, Frank, Charles, and Rush Cheney went with ardor into the culture of mulberry-trees. Charles Cheney conducted his experiments on his farm in Ohio; the three others took a farm at Burlington, New Jersey, where they had nurs- eries and cocooneries, and where they published for a year or two " The Silk-Grower and Farmer's Manual." In 1841, after the collapse of the speculation throughout the country, the brothers returned to South Manchester and reopened the Mount Nebo Mill, making sewing-silk from imported raw silk. From this time dates the steady development of the silk-industry. The next ten years were years of experiment and study, aided by travel and close observation of what had been done abroad. Fraternal co-operation, natural ingenuity, and untiring appli- cation were the factors which produced success. In 1855 they made their first experiments in the production of spun silk from pierced cocoons, floss, silk waste, and whatever silk cannot be reeled. These hitherto almost waste materials have by special machinery been spun into fine yarns and woven into beautiful and durable fabrics. From a small beginning this new industry, developed by years of patient and costly experiment, grew to be the specialty of the business. The present company was incorporated in 1854 under the name of Cheney Brothers Silk Manufacturing Company, with a capital of $1,000,000. During the same year, the growth of the business requiring a larger number of hands than could be obtained at that time except in cities, a mill was built in Hartford, of which Charles Cheney had special charge until 1868, when he returned to South Manchester.
The original Mount Nebo Mill was a small building, with machinery driven by water-power, and gave employment to half a dozen hands. In place of this has arisen the group of buildings known as the Old Mill, comprising the business offices, with various departments for weaving, dyeing, finishing, and preparing goods for shipment. In 1871 the New Mill (so called) was erected, consisting of four three-story brick buildings, each two hundred and fifty feet long and connected by a common front. The Lower Mill is a third group, comprising a large carpenter's shop and the building formerly used for velvet-weaving. Near by are also the gas-works for lighting the mills and the whole village. Cheney's Hall is a spacious brick building which serves an important purpose as a place of meeting for religious, literary, and social occasions. In the third story is the armory of Company G, First Regiment Connecticut National Guard. The public library and reading- room, till recently occupying the basement, have been removed to a commodious building specially provided. The number of names on the Cheney pay-rolls has increased from the original half-dozen to over fifteen hundred. The mills are models of order and convenience in their internal arrangements, while their attractive surroundings mani- fest the same taste and care that appear alike in the private grounds and residences of the proprietors and in the comely cottages and shaded avennes of the village.
In 1869 the Cheney Brothers built between South Manchester and North Manchester the branch railroad connecting with what is now the New York and New England Railroad. This line, from the date of its opening as the Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill road in 1850, to the
KILBURN & CR
The Town Hall, formerly the Congregational Church.
The Soldiers' Monument.
The new Congregational Church.
MANCHESTER CENTRE.
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MANCHESTER.
present time, when eight or more passenger-trains each way daily con- nect the villages with Hartford, New York, Providence, and Boston, has been an important factor in the growth of the town, to which also the branch road has contributed in no small degree.
At the time of the final division of the five-mile purchase in 1753, a considerable number of settlers had located here, and they had preaching a part of the time. Since 1748 they had been allowed their proportion of the ministers' rate, not exceeding three months in the year. Prior to 1748 they had paid their rate wholly to the Third Soci- ety of Hartford, now the First Society of East Hartford. The minis- ter of this society and those of other neighboring parishes rendered service to the people of the Five Miles by occasional preaching, baptiz- ing their children, and attendance at marriages and funerals. In May, 1772, the ecclesiastical society was established by the General Court, and named the Ecclesiastical Society of Orford.1 The first meeting was held Aug. 13, 1772, - Captain Josiah Olcott, moderator, Timothy Cheney, clerk. The first action of the society was a vote to build a " meeting-house for publiek worship," and to raise for this object three- pence on the pound on the list in money, and ninepence on the pound in grain or labor, to be paid in 1773. Timothy Cheney, Richard Pitkin, and Robert McKee were chosen a committee to receive the above grants and improve them for the purpose named. Captain Josialı Olcott and Ensign Solomon Gilman were chosen agents to apply to the General Assembly for a tax on the land of non-residents. Also an agent was chosen to apply to the county court for a committee " to affix a place
in said society for to build a meeting-house on." "The Solomon gilman bigness of the meeting-house" by a subsequent vote was de- termined to be fifty-four feet by forty. The house in which this society meeting was held, and which had been used for a considerable time for religious services, called afterward the "old meeting-house," stood under the oak-trees in the thirty-rod highway, about eight rods east of the present site of the Centre Church.
The enterprise of building the new house was one of serious magni- tude. The first difficulty was to fix the location. The committee appointed by the county court fixed upon a site which the society de- clined to accept. A request for another committee was refused ; where- upon, at the May session in 1773, Messrs. Timothy Cheney, Richard Pitkin, and Ward Woodbridge, agents for Orford society, presented a memorial to the General Assembly, setting forth that
" Their Honors, in tender regard for the happiness and welfare of the memo- rialists, were pleased to establish them as an Ecclesiastical Society, and that they soon agreed in due form to build a meeting-house, and applied to the County Court for a committee to affix a place for that purpose ; that said Com- mittee came out and affixed a place without notice to the east part of the society, and that they fixed on a side hill in a very inconvenient and very dis- gusting place ; praying that the stake may be stuck further east, at or near the point where the four roads come together."
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