USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > The story of Bridgeport > Part 5
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Early in the war, a company of state militia was quartered here in an old bakery on Water Street and details sent down daily to mount guard in the earth- works on the "Tongue." Another detachment occupied "Fort Union" upon Grovers' Hill in Black Rock.
The New London blockade caused a dearth of flour in the community and it was necessary to pro- vide some means of obtaining a fresh supply. Several of the townsmen offered to try and reach New York by boat. They escaped in the darkness and rowed all the way to New York. Upon their return, the men were fired on but escaped injury. It was said that this act so exasperated the British that they fired on Grovers' Hill in Black Rock, landed a band of marines, and marched on to Fairfield where they burned the town hall.
News of peace between Great Britain and America was greeted with rejoicing in Bridgeport, and on February 22, 1815, the event was properly observed with cannon firing, bell ringing, exercises, parades and a great public dinner and ball at Knapp's hotel in the evening.
A shortage of salt followed the second war with Great Britain and, by the year 1818, the shortage had become so acute that it was deemed wise for cities and towns to "make their own." Isaac Sher- man, Sr. invested money in a salt works in this com- munity and the salt water was pumped from the river into vats by means of a windmill stationed near the bank. The old salt works were located north of Gold Street, west of the junction of the present Congress and Water Streets. Bridgeport used home made salt for a good many years. Later the vats served the children for games of hide and seek.
AN UNWILLING TOWN
Bridgeport (the village of Stratfield and the borough of Bridgeport) became a town in 1821. But not willingly. In fact, at the first town meeting held on June 11, 1821, the residents protested loudly at the action of the May General Assembly which had cut them adrift from Stratford and thrust them out in the cold.
Without doubt, certain influential citizens in Stratford were "at the bottom" of the scheme. With jealous eye they watched as Bridgeport developed and expanded. Would that section of the town of Strat- ford some day hold the balance of power? Might it be that some time the town hall of Stratford would even be located in Bridgeport?
All things were possible. Best now to get rid of this gawky, growing child which might overshadow the parent parish. Thus reasoned the sage minds of Stratford.
So, in spite of violent protest by the Bridgeporters, that the act was "unconstitutional, arbitrary and un- just", Bridgeport became a town.
Nevertheless, the Bridgeporters determined to let posterity know that it was by no choice of theirs that Bridgeport became a town. To that end it was voted that a resolution of protest be entered on the record books before any other business whatsoever. In the resolution the settlers complained bitterly :-
1. That by an unconstitutional and unjust act they had been deprived of their rights as citizens of the town of Stratford;
2. That they were now deprived of the right of sending two representatives to the General Assembly;
3. That they had been deprived of their lawful name as a town (Stratford) "and have another im- posed upon them (Bridgeport) all without their consent."
4. That they were now deprived of their town records "which, with the name is given to the minor- ity." (Stratford.)
5. That the lines of division were unjust and that they, the Bridgeporters, were only getting one fourth the actual territory of the said town (of Stratford.)
6. That they, the Bridgeporters, now had a sea- coast line of not more than sixty rods, whereas Stratford had five miles on the sea and ten on the "Ousatonic River."
7. That Stratford had been given one half of Bridgeport harbor, which, in case of quarantine "may prove an intolerable vexation."
8. That Stratford had so unjustly divided the lands that three-fourths of the bridges (and the ex- pense thereof) were in Bridgeport.
At the first town meeting, held as stated, June 11, 1821, in the Presbyterian meeting house, General Enoch Foote presided and the following were elected :
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Salmon Hubbell, town clerk; James E. Beach, Noah Plumb, Reuben Tweedy, Wilson Hawley, Enoch Foote, Joseph Knapp and David Nichols, Jr., selectmen; Smith Tweedy, treasurer; Ezra Gregory, Jr., Robert Gregory, Henry Judson, Benjamin S. Smith, and Matthew Curtis, constables; David Curtis, Ezra Gregory, Jr., Johnson Tuttle and Syl- vanus Sterling, grand jurors.
Roughly, the new town of Bridgeport included just the land between the Pequonnock River and the present Park Avenue. This was a pretty narrow strip for a growing community, therefore the reason for the loud complaints.
The question of boundary lines so angered the Bridgeporters that during the next year, several town meetings were held to plan a petition to the General Assembly asking for a change. Nothing was actually done by the town, however, and eventually the matter was dropped.
Highways, jails and poorhouses occupied the atten- tion of the early meetings of the town. Highways were in continual need of repair and there was little money for such expenses.
"ROAD WORK"
It was customary in those days to levy a one cent tax direct for highway purposes. Here, as elsewhere, persons had the privilege of paying their tax in labor, if they so desired. The tax raised in the town was very small, that of 1822 being only $250, and that of 1830, less than $300. Almost every person paid his tax in labor. The town authorities fixed the com- pensation for a day's work at 75 cents, an equal amount being allowed for a team of horses or mules or a pair of oxen. Later, the day's work was judged to be worth only fifty cents.
The first highway improvement made by the town was the building of a bridge across what was known as Baker's Pond. This pond has long since passed out of existence. It was only a creek which at one time extended from the harbor about where South Avenue is located, across Main Street. It was the outlet for small rivulets which drained the swamp lands north of State Street between Broad and Court- land Streets. The townspeople voted $225 for "a solid bridge over Baker's Pond, logged with log sides, 14 feet wide, filled with stones, or gravel or sod; laid firm like a wharf with a sluice in the middle 20 feet wide, well anchored, to the acceptance of the select-
men of said town, with a proper railing."
The only street that the selectmen laid out between 1821 and the incorporation of the city in 1836 was Pequonnock Street.
As far as the jail and poorhouse were concerned, it took the townspeople three years to make up their minds on the first score and ten on the second. July 11, 1825, $200 was voted for a jail and house of correction. By September 21st, it was built. From 1827 to 1837 the subject of the poor popped up at every meeting. Finally, August 19, 1837, the town purchased for $700, five acres of land in East Bridge- port and a poorhouse was erected thereon.
Little is said of a town house during those early years. What happened to the town books or where the records were kept isn't known, but it was prob- ably at the home of the town clerk. April 15, 1833, it was voted to buy an iron safe to cost not more than $40 and this is the first instance of the record of any effort to protect the books.
At the time of the "setting off" of Bridgeport in 1821, there were some 1700 people here, 218 houses, 2 flouring mills, 73 stores and manufactories. Line Road, now Park Avenue, was the western boundary of the township, remaining so until 1870 when that portion of Fairfield lying east of Ash Creek was annexed by act of Legislature.
Hardly had the excitement occasioned by Strat- ford's act died down-and it took more than a week- end for the Bridgeporters to cool off-than the com- munity was again in an uproar.
LAFAYETTE ARRIVES
But this time it was a pleasant uproar, for General Lafayette was expected. Great preparations were made for the night of August 20, 1824. The band was ready, the parade in line, the residents in their Sunday best.
Hour after hour passed, but still no sign of Lafayette. At last the townspeople, unable to keep awake any longer, it then being most eleven o'clock, decided to go to bed.
Shortly after, Lafayette and suite arrived and very quietly put up at Knapp's Hotel on the corner of Wall and Water Streets.
Word of the General's arrival spread like wildfire, however, and by five o'clock in the morning the blare of trumpets, the rattle of drums and the tumults of the crowd roused the poor man from bed. The
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streets were thronged and the shouts and cheering of the people were deafening. Lafayette made his appearance on the balcony and said: "I am very happy to receive your kind welcome."
Afterwards, he put his hand upon the balustrade, according to story, and exclaimed, "not in a loud voice but with much feeling: 'Happy, happy people'.'
When the General was ready to leave the town, crowds followed him to the Washington Bridge be- tween Stratford and Devon, some of them being on foot, some on horse and some in horse-drawn vehicles. Straggling remnants of the rather disorderly pro- cession even trailed the great man as far as Milford.
THE NEW CITY
For a few years prior to the year 1836, the gov- ernment of Bridgeport had been unsatisfactory and the people had reached the decision that this form of government was insufficient in many ways and they desired the larger privileges of city government.
Both the borough and the town held their own meetings to consider the possibility of Bridgeport's being incorporated into a city. To the borough meeting went the business men in the southern sec- tion of the community. The borough, it must be re- membered, was only part of the town, and was re- ferred to as the "borough of Bridgeport of the town of Bridgeport." It included only the southern section of the community, as far north as the present Washington Avenue.
To the town meeting went voters from all sections of the community, both from the borough in the south, and from the settlement north of Washington Avenue, for the town included the whole community.
April 8, 1936, the electors of the borough of Bridgeport met at the "highschool house" for the purpose "of taking into consideration the propriety of forwarding to the General Assembly, a petition praying for city privileges." At the meeting it was "Resolved that we deem it expedient that a petition be made to the General Assembly for the above purposes and that a committee be appointed to draft the petition, and "that the committee be authorized
to designate the limits of the city and report at a future meeting.'
April 30, 1836, the town officials made their own announcement, to the effect that "The inhabitants who are legal voters of the town of Bridgeport are hereby warned to meet at the highschool house in said Bridgeport on the 5 day of May next at 4 o'clock P.M., to consider and act on a petition to be presented to the next General Assembly to be held at New Haven on the 1st Wednesday of said May, praying that part of the town of Bridgeport
may be included a city with the usual privileges."
The petition for the incorporation of Bridgeport as a city was presented to the General Assembly then in session (May, 1836) and duly approved by that body, and a new act, incorporating the city of Bridgeport was passed, the same to take effect October 3, 1836. The charter was formally accepted June 4, 1836. (Charter Day.)
Under the new charter the town boundaries were somewhat enlarged, for while the western line still remained at Division Street or Park Avenue, the eastern line was extended to include east Bridgeport.
With the birth of the new city of Bridgeport, the old borough went out of existence and under date of September 30, 1836, we find in the patient handwriting of Daniel Sterling, Warden, the follow- ing entry on the borough record books:
"September 30, 1836 Whereas an act passed by the General Assembly at the May session, 1836, whereby the Borough of Bridgeport of the Town of Bridgeport was incorporated with city privileges. And whereas the section of the said act made null the act whereby the Borough of Bridgeport was incorporated on the first Monday in October, 1836.
"I, Daniel Sterling, warden of the Borough of Bridgeport do hereby adjourn forever this borough meeting, September 30, 1836. Signed, Daniel Sterling, warden."
Thus ended the borough meetings. Town meet- ings continued for many years after, a volume of town meeting records of as late as 1891 being preserved in the city hall.
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"BEHIND THE SCENES IN 1836"
CHAPTER SEVEN
Whaleboats in the harbor Wild wolves in the woods; Peddlers peddling homespuns While shops sold foreign goods; Young boys fashioned saddles The girls spun hanks of yarn; Sparkin' on the dark lanes Kissing in the barn; Gravel on the sidewalks Fish oil in the lamps; All bridges called for toll fees Letters took two stamps; Coaches on the highway Sailboats on the sound; A hundred years ago So life went 'round and 'round.
Thus Bridgeport in 1836.
The city was a good deal smaller in those days than it is now, for Division Street, now Park Avenue, was the western boundary, dividing Bridgeport from Fairfield. Population was scarcely a fortieth as large as it is today.
Even Barnum was missing, for that famous indi- vidual was, in the year 1836, traveling through the South with Aaron Turner's circus.
Nevertheless, Bridgeport was considered a thriving community for the times and gave evidence of future prominence as an industrial center.
The downtown section of the city was dotted with stores and shops of every description. Some of the larger business houses, located on the water front, owned their own wharves and their own packets, small, pointed sailboats which made trips between Bridgeport and New York and Bridgeport and Boston.
Judging from the advertisements in those days, there were a large number of dry goods stores in Bridgeport in 1836. And even at that early date, the business-minded shop keepers made a point of appealing to the women.
Thus we find them earnestly beseeching the women to come and look over their "shawls from Paris", newly arrived; or parasols "straight from New York", or perhaps muslins from Boston.
"Come and see our new line of oil'd silk, striped
and plain for children's aprons," urged one store- keeper, while others sought to move newly acquired lots of "gaiter boots", French and English "marinos", "linen and cotton diapers-table diapers", not to speak of "ribbed white silk hose", pantaloons, men's dancing pumps and "pearl silk gloves".
There were specialty shops in Bridgeport a hun- dred years ago. Some of them dealt exclusively in hats, with the very latest styles right from New York "by first packet." Others sold only clothes-men's clothes, while still others confined their activities to hand-sewn boots.
The goodwives of a century ago never telephoned their grocery orders, for the simple reason there were no telephones. They did their own shopping and the fine art of bargaining was a proud acquisition which came only with mature years. Packaged and canned goods were still things of the future. Every- thing was sold by the pound or the bushel.
When Mrs. Sherman did her marketing, she did not always take cash with her, but sometimes sought to exchange butter, eggs, cheese, beeswax, or feathers for flour and beans, while the men had a mind to trade corn and buckwheat for axes and nails.
EVERYBODY SOLD DRUGS
Some of the grocery stores sold drugs; so did some of the dry goods stores. Perhaps from these queer combinations of products arises the complexion of the modern drug store.
There were two banks here in 1836: the Bridge- port, on the corner of Main and Bank Streets; and the Connecticut, on the corner of Main and Wall Streets.
Of churches, Bridgeport had a sufficiency, five as aforesaid. There was a Baptist, a Methodist, an Episcopal, a First Congregational, and a Second Congregational.
The ministers did not confine their activities to the church, for we find that at least three were teaching day school as well as Sunday school in the year 1836.
Public schools at the time were no models. If the community controlling the school were generously inclined, the teachers were good and well paid; if stingy, the opposite held.
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FIVE CHURCHES IN A ROW
Bridgeport's "Church Row", looking north from the corner of Broad and Gilbert Streets in 1837. The nearest building in the view, which is seen on the right, is the Second Congregational Church; the next north is the Baptist (formerly the Episcopal Church); the next building is the First Congregational Church; the new Episcopal Church is next; the Methodist Church is seen in the distance on the right, and is without a spire; Golden Hill rises immediately beyond the site of this building.
True, there were private schools of renown, in- cluding at least one military institute, and several young ladies' seminaries. Lydia Susan Ward had a finishing school for young maidens. Miss M. E. Summers ran a boarding school in Black Rock where "only the solid branches and music will be attended to. Boarding, tuition in all the English branches, washing, fuel, lights, pew rent, etc., per session of 23 weeks $80.00. Music extra."
Bridgeport Female Seminary was a little cheaper. Here one might go 23 weeks for $70.00. However, music, drawing, French and Spanish were extra.
Children of the times went to school either on foot, on old "Dobbin" or driven with the horse and car- riage. There were no automobiles, no buses, not even a lone trolley.
All transportation utilized either the boat or the horse. Most of the produce which came to Bridge- port from outside communities arrived by way of the fast packet.
TOLLS FOR ROADS AND BRIDGES
Overland transportation was expensive and cum- bersome. Most of the roads were in charge of turn- pike companies which built the roads and kept them in repair, collecting tolls anywhere from one to fifty cents, to pay for their upkeep.
The only persons exempt from toll fees were those going to public wor- ship, to funerals, to freemen's meet- ings, to military training or to the grist mills. Those persons, passing through the gates while engaged in their "ordi- nary" farming business, were also excused from paying.
The turnpikes were not the only points of traffic along which the way- farer must pay toll. Every time he crossed a bridge, a fee was demanded, unless he happened to be going to wor- ship, to a funeral, to a town meeting or was on military duty.
In 1836, Willis Stillman, Birdsey Noble and others were given permis- sion by the state legislature to build a draw bridge across the Pequonnock River. The corporation was called the East Bridge Company and the bridge was on the site of the present one now the two parts of East Washington connecting Avenue.
There was in existence at this time, another im- portant bridge, the western terminus of which was Fairfield Avenue, as at present. This, too, was a toll bridge.
Several turnpikes passed through the city at the time. The Stratford and Weston turnpike had a southern terminus here. Then there was the Bridge- port and Newtown Turnpike Company and the Huntington Turnpike which ran from the center of Huntington to Bridgeport. The Connecticut Turn- pike, from the New York state line to Fairfield, had an extension through southern Bridgeport.
Along the turnpikes was carried most of the mail of the times, first by the "post riders" on horseback, later by the stage coach, which announced its arrival in town by a long blast of the horn.
Stephen Lounsbury, Jr., was postmaster in the early days of 1836. The young man, a member of the dry goods firm of Smith and Lounsbury (corner State and Water Streets) was appointed in 1829. He established the post office on State Street, next door to the corner of State and Water Streets, and this was the first time the office was dignified with entirely separate quarters. The office boasted no less than 75 private boxes.
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A few years later the post office was moved into the new Connecticut bank building on the corner of Wall and Main Streets. By the year 1836, when our story opens, Mr. Lounsbury had become one of the leading business men in the community. In fact, his business grew so large he was unable to continue his post office duties and resigned in December, 1836. He then built himself an elaborate dwelling at Park and Fairfield Avenues, the house being described as "the first of the ornamented kind in Bridgeport."
In January, 1837, Smith Tweedy was named post- master. He was a hatter from Danbury. During his term, arrangements were made for a partial mail service by steamboat from New York.
"TRIPLE" LETTERS
It cost six cents, a century ago, to send a letter 30 miles, and twenty five cents, were the distance 400 miles or more. "Double letters" or letters composed of two pieces of paper were charged for at double rates; "triple letters" or those composed of three pieces of paper, triple rates.
And how, one might ask, did the postmaster know how many sheets were inside an envelope? Did his job require reading all the letters as well as the post- cards?
Because traveling was so slow and tedious a hun- dred years ago, wayfarers were in the habit of put- ting up for the night in towns through which they had to pass. For that reason, communities however small, often boasted two or three "hotels."
In Bridgeport, several were in existence, for the literature of the times makes much of at least three: "Barnum's", "Hinman's," and the "Washington Hotel." The latter, at the corner of Wall and Water Streets, provided a meeting place for the early gatherings of the Court of Common Council after Bridgeport was made a city.
Most of the buildings of the times were wood and presented a constant fire menace to the community. There was no organized fire department although there were three fire companies which were described as being "not only independent of one another but sometimes antagonistic".
Police department there was none, although cer- tain citizens volunteered to keep the "watch" nights, more to guard against fire than thieves.
Bridgeport in 1836 boasted extensive carriage making and saddlery industries. The latter was a
most popular occupation. Indeed, it was said that no artizan stood so high socially as the saddler."
Bridgeport also made furniture-"plain beds, chairs and tables and coffins of cherry or white wood, with the name plate tacked on the lid with brass headed nails."
Hats were made here, even silk hats, and the year 1836 saw the commencement of a shirt industry in this city. David and Isaac Judson were responsible for the latter. The two had a clothing store in New York. They were in the habit of cutting out a few dozen shirts now and then and sending them up to their sister, Miss Caroline Judson, who lived at Old Mill Green.
Miss Judson, in turn, handed out the shirts to various women in the community who made them, laundered them, and returned them ready for sale. All sewing was, of course, done by hand for the sewing machine did not make its bow until many years later. The shirts sold so well that the two brothers decided to concentrate on the industry here. Accordingly, they moved to Bridgeport, took over the mill at the head of Pembroke Lake and were for some years successful in the making of shirts.
Local industries also included upholstering, brick making, iron mongery, lumbering, stone and marble cutting, not to mention a host of tinware and crock- ery dealers.
Some of the articles made in Bridgeport were sold here, but not all, for the local people leaned to "foreign" goods whenever obtainable. Bridgeport made products were carried to the far corners of the United States by peddlers.
BRIDGEPORT PEDDLERS
This was the hey day of the peddler, with his pack or peddler's wagon filled high with tinware, pins, needles, scissors, combs, silks, books, cotton stuffs, crockery and what not.
Bridgeport newspapers gave evidence of a shortage of peddlers, for advertisements constantly appeared for "four or five honest and respectable men to peddle tinware", or "several peddlers needed by the sub- scriber to carry his products", etc.
If peddling was a respectable occupation of the day, so much more was shipping. In fact, the young bloods of the times often "went to sea" at an early age, either as a preliminary to some other occupation or as a lifetime career.
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In 1836 there was already a host of sailing vessels between Bridgeport and New York, Bridgeport and Boston, and Bridgeport, Baltimore and the West Indies.
A daily line of steamship travel had been inaugur- ated between Bridgeport and New York in 1832 and in 1836 the "Nimrod" was making regular trips be- tween the two points.
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