USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Volume II > Part 2
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A BIRD'S EYE VIEW.
was more than thirty years after this that the first Roman Catholic service was held in Waterbury, and more than twelve years later ere the Catholics of the town had a regular pastor. But from that time onward the growth of the Roman Catholic church in Water- bury has exceeded that of the other churches; for it has been neces- sary to provide church accommodations and religious services not only for the children and grandchildren of the first Irish immi- grants, but also for German Catholics, French Canadians, Italians and Lithuanians, as they have become established within Waterbury limits. A recent estimate (1894) places the Catholic population at 18,000. The Protestant immigration, while increasing the Congrega- tional and Episcopal churches, has involved the organizing of Ger- man and Swedish Lutheran congregations. Besides these, a church of Adventists has been in existence for some years, also an "African Methodist Episcopal Zion" church. A Universalist society, organized in 1870, built a chapel and held services in it for several years under the ministry of three or four successive pastors. Not counting this organization, which has long been inactive, the churches (or parishes) of the town of Waterbury now number twenty,-three of which are Congregational, two Protestant Epis- copal (besides a chapel at Waterville), four Methodist Episcopal, two Baptist, and five Roman Catholic. At the celebration of the bi-centennial of the original Waterbury church, November 4 and 5, 1891, the Congregational churches participating-those descended wholly or in part from the First church-were twelve in number.
We pass readily from church and clergy to the other learned professions, and first to the law. Under the simple township organ- ization of the earlier days, and in fact until the incorporation of the city, the only court in Waterbury was a justice's court and the representatives of the legal profession were few. As early as 1784 a law school was established at Litchfield-the first in America, and destined to become one of the most famous; and this gave a new impulse to legal studies in Connecticut and far beyond it .* But no one was attracted thither from Waterbury except a young graduate of Yale, John Kingsbury, who with Mr. Joseph Badger was teaching in the "old academy." He entered the Law School at Litchfield in 1788, and opened an office in Waterbury in 1790. In 1791 Samuel Miles Hopkins of Salem society, another graduate of Yale, entered the same Law School, and in 1793 or 1794 Ebenezer Foote of Water- town; but neither of these men remained to practice in Connecti- cut. Judge Bennet Bronson began to practice in Waterbury just after the opening of the present century, and the history of the
* See Judge Samuel Church's Address, in "Litchfield County Centennial Celebration," pp. 50-59.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
legal profession in the town from that time onward is sufficiently covered by the biographies of the men who have represented it, many of which are given in the following pages.
Dr. Henry Bronson, in a foot-note on page 291 of his "History of Waterbury," gives the names of the " early physicians of Waterbury First Society." There are ten in the list, including Dr. Edward Field, who may almost be considered as belonging to the present time. Various items of information concerning several of these men are scattered through Dr. Bronson's "History," and fuller sketches are given in his Medical History and Biography, contained in Volume II. of the "Proceedings of the New Haven Historical Society." In our chapter on the Medical Profession in Waterbury the main facts concerning these practitioners are reproduced, and biographical sketches of the later physicians are added. A few items are also given in relation to dentistry in Waterbury, and the history of the drug business is referred to.
The topic or group of topics to which we next pass on (and by a transition which seems easy and natural) may be designated as " philanthropy, charity and reform." There are various indications in the preceding volume of the way in which the people of Water- bury took care of their necessitous poor during the last century. As in other towns, the need of a " town house " made itself apparent by degrees, and the demand was met. Through the influence of Deacon Timothy Porter, while he was selectman, the land since known as the town farm was purchased and the first almshouse erected. The present almshouse, handsome and expensive, is situated on the same farm and was completed in 1893. In the mean- time the modern system of voluntary philanthropy had experienced in Waterbury, as elsewhere, a marked development. Christian people have been learning that there is charitable work to do, and that there is a right way and a wrong way of doing it. The Indus- trial School for Girls was organized in 1864, and since then (although after an interval of a quarter of a century) several other voluntary organizations have been established for doing a similar service, among which may be mentioned the Boys' Club, the Young Women's Friendly League, the local bands of King's Daughters and Daughters of the King, and the Directors of Christian Visita- tion and Charity. The Waterbury Hospital, initiated by newspaper enterprise in 1882, was opened for the reception of patients in 1890. The Young Men's Christian Association, organized in 1858 and active for several years afterward, was resuscitated, after a period of decline, in 1883, and ten years later became housed in a handsome building of its own. As for the temperance reform, its local history,
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A BIRD'S EYE VIEW.
with all its agitations and vicissitudes, and the published material relative thereto would fill a volume. This history is reproduced in large measure, in the following pages, in the accounts given of the various unions, alliances and fraternities by which the temperance work in Waterbury has been conducted,-a work the latest product of which is a temperance coffee-house, known as the Wayside Inn.
The place of Waterbury in literature seems at first thought insignificant. In the last century, when John Trumbull and Dr. Lemuel Hopkins were its representatives in the world of letters, it might have claimed a position second to no village in New England as a source, if not a centre, of literary influence. But in later years the brain-power of its strong men has found other channels in which to work, and its great manufactories have made it famous. Yet, if a complete list could be given of the books and pamphlets which Waterbury writers have published during the past fifty or sixty years, every one would be surprised not only at the wide range of subjects touched upon, but at the actual amount of liter- ature produced. A full bibliography of Waterbury would bring these facts into view; but in the pages that follow only a few of the more prominent productions of Waterbury authors are enumerated, and chiefly those that have some historical value. In the field of journalism our city has been about as prolific as other places of its size. The first successful experiment in the establishment of a local newspaper was made in 1844, in December of which year the Waterbury American first saw the light. Since that time about twenty papers, weekly or daily, general or special, have been started in the town, most of which, after a longer or shorter struggle, have ceased to exist or have become absorbed in others. Meanwhile the intel- lectual life of the community has found expression through various other channels, among which may be mentioned various literary and scientific societies which have thrown a meteoric light across the field of action and then vanished, and a few which still survive. The first of these societies, the Young Men's Institute (organized prior to 1851, while Waterbury was still a borough), was efficient in establishing a library. Other public libraries had preceded it, but this stood alone from the time of its establishment until the open- ing of the Silas Bronson Library in 1868, when its 2,500 volumes were transferred to the shelves of the new institution. The latter, established upon a foundation of $200,000, has grown during the quarter-century of its existence, to be the largest library in the state with the exception of that at Yale University.
Music and the other fine arts, by virtue of their close relation to literature, come next into view. In Waterbury, as in all the old
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
New England towns, the history of music previous to the present century fills but an insignificant place,-for the reason that music itself was at a low ebb .* Singing was attempted in all the churches, but as a rule the results attained were worthy only of contempt. It was inevitable, however, that a development of artistic activity should take place, and the record of the onward movement is an interesting one. The church choir, such as it was, prepared the way for the secular singing society on the one hand, and for the brass band and orchestra on the other. From the second quarter of the present century the history of music in the various churches of Waterbury can be pretty clearly traced, and we have at the same time somewhat detailed accounts of the Mendelssohn society, which flourished from 1851 to 1871, the Concordia Singing society, which was organized in 1866, the Harmonic society, whose brief but brilliant course began in 1889, and the smaller organizations known as the Arion and Lyra societies and the Amphion club. Of the several brass bands, the first seems to have been organized in 1834, and the Waterbury Brass band in 1840. The Tompkins band was active from 1854 to 1869, and Merrill's band from 1855 until absorbed in the various regimental bands of the war-time. From 1876 to 1879 Thorpe's orchestra did a good work in educating the community to the appreciation of the finer kinds of music, while in later days Hallam's orchestra and others, the American band and other bands, and the Pizzicati and other amateur clubs have filled a useful place in the community. There have been dramatic organizations also, the most noted of which is the Arcadian club, which flourished from 1875 to 1878. But the history of the drama in Waterbury is for the most part a history of the business done through the operatic and theatrical companies that have visited the city during the past five-and-twenty years, and of the opera house and other buildings provided for their accommodation.
Such buildings as these just referred to ought to have a place in the history of Waterbury architecture. Such a history would reveal the progress of architectural art in the town from the earliest times, and touch upon the style and the fortunes of those dwelling- houses and meeting houses which have become so completely a thing of the past. Judging from the records and the samples that remain, the building of a house in the eighteenth century was by no means the haphazard thing it appears to have been in the first half of the nineteenth. In the earlier period the art instinct was not so completely dead as in the later. But within a few years after Waterbury became a city the function of the architect in modern
* See Hood's History of Music.
II
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW.
life began to be discovered by its inhabitants, and traces of thoughtful design in the buildings of the place began to appear. As early as 1847, St. John's parish erected a substantial stone church, and within five or six years Congregational and Methodist churches were built, while some of the well-to-do citizens erected residences which brought down upon their heads reproof for their extravagance .* In the Waterbury Almanac for 1854 an architect's advertisement appears for the first time, but the profession did not secure a permanent place in the city until 1863. Since that date about a dozen architects have opened offices, six or seven of whom are now actively engaged in their profession. The number of buildings-dwelling houses, factories and public edifices-erected in recent years in the Naugatuck valley is so great that the archi- tect's services must necessarily be in much demand.
The local history of sculpture and of pictorial art begins at a late date. It was in 1859 that Horace C. Johnson, having returned from a course of study in Rome, opened a studio in Waterbury, in which he worked, chiefly as a portrait painter, for more than thirty years. Other artists have resided here who have attained to some renown. Although their best works may have been produced since their removal to other places, some of these works-monuments and paintings-belong to our city, and in more ways than one Water- bury can claim a share in the fame of their authors. The history of Waterbury's monuments would almost fill a chapter, and these, with the various memorial windows and mural tablets of the city, are themselves a historical record well worthy of reproduction. The same may be said of the remarkable series of coins, or rather "tokens," which Waterbury has given to the world. There is no large collection of these in our city; but other collections, in the fields of art and archaeology, are of sufficient importance to warrant detailed description.
Two important subjects remain to be touched upon-our " frater- nities " and our military companies; and herein we again witness the life of the community manifesting itself in highly organized forms. As in all the old New England towns, the military element has been prominent from the first, but the martial spirit has not by any means manifested itself at all times with equal force. The demand for soldierly activity, however, has been sufficient to keep alive some sort of military organization from generation to generation, and in times of war-alike in the eighteenth century
* The dwelling-house of William H. Scovill at the east end of the Green, the front of which is now hidden by stores, was criticized in a New Haven newspaper at the time of its erection, as offering too great encouragement to luxurious living, and thus illustrating the degeneracy of the times.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
and the nineteenth,-our town has through her soldiers and their achievements made for herself a record of which she may well be proud. Her Soldiers' Monument, erected in honor of the living and the dead of the "war for the Union," might with equal propriety have commemorated those who in the "day of small things " dedi- cated themselves to the deliverance and the upbuilding of the nation.
As for the fraternities, they constitute one of the most remark- able illustrations of the process of evolution in the social life of a people. When in July, 1765, Provincial Grand Master Jeremiah Gridley issued a charter for the constituting of a Masonic lodge in Waterbury, how little he and those to whom he sent greeting imagined "whereunto this thing would grow"! Free Masonry, however, did not secure a permanent foothold in Waterbury until 1797, and no other secret order was known within its borders until 1845, when a lodge of Odd Fellows was organized. Odd Fellowship itself had then been in existence in America only twenty-four years; the Ancient Order of Foresters had been transplanted from England in 1832, and the Improved Order of Red Men had appeared in 1833, and no branch of either of these organizations was estab- lished in Waterbury for some time after. But after 1865 fraternities were multiplied, and their membership was rapidly increased. The number of distinct societies in Connecticut at the end of 1891 was about 390, and the number of lodges or branches nearly a thousand. At the same date the number of mutual benefit societies in Water- bury-not counting the Masonic organizations, the Grand Army of the Republic, Knights of Labor, Patrons of Husbandry and the like -was fifty-four, and their total membership 5883, a total member- ship considerably larger than that of all the Protestant churches. Of the entire group of fraternities, some are general in their con- stituency and aims, some are national and some are religious. Each of them, however recent its origin, has a history to which justice ought to be done.
In this bird's-eye view we have recognized the broad historic field as divided into various sections. While the entire area is embraced in these divisions, it nevertheless seems natural to leave some things for miscellaneous treatment. There are occurrences, for example, in the natural world, and there are remarkable events and remarkable persons, and things that are curious although not conspicuous-the flotsam and jetsam of history-which do not indeed defy classification, but which can best be disposed of in a chapter by themselves. When this closing chapter is reached it may be found quite as interesting, if not as valuable, as any that has preceded it.
CHAPTER II.
WATERBURY AS A BOROUGH-1825 TO 1853-THE NINTH IN THE STATE -BOUNDARIES, DIMENSIONS, POPULATION-OFFICERS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS-MEETINGS-BY-LAWS CONCERNING NUISANCES-CATTLE GOING AT LARGE-A FIRE DEPARTMENT-STREETS AND SIDE- WALKS, WATER AND GAS-THE WARDENS-SKETCHES OF SOME OF THEM-SKETCH OF WATERVILLE.
I N 1784, by act of the legislature, Hartford, New Haven, Middle- town, New London and Norwich were incorporated as cities. At this time the only other corporate form in which the civic life of the community found expression was the primitive town- ship. The people of Connecticut were organized as towns (and we may add, as school societies), but the villages scattered over the state were simply the more populous town centres, subject only to town government, and midway between these and the cities just created there was no corporate organization.
It was inevitable, however, that with the gradual increase of population in the state the number of thickly-settled villages should increase; and as soon as the great transition from an agri- cultural to a manufacturing condition had once set in, the villages in the river valleys and upon the coast were likely to grow much more rapidly than those that had no special water privileges. The development of village life created new conditions which were not readily met by the traditional customs of town government; special conveniences and privileges came to be demanded, which the town as a whole could not enjoy and was therefore unwilling to pay for, and at the same time certain restrictions and reforms became necessary which the town at large could not appreciate. The result was the adoption in a number of cases of a borough organization. To be sure, we have in the first quarter of the century, two instances of the incorporation of villages-that of Litchfield in 1818 and that of Wethersfield in 1822; but the usual resort was a petition to the General Assembly to be incorporated as a borough. First in the list comes Bridgeport, which obtained a borough charter in October, 1800. This was followed by Stoning- ton, a few months later-in May, 1801. Guilford came next, but not until 1815, and others in the following order: Essex and Killing- worth in 1820, Danbury in 1822, and Colchester and Newtown in 1824. It thus appears that when the inhabitants of Waterbury residing at or near the centre of the town applied to the legislature
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
for a borough charter, there were already eight boroughs in the state. The act of incorporation for Waterbury was passed at the May session, 1825. Of these nine boroughs Bridgeport was the first to become a city. All the others were outstripped in the advance toward municipal life by Waterbury, which is chronologically the seventh city in the state. With the exception of Danbury, the others still retain their borough organization.
The limits of the borough of Waterbury were defined as follows: Beginning at the point where Steel's brook empties into the Naugatuck river, the line ran eastward, or more accurately, east- southeast, for a mile and a half, to a point on the Buck's Hill road "ten rods north of Isaac Sutton's dwelling house"; thence south- east for a fourth of a mile "to the parting of the Long Hill road, the southwest corner of James Scovill's Long Hill farm"; thence in almost the same direction for nearly a mile "to the Waterbury and Southington turnpike road, thirty rods west of Daniel Porter's dwelling house "; thence southwest for a mile "to the bend in the Naugatuck river where the road from Noah G. Baldwin's strikes the Waterbury river turnpike road "; thence up the middle of the river, in a northwesterly direction for the most part, to the mouth of Steel's brook. This northwest corner of the borough territory was a little more than a mile from Centre square; the northeast corner was three-fourths of a mile from the centre ; the southeast corner a mile and an eighth, and the southern corner nearly a mile and a quarter. The circumference was six miles, and the greatest distance from north to south two miles and a half. The borough, it will be observed, lay entirely on the east side of the river, and was doubtless meant to be co-terminous with what might naturally be considered the boundaries of the village. The number of inhabitants within this area cannot be given precisely. The popu- lation of the town in 1820 was 2882; in 1830 (Columbia society having in the meantime been transferred to the new town of Prospect) the population was 3070. In 1825 it was, we may suppose, about 3000-two-thirds of whom were probably within the borough limits. The electors within these limits were by the charter made "a body corporate and politic, by the name of the Warden, Burgesses and Freemen of the borough of Waterbury," and these, with the consent of the warden and a majority of the burgesses, had the power to admit to the freedom of the borough electors of the town living outside of borough limits, but owning real estate or regularly doing business within it.
The charter provided for an annual meeting in the month of May, at which officers were to be chosen (by ballot) for the ensuing
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THE BOROUGH AND WATERVILLE.
year. These officers were a warden, six burgesses, a clerk, a treas- urer and a bailiff. The functions and powers of the bailiff were substantially the same as those of a town constable; those of the warden and burgesses the same as those "granted to selectmen and justices of the peace in the several towns." They had power to lay out highways, streets and walks, to erect and maintain a sign-post, and to make by-laws relative to streets, walks, public buildings, markets, public lamps, shade-trees, fruit-trees, trespasses in gardens, nuisances in the streets, the firing of guns, noises at night, the use of buildings for purposes which incurred the risk of fire, the sweep- ing of chimneys, the restraining of horses, cattle and other animals from going at large, the establishing of a watch and the burial of the dead. They had power also to form and regulate a fire com- pany, and to enlist or appoint firemen (but not to exempt them from military duty). The borough had power to appoint inspectors of produce, haywards, and whatever officers were necessary to carry the by-laws into execution, and finally, to levy taxes upon the polls and ratable estate within the borough limits.
The first borough meeting was held, as provided for in the act of the General Assembly, "at the meeting house in the First Eccle- siastical society," that is, the Congregational church then standing at the east end of the Green, " on the second Monday of June, A. D. 1825." The moderator of the meeting was John Kingsbury, who was chosen to the office of warden. He is spoken of by C. H. Car- ter, in his article on "Connecticut Boroughs,"* as "the first citizen of his time in the town. He had been the presiding judge of the county court, and had held other prominent positions." The clerk chosen at this first meeting was Joel Hinman, " a popular and prom- ising young lawyer, who afterward became the chief justice of the supreme court of the state." The burgesses for the first year were Joseph Burton, Joseph Porter, Austin Steele, J. M. L. Scovill, Bennett Bronson and Mark Leavenworth. The treasurer was Dr. Edward Field and the bailiff Daniel Steel. At a meeting held September 20, a by-law was adopted ordaining that future meetings should be held at the West Centre school-house, and that the annual meeting should be on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of May.
During the existence of the borough there were two years in which an annual meeting was not held-1837 and 1842. In 1833, the time fixed for the annual meeting was allowed to pass without legal action, and it became necessary to apply to the General Assembly
* Read before the New Haven Colony Historical society, March 31, 1884. Published in Vol. IV. of the papers of the society, pp. 139-183.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
for relief. A "resolve" was passed by the Assembly authorizing William H. Scovill to call a meeting of the electors of the borough, and ordaining that if at any future time the borough should fail to hold its annual meeting at the time specified in the charter, the last legally chosen warden, or in case of his death or absence the senior burgess should have power to call a meeting. In 1833 the borough was summoned to consider a petition of sundry inhabitants of the town praying the General Assembly "to extend the limits of the borough so as to include the whole of the First School society, thus making it co-extensive with the present limits of the town. "This," says Mr. Carter, "was an adroit attack on the borough-the only
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