USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Westport > Westport in Connecticut's history, 1835-1935 > Part 3
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But if you have the power of concentration, you will find yourself standing in a very different scene. You are on the old wooden bridge. A pair of oxen sways across, drawing a load of produce for shipment to New York. From the shipyard just above comes the tapping of calking mallets and the smell of tarred cordage. A little further up on the east side of the river (where the Esso and Socony gasoline stations now stand) a schooner is docked at the coal yard discharging cargo. On
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the west side, just below the bridge (where the outside stairway leads up to what is now an apartment) the sloop C. H. Phillips, Peter Bulkley, captain, is taking on a load from the warehouse. A sail appears down river. It is a sloop-we can't make her out yet-beating her way up on the tide to the Jessup docks and warehouses below the river on the east side.
Very few of the younger generation realize that Westport was once something of a shipping center. The Saugatuck River was navigable, it is claimed, further up from the Sound than any other stream in Fairfield County. Early shipping had free passage from Bluff Point to Edge Hill, where there were ware- houses, and to the shipyard, where the library is now located. There was another shipyard where the Punzelt house now stands at 530 Riverside Avenue. The schooners Sara B. Bulkley and Francis Burritt were built there. There was a third ship- yard at Saugatuck, just above the carriage bridge on the west side.
The market boat business appears to have been prosperous. It began about 1806. Rowland and Barlow, and Captain Samuel Pearsall built a vessel called the Pedler for this trade. It made weekly trips to and from New York and carried any- thing which might offer. They sold the merchandise on a com- mission of eight per cent. Passengers paid fifty cents each.
In 1814, L. T. and S. E. Downs bought the sloop Diana for the coastwise trade, and built the Intrepid the next year. In 1817 G. Bradley & Co. built the Iris. Cargoes, before the railroad, came to Westport docks, even from New Milford, Newtown, Danbury and Bethel.
After the middle of the century, Captain Sereno Allen, with his brother Charles, and his father Charles, had the sloop Emily in the coasting trade. Later they had the Francis Bur- ritt, then the propeller Sarah A. Thorpe and the steam canal- boats Stranger and the Chauncey M. Depew. Captain John Bulkley and his brother, Captain Peter, each had a schooner in the onion trade. They docked above the bridge. Captain Ebenezer Allen ran the schooner, Henry Remsen, from the Saugatuck dock. The brig, Atlantic, was built by the Coleys for Beattie and Richmond's West Indies trade, and a large
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sloop, Sally, was built by Captain Stephen Thorpe for the same purpose.
Among the deep-water men in the very early days before the Revolutionary War was Edward Jessup of Green's Farms. In the first half of the next century came John Hyde Coley, Aaron Burr Coley, Henry Pierson Burr, William Staples, Wil- liam Guyer, the Fairchild brothers, Charles Godfrey, Captain Maltbie Allen, the Sherwood triplets, and many others.
The Sherwood triplets are colorful-Francis, Frederick and Franklin. They were the youngest of a family of ten children. at the age of sixteen, they went to sea in separate vessels. Each became the captain of a ship. Captain Francis was shipwrecked in the brig Ashley in 1842 and won high praise from his passengers for their safe rescue. In 1847 it was he, with the ship Carolina, who carried to New Orleans on their way to Washington General Scott's dispatches announcing the surrender of Mexico City and Santa Ana. Captain Frederick, in the ship Skylight, went six times around Cape Horn to California. Captain Franklin was engaged in the coasting trade, but knew the distant ports of Europe, China and the East.
Throughout their lives the Sherwood triplets retained their startling resemblance to each other. Full of Yankee humor, they took great joy in playing on this likeness. Once, when all of them happened to be in Charleston, S. C., at the same time they worked a joke on a negro barber. One went into the shop and was shaved. Fifteen minutes after he had left another of the triplets entered and demanded a good shave. The barber's eyes popped, but he managed to comment on the fastest- growing beard he had ever encountered. He shaved his man. Fifteen minutes later, when the third triplet entered with a growth of beard, the barber fled, shrieking that he was hoodooed.
This brief sketch gives a hint of a fascinating chapter in the life of the town, and in the hope that before it is too late, someone will devote an entire volume to the boats which sailed down the river and out to sea, and to the Westport sailormen who manned them.
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PHYSICIANS
O PUT in words the accomplishments of Westport's physicians is a difficult matter. Their influence on the town has been large; it has been continuous. But it has been subtle.
It can be accepted that they have done their best to protect the townspeople from errors of drinking, eating, too much work and not enough, as well as from those unavoidable things which thrust themselves into life to make it miserable. They functioned as a welcoming committee for the new arrivals and have eased the parting of the soul and body as best they could. They have acted as counselors to the ones who confided their many sorrows to the doctors' ready sympathy, and have received in return knowledge of ways to lighten the burden of mental, moral or physical misery. Most of the good things that they did have lived only in the minds of the recipient. Physicians are a court of first resort and more problems are settled in their offices, by advice and silence, than ever come to the law courts.
When Westport became a town medicine was being as con- scientiously practised as it is today. Although limited in their opportunities, the doctors were keen observers and students, giving all they had to their profession; if it were not for these men who carried the torch and passed it on in full flame, medicine would not be where it is today.
In the early days hospitals were few, surgical instruments crude, anesthetic unknown (a bullet to bite on during an oper- ation). In the last hundred years much has been gained in our knowledge of disease, medicine and its application. Many aids have arisen: chemistry, bacteriology, electricity, photog- raphy for diagnosis and treatment. Surgery has advanced faster than medicine and has ventured with success into almost every part of the human body.
What medicine has done for Westport does not show in monuments but in the appreciation of the thoughtful toward the physician as a necessary cog in the machinery of the town.
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The first physician of Westport was Dr. David Richmond, who later had a partner, Dr. Talcott Banks.
Then came Dr. George Blackman (he married a daughter of Dr. Richmond and lived on the north east corner of Compo Street; a few of the older members of the town still remember him); and after him the following: Dr. George B. Bouton (1867), Dr. William Badger, Dr. Justus Sherwood, Dr. George W. Rubey (1868), Dr. Charles S. Roberts (1869), Dr. R. C. M. Page (1873), Dr. William A. Lockwood, Dr. Frederick Powers (1875), Dr. C. H. Osborn (1879), Dr. J. W. Fife (1882), Dr. L. T. Day (1883), Dr. Frederick Ruland (1893), Dr. J. M. Nolan (1897), Dr. D. F. McFarland (1903), Dr. D. Stuart Sherwood (1904), Dr. Albert E. Kyte (1908), Dr. Frank L. McLaury (1912), Dr. John Moore (1918), Dr. Brooke DeForest Norwood (1919), Dr. W. R. Munson* (1920), Dr. W. F. O'Connel* (1922), Dr. H. S. Phillips* (1924), Dr. Louis H. Wheeler* (1929), Dr. David Ellrich* (1931), Dr. C. W. Gillette* (1932), Dr. W. O. Morgan* (1933).
W ESTPORT'S CENTENARY marks the twentieth year of Red Cross service in Westport. The first work was started by a Red Cross committee in 1915; this grad- ually increased until finally in 1917 the Red Cross Chapter received its Charter.
The quiet, confidential help of the Westport Red Cross Chapter has been truly a blessing to many people who have been given courage and means to carry on by this society. The Red Cross reaches those at home and those afar.
The Westport Junior Red Cross, younger than the Westport Chapter, has faithfully carried out its motto, "I Serve." The Junior Red Cross unites the children of Westport in common service to others in our town, and it unites them in fellowship with the children of the United States and foreign countries.
Through its past service the American National Red Cross in Westport has played an important part in the history of the town. In the future many others will be served and made to feel more secure and happier through the presence of the Westport Chapter.
*Carrying on.
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INDUSTRIES
HE history of Industry in Westport begins with Home Industries. In Colonial times and later nearly every house in village or country was a manufactory and nearly every woman, young or old, an operative. He was a poor farmer who did not raise sufficient flax to make all the linen goods required for the use of his family, and a poor man, farmer, mechanic or laborer who did not own sheep. In clear dry weather in February or early March, you could scarcely pass a farmer's barn without seeing a man hard at work on a coarse-looking instrument called a crackle breaking flax to separate the woody part from the fibre, and another man twirl- ing a wheel with five arms to chaw the flax from what was called the shives. In the house, you would see in one corner of a wide, old-fashioned fireplace a young lady sitting at what was called a double wheel, spinning thread; in the other corner an elderly lady with two cards in her hands preparing the tow hatcheled from the flax for a different kind of wheel called a great wheel, exercise upon which was frequently prescribed by old physicians as conducive to the health of young girls.
By the first of June, the spinning of flax and tow being completed, came the spinning of wool, which was continued most of the balance of the year.
In every fourth or fifth house in a small room or chamber fitted up for the purpose, would be found a loom with a young lady weaving thread or woolen yarn. In this way and from these domestic manufacturies, nearly all the cloths for wearing apparel of both males and females, as well as bed clothing and many other purposes, were obtained.
And so far from employments of this kind being considered mean or vulgar, a young woman could have no better recom- mendations for matrimony than the great number of pairs of sheets, pillow cases and blankets she could show of her own spinning and weaving.
But the beginnings of invention that was eventually to replace this simple economy with the modern factory system were evident from the words of an old chronicler:
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"In 1805, the first carding machine (probably in the country) was set up in a small building by one Josh Scribner, which caused quite an excitement for miles around. It was a great curiosity and people came from many miles around to see it. It would do the work of twenty women and make better rolls and was indeed considered wonderful."
An important factor in the life of these early communities was the mill-driven by a waterfall or by the tides.
The old mill, in its best days and fullest efficiency, was a combination saw, grist and flouring mill. Built beside and often literally upon a stream of some cunningly selected site where dam, flume and raceway could be most easily constructed, it filled a highly important place in the early scheme of existence; and when a mill was started the settlers gave untiringly of time and labor in order that these mills might become suffi- ciently numerous to enable every resident to be served without excessive travel.
The log-sawing department of the old-time mill was an exceedingly crude affair with the old-fashioned vertical up-and- down saw slowly cutting its way through oak, chestnut and pine logs brought in with infinite toil by farmers who must have boards and planks for farm use; and as a large amount of shipping was done by small vessels (many of which were built along the shores of the Sound), much of this lumber was used in their construction. Also a large amount was shipped to England, as her supply was becoming exhausted and she was very jealous of our supply of white oak and pine. In some of the early Royal Colonial grants all white pine timber above two inches in diameter was reserved by the Crown for use in the Royal Navy.
Grinding was an important function in these early times. The mill stones used for this were very expensive, as they had to be imported from France.
The farmer of those days raised his own grain, corn to be cracked for chicken feed or to be ground, cob and all, for cattle, corn and oats ground together for horses and corn to be turned into yellow meal for johnny cakes and hasty pud- dings. Buckwheat made into. flour for the winter's supply of
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pancakes. Rye and wheat to be floured for bread-making. All of these were grists for the old-time mill.
The forehanded farmer always had a grist at the mill, bringing a new supply when he came for the old.
The mill was a famous meeting-place during the long winter months, and also afforded employment to those without work.
At the customer's option, the miller took toll from unground grain or made a cash charge for grinding.
THE TIDE MILL AT COMPO
In 1703 one Mr. Whitney was granted the right to build a tide mill at Compo Creek, but since he failed to carry out his plans, the right was re-granted to Thomas Oakley. Mr. Oakley sold out to John Cable, who built the mill.
Later the Sherwoods acquired the property and, when it burned towards the end of the 18th century, they rebuilt it in improved fashion, also erecting sluice gates and a good break- water. They cut their timbers in their own forests and hewed them out by hand.
The Compo tide mill under the Sherwoods made a spe- cialty of grinding kiln-dried corn for shipment to the West Indies. There was also a cooper shop for the making of barrels, which were loaded into ships that docked right at the mill.
THE NASH MILL ON KINGSHIGHWAY
This corn mill was owned by the great-grandfather of · Edward Nash as early as 1814, and was there before that time.
In this grist mill grain for feed and flour was ground. The corn kiln was done away with many years ago and moved up to the Fred Nash residence on Kingshighway. The small structure is a part of the house now and the large ovens used for baking the corn are still there.
MILLS ALONG ASPETUCK AND SAUGATUCK RIVERS
History relates that large quantities of grain of all kinds was prepared for the use of the army by mills on the Saugatuck and Aspetuck rivers, but with the Hessian soldiers of the Revolution was imported the Hessian fly, a scourge which
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caused many of the smaller mills to be closed and some of the larger ones to be used for other purposes. Among some of the latter in Weston were Coley's mill-in early Colonial days a grist mill but later as a foundry and machine shop did a flour- ishing business for years.
Bradley's Mill-a sawmill, a plaster mill, a widely-known axe and tool factory.
Another old grist mill was located in what is now known as the Gorge.
Merwin's Mill on the Aspetuck was another Colonial mill in Weston, and was for many years operated by a descendant of the famous Perry family of millers. This mill at one time made a specialty of grinding buckwheat and operated day and night to supply the demand of the New York market.
THE LEES MANUFACTURING COMPANY
Founded in 1814 (this company passed its 121st anni- versary in January of this year) by one John Lees, the directing head of the company today is John A. Lees of the fourth generation from the founder.
The chief products of the concern are Tinsel Ribbon Cords, Fringes, Ribbons, Boucle, Seine Twines, Candle Wicks and all varieties of Cotton' Twines and Cords put up in skeins, balls, cones and tubes.
The New York offices are at 257 Fourth Avenue. The Lees family has always owned control of the company.
R. WAKEMAN & SON Manufacturers of Mattresses and Cushions
The mattress business was bought from the Lees' Manu- facturing Company in 1862 by Rufus Wakeman and was the first mattress factory in the State of Connecticut. It was situated on Canal Street, where the bridge now is, across from Dailey's store, and was run by water power. Later the business was moved to Sautatuck in its present location to save cartage and freight.
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In 1887 the factory was destroyed by fire and a new fac- tory was built and is still standing and doing business today.
Rufus Wakeman continued to run the business until his death, when his son, Judge Austin Wakeman, took it over.
The Wakemans are noted for making church and yacht cushions and a great many New England churches have Wakeman's cushions.
The Wakeman's Curled Cotton Mattress was patented and had quite a run for a good many years. Later they manu- factured curled hair, felt and silk floss or kapok mattresses. The inner spring mattress has now become quite the latest in mattresses and is manufactured here also.
THE WESTPORT MILL OF THE DORR FAMILY
On the road to Weston, a mile and a half from Westport Center, is a mill pond and dam where the Saugatuck and Aspetuck rivers meet.
This site has been the site of small industry since about 1800.
In 1917 J. V. N. Dorr purchased the old mill, dam, and thirty acres of land. After extensive renovation, he established here a Research and Testing Laboratory to serve the needs of his world-wide engineering organization, The Dorr Company.
Here gold, silver and copper ores from all parts of the world are tested; new chemical processes are worked out; tests and experiments carried on with the purification of sewage trade wastes and municipal water supplies.
The technical staff have gradually settled in Westport and become prominent and influential citizens. fo.
THE EMBALMERS' SUPPLY CO.
The Embalmers' Supply Co., the largest house of its kind in the United States, was started by the late C. B. Dolge in Brooklyn in 1887. It was moved to Westport in 1891. Its materials are shipped to all parts of the civilized world from Westport, or from the Embalmers' Supply Co. of Canada, which supplies the British Empire. Research is a fundamental of the company's operation. This has resulted in greatly improved products.
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C. B. DOLGE CO.
The C. B. Dolge Co., of Wilton Road, was incorporated in Connecticut in 1909. Its products are for the promotion of health and sanitary conditions in buildings, and also for ground maintenance. It manufactures cleaners, disinfectants, deodorants, fungicides, chemical weed killers and rodent des- troyers. It serves municipal institutions, schools, churches, country clubs, and private buildings and estates. It does busi- ness over the entire eastern half of the United States and em- ploys 40 salesmen and about 60 workers in its factory.
THE ART EXTENSION PRESS INC.
The Art Extension Press makes, at its establishment in Westport, small color reproductions of famous paintings for art study and reference. Artext Prints, averaging in size 8x10 inches, are acquired by libraries, collectors and students; and Artext Juniors, averaging in size 21/2x31/2 inches, are supplied for students' notebooks. Additional color reproductions are imported from England, France and Germany.
THE FORGES
About 10 years ago A. F. Lindwall settled in Westport and his fame as a skilful worker in iron soon spread abroad. Most of the finest homes in this and neighboring towns boast of hinges, lamps, firescreens or other product of his handiwork.
Some years later, his son, A. W. Lindwall, took over the artistic ironwork cut-outs of the Grindstone Hill Forge, an enterprise started by the versatile Mrs. John Held, Jr.
In 1933 Robert Treat, a draughtsman and designer, estab- lished a forge for the working out of his ideas in metal.
Thus it appears that Westport, with its traditions of literary and artistic skill, may well become the center of a third art that combines originality and delicacy of design with cunning handicraft.
Certainly no visitor to this section of the State should pass through this town without at least examining the products of these master-craftsmen.
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LOUIS B. SAMETZ, INC.
Louis B. Sametz, Inc., has operated since 1923 in the building formerly occupied by the Atlantic Starch Works. The company manufactures a great variety of celluloid prod- ucts, including table-tennis (ping-pong) balls, letters for signs, parts of toys, balls for shooting galleries, pin-wheels and anesthetic masks. It makes about 60% of the better grade table-tennis balls used in this country. The company employs 40 workers.
THE CONNECTICUT DISTILLERIES INC.
Established since the passing of prohibition, by Louis S. Ritter, a well-known citizen of Westport, this company makes cider from apples grown in Westport and nearby towns, then distills the same to produce a superior quality of apple brandy.
With a neat and modern plant, occupying the original site of the Nash Cider Mill, it holds No. 1 License for distilleries in the State of Connecticut and finds a ready market for its product.
THE ATLANTIC STARCH WORKS
The Atlantic Starch Works, at one time located on River- side Avenue, came to Westport from Brooklyn in 1891 and ran their business at the same location till 1918, when the work was discontinued. (Mr. M. H. Cooley came to the town with the business and was in charge of it for the duration of its stay here.)
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THE BUTTON SHOP
The brick factory near the railway station at Saugatuck was originally used in the manufacture of ironwork for railway cars. This use was discontinued in the late fifties or early sixties.
In the later sixties a button manufacturing business, founded at Naugatuck, Conn., in 1837, by Elonzo S. and Jonathan E. Wheeler was moved into this factory and later incorporated as the Saugatuck Manufacturing Company.
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THE SPOOL FACTORY
Prior to the four-tracking of the New Haven Railroad, there stood a large brick factory building south of the railroad and near the river. There was also a wooden pier on the river bank at which large vessels could lie, as the water at that time was deep.
This factory was at some time used for the manufacture of rubber reinforcements used in railway car springs, but was vacant in 1870 and used only for strawberry festivals at that time.
In the late seventies this factory was used by the Willi- mantic Thread Company for the manufacture of spools. The timber used was birch, which came in bundles similar to lath. These were stored in outdoor sheds and were splendid material for play houses.
THE WESTPORT PAPER COMPANY
This company owns a large brick factory, power plant and extensive river-front and docks on the Saugatuck River and along Stony Creek.
It was founded in 1890 by James D. Pickles of Manchester, Conn., who was its first president. Mr. Robert W. Post, long a prominent resident of Westport, succeeded Mr. Pickles as president and general manager.
The business consisted of the manufacture of binder's box board and various paper specialties.
KEMPER'S TANNERY
This tannery, the buildings of which are now occupied by the Nash Storage Warehouse, was founded by Charles Kemper in 1835. From a small enterprise conducted in a single wooden building it was built up to a substantial industry by the energy of its founder and his son, Charles H. Kemper. The present substantial brick structure was built in 1893 and greatly enlarged in 1913.
The chief lines of work were the tanning of hatters' leather, suitcase linings, satchel linings, etc. At one time more than one hundred men were continually employed.
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THE LIBRARY
HE Westport Public Library is an INSTITUTION. Rarely in towns of similar size do libraries grow to such a position of importance; that it has happened here is due largely to the efforts of the present librarian, Mrs. Edith Very Sherwood, and her appreciation of the proper functions of her establishment in the uncommon conditions existing in this community. For we find here not only the ordinary demands on a library, but also there must be met the requirements of an unusual company. Not only must be fulfilled the needs of all those looking for reading matter, frivolous or profound, as the case may be, but also painters, etchers, sculptors, poets, educators, scientists and fiction writers must be furnished the source material they seek. The satisfaction of this diverse population is always paramount in the thoughts and en- deavors of The Librarian and her staff. That an astonishing amount has been accomplished in a very short time is shown by the record.
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