USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Greenwich > Ye historie of ye town of Greenwich, county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, with genealogical notes on the Adams. > Part 25
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October 31. A very pleasant morning, which makes Owego appear very pleasant. The houses are generally . large and painted white. The church and court house are fine buildings. We left Owego this morning, passed through Nanticoke and Chenango Forks. The last is an agreeable looking village, is very neat and a place of considerable business. We forded the Chenango Creek here, although there was a good bridge. We entered into the spirit of the village and did our part toward bringing the bridge com- pany to terms. We continued our ride through a pine country in a valley with mountains on each side until we came to the great bend in the Susquehanna River. We crossed the river and came into the State of Pennsylvania. We found here a very different road. We were crossing the hills and mountains continuously. Reached the borders of New Milford, where we spent the night.
November I. What a change in the weather. This morning it rains hard, and appears like the commencement of a week's storm, but about twelve it ceased to rain and we set out again. I was disappointed at seeing New Milford. There are a few handsome houses, but no village. There is no cessation to the hills. We were continuously ascending or descending them. I do not think we travelled half a mile on level ground to-day, and to finish we ascended Elk Moun- tain and put up for the night, feeling fatigued, but am well. We saw a curiosity to-day, which excited considerable merri- ment. It was an ox harnessed before a wagon. The driver said he had set up a new line of stages. My gallant observed it was an opposition which he consented to.
November 2. Passed the remainder of a dismal range of mountains. They make muddy and bad travelling. The ground where it is not covered with bushes is covered with
331
A Journey by Stage in 1826
black or moss-grown logs. Indeed I saw nothing that was pleasant. At eight this morning we came to Belmont. This is pleasant, but not as agreeable as Pleasant Mount one mile farther. I have been informed that on Monday of this week two men were hunting. One of them had shot a deer and was dressing it, when he was discovered by the other and taken to be a deer. He instantly shot him through the breast and he died immediately. Deers, bears, wolves, panthers and foxes are not uncommon here. At Pleasant Mount, we took the old turnpike road, that was not so hilly, nor so muddy, but led through a desolate and barren coun- try which was more disagreeable than we travelled through yesterday. Bethany is the first village we saw in this state. It is small, has a church, academy and court house. This was the only church we saw in the State of Pennsylvania, and the only neat and flourishing village. This afternoon we rode beside the Dyberry Creek for several miles, and after travelling until evening we passed the Lackawaxen River, where we put up for the night. They have it in contempla- tion to make a canal beside this river for the purpose of obtaining coal from some of the mountains.
November 3. A clear morning and we set out early and rode five miles, and then came out on the "Mountrose Turn- pike." This road I have been wishing to see ever since we left Owego. Our friend Mr. J. Beers advised us to take the "Mountrose Turnpike." When we were at Owego, we were advised by a number to take the "New Burge," so we, thinking those nearest knew the best, took their advice and to my sorrow for we had a dull and unpleasant road. Took dinner at Milford. This place and Bethany are the only villages we saw in this state. A short distance from Milford we crossed the Delaware River on a flat ferry-boat. They were building a noble bridge over the river. We now came into the State of New Jersey and found the land appeared much more productive. We travelled to Franklin, where we spent the night.
November 4. This morning we rode through Sparta and "Berkshire" and after riding a few miles farther we came on the side of a mountain, which was from fifty to sixty feet down a precipice and as many feet higher than the road and in this frightful situation we travelled some distance. Dover is small, but full of manufactories, iron factories in particu- lar. A few miles back we passed an iron mine from whence they were taking the ore and conveying it to the furnaces.
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
Hanover is the next place of any size. Here is a neat little church, the first one we have seen in New Jersey, or in a day and a half's ride. Orange is a pleasant village and larger than any we have seen since we left the State of New York.
November 5. We rode this morning to Newark. This is a larger place than any we have seen in some days. It will almost compare with Utica as to size, but not as to business. Newark is large and elegant and is more than commonly pleasant in its appearance. On leaving Newark we took the Hoboken Road and passed over the Passaic River. We had a delightful ride. The road was hard and smooth, made of gravel with a row of willow trees on each side. It is said that this road is thronged with Yorkers through the summer season. We arrived at Hoboken about one o'clock and crossed over to New York, and with pleasing emotions hastened to our friends.
November 6. Left New York about two o'clock and arrived home in the evening in a storm of rain.
A weekly packet, or stage boat, was established between New York and Mianus from the landing above the bridge, as early as 1696; from Cos Cob in 1710; and from Rocky Neck at the landing near the mouth of Horseneck Brook in 1725. These boats were fitted up to carry passengers and many availed themselves of this mode of travel to and from the City of New York. The principal purpose of these boats, however, was to carry produce from the Town of Greenwich to the city, and at one time there were two boats running from Mianus, three from Cos Cob, and two from Rocky Neck. In the early days potatoes were the staple crop and during the potato season as many as twenty-eight thousand bushels of this product have been shipped from the Town of Green- wich to the City of New York in one week. It was not an unusual sight to see a line of carts, each containing fifty bushels of potatoes, extending from the landing at Cos Cob to the Hub, waiting for a chance to unload. The potato crop in the Town of Greenwich frequently controlled the price in the New York market. Later on, after the farms were well cleared of trees and underbrush, a variety of crops, including hay and grain, as also poultry, cattle, sheep, and
333
Packet Boats
swine were raised. Shipments of poultry by these market boats near Thanksgiving and Christmas have been as high as four thousand pounds for one week; hay two hundred and ten tons; and butter one thousand and five hundred pounds, each during one week. After the Civil War apples were extensively raised and shipments of these for one week have been as high as six thousand and five hundred barrels. The orchards have since been ruined by the canker worm and the San José scale. The last market boat that ran from Cos Cob was the E. M. J. Beatty, Captain Stephen Ferris, which made her last trip in 1890. The George and Edgar, Captain Chauncey Smith, made her last trip in 1894, and the James K. Polk, Captain John L. Lockwood, ran a season or two longer and then was discontinued. At Rocky Neck, The Greenwich and New York Navigation Company now runs a tri-weekly freight boat to New York. At the present time more produce is shipped into the Town of Greenwich than there is shipped out of it.
Packet Boats running from Mianus.
Vessel.
Captain.
Unknown,
Samuel Peck.
Unknown,
Nathaniel Peck.
Emeline,
Henry Whelpley.
Caroline Peck,
Solomon Peck. Uriah Lockwood.
Adaline,
Little Phebe,
Stephen Morrell.
Edge Elnora,
William S. Horner,
Jacob Morrell. David Ferris. Andrew J. Newman.
William S. Horner,
Milton,
John L. Lockwood.
George and Edgar,
Chauncey Smith.
James K. Polk,
John L. Lockwood.
Packet Boats running from Cos Cob.
Vessel. Unknown, Unknown,
Captain. Nathaniel Close. William Knapp.
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
Vessel.
Captain.
Plough Boy,
Robert Clark.
Tradesman,
Robert Clark.
Ann Maria,
Robert Clark.
Billy Martin,
Robert Clark.
Sarah Bush,
Ard Knapp.
Telegraph,
Ard Knapp.
Confidence,
Charles Studwell.
Fashion,
James Waring.
Telegraph,
George W. Marshall.
Stella, I
George W. Marshall.
Stella,
George W. Brush.
J. C. R. Brown,
George W. Marshall.
President,
George W. Marshall.
President,
John Marshall.
Deep River,
William Scott.
E. M. J. Beatty,
Stephen Ferris.
Packet Boats running from Rocky Neck.
Vessel.
Captain.
Unknown,
Unicorn,
Daniel Merritt. Daniel Merritt and
George Washington,
Augustus Lyon.
Theodore, 2
Daniel Merritt.
Theodore,
Caleb W. Merritt.
Ann Amelia,
Willis J. Merritt.
Ann Amelia,
Caleb W. Merritt.
Mary Willis, 3
Willis J. Merritt.
Telegraph, 4
Lewis A. Merritt.
Caleb W. Holmes.
Theodore, Comet,
Luther Holmes.
Deep River,
William Scott.
Locomotive, 5
Caleb W. Holmes.
Locomotive,
Charles H. Holmes.
I Built at Palmer and Duff's Shipyard, launched October 1, 1860.
2 Built on Pipen Island at Rocky Neck.
3 Built on the shore of the Mianus River at Indian Field, launched April 10, 1837.
4 Built on the westerly shore of Indian Harbor, near Davis' Mill, in 1840.
5 Built at Palmer and Duff's Shipyard in 1850.
Daniel Smith.
OLD AMERICUS CLUB HOUSE, LATER THE INDIAN HARBOR HOTEL. TORN DOWN IN 1895.
335
Steamboats
Vessel. Lizzie A. Towle, David Nelson, Mennucatuck,
Captain. Charles H. Holmes.
Charles H. Holmes. Charles H. Holmes.
The first line of steamboats on Long Island Sound was established on the twenty-first day of March, 1815, when the Fulton arrived at New Haven from New York with thirty passengers. The trip took eleven and one half hours and it was the first one of the semi-weekly trips between New York and New Haven arranged to be made by this boat.
Just when the first steamboat commenced stopping at Rocky Neck (Greenwich) is not definitely known, but as near as can be ascertained there was a boat running from there to New York a few years after the above date. Among the boats were the Nimrod, Oliver Wolcott, Fairfield, Cricket, John Marshall, Norwalk, Stamford, and Cataline. They were either from Norwalk or Stamford. The Cataline ran until shortly after the close of the Civil War, when William M. Tweed located in Greenwich and built the Americus Club House on the point where the residence of Elias C. Benedict now stands. William M. Tweed was the principal organizer of the Greenwich and Rye Steamboat Company, which was incorporated on the sixth day of March, 1866, under the joint-stock laws of the State of Connecticut with a capital stock of $75,000.00, of which $70,000.00 was paid in. A great deal of this stock was sold to the residents of Greenwich. Mr. Tweed, however, retained two hundred shares. The officers of the company were Captain Thomas Mayo, Presi- dent; and Sanford Mead, Secretary. The principal object of this company was to run a steamboat to New York daily and return. It purchased the famous John Romer, which was built by Harlan and Hollingsworth, and originally cost $50,000.00, but as her owners were financially embarrassed the company obtained her for $35,000.00. The boat com- menced running in 1866 and was said to have been the fastest one on the sound. Stephen G. White was the captain and
336
Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
Billy Witherwax the pilot. The John Romer was exceedingly popular and it was not an unusual sight to see between two hundred and three hundred passengers disembark at Rocky Neck on pleasant days. The gross receipts for the first year were $21,763.15, expenses $21,417.28. This boat ran two seasons, after which she was sold. After this, arrangements were made to have the Norwalk, or Stamford, boat stop. Among the number were the Ella, she ran foul of a spar standing in a sunken vessel in the Hell Gate and sank, Stamford, Shippan, Nellie White, and the Shady Side.
Captain Charles H. Holmes ran the steamer Greenwich for the seasons of 1879 and 1880, and then returned to sailing vessels, which he continued to run until 1886, when that mode of transportation was permanently discontinued by him. The steamer Maid of Kent was then placed on the line and was run continuously by him until the tenth day of July, 1902, when she was succeeded by the General Putnam. After the death of Captain Charles H. Holmes, on the seventeenth day of March, 1903, his son, Frank J. Holmes, succeeded him in the business and ran the General Putnam as her captain until April, 1907, when the passenger service was discontinued, and a line exclusively for freight established.
In 1908, The Greenwich and New York Navigation Com- pany was incorporated with a capital of $25,000.00, which took over the business of Captain Holmes. The officers of this company are (19II), William J. Smith, President; David K. Allen, Vice-President; Amos W. Avery, Secretary; James Maher, Treasurer; and Frank J. Holmes, General Manager. The freight boat Sarah Thorp has been running since April, 1907.
Another mode of travel and transportation was intro- duced on the twenty-seventh day of December, 1848, when the New York and New Haven Railroad Company ran its first passenger train through the Town of Greenwich, and opened the line for traffic the following month. The road was originally single track and the motive-power steam.
337
Trolley Line
Double-tracking from New Haven to New Rochelle was commenced in 1851 and completed in 1852. Four-tracking from Port Chester to New Rochelle was commenced in 1885. The original layout through the Town of Greenwich was straightened, grades reduced, and four-tracking commenced in 1893. The motive-power between New York and Stam- ford was changed to electricity in 1907, the electricity for this zone being generated at the power-house, which is located just south of the railroad tracks at Cos Cob.
TROLLEY LINE.
Incorporated, 1893.
Charter amended in 1897, 1899, 1901, 1903, and 1905.
The Greenwich Tramway Company was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly passed in 1893, when it was:
Resolved that William J. Smith, Noah C. Rogers, R. Jay Walsh, John Dayton, Heusted W. R. Hoyt and Whit- man S. Mead, together with such persons as may be asso- ciated with them, are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of The Greenwich Tramway Com- pany.
The time for organization was extended in 1895.
Construction work was commenced in the spring of 1901, and the first trolley car was run into the Town of Greenwich from Port Chester on the fifteenth day of August, 1901. As fast as sections of the line were completed, they were opened for traffic. The trolley lines in the Towns of Stamford and Greenwich, and in the Village of Port Chester, were author- ized to be merged into one company by an act of the General Assembly passed in 1903, called The New York and Stam- ford Street Railway Company. This company was in turn absorbed by the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Com- pany in 1905.
The Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company was originally known as The Gas Supply Company, which was
22
338
Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
incorporated in 1895; name changed in 1899 to the Connecti- cut Lighting and Power Company; and name again changed in 1901 to the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company.
BUSINESS CENTRES.
Greenwich, Old Town, now known as Sound Beach, never attained any prominence as a business centre. The inhabitants at that place usually transacted such business as was necessary for their comfort and maintenance at Stamford.
Postal communications between New York and Boston were first established in 1673, and Dumpling Pond, now known as North Mianus, being on the King's Highway, became the first business centre of the town. It was here that the first mills in the town were built, and just above where the first packet boat made its landing. It supported two taverns and a general store. It retained its prestige until 1788, when the old bridge at Mianus was rebuilt and made into a cart and wagon bridge. The Post Road was then changed to run through Mianus and to cross the river at that point. Mianus then became the business centre of the town and retained its prestige for over one hundred years. It maintained three general stores, a lumber yard, a grist-mill, and a tavern. On the arrival and departure of the market boats it was a scene of great activity with its crowd of farmers with their loads of produce, who purchased their supplies at one of the general stores. The market boats also made connection with the stages for the North and East. After 1885, the business began to fall off, owing to so much produce being used for home consumption, and after the last market boats stopped running, in 1896, the place presented quite a deserted appearance, the business having gradually drifted over to Horseneck, now known as the Borough of Greenwich.
Cos Cob was next in prominence to Mianus and at one time had two general stores and a grist-mill, but with its three market boats it is probable that, occasionally, a larger volume
YACHT "ONEIDA " WITH THE
MENDELSSOHN GLEE CLUB SINGING ON THE BRIDGE.
RESIDENCE OF COMMODORE ELIAS C. BENEDICT AT INDIAN HARBOR, AND HIS STEAM
- -
-
4
339
Business Centres
of business was transacted here than at Mianus. Like Mianus, the business has gone to the Borough of Greenwich.
East Port Chester has always been more of a residential than a business centre. Its development commenced in about 1853, and it has built up so quickly that it now sup- ports four different churches, the German Lutheran, the Danish Lutheran, the Slovak Lutheran, and the Roman Catholic. In 1899, James J. Nedley, a police officer, was assigned to patrol the streets for the first time. This village is still growing rapidly.
At the time the Borough of Greenwich, formerly Horse- neck, was incorporated in 1854, there were on Greenwich Avenue only three or four small stores and a couple of meat markets. Very little, however, of the charm of this delight- ful place was known prior to the advent of William M. Tweed, who located here soon after the Civil War. He first built the Americus Club House on the point where the residence of Elias C. Benedict now stands; on the fifth day of January, 1867, he obtained a lease of the grounds, consisting of about eight acres, for seven years; organized the Green- wich and Rye Steamboat Company in 1866, which purchased the famous John Romer to make daily trips from Rocky Neck to New York; later built a palatial residence in the centre of the borough on the property now owned by Mrs. Anderson, and in many other ways started business activity in the borough. After the collapse of the Americus Club, the club house was remodelled and run as the Indian Harbor Hotel until 1895, when the property was sold to Elias C. Benedict. This hostelry was a rendezvous for many promi- nent New Yorkers, some of whom recognized the advantages the town offered as a place of residence and located herc. It was not, however, until after 1886 that the Borough of Greenwich obtained the supremacy over either Mianus or Cos Cob as a business centre. Its growth during the last fifteen years has been remarkable and beyond the expectations of the most extreme optimists. It is now commercially, politi- cally, and financially the centre of the Town of Greenwich.
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
INDUSTRIES.
The principal industry is farming, although at present the farms are gradually being merged into large estates, or cut up into plots for residential purposes. There are, how- ever, a few manufactories.
THE GREENWICH IRON WORKS. Reference, Greenwich Graphic, Feb. 8, 1908.
The Greenwich Iron Works, more familiarly known as the Rolling Mills, were located on the Mianus River a short distance above the Steep Hollow (North Mianus) District Schoolhouse, and were started in 1829 by Robert Cox, who had been an ironworker in England. He soon after took in his brother, William Cox, as partner, and the firm was known as the Cox Brothers. It, however, was not a financial success. Douglass and Gold soon succeeded them, with indifferent success for a time, when Mr. Roberts took posses- sion of the mill and ran it. It was afterwards bought by James H. Holden, and Barrington Hicks, who was well known in this vicinity, was superintendent of it until 1857. That was the year of the great panic and the mill succumbed under the financial stress.
John Hughes then made a contract with Holden to run the mill on shares, or something of that kind, from 1857 to 1861. The mill then turned out bar iron for tires, horse- shoe nails, rods, and axe iron. In 1861, at the time the Civil War broke out, Mr. Hughes took in Lorenzo Finney as a partner, and they made a specialty of spike iron. Later Mr. Finney handled the entire business and made his contract direct with Mr. Holden. From 1861 to 1864 spike iron rose in price from $60 to $200 per ton, and Mr. Holden made $75,000 net in the year 1864, when he got the output of these mills.
After the war closed prices began to drop and he lost heavily, and the mill changed hands again, and was bought by Pettit, Ayres, and Davenport. They were the owners of
34I
Industries
the Stillwater Rolling Mills, situated on the Rippowam River, in Stamford. In the fall of 1879 business began to run behind, owing to the fact that other large mills had been established at tide water, and this mill was too far away to compete with them, because of the additional cost for cartage, and the mill was abandoned in the spring of 1880.
THE WIRE MILL. Reference, Greenwich Graphic, Feb. 8, 1908.
The Wire Mill, which was located just a short distance below the Rolling Mills, was always owned by the same people who controlled the Rolling Mills. At first it was used for making fine wire and pump chains. At the time hoop- skirts were in the height of fashion, 1859 to 1868, this mill was kept busy making hoopskirt wire. After the passing of the hoopskirt the mill soon closed down, which was probably in 1868.
SWAN'S PAPER MILL Reference, Greenwich Graphic, Aug. 15, 1908.
Swan's Paper Mill was located on the Mianus River between the Steep Hollow (North Mianus) District School- house and the Rolling Mills. It was built by Walter Swan about 1800, and a very fine quality of linen paper was manu- factured by this mill, which was used for ledgers and writing paper. Mr. Swan died in 1825, and his widow and son ran the mill until it was destroyed by fire a few years later.
A sawmill was soon thereafter erected on the same site by Henry Cox, who married Mr. Swan's daughter. Charles Stevens put in some lathes in a portion of the building, which were used in making axe handles and spokes for carriage wheels. The supply of suitable hickory for this purpose soon gave out and the enterprise was abandoned.
Later George Peabody made a hand sewing-machine here, which turned with a crank, and sold for five dollars. Although he made a very good thing of it, he, too, passed along with the rest.
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
Soon after that, Simon Ingersoll, the famous inventor, who probably made the first automobile in this country, occupied the old mill, but his son, S. C. Ingersoll, succeeded him in a short time. The son passed along, too, after a short stay, and a Mr. Carter occupied it in the sixties and used the mill for his machines for grinding shoddy, which made so many fortunes during the Civil War. The shoddy business came to an end about 1869. Mr. Cox then took possession of the mill and converted it into a country cider-, saw-, and feed-mill, and it remained the same until destroyed by fire during the summer of 1909.
THE RIPPOWAM WOOLLEN MANUFACTURING COMPANY. Incorporated, 1895.
The Rippowam Woollen Manufacturing Company com- menced the manufacture of plush carriage robes and horse blankets in January, 1896, at North Mianus, and continued in business until November, 1899, when it was dissolved.
THE MIANUS MANUFACTURING COMPANY. Incorporated, 1899.
The Mianus Manufacturing Company on the second day of November, 1899, purchased the plant and machinery which was formerly operated by the Rippowam Woollen Manufacturing Company, at North Mianus.
This plant is located on the site of the old Rolling Mills and was erected for the special purpose of the manufacture of plush carriage robes and horse blankets. The officers of the company are (19II), Thomas I. Raymond, President; Whitman S. Mead, Vice-President; Minor D. Randall, Secretary; and Frederick A. Springer, Treasurer and General Manager.
Under efficient management, competent workmen, and the maintenance of the quality of the product, the business has rapidly increased and the product is distributed in every state and territory in the United States. An extensive line
1.4
MILLS OF THE MIANUS MANUFACTURING COMPANY AT NORTH MIANUS.
343
Industries
of automobile robes has been added and every desirable quality and style to meet the demand of the trade is being introduced. Thousands of yards of plush are sold to manu- facturers of fur robes for lining purposes, and also for the making of velour gloves.
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