USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Meriden > Years of Meriden 150: published in connection with the observance of the city's sesquicentennial, June 17-23, 1956 > Part 19
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THE MERIDEN JOURNAL
The Meriden Journal was first published April 17, 1886 in the Russell building on South Colony Street next to the Armour plant. It was founded by Francis Atwater, Lew Allen, Thomas L. Reilly and Frank E. Sands, four young men with slender capital which was almost absorbed by the first month's rent. Mr. Atwater, a practical printer, was in charge of the mechanical processes; Mr. Sands handled business details and solicited adver- tising; Mr. Allen was editor, and Mr. Reilly acted as city editor and reporter as well. The growth of circulation was so rapid that a new press became necessary in the fall of 1886.
The quarters in the Russell building were too small, and the firm leased a three-story wooden building on the edge of Harbor Brook from Morse & Cook. This building was occupied in 1888. A year later, the company purchased the building and proceeded
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to erect a fireproof printing plant around the old wooden structure, continuing daily publication while the work was in process. An office was established on East Main Street where the Puritan Bank & Trust Company is now located, and was con- nected to the mechanical plant. In 1912, an office building was erected on property purchased from the H. Wales Lines Company, and the two buildings were joined.
Mr. Atwater sold his interest in the company and retired in 1913, and Mr. Sands became president and publisher. Before that time, both Mr. Allen and Mr. Reilly had retired, the latter to become congressman and later sheriff of New Haven County. C. Howard Tryon purchased an interest in 1915, was elected treasurer and named business manager. Sanford H. Wendover, who joined the company in 1916 as telegraph editor, became secretary and advertising manager. Later, Mr. Tryon was elected president, and also served as publisher. In 1943, Mr. Sands was elected chairman of the board and Mr. Wendover vice president to succeed Walter Allen, son of Lew Allen, who had been vice president as well as managing editor for many years. Mr. Allen then retired.
The Journal was published continuously in the two buildings until it was purchased by The Meriden Record Company in 1949. But it did not lose its identity through the sale. Its editorial and news staffs are entirely separate from the Record staffs, working at different hours, and its editorial page represents the views of its own editors.
Mr. Sands, who had spent his entire business lifetime in the conduct of the Journal, died in 1951. His death took the last of the newspaper's founders. Mr. Tryon remained as assistant publisher until 1950, when he retired. Mr. Wendover, who had been editor of the Journal since 1946, has continued in that capacity since the change. He is now the only former executive of the Journal Publishing Company still active in newspaper work.
The Meriden Record Company sold the two buildings it had bought from the Journal to the Meriden Savings Bank. The bank remodeled the former office building as an enlargement of its banking quarters at East Main and Crown Streets, and the two buildings were connected. The former mechanical plant of the Journal was torn down early this year.
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MERIDEN NEWSPAPERS
OTHER MERIDEN NEWSPAPERS
The Northern Literary Messenger, published by O. G. Wilson, was the first newspaper printed in Meriden. The date of the first issue is in doubt, but a copy of a later issue, February 3, 1849, bore the imprint Volume IV, indicating that it began late in 1844. It claimed to be edited "by an Association of Gentlemen." Publi- cation was suspended in 1849.
The second newspaper was the Meriden Weekly Mercury, published by O. G. Wilson and George W. Weeks as a successor to the Messenger. The Mercury's plant was destroyed by fire about six weeks after it was started in 1849. The length of its life after that time is unknown.
The Connecticut Organ was first published in 1851 by Franklin E. Hinman and O. H. Platt. Hinman was the printer and Mr. Platt, later to become famous in politics, was the editor. The paper was sold in 1852 to James N. Phelps & Co. The date when it ceased publication is uncertain.
The Connecticut Whig was next on the newspaper scene. R. W. Lewis and O. H. Platt were its publishers, and Mr. Platt was also editor. The paper was discontinued about 1854.
During the same period, the Meriden Transcript was published by Lysander R. Webb & Co. When the Whig was suspended, Mr. Platt became editor of the Transcript, which lasted until August 1856. At that time, Mr. Platt's increasing practice as a lawyer and his budding interest in politics influenced his with- drawal from the newspaper business.
Robert Winston, a Canadian, came to Meriden in 1856 and established a weekly called the Meriden Chronicle which lasted for three years. It was purchased by A. B. Stillman who established the Meriden Banner, which had the brief life of four weeks.
From then until 1863 Meriden was without a newspaper. On August 29 of that year Luther G. Riggs started the Meriden Literary Recorder.
All of the newspapers mentioned were weeklies. The first daily was the Meriden Visitor, which began as the Weekly Visitor on March 21, 1867, but changed to a daily on January 1, 1868. Only three months later it was merged with the Weekly and Daily Republican, published at first by Marcus L. Delavan and George Gibbons, and later by William F. Graham.
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Luther G. Riggs was interested in several short-lived news- papers in addition to the Recorder. Among his other ventures were the Daily News, the Evening Recorder, and the Morning Call.
The Penny Press, established by J. H. Mabbett in December 1881, became the Evening Press the next year, and, on October 16, 1882, consolidated with Riggs' Daily and Weekly Recorder. Under the name of the Press-Recorder, it continued until 1884. For a brief period in 1872, William F. Graham published a news- paper called the Evening Monitor, which was soon merged with the Republican.
The Meriden Evening Times was started May 22, 1905, backed by Henry C. L. Otto, who had no previous experience in the newspaper business. Local investors lost about $30,000 in this venture, which lasted less than 10 months.
The last casualty in the local newspaper field occurred when the Meriden News-Digest ceased publication in April 1954. This newspaper was the successor to the Meriden Star, a weekly established June 15, 1950 with the backing of the International Typographical Union after members of its local had walked out of the Record-Journal plant. On July 17, 1951, the format was changed from the orthodox page size to tabloid size. Before the end, when the union had tired of enormous expenditures and the rapidly mounting losses from the operations, efforts were made unsuccessfully to attract local capital. The plant on South Colony Street was closed and the equipment offered for sale. The final edition appeared April 23, 1954.
The Independent, published by Robert L'Heureux, a former employee of the News-Digest, was started here as a weekly on May 20, 1954.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Financial Institutions
ONE OF the more important factors responsible for Meriden's continuing growth and prosperity is the stability of its financial institutions. Sound in the beginning, they have remained sound through good times and bad. The worst periods of depression have not weakened them materially. There has never been an instance of a major bank failure here.
The thrifty habits of Meriden citizens are reflected in steadily increasing savings accounts and in a large percentage of individual home ownership. Business and industry are able to depend upon the local banks for current financing and assistance in expansion.
The total assets of the nine institutions, as of December 31, 1955, were $112,272,048.22, not counting the trust funds in their keeping. Included in this figure are the assets of the Home National Bank and Trust Company; the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company, East Main and West Main branches; the Puritan Bank and Trust Company; the Meriden Savings Bank; the City Saving Bank; the Meriden Permanent Savings and Loan Associa- tion; the First Federal Savings and Loan Association, and the Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Company.
HOME NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY
The Home National Bank and Trust Company completed its first century in 1954, and held a special observance at the time of its annual meeting, January 12, 1955.
A group of local businessmen met in 1854 to form a bank for "home benefit," and the result was the "Home Bank of West Meriden," which became the Home National Bank of Meriden on January 6, 1865 and the Home National Bank and Trust Company of Meriden on February 1, 1947. In the year when it was founded, the population of Meriden was 3,559. The course of business was steadily westward to concentrate in the vicinity of the railroad. The bank was started with an initial subscription of $100,000. Its first quarters were in rented rooms of the Young Men's Institute in the Collins Block on the east side of Colony
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Street. Two years later, in 1856, it was moved across the street to the present location at Church and Colony Streets. The building was owned by Henry Butler, and the bank purchased it from him in 1858 for $3,750. In 1863, this old wooden structure was removed, and the bank opened a large, new brick building, erected on the same site to house its growing activities. At the same time, the land immediately south was sold for $3,000, so the corner property was obtained at a net cost to the stockholders of $750. The original wooden building was moved to the corner of Camp and Colony Streets, where it stood for many years.
The brick building erected in 1863 had been outgrown 20 years later, and was completely remodeled in 1885.
Again, in 1921, the bank's directors agreed that larger banking quarters were necessary. The brick building, occupied for 59 years, was moved to the adjacent lot in the rear at 141/2 Church Street, and rechristened the Central Building. The present bank building was erected on the corner site and opened in 1922. Several times since, the quarters have been expanded. In 1949, the main office was enlarged by the addition of a south wing, and in 1952 a modernization program was completed to provide more space for the bookkeeping department. In 1954, the main office was connected with the building at the rear.
On June 2, 1946, an office was opened in Cheshire in rented quarters. The response was gratifying, and in 1953 the bank erected a colonial type brick building to serve Cheshire's banking needs.
In Meriden, an uptown office was opened in leased quarters at 489 Broad Street on February 1, 1950.
S. W. Baldwin was the first president of the bank and A. C. Wetmore its first secretary. The original directors were Julius Pratt, S. W. Baldwin, Eli Butler, Henry C. Butler, James S. Brooks, Howell Merriman, A. C. Wetmore, James A. Frary and Fenner Bush. The first cashier was H. C. Young. Among these names will be recognized men who played a large part in the development of Meriden around the middle of the last century and later.
Eli Butler became president in 1856 and Abiram Chamberlain succeeded to that position in 1881 after Mr. Butler's death. He served 30 years as president, and was elected Governor of Con- necticut in 1902 while holding the presidency of the bank.
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The fourth president was Junius Norton, elected in 1911. After his death in an automobile accident, Edgar J. Doolittle, a well- known local manufacturer, was elected president in 1913. Charles S. Perkins became president in 1926, after Mr. Doolittle's death. George J. Sokel was elevated to the presidency in 1934, when Mr. Perkins died. The late Arthur S. Lane was then elected to the new office of chairman of the board.
The assets of the bank, as of December 31, 1955, were $25,046,802, a figure which tells its own story of growth under sound management.
CONNECTICUT BANK & TRUST COMPANY
Through merger of the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company and the Phoenix State Bank and Trust Company of Hartford in 1954, the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company was created. The East Main and West Main branches of the Hartford-Con- necticut Trust Company then became branches of the consoli- dated institutions under the new name. Separately, their identities date back to much earlier periods in Meriden history, when they were known respectively as the Meriden National Bank and the First National Bank.
The Meriden National Bank, now the East Main Branch, is the oldest bank in Meriden. It was chartered by the General Assembly in June 1833, and began business with a capital of $100,000 in the dwelling of William Yale at 447 Broad Street. The following year, a new brick bank building was erected at 529 Broad Street, on the east side of the street, a short distance north of East Main Street. The two-story brick building, with white columns supporting the porch over the colonial doorway, later became the residence of Hermon E. Hubbard.
The first board of directors consisted of Silas Mix, Samuel Yale, Elisha Cowles, Stephen Taylor, Ashabel Griswold, James S. Brooks, Noah Pomeroy, John D. Reynolds and Walter Booth. Ashabel Griswold was the first president and Francis King the first cashier.
In 1836, the bank's capital was increased to $150,000. General Walter Booth became president and Harry Hayden was named cashier after Mr. King's death in 1837.
Noah Pomeroy, Joel H. Guy and Joel I. Butler were other
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early presidents. Owen B. Arnold, who followed Mr. Butler in office, was president until his death in 1900.
The bank remained on Broad Street more than 50 years. In 1885, it moved downtown to occupy the four-story brick building on East Main Street where it has been located ever since. Judge Levi E. Coe became president in 1900, and died in 1905, when he was succeeded by George M. Clark, who held the office until his death in 1916. In that year, Herman Hess was elected president. He was followed in that office by Harris S. Bartlett, who was succeeded in 1935 by Burton L. Lawton.
In May 1946, when Harold F. Merz was president, the stock- holders of the Meriden National Bank voted to tranfer all the bank's assets and good will to the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company. Mr. Merz was retained as vice president of the Hartford Connecticut Trust Company and manager of the East Main Branch. Today, he is vice president and manager of both the East Main and West Main branches of the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company. Howard F. Buttner, assistant vice president, is stationed at the East Main Branch.
In November 1955, plans were announced by Lester E. Shippee, chairman of the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company, to erect a modern addition to the East Main Branch. It will adjoin the present building, and will occupy land in front of the Main Street Baptist Church. The bank has owned this site, at the corner of East Main and Crown Streets since 1945. The new building will be of modern design, with the use of much plate glass, and will have a sidewalk teller's window.
The First National Bank, now the West Main Branch, was established in 1863. Its original location was approximately the site of the present building, which it shares with the City Savings Bank and the Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Company. The small wooden structure, which it occupied when it started, was replaced by a brick building in 1872. When the City Savings Bank was organized in 1874, it located in the same building. The Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Company became the third occupant of this building when it was organized in 1889. Addi- tional room was required by all three institutions, and the entire building was reconstructed in 1939. It was opened for public inspection on January 20, 1940, and began business in its new quarters immediately afterward.
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The West Main Branch is on the west side of the main lobby, and the City Savings Bank on the east. The Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Company has its quarters at the rear.
Joel H. Guy was the first president of the First National Bank. John D. Billard succeeded to the presidency in 1881 after the death of Mr. Guy. After Mr. Billard's death, Charles F. Rockwell, who had been cashier, became president and served until his death in 1923. He was succeeded by Floyd Curtis, with Ray E. King as cashier. After the absorption of the First National Bank by the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company in 1933, Mr. Curtis was elected vice president in charge of the local branch. Mr. King was elected assistant vice president. Wilber W. Gibson at that time became chairman of the advisory board, consisting of local men.
Mr. King has since retired, and Harold F. Merz is assistant vice president in charge, with the East Main branch also under his supervision. Dudley A. Dutton and Eric A. Walther are assistant vice presidents.
The combined assets of the two branches, as of December 31, 1955, were $8,840,064.22.
PURITAN BANK AND TRUST COMPANY
The Puritan Bank and Trust Company had its origin when the state legislature authorized its incorporation in 1907. The incor- porators were Francis Atwater, Dr. Frederick L. Murdock, Henry T. King and Charles C. Glock.
The first meeting of the incorporators took place in August 1912, five years after the legislature had taken action. The incor- porators then voted to solicit subscriptions to the stock of the proposed new bank, the shares to be sold at $100 par value.
One hundred and eighty-three subscribers took up $54,700 in stock, which was later raised to an even $55,000, and the bank was launched. In 1928, the capital was increased to $75,000, and, in December of the same year, was stepped up to $100,000. The capital stock of the bank is now $150,000, the last change in capital structure having been made in 1945. The bank has been a member of the Federal Reserve system since 1941, and all its deposits are insured.
The first meeting of the stockholders was held October 10, 1912, with Gilbert Rogers as temporary chairman and Francis
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Atwater as clerk. By-laws were adopted at that meeting, and the following directors elected: Frank D. Smith, C. F. Fox, William T. Mckenzie, John R. Barnes, William A. Kelsey, Herbert Mills, Gilbert Rogers, Hermon E. Hubbard, Lewis E. Clark, Henry C. Bibeau, John R. Williams, D. M. Begley, H. W. Morse, Dr. E. W. Smith and Sylvester Moscaletis. Gilbert Rogers was elected the first president, and H. E. Kneath treasurer and secretary.
The bank began business in an old wooden building at 27 East Main Street. At the end of the first year, its resources were $233,306.24. In 1914, Mr. Rogers resigned as president, and C. E. Schunack was elected to succeed him. After Mr. Schunack's death in 1927, W. S. Alexander, who had been treasurer of the bank since 1921, was elected president. In 1936, Clarence S. Powers, who had been a director of the bank since 1928, and who had served for a year as vice president, was elected to succeed Mr. Alexander, who had resigned as president and moved away from Meriden.
Today the bank is at the same location which it has occupied since 1912, but its quarters have been completely modernized. In 1924, the old wooden structure was replaced from foundation to roof and made into a modern, fireproof building. A new facade of Indiana limestone and granite was installed, and the interior was completely rearranged. A new vault was also installed. Changes made since that time have kept pace with the institution's growth and needs.
As of December 31, 1955, the assets of the Puritan Bank and Trust Company were $3,718,884.49.
THE MERIDEN SAVINGS BANK
The Meriden Savings Bank received its charter on July 16, 1851, which had been granted by the state on July 12. At its first meeting, Enos H. Curtiss was elected president, Benjamin H. Catlin vice president, and Julius Pratt, Charles Parker, Lewis Yale, Joel H. Guy, Edwin E. Curtiss, Curtis L. North, David N. Ropes, Howell Merriman, and Henry W. Saltonstall as directors. On July 21, three vice presidents were added: Walter Booth, Elah Camp, and Ashbil Griswold.
It was voted to locate the bank at the home of Joel H. Guy on Broad Street. Mr. Guy was the first treasurer, and also held the office of secretary.
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The Benjamin Franklin School
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JOOHOS FRANKLIN NIWVINO
Roger Sherman School Addition
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The Nathan Hale School
Parker Avenue The Israel Putnam School
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Curtis Memorial Library
The Home Club
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The Meriden Post Office
Curtis Home for Aged Women
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First Methodist Church
Temple B'Nai Abraham
Masonic Temple
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Elks' Clubhouse
The Bradley Memorial Home
Corner of Campus, Connecticut School for Boys
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
On August 2, 1851, the first actual deposit, amounting to $100, was made by Asahel H. Curtiss. The first loan was to Wesley M. Johnson on house and land at the corner of Liberty and Center Streets.
In 1854, the bank moved to the Coe building on the southwest corner of East Main and Broad Streets, next to the Center Congre- gational Church. This building stood until 1894, when it was condemned and torn down to widen the corner.
In 1864, the bank moved to the Town Hall, and used its vault for the safekeeping of its securities. In 1870, E. E. Curtiss, Eli Butler, and I. C. Lewis, a committee appointed to obtain a new location, recommended the purchase of the P. J. Clark property, at the corner of East Main and Veteran Streets. The bank occupied the west store in this building until 1882, when the building was moved back on Veteran Street and a new structure erected in its place. This brick block remained the bank's quarters until July 1925, when the new banking house erected at East Main and Crown Streets was formally opened.
From 1851, the following have served as presidents of the Meriden Savings Bank: Enos H. Curtiss, 1851-1854; and again from 1857 to 1862; Benjamin H. Catlin, from 1854 to 1857; Edwin E. Curtiss, from 1862 to 1881; Levi E. Coe, from 1881 to 1903; John L. Billard, from 1903 to 1914; Eugene A. Hall, from 1914 to 1923; John G. Nagel from 1923 to 1941, and Llewellyn A. Tobie from 1941 to date.
Like all chartered Connecticut savings banks, the Meriden Savings Bank is a mutual institution, owned by its depositors. Its assets, as of December 31, 1955, were $23,485,682.03. Through mortgage loans made on local property it has contributed greatly to the growth of the city during its life span of nearly 105 years.
THE CITY SAVINGS BANK
The City Savings Bank was organized in 1874. The original incorporators were Joel H. Guy, Charles L. Upham, John C. Byxbee, Jared R. Cook, John D. Billard, John Tait, H. L. Schleiter, George W. Smith, William H. Miller, A. C. Wetmore, Ratcliff Hicks, J. S. Wightman, Randolph Linsley, William Lewis, E. B. Everitt, and Gilbert Rogers.
Joel H. Guy was the first president, and upon his death in 1881, John D. Billard was elected to the presidency, serving until his
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death in 1902. Charles L. Rockwell, who had been treasurer, was his successor. Frederick H. Billard succeeded Mr. Rockwell as president, and held that office until 1944, when he was elected to the office of chairman of the board of directors. Harold L. Wheatley, who has served the bank continuously since 1898, was chosen to succeed him.
Mr. Billard held the office of chairman until his death. Mr. Wheatley continued as president until the annual meeting on January 19, 1955, when Henry L. Ketelhut, who had been asso- ciated with the bank for 35 years, was elected president, and Mr. Wheatley became chairman of the board.
The first annual meeting of the bank was held July 1, 1875, when deposits of $20,418.03 were reported, with 185 separate accounts. Assets as of December 31, 1955 were $12,760,162.37.
The bank has always assisted in home financing for responsible persons on a sound basis, and its mortgage loans have done much toward building the community to its present size. Steadily increasing deposits over the years testify not only to the thrift of Meriden people, but to their satisfaction in the service rendered.
THE MERIDEN TRUST AND SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANY
Quartered in the same building with the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company and the City Savings Bank, the Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Company was organized in 1889 by Walter Hubbard, Charles L. Rockwell, Charles F. Linsley, Isaac C. Lewis, John L. Billard, Nathaniel L. Bradley, John D. Billard, George R. Curtis, and Charles Parker. These men, all community leaders of their time, had in mind the growing need for a permanent institution to act as executor, administrator, guardian, and trustee of estates. A special charter was obtained from the legislature incorporating the company. Isaac C. Lewis was the first president, succeeded in turn by Walter Hubbard, Charles L. Rockwell, and W. B. Church, who still holds the presidency.
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