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 7
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Still another try for buried treasure was made near the Hanging Hills by Dan Johnson who is reported to have lost a small fortune. His shafts were in what was then called Mining Hill - what is now the island at the south end of Merimere, since waters were backed up around it for our reservoir.
It may seem incongruous to us in this day and age to find our
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canny forebears had what seems to us a pipe dream. But copper was successfully mined in Granby and iron in Salisbury. In fact the Salisbury mine and works were well known. The guns of the Constitution and other early American warships were cast at Salisbury out of iron mined there. Gold, silver, mica, lead, asbestos, copper, and cobalt have been found not too far from Meriden. None of it was ever in amounts that would fire a miner's imagination today. Sandstone such as was used to make the old turnpike milestones went from this neighborhood to build some of the lush structures of New York's earlier days. The one profitable product from Meriden's rocky surface is the trap rock, which has given being to substantial businesses for many years and with that we are content. Meriden's prosperity stems from the minds and skills of the men and women who call it "Home."
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CHAPTER TWELVE
Slavery
IN COLONIAL days Connecticut and New Haven colonialists thought it was as proper to buy, sell, or keep slaves as to do the same with cattle, horses, or chickens. There are records of public auctions of slaves in Middletown. Slavery began in Connecticut in 1639 when one colored lad from Dutch Guiana was held as a slave in Hartford. Many of the Pequot Indians captured in the war with that enemy tribe were held as slaves. But Indians made unwilling workers so the practice was discontinued, although there was no hesitancy on the part of Connecticut people about selling Indians who were captives into slavery in the West Indies.
But one of the first anti-slavery societies in the nation was formed in New Haven in 1833, evidence that people in this area were not backward in their awakening to the wrongs of the practice. In Meriden the abolitionist movement was sparked by a small group of "men of property and influence." Believing that slavery was a "monstrous sin," they sought to convince other Meridenites by bringing in a famous anti-slavery minister to speak at the Congregational church.
There was also a strong and bitter anti-abolitionist feeling here and the leaders on that side of the controversy determined to break up the meeting. There ensued what is known as the "Meriden Riot" when two brothers named Thompson, imports to the community for the occasion, battered down the church door with a log picked up in a neighboring woodpile. Eggs, rotten and otherwise, and some stones were used as missiles. Women fainted, there were many scuffles, and much excitement. But apparently nobody was seriously hurt. It was, however, a cause celebre in Connecticut, almost resulted in the summary dismissal of the minister, and took many years to heal breaches caused in local friendships.
An interesting postscript to this "Meriden Riot" incident is that one of the Thompson brothers is said to have seen a local young lady in church with whom he fell instantly in love. Against her family's wishes and the advice of friends, she finally married him
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- we assume after he served the six months' jail sentence imposed for his part in the riot. Needless to say the couple left Meriden for some unidentified place "in the West."
The slavery controversy boiled in Meriden for a long time. Mrs. Breckenridge in her Recollections tells about the persecution of two of Meriden's early manufacturers - Harlowe Isbell and Homer Curtis who owned a shop for making door latches. These two men were at the time the only local persons voting the anti- slavery ticket. Twice their factory was set on fire and burned down with all contents. Many word-of-mouth anecdotes have been handed down through the years about the part these men took in helping escaping slaves on their "underground" route to freedom.
The root of the trouble in Meriden lay in disruption of trade with the South. By the time of the outbreak of the Civil War few if any slaves remained in what could be called a state of bondage in this neighborhood. No Meridenite was to suffer loss of personal property, valuable assets, by the freeing of slaves. But Meriden's very existence depended upon continuing employment of crafts- men and laborers in the variety of businesses finding ever wider markets. Sudden disruption of trade with the South, a ready market for some of Meriden's finest quality products, hit where it hurt. When the inevitable came to pass, many a family faced some extremely lean years before a subsequent readjustment restored trade which was, and still is, Meriden's life-blood. The shortages normal in war times were many times compounded by unemployment. It was very natural that the moral issue of slavery was confused in local minds by intrusion of serious dislocation in budding industries.
Actual slavery in Meriden itself was of too small an extent to make it a great local issue. Meriden was stirred in the controversy by theoretical and religious conviction mainly. Perkins in his history says only a few slaves were owned here. But their condi- tion, living as they did singly in the families of their owners and working side-by-side with them, was very different from that of slaves worked in gangs under overseers as was done in the South. Meriden slaves were considered members of the family and baptized as such on the plan of "household baptism."
Mr. Perkins lists many records showing such baptisms and the no less carefully recorded deaths. From 1728 to 1766 he says
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29 deaths out of 316 were so worded as to indicate they were slaves. He also notes that slave trade as such never existed in Meriden although there were some transfers of slaves made in the same manner as transfers of other personal property.
Emancipation by proclamation made little difference in Meriden. Some of the local slaves had already been freed before the great national decision was taken. Others were living in the promise of early release and with the knowledge their children would not be born into slavery. There was not a hitch in the transition to the enlightened era for which the Civil War was fought that was caused by slaves themselves, or by owners reluctant to change their status. There were, however, honest differences of opinion among Meriden's rugged individualists about the issues that culminated in the bloody, heart-breaking war. These left scars as deep if not as notorious as that made by the "Meriden Riot."
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Railroad, Past and Present
WHEN THE first "iron horse" snorted into Meriden on December 3, 1838, the stagecoach horses in the stable on Broad Street may have pricked their ears and trembled with fright as the strange sounds of its coming drifted up the hill. But the trainload of dignitaries, pulled by a primitive locomotive, which arrived to mark the opening of the new railroad, marked also the beginning of the end of stagecoach days here. The horses were soon to be retired from the business of hauling travelers between New Haven and Hartford, and the mechanical steed was to take over this task permanently.
No single factor has played a larger part in shaping the pattern of Meriden's growth than the course taken by the railroad through the low lands at the valley's deepest depression, where Harbor Brook flows sluggishly on its way to join the Quinnipiac River. The tracks were laid over a swamp, and there was quicksand under the rails where they crossed East Main Street, a condition which was to cause much trouble to maintenance crews in later years. But an early proposal to run the line east of Broad Street, then the center of the town, was strongly opposed, and the thinly settled section of West Meriden was chosen. The westward trend of the town's expansion was thus established.
The railroad was incorporated by the State Legislature in 1833, when Andrew Jackson was still President. But the project did not come to life until several years later. The interval was filled with the loud complaints of those who saw their means of liveli- hood threatened by the proposed line: tavern keepers, holders of toll gate privileges, the center and fringes of the stagecoach enterprise, including its many stockholders.
Two Meriden men, both large property owners in West Meriden, were influential in backing the plan to run the railroad through that section. They were Major Elisha A. Cowles and Judge James S. Brooks, who sold part of their holdings to help the railroad establish its right of way. With an eye for future possibilities, they had assisted in pushing the bill of incorporation
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through the State Legislature, and were well prepared for the later moves.
Judge Brooks was an especially interesting figure. At the age of 12, he had been bound out to a tavern keeper in Haddam, but ran away after he had been threatened with a beating. He trudged the 25 miles to Meriden with all his belongings wrapped in a bandana, and his sister, who lived here, took him in. For a time, he worked on a farm in Westfield. He spent his spare hours studying and finally was admitted to the Connecticut Bar. Gradu- ally, he accumulated considerable property, and his farm, through which the railroad was to run, was known as one of the finest in Meriden. In selling land for the right of way, he made an astute move, for, as business began to develop in West Meriden, he was able to subdivide his property into business and residential streets. Today, many of Meriden's business blocks stand on the original farm site. The First Congregational Church is located on land once owned by him, and the factories and business blocks on State Street are also placed on the Brooks farm lands. Brooks Street took its name from the judge. Until her death in 1949, his granddaughter, Miss Sarah Collins, lived in a little brown house, filled with heirlooms, at the side of the tracks. This property has gone the way of other old landmarks, so many of which were effaced as business advanced. An old cow barn stood for years on Miss Collins' property, converted into a garage. A viaduct was incorporated into the deed to the railroad company so that the judge's cows could be driven under the tracks to their pastures. The judge, when selling his land, insisted on a provision that all passenger trains stop in Meriden, and this proviso has been brought forward at times when the railroad was considering curtailing the number of station stops for express trains.
Rockney's History of New Haven County states that the first depot was in Rogers Hotel from 1840 to 1842, when it was moved across the street to the rear of Conklin's Hotel beside the railroad track, where the "Railroad Refectory" contained the ticket office and a waiting room for passengers. A paper prepared by Allen B. Squire, when paymaster of the New Haven Railroad, contradicts this version. Addressing the original Meriden Historical Society in 1894, Mr. Squire stated that the first passenger station in Meriden was on what is now Railroad Avenue, and was in connection with Capt. Conklin's Hotel, which fronted on Main
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Street. This building, he reported, was destroyed by fire, and the station waiting room was temporarily located in the northeast corner of the building which stood at the corner of East Main and South Colony Streets. Major Cowles and Dr. Isaac Hough owned the land and the building, which was later remodeled into a hotel run by Hervey Rogers. In its later history, it was known as the Rogers Block and contained Connors' Segar Store and a shoe-shining establishment, until it was torn down to permit the widening of the corner which is now the beginning of the Loop.
In November 1842, Nelson Merriam and H. M. Foster issued a poster bearing the picture of the hotel which then occupied the corner of East Main Street and Railroad Avenue, part of the land on which the present Cherniack Building stands. It showed the "Railroad Refectory" protruding beyond the rear of an engine, with the freight station opposite, where the present railroad platform is located.
The poster announced "respectfully" to "friends and the public generally" that this "new and spacious establishment, eligibly located at the Depot of the Hartford and New Haven Railroad, is now open for the reception of Company." It boasted that "the House has been furnished throughout with New Furniture, and every arrangement has been made for the comfort and conveni- ence of guests." Particular attention, it stated, "will be devoted to Parties of Pleasure," and boasted that a "Refectory is con- nected, where a variety of Refreshments are prepared for the accommodation of PASSENGERS BY THE CARS." The advertisement was signed by N. Merriam and H. M. Foster, proprietors.
Like Judge Brooks, Major Cowles was a prosperous local businessman who could look into the future and see visions of even greater prosperity. The two men had engaged in a joint transaction some years before the railroad route was planned. They had bought seven acres, including the site of the present Derecktor Building at the corner of West Main and Colony Streets. In 1831, they conveyed to the town a strip of land 20 feet wide on the west side of Colony Street as far as the present Wilcox Block to widen the street from a narrow road to its present width. Both became directors of the new railroad, and Judge Brooks was acting president in 1856 and signed the annual report in 1859. Eli Butler was a director in 1868 and in 1909 John
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L. Billard was a director. After the lease of the Boston and Maine Railroad, Charles F. Linsley and Mr. Billard were directors of that railroad. All these connections of local men with railroad enterprise arose from the spadework done by the Cowles-Brooks combination of interests in the early period.
South of Main Street, the railroad traversed the land it had purchased from Major Cowles. North of Main Street, it ran over property bought from Judge Brooks. Major Cowles, one of the incorporators, served as a director for a number of years.
The line between New Haven and Meriden was the first link in this section of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad system. For a year after this link was completed, stagecoaches carried the passengers on to Hartford. Eventually the Hartford & New Haven, as it was called, combined with the later-built Hartford and Springfield, and finally with the New York & New Haven to form the New York, New Haven & Hartford. The New York end was completed in 1849.
In 1847, Judge Brooks was elected president of the Springfield, Hartford and New Haven Railroad, which had its southern terminus at Belle Dock, New Haven, where connections were made with New York and other places by steamboat until train service to New York was established.
But in the Meriden of 1838 these possibilities were only guessed. The tracks ran here and stopped, and business began to gather in that neighborhood.
A tavern was not the ideal location for a station, although it did offer accommodation to travelers in the way of quick refresh- ments. Dr. Hough and the Major could compete with the Central Tavern uptown on rather favorable terms, for the trains could hold more passengers than the stagecoaches, but the stages ran more frequently than the trains at the beginning of this new era.
The railroad at the start was a great novelty. The puffing locomotive seemed like a great monster from another world. People were awed by its appearance and the clamor of its coming. Horses plunged and reared as they came near the crossing. John Ives, who was to become a prosperous dry-goods merchant when he grew up, often told the story of the day when he first heard the steam engine whistle. He was then a boy on a farm in the southeast district. The whistle blew as the train came through Holt's Hill cut, and John ran home in fright to tell his mother
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that some great beast was making terrible sounds in the woods.
But it didn't take long for the feeling of strangeness to wear away, as the business possibilities in connection with the railroad's location were recognized.
Meanwhile, the railroad was making some progress in its own operations. The income for the first three months was $15,500, which dropped to $8,000 during the next three months when the Connecticut River was open. During the first summer, receipts were $8,500, giving a gross income of $32,000 for the first nine months.
The road had four locomotives, valued at $18,000 for the lot. Five four-wheel freight cars were valued at $1,500.
In the summer of 1845, T rails were substituted for the old iron bars on the southern part of the line. During 1843, a little more than $1,000 was expended in Meriden for station and depot improvements. In 1846, the fare was reduced from a little more than four cents to three cents a mile.
In 1850, a branch track from Berlin to Middletown was placed in operation. In the same year, double track was laid from Meriden to Berlin. A second track was laid on the southern portion of the road about 1852, and in 1854 double tracking of the whole main line was completed.
The business center of Meriden was to be well started toward its present development before the railroad was to have a station of its own. In 1854, the railroad bought from William Hale for $3,000 a tract of land then known as the Hale "garden plot." It faced Colony Street and extended through to the railroad tracks. On this land, the present site of the Colony Building, a brick station was erected which was to be used for 28 years. The place was later known as Winthrop Square.
Surrounding the station was an open plaza, where large elm trees flourished on the Colony Street frontage. Majestic elms lined Colony Street at that period, and remained undisturbed for many years. They survived the leisurely horse-and-buggy era, and were removed only when they were recognized as an obstacle to the curbside parking of automobiles in front of Colony Street stores.
But parking was no problem in the nineteenth century, and the railroad plaza was not congested with traffic. Merriam's hackstand near the station drew its patronage from the trains. It was the
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forerunner of the taxicab companies which compete for business near the present station.
In 1864, fire destroyed most of the buildings on the east side of Colony Street, and the station was badly damaged. It was repaired and continued in use for 19 more years.
When a new passenger station was built in Wallingford in 1878, Meriden was envious. Agitation was begun for a new station here, and the railroad decided to meet the local demands. In 1865, a new freight station had been erected on State Street extension, and the site occupied by the old freight station, across the tracks from the old passenger station, was chosen as the site for new passenger facilities.
The new station was much larger than the station which now serves Meriden. It had a mansard roof and cupola, two almost inevitable details of the florid architectural style of the period. Along the side nearest to the tracks ran a long platform covered with a canopy upheld by iron struts. The interior was poorly lighted and the general effect was depressing, especially so after the building was allowed to run down in the course of the years. But in the seventies, when all was new, the station was regarded as one of the finest on the line.
The Winthrop Hotel was built not long after the big station was opened to the public. A private way between the depot and Colony Street was established along the southerly border of the tract on which the old station stood, and the public was quick to take advantage of the short cut. The narrow passage provided a convenient route between the station and the hotel. The hotel porters trucked trunks and baggage over it for many years. This sort of traffic has ceased, but the passage is still used by many pedestrians, and any hint that it might be closed has always aroused a storm of protest.
As the years passed, pride in the station declined. More than 20 years ago, sentiment began to gather for a new station better suited to Meriden's needs. The old station was too large for the volume of passenger traffic served, railroad officials admitted. It was also dingy and unattractive in all respects, and all too little attention was devoted to keeping it clean.
Eventually, local efforts to induce the railroad to build a new station were successful. The present brick building, a much more compact structure, was erected in 1942, and formally opened on
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September 21 of that year. It contained all the necessary facilities, including an attractive waiting room. Combined with it is a comfort station, built at city expense, and operated by the city for the convenience of the public. A small building for the Railway Express agency was built at the north end of the railroad area.
Considerable thought was devoted to improving this area to provide easy access to the station while interfering as little as possible with the flow of traffic on State Street. A wide sweep of concrete-paved driveway leads to the side of the building on the east, and there is room here for the Hartford, New Haven, and Middletown buses to take on and discharge passengers when connecting with trains. A division separates this driveway from State Street, giving a place for one taxi stand. Another taxicab company is allowed to use space along the platform south of the station. On the north side of the building is a railroad parking area, where short-time parking is permitted. But the great increase in traffic in the last ten years has produced new problems in connection with the station's location, and the proposal to re- locate it, which arose in 1955, was an attempt to solve them.
If the plan had gone through as outlined, the present freight station on State Street Extension would have been converted into a passenger station. The International Silver Company offered to purchase from the railroad the site of the passenger station and the adjacent land bordering its own property. Part of the land thus acquired was to be re-sold to the city for an off-street parking area. The Public Utilities Commission refused to approve this transaction, believing that the new passenger facilities to be provided would be inferior to the existing facilities. Its action appears to have put a period to the negotiations.
Such problems as these were more than a century away from the stuggling railroad of the 1840's. They were still undreamed of when the railroad attained a virtual monopoly on transportation here at the close of the Civil War. But there were other problems just as serious.
The railroad had given a new aspect to Meriden. It had fostered the growth which was to result in the incorporation of the city in 1867. But the growing pains were acute, and some of them, local industrialists and businessmen believed, were due to the highhanded way in which the railroad was being managed.
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THE SHORT LINES
The first attempt to break the railroad monopoly came in 1869, when a special town meeting appointed a committee to seek pas- sage through the Legislature of a bill to authorize the town to subscribe $100,000 to the capital stock of a proposed Meriden and Cheshire Railroad. A little later, the town of Cheshire authorized a subscription to the same enterprise.
At that time, the only independent north and south railroad was the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, the Canal line, and it was probable that the proposed line was to connect with it and thus form a new route to New York, which would provide competition and lower rates. But the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad acquired control of the Canal line, and the scheme for the Meriden and Cheshire Railroad was effectually blocked.
The local manufacturers were still determined to find some way of beating railroad rates, which they considered discriminatory. The cost of bringing in coal and heavy supplies was a heavy burden on manufacturing. A proposal was advanced to build a railroad from Meriden to the Connecticut River at Cromwell, there to connect with boat and barge service on the river to New York and ports along the Atlantic coast. The announcement of this plan in 1881 triggered immediate and unexpected results. The Consolidated, as the New Haven Road was then known, reduced freight rates to Meriden by 25 per cent. Local businessmen were warned that this was just a trick, and that the advantages might be only temporary. Sentiment for a competitive railroad con- tinued strong, and one of Meriden's foremost industrialists did all that he could to encourage it.
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