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 8
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This man was Horace C. Wilcox, pioneer and leader in the rapidly growing silver industry. The original capitalization of the proposed road was set at $300,000 of which $230,000 was pledged before the first organization meeting. Mr. Wilcox declared himself ready to take any remaining stock, but he hoped that the stock could be spread throughout the business com- munity. About 150 citizens of the Meriden area attended the initial meeting July 5, 1882, when 17 directors were elected, who, a few days later, elected Mr. Wilcox as the president of the line.
The air was full of optimism. One newspaper comment was:
76
THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
"It is fair to hope that the sound of the locomotive whistle will be heard on the road before the snow flies." This was the summer of 1884, when the route of the new line was being mapped.
The railroad was actually built during the following eight months, with terminal facilities established in Cromwell. At this end of the line, there was some dispute over the terminus site, but it was finally decided to place the passenger and freight station and the yards between Camp and Center Streets, the site now occupied by the New Departure Division of General Motors. The right of way skirted Brookside Park, then called Camp's Meadow, and the south edge of Pratt's Pond. The road purchased 40 freight cars, one passenger coach, and one light engine, planning to buy a heavy engine later.
On April 1, 1885 the State Railroad Commission made a trip over the line and pronounced it fit for service. On April 6, service actually began. The timetable gave the trains 35 minutes to make the run to Cromwell, with flag stops at Highland, Smith's crossing and Westfield. There were three round trips daily, timed to connect with the Hartford-New York boats on the Connecticut River. If shippers got their freight to the Meriden station by 5 p.m. it would be delivered in New York the next morning.
The Meriden and Cromwell line also tried to foster passenger traffic by advertising excursions to New York via the Hartford and New York steamboats. Such excursions were popular in the eighties, and the down-river runs attracted large crowds. One favorite run was via the steamer "Sunshine" to Sag Harbor, Shelter Island, and Niantic. There was also a "circular" trip, by way of Cromwell, the river run, and back by boat to New Haven, leaving New York at 3 p.m., and reaching Meriden by the "steamboat train" at 9 p.m. This gave a day in New York and consumed a little more than 24 hours.
The initial success of the Meriden and Cromwell line, which was able to show a small profit after nine months of operation, produced many proposals for extensions to New Britain, Plain- ville, Wallingford, and even New Haven, as well as to Bristol, Waterbury, and Middletown.
"The one with the most steam behind it," according to Glover A. Snow whose exhaustive article on the subject of early railroads in this vicinity was published in the August 1953 issue of Transportation, was "a projected extension to Waterbury."
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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
In Waterbury, this proposal led to citizens' meetings, stock- selling efforts, and a bid for legislative approval of consolidation of the Meriden and Cromwell with the projected Meriden and Waterbury railroad. It was pointed out that the Consolidated freight rates were actually higher than they had been before the announced 25 per cent reduction in 1881. And they had prac- tically been frozen at high levels by the original Interstate Com- merce Commission Act of 1887. But, when it came to picking up a share of the check for the new line, Waterbury citizens held back. The road was financed with great difficulty, and Meriden had to take a much larger part of the investment than originally contemplated.
The new line took off from the Meriden and Cromwell tracks east of Twiss Pond in Meriden, went under Britannia and Broad Streets, passed over North Colony Road just north of the old city line, bridged the tracks of the New Haven, then turned southwest and crossed numerous streets. Iron bridges were used at North Colony Street, the crossing over the Consolidated, and at Gracey, Kensington, and Lewis Avenues. Beyond Lewis Avenue, the tracks were almost at street grade, but overpasses were erected at street crossings. Land was purchased north of West Main Street for a passenger station, yards, engine house, shops, and turntable.
The most difficult feat of construction was in laying the tracks from West Cheshire to Summit, a distance of three miles, with an elevation reaching 549 feet.
Before the line could be completed, Horace C. Wilcox had to rescue the financing by pouring into it much additional capital of his own. He and other Meriden men dominated the enterprise, although Charles Dickenson of Waterbury was elected president. There were many squabbles over the right of way between the new railroad and property holders along the route.
After numerous delays, one of them occasioned by the famous blizzard of 1888, the Waterbury line was finally completed in the spring of that year. On May 24, 1888, the Meriden and Cromwell and the Meriden and Waterbury were consolidated as the Meriden, Waterbury and Connecticut River Railroad Com- pany. Horace C. Wilcox was elected president of the combined lines. Among the directors were Abiram Chamberlain, later governor of Connecticut, and George R. Curtis, both of Meriden.
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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
The road earned seven per cent for its investors the first six months it was in operation. A large volume of freight traffic barged up the river to Cromwell was carried over the new line. But the next six months told a different story. In March 1889 the directors authorized an issue of $400,000 in second mortgage bonds to obtain more capital. The expense of operating the Meriden-Waterbury part of the line had proved much heavier than was expected. Horace C. Wilcox again found the needed funds.
The waiting room and ticket office at the West Main Street station were opened June 17, 1889. But for passengers it was a crude type of railroading. If a car went off the track, a rather frequent type of accident, the people aboard had to get off and walk or catch a ride in a horse-drawn vehicle. There were no telephones with which to summon aid.
After the death of Horace C. Wilcox, August 26, 1890, the road was without its strongest source of support. The Wilcox estate held $176,000 and the Meriden Britannia Company, of which he was president, $100,000 of the total capital invested, or $276,000 of the $375,000 in stock which represented the invest- ment of Meriden stockholders. The road was mortgaged for $1,000,000.
The subsequent chapters in the line's history told a sad story. In 1892, a syndicate headed by New York and Boston financiers with large railroad interests obtained control, but several Meriden men, including Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Curtis remained on the board. The New York, New Haven & Hartford and the New York & New England railroads were both suspected of having a hand in the deal, but the Consolidated spokesmen said they didn't want it. Later, it was discovered that the New York & New England had obtained a lease, but its validity had to be tested in the courts. Somehow the road struggled along, but the New York & New England went into bankruptcy and its assets were sold. As a result, the New Haven obtained control, and all the special rates for which Meriden had fought were abrogated. The purpose of the line had been defeated.
For two years, operations ceased, and the line was threatened with the loss of its charter. This brought action, and a new corporation was formed in 1898 under the name of the Middle- town, Meriden & Waterbury Railroad Company. Ownership was
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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
in the hands of "friends of the New Haven Railroad," which really controlled the line. The section between Westfield and Cromwell was abandoned. Trains were run into Middletown from Westfield over the Middletown-Berlin branch of the New Haven instead of going into Cromwell. The first train from Meriden to Waterbury went over the line on December 5, 1898. Mixed trains of freight and passengers were run, and there was considerable traffic.
From 1902 on, the line was operated under direct lease by the New Haven. By 1906, much of it had been electrified, and high- speed cars were used. Instead of running to the West Main Street station, a connection was made at Brookside Park with the city trolley tracks on Pratt Street, and the New Haven Road's Meriden station was the terminus for the Middletown interurban cars. The Meriden to Middletown service was operated by the Connecticut Company, the street railway subsidiary. The Meriden to Water- bury part of the road had not been electrified with the rest of it, and service was cut on that line until it finally went out of operation on June 24, 1917.
Meriden to Middletown hourly service was continued until 1927, when buses took over. But trolley service ran as far as Westfield until 1932.
Most of the roadbed of the old line, which furnished so many picturesque incidents in the history of Meriden transportation, is now covered over with trees, bushes, and weeds. Hikers still tramp along parts of the right of way, but only the old-timers among the walkers realize that they are passing along the route of an ambitious venture, which had its high moments, but flopped when the demand which brought it into being finally ceased.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Industry of the 19th Century
"SUCH IS the surface of our town, so much of it covered with rocky and barren ridges, or with swamps unfit for tillage, that if we had remained exclusively an agricultural town, our popula- tion would not have increased, probably for the last thirty years, and our pecuniary circumstances would have been equally cramped .... one who was acquainted with this place 35 years ago, wearing every appearance of stagnation and dilapidation, must, with high gratification, contrast that decay with the life, thrift and taste now so characteristic of Meriden."
So wrote G. W. Perkins, historian of early Meriden in 1849, when the industrial life of the community was in first bloom.
Whether or not the poverty of the land was the main incentive, it is certain that the trend of occupations was away from agricul- ture and toward manufacturing in the 1820's and the 1830's, and that industry had been established as the chief source of livelihood here by 1845. In that year, the records of the time showed that 640 Meriden men, out of a population of about 3,200, were engaged in manufacturing. The town had grown by more than 1,000 residents in the previous 20 years, but growth was much more rapid after that, and the growth of industry was the principal reason.
The early stages of manufacturing here began with the appli- cation of waterpower to turn the wheels of crude machinery for finishing goods. The plants were scattered along the reaches of Harbor Brook, from near its sources in the eastern part of the town to where it joined the Quinnipiac. In 1825, these little establishments included a carding and filling mill for processing wool brought from surrounding towns, placed nearly where the brook crosses the Middletown road; the sawmill of Asahel Baldwin near the Westfield road, and a grist mill close at hand; the ivory comb factory of Howard Pratt & Co. near the New Haven and Hartford turnpike; the door latch factory of Isbell & Curtis about two miles farther downstream; and a sawmill at the crossing of the old Hanover Road, the last on Harbor Brook
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INDUSTRY OF THE 19TH CENTURY
before it joined the Quinnipiac. Sodom Brook had no industries.
Another tributary of the Quinnipiac was the little stream of Crow Hollow which gave power to the brass works of Lauren Merriam and the ivory comb works of Walter Webb & Co. Near the Cheshire border, the power of the stream was utilized by Henry Griswold for the manufacture of bone buttons. At Hanover, the abundant water power turned the wheels of the factory of Brooks & Tibbals, who made augers. Half a mile below was the plant of Sanford Parmelee & Co., manufacturing augers and skates.
The factories just enumerated comprised the whole list of Meriden plants in 1830 that were operated by auxiliary power, except the tannery works of John Butler at the corner of Liberty and Broad Streets, and the pewter works of Ashbil Griswold at his residence on Griswold Street, each of which used a horse attached to a sort of merry-go-round to move light machinery.
In addition to the products of these factories were the products turned out in little shops which were family affairs. The Curtis family especially was noted for its production of pewter table- wares. Nearly every Curtis, man and boy, acquired skill at this trade. Several larger shops produced tinware, including Patrick Clark & Sons of Clarksville, Goodrich & Rutty, south of the center, and Noah Pomeroy on the east side. This was the type of goods marketed by the peddlars with their wagons. These family businesses laid the foundation for the great industry which was to give Meriden the name of the Silver City.
But Meriden was not a silver town in 1840. Its chief industry at that time was the manufacture of ivory combs, with tinware a close second. The tinware apprentices worked 12 hours daily for about 75 cents, and their wages were considered high.
Julius Pratt & Company, successor to Howard Pratt & Co., became the leader in the comb industry. To this plant the great elephant tusks, weighing from 60 to 80 pounds apiece, were brought to be processed into combs in about 20 operations. Blanks were fed to automatic machines which stamped out the combs complete. In the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C., is a solid ivory cane with gold mountings made by Julius Pratt & Co. and presented by the firm to President John Quincy Adams.
The plant of Walter Webb & Co., at first in Crow Hollow and later at Hanover, was a Pratt auxiliary, with purchases and sales
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INDUSTRY OF THE 19TH CENTURY
for a joint account. In 1848, the Pratt factory was destroyed by fire, and the Webb plant operated night and day for more than a year to supply the demand for ivory combs, showing a profit of 100 per cent on the invested capital. The Pratt plant was rebuilt and continued in operation until profits went out of the ivory comb business due to the substitution of cheaper and eventually more satisfactory materials.
At one time, three fourths of the ivory combs made in America were turned out by the Pratt interests.
There was a constant search here during the 40's and 50's for products that would sell easily from peddlars' wagons. Carpetbags, hoop skirts, and balmorals, a kind of woollen skirt, were turned out by Jedediah Wilcox.
A peculiar article of neckwear called a "stock" was once manufactured extensively by Allen and Hezekiah Rice. It was made of silk or satin over a framework of bristles, three or four inches wide, and clasped with a buckle at the back of the neck.
Ira Twiss & Brother built a factory at the head of Prattsville Pond late in the 30's, and there turned out wooden wheels for clockworks. These clocks were distributed by peddlars who took care not to visit the same home twice, for expansion and contraction of the wooden works made the clocks erratic time- keepers. This industry declined rapidly after Chauncey Jerome of Bristol in 1835 devised machinery with dies for stamping out clock wheels, and thus furnished a springboard for the manufac- ture of cheap clocks that would really keep time. The Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Company here turned out brass clock wheels for a brief period about the middle of the century.
Meriden could establish a claim to priority in the manufacture of table cutlery, but the industry here was 16 years in developing. Julius Pratt & Co. had made bone handles for this type of ware, brought to the United States by two Englishmen, Evans and Longdon, in 1836. At first, production was "farmed out" to convict labor at Wethersfield Prison in an attempt to overcome the differential between the cost of American and English labor, but the effort proved a failure. Walter Webb & Co. at Hanover acquired the process, and the firm of Pratt, Ropes, Webb & Co. was formed in 1845 to turn out the product. Ten years later, the Meriden Cutlery Company was organized to continue with the line, and bone-handled table cutlery remained an important
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INDUSTRY OF THE 19TH CENTURY
Meriden product for a long period.
But large-scale manufacture here awaited the introduction of steam power. According to Julius Pratt, who returned to Meriden for the Centennial celebration in 1906, the first steam engine used here was installed before 1840 by Remick K. Clarke in his small tinning factory, which was destroyed by fire shortly afterward. Charles Parker, who founded the Charles Parker Company in 1832, the only manufacturing concern of that period which has survived to the present day, is credited with being the first successful user of steam power here. As late as 1847, he was still the only local user of steam to turn factory wheels.
But the practical application of steam was not the only "first" for Charles Parker. His name stood for pioneering enterprise in many fields. He was public spirited throughout his long career, and ahead of his time in the quest for civic improvement. He was one of the group which turned Meriden from a little country town into an incorporated city, and he became its first mayor.
Mr. Parker was born on June 2, 1809 in Cheshire, and was "bound out" to work on a farm. In 1828, he came to Meriden and was hired by Patrick Lewis to make coffee mills. In December 1829, he went into business for himself with a capital of $70, taking a contract for 13 months to make coffee mills for Lewis & Holt. By 1831, he had accumulated enough capital to purchase land near Broad Street and build a shop which was finished in 1832. The original power plant of the shop was a blind horse hitched to a pole sweep, and the horse plodded hour after hour in a circle in the rear of the shop. The principal product of this small enterprise was coffee mills. In 1844, in an enlarged plant powered by steam, Mr. Parker is reported to have been the first local manufacturer to plate spoons and forks. Some holloware was also made. Another enterprise with which he was connected was the manufacture of steam engines, printing presses, and machinists' tools. In this he was jointly engaged with Oliver Snow, an ingenious mechanic.
There was also the C. and E. Parker Company which made brass and iron castings.
By 1860, the various concerns in which Mr. Parker was interested employed about 1,000 men and 100 women, with a monthly payroll of $30,000 to $40,000, large-scale business for those times.
84
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Residence Frederick M. Stevens, Jr. 304 Parker Avenue, built 1743
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Residence Carter H. White 203 Eaton Avenue, built circa 1785
FALLS PLAIN DIVISION .
32 Joshua Culver
Clark
31 Henry Cook
30.Thomas Harz 29 Samuel Browne 28 Samuel Cook Sur
Ye North END
West Side
33 Samuel Roise
26 John Moss
34 John Alwater
25 Joseph Berram
Jr.
35 Sant- Einer Street
24 Nath: Merriman
Jr
23 William Cole
36 Walzer Johnson
37 Juhn Inwlittel
38 Roger Tiler
39 John Ives Aceast
to NEthrill Roice
Al Samuel.Manson
42 .Joseph Dowittez
4.3 Puzz Inthrop Widoe
44 Mr Jarn Bruckitz Snr
45 Isaac Beach
14 Simon Tuttell
46 William Elnatha
13 Abram Dowlitter
47 Joseph Roice
12 John Moss S-
48 Even Lewis
Il Thomas Vaile
49 Mister Street
50 John Peck
5% Sam Dowätter
9 Nath? How
52 Digger John Hulls
53 Sam2 Merriman
54 Thomas Beach
55 Samt Brockett
56 Jann Merriman
57 Samt Andrews.Fr
58 Thomas Curtis
6 Enszon Sam' Andrews
59 Danzer Mix
3 Samuel Hazz
60 John Hau Str
2 John Hitchcock
61 . Joseph Hozzin.
62 Sept Abr" Dowlitter Jr
I John Parker.
b& Joseph Braham SH
Quinnipiack River
Samuel Cooke
8 Edward Fenil
7 Samuel Street
6 Samuel Thorp
Thorp
5 James Westwood
Brook
MUNSON
New Haven East River
64 Jon Beach Wecome Southwards 80 Rods from the brook of this side nathemwithout meadow and this is a reserve in case the child aromat a Lat ors two fet last -
GS Tand Hall
Laid out of a "Hieway" tour rods broade Jewo thers of Lots- Those on the East side extended to the+ Jumupas River and the lots on the west side extended to the Hills. Each lot Container from 3 1 t 4 hores- Reduced from Original-
East Side
Cooke
18 Ebenezer Clark
17 Jeremiah How
16 Nathan Andrews
snr
15 Sam! Cook Jr
Two RUDS WIDE
-
22 Hugh Chappel
21 Joseph Thomson
20 Eliasaph Preston
19 Eleazur Peck
27. Nathaniel
Royce
Now Hanover and South Meriden
February 19!" 16.89 90
HIGHWAY
10 Benj" Holt
Residence Robert S. Rice 651 Paddock Avenue, built 1796
Lucchini Homestead 234 Coe Avenue, built before 1795
-
Daniel Hough, or Alfred P. Curtis Homestead
MAIN, BROAD & CURTIS ST'S
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MERIDEN:
ARSE R.
Curtis Street Horsecar
Residence Robert Berger 164 Broad Street, built circa 1735
The Old "Spoon Shop" East Main Street, Middletown Road
Meeting House Hill Burying Ground
BURIED WITHIN ONEAREZIS
SIMINO OHMTUOSAI
Inscription on Meeting House Hill Monument
The Eli Birdsey House Corner East Main and Broad Streets, built 1830
William H. Race Residence 93 Curtis Street, a spoon factory in the early 19th century
ARDWARE
PALY MADE
CORNER HAT STORE
TS & SHOES,
RINK
East Main Street, circa 1885
INDUSTRY OF THE. 19TH CENTURY
To the original coffee mills of the Parker Company, a varied line had been added by the mid-century, including German silver knives, forks, and spoons, tobacco boxes, sewing birds, silver plated spectacles, vises, waffle irons, miscellaneous hardware, sewing machines, locks, and presses.
With the Civil War, the Parker Company turned to the production of military rifles for the Union armies. They manu- factured the regular standard breech-loading single-shot musket used by the Northern troops, and also developed one of the first repeating military rifles, which was used by the Kentucky Militia and drew Confederate protests that it was a barbarous weapon. After the war, the famous Parker gun was the result of the experience the company had acquired in the manufacture of firearms. It was continued as a local product until 1934, when the business was sold to the Remington Arms Company of Con- necticut. Parker guns are still highly prized.
Mr. Parker was his own salesman in the busy period after the Civil War. He made one trip during the year, starting immediately after New Year's Day, and visiting the wholesale hardware houses which were accustomed to giving him orders for their full yearly requirements.
Meriden in the 1840's was shaking off the old, crude methods of small shops and turning to the first trials of multiple machine processes. Skilled craftsmanship, however, was to remain a mark of Meriden products, and the best features of the old skills have been retained up to the present. Their retention has helped to uphold the reputation for quality which has always gone with the goods sent out from here to circle the world.
Meriden's greatest industry - silver manufacturing - was still in the embryo stage when the 40's began. It did not spring to life as a fledgling of recognizable breed. At first, it was a sort of hybrid creature with tin wings, a pewter body, and a head faintly coated with a semblance of silver. This was the offspring of the little shops.
Ashbil Griswold and others were making pewter kitchen utensils in Meriden as early as 1808. Difficulty in obtaining tin had interfered with the production of britannia metal by processes known even earlier. Pewter ware was a sort of bridge to overcome the scarcity of tin, and when tin became more plentiful, britannia entered its day. It was more brilliant in appearance, harder and
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INDUSTRY OF THE 19TH CENTURY
more resistant to wear, and could be cleaned and polished to a high lustre. The peddlars were able to sell britannia articles in quantity to housewives.
By 1850, Ashbil Griswold, the pioneer, was producing britannia ware in North Meriden or Fraryville. James A. Frary and Couch & Benham made similar wares nearby. In East Meriden or Bangall, Isaac C. Lewis, George Curtis, and Darius Bingham, Jr. turned out britannia ware in addition to pewter. The Curtises, Edwin E. and Lemuel J., were making britannia on Curtis Street. Enos Curtis had a britannia factory at the north end on Britannia Street. The pewter shop of William W. Lyman was also on Britannia Street. S. L. Cone and L. G. Baldwin were also engaged in britannia manufacture. The contribution of Charles Parker has already been mentioned. Some factories employed 40 or more hands.
The expansion of the silver industry in the 50's and 60's was being duplicated on a somewhat lesser scale by other Meriden industries during the same period. It was a period of pioneering in new lines of goods and new methods for making them.
Jedediah Wilcox was one of the manufacturers who seemed to be making rapid progress. Starting in 1848, with carpetbags as his first product, he founded J. Wilcox & Co. in 1853, and began making leather belts. He was his own salesman, and soon managed to run up his gross sales to $300,000 a year. Hoop skirts and corsets were added to the line. The factory, at the corner of Pratt and Camp Streets, employed more than 500 hands in 1860. In 1865, just as business was pouring in, the factory was destroyed by fire. It was replaced with a new brick structure on the other side of Pratt Street. About this time, Jedediah's interests turned from woollen goods to silver. On Dec. 23, 1865, with his brother Horace, Charles Parker, Aaron Collins, Hezekiah Miller and others, he established the Wicox Silver Plate Company for the manufacture of holloware. The company was installed in the plant where woollen goods had been made.
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