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 9
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Another Meriden concern which had its beginnings in the same period took root and grew so flourishingly that it survived all the vicissitudes which forced some other local plants to wither and fade before the century ran out. Edward Miller & Co. was incorporated in 1866, with a capital of $200,000, with Edward Miller as president, F. J. Seymour as secretary and W. H. Perkins as treasurer. The first products were lamp trimmings, for oil,
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fluid, and kerosene lamps, together with numerous articles of brass, copper, German silver, iron, and britannia.
Edward Miller, who had begun his career in the 40's making candlestick springs, using foot and horse-power, was on the road to becoming one of the city's foremost manufacturers. His company went through every stage in the evolution of lighting equipment, from the earliest types of oil lamps to the most modern systems of fluorescent illumination in use today. With the advent of electricity as a lighting source, it turned to the manufacture of electric lamps, and the business has never ceased to progress with the changing times. The later history of the company will be considered in another chapter.
Foster, Merriam & Co., incorporated in 1866, is only a memory today, although it survived for more than 30 years of the next century. John Sutliff was president, when the corporation began, and Albert Foster was secretary and treasurer. The original product was furniture casters. The company employed 60 persons about 1870. It was the outgrowth of a business which dated back to 1835.
Foster Merriam sold out the caster business in 1927. In 1914, the company had been reorganized with a new group of men over its operation. A further reorganization followed in 1926. In 1933, part of the plant was destroyed by fire. J. B. Coggins bought the remaining buildings in 1940. The business today is operated by the J. B. Coggins Mfg. Company, with J. Blaine Coggins as president. His son, Leslie Coggins, is associated with him as vice president of the firm.
In 1849, a year which might be designated as opening the first period of rapid industrial growth here, there were 35 principal manufacturers, employing approximately 540 hands.
The stage was being set for greater enterprise when Horace C. Wilcox took to the road with the Yankee peddlars. He was an energetic young man with a keen eye for business, which he kept open for saleable lines of merchandise to add to the stocks on his neat wagon. Born in Westfield Parish, Middletown, in 1824, he had tired early of the life of the farm, and decided to undertake selling peddlar's wares. His brother Dennis had similar inclinations, and had done some peddling of tin between farm crops before Horace owned his first wagon. The two brothers were to become super-salesmen, and they never lost the touch of
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master salesmanship even after many years of service as executives of the industry they helped to found.
While still a peddlar, Horace became acquainted with the Rogers brothers of Hartford, who had developed a new process for the plating of silver. They imported German silver spoons and forks which they were able to coat with pure silver. These were most attractive articles for the peddlars' markets, and Horace added a stock of them to his line, finding that they sold well. They helped the Wilcox brothers to accumulate the capital to participate in the founding of a new local enterprise.
This enterprise was the Meriden Britannia Company, organized in 1852 by Horace C. Wilcox, Dennis C. Wilcox, Isaac C. Lewis, William W. Lyman, Lemuel J. Curtis, John Munson, and James A. Frary. The next year, Samuel Simpson of Wallingford entered the group as an associate. The idea behind the project was to produce a more practical and economical plan for selling the products of the various shops. Horace and Dennis, with their practical experience in selling, had much more to contribute than their small stake of capital.
The first office and warerooms were in a building owned by Horace C. Wilcox. It stood at the corner of West Main and South Colony Streets.
The office was under the supervision of Horace and Dennis Wilcox and Isaac C. Lewis, and the entire business was directed from this headquarters.
West of the building, where the Palace Block now stands, was the residence of Horace C. Wilcox. His son, George H. Wilcox, who was to rise to the presidency of the industry which developed from these beginnings, was born in this house a few years after the Meriden Britannia Company was founded.
Soon after the company began business, it started experimenting with the process which the Rogers brothers in Hartford had proved practicable. These experiments were conducted in a building previously used as a barn. It was located on Hanover Street, just south of the Wilcox residence.
A short time later, the company erected its first buildings for finishing, assembling, and plating on the southeast corner of State and Miller Streets. This plant was in operation by 1855. But until the early sixties most of the actual manufacturing of britannia holloware was conducted in the small, individual plants which had
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been taken over in 1852.
In its first full year of operations, Meriden Britannia sold wares made by its own plants and purchased from the other manufac- turers amounting to more than $250,000 gross.
By 1862, the Rogers brothers of Hartford were in financial difficulties, and the Meriden Britannia Company bought their equipment, including tools and dies, and moved all of this material to Meriden. An arrangement was made with William, Asa, and Simeon Rogers whereby they were to direct and supervise the manufacture of 1847 Rogers Bros. silverplate in Meriden. Thus one of the most famous brand names of American industry became identified with this city.
The Civil War had begun, but war did not stay the progress of the organization which had just passed its first decade. It needed more manufacturing space and equipment. On July 1, 1863, ground was broken on the west side of State Street for the first brick building. Soon, other large additions were made, including a building to house the power plant, and a factory chimney which was to stand for more than three-quarters of a century.
People were begining to call the State Street plant the "Big Shop," a name which is heard to this day. But there was still more than a trace of the primitive in the character of its trade. Many miscellaneous items were carried in the line, including japanned tinware. Britannia shipments were made in exchange for fur, feathers, or cordwood. In 1858, the company sold $32,408 worth of Lyman patent fruit jars. Another popular item was the sewing bird for home seamstresses, of which $30,000 worth were sold in 1853.
By 1860, the company employed 320 hands and produced half a million dollars worth of plated wares annually. Agencies had been opened in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco and products were being shipped overseas.
By this time, the general office of the company was adjacent to the doorway, still in existence, almost opposite Miller Street. Isaac C. Lewis and George R. Curtis occupied this office until 1866 when a one-story office building was constructed at the south end of the plant. It was raised to four stories in 1899. An additional section was built in 1876 for the use of executives and directors of the company.
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In 1877, the business of Rogers, Smith & Co. of New Haven, which the company owned, was moved here into a new building erected for it on State Street.
The selling ability of Horace and Dennis Wilcox proved fruitful for the company from the beginning. Both men, with James D. Frary, made frequent sales trips and arranged for the establishment of the various branches in large cities.
Meanwhile, the company's wares were winning favorable attention wherever they were displayed. At the Centennial in Philadelphia in 1876, in New Orleans in 1885, in Paris at the Universal Exposition in 1889, and at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, they received high awards.
In 1869, Parker & Casper Co., a small local concern, was pur- chased and consolidated with the Wilcox Silver Plate Company. Samuel Dodd was secretary and treasurer, and remained in that capacity until the International Silver Company was organized in 1898.
Isaac C. Lewis, who had been president of the Meriden Britannia Company from the beginning, as well as its general superintendent, retired from both positions in 1866. He was a quiet gentleman of many accomplishments, who made a deep imprint upon Meriden affairs. He served as mayor for three years, and as a representative in the legislature four times in the last century. Horace C. Wilcox was elected to succeed him in the company and Dennis Wilcox became secretary.
Since acquiring the Rogers Bros. trademark, sales had risen rapidly, reaching a volume of $2,500,000 annually by 1878. To care for the growing volume of business, a factory was erected in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1879, and placed under the management of J. H. Parker, formerly associated with various Meriden industries.
George R. Curtis, treasurer of Meriden Britannia, and a director of the Wilcox Silver Plate Company, was another leader in company affairs and a community leader as well. He became president of the Meriden Horse Railroad and of the Meriden Gas Light Company, a director of the Home National Bank, and served as alderman and councilman in the period between the 70's and the 90's. His son, George M. Curtis, began as a clerk with Meriden Britannia and rose to become a director of the company. He was a director also of the Home Bank and the
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Curtis Library, which was presented to the city by Mrs. Augusta Munson Curtis.
Horace C. Wilcox was president of Meriden Britannia from 1866 to 1889. He died in 1890. During his fruitful career, he was also president of the Wilcox & White Organ Company. His interest in the short line railways absorbed much of his time and capital in his late years. He was Meriden's fifth mayor, and served in the State Senate in 1877.
Prior to the formation of the International Silver Company, the lines of the Meriden Britannia Company and the other local silverplate company had already become the most important in the entire silverware industry. In 1898, 13 independent companies, not including those in Canada, were consolidated. The next year, four were added, and several more in the years that followed. The names of the companies participating in the consolidation into the International were the Meriden Britannia Company, including Hall, Elton & Co .; Rogers, Smith & Co .; Forbes Silver Co .; Wilcox & Evertsen; Rogers & Bro .; Middletown Plate Co .; Wm. Rogers Mfg. Co .; Wilcox Silver Plate Co., including Parker & Casper Co .; Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co .; Simpson Nickel Co .; Meriden Silver Plate Co .; Rogers Cutlery Co .; Derby Silver Co .; Manhattan Silver Plate Co .; Holmes & Edwards Silver Co .; Barbour Silver Co., including Hartford Silver Plate Co .; Rogers & Hamilton Co .; Norwich Cutlery Co .; Watrous Mfg. Co .; C. Rogers & Bros .; LaPierre Mfg. Co .; E. G. Webster & Son; American Silver Co .; Rowley Mfg. Co .; Southington Cutlery Co., silverware depart- ment; Silver City Plate Co.
Many of these concerns operating separate factories were shortly combined or consolidated with others, and a new cutlery plant was established in Northampton, Mass.
With the incorporation of the International Silver Company in 1898, the following officers were elected: Samuel Dodd president; George H. Wilcox, first vice president; George C. Edwards, second vice president; C. A. Hamilton, third vice presi- dent; Samuel Thomas, treasurer; George M. Curtis, assistant treasurer; George Rockwell, secretary. Directors were: Samuel L. Barbour, George M. Curtis, Samuel Dodd, George C. Edwards, C. A. Hamilton, H. J. Lewis, G. D. Munson, Edwin M. Post, George Rockwell, E. R. Thomas, O. F. Thomas, W. H. Watrous, Frederick P. Wilcox, George H. Wilcox.
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Most of the directors were actively engaged in the business. Only five of them had no active part in its operations.
On the list will be recognized the names of men whose descen- dants have continued to play an important part in the affairs of the company to this day.
By 1890, Maltby, Stevens & Curtiss Co., headed by Elizur Seneca Stevens, Chapman Maltby and John Curtiss, were making silverware in Wallingford in a plant built by Hall, Elton & Co. Their output was silverplated by Wm. Rogers Mfg. Co. of Hartford. Through this association, George D. Munson, a long- time employee of W. H. Watrous and member of an old Wallingford family, was brought into the new company. After its affiliation, the Wallingford plant became Factory P. The factory of Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co., makers of Rogers Brand silverware, was also acquired, and this plant became the center for the manufacture of sterling silverware.
The further progress of the company, chronologically, belongs in the industrial history of Meriden during the twentieth century. 1 1 1
The Curtiss Way Company, large edition printers, was formed by the late James A. Curtiss and William H. Way in 1899. The late Roy J. Warren was president from 1915 until 1942. The business was sold in 1942 to the Eastern Color Printing Company of Waterbury, which retained the Pratt Street plant and erected a new bindery on Gracey Avenue.
The Meriden Gravure Company, which specializes in full-tone picture reproductions, was established in 1888 by the late J. F. Allen. It has won national prominence by its illustrations for fine books. The firm is still in the control of the Allen family. E. H. Hugo is vice president and general manager.
The Journal Press was established in 1886 by The Journal Publishing Company, and was sold in 1918 to the Connecticut Calendar Company. Until 1956, the firm occupied quarters in the Journal's old mechanical plant, which has been torn down. It now occupies a new plant on South Broad Street. The business is operated by Charles G. Dossin.
The Hull Printing Company was established in 1891 at 134 Hanover Street by the late Charles C. Hull, and has been owned and operated for many years by his son, Charles C. Hull, Jr., who erected the present plant at 35 Meridian Street.
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Civil War
THE EXPANDING Meriden of the middle of the last century had opened Southern markets for local products through the trips of its enterprising peddlars into the South. These lively but thoroughly respectable vendors were the forerunners of the traveling salesmen and manufacturers' representatives who carried the story of Meriden to all parts of the country in later eras. Although they operated from wagons and did business along country lanes, they built up a surprisingly large volume of trade. They were an important link in the somewhat feeble line of communications between North and South, for they acted as unofficial roving ambassadors carrying portfolios of good will - but they could do little to quiet the seething controversies of the times.
Meriden stood on the side of the Union and against the con- tention that rights of the individual states should outweigh the principles on which the Union was founded. Meriden was strongly opposed to the institution of slavery. Manufacturers and other business interests here were quite capable of sacrificing trade to uphold their opinions on these issues. They expressed themselves vehemently as the debate gathered and spread.
But there were some in Connecticut who thought differently, and who proposed to hold a convention to issue resolutions favorable to the Southern cause. One representative of this group called upon Julius Pratt, well known local comb manufacturer, urging him to sign the call for the meeting. Mr. Pratt not only refused to sign; after listening to the arguments that it was to his interests to do so, he spoke up sharply. "If the people of the South do not want to buy our Meriden combs because of what we think, then let them go lousy."
A country lawyer named Abraham Lincoln was a rising figure in the middle west, but Meriden knew little of him until the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 brought his name into promi- nence, and even then the interest in him here was slight.
When Abraham Lincoln came to Meriden March 7, 1860 to
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address a Republican rally in the town hall, few would have been willing to concede that he had any chance for the presidency. Although he had been mentioned as a possibility for the Repub- lican nomination, his real strength was unsuspected. The famous Cooper Union address had been delivered February 27, but its effects had hardly begun to accumulate. He had spoken in New Haven the day he came here, repeating some of the sentiments he had uttered at Cooper Union, but there is no record of what he said at the town hall. The only local newspaper of the day was the Meriden Banner, a Democratic weekly published by A. B. Stillman. It did not print the text or even excerpts from Lincoln's address, but gave its own interpretation of his remarks. For example, this passage: "The speaker, on being introduced to the audience, commenced the exordium of a tediously dull and uninteresting speech. It was commonplace in the extreme, and the principles (or ideas) he labored to enforce were narrow, bigoted and fallacious, directly antagonistic to the legislative action and official decisions of the government from its inception down to the present time."
There were few flourishes in connection with Lincoln's reception, but a quartet sang during the intervals of the program. Its members were Arthur Alfred Barker, partner in the clothing firm of Barker & Finnegan, E. B. Everitt, agent of the Wilcox Realty Company, and William K. Butler and Elisha K. Bradley, both of whom left Meriden years later to reside in Hartford.
The event was commemorated 88 years later, when a Lincoln plaque, designed by Louis Gudebrod, local sculptor, was placed on the city hall. This memorial was dedicated May 30, 1948, when it was presented to Mayor Howard E. Houston, repre- senting the city, by Francis C. Upham, representing the Lincoln Memorial Committee. Mr. Upham is a son of Col. Charles L. Upham, one of Meriden's outstanding soldiers in the war which was to follow Lincoln's visit here by only 13 months.
On March 4, 1861, Lincoln was inaugurated as President. The war clouds were gathering fast and spreading over Meriden as they spread elsewhere. The Confederate States of America had been formed at Montgomery, Alabama, early in February, and Jefferson Davis had been chosen president of the Confederacy. The first incident of war occurred when Fort Sumter was attacked on April 12, and the immediate effect was the President's
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call for 75,000 volunteers "to repossess the forts, places and property which has been seized, and to maintain the perpetuity of popular government." By that signal, Connecticut was drawn into the struggle beside the other loyal states of the Union, and Meriden began preparing at once to do its part.
On April 16, Governor Buckingham called for volunteers to form one regiment of infantry to serve three months. The Meriden Light Guards, under Capt. Theodore Byxbee, was the only military organization in Meriden. The morning after the governor's proclamation was issued, Capt. Byxbee reported to the adjutant general in Hartford that the organization was ready to respond to the call.
A war meeting was held in the town hall on April 19. The Hon. Charles Parker, who was to become the first mayor of the incorporated city only eight years later, presided over the meeting. Patriotic speeches were made by Orville H. Platt, Dexter R. Wright, the Rev. D. Henry Miller, and G. H. Wilson. It was unanimously voted to instruct the selectmen to call a town meeting immediately for the purpose of appropriating $5,000 to equip the Meriden Light Guard. Mr. Parker, according to the Century of Meriden, "announced his purpose to give each member a Colt's revolver."
The $5,000 was voted in due course, with part of the money to be devoted, if necessary, to supporting the families of the volunteers. Isaac C. Lewis, John Parker, Humphrey Lyon, and Moses Waterman were named as a committee to supervise the expenditure of the funds.
The Light Guard was required to reorganize as a company of volunteers and was mustered into the state service on April 22, 1861. It was assigned to the First Regiment, Connecticut Volun- teers, as Company F, and left for Washington May 10, the first body of men from Meriden to enter the struggle.
A second company to serve three months went into rendezvous April 29, and was assigned to the Third Regiment as Rifle Company B. It departed May 23. These Meriden companies were in Keyes' Brigade, Tyler's Division. They met the rebels at Bull Run, showing great gallantry. Upon their return to Meriden after serving out the term of their enlistment, a grand parade and ball were held to mark their homecoming.
In the summer of 1861, another company was formed, and
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assigned to the Seventh Regiment as Company C. This company was in the expedition to Port Royal, was the first to land, with its flags first on the soil of South Carolina.
Company K of the Eighth Regiment was recruited late in the summer of 1861. It left the state October 17, and became part of the Burnside Expedition. From North Carolina, it was sent to reinforce the Army of the Potomac when Lee invaded Maryland. At the battle of Antietam, these volunteers advanced farther than any other Union forces in their part of the field. Their losses exceeded 50 per cent.
Company B of the Ninth Regiment was composed of Meriden residents of Irish descent. It left the state November 4 for Lowell, Mass., and was sent from there to Ship Island, Mississippi Sound. It served with credit in the Department of the Gulf until 1864. It was then sent to Bermuda Hundred and, in August 1864, to Sheridan's Army in the Shenandoah Valley. It took part in the battle of Cedar Creek, and was finally mustered out of service on August 3, 1865.
Companies A and F of the 15th Regiment were organized during August 1862. While in camp August 25, women of Meriden, represented by the Misses Helen Bradley and Mary Brooks, presented the company with a silk flag, and Orville Platt made the address of presentation. Col. Wright of the regiment responded. To him a black stallion was presented by a group of Meriden men, represented by the Hon. Charles Parker.
The regiment participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, the siege of Suffolk and of Virginia by Longstreet, and in engage- ments in North Carolina. It lost many men during an epidemic of yellow fever and also lost severely in the actions before Kingston, N. C., in 1865. The regiment was mustered out at New Berne, N. C., and returned to New Haven July 4, 1865.
Company G of the 27th Regiment enlisted for nine months and was mustered into service in October 1862. The regiment became part of the Army of the Potomac. Its members were actively engaged at the battles of Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. They were composed only in part of Meriden men. The regiment was mustered out of service July 27, 1863.
Due to transfers from one military unit to another, it is difficult to determine the exact number of men from Meriden who served at one time or another during the Civil War, but the
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companies mentioned mustered 671. Meriden men connected with other units of the armed service numbered 286, omitting substi- tutes who deserted.
According to Davis' History of Wallingford, Meriden and Cheshire, published 1870, 108 Meriden soldiers lost their lives in the struggle to preserve the Union.
Many local soldiers won commissions, the records show. There were one general, three colonels, one lieutenant colonel, two majors, three chaplains, 14 captains, 16 first lieutenants, 19 second lieutenants.
The losses, especially among those who served in the later phases of the war, were severe, and the strain upon Meriden to furnish recruits, in response to the ever-increasing demand, was severe also.
To meet the demand, since service continued on a voluntary basis, various expedients were adopted. Paying bounties for volunteers became common practice, and Meriden town meetings again and again grappled with the problem of making such inducements sufficiently attractive.
A town meeting held July 16, 1862 voted that the town of Meriden appropriate the sum of $50 bounty to be paid to each recruit enlisting in any Connecticut regiment then in the field, or in any subsequent regiment organized in the state in answer to the President's latest call for 300,000 men. Payments were also to be made to mothers and other dependents of such recruits, to supplement the payments from the state for the support of wives and children of volunteers. A town meeting on August 23, 1862 increased the bounty to $100 for nine-month volunteers.
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