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ONE HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS OF MERIDEN
15°
YEARS OF MERIDEN
PUBLISHED IN CONNECTION WITH
THE OBSERVANCE OF THE CITY'S SESQUICENTENNIAL
JUNE 17-23, 1956
MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT: 1956
COPYRIGHT I956 BY THE CITY OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A. COMPOSED AND PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Table of Contents
|
Foreword |
vii |
|
Bibliography |
ix |
|
Song of Meriden |
xii |
|
Pictorial Sections: |
|
|
Facing pages 52, 84, 116, 148, 180, 212, 234, 216 |
|
|
1. Colonization |
1 |
|
2. Indians |
6 |
|
3. First Meeting Houses |
10 |
|
4. Place Names |
18 |
|
5. Old Houses |
21 |
|
6. « Roads and Travel |
30 |
|
7. Early Schools |
38 |
|
8. Meriden in the Wars |
43 |
|
9. Old Customs, Old Ways and Progress |
50 |
|
MO. Separation from Wallingford |
58 |
|
11. Meriden Mines |
64 |
|
12. Slavery |
66 |
|
13. The Railroad, Past and Present |
69 |
|
14. Industry of the 19th Century |
81 |
|
15. The Civil War |
93 |
|
16. City Government Before 1900 |
99 |
|
17. The Spanish War |
108 |
|
18. Street Railways |
111 |
|
19. Notes of a Spacious Era |
113 |
|
20. The Century Turns |
122 |
|
21. The Automobile Age |
125 |
22. Theaters, Past and Present 127
23. Sports Celebrities 134
24. World War I 138
25. World War I Memorial and Boulevard 143
26. The Depression 148
27. City Government in This Century 152
28. Local Industry Since 1900 168
29. World War II 183
30. The Korean War 193
31. Labor Unions 194
32. Public Utilities 196
33. Meriden Newspapers 201
34. Financial Institutions 207
35. Retail Business 218
36. Parks and Playgrounds 227
37. The Meriden Post Office 235
38. Public Institutions 238
39. Organizations 249
40. Meriden Churches 262
41. Meriden Schools; 1860-1956 273
42. Building Meriden 299
43. The Sesquicentennial 301 Index 302
Foreword
A city has many aspects, and these aspects change with advancing years.
But one aspect of Meriden is as immutable as the forces of nature which brought it into being: its location in the pleasant valley rimmed by the unique formations of up-ended stone which are its heritage from the glacial age. These hills, with their wooded slopes, are the blessing and inspiration of today's generation as they were to the first inhabitants who set their homes and houses of worship upon the high land in the eastern section to overlook a morass which they were still unfitted to conquer.
Eventually the swamp was covered and made firm. The city spread westward, wiping out all traces of the ancient wilderness. For more than half of the nineteenth century Meriden was a village, until, after 1867, it took shape as a municipality. By 1906 it had assumed much of the form we know today.
Meriden is fortunate in many respects, not the least of which is its ability to retain some of the village's advantages while growing to its present population of 48,000. One of these advantages is the closely knit community spirit which binds and has always bound it together. It is this spirit which earned for the city, during World War II, the national title, officially bestowed by the U. S. Government, of the "Ideal War Community." And it is this spirit which promises well for future achievements as we look now, with pride, at the best which has gone before.
The hundred years from 1806 to 1906, and the earlier era when Meriden was a part of Wallingford, have been recorded in previously published histories. But no book has been printed, until now, to cover the last 50 years. This volume, authorized by the General Committee for the Sesquicentennial, is the first effort to bring the story up to date. Its compilation and writing were entrusted to a committee of four, which has labored for months to sift past and present sources of information and produce a work as complete as possible within the limits of allotted space.
The committee owes much to previous historians, and to
vii
numerous individuals of the present who have helped it to gather material. Thankfully, it acknowledges the services rendered by the following:
Robert W. Seekamp, Russell H. White, Florence Minkwitz, F. Harold Grimes, Eleanor Dossin, Glover A. Snow, John F. Molloy, Barbara White, Cyrus Baird, Arthur Service, Arthur Barber, and members ,of the staffs of the Meriden Record and the Meriden Journal for assistance along the way. Technical advice on questions of publication and illustration was given by Spencer H. Miller of Miller-Johnson, Inc. and by Harold Hugo of the Meriden Gravure Company.
The Committee Sanford H. Wendover Blanche Hixson Smith Elmo A. Decherd Charles A. Newton
vui
Bibliography
A Gazetteer of Connecticut and Rhode Island (1819)
Pease & Niles
History of Connecticut — Its People and Institutions
George L. Clark
Facts About Connecticut Conn. Chamber of Commerce
Connecticut Historical Collections John Warner Barber
Story of Connecticut Charles W. Burpee
History of Meriden & Wallingford C. H. S. Davis
Century of Meriden Curtis — Gillespie
Guide to History & Historic Sites of Conn. Crofut
Story of Connecticut Lewis Sprague Mills
The Beginnings of New England John Fiske
Recollections of a New England Town
(Faith) Frances Breckenridge
Century of Silver Earl Chapin May
Meriden's Centennial Celebration compiled by Atwater
Historical Sketches of Meriden G. W. Perkins
History of The Meriden Historical Society
compiled by C. Marvin Curtis
1893-4 papers in collection of The Meriden Historical Society
Connecticut Past and Present Odell Shepard
Hartford Courant, Magazine section Jan. 1956
Railway Age (Article by Glover A. Snow)
Charter and By-laws of the City of Meriden, 1931
Code of the City of Meriden
Meriden Municipal Reports
Meriden City Directories
Records of the Meriden Chamber of Commerce
Records of the Manufacturers' Association
News from Home
(Letter from Meriden U.S.O. to Meriden men and women in the service, copies from Nov. 1943 through Aug. 1955)
Records of Meriden National Guard Companies in World War I Arthur A. Service
ix
City Records of World War II compiled by Ernest Kirkby Records of the Meriden Community Fund History of New Haven County Rockney Records compiled by the late Frank E. Sands Special editions and the newspaper library of the Meriden Record and Meriden Journal
Sono- of Meriden
In the heart of old Connecticut A few miles from the sea, There stands our city, Meriden, Ideal Community;
Tims honored as our country'' s choice To share the pride we feel, That in the whole United States Our city is ideal.
II
One hundred fifty years ago, A small town was begun; Surrounded by protective hills And smiled on by the sun. The early settlers planted deep Their roots within this earth; And now, in nineteen fifty-six, We celebrate its birth.
Ill
The busy hum of industry
Is heard from day to day;
Our silvercraft and sparkling jewels
Are all on world display.
Although we're modern, up-to-date,
We are old-fashioned, too;
We love our concerts in the park,
Sweet summer's rendezvous.
IV
Our City Hall commands a hill
In strong democracy,
From where a glance may rest upon
A mountain or a tree;
The Christian Church and Synagogue
Stand closely side by side,
In friejidly peace as God would wish
All people to abide.
To God we pray upon this day
That faith in Him increase,
To build for children after us
An everlasting peace;
That through all time we'll keep the name
We are so prideful of,
The Silver City of the world,
The place of home and love.
- LYDIA B. ATKINSON
CHAPTER ONE
Colonization
One hundred and fifty years ago Meriden attained its identity as a separate community. It was in 1806 that the General Assembly in Hartford granted a petition from the residents of the northern part of the town of Wallingford asking recognition as an incor- porated town on equal footing with its parent, Wallingford. The first town meeting of Meriden was held in June, 1806.
The history of Meriden, however, goes much further back. It must include not only the Wallingford background from which it stemmed. An understanding of the character of the people who founded Meriden depends upon knowing something of the causes of the migration which turned an erstwhile wilderness into cul- tivated farmlands. Meriden's history does not go back to the very beginnings of New England. Yet her character is shaped by the Puritan exodus from Europe as surely as is the charac- ter of Massachusetts where the colonists first took root.
Those first settlers in Massachusetts were rugged individualists. Mayflower passengers were followed by a continuing flow of immigration caused by religious strife in England. In 1630 a thousand Puritan men found their way across the Atlantic with John Winthrop at their head, and the Massachusetts settlements were firmly established. These men were less in search of political liberty than of freedom to live by the Bible as they interpreted it. The Bible was to them a code of law. Anyone who would not accept their interpretation had no place in their community.
Soon the seeds of discontent were sown. Massachusetts was fertile ground for them. A provision of the colonial government ordained that none but church members should vote or hold office. Dissenters began to speak out against this narrowed assump- tion of power. Not all the clergy approved of so much temporal power in the hands of churchmen. One of the most eloquent dissenters Was Thomas Hooker, a pastor in New Town, now Cambridge. He said that "in matters which concern the com- mon good, the general council, chosen by all, to transact busi- nesses which concern all, I conceive most suitable to rule and
1
COLONIZATION
most safe for relief of the whole." This was in answer to Win- throp who had said: "The best part is always the least, and of the best part the wiser part is always the lesser."
As the historian John Fiske writes, "It is interesting to meet, on the very threshold of American history, with such a lucid statement of the strongly contrasted views which a hundred and fifty years later were to be represented on a national scale by Hamilton and Jefferson." It was Thomas Hooker who led a hundred or more of his parishioners in 1636 to make a settlement in the Connecticut valley, and to bring with them what we now call the "Jeffersonian philosophy" of democratic government.
Thomas Hooker's followers made the Hartford settlement and the separate existence of Connecticut began. The Hooker philos- ophy was contained in his powerful sermon at the opening of the General Court in 1638 when he said "the foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people."
In the spring of that same year, 1638, New Haven was founded under the leadership of another pastor, John Davenport. He had been "converted" by Hooker and others when, back in England, he had tried to dissuade them from their plan to emigrate to the New World. Accordingly he recruited a group of merchants from Yorkshire, Kent, and Hertfordshire to come with him. Their arrival in Boston coincided with some of the bitterest dis- putes between the tolerant and the intolerant. Davenport found Boston uncomfortable. His flock wanted a good harbor and a site with a commercial future. They also wanted a place where they could match their civil management to their own particu- lar interpretation of Scriptural guidance.
Davenport and his followers heard about a place called Quinni- piack on Long Island Sound. Men who had been on a campaign against the Pequot Indians reported in glowing terms on the possibility of this location. So the Davenport party began their project which rapidly grew to spill over eventually into Wallingford and what is now Meriden. Also fresh arrivals from England settled Guilford, and a New Haven overflow settled Milford. When Stamford was added in 1640 the four towns united in a republic of New Haven similar to the confederation of towns around Hartford that constituted Connecticut.
There the similarity ended. Connecticut followed Hooker's ideas that the choice of public officials "belongs to the people
COLONIZATION
by God's own allowance." In New Haven "pillars of the church" governed and were judge-and-jury all in one. The New Haven colony was less democratic than Massachusetts from which Hookerites had fled. The first settlers of New Haven were the wealthiest of any that came to any part of early New England. They built large and handsome houses similar to the ones they were accustomed to in England. Theophilus Eaton's house on Elm street, New Haven, had 19 fireplaces. John Davenport's just across the street had 13. One of the most interesting rooms in the Davenport house was the "study." Mr. Davenport spent so much time with his books that the Indians dubbed him "So Big Study Man."
New Haven and Hartford had been settled for 35 years before the settlement of Wallingford was undertaken. It was a formid- able project at best. Unfriendly Indians were dangerous. Those who professed friendship were viewed with a wary eye. Wolves ran rampant and were a constant menace to man and beast. But men who had come to this New World to make new lives for themselves, had to have lands to cultivate, space to expand. Con- sequently a committee from New Haven granted lands held by New Haven for the new settlement of Wallingford upon the solemn promise of the planters to live the same sort of godly community life as the parent New Haven community did.
Wallingford grew. Farmers moved out in a northerly direction. The north part of the town, though owned by Wallingford, was not a part of Wallingford, writes Dr. C. H. S. Davis in his history of Wallingford and Meriden. With transportation difficult and little more than pathways for roads, farmers in the northern area found it an increasing annoyance to attend church meetings in Wallingford proper. The trip was particularly arduous in winter. Probably as early as December, 1724, these Meriden farmers held their own church services in homes. Some say there were meetings in the Daniel Hall homestead prior to the building of a meeting house.
During this same period Hartford was spilling southward in its parallel growth, not only to Wethersfield but to Berlin and on beyond. Thus did the Thomas Hooker influence from the north meet that of John Davenport from the south right here in Meriden. The melding here of the two communities is par- ticularly evident in what happened to the Gilbert — later called
COLONIZATION
Belcher — farm in the northern part of Meriden.
The name of Meriden begins to figure in documents of Con- necticut's history as early as August 28, 1661, when Jonathan Gilbert was granted by the Connecticut Colony "a farm to ye number of three hundred acres of upland and fifty acres of meadow." When he took possession of the property, Mr. Gilbert called it Meriden, although the spelling appears variously in doc- uments as "Meridon," "Merrideen" or "Merridan."
Mr. Gilbert who was a man of considerable means and wide interests did not occupy his farm personally. It was first lived on by Edward Higbee as tenant, and later in 1686 was pur- chased by Gilbert's son-in-law, Andrew Belcher. The name Belcher has clung to the area down to present days. By purchase and grant Mr. Belcher added to his holdings until the property extended to the top of Mt. Lamentation.
In 1664 Edward Higbee rose in the world from his position as Mr. Gilbert's tenant to become a landholder in his own right. The land between the Gilbert property and Pilgrims' Harbour was deeded to him by a Hartford Indian. Records show that all the property north of Harbour Brook had been bought pre- viously by New Haven in about 1638 from Montowese. The land being more accessible to Hartford than to the New Haven Colony, and the original right of the Indian to sell being ques- tioned, positive ownership remained in doubt until Gilbert and later Higbee established their grants by occupation.
The land reaching to the edge of the "Meriden Farm" had been deeded to Wallingford in 1683 by John Talcott who had purchased it from Adam Puit, who in turn claimed title through an Indian deed. When the area now known as Meriden had its petition granted to be a parish of that name as a part of its parent Wallingford, the chance for further controversy about title to the lands was officially ended.
In years that followed attempts were made, successfully blocked by Wallingford where there was no desire to lose such a fast growing community, to separate the two parishes. While the struggle continued the part called Meriden lost to Berlin some parts of the original farm which gave the name to the community. The part of the original farm which extends from Corrigan's Corner to the southern part of Cat Hole Mountain went by petition to Berlin in 1798, and in 1803 another strip about a half
COLONIZATION
mile wide was added to Berlin in the same way.
Although Meriden lost some of the "Hookerites" in this fashion, there was left enough overlapping into the New Haven Colony influence to change the character of the community. It might be said Meriden was a melting pot into which converged fragments from those original migrations of organic commu- nities to the north and to the south.
In The Beginnings of New England, John Fiske says that in these movements, not of individuals, but of whole communities, "united in allegiance to a church and a pastor, and fervid with the instinct of self-government, we seem to see Greek History renewed but with centuries of added political training." He writes that the government of the United States is in lineal de- scent more nearly related to that of Connecticut than to any of the other thirteen colonies. Connecticut's strength lay in the fact that it was a federation of independent towns with the individual communities retaining all the attributes of sovereignty not ex- pressly granted to the General Court of the colony.
In 1643 New Haven Colony joined with Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut to form the United Colonies of New England. Soon after this Roger Ludlow was requested by the Connecticut General Court "to take some paynes in drawing forth a body of Lawes for the governing of this Comon welth." His code of laws was adopted four years later. A quite different code was put forth by the Colony of New Haven. These are the two documents so often referred to as the "Blue Laws," both containing precepts popularly supposed to be stiff-necked.
Connecticut Colony's John Winthrop was a man of great tact. Somehow he persuaded Charles II to sign in 1662 the Charter of Connecticut which gave that colony a freedom from the mother country enjoyed by no other British colony. It was possession of this Charter which persuaded New Haven Colony, albeit unwillingly, to unite eventually with Connecticut Colony.
So it is that Meriden, sitting in the middle between the two sections, occupied by people stemming from both, is marked by a fusion of the spirit of both. Meriden's character always con- tained considerable respect for the aristocratic and theocratic features of the original new Haven Colony, but was from the first permeated with fervent devotion to democratic principles char- acteristic of the founders of Connecticut Colony.
CHAPTER TWO
Indians
In no part of New England were the Indians so numerous as in Connecticut, says Dr. Davis in his history of Meriden and Wallingford. Deforest as an expert on Connecticut Indians esti- mated the number at from six to seven thousand. Other sources push the number considerably higher. (The quantity of fish, fowl, and game afforded by Connecticut made the area attrac- tive to the Indians.) At any rate when John Davenport and his followers arrived in New Haven they found red men in pos- session.
The Mattabesitt tribe lived in and around the present site of Middletown, — "river Indians," they lived near the waterway but roamed for great distances. At the time of the settlement of New Haven, Sowheag was the great sachem of the Mattabesitt tribe ruling from a fort on high ground near the narrows of the Connecticut River, his power extending over what are now Meriden and Wallingford. It was this sachem who sold the land to Davenport and his company.
To Sowheag, to the Quinnipiacs, and other Indians with any claim to the area taken over including East, North, and New Haven, Woodbridge, Orange, Branford, Cheshire, and Hamden in addition to Meriden and Wallingford, the well-to-do mer- chants from London via Boston paid in goods. Odell Shepard lists the payment to the Quinnipiacs at twenty-four coats, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives, twelve spoons, twelve pewter porringers, and four cases of French knives and "sizers."
The deed for the transaction with the Mattabesitts deals with the sachem's son Mantowese, whose mother seems to have been the actual lineal inheritor of the land transferred. To Mantowese Davenport, Theophilus Eaton, et al., paid eleven coats made of trucking cloth, one coat for himself of English cloth, made after the English manner, and one reserve piece of land for planting what his small band of followers might need. It all seemed very friendly with a mutual agreement to make reparation for any
INDIANS
damages incurred by either side — by the Indians' dogs on the white man's cows or by the white man's hogs on the Indian corn.
Indians in this part of Connecticut actually welcomed the arrival of the English among them. They hoped to obtain assist- ance from the new settlers in defense against depredations of Pequots and Mohawks. Both of these tribes were constantly on the warpath and demanding tribute from weaker, less warlike peoples like the Mattabesitts.
Meriden was never used as a permanent camping ground by any tribe, but it was the happy hunting ground of both the Quinnipiacs and Mattabesitts, says Robert W. Seekamp, past pres- ident of the Archaelogical Society of Connecticut and a Meriden resident. Mr. Seekamp has made an exhaustive study of Indian lore and Indian relics. We are indebted to him for the following information.
The Quinnipiacs numbered some 400 when the Davenport party purchased the New Haven area. For centuries they had lived at the East Haven site on New Haven harbor during the rigors of cold winters. Milder temperatures along the Sound and access to salt water game and shellfish attracted them to make their permanent home on the coast. During milder and warm weather they journeyed up the Quinnipiac river, making tem- porary campsites near spring holes or where game was most plentiful.
The trails followed by those Indians are today the highways we use. The road from Red Bridge to Cheshire was an Indian trail, as is also Capitol Avenue from West Main through the pass to Kensington, West Main to Milldale, East Main to the reservoir, and Preston Avenue from Baldwin to Westfield Road.
Temporary campsites have left their marks in the presence of a profusion of old weathered clam and oyster shells, flint and quartz chips and Indian artifacts. Such reminders of the Indian past have been found on the old Raven farm at Meriden airport, around the spring on Meeting House Hill, in the vicinity of Red Bridge and up on Allen Hill, in the hummocks north of Peat Works Pond, at the base of Mt. Lamentation near the Houston property, Spruce Glen, and down on the lower reaches of South Broad street.
The historian John Fiske says there can be little doubt that the material comfort of the Indians was for a time considerably im-
INDIANS
proved by their dealings with white men. Their want of fore- sight and thrift left them to face an annual struggle against famine during the harshness of winter. When the settlers came the In- dians had a good market for the skin of every fur-covered animal they could catch. If trade didn't provide them with all they needed, they could count on the white man's charity.
Not only do Connecticut records show that every bit of land was obtained by honest purchase from the Indians, save for territory conquered in the Pequot war, but the general laws prove there was every intent to treat the Indians justly. No mat- ter how good the white man's intentions, his way of life, his very aspirations that had brought him to the New World, made him interfere with the ways of the Indian. Even the friendly Indians of this section of Connecticut where Meriden is located, Indians who remained allies of the English first in the Pequot war and later in King Philip's War, found themselves pushed out in the march of progress.
After all it is hard to tell today how much the Indians actually understood what it meant to "sell" their property. They had known no such thing as private ownership of land as the white settlers understood it. They lived a tribal life. Their land be- longed to the tribe for the use of everyone. They shared hunt- ing and fishing rights on certain "preserves" with other tribes. Their idea of the "sale" of land on which Meriden now stands might very well have been that it was just a general invitation to white men to share the tribal privilege in return for which the white man would share his arts of defense against enemy tribes. We cannot be too smug about the purchase by which was acquired our Meriden heritage at the expense of the gradual eclipse of the red men who once hunted and fished the land and waters.
Remnants of the Mattabesitts became pitifully few. Hardly more remained of the Quinnipiacs. Land was bought for them eventually up Farmington way among the Tunxis, after their last sachem died on the old reservation held in East Haven. The Hartford Courant magazine section of January 22, 1956, carried a piece by Lawrence C. Nizza about the four remaining Indian Reservations in Connecticut. Situated in North Stonington, Led- yard, Kent, and Trumbull, they comprise together 799 acres and contain 15 houses. Only 23 recognized tribal members live
INDIANS
on the reservations part-time, or the year-round.
Most of the descendants of the original Indians have married with other ethnic groups. Integration is so complete that there seems no further need for reservations or special handling of "Indian affairs." How much of our Mattabesitts or Quinnipiacs from this section remains in the life blood of the present gen- eration is a question. But the little knowledge we have of their presence here when the white men came adds that aura of an- tiquity to our history which gives it color. As Odell Shepard says the possession of even a little Indian lore deepens the Connecti- cut landscape enormously by lending the dimension of time.
Throughout Indian Connecticut, according to Shepard, it was believed that the men who lived in this place had a special access to the Divine. Indians here had a particular awe for stones. Indian lore has it that larger boulders in field and forest were kept always well supplied with offerings of corn or trailing moss. Huge rocks were chosen for council meetings. So we may believe that Meri- den's Hanging Hills and the rocky promontories of Mt. Lamen- tation still echo with reverent, philosophical tributes from the Indian orators of the distant past.
CHAPTER THREE
First Meeting Houses
As early as 1679 the people of Wallingford voted to build a "meeting house," a building 28 feet long, 24 feet wide and 10 feet high. So small was the group, and so burdened were they by poverty and the business of merely living, that it took several years for the completion of this small building. Two years later there was another vote, "to go on and finish the house." As their population and wealth increased, they enlarged this first meeting house to 40 by 28 feet. This was in 1690 when the town had grown to 73 families. The following year it was voted to "ceiling the house" and to build two pews. This was evidence of great luxury because, before this, seating arrangements had been long hard benches, occupied on one side of the house by men and boys, and on the other by females of the congregation. Growth and change continued, even as they do today, and in April 1706, we find "The town chose Deken Hall, Samuel Roys and Goodman Culvert, a commetee to procure workmen to come and buld gallers (galleries) for the In largement of the meeting hous."
During this time the people who lived on farms scattered about the north section of town had great difficulty in getting to meeting, especially in winter. Roads were scarcely more than paths through the woods and swamps, and horseback was the only means of transportation. Consequently, these devout people peti- tioned to hold their own religious services closer to their homes. On the town records of Wallingford, under the date of Decem- ber 1, 1724, appears the following: "In respect of ye north farmers the town voated that they may hire a Minister four months this winter on their own charge." This vote was the first act that in any way separated the area of Meriden from Wallingford, or that recognized that these north farmers num- bering 35 families, were a distinct community.
That same spring, at the May session of the General Assembly, this resolution was passed: "Upon the petition of the north farmers in Wallingford and those inhabiting the land northward of said Wallingford, commonly called Wallingford Purchase
10
FIRST MEETING HOUSES
Lands. This Assembly grants that they be a separate society for setting up and carrying on the publick worship of God among themselves, with all such liberties, powers and priviledges, as other such societies in this colony have and do by law enjoy . . . " In May 1728 the farm of Meriden was added, and the parish from then on was known by that name.
Therefore, although there are no records to prove it, it can be assumed that after December 1724 the farmers of Meriden no longer made the arduous journey to Wallingford on Sunday, but had a place of worship in their own territory. There is a tradi- tion that these services were held in the Daniel Hall homestead until the meeting house was built.
An entertaining tale, which may or may not be true, is often told in connection with the building of this first church in Meriden. According to the story, the farmers living in the most northerly section, along the old road, and those to the west, in Milking Yard and Pilgrim's Harbor, wanted the meeting house to, be located near the junction of Curtis and Ann Streets; but those living to the east, near Dog's Misery, insisted that it be built nearer them, on what has since been called Meeting House Hill. Finally, it was settled that the building should be placed on the western slope of this hill, and the materials were collected there, ready for the actual "raising." During the night a group of the other faction — presumably the Royces, the Robinsons, the Collinses, the Coles, the Fosters and the Merriams — brought , teams and hauled the timbers down the hill, over the brook, and westward, on what is now Ann Street, to the spot they preferred. This, naturally, caused a great furor, but eventually the Dog's Misery group won — the Yales, the Iveses, the Whitings, the Levits and the Halls. The men who had worked so hard in the night to carry out their scheme were forced to haul the material back up the hill in broad daylight, their ears, no doubt, ringing with the taunts of their adversaries.
At any rate, in 1727 the meeting house "about thirty feet square and built in the very plainest style" was erected on Meet- ing House Hill. The site, at what is now the corner of Ann Street and Dryden Drive, is marked by a large boulder placed there in 1904 by the First Congregational Society. The first burying ground in Meriden was about fifty rods to the east, near the top of the hill. Two years later the society resolved to form a Church,
11
FIRST MEETING HOUSES
and on October 22, 1729, after a day of fasting and prayer, the Church was duly organized with 51 original members.
The Reverend Theophilus Hall, of Wallingford, was the first preacher. He still held this post at the time of his death 30 years later. Toward the end of his life his salary was raised, but for many years it was £50 and firewood — about $175 annually — a sum which might be paid in either money or provisions. Mr. Hall lived in a house at the southeast corner of Curtis and Ann Streets and he also owned a large farm in what is now the center of uptown Meriden. It was on a part of this farm, slightly east of the site of the present Center Church, that the second meet- ing house was erected, probably between 1752 and 1755. Un- fortunately, the society records until 1755 are missing. Under the date of December 11, in that year, is found the first entry relating to the new church — a receipt for £150 advanced by Mr. Hall for building. Thus, it appears that the church was built by Mr. Hall, and that the society gradually repaid him.
This new meeting house, about 64 by 44 feet in size, replaced the earlier one which the society had outgrown in the 25 years since it had been built with such unchristianlike behavior on the part of its members. Originally, this second building had no bell nor steeple, but these were added in 1803. For 75 years this structure served continuously as a place of worship.
In 1831 the present Center Church was built on almost the same spot. This was about the first building of any architectural pretensions to grace our town. Together with its neighbor, the First Baptist Church, built in 1847, it still adds charm and beauty to our city today.
There was a division in the organization in 1848 when a part of the congregation moved with their pastor to the "Corner" in West Meriden and built a church there. Those who remained took the name of Center Congregational Church. The white colonial wooden church at the "Corner" was replaced in 1876 by the granite structure, located a little farther north on Colony Street, and known today as the First Congregational Church.
The Baptists have the next longest history in this area. The church which was organized in Wallingford, with about 10 families, in 1735 (or 1739) was the third Baptist Church in the entire colony. This church, however, ceased to exist after a time, but some of the families continued to hold to their faith, and in
12
FIRST MEETING HOUSES
1786 another Baptist Society, consisting of 12 members, was organized in Meriden. For several years after this, meetings were held in homes in the southeastern part of town. Their first house of worship was a dwelling purchased near the present dividing line of Meriden and Wallingford to accommodate Baptists liv- ing in both towns. In 1815 the Meriden Baptists built a second meeting house, nearer the center, on a site which is now the south corner of Broad and Charles Streets. This building was sometimes spoken of in derision as the "Salt Box," from its un- pretentious appearance and scanty furnishings. Fifteen years later the society moved this house to a lot directly across the street, adjoining the Broad Street graveyard. At this time the structure was raised over a basement story, and was also adorned with a steeple. This remained the place of worship for the society until 1847 when they built the beautiful church which today stands almost next to the Center Congregational.
Here again, there appears to have been some argument, and no doubt tempers once more were hot, because the Congregational Society placed an injunction to deter the construction of this new church so close to theirs. It was pointed out that there was no objection to the Baptists "as a Christian people, as good neighbors and worthy citizens." The Congregationalists' argument was that the Baptist minister had "a peculiarly sharp ringing voice, so that beyond a question, he would disturb their society in wor- ship."
The Episcopal Church in Meriden was organized about 1789 in the Moses Andrews homestead on West Main Street, now the home of the Meriden Historical Society. Samuel Andrews, a brother of Moses Andrews, was the last missionary to the Episcopal Church in Wallingford, in the service of "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." When the Revolutionary War broke out all Episcopalians were suspected of being Tories, and Moses Andrews was forbidden to leave his farm without special permission of the town selectmen. After his petition to attend church in Wallingford was denied, Moses decided to have a church in his own home. Using slabs and blocks of wood from a neighboring sawmill as benches, he in- vited his neighbors in for weekly services, at which he was the lay reader. With these simple beginnings, a society was formally organized in 1789, preceded by a declaration of conformity to
13
FIRST MEETING HOUSES
the Church of England, and Moses became its first clerk. It was not until 1816 that a tiny wooden structure was built on the southeast corner of the old burying ground on Broad Street (probably the very spot where Olive Street is now) and con- secrated as St. Andrew's Church.
Mrs. Frances A. Breckenridge in her charming book, Recol- lections of a New England Town, describes one of the festivals held in this first church: "In the very first years of the existence of St. Andrew's as a parish the yearly Christmas 'illumination', as it was then called, was with tallow candles. Wooden frames to fit the windows were so arranged that a candle was at each window pane. These panes were about seven by nine inches, and probably thirty panes to a window. The frames were carefully kept from year to year to be produced and used at the proper time. A chandelier of tin, precariously suspended from the arched ceiling in the center of the church, and side lights of tin fastened to the posts which supported the galleries, held the inevitable tallow candles. All of these that were accessible were duly vis- ited once in a half hour or so by someone armed with the 'snuffers'. The inaccessible lights had to be left with toppling wicks to drip tallow onto whomsoever it might fall. The last illumination was in 1833 or 1834. Until the later years of the century the festival of Christmas was only observed by the small congregation that worshiped at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. Except, that persons from other denominations would attend there upon Christmas eve to hear the music. The little church was always crowded on these occasions, as their annual recurrence was the one musical event of the year."
This earlier church was replaced by "a new and elegant Gothic church of brownstone" in 1848. Within twenty years the in- creasing membership of the parish made it necessary to build a larger place of worship. Therefore, in 1866, this second church was taken down and the stone from it used for erecting the present St. Andrew's Church on East Main Street.
This, then, is the story of the three church societies estab- lished in Meriden during the eighteenth century, and of their houses of worship which, in the early days of the last century, clustered about the old burying ground on Broad Street.
One other denomination, the Methodist, was established in town before the middle 1800's. About 1830 a meeting house was
14
FIRST MEETING HOUSES
built on East Main Street. Mrs. Breckenridge has this to say about it: "Near the bars that lead into the East Cemetery is the barnlike Methodist Church, with its bare wooden benches and packing box pulpit. To this house, one bleak, snowy Jan- uary day, queer Treacher' Baldwin brought his infant child to be baptized by himself, his wife the only witness. He had the grace and mercy to borrow a bowl of warm water . . . The building . . . was bought, moved onto Curtis Street and made into a joiner's shop. It was finally set on fire by some children playing in the old pulpit, and was burned to the ground." Ac- tually, the Methodist Society was not organized until 1844, fol- lowing a series of revival meetings held in what was known as "Old Bethel," a long shop owned by Charles Parker. Here the congregation sat on boxes which gave them a good view of the preacher. In summer a large tent was pitched in an open lot be- tween High and Broad Streets. It was 1847 when the society built a wooden church on Broad Street near Charles. This was used until the First Methodist Episcopal Church, at the corner of East Main and Pleasant Streets, was erected in 1867.
Perhaps we should digress for a moment to discover what "going to meeting" was like in these early days of Meriden. First of all, the houses of public worship were never heated. In- deed, to have done so would have been considered a sign of degeneracy, if not of actual profanation. Even as late as 1831, when the present Center Congregational Church was built, "it was with great difficulty that the society could be induced even to allow chimneys to be built, though they were to be erected gratuitously." In winter the temperature must have been bitter for the people, many of whom had traveled several miles on horseback or on foot to reach the meeting house. The only artificial heat allowed was that from the women's foot stoves, little square metal boxes filled with glowing coals from the home hearth.
It has been told that men with bald spots were sometimes forced to put their mittens on their heads to keep warm; and preachers often complained that their voices were drowned by the noise of persons stamping their feet to keep them from freezing. The prayers, during which the congregation stood, were long and sermons even longer. In 1849 the Reverend George W. Perkins wrote, "As prayers and sermons then (before 1800) were much
15
FIRST MEETING HOUSES
longer than 'moderns' will endure, the winter hearers of those days must have endured a species of martyrdom. ... As a partial relief to such suffering, some persons built near the church, what are often mentioned in the old records as 'Sabbath day houses' — little cabins about 10 feet square, finished with a fireplace, chim- ney and some chairs. Here the owner retired with his family at the intermission, and partook of some refreshment prepara- tory to the freezing process of the afternoon."
There were probably several Sabbath day houses around the first meeting house, and one was plainly mentioned in a deed of 1740, as standing on land north of the church. But the second meeting house must have had a rash of them, because at least 13, and maybe more, stood east and north of the church. The first entry on the land records referring to these houses was made on July 23, 1757, when Theophilus Hall deeded to "Deacon Benjamin Whiting, Ensign Amos Camp and Bezaleel Ives a spot of land sufficient for three Sabbath day houses with stables adjoin- ing, of the dimensions of those now standing on said spot . . ." These men lived in the extreme southeast district, too far away for them to go to their homes during the "nooning" on Sundays. Also near the church stood two "Sabba' day" houses, each of which was 20 feet square and was probably shared by two or three families. According to Mrs. Breckenridge, "The one room had a fireplace, and the fuel and a barrel of cider were provided by 'joining'." This fireplace was also useful for replenishing the coals in the women's foot stoves.
Even in the second Congregational meeting house the seats must have been mere benches, because the story is told of a restless little girl who "slipped from the seat and made her way under the benches, on all fours, to the door where finally she was captured by her dismayed pursuers on the last step."
In addition to frigid temperatures in winter, hard seats and sermons "timed by an hourglass which was sometimes turned twice before the word 'lastly' was heard," the congregations of those days were plagued by the tithing man. He not only took up the collection, but kept order, particularly in the galleries, and tickled, with a fox tail or rabbit's foot on the end of a pole, those inclined to sleep, and also prevented anyone from leaving before meeting was ended.
The singing, too, was very different from our present idea of
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FIRST MEETING HOUSES
church music. The two or three tunes, which never varied from one year to another, were keyed from a pitch pipe and were sung without benefit of instrumental accompaniment of any kind. In old records there was frequent mention of a curious custom, that of "beating the drum" on the Sabbath. Since the early meeting houses had no bells, a substitute was found in a drum. According to the records of 1673, one "Sam'll Monson shall be allowed 40 s. for maintaining and beating the Drum in good order for the yeare ensuing."
17
CHAPTER FOUR
Place Names
The name of Meriden derived from "Meriden Manor" by which Andrew Belcher dignified the estate he owned by purchase from Jonathan Gilbert. Since the property is referred to as Meriden before it was acquired by Mr. Belcher, the supposition is that the choice was Gilbert's. There is no proof of why he selected the name. It has been suggested it was because it means "pleasant valley" and consequently was, and still is, an apt de- scription of that part of Meriden.
Perkins' Historical Sketches gives a totally different explana- tion which has long been a popular folk story here. He says the name is compounded of "merry" and "den." Since there were so many merry meetings of travelers in the old stone house over which Andrew Belcher presided as host of the inn, the place acquired the affectionate nickname of "Merry-Den."
It is generally believed, however, that the true source of the name is Meriden, England. Nor is this assumption less prosaic than the folklore so suggestive of revels. Scenically, topographi- cally, Meriden in Warwickshire is very like this piece of Con- necticut. Furthermore it lies in the very center of England.
One of London's great daily newspapers carried some years ago a feature article on the British Meriden which remains to this day a quiet little town, quite outstripped in population and industry by her American namesake in Connecticut. The writer of the piece illustrated his feature by a drawing which represented a cut-out map of England poised in perfect balance on the tip of a sharply pointed pencil. The spot thus demonstrated as the exact center of England was the village of Meriden.
Meriden, Connecticut, is not the precise center geographically of its state. But its location earns the description of "central." Moreover it was certainly the center upon which converged the two strongest Puritan influences which fused into the democratic philosophy which in turn sired our American Constitution.
There is a little story related by Odell Shepard in his Con- necticut Past and Present which says a visiting Frenchman in
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PLACE NAMES
Washington to study our form of government heard of one famous American after another who had been born in Con- necticut. He looked in an atlas to discover the location of this phenomenal place and found it to be "only a little yellow spot on the map." Years later he was called upon for a Fourth of July oration before a group of Americans in Paris. He spoke of Con- necticut as "that little yellow spot on the map that makes the clock-pedlar, the schoolmaster, and the senator. The first of these gives you time; the second tells you what to do with it; and the third makes your law and civilization."
Meriden has produced its clock-pedlars, schoolmasters and senators. She is typical Connecticut. Odell Shepard also speaks of the way "Meriden crouches . . . beside her mounded hills." Between her hills there are valleys, ponds, and streams still known by names used by the earliest settlers. For instance Jonathan Gilbert's first grant of land was specified as in the "vicinity of Cold Spring." Derivation of that name is easily understood since waters welling out of masses of rocks there are sparkling and cold.
Professor Silliman wrote about Cold Spring for the American Journal of Science back in 1821. He described a natural icehouse in the masses of fallen trap rock where "ice remains usually the year around." He said the small brook running to the south of the natural icehouse has "been known to the youth of the vicinity since the middle of last century, so they have been accustomed to resort to this place, in parties, for recreation, and to drink the waters of the cold-flowing brook." At one time Cold Spring was a projected spa on which considerable sums of money were spent for development.
Nearby "Cat Hole" no doubt was so called because wild animals posed a peculiar threat in that narrow cleft between rocky hills through which one of the earliest known paths was trodden. According to Doctor Davis in his history, Crow Hollow, the "locality near Julius Parker's shops about two miles west of the city," has an equally obvious source. There were a great many crows wont to congregate in the vicinity. "Bangall" on the road toward Middletown derived its name, he says, from the fact that Captain Benjamin Hall who kept a tavern on the Noah Pomeroy place, said a party from Middletown continued their frolics there throughout one night and "banged all creation."
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PLACE NAMES
Pilgrim's Harbor, sometimes without an apostrophe and some- times with the apostrophe after the S, was the name of the south- western part of Meriden through which Harbor Brook runs. It was called by that name in an Indian deed of 1664. Barber's history written in 1838 says the name came from a tradition about the regicides said to have stopped there in their wanderings. But the assumption now is that the name, antedating those flights of regicides from political persecution, came from the fact that the area offered some protection from cold and winds in the nature of a "harbor."
Black Pond still earns its name without question. Dog's Misery nearby, south of the Middletown road, was a morass thickly covered with tangled vegetation where wild animals took refuge from the chase to the complete bafflement and sometimes to the death of dogs on their trail. Meeting House Hill naturally ac- quired its name from its selection as the site of the first house of worship in Meriden.
Hanging Hills is another name entirely obvious in origin. Falls Plains and Little Plain were once in common usage for the sec- tion now referred to as Hanover and the upper section extend- ing toward the old main road to Hartford. The first title also obviously got its name from the falls in the river going through the plain — a plain that was apparently regarded most favorably by the pioneers since it was one of the first areas to be staked off into lots.
Turning back to the northeastern section of Meriden, Mt. Lamentation broods over the landscape. The Reverend Charles A. Goodrich of Hartford writes the story of the source of that name. It is a grim tale about a man named Chester who lost his bearings one dark and stormy day. He wandered for two days and nights, barely escaped plunging off a precipice, and be- came slightly demented; and was loudly lamenting before a searching party found him. The Goodrich book in which this tale appears is called Stories on the History of Connecticut: De- signed for the Instruction and Amusement of Young Persons. If the Lamentation story is a good sample, the nature of the re- vered gentleman's idea of amusement might well be questioned by current censors of juvenile literature.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Old Houses
There are still standing in Meriden today a number of homes which were built in the eighteenth century. Some have been carefully preserved through the years, others have been lovingly restored, and a few have been so altered that it is difficult to recognize them for what they are.
The oldest house in town is undoubtedly the 1711 Club Inn, on North Colony Street. As its name implies, it was built in that year, by one Solomon Goffe of Wethersfield. His deed gave this indefinite description of the property, "the farm is in the woods and bounds west on the Country road and extends north, east and south." The chimneys in the cellar of this house are enormous and the stones are cemented with clay mixed with straw, as are the foundation walls. The old rafters, huge floor beams, and split laths also indicate the age of the building. The first addition to the house, which looks as old as the rest, was probably made by Jonathan Collins who bought the property in 1729. At present it is, as it has been for a number of years, a popular eating place.
Less than a mile north of here, on the west side of the road, on a bank protected by a stone wall, stands the Stephen Bailey place. This was built in 1734 by John Dennie, a rich Boston merchant who never occupied the house but leased it and the farm to someone else. It, too, has an early addition on the north side. This place has been very well kept, and must look much as it did 200 years ago.
Some little distance farther, at 1376 North Colony Road, is an old house belonging now to Wallace Miramant, florist. One of the most interesting things about it is that it stands on the site of the old Belcher Tavern. Although this house is unquestionably old, it is not known exactly when it was built, nor by whom. However, its hand-hewn white oak beams proclaim its age. In A Century of Meriden, Mr. Curtis suggests, as the result of a conversation he had with the granddaughter of Sidney Merriam, who came into possession of the inn about 1812, that in 1833 the old build- ing was moved to the rear for a wood shed and carriage house,
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OLD HOUSES
and the present house was erected on the ancient site. How- ever, it appears to be older than this, and the contractor who supervised its remodeling in 1949, felt that it was one of the oldest houses in town. At one time it had eleven fireplaces. The present owner has carefully stowed away in his attic an old sign, found in the place, bearing the words "Hotel Belcher."
On the other side of the road, at number 1563, is the Yale place, built in 1788 by John, a grandson of that John Yale who, in com- pany with Jedediah Norton, bought the Belcher, or Meriden, farm in 1741. This house has had some additions and has had its clapboards replaced with shingles, but its earlier lines are clearly discernible. It is owned and occupied by the Staszewski family.
Also in the north part of town, at 1065 Broad Street, near Britannia, is the Asahel Curtis place. This house was built, prob- ably by Joel Yale, in 1807 but was sold to Isaac Lewis and Asahel Curtis a few years later. In a building adjoining, these two men manufactured metal buttons. After a time Mr. Curtis bought the house from his partner. Here his son, George R. Curtis, was born. For many years now the place has belonged to Frank N. Wilcox. It has apparently changed little since its early days, except to improve.
The Andrews Homestead, on West Main Street, now the home of the Meriden Historical Society, was built by Moses Andrews probably about 1760. The double overhang of the second and third stories indicates that it may be even older. This house, like so many others, was enlarged at an early date. When the sloping roof was raised to accommodate the addition in the rear, the old end rafters were left and are still visible in the attic. The massive timbers, sturdy wall planking, and wide floor-boards are still in remarkablv fine condition. In one of the bedrooms an area of the wall has been cut away so that the glassed-off section shows the construction — the hand-hewn beams, hand- split laths, hand-wrought nails, and wooden pegs. The place is an excellent example of a large, comfortable, colonial farmhouse. It follows the usual plan of that day — the small entrance hall, where the delicately turned bannisters contrast strikingly with the rugged stones of the huge center chimney; to the right the dining room, to the left the withdrawing room, each with its fireplace; and in the rear the keeping room, with its enormous cooking fireplace, complete with Dutch ovens. It was in this
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OLD HOUSES
house that the first Episcopal church services in Meriden were held.
In later years the place passed through a succession of hands, becoming, at one time, a two-family house. It was acquired by the Board of Education for the City of Meriden, and in 1933 and 1934 was renovated as a federal project to serve as a kinder- garten for the Benjamin Franklin School, and a colonial museum for the city. In 1940 when the School Board relinquished con- trol of the property, two groups, the Andrews Homestead Com- mittee and the Meriden Historical Society, which had been defunct since 1895, united to save the old house. This was accomplished and the Homestead, repaired, redecorated, and furnished with antiques which had been given or loaned to the society, was the scene of an Open House, January 14, 1942. The following year, because of the war, the place was turned over to the city for a Child Care Center, and its furnishings were returned to their owners or safely stored for the duration.
Then in 1952 the Meriden Historical Society was again re- vived and once more took over the Andrews Homestead. It has been beautifully redecorated and furnished, insofar as possible, with antiques of the period of 1760. In it, also, are housed col- lections of old books, papers, and souvenirs of Meriden's past. Certainly, Moses Andrews built well, and our town is fortunate to have such a fine old house for its historical museum.
Meriden is likewise fortunate in possessing the Meriden His- torical Society in its reactivated form, destined to perpetuate and augment the house and contents of the Andrews Homestead. Originally the society was organized in 1893 after a year of planning for its proper functions. Papers were prepared for reading at subsequent meetings, many of which are preserved in a book housed at the Andrews Homestead and from which con- siderable information has been gleaned for this volume. Despite the obviously general interest in the organization's efforts to gather material on Meriden's past, there seems to have been no meeting after the one dated November 1, 1895.
When the fate of the Andrews Homestead became a matter of public concern in 1940, the Meriden Historical Society was reorganized to include the already active Andrews Homestead Committee for the purpose of raising funds to maintain the property as a center of historic interest. For the two years before
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OLD HOUSES
the Andrews Homestead "went to war" the society more than fulfilled its mission.
After 10 years of wear and tear in community service, the Homestead was in dire need of the attentions which only an active Historical Society could give it. The organization was again revived, its constitution brought up-to-date, and concen- trated work begun to make over this handsome relic of Meri- den's past. With financial aid from the Cuno Foundation, the work has been completed. It is unthinkable that the museum should ever again fall into other ways and other uses. The Meriden Historical Society has become a necessary and vital function in Meriden's affairs depended upon to carry on without interruption the preservation of Meriden's past as a symbol of all that makes Meriden happy and proud in celebrating in 1956 its sesquicentennial year.
Still farther west, on Johnson Avenue at the corner of Eaton, stands the old Johnson place, now owned and occupied by the Carter Whites. This house, with its lovely Palladian window and hand-pegged divided stairway, was built by Israel Johnson about 1785. In the early days West Main Street, as we know it, did not exist and Johnson Avenue was the through street to the west and later the stagecoach route to Waterbury. Originally this house faced south on Johnson Avenue, but at a later period was turned to face east on Eaton. The Johnson family owned the mountain land to the north — all the way up to West Peak. They had hoped to develop the property into a valuable mining tract but, unfortunately, their prospecting did not reveal the wealth of gold and copper they had expected to find. In spite of this disappointment, however, the family lived in rather an elegant manner, and rumor has it that it was considered quite an honor to be invited to their home.
On Coe Avenue, within a short distance of each other, are two good examples of eighteenth century houses. One is the home of Victor Lucchini, Coe Farm, which has just been sold to the city as the site of the new west-side high school. This colonial house was here when the farm was sold by Samuel Rice to Asa Barnes in 1795. Calvin Coe bought it in 1820 and it has remained in the hands of his descendants until now. It is to be hoped that this lovely old home can be saved when the high school appears in the place where the house has stood for over
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OLD HOUSES
160 years.
The second house is the Rice place, built in 1781, by Ezekiel Rice, Jr., a Revolutionary War soldier, on land given him by his father. Its style is somewhat different from most of the houses of this period, because instead of one large center chimney, it has two, one at each end, and has a hallway running through the center of the house. Until fairly recent years, this place was still owned and occupied by members of the Rice family.
On Old Colony Road, at Archer's Corners, is the Deacon Robert Royce, or Rice, house. It was standing there in 1740 when the highway running west from this spot on the old Country Road to Hanover, now South Meriden, was opened. In the latter part of the last century the place was sold to the wife of Dr. H. A. Archer — hence the name Archer's Corners. In 1906 this house had a porch on two sides. Now that has been removed and so today, in spite of some recent shingling, the house probably looks more as it did originally.
Just north of this old Robert Rice farm, on the site of Walnut Grove Cemetery, was the farm bought by Dr. William Hough, Wallingford's second physician, in 1730. Sometime between then and 1740, when he moved to Cheshire, Dr. Hough built a house on this property. His son, William, continued to live and conduct a blacksmith shop here for many years. About 1930 Mr. Russell White bought this Hough home from the cemetery association, moved it piece by piece, and carefully reconstructed it in its present location at the corner of Broad Street and Gale Avenue. There it may be seen today, exactly as it stood for almost 200 years in its first location — complete even to its oversized chim- ney and fireplaces. Looking at it, one would never guess that it had not been right there for all of its long existence. It is now the home of the Robert Bergers.
A short distance up Broad Street, at 309, is the Benjamin Hart house, now owned by the John B. Kirbys. This was built in its present location just before 1800. The original house faced on Curtis Street and was built in 1729 by Captain John Webb. When Mr. Hart inherited the home he wanted it to front on the new turnpike, and so he tore it down and built the present house, using many of the beams and other material from the old house.
Around the corner, at 54 Curtis Street, is the Benjamin Curtis
25
OLD HOUSES
house, owned by John Molloy. The first Benjamin Curtis, in 1729, acquired from his father, Nathaniel, a 200-acre farm front- ing on this old street and spreading out fanlike to the east. For many years the Curtis family continued to inhabit this section of town, which accounts for the frequency of the name here. This house was built probably about 1795, by the second Ben- jamin when his own homestead, a short distance south, became too small to hold all of his fourteen children. The house has outwardly changed very little with the years.
Five houses beyond is the home of iMrs. Charles N. Flagg. This is also reputedly a Curtis house, but when it was built, and by which Curtis is not certain. The back ell part was evidently the original house and the main building was added in front, somewhat later. The inside was extensively remodeled when the Flaggs bought the place about thirty-five years ago, but the outside still preserves its original colonial lines.
Directly across the street is an attractive white-washed brick, which is now the home of Airs. William H. Race. The long, narrow, rectangular building was built originally for a spoon factory, probably by Edwin E. Curtis whose home was at 112 Curtis Street and is still standing. Later it was a dame school conducted by Miss Harriet Bradley. After awhile it fell on bad times and became a disreputable looking two-family tenement, referred to in the neighborhood as "the brick." About ten years ago the Races bought it and converted it into the serene and charming home it is today.
One of the oldest houses in iMeriden is at 160 Curtis, the home of Mrs. Marion P. Heidel. It was built in 1730 by Lazarus Ives. In 1740 Daniel Bradley owned it and had his blacksmith shop here for a time. Then the house was sold to Daniel Hough, the father of Dr. Ensign Hough, who with his family lived in it for many years. After that it had a number of owners, and during the Victorian era was considerably changed. Some years ago the Heidels remodeled it and removed much of the ornateness, so today, although not quite in its original form, it still retains its early charm.
Far down on Curtis Street, almost to the Wallingford line, stands a house which was built about 1778 or 1780 by Noah Yale for his son, Thomas. This house was originally on a lane which ran up to Yale Avenue, because this section of Curtis
26
OLD HOUSES
Street was not opened until 1820. There is a story that in the early part of the last century this place was used as an inocu- lation hospital, on account of its remoteness, and because it was not on a highway. It can easily be located, since it is at present known as the Mother Goose Farm.
Almost directly east of this house, on Yale Avenue, is one built by this same Noah Yale for himself in 1761. He was a grandson of the original Thomas Yale to whom a large farm in this section of Wallingford was granted sometime before 1702. Noah Yale's house was certainly a fine, dignified colonial farm- house, containing much good paneling and detail. Many meet- ings of the Congregational Society were held here before the Revolutionary War. This was also the home of the slave, Chatham Freeman, who earned his freedom by serving in the war in place of one of Mr. Yale's sons. Another story is told of this same slave. Mr. Yale had a female slave at his farm whom Free- man wanted to marry. His master said he would agree to the marriage if Freeman would work for him seven years. He did and then married the woman. Today, almost two hundred years later, this house is still owned and occupied by Noah Yale's descendant — his great, great, great grandson, David Yale.
The Ephriam Berry house, now owned by Frederick M. Stevens, Jr., stands on the northeast corner of Parker Avenue and Ann Street. This house was almost certainly built in 1743. Its construction is excellent, there are fine details such as cup- boards and paneling, and it has been carefully preserved through the years. It is probably one of the finest examples of an early colonial home to be found in Meriden.
There is, on the south side of Miller Avenue, a red house called the 1777 Rest Home, owned and managed by Mrs. Edward Punty. It is not certain who built it, but a story about it has been handed down from father to son in that section for years. According to this tale, the man could not decide just where he wanted his home built. One day he walked to the top of the hill on his property, and taking off his hat he flung it into the wind, which was blowing strongly from the west, and said, "Where the hat falls I will build my house." And so he did. This place was occupied in the last century by Richard Miller whose name re- mains in that of the street.
On the northwest corner of Miller Avenue and Paddock, which
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OLD HOUSES
in the early days was called Misery Road, is the Silas Rice place. This house occupies the site of the dwelling of Captain Divan Berry, of Revolutionary fame, which was destroyed by fire in 1796. On October third of that year, Deacon Silas Rice bought the half finished house which was being erected on the same spot. Even now, appearing much as it did when the Deacon com- pleted it, this house is occupied by Robert S. Rice, a direct descen- dant of the builder.
Farther north, on the east side of Paddock Avenue, is the large farmhouse which was built by Isaac Hall, son of the doctor of the same name, about the year 1770. For a long time this was known as the Rollin S. Ives place. In recent years its walls have been shingled, which helps to conceal its ancient character.
Still farther east, away over in what used to be called Dog's Misery, is the old Noah Pomeroy place. The first mention of this house in the records was in March 1751, when Israel Hall and his wife deeded it and sixty acres of land to Phineas Hall. It is the same place where Benjamin Hall was later supposed to have kept the tavern which gave the section the name Bangall. About 1816 or 1817 it was bought by Noah Pomeroy. At that time it stood' at the junction of Pomeroy and Murdock Avenues, but many years ago it was moved a few hundred feet to the east, and now it stands at 24 Ives Avenue. It was in this old house that the Universalists first assembled in 1821. Some thirty years later the First Universalist Society of Meriden was organized.
Dr. Sherburne Campbell owns a home on East Main Street, near the corner of Maple Avenue. This was apparently one of several houses built by Samuel Baldwin. The date is given as 1772, although it probably was earlier. The Almon Hall family was the first to live here. Two of his children, Russell and Fanny, continued to occupy the place for many years, until they died at an advanced age. The story is told that Miss Fanny, in her last years, became confused and was inclined to wander about. In order to keep her safely in the house, it is said, she was chained to an iron ring fastened into the floor of her room. In recent years this house passed through a number of different hands. It has been carefully restored, added to, and today is a perfect example of how an eighteenth century home can be adapted to comfortable, modern living.
Another house, no doubt of somewhat similar style when it
28
OLD HOUSES
was built about 1795, is the Orchard Guy place on the corner of East Main and Williams Street. A short distance east of here is the Abel Yale place which is considerably older. The first mention of it on the records was in 1737 when his brother, Moses, quit-claimed to Abel all his interest in the house and farm. During the years a number of additions have been built, and its appearance has changed considerably. It is on the corner of East Main and Horton Avenue.
Some other early homes which have lost much of their colonial appearance through alterations and additions are the Edward Collins house (1738) at 596 Colony Street; the Abel Rice or William W. Plumb place (1733 or before) at 175 Hall Avenue, near the junction of Gale; the Comfort Butler house (1770) at 67 Kensington Avenue; and that of Levi Allen (before 1784) on Allen Avenue.
One of Meriden's oldest houses has come to rather a pathetic end. It is now a three-family tenement, with a storeroom tacked on the front. This is the home built originally by Captain Na- thaniel Merriam, about 1730, on the present site of Saint Andrew's Church. In 1866 it was moved, around the corner, to Miller Street where it now stands, looking sad and forlorn, behind the Connecticut Electric Equipment Co.
Probably no description of Meriden's old houses would be complete without mention of the stately Eli Birdsey mansion, even though it was built considerably later — not until 1830. It was the first imposing residence to be erected in town. It has now been made into apartments, but it is still dignified and beau- tiful today, in its commanding location at the head of East Main Street hill, almost across from the two colonial churches, and in Meriden's most historic section.
29
CHAPTER SIX
Roads and Travel
The first settlers in what is now iMeriden entered virtually virgin territory. This was not an area where Indians lived with any permanence. It was their hunting ground so there were some Indian trails winding in and out where moccasined feet had picked the way. Some of our streets today no doubt follow the general lines of such trails. Gradually those trails become trodden ways beaten down by men on horseback. Later they were widened into roads and new roads added as the settlement grew.
In 1729, George W. Perkins tells us in his history, there were twenty-five families in Meriden. By 1770 the number had expanded to 123 families. Meanwhile some sort of rude roadway system was developing. One record shows that the General Assembly in Hartford in 1666 ordered Edward Higby thus: "for making and mainteineing the way over Pilgrums Harbour passable for man & horse, shall have his estate and farme free of Countrey (rates) for this yeare anp! next, he mainteining the way soe longe as aforesaid."
As time went on a definite pattern emerged for reserving quite a wide strip of land for roads wherever new grants were made. For instance in 1707 the "towne chose Eliezer peeck, Joshua culver, David Hall, a commetie to see that dogs missery hiway may not be pinsht of the twenty rods in any place from the town to misserie whare it was not laid out before the graint was of said hiway."
Twenty rods is often mentioned as road width. Still oftener the records speak of six rods for a highway. What the roads were like is another matter. Other records indicate that it was custom- ary for settlers adjacent to these "roads" to raise crops on this public property. Since the strips were cleared but not too well traveled, it was but a practical custom, quite "Yankee" in character.
According to historian Perkins the first wagon was brought to Meriden in 1789. He says it was owned by Ezra Rice and was of rude construction, being simply a square framed box placed
30
ROADS AND TRAVEL
on four wheels, drawn by two horses, with ropes for traces, and cords for the guiding or driving lines. Yet, he says, " it was then thought to be a very elegant establishment." Previous to the coming of that wagon, there had never been owned in the town more than three two-wheel carriages. These he describes as being very rude, awkward chaise bodies or uncovered seats hung on two wheels. And he adds incidentally that he had it on what he considered good authority, that of a man whose business took him at various times into every house in the town (could he have been a tax collector?), that in 1802 there was but one carpet in the whole town of Meriden. As a further commentary on Meriden's standard of living when she became a separate town, the Century of Meriden carries the note that when Samuel Yale died in 1816, the inventory of his belongings contains the first notice we have of a stove in Meriden. The item appears on that document as "stove and pipe" valued at $10.
Among papers written by Meridenites for the historical society in the eighteen-nineties, is one by Allan B. Squire on the railroad. In it he says the "first stage in Connecticut ran through Meriden in 1784 on this old country road west of the central village where the railroad is now located." He adds that until the time the railroad was completed over half a century later the "good people of Meriden had no other means of communication with Hartford and New Haven except by private conveyance." On that subject of private conveyance Welcome E. Benham says in his paper in 1894: "I well remember that 60 years ago it was quite common for persons to travel from town to town, several miles on foot. I and others sometimes walked to New Haven and back, 32 miles, and quite frequently to church on Sabbath to Cheshire Center, four miles from home. . . ."
"Horse wagons were nearly all of the lumber box order, with wood axletrees. The back chair seat was often supported on a wooden spring; the forward seats were plain flat boards resting on the upright sides. It was considered a luxury to have cushions or blankets on them to alleviate the jolting over stone. When elliptic springs were first introduced, they were considered a marvel, and set the body of the wagon up so high that some feared danger of toppling over. . . ."
He describes the stages as "uniformly built in egg or oval body form, capable of seating from six to ten inside, and with additional
31
ROADS AND TRAVEL
seats outside up back of the driver and on top." A large leather boot was built on behind to carry trunks and baggage, and also another in front to protect the driver. The whole was set on strong leather side straps called "thorough braces," suspended from elevated points front and rear, each resting firmly on the heavy four-wheeled running gear, and gave "an easy, rollicking motion to passengers when driven rapidly over rough places." The wide- awake drivers were "well skilled in handling their four lines and cracking their long lash stage whips over the backs of their forward span of galloping steeds. On approaching their stopping place they blew their shrill tin horn to notify hostlers to have fresh horses harnessed ready for exchange. There was one stage a day each way from New Haven and Hartford, a distance of thirty-six miles, running time four hours."
When George W. Perkins describes travel in the earliest days, a century before the above, he says: "... you see a traveller starting from Hartford, on his way to New Haven. He is on horseback, with heavy saddle-bags depending from the saddle, and perhaps with pistols at his saddle-bow. After passing Wethers- field, he drives into the forest, where there is only a 'bridle path' cut through the trees. Slowly picking his way among stumps and swamps, with now and then some trepidation as an Indian crosses his path, he reaches toward nightfall the old stone house called Meriden, and is glad to find that its stout doors and shutters can resist all hostile attacks. The next morning, at early dawn, he commences another hard day's journey, and has hardly gone beyond the tavern door, when he spies a troop of gaunt wolves upon Mount Lamentation."
One of the historical papers, written in 1893 by Albert H. Wilcox, adds this about the stone house: "As the journey between Hartford and New Haven formerly occupied 'two good days' the Belcher Tavern and another tavern in Wallingford became very notorious resorts especially during the French and Revolu- tionary wars. Afterwards a wooden addition was built which was kept as a tavern until the opening of the turnpike in 1799." He also speaks of Bartlett's "Hotel Belcher" being built in the 1820's near the old tavern and its adjoining forts.
Perkins describes how the horseman, in prestagecoach days, was almost bemired in passing the swamp and unbridged stream at Pilgrim's Harbor. It was no wonder the regular horseback
32
ROADS AND TRAVEL
trail from Hartford swung by way of Wethersfield rather than along the shorter route later taken by the railroad. As A. B. Squire describes that route it is obvious how much swampy ground had to be reclaimed. He speaks of the railroad passing by "Old Fly" and "Beaver Pond" through meadows called "Green Swamp" into Kensington parish and thence to its termination on Main Street in Hartford.
The first step in progress from Indian trail to airplane came with the advent of freight wagons and stagecoaches. The pack- horse business had been profitable since it was the only means by which to transmit mail and goods. So owners of the pack-horse business were opposed to the "new-fangled" freight system which called for the building of roads, just as later the stagecoach companies opposed the coming of railroads, and railroads in turn look askance at trucking on highways.
New highways passable for stagecoaches cost considerable in money and effort. Neither state nor towns could keep them up although some stretches were entrusted to the good offices of settlers receiving land usage or other benefits in payment. So the stage lines obtained charters from the state allowing them to establish turnpikes, either by taking over and improving existing roads, or by building their own with necessary bridges.
The first turnpike through Meriden was completed in 1799, a big event in our history. Its building was the opening of what is known as Broad Street. It necessitated the filling in of a deep ravine which people called Nabb's Folly since a man of that name had tried to build a road across it and failed. According to Mrs. William Mackensie in a paper prepared some 30 years ago for the D. A. R., it was "an uncommonly deep chasm, through which ran a rapid, narrow stream of water." In her younger school days she says it was known as the "Gulf."
The turnpike builders filled in the ravine enough to allow a narrow road across it, although people had previously thought it could never be filled and made safe. That sort of hazard was many times multiplied before Connecticut villages were finally connected by their network of turnpikes, now replaced by one of the finest and most comprehensive road systems in the nation.
The north-south turnpike was soon traversed by an east-west route to the further advantage of the old Central Tavern as a convenient stopping place. Returning to Mr. Benham's paper we
33
ROADS AND TRAVEL
find a description of the toll turnpikes where gates across the pike forced travelers to stop to pay their fee before they could continue. Generally the gates were of the high fence type that swung, some were pivoted on a pole, and others were raised by pulleys and weights from a high roof overhead. There were gatekeepers who took the toll to fill the coffers of the turnpike companies so they could maintain the system in at least passable condition.
According to Mills in his Story of Connecticut the usual toll was from 25 cents for a four-wheeled pleasure carriage down to four cents for a rider on horseback. But people going to and from churches on Sunday were allowed to pass free, as were voters on their way to town meeting or farmers enroute to mills. Funerals were always free. Mr. Benham places one toll gate on the north-south turnpike on South Broad Street midway between Meriden and Yalesville and another north of the Berlin woods midway between Meriden center and Berlin. On the east-west turnpike he says one gate was about a "mile west at the old notch road corners just beyond the Parker foundry."
The turnpike companies also erected milestones along these post roads. Some that once stood in the vicinity of Meriden are still preserved although not in their original locations. The Century of Silver recounts the recent story of two such markers. One was on Colony Street in front of the house occupied until her death by Miss Sally Collins, and since torn down to make way for new construction. Only a few feet south of the Post Office, this stone indicating 19 miles from New Haven was dear to "Miss Sally's" heart. To her horror one day she looked out just in time to see a steam shovel scoop the stone up in its gnawing way preparing for a new street surface job.
Tearfully Miss Sally told the workmen of her shock. They were sympathetic and toted the chipped relic to land behind her house. Later she gave the stone to Roy C. Wilcox who subsequently located milestone 20 far out North Colony Street in front of what was Judge Dunn's house, the old Norton place. Mr. Wilcox, possessed of respect for Meriden's historical relics, has the two milestones flanking the doorway of his present residence on Allen Hill.
Such stone markers have proved more durable than some of the many markings used in the early 1700's. Land records and
34
ROADS AND TRAVEL
those covering space reserved for roads commonly use such terminals as "a heap of stones in the corner of the fence west of the Path" and a "walnut bush marked with stones" or a "white oak tree" to the "large chestnut stump."
A trail ran from New Haven to Hartford down in the bottom of the valley through swampy land for a century before the turn- pike was built. This was developed into a road sometime after the turnpike came into being, roughly along the line of the present Colony Street. The sandstone hill on which the center of old Meriden grew, and its connecting ridges made far better terrain for the first full-fledged highway. John Warner Barber notes in his Connecticut Historical Collections that a road was constructed in the northwestern part of Meriden to Berlin sometime in the second decade of the 1800's. He says it went through "a narrow and romantic glen, between two ridges of the Blue Mountains; this pass, which is more than a mile in extent, is called Cat Hole."
In some parts of the glen, continues Mr. Barber, there was barely room for a path because angular fragments of rock protruded at a forty-five-degree angle. He says the rocks were beaten down and covered with earth brought in for the purpose in order to make what might be called a road. He also calls attention to the elevated perpendicular rock on one side of the road which once resembled the profile of a human face, some saying it looked just like George Washington. Today one's imagination has to be pretty good to see what may have been far more sharply defined 150 years ago. But the Washington legend lingers.
Stagecoaches took four days to go from New York to Boston. The second day out of New York meant the passengers and drivers had their noon meal in Meriden. This is why the Central Tavern became in reality the heart of the town, shifting the center from its former location at the junction of Curtis and Ann Streets. A Hartford newspaper dated May 31, 1838, carries the story of the fastest trip ever made from New York to Hartford as eight hours and five minutes, actual time by steamboat and stage. And the time consumed by stage from New Haven to Hartford was four hours and ten minutes, including stops for changes of horses and rest periods for passengers. The coming of the railroad changed everything. For a century and a half before it, communication between Meriden and the outer world
35
ROADS AND TRAVEL
was a slow process.
All travelers were of interest to Meriden townspeople. Some- times very important figures came this way. According to Mills in his Story of Connecticut, George Washington traveled from New Haven to Hartford on his way from Philadelphia to Cam- bridge in 1775, presumably on the route we call Colony Street. Again in 1789 he made a tour from New York and through New Haven and Hartford on his way to Springfield and Boston. One legend, entirely without authentication in any record, says that Washington stopped overnight on one of these tours in a house on North Colony Road that has long since disappeared from our landscape.
Mr. Benham tells in the historical society collection of papers of the visit to Meriden of a later President. He writes:
"I recall with interest the memorable occasion in about 1829 when General Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, made his tour through New England, and in going from New Haven to Hartford by carriage he stopped off uptown and gave an open air public reception from the stone steps of the Center church. He was greeted by quite a concourse of people, intro- duced by General Walter Booth, and shook hands with a large number of prominent men, passing one by one in line. He had bright eyes, his gray hair stood up above his forehead, and as a venerable, brave looking man he appeared worthy of his high position. After this brief patriotic reception he and his honorable escorts, including Martin Van Buren, re-entered their carriages and proceeded to Hartford. Dr. Isaac I. Hough was then landlord of the old Center hotel where the New Haven and Waterbury stages always stopped."
The stage drivers were colorful figures themselves. It took considerable skill to manage the job. In addition the personality of the driver had much to do with making stagecoach travel popular. All sorts of legends surround those figures of stagecoach days, so imposing in their great coats and tall beaver hats. Quite naturally the drivers were "treated" by passengers at their stops at way stations. The story is that sometimes the drivers were sharp businessmen who arranged with innkeepers to get a cut on profits. In a sort of version of the "wooden nutmeg" legend it is said that it was a common custom for the innkeeper to serve the driver colored water when giving his treater the usual rum
36
ROADS AND TRAVEL
or whiskey. Thereafter he and the driver could split the profit made on the harmless substitute.
One of the famous stagecoach drivers lived in Meriden, Silas Lawrence, whose home was on Broad Street. Since the Central Tavern was a logical place for changing horses, there was a large barn nearby for housing them. That building was still standing until the second decade of this century. It was used for many years before by John Holmes' tinsmith shop.
The stagecoach business was but a part of the turnpike's importance. Much freight was carried over the road, particularly in the winter months when the Connecticut River was closed to navigation by ice. The freight teamsters customarily made the Central Tavern an overnight stop. Freight was carried usually in long heavy wagons with high board sides and arched canvas tops, drawn by from four to ten horses according to the weight of the load and the depth of the season's mud. These wagons gradually disappeared from this area as new transportation methods devel- oped. They went westward and were later known as "prairie schooners" when figuring in the vast settlement projects that opened our continent. When we remember that Fulton's steamer made its trial trip in 1807, we can realize how essential stagecoach and freight wagon were to the economy of this part of the country well into the third and fourth decades of the 1800's.
37
CHAPTER SEVEN
Early Schools
As early as 1650 the General Court of Connecticut established a code of laws which ordered that every township within its jurisdiction comprising as many as fifty householders, should appoint a schoolmaster to teach the children to read and write. Thus, the school and the church took root together, and sprang up almost with the first log cabins in the forest. Although a school of sorts had evidently existed previously, the first allusion to schools in the town records of Wallingford was in 1678. At that time they voted "to allow for the encouragement of such a school master as the select men shall approve of, ten pounds a year in general, and three pence a week for all scholars, from six to sixteen, as long as they shall go to school." Apparently, a room was hired for this purpose, because it was not until 1702 that the town voted to build a schoolhouse. By 1722 it became necessary to have several schools, and so appeared the beginning of school districts.
In the earliest days there was no mention of any subject but reading, writing, and spelling. It is quite probable that for a long time nothing else was taught except occasionally the rudiments of arithmetic. The books used in the schools were limited, both in number and scope. The New England Primer, the Psalter, Dilworth's Spelling Book, and Dilworth's Schoolmaster's Assist- ant for arithmetic were the only ones in use. The teaching of manners and respect for elders, particularly the dignitaries, was greatly stressed. And once a month the minister catechised the children in the meeting house, accompanying that catechism with many a stern reproof.
The first schoolhouse in Meriden was a little low, red hut with four small windows, which stood at first near Ann Street, but was later moved to the slope between Gale Avenue and Holt Hill bridge. Another one, just as red and just as small, was built a few years after on the "old road," now Colony Street. Each one had a fireplace "for the alternate freezing and roasting process which the scholars underwent during the cold weather." Here
38
EARLY SCHOOLS
the children learned the alphabet and were taught to call "Z" "izzard." The Primer for the younger pupils, and the New Testament for the older were the school reading books in the seventeen seventies. The first edition of this primer was strictly religious in its axioms. Thus: "In Adam's fall we sinned all." The woodcut was of an apple tree, beneath which were two figures having a remote likeness to humanity, one of them offering the other a big apple.
Even as early as 1773 the town records show that Meriden was separated into school districts, because the taxes for school purposes were then divided proportionately between the districts. And by 1820 several schoolhouses had been built. In the western part of town there was a particularly substantial one, known as the Stone Schoolhouse. The uptown section had grown so populous by 1832 that there was difficulty in deciding the loca- tion of the Center School, and the question was settled by divid- ing the area into the north and south centers. The south center acquired for its school a small workshop at the northwest corner of the Broad Street Cemetery, on a lane which is now Charles Street. The North Center School was at a junction of Broad and Wall Streets. In 1835 a district was set off at the Corner, and a school was opened in a tiny building which stood just where the Main Street railroad crossing now is. This school was moved a few years later into the Lyceum building which was built on what is now Church Street.
Our frequently quoted Mrs. Breckenridge attended the North Center School during the winter of 1834. Here is her descrip- tion of it: "The dimensions were probably twenty by twenty- five feet. A large butternut tree grew at the northwest corner of the building. Beneath this tree was the wood pile of logs to be cut for fuel as wanted. This was by no means as often as needed for warmth and comfort. Before the two doors, which gave entrance to the house, lay flat stones, which served as door steps. The doors gave access to two lobbies, where four or five children could stand at once if they stood close. In the lobbies or entries, as we called them, were kept the outer garments, the dinner pails and other possessions of the scholars. In the middle of the room a raised hearth or platform, about three feet square, made of brick and the thickness of a brick in height, supported a box stove. The room had four windows, two on a side. Around
39
EARLY SCHOOLS
the room on three sides was a sloping counter which served as a desk, on which were kept, in more or less orderly fashion, the books and slates of the larger scholars. In front of this counter, on three sides, was a bench made of slabs, the flat side being uppermost. In front of these were low seats, with an apology for a back. On these the younger scholars and the very little ones were seated. The windows were shadeless; neither blind nor curtain tempered the glare. They were never washed, unless in summer some young woman teacher . . . essayed, with the help of the girls, a little housekeeping on her own account. The room was swept once a week by the girls in turn.
"Oftener than not three dollars a week for a man teacher and one dollar and a half for a woman, for six days' teaching, was thought 'pretty easy.' An acceptable candidate for the winter school must be able to teach reading, writing (for this he must 'set copies') and Daboll's arithmetic, so far as or including the rule of three; to make a quill pen, and to 'govern' the large boys.
"At nine in the morning those who loitered outside were called in by a vigorous thumping on the window sash with a ruler or ferule. This instrument was utilized as a timekeeper, to line copy books, and as a means of castigation whenever energetic disciplinary measures were in order. The pupils rushed in with all the racket and clatter that vigorous youth, shod in heavy cowhide boots and shoes, are capable of creating. The boys who entered later perpetrated a curious side-long jerk of the head, and the girls a perpendicular dip of the person, both contortions being supposed to indicate 'manners.' When fairly seated, Testaments were produced and school opened by the first and second classes reading two verses as it came the turn of each scholar.
"The reading over, all the large scholars turned their faces to the wall and addressed themselves to Daboll's arithmetic, Wood- bridge's geography or their home-made writing books. Of course, the boys could turn on the long benches easily, but the girls had to take pains to perform the gymnastic feat properly. It was done by stooping and placing the hands on each side of the skirts, then by a quick, circular movement throwing the feet over the bench. This was usually done simultaneously. When called upon for anything by the teacher the whole class whirled back again.
40
EARLY SCHOOLS
"Webster's New Speller was the class book for spelling in the school. The third class' having had their spelling lesson in words of two syllables set for them to study, the little ones were called up one by one to be ,taught their 'A, B, C's' .... It would now be time for the second class to read and spell. A whirl of feet and petticbats landed two rows of boys and girls standing on the floor facing the teacher, who gave the order, 'Manners!' and the jerking of necks and bobbing of skirts gave evidence that school etiquette was understood. The spelling came first, after- ward the reading from the same page, such things as: 'We burn oil in tin and glass lamps.' 'We can burn fish oil in lamps.'
A geography lesson, if anybody had one, mending pens, attend- ing to sums and a playtime for the boys and one for the girls brought the morning session to a close.
"The afternoon began by reading in the Columbian Orator. The National Preceptor came into use a few years later. To some of the scholars this was the best part of the day. More Daboll, a geography lesson, and more alphabet for the little ones. Poor little things! They sat patiently three hours on the hard benches, with nothing to do and nothing to look at. The one virtue re- quired of them was to keep still. More spelling by the first and second classes, and at one o'clock the school day's work was done. 'Manners' were required from each scholar on leaving the room, and the genuflection was aimed at the wall, the benches, the door or the teacher as it happened."
During this same period Meriden could boast of several private schools. The first one in town was taught by an Episcopal clergy- man, the Reverend Mr. Keeler. In 1834 Miss Julianne Eddy opened a private school in the basement of the Center Congregational Church. At that time it was only one large, cold, gloomy room, filled with benches. The next year the school was moved into the basement of the old Baptist Church on the northeast corner of the cemetery, because the room here was lighter and warmer. Some years later, after Miss Eddy's marriage, Miss Henrietta Malone started a private school in Captain Collins' old house on East Main Street near the corner of Parker Avenue. And in 1840 John D. Post established the "Academy," a boarding school in a small way, on East Main at Elm. For a time this school had a fair patronage from other towns, although there were well-
41
EARLY SCHOOLS
established boarding schools for young ladies in Hartford and New Haven, and Cheshire Academy enjoyed considerable prestige.
42
CHAPTER EIGHT
Meriden in the Wars
The terrible Pequot War was over before any settlement of white men took place in the Meriden area. By the time King Phillip's War was under way, Meriden was still a part of Walling- ford. The entire community set up regular guard service with a tight schedule for sentinels on duty throughout the dangerous period. There was an elaborate system for alarms, not like our present plans to warn of an atomic attack, but at least equally adequate for the times.
. As has been said, the Indians in this neighborhood were friendly to the white man and as afraid of warring tribes as any settler worried for the fate of his family and property. But there was no telling when enemy propaganda might win over a neighbor Indian here and there. Those Indians knew the white man's property as well as the settler did himself. They had the run of the farms and were potentially too dangerous, in the event they should become renegades, for the peace of the white settler's mind.
In the Joseph Wadsworth papers discovered around 1900 in an old pine box in the attic of the Wadsworth home in Hartford, that man credited with hiding the Charter in Hartford's famous oak tree says of King Philip's War that "fortunately Connecticut was not called upon to make any sacrifices in this troublous time, as aside from the burning of Simsbury there was no property lost in the colony and I always believed that it would not have happened if the people had remained in their homes instead of rushing off. . . ."
However, many Connecticut men did "rush off." Of the 300 Connecticut Englishmen in the army of 1,000 raised for the Narragansett campaign, there were a few from this section. Some served in the disastrous Swamp Fort fight in Rhode Island. Some years later land was given to the veterans in recognition of military service. One of these was Samuel Hough, father of James who built the Meriden mill later known as Baldwin's in the north- eastern Section. His land in lieu of a pension or the more modern
43
MERIDEN IN THE WARS
"GI benefits" was in the Norwich section of Connecticut where he lived at the time of his enlistment.
Only one Meriden man is listed as being in the Louisburg expedition in 1745. He is Samuel Royce, son of Captain Ezekial who is recorded as having made a death claim after his son died in New London upon his return from Cape Breton. Quite a few Meriden-Wallingford names are on the rolls of the French and Indian Wars as participating in the Fort Ticonderoga campaign, — names familiar in our history such as Daniel Hough, Benjamin Curtis, Abraham Hall, Moses Curtis, Isaac Cook, Jr., and Benj. Rexford.
Before recounting Meriden's part in the Revolution, the small part played in the War of 1812 by local people can be quickly told. This was not at all a popular cause in any part of New England. Trade was too important to the inhabitants tasting the early success of their manufacturing and merchandising talents. The embargo on the port of Boston was a serious setback. Never- theless a number of Meriden men enlisted for military service although there is no indication that they were ever actively engaged against the enemy. Their duty was apparently guard work in New Haven or New London, and even that was of short duration.
The colonists' ties with England, which had been stretched taut for some years, reached the breaking point in 1775. The news of Paul Revere's ride, the night of April 18, and of the following day's fighting at Lexington and Concord spread like wildfire throughout the colonies. Patriots hesitated no longer and eager men hurried towards Boston. One company of 38 men, under Captain John Couch, went from Meriden. These men were out only seven days, hardly time to go to Boston and return. They doubtless received notice while on the march that their services were not needed. One Samuel Kilbourn rendered an account "for ferrying across Connecticut River at Hartford in the Lexington alarm Capt. Couch, of Meriden, with 18 men, 4 hourses and 1 waggon. Also Capt. Cook of Wallingford."
Captain John Couch, probably Meriden's outstanding Revolu- tionary War hero, had come here in 1746 and bought a farm from Aaron Lyman. He was, therefore, not a young man at the outbreak of hostilities. He built his house on what is now the junction of Wall and North Wall Streets. The Ransom Baldwin
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MERIDEN IN THE WARS
place (1828) was once part of Captain Couch's farm.
Shortly after the Lexington alarm the Legislature issued the first call for troops. The regiment was recruited in New Haven county, and about September 28, 1775, it marched to the Northern Department and took part in operations along Lakes George and Champlain. In this campaign Captain Isaac Cook, of Wallingford, commanded a company in which there were about ten Meriden men, including Lieut. John Hough and Sergt. Samuel Hall.
In the expedition to Lakes George and Champlain, referred to above, many of the soldiers were taken sick and the following bills were paid by the state for medical attendance to Meriden men. Dr. Insign Hough presented a bill for going after Benjamin Austin to Stillwater, N. Y., on October 30, 1775:
To Horse hire 130 miles at 2d per mile £1-1-8
To my time 8 days at 3/8 per Day £1-4-0
To cash paid expenses on said Journey 18-5
Simeon Perkins presented a bill for bringing home his appren- tice, Jared Benham, from beyond Albany.
Lieut. Joseph Shailer was taken sick at Putney, Vermont, after the campaign and "was tended 16 days" at an expense of £1-10-0 and then was obliged to hire a man and a horse to bring him home, a distance of 190 miles, at an expense of £6-16-18.
John Austin, of Wallingford, presented a bill for going for his sick son, Amos, six miles this side of Albany.
A soldier on his way home from the campaign was taken sick at Edward Collins' home, on North Colony Street, in Meriden, and could go no farther, so there he remained helpless for six weeks, with Dr. Insign Hough and Dr. Isaac Hall attending him, and Mr. Collins furnishing nurses and watchers. The quantity of rum and brandy administered to this sick man was prodigious during the two weeks when he was "worst." He finally recovered and went on his way, but his name is not given in the bill.
In the siege of Boston, which took place after the Battle of Bunker Hill, the only official record of service from Meriden is that of Captain John Couch. He was in Colonel Wadsworth's regiment which reached there towards the end of January, 1776. Probably there were with him several more Meriden men he had commanded during the Lexington alarm, but the names of only two have come down to us — Ezekiel Rice and Samuel Scovil. Letters from Ezekiel Rice, Joseph Rice and Joseph Shailer (or
45
MERIDEN IN THE WARS
Shaylor), written while they were soldiers in the Revolution, are quoted in Curtis's A Century of Meriden.
This Joseph Shailer served continuously in the army from the beginning to the end of the war and attained the rank of first lieutenant. He was in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, and took part in the storming and capturing of Stony Point under "Mad" Anthony Wayne, on July 15, 1779. His home was on Gravel Street, a little south of Baldwin Avenue. He later moved to Ohio.
After the British evacuated Boston, General Washington and his army set out for New York. Captain Couch was at that time in Col. Bradley's battalion in General Wadsworth's brigade which "was stationed the greater part of the summer and early fall of 1776 at Bergen Heights and Paulus Hook (now Jersey City). In October it moved up the river to the vicinity of Fort Lee, then under General Greene's command. In November most of the regiment was sent across the river to assist in defending Fort Washington, which on the fall of the fort November 16, was captured with the entire garrison." Captain Couch was taken prisoner, together with the following Meriden men in his com- pany: Gideon Ives, John Pierce, Samuel Rice, Jonathan Hall, Benjamin Austin, Gideon Rice, Stephen Atwater, Moses Hall, and possibly Nathaniel Yale.
Captain John Couch was in a British prison on Long Island for some time after this capture. In the State Library at Hartford, in Revolutionary War Documents, Vol. XII, are preserved various receipts for money conveyed by the state to men in prison on Long Island, 1777. John Couch's name is among the number of those signing. He evidently gained his freedom during the year, for he appears as captain of a company in a militia regiment ordered to Peekskill in 1777.
Isaac Hall Jr., son of Dr. Isaac Hall, was apparently captain of a company of militia which was, in 1776, attached to a regiment of Light Horse. In 1777 he was in service in New York and "parts adjacent," and in 1779 it is recorded that some men were detached from "Capt. Isaac Hall's company to go to Greenwich." His name also appears on the roll of those doing service in the British invasion of New Haven in 1779.
Divan Berry was second lieutenant of a company in Wads- worth's brigade, and was at Fort Washington, but it does not
46
MERIDEN IN THE WARS
appear that he was captured. Later that same year he was at Ticonderoga under General Gates. In 1779 he was a captain on coast guard duty near Greenwich, during the time of the British expedition up the Sound under General Tryon. In 1780 he was a captain in the 17th regiment.
John Hough, mentioned before as a lieutenant in Captain Cook's company in 1775, did service in this state during the years 1776 and 1777. In 1779 he was captain of a company which served in the Tryon invasion, and in 1780 he was a captain in the Seventh militia regiment. In the month of October, 1777, Lieut. Colonel Baldwin's regiment of militia was ordered to the Hudson at Fishkill to aid the Continental army. They were out perhaps 30 days, and probably saw no active service. In this regiment, besides this same Lieut. John Hough, were Captain Bezaleel Ives and Captain Dan Collins.
Two Meriden slaves served in the Revolution. One was Chatham Freeman, who undoubtedly assumed this surname when he became free. He was the slave of Noah Yale, and the story is that he was offered his freedom if he would go to war in place of one of Mr. Yale's sons. Chatham served the enlistment, returned home and was freed. The second slave was Black Boss who belonged to Abel Curtis. On a report of the town of Wallingford 1779 in the State Library, appears the name of Boston negro, next to the name of Chatham negro.
As the first enthusiasm of the war wore away it was found necessary to make an inducement for men to join the army. Accordingly, on March 31, 1777, it was "voted, that the town will give a Bounty to those that engage in the Continental service. Voted that each soldier that engages in the Continental service for the quota of Wallingford shall be paid by the town the sum of five pounds lawful money by the year for three years unless sooner Discharged: to be paid by the beginning of each year."
This payment of bounty was carefully recorded, and in April, 1779, the town reported to the State War Department a list of all those to whom bounties had been paid. A second report was made in December, 1779 and at various times lists were furnished of those soldiers whose families were assisted by the town during their absence in the field.
Several references have been made to the British expedition up the Sound, under General Tryon. This is probably as close as the
47
MERIDEN IN THE WARS
war came to iMeriden, since New Haven is nearer than Danbury. The enemy came to anchor in New Haven harbor about midnight on Sunday, July 4, 1779. No doubt beacon fires and scurrying horsemen soon carried the news through the surrounding country, and probably by daybreak of the fifth, the various militia com- panies in this and adjoining parts of the state were on the march to New Haven.
The British troops, about 3,000 strong, were landed at daybreak on the east and west shores, and New Haven was soon in posses- sion of the enemy. Several buildings were fired, a number of people were killed, and numerous outrages were committed. On the East Haven side there were many encounters with the local militia and sharp fighting a good part of the day. The swiftly gathering companies from up the state soon convinced the British that their position was untenable and on the evening of the sixth they embarked and set sail for New York, stopping on the way at Fairfield and Norwalk, where they committed greater devasta- tion and havoc than at New Haven.
Two companies of militia from Meriden marched to New Haven, probably starting on the morning of July 5th. One was under the command of Captain Dan Collins and the other under Captain John Hough.
No doubt other Meriden men saw service in the Continental army, but their names in the official records can not be positively identified as belonging to men from this vicinity. The lack of a middle name, an almost universal custom at the time, and the failure to give in the records the addresses of the great majority of the soldiers, makes it generally unwise to assume an address.
Today in the Curtis Memorial Library hangs a large bronze plaque containing the following inscription and names:
48
meriden in the wars
In Memory of the Soldiers of the American Revolution 1775-1783
— Parish of Meriden —
Erected by the Susan Carrington Clarke Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution
Capt. John Couch Capt. Divan Berry Capt. Israel Johnson Capt. Isaac Hall Lieut. Joseph Shailer Sergt. Samuel Hall Sergt. Ezekiel Rich Stephen Atwater Abner Andrews Isaac Atwater Benjamin Austin Jared Benham Samuel Collins Ebenezer Cowles Joel Cowles Joel Hall Rufus Hall
Capt. Dan Collins Lieut. James Hough Ens. Brenton Hall Sergt. Amos Ives Corp. Daniel Janes Corp. Ezra Rice Sanborn Ford Yale Bishop John Barnes John Couch James Cabon Abel Curtis Timothy Foster Daniel Hall Moses Hall, Jr. Bezaliel Ives Timothy Ives Samuel Johnson Benjamin Merriam John Ives John Miles
June 1906
Nathaniel Douglas Chatham Freeman Phineas Hough Moses Hall Jonathan Hall David Hall Isaac Hall, Jr. Benjamin Hart Gideon Ives Isaac Livingston Phineas Lyman Asaph Merriam Ephriam Merriam Boston Negro John Pierce Israel Hall
Isaac Rice Gideon Rice Wait Rice Justus Rice Jotham Rice Solomon Rice Joseph Rice Levi Robinson Benjamin Rexford, Sr. Benjamin Rexford, Jr. Thomas Spencer Nash Yale Nathaniel Yale Waitstill Yale Nathaniel Yale Jotham Hall
Militia
Jesse Merriam William Merriam Joseph Merriam Titus Merriam Caleb Merriam Stephen Perkins Elisha Scovil Capt. John Hough Lieut. Nathaniel Merriam Ens. Thomas Foster Sergt. Joseph Edwards Sergt. Jonathan Yale Sergt. Comfort Butler Sergt. Giles Griswold Willys Bishop Asa Brown Edward Collins Elisha Curtis Giles Foster Ozias Foster Jeremiah Farrington
Phineas Hall Enos Hall Marshall Merriam Amasa Merriam Samuel Merriam Elisha Merriam Caleb Merriam Daniel Mekye Wyllys Mekye John Morgan Simeon Perkins John Robinson Samuel Rice Elijah Scovil David Scovil Moses Way John Yale Abner Way Amerton Yale Jesse Merriam Daniel Yale
Many of these Revolutionary soldiers are buried in the old cemetery on Broad Street. Here in 1931, a boulder with a bronze tablet listing their names, was erected by the Captain John Couch Branch, Sons of the American Revolution.
49
CHAPTER NINE
Old Customs, Old Ways and Progress
Perhaps it would be interesting to consider what life was like in these old homes a hundred and fifty or two hundred years ago. Since Meriden was an isolated farming community — a suburb, really, of Wallingford — most of the homes were of the simple farmhouse type. Inside, as we have seen, there were often pleasing details, such as good paneling and attractive bannisters and cupboards. But the clapboards were nailed directly to the studding and, in the early houses, boards were used instead of plaster on the inside of the outside walls. In winter how the wind and cold must have whistled through the cracks! Blazing fires were kept burning in great fireplaces, but rooms were still draughty and cold. The bedrooms must have been almost unbear- able. No wonder warming pans and feather beds were considered necessities.
Merely keeping alive was, in many respects, quite a difficult matter. Besides the hazards of Indians and wild animals, there was a great lack of medical knowledge, and physicians of any kind were few. The mortality rate was much higher then than now, particularly among young mothers. In reading over old records, it is very noticeable that many men had two, three, and sometimes even four wives.
A woman was almost an economic necessity for a man, in those days, when she was not only his companion and the mother of his children, but when it was she, alone and unaided by any outside help or any mechanical gadgets, who kept his house clean, prepared every morsel of food he ate, and made every stitch he wore. Nearly every household had its great wheel for spinning wool and its small, or flax, wheel for making linen thread; plus a loom for weaving this thread into sheets, table linen, and cloth for underwear for the entire family. The wool, also, had to be woven into material, out of which the wife made suits for her husband and clothes for herself and the children.
There were, in addition, socks to be knit from the carded wool. Until about 1810 nearly all materials for common wear were
50
OLD CUSTOMS, OLD WAYS AND PROGRESS
homemade. Besides all this, the housewife had to make her own pillows, feather beds, soap, and candles. Candle making was a serious affair. At first they were made by "dipping," then tin moulds came into use and a number of candles could be poured at one time. Even so, candles were used with the greatest economy. In the realm of food, the lady of the house, of course, churned butter, made cheese, baked bread, dried and salted food for the winter, and helped with the butchering, the chickens, and the vegetable garden. The old adage, "Women's work is never done," was certainly true then.
The settlers in this area must have found an abundance of game, but as early as 1760 there was a colonial law forbidding the killing of deer from the first of January to the first of August. The penalty was four pounds for every offense. Several times, in old inventories, wild pigeon nets were mentioned. This indicates that people took advantage of the great annual flights of these birds, no doubt for food and to use the feathers for beds and pillows.
Every family lived on the produce of its farm or by the proceeds of some useful trade, which was secondary to the work of tilling the soil. Among the various families there was little difference in the value of their possessions. There was no great wealth anywhere. Mr. Perkins speaks of the almost complete lack of money or circulating medium. In 1706 the entire circulating cash in gold and silver in the colony was only about 2,000 pounds. And, of course, there were no banks in existence. Bartering produce was the accepted method of doing business.
Life was hard, in those early days, and pleasures were few. Even though the all-day church attendance seems severe to us, it provided a welcome change from the drudgery and monotony of the rest of the week. And the "nooning," particularly in summer, when it took on the air of a solemn and sedate picnic, gave the women almost their only opportunity to get together.
In fact, the church, with its attendant ceremonies, provided most of the social life known at that time. There were the dinners and balls at the ordination of the minister, and the feasts, as at Thanksgiving (Christmas then did not count at all) and at weddings and funerals. At this time relatives and friends came from afar, and were expected to stay and partake of the funeral baked meats which custom required must be lavishly provided.
Outside of this feasting, the funerals were dreary, indeed. The
51
OLD CUSTOMS, OLD WAYS AND PROGRESS
coffins, outlining as nearly as possible the shape of the body, were made by the nearest carpenter. Sometimes they were clumsily lined, but usually not; occasionally they were stained or painted a crude blue color, but most often the wood was left untouched. The term "bearers" was a literal one, because the coffin, with its burden was carried on men's shoulders the entire way to the roughly dug grave. Not a flower was ever used; it would have seemed indecorous to try to lighten the gloom of death.
A quaint custom which has been lost with the years is described by Mrs. Breckenridge: "The very greatest and most important of all social functions was the ordination dinner and the ordination ball that followed. Both for the dinner and ball a liberal supply of liquors was supposed needful and proper. The last ordination ball given in Meriden was in 1803 when the Rev. Erastus Ripley was ordained. This ball was given in the old tavern ball-room. The last real ordination dinner was given when the Rev. Charles Hinsdale was installed in 1823. This dinner was at his own house situated on Broad Street. At this feast onions held an honorable and conspicuous place, and liquors were so copiously provided that it was whispered a prominent member of society became quite incoherent in conversation. . . . Ordination balls were very serious and stately divertisements, and very rigid and formal etiquette was observed; also, critical attention was given to the dancing steps."
Naturally, these grand affairs did not happen often, and there was very little entertainment, as we think of it, in the lives of early Meridenites. There was scarcely even any reading material available to them. The Bible, of course, was read and reread, partly perhaps because of the scarcity of other books. The few printing presses in the colony printed sermons of eminent preachers. These were widely circulated and read. One of these was a sermon of the Rev. Theophilus Hall, delivered on August 10, 1760, entitled, "A Saving Faith Scripturally Explained." The annual almanac was a popular publication, since it provided reading for the entire family and served, besides, as a farmer's log book and weather predictor.
There were few children's books, other than the New England Primer. But by 1796 Meriden had a small subscription library of 153 volumes, mostly relating to divinity and theology. It is
52
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looking north from junction of Curtis and Broad Streets
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Curtis Street elms, as they were
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OLD CUSTOMS, OLD WAYS AND PROGRESS
likely that this collection was housed in the basement of the old meeting house where the Center Church now stands. In the early part of the nineteenth century the only private libraries of any size were owned by Dr. Isaac Hough and Mr. Fenner Bush. Among the doctor's collection were the works of such English authors as Smollet, Fielding, Richardson, Sterne, Dean Swift and Fanny Burney. The American Lady's Preceptor, published in Baltimore in 1821, was another favorite of the doctor's niece, Mrs. Breckenridge, who says that he and Mr. Bush bought all the new books as they came out.
In that far-ofl day, people in this little parish had no idea what was happening in the outside world until long after it had occurred. There was no newspaper, letters were extremely rare, and news was brought only by travelers going through, perhaps from Hartford or Boston to New Haven or even to Wallingford for, in the early days, it was considered one of the large towns in the colony.
That our town was not a place given to luxury may be assumed from descriptions of living conditions in Perkins' Historical Sketches. Mr. Perkins stated that in 1802 there was but one carpet in all of Meriden. According to Mrs. Breckenridge, carpeted parlors were common by 1836, but she questioned if there were a dozen homes in town at that time where carpets were in use in the living room.
We have come to think of these early settlers as exceedingly strict and righteous, but apparently they, too, had their small vices. In 1647 the colony ordered that no person under twenty years of age should use any tobacco without a certificate from a physician; and no others although addicted to its use, unless they were ten miles from any house, and then not more than once a day. Cider was the common beverage of the country, although some beer was drunk. Among some old records this strange entry was found, "It is ordered that there shall be one good hogshead of beer for the captain and minister."
In early times rum was largely consumed. A half pint was given, as a matter of course, to every day laborer, especially in summer. In all families, rich or poor, it was offered to male visitors as a sign of hospitality, or just plain good manners. Women had their nip in the form of "Hopkins Elixir," which, at the same time, probably promised to cure everything. Crying babies were
53
OLD CUSTOMS, OLD WAYS AND PROGRESS
silenced with hot toddy because it was supposed to be good for colic. Every man imbibed his morning dram, and this was considered temperance. There is a story of a preacher who thus lectured his parish, "I say nothing, my beloved brethren, against taking a little bitters before breakfast, especially if you are used to it. What I contend against is this dramming, dramming, dramming at all hours of the day." Tavern haunting, especially in winter when there was little to do, was common, even among respectable farmers. A story is told of one man who frequently went to the old Central Tavern to meet some cronies. Late one cold winter night he said goodbye to his friends, wended his way home, and tucked himself snugly in bed before he remembered his patient nag left tied in the tavern shed more than a mile away.
Now and then in records or recollections of the days when Meriden was in its infancy there is a reference to a "house painted red." The inference is that Meriden, like the run of old New England communities, was made up of houses unpainted for the most part, whose shingles were allowed to mellow with the weather. When paint was used, it was generally either bright red or equally bright yellow. Even the meeting houses usually glowed with the favorite red paint which was retained throughout succeeding years as a favorite barn shade. The fashion for white paint which is now so much a part of New England tradition, didn't come in until the second or third decade of the nineteenth century.
A description in Mrs. Breckenridge's Recollections of the old Hough house so famous as a tavern is applicable on a smaller scale to the plan of houses in general use at the time. The front door opened into a square hall from which a narrow crooked stair rose to the second floor. On either side of the hall, doors opened into flanking rooms, each with its fireplace. From each of these rooms doors gave access to the big kitchen, the actual center of family life, its huge fireplace and brick ovens in constant use.
The family ate in the kitchen, spent their evenings there reading, sewing, spinning, or knitting, commonly received their visitors there. In some homes the kitchen also doubled as sleeping quarters for a part of the brood growing too numerous for bed- rooms. Low ceilings were far more common than the high ones such as wealthier home owners affected. The furnishings were quite simple — usually a few straight-backed chairs primly lined
54
OLD CUSTOMS, OLD WAYS AND PROGRESS
against the wall, a dresser covered with an array of pewter and whatever lusterware the housewife could collect, a small table, a stand or two for candles, and a high-backed settee, maybe two, beside the fireplace.
During the earliest days in Meriden, houses were provided with strong barricades for doors and windows as protection from marauding Indians. The Belcher Tavern was an example of the sturdy defense system necessary to the times. After the com- munity grew and the Indian menace was being forgotten, less protection was needed. Door latches were first wooden and later iron. The earliest ones had no thumb pieces. The latch was on the inside of the door to which a cord was attached and run through to the outside by way of a hole bored for the purpose. Locking the door was simply accomplished by pulling the string inside.
Some houses were built with a wide front door made of two separated panels swinging in from each side. Such a doorway remains in the old Johnson house on Eaton Avenue now owned by Carter H. White. The simple handleless latch was no pro- tection for such a double door. Locking, in such cases, was accomplished by a stout wooden bar, longer than the width of the door frame, carefully fitted into equally stout wooden arms attached midway on the door casing, a device still in the old Johnson house.
Ornamental trees on private property were neglected for many years after the first settlement. Landowners were too busy wresting a living from the stony land, which was actually a blessing in disguise since to it may be credited the developing of the creative, inventive genius of future Meridenites. But it was the custom from the beginning of road building to plant lines of trees to flank the highway. Lombardy poplars had a brief vogue, probably a bit of French influence, the last specimen of which was a scraggly tall skeleton near Hough's tavern felled in the 1890's. But poplars were never as popular as the stately elm so much better suited to giving shade and graceful ornamentation.
Orchards were an early acquisition in the neighborhood. Fruit trees never objected to their stony surroundings. Many barrels of apples were stowed away in Meriden cellars. But more found their way into presses of the cider mills. As early as 1718 there is a record of official permission to one man to erect a cider mill.
55
OLD CUSTOMS, OLD WAYS AND PROGRESS
Before Meriden became a separate town, cider mills were dotted all around the community.
Creaking machinery could be heard throughout the apple season as it squeezed the presses that drew sweet liquid from fleshy pulp. No doubt Meriden boys used to congregate around the tubs elbowing one another out of the way as each tried to get his sucking-straw into the golden juice. Full barrels of cider were carted home. Many families had cider on the table at every meal. Sweet-apple cider was also boiled down to make "apple- molasses" much desired in pies and puddings and sauces. Inciden- tally tea was a beverage used only for special company. Coffee, home ground of course, and sweetened with molasses, was far more commonly used.
Just as "Yankee" became a synonym for ingeniousness, thrift, and careful bargaining, — as has been said a Yankee "is a born arguer, a born peddler, a Jack-at-all-trades and good at them all," — so is "Yankee housewife" a synonym for scrupulous cleanliness. Indoors in Meriden, neatness was the supreme rule. Perhaps with the advent of wallpaper and carpets and a great variety of furniture and knickknacks, the neatness which was the well- earned repute of the New England housewife took a bit of a backward step. But cleanliness was always solidly next to godli- ness. Mrs. Breckenridge gives a delightful description of the hustle and bustle of seasonal housecleanings by which the early Meriden housewife purged her house in almost the same fervor that found its outlet in a spiritual revival.
When the settlers first moved into what is now Meriden there was little fencing done. Pasture lands were more or less common property during the days before threat from Indians was entirely laid at rest and while wild animals were making their periodic depredations on domestic breeds. Men found it safer to make a joint project of protecting herds and flocks. It was from this period that "Milking Yard" got the name that is still used for a tract partially included in Walnut Grove property today. It was out there a pen was built into which cows were driven at milking time where owners came to milk, each his own cows.
Cattle were branded but strays from other areas now and then found their way into Milking Yard, and others were too carelessly marked for proper identification. One of the earliest requests for the separation of Meriden into a village with its own
56 ,
OLD CUSTOMS, OLD WAYS AND PROGRESS
governmental system was based on the need for a more conveni- ently located "Pound" for caring for such strays. Driving cattle to Wallingford was far too irksome for the busy men of this neighborhood.
Gradually the wilderness was being conquered. Soon it became feasible to divide land into parcels for private use. The tinkling of bells on cows and sheep that once had sent out merry tunes in common pasturage was reduced from mass orchestration to smaller units. Fences were built. Plenty of stone was at hand on Meriden hills for the purpose. Unhappily those picturesque piles of moss-grown, vine-covered rocks are fast disappearing. But in the early 1800's they were an integral part of the landscape. In the lowlands the usual fences were made by digging a ditch. On the ridge made by the excavated dirt a low barrier of rails, stakes, and brush was put up.
Oxen did most of the heavy farm work like plowing and hauling. It was not until 1825 or later that horses took up that burden. Farmers worked from daylight to dark, from seed time to harvest. Tools were few and clumsy in the earliest days, but the very plentitude of stones put native ingenuity to work at devising new equipment, better than those of wood with rough iron edges and points — a talent that was quickly extended to the making of all sorts of handy gadgets that made the progress of Yankee peddlers welcomed throughout the countryside.
There are many jokes about the wooden nutmegs, basswood hams, and white-oak cheeses, but the Yankee peddler's knowledge of his market, care in selecting useful goods, and integrity in rdriving what may have been a "hard bargain," planted the seed from which American industry has made its sturdy and phenom- enal growth. Some of the best seeds were planted by Meriden. Charles and Hiram Yale sent out peddlers with their tinware. The Twiss brothers marketed their Meriden-made clocks by peddlers. Pratt's ivory combs went to market with peddlers. Charles Parker got his start making and peddling household coffee-mills.
57
CHAPTER TEN
Separation from Wallingford
Not long after Meriden attained the dignity of being a parish society with a name of its own, some of the settlers began to agitate for a new step to importance and independence. Residents in the north end of the parish found it inconvenient to go to Wallingford to attend church, town, and freeman's meetings. Several petitions were sent to the General Assembly requesting permission to become a separate town, or at the least to be annexed to other towns nearer than Wallingford.
By May 1786, feeling was waxing rather high on the subject. A formal petition went to Hartford over the signatures of three appointed agents^ John Couch, Sam Whiting, and Dan Collins. Citing how grievously the inhabitants were subjected to "great trouble, inconvenience & expence" in attending the "ordinary Business of the Town, Proxys, Town Meetings, &c." and upon their business at the County and Superior Courts, they asked that the parish become the town of Meriden and annexed to the County of Middlesex.
Wallingford countered by sending a special and eloquent committee to speak against the petition, which they did success- fully. Again in 1794 another petition to the same effect was drawn up to be met with a counter proposal from Wallingford that it would be "highly reasonable and expedient and likely to unite the two Societies together and prevent a separation." Recognizing the "disagreeableness" suffered by the society of Meriden in attending meetings in Wallingford, it was proposed to hold one-third of the meetings in Meriden, and the rest in Wallingford.
Still the inhabitants of Meriden were determined to be set apart. Attempts in 1803 and 1804 continued to fail, but Wallingford leaders either tired of the struggle or accepted the inevitable. It was voted to choose a committee of equal numbers from each Wallingford and Meriden to confer. At last the final petition went to the General Assembly in May, 1806, showing that Meriden constituted in extent, population, and property more than one-
58
SEPARATION FROM WALLINGFORD
third of the parent town of Wallingford. Thereupon the Assembly passed the resolution that "The inhabitants living within the limits of the parish of Meriden be and they are hereby incorporated into and made a Town by the name of Meriden."
The first town meeting was held in Meriden on the third Monday in June, 1806, which was the 16th, at one o'clock, and the town officers were elected. So it was that 150 years ago Meriden joined the federation of independent communities so distinctive of Connecticut, and in the direct pattern by which our nation was consitiuted and has waxed in the freedom of the self-governed.
The moderator, George W. Stanley, was selected by the General Assembly. Under his chairmanship, clerk, selectmen, constables, tax collector, treasurer, surveyors of the highways, "fence viewers," pound keepers, jurors, and weight sealer were elected. That was an exciting day for Meriden.
Some of the minutes of the meeting make amusing reading today. Voted, they say, that any person may wear his hat in Town meeting "Except" when addressing the Moderator. Voted, That Geese shall not be suffered to run at large on the highways unless they are well Yoaked.
On that day it was also voted to "lay a Tax for the purpose of defraying the debts and expences to which this Town now is or may be liable." Five mills was the first tax rate.
A paper on taxation preserved in the Historical Society's collection says the list for 1826 for collections made by Asahiel Curtis shows nine persons paid over eight dollars each for both town and state tax. There were only 21 others who paid more than five dollars. Some who were influential citizens paid much less. The two smallest taxes were for a fraction of a cent, and both of them marked on the record as paid. It is interesting to note that in 1800, coaches were assessed at $168, chariots at $134, phaetons at $75, curricles at $68, other four-wheel carriages on springs at $30, each gold watch at $34, other watches at $10, steel and brass wheel clocks at $20, clocks with wood wheels at $7.
According to the same paper, dwelling houses back in 1702 were put on the books at $5 for each fireplace. Sheep that were sheared got a reduction on the list of 75 cents. There was a poll tax on citizens from 18 to 21 at $30, from 21 to 70 at $60.
As George Munson Curtis said in his historical address for
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SEPARATION FROM WALLINGFORD
iMeriden's Centennial celebration, "There was little about the town in its early days which indicated that some day it would grow to a place of considerable size; it was simply a quiet, peaceful community, bent on getting a living as best it could from the rather sterile soil. . . ." It was still primarily a farming community when it attained its position as a separate town.
There were a few business places begun by citizens who were looking for something other than an agricultural pursuit. The agriculture of Connecticut which had so recently fed Washing- ton's armies in Massachusetts and New York during the Revolution, was already of too little profit to satisfy the ambitious without sufficient love of the soil to compensate for its limited productivity and remuneration therefrom. Some were beginning to branch into other lines, to take what Judge Simeon Baldwin called "a spot of earth . . . rough hills, far from the sea, with no streams to furnish any considerable power, and by their inventive faculty, their quick eye and ready hand, their wise economy, their watch of markets and creation of markets. . . ." turn this community into a place of diversified industry whose products have a world-wide market.
But in 1806 Meriden still looked very much the farm com- munity it was. Life revolved more or less around the tavern up on the East Main Street hill at the corner of Broad. It was in that tavern kept by Dr. Insign Hough that the town officers and selectmen had their headquarters. It was there, also, that the farmers gathered to talk over the news of the day and to discuss and argue community affairs. Moreover the tavern offered an opportunity for Meriden farmers to meet outsiders and to sample opinions from other parts of the country, because it was the popular stopping place for stagecoaches enroute from Hartford to New Haven or bound the other way from New York to Boston.
Mrs. Breckenridge in her Recollections of a New England Town says also that the stages brought glimpses of city fashions as the passengers stopped at the famous "Hough's Tavern," the "Halfway House," to dine or sleep. So we can imagine that the tavern was a center of interest for Meriden women as well as the men burdened with the vote and hence obliged to keep up on the news.
Most of the houses built in Meriden in the years immediately
60
SEPARATION FROM WALLINGFORD
before and after the year it became a town are of modest construction and lacking some of the elegant touches in wood- work or appointment of those that came before and later. It seems obvious that Meriden was a bit on the "poor" side in that particular era — poor at least in what could be gleaned from the land, but rich in possibilities. Little shops began to spring up, places where one or two men working together were making things they could sell. George Curtis says that by 1820, 105 of the little more than 1,200 inhabitants were engaged in some sort of manufacturing. By the end of another two decades the proportion had increased to 21 per cent. Shops were larger; goods were durable, handsome, and useful; Meriden was making a name for herself in the commercial world.
These were the sort of men to whom Meriden must be thankful for fashioning the shape which is our city's today. Back in 1849 Reverend George W. Perkins pays his tribute to the breed of men who founded Meriden, and their succeeding generations who built the community: ". . . those fathers of ours were men, Christian men, New England men."
There is a pertinent comment in one of the historical papers written by Leland Ives to set down the history of his own family. He prefaces his factual genealogical account with the dry remark that in writing the Ives family history he was "by no means embarrassed with a superfluity of interesting material. A suc- cession of generations of most reputable New Englanders whose quiet lives were devoted largely to farming and mercantile pursuits, is not well calculated to inspire a stirring essay."
In this present generation we can take exception to that judgment. It is so obvious now that the character of this city, which has been called an "ideal community," was shaped by the persistent efforts of the many "reputable New Englanders" who were not spectacular in their own day, but who left behind them a spectacular record. George W. Perkins in his history calls attention to a reply the Connecticut Legislature made in 1680 to a questionnaire from the mother country. "The country is a mountainous country, full of rocks, swamps and hills; and most that is fit for plantations is taken up," was what was in the report. Yet the whole state contained only about 10,000 inhabitants then. The men of "quiet lives", who were devoted to farming and their children and who used their ingenuity to manufacture
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SEPARATION FROM WALLINGFORD
desirable goods which could be made without an abundance of water power, wrested a good living and built the foundation for a happy life for succeeding generations out of meager resources.
In another of the papers prepared for the early historical society, Henry Dryhurst reports that "when in 1806 Meriden was set apart from Wallingford, Amos White was named by President Jefferson as the first postmaster. The office was located in a one- story building ... on the southeast corner of Broad and East Main (this was the Eli Birdsey property). He was followed by Patrick Lewis who served until President Jackson appointed Levi Yale who served the next 12 years, transferring his office to 641 Broad. The West Meriden post office was established in about 1845 with Joel H. Guy appointed as postmaster by President Polk," — the office on West Main.
The center of town life was up around the white churches on the top of East Main Street hill. Welcome Benham, whose paper for the historical society has already been quoted, recalls in 1894 his own memory of the downtown part of Meriden as being "a bog swamp extending from Colony Street on the west to beyond Veteran on the east and southerly to South Colony Bridge and northerly up to or beyond Cedar Street."
H. S. Wilcox writes in his paper for the historical collection that for a period of over 125 years after the Boston merchant Andrew Belcher built his old stone fort there is no record of any merchant doing business in this place and "probably the early settlers bought their supplies in Wallingford and Middletown."
Mr. Wilcox notes: "In the year 1792 John Butler started the boot and shoe business on South Market Street (now Broad) nearly opposite the Center Congregational Church. ... A few years later Amos White had a grocery and provision store situated a little south of the old Meriden bank. Mr. White was the first town clerk of Meriden. ... Eli C. Birdsey had a dry goods store on the corner of East Main and South Market Streets, occupying the front portion of the brick building now standing there (paper dated in 1893) and Alanson Birdsey occupied the rear part with a stock of groceries."
The Century of Meriden notes there was a store run by Amasa Curtis and Isaac Lewis in the former's house which stood at the fork of Broad and Curtis. Across the street and a bit to
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SEPARATION FROM WALLINGFORD
the north was Seth D. Plum's tavern. There was also a big barn just east of the Central Tavern where the stagecoach horses were kept. With the many residences in the area, this was Meriden's busy center of activity. Another "center" was growing down the hill near Harbor Brook, where Perkins' Blacksmith Shop appears on the map of that era and houses were scattered along the way up old Liberty Street hill past Cowles' stone-cutting yard and toward a tannery still further to the northeast. But the hilltop was the nucleus of the new town of Meriden.
Another of the same 1894 collection of historical papers that fails to bear the name of its writer says: "Just what the state of religion was in Meriden at the beginning of this century we don't know, but soon after the Revolutionary War and during the hard times and the unsettled state of the country following that period, we have every reason to think it was at a low ebb. For 74 years there seems to be no record of a revival of religion in this town." This anonymous writer refers with admiration to the "great and wonderful reviving" that had occurred under Jonathan Edwards in 1735. Also he expressed himself as being deeply impressed by the revivals of 1852-53 under the same Perkins who wrote our charming old history of Meriden.
It is Mr. Perkins who has something to say about that gap in Meriden's spiritual growth. "So far as the morals of the town are concerned," he writes, "there are some rather curious facts. The number of taverns was astonishingly great. In 1790, and for some time before, when the whole population of the town was not more than nine hundred, and as late as 1812, there were five if not eight taverns within the limits of Meriden. As those taverns always kept ardent spirits, and as the population of the town was small, and as the amount of travel then was much less than it is now (1849) these facts indicate a low state of morals." He continues by contrasting his own era with the old, pointing out that but two taverns served Meriden in his day, a Meriden with a population of 3000, and at only one of those "are spiritous liquors sold."
63
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Meriden Mines
Meriden once had its era of seeking hidden wealth in the ground. Soon after the town was settled, people began to think of what riches might lie hidden in the rocks of our hills. As early as 1712 the legislature passed a law for the protection and encouragement of potential miners in this area and in Simsbury. Shafts were sunk in Meriden and some vigorous prospecting done, but by whom nobody now knows. In 1737 a company was formed to try again in the abandoned works located in "milking-yard hill."
Papers carefully copied by G. W. Perkins in his Historical Sketches indicate the search was for gold as well as for copper. He further relates that men who were "old inhabitants" in his time said that in their boyhood it was a matter of current belief that gold had actually been found here. The story also went that the "foreigners" working the mine appropriated and kept for themselves what gold was found. Anyway the means for smelting ore was not at hand. One attempt to ship ore to England for smelting resulted in disaster when the ship was lost at sea. Once more the mine was abandoned, never to be tried again.
This was called the Golden Parlor Mine. Several records of contracts for work were preserved into Mr. Perkins' time. They indicated that what was then a very considerable sum of money was expended on a futile search. The Golden Parlor in the Walnut Grove section was not the only such venture. Land south of the Belcher property amounting to some 50 acres was leased in 1735 "for digging all manners of metals." A good century and a half after that ended as an unprofitable operation, Meridenites fre- quently found fragments of good crystal quartz in the old pits — some recollect discovering bits of "lovely blue quartz."
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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MERIDEN MINES
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."
65
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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SLAVERY
— 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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SLAVERY
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."
68
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
rijrwrwvr
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 nows 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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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
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 Westfleld. 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 Aderiden'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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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
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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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
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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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
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 ownjln 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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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
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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THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
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.
75
the railroad, past and present
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.
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 Westneld. 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."
77
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.
78
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
79
THE RAILROAD, PAST AND PRESENT
in the hands of "friends of the New Haven Railroad," which really controlled the line. The section between Westfleld and Cromwell was abandoned. Trains were run into Middletown from Westfleld 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.
80
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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Industry of the 19 th 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 Westneld 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
81
INDUSTRY OF THE 1°TH 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 J 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
82
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
83
INDUSTRY OF THE 1°TH 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 1 3 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 S3 0,000 to $40,000, large-scale business for those times.
84
Residence Frederick M. Stevens, Jr. 304 Parker Avenue, built 1743
Residence Carter H. White 203 Eaton Avenue, built circa 1785
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William H. Race Residence 93 Curtis Street, a spoon factory in the early 19th century
East Alain 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
85
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.
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,
86
INDUSTRY OF THE 19TH CENTURY
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 SutlifT 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
87
INDUSTRY OF THE 19TH CENTURY
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 Aieriden 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