Class V" \r>^\^ Book >d^ CopyiightN" COEflUGHT DEPOSIT. ^J!) c^z^.^^^^;:^^/^'^^^ C'Z:^^c^a-^^'^--^-^y rr\m TOWN AND CITY OF WATERBURY, -l- CONNECTICUT, FROM THE ABORIGINAL PERIOD TO THE YEAR EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE. EDITED BY JOSEPH ANDERSON, D. D. WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF ANNA L. WARD. VOLUME II. NEW HAVEN : THE PRICE & LEE COMPANY. 1896. ^^tits Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1896, By the price & LEE COMPANY, In the Oflice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. CHAHTEK PAGE I. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW, i By tJie Rev. Joseph Anderson, D. D. II. THE BOROUGH AND WATERVILLE, 13 By Dr. Anderson and the Hon. Frederick J. Kz'ng-s- bury, LL. D. III. WATERBURY AS A CITY, 33 By the Hon. Stephen W. Kellogg, M. A. IV. THE STORY OF THE GREEN, 53 By Mr. Kingsbury. V. STREETS, SIDEWALKS AND BRIDGES, .... 67 By Dr. Anderson and Nelson J. We It on. VI. ORIGIN OF THE STREET NAMES, 79 From data furnished chiefly by Messrs. Kingsbury and Welton. Introduction and summary by Dr. Anderson. VII. THE WATER WORKS AND THE SEWERS, ... 92 By Nelson J. Welton. VIII. FIRES AND THE FIRE DEPARTMENT m From data furnished by Chief Engineer S. C. Snagg, John L. Saxe and others. IX. THE RECORD OF HEALTH AND GOOD ORDER, . . 132 By Dr. Andersoft. X. MEANS OF INTERCOMMUNICATION, 143 By Dr. Anderso7i. XI. COMMUNICATION W^ITH THE WORLD WITHOUT, . 153 By Dr. Anderso?i and others. XII. BANKING AND INSURANCE, 173 By Mr. Kingsbury {pp. lyj-i-j^)), Anson F. Abbott, Dr. Anderson and others. XIII. INDUSTRIES OF THE HOME LIFE, ..... 191 By Mr. Kingsbury. The biographies by various writers. XIV. TAVERNS, HOTELS, OLD TIME LANDLORDS, . . 217 By Dr. Anderson. Biography of Captain Samuel Judd by Projessor David G. Porter, VI Piatt, Clark Murray, Piatt, William Smith, Porter, Thomas, Rice, Archibald Elijah, Russell. Francis Thayer, Scott, Charles, Scovill, William Henry, Smith, Earl, . Smith, John Edward, Spencer, Willard, Turner, Edward Thomas, Upson, Daniel, Wells, Alfred, Welton, George Wales, Walton, Hobart Victory, Welton, Nelson James, White, Leroy Sunderland White, Luther Chapin, PORTRAITS. PAGE 395 251 50 524 247 281 376 389 24 253 214 428 336 459 108 385 425 MISCELLANEOUS. Benedict, Aaron, ......••• 299 Brown, Colonel James, ........ 205 Buckingham, John, ....••••■ 284 Half century employees of the Scovill Manufacturing company (nine portraits). 468 Mayors of Waterburi% 1858 to 1896 (twenty-two portraits), . . 44, 45 Scovill, James Mitchell Lamson, ....... 279 Terry, Eli, .......... 258 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS VOLUME. ON STEEL (FACTORIES). Benedict & Burnliam Manufacturing company, Holmes, Bootli & Haydens, • • Plume & AtwoodManufacturmg company a) Plume & Atwood Manufacturing company (b), Randolph & Clowes, Rogers & Brother, Scovill Manufacturing company, . Waterbury Brass company, Waterbury Watch company. I'AGE 296 360 361 349 382 275 332 400 MISCELLANEOUS. Waterbury centre in 1837, • Centre square and flag staff, The Green (Centre square) m 1857, • " ^rH^rBZslltl'lndScovm Ho.se, .3,3. • • • Seal of the city. The Green in 1851, • The Green in 1890, . A bit of old Exchange place, bSi: S::' ;: Ma'* .SSS ,a£te, the so-caUe. m^..n^, The West Main street bridge, • • Foot bridge across the Naugatuck (before X840), • Waterbury from the Abrigador, 1891, ■ ■ Distributing reservoir, • • ■ ' Cooke street reservoir, • • • ' Prospect reservoir, . • East Mountain reservoir, ■ • ' ' Residence of N. J. Welton, • • . • ' . j^ngine company Mutual Hook and Ladder -"^P!^"^'^";^;,^ 1" Waterbury and Meriden stage hue advertisement, The first tLe-table of the Naugatuck railroad. . • Naugatuck railroad station, bmlt m 1867. • New York and New England ^^^^"^l^,,,^ station. .890. Meriden, Waterbury and Connecticut 1 iver 1 an Ba"L str;et in 1890; Waterbury National bank, • ■ "^^^^oi'^^ Connecticut indemnity association. Dr Samuel Elton's gig (or "riding chair ), Dr. Frederick Leavenworth's carriage, . No. 2, I'AGE 16 21 25 32 3f> 41 52 55 65 68 71 73 77 78 89 96 96 97 97 108 122 155 158 159 161 163 174 177 1S6 199 199 Vlll ILLU8TBATI0NS. An elm on Holmes's meadow, Burton's tavern, afterwards the "Mansion House,' Advertising card; Brown's hotel, . The Dime Savings bank; also the office of Holmes & Parsons, bankers. The residence of Charles D. Kingsbury, 1S89, Buttons of sterling silver, made by Joseph Hopkins before 17C0, Advertisement of clocks, The first brass lamp, Residence of the Hon. Green Kendrick, The Prichard homestead, 1890, The old Cooke homestead, . Hand-made brass lamp, 1820, Lafayette button. Factory of J. M. L. & Wm. H. Scovill, 1835, The Scovill Manufacturing company, 1858, Residence of H. W. Scovill; previously occupied by J. M. L. Scovill, Residence of F. J. Kingsbury, Residence of C. P. Goss, .... Button card, dedicated to Abel Porter, The Harrison " Log Cabin" button, The Benedict & Burnham factory in 1858, Rose Hill cottage, residence of J. C. Welton, 1874, Rose Hill in 1892, residence of A. S. Chase, Rose Hill cottage in 1894, .... The East mill of the Watei-bury Brass company, 1858, The West mill of the Waterbury Brass company, 1858, Brown & Brothers, 1858, Residence of Dr. James Brown, Colonel James Brown's house, A doorway of 1760, . Holmes, Booth & Haydens in 18; Maplewild, the residence of H. W. Hayden, Factories of the Waterbury Button company, Factories of the Waterbury Clock company; also the Clock-case shop, Pine Hill in 1881; factory of the Watch company. The Parrel homestead; occupied, 1895, by Dr. Walter H. Holmes, Hotchkiss & Merriman Manufacturing company. Residence of the family of C. B. Merriman, Carvings in wood and stone, by H. V. Welton, First High School building, Second High School building. The Bank street school-house. The second Academy, The Academy as remodelled in 1841 An Academy programme of 1846, St. Margaret's school, 1895, Convent of Notre Dame; its early home, Convent of Notre Dame, 1892, Hillside avenue school in 1889, ^- CHAPTER I. THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN FROM 1825 ONWARD — A BIRD'S EYE VIEW "the HOMOGENEOUS BECOMING HETEROGENEOUS" THE BOROUGH CITY GOVERNMENT AND ITS DEPARTMENTS INDUS- TRIAL DEVELOPMENT A GREAT MANUFACTURING CENTRE SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES LAW AND MEDICINE PHILANTHROPY AND REFORM LITERATURE, LIBRARIES, NEWSPAPERS MUSIC AND OTHER ARTS MILITARY HISTORY FRATERNITIES. PRESIDENT TIMOTHY DWIGHT, of Yale College, in the preface to his " Travels in New England and New York " — a work written between 1802 and 1805 — apologizes for tiie lack of exciting incident in his pages in these words : Adventures of all kinds must be very rare in a country perfectly quiet and orderly in its state of society. In a series of journeys sufficiently extensive to have carried me through two-thirds of the distance round the globe I have not met with one. Nearly every man whom I have seen was calmly pursuing the sober business of peaceful life, and the history of my excursion was literally confined to the breakfast, dinner and supper of the day. This " sober business of peaceful life " he describes on a subsequent page. He says : Every farmer labors on his own ground and for the benefit of himself and his family merely. This, if I am not deceived, is a novelty, and its influence is seen to be remarkably happy in the industry, sobriety, cheerfulness, personal independence and universal prosperity of the people at large. Great wealth is not often found, but poverty is almost unknown. A succession of New England villages, composed of neat houses surrounding neat school-houses and churches, adorned with gar- dens, meadows and orchards, and exhibiting the universally easy circumstances of the inhabitants, is, at least in my own opinion, one of the most delightful prospects which the world can afford. Within twenty years after these words were penned a change had begun in the social and industrial life of New England which may well be designated "the great transition." A region occupied almost exclusively by an agricultural community became the seat of important and rapidly growing manufactures; a shifting of the pop- ulation took place, and additions were made to it from without. In other words, the inhabitants of the rural districts removed to a con- siderable extent from the hillsides to the river valleys and the cities, and the tide of immigration from the old world flowed in with increasing fullness. The transformation was of course most 2 HISTORY OF WATERS URY. marked where the development of manufactures was greatest, and accordingly we trace these changes very readily in Waterbury and the Naugatuck valley. The immigration into Waterbury was at first chiefly from Ireland, with a sprinkling of English, Scotch and Ger- mans. The French Canadians and vSwedes came afterward in con- siderable numbers, and some years later the Italians. At the present time (1894) the foreign population, with their children of the first generation, considerably outnumber the representatives of the earlier American stock. In the evolution which has taken place, the change "from the homogeneous to the heterogenous " can be traced in various other directions besides those already indicated. At first, the organiza- tion of the community — in Waterbury as elsewhere — was simple. There were three chief functions, the town, the school and the church. The local government was shaped by an annual town meeting; the township was divided geographically into small school districts, and the churches at the centre numbered two. But in 1825 a borough was organized, which in 1853 gave wa}^ to a city government, while the town organization lived on (as it still does)' exercising those primitive governmental functions which belonged to it from the first. Again, certain school districts lying around the centre were incorporated as a Centre district, with its board of education and its finance committee, while the outlying territory remained under the old school management; and as for the churches, their number was more than doubled, as well as the num- ber of denominations they represented. In the city charter of 1853 various functions of mimicipal gov- ernment, such as the laying out and the care of streets, protection against fires and against disease, and the establishment of a police system, were assigned to the Court of Common Council. In the new charter, secured in 1871, these various functions were put in charge of boards of commissioners and conducted as distinct depart- ments, and from that time onward the history of the city (munici- pally considered) is a history of these several departments. The later charter provides for a department of streets and sewers, a fire department and a police department, but makes no mention of a health department or a water supply. The charter of 1853, how- ever, provided for a health committee, which since 1885 has devel- oped into a board of health; and as regards the board of water commissioners, it was created by the "act to provide for a supply of pure and wholesome water," passed by the legislature in 1867.* ♦ See " The Charter with it^> Amendments," edition of 1868, pp. 39-47; also, " Charter and Ordinances," 1874. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW. 3 While this process of evolution was taking- place in the govern- mental life of the community, other corporations were coming into existence or, having been created elsewhere, were securing a place in WaterburV, to meet the various wants of the people. These, although independent of the city government, were as indispensable to the community as the government itself and its various depart- ments These private corporations are of two kinds— those that are strictly local in their scope, and those that provide means of com- munication between Waterbury and the rest of the world. To the first class belong those corporations that have undertaken to furnish the city with artificial light (whether produced from gas or bv electricity) and with a messenger service; to which may be added the telephone and the city railway companies (although these are now reaching out beyond city limits). The banks of the city each of which has its history, are also included m it, and so are 'the insurance organizations doing business m Waterbury, especially those having their headquarters here. The cemetery associations belong also to this class,-their history being closely connected with that of the ancient burying-grounds of the town. In the other group-corporations that provide communication between Waterbury and the rest of the world-are the several rail- road telegraph and express companies and the post office. How- ever' difficult it may be, in some cases, to obtain the historical facts -as for example those relating to the telegraph and express com- panies-it is of course true that all such organizations have a history and it is only by reference to their origin and rapid growth that the largeness of their work can be fully grasped, and the extent to which the community is dependent upon them appre- AVhile these modern forms of social activity were coming into existence, and corporations were being organized fortheir proper conduct the industrial life of the community was rapidly develop- ing along the ancient lines, and at the same time branchmg out in entirely new directions. The process of differentiation is strik- ino-ly exhibited in the history of the trades connected with the ''food supply" of the community,-when for example we compare the simple conditions of a previous generation in regard to'food and drink with the elaborate and complex system of the present dav While the country village was being transformed into a busy manufacturing centre, the old-fashioned "country store" grew into an extensive collection of grocery stores, fruit stores, bakers shops and druo- stores. The meat supply and the milk supply passed through a similar development, while in place of the cider cask, the 4 HISTORY OF WATERBUBY. rum barrel and the old-time tavern came the modern hotel, the brewery, the soda-water fountain, the long array of saloons and the liquor traffic in its vast dimensions. The trades relating to the other necessaries of modern life underwent a like development. From the first, the carpenter and builder had of course a recognized place in the community; but how little the forefathers could have anticipated that multiplication of carpenters, masons, tinners, plasterers, painters, cabinet-makers, house -furnishers, which has actually taken place. From the first, fuel was one of the absolute necessities of life, but over against the wood-pile of 1825 we place the immense coal-trade of to-day and that consumption of fire-wood in our factories which involves the destruction from year to year of entire forests. The ice trade is of course a strictly modern industry, and the same may be said of the extensive business carried on through the various intelligence offices and laundries. One of the significant facts in our social life is the supersedure of native American " help " by servants secured from Irish, German and Swedish sources. We have accounts elsewhere of the simple, customs of the fathers in the matter of dress — how the clothing of the household was made at home, of "home-spun," with the occa- sional aid of the itinerant tailor and shoemaker. Over against all this we must place to-day our two hundred dressmakers, and a long array of merchant tailors, clothiers and men's " outfitters." The blacksmith is perhaps not so conspicuous in the community now as he was a century ago, but carriage-making has meantime come into existence and grown to be an important industry. As for the sewing machine, although its manufacture is not at present con- ducted within Waterbury limits, its place in the industrial history of the town is well known. From the modern point of view this sociological history of the community is by no means the least important. But the data from which details could be gathered are not on record, and the memory of the "oldest inhabitant" does not altogether avail. Like other communities, Waterbury has taken care of itself in a way so informal and matter-of-course that the process has attracted but littlg attention. You do not trace it in the town records; it has not been the work of corporations possessed of a documentary history; it is revealed only to a small extent in the newspapers of the period, while even in their business advertisements there is very little that is helpful. But in the meantime, Waterbury has been doing a work, not for itself but for the outside world, which has been phenomenally large, and of this the record is more com- plete. Since 1825 it has grown to be a notable manufacturing A BIBB'S EYE VIEW. 5 centre— the chief seat of one of the great industries of America. It has been devoted to the manufacture of brass and the multitude of articles of which brass is a component part. In the history of modern Waterbury, the history of the brass trade is the most important division. Early in the century, there lived in the town a group of men who possessed more than the average of Yankee ingenuity, and who added to their inventive skill an unusual amount of enterprise, perseverance and business tact. These men were the fathers of the brass trade, the vital force of various new factories, the founders of industrial Waterbury. A monument over the grave of one of them bears the inscription, " Because I was the city is." This may not be true of any one man, but of this group of men such a declaration might with propriety be made. Their plodding industry, their patience, their struggles and victories, constitute a most interesting chapter in our earlier industrial history, and after the enactment of a general law for the organiza- tion of' joint-stock companies (in 1837) we can see their influence propagating itself through new channels and extending into all parts of the world. The number of joint-stock companies organ- ized in Waterbury down to 1845, was eight; the number since then, 244. A hundred of these have been employed in the working of brass and other metals, and while many of them have ceased to exist, some have grown to be not only large in the volume of their business but far-reaching in their influence— possessors, in fact, of a noteworthy history. The history of the most prominent of these concerns can be given in considerable detail, and in close connec- tion with it stands the life-record of the men who have organized and controlled them. The industrial division of our work contains accordingly, in addition to the early history of Waterbury manu- factures and a complete list of joint-stock concerns, sketches of the leading manufactories of the town and biographies of their active managers. There is added a remarkable list of patents secured by Waterbury inventors, exhibiting to some extent the vast variety of articles manufactured in the place. In a natural connection with all this comes a comparatively recent development, the Waterbury Board of Trade; also the Waterbury Club, consisting of business men. The development of our school system has been referred to. It passed through the same phases here, for the most part, as in other places in Connecticut. From the first, schools were established by the town; the district system was afterward adopted, and also a " school society " came into being. But in addition to the district schools existing in 1784, a school for the higher education of young 6 HISTORT OF WATERS URY. persons was thought to be necessary, and it was opened under the favorite name of "academy." The "old academy" was succeeded in 1825 by the "new academy," and in 1850 that was practically merged in the high school. The incorporation of the Centre dis- trict in 1849, while it left an outside circle of rural districts man- aged in the old way, placed the schools of the city upon a somewhat different basis, and communicated to them a new impulse. The increase in the number of the city schools, although very great, has hardly kept pace with the increase of the population, so that patron- age for a large number of private schools has always been found. The chief of these are St. Margaret's school for girls (under the control of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Connecticut), the school of the Convent of Notre Dame and the parochial schools belonging to the Roman Catholic church. Although Waterbury throughout its later history has been devoted so largely to manu- factures and trade, it cannot be accused of indifference to education or a disregard for the claims of the higher learning. Its position in the world of scholarship is well represented by the roll of graduates included in a subsequent chapter — a list, remarkably large, of the graduates of colleges and professional schools who have at one time or another lived in Waterbury. It ought to be added that Water- bury has done her part fairly well in the support of the lecture sys- tem which has filled so large a place in our modern American life. In the days when the "lyceum" was at its height, the famous lec- turers were invited to the city, and in recent years also various courses of lectures, at private schools and elsewhere, have been gen- erously sustained. In the evolution of ecclesiastical affairs, the course of events has been similar to that which can be traced in the other large towns of the state. From the beginning of the settlement until about 1740, only one church existed here, and only the one church was thought of. When the first representatives of the Church of England appeared upon the scene, they found that the "tables were turned"; t/i ey wero. the dissenters and Congregationalism was "the standing order." These two forms of church life, without any other, if we except a small congregation of "Separates" in Columbia society (now Prospect), existed side by side in the rela- tive positions just indicated, until nearly the beginning of the pres- ent century. After the Revolutionary war, Methodism began to make its voice heard in the land, and in 1790 Bishop Asbury visited Waterbury and preached in the " Separate " meeting-house. About the same time the principles of the Baptists began to find accept- ance in the town, and a Baptist church was organized in 1803. It A BIBB'S EYE VIEW. 7 was more than thirty years after this that the first Roman Catholic service was held in Waterbnry, and more than twelve years later ere the Catholics of the town had a regular pastor. But from that time onward the growth of the Roman Catholic church in Water- bury has exceeded that of the other churches; for it has been neces- sary to provide church accommodations and religious services not only for the children and grandchildren of the first Irish immi- grants, but also for German Catholics, French Canadians, Italians and Lithuanians, as they have become established within Waterbury limits. A recent estimate (1894) places the Catholic population at 18,000. The Protestant immigration, while increasing the Congrega- tional and Episcopal churches, has involved the organizing of Ger- man and Swedish Lutheran congregations. Besides these, a church of Adventists has been in existence for some years, also an "African Methodist Episcopal Zion " church. A L^niversalist society, organized in 1870, built a chapel and held services in it for several years under the ministry of three or four successive pastors. Not counting this organization, which has long been inactive, the churches (or parishes) of the town of Waterbury now number twenty, — three of which are Congregational, two Protestant Epis- copal (besides a chapel at Waterville), four Methodist Episcopal, two Baptist, and five Roman Catholic. At the celebration of the bi-centennial of the original Waterbury church, November 4 and 5, 1 89 1, the Congregational churches participating — those descended wholly or in part from the First church — were twelve in number. We pass readily from church and clergy to the other learned professions, and first to the law. Under the simple township organ- ization of the earlier days, and in fact until the incorporation of the city, the only court in Waterbury was a justice's court and the representatives of the legal profession were few. As early as 1784 a law school was established at Litchfield — the first in America, and destined to become one of the most famous; and this gave a new impulse to legal studies in Connecticut and far beyond it.* But no one was attracted thither from Waterbury except a young graduate of Yale, John Kingsbury, who with Mr. Joseph Badger was teaching in the " old academy." He entered the Law School at Litchfield in 1788, and opened an office in Waterbury in 1790. In 1791 Samuel Miles Hopkins of Salem society, another graduate of Yale, entered the same Law School, and in 1793 or 1794 Ebenezer Foote of Water- town; but neither of these men remained to practice in Connecti- cut. Judge Bennet Bronson began to practice in Waterbury just after the opening of the present century, and the history of the * See Judge Samuel Church's Address, in "Litchfield County Centennial Celebration," pp. so-S9. 8 HISTORY OF WATEBBURT. legal profession in the town from that time onward is sufficiently covered by the biographies of the men who have represented it, many of which are given in the following pages. Dr. Henry Bronson, in a foot-note on page 291 of his " History of Waterbury," gives the names of the " early physicians of Waterbury First Society." There are ten in the list, including Dr. Edward Field, who may almost be considered as belonging to the present time. Various items of information concerning several of these men are scattered through Dr. Bronson's " History," and fuller sketches are given in his Medical History and Biography, contained in Volume H. of the "Proceedings of the New Haven Historical Society." In our chapter on the Medical Profession in Waterbury the main facts concerning these practitioners are reproduced, and biographical sketches of the later physicians are added. A few items are also given in relation to dentistry in Waterbury, and the history of the drug business is referred to. The topic or group of topics to which we next pass on (and by a transition which seems easy and natural) may be designated as "philanthropy, charity and reform." There are various indications in the preceding volume of the way in which the people of Water- bury took care of their necessitous poor during the last century. As in other towns, the need of a " town house " made itself apparent by degrees, and the demand was met. Through the influence of Deacon Timothy Porter, while he was selectman, the land since known as the town farm was purchased and the first almshouse erected. The present almshouse, handsome and expensive, is situated on the same farm and was completed in 1893. In the mean- time the modern system of voluntary philanthropy had experienced in Waterbury, as elsewhere, a marked development. Christian people have been learning that there is charitable work to do, and that there is a right way and a wrong way of doing it. The Indus- trial School for Girls was organized in 1864, and since then (although after an interval of a quarter of a century) several other voluntary organizations have been established for doing a similar service, among which may be mentioned the Boys' Club, the Young Women's Friendly League, the local bands of King's Daughters and Daughters of the King, and the Directors of Christian Visita- tion and Charity. The Waterbury Hospital, initiated by newspaper enterprise in 1882, was opened for the reception of patients in 1890. The Young Men's Christian Association, organized in 1858 and active for several years afterward, was resuscitated, after a period of decline, in 1883, and ten years later became housed in a handsome building of its own. As for the temperance reform, its local history, A BIRD'S BYE VIEW. g with all its agitations and vicissitudes, and the published material relative thereto would fill a volume. This history is reproduced in large measure, in the following pages, in the accounts given of the various unions, alliances and fraternities by which the temperance work in Waterbury has been conducted, — a work the latest product of which is a temperance coffee-house, known as the Wayside Inn. The place of Waterbury in literature seems at first thought insignificant. In the last century, when John '^'rumbull and Dr. Lemuel Hopkins were its representatives in the world of letters, it might have claimed a position second to no village in New England as a source, if not a centre, of literary influence. But in later years the brain-power of its strong men has found other channels in which to work, and its great manufactories have made it famous. Yet, if a complete list could be given of the books and pamphlets which Waterbury writers have published during the past fifty or sixty years, every one would be surprised not only at the wide range of subjects touched upon, but at the actual amount of liter- ature produced. A full bibliography of Waterbury would bring these facts into view; but in the pages that follow only a few of the more prominent productions of Waterbury authors are enumerated, and chiefly those that have some historical value. In the field of journalism our city has been about as prolific as other places of its size. The first successful experiment in the establishment of a local newspaper was made in 1844, in December of which year the Waterbury American first saw the light. Since that time about twenty papers, weekly or daily, general or special, have been started in the town, most of which, after a longer or shorter struggle, have ceased to exist or have become absorbed in others. Meanwhile the intel- lectual life of the community has found expression through various other channels, among which may be mentioned various literary and scientific societies which have thrown a meteoric light across the field of action and then vanished, and a few which still survive. The first of these societies, the Young Men's Institute (organized prior to 185 1, while Waterbury was still a borough), was efficient in establishing a library. Other public libraries had preceded it, but this stood alone from the time of its establishment until the open- ing of the Silas Bronson Library in 1868, when its 2,500 volumes were transferred to the shelves of the new institution. The latter, established upon a foundation of $200,000, has grown during the quarter-century of its existence, to be the largest library in the state with the exception of that at Yale University. Music and the other fine arts, by virtue of their close relation to literature, come next into view. In Waterbury, as in all the old lo HISTORY OF WATERBUB7. New England towns, the history of music previous to the present century fills but an insignificant place, — for the reason that music itself was at a low ebb.* Singing was attempted in all the churches, but as a rule the results attained were worthy only of contempt. It was inevitable, however, that a development of artistic activity should take place, and the record of the onward movement is an interesting one. The church choir, such as it was, prepared the way for the secular singing society on the one hand, and for the brass band and orchestra on the other. From the second quarter of the present century the history of music in the various churches of Waterbury can be pretty clearly traced, and we have at the same time somewhat detailed accounts of the Mendelssohn society, which flourished from 1851 to 1871, the Concordia Singing society, which was organized in 1866, the Harmonic society, whose brief but brilliant course began in 1889, and the smaller organizations known as the Arion and Lyra societies and the Amphion club. Of the several brass bands, the first seems to have been organized in 1834, and the Waterbury Brass band in 1840 The Tompkins band was active from 1854 to 1869, and Merrill's band from 1855 until absorbed in the various regimental bands of the war-time. From 1876 to 1879 Thorpe's orchestra did a good work in educating the community to the appreciation of the finer kinds of music, while in later days Hallam's orchestra and others, the American band and other bands, and the Pizzicati and other amateur clubs have filled a useful place in the community. There have been dramatic organizations also, the most noted of which is the Arcadian club, which flourished from 1875 to 1878. But the history of the drama in Waterbury is for the most part a history of the business done through the operatic and theatrical companies that have visited the city during the past five-and-twenty years, and of the opera house and other buildings provided for their accommodation. Such buildings as these just referred to ought to have a place in the history of Waterbury architecture. Such a history would reveal the progress of architectural art in the town from the earliest times, and touch upon the style and the fortunes of those dwelling- houses and meeting houses which have become so completely a thing of the past. Judging from the records and the samples that remain, the building of a house in the eighteenth century was by no means the haphazard thing it appears to have been in the first half of the nineteenth. In the earlier period the art instinct was not so completely dead as in the later. But within a few years after Waterbury became a city the function of the architect in modern * See Hood's History of Music. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW. n life beg'an to be discovered by its inhabitants, and traces of thoughtful design in the buildings of the place began to appear. As early as 1847, St. John's parish erected a siibstantial stone church, and within five or six years Congregational and Methodist churches were built, while some of the well-to-do citizens erected residences which brought down upon their heads reproof for their extravagance.* In the Waterbury Almanac for 1854 an architect's advertisement appears for the first time, but the profession did not secure a permanent place in the city until 1863. Since that date about a dozen architects have opened offices, six or seven of whom are now actively engaged in their profession. The number of buildings — dwelling houses, factories and public edifices — erected in recent years in the Naugatuck valley is so great that the archi- tect's services must necessarily be in much demand. The local history of sculpture and of pictorial art begins at a late date. It was in 1859 that Horace C. Johnson, having returned from a course of study in Rome, opened a studio in Waterbury, in which he worked, chiefly as a portrait painter, for more than thirty years. Other artists have resided here who have attained to some renown. Although their best works may have been produced since their removal to other places, some of these works — monuments and paintings— belong to our city, and in more ways than one Water- bury can claim a share in the fame of their authors. The history of Waterbury's monuments would almost fill a chapter, and these, with the various memorial windows and mural tablets of the city, are themselves a historical record well worthy of reproduction. The same may be said of the remarkable series of coins, or rather "tokens," which Waterbury has given to the world. There is no large collection of these in our city; but other collections, in the fields of art and archeology, are cf sufficient importance to warrant detailed description. Two important subjects remain to be touched upon — our '' frater- nities " and our military companies; and herein we again witness the life of the community manifesting itself in highly organized forms. As in all the old New England towns, the military element has been prominent from the first, but the martial spirit has not by any means manifested itself at all times with equal force. The demand for soldierly activity, however, has been sufficient to keep alive some sort of military organization from generation to generation, and in times of war — alike in the eighteenth century * The dwelling-house of William H. Scovill at the east end of the Green, the front of which is now hidden by stores, was criticized in a New Haven newspaper at the time of its erection, as offering too great encouragement to luxurious living, and thus illustrating the degeneracy of the times. J 2 HISTORY OF WATERS UBY. and the nineteenth, — our town has through her soldiers and their achievements made for herself a record of which she may well be proud. Her Soldiers' Monument, erected in honor of the living- and the dead of the " war for the Union," might with equal propriety have commemorated those who in the " day of small things " dedi- cated themselves to the deliverance and the upbuilding of the nation. As for the fraternities, they constitute one of the most remark- able illustrations of the process of evolution in the social life of a people. When in July, 1765, Provincial Grand Master Jeremiah Gridley issued a charter for the constituting of a Masonic lodge in Waterbury, how little he and those to whom he sent greeting imagined " whereunto this thing would grow " ! Free Masonry, however, did not secure a permanent foothold in Waterbury until 1797, and no other secret order was known within its borders until 1845, when a lodge of Odd Fellows was organized. Odd Fellowship itself had then been in existence in America only twenty-four years; the Ancient Order of Foresters had been transplanted from England in 1832, and the Improved Order of Red Men had appeared in 1833, and no branch of either of these organizations was estab- lished in Waterbury for some time after. But after 1865 fraternities were multiplied, and their membership was rapidly increased. The number of distinct societies in Connecticut at the end of 1891 was about 390, and the number of lodges or branches nearly a thousand. At the same date the number of mutual benefit societies in Water- bury — not counting the Masonic organizations, the Grand Army of the Republic, Knights of Labor, Patrons of Husbandry and the like — was fifty-four, and their total membership 5883, a total member- ship considerably larger than that of all the Protestant churches. Of the entire group of fraternities, some are general in their con- stituency and aims, some are national and some are religious. Each of them, however recent its origin, has a history to which justice ought to be done. In this bird's-eye view we have recognized the broad historic field as divided into various sections. While the entire area is embraced in these divisions, it nevertheless seems natural to leave some things for miscellaneous treatment. There are occurrences, for example, in the natural world, and there are remarkable events and remarkable persons, and things that are curious although not conspicuous — the flotsam and jetsam of history — which do not indeed defy classification, but which can best be disposed of in a chapter by themselves. When this closing chapter is reached it may be found quite as interesting, if not as valuable, as any that has preceded it. CHAPTER II. WATERBURY AS A BOROUGH 1825 TO 1853 THE NINTH IN THE STATE BOUNDARIES, DIMENSIONS, POPULATION OFFICERS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS MEETINGS BY-LAWS CONCERNING NUISANCES — CATTLE GOING AT LARGE A FIRE DEPARTMENT — STREETS AND SIDE- WALKS, WATER AND GAS THE WARDENS SKETCHES OF SOME OF THEM SKETCH OF WATERVILLE. IN 1784, by act of the legislature, Hartford, New Haven, Middle- town, New London and Norwich were incorporated as cities. At this time the only other corporate form in which the civic life of the community found expression was the primitive town- ship. The people of Connecticut were organized as towns (and we may add, as school societies), but the villages scattered over the state were simply the more populous town centres, subject only to town government, and midway between these and the cities just created there was no corporate organization. It was inevitable, however, that with the gradual increase of population in the state the number of thickly-settled villages should increase; and as soon as the great transition from an agri- cultural to a manufacturing condition had once set in, the villages in the river valleys and upon the coast were likely to g'row much more rapidly than those that had no special water privileges. The development of village life created new conditions which were not readily met by the traditional customs of town government; special conveniences and privileges came to be demanded, which the town as a whole could not enjoy and was therefore unwilling to pay for, and at the same time certain restrictions and reforms became necessary which the town at large could not appreciate. The result was the adoption in a number of cases of a borough organization. To be sure, we have in the first quarter of the century, two instances of the incorporation of villages — that of Litchfield in 1818 and that of Wethersfield in 1822; but the usual resort was a petition to the General Assembly to be incorporated as a borough. First in the list comes Bridgeport, which obtained a borough charter in October, 1800. This was followed by Stoning- ton, a few months later — in May, 1801. Guilford came next, but not until 1815, and others in the following order: Essex and Killing- worth in 1820, Danbury in 1822, and Colchester and Newtown in 1824. It thus appears that when the inhabitants of Waterbury residing- at or near the centre of the town applied to the legislature 14 HISTORY OF WATERS UBY. for a borough charter, there were already eight boroughs in the state. The act of incorporation for Waterbury was passed at the May session, 1825. Of these nine boroughs Bridgeport was the first to become a city. All the others were outstripped in the advance toward municipal life by Waterbury, which is chronologically the seventh city in the state. With the exception of Danbury, the others still retain their borough organization. The limits of the borough of Waterbury were defined as follows: Beginning at the point where Steel's brook empties into the Naugatuck river, the line ran eastward, or more accurately, east- southeast, for a mile and a half, to a point on the Buck's Hill road "ten rods north of Isaac Sutton's dwelling house"; thence south- east for a fourth of a mile "to the parting of the Long Hill road, the southwest corner of James Scovill's Long Hill farm"; thence in almost the same direction for nearly a mile " to the Waterbury and vSouthington turnpike road, thirty rods west of Daniel Porter's dwelling house" ; thence southwest for a mile "to the bend in the Naugatuck river where the road from Noah G. Baldwin's strikes the Waterbury river turnpike road "; thence up the middle of the river, in a northwesterly direction for the most part, to the mouth of Steel's brook. This northwest corner of the borough territory was a little more than a mile from Centre square ; the northeast corner was three-fourths of a mile from the centre ; the southeast corner a mile and an eighth, and the southern corner nearly a mile and a quarter. The circumference was six miles, and the greatest distance from north to south two miles and a half. The borough, it will be observed, lay entirely on the east side of the river, and was doubtless meant to be co-terminous with what might naturally be considered the boundaries of the village. The number of inhabitants within this area cannot be given precisely. The popu- lation of the town in 1820 was 2882; in 1830 (Columbia society having in the meantime been transferred to the new town of Prospect) the population was 3070. In 1825 it was, we may suppose, about 3000 — two-thirds of whom were probably within the borough limits. The electors within these limits were by the charter made " a body corporate and politic, by the name of the Warden, Burgesses and Freemen of the borough of Waterbury," and these, with the consent of the warden and a majority of the burgesses, had the power to admit to the freedom of the borough electors of the town living outside of borough limits, but owning real estate or regularly doing business within it. The charter provided for an annual meeting in the month of May, at which othcers were to be chosen (by ballot) for the ensuing THE BOROUGH AND WATERVILLE. i^ year. These officers were a warden, six burgesses, a clerk, a treas- urer and a bailiff. The functions and powers of the bailiff were substantially the same as those of a town constable; those of the warden and burgesses the same as those " granted to selectmen and justices of the peace in the several towns." They had power to lay out highways, streets and walks, to erect and maintain a sign-post, and to make by-laws relative to streets, walks, public buildings, markets, public lamps, shade-trees, fruit-trees, trespasses in gardens, nuisances in the streets, the firing of guns, noises at night, the use of buildings for purposes which incurred the risk of fire, the sweep- ing of chimneys, the restraining of horses, cattle and other animals from going at large, the establishing of a watch and the burial of the dead. They had power also to form and regulate a fire com- pany, and to enlist or appoint firemen (but not to exempt them from military duty). The borough had power to appoint inspectors of produce, hay wards, and whatever officers were necessary to carry the by-laws into execution, and finally, to levy taxes upon the polls and ratable estate within the borough limits. The first borough meeting was held, as provided for in the act of the General Assembly, "at the meeting house in the First Eccle- siastical society," that is, the Congregational church then standing at the east end of the Green, " on the second Monday of June, A. D. 1825." The moderator of the meeting was John Kingsbury, who was chosen to the office of warden. He is spoken of by C. H. Car- ter, in his article on "Connecticut Boroughs,"* as "the first citizen of his time in the town. He had been the presiding judge of the county court, and had held other prominent positions." The clerk chosen at this first meeting was Joel Hininan, " a popular and prom- ising young lawyer, who afterward became the chief justice of the supreme court of the state." The burgesses for the first year were Joseph Burton, Joseph Porter, Austin Steele, J. M. L. Scovill, Bennett Bronson and Mark Leavenworth. The treasurer was Dr. Edward Field and the bailiff Daniel Steel. At a meeting held September 20, a b3^-law was adopted ordaining that future meetings should be held at the West Centre school-house, and that the annual meeting should be on the Tuesday next after the first ]\Ionday of May. During the existence of the borough there were two years in which an annual meeting was not held — 1S37 and 1842. In 1833, the time fixed for the annual meeting was allowed to pass without legal action, and it became necessary to apply to the General Assembly ♦Read before the New Haven Colony Historical society, March 31, 1884. Published in Vol. IV. of the papers of the society, pp. 139-183. i6 HISTORY OF WATERS URY. for relief. A "resolve" was passed by the Assembly authorizing- William H. Scovill to call a meeting of the electors of the borough, and ordaining that if at any future time the borough should fail to hold its annual meeting at the time specified in the charter, the last legally chosen warden, or in case of his death or absence the senior burgess should have power to call a meeting. In 1833 the borough was summoned to consider a petition of sundry inhabitants of the town praying the General Assembly " to extend the limits of the borough so as to include the whole of the First School society, thus making it co-extensive with the present limits of the town. " This," says Mr. Carter, "was an adroit attack on the borough — the only WATERDUKV CENTRE IN 1837.* one of the kind that has been found in the state. If the petition had been granted, it would have been impossible to pass any b}^- * This view of Waterbury from the southeast is copied from Barber's "Connecticut Historical Collec- tions," p 261. The street which is visible is that now known as South Main street. The various buildings have been identified by Mr. F. J. Kingsbury, as follows: Of the three churches, that on the left is St. John's, that on the right the Congregational, afterward Gothic hall, that at the centre the Baptist. (At a later date the tower of the Baptist church stood at the west end of it, on Bank street). The building with a small cupola seen in the rear of the Baptist church is the academy. The building in the immediate fore- ground, opposite the foot of Meadow street, is the dwelling-house of Julius Morris, occupied at an earlier date as the button factory of Abel Porter & Co. The other three houses on the nearer side of South INlain street are the dwellings of Mrs. Aurelia Clark, John W. Bronson and William H. Adams — the last named and northernmost being on the corner of Union street. The houses on the further side of South Main street, beginning at the left, are Deacon P. W. Carter's (formerly the Rev. Joel R. Arnold's), Edward Scovill's (formerly Asahel Coe's), and Israel W. Russell's (removed from the corner of North and East Main streets, formerly James Scovill's). The house seen immediately above Deacon Carter's roof is Elizur E. Prichard's, on the west side of Canal street. There are other buildings that can be identified, but not easily described to the reader without resort to figures. THE BOROUGH AND WATERVTLLE. 17 laws, especially on that favorite subject, the restraining of neat cattle." * The borough voted to employ Joel Hinman, Esq., to oppose the petition; but no trace of it is found in the state records, and it is probable that it was abandoned when it was seen that the borough was prepared to oppose it. Amidst a steadily increasing prosperity in manufacturing affairs, things went on at the centre of the town in a quiet way. The freemen of the borough met from time to time, adopting by-laws chiefly in relation to neat cattle, and then amending or repealing them. But a conviction grew up among thoughtful citizens that the borough organization ought to be exchanged " for something more powerful and of a wider scope. The large increase of the population had developed new and greater corporate wants." At a meeting in February, 1852, a committee of six prominent citizens was appointed to revise the borough charter, and in November following the sum of fifty dollars was voted to defray the expenses of the revision, but no report seems to have been presented. The time had come for something better. At a meeting of citizens held at Gothic hall, April 14, 1853, it was unanimously voted to adopt a charter with city powers, and the Hon. Green Kendrick was engaged to draw up the same — to be presented at a future meeting. f In the act incorporating the city of Waterbury, passed in May, 1853, a clause was included repealing the borough charter after the second Monday of July in that year. A careful examination of the records fails to bring to light any thing of great importance accomplished by the borough in its corporate capacity during the twenty-eight years of its existence. At a meeting in October, 1825, it equipped itself for its work by the appointment of street inspectors, haywards and a pound-keeper, and it may be presumed that these officers fulfilled their proper functions from year to year, and were not without something to do. But throughout most of its history the action of the borough itself took the form of votes or by-laws relating to street nuisances and especially to the restraining of neat cattle within proper limits. At the meeting just referred to, a by-law was adopted concerning nuisances in the streets, which decreed that the streets must not be occupied by "any stones, trees, timber, wood, rubbish, cart, carriage, sled, shingles," or anything else likely to obstruct or incumber them. But the exceptions were such as greatly limited its scope, and we are informed on good authority that " very little attention was paid to it."| It shows us to how large an extent Waterbury still remained in its " colonial " condition, to read in this ♦"Connecticut Boroughs," p. 71. ^ lyaierbiiry Ainericati, April 15, 1853. $C. H. Carter's paper, p. 169. J 8 HISTORY OF WATERBVRY. by-law that " such of the inhabitants as have no room within their inclosnres where they can conveniently deposit and cut their wood may place it on the highway for the purpose of cutting for the space of forty-eight hours, if the quantity does not exceed one and one-half cords ; if more than that quantity, then three days and no longer." At a meeting in May, 1840, it was ordained that if any person " shall ride or drive any horse or horses and wagon, or drive any cattle upon any of the sidewalks," he shall be subject to a fine of three dollars. The penalty was severe, compared with others imposed by the borough, and indicates that the practice aimed at was very prevalent — a natural result, Mr. Carter suggests, of the bad condition of the roads at certain seasons of the year. Six years later — in June, 1846 — the borough sought to suppress another nuisance by its by-law against public noises. It was ordained that if any person should "fire any field-piece, musket or pistol, or cause any fire-balls, crackers or artificial fireworks of any kind to be exploded on the public square or any of the public streets within a quarter of a mile of the centre," except by written permission' of the warden and burgesses, he would be liable to a fine of seven dollars ; and no exception seems to have been made in favor of the fourth of July. It may be mentioned in this connection that in the same year, 1846, the Hotchkiss & Merriman Manufacturing com- pany sought permission to erect hay-scales on the public square, in front of their store. The warden and burgesses voted not to grant their request, but at a subsequent borough meeting this decision was overruled. The very first action taken by the borough subsequent to its organization — that is, on October 11, 1825 — was the passing of an elaborate by-law (it fills more than four closely-written pages of the folio volume containing the records) in relation to " restraining horses, mules, cattle, sheep, swine and geese from going at large " on, any of the streets, highways, public walks or uninclosed grounds within borough limits. This enactment was the first of a series extending through a period of twenty-five years, in relation to this difficult and delicate subject. The effect of this was largely neutralized by the provision that each head of a family who kept a cow might permit it to run at large from May to December, pro- vided he had lodged with the clerk a description of the cow's natural and artificial marks. But even with this exception the law was considered too stringent, and so far as it related to neat cattle was repealed a few months later. Mr. Carter thinks — not without reason — that the borough was considerably agitated over the cattle question, and that it entered largely into the election of 1827. Up THE BOROUGH AND WATEBVILLE. ig to this time the borough officers had been selected from among the most influential citizens, but now " a complete change was made in the persoimel of the government. The newly elected officers," Mr. Carter adds, "Avere not of the class from which persons are usually elected to important offices." At all events, the new administration was not long in bringing forward a new law. It provided that neat cattle might go at large in highwa3^s and commons, from sunrise to eight o'clock in the evening, from May to December, provided that two dollars a year were paid for each beast going at large by the owner thereof. And from this time onward the subject of " neat cattle running at large" appears in the records with amusing frequency. In May, 1828, the warden and burgesses were author- ized to procure shepherds to take charge of cattle on the commons, but there is no account of their employment. A new by-law was passed in 1830, another in 1833, another in 1840, another in 1844, another in 1849, and another apparently in 1852, although this last is not referred to in the borough records. By this time the centre of the town was much more densely populated than in the earlier period, and the number of persons who kept cows had relatively decreased. The amount of pasturage in the highways diminished as they were improved, and the privilege so eagerly claimed in former years because less valuable. The feeling against cattle running at large had now opportunity to assert itself, and the law of 1849 was a sweeping one ; it ordained " that 710 neat cattle should be allowed to go at large." That the law of 1852 was of the same purport may be inferred from a notice published on June 4, of that year : From and after this da}", the borough law for restraining cattle, horses, etc., passed on the i8th of May, takes eifect, having been published three times. Owners of cows, horses, etc., in the borough will therefore do well to take the hint, as it is the determination of the hay wards to clear the streets of all the cattle and horse-kind, whether with or without straps. Therefore let all govern themselves accordingly.* It would be a mistake to suppose that all the acts of the borough during the twenty-eight years of its existence were prohibitory rather than progressive. It fell to its lot, in the development of events, to establish a fire department for Waterbury, and the task was zealously undertaken, and not without tangible results. An organization numbering at first sixteen men, and ultimately sixt)-, known as the Mattatuck Fire Engine company, was established in * In 1853 a by-law restraining neat cattle was passed by the taiun. In 1882 a state law was enacted, making it a criminal offense for any person " entitled to the custody " of such animals as have been referred to above, to permit them to be at large in any highway or common. 20 HISTORY OF WATERBURY. 1830, and an engine house built at a cost of thirty dollars. In 1849 the company as then existing was regarded as inefficient, and was disbanded, and a new company organized, to consist of a hundred men in two divisions. But the details in relation to the fire system of the borough may be found in the history of the fire department, and need not be given here. Almost from the first, the borough supplied itself with street inspectors, but the expenditure for street improvements seems to have been very slight. In May, 1832, the sum of five dollars was api^ropriated "to repair the sidewalk" — and this seems to be the first mention of sidewalks in the history of Waterbury — "from the house of Mrs. Alathea vScovill eastward to the bridge near Joseph Fairclough's blacksmith shop; " also ten dollars — "should there be that amount m the treasury" — "to repair the street at Cooper's pond near the house of Reuben L. Judd." In May, 1838, a tax of one cent on the dollar was levied, to defray the expense of inriproving the streets, and the following appropriations were made: Twenty- five dollars to be laid out on the south side of the street "from'Dr. Jesse Porter's store " (corner of West Main street and Exchange place) "to Captain vSperry's;" ten dollars on the north side "from Captain Sperry's to Scovill's store " (corner of West Main and North Main streets); ten dollars "to be laid out from the corner of Dr. Jesse Porter's store to Aaron Benedict;" fifteen dollars "to be laid out from William H. Scovill's corner" (North Main and East Main streets) " to Dr. Jesse Porter's house " (at the junction of East Main and Cole streets); fifteen dollars "on the street from Scovill's store," up North Main street, "to Mark Leavenworth;" and (subsequently) ten dollars " on the sidewalk from vScovill's store to Anson Sperry." The only other action in the line of street improvements was taken in the summer of 1846, when it was ordained that certain sidewalks should "be and remain as public sidewalks for public convenience, to be supported and kept in repair at the expense of individuals and owners of lands adjoining them." One of these was the walk " commencing at the north line of the turnpike near the dwelling of William H. Scovill, and running on the east side of the highway to the bridge a little northerly of Willard Spencer's" — that is, from East Main street up North Main to Kingsbury street; "thence crossing to the west side of the said highway " — that is. North Main street — " and continuing on the west side of the same, terminating five rods north of the dwelling of Joshua Guilford." This sidewalk was to be at least six feet wide; and besides this there was to be a walk four feet wide " on each side of the highway commencing near the dwelling of Edward Robin- THE BOROUGH AND WATER VILLE. 21 son," on Cherry street, "and extending- easterly five rods beyond the dwelling- of Anson Bronson."* So far as the record shows, nothing else was enacted in the way of street improvements, nnless we include the vote at the annual meeting of 1852, by which Julius Hotchkiss, afterwards mayor of the city "was appointed agent to take ^^^ ^^^-, charge of Centre square and flag- I^«wm*~^-^ -,^=5k,^^^^» staff." But there were other improve- ments to which the borough did not close its eyes. In 1849 a committee was appointed to apply for a charter " to form a water company for fur- nishing a full supply of water," and in 1852 another committee was directed to report on the expediency of bring- ^^SIH^S^^^SHJH ing water "into the village" for use l^^^s^^^^^s^^^^^^m r r- T TT -U^ „ Ti-I* CENTRE SQUARE AND FLAG-STAFF. + m cases of nre. in i*ebruary ot this year (1852) a special meeting was called to consider "the propriety of granting to Thomas G. Baxter, of New York, the exclusive priv- ilege of laying gas pipes through the streets, for supplying the inhabitants with gas light." Permission was granted, and the con- tract to furnish Waterbury with gas was given to Mr. Baxter.J At the last borough meeting of which there is record (November 13, 1852), an appropriation of $125 was made "for erecting and sus- taining gas lights from Centre square to the railroad station." There are no minutes of any meeting between June and Novem- ber, 1852; but in the Waterbury American of September 24 of that year, we find the following: "The decision of the citizens of this borough on Saturday afternoon, adverse to laying a small tax for the purpose of clearing the borough from past claims, purchasing and repairing hose, etc., was somewhat unexpected to many." During the twenty-eight years of the borough, the following fourteen persons held the office of warden. The list gives the dates of their election (the year beginning in May). As has been stated, there was no election of officers in 1837 or 1842. John Kingsbury, 1S25, 1826, also Moses Hall, 1S30. 1831. Mark Leavenworth, 1832. Ard Warner, 1S27. William H. Scovill, 1833 to 1836. Lemuel Harrison, 1828, 1829. Silas Grilley, 1S38. * It will be a surprise to readers of the present day to learn that sidewalks were established on High street so many years ago. t From a painting by Jared D. Thompson, in possession of Mrs. Mary Hayden Bancroft, of Hartford, $ See the Waterbury American of April 16, 1852. 2 2 HISTORY OF WATERS URY. Green Kendrick, 1839. David S. Law, 1846 to 1849. Edward Chittenden, 1840, 1841. Willard Spencer, 1S50. George W. Benedict, 1843 to David B. Hurd, 1851. 1845. Edward B. Cooke, 1852.* CAPTAIN LEMUEL HARRISON. Lemuel Harrison, third warden of the borough of Waterbury. was born in Litchfield, November 17, 1765.! His father, Lemuel Harrison, was an ensign in the Seventeenth Connecticut regiment. Young Lemuel accompanied him as a private aide, and afterwards enlisted in his own name. He came to Waterbury before 1790, and subsequently, with his brother James, engaged in the manufactuie of wooden clocks. In 181 1 he entered into partnership with Daniel Clark, Zenas Cook and William Porter, for carrying on the same business, and later, in partnership with his son James, he engaged in the business of turning shoe lasts. He was one of the early members of the Masonic fraternity in Waterbury, and in 181 1 was worshipful master of Harmony lodge. On March 4, 1790, he mar- ried Sarah, daughter of Thomas Clark of Town Plot, by whom 'he had four sons and two daughters (Vol. I, Ap. p. 61). For many years he lived on the south side of Union square, but about 1831 built a brick house on the site of the Clark tavern, a property which his wife had inherited from her father. He died in this home on November 25, 1857. His daughter Maria remained in the house until 1868, when the place was sold to the city as a site for the City hall. Garry Harrison, the second son, went from Waterbury in 1819, to Tallmadge, in the Western reserve. There, besides working at the trade of a tailor, he entered actively into missionary service, going from town to town in the sparsely settled country, and also into lower Michigan, exhorting and teaching. He died at the age of twenty-eight, of a fever contracted in Michigan. His wife, Catherine, daughter of Deacon Enoch Snow, survived him two years, and left one son, Stephen Edwin Harrison (page 463). CAPTAIN MOSES HALL. Moses Hall was a son of Curtiss and Rachel (Beecher) Hall, and the fifth in descent from John Hall, who came to this country be- * The charter of the borough of Waterbury is printed in the "Private Laws of Connecticut," Vol. I, pp. 221 ei seg., p. 225. The manuscript records of tlie borough are contained in a folio volume of 182 pages, entitled " Record Book of the Borough of Waterbury." They extend from p. i to p. 139, with the excep- tion of an occasional blank page. Pages 140-179 are vacant, and pp. i8o and 182 contain lists of firemen enrolled and excused. + For genealogy, see Bronson's History, pp. 495, 496, THE BOROUGH AND WATERVILLE. 23 fore 1660. He was born in that part of Waterbury which is now Wolcott, March 19, 1777, and removed to the centre on his twenty- first birthday. He was a farmer, but during the early years of clock-making- travelled through western New York selling clocks, going as far west as Canandaigua with his own team. In October, 1804, he was commissioned by Governor Trumbull "captain of the first company in the Twenty-sixth regiment of militia, to take rank from September 7, 1804." In his youth he was an athlete of con- siderable local repute. Of powerful frame, six feet two inches in height, he was the champion of the town. On February 26, 1803, he married Olive, daughter of Dr. Timothy Porter, by whom he had five children (Vol. I, Ap. pp. 60, 107). He died January 29, 1857. EDWARD CHITTENDEN. Edward Chittenden was born in that part of Waterbury which is now Prospect, February 8, 1801. He removed to Waterbury centre in 1839 and became proprietor of the Mansion House (page 224). Some years later he removed to New York, but after awhile returned to Waterbury and engaged in the manufacture of small articles in brass. He subsequently removed to New Haven, but again returned to Waterbury and erected a brick block on the site of his former home on South Main street. On April 3, 1828, he married Emeline, daughter of Samuel Castle of Prospect; she died May 17, 1871. Their children are Mrs. Emma Ives and Mrs. Ellen Ives. Late in life he married Mrs. Caroline Bailey. He died May 3, 1893. GEORGE W. BENEDICT. George William Benedict, eldest son of Aaron and Charlotte (Porter) Benedict (page 299), was born in Waterbury, November 26, 1 8 14. From his youth he was interested in the manufacturing departments of the companies originated by his father. He was warden of the borough from 1843 to 1846, was a selectman in 1851 and 1859, a member of the Common Council in 1859 and i860, mayor of the city from June, 1855, to June, 1856, and was in the legisla- ture in 1857. On February 7, 1838, he married Caroline R., daughter of Austin Steele, by whom he had the following children: Mary Caroline, married to Louis D. Griggs, October 13, 1863; Frances Jennette, married to Edward J. Rice, February 28, 1863, died Sep- tember 27, 1892, leaving a daughter, Charlotte Benedict; George Henry, born May 18, 1844, died October 5, 1888; Aaron Austin, born October 5, 1849; and Clara Louise, who died in her tenth year. Mr. Benedict died April 12, 1862. He was "a man of integrity 24 HISTORY OF WATERS URT. and honesty, a man of action rather than of words; interested in everything relating- to the prosperity of the town; reserved, but possessed of a g-enerous heart." WILLARD SPENCER. Willard Spencer, son of Ansel and Lowly (Benham) vSpencer, was born in that part of Waterbnry which is now Prospect, May 14, 1801. (See Vol. I, Ap. pp. 31, 129, 130.) In 1826 he removed to Waterbnry centre and became a merchant. In 1833 he entered the firm of Leavenworth & Kendrick, and in 1836 became engaged with others in the manufacture of gilt buttons, under the firm name of Leavenworth, Spencer & Sperry, and in 1839 with Dr. Ambrose Ives. He served the town in various capacities. In 1834 he was in the legislature; in 1837-39 was town clerk. He was selectman and and agent for the town for nearly twenty years. In 1846 he was judge of probate, in 1850 warden of the borough, and in 1857 state senator. He was an alderman and a councilman, and frequently served on the school board. He was a director in the Citizens' bank, president of the Waterbury Savings bank, and president of the board of agents of the Bronson library. On June 27, 1830, he mar- ried Marcia, daughter of Joseph Burton (page 231). Their children were Susan, Frederick Albert, Joseph Burton, William Ansel, and Mary Elizabeth, who died January 18, 1873. Mrs. vSpencer died February 28, 1887; Mr. Spencer survived her until May 2, 1890. The length of his term of service as selectman and town agent, as well as the large number of offices to which he was called by his fellow citizens, affords evidence of the high esteem in which Mr. wSpencer was held. For more than sixty years he lived in full view of a watchful and critical community, without incurring reproach or suspicion; and not only so, he became known in the meantime as a man of ability, of expert knowledge in matters of local con- cern, and of excellent judgment. Although of a retiring disposi- tion and reticent in speech, those who knew him well recognized him as a man of varied knowledge and liberal views, in some respects far in advance of his associates in the business world. He became a member of the First church in May, 1843, at the same time with more than forty others, fruits of a "revival" under the ministry of the Rev. David Root. There was little, however, in his life to encourage the belief that his conception of religion was chiefly emotional; he was on the contrary a calm thinker, subject- ing prevalent doctrines and practices to the test of reason, and at the same time exhibiting the broadest charity toward those who differed from him. The closing years of his life were passed in the / TBE BOROUGH AND WATERVILLE. 25 shadow of a most trying illness, but his path was lighted all the way by the radiance of filial affection, until he had passed at length To where, beyond these voices, there is peace. For Major F. A. Spencer, see Volume III, page 12 14; for J. B. Spencer, page 50 of this volume. William Ansel Spencer was born in Waterbury, June 24, 1840. He enlisted in the Eighth regiment of Connecticut volunteers in September, 1861, and served until January, 1863, when he was dis- charged on account of sickness. On November 6, 1865, he married Caroline Augusta Blackman. She died September 6, 1877, leaving two daughters, Katharine Lewis and Marcia Burton. On August 14, 1878, he married Susie Henrietta Teston, by whom he has one son, Frederick Albert Spencer, born April 9, 1880. After his first marriage Mr. Spencer removed to New York, thence to Boston, and thence to West Medway, Mass., where he was prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, and where a flourishing camp of Sons of Veterans bears his name. He was also a member of the staff of the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army. He returned to Waterbury and resumed business here in 1894. J*- .a.iv,,^^,i(i.i -js^i j'=:^y/r'* I '1 fege CENTRE SC^UARE IN 1857.* ■ From a drawing by Charles U. C. Burton, National Magazhie, September, 1857. 26 HISTORY OF WATERBURY. THE VILLAGE OF WATERVILLE. At the date of the incorporation of the borough, and for some time before that, the most important neighborhood and the most definite "centre" in Waterbnry, outside of the borough limits, was the village of Waterville, lying about two miles to the north. As the place it fills in the history of the town, and of late years in its industrial record, is by no means inconspicuous, it is fitting that some account of it should be given in this connection. The beautiful valley in which Waterville is situated, with its lovely meadows stretching away to the river and gently rising into hills on the east and west, is shut in on the north by precipices of rock, whose peculiar rose-tinted sides glistening with mica scales, especially when seen in the light of the western sun, present pic- tures of rare beauty. Early in the settlement of the town these meadows and hills proved attractive to settlers and they pushed in, around the fields at the mouth of Hancock brook, until some of the more venturesome paid a heavy penalty for their rashness, being tortured and carried off by wandering Indians, who, hiding in the hills and biding their time, swooped down on the defenseless labor- ers in the valley.* In its earlier history Waterville was called Pine Hole. That was the name of the school district and remained so for many years.f It was a little farming settlememt, with a few scattered houses, a school house, and a sawmill up the brook. It was a pleas- ant village, and on a sunny day the passing traveler, especially if he happened to come about the time of the "play-spell," would see the children gather hastily in a line along the roadside, and the boys would bow and the girls courtes)- in their very best manner. Of course the traveller returned this greeting, and if he chanced to have apples in his wagon would stop and give one to each. Captain Joseph Bronson was one of the largest landholders, and a leading man in the town of Waterbury. He lived a little to the north of the village, in the place lately occupied by Moses S. Cook, and still owned by his son. On the rising ground just south of the village, and overlooking the valley, lived Daniel Cook, the father of Moses, * See Bronson's History, p. 105. But compare the elaborate statement occupying Chapter XX of our first volume, pp. 257-262, for the story of Jonathan Scott and his sons. + Hole, or holl, is an old Saxon locative, equivilant to hollow or valley. In the early history of this coun- try it was frequently used in place-names. Wood's Holl and Holmes's Holl in Massachusetts are survivals of the word, and hereabouts, besides Pine Hole, we had Hubbard Hole (the hollow between Buck's hill and Long hill), and probably others. THE BOROUOH AND WATERVILLE. 27 a most worthy man, with a pleasant smile, and a deep scar across his face where he had been injured when a boy by the bursting of a gun. Near the small stream known as Mac's brook, where Heber H. Welton lives, was another large farmer, Obadiah Warner, whose eldest son Ransom was for many years rector of St. Andrew's Epis- copal church, Bloomfield, and whose great-granddaughter is the wife of another Episcopal clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Woodcock of Ansonia. Over the river, where Joseph Welton lives, was the house and farm of Heman Munson, and a little further south the red house of Roger Peck, with two tall pine trees in front, a conspicu- ous feature in the landscape. His wife Mary and their daughter Phila were excellent women, and among the founders of the Meth- odist church in Waterbury (see page 703). On the east of the vil- lage, on the slope of the hill, is the place occupied for many years by Asa Bronson, and before him by Edward Perkins, and near by was that of Jesse Brown, who was for many years the blacksmith of the neighborhood. At the sawmill at the upper end of Sheffield street was the home of David Downs, father of Anson Downs, and grandfather of David E. Sprague. The place was afterwards sold to James Wheeler, and it was in this house that the Methodist church in Waterbur}', now so large and prosperous, seems to have had its beginning (page 701). Anson Downs spent his early business life in Bristol, but returned and lived many years at the corner of Shef- field street. David A. Sprague, Burritt Judson and Daniel Scott (prior to 1830) lived on the east side of the street below the bridge, and Colonel Henry Grilley and Joseph Hall, the butcher, on the west side. There were several roads from Waterbury to Waterville. One went up through the meadows, crossing the river by a bridge just below where the bridge of the Watertown railroad now is, then going past the Munson place and crossing the river again by a ford. Another went over Burnt hill, the road now known as Cooke street. There was still another which was a continuation of Willow street, and probably came out near where the New England railroad now crosses the main Waterville road. In 1786 a road was worked through near the edge of the river meadows. It was then called the Dug road, and in 1800 it was taken as part of the Waterbury river turnpike. The present road was opened when the New Eng- land railroad was built, about 1855. In the early history of the place the stream which rises near the Buck's hill school-house and empties into Hancock brook, near Heber Welton's, was known as Wigwam brook, or Wigwam Swamp brook, and the low ground on the line of it west of the Buck's hill 28 HI8T0BT OF WATEBBURT. road was Wigwam swamp. This would seem to point to Indian occupancy in the vicinity, and Joseph Welton was informed by Mrs. Joel Scott, who was born in 1780, that she remembered parties of Indians camping on the brook to fish, and coming to her father's house to beg and borrow. Later, the brook received the name of Mac's brook from one Daniel MacNamara who lived near it and occupied a considerable tract of land in the vicinity. His house is said to have been on the road which is the extension of Cooke street, and from him also the land where the factory of the Tucker Manu- facturing company now stands was called Mac's plain. David's brook is the small brook falling into the Naugatuck on the east side, three-quarters of a mile below the village, and a deep place in the river at that point was known as David's bottom. (See Vol. I, p. 693.) On the west side of the river, a short distance above the factory of the American Pin company, is a steep rock sloping into the river, with deep water at the bottom, known as Larry's rock. " Larry " was a slave belonging to Dr. Preserve Porter, and either by accident or through some pique he slipped or jumped from this rock and was drowned. With true professional instinct and an eye to economy Dr. Porter prepared and preserved his skeleton, doing the work, it is said, at the place where the accident occurred. The skeleton was a school of anatomy for the town, and has been in existence until a recent period, and may be yet. At the foot of the first great red ledge above the village there is a place called "the cave," a shelving rock spacious enough to shield a number of persons in a shower, with an aperture at the back which was called the chimney, and was sometimes used as such by the boys. On the cliff on the west side of the Hancock brook gorge, a short distance west of Hoadley's station (Greystone it is now called), is a very striking profile resembling the face of Wash- ington on the American dollar. (See Vol. I, p. 711.) The country all about is full of picturesque spots. But the industrial history of the place demands our attention. In the early part of this century Lemuel Porter manufactured chairs at Waterville, in a shop near where Heber H. Welton lives, using the power of Mac's brook for the purpose, and later he removed his business to where the factory of the Cutlery compan}' now is, and added the manufacture of clocks. The chairs were well made, and many are still in existence, with "L. Porter" branded on the under side of the seat, and after almost a hundred years are in good condition. This was apparently the first use of the power of Hancock brook at this point. THE BOROUGH AND WATERVILLE. . 29 About 1825 three young- men who had become friends while in Yale College decided to undertake the manufacture of gilt buttons. They were David Hayden, jr., son of David Hayden, who was at that time a prominent button manufacturer in Waterbury, William G. Webster, son of Noah Webster, the author of the dictionary, and Thomas H. Bond, a native of Enfield. It was young Hayden, doubt- less, who persuaded them to embark in the enterprise, and looking about for a place they decided to locate on Hancock brook for the sake of its water power, and for some years thereafter the place was known as Haydensville. These young men were without busi- ness experience, and with but little appreciation of the economy, perseverance and hard work which were as necessary then as they are now to success in business. The consequence was that they did not succeed, although for a while they had a "very good time." But perhaps their experience was not lost, as in after years they became useful and successful men. In 1829 the property went into the possession of Mark Leavenworth, his son B. F. Leavenworth, and his son-in-law Green Kendrick. They conducted the business for some years with fair success, under the name of Leavenworth & Kendrick, and were succeeded by Dr. Ambrose Ives and Heman Scott, Mr. Kendrick retaining an interest, and the firm name being Ives, Scott & Co., and later, Ives, Kendrick & Co. In the meantime the name of Haydensville had been appro- priated by a thriving village in Massachusetts, and it was thought best to abandon it here. At the suggestion of Mr. Kendrick the name Waterville was chosen, and it has been in use ever since. About 1840, the manufacture of pocket cutlery was introduced, and after various changes the business became organized in 1847 as the Waterville Manufacturing company, with Green Kendrick as president. In 1853 a "private act" was passed by the General Assembly, permitting this company to change its business. It was succeeded, later, by the firm of Sprague & Boydcn, which was suc- ceeded in turn by the Waterville Cutlery company, incorporated in 1890 with a capital of $20,000. Other companies have been organized, some of which have ceased to do business. But in 1886, the Tucker Manufacturing company, deriving its name from G. W. Tucker, was incorporated, for the manufacture of furniture trimmings, and in 1890 the H. L. Welch Hosiery company was incorporated, with a capital of $80,000, to carry on the work which its name indicates. The business had already, for many years, been carried on by Mr. Welch and his pre- decessors, a Union Knitting company, with Jonathan R. Crampton as president, having in fact been organized as long ago as 1855, for the manufacture of woolen under-clothing. 20 HISTORY OF WATERS UBY. The introduction of the cutlery business into Waterville brought in a number of English workmen who were members of the Church of England or at least attached to its services. Mr. Lyman Bradley, who at one time had charge of the business, Mr. Downs and Mr. Burritt, Mr. B. H. Morse, who was in charge later, and some others were Episcopalians. In response to the natural demand, the Rev. J. L. Clark, D. D., rector of vSt. John's church, began to hold services there, and the attendance so far increased that the little school- house no longer afforded sufficient accommodation. The cutlery business promised well, the Naugatuck railroad had been opened, and the expectation was that the place would grow. Under these circumstances it seemed wise to build a chapel. The history of St. Paul's chapel, and also of the chapel established some years after- ward by the Methodists, which led to the organization of the Water- ville Methodist church, is related in another place. The most important fact in the later history of Waterville is the removal to the village of the works of the American Pin company. This corporation, having determined to sell their valuable site on East Main street, near the centre of the city, purchased land near the Waterville station, and erected there a large factory, to which they removed in the early part of the present year (1894). " Their o-ong," in the language of the newspaper reporter, "adds music to the din of the merry toilers of Waterville." DAVID E. SPRAGUE. David Elias Sprague, son of David A. and Anna (Downs) Sprague, was born at Waterville, February 8, 1833. He studied at the Waterville district school and at the old academy at Water- bury centre. For ten years he represented the cutlery business of Waterville as a travelling salesman, and afterward became himself a manufacturer. The changes through which the bi:siness passed are indicated in the foregoing history of the village. Mr. vSprague has always exerted his influence in behalf of local improvements, so that he is recognized in the community as a man of enterprise and public spirit. He has invested largely in real estate, and is a bank director in Waterbury. On February 5, 1865, he married Frances J. Taylor, of Warren. HENRY L. WELCH. Henry L. Welch, who at the time of his death was president and treasurer of the H. L. Welch Hosiery company, was born in East Hampton, in 1820. His brothers were Harmanus M. Welch of New Haven, and E. N. Welch, of Bristol, both of whom died before him. THE nOROUOn AND WATER VILLE. .t He removed to Bristol in early boyhood, and at the age of fourteen entered a store in Plainville. He afterward became engaged in the manufacture of cotton web, and was manager of the Plainville mills. He also opened a branch of the same business in Hartford, where he resided. About 1870, he purchased the woolen mills at Waterville, but conducted the business, as he managed his other interests, from Hartford as a centre. In 1880, he removed to this city, and resided here during the rest of his life, riding to and fro daily between his home on Hillside avenue and the factory at Waterville. A few years before his death he purchased a southern home at Marietta, Ga., and for two or three seasons spent the inclement months of the winter and spring in that place. In 187 1, he married Miss Jennie C. French, who with a niece. Miss Alice L. French, constituted his family at the time of his death. One of his daughters by a previous marriage, Mrs. Frederick Sampson of Hartford, survived him; another was killed in a collision on the Old Colony railroad a 3"ear before his decease. Mr. Welch was in early life a member of the Baptist church. Politically he was "a staunch democrat of the old school — one who never sought office, but was interested in great public questions and in the development of party policy." He was specially influential in politics as a woolen manufacturer who supported " tariff reform." He represented Waterbury in the legislature in 1889. He died on March 4, 1893, and was buried at Plainville. JOSEPH WELTON. Joseph Welton, son of the Rev. Joseph Davis and Eunice (Tom- linson) Welton, was born in Woodbury, May 15, 1814. He was edu- cated in Waterbury, where he has spent most of his life. At the age of fourteen, while a school boy, he made a careful survey and pre- pared an outline map of the Green, which has been preserved until now, and has furnished useful memoranda for the History of Water- bury. He lived on the Wolcott road, near where his brother, Hobart V. Welton still resides, until 1836, when he removed to a farm on the west side of the Naugatuck river, opposite Waterville. The farm is rendered conspicuous by its large and dense grove of Spruce trees standing near the river, some of which are fifty or sixty feet in height. This grove is what remains of a business venture made, a good many 3^ears ago, b}^ Mr. Welton and Leonard Piatt. i\Ir. Piatt went to England and brought with him to this countrv 200,000 .2 BISTORT OF WATERBURY. Norway spruce seedlings, which were planted on Mr. Welton's farm. They were set in rows about three feet apart, and acres were covered with them. Afterward Mr. Piatt brought from Ohio 260,000 arbor vitse plants which were set out with the spruce seedlings. Many of the trees were afterward sold from this extensive nursery, but a large number are still in place, constituting the grove above referred to. (In the view given below, part of it is visible on the left.) On January 20, 1836, Mr. WeUon married Mary Salina, daughter of Seabury Pierpont, by whom he had a son. Homer Heber Welton, of Waterville, who married Ellen J. Garrigus, and two daughters: Eunice Clorana, who married first Owen E. Scott, and afterward Lewis Garrigus; and Lucy Adaline, who married Austin Beecher Pierpont. (See Vol. I, Ap. pp. 151, 103.) THE NAUGATUCK RIVER. LOOKING NORTHWARD TOWARD JOSEPH welton's FARM. CHAPTER III. WATERBURY AS A CITY THE CHARTER OF 1853 CITY BOUNDARIES POPULATION FIRST OFFICERS ELECTED BY-LAWS EXPENSES AND TAXES CITY HALL THE CHARTER OF 1 87 I WATER SUPPLY SEWERAGE LIST OF MAYORS POLICE FORCE CITY PRISON STREET NAMES — CONTINUOUS PROSPERITY THE FIRST MAYOR AND SOME OTHERS. ACCORDING to the United States census of 1850, the popula- tion of Waterbury in that year numbered 5137. From i8ro to 1840 the increase had been very small — less, in fact, than 800; but during the next ten years it was more rapid than in any previous period of its history. Various improvements were at the same time being introduced. St. John's church — a handsome stone edifice — was built in 1847; the Naugatuck railroad was completed in 1849; and, passing over into the next decade, the borough was lighted with gas in 1852. Very naturally, the business men of the place began to consider seriously the subject of a city charter. The powers conferred by the borough charter, which had existed since 1825, were not deemed sufficient for the requirements of the growing community. The men of that day were laying deep and broad the foundations of Waterbury's prosperity, and they saw that the time was near at hand when greater powers and privileges and a stronger central government would be required to secure good order and the best interests of the citizens. The first definite result of the agitation was an application to the General Assembly held at Hartford in 1853 for an act of incor- poration. It met with a favorable reception. "An Act incorporat- ing the City of Waterbury" was passed by both branches of the legislature, and was approved by the Hon. Thomas H. Seymour, then governor, June 25, 1853. The writer of this article was at that time a member of the senate from the old fifth (or Waterbury) district, and assisted to the best of his ability in securing favorable action upon the charter. The representatives from Waterbury were Hobart V. Welton and Joseph Smith. Although the title of the act was simply, "An Act incorporating the City of Waterbury," the new body corporate and politic had a very ponderous corporate name in the text of the charter, in accord- ance with the phraseology of other old charters existing at that S 24 HISTORY OF WATERBURY. time. It was, "The Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council and Free- men of the City of Waterbury," a designation which it was neces- sary to insert in any writ by or against the city, or an abatement of the writ might follow. The charter provided for the election of a mayor, four aldermen, and not more than twenty common council- men, a city clerk, a treasurer, two sheriffs, and an auditor of city accounts. It also provided for a city court of limited jurisdiction, but of a rather cumbrous character, as it consisted of a recorder, to be elected by the common council, and the "two aldermen first chosen at the annual meeting" as assistant or side judges, with ample provision for supplying their places in case of absence or disability.* The practice of establishing inferior courts with assist- ant or side judges was common fifty years ago, and the side judges were not supposed to know much about the law, though they could outvote and overrule the chief judge when the question of decision or judgment was reached, or in the admission or rejection of evi- dence. It used to be said of such courts that the chief judge, if he knew any law, which was not always the case, was apt to ignore the existence of the side judges, and did not often advise with them, except upon the state of the weather or the hardness of their respective seats. Very little business was done in our old city court, however, until it was reorganized by an amendment to the charter in 1866, which provided for a single presiding judge, and a much larger jurisdiction than before. A police court was also pro- vided for by the same amendment. The city court as thus consti- tuted was transformed into the present district court by act of the legislatiire of April 14, 1881. The limits of the new city, as established by its first charter, were as follows : Commencing at the entrance of Steel's brook into the Naugatuck river, thence easterly to the Buck's Hill road, ten rods northerly of the dwelling-house of the late Isaac Sutton, thence to the bridge where the Cheshire road crosses Carrington brook, thence to the dam of Brown & Elton across Mad river, thence south- westerly to' the Naugatuck river at the lower end of Mad meadow, — said point being the present southwest corner of the borough of Waterbury, — thence westerly to the northeast corner of the dwelling-house of Erastus P. Potter, thence northerly to the intersection of the Middlebury and town plot road, on West-side hill, thence northerly to the place of beginning. The population of that part of Waterbury thus incorporated could hardly have exceeded 4000, as the villages of Waterville and Oakville and the large farming portion of the town outside of the * Joseph G. Easton was elected as the fust recorder of the city court, but he declined to serve, and Corydon S. Sperry was elected in his stead. WATERBURT AS A CITY. 3^ city limits must have contained at least eleven or twelve hundred inhabitants, and the entire population, as we have seen, numbered something over 5137. The smallness of the population, in view of the old mistaken idea that a city ought to have at least 10,000 inhabitants before its incorporation, led to a good deal of harmless witticism at the expense of the young city. But it needed only one census more, that of i860, to show that the population of town and city together exceeded : 0,000. It was a common saying in the rural districts of the neighboring towns, soon after the incorpora- tion, that the people of Waterbury were very anxious to get a case or two of cholera froin New York, to give prestige to the new city. The historian HoUister, then a practicing lawyer in Litchfield, writing his " History of Connecticut " about this time, which was first published two years later, spoke of Waterbury as follows: For many years, and until the commencement of the present century, Water- burj' was not thought to be a town that could offer any very strong inducements to those who were seeking a favorable situation for a permanent abode. But a change has come over the aspect of the place, that reminds us of the transformations we find in tales of Arabian enchantment. The river, once so destructive to those who -dwelt upon its banks, though sometimes even now in its more gamesome moods it loses its self-control and deluges the lands and houses of the inhabitants, is no longer the instrument of destruction to them, but is, notwithstanding its lively looks and the racy joyousness of its motions, their common drudge and plodding laborer in all departments of their manifold enterprises. The difference between the twenty-eight families at Mattatuck, flying from the meagre settlement where poverty, inundation and disease threatened their extermination, and the young city of Waterbury with its stone church towers, its rich mansions, its manufactories, and its population that is now numbered by thousands, affords to a reflective mind a practical illustration scarcely equalled even upon the prairies of the west, of the self -renewing vigor and boundless exuberance of health that characterize the blood of the old pioneers of New England. The Naugatuck valley, but a few years ago unknown, almost unexplored even by the citizens of Hartford and New Haven, is now one of the most interesting and busy thoroughfares in New England.* Some twenty-five years after the above was written, an appli- cation was made to the legislature in behalf of the city for the formation of a new county, to be composed of adjoining portions of Litchfield and New Haven counties, with the county seat at Water- bury. There was no great unity or enthusiasm among the citizens for the project; but Mayor Henry L Boughton, and other leading and public-spirited citizens and members of the city government were earnest in its advocacy. Mr. Hollister was one of the counsel who appeared before the committee of the General Assembly in opposition to the measure, representing the town of Litchfield. In * History of Connecticut, by G. H. Hollister. Vol. I. p. 305. I ^aiiHK.1 Jmiur ivr <,- 1 WATERS URY AS A CITY. 37 the course of his remarks before the committee, he indulged in some good natured but rather sarcastic criticisms upon the preten- sions of AVaterbury in aspiring to the dignity of a county seat. The writer of this article, who appeared in behalf of the city, having sent out and procured a copy of Mr. Hollister's " History " while his speech was going on, read the above passage to the com- mittee in reply, appealing as he said from the criticism of the advocate to the statements of the historian. The opposition from both New Haven and Litchfield counties was sufficient to prevent the granting of the application for a new county ; but terms of the Superior court for the trial of civil cases had already been estab- lished in Waterbury, on account of its distance from the county seat and the delay and expense of employing witnesses so far from their homes. For like reasons, and for the convenience of neigh- boring towns, the jurisdiction of the City court of Waterbury had been extended to all the towns adjoining Waterbury ; the expense of the court being borne entirely by the city. Upon the organiza- tion of the District court, its jurisdiction was further extended to include the towns of Woodbury and Southbury. The salaries of the judges and officers of the District court are now paid by the state ; the city and town of Waterbury furnishing a court room, and court accommodations.* The following named persons were elected officers of the city by ballot at the first meeting under the charter, in Gothic hall, on the second Monday of July, 1853: Mayor, Julius Hotchkiss. Aldermen, David B. Hurd, Jolm Kendrick, Willard Spencer, James M. L. Scovill. Councilmen, William Brown, Abram Ives, Edward B. Cooke, Elislia Leaven- worth, Charles B. Merriman, Sherman Hickox, John S. Mitchell, William Lamb, Scovill M. Buckingham, John W. Webster, Nelson Hall, Martin S. Isbell, Corydon S. Sperry, James Scarritt, Charles Benedict, George H. Welton, Archibald E. Rice, Richard Welton, Edward L. Frisbie, Thomas B. Eldridge. Treasurer, Augustus S. Chase. Sheriffs, Daniel T. Munger, Edward L Porter. Auditor, Edward S. Clark. Leonard Bronson, Esq., as senior justice of the peace in Water- bury, was moderator of the meeting, as provided in the charter, and Nelson J. Welton was chosen clerk by ballot. * There are now both civil and criminal terms of the Superior court by law established, and nominally held in Waterbury, though often adjourned to New Haven. Criminal jurisdiction of appeals from the judgment of justices of the peace, police court, borough or town courts, was also conferred upon the District court of Waterb.iry by act of the General Assembly approved February i6, 1893. 38 HISTORY OF WATERBURT. Gothic hall, as it was called, was removed about this time from the site afterwards occupied by the .Second Cong-reg-ational church, across the brook to what is now Phoenix alley. It had formerly been the place of worship of the old First church and had stood on the Green near where the Welton fountain now is. It was a cheer- less, out of the way building, reached by a muddy lane, but it was the only place for holding annual and other city meetings, and the only home of the city government, until the present City hall was completed, about fifteen years later. The city court and the whole machinery of the city government were confined to a single room, with little furniture and few comforts. The annual city elections were all held in the large room (or hall, so-called), no division into wards or voting districts having been made for either the town or the city. It may be of interest to know the whole number of votes cast for mayor at some of the early city elections. In 1854 the whole number was 532; in 1855, there were 473 votes; in 1856, 505 votes; in 1857, 699 votes; in 1858, 673 votes; in 1859, 624 votes; and in i860, 576 votes. The population was rapidly increasing during those years but there was less partisanship in the affairs of the city than there now is, for the prizes in the form of salaries or pecuniary emoluments were small. At the adjourned annual meeting in June, 1859, there were eighteen electors present, and by a vote of eleven to seven the salaries of the mayor and clerk were fixed at $150 per annum. At the annual meeting in 1861, these salaries were raised to $300 each. Another reason for the smallness of the vote at city elections was the fact that no other elections were held on the same day. The first meeting of the Court of Common Council was held in the court room in Gothic hall on the evening of July 12, 1853, the day after the first city meeting. The first business transacted was the appointment of forty jurors for service in the new city court, under the charter. The only other business was the appointing of committees to prepare rules for the government of the Court of Common Council and to draft by-laws for the city government. The meeting adjourned to July 18, when the committees reported- rules of proceeding for the Common Council, and also a numiber of by-laws, which were adopted. Standing committees were ap- pointed and the committee on law was instructed to report such further by-laws as they might deem necessary. At an adjourned meeting of the Common Council, held July 25, a resolution was adopted imposing a fine of fifty cents on every absentee from any regular or special meeting of the court, "unless satisfactorily WATERS URY AS A VTTY. ^o excused by that body." The records fail to show that the revenues of the city were very much increased by that action.* A special city meeting was warned and held August 20, 1853, for the purpose of acting upon the by-laws of the city, which had already been approved by the Court of Common Council. The several by-laws were adopted and ratified at that meeting, and the new city government was now fairly launched and in successful operation. But one thing was wanting, and a special meeting was called, December 10 of the same year, to supply the want, which was the laying of the first city tax. The tax laid at that meeting was three cents on the dollar. Under the first charter, taxes were laid by vote of the electors in city meetings, as town taxes are still laid. Two years later, in 1855, those electors assembled in the annual city meeting determined to have money enough for some special city improvements, and voted to lay a tax of six cents on the dollar. That was a little too much for the tax-payers patiently to endure, and another city meeting was called, in which the vote was repealed, and a tax of three cents on the dollar laid in its stead. But these apparently large taxes were very small in com- parison with the taxation of the present day. The tax was laid, under the law in those years, upon three per cent only of the valuation of the property.f For instance, if a person's house and real estate was valued at $10,000 it went into the list at only $300 for the purposes- of taxation. If the property of a corporation was valued at $100,000 it went into the list for taxation at only $3000. When the law was changed a few years later, requiring the value of the property to be set in the list, we find that the city tax laid in 186 1 was only one and a half mills on the dollar. And the storm of civil war had then burst upon us. A statement of the expenses of the city government for a few months during this period may be of interest. In the second year of the city government, the auditors reported its expenses for eight months, from June 10, 1854, to February 5, 1855, as follows: Fire Department, $ 831.50 Common Council, .......... 200.65 Police Depai-tment 212.64 Streets and Lamps 1673.0S City Court, ........... 25.21 Total, $2943.08 * Section 56 of the charter provided that " at any meeting of the Court of Common Council, warned and held under the by-laws of the city, the mayor and any one alderman and such number of common council- men as shall attend, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business." It made a conveniently small quorum. + A ta.v of three cents, under the law at that time, would be a little less than a ta.x of one mill on the dollar as now assessed. 40 HISTORY OF WATERS URT. The first sewer built in the new city was a brick sewer extend- ing from the southeast corner of the Green to the stone bridge at the junction of Scovill and South Main streets. This sewer had been commenced under the authority of the borough, before the city charter was granted. It was to be built by a subscription to the amount of $800, by the property owners about Exchange place. That was the estimated cost of the sewer. The city ratified and authorized the completion of the sewer by vote of the Court of Common Council, passed October 3, 1853. This vote was upon the express condition that a subscription of $800 by individuals and firms interested should be first paid or secured to be paid. It was found in the end that the subscription was not quite large enough to complete the sewer, and the city paid a small balance in settle- ment of the work. Great brook at that time was an open, uncovered stream, a short distance below Scovill street, running thence along the east side of South Main street, then a mere country road, to where it crossed vSouth Main near its junction with Grand street. Horses and cattle were driven to the brook by the side of the street for water at all hours. The city began thus early to get the benefit of sewerage in its running streams. The chief public improvements in the city under the old charter were inaugurated in the year 1867, under the administration of Dr. P. G. Rockwell, who was mayor at that time. These were the intro- duction of a supply of water for the city from East Mountain, and the building of a city hall. In February, 1867, votes were passed at special meetings of both town and city, for the purchase of land and the construction of a public building for town and city pur- poses. The miserable accommodations for the town and city gov- ernments and also for the courts, in the old Gothic hall, could not well be endured much longer. Besides, with the increasing popu- lation, there was no hall in the city large enough for public gather- ings. The largest was Hotchkiss hall (afterwards called Irving hall) at the corner of North and East Main streets. Prior to this time, the people of the city had depended for water upon a few private springs, the owners of which rented water to those living on the line of the pipes, and upon the wells of the place. At a city meeting held March 16, 1867, a committee of ten was appointed to apply to the legislature for the passage of an act for taking and securing a water supply for the city. There was some vigorous opposition to the project of establishing water works, arising chiefly from fear of the expense and the increase of taxes. But the use for a year or two of the pure and wholesome water from East Mountain, and the experience of its utility at one or two fires, especially in WATERBURY AS A CITY. 41 CITY HALL, BKONSON LIBRARY, AND SCOVILL HOUSE, 1893.* the preservation of the dwelling houses near St. John's church when that was burned, were sufficient to obliterate whatever feeling of opposition had existed. At the May session of the General * The building on the left of the picture is the " Scovill House." That in the foreground, on the corner of West Main and Leavenworth streets, was occupied by the Bronson library until August, 1894. The front part of it was built by Mark Leavenworth in 1831-2, for a general store. M. Leavenworth & Son had then a clock factory on Cherry street, and Leavenworth & Kendrick a button factory at Waterville. It was the custom then for the more enterprising manufacturers to keep a stock of goods, sometimes at the factory, sometimes at a separate store, where their employees traded on a running account, and this store was started with that in view. It was managed by Willard Spencer. Later, in the course of business changes, it passed into the hands of W. & A. Brown, Merriman & Stiles, Hotchkiss & Merriman, H. Merriman & Co., and perhaps others. Still later it was occupied by E. B. Cooke & Co. as a job printing office, and was the publica tion office of the IVaterbury Amcricaji. It was purchased by the Board of Agents of the Bronson library in 1868. The rear part of the main store (with gable on Leavenworth street) was built a number of years later than the front, and the "book stack" (still further to the right) was added by the Agents of the Library in 1883. For the history of the Scovill House, see the chapter on taverns, etc.— F. J. K. 42 HISTORY OF WATERS URT. Assembly, 1867, bills were introduced granting authority to the city to issue bonds both for the building of the new city hall, and to meet the expense of introducing water. The opposition to the latter insisted upon submitting the question to a vote of the electors of the city for approval or rejection, claiming that a majority of the voters were not in favor of it. The act was passed with a provision thus to submit it and was ratified by a large majority of the voters. The rate of interest upon the bonds for both purposes was fixed at seven per cent, this being the highest rate allowed by the acts. The Court of Common Council fixed that rate of interest for the city hall bonds, and it was found that the bonds for the water supply could not be negotiated at any lower rate. To the present generation this seems an extraordinarily high interest for city bonds; but it must be remembered that rates of interest were then abnormally high. The war had closed only two years before, and even the United States government had paid seven and three- tenths per cent upon many of its obligations. Ten or even twelve per cent upon mortgages was not unusual. In fact, it was not easy to negotiate the bonds at seven per cent, and the contractor for the water works was obliged to take a large part of his pay for the work in the bonds at par, as they were not readily sold at that rate. On May 23, 1870, action was taken by the Court of Common Council for the purpose of procuring a new charter, the old one being found in some important respects inadequate to the public wants. A committee of thirteen was appointed " to draft a proper charter that wi]l meet the requirements of this city, and procvire its passage by the legislature of the state." The committee consisted of William Brown, Willard Spencer, John W. Webster, Frederick J. Kingsbury, Charles B. Merriman, Charles W. Gillette, John O'Neill, Jr., George L. Fields, Stephen W. Kellogg, Edward L. Frisbie, Theo- dore I. Driggs, Nelson J. Welton and Theodore S. Buell. Messrs. Webster and Gillette were appointed a sub-committee to draft a proper charter. In due time these gentlemen presented their report to the full committee, and it was approved and adopted. The new charter was a copy, substantially, of a charter granted to the city of New Haven three years before. It was presented to tne General Assembly at its May session, 187 1, and was passed by that body, and approved July 10.* The limits of the city under the new charter remained the same as in the original. An improvement was made in the corporate * It is said that the New Haven document was so closely followed, that in the first draft of the new charter, given to the public for inspection, there was retained, through an oversii^ht, a provision for the appointment of a harbor master! WATERBURY AS A CITY. 43 name, which was simply " The City of Waterbury," in place of the ponderous designation of the old charter already referred to. Other important changes were introduced. The annual cit)'- elec- tion was changed from the second Monday of June in each year to the first Monday of October, — the annual meeting of the city to be held that day at the voting place in the third ward (which has always been the City hall). The term of ofhce of the mayor and aldermen was extended to two years, beginning on the first Mon- day of January next succeeding their election. The term of office of the common councilmen and other officers was still limited to one year, commencing on the first Monday of January next after election. An important change in the Court of Common Council was its division into two separate bodies, the number of aldermen being increased from four to eight, two from each ward. One-half of these were to be elected for two years at each annual election after the first, for which a special provision was made. The board of aldermen comprised one body, over which the mayor was to preside, the city clerk acting as clerk of the board. The common councilmen were to constitute the other board, and choose their own president and clerk. The number of councilmen remained at twenty.* Boards of Finance, of Road Commissioners, of Fire Com- missioners, of Police Commissioners, and of Compensation, were established, and appropriate duties assigned to them. A new body of ordinances was required, and these were enacted from time to time after the charter took effect, — the same being copied sub- stantially, mutatis mutandis, from ordinances then existing in New Haven. The charter was not submitted to the voters of the city for approval or rejection, but it was provided that it should "take effect on the first Monday of January, A. D. 1872." It was also pro- vided that the first election under the charter should be held on the first Monday of October, 187 1. At that time officers were in fact elected, and they took office the following January. An election had been held under the old charter on the second Monday of June, 187 1, at which a mayor, aldermen and common councilmen were elected for one year. The new charter provided that the terms of these officers should expire on the first Monday of January, 1872. It does not appear that any question was made as to the right of the legislature to cut short the terms of office of those already elected by the people. But as the same person was chosen mayor at both the June and October elections, there was no occasion for a question in his case. *By the section providing for the division into two bodies, the name of the Court of Common Council was changed to " a Board of Common Council ; " but the ne.xt section called it a "Court of Common Coun- cil," and it was so styled in sundry following sections. 44 HISTOBY OF WATEBBURT. r ^ «>»^ •; # ::,^ At a meeting of the Court of Common Coun- cil held on April 7, 1890, a com- mittee of its members and other citizens, ^^^^^^^^^M thirty in all, was appointed to ^^^HPH|^H prepare a revision of the charter ■Hi ^HB °' ^^® city, to submit to the Com- ^^|:3» «6^ ]|^^ mon Council with reference to its . Z. *- • adoption. By these gentlemen a sub-committee was chosen to draft the revision, consisting of C. R. Baldwin (mayor), Earl Smith, J. P. Kellogg, L. F. Burpee, E. G. Kilduff (city clerk) and G. E. Terry. " It is a matter of general gratulation," said the Waterbury Republican of April 21, "that the able and repre- The following is a list of the mayors of the city : * Julius Hotchkiss (') David T. Bishop O . George W. Benedict (^) John W. Webster (•*) . Henry F. Fish Of . Charles Benedict (^) Aner Bradley, Jr. (") L. Sanford Davies (^) . John Kendrick (') . Philo G. Rockwell ('") . Joseph B. Spencer (^') June 10, 1S53, to June 10, 1S54 June 10, 1S54, to June 11, 1S55 June II, 1S55, to June 9, 1S56 June 9, 1856, to June 8, 1857 June 8, 1S57, to June 13, 1S59 June 13, 1859, to June 11, i860 June II, i860, to June 8, 1863 June 8, 1863, to June 13, 1864 June 13, 1864, to June 11, 1866 June II, 1866, to June 10, 1S67 June II), 1S67, to June 8, 1868 MAYORS OF WATERBURV, 1853 TO 1S68. * The figures refer to the portraits. + Henry F. Fish resigned his office as mayor during his second term, Oc- tober 4, 1S58. His resignation was accepted, and Nathan Dil