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CONNECTICUT

A GUIDE TO ITS ROADS, LORE, AND PEOPLE

AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES

CONNECTICUT

A GUIDE TO ITS ROADS, LORE, AND PEOPLE

Written by Workers of the Federal Writers' Project of the
Works Progress Administration for the State of Connecticut

SPONSORED BY WILBUR L. CROSS, GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT

Illustrated

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY - BOSTON

Vfce Kiberiibe $re ambrib B e

1938

fcbc fc.ucrfiibc $re

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION

MAMMY I- HOPKINS

1734 NEW YORK AVENUE NW.
WASHINGTON. O. C.

One of the most fortunate results of the
American Guide Series is the opportunity it is
giving us to understand the contrasting character
of the forty-eight States and to realize how the
contributions of each hare brought about the unity
of the -whole.

This book on Connecticut illustrates the
point* The third smallest State in the Union, it
has sent out more people than it has kept at hone.
Connecticut blood is the basis of much that is
prised in many States. It is democratic, zealous
for education, mechanically inventive, and, being
strongly individual, has furnished leadership in
every field.

Hftrry L. Hopkins
Administrator

FOREWORD

CONNECTICUT has a wealth of interest and beauty for the traveler,
be he a resident or a visitor. Our countryside, with its villages of old
houses and churches; our forests, rivers, lakes, parks, and beaches; our
modern cities all present a varied scene which has been steadily de-
veloping ever since the first settlers took possession of these beautiful
lands more than three hundred years ago.

This Guidebook will help its readers not only to find their way
through valleys and over hills, but also to understand what lies back of
all they see. It is in itself a most valuable contribution to Connecticut
history.

WILBUR L. CROSS

Governor

PREFACE

THIS book is the result of the collaboration of many hands and many
minds, and it would perhaps be strange to expect it to lie quietly be-
tween covers and compose a picture of its subject. Indeed, it would be
a brave man who would sit down, alone or with company, and attempt a
portrait of this State. Present-day Connecticut is too diversified and
restless to yield an easy likeness. Besides, a guidebook should not be
overambitious. At best it can hope to provide a few thumbnail sketches,
some directions to help the visitor, and a modicum of more or less relevant
information to enlarge his understanding of what he will see. It must be
forever pointing and turning from one thing to the next. The section,
Notations on the Use of the Book, will explain the method of assembling
this material. In the end, it must properly be left to the visitor to shape
his own impressions into an individual whole.

A hundred years ago this would have been a vastly simpler process. In
1836 John Warner Barber was driving from town to town in his horse and
buggy, gathering material for his * Historical Collections,' 'relating to the
History and Antiquities of Every Town in Connecticut with Geographical
Descriptions/ and making a 'general collection of interesting facts, tradi-
tions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc/ The prospectus-like title of
his book is a promise of variety amply justified by the contents, but the
modern reader or imitator is more impressed by the appealing unity of
the subject. Barber was fortunate in the time at which he wrote. Con-
necticut was nearing the end of its formative period. The eighteenth-
century pattern persisted, the industrial revolution was only about to
begin.

As he went about among the 136 towns, his engravings reveal more
tellingly than any camera the pleasing sameness of his view. Sometimes
we find him seated on Round Hill taking a northwest view of Farmington,
or looking down on the south view of Tariffville with its flourishing carpet
factory, while he discusses local affairs with a villager. When the smoke
of commerce rises over some of the larger cities, it comes from steamboats
along the river front or in the harbor, rather than from factory chimneys.
The centers of the towns show the courthouse, a school, perhaps a jail,
and always the church or churches, for Barber was traveling just after
the finest period of church-building. The buildings, somewhat sparsely

x Preface

grouped even in the centers of population, are delineated with a certain
homely veracity, a little pinched in their perspective, and the elongated
steeples of the churches rise toward Heaven rather higher than a modern
eye allows.

It is significant in the history of this State and even for the Connecticut
of today that for a period of about sixty years, from 1780 to 1840, the
homogeneous population remained comparatively static. While the other
New England States increased from two to nine times, Connecticut could
not quite achieve a fifty per cent gain in numbers. Never was Connecticut
more independent nor its towns more sturdily conservative than during
this first half century and more of the Republic. Hartford and New
Haven, the two capitals, did not unduly dominate in 1800; they were
merely two of the six towns with a population of over 5000. The largest,
Stonington, had 5437 inhabitants; four towns had 4000 or more; there
were fifteen over 3000; the other eighty- three were closely ranged, with
three exceptions, between one and three thousand. Under the Consti-
tution of 1818, this equality of the towns was perpetuated and local
particularism maintained.

Constant emigration threatened to overbalance immigration and a
high birth-rate. In this way, the more heady and adventurous elements
were continually drawn off from the body politic and a conservative,
stable base remained. The glacial soil of Connecticut, unimproved by
fertilizers and new techniques of farming, was unfitted to support a large
population. It was necessary to call upon Yankee ingenuity. This was
first applied in commerce, in shipping, in shrewd marketing and hard
bargaining. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the Yankee Pedlar
had made his appearance; in the period 1780 to 1840 he flourished. The
Sam Slicks went forth with their tinware and their wooden nutmegs,
and a market was created along the Atlantic Seaboard and over the
Appalachians to Detroit, St. Louis, even New Orleans. Small fortunes
accumulated to furnish fresh capital, and the invention of the manu-
facturer was called upon to match the skill of the salesmen.

Long before the close of this period, the Yankee inventors had out-
stripped the Yankee pedlars. From the time the Patent Office opened
in 1790, Connecticut inventors have led those of other States in number
of patents in proportion to population. Hats, combs, cigars, seeds, clocks,
silk thread, plows, axes, carpets, pins, kettles, brass pipe, tacks, hooks
and eyes, vulcanized rubber, shaving soap, friction matches, spoons,
engine lathes, threaded bolts, furniture, firearms: in all these fields and
more, important patents gave Connecticut inventors and manufacturers

Preface xi

a leading position. Every town had its local industry and the way was
prepared for the transition from handicraft to mass production. Inventors
in near-by towns would perfect the same invention: Simeon North of
Berlin and Eli Whitney of New Haven can share the credit for introduc-
ing the system of interchangeable parts and standardized production into
the manufacture of firearms. The seeds of the industrial revolution were
scattered far and wide through the State and the Nation.

It was also the period of Noah Webster, of Timothy Dwight, of the
Hartford Wits, of Oliver Wolcott, the moderator. When the Hartford
Wits looked across the border into Rhode Island or Massachusetts, they
were perturbed: 'There Chaos, Anarch old, asserts his sway/ they told
the inhabitants of Connecticut. Timothy Dwight became President of
Yale and drew the students back down the sawdust trail to the old-time
Congregationalism. 'Pope Dwight,' they called him, 'a walking reposi-
tory of the venerable Connecticut status quo. 1 Noah Webster, who
helped the country achieve a measure of linguistic independence and
whose spelling became more and more American, was a stout Federalist
and defender of the established order. Even the moderate Oliver Wolcott,
who presided at the making of the liberalizing Constitution of 1818, was
no great radical of post-Jeffersonian days.

Looked back upon, it is an age of almost paradoxical contrast, with
its conservatism politically and socially, and the radical changes pre-
paring in its factories and workshops, a strange mixture of the past and
future working together in a harmonious present, which seemed likely
to prolong itself indefinitely. The visitor in search of a portrait of Con-
necticut might well keep in mind these years of growth and stability
when the balance shifted slowly from a long colonial age of agriculture
and commerce toward the industrial age of railroads, immigration, and
mass production. Then, for a protracted period, the pattern of Connecti-
cut living was stamped deep into the character of its people and its
civilization. Successive waves of immigration have altered it surprisingly
little. Perhaps this civilization, an epitome of many deeply rooted Amer-
ican characteristics, may be able to assimilate new elements and still
maintain its finest qualities as a tradition and a guide to future genera-
tions. ( Qui transtulit sustinet'

It remains to express our indebtedness to the citizens of Connecticut
who have contributed materially to this work; so large is their number
that we can thank only a few of our benefactors. We are especially
indebted to Mr. Edgar L. Heermance, whose 'Connecticut Guide' was our
predecessor and inspiration, and who graciously allowed us the use of his

Xll

Preface

files containing valuable field notes and historical information. The
librarians of the Yale University Library, the New Haven Public Library,
the Hartford Public Library, and Miss Scofield of the New Haven Colony
Historical Society have generously given us their trained assistance.

We have received valuable aid and criticism from Mr. Norbert Lacy,
and Dr. Nelson Burr of the Historical Records Survey; Professor Leon-
ard Labaree, and Mr. Gerald M. Capers of Yale University; Professor
George Matthew Dutcher of Wesleyan University; Mr. J. Frederick
Kelly, and Mr. George Dudley Seymour of New Haven; Mr. A. Everett
Austin of the Avery Memorial, Hartford; Mr. John Phillips of the Yale
Gallery of Fine Arts; Mr. William L. Warren of the American Index of
Design; Mr. Edward H. Rogers, Principal of the Devon High School; Mr.
Arthur W. Brockway, ornithologist, of Hadlyme; Mr. John J. Stevens,
Principal of the Ansonia High School; Mr. Goodrich K. Murphy, as-
sistant to passenger traffic manager, of the New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railroad; and Mr. Joseph Tone, State Commissioner of Labor.

Professor C. R. Longwell of Yale University has contributed the essay
on Geology. Mr. Wayland Wells Williams, State Director of the Federal
Art Project, has helped us in innumerable ways, besides contributing the
essay on Connecticut Art, and much of the material on Yale University.

Mr. Samuel R. Chamberlain has kindly allowed us to use several
photographs from his notable Connecticut series; the Scovill Manu-
facturing Company, the American Brass Company, the Chase Brass and
Copper Company, Inc., the Pratt and Whitney Company, the Sikorsky
Aviation Corporation, the ytna Life Insurance Company, the Travelers'
Insurance Company, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford
Railroad have contributed photographs.

In administering and carrying out this Project we have had the con-
stant co-operation of Miss Mary M. Hughart, State Director of Women's
and Professional Projects, and Administrators Vincent J. Sullivan,
Robert A. Hurley, and Matthew A. Daly. We owe a special debt of
gratitude to Senator Daly, in whose administration this book was begun,
for his friendly advice and counsel.

Finally, we are under great obligations to His Excellency, the Governor
of this State, Wilbur L. Cross, for his distinguished sponsorship and fore-
word, and to Mr. Philip Hewes, the Governor's Executive Secretary,
who gave freely of his time to offer most useful criticism.

This volume was prepared under the editorial direction of Mr. Joseph
Gaer, Editor-in-Chief of the New England Guides and Chief Field Su-
pervisor of the Federal Writers' Project.

JOHN B. DERBY, State Director

CO NTENTS

FOREWORD Photostat

By Harry L. Hopkins, Federal Administrator, Works Progress
Administration

FOREWORD vii

By Wilbur L. Cross, Governor of Connecticut

PREFACE ix

By John B. Derby, State Director, Federal Writers' Project

NOTATIONS ON THE USE OF THE BOOK xxiii

GENERAL INFORMATION xxv

Recreational Facilities

CALENDAR OF ANNUAL EVENTS xxxi

L CONNECTICUT: THE GENERAL
BACKGROUND

GENERAL DESCRIPTION 3

NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION 8

PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE 1 1

GEOLOGY 17

THE INDIANS OF CONNECTICUT 22

HISTORY 26

GOVERNMENT 36

THE RACIAL MAKE-UP OF CONNECTICUT 43

TRANSPORTATION 48

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 54

LABOR 64

xiv Contents

AGRICULTURE 7 1

EDUCATION 75

ARCHITECTURE 80

NOTES ON CONNECTICUT ART 95

LITERATURE I0 3

CONNECTICUT FIRSTS m

II. MAIN STREET AND VILLAGE GREEN

(City and Town Descriptions and City Tours)
Bridgeport
D anbury
Fairfield

Farmington I44

Greenwich I49

Groton j^,-

Guilford I( 5

Hartford j55

Litchfield I0 .

Meriden 2OO

Middletown 20

Milford aio
New Britain

New Haven 222

New London 2 -

Norwalk 26 .

Norwich 2 _

Old Lyme 2 g

Old Say brook

Stamford

Stonington

Waterbury

Wethersfield 3IO

Windsor 8

Contents xv

III. HIGH ROADS AND LOW ROADS (lOURS)

(Mile-by-Mile Description of the State's Highways)

TOUR 1 From New York Line (New York City) to Rhode
Island Line (Westerly). US 1 and US 1A

Sec. a. Greenwich to New Haven 329

Sec. b. New Haven to Rhode Island Line (West-
erly) 337
1A From Darien to Fairfield. State 136, West Way
and Harbor Rds. 348

IB From Bridgeport to Junction with US 202. State
58 352

1C From New Haven to Naugatuck. State 67 and
State 63 354

ID From New Haven to Rhode Island Line (Provi-
dence). State 15, 80, 9, 82, 165, and 138 355

IE From Junction with US 1 to Junction with State
82. State 86 361

IF From Junction with US 1 to Junction with US 1.

State 156 363

1G From Groton to Norwich. State 12 364

1H From Junction with US 1 to Rhode Island Line.
State 84 368

1J From Pawcatuck to Colchester. State 2 369

2 From New York Line (Brewster) to Rhode Island
Line (Providence). US 6 and 6A

Sec. a. New York Line to Junction with State 14 374
Sec. b. Junction with State 14 to Hartford 382

Sec. c. Hartford to Junction with State 14 389

Sec. d. From Junction with State 14 to Rhode

Island State Line (Providence) 391

2 ALTERNATE From Junction with US 6 to Junc-
tion with US 6A. State 14 397

2A From Woodbury to Junction with State 25. State
47 409

2B From Watertown to Litchfield. State 63 and
State 61 411

xvi Contents

2C From Columbia to Junction with State 32. State
87 412

3 From New York Line (Poughkeepsie) to Rhode
Island Line (Providence). US 44

Sec. a. New York Line to Hartford 416

Sec. b. Hartford to Bolton Notch 428

Sec. c. Bolton Notch to Rhode Island Line 430

3A From East Hart ford to New London. State2and85 439

4 From Norwalk to Massachusetts Line (Sheffield).

US 7 448

4A From Danbury to Junction with US 7. State 37 458

4B From New Milford to Junction with US 7. State

25 and 133 462

4C From New Milford to Torrington. State 25 466

4D From Junction with US 7 (Cornwall Bridge) to
South Canaan. State 4 and 43 468

5 From Stratford to Massachusetts Line (New Bos-
ton). StateS 47I

5A From Torrington to Collinsville. State 117, State
116, and State 4 484

5B From Junction with State 8 (north of Winsted) to

Granby. State 20 485

6 From New Haven to Massachusetts Line (North-
ampton). State 10 and 10A (College Highway) 488

7 From New Haven to Massachusetts Line (Spring-
field). US 5

Sec. a. New Haven to Hartford 501

Sec. b. Hartford to Massachusetts Line 505

7A From New Haven to Middletown. State 15 511

7B From Hartford to Meriden. State 175 and State "

8 From Old Saybrook to Massachusetts Line
(Springfield). State 9 and US 5A

Sec. a. Old Saybrook to Hartford. State 9 516

Sec. b. Hartford to Massachusetts Line. US 5A 526

9 From New London to Massachusetts Line
(Worcester). State 32 and State 12 529

Contents xvii

9A From Norwich to Massachusetts Line (South

Monson). State 32 538

9B From Central Village to Rhode Island Line

(Providence). State 14 543

9C From Plainfield to Willimantic. State 14 544

10 From East Hartford to Massachusetts Line

(Worcester). State 15 549

CHRONOLOGY 557

SELECTED READING LIST 562

GENERAL INDEX 567

INDEX OF OLD AND HISTORIC HOUSES 587

ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

HOMES OF PATRIOT AND MERCHANT PRINCE between 28 and 29

Jabez Huntington House, Norwich
Gov. Trumbull House, Lebanon
Webb House, Wethersfield

Chamberlain

Oliver Ellsworth House, Windsor
Glebe House, Woodbury
Gay Manse, Suffield
West Front of the Governor Smith

Mansion, Sharon
Morris House, New Haven

INDUSTRY

Burnishing Brass, Scovill Manu-
facturing Company, Waterbury
Aikins

Pratt & Whitney, Aircraft Manu-
facturers, East Hartford

Assembly Department of the Pro-
peller Division, United Aircraft
Corp., East Hartford

Final Assembly Department, Sikor-
sky Aircraft, Stratford

Sikorsky Aircraft Experimental
Department, Stratford

Inspecting Polished Copper Sheets,
American Brass Co., Ansonia
Richie

Stanton House, Clinton
Major Timothy Cowles House, Farm-
ington

Chamberlain

Noble House, New Milford
Deming House, Litchfield
Rockwell House, Winsted
Old Store, Windham
Perkins House, Windham

between 58 and 59

Forging Hot Brass, Scovill Manufac-
turing Company, Waterbury

Aikins

Casting Shop, American Brass Com-
pany, Waterbury

Richie

Withdrawing a Heated Copper Billet
from the Furnace, American Brass
Company, Waterbury

Richie
Line-up of Locomotives, New Haven

Railroad, Cedar Hill
Steam Power, Streamlined Train, New
Haven Railroad

PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION
BY NATIVITY FOR CONNECTICUT, NEW ENGLAND,
AND THE UNITED STATES, 1930

CONNECTICUT'S ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE between 88 and 89

Whitfield Stone House, Guilford
Judgment Room, Thos. Lee House,

E. Lyme

Walsh

Acadian House, Guilford
Older Williams House, Wethersfield
Lyons House, Greenwich
Graves House, Madison
Framed Overhang, Whitman House,

Farmington
Hewn Overhang, Hollister House,

Glastonbury

Interior, Trinity Church, Brooklyn

Interior, House of Representatives,
Old State House

Gambrel Roofs, Plainfield
Chamberlain

Crosby Tavern, Thompson

Interior of Dwight Chapel, Yale Uni-
versity

Linonia Court, Yale University

Illustrations and Maps

EARLY CHURCHES OF CONNECTICUT between 150 and 151

Congregational Church, Farming- Congregational Church, Litchfield

ton Congregational Church, Old Lyme

Congregational Church, Wethers- Congregational Church, Killingworth

field Plymouth Church, Milford

Center Church, New Haven Congregational Church, East Granby

TOWN AND COUNTRY

^Etna Life Insurance Company,
Hartford
Courtesy of jEtna Life Insurance

Co.

The State Capitol, Hartford
Old State House, Hartford
Old Academy, Branford
Cement Kiln, Woodbridge
Ely Homestead, Killingworth
In South Britain
Town Hall, Salisbury

between 180 and 181
The New Haven Green
Hartford Sky Line
Railroad Station, Waterbury
Old Iron Furnace, Roxbury
World War Memorial, New Britain
Hart's Bridge, West Cornwall
Old Newgate Prison, East Granby
Stanton Store, Clinton
Highton

EDUCATION

Nathan Hale School, New London
Avon Old Farms School Post Office
Bullet Hill School, Southbury
Ansonia High School
Davenport Court and Pierson
Tower, Yale University

Highton
Payne Whitney Gymnasium, Yale

University

Harkness Tower, Yale University
Chamberlain

between 242 and 243
Sterling Memorial Library, Yale Uni-
versity

Chamberlain
Connecticut Hall, Yale University

Chamberlain

trinity College Chapel, Hartford
Coast Guard Academy, New London
Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, Yale
University

SCENIC AND MARINE
Housatonic Gorge
Kent Falls

Cathedral Pines, Cornwall
Pastoral, Hamden
Fences, Bethany
Bridgewater Hills

Coast Guard Patrol Boats, New
London

between 448 and 449
Submarine in New London Harbor
Oyster Docks, Milford
Fair Haven
Oyster Boats, City Point, New

Haven
Lighthouse Point, New Haven.

FIELD

Canal Piers, Farmington
Old Canal, Windsor Locks
Nineveh Falls, Killingworth
Knife Shop Dam, South Meriden
Hydroelectric Plant, Bulls Bridge
Buttery's Mill (1688), Silvermine
Devon Cattle, Old Lyme

between 494 and 495
Goats, Avon Old Farms
Sheep, Avon Old Farms
Summer Sky, Mount Carmel
Holsteins, Southbury
Haying, Roxbury
At the End of the Day, Woodbury
Bark Mill, Bethany

Illustrations and Maps xxi

MAPS

State Map Back Pocket

Reverse side: Transportation Map

State Parks, Forest, and Historic Sites

Bridgeport 122-123

Danbury 134

Fairfield 140

Greenwich 153

Guilford 163

Hartford 175

Hartford Tour Map 176-177

Meriden 203

Middletown 207

Milford 213

New Britain 219

New Haven 231

New Haven Tour Map 232-233

New London 258-259

Norwalk 268

Norwich 275

Norwichtown 279

Stamford 295

Stonington 301

Waterbury 309

Wethersfield 315

Windsor 322

Key to Connecticut Tours 35o~35i

NOTATIONS ON THE USE
OF THE BOOK

General Information on the State contains practical information for the
State as a whole; the introduction to each city and tour description also
contains specific information of a practical sort.

The Essay Section of the Guide is designed to give a brief survey of the
State's natural setting, history, and social, economic, and cultural
development. Limitations of space forbid elaborately detailed treat-
ments of these subjects, but a classified bibliography is included in the
book. A great many persons, places, and events mentioned in the essays
are treated at some length in the city and tour descriptions; these are
found by reference to the index. The State Guide is not only a practical
travel book; it will also serve as a valuable reference work.

The Guide is built on a framework of Tour Descriptions, written in
general to follow the principal highways from south to north and from
west to east, though they are easily followed in the reverse direction.

As a matter of convenience, lengthy descriptions of cities and towns
are removed from the tour sections of the book and separately grouped
in alphabetical order.

Each tour description contains cross-references to other tours crossing
or branching from the route described; it also contains cross-references
to all descriptions of cities and towns removed from the tour descriptions.

Readers can find the descriptions of important routes by examining
the tour index or the tour key map. As far as possible, each tour descrip-
tion follows a single main route; descriptions of minor routes branching
from, or crossing, the main routes are in smaller type. The newer and
better highway usually carries the ' Alternate' highway number, such as
US 6A, while the older route retains its original number.

Cumulative mileage is used on main and side tours, the mileage being
counted from the beginning of each main tour or, on side tours, from the
junction with the main route; mileage is started afresh on side routes
branching from side routes. The mileage notations are at best relative,
since totals depend to some extent on the manner in which cars are
driven whether they cut around other cars, round curves on the

xxiv Notations on the Use of the Book

inside or outside of the road, and so forth. Then, too, the totals will in
the future vary from those in the book because of road building in which
curves will be eliminated and routes will by-pass cities and villages
formerly on the routes.

Inter-State routes are described from and to the State Lines; in the
Index to Tours and in the tour headings the names of the nearest out-of-
State cities of importance on the routes are listed in parentheses so that
travelers may readily identify the routes.

Descriptions of points of interest in the larger towns and cities are
numbered and arranged in the order in which they can conveniently be
visited.

Points of interest in cities, towns, and villages have been indexed
separately rather than under the names of such communities, because
many persons know the name of a point of interest, but are doubtful as
to the name of the community in which it is situated.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Railroads: New York, New Haven & Hartford (N.Y., N.H. & H.),
Central Vermont (C.V.), Central New England (C.N.E.).

Highways: Six Federal highways; State police highway patrol with oc-
casional inspection of operator licenses and registration. State highways
cleared and sanded during winter. Gasoline filling stations numerous on
all main highways. Federal gas tax iff, State gas tax 3$. (total tax 4ff).

Bus Lines: New England Transportation Co. ; Greyhound Lines (national
coverage) ; [Short Lines (Springfield, Portland, New York, Waterbury,
Worcester, and Boston) ; Arrow Line (New Haven, Hartford, Pittsfield,
Mass., Albany, N.Y., Montreal, Canada); Blue Way Lines (Portland,
Me., and Boston to New York, via Springfield and Worcester); National
Trail ways System ; and several smaller lines.

Airlines: American Airlines Inc. (between Newark, N.J., and Boston,
Mass.) stop at Hartford (see Transportation Map).

Waterways: Summer day excursions, Bridgeport to New York. Ferries
from New London, Bridgeport, and Stamford to Long Island (see General
Information under those cities).

Traffic Regulations: Motorists from States that do not require operator
licenses must take out a Connecticut operator's license except when
driving a vehicle registered in their own jurisdiction.

Speed: Maximum speed on Federal and State highways is indicated
on roadside signs. In general, the rate of speed should at all times be
'reasonable,' with regard to the width, traffic, and use of the high-
ways, intersections, and weather conditions. At no time is a maxi-
mum of more than 50 miles per hour permitted. White center lines
are painted at all dangerous curves and hills. Drivers must keep to
the right of these lines, and refrain from passing on stretches so
marked, or at any intersection. Stops must be made not less than
10 feet behind trolley cars stopping to take on or let off passengers.
On wide streets it is permissible to pass a stopped trolley at a dis-
tance of 10 feet or more. Hand signals required. No parking allowed
within 10 feet of any fire hydrant, within 50 feet of any vehicle al-
ready parked on the opposite side of the highway, or with right-
hand wheels more than i foot from curb.

Lights: Make full stop before entering or crossing * through ways'
indicated by STOP signs. Slowing down and shifting gears are not
sufficient; make complete stop. No right turns on red lights, except
where indicated.

xx vi General Information

Report at once all accidents involving any personal injury, or any

property damage in excess of $25.

Specific traffic regulations noted in General Information of large

cities. Reciprocal privileges extended visitors in regard to licenses

and registration.

Reflectors, for safeguard when taillight fails, required on all visiting

cars after September i, 1937.

Accommodations: Tourist accommodations of every type are available
in practically any part of the State. Inns, hotels, tourist houses, and
cabins will be found within short distances on any mam highway, rates
ranging from 75^ up. Trailer stops are not yet numerous, but are provided
by many cabin owners. State-regulated tourist and trailer camps are
maintained at Hammonasset Beach State Park (see MADISON, Tour 1),
and at Rocky Neck State Park (see EAST LYME, Tour IF).
Climate and Equipment: Summer travelers to Connecticut should be pre-
pared for moderately warm weather, with infrequent hot and muggy
days; nights are generally cool. Winter visitors should be prepared for
sub-freezing to near zero weather, occasional snow storms and dangerous
ice storms which make driving hazardous until the highway crews sand
the roadways.

Poisonous Plants and Reptiles: Poison ivy, or three-leafed mercury, is
common throughout the State, growing on stone walls, roadside trees,
banks, and over old barns and buildings. After the first frost its leaves
turn a deep scarlet, inviting the uninformed to pick it and become miser-
able within a few hours. Poison sumac is not as common, but is perhaps
more irritating; this shrub is also found throughout the State but seldom
beside the State highways.

Rattlesnakes are plentiful around Kent, Canaan Mountain, Glastonbury,
and in sections of Salem. All these ' snake dens,' however, are off the
beaten track, usually far from the highway, and are dangerous only to
the hiker through rocky woodland or mountain area. Snake dens along
hiking trails are marked, and there is usually a glass jar handy containing
first aid treatment for snake bites. Copperheads are found in the swampy
lowlands of Connecticut, and are dangerous because they strike without
warning. It is therefore advisable to wear boots when walking through
swamplands in the copperhead country.

Plant Regulations: Laurel, the Connecticut State Flower, which blossoms
in woods and along the highways of the State during the month of June,
must not be picked under penalty of the law.

Information Bureaus: State of Connecticut Publicity Commission, State
Capitol, Hartford. Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, Dept. SN 35,
410 Asylum St., Hartford, Conn.

General Information xxvii

RECREATIONAL FACILITIES

Beaches and Camping Grounds: Three State parks (Sherwood Island,
Hammonasset Beach, and Rocky Neck) bordering Long Island Sound
provide clean, safe, properly protected bathing facilities. Camping
grounds are open to the public, space is set aside for trailer parking, and
the mosquito menace is reduced to the minimum. Pavilions and bath-
houses are open during the summer and early autumn.

Inland waters also offer recreational opportunities. Lake Candlewood
is the State's largest inland body of water, but Waramaug, Twin Lakes,
or any one of the several larger lakes afford equally fine facilities for
fishing, boating, or skating in season. Almost every one of the 169 towns
has at least one good spot for the enjoyment of water or ice sports.

Fishing: Fishermen find ample opportunity for their sport in the 7619
miles of rivers and streams, or in the thousand lakes and ponds covering
a total area of 43,597 acres. The 245 miles of shore line on Long Island
Sound and the Atlantic Ocean are dotted with boat liveries, where quali-
fied skippers personally conduct fishing parties or rent boats to the salt-
water angler. Commercial swordfishermen often take paying guests, usu-
ally from the Stonington docks, to enjoy a sport as exciting as whaling.

Hunting: Shooting alongshore and on the Connecticut River is excellent.
Migratory wildfowl pay their autumn call after a summer of fattening in
the rice beds of northern lakes. Upland game birds have suffered from
the encroachment of industrial and residential areas into their natural
cover; but pheasants have partially replaced the native ruffed grouse
and quail. Better control of shooting promises a gradual improvement
in this sport. No eastern State offers better rabbit hunting; raccoons
still frequent the heavy timber and swamplands; and squirrels are
abundant, except when the nut crop fails and they are forced to migrate
to other areas. Deer are protected in Connecticut, and have become so
plentiful that the farmers often secure special permits for their destruc-
tion to save crops and young orchards.

Fish and Game Laws: (Digest) Licenses required of persons 16 years old
and over. Issued by Town Clerks or by State Board of Fisheries and Game.
Hunting license, resident $3.35; non-resident $10.35. Fishing license,
resident $3.35; non-resident $5.35 minimum (residents of a State having
a non-resident fee in excess of $5.35 are charged the same fee in Connecti-
cut). Combination hunting and fishing licenses, residents $5.35; non-
residents $14.35. For regulations and permits, write State Board of
Fisheries and Game, State Office Building, Hartford, Conn., or apply to
patrolmen on streams.

Boating: Yachtsmen will find safe anchorage and good service in numerous
harbors, or quiet waters in the lee of green islands on Long Island Sound.

xxviii General Information

Motorboat enthusiasts can cross the State from the Sound to the Massa-
chusetts State Line, via the Connecticut River, with only one short trip
through locks at the Enfield Rapids. Canoe trips are possible on any one
of Connecticut's three larger rivers. Trains take sportsfolk from the
metropolitan area to Falls Village where, after assembling their portable
craft, they embark on the Housatonic to enjoy the European sport of
1 f alt bootpaddeln ' over a ly-mile course strewn with rapids and boulders.

Hiking: Hiking trails are well marked and never far from civilization.
The great Appalachian Trail crosses the State, and many feeder trails,
or short trails of local importance, thread their way through woodland
and hill-country of entrancing beauty. Trail maps can be secured (for
2$fy from the Connecticut Forest & Park Association, 215 Church St.,
New Haven.

Riding: Riding has grown in popularity in Connecticut and many excel-
lent stables rent saddle horses and riding togs. Although all of the main
highways are hard-surfaced, there are many hundreds of miles of gravel
or dirt roads where motor traffic is light and where riders can explore the
back-country in perfect comfort and safety. Private property rights are
carefully respected in this State, and wire fencing is the rule; but almost
any farmer allows a rider to cross pastureland or other terrain not actually
under a crop, if the request is properly made and if gates or barways are
closed to prevent stock from roaming.

Hunt Clubs and Horse Shows: Hunt clubs are few and exclusive in Con-
necticut. The best pack of hounds in the State is at Watertown, but hunts
at Durham, Fairneld, and Norfolk attract riders in season. As farm folk
do not approve of fox hunting, most hunters either own or lease their own
acreage. Horse shows of local importance are held at many widely sepa-
rated points in the State. Harness racing is a feature at Danbury Fair
(first week in October), and a few local tracks have their quota of lovers
of * silks and sulkies.' No running races are held within the State, but flat
races and the occasional rather easy steeplechase of the amateur hunts-
folk are staged in season. Four troops of National Guard cavalry, polo
at Yale, Farmington Polo Association, and at Avon Old Farms, and an
annual indoor horse show at the New Haven Arena complete the more
serious side of the mounted sports card in Connecticut.

Climbing: Mountain climbing is not a popular pastime in the State, al-
though the sheer cliffs of the Hanging Hills and the slightly easier slopes
of Mt. Carmel tempt an occasional devotee of the Alpine art. The highest
land in Connecticut is in the extreme northwestern corner, where Bear
Mountain pierces the blue at 2355 ft. and Gridley Mountain rises to
2200 ft.

Bicycling: Cyclists pedal over many back roads, and the railroad en-
courages this sport by operating cycle trains from New York City to the
Canaan Hills. Regulations covering the operation of cycles on the high-
ways are concerned with the proper lighting of vehicles and the use of
reflectors on the rear.

General Information xxix

Winter Sports: Snow trains cross the State on their way from the larger
cities to the Berkshires and the northern New England hills. Skating
and hockey are favorite sports in every town. Bobsledding increases in
popularity with the construction of better runs, but tobogganing is not
practiced. Ski runs are many; the better clubs are in Litchfield County,
where the snow falls earliest and stays longest.

Golfing: Golfers can always find a course within convenient reach.

Tennis: Tennis courts have been built in practically all municipal parks
throughout the State.

CALENDAR OF ANNUAL

EVENTS

(nfd no fixed

date)

March

nfd

New Haven

Paint and Clay Club art exhibit.

March

nfd

Hartford

Exhibit of work by Connecticut

artists.

March

Easter Sunday

New London

Sunrise Service in Coast Guard

Academy Bowl, 7 A.M.

New Haven

Sunrise Service, East Rock Park.

Easter Monday

New Haven

Egg Hunt, East Rock Park and

Edgewood Park.

Easter Week

New Haven

Easter Flower Show, East Rock

Park Cineraria Show, Pardee

Gardens, East Rock Park.

March

nfd

New Britain

Ukrainian Festival in memory

of the Ukrainian bard, Taras

Shevchenko; concert and folk

dances presented in native

costumes.

April

nfd

Hartford

Antique Exposition; exhibits

and lectures.

April

nfd

Hartford

Spelling Bee (local finals), Bush-

nell Park.

May

Storrs

Connecticut State College May

Day Exercises; pageant.

May

Willimantic

State Teachers' College May

Day Exercises; pageant.

May

nfd

New Haven

Powder House Day; pageant

based on historical episode.

May

2d wk

New Haven

Annual Iris Show, East Rock

Park.

May

nfd

Hartford

Flower Mart and Show, Old

State House.

May

2d or 3d

Derby

Blackwell Cup or Carnegie Cup

Saturday

Crew Race on Housatonic

River.

May

nfd

Middlefield

Apple Blossom Festival, Lyman

Orchards.

May

nfd

Farmington

Peach Blossom Time, Tunxis

Orchards.

May

New Haven

Skeet Shooting; five-man team

championship.

May

Hartford

Russians celebrate their na-

tional holiday with athletic

/> !

events, folk dances, and songs,

in Charter Oak Park.

xxxn

Calendar of Annual Events

June
June

mid-month
mid-month

Winsted
Hartford

June 2d or 3d wk New Haven

New London

June
June

June
July

July
July
Aug.

Aug.
Aug.

Aug.
Aug.
Aug.

15 to 20
nfd

last wk
29

nfd

ist Friday

2d Saturday
nfd

3d wk

nfd

Aug. nfd

Middletown
Stratford

Greenwich
Greenwich

Lyme
Falls Village

Fairfield
Greenwich
East Hampton

Litchfield
Hartford

Hartford
Old Lyme
Durham

West Goshen

Laurel Week.

Flower Show, Old State House.

Rose Week, Elizabeth Park.

YaleUniversityCommencement.

Rose Show, Pardee Rose Gar-
dens, East Rock Park (contin-
uing through summer).

Yale-Harvard Freshman, Com-
bination, and Junior Varsity
Crew Races, A.M.

Yale-Harvard Baseball Game,
Mercer Field, P.M.

Yale-Harvard Varsity Crew
Race, 7 P.M.

Graduation exercises of Coast
Guard Academy.

Graduation exercises of Con-
necticut College for Women.

Wesleyan Commencement ex-
ercises; band concert and
college sing.

Skeet Shooting; Great Eastern
States and National Tele-
graphic Championship, Rem-
ington Gun Club, at Lord-
ship.

Dog Show, Greenwich Kennel
Club.

Annual golf championship
matches, Greenwich Country
Club.

Art exhibit begins, lasting
through summer.

Subscription concerts every Sun-
day, under auspices Jacques
Gordon Musical Foundation,
Music Mountain.

Horse Show.

Scottish Games Association.

Old Home Day Celebration;
3-day event; pageant, con-
certs, drum corps exhibition,
parade.

Horse Show; fancy riding, jump-
ing.

Lawn Bowling Tournament,
Elizabeth Park.

Gladiola Show, Old State House.

Art exhibition.

Middlesex County 4~H Club
Fair.

Litchfield -County 4-H Club
Fair.

Calendar of Annual Events

xxxm

Aug.

nfd

Wolcott

New Haven County 4~H Club

Fair.

Aug.

nfd

Long Island Sound

New York Yacht Club Cruise.

Aug.

21, 22

North Stonington

New London County 4~H Club

Fair.

Aug.

latter part

Lyme

Hamburg Fair.

Sept.

nfd

West Avon

Hartford County 4-H Club

Fair, Cherry Park.

Sept.

nfd

Goshen

Goshen Fair.

Sept.

nfd

Haddam Neck

Haddam Neck Fair.

Sept.

nfd

South Woodstock

Woodstock Fair.

Sept.

nfd

Old Saybrook

Horse Fair.

Sept.

(3 days before

Willimantic

Elks County Fair.

and including

Labor Day)

Sept.

nfd

Wethersfield

Horse Show.

Sept.

nfd

Greenwich

Horse Show.

Sept.

nfd

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Fair.

Sept.

nfd

Guilford

Guilford Fair.

Sept.

nfd

Hartford

Hartford County Food Exhibit,

State Armory.

Oct.

ist wk

Danbury

Danbury Fair.

Oct.

ist wk

Harwinton

Harwinton Fair.

Oct.

2d wk

Durham

Durham Fair.

Oct.

nfd

Riverton

Riverton Fair.

Oct.

nfd

Stafford

Stafford Fair.

Oct.

New London

Navy Day celebration at U.S.

Submarine Base.

Nov.

Hartford

Swedish population celebrates

national holiday with songs

and dances.

Nov.

nfd

New Haven

Chrysanthemum Show, East

Rock Park.

Dec.

2d wk

Hartford

Connecticut Vegetable Growers'

Meeting.

Dec.

nfd

Hartford

Pomological Show, Women's

Club, Broad St.

Dec.

Hartford

Community sing, Prospect St.

i. CONNECTICUT: THE

GENERAL BACKGROUND

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

CONNECTICUT, the 'Nutmeg State,' is one of the thirteen original
States. From east to west it extends about ninety-five miles, from north
to south about sixty miles. Its area of 4965 square miles could be con-
tained in Texas fifty- three times; only two States, Rhode Island and Del-
aware, are smaller in size. It is bounded on the north by Massachusetts,
on the east by Rhode Island, on the south by Long Island Sound, and on
the west by New York. In 1936 the population was approximately
1,725,000.

The coastline of the State is typical of New England, rock-bound and
rugged, with numerous sandy beaches and occasional 'salt meadows.'
In general, the landscape is mildly rolling near Long Island Sound; to-
ward the north, and especially toward the northwest, the slopes become
more pronounced. The point of highest altitude is Bear Mountain, in the
extreme northwest corner of the State, with an elevation of 2355 feet.
There are two distinct series of hills, usually roughly designated as the
eastern and western highlands, between which lies the central lowland
interrupted by the traprock ridges of New Haven and Hartford Counties.
The Berkshire Hills, extending south from Massachusetts and Vermont to
the city of Danbury, provide most interesting scenery. Both the Norfolk
and Litchfield Hills, famed in song and story, attract swarms of summer
tourists, artists, and vacationists; many of these visitors have purchased
secluded hill farms and return each summer.

Connecticut is rich in interesting and romantic place names, such as
Dublin Street, Jangling Plains, Dark Entry, Cow Shandy, Dodgingtown,
Padanaram, and the Abrigador. Many of the names of towns or topo-
graphical features are of English, Biblical, or Indian origin. What names
could retain more of the flavor of old England than Greenwich, Cheshire,
Durham, Cornwall, Avon, and Wallingford to cite but a few? What
terms are more redolent of the Old Testament than Canaan, Hebron,
Goshen, Bethany, Lebanon, and Zoar? The Indian names, which are le-
gion, have a delightfully primitive quality: Yantic, Cos Cob, Quassapaug,
Naugatuck, Quinnipiac, Wequetequock. The very name of the State it-
self harks back to the earlier form ' Quinatucquet,' meaning 'upon the
long river/

Connecticut : The General Background

Connecticut's scenic advantages have but recently been recognized as
a tourist attraction. Forest-clad hills, kept green during the summer
by abundant rainfall, lakes scattered over the State, and miles of breeze-
swept bathing beaches along the Sound provide a variety of recreational
facilities. Excellent highways make travel to these points easy. A well-
kept and well-marked system of hiking trails and bridle paths invites the
hiker and the rider to venture into country not reached by motor roads.
In Connecticut the enthusiast may enjoy some of the wildest and most
rugged scenery in the East. The gorge of the Mianus River on the Con-
necticut-New York State Line is considered one of the most primitive
spots within a short distance of New York City. North of Old Lyme, the
Devil's Hop Yard, now accessible to motorists, is marked by piney depths,
massive granite boulders, and splashing streams. Near-by is the ghost
town of Millington Green, a relic of the days when lumbering was carried
on extensively. The panorama from the mesa-like Hanging Hills of Meri-
den is one of great beauty.

In contrast to the rough back country is the quiet neatness of the village
green in each small community, adorned by its Congregational church and
magnificent elms. Especially beautiful are the greens at Sharon, Wood-
stock, Tolland, Pomfret, and Windham. Those interested in well-propor-
tioned churches of the Colonial period will delight in the handsome edi-
fices of Canterbury, Killingworth, Litchfield, Lebanon, and Brooklyn.
Towns unrivaled in the beauty of their elm-shaded main streets are Ridge-
field, Lyme, Roxbury, Colebrook, Madison, and Litchfield. The usual
country house is well painted and built far enough from the highway to
insure a certain degree of privacy and dignity. White paint is spread with
a lavish brush; green trim and blinds are popular. Occasionally a red-
brick or yellow Colonial house varies this rural color scheme of white and
green.

The country landscape, with its broad fields of different crops, offers
varied shadings of green. Waving corn, hillside orchards, acres of shade-
grown tobacco under netting that appears from a distance like a vast sea,
meet the eye of the traveler and leave the impression of a land of plenty,
a land that is kind to its people. The dairying section of Connecticut
and much of the land is devoted to dairying furnishes the contrast of
red barns, white farm houses, tall silos, and orderly fence rows against a
background of alfalfa and timothy fields, with pasture land dotted with
black and white Holstein or yellow and white Guernsey cattle. Connecti-
cut is proud of her farms, and eighty-three per cent of the farmers are
landowners. Very few farmhouses are left unpainted, although the older

General Description

barns, usually with native pine, hemlock, or chestnut siding, are often
weathered to a soft gray. Old rail fencing can still be seen in the back
country, and the many walls of field stone are proof that a Connecticut
farmer has to work for what he gets.

The winter scene in Connecticut is especially beautiful. The rolling
character of the country lends itself readily to all manner of winter sports.
Ski jumps of national importance are found at Norfolk and Colebrook
River, where many meets are held. Professional ski jumpers and ski run-
ners congregate at Salisbury, Norfolk, and Winsted, where competition
is keen. The tourist is surprised to find winter sports' centers easily accessi-
ble over roads that have been cleared of snow and properly sanded.
Connecticut offers many of the facilities of Banff and Lake Placid within
easy driving distance of many of the large eastern cities.

Residents of New York City do not commonly realize that over the
New Haven Railroad the distance from their city's limits to the Connec-
ticut State Line is but twelve miles, and that at another point Connecticut
comes within seven miles of the Hudson River. To such an extent does a
corner of New England thrust itself into the metropolitan area! With the
extension of the Hutchinson River Parkway in Westchester and the com-
pletion of the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, a hitherto untapped re-
gion of beautifully wooded hills and rocky dells will be accessible to the
motorist.

Connecticut is dotted with inns of various sorts. Hotels and garage
service are generally excellent. Many rustic eating places border the high-
ways in the back country. Here a barn has been equipped as a studio and
lunch room; there an ancient house serves a light snack in the atmosphere
of another day. Artists sketch along the country roads, and operate
tourist houses for a supplementary income. In season, a system of State-
inspected roadside markets cater to passers-by. The traveler along the
Boston Post Road, with its gasoline stations and wayside restaurants, gets
but a few glimpses of charming coastal villages and sequestered inland
hamlets set among the hills; but let him wander off the beaten paths and
he will discover a countryside much as it was in the pre-Revolutionary
days.

Quiet country towns with close-clipped lawns and stately shade trees,
picturesque islands offshore, sunrise over the hills of Cornwall, sunset over
still pastures, the roar of Kent Falls and the silence of the Cathedral Pines
all these await the traveler who cares to venture away from the larger
cities. Few States have more to offer in natural beauty, in contentment,
and in peace.

Connecticut : The General Background

Connecticut occupies approximately one-half the southern portion of
the New England peneplain. The surface of the State has the characteris-
tics of a gently undulating upland, with the Connecticut Valley lowland
separating this upland into two nearly equal divisions. From the northern
shore of Long Island Sound the land rises at the rate of twenty feet a mile
to a general elevation of one thousand feet at the northern boundary; in
the northwestern section of the State there are a few points where the alti-
tude exceeds two thousand feet. As a contrast, the lowland attains a
height of only one hundred feet at the northern border. The total area of
this lowland is about six hundred square miles. Along the Massachusetts
boundary, the lowland is about fifteen miles in width, and at New Haven,
where it dips into the Sound, it narrows to a mere five miles. Such a con-
dition is the result of a weak bed of rock eroding after the general upland
surface had been elevated subsequent to its formation near sealevel.
Within this bedrock was enough harder traprock to resist erosion; hence
such features as the Hanging Hills of Meriden and the ridges in the vicin-
ity of New Haven. These ridges are characterized by deep notches and
high points that equal in elevation the upland levels east and west of the
lowland region.

At East Haddam, where the Fall Line intersects the lower gorge of the
Connecticut River, one hundred and forty-five earthquake epicenters
were located by the French seismologist, F. de Montessus. More recent
research indicates that the greatest intensity of disturbance occurs on a
line rather than at a given point. The village of Moodus in East Haddam
lies at the intersection of many converging seismotectonic lines. Scientific
investigation has thus accounted for the mysterious and dreadful ' Moodus
Noises/ early interpreted by the Indians as the rumblings of evil spirits,
and by Cotton Mather as the voice of an angry God.

The western upland is decidedly more rugged than the one east of the
valley; here several isolated peaks terminate the line of the Green Moun-
tains and Berkshire ranges. With few exceptions, the highlands are
broken by deep and narrow valleys running in a southern and southeast-
ern direction. The ridges are heavily forested, and provide a pleasant con-
trast to the fertile fields in the river valleys.

The Connecticut River drains only the northern portion of the low-
land. Southeasterly from Middletown the river has carved for itself a
narrow valley in the eastern upland. The Housatonic and Naugatuck
Rivers drain the western highland; and the Thames system composed
chiefly of the Yantic, Shetucket, and Quinebaug Rivers drains the
eastern area. On the Connecticut River, navigation extends to Hartford,

General Description

on the Housatonic to Derby, and on the Thames to Norwich. Oil tankers,
coal barges, and pleasure craft make up most of the traffic on these rivers.
The depression of small valleys along the shore has created a number of
good harbors.

The lakes, waterfalls, and pot-holes, so common over the State, owe
their origin to glacial action. There are more than a thousand lakes, with
a total area of some 44,000 acres. Among the natural lakes are Waramaug,
Bantam, Pocotopaug, Gardner, and Twin Lakes. Artificial lakes include
Lake Zoar and Candlewood Lake, the latter being by far the largest body
of water in Connecticut.

The State's coastal plain, extending along Long Island Sound, is well
developed commercially and residentially. Seaside resorts, State parks,
and bathing beaches line the shore, with some intervening marshland.
There are several good harbors, the most important of which is at New
London, where the United States Government has a submarine base and
a Coast Guard Academy. Shipping was once of great importance, but it
is now relatively negligible except for coastwise traffic.

NATURAL RESOURCES AND
CONSERVATION

Minerals: There are few States where the rocks and minerals are so well
exposed for observation as in Connecticut. Minerals occur in great
diversity of genetic types, but their commercial exploitation has not
been substantially profitable.

The garnet and iron mines of Roxbury, the nickel mines of Litchfield,
and the iron mines of Salisbury have long since ceased production. Cop-
per mining at Granby, Bristol, and Cheshire was attempted even as late
as World War days, but the workings are now idle. Roxbury granite
is only locally important, Portland brownstone went out of fashion
shortly after the last dust-ruffle brushed the sidewalk, but the traprock
quarries are always busy supplying stone for highway and construction
work. The lime kilns of the State are rusty wraiths of their former selves,
the breakwater stone quarries are idle, and the last silica mill has been
torn down; but the Strickland quarries in Portland produce material for
a well-known commercial scouring agent, a garnet mine is active in
Tolland County, and a prospector blasts hopefully for platinum in the
rough hillsides of Sherman.

Soils: The soils of Connecticut furnish a livelihood for many farmers
and dairymen. No State in the Union has better markets so close to the
fields where crops are grown, and few other States are so free from prob-
lems of drought, soil depletion, and erosion. Early in the history of
Connecticut, Yankee farmers learned the rudiments of 'side-hill farming';
modern guidance by an ever-vigilant State agricultural service has per-
petuated the fertility and encouraged the wise utilization of the soil, and
the State has made the most of this rather limited resource.

Water-Pouter and Watersheds: The streams of the State provided
early mills with an abundance of water-power. As industry expanded,
the rivers became ever more important to the growth of the State and its
economic self-sufficiency. Water-power used directly at the site is still
important, and an abundance of electrical energy is generated from the
rivers that plunge over the Fall Line on their race to the sea. Only one
of the State's 169 towns (Union) is without electrical service, and no
hydroelectric power is 'imported.'

Natural Resources and Conservation

Scarcely a single community in Connecticut suffers for lack of a pure,
soft, potable water supply. Watersheds are usually controlled by munici-
palities, but numerous privately owned water companies also function
satisfactorily. The watersheds are vigilantly protected and conserved.
Pine plantings around reservoirs are seen in almost every section of the
State. Notices warning the passer-by of the dangers of fire and pollution
are posted, and all watersheds are patrolled. Pollution is slowly being
eradicated on streams not used for public water supply, and industry is
conscious of the necessity for better and more sanitary disposal of waste
material. Only the Naugatuck River shows any marked degree of
pollution, and State authorities are now (1937) actively concerned with
the purification of this one offensive stream among Connecticut water-
ways.

Flood Control: The State is alive to the necessity of long-term planning
for eliminating the menace of floods such as have twice swept the State
during the past nine years. Losses in soil have not been severe, but the
economic waste through lost time on production and the damage to
industrial equipment is so costly as to create a major problem. Connecti-
cut's interest and position in the matter of flood control are of course
largely influenced by the attitude and action of the States to the north.
The General Assembly in 1937 ratified an interstate compact on flood
control calling for the construction of dams on streams tributary to the
Connecticut River in the States of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Mas-
sachusetts.

Forests: With an occasional exception, such as the conservation work
of the Shaker Colony at Enfield, where a pine grove was planted under
the direction of Elder Omar Pease in 1866, the preservation and renewal
of Connecticut's forests have been grossly neglected by past generations.

The chestnut, fastest growing of the State's timber trees, for many
years supplied most of the wood cut for commercial use. But the chestnut
blight destroyed chestnut trees, and the 'peckerwood' sawmill operator
moved on to a new stand. Timber production dropped from the record
figures of 168,371,000 board feet, cut by 420 mills, in 1909, to only
20,525,000 board feet, cut by 85 mills, in 1930. Seventy-five per cent of
the recent cut has been in hardwoods, and the average annual output
for thirty years has been slightly under eighty million feet. Cordwood for
lime kilns and brass mills took most of the remaining timber, and every
farm woodlot kept a family in fuel. Forests were depleted, and new
plantings were scattered and thin.

Before State control and the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps,

io Connecticut: The General Background

about 27,000 acres of forest, on a yearly average, were devastated by
fire. A similar loss was formerly suffered from the ravages of insects and
ice-storm damage. But in 1932, owing largely to the patrol work of
trained fire crews, only 7000 acres were burned over.

In 1937, 1,789,000 acres in Connecticut, or 56% of the State's
total area, consist of forest land. This is an estimated increase of some
300,000 acres in the past fifteen years. Further increases are probable.
The State owns about 75,000 acres, and is planning additional purchases;
municipal water boards and companies own 100,000 acres; and the re-
mainder is privately owned and controlled. Although plantings are in-
creasing, the softwood supply in Connecticut plantations totals only about
23,000 acres.

PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE

SHRUBS

MOUNTAIN LAUREL (Kalmia latifolia), the State Flower, is as typical
of the rocky Connecticut hillsides as the rhododendron is of the Appa-
lachians. Protected by law, this shrub, which furnishes a dark evergreen
cover, grows profusely in the woodlands and has been planted in shady
highway gardens along the roadsides. The Laurel Festival is an annual
three-day event in Winsted in honor of the beautiful pink and white
blossom.

The shelving pink or white dogwood blossoms are almost as common as
laurel and present a magnificent display in June. Especially noteworthy
growths are in Hubbard Park in Meriden, in the rocky glens of Green-
wich, on the King's Highway in the eastern hills of Wolcott, and on
Greenfield Hill. The pink azalea, locally named ' honeysuckle,' blossom-
ing in pinks shading to red, is found almost everywhere. Clusters of white
wild cherry blossoms appear early in the spring. The bark of this tree is
used as a cough mixture, but its wilted leaves are poisonous to horses
and cattle.

Pasturelands abound with three shrubs: the sweetfern, the bayberry,
and sheep-laurel. The latter is poisonous to sheep and cattle. The bay-
berry fruit has a wax content that has been used since Colonial days in
the making of scented candles. Sweetfern has a delightful odor and
taste. Its dried leaves are often smoked by youngsters. Juniper bushes,
spreading evergreen branches along the ground, produce berries valued as
flavoring in gin.

Huckleberry and blueberry bushes of both high and low varieties bear
edible berries of commercial value. The Ivy Mountain area of Goshen is
especially productive as berry country. Several kinds of blackberries are
conspicuous in June for their wands of white blossoms, and ripen some-
what later than the low bush blueberries. Occasional patches of wild
raspberries survive in the State. The black raspberry or thimbleberry is
widely distributed. Pokeberries, which abound, though not edible, are
used as dye for homespun. Cranberries are native to Connecticut; their

12 Connecticut: The General Background

present-day commercial production here is negligible, but many good
natural bogs exist, notably one to the east of the Cheshire-Waterbury
road and one near Twin Lakes.

At the edge of the Appalachian hardwood belt where it merges into the
northern evergreen forest cover, watered by bountiful rainfall, Connecti-
cut borrows some plant life from each of these two types of cover.

WILD FLOWERS

As soon as the snow melts from the Connecticut countryside, a trip
into the deep woods and a climb into the hill country are rewarded with
the discovery of trailing arbutus, which sometimes blooms beneath the
snow. Blue and white violets cover the lowlands, and the cool woods
shelter the hepatica and the yellow dogtooth violet. The starry-flowered
bloodroot is another conspicuous spring plant in suitable situations in
wood and shady glen. The Indian turnip, or jack-in- the-pulpit, in marshy
places, is ever ready to 'preach' for the youngsters who pinch the strange
bloom with inquisitive fingers. Cowslips, deserving a much fairer name,
spread a yellow glow along quiet swamp pools. Country people prize
the leaves of this plant as 'greens,' cooking it as they do the dandelion,
milkweed, and dock. In May or June, meadows are alternately white
with daisies or yellow with buttercups. Wild geraniums lend a touch of
lavender against the varied greens and, later, the lupine, in favored
locations, covers sandy banks and sterile fields with a wash of blue.

In midsummer, the wild rose blooms. A trip into the deep woods is
rewarded with the discovery of some one of the more delicate orchids.
The Pyrola and the Indian pipe cannot be found by the roadside, but
reward the botanist who wanders far afield. Evening primroses, vetches,
clovers, mustard plant, vervains and composites are a part of the pattern,
and even the hated wild carrot, or Queen Anne's Lace, is a weed of beauty.
Later, at the brook's edge, the scarlet cardinal flower raises its gaudy
spire as the trout play below its roots.

Th$ Connecticut countryside often appears at its best in autumn.
The gaudy scarlets of the woodlands merge with the yellow of the golden-
rod and the browns of ground vegetation. Ivy, climbing around trees
and stone walls, adds a flaming red equaled only by the sumach. Swamp
sumach, distinguished by very green and shiny leaves, is poisonous, but
the upland staghorn type, with great spikes of turkey-red berries in

Plant and Animal Life 13

autumn, is not only harmless but has medicinal properties. The three-
leaved poison ivy, often called mercury, should be avoided, but the five-
leaved Virginia creeper (a cousin of the grape) is harmless.

MEDICINAL PLANTS

Among the often-missed, delicate blossoms to be found between wheel
tracks of old wood roads, are a large variety of herbs, including penny-
royal, and lobelia, whose medicinal properties are valued by the well-in-*
formed 'herb-doctor,' homeopath, and country housewife. Partridge-
berry, a tiny woodland vine found creeping beneath the running or Prin-
cess Pine, produces a brew which was believed to lessen the dangers of
childbirth for pioneer women and their dusky predecessors.

Witch-hazel, a shrub blooming in October with a delicate yellow flower,
furnishes a lotion, concocted at home in the early days, which is now
manufactured at several distilleries in the State. The root of the aromatic
sassafras, found along the edges of woods and in fence corners, is used
both as a flavoring and as a cure for throat ailments. Black birch, a tree
which blossoms in the form of a tassel, is valued for the preparation
known as ' oil of birch,' used as a substitute for wintergreen.

Old charcoal pits provide ideal soil conditions for rank growths of poke-
berry and mullen. Mullen tea is locally believed to be effective in treating
fever and reducing bruises. Thoroughwort, or boneset, with a white
blossom, and skullcap with a blue one, are other common and useful
Connecticut medicinal plants.

NATIVE TREES

The deciduous woodlands of Connecticut vary from the soft maple and
pepperidge in the swamps to the oak, ash, birch, hickory, poplar, yellow
poplar, sycamore, beech, hard maple, and butternut of the ridge. North-
ward, the woodland changes from hardwood second growth to a pre-
dominance of evergreens, ranging from seedling plantings to the towering
white pines of Cornw.aH. Spruce and balsam are not plentiful but hem-
lock and white pine are abundant and readily re-seed and flourish.
Beautiful stands of hemlock are numerous, notably at Sandy Hook, along

14 Connecticut: The General Background

the Mianus and Shepaug Rivers, at Cornwall, Canaan, New London,
Hartland, and Goshen. Red pine, which has proved resistant to rust and
blister, covers many municipal watersheds. Tamarack, or eastern larch,
which is still plentiful, furnished the early settlers with ideal wood for
snowshoe frames, ship timbers, ladders, and fence posts. Tamarack gum
was regarded as superior to spruce gum as a balm for wounds.

The hop-hornbeam and ironwood (or blue beech) are both common, and
their wood is used for whipstocks and tool handles. Black walnut and
hickory are fast disappearing in commercial quantities. The elm and
sugar maple are favorite shade trees in all Connecticut villages. Willow,
one of the first trees to show leaves in the spring, supplies material for
basket splints, and its charcoal a base for gunpowder. Recently, the
persimmon has been grown as far north as Rockville. Catalpa, horse
chestnut, and locust are introduced species in the State, and are becoming
naturalized in various places.

ANIMAL AND BIRD LIFE

The smaller mammalia all adjust themselves to conditions in this
industrial region, and in recent years, as more land is returned to forest
cover through State, municipal, or Federal purchases, they seem to
multiply and thrive. On rural highways skunks dispute the right-of-
way with many a midnight motorist. Woodchucks sit erect in clover
fields beside the road, solemnly surveying the passing traffic. Even the
white-tailed deer, dazed by the glare of approaching headlights, often
stands rigid in the center of the less frequented roads. Foxes, both red
and gray, prey on country henroosts in the rural sections or lead deep-
voiced foxhounds a merry chase through moonlit woodland and over
frozen stubble.

Fur-bearing animals are plentiful enough in the State to furnish a fur
crop valued at from $80,000 to $100,000 per annum. Country lads trap
muskrats, mink and an occasional otter. On the highway above the
Hamburg Cove a dealer in raw furs swings a sign from a cedar pole and
* trades ' for pelts with all the sagacity of the native Yankee. Catalogue
houses regularly stuff country mail boxes with price lists of raw furs, and
rural mail carriers obtain additional income by running trap lines, usually
of Connecticut-made steel traps.

In the Canaan Mountain region and the wild country near Winsted

Plant and Animal Life 15

a few cow moose are said to be at large. Near Colebrook, the horn of
a bull moose was found in 1936. Undoubtedly, these animals escaped
from captivity. Canada lynx very rarely wander in from ' up north ' to
furnish sport for the more highly skilled rural hunters. Bobcats or Bay
lynx, now scarce, furnish an average of about twenty pelts a year in
Connecticut, but are not hunted seriously. Cottontail rabbits are so
plentiful as to be classified as pests. The snowshoe rabbit or varying hare
is not uncommon in Litchfield County and occurs throughout the northern
uplands. The European hare is an introduced species which has become
widely though sparingly established.

BIRD LIFE IN CONNECTICUT

Among the New England States, Connecticut is unique in possessing"
within its borders three faunal life zones: upper austral, transition, and
Canadian. Typical of the upper austral birds which breed regularly in
Connecticut are: clapper rail, fish crow, orchard oriole, hooded warbler,
worm-eating warbler, Louisiana water thrush, seaside sparrow; and
representative of the Canadian Zone in the high hills of the northwestern
part of the State, as regular summer residents, are: the brown creeper,
black-throated blue warbler, northern water thrush, junco, and white-
throated sparrow, with such spasmodic breeding species as sapsucker, saw-
whet owl, and golden-crowned kinglet. The vast majority of the breeding
birds are typical of the transition zone which covers most of southern New
England. Connecticut is particularly fortunate in lying well within the
edge of the great eastern fly-way for migrants which pass each spring and
fall up and down the Hudson, Housatonic, and Connecticut River Valleys.
These two facts, in conjunction with the maritime situation along the
route of the shore bird and waterfowl migration, account for the rich and
varied bird life of the State.

Among the game birds, the fresh-water ducks are the most important,
but, with the exception of the local black ducks and the protected wood
ducks, are rapidly becoming scarcer, owing largely to continued over-
shooting. Second in importance is probably the ruffed grouse, which
continues to hold its own, particularly in protected woodlands, despite
the ravages of obscure and supposedly exotic diseases. The bob-white or
quail are now protected and in consequence are slowly but surely regaining
their insecure foothold as a characteristic bird of orchard, pasture, and

1 6 Connecticut: The General Background

thicket. A very marked increase in numbers has occurred in 1937. The
ring-necked pheasant has thrived as an introduced game bird, and offers
good sport to local gunners.

Some authorities, including authors of several official bulletins of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, decry the reduction in the numbers of
predatory hawks and owls, slaughtered by the representatives of the State
Department of Fish and Game. They argue that the balance of nature
has been upset and that much economic loss has been sustained from the
over-abundance of rodents, rabbits, snakes, and other vermin. These views
are not shared by some of the agriculturists and rural taxpayers, nor by
some of the practical conservationists in charge of the forests and wild life
of Connecticut.

Control: Six or seven hundred predatory hawks are annually destroyed.
Crows furnish a yearly bag totaling 3500, and about 150 great horned
owls are killed as State foresters and game protectors clear the cover for
the protection of game birds.

Fish wardens captured and donated to the poor over 51,000 pounds
of snapping turtles during the year 1936-37. Over 2300 watersnakes
were destroyed by the same agency. Trappers are licensed to destroy
fox, lynx, bobcat, and other predatory beasts.

Caution: The only wild life in Connecticut to be avoided are skunks,
copperheads (in the swampy lands), and rattlesnakes (in a few isolated hill
regions). Skunks never invite trouble and only their curiosity and in-
dependence cause them to be ranked as undesirable. It is advisable to
give the skunk more than half of the road.

GEOLOGY

SURFACE FORMS

TO ANYONE driving a car over ridge and vale in northwestern Con-
necticut, or climbing laboriously to the high summit of Bear Mountain,
the chief characteristic of the topography seems to be irregularity.
Nevertheless the surface of the State, viewed as a whole, may be described
as an old plain, gently tilted from northwest to southeast and more or
less dissected by streams. The truth of this statement is demonstrated
by study of a relief model made of plaster or clay and showing all land-
scape features in proper scale. A sheet of cardboard laid on such a model
is not held up by a few scattered high points; it rests rather snugly on
many broad areas that are nearly flat or gently rolling, and slopes grad-
ually from the northern boundary to the shore of Long Island Sound.
It is evident that if the stream valleys on the model were filled, the card-
board would then fit the top of the model rather accurately. In other
words, the ruggedness of the upper Housatonic Valley and similar areas
is chiefly due, not to scattered peaks and ridges that rise to exceptional
height, but to numerous steep-walled valleys cut below a surface that
originally was remarkably even.

The part of the State that would require the largest amount of fill to
raise it to the level of the ideal plain is the wide lowland belt bordering
the Connecticut River in the vicinity of Hartford, and extending generally
southward to New Haven Harbor. This belt includes much of the best
farming land of the State. The soil is predominantly reddish in color, in
agreement with the bedrock beneath, which consists largely of red-tinted
sandstone and shale. On the other hand, the higher ground on each side
of the low belt is underlain by granite and similar rocks that are much
more resistant than the sandstone and the shale. Within the low belt
itself are steep-sided ridges, such as Mount Carmel, Pistapaug Mountain,
and the Hanging Hills of Meriden. These ridges are on dark basaltic
rock, as hard and resistant as granite. It seems, then, that there is a
general relation between the topography of the State and the character
of the bedrock. The north-south belt of low country mentioned above

1 8 Connecticut : The General Background

is called the Central Lowland; the higher areas east and west of it are
known respectively as the Eastern and Western Highlands.

BEDROCK

The rocks that underlie the surface of Connecticut may be divided
into two general groups according to age and structure. The Central
Lowland, which extends from north to south entirely across the State and
nearly across Massachusetts, is floored with reddish sandstone and
shale in which are included sheets and dikes of dark basalt and related
igneous rocks. A small detached area in Southbury is underlain by rocks
of the same kind. The sandstone and shale have been eroded to form the
lowland, whereas the more resistant igneous masses are responsible for
the numerous bold ridges that diversify the scenery of the low belt.
All of the bedrock within this belt was formed during the Triassic period
of earth history. The strata of shale and sandstone were laid down as
layers of mud, sand, and gravel, partly in the channels and on the flood
plains of ancient streams and partly on the floors of shallow lakes.
Strange extinct reptiles known as dinosaurs inhabited the region in large
numbers; thousands of their footprints, perfectly preserved when the old
muds hardened into rock, are to be seen in museums as well as in their
original positions in old quarries. Three times during the Triassic period
great floods of molten lava poured over the land and formed sheets of
black basalt, which in turn were buried by thick layers of mud and sand.
In a final great mountain-making upheaval, all of the Triassic deposits
were broken and tilted toward the east. During succeeding ages the up-
turned edges of the mountain blocks have been eroded, and now a com-
plete section of the beveled strata, nearly three miles in total thickness,
can be seen by traversing the lowland belt from west to east. Compari-
son of the Triassic rocks in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey
suggests that these rocks originally covered a much larger area than at
present.

Rocks much older than the Triassic underlie the Eastern and Western
Highlands. These older rocks are here grouped together, although ac-
tually they form a complicated assemblage, containing many rock types
and units that differ greatly in age. Some of these rock units originated
on the floors of ancient seas. For example, in the western part of the
State there are extensive belts of marine limestone. The layers of lime-

Geology 19

stone and shale, once nearly horizontal, were folded and contorted by
mountain-making forces, and in many places they are now vertical or
even overturned. In connection with the mountain-making, great masses
of molten rock welled up, cutting across and partially engulfing the folded
strata. This molten material solidified to make coarse-grained granite,
a type of rock that is formed thousands of feet below the earth's surface.
Since the granite is now exposed over large areas, as at Stony Creek,
Stonington, and Thomaston, we know that erosion has carried away vast
quantities of rock, completely removing an old mountain system.

When the tremendous forces were compressing and folding the rock
strata and the granite bodies were being formed, the combination of
pressure and heat changed or metamorphosed much of the older rock.
Limestone became marble; shale changed to slate, or in part to a rock
composed largely of mica and known as mica schist. Garnets, some of
large size, developed in parts of this metamorphic rock. Many other
peculiar minerals were formed in the old mountain zone. Bodies of very
coarse-grained granite, called pegmatite, yield dozens of mineral species,
including some that are radioactive. By analysis of radioactive minerals
found in quarries in the town of Portland, it has been determined that
the pegmatite in that vicinity was formed 280,000,000 years ago.

In brief outline, the story recorded in the bedrock of Connecticut is as
follows: the land was covered by ancient seas, and strata made of the old
marine deposits were later folded to form high mountains. Erosion during
long ages wore the mountains down and exposed the granite in their cores.
Part of the land then began to sink slowly, and into the basin thus formed
streams swept gravel, sand, and finer debris derived from the granite and
older rocks. Dinosaurs left their footprints and bones in these deposits
before the latter were hardened into rock. Great flows of lava poured over
the land. Again there was mountain-making movement, which broke and
tilted the new-made sandstones and lavas, making ranges similar to those
in the present Great Basin of Nevada and Utah. Long-continued erosion
then planed down these ranges until a wide region, including much of New
England, was reduced to a plain near sea level.

In this long history of erosion, undoubtedly the areas on weak bedrock
were worn down rather rapidly, whereas the resistant rocks stubbornly
withstood the attacking forces for long ages. However, the weakest rocks
cannot be cut below sea level by the running water of streams, and given
time enough even the most resistant bedrock is brought down to the same
critical level. Thus it was that the surface of our State became a mono-
tonous plain, or near-plain, on which large rivers meandered widely.

20 Connecticut : The General Background

The next event was slow and nearly uniform uplift of northern New
England, tilting the old plain gently toward the Atlantic. Streams began
to flow more swiftly and to cut downward. Again the weak bedrock yielded
readily to the attack of erosion, and permitted some belts to be reduced
to low elevation before the areas of resistant rock showed any appre-
ciable effect. This selective wearing away may be compared to an etching
process used in engraving. A plate of metal is covered with wax, which
is then cut away with an engraver's tool until the desired pattern is pro-
duced. Acid applied to the plate attacks the bare metal, but cannot touch
the areas protected by wax. In this way the surface, originally smooth,
is etched into relief.

GLACIATION

The present surface of Connecticut represents natural etching that has
partially destroyed the old tilted plain, which is still identified by numer-
ous remnants. However, another modifying influence was required to
shape the landscape as we now see it. This second agent was the moving
ice cap of the Ice Age. The cause of this widespread glaciation is still
largely a mystery; but an abundance of evidence demonstrates the exist-
ence of the ice sheet, both on this continent and in northern Europe.
Over all of Connecticut the sheet was thick enough to bury the highest
hills and to move slowly under its own weight. Soil and loose stones were
moved along, blocks of bedrock were pried loose and added to the mass of
moving debris, and the entire bedrock surface was polished, scratched,
and gouged by the relentless grinding mill. Much of the original mantle
of Connecticut was moved as far south as Long Island. During hundreds
of thousands of years the ice sheet waxed and waned. At last the climate
became more temperate, and the gigantic cap began to waste by melting
from the top and from the front. Gradually all of Connecticut was set
free. But for a long time floods of water poured across the State from the
ice remnants farther north. Large temporary lakes were formed where
stagnant ice dammed the old stream valleys. Water escaping from these
lakes poured over cliffs as falls, and with the aid of hard pebbles as grind-
ing tools, wore circular pot-holes, as deep as wells, into the solid rock.
The wasting ice dropped its load of debris, and thus Connecticut, which
had lost much of its original cover, inherited soil and boulders brought
from Massachusetts and even from Vermont and New Hampshire. Scat-
tered glacial boulders that obviously have strayed far from their original
source are common features in all parts of the State.

Geology 2 1

Contrary to common opinion, the ice sheet did not erode deeply into
bedrock and fashion the topography anew. It is clear that the ridges and
valleys we now see were formed by running water long before the Ice Age.
The moving ice used its energy chiefly in moving soil cover and dumping
it haphazardly, thus modifying the older topography more largely by de-
position than by erosion. Large piles of this glacial debris form the elon-
gate drumlins near Storrs and elsewhere in the State. In the last stages of
the glacial history, when the rotting ice was transected by long crevices,
running water filled many of these elongate depressions with sand and
gravel. When the surrounding ice melted away, these deposits remained
as long narrow ridges. Elsewhere isolated masses of ice were partially
buried in gravelly deposits, and later melted to leave the undrained de-
pressions known as kettles.

The haphazard shifting of debris by the glacier ice resulted in many
changes of the older drainage. The Farmington River flowed south in
preglacial times and emptied into New Haven Harbor. After the ice dis-
appeared, the old channel was left filled with glacial deposits in the vicin-
ity of Plainville, and the river found it necessary to seek out a new route
to the north, through an old gap at TarifTville, and finally into the Con-
necticut River at Windsor. Dumping of glacial debris obstructed many
smaller stream valleys to create the lakes and swamps that are so com-
mon in all parts of the State.

The Connecticut shoreline is made ragged by many deep bays and inlets,
and rocky islands are numerous offshore. The lower parts of the large
stream valleys are 'drowned' to form estuaries, and in the Connecticut
River the tides reach as far inland as Hartford. All of these features sug-
gest recent sinking of the coastal belt; but at least a part of the real cause
is actual rise of sea level due to return into the sea of vast quantities of
water that were locked up in the great ice sheets during the Ice Age.

All of the numerous effects of glaciation form conspicuous features in
the Connecticut landscape of today; but these effects are merely a veneer
superposed on older features of the bedrock. Glaciation occurred only
yesterday, from the geologic point of view. It is barely ten thousand years
since the last of the glacier ice wasted away; but millions of years have
elapsed since the Connecticut and Housa tonic rivers began to cut their
present valleys, and the old plain that was partly destroyed by the valley
cutting was formed tens of millions of years ago. In the bedrock itself we
see evidence of great changes in still earlier tunes, including the uplift of
lofty mountains beneath which lay the granite now so widely exposed.
Like human civilizations, landscapes come and go, each built on the ruins
of another.

THE INDIANS OF
CONNECTICUT

ETHNOLOGISTS distinguish four main groups among the aborigines of
Connecticut: the Nipmuck, the Pequot-Mohegan, the Sequin or 'River
Indians/ and the Matabesec or Wappinger Confederacy. The first of
these, the Nipmuck, occupied the northeastern corner of the State and
part of Massachusetts. They had no ruler of their own, and were subject
to one or another of the neighboring tribes. The Pequot and Mohegan,
although politically distinct, were linguistically and otherwise closely
related tribes, and actually formed a single people. They established them-
selves in the southeastern section of Connecticut after an invasion
before 1600. The 'River Indians,' who consisted of a group, or league, of
tribes under one chief, called the central part of the present state their
own; while the Matabesecs, who were forced to share their territory with
the Mohicans of eastern New York, occupied its western part.

Both the 'River Indians* and the Matabesecs were broken up into a
number of localized tribes, the former being subdivided into the Tunxis,
Poquonnuc, Podunk, Wangunk, Machimoodus, Hammonasset, and
Quinnipiac, while the latter counted among their tribes the Pootatuck,
Wepawaug, Uncowa, and Siwanoy. All of the Connecticut tribes were
frequently invaded by the powerful Mohawks, who kept them under com-
plete domination for long periods at different times.

The first contact between the whites and the Indians of Connecticut
was probably made around the year 1614 by Dutch traders. Shortly
after, hi 1633, the Dutch established themselves in what is now Hartford,
and hi the next few years the influx of English settlers from Massachusetts
began.

It was not long before the Connecticut settlers became involved in a
life-and-death struggle with the Pequots, the most virile of the tribes.
The first outrage on the Indians' part was the murder of Captains Stone
and Norton on their way up the Connecticut River to trade.

The killing of the adventurer, John Oldham, off Block Island in 1636
led to ill-advised reprisals by a force from Massachusetts under Captain
Endicott. The Pequots, enraged by the burning of some of their houses
and corn, attempted to form an offensive alliance with the Narragansetts

The Indians of Connecticut 23

of Rhode Island. Had they been successful, the white settlers might well
have been annihilated. Through the fall and winter of 1636-37, a series
of attacks at Saybrook, Wethersfield, and other settlements kept the
whites in a constant state of alarm.

On May i, 1637, the General Court of Hartford decided to take the
field against the Pequots. Ninety men were levied forty-two from
Hartford, thirty from Windsor, and eighteen from Wethersfield, and
Captain John Mason was put in charge of the expedition. Ten days later
Mason's party, with seventy Mohegan allies, sailed down the Connecticut
River to Saybrook, where they joined Captain Underbill with twenty
men from Massachusetts.

As the Pequots were in possession of two strongly fortified encampments
and had a force of nearly five hundred warriors, the undertaking was a
formidable one. The original plan to attack from the western or Thames
River side, where the movements of the whites would have been under
the constant observation of the Indians, was wisely abandoned. The main
body of troops was sent over to Narragansett Bay to attack from the east.
On the morning of May 24, the long overland march began for the little
band of seventy-seven Englishmen with a small army of Indian observers,
sixty Mohegans and four hundred Narragansetts. This retinue was more
of a hindrance than a help, and might easily have constituted a potential
menace, if the attack were not successful. On the morning of the 26th, an
hour before dawn, the English advanced on the chief fort at Pequot
Hill, West Mystic. It consisted of a circular area of several acres, sur-
rounded by a twelve-foot palisade and containing some seventy wigwams.
The surprise was successful; both entrances were taken and the work of
slaughter began. It was a slow and confused business. Mason, therefore,
decided to fire the encampment. Aided by a rising wind, the flames swept
the fort; those who ran out were shot down, the Mohegans and Narra-
gansetts lending a hand in this work. The destruction of the main body
of the Pequots was complete, with a loss to the English of only two killed
and twenty wounded. The other Pequots at Fort Hill made a sally, but
were driven off. It was the most decisive battle ever fought on Connecti-
cut soil, although one more action was needed to bring the war to an end.
In a swamp fight at Fairfield on July 13, 1637, Mason overtook and de-
stroyed the fleeing remnants of the Pequots, leaving one hundred and
eighty captives to the whites and a few fugitives among the New York
tribes. On September 21, 1637, a treaty of friendship was concluded
between the English on one side, and Uncas of the Mohegans and Mian-
tonomo of the Narragansetts on the other.

24 Connecticut: The General Background

A period of peace followed, which lasted for nearly forty years, with
growing tension as the settlers took over more and more of the Indians'
hunting grounds. The fate intended for the Indians was clear, but before
submitting to the white men's depredations, the original owners of the
land rallied under Philip of the Wampanoags, a tribe of Rhode Island and
Massachusetts. Intelligent, brave, made desperate by the injustice of
the invaders, this Indian champion of a lost cause, abandoning all hope
of peace, attempted to unite all the Indians of New England in a general
conspiracy. His plans were revealed to the English by a Christian Indian,
who was promptly murdered by Philip's henchmen. The execution of
these murderers was the signal for the outbreak of what became known
as King Philip's War. In June, 1675, Philip attacked Swansea, near
Mount Hope, Rhode Island, killing nine and wounding seven of the
inhabitants.

This time the Narragansetts, although still reluctant, were forced to
participate on the side of King Philip. The colonists, aware of the serious-
ness of the situation, mobilized an army of one thousand men. On Decem-
ber 1 8, 1675, the Connecticut forces, consisting of three hundred English-
men and one hundred and fifty Pequot and Mohegan Indians, under the
command of Major Treat, joined those of Massachusetts and Plymouth.
In combination, they made a desperate attack upon the Indian fort at
Mount Hope; and after suffering heavy losses, they succeeded in com-
pletely subduing the Indian tribes.

Many of the survivors of the sorely defeated people moved out of New
England northward or southward, others re-established themselves in
New York State, while still others settled down in small groups in their
original territory at the sufferance of the colonists. Thus a small number
of Paugussets, Uncowas, and Pootatucks finally found a home several
miles from Kent on the Housa tonic River, where a reservation, called
Schaghticoke, consisting of about four hundred acres and harboring a
dozen half-breeds, is still maintained. Another band of Pequots settled
near Stonington, where seventeen descendants are maintained at present
as State wards. Still another group, of which nine members survive,
were allowed by Governor Winthrop to settle near Ledyard. This settle-
ment is known as the Ledyard Pequot Reservation, and comprises one
hundred and twenty-nine acres of rough land. Aside from these few State
wards, thirty-one descendants of the Mohegan tribe are living as members
of the community in the town of Montville. They are concentrated in the
section known as Mohegan, where they still observe on certain occasions
some of their native customs although they have long been Christian-

The Indians of Connecticut 25

ized, and maintain a church of their own, the Mohegan Congregational
Church. The rest are scattered in towns and villages throughout the
State. Altogether, only one hundred and sixty-two Indians survive today
in Connecticut.

As to the original number of Indians in the State there is a lack of agree-
ment among the authorities. While some put the number as high as from
12,000 to 15,000, others assert that no more than from 4000 to 5000
aborigines occupied the territory. At any rate, the first of these estimates
is undoubtedly highly exaggerated.

COLLECTIONS OF INDIAN MATERIAL IN CONNECTICUT

Public displays of relics relating to the Indians of Connecticut are on
view at the following institutions: Bruce Memorial, Greenwich; Pequot
Library, Southport; Barnum Museum, Bridgeport; Hagaman Library,
East Haven; Blackstone Library, Branford; Stratford Historical Soci-
ety, Stratford; New London Historical Society, New London; Peabody
Museum, New Haven; Old Stone House, Guilford; Norwich Free Acad-
emy, Norwich; Wesleyan University, Middletown; Litchfield Public
Library, Litchfield; Mattatuck Society, Waterbury; Newgate Prison,
Granby; Athenaeum, Hartford. Some of the more notable private col-
lections belong to the following: Dr. F. H. Williams, Bristol; Crandall's
Poultry Farm, Poquonock Midway, near Groton; Norris L. Bull, 1565
Boulevard, West Hartford; Edward H. Rogers, 340 Bridgeport Avenue,
Devon; Joseph Lamb, 29 Park Place, New Britain; W. Shirley Fulton,
170 Hillside Avenue, Waterbury; Duffield B. Peck, Clinton; Elliott R.
Bronson, Winchester Center; C. C. Coffin, Milford; Lyent Russell, 154
Hemingway Street, East Haven; Mathew Spiess, Center Street, Man-
chester; William Fen ton, Westport.

HISTORY

THE settlement of the Connecticut Valley in the i63o's was the begin-
ning of the westward movement of the English colonists in the New
World. When news of the fertility of the Connecticut Valley reached
Massachusetts, many land-hungry groups who had grown restive under
the restrictive Massachusetts laws began to migrate westward.

A Dutch navigator, Adriaen Block, was probably the first to observe
the possibilities of the region, when he sailed along the coast and up the
Connecticut River, which he discovered in the year 1614 and called the
Varsche River. Nearly twenty years passed, however, before the Dutch
established a trading post and fort near the future site of Hartford (June,
1633). By this tune the Indians had reported the existence of a fertile
country with valuable trading possibilities to the Plymouth colonists,
and Edward Winslow made an exploratory visit to the Connecticut
Valley in the summer of 1632. Next year a Plymouth expedition sailed
up the Connecticut, past Dutch Point, to the mouth of the Farmington
River. There, on September 26, 1633, they established a post at Mat-
taneaug (Windsor). In the same year, John Oldham of Watertown and
three others explored the Connecticut Valley, and * discovered many very
desirable places upon the same river, fit to receive many hundred in-
habitants.' This report accomplished what the persuasions of Winslow
and Bradford had not effected, and stimulated the first permanent settle-
ment from the Bay towns of Watertown, Dorchester, and New Town
(Cambridge).

In 1634, a large party from Watertown, with Oldham among them,
settled at Pyquag (Wethersfield). They claimed that they were the
first settlers to plant a crop in the valley. In the summer of 1635, emi-
grants from Dorchester settled in Windsor, erected a building, and thereby
gave present historians of Windsor an opportunity to argue that this
town was the first. But the severity of the winter was such that most of
the 'inhabitants' were driven down the Connecticut River to the new
military post at Saybrook, where they took ship to their homes in Dor-
chester.

In October, 1635, the first general migration took place, when fifty
persons from New Town (Cambridge) under the leadership of John

History 27

Steel moved across Massachusetts with all their household goods and
settled at Suckiaug (Hartford) close by the Dutch trading post. The
Reverend Thomas Hooker and his congregation trekked westward in
the following spring. The prime motive of these migrations was land
hunger, as the constant arrival of newcomers from England taxed the
resources of the early towns of Massachusetts Bay. To economic causes
were added the rivalries of strong-willed men, such as Hooker and John
Cotton, and a dislike of some of the autocratic and theocratic features
of the government of Massachusetts. These colonists from Watertown,
Dorchester, and Cambridge, who were settled in Wethersfield, Windsor,
and Hartford, soon absorbed the small number of Plymouth people and
kept the Dutch confined to their trading post, which was finally abandoned
in 1654. In 1638, the Fundamental Orders, drafted under the inspiration
of Hooker's sermon of May 31 and largely the work of Roger Ludlow,
were drawn up, and in January, 1639, they were adopted by the three
towns. Under this document, sometimes called the first practical con-
stitution, the towns formed 'one publike State or Commonwealth.'
Already (April 26, 1636) a general court had been held, in which Steel
and Ludlow took part; and it now became the supreme authority, with
deputies from the towns acting in concert. It is not without significance
that Thomas Hooker was John Pym's brother-in-law. To Pym, Hampden,
and other reformers in the mother country, the main organ of political
power was the House of Commons. So here in Connecticut, the Governor
was merely a presiding officer, and the courts were creations of the legis-
lature by which their judgments could be set aside. Until the Consti-
tution of 1818 replaced the Fundamental Orders and the Charter of
1662, the legislative body continued to dominate the executive and the
judicial. It is worthy of note that the preamble presumed a close relation
between Church and State, and that in 1659 the general court imposed
a property qualification for suffrage. There was a distinct aristocratic
element in this democracy.

In 1635, a second settlement, Saybrook, was established at the mouth
of the Connecticut River by order of an English company of lords and
gentlemen, among whom were Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brooke for
whom the Colony was named. John Winthrop, Jr., son of the Governor
of Massachusetts, was in charge of this enterprise, his chief aids being
Colonel George Fenwick and Captain Lion Gardiner. The Saybrook
group possessed a deed of conveyance from its patron, the Earl of War-
wick, under date of March 19, 1632; but Warwick never received a patent
to support the large claims later made by the Connecticut Colony to

28 Connecticut: The General Background

lands from Narragansett Bay westward to the Pacific Ocean. As the
other Puritan lords and gentlemen became involved in the Cromwell
Revolution, the settlement did not thrive at first and was important only
as a fort and trading post. After several years of negotiation, Fenwick
sold his rights to the Connecticut Colony in 1644. There is no evidence
that he had any authorization from the company to convey the property,
nor did Warwick's original deed carry jurisdictional rights. At any rate,
the separate existence of Saybrook Colony came to an end in 1644, and
Connecticut succeeded to a doubly doubtful title.

The third settlement was made in 1638 at Quinnipiac (New Haven)
by colonists of the English merchant class, under the Reverend John
Davenport and Theophilus Eaton. Land was acquired by purchase
from Momauguin, chief of the local Indians, and the lack of a patent or
charter vexed the Colony from its inception until its absorption by Con-
necticut in 1665. After living for a year under a plantation covenant,
the colonists organized a civil government in June 1639. ' Seven pillars'
were chosen, chief of whom was Theophilus Eaton, the elected magistrate.
It was stipulated that all free burgesses should be church members, a
restriction which proved increasingly irksome to the settlers. Internal
dissatisfaction with the 'judicial laws of God as they were declared by
Moses' became an acute problem. These 'Blue Laws,' as they were
called by the Tory historian, Samuel Peters, in his 'General History of
Connecticut' (1781), were Mosaic only in capital cases, and in general
closely resembled the Cotton Code of Massachusetts. They contrasted
unfavorably, however, with the wider freedom of the Connecticut Colony,
particularly in the matter of franchise.

In 1643, New Haven was extended as a colony to include Milford
(1639), Guilford (1639), and Stamford (1641); Branford (1644) and
Southhold, Long Island (1640), later came under its jurisdiction. Two
attempts to settle a subordinate colony in Delaware were opposed by the
Swedes and the Dutch, and ended in failure. Although the Colony was
founded to promote the peculiarly Puritan combination of piety and
commercialism, its commercial enterprises did not thrive, and its piety
was over-zealous and repressive. Its shipping activity was short-lived,
and was featured by the loss at sea of the ' Wonder-working Providence '
with several leading citizens on board. This ship set sail for England in
January, 1646, and was never heard of again. Only as a 'phantom ship'
did it appear miraculously in the clouds before the sight of the grieved
New Haveners. In general, the colonists were forced to depend for a
living on agriculture, in a coastal region less well adapted to agricultural
pursuits than the fertile Connecticut Valley.

HOMES OF PATRIOT AND
MERCHANT PRINCE

CONNECTICUT was primarily a farming community where
the struggle for life was not easy. But a few families rose to
prominence through trade, bringing the wares of the great
world to the remote country villages. It was these families, in
the main, who supported the Revolution, sometimes at the
loss of their fortunes.

The earliest house of the Huntington family in Norwich is
the narrow gambrel, much added to later, built by Joshua
Huntington about 1719. The earliest house of the Trumbulls
was built by Governor John Trumbull the first, in 1740. In
the same year, Oliver Ellsworth's father, David, built the
Ellsworth House in Windsor, one of the first to make the cen-
tral hall popular. A little later, in 1753, the merchant prince
of Wethersfield, Joseph Webb, built the house that was to
become memorable as the meeting place of Washington and
Rochambeau, where the campaign of Yorktown was planned.
All these, and such houses as the manses in Suffield and
Woodbury, 1742 and c. 1750, developed many interior ele-
gances not found in the ordinary house. The Smith Mansion
in Sharon is akin to the Van Cortlandt Mansion in New York.

After the Revolution, large fortunes began to be made in com-
merce between the more prosperous rural centers and the
outer world. These were reflected in the Morris Mansion of
New Haven, practically a house of 1780, the Stan ton House
and Store in Clinton (both now open to the public), and such
later houses as the Julius Deming House in Litchfield (1793)
and the Noble House in New Milford. These later showed a
more definite architectural purpose, which culminated in the
Greek Revival, as illustrated in Winsted, in Colebrook, and
very notably in a number of houses in Farmington. The tran-
quil village of Windham shows the contrast between the
simple little type of store upon which many of these country
fortunes were based, and a mansion of the later Greek Revival.

-PI

JABEZ HUNTINGTON HOUSE, NORWICH

GOVERNOR TRUMBULL HOUSE, LEBANON

WEST FRONT OF THE GOVERNOR SMITH MANSION, SHARON

MORRIS HOUSE, NEW HAVEN

STANTON HOUSE, CLINTON

itAJOR TIMOTHY COWLES HOUSE, FARMINGTON

NOBLE HOUS r NW

mil

DEMING HOUSE, LITCHFIELD

ROCKWELL HOUSE, WINSTED

OLD STORE, WINDHAM

PERKINS HOUSE, WINDHAM

History 29

Both New Haven and Connecticut had bought land from the Indians
but neither possessed a title valid under English law. The Say and Sele
group, though it had a deed of conveyance from Warwick, was similarly
insecure in its right, since there was no evidence that the original Warwick
patent had been executed, and the deed would not have survived close
legal scrutiny. Connecticut recognized the insecurity of its position, for
it had bought whatever rights Colonel Fenwick possessed, in 1644, but
upon his return to England he failed to get the patent confirmed or
renewed. Consequently, when Charles II was restored to the throne in
1660, the Colony fully realized how precarious the situation was.

It took little persuasion, therefore, on the part of Winthrop, who had
been elected Governor in 1657 and re-elected in 1659, to induce his
brethren to send him to England to see what could be done. The story
of his negotiations is vague, but he somehow succeeded in obtaining a
royal charter which placed the King's approval on the system of govern-
ment already in existence, with a few minor modifications. The boundaries
set forth in the charter, furthermore, extended from Massachusetts to
the Sound, and from Narragansett Bay to the Pacific. Whether or not
the royal authorities or Winthrop intended to destroy the independence
of New Haven, the fact remained that by royal grant the New Haven
colony had been incorporated into Connecticut. Naturally, the Colony
immediately voiced a loud protest, and surrendered in 1664 only be-
cause it was faced with the greater evil of being included in the area
granted to the Duke of York.

Thus, so early, Connecticut reached its full proportions, which it
succeeded more or less in holding by constant vigilance and dexterity
over a period of a century. Connecticut twice resisted Sir Edmund
Andros once in 1675, when he was acting as emissary for the claims
of New York and attempted to land a force at Saybrook; and again in
October, 1687, when the charter whose surrender he demanded was
snatched from under his nose and hidden in the famous Charter Oak at
Hartford. In the face of such efforts of Crown officials to regulate Co-
lonial affairs, only Connecticut and Rhode Island retained their corporate
existence; and Rhode Island, because of its dependence on foreign trade
and its prominent position in the English mercantile system, was actually
far less autonomous than Connecticut. Pennsylvania and Maryland,
though they were still in the possession of the heirs of the original pro-
prietors at the time of the Revolution, suffered from proprietary restric-
tions. After 1689 the status of Massachusetts became that of a semi-
royal province, and Connecticut alone of the Puritan commonwealths
carried on the Puritan experiment.

30 Connecticut : The General Background

This amazing degree of autonomy was not solely the result of skillful
policy and the work of able men; it was due more to the self-sufficient
nature of the Colony. Only North Carolina traded less with the outside
world. In Colonial Connecticut, agriculture was the main occupation;
and there was no staple crop, such as tobacco in Virginia, to induce
English regulation. The Crown exercised little control over Connecticut
because there were few occasions for such control. The Colony, realizing
the strength of its position and the support its policy would receive from
a Parliament that was becoming more and more determined to limit the
royal prerogative, trod warily, and deliberately refrained from giving
royal officials an opportunity for punitive measures.

During the century between the granting of the charter and the Revo-
lution, Connecticut played its part in the larger events of the New
World. It hanged a few witches about the middle of the seventeenth
century, and joined its neighbors in King Philip's War of the i6yo's,
though it suffered far less in that struggle than Maine, Massachusetts
Bay, and Plymouth. From 1687 to 1689, as part of the Dominion of
New England, it was subjected to the harsh rule of Andros. Within a
few years, however, government was resumed on its former basis with the
approval of Crown lawyers, who ruled that the charter was still valid.
The Colony participated in the Colonial wars: in 1690, Fitz-John Win-
throp led an unsuccessful expedition against Montreal, and twenty years
later three hundred Connecticut militiamen were among the troops that
captured Port Royal during Queen Anne's War. It was well represented
in the force that took Louisburg in 1745 ; and during the French and Indian
War it wavered, like its neighbors, between co-operation and obstruction.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, boundary disputes with
adjoining Colonies were incessant. Encouraged by the charter of 1662,
the Connecticut Colony attempted to take Westchester and the western
towns of Long Island from New York. In 1664, the royal grant to the
Duke of York conflicted with the Connecticut charter by assigning all
land up the Connecticut River to New York. As previously noted, this
claim was decisive in persuading New Haven to choose a union with
Connecticut. The most serious controversy occurred over land claimed
by Connecticut in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. Here war
actually broke out between rival settlers just before the Revolution,
causing a bitter dispute that was not adjudicated until 1782. Similar
boundary disputes with Rhode Island and Massachusetts were frequent,
but after years of wrangling were ended in compromise.

In 1708, the General Court, which had occupied itself with ecclesiastical

History 31

affairs, summoned delegates to a synod to be held at Saybrook. At
this convention, the conflict between the strict Congregationalists, who
held that each church body was a unit with full powers of administration
and discipline, and the moderate 'Presbyterians/ who favored centraliza-
tion, was settled by a compromise. The Saybrook Platform, adopted by
the twelve clergymen and four laymen who composed the convention,
provided for biennial meetings of the ministers of each county in con-
sociations to consider matters of common interest and exercise a certain
control over the ministry. This form of polity has been called 'modified
Presby terianism ' ; and, in fact, the terms ' Presbyterian ' and ' Congrega-
tional' were used indiscriminately until the middle of the eighteenth
century. The platform resulted in a permanent establishment that
tempered the excesses of the 'Great Awakening' of 1740 and remained
in force until the adoption of the Constitution of 1818. A toleration act
was added by the General Court, and further exceptions were made for
the Episcopalians in 1727 and the Baptists and Quakers in 1729, en-
abling them to pay their ecclesiastical taxes to their own denominations.

Connecticut produced many men of talent and strong character, but
the same isolation that preserved its freedom also fostered a pronounced
provincialism. Each town lived unto itself and looked to its own con-
cerns, and this self-sufficiency developed into an intense particularism
that did not welcome outside influences. The Colony was poor, for there
was little foreign trade to bring in hard money; and colonists given, as
Roger Wolcott once said, to 'detraction and censoriousness ' were far
too strong-minded for co-operation. The rugged soil they tilled made
thrift and self-reliance their outstanding virtues and, in the eyes of
the inhabitants of other Colonies who dealt with them, their chief faults.

In the circumstances, it is not surprising that conservatism became
characteristic of the commonwealth. Few men were rich and few were
poor; few owned very large or very small estates. Averseness to change,
of which vestiges still remain, became almost a second religion with the
political and social leaders. To their minds, democracy would have been
as great a calamity as a royal governor; and the government, though
autonomous, was popular only in the sense that elections were held.
Beneath an outwardly popular form prevailed a system that was aristo-
cratic and paternalistic, and the governorship was held for long periods
by one man.

Connecticut, like Massachusetts, was an unwilling member of the
British colonial system. Because of its tradition of self-government, a
fear of interference, aroused by the new imperialistic policy of the mother

32 Connecticut : The General Background

country after 1763, led most of its 198,000 inhabitants to support the
revolt in 1775. During the Stamp Act controversy, the General Court
instructed its London agent to insist on the ' exclusive right of the colo-
nists to levy their own taxes.' Immediately after the battle of Lexington,
six regiments were mobilized in fact, preparations for war had been
under way for more than a year.

The more important military operations that took place in Connecticut
during the Revolution were the skirmishes at Stonington in 1775, Dan-
bury in 1777, New Haven in 1779, and New London in 1781. Undoubtedly
the Colony's most brilliant military figure was Benedict Arnold, although
Ethan Allen, a colorful natural leader, has a strong claim to the title.
The Connecticut militia participated in the early expedition against
Canada. The outstanding civil figures during the war were Jonathan
Trumbull, the only Colonial Governor who was not deposed during
the Revolution, Oliver Wolcott, and Silas Deane, the first agent of the
Continental Congress in France.

From 1775 to 1818, Connecticut moved slowly away from its extreme
conservatism. There the war had not been a social revolution because
no back-country bloc had existed; but in the period that immediately
followed, a definite trend towards liberalism can be seen. Religious
dissent became acute because of the increase of Episcopalians, Baptists,
and Methodists, who, by supporting the Toleration Party, helped to
secure the Constitution of 1818 that disestablished the Congregational
Church.

Conservatism, however, was merely modified. Frightened lest Shays'
Rebellion should spread southward, the State lent its support to the
Constitutional Convention of 1787 and hastily ratified the resulting
document, which protected and favored the rights of property. Al-
though the religious dissenters joined the Democratic-Republican Party
in hope of ejecting the Congregationalists from their privileged position,
this party was born late and made slow progress. Connecticut looked
askance at the election of Jefferson, whom it considered tainted with the
skepticism of the French Revolutions. His embargoes infuriated the
State; and during the War of 1812, Connecticut refused the War De-
partment the use of its militia.

The movement for a Federalist convention, launched by Massachusetts
to consider some united action and possible secession, found favor in
anti-administration Connecticut, and delegates were sent to the Hart-
ford Convention of December, 1814. Delegates from Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, and Connecticut expressed opposition to the war, which

History 33

was injuring the commercial interests of New England, and strongly
denounced the policy of the administration, particularly in respect to
forcible drafts. The general aim seems to have been to obtain certain
reforms in the direction of State rights; but as the sessions were held in
secret, false reports were circulated that the convention plotted a dis-
solution of the Union. The coming of an early peace rendered super-
fluous the acts of the convention, and its chief result was to bring con-
siderable odium to the New England Federalists.

The political revolution of 1818 was the product of basic economic
changes that were occurring in the State and in the Nation during the
two-score years after the Declaration of Independence. Banks were un-
known in Connecticut as late as 1792, but by the year of the Hartford
Convention ten State banks had been organized, with a capital of more
than three million dollars. The wars of the Napoleonic period encouraged
a brisk carrying trade which brought prosperity to the towns along the
Sound and the Connecticut River; and when Jefferson's embargoes cut
this commerce off in its infancy, the State, like the rest of New England,
was forced into manufacturing. Gristmills, textile mills, and factories of
various sorts sprang up everywhere.

Nineteenth and twentieth century Connecticut presents a striking con-
trast to the Colonial commonwealth. Within fifty years a homogeneous
agricultural State became a highly complex, heterogeneous, industrial
society which retained certain of its earlier spiritual characteristics. This
transformation was the direct result of the development of the Industrial
Revolution, of the constant migration of settlers to the West, and (in the
later period) of heavy immigration from Europe.

Connecticut was the product of the first expansion of New England;
it became in turn the source of incessant migrations. In the late seven-
teenth century, New Jersey was the popular destination, and in the eight-
eenth century, the Berkshires, Vermont, New Hampshire, up-State New
York, and Pennsylvania. Two large land companies, the Delaware and
the Susquehanna, were formed in the State. After the Revolution, mi-
gration was directed toward northern New England, Pennsylvania,
New York, and the Western Reserve in Ohio, an area that Connecticut
excepted from the cession of its holdings in the Northwest Territory to the
Federal Government in 1787. Throughout the early nineteenth century,
this movement continued unabated, reaching the upper and lower Mis-
sissippi Valley, central Texas, and even the Pacific coast.

It is difficult to estimate the actual number of emigrants, but it is safe
to say that today many more of the descendants of Connecticut colonists

34 Connecticut : The General Background

live in the Middle West than in the State of their ancestors. In a gazetteer
published in 1819, Pease and Niles estimated that the emigrants and their
descendants numbered more than 700,000, while fewer than 300,000 re-
mained. From 1789 to 1889, thirty-four men born in Connecticut served
in the United States Senate as representatives from fourteen other States,
and 187 in the House from twenty- two other States. It is significant that,
though the United States as a whole showed a population increase of
about thirty- three per cent in every decade between 1800 and 1840,
Connecticut had an increase of only four or five per cent in each of those
decades.

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century this emigration dwin-
dled, and immigration from Europe began at first from the North, later
from central and southern countries. As early as 1870, twenty-eight per
cent of the State's population was foreign-born; and in the first three de-
cades of the twentieth century, the foreign-born population of Hartford
and New Haven has varied between twenty-five and thirty per cent. If
native whites born of foreign or mixed parentage are counted as foreign-
ers, then today considerably more than half of the residents of Connect-
icut are foreign.

This movement of population accompanied and accelerated a definite
trend toward modern industrialism. The glacial soil of Connecticut, out-
side of the narrow river valleys, has never been fertile; and when babies
came as regularly as the seasons, the population tended to reach such pro-
portions that the soil could not support it. Confronted with the alterna-
tive of migration or starvation, most of the youth chose to migrate.
Some, however, preferred to risk starvation rather than to leave their
homes; and since complete dependence upon agriculture was no longer
possible, the more ingenious turned to manufacturing.

Although it possessed numerous small factories, Connecticut was largely
agricultural before 1840. In 1820, cloth was still spun in the home, and
the 'cities' were little more than country towns. Each community pos-
sessed enough artisans to be self-sufficient, and the State specialized in
supplying its neighbors with foodstuffs. Natural resources were scanty,
and capital was scarce; but with a supply of labor to be had at less
than a dollar a day, the money and the raw materials necessary to indus-
try could be found outside. By the middle of the century, textiles were
the leading manufactured product, though clocks, locks, tools, hats, gin,
firearms, tinware, and dozens of ' notions ' such as mouse-traps and combs
were being turned out in large quantities. Yet the outstanding charac-
teristic of Connecticut industry in this era was not so much the excellence

History 35

of its craftsmanship as the skill with which goods were marketed. The
' Yankee Pedlar ' became well known throughout the nation.

With the construction of railroads in the forties and fifties, Connecticut
became a predominantly industrial State. The continued influx of Euro-
pean immigrants insured a constant supply of cheap labor. Almost every
town in the State has specialized in the manufacture of some particular
product. It must suffice to point out that between 1860 and 1929, the
value of the industrial output of Connecticut increased from $82,000,000
to $1,472,000,000, though in national rank the State dropped from fifth
to thirteenth place.

If Connecticut, at present, does not lead the Nation in manufacturing,
it does lead in insurance, for Hartford is the insurance center of the United
States. Fire and marine insurance companies appeared before 1800.
The first of such companies was the Mutual Assurance Company of the
City of Norwich, incorporated in 1795; but perhaps the best known was
the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, organized in 1810. Other corpo-
rations were soon formed for the same purpose; and about the middle of
the century, life insurance was first written. In 1930, the policies of
Connecticut life insurance companies represented a total of $10,000,000,-
ooo, and the company assets amounted to $1,650,000,000.

Despite a century of immigration, Connecticut retains to an amazing
degree its traditional characteristics. The masses derived from recent
immigration will become inevitably a paramount influence, and are now
rapidly gaining political and social predominance. Their progress to polit-
ical power has been delayed by a striking survival from the particularism
of the Colonial era the law allowing many towns, regardless of size, two
representatives in the lower house of the legislature. The rural communi-
ties have remained, generally speaking, the stronghold of the older stock.
Still it cannot be denied that Thomas Hooker, or even the liberal Oliver
Wolcott, who became Governor in 1817, would be surprised at the trans-
formation of Connecticut. Could they return they would find, instead
of their rural commonwealth, a complex and highly industrialized soci-
ety; instead of a homogeneous people, a melting-pot composed of many
European nationalities; and instead of a strongly Protestant community,
a society where Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and free-thinkers inter-
mingle.

GOVERNMENT

CONNECTICUT, the ' Constitution State/ still operates under one of the
oldest of State constitutions, adopted in 1818. Long before 1818, however,
Connecticut was governed by a basic organic law established by her own
citizens. In 1639, the river towns of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield
adopted a set of laws known as the Fundamental Orders. These have
often been called ' the earliest written constitution in history/ although
present-day scholarly opinion inclines to the view that they were not a
constitution at all but merely a set of statutes. At any rate, they did set
up a system of government providing for semi-annual general assemblies
of deputies to be sent from the towns, and for the election of magistrates
and a governor. They also laid down rules for conducting the assemblies
and elections, and for denning the powers of all officials.

These laws remained in effect until 1662. In that year, Governor John
Winthrop, Jr., obtained from King Charles II a charter on which Connect-
icut based her government for one hundred and fifty-six years. This
astonishing document granted the Colony practically full self-government
at a time when England's policy was very definitely moving in the direc-
tion of complete royal control over the Colonies. Just how Winthrop
managed to get this liberal charter signed has never been fully ex-
plained; but it proved so satisfactory that, when the Colonies separated
from England during the Revolutionary War, and all the other States
except Rhode Island adopted new constitutions, Connecticut chose to
continue under its old charter, only slightly amended, until 1818. This
charter, which was similar to that of a private joint-stock trading com-
pany, provided that men of sufficient property and reputation should
choose a governor, deputy governor, council, and house of representatives.
The house elected the other executive officials and the judges.

In 1818, Connecticut adopted the constitution under which it still oper-
ates. This document began with a declaration of rights; it went on to
separate the government's powers into three departments, legislative,
executive, and judicial; and it then defined the powers and duties of each
department. Moreover, the constitution greatly extended the franchise
(although universal white manhood suffrage was not in force until 1845),
disestablished the Congregational church, and furthered the cause of

Government 37

education by confirming the Charter of Yale College and perpetuating the
school fund. More than forty amendments to this constitution have been
passed in the last one hundred and twenty years, but it has never been
thoroughly revised, as other State constitutions have been. In 1902, a
convention to revise the constitution was called; but after long debate the
convention made only a few relatively slight changes, and even these were
decisively defeated when submitted to the people for ratification.

The legislature is still the most important of the three departments of
government. Like that of the Federal Government and of nearly all the
States, it is bicameral in form, with a senate of 35 members and a house of
representatives of 267. Members of both branches are elected for two
years, and meet in regular session in odd-numbered years only, although
the governor may call a special session in case of emergency. The regular
session begins in January and must, according to the constitution, adjourn
early in June. The assembly may pass laws on any subject not forbidden
by the Federal or State Constitutions, and the restrictions are slight in
comparison with those in other States. The procedure in passing legisla-
tion shows the influence of leisurely pre-Colonial English Parliaments,
since every bill must be read three times before each house and must also
be considered in committee before it can become a law. Connecticut long
held staunchly to the usual New England system of submitting bills to a
joint committee of both houses; but in 1937, because the two houses, con-
trolled by different political parties, were unable to agree as to the proper
representation on such a committee, this time-honored custom was aban-
doned.

Two points regarding the legislative department deserve special men-
tion, as indicating the power and peculiarity of that body in Connecticut.
The first is that, while the governor may veto any act of the general assem-
bly, the latter may revalidate the law by a mere majority vote of both
houses. This leaves the assembly practically supreme in the field of legis-
lation, the usual American check of the executive veto being quite shad-
owy. In this matter, as in so many others, Connecticut's dislike of change
is leaving her outside the current trend of American government.

The other noteworthy feature is the system of representation in the
general assembly. Like the Federal Government, Connecticut has a small
senate and a large house. But unlike the Federal Government, the senate
is elected from districts based on population, while election districts for the
house are geographical. In both branches the representation is unequal.
According to the State constitution, all senatorial districts should contain
approximately the same number of people; actually the number varies

38 Connecticut : The General Background

from 20,000 to 90,000. By a division that shows suspicious signs of gerry-
mander in favor of the country as against the city, the average senatorial
district, in 1924, in the four urban counties (Hartford, New Haven, Fair-
field, and New London) had 43,584 people, while that in the four rural
counties (Litchfield, Tolland, Windham, and Middlesex) had only 25,480.
This inequality was even greater in 1937. But this balance in favor of the
rural regions in the senate pales into insignificance when compared to that
in the house of representatives. Representation is based on the towns, as
it has been as far back as 1662. Those that have more than 5000 inhabi-
tants or were incorporated before 1818 (99 in all) send two representatives;
all the others (69) send one. Of course, the towns vary greatly in size, yet
Hartford with a population of 164,000 chooses two representatives and so
does Union with a population of only 196! Well over half of the State's
population lives in the seven cities of Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport,
Waterbury, New Britain, Stamford, and Meriden; yet these cities elect
only 14 of the 267 representatives. In 1924, one sixth of the people, those
living in the most sparsely settled regions, elected more than two-thirds
of the house. When it is realized that adoption of a constitutional amend-
ment requires a two-thirds majority of each house and that ordinary legis-
lation has to pass both houses, the power of the country districts of Con-
necticut becomes clear. Small wonder that the government is conservative
and cautious.

And yet Connecticut is well and honestly governed, although its govern-
ment can hardly be called democratic. The representatives from the rural
districts, many of whom are solid farmers and business men, compare
favorably with the city politicians in the adjoining seats. Legislative ab-
surdities, such as the Standard Time Laws of the i92o's which required
all public clocks to exhibit eastern standard time while most of the citizens
lived by daylight saving time, are rare. Extreme anti-city legislation is
prevented by the number of urban members of the senate. One result of
the overwhelming power of the rural regions in the house of representa-
tives has been to keep the Republican Party in power there even after
such 'a Democratic landslide as that of November 1936.

Of the executive officials, the governor is of course the foremost. He is
chosen by the people at the regular State election held in November in
even years, and holds office for two years. He wields legislative and judi-
cial as well as executive powers. He may grant temporary reprieves after
convictions for all crimes except impeachment. He suggests legislation in
his messages on the state of the government, and he may use his political
power with his party, which usually has majority control in at least one of

Government 39

the houses of the assembly, to push through the measures he desires. He
may postpone legislation by vetoing it; and, if he has public opinion be-
hind him or the legislative body is closely divided on the bill, his veto is
likely to be sustained. As the State's chief executive, he appoints the
judges of the higher courts, most of the commissions which administer
the government, and the directors of the State's humane and penal insti-
tutions. Some of the appointments require the consent of the Senate,
some of both houses, and others are direct.

Connecticut's governors have usually been men of probity and ability.
Especially was this true of the period before the constitution of 1818,
when such men as John Winthrop, Gurdon Saltonstall, Roger Wolcott,
Jonathan Trumbull, and Oliver Wolcott, to mention only a few, held
office for long periods. When Connecticut finally adopted a constitution
that put into effect the ideas of the Revolutionary fathers, who feared a
strong executive and saw in the legislature the guardian of American liber-
ties, the governor's power was considerably diminished and he became
more of a figurehead. His power has remained comparatively slight, de-
spite the growth of State business resulting from the great increase in
population and industry. There is need for a strong executive, who not
only will have the power to manage well but will also concentrate in his
person the responsibility for such management. Only in this way can the
electorate exercise the control required of them in a democratic system
of government. Other States, which preceded Connecticut by a genera-
tion in cutting down the governor's power, have increased that power in
recent years; but this State, as usual, has preferred the old ways. From
time to time, however, efforts have been made to lengthen the governor's
term and increase his veto power, and of late there has been a strong drive
toward these ends.

As in other States, the day-to-day business of running the government
is in the hands of a considerable number of executive officers. Some of
these, notably the secretary of state, treasurer, comptroller, and attorney
general, are elected by the people. Others, many of whose positions are
of equal importance with those of the elected officials, are appointed by
the governor, usually with the consent of the senate. Examples in this
group are the commissioner of finance and control, bank commissioner,
commissioner of health, highway commissioner, insurance commissioner,
commissioner of labor and factory inspection, commissioner of motor
vehicles, state police commissioner, commissioner of welfare, tax com-
missioner, commissioner of public works, and the members of the public
utilities commission. Apparently the chief reason why the first group of

4O Connecticut : The General Background

officials is elected is that they were important in the nineteenth century
when the constitution was set up, while the functions of the second
group have developed gradually during the last thirty years.

The officials mentioned above are only a few of the many who carry on
the multifarious activities of the State government today. They number
nearly a hundred in all. (A complete list may be found in the ' State Regis-
ter and Manual' published annually at Hartford by the Secretary of
State.) The various administrative bodies have grown up in a rather
helter-skelter fashion, especially since the World War, and now represent
a conglomerate of overlapping organizations. A thorough reorganization
is needed, such as has already been carried through in other States com-
parable to Connecticut in population and economic activity. Such a reor-
ganization has long been in the minds of Connecticut officials, and the
general assembly of 1937 made some progress in this direction.

Like all English Colonies, Connecticut had courts from its beginning,
and the present court system is a growth and adaptation of the English
system brought to America in the seventeenth century. Throughout the
Colonial period, the general assembly, or general court as it was called
until 1662, was the highest judicial as well as legislative body. Before
1640 a smaller tribunal to decide petty disputes had been set up the
particular court. This lasted until 1665 when, with the institution of
counties, county courts were created, and a court of assistants was ap-
pointed to take over a large part of the judicial work of the general assem-
bly. The office of justice of the peace, instituted in 1669, was not fully
denned until 1702; it is still important as the petty tribunal of the smaller
towns. Before 1700, there was a probate court in each county. In 1711,
the superior courts, one for each county, replaced the central court of
assistants. Shortly after the Revolutionary War, the general assembly
relinquished its judicial powers, and the supreme court of errors started
on its long and honorable career in 1784.

The supreme court of errors, consisting of a chief justice and four asso-
ciate judges, is today the State's highest judicial tribunal. Solely a court
of appeal, it reviews cases brought up to it after trial in an inferior court.
However, it is closely integrated with the superior court, since its judges
are also members of that court. The superior court, the key agency in the
State's judicial system, is the highest court actually to try cases. Its juris-
diction includes all matters not specifically delegated to the inferior courts,
and it hears appeals from those courts. It holds sessions in each of the
eight counties. About 1870, the amount of business before the court in
the more populous counties became so excessive that new judicial bodies,

Government 41

called courts of common pleas, were created to take over the less impor-
tant cases. Below these county courts are the probate courts, which today
number about 115; the town, borough, and city courts, 68 in number; and
the justices of the peace.

Court procedure is relatively simple, and has been so since the last
quarter of the nineteenth century. As in other parts of the government,
startling innovations have been few, but the courts are keeping abreast
of modern methods. For instance, a bench of three judges may be substi-
tuted for a jury trial at the option of an accused person, even in a homicide
case. The larger cities have juvenile courts for the young, legal aid bu-
reaus for the poor, and small claims courts where cases involving small
amounts of money are handled cheaply and speedily. There is a strong
movement in the State today to abolish town courts, most of which try
few cases and operate on the fines they collect, and to replace them with
district courts, each covering several towns and having a full-time and
well-paid judge.

A word must be said about local government. The eight counties are
chiefly judicial districts, with no legislative and only minor executive
functions. In this, the county in Connecticut resembles that of other
northeastern States and contrasts strongly with the South and West,
where counties dominate the field of local government. Below the counties
are towns, cities, and boroughs, of which the towns are the oldest and his-
torically the most important. One hundred and sixty-nine in number,
geographically they cover every inch of the State. Where no borough or
city exists, the town government is the sole instrument for carrying on
local affairs. Even where a city or borough has been superimposed, the
town remains a living unit of government, for it is only as residents of a
town that Connecticut's citizens vote for members of the State's house of
representatives. In the smaller towns, the town meeting, at which all
adults may speak and vote, presents an unusual example of a pure demo-
cracy, wherein the people, and not their representatives, make laws to gov-
ern themselves, in addition to choosing all the town officials. In populous
districts this system has proved impractical, and boroughs (23) and cities
(21) have been incorporated. Where these exist, their officials have taken
over most of the work of the town officers; but the latter continue to be
elected, giving to Connecticut local government the aspect of a bewilder-
ing palimpsest of efficient modern political machinery, necessary in teem-
ing industrial communities, imposed upon the simple democratic forms
of a quieter and less populous age.

It is clear that, the most important characteristic of Connecticut's gov-

42 Connecticut : The General Background

ernment is its conservatism. With its roots well grounded in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries, its main outline has varied very little
from that fixed by the constitution of 1818. However, many features
have changed, as the forty amendments to the constitution indicate. But
there has been no complete revision and, in the field of government as it
was known to the nineteenth century, no innovations such as the initia-
tive, referendum, and recall of elected officials. Legislation, too, has been
along well-established lines; it is significant that no Connecticut statute
has ever been declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme
Court. There are indications, such as the present movement to reorganize
the executive departments, that Connecticut may some day make her
entire governmental structure up-to-date.

THE RACIAL MAK E-U P O F
CONNECTICUT

CONNECTICUT'S population, like that of Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, is composed largely of people either born abroad or born in this
country of foreign or ' mixed ' parentage. According to the United States
Census figures of 1930, only 34.1 per cent of the State's present population
is of native parentage, and this small percentage includes many persons
only one generation removed from foreign origin. Rhode Island is the
only State in the Union with a smaller proportionate population of
descendants from native-born parents.

Connecticut's Colonial population was almost entirely of English
origin. Although the white population of the State increased rapidly
from 1640 to 1650, during the following years up to 1790 the rate of
increase dropped to only an estimated 17 per cent. By the end of the
eighteenth century, immigration barely filled the gap left by the great
tide of migration which carried Connecticut families westward to new
lands. Entire towns were depopulated. The Yankee was restless. He
sought more fertile fields. Behind him were left the older folk or the
commercially inclined the inventor with his back-yard factory. Infant
industries were hampered by lack of enough hands or power to manu-
facture the goods needed by a new and vigorous civilization.

The development of water-power, harbors, and navigable rivers en-
couraged growing industry. Isolation resulting from the embargo during
the War of 1812 forced Connecticut to turn to the production of goods
formerly imported, and Yankee ingenuity harnessed the streams and
equipped little factories, beginning the activity that has molded this
Commonwealth into an industrial State. By 1840, the new order had so
far succeeded that there was a shortage of labor to do the work contracted
for. Industrialists turned to Europe for the labor they required, and
Europeans were attracted to America as the land of promise.

Among the earliest groups to arrive were the Irish, who formed the
larger portion of the 'old immigration' and were numerically important
even during the Colonial era. The Irish helped fight our early wars,
shoulder to shoulder with the natives. They bought lands here, made the

44 Connecticut: The General Background

tinware for our first Yankee 'pedlars/ and worked in woods and fields as
well as in factories.

Although the main immigration of Irish to Connecticut occurred after
the potato famine of 1846-47, Irish laborers were busy here during the
early nineteenth century, building roads, canals, bridges, and dams. With
the development of railroad transportation after 1830, Irish laborers were
in great demand, and Connecticut like New York, New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island became one of the chief
centers of Irish concentration.

Some 70,000 foreign-born Irish were in Connecticut in 1870; most
of their descendants are included in the native stock. American-born
Irish of the first and second generation now number 151,893. Most of the
Irish in the State are two or three generations removed from foreign-
born parents; they have been assimilated in Connecticut economic life,
and are well represented in all professions and occupations.

English immigrants of the period from 1830 to 1840 were usually of
the skilled or semi-skilled laboring class. They were largely absorbed
by the developing Connecticut brass industry.

The first German settlers in the State, stragglers from the Hessian
reinforcements of the British army in the Revolution, were few in number.
Not until the period of 1880-1910, long after these pioneers had settled
in New York and the Middle West, did German immigrants come to
Connecticut in large numbers. Unlike most of the other ethnic groups,
the Germans do not form compact colonies, but are well-distributed in
every section of the cities and suburbs. The Connecticut Germans are
also engaged in many occupations. Of the 76,281 Germans in the State,
52,816 are American-born.

Canadians, including both the French and natives of the Maritime
Provinces, began arriving in Connecticut at a very early date. They
numbered only 3145 foreign-born in 1860. The Canadian immigrants
soon outstripped both the English and the German newcomers. By
1930, the foreign-born Canadians numbered 38,566; and the combined
groups, including those of foreign or 'mixed' parentage, numbered 97,105.
The French Canadians (67,130) are concentrated mainly in the north-
eastern part of Connecticut, where they are chiefly employed in the textile
mills. The English- Canadians settle in the larger cities, particularly in
Hartford, and are engaged in various occupations.

The year 1870 marked the arrival of considerable numbers of Scandi-
navians. In the present-day Scandinavian group, 41,374 are Swedes,
including the native-born of foreign or ' mixed' parentage. The Danes

The Racial Make-Up of Connecticut 45

total 6124, and the Norwegians number 3898. Most of the Scandinavians
in urban communities are employed as mechanics, machinists, tool-
makers, and woodworkers, and those in the rural districts work chiefly as
gardeners, florists, and farmers.

The arrival of Italian immigrants in any considerable number dates from
the 1870*5, when a group of about 100 settled in New Haven. A hard-
ware manufacturer employed many of them, while the others worked as
railroad section hands and truck gardeners. Within two years the Italian
population of New Haven numbered 200; in 1880 it had increased to 500,
and by 1889 more than 2000 Italians resided in the city. By 1907, the
hardware concern that first brought these people to Connecticut em-
ployed nearly 3000 Italians, and a near-by rubber plant had about 1000
on its payroll.

The peak of Italian immigration came during the years from 1900 to
1916, when the Italian population of Connecticut increased to 60,000.
These people now make up the State's largest foreign group, leading the
1 new immigration ' from the countries of southern Europe. Today, there
are 227,262 Italians in the State, with the metropolitan area of New
Haven alone claiming 55,000 inhabitants of Italian descent.

Although invariably living in separate compact colonies, the Italian
group has made a place for itself in commercial, industrial, and agricul-
tural Connecticut. American-born Italians of the second generation
quickly shake off the influence of the mother country, are eager to be
considered Americans, and are inclined toward active participation in
political as well as commercial life.

The Poles are numerically one of the most important ethnic groups in
Connecticut. Their heaviest immigration came in 1907, and their con-
centration, usually in group settlements, is notable in cities such as New
Britain and Bridgeport. The 1930 census lists 133,813 Poles in the State.
They are well distributed in both agriculture and industry, and have a
larger proportion of farmers than most of the other eminent groups.

Of the other Slavic groups, only the Lithuanians (30,690) and Czecho-
slovakians (32,491) are numerically important. The Lithuanians are
heavily concentrated in the brass industries of Waterbury, and the
Czechoslovakians are employed in considerable numbers in Bridgeport
factories, which also employ large numbers of Magyars. These latter
people, numbering 23,175 in Connecticut, usually are skilled and semi-
skilled workers.

Jews have been resident in Connecticut since Colonial days. Even at
the time of the Revolutionary War they had a part in commerce and

Connecticut: The General Background

finance, and early replaced the Yankee 'pedlar' as purveyors of goods.
Figures on the Jewish population are at best inaccurate, as the Jews come
from many countries, and data listed under 'country of origin' are con-
fusing. Estimates place the total number of Connecticut Jews at 91,538,
with Hartford and New Haven ranking second only to Atlantic City and
New York in the proportionate size of their Jewish population. Connecti-
cut is one of the very few States that has a Jewish farming population,
with possibly about 1000 families engaged in agriculture. The majority
of the Jews engaged in industry and trade are concentrated in the larger
cities.

As early as 1774, there were 6562 Negroes in the State. But the present--
day Negro population are not descendants of these eighteenth-century
Connecticut slaves. Most of them have come from the Southern States
in a steady migration lasting from about 1870 until after the World War.
By 1910 there were 15,174, and in 1930, 29,354 Negroes in the State.
They are employed chiefly in the unskilled labor and service occupa-
tions.

Various other ethnic groups of lesser numerical importance, including
Greeks, Scotch, Finns, Ukrainians, French, Austrians, Armenians, and
Swiss, make their individual contributions to the cosmopolitan pattern of
Connecticut life.

The State has, within little more than a half century, been transformed
from the habitat of a fairly homogeneous people to the workshop of
a heterogeneous population.

TABLE I

RACIAL COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF CONNECTICUT IN 1790 AS
INDICATED BY NAMES OF HEADS OF FAMILIES

(According to the Federal Census Bureau, A Century of Population Growth)

NATIONALITY

NUMBER

PER CENT OF TOTAL

TOTAL

272 2^6

English

223 A37

nfi 2

Scotch

6 d.2^

90.2

? ft

Irish

i :c8o

French
Dutch

512

2 rS

U. /

0.2

Hebrew

*3"

r 1 _

German

5 [Less

All Others

I \ than i%.

The Racial Make- Up of Connecticut

TABLE II

NUMERICAL GROWTH OF THE LARGEST FOREIGN-BORN WHITE STOCKS IN
CONNECTICUT, ACCORDING TO COUNTRY OF ORIGIN BY DECADES: 1860-1930

(Based on the Census Reports of the United States)

COUNTRY or
ORIGIN

1860

1870

1880

1890

1900

I9IO

I92O

1930

England

887?

o 2 7o8f

Scotland

2 <4,6

32^8

4,1 ^7

zi^uy

7A87

Ireland

70678

77880

c8/i c8

2S/1T8

Sweden
Germany
Poland l

oD44o
42

8525

/UUJU

323
12443
83

/uu^o
2086
15627

22 *j

//oou
IOO2I
28176
I sO4

70994
16164
31892
10698

50450
18208
31127

45464
17697
22614
4.6623

18453
23465

40267

Czechoslovakia 2 . .
Austria

I ZA

125

287

177
1187

493

C2 2O

9264.2

6558
I26OO

12220
6^06

Hungary

1 146

c6o2

jogrr

T 7 222

08^6

Russia

2 A

2Q27

I J 4OJ.

^4.121

28710

2 ^76o

Lithuania a
Greece

121

IO74.

Il662
28?!

13247

-2-227

Italy

117

870

^28^

IQIO^

^60^4

80322

87123

Canada and
Newfound land *. . .

3145

10840

16444

21231

2/045

26898

24967

38566

1 The 1910 figures for Poland are included in those for Russia, Germany, and Austria.

' Up to 1000 inclusively figures given are of those coming from Bohemia; figures for 1910 are included in
those for Austria. "

3 Since Lithuania did not achieve an independent status until after the end of the World War, figures
prior to 1920 are lacking.

* It can be estimated that about two-thirds of those coming from Canada after 1870 were French-
Canadians.

TRANSPORTATION

HIGHWAYS

THE tourist entering Connecticut today finds hard-surfaced highways
leading to every section of the State. Early travelers were not so for-
tunate. Letters written in 1780 by a European visitor, Count Chastellux,
mention the highways through Litchfield as being more for 'the roe-
buck than for laden horses and conveyances'; and in another place,
'you mount four or five miles, continually bounding from one large stone
to another, which cross the road and give it a resemblance to stairs/
In 1716, the inhabitants of Hartford complained that 'the Collegiate
School of Connecticut' (later Yale College) should not be situated in
New Haven because it was ' so remote ' and the transportation by water
was so uncertain. They also recorded that there was ' but little communi-
cation between the colonies ' (meaning the towns of Hartford, New Lon-
don, and New Haven).

Not until well into the eighteenth century was there much travel in
New England. Those who passed through Connecticut found the State
peculiarly backward. The Yankee individualist stayed at home, and
thought other people should do the same. In a pamphlet issued in 1935,
Miss Isabel S. Mitchell summarizes the situation thus: 'Bad roads dis-
couraged intercourse, lack of intercourse increased isolation, isolation
developed independence and a lack of co-operation, which in turn caused
the roads to suffer.' The stagecoach era began in the eighteenth century,
and reached its height after 1840. The first regular line of stages, es-
tablished in 1783 between Hartford, Boston, and New Haven, met with
spirited opposition. It is recorded that 'when Levi Somers proposed
the scheme to a friend of his in Boston, the latter ridiculed him as a
visionary, saying "The time may come when the public will support a
stage between Hartford and Boston, but not in your day or mine."'

Beginning late in the eighteenth century, private corporations were
chartered to construct and maintain specific roads, given a franchise for
collecting tolls, and often allowed to raise funds by lottery to finance
construction. The first toll road in the State was the Mohegan Road,.

Transportation 49

following the course of an old Indian trail, between Norwich and New
London. In May, 1792, an act was passed by the legislature establishing
a toll-gate (the second authorized, but the first to be completed, in
America), and appointing a board of commissioners to maintain this
highway, which was not owned by a corporation, but was really one of the
earliest State roads in America. Toll collections were continued on this
highway until 1849, when the New London, Willimantic and Palmer
Railroad opened its line parallel to the Mohegan Road. The third toll-
gate in the United States was established on the Greenwich Road in
1792. An October session of the General Assembly in 1797 granted a
franchise to the Boston Turnpike Company over roads 'from Hartford,
through East Hartford, Bolton, Coventry, Mansfield, Ashford, Pomfret,
and Thompson to the Massachusetts Line.' This route became known as
' the middle turnpike.' It was on this road that a famous old Connecticut
tavern, Woodbridge's in Manchester, stood. In every case, the toll roads
granted exemption to churchgoers, funeral attendants, members of the
militia, and people going to the mills.

Between 1795 ano ^ I ^53j one hundred and twenty-one of these toll-
road or turnpike franchises were granted. A charter for a turnpike to
Bristol was granted in 1801 and revoked in 1810. The Talcott Mountain
Turnpike Company was chartered in May, 1798, to construct and main-
tain a road from Hartford through Farmington to New Hartford. Other
important pikes were built by the Greenwoods Company and the Hart-
ford and New Haven Turnpike Company. These corporations failed to
satisfy the public, and about 1850 they began to relinquish their fran-
chises. Governmental action then became imperative.

The year 1895 saw the abandonment of the franchise for the Derby
Turnpike, the last of the old pikes. A new era in road-building started in
that year with the creation of a State commission to assume responsi-
bility for Connecticut highways. Through routes were designed as
trunk lines, and provisions made for their maintenance in 1908. 'Feeder
roads' became known as State Aid roads. Since 1931, the dirt or third-
class roads have been in another classification, and a yearly grant of
$17,500 is made by the State to each of the 169 towns, to be expended
on dirt roads of their selection, under supervision of the State highway
engineers.

A significant date in the annals of road construction is 1858, when
Eli Whitney Blake of New Haven invented the stone crusher that made
possible the economical construction of highways on a large scale. There
were scarcely a dozen miles of macadam roads in all New England as

50 Connecticut: The General Background

late as 1851, but today there are more than five thousand miles of hard-
surfaced highways in Connecticut alone.

The landscaping of highways and the establishment of more than 125
shaded roadside parks are conspicuous developments in Connecticut.
Clay banks are sodded, or planted with iris and rambler roses; and tri-
angular plots at main intersections bloom with flowering shrubs. Rag-
weed along the highways is cut, in deference to hay-fever sufferers.
Woodland areas close to waterfalls and roadside brooks have been con-
verted into small State parks, and equipped with tables and other facili-
ties for picnicking.

Winter road conditions in Connecticut are usually very good. Strate-
gically stationed highway crews turn out with plows and sand trucks at
the first sign of snow or sleet. Experimental highway lighting is being
tried in several sections, but no permanent installations have been made
as yet (1938).

RAILROADS

The introduction of railroad transportation into Connecticut met with
considerable opposition. Connecticut rivers offered easy access to the
back country; Long Island Sound furnished coastwise transportation
facilities; and the owners of the turnpike system were active in obstructing
competition. The typical Yankee dread of change and satisfaction with
' things as they are ' may also have had some bearing on popular reluctance
to adopt the new and faster mode of transport.

In 1832, a charter was finally granted to the New York and Stonington
Railroad, after prolonged debate in the General Assembly, during which
a memorial was prepared stating that a railroad would 'produce more
harm than good, and may result in great injury and injustice to private
property. A railroad is a monopoly in a peculiar sense.' This memorial
was signed by Roger Sherman, Simeon Baldwin, William Bristol, and
J. Wood, all 'overseers of turnpike stock.'

The next charter, granted later in 1832, was to the Boston, Norwich
and Worcester Railroad to operate between Norwich and Worcester.
This route tapped the rich industrial region to the north, and eliminated
the hazardous sea route around Point Judith, connecting both Boston
and Worcester with the sheltered water route along Long Island Sound
through the Thames River at Norwich. Practically all the early rail-

Transportation 5 1

roads ran north and south, connecting the back country with the sea-
ports. It was not thought possible to build a coastwise rail line at this
time, because of the numerous rivers to be bridged.

The Hartford and New Haven Railroad opened a line to Meriden in
1838. Later, in 1839, this was extended to Hartford, connecting with a
Springfield, Massachusetts, line that brought this railroad into direct
competition with the Norwich and Stonington lines for New York to
Boston traffic. When this charter was granted, the people of Newington
presented a petition stating that they were a ' peaceable, orderly people '
and begging that their quiet might not be disturbed by 'steam cars and
an influx of strangers.'

The Housatonic Railroad was chartered in 1836 to connect western
Massachusetts with Long Island Sound and to form a connection between
New York and Albany by way of Bridgeport. Until 1848, this was
Bridgeport's only railroad. The line along the old Farmington Canal,
chartered in 1846, was opened between New Haven and Plainville in
1848, and extended to Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1855.

The first east-and-west railroad line in the State was the New York
and New Haven Railroad, chartered in 1844 and opened late in 1848.
This line absorbed the Hartford and New Haven Railroad in 1872.
Consolidation and refinancing marked the history of Connecticut rail-
roads for several decades after the Civil War. Trolley lines, steamship
lines, and even hotels were absorbed by the railway financiers. Attempts
were made to operate independent lines, but the great New Haven system
managed to absorb most of them.

Electric power was in use on the New Britain to Hartford branch of
this road as early as 1901; the main line was electrified as far as Stam-
ford in 1907, and to New Haven in 1914. The 'Comet,' first stream-lined
train on the New Haven system, made its initial run between Providence
and Boston on June 5, 1935. A second stream-lined train now operates
between Bridgeport and Hartford.

Early in 1937, the New Haven system petitioned the Interstate Com-
merce Commission for permission to abandon many miles of non-pro-
ductive track throughout the State. Among the lines slated for abandon-
ment are the Litchfield branch, with one hundred forty-seven curves
between Hawleyville and Litchfield, a distance of about twenty-five
miles, over which only the 'K-i type' of engines can run.

The only railroad other than the New Haven operating in Connecticut
today is the Central Vermont, a subsidiary of the Canadian National
Svstem.

52 Connecticut : The General Background

CANALS

An occasional crumbling stone arch, or a stretch of over-grown ditch
filled with stagnant water, now the home of muskrats and herons, is all
that remains of the former canal system which Connecticut hoped might
compete with the great Erie Canal.

On January 29, 1822, citizens from seventeen towns met to discuss
the building of the Farmington Canal. In May of the same year a charter
was granted to the Farmington Canal Company, as part of a grand
project that was expected eventually to connect the St. Lawrence River
with Long Island Sound. Work was started near the Massachusetts
border on July 4, 1825. Three years later the canal was opened from
New Haven to Cheshire. Progress was thenceforth rapid, and in 1829
the canal was operated to Westfield, Massachusetts, bringing some bene-
fits in reduced fuel costs to communities along the route. But continuous
landslides raised the cost of maintenance so high that a loss was sus-
tained each year. In 1846, the stockholders refused to subscribe for more
stock; and in 1847, operations were finally suspended. The only dividend
ever paid to the stockholders of this company was derived from the sale
of hay along the right of way. Many of the stockholders were New York-
ers, and they petitioned the legislature for permission to build a rail-
road to replace the canal. This petition was granted, and a line of steel
later traversed the same lowlands where the lazy canal boats once crept
along with their cargoes.

Canals have never prospered in Connecticut, but the largest failure
was that of the Farmington venture. The Blackstone and Middlesex
canals were relatively short lived, and did not pay. The Windsor Locks
Canal, completed in 1828, was in a somewhat different category, be-
cause it was built to take river traffic around the rapids and to provide
water power. This canal, with its crude hand-operated gates and locks,
is still open to traffic.

Failure was swift and conclusive for the Quinebaug Canal of 1824,
the Saugatuck and New Milford ditch of 1829, and the Sharon Canal
venture of 1826. Connecticut financiers and engineers decided that the
Nutmeg State was too hilly and rough to make any canal project a pay-
ing venture.

Transportation 53

BUS LINES

In Connecticut, as elsewhere, the rapid development of improved high-
ways has been accompanied in recent years by a no less rapid develop-
ment of bus transportation. Some fifty companies, covering nearly 2250
route miles, now operate within the State; and all of the larger eastern
interstate lines cross through its territory. Although about 350 miles of
street railway remain (1937), bus service has made heavy inroads upon
this form of transportation. Railroad-owned buses shuttle back and forth
across country where the steam lines have ceased to be remunerative;
and large fleets of school buses take youngsters to and from the consoli-
dated schools that have recently replaced many of the old district schools
in the State.

AVIATION

The new era in transportation marked by the conquest of the air was
recognized by Connecticut as early as 1911, when the State adopted the
first code of laws in the country governing the registration, numbering,
and use of aircraft, and the licensing of pilots. In 1936, there were 21
aviation fields, 765 licensed pilots, and 322 registered air-craft within
the State. The only strictly commercial airport is Rentschler Field at
East Hartford; here an airline operating between Newark and Boston, on
a schedule of three trips daily each way in summer and two in winter,
picks up approximately 450 passengers and 2700 pounds of mail and
express each month. The State's air routes are well marked with both
directional markers and beacons.

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE

SHIPPING AND SHIPBUILDING

THE early settlers of Connecticut, concentrated in compact settlements
for protection from unfriendly Indians, soon discovered that it was
not possible to live by agricultural pursuits alone. Although practicing
an economy which at first was almost wholly self-sufficient, there were
still a few necessities that had to be imported; and as living conditions
gradually became less primitive, there was an increasing demand for
other imports. Most important of all, as they established themselves
more firmly, they required an outside market for their surplus crops,
livestock, hides, etc., and for such early manufactures as bricks and forest
products.

Thus it was that, within a relatively short time after the first coloniza-
tion, many of the settlers became shipbuilders, mariners, and traders.
Onions from Wethersfield, tobacco from Windsor, oak staves from the
back country, cattle and hides from the rich pasture lands, were shipped
in home-built sloops, often of only ten or twelve tons, down the rivers to
the sea and the West Indies. The first voyages were blind ventures into
the unknown from which many ships never returned. The 'Great
Shippe' which sailed out of New Haven in 1646, laden with produce to
recoup the fortunes of the settlers, became one of these ghost ships.

These hardy sailor-farmers often had more difficulty in getting out of
the rivers than they later experienced in reaching the West Indies.
They were often delayed by flood tides rising against the current, shoal
water, or a changing channel that put the little sloops aground before
their sails could fill with an offshore breeze to carry them away to Carib-
bean ports.

A bit of old Connecticut can still be found in Paramaribo, Dutch
Guiana, where most of the buildings were erected by Connecticut traders.
The traveler is puzzled by the incongruity of fireless houses equipped
with brick chimneys, heavy green-painted shutters, and cupolas perched
atop steeply pitched shingled roofs. He wonders at the doors in true New
England Colonial style, with fan-lights and wooden pilasters. The Town

Industry and Commerce 55

Hall at Paramaribo was built of brick brought from Connecticut by
Captain Joshua Green of Glastonbury.

The record of one ship, the 'Neptune,' which sailed from New Haven
in 1797 for China, is representative of the success that attended many
Connecticut shipping ventures. The 'Neptune,' commanded by Captain
Townsend, carried a general cargo and $500 in gold coin. In the West
Indies, her master traded for rum and sugar; at Rio, he bartered for
fustic, indigo, sandalwood, and other Brazilian products. Around the
Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego, the crew of the ' Neptune ' spent
some time in sealing. Rounding the Horn, they sailed for the South Seas,
where they carried on a brisk exchange of calico and other cotton cloth,
brass wire, and old iron for dividivi (the pods, used for tanning and dye-
ing, of a native tree), pearls, and pearl shell. Finally reaching the coast
of China, Captain Townsend bartered sealskins and the remainder of
his original cargo for teas, silks, lacquerwork, porcelain, sandalwood,
and ivory. After two and a half years, the 'Neptune' returned to New
Haven on July n, 1799, with a cargo valued at $250,000 and the original
stake of $500 in gold intact.

Shipbuilding at Derby, on the Housatonic River, dates from 1657.
Thereafter this port, at the head of tidewater, rapidly became the ship-
ping center for products of the surrounding inland districts. In addition,
the Derby Fishing Company carried on an extensive trade with the West
Indies and Mediterranean countries. Not until the building of highways
and railroads deflected commerce from the Housatonic Valley to the
better ports of New Haven and Bridgeport did Derby lose its importance
in shipping.

The port of New Haven, although hampered by the slow development
of communications with the back country, still managed to build up,
after 1763, a thriving trade with the West Indies, Newfoundland, and the
neighboring ports along the Atlantic coast. By 1800, trade flourished
with China, the Pacific, the East Indies, and the South Seas, and an
average of one hundred ships cleared New Haven Harbor annually. In
1802, Long Wharf was built, and a sealing fleet operated out of New
Haven. At the opening of the War of 1812, the port had six hundred
registered seamen, engaged in privateering or in regular service. The loss
of foreign trade through the war and the preceding Embargo Act, the
opening of the Farmington Canal in 1828, and the building of the Hart-
ford and New Haven Railroad in 1833-38 gave such an impetus to
industrial development that manufacturing rapidly became the chief in-
terest of the city.

56 Connecticut : The General Background

Bridgeport was a center of privateering activities during the Revolu-
tion, and acquired a portion of Derby's trade when the highway from
Newtown was built in 1798-1801.

The first shipbuilding in New London dates from the John Colt ven-
ture in 1664. New London was sending ships to all oceans by 1819, and
its skippers were in great demand at other ports. At the peak of activity,
about 1846, the New London whaling fleet consisted of seventy-one ships,
the last survivor of which came to port in 1909. Captain Stevens Rogers
of New London was master of the * Savannah,' the first steamship to
cross the Atlantic. The present shipyards at Essex, Noank, and Groton,
all that remains of this formerly important industry, continue to enjoy
a brisk trade. Submarines are built at Groton, pleasure craft at Essex,
and the Noank yards are busy on various classes and tonnage.

Mystic and Stonington were especially active in shipping and ship-
building. The former was noted for its clipper ships, the latter for its
whaling fleet. Toward the close of the clipper-ship era, Mystic took the
lead in this type of construction, producing a vessel that combined large
cargo space with speed. In 1860, the modified clipper ship 'Andrew
Jackson,' Captain John E. Williams commanding, established a record
of eighty-nine days and four hours from New York to San Francisco,
breaking by nine hours the record made by the 'Flying Cloud' in 1851.
The 'Andrew Jackson' was built by Irons and Grinnell in 1854. The
yachts built in Mystic by D. O. Richmond in 1870-80 held all records until
the ballast-keel type was designed. Stonington interests controlled
nineteen whalers between 1830 and 1850.

Practically all of the Connecticut River towns served as early commer-
cial and shipping outlets for ' back-country ' produce and manufactures.
Middletown developed into an important shipbuilding and commercial
center, carrying on a thriving trade with the Orient; Rocky Hill, Wethers-
field, and Windsor became warehouse and shipping centers. At Withers-
field was built the first ship in the State, the 'Tryall,' in 1649. A canal
around the rapids at Windsor Locks brought some commerce to that
town in 1829. A warehouse was established about 1636 at Warehouse
Point. The old Gildersleeve Shipyard at Portland, where an occasional
barge is still built, was once one of the most active on the river; a schooner
of ninety tons came off the ways there as early as 1741, and during the
Revolution a number of war vessels were turned out, including the
ooo-ton 'Bourbon.' Ships for the New York and Galveston Line, es-
tablished in 1863, were built in Portland. East Haddam was an important
center of shipping and shipbuilding. Sloops were built on the Salmon

Industry and Commerce 57

River at Leesville. Thomas Childs, a Middle Haddam shipbuilder, is
said to have laid down 237 vessels. Essex was such an important ship-
building center that it was raided by the British during the War of 1812.
Old Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut River, was an important
port for coasting vessels and for the trans-shipment of goods from smaller
river boats to seagoing ships. More than sixty skippers and their crews
from Old Lyme sailed clipper ships to China and the Far East, and later
manned packet ships to Liverpool and Havre.

Rumors of slave trade in connection with these early voyages were
numerous; whenever a skipper was suspiciously overdue from the West
Indies, gossips would speculate on the possibility of profit in a cargo of
'black ivory.' Undoubtedly, many Connecticut fortunes were thus
founded in those early days.

Today, Connecticut's freighting traffic is handled almost entirely by
rail and by truck. A few boats still carry cargoes to New York from
New London, New Haven, and Bridgeport; an occasional tug wheezes up
the Connecticut River with one or two coal barges, or a tanker whistles
for the opening of the draw at East Haddam. But the romantic era of
the merchantman, the privateer, the clipper ship, and the whaler has
long since passed. Old sailors pour gasoline into the tanks of their
modern fishing boats, and dream of more adventurous days.

MANUFACTURING

While Connecticut's ships were exporting staple provisions to many
other States and foreign countries, thousands of discontented farmers were
migrating to the West, for, despite the fertility of the Connecticut Valley,
large areas of the State were rock-ribbed and untillable. As early as 1840,
the density of population was sixty-four persons to the square mile,
equaling the 1930 distribution in Kentucky or North Carolina. Many
of those who -remained were forced to find more profitable sources of
income. The pressure of necessity, aided by an abundance of swift streams
providing water-power, developed the industrial ingenuity and resource-
fulness that thenceforth characterized the Connecticut Yankee. Home
industries that at first supplied merely local markets began to lay the
foundations for Connecticut's transition to an industrial State.

A small water-power mill began operations in New London as early
as 1650, and one at Derby in 1679. Bog iron was worked at Lake Salton-

58 Connecticut : The General Background

stall, East Haven, in 1665. Nails were made and exported before 1716.
An effort was made to introduce silk-culture into the Colony in 1732,
and a silk factory was opened at Mansfield in 1759. London hatters were
complaining as early as 1732 of the competition of Connecticut hats.
In 1737, a Simsbury blacksmith produced the first copper coins made in
the Colonies, using copper mined at East Granby. The paper mills of
Norwich date from 1768, and those of East Hartford from 1776. Brass
was being worked at Waterbury in 1749, and the first tinware made in
this country was produced at Berlin in 1740.

As soon as the small industries had supplied local markets, some of
the manufacturers as, for example, the Pattison brothers of Berlin,
makers of tinware set out on foot, with packs upon their backs, to
seek a market in outlying districts. Within a few years, scores of peddlers
employed by numerous small manufacturers had made their way as far
west as Lake Erie and St. Louis, and south to New Orleans. Coastal
blockades during the Revolution and War of 1812 stimulated local
manufacture. The peddler whose original pack had been confined to
tin goods was soon recognized as a vendor of Yankee ' notions ' buttons,
pins, hats, combs, brass kettles, and clocks. Almost every important
present-day Connecticut industry received its original impetus from the
Yankee peddler, who supplied ever-extending markets as he followed the
tide of migration westward.

Hartford claims the first woolen mill in New England, established in
1788. A noteworthy improvement of native wool is credited to General
David Humphreys, who very early in the nineteenth century imported
one hundred merino sheep and developed a superior strain on his farms in
Watertown. In 1806, Humphreys built a complete factory town
nucleus of the present-day Seymour where he established a school
and an apprentice system, and produced paper, woolens, tools, and metal
goods.

The first successful cotton mill in the State was built by Samuel
Pitkin and Company at Hilliardsville (in Manchester), in 1794. Cotton
mills established at Vernon in 1804 were followed by mills at Pomfret
in 1806 and at Jewett City in 1810. As late as 1810, it was estimated
that two-thirds of all the cloth made in the country was of household
manufacture.

Since the opening of the Patent Office in 1790, Connecticut has re-
ceived more patents in proportion to its population than any other State
in the Union. This inventiveness and skill in mechanical design has
greatly furthered the success of Connecticut industries. The advantage

INDUSTRY

YANKEE ingenuity has been the mainspring of Connecticut
industry ever since pioneer Connecticut farmers first launched
little ten-ton sloops and sailed off over uncharted seas, seek-
ing a market in the West Indies for surplus crops and food
products. The infant industries originally furnished goods
for home consumption, but when that market was supplied,
turned to the production of varied merchandise for the
'Yankee Pedlar' trade. Buttons and the smaller metal spe-
cialties formed a great part of the stock of these itinerant
merchants. Wherever they went they discovered demands
for new articles, and when they returned for fresh stock, their
crude drawings and patterns furnished fresh stimulus to the
little streamside industrial plants. No matter what the de-
mand, the factory seldom failed to furnish the desired article,
even though it were first necessary to devise hand-made tools.
This leadership in the working of metals, in skill and design,
has been responsible for the success of Connecticut's indus-
trial plants, which today lead the country in the production
of precision tools and scientific recording instruments as well
as in a score of other lines of manufacturing. All kinds of
brass articles are made in Connecticut, totaling 30 per cent
of the country's output.

The movement of goods to and from markets by railroads
has played an essential part in the development of Con-
necticut industry, dependent as it is on distant raw materials
and nation-wide custom, and today new air trails are blazed
to far places by planes, propellers, and motors of Yankee man-
ufacture.

BURNISHING BRASS, SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, WATERBURY

PRATT AND WHITNEY, AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS, EAST HARTFORD

"::'-

ASSEMBLY DEPARTMENT OF THE PROPELLER DIVISION, UNITED AIRCRAFT
CORPORATION, EAST HARTFORD

FINAL ASSEMBLY DEPARTMENT, SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT, STRATFORD

EXPERIMENTAL DEPARTMENT, SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT

INSPECTING POLISHED COPPER SHEETS, AMERICAN BRASS COMPANY, ANSONLA

FORGING HOT BRASS, SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, WATERBURY

CASTING SHOP, AMERICAN BRASS COMPANY, WATERBURY

WITHDRAWING A HEATED COPPER BILLET FROM THE FURNACE, AMERICAN
BRASS COMPANY, WATERBURY

LINE-UP OF LOCOMOTIVES, NEW HAVEN RAILROAD, CEDAR HILL

STEAM POWER, STREAMLINED TRAIN, NEW HAVEN RAILROA

Industry and Commerce 59

attained by the early Connecticut craftsmen in the working of metals
has grown, until today the State leads the country in the production of
precision tools and scientific recording instruments, as well as in a score
of other manufactures.

Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1792 was a milestone of
accomplishment for Yankee mills and southern agriculture. Whitney's
introduction of quantity production methods in his firearms factory in
Hamden also had a far-reaching effect upon industry throughout the
Nation. His production of interchangeable parts, and his system of
specialized labor, each worker having but one operation to perform, gave
Connecticut industry an early advantage. Upon this system has been
built the carefully planned high-speed production and the assembly line
of modern industry. Whitney worked closely with Simeon North (see
below] in inaugurating these modern production methods.

In the brass industry, Connecticut took an early lead, starting in 1749.
Brass buttons were manufactured in 1802 by Abel Porter at Waterbury.
Rolled sheet-brass, drawn brass wire, brass pins, rods, spun brass shapes,
shellwork and eyelets, all were developed as the industry grew and the
Connecticut brassmakers attained greater skill. Connecticut produces
thirty per cent of the brass manufactured in the United States (1937),
and leads all other States in this field. Britannia ware was introduced by
Charles and Hiram Yale in 1815. The world's largest factory engaged
in the production of silverware is situated in Meriden, and the State as
a whole ranks fourth in this manufacture.

The discovery of the process for vulcanizing rubber, in 1839, by
Charles Goodyear of Naugatuck, brought a thriving industry to Con-
necticut and was an important contributing factor in the development
of modern motor transportation, electric power distribution, and in-
dustrial efficiency.

Clockmaking in Connecticut is noteworthy as an example of the de-
velopment from household or one-man manufacturing into an important
industry, which now leads all other States in the value of production.
Connecticut clocks were first produced by individual craftsmen and dis-
tributed by peddlers, who soon made the sundial and the 'time stake'
obsolete throughout the original Colonies.

Benjamin Cheney produced wooden clocks about 1745, in a small
back-yard shop at East Hartford. Thomas Harland of Norwich made
a few clocks, in connection with other mechanical devices, about 1773.
Daniel Burnap, an apprentice to Harland, established his own shop at
East Windsor about 1780, and first advertised 'brass wheeled clocks'

60 Connecticut : The General Background

on March 14, 1791. Gideon Roberts was making wooden-movement
clocks in 1790 at his Bristol shop. These makers were all limited to a
very small output, and they were often their own peddlers. Eli Terry
was constructing clocks by hand in 1793. In 1807, he purchased an old
mill in Plymouth, and equipped it with machinery, producing in 1808,
the first five hundred machine-made clocks manufactured in America.
Joseph Ives, who entered the field in 1811, was a clockmaker of excep-
tional inventive ability; in 1832, he placed on the market clocks with
brass works, and later patented and produced clocks with a cantilever
spring. In 1812, Seth Thomas started operations in the Thomaston
plant which still bears his name. The quality clocks of Sessions and New
Haven are likewise time recorders that today find world-wide markets.
The first cheap watch, the once-famous Waterbury, with its seemingly
endless spring, was also a Connecticut product; the Ingersoll and Ingra-
ham watches of today are made in this State.

With Simeon North's introduction of the system of interchangeable
parts for firearms in 1813, this industry developed rapidly in Connecticut,
until the names of North, Whitney, Sharps, Spencer, Winchester, Colt,
Remington, Savage, Parker, Ballard, and Marlin had become famous in
this country and abroad. The State now leads all others in the produc-
tion of firearms and ammunition.

The first actual use of a submarine for war purposes is credited to
David Bushnell, a Connecticut designer, who made an unsuccessful
attempt in 1776 to sink the British warship * Eagle ' off New York. Simon
Lake of Milford did considerable early research work on submarines, and
is credited with the perfection of the first even-keel submarine, in 1894.
Groton shipyards are now (1937) at work on submarines for the United
States Navy.

Astonishing growth has been attained in the aircraft industry. Plants
in East Hartford and Stratford have kept ahead of the field, and operate
on schedules that keep the test pilots busy. Government orders con-
tinue to come in; and constant improvement in motors and propellers,
together with a supply of especially skilled labor, promise well for the
continued growth and expansion of the industry. Fighting ships, cargo
and transport planes, either built complete in Connecticut or powered
by Connecticut motors, now duplicate the feats of the old Connecticut
clipper ships in breaking speed records to the far corners of the world.

Two once-thriving Connecticut industries have experienced difficulty in
adapting themselves to changed conditions. Cutlery manufacture, form-
erly of importance, has practically ceased because of foreign competition;

Industry and Commerce 61

and the cotton and silk mills have suffered greatly from low-wage southern
competition. A shift in manufacture to rayon goods has not solved the
textile industry's problem. Some smaller mills have been taken over
by garment manufacturers from other States, but the change is usually
unsatisfactory to labor and the community alike. Woolen mills occasion-
ally enjoy short-lived prosperity when new blood or new backing is
obtained. The plush mills at Seymour, using the Tingue process, operate
with outside capital. Mohair mills in Shelton enjoy spasmodic activity
which fluctuates with the demands of the motor industry, but the Mont-
Ville mills have closed. The smaller mills that specialize on a single
product are more successful in weathering the storm; but as a whole, the
textile industry in Connecticut has fallen upon evil days.

Connecticut ranks first among the States in the production of com-
modities as varied as typewriters and felt hats. Danbury is 'the hat
center of the world,' and Fairfield County produces thirty-eight per
cent of the American output in this field. About one-half the hooks and
eyes, pins, needles, and snap fasteners produced in this country are
manufactured in Connecticut.

The period of the State's greatest development in manufacturing
began soon after the War of 1812. During the years from 1850 to 1900,
the population of the State increased 145 per cent, but the average num-
ber of wage-earners employed in manufacturing establishments increased
248.3 per cent. Wage-earners so employed in 1850 constituted 13.7 per
cent of the State's total population, and 19.5 per cent in 1900. The
decade of greatest relative development was that of 1909-19, including
the war years, when factory output increased 184 per cent. New factory
construction in 1923 and 1924 was valued at $16,807,775. * n J 937> more
than 60 per cent of Connecticut's population depended upon some three
hundred manufacturing establishments for a livelihood.

MINING AND QUARRYING

Nearly every known mineral has been found in Connecticut, and the
exploitation of its mineral wealth dates back to Colonial days, when
Governor Winthrop and others seized lands and mineral rights. Yet there
had been little commercial mining in the State, especially of the more
precious minerals. Some rocks of the western highlands are believed to

62 Connecticut: The General Background

be of the Pre-Cambrian age; gold has been discovered and actually
mined; garnets are taken from a carefully guarded working in Tolland
County today, but the quantity is unknown except to the owner of the
mine.

Portland quarries still produce feldspar in marketable amounts. Rox-
bury granite from Mine Hill, of excellent quality and available in un-
limited quantities, is now used for residential and public buildings. The
lime quarries of western Connecticut yield a fine quality of building lime,
and the output of agricultural lime more than suffices for local needs.
Brick clays are of frequent occurrence. Traprock quarries are worked
more extensively than any others, because of the demand created by
highway construction and the excellent quality of the stone.

Commercially unimportant production of mica is carried on in back-
yard mines in Middlesex County. Bismuth mines in Monroe are worked
by hand and by crude mechanical processes. Silica is available almost
everywhere in the State; and no iron ore is of better quality than the
limonite, or brown hematite, once produced by the now flooded Ore Hill
pits. Near New Haven, in the dense brush of a hillside pasture lot, a
crude windlass marks the spot where a hard-working Italian secures a
yield of about three dollars a day from his private gold mine. The dis-
covery of coal at Southbury caused some excitement when drilling
crews came in to prospect for oil between Poverty Hollow and Bates
Rock, but the small deposits were never exploited.

At Mine Hill in Roxbury a vertical vein of siderite, six to eight feet
thick and of undetermined length, was prospected at various times from
1724 on. A great plant for the smelting of ore was constructed, 'lease
hounds' operated unrestrained, a German goldsmith was engaged to
develop what was supposed to be the silver content of the ore, and tales
of the wondrous wealth of the hill beside the Shepaug River spread
abroad. The ore was a spathic and ferrous carbonate with an iron con-
tent running to 57 or 60 per cent, but the gas content made pre-heats
necessary and caused many explosions in the furnaces. Dank drifts
reach into the heart of the hill, furnaces and stacks stand gaunt and
neglected, and the Columbia School of Mines utilizes the site as a field
practice area. Equally promising at one time were the garnet mines of
Roxbury, where tons of crystals were mined and ground for abrasive
purposes by local labor. Silica paints and wood fillers were once exported
from the State, but the stone has no commercial value today; the mines
are water-filled, and the last mill has been burned or abandoned.

Brownstone from Portland quarries changed the complexion of New

Industry and Commerce 63

York, when stone boats plied from the riverside workings to the city
where brownstone fronts were popularized. A well-known scouring pow-
der is still produced in a country mill with Connecticut stone furnishing
the base; but Winthrop's cobalt mines are now disused, and his 'tall
tales ' of gold in purest form are discredited.

FISHERIES

Connecticut's commercial fisheries have long suffered from stream and
harbor pollution, but this hazard is gradually being eliminated by a
vigilant State Water Commission and State Health Department. Re-
stocking is now carried on with considerable success, and the return of
shad to the Connecticut River is especially notable.

Commercial interests and the State Shellfish Commission have de-
voted much attention to the cultivation of oysters and lobsters. The
Commission has helped to develop these natural resources by establishing
an efficient lobster hatchery at Noank, regulating the harvesting of
shellfish, fixing closed areas, eliminating pests, licensing vessels, and tax-
ing oyster acreage to support these regulatory activities.

Scallop fisheries on the Niantic River, swordfishing out of Mystic
and Stonington, flounder fishing offshore, and the harvesting of soft
or long clams are important marine industries. The shad fisheries of
the Connecticut River make a valued contribution to the part-time in-
come of rivermen, who haul nets in season and secure other employment
when the 'run' is over. With excellent markets at their very door,
Connecticut fishermen probably could dispose of many times their present
annual catch without exporting any part of it.

Oyster farming is an important activity in Connecticut. A yield of as
much as a thousand dollars an acre has been recorded from the under-
seas gardens in which the oysters are planted, cultivated, and harvested.
Seed oysters bring about eighty cents a bushel in the shell, but good
seasons are considerably less frequent than poor ones. The last really
good 'catch' in Connecticut waters was in 1931. Local experience de-
termines the best location for the beds, which are kept clean for the
fattening process. Oysters are left on the fattening beds for a year or
more, to eliminate all copper coloring or pollution resulting from the
absorption of industrial wastes. Connecticut oyster beds in 1934 cov-
ered an area of 47,826 acres.

LABOR

WITH the emergence of an industrial wage-earning class at the close of
the eighteenth century, labor organization became possible. The opening
of small factories around New Haven, Hartford, and New London created
a great demand for skilled and unskilled labor, a demand that was met
somewhat by the use of skilled artisans. Until 1810, however, manufac-
turing was greatly hampered by the high cost of labor, for unskilled work-
ers found the cheap western lands a more attractive goal.

The skilled workers were at this time in their heyday. Their social
status was high and their political influence greater than their numbers
justified. At the same time, ample opportunity was allowed them to enter
the ranks of the employing class. The higher educational level of the arti-
sans was evidenced by the fact that in 1 793 they established a technical
and literary library in New Haven.

In 1807, the General Society of Mechanics of New Haven was organized
with a membership of ninety-five. Its objectives were 'To relieve such
of the members as are reduced to a state of suffering: to assist young mech-
anics by loans and to promote the mechanical arts.' By 1811, the loan
fund of the society amounted to more than $450.

After 1815, industry developed more rapidly than did the available
supply of labor. Yet, despite the growing shortage of workers, a form of
economic feudalism prevailed, since employers still continued the tradi-
tion of the indentured apprentice. However, the shortage was met some-
what by the increased employment of women and children. The ' sun to
sun' system of labor, practiced by farmers, was transferred to the growing
factories, and approved by public opinion, for Connecticut tradition had
invested 'industrious habits' with the sacredness of a moral, if not a re-
ligious, precept.

By 1830, the shortage of labor was somewhat alleviated by the growing
tide of immigration from Europe. Unskilled labor became more plentiful,
resulting in a drop in wages. In 1831, $3 a week for men and $2 for women
were considered fair wages, from which $1.25 was deducted for company
board. Children were paid from fifty cents to one dollar a week, according
to their age and degree of skill. These wages were based upon a working
day of from fourteen to sixteen hours in summer, and from ten to twelve
hours during the winter months.

Labor 65

The main complaint voiced by the skilled workers at this time had to
do with their lack of economic and political equality. Their independence
was submerged under a general wave of 'shop discipline/ and their politi-
cal interests were merged with those of their employers. Socially, too,
they no longer occupied the position that had been theirs in the closing
years of the eighteenth century.

It was due to these dissatisfactions on the part of skilled labor that the
first industrial union in this country, the New England Association of
Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen, was organized in Lyme in

1830. New Haven, Hartford, and New London were the centers for this
new political and industrial union in Connecticut. In New London, in

1831, three candidates of the Association were elected to the State legis-
lature, and its entire slate of town officers was elected to office. Due to
lack of support from the unskilled workers, the Association went out of
existence in 1834.

The first important strike in Connecticut took place in the latter part
of 1833, when weavers employed by the Thompsonville Carpet Manufac-
turing Company quit work to enforce a demand for higher wages. In re-
taliation, the company brought suit against the strike leaders, charging
them with conspiracy to ruin the business the first such suit in the
United States. Three separate trials took place, the last occurring in 1836
when a verdict was rendered for the defendants after the jury had been
instructed that it was legal to combine to raise wages but unlawful to con-
spire to ruin an employer's business.

Although the ten-hour day had been established in New York by 1830,
mechanics and laborers in Connecticut still worked from dawn to dusk.
The first strike in connection with the ten-hour day took place in Hartford
in 1835. Although unsuccessful, it was the forerunner of many such efforts
to shorten the working day for Connecticut labor. In 1835, the cord-
wainers of New Haven organized a union to obtain shorter hours and in-
creased pay.

The fifties brought the first of the modern protective trade unions to
Connecticut. In 1852, the first typographical union in Connecticut was
started in New Haven; and in 1853, the Hat Makers' Association was or-
ganized in Danbury to strengthen the apprentice system, much abused
by the employers of that day. The cigar makers of New Haven had
developed an effective union by 1853, and two years later a convention
was held at Hartford to plan an organization for the cigar makers of
New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

The manufacturing boom of the reconstruction period following the

66 Connecticut : The General Background

Civil War greatly stimulated the growth of labor unions. Among the
groups that organized during this period were the Iron Holders of Bridge-
port, and in New Haven the Bricklayers and Plasterers, the Locomotive
Engineers, and the Stone Masons. In 1867, labor votes made possible the
election of James E. English to the governorship of Connecticut. For
their political aid, the unions were promised an eight-hour day; a law to
that effect was subsequently passed by the legislature, but with the pro-
vision that it was not obligatory upon employers if the latter had made
other arrangements with their employees. Needless to say, the law was
unenforceable. With the depression of 1873, labor organization in Con-
necticut declined, and further unionization was not attempted until the
Knights of Labor came into the field in 1878.

In 1874, a consumers' co-operative, the Sovereigns of Labor, made a
bid for labor support. In 1875, the organization claimed that it had 1200
members in New Haven, 1000 in Hartford, 500 in Meriden, and 500 in
Bridgeport and Middletown. Organized and led by employers and poli-
ticians, it made arrangements with merchants whereby discounts were
given to members. Soon, as the result of protests that inferior products
were given with the discounts, the organization opened its own stores,
employing a business firm in Hartford to act as its commission agents in
purchasing products directly from grangers and manufacturers. By 1876,
little remained of the Sovereigns of Labor.

The first local assembly of the Knights of Labor was organized at New
Britain in 1878. Unlike the later American Federation of Labor, the
Knights of Labor did not confine its membership entirely to employees.
Labor was organized on a basis of regional assemblies, rather than by
separate industrial unions. In 1885, some 6000 persons were enrolled in
ten assemblies in New Haven, and the entire State membership was
nearly 12,000. The New Haven Trades Council was closely affiliated
with the Knights of Labor during this period, as were many of the other
Central Labor Unions in Connecticut.

Many of the labor and factory laws now appearing on the Connecticut
statute-books were first introduced by the various assemblies of the
Knights of Labor. Largely to their efforts are due the rehabilitation of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the enactment of laws limiting the work-
ing hours of women and children to sixty per week, prohibiting employ-
ment in factories of children under fourteen years of age, and providing
for inspection and proper safeguards in factories.

Wages were so low in the early seventies that the Connecticut Bureau
of Labor Statistics reported in 1875 that the children in working-class

Labor 67

families were contributing from one-fourth to one-third of the family in-
come, while children under fourteen supplied about one-sixth of the fam-
ily weekly earnings. Without the wage increases of the eighties, the pro-
hibition of child labor would have been an economic calamity to most of
the working-class families of Connecticut.

The long working day of the preceding decades was much curtailed
during the eighties. The ten-hour day became an accomplished fact for
most of skilled labor, while in some trades an eight-hour day was estab-
lished. In 1886, the cabinetmakers, printers, piano-makers, tailors, and
carpenters had a sixty-hour week. The cigarmakers had a forty-six-hour
week, although two years previously their hours had ranged from ten to
fourteen a day. The painters were on a fifty-two-hour week, while the
telegraphers worked nine hours if employed during the day or forty-five
hours a week if employed at night. Baking and barbering were the only
two organized trades in which working hours of more than sixty hours a
week prevailed.

The Knights of Labor had its greatest growth in Connecticut between
the years 1881 and 1886. In a militant attempt to expand its growing
membership, it introduced the boycott as a strike weapon. In 1885, the
boycott was used against four leading hat manufacturers of South Nor-
walk and Danbury who refused to arbitrate a strike. At the Crofut and
Knapp factory in South Norwalk, in the same year, dynamite was used
for the first time in Connecticut in connection with a strike. The Derby
Silver and the Southington Cutlery strikes of 1886 revealed the weak or-
ganization of the Connecticut Knights of Labor and its lack of competent
leadership. With the decline of the national organization after 1886, the
field was left open for the growth of the craft union.

The Connecticut Federation of Labor was organized at Hartford on
March 9, 1887, by various labor groups from New Haven, Hartford, Meri-
den, Danbury, and \Vaterbury. Unlike the Knights of Labor, it made a
clear-cut distinction between employer and employee, its plan of organi-
zation was on the basis of trade or craft unions, and it made its appeal to
the skilled rather than the unskilled workers. An immediate improve-
ment in standards of wages, hours, and conditions was its objective.

During the later eighties, the Connecticut Federation of Labor suc-
ceeded in organizing an average of seven locals annually; and throughout
the severe depression of 1893-97, nine locals were being organized yearly.
With the turn of the century, labor organization increased at an even more
rapid rate. In 1900, there were 14,000 members of labor unions in Con-
necticut; in 1902, the number had increased to 32,000, or 10 per cent of

68 Connecticut : The General Background

the total number of wage-earners in the State. By 1905, however, the re-
sistance of employers to the unionization of their shops had become an
almost insurmountable obstacle for labor organizers.

From 1881 to 1905, during the rise of the craft union in Connecticut,
930 strikes were called in 2 1 1 1 factories. In more than half of these cases,
the strikes were unsuccessful, due to the fact that labor's right to bargain
collectively was not recognized either by employers or by public opinion.
Although the bloodshed and violence that marked many labor difficulties
elsewhere were largely absent, labor history was made in one of these
conflicts and its later legal developments the famous Danbury Hat-
ters' Case.

In 1902, attempts were made to unionize the hat-making establishment
of D. E. Loewe in Danbury, against the owner's insistence upon an open
shop. After a long-drawn-out strike, marked by a refusal of the company
to deal with the strike leaders, the union officials requested union men and
labor sympathizers throughout the country to boycott the products of the
company. In 1903, with its business at a standstill because of the boycott,
the company brought suit for damages against the officers of the American
Federation of Labor and the United Hatters of North America, as well as
a large number of individual members of both organizations, alleging an
unlawful conspiracy on the part of the defendants to ruin their business.
In 1908, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision in
favor of the company, stating in its majority opinion that a boycott by
labor unions against a producer doing an interstate commerce business
violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Law of 1890. Damages of nearly
$300,000 were levied against 186 members of the Hatters' Union, the de-
cision being affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1915. The American Fed-
eration of Labor replied with a campaign against the use of the Sherman
Act in labor disputes; and in the Clayton Act of 1914, labor organizations
were specifically exempted from the provisions of the anti-trust laws.

During the years from 1905 to 1917, while trade-union membership
more than doubled in the country as a whole, Connecticut labor bodies
were mainly occupied with holding whatever members they did have.
Membership began to decline after 1906, and after the final decision in the
Danbury Hatters' Case, the open-shop movement received great support
and impetus in Connecticut.

The World War did little to aid the growth of unionism in Connecticut.
The great proportion and heterogeneous character of unskilled labor em-
ployed in Connecticut industry hampered, rather than aided, such
growth, both during the war and after. In manufacturing and labor

Percentage distribution of the population by nativity for
Connecticut, New England, and the United States, 1930.

57.1%

40.8%

33.5%

38.8%

CONNECTICUT

20.7%

10.9%1U%

Native White of
Native Parentage

Native White of Foreign
or Mixed Parentage

NEW ENGLAND UNITED STATES

Foreign Born White
Colored

Based on the fifteenth census of the United States

70 Connecticut: The General Background

circles, Connecticut was considered one of the foremost 'open shop'
States in the industrial North.

The so-called 'American Plan' of company unionism came early to
Connecticut, and during the period from 1922 to 1929 it displaced many
of the old and established craft unions within the State. Not until 1934
did labor begin to regain something of its former strength. Even then,
the percentage of unionized workers was no greater than it had been in
1904, for labor organization could not keep pace with the growth of in-
dustry.

The Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the International Ladies
Garment Workers' Union were the only two labor bodies to benefit from
the application of the labor provisions of the National Recovery Admin-
istration to Connecticut industry. Public opinion had been much aroused
by the influx of sweatshops into Connecticut, caused in great part by the
higher labor costs in New York City; and when data appeared showing
the abuses engaged in by these 'fly-by-night' enterprises, church and civic
organizations united to prevent a reversion to the labor conditions of a
century ago by encouraging the unionization of workers in these plants.
The reaction of the public against the sweatshop system was so over-
whelming that shop after shop was compelled to treat with its employees
through the unions. In this case, Connecticut opinion tacitly recognized
labor's right to organize.

The history of labor in Connecticut during the past hundred years has
been a series of attempts on the part of bodies of workmen to achieve some
form of economic and social status commensurate with their contribution
to industrial life. As the history of colonial Connecticut was one in which
the middle class of free-holders and independent artisans demanded fur-
ther rights for themselves as a class, so the history of industrial Connecti-
cut can be said to be a record of the attempts of wage-earners to gain
broader interpretations of their rights as citizens and members of an emer-
ging and numerically powerful group.

AGRICULTURE

ORIGINALLY so important agriculturally as to be designated the ' Pro-
vision State ' by General Washington during the Revolution, Connecticut
has seen its agriculture gradually supplanted by industrial activity.
Nevertheless, the farm crops today are valued at about $40,000,000 in an
average year. Total crop acreage for 1936 was 427,200 acres, as compared
with 424,000 in 1935.

Agriculture was the State's leading occupation until the middle of the
nineteenth century, when industry became of prime importance. In 1930
only 29 per cent of the population was classified as rural. A farm census
of 1935, the first accurate census of this type ever made in Connecticut,
lists 34,853 farms, valued roughly at $230,000,000. Although 75 per cent
of the land surface of the State is included in farms, only 7 per cent of this
portion is actually under cultivation. Recently there has been a trend to-
ward subsistence, or part-time, farming. The Resettlement Administra-
tion is now (1936) retiring 11,000 acres of submarginal land through
purchase, and it is expected that these lands will be returned to forest
under State lease on the standard Resettlement ninety-nine-year con-
tract.

News of the fertility of the Connecticut Valley, reported by the John
Oldham expedition from Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1633, stimulated
early English colonization in this section. The first settlers found it possi-
ble to produce bumper crops along the alluvial bottomlands without much
effort. Wethersfield colonists planted rye as soon as they arrived, and
later became famous as the largest onion producers of the State, exporting
more than 1,000,000 bunches annually. Onions sent to West Indian ports
were always strung or bunched. The natural grasslands of the Hartford
and Glastonbury meadows furnished ample forage for what little livestock
the colonists brought with them. Tobacco was grown at the Windsor
plantations very early in the life of the Colony, and the first American
cigars known as 'Long Nines' were made by Mrs. Prout of South
Windsor, in 1801. Cattle were raised with such success that they became
an export commodity only a little later than tobacco, onions, and oak
staves.

Tobacco is the outstanding cash crop in the Connecticut Valley today.

72 Connecticut: The General Background

For more than a century some of the best wrapper leaf in the world has
been produced here. Connecticut shade-grown tobacco is the nation's
highest priced cigar leaf. /Connecticut broadleaf ' is universally known,
and commands a premium price. The sorting, stripping, and curing of
tobacco leaf furnishes employment for many persons in season. In 1936,
the Connecticut tobacco crop was 21,429,000 pounds, raised from 14,500
acres.

The usual rotation crops on tobacco soils are potatoes and corn. A very
high yield of corn is obtained, and the potato yield is occasionally in excess
of 600 bushels to the acre. The local markets easily absorb all potatoes
and corn raised in the State, and the short haul to market enables the
local grower to meet outside competition without loss. Potato plantings
in 1936 covered 16,700 acres and yielded 2,839,000 bushels. Many varie-
ties of corn are raised; some is fed out as green fodder, some used as ensi-
lage, and some is allowed to mature for grain. The State produces much
sweet corn for immediate consumption, but very little is commercially
canned.

The soils of Connecticut are favorable to a considerable diversification
of agriculture. The loams of the central valley, ideal for raising the better
grades of wrapper-leaf tobacco, are adapted also to potato growing. The
sweet potato is now being successfully grown in the older tobacco soils,
and State experiment stations are encouraging farmers to expand their
acreage on this new crop. Truck crops are easily raised in the lighter sandy
loams, and with some success in the heavier soils. A natural grass soil
is found in the valleys and on the hilltops of Litchfield County, where the
Charlton loam, a common hilltop type of soil in New England, holds a
greater moisture content in dry seasons than is found in the more sandy
loams. A plentiful supply of lime for agricultural purposes is available
within easy hauling distance throughout the State. Vegetables are suc-
cessfully grown in the tobacco soils, berries thrive on the sandy loams,
and celery is raised successfully on the heavier soils. Windham County
raises more Brussels sprouts than any other county in the country, with
the exception of one in California.

Dairying is important on 80 per cent of all farms operating commer-
cially, and there are 120,000 dairy animals in the State. Connecticut is
now declared to be a 'modified accredited State ' by the Bureau of Animal
Industry, thus becoming the thirty-ninth such State in the Union. Poultry
raising is rapidly increasing. About 2,500,000 chickens produce approxi-
mately 22,500,000 dozen eggs annually. Turkeys of excellent quality are
successfully raised. Fruit orchards are recovering from the damage suf-

Agriculture 73

fered during the severe winters of 1933-35; an d a yearly crop of apples,
peaches, and pears valued at about $3,000,000 is harvested.

The Farm Bureau and the county agents are occasionally helpful to the
small farmer, but more active among the larger agriculturists. Egg and
berry auctions are held at key points throughout the State; a State-inspected
and regulated system of roadside markets caters to the traveling public ; and
' Connecticut fancy turkeys,' advertised on billboards during the winter hol-
idays, are carefully graded and sold under a co-operative marketing scheme.

Eleven hundred poultry producers own and control the Connecticut
Farmers' Co-operative Auction Association, a non-profit organization
that holds egg and poultry auctions at West Hartford. Similar auctions
are held at Willimantic, Manchester, and Hamden. These organizations
are producer co-operatives, but Connecticut also has combination pro-
ducer-consumer and straight consumer * co-ops ' that function well. The
great Eastern States Co-operative has many members in Connecticut;
the United Farmers Co-operative Association has at least one branch in
the State, made up almost entirely of Finnish farmers; the Quinebaug
Valley Fruit Growers Association, Inc., functions with a limited member-
ship in northeastern Connecticut; and Italian fruit growers have formed
a co-operative in the Glastonbury area.

The most unusual organization of its kind is the so-called 'Father Dunn
Co-op ' in Ashford, one of the few co-operatives in the country founded
and operated by a priest. This organization of poorer farmers in the sub-
marginal eastern highlands of the State now owns a store and a fleet of
trucks. Throughout the depression it functioned without difficulty.

The Connecticut Milk Administration is making progress with milk
control and the regulation of marketing in the State. Assisted by two de-
puties and five inspectors, the Milk Administrator has done much for
improved conditions in classification and retailing, but the producer still
seeks relief from the unusually low prices paid for his product. Retailers
are licensed, their books are opened to the inspectors, efforts are made to
insure prompt payment to producers, and price wars are infrequent.

Connecticut State College at Storrs carries'on an efficient and helpful
work for the farmer. Experiment stations at Storrs and New Haven issue
frequent bulletins; and a tobacco substation at Windsor offers advice on
that crop. A cow- testing association helps to keep its member herds free
from ' boarders ' and to attain a higher efficiency in butterfat output. A
State market bulletin is issued thrice weekly, offering information re-
garding the produce market at six points within the State, printing adver-
tising for the individual farmer, and keeping the rural communities sup-
plied with news of interest.

74 Connecticut: The General Background

The Farm Bureau and the county agents are not especially helpful to
the small farmer, but are active among the larger agriculturists. The
Grange has one hundred and forty-one local and eleven Pomona units,
in addition to the State organization. Some five thousand women are en-
gaged in home-making projects, and more than five thousand boys and
girls participate in 4~H Club activities. Agricultural and grange fairs
continue to be popular, thirty-seven of these being held in 1936. There
are also five 4~H Club County Fairs, to which youthful exhibitors bring
their prize stock just as it is ready to show at the Eastern States Exposi-
tion in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Connecticut farmers have to contend with many difficulties. Living
costs are inevitably high in a State that is predominantly industrial.
Taxes continue to mount with the increased valuation of acreage as resi-
dential sections expand into the country; and the area of tillable land is
usually small in comparison to the total taxable area of individual farms.
The average farm is so small that the use of highly developed farm ma-
chinery is impracticable. The water and power companies' purchase of
large and sometimes fertile areas of cultivated land restricts normal farm
expansion. Despite these unfavorable conditions, however, the natural
advantages of a temperate climate and adequate rainfall, the accessibility
to good markets by means of excellent highways, and the co-operation
afforded the farmer by various State bureaus and marketing organizations
are factors which seem to assure a successful future to Connecticut agricul-
ture.

EDUCATION

IN THE field of education, Connecticut's record is a long and distin-
guished one. The Puritan preachers early encouraged learning with the
object of offsetting ' the chief project of that old deluder, Sathan, to keepe
men from the knowledge of the scriptures.' The church and school stood
side by side, and the minister often assumed the duties of schoolmaster.
The schoolhouses were rudely constructed one-room buildings, equipped
with rough wooden benches and desks, ink made of tea and iron filings,
and few if any books.

One of the first public school systems in the history of education was
founded in Connecticut shortly after the establishment of free public
schools in New Haven (1642) and Hartford (1643), a system that for
many years was unsurpassed in its uniform application to all classes. A
general code enacted in 1650 ordered the establishment of elementary
schools, for the teaching of reading and writing, in all townships of fifty
families or more; and of Latin grammar schools, for the preparation of
those more gifted students who might wish to enter the college at Cam-
bridge, in towns of 100 families or more. Penalties were imposed upon
parents who neglected the education of their children, and the towns re-
served the right to remove boys from the homes of such parents and to
apprentice them to masters who would train and educate them. Towns
employing a schoolmaster might provide for his salary by levying a town
tax on property, by tuition fees from those who attended, or by any other
means agreeable to an individual township. Although the State fixed the
minimum requirements for provision and attendance, it neither supported
the schools nor maintained any direct control, tending to shift the entire
responsibility to local supervision.

In 1671, the State ordered the four county towns of New Haven, Hart-
ford, New London, and Fairfield to establish grammar schools, under
penalty of a fine of ten pounds. In the following year, the General Court
granted 600 acres of land in these counties for educational purposes. In
1690, these grammar schools were made free, and the State contributed
thirty pounds towards the salary of the master of each school. In 1795,
Connecticut contracted for the sale of 3,000,000 acres of land in northern
Ohio, which had been assigned to the Colony by the original charter from

76 Connecticut: The General Background

King Charles II and was known as the Western Reserve. The income
from the proceeds of this sale was set aside for educational purposes, and
became known as the ' school fund.' Administered under the supervision
of the State Treasury, the fund up to July i, 1931, had earned $13,620,-
372.42, all of which was used for the support of common schools in Con-
necticut.

In the latter half of the eighteenth century, public education was neg-
lected because of the more pressing problems of war and reconstruction.
At the turn of the century and during the early decades of the nineteenth
century, a growing demand for broader education led to the establish-
ment of privately owned academies offering a wider curriculum and draw-
ing students from a more extensive area than did the public schools.

The system of public high schools was initiated as a result of the work
of Henry Barnard, who devoted his life to the furtherance of education. In
1838, he originated a bill in the State legislature providing for State super-
vision of the common schools. A Board of Commissioners was promptly
created, with Barnard as secretary; and for the first time, annual reports
on school conditions were required. To relieve the congestion discovered
in the ungraded schools, Barnard suggested a higher school, and before
long the system of public high schools was well under way. In addition
to his services to the State, Barnard was the first United States Commis-
sioner of Education, and from 1855 to 1893 he edited the American Jour-
nal of Education.

Secondary education is now provided in Connecticut by 137 high
schools, junior high schools, and trade schools, with an enrollment of
about 100,000 pupils. Public, private, and parochial elementary schools
number 1,286, with more than 390,000 pupils registered. State funds en-
sure modern educational methods and trained teachers for the rural dis-
tricts, and transportation to and from school for children living in remote
sections. Within the last fifteen years, consolidation of grades and dis-
tricts has resulted in the elimination of 600 one-room buildings.

Connecticut maintains eleven trade schools, all established since 1907.
The founding of these schools was begun under the administration of
Charles G. Hine, who served on the State Board of Education for more
than 37 years. Hine also helped to establish the library extension service
and the system of rural education. By State law, every town with a popu-
lation of 10,000 or more must establish and maintain evening schools for
the instruction, in elementary subjects, of persons over fourteen years of
age. Perhaps the most important ruling of the State Board of Education
in recent years was made in 1922, when it was decreed that only graduates

Education 77

of approved normal schools, or those of equal professional training, would
be certified for teachers' positions in elementary schools. There are nor-
mal schools at New Britain, New Haven, Danbury, and Willimantic.

In addition to the support given the public schools, the State maintains
an industrial school for boys at Meriden, a similar school for girls at Long
Lane Farm, Middletown, and a school for imbeciles and defectives at
Mansfield.

The education of Indians and Negroes began at an early date in Connec-
ticut. Moor's Indian Charity School was established at Columbia in 1735
by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, who instructed the aborigines in re-
ligion and the English language, training them to be sent forth as mission-
aries among their own race. Funds for the development of the school
were sought abroad, and the King of England and Lord Dartmouth were
among the contributors. The school was removed in 1769 to Hanover,
New Hampshire, * to increase its usefulness,' and has since become known
as Dartmouth College.

The first effort towards education for Negroes was made in 1832 by
Miss Prudence Crandall, a Quakeress of Canterbury, who accepted a
young Negro girl into her school. The other pupils promptly quit the
place, and the courageous young woman replied by turning her school
into an institution exclusively for ' young ladies and little misses of color/
As a result, race feeling ran so high that in 1833 the Connecticut * Black
Law ' was rushed through the legislature. This made it illegal to establish
schools exclusively for the instruction of Negroes without the permission
of local authorities.

About the middle of the nineteenth century, free public schools sup-
planted the privately owned academies, which had grown to be more or
less aristocratic institutions charging high tuition rates. Many of these
academies, however, continue to function as preparatory schools, and have
been attended by famous men from all over the country. One of the oldest
of these is Bacon Academy, established at Colchester in 1803, and now
serving as the free high school for that town. The Cheshire Academy in
Cheshire is on the site of the Cheshire Episcopal Academy, which num-
bered among its student body the elder J. P. Morgan, Admiral A. A.
Foote of the United States Navy, and Gideon Welles, Secretary of the
Navy during the Civil War. Other preparatory schools of note are the
Taft School in Watertown, Choate School in Wallingford, Hotchkiss in
Lakeville, Kent at Kent, Pomfret at Pomfret, and Avon Old Farms at
Avon. Among the nationally known girls' boarding schools are Miss
Porter's School at Farmington, the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury,

78 Connecticut : The General Background

the Westover School in Middlebury, and Rosemary Hall in Greenwich.
It was the original intention of the settlers to found a college in each
of the New England Colonies. To this end, in 1648, the General Court,
assembled in New Haven, gave power to a committee to choose a site
'most commodious for a college.' Massachusetts, however, objected that
' the whole population of New England was scarcely sufficient to support
one institution of this nature [Harvard], and the establishment of a
second would, in the end, be a sacrifice of both.' Thus the plans of John
Davenport of New Haven came to nothing, notwithstanding the fact
that in 1655 more than 540 had been subscribed for the new college.
Half a century later, under the leadership of the Reverend James Pier-
pont, ten clergymen met in the house of the Reverend Samuel Russell at
Branford and made the famous gift of books for ' the founding of a College
in this colony.' A month later, on October 16, 1701, the General Assem-
bly in New Haven passed 'An act for liberty to erect a Collegiate School '
where youth might ' be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and
Civil State.' The founders chose the Reverend Abraham Pierson of Kil-
lingworth (now Clinton) as rector and Saybrook as the site: During
Pierson 's lifetime the scholars met in Killingworth, and only after his
death in 1707 were classes held in Saybrook. From there the college was
moved in 1716 to its present situation in New Haven. At the commence-
ment exercises in 1718, the name of Yale was given to the new college, in
recognition of timely pecuniary assistance (in the sum of 562 125.) re-
ceived from Elihu Yale, a London capitalist of American birth, who had
amassed a large fortune as governor of the English trading post in Madras.
Yale's subsequent growth has been steady and at times startling. In
1846, its library was housed for the first time in a separate building, and
in the next year a course of advanced studies was instituted from which
the Graduate School developed. Yale was the first institution of higher
learning in America to grant, as it did in 1861, the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy; and in 1869, the Yale School of Fine Arts was founded, the
first of its kind in any such institution. Under the guidance of such out-
standing presidents as Ezra Stiles (1776-95), the two Timothy Dwights
(1795-1817, and 1886-99), Theodore Woolsey (1846-71), and Arthur
Twining Hadley (1899-1921), the college reached its second centenary
and became a university of eleven schools, with more than five thousand
students, nearly a thousand faculty members, and an endowment approxi-
mating one hundred million dollars. The depression found Yale in the
midst of the most extensive building program ever undertaken by any
university. One result of this extraordinary outburst of construction hah

Education 79

been to divide the undergraduate body into smaller colleges, nine in num-
ber, where the benefits of the Oxford-Cambridge system of education can
in some measure be obtained.

Other notable institutions of higher learning within the State include
Trinity College, established at Hartford in 1823, under the auspices of the
Episcopal Church; Wesleyan University, founded by Methodists in 1831
at Middle town; and Connecticut College for Women, opened in 1915 at
New London. The Hartford Theological School (Congregational) was
chartered in 1834. The Berkeley Divinity School (Episcopalian), now
situated in New Haven, was founded at Middle town in 1854.

One of the oldest agricultural schools in America was opened in 1845
by Dr. Samuel Gold and his son, T. G. Gold, at Cream Hill, Cornwall.
The State College was established at Mansfield in 1881 by Charles and
Augustus Storrs, who provided land, buildings, and an endowment fund.
It was also financed from the proceeds of the sale of government lands
allotted to Connecticut. First known as Storrs Agricultural College, it
was later called the Connecticut Agricultural College, and finally Connec-
ticut State College. Classified as a Federal Land Grant College, it offers
wide facilities for studies and practical work in agriculture and home
economics.

ARCHITECTURE

TODAY, the well-informed traveler is as much interested in the archi-
tecture of a country as he is in the manners and customs of its people.
For in essence one is a reflection of the other. Whether in Bali, Gizeh,
Niirnberg, Normandy, or our own Connecticut, the structures reared by
a people are the most public and often the most permanent expression of
its social life the translation of habits of life and modes of thought into
wood and stone.

Such of the early architecture of Connecticut as still remains is a fasci-
nating and partly open book to those who drive through the State's vil-
lages and along its country roads, and who know something of its history.
It is not alone churches and houses and barns that appear but the
drama of a frontier, of English-born people struggling with the soil and
with the rigid molds of their ancestors' standards, and gradually achieving
greater sophistication, freedom, graciousness, charm, and variety, while
at the same time manifesting a provincial yearning for cosmopolitanism.

This development is traceable more clearly, perhaps, in Windsor than
in any other Connecticut town. One of the very earliest domestic build-
ings in the State is the ell of the Fyler House in that town a little house
which in its primitive simplicity typifies the utter plainness of the first
permanent homes of the settlers. A more imposing example of the second
type developed can be seen in what remains of the old Deacon Moore
House, with its framed overhang, pendant drops, gable brackets, and
rare crossed summer beams within. This is representative of one of the
most persistent characteristics of all our early architecture, the harking
back to old precedents. The first colonists left England scarcely a quar-
ter century after the age of Elizabeth had passed, and they built Eliza-
bethan houses here. Yet it must be remembered that every house was a
compromise, a translation of Old World ideas into frontier terms. A new
stereotype arose, derived partly from English precedents and partly
from the need of building hastily with materials that were strange to the
builders a style quite distinct, and yet in some ways akin to the
Georgian. Parson William Russell's home on Broad Street Green may

Architecture 8 1

serve as the typical example, a large eighteenth-century house with cen-
tral chimney, capacious yet simple, with its own sparing type of orna-
mentation a really American product.

As prosperity brought greater financial ease and sufficient means for
expansion, many builders erected the central-hall type of house with a
chimney at each side. One of the earliest of this type is 'Elmwood,' which
David Ellsworth built in 1740. It is interesting to note that in a second
house built ten years later, Ellsworth reverted to the established form,
with central chimney, but with greater freedom in the employment of
decoration.

The loftier wing that Oliver Ellsworth added to his father's comfort-
able farmhouse reveals the lawyer who had become acquainted with
Georgian elegance and had brought back to his home town something of
an international experience. In 1807, the house built by Oliver for his son
Martin shows the freedom, and yet the outward austerity, of the new re-
publican era which was adapting and formalizing new elements, drawn
frankly now from Renaissance motifs, in wood. Its gable end to the street
is asymmetrical yet formal, self-conscious yet stately; but it breaks away
from the time-honored arrangement with a small square hall at the front,
inconspicuous stairs at the left, and a dignified drawing-room at the right.
The regularity of the orders on the exterior gives little indication of the
freedom of arrangement within. Precedents were being broken, giving
way to new tendencies which in time became formalized in new tradi-
tions, such as characterized the progress of the nineteenth century.

The same developments translated into the language of brick can be
followed at Windsor, notably in the Chaffee, Nathaniel Hayden, and
Halsey houses. Every town in Connecticut contains its own particular
version of this same history luxurious and expansive when it reflects
an early industrial and shipping prosperity, as in Norwich ; or plain and
bare, when the living was sparse and frugal, as in many of the hill towns.
Connecticut, on the whole, was handicapped by its stony, unproductive
fields, and could show little to compare with the relative luxury of Massa-
chusetts and Rhode Island. Here the struggle for existence spiritual
as well as economic produced a simple and sturdy indigenous mode of
building less influenced by foreign precedent than any other Colonial
architecture. Connecticut is pre-eminently the home, for example, of
the salt-box type of house, the most distinctively American of any of our
Colonial forms.

The very earliest abodes have, of course, not survived. They were
compromises with the crudest necessity, and were not expected to last.

82 Connecticut: The General Background

A pit was dug into a bank or elsewhere and lined with upright planks, or
with stone, to a height somewhat above the surface of the ground; then
it was covered with logs chinked with clay, or with poles upon which
bark or thatch was laid. Reproductions may be seen in the Pioneer Vil-
lage in Salem, Massachusetts, a permanent exhibit ; and one was construct-
ed in Waterbury for the Tercentenary of 1935. Such rude 'dug-outs'
have always been built under pressure by the soldiers at Valley Forge,
as sand and cyclone shelters on the western plains, and on the western
front in the Great War. In their early form, they were an expression, not
of some past tradition, but of the struggle with drastic necessity. Nor
were they, as might at first appear, wholly apart from the main current
of architectural development. The dug-out form of cellar was later
used in many houses; several homes in Chester and the charming Wood-
bridge Tavern (about 1750) in Old Mystic were designedly built into hill-
sides for warmth and protection.

An account of the erection, by John Talcott in 1636, of one of the earli-
est houses in Hartford shows that it followed the usual rule, said to be in-
variable in Rhode Island, that seventeenth-century houses were built
with their fronts to the south probably with a view to facing the sun
as much as possible. There were some exceptions: the Henry Whit-
field House (1640), an English manor house of stone in Guilford, faced
west, as did the Whitman House in Farmington; while the Comfort Starr
House in Guilford and the Williams House in Wethersfield faced east.
But, as a rule, especially in the outlying districts, the earliest houses
faced south, whatever the location of the road. This arrangement was
generally abandoned in the eighteenth century.

The Talcott House mentioned above is interesting from another point
of view. It represents two stages of construction. In the first stage, it was
simply a single large room with an end chimney, and perhaps with an
attic above. Not every house got beyond this stage, and presumably a
number of the earliest houses were of this simple plan. The early ell of
the Fyler House in Windsor illustrates this type of construction.

In the second stage another room was added on the other side of the
great chimney. Often a second story was added, making a tall narrow
house, two stories high, but one room deep, with the chimney occupying
most of the space between the two ground-floor rooms. The small hall,
or * porch' as it was called, in front of the chimney provided an entrance
to the rooms on either side, and allowed a cramped winding stair to the
apartment above. Cottages of this sort, but only one story in height, are
frequently found in all sections of New England and derive from all pe-

Architecture 83

riods. The popular home and garden magazines sentimentally term them
' Cape Cod cottages/ although the type reached perfection in certain parts
of Connecticut, as around Clinton. Examples of the early type in its two-
story proportions are excessively rare; the best is the Williams House
(1680) on Broad Street in Wethersfield.

With the third stage, architectural progress really begins. Even from
the earliest period 1635 to 1675 most houses now appear to have
had at some time a later addition at the rear. The latter was often a
necessity arising from the pressure of overcrowded families when the
elder son married. The family had then to give up part of the room in the
old house, or else go to the expense of building another, as the son would
naturally stay and work the farm which he was eventually to inherit.
An additional reason for enlarging the house in the early days w r as the
greater security provided in being all together. The addition was a
lean-to at the rear which had the appearance of an old-time salt-box, such
as commonly hung on the kitchen wall. This addition may often be re-
cognized by the fact that the lean-to rafters were spliced on at the upper
plate at the back, giving a broken but graceful curve to the long rear-
ward slope of the roof. It provided one long room, with two small rooms
at either end; the long room, or new kitchen, had access to the rear
side of the chimney. In some regions, such as Rocky Hill, many houses
were never finished in the second story, the children and servants being
obliged to make shift in one big unfinished room.

The salt-box addition, though by no means confined to Connecticut,
was more characteristic of this State than of its neighbors. Some of the
finest examples are in eastern Massachusetts, but on the whole it is a
Connecticut Valley feature, not ranging far east of that valley, but trace-
able in narrowing territory up its stream into the edges of New Hamp-
shire. A regional distribution such as this can be traced in other forms as
well. It has never been studied, and remains one of the adventures that
beckon the traveler.

Once developed, the salt-box became, in many localities, the prevail-
ing form of construction for a century. Houses began to be built in that
shape from preference, with what may be termed an integral lean-to, the
rafters running right through from roof- tree to plate. Most salt-boxes
that we see today have this uncompromising straight roof-line. The in-
tegral salt-box dates from approximately 1700 to about the time of the
Revolutionary War, when the provincial period was over; and it is typi-
cal of what may be called the fourth stage in the development of the Co-
lonial house.

84 Connecticut : The General Background

In the fifth stage, the logical next step came rapidly with growing ease
and independence the raising of the entire frame to create a two-story
house with four rooms in each story, and a broad peak or gable roof
above. This was done, for instance, with the General David Humphreys
House in Ansonia. It is the typical house of the eighteenth century, still
built around a broad central chimney, with cramped stair and 'porch'
between the chimney and the front door. The Elisha Williams House
(1716) at Rocky Hill is among the earliest and best of those built com-
plete at one time. One- or two-story ells were added at will, or perhaps a
small lean-to as in the Trumbull House (1740) at Lebanon. Most of
the ' Colonial' houses in Connecticut villages are of this form, which was
followed throughout the eighteenth century and even later.

There was little more that increasing prosperity could do in the matter
of style and arrangement, except what may be taken as the last of the
stereotyped styles the sixth stage. In this, for additional warmth and
convenience, the house was built around two chimneys, one between the
front and backrooms on each sideband the hall ran straight through
the house. Perhaps the earliest example of this style is Oliver Ellsworth's
house, 'Elmwood, 7 built by his father, David Ellsworth, in 1740. The
hesitation in adopting the central hall, with its added graciousness, is
amusingly illustrated by the way the stairs in this house are hidden away
in a recess. This was a local peculiarity, as was in other localities the
' central hall ' that did not continue all the way back through the house.
Stereotyped forms of building were, like the characters of their builders,
rather unyielding in the old days.

From this time on, progress was in the general direction of greater
freedom in design and embellishment, and Colonial architecture was no
longer a direct and frank expression of the character and struggles of the
builders. When a medium is too easily mastered, when it becomes simply
the expression of individual taste, when mere facility supplants creative
effort, decadence sets in.

But it must not be thought that because these stereotyped forms
changed with difficulty they were the only forms the architectural lan-
guage permitted. From the very beginning there were exceptions, due
to the fact that aristocratic elements had come over with the English
settlers, elements that were to become alien in our essentially democratic
body politic, but which were predominant for a while because of their
greater cultural and social prominence. Such exceptions are the manor
houses of Haynes (built before 1646) and Wyllys (1636) in Hartford, and
the 'grate houses' of Eaton and Davenport and Allerton in New Haven.

Architecture 85

These houses were built around a central court, or in the form of a cross
or an ell; and Eaton's house had twenty-one rooms, with furnishings
comparable to those of a manor house in England. Representing as they
did a temporary phase of aristocratic leadership in a new country, rather
than the permanent democratic organization of our society, it was nat-
ural that these houses should have been the least permanent type in early
American architecture, a type of which scarcely a survivor remains.

In the Connecticut Colony, around Hartford, the adherence to the
' framed overhang' of Elizabethan England was most pronounced. In a
house with framed overhang, the second-story girts and walls of the front
are projected a short distance (commonly from eighteen to twenty-four
inches) beyond the ground-floor posts and walls, usually with a lesser
' overhang' at the sides, and none at all at the rear. The overhanging
second story is still found in Farmington and Windsor, with steep gables,
brackets, and carved pendants or drops reminiscent of English homes.
The type seems to have been characteristic only of the northern colony,
and of the earliest period. Six examples are all that remain today, the
best preserved specimen being the Whitman House (about 1660) at
Farmington. It is often repeated that the overhang was designed for de-
fense against the Indians, but both its geographical and its period limita-
tions indicate that it is an Elizabethan feature instead.

A Kentish and Sussex type of hewn overhang, rare in England, became
the most prevalent type in New Haven, and in a modified form was
widely used throughout Connecticut. It consisted in carrying out the
ground-floor corner posts into brackets, upon which the second story
projected a few inches. The same construction was frequently followed
in the gable ends whence the name 'gable overhang.' A house over-
hanging on both the second and third stories is said to have a double over-
hang; this modified type appeared until well after 1800.

Structurally, the seventeenth-century house was often framed in the
manner of English half-timber work of various types, but was covered
with clapboards or shingles. The roof, modeled on English lines and cov-
ered with either shingles or thatch, was pitched very steep to shed water.
As time went on, up to the middle of the nineteenth century, the roof be-
came progressively flatter. The earliest houses had the steepest roofs.
The gambrel roof, common in Rhode Island, is prevalent in the south-
eastern part and the Connecticut Valley, and in some western parts of
Connecticut. This type, of which the roof of Connecticut Hall (1752) on
the Yale campus is a notable example, was often adopted for brick houses.
No other roof is capable of such subtle grace and charm as the gambrel.

86 Connecticut : The General Background

Another type experimented with early in the eighteenth century was
the hip roof. At first, a single big chimney sticks up like a thumb in the
middle; later on, two chimneys flank a ridge-pole. This type is always an
interesting variation, but of awkward arrangement within.

Interior construction can be only briefly touched upon here, though it
is the interior upon which one must depend most in judging the age of a
house. In the seventeenth century, of course, construction was of the
most heavy and often primitive type. There was no attempt to disguise
the functional aspect, and little was added by way of interior embellish-
ment. Corner posts partly projected into the room, displaying a flare to-
ward the top to form a better support for the horizontal members which
were framed and pegged into them. Sometimes this flare grew evenly
from the base; sometimes it was carved out in 'knees.' Summer beams
and supporting joists carried the weight of floors above. These summer
beams were ordinarily parallel with the main line of the house; they were
beaded in the eastern towns, and chamfered in the Valley and western
parts of the State in which case the joists were likely to be beaded.
Chamfering or beveling reached its height in the accuracy and delicacy
of the 'lamb's tongue' scrolls and other 'stops' at the end of the bevel, in
the region around Guilford. In the earliest and crudest houses, the bevel
was irregular and sometimes ran into the side wall. The Deacon Moore
House (about 1660) in Windsor has the very unusual feature of cross-
summers, beautifully chamfered.

As the eighteenth century wore on, and especially as the trend in-
creased toward plastered and then papered walls, it became the tendency
to box in the posts and summers, and then to cover the frame entirely.
This, of course, often happened later to earlier work, as if its frankness of
construction were something to keep hidden. On the other hand, many
well-meaning amateurs uncover the ' beams ' of a ceiling in the mistaken
notion that the exposed frame was typical of all periods. The thin and
bare uncovered rafters of an early nineteenth-century house look even
more out of place than do the heavy corner posts and summers of two
centuries earlier clothed in a useless casing.

The misguided enthusiasm of a good many local historians is responsi-
ble for markers with seventeenth-century dates on houses whose light
construction betrays much later origin to anyone really acquainted with
early architecture. Seventeenth-century work, good or bad, is rare and
should always be treated with reverence. It was the most frank and fear-
less work of our ancestors.

The interior walls were practically always finished with wood in the

Architecture 87

earliest days. The boards used for this work were of two types beaded
and featheredge. They are found in a hard pine no longer grown on these
shores, in soft pine, whitewood, chestnut, or butternut. The earlier floors
were usually of oak; a few much later floors of maple are found in the
northwest section of the State. Paint, in the seventeenth century, was
unknown and unnecessary. There is no rarer or more beautiful sight than
a wall of unpainted featheredge (as in the Graves House in Madison),
which has softened and grown rich in patina through the years.

Featheredge is the board from which paneling developed. It always re-
mained in use in the hinder parts of the house. One edge of the board was
so beveled that it fitted like a tongue into the groove of the next board ;
at the top of the groove, a half-round or bead was inserted. This made
an interesting and varied wall surface, especially when the boards ran, as
they customarily did, horizontally on the two outer sides of the room and
vertically on the inner sides.

The typical ' raised panel ' or eighteenth-century paneling simply fitted
this edge into patterns. The first panels, appearing around 1690 to 1710,
were large and very regularly spaced. As time went on, the panel ar-
rangement of fireplace wall-ends was made more delicate and varied.
The study of eighteenth-century paneled fireplace walls is one of endless
fascination and variety, because with them artistic design entered home
building.

At the end of the eighteenth century, the beaded edge was elaborated
and the early bold contours of the paneling were flattened. Then the
raising of the panel dropped out entirely: it became a sunken instead of a
raised panel. In a general way, featheredge was characteristic of the
seventeenth century, raised panels of the eighteenth, and sunken panels
of the nineteenth. The Greek Revival period, though it had its new
graces of dignity and proportion, simplified doors and panels into a new
and self-conscious severity, and finally paneling went out of fashion.

Windows were a necessity, as well as a luxury and a point of embellish-
ment. In the seventeenth century, they were always of the casement
variety brought from England, with diamond-shaped panes set in lead.
They were characteristically narrow, and high under the eaves or girts,
with plain frames projecting from the house. They were sometimes ir-
regularly spaced, and set where convenient. An original casement is
occasionally found in some inside partition or tucked away in an attic
as in the Lee House at East Lyme and the Fiske-Wildman House at
Guilford. The typical eighteenth-century window was at first of six,
eight, nine, and finally of twelve panes of six- by eight-inch glass. These

88 Connecticut: The General Background

were held in muntins seven-eighths of an inch or more wide. Later these
muntins were narrowed, and the panes of glass used were larger. Even
the average * restored ' house of the eighteenth century usually has nine-
teenth-century windows. These can be identified because their muntins,
or subdivisions, are deep and narrow rather than wide and flat.

Paint was an innovation of the eighteenth century. The earliest color
known was an earthy ' Indian red. ' Then a gray-green in varying shades
began to be used, and later on a widening variety. Today we seldom have
any idea of how colorful and cheerful an eighteenth-century house was.
The colors were bright and frank and lively a ' break-away ' from the
rich gloom of aging unpainted panels. White was probably not much
used in this country before 1800. The outer walls, when painted at all,
were red or yellow or gray. Toward the end of the century, imported
wall papers came into use; the earliest known in New England is the
paper put on the side hall of the magnificent Lee Mansion at Marble-
head in 1768.

One feature of our architectural inheritance that is not sufficiently ap-
preciated is the contribution to town planning made by the Connecticut
'village Green.' While by no means confined to this State, it was here,
as nowhere else, almost the rule in small villages as well as large. Cows
were at one time given pasturage on the ' Commons ' or * Green ' belonging
to the whole community. The church, the school, and the principal homes
of the colonists, the stocks, the pound, and later the general store were
clustered about it. Many of these old Greens still exist today, practically
untouched as in Wolcott, Windham, and Woodstock, for example.
Where there was not a Green, there was a broad and definitely recognized
'four corners.'

As a general rule, it was the community centralized most definitely
around a Green that developed the strongest communal life. New
Haven Green, with its four churches, its college, and its municipal build-
ings, is the perfect example of one that has developed into a civic center,
from which radiate in orderly progression the main streets of the town.
The debt that modern city planning owes to the foresight of earlier genera-
tions in this respect is one that will be appreciated more and more as time
goes by.

Outstanding in the early community was the one public building as
important to the inhabitants as their own homes the church. This

CONNECTICUT S ARCHI
TECTURAL HERITAGE

NO EXAMPLE of the one-room, end-chimney house, which
was the earliest sort of permanent dwelling of the colonists,
now remains unaltered, but several have been incorporated
into buildings of later types. Such a one is the Hempstead
House at New London.

The second type consisted of two rooms, both upstairs and
down, with a central chimney. The Older Williams House,
Wethersfield (1680), is an example. A third type has the
added lean-to across the back, as in the Acadian House in
Guilford (c. 1670). From this developed the 'salt-box' which
is particularly characteristic of Connecticut. The Stone
House in Guilford, though one end of it is probably the earliest
construction in the State, is a direct descendant of the English
manor house, a type that was never a frequent visitor to our
shores.

In various communities, different methods of building re-
flected the parts of England from which the settlers came.
Around Hartford, the framed overhang with pendant drops
was a survival of mediaeval England. The hewn overhang was
more common farther south. The Whitman House (c. 1660),
Farmington, and the Hollister House (1675), Glastonbury,
illustrate these variations.

In the eighteenth century, public buildings began to assume a
greater importance. They form a closer link than houses do
with the contemporary architecture of England. The churches
are a chief part of Connecticut's architectural heritage,
and none among them has more of its original atmosphere
than old Trinity Church in Brooklyn (1771). At the end of
the century, gentlemen architects had begun to make a pro-
fession of what had previously been left to master builders.
The first to achieve a name in New England was Charles
Bulfinch of Boston, designer of the old State House in Hart-
ford (1796), as well as of the State House of Massachusetts.
In the nineteenth century, a wider range of architectural
forms were adapted to American use, among them the Gothic.
The old building of Linonian and Brothers Library at Yale
(1846), now remodeled for use as a chapel, was designed by
Henry Austin. In contrast with it is the modern Gothic of
the Harkness Quadrangle, one of the most ambitious Gothic
buildings in America.

WHITFIELD STONE HOUSE, GUILFORD

JUDGMENT ROOM, THOMAS LEE HOUSE, EAST LYME

ACADIAN HOUSE, GUILFORD

OLDER WILLIAMS HOUSE, WETHE.RSFIELD

' " i*

LYONS HOUSE, GREENWICH

GRAVE HOUSE, MADISON

FRAMED OVERHANG, WHITMAN HOUSE, FARMINGTON

HEWN OVERHANG, HOLLISTER HOUSE, GLASTONBURY

I
INTERIOR, TRINITY CHURCH, BROOKLYN

INTERIOR, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, OLD STATE HOUSE

GAMBREL ROOFS, PLAINFIELD

CROSBY TAVERN, THOMPSON

afe^MMic..

INTERIOR OF DWIGHT CHAPEL, YALE UNIVERSITY

LINONIA COURT, YALE UNIVERSITY

Architecture 89

was the center of social as well as of religious life. Although often not
erected until several years after a settlement had been founded, it was
the first public building, and the most important. The colonist made no
separation of Sundays and weekdays, of church and home. But the
church, once erected, did symbolize to him the one influence to which his
independence bowed.

The first church edifices were seldom more than large houses in appear-
ance. The earliest now standing in Connecticut, the disused meeting-
house of the Long Society of Preston (1726), still looks like a dwelling
house temporarily closed, though it does stand a bit incongruously among
gravestones. It was largely renovated in 1819, but the interior is
essentially that of an eighteenth-century meeting-house, with its entrance
in the middle of one long side, a high pulpit opposite, and box pews
around the sides and filling the central floor. The earliest churches after
this one Salem Town Hall (1749), Abington (1753), and Hampton
(1754) have been so modernized as to have little antiquarian value.
The brick Congregational Church (1761) of Wethersfield is still a noble
structure, reminding one of the old brick churches of Holland, and
preserving not only a rarely beautiful spire but the general outlines of its
period. Then follow three which were built in 1771 and which remain
the best examples we have of the eighteenth century the Congrega-
tional Church of Farmington, and the two old churches in Brooklyn.
The Farmington church, except for a later portico, is essentially un-
changed; as is Trinity, the towerless little Episcopal church in the grove
at Brooklyn. The Congregational Church at Brooklyn, now a community
center, has a handsome exterior, but there is little of interest within.
The old Stone Church (1774) of East Haven is another of which the same
can be said.

The tower, an embellishment attempted only by the State church, the
Congregational, was always offset during this period. It stood at one
end, practically a separate structure, and contained a subordinate portico,
repeated perhaps, but without the steeple, at the other end. With the
arrival of the classic influence about the turn of the century, the tower
began to be drawn into the nave (as in Bloomfield and Canterbury, each
1804), and finally was centered directly over the front facade of the main
building. Then a projecting portico, smaller than the facade, was often
built out in front, enclosing the tower and protruding beyond it. The
lines of the lower portico pediment repeat those of the front gable. The
two Congregational churches on the Green in New Haven exemplify
this. At the same time, the open and rather stiff tower of the earlier

Connecticut : The General Background

period began to come under the influence of English design. The books
of James Gibb and Sir Christopher Wren had come over (Peter Harrison,
who died in New Haven, left a considerable architectural library).
Towers now began to have octagonal as well as square stages, and to be
given a degree of embellishment never before seen in New England.
The golden age of church architecture here came not in the strictly
'Colonial' period, but in the years from 1810 to 1825. In this short
period most of the churches were built to which the traveler turns with
keenest interest. And in this connection, it is of note that the churches
of theocratic Connecticut surpass those of any other New England State.

Ithiel Town had designed Center Church (1812-14) at New Haven
largely from English plans. It is generally conceded to be drawn to some
extent from St. Martin's in the Fields, which again was influenced largely
by Wren's fifty-three London churches. Like most English-derived
churches, it combined an imposingly classical front and a handsome well-
organized interior with very weakly designed sides and rear end. The
United Church (1813-15) to the north of it, by David Hoadley, was more
American in conception, in fact a more consistent whole, with a more
graceful and spontaneous tower, but with a poor interior. Hoadley soon
became the popular church architect of Connecticut, and the most
potent influence of the period. Killing worth (1817), the two churches in
Avon (1817, 1818), the two churches in Woodbury (1814, 1819), and the
First Church of Milford (1823) all followed his style; and Avon and Mil-
ford were actually built by him. The First Church in Milford was taken
as the perfect flower of the period (as in many ways it is), and was copied
directly in Cheshire (1826), Southington (1828), and Litchfield (1829).
Very slight differences in detail can be noticed, each version being refined
to the last degree. The Litchfield structure, which was once used as a
motion-picture theater, may well be taken as the ultimate and most
worked-over masterpiece among our churches.

At first Roman and then earlier Greek elements began to hold sway,
and to be copied with more and more scholarly accuracy. Two of the
outstanding pure 'classical revival' churches remaining are Cornwall
(1841) and the Baptist church (1841), now converted to Catholicism,
in Old Lyme. But after a pedantic period, more and more freedom set
in a 'renaissance,' when classical forms were easily adapted in any
way that the imagination of the day might dictate. A counter impulse
came in when the Episcopal churches, conscious of their own Gothic
tradition, sought to adhere to that tradition. Trinity Church (1814-15),
on the New Haven Green, by Ithiel Town (perhaps assisted by Hoadley),

Architecture 91

was the earliest example of Gothic in Connecticut. Straightforward,
but still obviously an immigrant, the style is far more convincing within
than without. Lancet windows began to appear even in wooden buildings.
The Gothic influence can be traced in St. Peter's (1825) at Hebron, in
Kent (1826), in Riverton (1829), and in that little gem at Barkhamsted
Hollow (1816) which the Episcopalians shared with the Universalists,
and which now seems doomed to destruction by a water development.
A last flare of the Gothic spirit even invades the classical in the eclectic
tower of Bristol (1832). Both styles were to draw apart again, and after
a period of disuse to come to real fruition in a later day.

Ill

With the dawn of the nineteenth century, industry and trade were
thriving, and consequently houses tended to become larger and better
appointed. By 1820, for instance, the story-and-a-half cottage that had
been the typical home in many communities began to disappear, and
another type was taking its place the two-and-a-half -story house, with
a gable end to the road and a doorway in one corner. Among the wealthier
classes, the central-chimney house with the stairs in a tiny square hall
in front of the chimney was giving way to the central-hall type with a long
flight of stairs and two chimneys. The new measure of ease and refine-
ment found expression in a new delicacy of detail. 'Architecture,' based
now on definite Georgian precedents in England, and detail, influenced
by the over-delicate classic refinements of the Adam brothers, were now
the vogue.

During the early part of the nineteenth century, the professionally
trained architect became an established figure, and greatly influenced the
trend of building activity by the creation of such outstanding major build-
ings as the Old State House (1796) at Hartford, by Charles Bulfinch; Cen-
ter Church (1812-14), New Haven, by Ithiel Town; and the North Church
(1814-15) on New Haven Green, by David Hoadley. The work of these
men had its influence on many of the churches and houses built through-
out the State. 'Architecture ' had become established as such, and build-
ings were being 'designed' rather than developed from their immediate
environment under the competent hands of country craftsmen. Though
the work of the early nineteenth-century architects had gained over that
of the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries in the matter of studied
design and the scale and elegance of detail, a certain sophistication had

92 Connecticut: The General Background

taken the place of the naivete that charms one in the work of the earlier
builders.

That the outstanding excellence of early nineteenth-century architec-
ture was not logically carried on to the evolution of a distinctive type of
American architecture is one of the calamities in American cultural
development. The cause of the decline in architectural taste is a matter
that is open to debate. But a decline there was, which continued through
several decades, reaching its lowest level in the orgy of jigsawed and
turned woodwork of the sixties and seventies.

This decline, however, was gradual, for a style that made its appearance
about 1820 and was prominent until about 1850 had possibilities of being
a continuation of the architectural development so well begun. Known
as the * Greek Revival,' it drew its inspiration from the architecture of
classical antiquity. Its first manifestations were in the form of minor
details of Greek ornament used in buildings that, in mass and general
scale and detail, were purely Colonial i.e., in the tradition that was
current before the Revolution. An interesting example of its beginnings
is the Congregational Church at Guilford, built in 1829, a building which
in mass is traditional Colonial but which bears an imaginative adaptation
of the i Greek fret' ornament around the entrance doors and some Greek
decoration at the corners of one of the stages of the steeple.

As the movement progressed, the buildings and their details became
heavier and larger, and the refined delicacy that had characterized the
preceding Federal period largely disappeared. Moldings, columns, and
ornamental details were copied directly from Greek examples until,
when the period had reached its height, public buildings and even resi-
dences assumed the form of colonnaded Greek temples. In most cases,
however, the general plan and mass of the houses still retained their
earlier character, and the Greek influence was felt more in the type of
molding or the incorporation of a two-column entrance porch in the
Greek manner. So popular was this vogue that many owners of eight-
eenth-century houses had the old entrance motives replaced by new ones
of Greek design, thereby often injuring the original character of the house.
Outstanding examples of the Greek Revival in Connecticut are the row
of high colonnaded houses on Huntington Street in New London; the
Congregational Church (1838) at Madison; Plymouth Church (1834) at
Milford; the Westville Congregational Church (1838) at New Haven;
the Second Congregational Church at Derby; and a small house on the
north side of Route 80 in North Branford. While this style resulted in
many buildings of a certain architectural significance, it cannot be said

Architecture 93

to have been a progressive improvement on the character of the earlier
Colonial. It did not as truly express the functional requirements of
contemporary life, but was rather an affected adaptation of an architec-
ture that had reached its highest development in an entirely different
climate and civilization. It was not spontaneous it did not arise
directly out of human needs; and it left a weakened architectural impulse
that fell prey to the importation of one foreign ' influence ' after another.

One of the most interesting, yet also the most artificial and most
neglected today, of those importations was nineteenth -century Gothicism.
In Victorian England, the Georgian style had had its day; and English-
men, influenced by the writings of Ruskin, were trying to recapture the
spirit and splendor of their natural heritage, the Gothic of the Middle
Ages. As the Connecticut colonists had translated the stone forms of the
English Georgian into Yankee pine, so again Americans tried to adapt
Gothic forms to wood. The development of woodworking machinery,
particularly the bandsaw and jigsaw, made it an easy matter to torture
wooden boards into uncouth shapes. Throughout the land there sprang up
city halls, churches, and houses in the 'Gothic' manner. Houses were
built with high peaked gables ornamented with an elaborate system of
crockets, cusps, pointed arches, and balustrades all sawed from inch-
thick boards. The sum total was failure. The bandsaw could not translate
Gothic into wood. Here and there, however, arose a building whose real
picturesqueness of mass induced a feeling of repose and at the same time
a certain sense of gaiety. Perhaps the best example of this sort in the
State is the Archer Wheeler House, on Golden Hill Street, in Bridgeport.

The outstanding building of this period in Connecticut, and perhaps
in the country, is the State Capitol (1872) at Hartford, on its commanding
site in Bushnell Park. The composition of the main structure is well
studied, and forms, when viewed from a distance, a satisfying base for
the high gilded dome. The ornament and decoration, however, are mere-
tricious and meaningless, and miss the true character of Gothic enrich-
ment.

The old Library (1842) on the Yale Campus is a better example of
Gothic design. It copies faithfully, and with some relation to material
and purpose, an English church in the fifteenth century or 'Perpendicular '
style; and though its turrets and finials are excrescences little adapted to
our weather, it is a rare and impressive little building. One cannot but be'
glad that it has lately been transformed into an ecclesiastical edifice,
so that the full beauty of its interior proportions can be admired.

As American architects began to study abroad, other imported in-

94 Connecticut : The General Background

fluences were felt for example, the brownstone Romanesque, popular-
ized by Richardson (as in the Public Library and railroad station at New
London); and the classical renaissance of Italy, so often adopted by
McKim (as in the unusual railroad station in \Vaterbury, with its tower
copied from Siena). But these were impulses that usually died with
the architect who imported them. As increasingly large sums have been
made available for public buildings, architecture has become more and
more eclectic and international. Connecticut has had rather more than
its share of conspicuous examples of this later trend. Mention can be
made only of the newer buildings at Yale, in a freely translated English
university Gothic; the incomparable Gothic chapel at Trinity College;
and the highly original transcriptions of all the heavy and primitive
styles, in the scattered quadrangles of Avon Old Farms, combined in one
harmonious whole.

Questions may well be raised as to the future of any American ' style,'
based on so many elements. And yet it has become increasingly evident
that an indigenous 'Colonial' tradition survives through it all, particu-
larly with reference to domestic architecture. It is with the hope of help-
ing to establish true standards for the appreciation today of its earliest
forms that the houses noted in this Guide have been pointed out.

NOTES ON CONNECTICUT

ART

IF CONNECTICUT'S contribution to the fine arts is less substantial
than those of some other northern States, the ultimate reason is to be
found in the absence of a conspicuously good harbor along her coast, and
the consequent absence of a great metropolis wherein collectors might
gather and toward which artists would naturally gravitate. Even with
her comparative disadvantages, however, the State has given the world
some honorable names and much excellent work.

For the first century and a half the settlers were too busy wresting a
living from the soil to think much of the fine arts. During the eighteenth
century the usual itinerant portrait painters began to make their journeys
to and fro, and left their anonymous works to posterity, stilted and prim-
itive, yet none without a certain naif charm. As a counterpart to these,
wall decorators occasionally blossomed forth in an overmantel landscape
or figure piece, or perhaps inserted a small mural medallion in an over-all
wall decoration. As interest in old houses increases, more and more of
these little murals are being uncovered, and tradition frequently associates
them with Hessian soldiers. Their primitive, out-of-scale draftsmanship
often serves as an advantage rather than a drawback, and the farm-house
renovator who finds one beneath several layers of shabby wall paper
counts himself fortunate.

The first name of any distinction to be connected with Connecticut
is that of Ralph Earl. Though born in Massachusetts, in 1751, he painted
most of his portraits in Connecticut, and died there in 1801. Earl might
be described as a kind of countrified Copley. He preferred full-length
figures on large canvases; his ambition outran his proficiency, but his
designs are strong and his figures full of character. Occasionally one finds
a child in a portrait group that recalls the whimsical primitiveness which
a far-distant and far greater contemporary, Goya, chose to use in his
portraits of children.

During the Revolutionary War a disgruntled young ex-officer in the
American army lived in London and made copies of old masters in the

96 Connecticut : The General Background

studio of Benjamin West. This was John Trumbull, born in Lebanon,
Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest son of Jonathan Trumbull, governor
of the colony and subsequently of the State. John Trumbull also studied
in France, and upon his return to America, after the war was over, he had
become one of the most talented, as well as versatile, painters of his day.
As a portrait painter he was ranked second only to Stuart in his time, and
he produced a number of exquisite miniatures. He is seen at his best,
however, in the series of small studies for the rotunda in the Capitol at
Washington. These eight little canvases, now in the Yale Gallery of
Fine Arts, comprising chiefly battle scenes, are full of life, light, and
drama, and survive as one of the major treasures of early Republican art.
The four full-size panels which he was commissioned to do for the Capitol
are less successful; when painting on a large scale Trumbull was appar-
ently affected by a desire for grandiosity, and it is probable that he was
further hampered by defective eyesight.

Another portraitist of great ability was Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-
1872), associated with Connecticut by his years of study at Yale and the
large number of portraits he executed within the State. Morse was well
trained in France and England, and his best canvases leave little to be
desired. He had simplicity without emptiness, dexterity without virtu-
osity, style without mannerism, and the characters of his subjects fairly
leap from the canvas. When, during the middle forties, he sickened of the
smallness of his rewards and turned to electrical experimentation, applied
science took a great step forward, but American painting suffered an
irreparable loss.

A New Haven painter, Nathaniel Jocelyn (1796-1881), in his early
years gave considerable promise. His customary rather somber blacks
and reds, and his decorative use of the puffed sleeves and fantastic coif-
fures of the period, make his earlier portraits a welcome ornament to
many a chimney-breast. As his years increased, however, slickness and
facility grew on him, and he ended in a rather insipid Victorianism. His
pupils, Samuel Lovett Waldo (1783-1861), and Thomas Pritchard
Rossiter (1818-71), became two of the most fashionable and successful
portrait painters of their time. Rossiter in general loved bright color;
his work is less tight and smooth than that of many of his contemporaries,
but often shows carelessness. Waldo was the better of the two: his work
lacked subtlety "and the indefinable last touch that means greatness, but
his canvases are often astonishingly good. His name is usually mentioned
in connection with that of his partner, William Jewett, who is supposed
to have painted in his backgrounds and draperies. With Waldo and

Notes on Connecticut Art 97

Jocelyn the classic school of Connecticut portraiture if the foregoing
group deserves such a name ceases, and in subsequent work the great
hand of Manet hovers behind almost every brush.

The Hudson River School had few repercussions in Connecticut, but
the State contributed one of the most prominent members of the group,
John Frederick Kensett, who was born in Cheshire in 1818. Kensett was
a leading landscape painter of his day; he had studied and traveled
widely in Europe, but he neither lived nor painted considerably in Con-
necticut. The same may be said of Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900)
of Hartford. Church belonged to the group of landscape painters includ-
ing Thomas Cole, his master, Bierstadt, and Moran, who went far afield
for their subjects and painted them large. They were the pictorial expo-
nents of ' manifest destiny,' and their vast canvases now mostly languish
in dark corners of art galleries, awaiting the revival of appreciation which
time will inevitably bring.

It remained for an obscure New Haven painter, George Henry Durrie
(1820-63), to emerge, after a long period of oblivion, as the first and best
interpreter of the Connecticut scene. Durrie was a pupil of Jocelyn and
his portraits resemble those of his master. His real field was landscape,
the hills and farms that he knew and loved. These he put on canvas with
a minuteness of detail probably inspired by Durand. In his best canvases
(his work is very uneven), and especially in his winter scenes, Durrie
was more than a recorder and became, in flashes, a poet very much
the sort of poet that wrote ' Snowbound.' One can fairly smell the wood
smoke in his frosty air, hear the creak of snow under the sledge runners,
the barking of distant dogs, and breathe the atmosphere of the old, snug,
cheery farm life of the early nineteenth century. Many of Durrie's paint-
ings were used as subjects for Currier and Ives prints, the most famous
of these being 'Home for Thanksgiving.' It is a pity that Durrie died in
early middle age, for in later life he might well have acquired, as did
Inness, the simplicity whose absence kept him from real greatness.

At this point one may digress to mention two engravers who stand at
the head of Connecticut's roster in this field. The first was Amos Doo-
little (1754-1832), who was born in Cheshire but lived in New Haven.
Unschooled as he was, he stands forth as the most interesting American
engraver of his time, and his four copper plates of 'The Battle of Lexing-
ton,' said to be made from designs by Ralph Earl, are highly prized by
collectors. So is his famous 'Display of the United States,' in which the
bust of Washington is surrounded by the coats of arms of the thirteen
States. John Warner Barber (1798-1885) of East Windsor conceived the

Connecticut : The General Background

idea of making a popular history which could also serve as a guidebook,
and illustrating it with copper plate engravings after drawings of his own.
In his horse and buggy he covered not only his own State, but almost the
entire country, and did more than any other man of his time to familiarize
Americans with the history and topography of their native land. His
engravings are simple to the verge of crudeness, but they are attractive
in their way.

The story of Connecticut sculpture began rather early, in the person of
Hezekiah Augur of New Haven (1791-1858). He was the son of a carpen-
ter, and in early life learned to carve in wood. Not content with chair-legs
and similar hack-work, which he did very acceptably, he turned to
marble, and without instruction or model produced a head of Apollo,
using a carving machine designed by Samuel F. B. Morse. His great work,
'Jephthah and his Daughter,' still displayed in the Yale Art School, is
sentimental and unsculptural, yet it is done with an irresistible gusto and
stands as a not unworthy monument to a man who persisted in aiming
high. Washington Allston paid this work the somewhat ambiguous com-
pliment of walking around it for half an hour without uttering a word.

Olin Levi Warner (1844-90) of Suffield, an artist noted for the vigor
and sensitiveness of his modeling, produced the statue of Governor
Buckingham in the Capitol at Hartford and that of William Lloyd
Garrison in Boston. George Edwin Bissell (1839-1920), born in New
Preston, took up sculpture when over thirty, and after some years of
study in Europe created a number of portrait figures and memorials not
only in his own State but in many others.

More distinguished than these was Paul Wayland Bartlett (1865-1925),
Born in New Haven but educated in France, he first exhibited in the
Salon at the age of 14. The greatest of his many works is the equestrian
statue of Lafayette which stands in the Court of the Louvre; a replica is
in Capitol Park in Hartford. He is also represented in the Library of
Congress, the National Capitol, and the pediment of the New York Stock
Exchange. His contemporary, Bela Lyon Pratt (1867-1917), born in
Norwich, studied at the Yale Art School, and under Saint-Gaudens, Cox,
and Chase in New York. His work is characterized by simplicity and a
deep but restrained feeling. [He is represented by figures outside the
Public Library in Boston, also in the Public Gardens and the State
House, as well as by several important memorials scattered through the
eastern States, but probably his most appealing works are the ' Spanish
War Soldier' at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and his
'Nathan Hale' on the Yale Campus.

Notes on Connecticut Art 99

Among contemporary sculptors of note living in the State are Robert
G. Eberhard, Professor of Sculpture in the Yale School of Fine Arts,
Evelyn Longman Batchelder of Windsor, Henry Kreis of Essex, Heinz
Warneke of East Haddam, Karl Lang of Noroton, Lewis Gudebrod of
Meriden, and A. Phimister Proctor of Wilton.

The majority of the artists heretofore mentioned were natives of Con-
necticut who went forth to work and to make names for themselves
elsewhere. In the latter years of the nineteenth century this process was
largely reversed, and we find artists who had already won their spurs in
other parts settling in Connecticut, either singly or in groups, because it
was a delightful place to live and to paint and is not far from New York.

Among the first of those who became Connecticut artists by adoption
were the two sons of the Hudson River artist, Robert W. Weir. The
elder, John Ferguson Weir (1841-1926), after studying in New York and
Europe and painting * The Forging of the Shaft,' now in the Metropolitan
Museum, was in 1869 appointed dean of the recently created School of
Fine Arts at Yale, a position he filled until 1913. His reputation as a
painter, though overshadowed by that of his brother, is nevertheless high,
and his later canvases, thoroughly impressionistic, have much of the
light and air and color usually associated with Monet. J. Alden Weir
(1852-1919) owned farms in Windham and Branchville. A student of
Bastien-Lepage, he started out in the classical manner of nineteenth-
century French painting, but became increasingly impressionistic, or
'luministic.' His figure pieces, exceedingly restrained in color and low in
value, have a certain fine feeling and nobility which win more praise from
artists than from laymen, but his later landscape work is more airy and
probably more widely appreciated.

Late in the nineteenth century artists began to assemble in small
groups for summer residence in various favorable spots, and the era of
the 'art colony' began. The oldest was at Mystic, associated with the
names of Charles Harold Davis (1856-1933) and Henry Ranger (1858-
1916). Ranger was a popular landscapist during his lifetime, but his
work is now rated far below its true merit. Davis, who moved to Mystic
in 1890, devoted himself to the Connecticut scene more exclusively than
any other painter except George Durrie. It is interesting to compare
their styles, the one tight and realistic, the other full of light and air.

Prominent among the group at Old Lyme were Carleton Wiggins and

ioo Connecticut: The General Background

Eugene Higgins, who might not inappropriately be called the last of the
Romantics. Childe Hassam was also an intermittent resident at this
place. Similar aggregations of more recent origin have sprung up at
Kent, Westport, and Silvermine (in the town of Norwalk). All of these
hold annual exhibitions, in some cases in galleries built and operated by
the associated artists. These centers and other villages have attracted
to the State many of the most prominent artists of the present day, a full
list of which would be too long to include, and a partial list would involve
invidious distinctions.

Hartford, the second center of population in the State, has produced a
group of artists sometimes referred to as 'The Hartford School.' Two of
the first to attain national reputations were William Gedney Bunce
(1840-1916) and Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925). Both left the
State early in their careers, Bunce spending most of his time in Venice,
painting his highly subjective and beautifully colored sea-scapes. Tryon
did most of his painting near New Bedford. His work, like that of Ranger,
Davis, and others among his contemporaries, stands less high at present
than during his lifetime, but his accomplishment was genuine, and recog-
nition of it will not die out. Late in the century there was a good deal of
artistic activity in Hartford which centered around Charles Noel Flagg
and his Connecticut League of Art Students. Flagg came of a family of
artists whose members included Washington Allston, George Whiting
Flagg, Jared Flagg, and Montague Flagg; he was a friend of Tryon, with
whom he had studied abroad, and his League was run somewhat in
imitation of the Paris atelier. Among the most prominent of his pupils
were the sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett, James Britton, Louis Orr the
etcher, Milton Avery, Albertus Jones, and James Goodwin McManus,
the last four of whom are still doing admirable work in their various
fields.

The State is fairly rich in public collections. The oldest is the Yale
Gallery of Fine Arts, which started in 1831 with the purchase by the
University of all John TrumbulPs works that still remained in his pos-
session. This constituted the first art gallery to be incorporated in an
American university. The most important subsequent accretion was the
purchase of an extraordinary group of 119 Italian primitive paintings
from John Jackson Jarvis in the seventies. The Wadsworth Atheneum
in Hartford, founded in 1844, with the subsequent additions of the Mor-
gan Memorial (1910) and the Avery Memorial (1934), forms an important
and rapidly increasing collection. In New London is the Lyman Allen
Museum and in Norwich the Slater Memorial Museum, the latter per-
haps unique in being incorporated with a public school.

Notes on Connecticut Art 101

Descriptions of these collections occur elsewhere in this volume. At
this point it may be relevant to remark that most of them pay but little
attention to the work of the artists who were born or flourished in their
vicinity. Botticelli's best works are in Florence, Rembrandt's in Holland,
Watteau's in Paris, Hogarth's in London, but one may look in vain for
Rangers and Davises and Hassams in Norwich or New London, or for
Kensetts and Tryons in Hartford. In some cases, indeed, the idea seems
to be to make a special effort to concentrate on foreign work. There is in
Hartford a small but articulate group of enthusiasts who are ardently
interested in contemporary European artists, and have given a fine
showing to such members of the post-Picasso group as Tchelitchev,
Berman, and Tonny. The best collections of Connecticut furniture, glass,
silver, and textiles are to be found in Hartford and New Haven.

The various historical societies also contain many important works
of art, and here more attention is paid to local talent. Chief among these
societies in size and scope are the New Haven Colony Historical Society,
the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, and the Mattatuck
Historical Society in Waterbury, but many of the smaller ones also
possess works of interest and beauty. Among these, with no discrimina-
tion against many others, may be mentioned the Winchester Historical
Society at Winsted, which, housed in one of the loveliest of early nine-
teenth-century dwellings, contains a remarkably fine group of primitive
portraits.

All the four museums mentioned above foster educational work, either
as part of their activities or through organizations closely connected with
them. The Yale School of Fine Arts, founded in 1866, is the chief of these,
as it is the oldest. It has always been one of the leading art schools in
the country, but was particularly successful as a school of painting under
the guidance of Professor Edwin Cassius Taylor from 1923 till 1935. In
Hartford, the Hartford Art School, run in connection with the Avery
Memorial, has largely supplanted the older Connecticut League of Art
Students, and is conducted on rather modern principles. The Slater
Memorial conducts classes in connection with the Norwich Free Academy,
and the Lyman Allen Museum in connection with the adjacent Connecti-
cut College for Women.

An interesting development of recent years has been the employment
of artists by the Federal Government under the CWA, FERA, and WPA.
By virtue of this, many public institutions have been enriched by works
in all mediums by Connecticut artists, and the existence of the fine arts
has been brought home to a public previously all too little aware of it.

IO2 Connecticut: The General Background

There are numerous murals from this source in the schools and other
public buildings of Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield County, with
a thinner scattering in other parts of the State. Among the best, are
decorations by James Daugherty in the Greenwich Town Hall, the
Stamford High School, and the Holmes School in Darien, and those by
John Steuart Curry in the Norwalk High School. One cannot bear to
leave this subject without mentioning also two fresco panels, ' Comedy '
and * Tragedy,' in the Bedford Junior High School in Westport, which
Curry was enabled to execute by private subscription in 1934. These
are a far cry from Trumbull and Morse, but if anyone needs to be con-
vinced that art is not yet dead in the State, let him look at them!

LITERATURE

EARLY Connecticut literature has been aptly described as a 'distin-
guished blank.' The rigors of survival against hostile Indians and hard
winters made the settlers an essentially practical people. Although the
New England colonists were of a superior intellectual class, including at
one time an Oxford graduate for every 250 persons, daily bread and the
salvation of the soul were of first importance. Men whose vigorous in-
tellects might have produced significant literature devoted their energies
to the struggle against political oppression and the fear of eternal dam-
nation.

The colonists were militant separatists who felt called upon to justify
before the world their self-imposed exile. Their ministerial leaders rose
ably to the occasion with consummate theological arguments, and in
their weekly sermons provided the chief intellectual and literary advan-
tages accessible to the frontiersmen. The discourses and numerous pub-
lished tracts of Thomas Hooker, John Davenport, and Henry Whitfield
of Connecticut were eagerly read, and played a significant part in guiding
public opinion.

In the pioneer days when books were luxuries, almanacs with their
varied collections of astronomical data, schedules of court decisions,
mileage between taverns, dates of local storms, and interesting predic-
tions, became a household institution. The first almanac with a Con-
necticut imprint was dated 1709 and written by Daniel Travis. As
Thomas Short, the first printer in New London, established his printing
press in the spring of 1709, it is probable that this almanac was printed
at the ' Sign of the Bible,' Cornhill, Boston. Short's press in New London
was the first in Connecticut, and, later sold to Timothy Green, remained
the only one for forty-five years. In 1716, Green sold in New London
an almanac calculated for the meridian of Boston, written by Daniel
Travis and printed by Bartholomew Green of Boston.

The first almanac by a Connecticut author printed in Connecticut, as
well as the earliest known to have been printed in the Colony, was
Joseph Moss's 'An Almanack ... to the Meridian of Yale/ printed by
G. Saltonstall and sold by Timothy Green. In 1753, Roger Sherman, a
signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote an 'Astronomical

IO4 Connecticut: The General Background

Diary,' published by Timothy Green. Many of the early Connecticut
almanacs were reprints of Boston's famous 'Ames Almanack,' which was
first locally reprinted at New Haven in 1756. In 1761, a Yale ' College
Almanak ' was written ' By a Student.'

The * Connecticut Almanack ' was first compiled by Clark Elliot, pub-
lished in New London in 1767, and purchased in 1778 by Nehemiah
Strong of Hartford, one of the most prominent of Connecticut almanac
authors, whose initial 'Watson's Register' first appeared in 1775. Best
known, and celebrated for its almost continuous publication from 1772
to the present day is ' DabolPs Almanac,' first printed by Nathaniel Daboll
in New London in 1772 under the name of * Freebetter's New England
Almanack,' and known today as * The New England Almanac and Farmer's
Friend.' Another old almanac that is still published was originated in
1806 by Elisha Middlebrook of Fairfield and published by him until
1860. The 'Beckwith Almanac,' started at New Haven in 1848, and
peddled about Connecticut by its author, was published until 1933.

Diaries were among the earliest writings and have preserved in un-
affected simplicity detailed accounts of the manners and customs of the
colonists. Perhaps the best known Connecticut diary is the one written
by Ezra Stiles from 1769 through the period of his presidency of Yale
College. A diary kept by Joshua Hempstead (New London, 1711-58),
and one by Nathaniel W. Taylor recording his * Life on a Whaler, or an
Antarctic Adventure in the Isle of Desolation,' are preserved in the New
London Historical Society collection.

The Journal of William Wheeler (1762-1845), a student at Yale and
a resident of Black Rock, Fairfield, records an 'exact and impartial
account' of events in that old seaport town. This diary is included in
the recently published 'History of Black Rock,' by Cornelia Penfield
Lathrop. The Rev. Isaac Bachus of Norwich Town kept a diary from
1748 to 1806, which contains a wealth of information on local and national
events. A brief though interesting diary by Mason Fitch Cogswell of
Canterbury is devoted to a detailed account of his horseback trip across
Connecticut, from November 14 to December 19, 1788, in which he
carefully recorded the simple details of life in the homes he visited.

The diary (1797-1803) of Julia Cowles of Farmington, now in print,
is an appealing document which vividly presents many phases of the
social life of her times, in the record of her girlhood, her reactions to the
wickedness of 'modern' life, the tender details of the courting of John
Treadwell, son of Governor Treadwell, and of her engagement to him.
Despite her lover's pleading, she delayed their marriage because of her
failing health, and died while still a young woman.

Literature 1 05

Roger Wolcott of Windsor (1679-1767), State governor and military
leader, found time to write 'Poetical Meditations: Being the Improve-
ment of Some Vacant Hours,' in which his Calvinistic vision saw 'Hell's
flashes folding through eternitie.' This was the first book of verse
published in Connecticut. And, before the Revolution, there was at
least one writer of commanding ability in America, a native of South
Windsor Jonathan Edwards (1703-58). Mystic, metaphysician, and
logician, his vivid imagination pictured Hell's torments and the eternally
erupting mountains of fire and brimstone, to the prostration of multitudes
at the time of the ' Great Awakening.' The very title of his most famous
works breathes contempt on the ungodly and looser thinkers: 'A Careful
and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom
of Will which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and
Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame' (1754). For the next
hundred years, Connecticut's orthodoxy was noteworthy.

When independence had been won, but divergent doctrines threatened
anarchy, a group of distinguished Yale graduates formed a literary
society to combat the lawless influences with political satire. This first
recognized literary group in the State became celebrated as 'The Hartford
Wits,' and included a college president, several foreign ministers and
ambassadors, and a judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Richard
Alsop, Joel Barlow, Timothy Dwight, and the brilliant John Trumbull,
who passed the entrance examinations to Yale at the age of seven and
entered college five years later, were among the leaders of the group,
which also included Lemuel Hopkins, Theodore Dwight, and Col. David
Humphrey, aide-de-camp to Washington and author of the earliest
biography of Israel Putnam. Jointly they published 'The Anarchiad'
(1786), 'The Political Greenhouse' (1799), and 'The Echo' (1807).
Joel Barlow, perhaps the group's most distinguished and versatile member,
wrote two widely read poems: 'Hasty Pudding,' a realistic portrayal of
New England home life; and a ponderous epic, 'The Columbiad,' in
which Hesper unfolds to Columbus a retrospective view of the conquest
of Mexico, the settlement of North America, and a vision of the future
supremacy of America. This latter work, heavy with Latin derivatives,
makes laborious reading today, but it was enthusiastically received by
the colonists, who even named their coast defense guns 'Columbiad.'
John Trumbull's mock-epic, 'M'Fingal,' a Hudibrastic attack on the
Tories, ran through thirty editions and earned for Trumbull the title of
'Father of American Burlesque.' Timothy Dwight, president of Yale
College for twenty-two years, was the author of a poem of epic propor-

io6 Connecticut: The General Background

tions, 'The Conquest of Canaan,' dealing with the narrative of Joshua's
wars, in which Revolutionary heroes were compared with Biblical
characters. His shorter poem, ' Greenfield Hill,' is a delightful description
of the Connecticut village with which he was associated for many years.
Dr. Elihu H. Smith, physician of Wethersfield and another active
member of 'The Hartford Wits,' was the first Connecticut poet to publish
a volume of collected verse 'American Poems, Original and Selected.'
Thus, for a few years at the close of the eighteenth century, before the
days of the New York and Boston groups, Connecticut could boast of
the first literary circle in the new nation. This is the only time in its
history when Connecticut can be said to have possessed a literature of
its own.

In those days there lived in Connecticut a redoubtable man of letters
whose influence was of the most enduring and widespread sort. In the
years between the Declaration of Independence and the framing of the
Constitution, Noah Webster (1758-1843) brought forth his blue-bound
'American Spelling Book.' Passing through various degrees of spelling
reform and Yankee individualism, it appeared throughout a century in
unnumbered editions. The success of Webster's first dictionary, pub-
lished in 1806, led to the compiling of his masterly 'American Dictionary
of the English Language* (1828). On this foundation our speech, with
the exception of Harvard English and its rival Worcester's Dictionary
(1846), has rested.

There was something redoubtable, also, about a Ridgefield minister's
son, Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793-1860), who just before his death
declared himself the author of 170 volumes, 1 16 of them written under the
pseudonym of 'Peter Parley.' Inspired by Hannah More, Goodrich
purveyed an endless stream of edifying sugar-coated instruction to the
young. For him, the shy and fastidious young Nathaniel Hawthorne
wrote 'Peter Parley's Universal History' (1837), which sold a million
copies, and edited the 'American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining
Knowledge'; while in his giftbook annual, 'The Token,' many of Haw-
thorne's earliest stories appeared.

Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790-1867) of Guilford joined the early New
York school of writers, and was co-author with James Rodman Drake
of the satiric 'Croaker & Co.' verses. Like many of his contemporaries,
he was an imitator of Scott, Byron, and Campbell; his 'Marco Bozzaris'
is a spirited Byronesque depiction of the Greek struggle for freedom
against the Turks.

One of Noah Webster's assistants was a young botanist-chemist-

Literature 107

geologist-poet, whose knowledge of ten languages made him a valuable
helper in revising and proof-reading the orthographer's magnum opus.
Suffering from a persecution complex, James Gates Percival (1795-1856)
turned in his versatility from science to poetry and then back again. He
was State Geologist of Wisconsin at the time of his death. The sensitive
and delicate beauty of his verse missed fame by a narrow margin.

Jared Sparks (1789-1866) of Willington lived to become president of
Harvard and to be called the 'American Plutarch.' The country owes
him a great debt for his preservation of important documents and letters
of Revolutionary times and leaders. His 'Life and Times of George
Washington/ bowdlerized but honest, and 'American Biographies' are
full of valuable source material. John Fiske (1842-1901), born in Middle-
town, was a later distinguished Harvard man and eminent historian.

The father of the ' Little Women ' was born in Connecticut and began
his career as a Yankee peddler and country school teacher. Amos
Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) of Wolcott astounded the citizens of Chesh-
ire by his advanced educational methods, the beginning of his greatest
contribution to American life and thought. His close association with
Concord, Massachusetts, has obscured the fact that the formative years
of this ' tedious archangel ' were passed in this State.

Several minor poets of Connecticut became more or less prominent in
the half century which closed with the Civil War period. John Pierpont
(1785-1866) published 'Airs of Palestine,' later visiting the country
which his muse had celebrated; he also wrote a number of ardent anti-
slavery poems. James Hillhouse (1789-1841) of New Haven was the
author of several long Biblical poems and dramas. John G. C. Brainard
(1796-1828), born in New London, edited the Connecticut Union in
Hartford and wrote of the native scene timidly perhaps, but at times
authentically. Henry Howard Brownell's 'Bay Fight,' a stirring de-
scription of the battle of Mobile Bay, fired the popular imagination in
Civil War times. Brownell (1820-1872), whose war poetry has been
collected in a volume called 'Lines of Battle,' was born in Providence,
R.I., but spent the greater part of his life in East Hartford. Other poets
were known for one or two nationally popular verses. Emma Hart Wil-
lard of Berlin (1787-1870), writer of school-books, is remembered for
'Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep.' 'Marching Through Georgia' and
that theme song of the temperance movement 'Father, Dear Father,
Come Home With Me Now, the Clock in the Steeple Strikes Twelve/
both came from the pen of the talented composer Henry Clay Work.

Most portentous, summing up a whole school of feeling in her obit-

io8 Connecticut: The General Background

uaries and elegiac verses was Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865),
'The Sweet Singer of Hartford.' Writing for a sympathetic, even enthu-
siastic audience, she produced fifty-nine volumes of lachrymose verbosity.
The works of this 'American Mrs. Hemans' are now literary curiosities
that serve as an excellent index to the taste of a generation to which
a cloying sentimentality was endearing and which reveled in polite
periphrasis.

Late in the nineteenth century, Mrs. Sigourney found a successor to
her popularity in Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855-1919), who lived for twenty
years in a cottage at Short Beach. But sentiment had undergone a start-
ling reversal, and Mrs. Wilcox's philosophy was more cheerful, as ex-
pressed in her notable lines, 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep,
and you weep alone.' It was also more pungent and Outspoken, witness
her best-known title, 'Poems of Passion.' The twentieth century was now
imminent.

Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908) was born in Hartford, and
after leaving college entered the newspaper field, owning and editing
at different times the Norwich Tribune and the Mountain County Herald
of Winsted. Then, while still a young man, he left the State, later be-
coming nationally known as poet, critic, and editor.

Although Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), of New Haven and Litchfield,
achieved some fame as a clergyman and writer, at least two of his thirteen
children were far more distinguished. These two were Henry Ward
Beecher (1813-87) and Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96). Both were
born at Litchfield, and both left the State with their family at an early age.
After the publication of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' in 1852, Mrs. Stowe came
to Hartford, where she had attended school as a girl; and here she built
a large home which, along with a later and more permanent residence in
Florida, she occupied at intervals until her death. In 'Poganuc People'
she has described her early childhood in Connecticut; while the New
England scene and character in general are sympathetically portrayed
in such other of her later books as ' The Minister's Wooing ' and ' Old town
People.'

Close in spirit to these later books by Mrs. Stowe, as well as to the
writings of Mary E. Wilkins and Sarah Orne Jewett, are the New England
stories of Rose Terry Cooke (1827-92), of West Hartford. These appeared
in The Atlantic Monthly for many years, beginning in 1861. Miss Cooke
also wrote some poetry of distinction.

The novels, poems, and narratives of outdoor life written by Theodore
Winthrop (1828-61) were once popular but are now little read. His

Literature 109

western novel, 'John Brent,' anticipated the frontier fiction of Bret
Harte. Winthrop was born in New Haven, and studied at Yale. After
more than a decade of wanderings outside the State, he was killed at the
battle of Great Bethel, early in the Civil War.

More enduring has been the reputation of Donald G. Mitchell (1822-
1908), who under the pen-name of 'Ik Marvel' wrote those delicate
fantasies, 'The Reveries of a Bachelor' and 'Dream Life,' as well as a
number of other books. Mitchell's later years were spent in Virgilian
retirement on his estate near New Haven, commemorated in 'My Farm
at Edgewood.'

The most lovable as well as the most popular figure in Connecticut's
literary annals is Samuel L. Clemens (1835-1910), known the world
over as Mark Twain. After wandering through the middle and far West
and spending a year abroad, Clemens settled down in Hartford soon
after his marriage in 1870, and during his thirty years' residence here
he wrote most of the books upon which his fame chiefly rests, including
'Tom Sawyer' and ' Huckleberry Finn.' A number of these books were
originally issued by a Hartford house, the American Publishing Company,
which also published (in 1900) the first collected edition of his works.

Soon after coming to Hartford, Clemens collaborated with his friend
and neighbor, Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900), in his only piece of
contemporary fiction, 'The Gilded Age.' Warner, a brilliant editor and
writer, is best remembered for the leisurely charm and keen understanding
of human nature embodied in such books as 'Backlog Studies,' 'My
Summer in a Garden,' and 'Being a Boy.'

Among the later writers of Connecticut, a prominent place belongs to
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), poet, sociologist, and ardent
champion of a freer and fuller destiny for women: Mrs. Gilman was born
in Hartford, and lived for many years in Norwichtown. Although best
known, perhaps, as the biographer of Mark Twain and authorized editor
of the latter's posthumous publications, Albert Bigelow Paine (1861-
1937) of West Redding wrote a number of stories and sketches char-
acterized by a quiet humor somewhat akin to that in much of Mark
Twain's work. Arthur Colton (b. 1868) of Washington is the author of
'The Belted Seas' and 'The Delectable Mountains.' The versatile talents
of Lee Wilson Dodd (1879-1933) were chiefly exercised in the fields of
fiction and the drama, though he was also an accomplished critic, lecturer,
and teacher. Anna Hempstead Branch (1875-1937), whose family dated
back to earliest days in New London, is known to poetry lovers through
'The Shoes That Danced' and other books of verse. Odell Shepard, of

no Connecticut: The General Background

Trinity College, has written ' The Harvest of a Quiet Eye ' (descriptive of
a walking trip in the northern part of Connecticut) , two or three volumes
of poetry and essays, and a recently published biography of Bronson
Alcott.

The influence of Yale University has been notably reflected in American
literature since the early nineteenth century. Yale's list of alumni in-
cludes many of the country's best known writers, from James Fenimore
Cooper to Stephen Vincent Benet, Thornton Wilder, and Sinclair
Lewis; and numerous members of its faculty have made important con-
tributions to literature and literary scholarship. Prominent among this
latter group in recent years have been Wilbur L. Cross (now governor of
Connecticut), author of definitive biographies of Henry Fielding and
Laurence Sterne; and William Lyon Phelps, whose published volumes
are chiefly popular criticism of modern poetry, fiction and drama. The
Yale Literary Magazine, edited by undergraduates of the university, dates
from 1836 and is now the oldest surviving monthly in this country. The
Yale Review, which has appeared under its present name since 1892 and
under the editorship of Wilbur L. Cross since 1911, is one of the world's
most distinguished quarterlies. Finally, in this general connection, a
word must be said about the Yale University Press, which has won an
enviable reputation in the American publishing field for combining
scholarly content with distinguished mechanical form in its output.

Connecticut has provided the setting or background for numerous
books of fiction, among them (to mention only a few relatively recent
examples) Sinclair Lewis's 'Work of Art/ Edna Ferber's 'American
Beauty,' Lee Wilson Dodd's 'The Book of Susan,' J. G. Cozzens's 'The
Last Adam,' and Wayland Williams's 'Family.'

CONNECTICUT FIRSTS

1636 First American naval battle (of a sort) is fought off New London.

1639 First constitutional document to set forth the principle that 'the founda-
tion of authority is in the free consent of the people ' the so-called
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut is adopted at Hartford.

1640 First American public election in defiance of the Royal Courts is held at
Wethersfield.

1647 First concession or license for off-shore whaling is issued at Hartford.
1662 First American ship in West India trade is 'The Tryall' of Wethersfield.
1670 First survey is made for first turnpike to be completed in America from
Norwich to New London.

1680 First American carding mill is established at Wethersfield.

1724 First American portable house is brought to Windsor from Plymouth.

1727 First copper coins in America are minted by Samuel Higley, a blacksmith

of Simsbury. Higley 's coins were marked: 'I am good copper. Value me

as you will.'

1 738 First theological seminary in America is organized by Rev. Joseph Bellamy
at Bethlehem.

1740 First American tinware is manufactured by Edward Pattison and his
brother in Berlin.

1744 First half-ton of American-made steel is produced by Samuel Higley of

Simsbury.

1750 First American hat factory is established at Wethersfield.
1765 First oil mill in New England is built at Leesville.

1769 First type foundry in America is established at New Haven by Abel
Buell.

1774 First 'declaration of freedom' from British Crown is adopted by town of
Mansfield 21 months before adoption of the Declaration of Independ-
ence.

1775 First American warship, the 'Oliver Cromwell,' 16 guns, is built at Essex.
First Federal prison is established at East Granby.

First pins manufactured in America under bounty are made by Leonard
Chester at Wethersfield.

First submarine torpedo boat ever used in naval warfare is invented by
Daniel Bushnell of Westbrook; its first action was against the British
flagship 'Eagle' in New York Harbor, Sept. 6, 1776.

1779 First British prize, the sloop 'Hero,' is captured by the Wethersfield
sloop 'Enterprise.'

1780 First fur hat factory in America is conducted by Zadock Benedict of
Danbury.

112 Connecticut: The General Background

1782 First law school in America is organized at Litchfield by Judge Tapping
Reeve.

1783 First map of the United States engraved in America is produced by Abel
Buell in New Haven.

1785 First reports of law cases to be printed in America compiled by Colonel

Ephraim Kirby of Litchneld, include the years 1785-88.
1787 First American boat propelled by steam, using paddle-wheels, oars, and

screws, is perfected by John Fitch of South Windsor.
1789 First American juvenile publication, 'The Children's Magazine/ is

published in Hartford.
1794 First cotton gin is patented by Eli Whitney, a native of Connecticut, and

later first manufactured in New Haven.
1796 First American cook book, written by Amelia Simmons, is published in

Hartford (republished 1937).
1799 First United States government contract for pistols is awarded to Simeon

North of Middletown.

1801 First American cigars, known as 'long nines,' are made by Mrs. Prout of
South Windsor.

1802 First commercial ivory combs are made by Julius Pratt of Essex.

First merino sheep in America are imported by Gen. David Humphreys

of Derby.

First packaged garden seeds to be sold in America are marketed by the

Enfield Shaker Colony.

First standardized interchangeable clock movements are produced by

Eli Terry at Plymouth (Todd Hollow).

1803 First tax-supported town library in America is organized at Salisbury.
1806 First American patent for welding iron to steel is taken out by Daniel

Pettibone of Roxbury.

First factory town in America is established by Gen. David Humphreys

at Seymour.

1809 First United States patent to a woman is issued to Mary Kies of South
Killingly for a silk-and-straw weaving machine.

1810 First double-twist augers are made by Walter French of Seymour.
First 'lookout' tower for public use in the United States is built on Talcott
Mountain by Dan Wadsworth.

First pineapple cheese is made and patented by Lewis N. Norton of
Goshen.

1812 First use of steam power for manufacturing is made in plant of Middle-
town Woolen Manufacturing Company.

1813 First adoption of standardized production methods is made by Simeon
North at his arms factory in Middletown.

First American-made steel fish hooks are produced by Eb Jenks of Cole-
brook.

First manufacturers' agreement to limit prices and regulate trade practices
is made by tin manufacturers of Meriden 120 years before the N.R.A.
(National Recovery Act).

First patent for 'elastic steel-wire teeth for cotton and wool carding' is
granted to Eb Jenks of Colebrook.

Connecticut Firsts 113

1814 First 'shelf clock' is patented by Eli Terry of Thomaston.

1816 First fanning mill for separating chaff from grain is patented by Benjamin
D. Beecher of Cheshire.

1817 First American school for education of the deaf is founded at Hartford.

1818 First 'knocked-down' furniture is produced by Lambert H. Hitchcock of
Riverton, who shipped his famous chairs, etc., in separate parts, to be
assembled after delivery.

First successful American milling machine is invented by Eli Whitney,
for use in his New Haven gun shops.

1819 First silk thread wound from the cocoon by water-power is produced at
Mansfield.

1820 First American plows are manufactured at Wethersfield.

1822 First machine for sawing ivory is invented by John B. Collins of Hartford,
and used by the Cheney family at Ivoryton.

1824 First American industrial school is established at Derby by Josiah Hoi-
brook and the Reverend Truman Coe.

1826 First axes commercially manufactured in America are made by the Collins
Company of Collinsville.

1828 First American carpet mill is established at Thompsonville.

1829 First double reflecting tin baker is invented by Isaac Dobson of Farming-
ton.

First Fourdrinier paper-making machine in America is produced by
Phelps & Stafford of Windham.

1830 First American hoopskirts are made at Derby.

First scroll lathe chuck in America is patented by Simon Fairman of
West Stafford.

1831 First discovery of laws of cyclonic storms is made by William Redfield of
Cromwell.

First drawn-brass pipe and wire in America are made by Israel Holmes of

Waterbury.

First English brass workers are imported by Naugatuck Valley employers

and landed in wooden casks from a ship anchored off the coast.

1832 First machine producing pins in one operation is invented by Thomas
Ireland Howe of Derby.

1833 First American coffee mill is patented by Amini Clark of Meriden.
First engine lathe in America is built by Aaron Kilbourn of New Haven
and Killingworth.

1834 First friction matches in America are made at Coe Town (now Beacon
Falls) by Thomas Sanford, who later sold his formula for $10.

First spun-brass kettles in America are made by Israel Coe of Wolcott-
ville (now Torrington).

1835 First 'German silver' spoons in America are made by Robert Wallace of
Wallingford.

1836 First American tacks are made in Derby.

First hook and eye fasteners are made by Israel Holmes of Waterbury.
First safety fuse for blasting is made by Ensign Bickford of Granby.

114 Connecticut: The General Background

1837 First American paper made of straw is produced by Smith and Bassett of
Seymour.

1839 First successful process for vulcanizing rubber is discovered by Charles
Goodyear of Naugatuck.

1840 First American shaving soap is made by J. B. Williams of Glastonbury.
First silver-plated spoons in America are made by W. B. Cowles of
1 Spoonville,' East Granby.

First machine for threading bolts is invented by Barnes and Rugg of
Marion (town of Southington).

1844 First use of nitrous oxide gas as an anesthetic is made by Dr. Horace
Wells of Hartford.

1845 First pocket cutlery is produced in this country by Holley Manufacturing
Company of Salisbury.

First sewing machine is invented by Elias Howe of New Hartford.

1846 First American table cutlery is manufactured by the Meriden Cutlery
Company.

1847 First collegiate agricultural experiment station in America is established
by Yale University.

1848 First cylinder lock is invented by Linus Yale of Stamford.

1849 First spool- wound silk thread is produced by Gen. Merritt Heminway of
Watertown (silk was previously sold in skeins).

1850 First American 'derby' hat is made at South Norwalk by James Knapp.

1852 First American machine for making wood type is perfected by Edwin
Allen of South Windham.

1853 First American trade association, the American Brass Association, is
formed by Naugatuck Valley manufacturers.

1854 First spool-wound linen thread in America is made by Willimantic
Linen Company.

1856 First commercially successful condensed milk is produced by Gail Borden
in Torrington.

1858 First air-tight fruit jar with spring-fastened glass top is patented by
W. W. Lyman of Meriden.

First successful stone crusher is invented by Eli Whitney Blake, revolu-
tionizing road-building.
First burners for kerosene oil are manufactured at Meriden.

1860 First American sailing ship to beat the 'Flying Cloud's' record on the
New York-San Francisco run is built at Mystic. This ship was the
'Andrew Jackson,' a modified clipper, which made the run in 89 days and
4 hours.

1861 First American degree of Doctor of Philosophy is conferred by Yale
University.

First camp for boys in America, the Gunn Camp, is organized at Wash-
ington.

1862 First corrugated spring for railway cars is invented by Carlos French of
Seymour.

First wheeled horse-rake with lever is patented by Daley and Treat of
Morris.

Connecticut Firsts 115

1863 First American accident insurance is issued to James Bolter of Hartford.
First Civil War monument is erected in Berlin (Kensington Village).

1864 First Fine Arts Department in an American university is opened at Yale.

1866 First American boiler insurance is written in Hartford.

First commercial center-fire cartridge is developed by Union Metallic
Cartridge Company at Bridgeport.

First 'horseless carriage,' steam propelled, is made by Alonzo House of
Bridgeport.

First machine-made horseshoe nail is produced at Seymour, under patent
of Thaddeus Fowler.

First wire-cutting machine and automatic straightener for pins (revolu-
tionizing the pin-making industry) are invented by John Adt of Torring-
ton.

1867 First American-made button hooks are manufactured by Mark Louns-
bury and Peter Gabriel in Seymour.

1870 First all-metal woodcutting plane is produced at the Stanley Works in
New Britain.

1876 First automatic turret lathe for cutting screws is made by Christopher
M. Spencer of Hartford.

First permanent polish for copper is patented by Thomas James of New
Haven.

1877 First bicycle factory in America is established at Hartford.

1878 First commercial telephone switchboard is installed at New Haven.
1880 First American hail insurance is written March 24 by Tobacco Growers

Mutual Insurance Company of North Canaan.

First American-made mohair plush is produced at Seymour by John H.

Tingue.

1884 First American braided silk fish-lines are made by Elisha J. Martin of
Rockville.

1885 First standard measuring machine, accurate to one-hundred-thousandth
of an inch, is perfected by Pratt & Whitney Company of Hartford.

1886 First American telescopic steel fishing rod is invented by Everett Horton,
a Bristol mechanic, whose purpose was to develop a rod that could be
hidden under his coat when he went fishing on the Sabbath.

1888 First electric trolley car in New England makes its first run in Derby.
1891 First American trading stamps are introduced by Sperry and Hutchinson
of Bridgeport.

1894 First even-keel submarine is developed by Simon Lake of Milford.
First machine for dipping wooden matches is invented by Ebenezer
Beecher of New Haven.

1895 First mechanical player-piano is produced by H. K. Wilcox in Meriden.

1898 First American automobile insurance is written in Hartford.

1899 First 'tackling dummy' for football practice is devised by Amos Alonzo
Stagg at Yale University.

1901 First American automobile legislation ('speed limit, 12 miles per hour,
8 miles per hour in city ') is enacted at Hartford.

First non-sinkable lifeboat is invented and built by the Holmes Ship-
building Company on Mystic River.

1 1 6 Connecticut : The General Background

1909 First successful gun 'silencer' is invented by Hiram Percy Maxim of
Hartford.

1910 First steel golf-club shafts in America are made at Bristol.

1912 First use of Diesel engine for submarines is made by New London Ship
and Engine Company of Groton.

1920 First acidophilus milk is produced at Fairlea Farms in Orange.

1923 First mercury turbine is operated by the Hartford Electric Light Com-
pany.

1936 First accurate aerial map of any State is made of Connecticut 13 X 18
feet in size, portraying an area of 5004 square miles.

II. MAIN STREET AND
' VILLAGE GREEN

All Historic Houses mentioned as Points of Interest in the City
Tours which follow are private unless otherwise specified.

BRIDGEPORT

City: Alt. 20, pop. 146,716, sett. 1639, incorp. 1836.

Railroad Stations: N.Y., N.H. & H. R.R., cor. Fairfield Ave. (US 1) and Water St.

Airports: Bridgeport Airport, Main St., Stratford, 5 miles east from center of

Bridgeport on US 1; 30 min. by motor car. Fare by taxi, $1.50.

Taxis: 30^ first mile; 10^ each additional third.

Piers: Ferries to Port Jefferson, L.I., 75^ one way, and steamer to New York,

$1.00 weekdays and $1.50 Sundays and holidays (May 30 to Labor Day),

Stratford Ave. Wharf, Water St.

Accommodations: Two hotels in central area.

Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 2d floor; Connecticut Motor Club,
Stratfield Hotel, Main St.; Travellers' Aid, R.R. Station.

Swimming: Municipal Pool, Pleasure Beach Park, fee 10^ weekdays, 20f Sun-
days and holidays. Public beach at Seaside Park.

Amusement Parks: Pleasure Beach, foot of Sea view Ave.; bathing beach, pool
and dance hall; concessions.

BRIDGEPORT spreads over flat country at the mouth of the Pe-
quonnock River on Long Island Sound. The great concentration of
industry within a comparatively few years has given the city an ap-
pearance of having grown 'without a plan or in spite of one.'

The railroad, elevated on an embankment faced with Roxbury granite,
crosses the city, skirting the section where huge manufacturing plants,
covering acre after acre, produce munitions and tools, automatic ma-
chinery and equipment essential to factories and homes throughout the
country. West from the old-fashioned railroad station is the cramped
and congested shopping center ; but in the outskirts, landscaped residential
sections, more than one thousand acres of public parks, and a shore
drive of about three miles offer compensations in unusually beautiful
vistas of woodland and sea. Many of the streets are lined with stately
elms; obsolete trolley tracks in the center of the principal arteries of
traffic have been replaced by strips of green lawn that furnish a touch of
color and serve as safety zones.

Many races are represented in Bridgeport, a number of whom
retain their native customs and religions. Only twenty-five per cent of
the population is of full native parentage. Among the heterogeneous
foreign group are Italians, Czechs, Hungarians, and Poles, numerically
important in the order named.

Although six hundred Pequonnock Indians once lived on a reservation
on Golden Hill, in the heart of the city, little of the past is evident in
Bridgeport. The Indians bartered most of their land for '30 bushels of
Indian corn and 3 pounds worth of blankets,' and in 1842 their remain-

120 Main Street and Village Green

ing eight acres were sold to pay accrued taxes and purchase quarters
for them in Trumbull, where their descendants, 'Rising Star' and * George
Sherman/ live on one acre of land.

The community was first settled in 1639 by residents of the older settle-
ments of Fairfield and Stratford, and was known as Newfield, later as
Stratfield, until 1800, when the area was extended by the General
Assembly and the borough of Bridgeport was incorporated and named
for the first drawbridge erected over the Pequonnock River. In 1821,
it was incorporated as a town and by 1836 had become a city. Every
census from 1800 to 1930 has shown an increase of at least forty per cent.
Like so many New England seaport towns, Bridgeport had a lusty
whaling trade, but interest in seafaring declined when the opening of the
railroad in 1840 brought with it an industrial boom.
Among the earlier manufacturing ventures were the production of hats,
pewter ware, carriages, saddlery, furniture, and shirts. In 1856, the
Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Company, makers of sewing machines,
moved here from Watertown, and became the first of the many nationally
important industries established in the city. Carriage-making, the most
colorful of the nineteenth-century industries, was climaxed in 1894-95
by the building of the first 'horseless carriage,' equipped with hard rubber
tires and a self-starter. Unfortunately, the exhaust made the wagon an
insufferable hot box, so it was regretfully stored in a shed behind the
Armstrong plant where it was made.

In 1902, close on the heels of the last carriage-making industries, the
Locomobile Company produced one of the early American automobiles
propelled by gasoline, which combined an all-steel frame, sliding-gear
transmission, and a vertical cylinder motor at the front beneath a hood,
all of which are features of modern automobile design. The company
produced a limited quantity of high-quality cars until 1929.

First gramophones in America were produced here by the American
Gramophone Co., later the Columbia Phonograph Co., Inc.

Today almost five hundred manufacturing firms, many with a large
export trade, produce ammunition and firearms, automatic machinery,
nuts, bolts and screws, brass products, brake linings, corsets, chains,
electrical and pharmaceutical supplies, hardware, marine cables and
engines, machinery, phonograph records, plumbing supplies, rubber
goods, sewing machines, scissors, typewriters, steel products, and toys.

Bridgeport does not depend upon any one class of manufactured goods
for its prosperity. Probably no city in the United States includes more
diversified industries. Although, like other manufacturing cities, it was
seriously affected by post-war deflation, statistics show that the value
of the city's annual production for the year 1936 exceeded its pre-war
rate by 102 per cent. In 1933, the city elected a Socialist mayor and
board of aldermen, and has twice since re-elected the Socialist ticket.

Bridgeport 121

TOUR 1

W. from Mill Pond Park on North Ave. (US \A).

1. The Pixlee Tavern (private), 590 North Ave., SW. of the Park, is a
remodeled salt-box house, dating from 1700, now covered with yellow
stucco. General Washington is believed to have stopped en route to
Cambridge in 1775, thus giving a local habitation to a well-known
apocryphal story. It concerns a ruse that he employed to secure his
supper at the tavern when he arrived late one night unaccompanied and
found every place at the table occupied. The guests failed to recognize
the leader of the Continental troops and continued to munch savory
fried oysters, increasing the appetite of the hungry general. From his
post beside the fireplace, he casually remarked, * Do any of you gentle-
men realize that horses are very fond of oysters?' In the excitement of
the lively discussion which followed, one guest offered to wager that
'no horse ever lived that would eat oysters.' Immediately Washington
suggested, 'Very well. Why not try them on my horse?' As soon as
the excited guests started for the barn, Washington quietly found a
place at the table. At the edge of the Park across the street, the Wash-
ington Elm, named in honor of his visit, is said to be from 250 to 300
years old.

2. Tom Thumb House (private), 956 North Ave. at Main St., is the house
most commonly associated with P. T. Barnum's midget attraction, Gen-
eral Tom Thumb (Charles S. Stratton). It is a large square frame
dwelling built by the General's father, Sherwood S. Stratton in 1855,
but since converted into apartments and shops. To this home, fitted

BRIDGEPORT. POINTS OF INTEREST

1. Pixlee Tavern 16. Beardsley Park

2. Tom Thumb House 17. American Fabrics Company

3. Captain Abijah Sterling House 18. Stanley Works

4. Broth well Beach House 19. John Brooks House

5. Clinton Park 20. General Electric Plant

6. Mountain Grove Cemetery 21. Remington Arms Company

7. Nathaniel Wheeler Fountain 22. Saltex Looms, Inc.

8. United Congregational Church 23. Bridgeport Brass Company

9. Public Library 24. Singer Manufacturing Company

10. City Hall 25. Underwood Elliott Fisher Company

11. Barnum Institute of Science and 26. Warner Brothers Company

History 27. Bryant Electric Company

12. Seaside Park 28. Raybestos Division

13. Court Marina 29. Harvey Hubbell, Inc.

14. Fayerweather's Island 30. Billiard Company

15. Site of a Revolutionary Fort

124 Main Street and Village Green

for his use with miniature furnishings, Tom Thumb brought his tiny
bride, Lavinia Bump Warren, after their spectacular wedding in New
York, in 1863.

3. The Captain Abijah Sterling House (private), 1040 North Ave., a
salt-box erected about 1760, was the boyhood home of General Tom
Thumb.

4. The Broth-well Beach Home (private),^ SW. cor. North and Park
Aves., an early 19th-century building, with a glass fan-light over the
front door, leaded in the rare eagle design, was built around, or to re-
place a tavern erected by Samuel Cable in 1759.

5. Clinton Park, cor. North and Brooklawn Aves., was used as a military
training ground during the Revolutionary War, and later, during the
Civil War. Here a wrestling match took place between Captain John
Sherwood and an Indian from Golden Hill who had challenged the white
men to a contest. Captain Sherwood, dressed in ordinary citizen's
attire, put his hands upon the naked, well-oiled shoulders of the savage,
and laid him flat on his back, 'not caring to soften the violence of his
fall/

L. from North Ave. on Dewey St.

6. In Mountain Grove Cemetery, Dewey St., 140 acres of landscaped
grounds planted with large, stately oaks, are the Graves of Phineas T.
Barnum (1810-91) and Tom. Thumb. The former's burial-place, marked
by an imposing monument, is directly across from that of Tom Thumb,
whose memorial, a 4o-foot shaft in Italian marble surmounted by a life-
size statue of the famous midget, is simply inscribed ' Charles S. Stratton,
Died July 15, 1883, aged 45 years, 6 mos., n d.' Buried by his side, in
an infant's casket, is the body of his wife, who survived him by more than
30 years, and whose small headstone is marked with the single word
1 Wife.'

Near-by, a small, plain stone indicates the Grave of Fanny J. Crosby
(1820-1915), hymn-writer and poet, who lost her sight when she was
six weeks old.

TOUR 2

S.from North Ave. (US I A) on Park Ave.

7. The Nathaniel Wheeler Fountain, at the intersection of Park and
Fairfield Aves., opposite St. John's Episcopal Church, is a memorial
designed by Gutzon Borglum to one of Bridgeport's foremost 19th-
century industrialists and philanthropists. As organizer of the Wheeler
and Wilson Manufacturing Company (see below), Wheeler was a pioneer
in the development and promotion of the sewing machine.
L. from Park Ave. on State St.

Bridgeport 125

8. The United Congregational Church (1926), State St., SW. cor. Park
Ave. (R), designed by Allen and Collens, is a striking modern brick
version of the early 19th-century church architecture. It is exceptionally
broad and has an uncommonly tall and graceful spire. Inside, eclectic
influences prevail: the architectural melting pot is seen in the tall Ro-
manesque columns, the Gothic hammer- vault roofing, and the luxurious
mahogany pews.

9. In the Public Library (open weekdays 9-9.30) (1925), SW. cor. State
and Broad Sts., a four-story brick and limestone building designed by
Frederick J. Dixon, is the Bishop Room (open weekdays, 9-6), an historical
museum. Included among its permanent exhibits of old books, manu-
scripts, deeds, maps, newspapers, and Connecticut almanacs, are the
Americana collections of the Fairfield County and Bridgeport Historical
Societies.

10. The City Hall, NE. cor. State and Broad Sts., originally a two-
story, sandstone building with heavy, fluted Ionic columns in the style
of the Greek Revival, erected in 1854-55 and enlarged and remodeled
by Joseph W. Northrop in 1905, is historically notable as the scene of
an address by President Lincoln on March 10, 1860, an event commem-
orated by a bronze tablet on the State St, front. Bridgeport news-
papers of Civil War days were strenuously antagonistic to the President.
The Bridgeport Farmer wrote

* Give us a few more months [to end the Civil War], a few hundred thousand
more men, a few hundred millions more of money and we will finish up the
war,' say Lincoln and his shoddy crew.

Do not be deceived by these fake and plausible stories the party in
power cannot, neither does it intend to bring the war to a conclusion.

R. from State St. on Main St.

11. The Barnum Institute of Science and History (open Mon., Wed., Fri.,
Sat., 2-5, free), 805 Main St., occupies the third floor of the mosque-
like building of yellow brick erected about 1890 by Barnum. Among the
articles exhibited here, those of special interest are an Egyptian mummy,
some of the personal effects of Tom Thumb, and collections of old house-
hold utensils, army guns and swords, and mounted birds.

Barnum, Bridgeport's most beloved citizen, may be known to the world
as the founder of 'The Greatest Show on Earth,' but to this city which
became his home, he was an empire-builder and a philanthropist. While
the world remembers him as the great showman who packed circus
tents with promises of such marvels as 'a cherry-colored cat,' and lived
up to the promise, though not to the expectation, by producing an
ordinary black pussy, Bridgeport remembers him as a staunch and pat-
riotic citizen. Through his effort many industries established their
plants here; when the city needed a harbor, Barnum went to Washington
and secured the necessary appropriation for dredging; when the railroad
failed to give proper service, Barnum forced improvements; he established
parks and an improved water supply, and served the city as both mayor

126 Main Street and Village Green

and representative to the Assembly. When Barnum's likeness appeared
on the city's centennial half-dollar in 1936, the press of the nation laughed
at the idea that the man who has been credited with the phrase, ' Every-
body likes to be humbugged/ should be so honored on a United States
coin, but Bridgeport has not forgotten that, but for Barnum's efforts,
the city might have been little more than a wide place in the road.
Born in Bethel, July 5, 1810, Barnum tried storekeeping with little
success. After failure as a lottery agent, Barnum started the Herald of
Freedom, a weekly newspaper, but was fined and jailed for his out-
spoken criticism of the contemporary scene.

Barnum drifted to New York with a cattle drover and then on to Phil-
adelphia where he purchased an old Negress, Joyce Heth, who was
reputed to be 160 years of age and the former nurse of George Washing-
ton. With the Negress as the principal sideshow, Barnum formed a
company, writing his own advertising and touring America. When
Joyce died in 1836, her age was proved to be only 70, but Barnum's
company continued its tour until 1839. The youthful showman again
failed, but in 1841 he purchased Scudder's American Museum in New
York. His discovery of Charles Stratton, the two-foot son of Bridgeport
parents, led to the grand European tour of the dwarf, 'General Tom
Thumb,' who was exhibited before Queen Victoria and European royalty.
In 1850, Barnum sponsored the American tour of Jenny Lind, giving the
* Swedish Nightingale' a contract that called for a salary of $1000 per
night for 150 nights, plus all expenses.

Through an amalgamation of circus, menagerie, and museum of various
freaks Barnum formed 'The Greatest Show on Earth' (1871). Military
men of many nations copied much of Barnum's technique in handling
baggage, materials, men, and animals.

Although Barnum never had a formal education, he wrote several books
including 'The Humbugs of the World' (1865), 'Struggles and Triumphs'
(1869), and his 'Autobiography' (1854 and later editions). Tales are
told of his insistence that 'Barnum' and not 'Webster' should be the
authority for the spelling of the names on animal cages. No train passed
the winter quarters of his circus in Bridgeport without passengers agape
at Barnum's ' Elephantine Agriculture ' a man in Oriental costume
mounted on an elephant, plowing a field beside the track.

P. T. Bamum died on April 7, 1891.

12. Seaside Park, end of Main St., on the Sound, is a beautiful 2io-acre
tract, the first land for which was donated to the city in 1865 by P. T.
Barnum. Entered through the imposing Perry Memorial Arch and
traversed by Marine Boulevard, a scenic roadway extending two and
one-half miles along the sea wall, the park provides excellent facilities
for bathing, tennis, baseball, and soccer, with a quarter-mile cinder
track and a half-mile trotting track. Just beyond the Memorial Arch
is a Statue of Elias Howe, Jr., inventor of the sewing machine, who,
although born in the town of Spencer, Massachusetts, became during

Bridgeport 127

his residence here, closely associated with the city's industrial and social
development.

During the Civil War, Howe recruited a regiment of volunteer infantry
(iyth Connecticut) and furnished officers' mounts for the outfit. The
statue stands on the spot where Howe, with an income of $200,000
annual royalties, slept on a bed of straw as a private soldier.

Although a sewing machine had previously been invented in England,
one in France, and one by Hunt of New York, none had been successfully
promoted, and Howe, unaware of the earlier inventions, independently
developed a lock-stitch machine in 1844. The following year, he ob-
tained his first patent, won a demonstration against five expert seam-
stresses and exhibited the machine at numerous fairs. British interests
advanced capital and Howe went to England to supervise the manu-
facture of machines, but upon returning to America found that many
factories had infringed upon his patents. After considerable litigation,
his rights were established in 1854 and other manufacturers compelled
to pay royalties to him.

A bronze Statue of Barnum, modeled by Thomas Ball and cast by Von
Miiller in Munich, was unveiled July 4, 1893, here by the seawall,
overlooking the Sound.

13. Opposite Seaside Park, in the block between Waldemere Park,
Linden, and Park Avenues, is the massive brownstone structure called
Court Marina, which Barnum erected in 1868-69 as ms ^ as ^ residence.
This whole region is full of the plethoric houses of the prosperous 8o's
and 9o's, in every conceivable mixture of architectural styles, but set
in grounds planted with tall trees and huge rhododendrons.

R. from the end of Main St. on Marine Boulevard.

14. On Fayerweather's Island, off the coast at the end of Marine Boule-
vard, connected with the mainland by a causeway, is the Old Lighthouse
(not open), erected in 1809 and rebuilt in 1823.

Return via Marine Boulevard to the Perry Memorial Arch; L. on Park
Ave.; L.from Park Ave'on Fairfield Ave.; L. from Fairfield Ave. onBrewster
St.; R. from Brewster St. on Grovers Ave. which becomes Black Rock Drive
(no parking allowed).

15. On Black Rock Drive was an early base for whaleboat warfare, and
the Site of a Revolutionary Fort, erected here in 1776 on a small knoll
known as Grovers Hill. The one gun at this fort, which announced to
Fairfield the coming of the British in 1779, harassed the enemy con-
tinually during the destruction and raid of the town.

In that same year Major-General Silliman, chief of military and safety
activities of Fairfield County, and his son were taken prisoner by the
enemy. As the Continental forces had no captive of equal rank to ex-
change for their General, Captains Lockwood and Hawley and a group
of 25 volunteers set out in a whaleboat from this harbor one December

128 Main Street and Village Green

night. Landing on Long Island, they succeeded in capturing a notorious
Tory, Judge Jones, for whose safe return the British relinquished their
prisoner, General Silliman.

TOUR 3

E. from Main Si. on Congress St. (crossing Pequonnock River); L. from
Congress on Noble Ave.

1 6. Beardsley Park, Noble Ave., extending along the western bank of
the Pequonnock River, includes 234 acres of rolling, wooded land, through
which wind sylvan drives and paths edged with fragrant laurel, kalmia,
azalea and holly. Within the park are a lake, a zoo, an i8-hole golf
course, a greenhouse, tennis courts, and a reproduction of the Anne
Hathaway Cottage (open every day, 9-5, free), set in a formal English
garden.

17. American Fabrics Company (open on application at office), 1069
Connecticut Ave., is 20 times the size of the original plant established
in 1910 by Albert Henkels, owner of a lace factory in Langerford, Ger-
many. It was sold to the present owners by the .Alien Property Cus-
todian during the World War. Runnings, woven labels, and many types
of laces, such as Cluny, Valenciennes, filet and Spanish, are made here.

1 8. Stanley Works (open on application at office), Seaview Ave., producers
of electric tools, are the makers of the 'Magic Eye/ a photo-electric cell
device combined with a pneumatic mechanism that opens and closes
doors without manual aid. Among the best-known installations of the
'Magic Eye' are the doors in the Pennsylvania Station, New York
City, and the 500 ' roll-up ' doors at the Fort Benning barracks, Georgia.

19. The John Brooks House (private) (1788), at 199 Pembroke St., a
frame 'half -house' with a Dutch 'stoop' and little gambrel-roofed ell, is
one of the few Bridgeport old houses in almost original condition. It
retains its interior paneled walls and corner cupboards.

20. The General Electric Plant (open on application at office), Boston Ave.
at Bond St., has been continually enlarged since the company rented
the plant from Remington Arms in 1915 and purchased the property
in 1922. It employs 8000 men and women in the production of domestic
and industrial electric equipment and supplies. Distribution head-
quarters for the products of General Electric plants in other cities are
maintained here.

West of the electric plant are blocks of neat small brick houses built
as a housing development during the days of Bridgeport's rapid growth
during the World War. They helped to inaugurate a new movement
to provide tasteful, comfortable homes of varied design for the workers
who were flocking into the city.

21. The Remington Arms Company (not open), Barnum Ave., with a

Bridgeport 129

plant covering 60 acres and fields for storage of explosives covering 360
acres, owes much of its prestige to the invention of the central-fire
cartridge. The first metallic cartridges were exploded by the pressure
of the hammer on a hollow rim in which a small quantity of high ex-
plosive, known as a priming mixture, was poured. This method of firing
was unsatisfactory as the cartridge case was bent by the crimping and
nicking of the hammer. Another method that would permit a second
or third use of the original cartridge case was sought. On August 6,
1866, the Union Metallic Cartridge Company of Bridgeport produced a
successful central-fire metallic cartridge.

This concern also pioneered in the introduction of the first paper shot-
gun shells in the United States.

During the World War, about two billion standard 30- '06 rifle car-
tridges and 1,218,979,300 rounds of other ammunition were produced
here.

Established here in 1867 under the name Union Metallic Cartridge
Company by the sporting-goods firm of Schuyler, Hartley and Graham
of New York, this firm merged with the Remington Arms Company of
Ilion, New York, in 1912, and has since been known as the Remington
Arms Company, Inc. In 1920, the local plant commenced the production
of pocket cutlery and soon became one of the world's largest manu-
facturers of those products.

In June, 1933, a controlling interest in the plant was purchased by E. I.
du Pont de Nemours and Company. Since that time, Remington has
purchased the patents and designs of the Parker Gun Company of
Meriden. Although frequently associated with military munitions, 98
per cent of the factory's output since the World War has been shotguns
and cartridges for the sporting-goods market.

22. Saltex Looms, Inc. (open on application at office), 217 Kossuth St.,
now owned by American interests, manufactures seal-plush, velvets and
upholstery plushes. This firm was established as the Salts Textile
Manufacturing Company, a branch of Sir Titus Salt, Bart. Sons and
Company Ltd., of Bradford, England.

23. The Bridgeport Brass Company (open on application at office), 774 E.
Main St., fabricators of brass, was organized in 1865 to make brass
clock movements, and later made hoopskirt frames, kerosene parlor
lamps and the first successful kerosene bicycle lamp, exhibited at the
World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893. An offshoot from clock movements
was a spring motor-operated flyfan, forerunner of the modern electric
fan; F. R. Wilmot, superintendent, designed a crude micrometer, and
the company also made incandescent lamp sockets. Bridgeport Brass
Company produced the first copper wire strung between New York and
Boston, made many telephonic improvements, features a 'hard-drawn
wire,' various alloys of high tensile strength, and was a pioneer in the
adaptation of the electric furnace to the brass industry. Duronze, en-
gravers plates, metal bellows for temperature control, galley plates,

130 Main Street and Village Green

tubing, phono-electric trolley wire and sheet brass are among the firm's
products.

24. The Singer Manufacturing Company (open on application at office),
803 E. Washington Ave., now factory No. 10 of the international concern
of that name, which produces sewing machines for factory use, was
originally the Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Company. Organized
in 1853 in Watertown, Connecticut, and moved to Bridgeport in 1856,
the early company manufactured a machine invented by Allen B. Wilson
of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1847. Features of the machine were a
curved, eye-pointed needle, a two-pointed shuttle, which made a stitch
at each forward and backward motion, and a two-motion 'feed.' The
sewing machine which had been previously invented by Howe was ham-
pered by a 'feed ' single-motion which did not allow the operator to change
the direction of the seam. Wilson's patent of 1850 made it possible for
the operator to sew seams of any length at any desired angle. A 'four-
motion feed' was patented by Wilson in 1854. Later, to avoid litiga-
tion, a stationary bobbin was introduced. The concern was taken over
by the Singer Company in 1905. The local plant has not produced ma-
chines for household use for the last 25 years.

25. Underwood Elliott Fisher Company (open on application at office),
575 Broad St., the outgrowth of numerous mergers, produces counting,
billing, and adding machines. More than 15,000 machine parts of
different design, requiring 150,000 separate operations, are produced
here. Among the many accounting machines is one used by automo-
bile finance companies, which figures the number of payments to be
made, the number paid, and the balance due.

26. Warner Brothers Company (open on application at office), 325 La-
fayette St., with branches in London, Paris, Hamburg, Brussels, Barce-
lona, Cape Town, Toronto and Mexico City, has been manufacturing
corsets in Bridgeport since 1876. Among the articles of corsetry
first made here are: the brassiere, the 'corselette,' and the 'two-way
stretch' Lastex woven-fabric garments.

27. The Bryant Electric Company (open on application at office}, 1421
State St., the largest single plant in the world devoted exclusively to
the production of wiring devices, began in a rented loft-workshop in
1889. More than 3000 wiring devices, including plural plugs and switches
of all types, are manufactured here.

28. The Raybestos Division of the Raybestos-Manhattan Company, at
1427 Railroad Ave. (open on application at office), manufacturers of
brake linings and clutch facings, was the firm which contributed a signifi-
cant development in automobile brake design when it manufactured
Raybestos brake lining for the early ' Duplex ' brake.

29. Harvey Hubbell, Inc. (open on application at office), covering two
city blocks at Railroad Ave., State St., and Fairfield Ave., producers of
wiring devices and machine screws, has to its credit the invention of the
pull-socket electric light fixture, the separable attachment plug, the

Danbury 131

T-slotted plug, and a toggle switch. Many of the present-day standards
in electrical equipment are the result of wiring devices originated in this
plant.

30. Bullard Company (open on application at office), 286 Canfield Ave.,
produces automatic machinery for an international market. E. P.
Bullard, trained at both the Colt Armory and the Pratt and Whitney
school of nationally known mechanics, made mechanical history as the
advocate of the vertical boring-mill principle of metal working rather
than of the horizontal, or lathe method. Starting as an inventor and
refiner of the simpler forms, manufacturing a drill press in 1864, Bullard
soon branched out into the multiple-spindle lines, and today his Mult-Au-
Matics meet all high-speed production needs and are key production
units in the factories of the world. Seven of the third generation of the
Bullard family continue as executives of the firm.

DANBURY

City: Alt. 375, pop. 22,261, settled 1684, incorporated 1889.

Railroad Station: Danbury Station, White St. for N.Y., N.H. & H. R.R.
Airport: Privately owned; West Wooster St. (US 7). Sightseeing trips on Sat-
urdays and Sundays. Five minutes by taxi from center of city; taxi fare 50^.

Accommodations: One hotel.

Information Service: Danbury Business Association, 288 Main St.

Annual Events: Danbury Fair, held for one week beginning the first Saturday or

Monday in October.

DANBURY, known as 'the Hat City,' is a lively main-street town that
has outgrown the main street. Summer residents from Candlewood
Lake and workers from the hat factories rub elbows with lanky farm
lads and farm women in gingham who bring in eggs and butter to swap
for merchandise. Grouped about the county court-house, on irregular
building lines, are many small shops, a few brownstone structures,
motion-picture houses, and more green-grocer establishments than seem
warranted in a town of this size. The city sprawls about the country-
side like an overgrown village, seeking room for backyard gardens culti-
vated by hatters in their spare time. Hat factories radiate from the
sites of the water-driven mills of the older generation of hatters, and the
residential sections are on sightly elevations which escape the swamp
mists.
Founded in 1684 and named for the English town, in 1687, by the 'original

132 Main Street and Village Green

Eight Families' who trekked from Norwalk through Sugar Hollow and
over Pandanaram to settle 'Pahquioque,' Danbury was early nick-
named 'Beantown,' because beans grown here were of excellent quality.
Local wagons were quickly recognized, as they passed through other
villages, by the bag of beans on top of their loads. According to one
tradition, the land was purchased from the Indians for one bag of beans.
Place names in the town such as Pinchgut, Mashing Tub Swamp,
Squabble Hill, Cat-tail Mountain, Monkeytown, and Dodgingtown, in-
trigue the imagination, but the stories of their origin seem to have died
with the early settlers.

By 1784 the community was a half-shire town with Bridgeport; it be-
came a borough in 1822, and was chartered as a city in 1889. At the
outbreak of the Revolution the town was an important depot for military
supplies and consequently the objective of Tryon's Raid in 1777. The
British, who had landed at Westport, burned and looted the town, de-
stroying the church, nineteen houses, twenty-two stores and barns, with
all of the military goods. Tory houses, carefully marked, were spared.
The townsfolk hid in the surrounding hills and swamps, while the braver
spirits shouldered squirrel rifles and shotguns and harassed the raiders.
Horse, foot, and guns, the British retreated in good order, fighting an
occasional rear-guard action and leaving but few dead and wounded
along the way. Reparation for damage to private property was granted
Danbury citizens by the distribution of 'Fire Lands' in the Western
Reserve.

Zadoc Benedict established the first beaver-hat factory in America here,
in 1780, and produced three hats per day. The industry developed
rapidly until the city led the entire country in hat production, a position
it still maintains today. Fifty-one of the seventy mills in town are en-
gaged in some branch of the hat industry, and many of the others in
sidelines connected with it, such as the production of paper boxes.

Hats are made from felts which come from the fur of the Australian
rabbit. The hair is sheared from the skins and felted, then the felt is
steamed and shaped. Much of Danbury's production is in these rough
shapes. Many hats are 'taylor made,' on the Taylor hat machine which
turns out a product comparable to the best handmade hat.

The hatters' trade is an unhealthy one, as the workers inhale steam and
various chemical fumes from the vats and there is some danger of mer-
curial poisoning. The craft is highly organized, but increasing mechaniza-
tion of the industry has resulted in unemployment.

The Danbury Hatters' case made court history. In 1902, the Loewe
Hat Shop declared for an open shop, the third such declaration in Dan-
bury history. A strike followed, one of many that have occurred since
1882. The union enforced an effective boycott, and the hatters were
cited to appear in court to answer charges that they were violators of
the Sherman Act. A judgment of $80,000 was handed down against the
union. The case was ultimately carried to the United States Supreme

Danbury 133

Court. In the final decision, reached in 1915, the workers lost the
verdict and 186 union hatters were forced to auction off their homes to
satisfy a court judgment of $300,000 against them. The Loewe firm no
longer operates in Danbury.

Danbury has always been a ' sporting town.' Lotteries have been popular
since 1791, when funds for a jail to replace the burned structure were
raised by lottery. The almshouse was built in 1804 by another lottery,
and the transfer of a hotel by lottery was recorded in 1872, an unusual
real estate transaction but typical of the sporting spirit of Danbury.

Harness horses, the great animals that cover the mile for 'best two out
of three' or ' best three in five ' heats, have been bred in Danbury since
1792. Two-year-olds trotted in the little oval of 'Danbury Pleasure
Park,' and names like Quartermaster, Blue Bells, Quarterstretch, Sable-
nut, Villiers, and Onward will long be remembered in the city.

As a partial balance against the influence of trotting horses and lotteries,
the Sandemanian Church, an offshoot of the old Presbyterian Church
of Scotland, was active in the community. These worshipers opposed
lotteries, observed 'love feasts' and declared for a modified community
of goods. There is no trace of this sect in the city today.

TOUR 1

N. from West St. on Main St.

1. In the Danbury Library (L), 254 Main St., at Library Place, a brick
and stone building (1877-79) designed by Lamb and Wheeler, are the
files of the Danbury News (founded 1865), whose editor, James Mont-
gomery Bailey, 'The Danbury News Man,' Civil War veteran and
columnist, brought it a national reputation by his wit and humor, in-
creasing the paper's circulation from 1920 to 30,000 within nine months.
The murals (1935) in the Children's Room, depicting scenes from famous
stories for children, are the work of the artist and donor, Charles A.
Federer of Bethel, Connecticut.

R. from Main St. on White St.; L. from White St. on Holly's Lane which
becomes Ellsworth Ave.

2. In Wooster Cemetery, Ellsworth Ave., is the grave of General David
Wooster, commander of the Danbury forces during the British raid,
who died from wounds May 2, 1777. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monu-
ment here, dedicated to the unknown heroes of the Civil War, was
modeled by Solon Borglum, 1894.

Return via White St. to Main St.; R. on Main St.

3. The Colonel Joseph Platt Cooke House (private), 342 Main St., which
was visited by Washington, Lafayette, and Rochambeau, was built in
1770 and partially burned by the British seven years later. The front

Danbury 135

portion, with a wide dentiled cornice and pedimented portico, was added
in 1804, and is a handsome though somewhat cramped example of the
period which was experimenting in the use of classical motifs.
L. from Main on Rose; R. from Rose on Rose Hill Ave.

4. The Mallory Hat Company, covering a city block at Rose Hill Ave.
and Franklin St. (open on application at office), was established in the
Dusty Plain region in 1823 when Ezra Mallory produced two hats per
day from local beaver and muskrat fur. The plant's production in 1936
ran to 700 dozens per day, including stiff, soft, straw, and ladies' hat
shapes. This concern attracted considerable attention at one time
during the era of bare heads by refusing to let a bareheaded salesman
interview its purchasing agent.

Return on Franklin to Main; L. on Main.

5. The Asa Hodge House (private) (about 1695), 384 Main St., a tiny
one-and-one-half-story peak-roofed cottage with simple trim, is credited
with being the oldest dwelling in Danbury. Unfortunately, the old stone
chimney is gone; otherwise the house is in practically original condition.

TOUR 2

5. on Main Si. from West St.

6. The County Courthouse (open weekdays 9-5) (1900), 71 Main St.,
designed by Warren Briggs, a substantial brick and granite structure
with two tall sandstone columns, contains exhibits of costumes, antiques,
and war relics. A tablet on a Boulder opposite this building marks the
spot from which the first shot was fired at the British invaders.

7. At the corner of Main and South Sts. is the Site of the Early Episcopal
Church, from which Continental military supplies stored there were
removed to the streets and burned by the British during their raid on
the town in 1777. The church building was untouched because most of
its members were ardent loyalists. It was dismantled and moved to the
southwest corner of South St. and Mountainville Ave., where it serves
as a tenement house.

DANBURY. POINTS OF INTEREST

1. Danbury Library 7. Site of the Early Episcopal Church

2. Wooster Cemetery 8. Milestone

3. Colonel Joseph Platt Cooke 9. Isaac Ives House

House 10. Old Town Cemetery

4. Mallory Hat Company n. Old Brookneld Inn

5. Asa Hodge House 12. Sycamore Tree

6. County Courthouse 13. Hoyt House

136 Main Street and Village Green

8. The Taylor's Tavern Milestone (1789), at the foot of Main St., indi-
cates the distance to Hartford (67 m.), and to New York (68 m.).

R. from Main on West Main; R. from West Main on Terrace Place; R. from
Terrace Place on Chapel Place.

9. The Isaac Ives House (private) (1780), at 8 Chapel Place, a one-and-a-
half-story gambrel-roofed house with a two-and-a-half-story ell, which was
moved from Main St. in 1924, has a pedimented portico and an unusual
beehive fan-light over the door. Heavy strap hinges run the full width of
the door, and the huge lock is original. In this house, a meeting was held,
April 8, 1833, to establish a library for mechanics.

TOUR 3

W. from Main St. on West St.; L. on Division; R. on West Wooster St.

10. In Old Town Cemetery, West Wooster St., between Winthrop Place
and Delta Avenue, the first burial ground of the settlers, is the grave
of Robert Sandeman, founder of the Sandemanian Sect (1764).

11. The Old Brookfield Inn (private}, 105 West Wooster St., an excep-
tionally long, red salt-box house with white trim, has two front doors
and a stone chimney. It was probably built in the latter half of the i7th
or in the early i8th century. The building was moved here from the
Brookfield Iron Works where it served as a tavern. An additional ell
has been built at one end, and wide, modern clapboards used on the front.
The windows have twenty-four lights.

12. A Sycamore Tree, across the street, is believed to be between 300 and
400 years old.

Return on West Wooster to Division St.; L. on Division; L. on Park Ave.

13. The Hoyt House (private) (1750-60), 16 Park Ave., a steep-roofed, low-
ceilinged dwelling, served as a hospital during the Revolution. Human
skeletons have been found in the yard, the remains of those who died of
a contagious disease and were hastily buried lest others contract the
plague. Built on a hillside, one end of the building is one-and-a-half
stories high, and the other is two-and-a-half stories. The dwelling has
been remodeled, but retains its original steep roof.

OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

The Danbury Fair Grounds, between Park and Lake Aves., is the scene
of the Danbury Fair, held the first week in October, which is believed
to attract more visitors than any other six fairs in Connecticut and is
surpassed by only one in all New England. Exhibitors from throughout

Fairfield 137

the East bring their best cattle, poultry, and stock to Danbury. The
racing card is a good one; a day is devoted to dirt- track auto racing.
The circus atmosphere of the midway carries over to the infield directly
across from the modern grandstand, where, to the disgust of trotting
fans, ladies in pink tights swing from the flying trapeze and dancing
bears perform.

Fairs were held in Danbury as early as 1821 and the present fair grounds
were purchased in 1871. At the Kenosia Trotting Park, on this site, in
1860, in a historic race in which each heat was faster than the one pre-
ceding, Flora Temple won from Widow McChree in 2.39, 2.37, 2.33.
The Frank H. Lee Hat Company (open on application at office), on Shelter
RockRd. and Power St., covering two city blocks, is among the largest
of Danbury's many hat plants and has its origin in the old Glen Factory
in Bethel. Moved to Danbury in 1890, this plant is now a leader in the
industry, manufacturing soft and stiff hats and hatters' fur.

Points of Interest in Environs:

Lake Candlewood, 6.3 m., State 37 (boating, swimming, picnicking)
(see Side Tour 4 A); Wooster Mt. State Park, 2.9 m., US 7 (see
Tour 4).

FAIRFIELD

Town: Alt. 10, pop. 17,218, sett. 1639.

Railroad Station: Foot of Sanford St. for N.Y., N.H. & H. R.R.

Taxis: 15j first \ m. ; 5^ each additional m.

Accommodations: One hotel; several inns.

Information Service: Fairfield Historical Society, Post Road; Fairfield Public

Library, Post Road; Southport Library, Old Post Road.

Swimming: Fairfield Beach.

FAIRFIELD, an old Colonial town on the King's Highway, has retained
many of its early characteristics around the 'Meeting-House Green'
and the 'Village Green' that are by-passed by US 1. The King's High-
way swung sharply south to serve the older Fairfield; the newer Post
Road cuts straight across the township through the modern trading
district, avoiding the curves of the rather narrow old thoroughfare
marked by Benjamin Franklin when he placed milestones between
New York and Boston in 1753.

At the business center on the modern highway, where through traffic is
heavy twenty-four hours a day, are small neat shop buildings, a motion-

138 Main Street and Village Green

picture theater, a modern brick bank building of Colonial design, and a
library. In sharp contrast is the old town center, one block south. There,
beneath the shade of towering elms, eighteenth and nineteenth century
mansions, set back from the road on wide lawns, border the winding
streets about the old white Town House.

Around the edges of the township, especially on the eastern boundary,
industry has made use of lands not suited to residential purposes. No
industry intrudes into the peaceful village itself, and very few of the
local residents find employment in these plants. The total number of
employees gainfully employed in factories in Fairfield is well under 3000.
The manufacturing area merges with that of the sister community of
Bridgeport, where most of the mill employees make their homes. One
and two-thirds miles east of the center of the village are four large plants,
with some two thousand employees: McKesson and Robbins, chemical
plant; Handy and Harmon, smelting and refining of gold and silver;
Max Ams Machine Company, can-making machinery; and the Porcupine
Company, structural steel. Three quarters of a mile west of the center
are two other important plants: the Dupont Fabrikoid Company, pro-
ducing waterproof automobile cloth; and the United States Aluminum
Company, a casting plant.

Originally known to the Indians as Uncoway (corrupted to Unquowa),
the fertile fields of this area first came to the attention of Yankee pioneers
July 13, 1637, when a band of Connecticut troops under Roger Ludlow
pursued the fleeing Pequots from their burned fort in Mystic (see Tour 1)
to their doom in the Great Swamp Fight (see Tour 1). Two years later
Ludlow returned with a party of settlers from Windsor, who were later
joined by colonists from Watertown and Concord.
The land was twice purchased from the Pequonnock Indians, on May n,
1639, and on June 24, 1649; a quitclaim deed was obtained from the
Sasco Indians, February n, 1661. Named possibly in a descriptive sense,
or for Fairfield in Kent, the settlement soon received a patent. Antici-
pating the confiscatory methods of Sir Edmund Andros, who claimed all
unoccupied lands for the Crown, the territory was divided into lots which
ran from the shore inland for about ten miles. As each settler's house
occupied the front of a lot, the landholder maintained that the whole was
occupied. All measurements were calculated down to the inch, showing
an unusual accuracy for that day. A mile of common was reserved in the
center of the township, where the village of Greenfield Hill (see side-trip
from Tour 1) now stands. There ' train bands ' were drilled under officers
who had fought in all the Indian Wars. Much of the original town has
since been annexed by the neighboring towns of Westport, Weston, Red-
ding, Easton, and Bridgeport.

The town had a good harbor at Black Rock, now a part of Bridgeport,
and another at Southport (see Tour 1A). Much shipping resulted from
the agricultural development of the area. The average farmer tilled at
least 150 acres of fertile soil, valued in the early nineteenth century at
$100 an acre.

Fairfield 139

During the Revolution Captain Samuel Smedley, a Fairfield youth who
became distinguished on the high seas, commanded a privateer at the
age of fifteen, and by the end of the Revolution had more prize ships to
his credit than any other privateer or naval officer. On April 20, 1777,
when returning to port badly damaged with four prizes in tow, his ship,
the 'Defense,' sighted the British corvette 'Cyrus.' Though already
manning the pumps to keep his ship afloat, and with half his men sick
with smallpox, Smedley engaged and captured the 'Cyrus.' When the
British commander surrendered he was amazed at the youth of his victor,
exclaiming, 'There is little hope of conquering an enemy whose very
schoolboys are capable of valor equaling that of trained veterans of
naval warfare.'

On July 7, 1779, the village was burned by British raiders under General
Tryon. Driving the militiamen back to the hills, the British looted the
village and put it to the torch during a severe thunderstorm. About 200
houses were destroyed and the resulting bitterness aided recruiting of
the Continental Line. Whaleboat crews conducted reprisals upon the
Tories of Long Island, and many Fairfield sailors sought vengeance upon
British shipping.

Fairfield early became a center of vigorous intellectual life. Here lived
the ancestors of the brilliant Joel Barlow (see Literature), who studied law
here and was admitted to the Fairfield bar. Dr. Sereno Dwight, president
of Hamilton College, and Professor Benjamin Silliman, who has been
called 'the Nestor of American Science,' were also residents. Numerous
jurists and men prominent in military affairs made their homes in Fair-
field and their guests included eminent scholars and statesmen.

TOUR

E. from Unquowa Rd. on New Post Rd.

1. The Fairfield Memorial Library (open 9-8:30), SE. cor. Unquowa Rd.
and New Post Rd., in a two-story brick building with limestone trim, was
organized and incorporated in 1876. Memorial Hall, on the second floor,
is notable for its panels commemorating early settlers. One wing of the
building is devoted to the exhibits of the Fairfield Historical Society,
which include many rare old books, early town documents, and maps.

2. Surrounded by lilac bushes, the Isaac Hull House (open), 573 New
Post Rd., now a shop, is a weathered gray, two-story, double end-
chimneyed house. Under construction by Isaac Hull in 1779, at the time
of the burning of the town, it remained but half finished until 1790 when
it was completed by the Rev. Andrew Eliot. The interior woodwork is
of both the Georgian and post-Colonial type as shown in the raised panel-
ing of the room to the left of the hall and the sunken paneling of the
room on the right.

Fairfield 141

R. from New Post Rd. on Benson Rd.

3. Brigadier General Elijah Abel House (private) (1780), NE cor. Benson
Rd. and Old Post Rd., was operated as a tavern during Civil War days
by the Benson family. The old inn sign, which now hangs in the garret,
reads, * Benson House The Union Must be Preserved/

R. from Benson Rd. on Old Post Rd.

4. Jennings Gardens (open 9 to sunset), public entrance on Beach Rd., on
the grounds of Sunnie Holme, the estate of Miss Annie B. Jennings, have
the largest and most beautiful displays of flowering shrubs in the State.

5. Major William Silliman House (private), of 1786-91, 405 Old PostRd.,
is a large end-chimneyed structure with wide, flat cornice, bare of mould-
ings, very narrow clapboarding, and a central entrance covered by a
gracefully curved portico supported by slender columns. When a boy,
Major Silliman was taken prisoner by the British at Holland Hill.

L. from Old Post Rd. on Beach Rd.

6. Isaac Tucker House (private) (1766), 19 Beach Rd., though set on fire
when the town was burned, was saved by a Negro servant who had
hidden in the attic. It has an asymmetrical plan frequently found in
Fairfield, with a corner hall approached now through a later fan-lighted
doorway.

7. Justin Hobart House (private) (1765), 33 Beach Rd., though remodeled
retains much of its original form; it is a square, two-chimney house with
dentiled cornice, shutters, and a modern sun-porch and portico. Church
meetings and court sessions were held here after the burning of the town,
until the meeting house was rebuilt in 1785.

8. Nathan Bulkeley House (private), 37 Beach Rd., is another pre-
Revolutionary house built in the prevailing Fairfield mode with two
windows on one side of the door and one on the other. The portico is

FAIRFIELD. POINTS OF INTEREST

1. Fairfield Memorial Library 14. Rowland House

2. Isaac Hull House 15. Milestone

3. Brigadier General Elijah Abel 16. Augustus Jennings House

House 17. David Ogden House

4. Jennings Gardens 18. Stone Powder House

5. Major William Silliman House 19. Pulpit Rock

6. Isaac Tucker House 20. Bird Sanctuary

7. Justin Hobart House 21. 'Uncle Ben ' Wakeman House

8. Nathan Bulkeley House 22. Isaac Jennings House

9. Old Burying Ground 23. General Gold Selleck Silliman

10. Town House House

11. Sun Tavern 24. Fairfield Beach

12. Fairfield Academy 25. Penfield Reef

13. Thaddeus Burr House

142 Main Street and Village Green

1 9th century. It was the home of Dr. Jeremiah T. Dennison, an early
homeopath who was relentlessly persecuted. The house was used as a
mess hall by British troops during the occupation.

9. The Old Burying Ground (R), Beach Rd., enclosed by a stone wall and
entered by a lich-gate, contains gravestones dating from 1687 and the
graves of more than 100 Revolutionary soldiers.

Retrace on Beach Rd.; L. from Beach Rd. on the Old Post Rd.

10. The Town House, cor. Old Post Rd. and Beach Rd. (L), on the
Green, was built in 1794. The central portion, a dignified, hip-roofed,
white clapboard structure surmounted by a white belfry, has been re-
stored to the original lines. Restoration in 1937 included the addition of
wings at either end to provide ofiice space. At the western end of the
Green was formerly a pond in which suspected witches were given ' trial
by water.' If they floated they were believed to be guilty, but if they sank
they were judged innocent. Here Mercy Disbrow and Elizabeth Clawson
were bound and thrown into the water. According to records of the time,
'they buoyed up like a cork. 7 At the edge of the Green stands the old
Town Sign Post, still in use.

11. Sun Tavern (private) on the southern edge of the Green (L), about
400 feet back from Old Post Rd., built by Samuel Penfield in 1780 and
maintained as an inn until 1818, is an exceptionally narrow, high gambrel-
roofed house with twin chimneys and three original dormers. The fluted
pilasters of the entrance doorway lend an air of dignity. Washington's
diary says he spent the night here, October 16, 1789. The third floor
contains an early ballroom.

12. F airfield Academy (private] (1804), Old Post Rd., west of St. Paul's
Church, was nationally famous for more than a hundred years. Its
simplicity and symmetry are typical of the post-Colonial period when
conscious design was beginning to affect building. It is essentially a two-
story, peak-roofed building, and has a central gable slightly projecting
from the front. Where the two roofs meet is a simple open cupola. The
flat-topped entrances in the wings contrast with the pedimented door-
way in the projecting section.

13. Thaddeus Burr House (private) (L). Old Post Rd. between Beach and
Penfield Rds., surrounded by lofty elms, is a house whose present appear-
ance belies its age. Built in 1790 to replace the original Burr Homestead,
destroyed during the British invasion, it was modeled after the famous
Hancock House in Boston, and all of the glass for the windows was the
gift of John Hancock. The heavy colonnaded portico of Tuscan order,
the front doorway, and the third story were added about 1840. In the
garden is a hedge of very old arbor vitae. In the original homestead,
John Hancock and Dorothy Quincy were married, August 8, 1775. Doro-
thy had been a visitor here during the siege of Boston and carried on a
gay flirtation with Col. Aaron Burr, much to the discomfort of her fiance.
R. from Old Post Rd. on Unquowa Rd.

14. Rowland House, 570 Old Post Rd. (private), with a peak roof and

Fairfield 143

an entrance at the left corner, built prior to 1769, has unfortunately been
considerably remodeled and now has the appearance of a 19th-century
house. During the British invasion it was saved by a British officer who
had once been entertained in it. Many old and important documents and
town records were later discovered in a chest in the attic.
L.from Unquowa on New Post Rd.; R.from New Post Rd. on Mill Plain Rd.

15. The old Milestone (R), on Mill Plain Rd., about 1500 feet north
of the Post Rd., is one of the stones placed along the old coach routes by
Benjamin Franklin in 1753, and is inscribed *F XX M N H.' (Fairfield.
20 miles to New Haven.)

1 6. Augustus Jennings House (private), on Mill Plain Rd. (L), between
the Post Rd., and Sturges Rd., built in 1760 and painted white, has a
rather interesting exterior, with the northern end shingled, and the
southern portion clapboarded, except for the flush boarding which covers
the main facade at the first story. The porches and short Doric columns
at the entrances are later additions. The dwelling was saved in 1779 by
Lucretia Redfield who put out four fires started by the British.

L.from Mill Plain Rd. on Sturges Rd.; R.from Sturges Rd. on Bronson Rd.

17. The David Ogden House, Bronson Rd. (R), near the entrance to
Oak Lawn Cemetery, was built in 1705. Furnished with antiques and
with old-fashioned flower-beds beside it, this house has been restored
with unusual skill. Its primitive framing, its L-shaped brick chimney
and sparse paneling, and a narrow porch with low turned balusters are
its principal features.

1 8. The Stone Powder House of 1812 (private), on Unquowa Rd. (L),
north from New Post Rd., at the rear of 'Roger Ludlow High School, is
on a plot of land known as 'The Rocks' because of its rugged nature.
This storehouse for munitions was doubtless built of stones taken from
the home of Dr. Laborie, which had crumbled to ruins. Dr. Laborie,
surgeon and preacher, was noted for his missionary work with the Indians.

19. From the rustic pulpit on Pulpit Rock (L), Unquowa Rd., diagonally
opposite the Roger Ludlow High School, Dr. Samuel Osgood, D.D.,
preached to audiences gathered in the street and field beyond, during the
Civil War. An inscription, 'God, and our Country, 1862,' was cut deep
in the rock by a recruit on the eve of his departure for the front. W 'aid-
stein, Dr. Osgood's home, stands close by amid cedars, on the rocky ledge.

20. The Bird Sanctuary (open Tues., Thurs. and Sun., 2-5), on Unquowa
Rd. (R), a short distance north of Roger Ludlow High School, covering
some 10 acres given by Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, is now maintained
by the National Audubon Society. Here, in their natural surroundings,
birds native to Connecticut are protected and fed throughout the year.
A museum contains many stuffed native birds.

21. ' Uncle Ben' Wakeman House (private), 546 North Benson Rd., built
in 1800, was a rendezvous for a group of early Connecticut peddlers on
their journeys through the eastern states. This white clapboarded, peak-

144 Main Street and Village Green

roofed homestead has an unusually fine doorway, recessed about one
foot with simple soffit panels and narrow fluted pilasters.

22. Isaac Jennings House (private), NW. cor. Round Hill and Barlow
Rds., is a story-and-a-half gambrel-roofed dwelling (about 1780), with
red clapboarded walls and a flaring Dutch hood over the door.

23. General Gold Selleck Silliman House (private), Jennings Rd., cor.
Hunyadi St., 2 blocks west of Black Rock Turnpike, a large, white,
central-chimney clapboarded structure, originally shingled, was built in
1756. The modern door, a reproduction, and wide eaves considerably
change its appearance. It was from this homestead that General Silliman
of Revolutionary War fame was captured by the British and taken to
Long Island, and here, that Professor Silliman of Yale (1779-1864), the
scientist, was born.

24. Fair field Beach, end of Beach Rd., is one of the safest and most at-
tractive beaches along the shores of Long Island Sound.

25. Penfield Reef is a natural breakwater pushing out from Fairfield
Beach a mile into the Sound; this narrow, rocky reef has been the scene
of many wrecks. During severe storms, the Reef Light is almost sub-
merged by the furious waves.

Point of Interest in Environs:

Greenfield Hill, Timothy Dwight's first Academy, 3.3 m. (see side-
trip off Tour 1).

FARMINGTOIST

Town: Alt. 200, pop. 4548, sett. 1640, incorp. 1645.
Accommodations: One inn.

Information Service: Farmington Museum, High St., Barney Memorial Library,
School St.

Annual Events: Winter Carnival, held in January or February at the athletic
field, Unionville Road, 3 m. from Farmington center; admission 50^.

FARMINGTON, once a busy trading center, is a residential town of
leisurely social life, known for its beautiful tree-shaded streets and stately,
well preserved old houses. An aristocrat among towns, it holds itself
aloof from the hurry and bustle of the work-a-day world, secure in its
background of tradition, culture and wealth.

Often called the 'mother of towns,' because it formerly included land
which has been divided into nine other towns, Farmington was settled in

Farmington 145

1640 by a party of colonists from Hartford, a year after Captain John
Mason had been sent by the three river towns of Hartford, Wethersfield,
and Windsor to explore the region then inhabited by the Tunxis Indians.
Five years later, the settlement was incorporated and named Farmington,
probably for the English Farmington in Gloucester, though the name may
have been suggested by the occupation of the settlers.

After the Revolution, the town entered upon a period of industrial activity
which continued throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth cen-
turies. In 1802 and 1803, 15,000 yards of linen were manufactured, and
2500 hats were made by Timothy Root's shop on Hatter's Lane; leather
goods were being made in four shops, and muskets and buttons were
manufactured. Other industries were operated by clockmakers, silver,
gold, and tinsmiths; candlemakers, carriage-builders and cabinet-makers,
whose products were shipped to the South and peddled through the States
by Yankee peddlers. During this period the Farmington East India
Company did a thriving shipping business, and the town became a
prosperous mercantile center.

The opening of the Farmington Canal through this section in 1828 brought
increased trade and prosperity to the town, which continued until 1848
when the waterway was closed because of landslides. At present, Farm-
ington's commercial activity includes only small local stores and a few
wayside tea rooms. Its principal industries are dairying and agriculture.

TOUR

Junction of Main St. and Farmington Ave.

1. The Rochambeau Monument, a bronze plaque on a boulder in a small
park at the junction of Main St. and Farmington Ave., commemorates
the encampment of the French General's troops within the town in 1781.

E. from the Monument on Farmington Ave.

2. The Elm Tree Inn (open), first block on the north side of Farmington
Ave. (L), a brick and frame structure, was erected after the Revolution
around a 17th-century house where Philip Lewis started an inn in 1665.
The rear ell encloses the original building in which is preserved a large
kitchen fireplace. The west end of the house is still covered with beaded
clapboards and an interior wall is finished with feather-edged boards.

3. The Whitman Tavern (private), SW. cor. Farmington Ave. and High
St. (R), a yellow, two-and-a-half story, clapboarded house, is a typical
example of a sturdy central-chimney dwelling of the i8th century. Built
by Captain Judah Woodruff, Farmington's master-builder, in 1786, it
served as a shop for journeymen shoemakers from 1812 to 1854, and
later housed the village library. In 1791 it was sold to William Whitman,
whose descendants own the building.

146 Main Street and Village Green

R. from Farmington Ave. on High St.

4. The Samuel Whitman House (open daily except Monday; adm.
(L), now the Farmington Museum, first block on High St., is a carefully
restored 17th-century dwelling. One of the oldest frame houses in the
State (about 1660), it is easily recognized by its gray-brown, unstained
oak clapboards, its 1 8-inch overhang, and narrow casement windows.
They look curious and inadequate to a traveler today, but in the iyth
century when glass was at a premium, a house furnished with double
or triple casement sash brought from England was luxurious indeed. Two
of the four exterior doors are studded.

Exhibits of note are: collections of old deeds and documents; musical
instruments used in the church choir; an old hymnal printed in Farming-
ton; old china, including pieces of Lowestoft formerly owned by the Cowles
family; and some silver made by Martin Bull of Farmington. A collection
of lamps contains a 'courting lamp/ which timed the length of a suitor's
visit.

5. The Judd Homestead (private) (1697), High St. (L), beyond the Samuel
Whitman House, is a broad, low, gambrel-roofed house with wide clap-
board siding, typical of the late 17th-century frame dwellings.

R. from High St. on Mountain Road; L. from Mountain Road on School St.

6. The Barney Memorial Library (open week-days) (R), first block on
School St., has several interesting exhibits, including a collection of birds'
eggs which is one of the finest in the country. Presented by Harry Curtiss
Mills, the collection includes more than 8000 eggs of 843 species, among
them eggs of the dwarf screech owl, the only known specimens on exhi-
bition in the United States.

Return on School St.; L. on Mountain Road; R. on Main Street to a drive-
way halfway up the first block; R. on the driveway.

7. The brown shingled Gleason House (private) (about 1660), behind the
dwellings on Main Street, is one of the few houses with a framed overhang
still standing in the State. Although the usual drops have been cut off
the 1 8-inch overhang, their bases with gouge carving and two of the
original brackets remain.

Return on Main Street; L. on Main Street.

8. Miss Porter 1 s School both sides of Main St., at Mountain Road, an
exclusive, nationally-known finishing school for girls, was founded in
Farmington in 1844 by Miss Sarah Porter, sister of Noah Porter, Jr.,
eleventh president of Yale, and Samuel Porter, a leader in education for
deaf mutes. The main building (about 1828) of the institution, which
has an interesting irregularity in the placement of its windows, was
erected for a hotel at the time of the opening of the Canal.

9. The Samuel Deming House (private) (R), next to Miss Porter's School,
built in 1768 by Judah Woodruff, has a double overhang and unusual
wooden leader heads under a delicate cornice.

Farmington 147

10. The Gad Cowles House (private) (L), on the grounds of Miss Porter's
School, opposite the Deming House, dates from 1799. It is the earliest,
as well as the largest, of a group of houses which are as typical of 19th-
century Farmington dwellings as the framed overhang is of the iyth
century. In the tall gable-end facing the street is a Palladian window
above an elaborate cornice, supported by tall fluted Ionic pilasters. In
one corner of this facade, the delicate detail of a small open porch con-
trasts with the grand scale of the house. A portico, on the southern
wing, with four free-standing columns is the most imposing feature of the
building.

11. The Congregational Church (1771), Main St. (L), beyond the Cowles
house, is one of the few Colonial buildings of which the architect's name
is known. He was Captain Judah Woodruff, builder of much that was
good in Farmington. The unusually tall steeple of the church, topped
with an open-belfry spire, is universally admired as a masterpiece of
Georgian-Colonial architecture. The main entrance, placed in the middle
of one side in accordance with iSth-century practice, is now obscured
by a later Doric portico. The massive scale of the entrance is notable.
The impression of great height is due to the narrow graduated clapboard-
ing which materially affects the scale and, in part, to the distance be-
tween the first- and second-story windows. It is easy to believe that the
Colonial architect, like the Gothic, tried to give his churches a sense of
loftiness that houses of the Colonial period lacked. If so, it was a definite
spiritual expression that later, more conventionalized generations forgot.
The height of rooms increased in their houses, decreased in their churches.

12. A driveway to the right of the church leads to the Grange Hall,
once the Academy (1816), which is distinguished by a delicate octagonal
belfry on the lower ell at the north end.

R. from Main St. on Mill Lane.

13. The Old Grist Mill, still grinding corn, at the end of Mill Lane, on
the east bank of the Farmington River, was erected by the Cowles
family about 1778. At one time owned by the late Winchell Smith,
noted playwright, it attracted national attention many years ago when
the motion picture ' Way Down East ' was filmed here. Hoping to make
Connecticut a grain-raising State, Mr. Smith bought expensive harvesting
machinery and encouraged the farmers to plant rye, wheat and buck-
wheat on contract for him; he failed in the marketing of his various
ground flours and mixtures and turned to grinding cowfeeds and mid-
dlings.

Return on Mill Lane; R. on Main St.

14. The Major Timothy Cowles House (private} (1815) (L), SE. cor. Main
and Church Sts., belongs to the elaborate, Greek Revival group of dwellings
beginning with the house of Gad Cowles, which made Farmington famous
in the early i9th century. Projecting two-story porticoes of ornate and
over-delicate Ionic detail face front, north and south. A Palladian window
is almost lost from view over the front door; and a doorway, excellent in

148 Main Street and Village Green

design, is crowded into the angle of the north wing. An over emphasis
upon well-executed form, often to the detriment of the whole effect, is
characteristic of the Greek Revival.

15. The Simon Hart House (private) (1804) (L), Main St. just above
Col ton St., designed in the simplicity of the best early ipth-century
architecture, is long and spacious. On the gable end which faces the
street is an open Doric portico typical of that period.

16. The Rev. Noah Porter House (private), SW. cor. Maple and Main
Sts., the birthplace of the Porter family, was built of brick in 1808
(without the third story) by the Rev. Noah Porter, who was for 60 years
pastor of the Congregational Church. The first meeting of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was held here in 1810.
Here were born Noah, Samuel, and Sarah Porter (see above).

R. from Main St. on Maple St.

1,7. The Riverside Cemetery, one block west on Maple St., on the site
of an Indian burying ground, ? contains a large, brown sandstone
monument erected in 1840 in honor of the Tunxis tribe of Indians.
Another monument commemorates the Civil War dead. One of the
Mendi captives, who died in Farmington while awaiting trial for mutiny,
is buried here. The inscription on the stone reads: 'Foone. A native
African who was drowned while bathing in the Center Basin August
1841. He was one of the company of slaves under Cinque on board the
schooner " Amistad" who asserted their rights and took possession of the
vessel after having put the Captain, Mate and others to death, sparing
their Masters Ruez, and Mantez.'

Return on Maple St.; R. on Main St.

1 8. The General George Cowles House (private) (1803), beyond the Porter
Homestead on the west side of Main St., an imposing mansion, has a
rather plain brick front relieved only by a recessed arched entrance,
unusual in the detail of its downward tapering columns between the door
and the side-lights. On the southern facade, which faces Hatter's Lane, is
a two-story Ionic portico and a Palladian window in the gable above.

19. Opposite the Cowles House lies the Old Cemetery (L), with an en-
trance in the Egyptian style once much used in Connecticut. The oldest
stone dates from 1685.

20. The Samuel Cowles House (private), SW. cor. Main St. and Meadow
Rd., a large gambrel-roofed house with corner quoins, bracketed cornices,
and round-headed gable windows of the English Georgian type, is named
Oldgate from its entrance gate of modified Chinese design. It is not only
the most elaborate house in Farmington, but interesting also because it
is the first house in the State (1780) that brought into the plain provincial
art of the time the influences of the classical renaissance as developed in
the English Georgian. It is evidently not the work of a local architect.
Woodruff, whose work was contemporary, never attempted a facade
like this, which focuses upon a handsome projecting pediment supported

Greenwich 149

on four Ionic columns. Above it, pilasters frame a well-designed Palla-
dian window in the second story. Tradition has it that the design was by
a British army officer, an architect named William Spratt, who was im-
prisoned in Farmington for two years. The design of this facade brought
Spratt his reputation, and other West Indian merchantmen in Litchfield
and East Haddam subsequently employed him. This same motif appears
on many other buildings, and sometimes in a debased form was copied in
many a village of western Connecticut. The small Dutch-roof ell at the rear
was the home (1661) of Farmington's first minister, the Rev. Samuel
Hooker, son of the Rev. Thomas Hooker who founded Hartford, and
grandfather of the wife of Jonathan Edwards.

21. Another house, contemporary and very simple in contrast with the
elegance of Oldgate, but with clear-cut lines and an aspect of serenity,
is the General Solomon Cowles House (1784), on the next or southwest
corner. It is a square house with a hip roof and long piazza.

22. The Isaac Cowles House (private), built in 1735, on the east side of
Main St. (L), facing Meadow Rd., has a double overhang and a well-
designed doorway, in which the pilaster caps have been strangely omitted.
The very unusual cornice has small carved panels between the brackets.

23. The remains of the John Cole Homestead (private) (R), west side of
Main St. at Tunxis St., have been made into two dwellings. Built in 1661,
the structure was the first of the 17th-century houses for which Farming-
ton is famous. Many generations ago the original house was cut in two
by two sons who quarreled after the property was bequeathed to them.
The southernmost section is on the original stone foundation; its two-
foot framed overhang is original. The other half, moved a short distance,
has a new overhang built in on the long side facing the road.

GREENWICH

Town: Alt. 60, tax borough pop. 5981, sett. 1640.

Railroad Station: Greenwich Station, Railroad Ave. at Greenwich Ave. for

N.Y., N.H. & H. R.R.

Piers: Public Dock, Steamboat Road for Island Beach boats, May 30 to Labor

Day (10^ for residents; 25?f for non-residents; Sun. and holidays 500).

Accommodations: Three hotels.

Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 34 East Putnam Ave.

Swimming: Byram Park, East Port Chester; Island Beach in the Sound, reached

by boat from Public Dock; Milbrook Country Club (private).

Bridle Paths: Several miles of marked bridle paths form a network winding

150 Main Street and Village Green

through the northern section of the town, passing through some of the finest
estates in the vicinity.

Annual Events: The Scottish Games Association holds an athletic and folk dance
competition July 4.

GREENWICH, with approximately six miles of coast line along the
Sound, is essentially an urban community of the New York metropolitan
area with a sophisticated suburban atmosphere, quite unlike the typical
Connecticut town. The home of many prominent figures in New York
social and financial life, Greenwich is distinguished by its palatial land-
scaped estates in a natural setting of rolling hills and coves, bays, rivers,
and lakes.

Modern shops and large hotels are clustered in the elm-shaded business
district. Residential sections stretch southward to the irregular, rock-
ridged shore of Long Island Sound, and northward into the hilly country-
side. On the outskirts are the districts known as Old Greenwich, site of
the original settlement, which has preserved many of its early home-
steads; Riverside, where reside many wealthy persons; Milbrook, center
of extensive estates about the Milbrook Golf and Country Club ; and the
residential sections known as Belle Haven, Rock Ridge, and Round Hill.

Settled in 1640 by Daniel Patrick and Robert Feaks, agents of the New
Haven Colony, who purchased the land from the Indians for twenty-
five coats, the community, named for the English Greenwich, was re-
garded as of strategic importance, as it represented the most westerly
thrust of the English toward the Dutch settlement at New Amsterdam.
The Director General of the New Netherlands immediately served notice
that the land was rightfully under his jurisdiction. Fearing attack from
the Indians, whose friendliness had turned to hostility, and hoping for
protection from the Dutch, Captain Patrick signed a treaty at New
Amsterdam in April, 1642, wherein the Mianus River between Stamford
and Greenwich was agreed upon as the western boundary of Connecticut.
Disputes over the boundary continued. In 1650, the Dutch, in a treaty
signed at Hartford, ceded Greenwich to Connecticut, but the jurisdiction
of territory farther west was disputed for many years.

During the Revolutionary War, the Continental salt works at Green-
wich were destroyed, and homes were plundered and burned when the
town was attacked by General Tryon and a force of 1200 British and
Hessian soldiers. General Putnam and a force of 100 militiamen at-
tempted a defense, but were forced to retreat.

Industry has never been an important factor in the development of the
town, although considerable shipping and shipbuilding were carried on
in the early nineteenth century, when agricultural products, especially
large cargoes of potatoes, were shipped to New York from this port.
With the advent of the railroad and subsequent development of farm-
lands to the west of New York, Greenwich agricultural activities were
greatly curtailed.

EARLY CHURCHES OF
CONNECTICUT

THE theocratic state was the origin of Connecticut's first
government, and the church was always the most important
feature of her early architecture.

The oldest churches that remain anywhere near intact are a
group from just before the Revolution, in Farmington, Weth-
ersfield, and Brooklyn. Something of the Gothic aspiration
for height is to be found in them. The tower is offset, at one
end of the building, and after one or two belfry stages, open
and closed, terminates in a narrow, tapering spire. The en-
trance is at the side, opposite the pulpit.

With the movement toward the Classic Revival, church archi-
tecture began in the early nineteenth century to borrow more
and more of ancient forms. Town's building for Center
Church, New Haven (1812-14), was the precursor of the
' golden age' of Connecticut churches. An adapted Renais-
sance portico now projects from the front of the building, and
the steeple rises back of this entrance gable, most of it from
within the main edifice of the church. As time went on, the
steeple moved backward, as it were, into the church building,
and the portico became more and more a separate compo-
sition.

David Hoadley did more than any other man to influence this
finest period from 1815 to 1830. Four very similar churches
culminated in Litchfield (1829) sometimes considered the
perfect example although Col. Samuel Belcher's church at
Old Lyme (1817), now reconstructed, is an artists' favorite.
Country churches, as in Killingworth, often achieved more
charming results from their very simplicity. Plymouth
Church, Milford (1834), represents the later, severer tend-
ency of the Classic Revival. Often this was a careful copy-
ing; sometimes, as in the stone Congregational Church at
East Granby, a more spontaneous, free rendering brought
about an unexpected attractive result.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, FARMINGTON

CONGREGATIONAL CHTJUCIf, WETHER SFTELD

CENTER CHURCH, NEW HAVEN

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, LITCHFIELD

fc&l

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, OLD LYME

IIIIII
I II I I

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, KILLINGWORTH

PLYMOUTH CHURCH, MILFORD

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, EAST GRANBY

Greenwich 151

Each year on July 4, at the Charles A. Moore estate, is held an inter-
national celebration of the Scottish Games Association. Bagpipe bands
vie for prizes, and contestants from Scotland, Australia, the United
States, and Canada participate in tossing the caber as well as in native
dances such as the Highland Fling, sword dance, and foursome reel.

MOTOR TOUR

S. from US 1 on Greenwich Ave. to Steamboat Road.

i. Bruce Museum (open daily during daylight hours; free), in Bruce Park
at end of Steamboat Road, a four-story, square, stone house of 1850,
with no adornment except an abbreviated French tower, is devoted to
exhibits of natural history, art, and history.

Formerly the Bruce estate, the 80 acres and residence were bequeathed
to the town by Robert M. Bruce in 1908. The museum is under the
direction of Mr. Paul G. Howes, who was formerly with the American
Museum of Natural History. Mr. Howes, chief photographer with the
scientist William Beebe on the Kalacoon Expedition to British Guiana,
collected many of the specimens exhibited.

On the first floor are a herbarium, in which blossoms of shrubs native to
Connecticut are reproduced in wax, an art department, and a collection
of mammals. Specimens of the wild animals of Connecticut are shown
against authentic backgrounds. In addition there are many North
American, Australian, and Asiatic specimens.

An ornithological collection occupies the second floor. Here, expertly
mounted native birds are classified in four large groups illustrating the
four seasons: spring in the woods, summer at the shore, autumn and
winter in the woods. An exhibit of birds' nests and eggs has been col-
lected from many parts of the world. An extensive entomological col-
lection, including thousands of local and foreign specimens, is also dis-
played on the second floor.

A variety of collections occupies the third floor: gems and minerals from
various countries; fossils illustrating the history of life on the earth;
models showing the evolution of the horse from his tiny ancestor; and
extinct reptiles of the Connecticut Valley. A collection of Indian relics
includes arrowheads, agricultural implements, and specimens of bead-
work and paintings. An American historical collection includes many
relics of Colonial days.

At the end of the Point is the Indian Harbor Yacht Clubhouse, a large
stucco building in Italian style with tile roofs. On the peninsula to the
east, the elaborate villa of the late Commodore Elias C. Benedict stands
near the site of the headquarters of 'Boss' Tweed's 'Americus Club of
New York.' The Tweed estate (1865) stretched from this point to the
Post Road.

152 Main Street and Village Green

Return to US 1; R. on US I.

2. The granite Second Congregational Church (L), conspicuously placed
at the top of the hill, in the center of Greenwich, has a tall, slender broach
spire at one corner that towers above the trees and can be seen for miles
in all directions.

3. Christ Episcopal Church (R), erected in 1908-10, was designed by
William Francis Dominick. The three granite buildings of this dis-
tinguished Gothic group include the church, with a square, high pinnacled
tower and rather flat roof; a cloistered parish house, somewhat recessed
from the street; and the rectory, a dwelling of Gothic design.

4. Putnam Cottage (open 10-5, Hon., Wed., Fri., Sat.; free] (1731) (L),
243 East Putnam Ave., is maintained as a museum by the D.A.R.
This white homestead with a peaked roof and long, low veranda has
undergone several renovations, but retains its original round-ended
shingles on the front. According to tradition, it was from this house that
Israel Putnam made his daring escape from the British on February 26,
1779. The General, recently arrived at Greenwich to review the Con-
tinental troops, was shaving in his room when he saw, in the mirror, the
reflection of approaching Redcoats. Outnumbered and totally unpre-
pared, Putnam ordered his men to flee for their lives, and, jumping astride
his horse, turned the animal toward the brink of the rocky precipice
near-by. The astonished British saw horse and rider disappear over the
cliff. Threading his way to right and left, Putnam reached the valley;
not one of the dragoons dared to follow him. The Post Road is cut through
the rock at about the spot where Putnam made his escape. A small
Bronze Tablet at the top of the incline, west of the Putnam Cottage,
commemorates the adventure.

The house is completely equipped with old furniture and accessories of
the 1 8th and early i9th century. In the parlor is an early spinet, a
handsome flat-topped desk, a secretary, an old spinning wheel, and many
other objects of interest. In an adjoining room is one of the first Franklin
stoves, in the rare, arched style; a pair of old pewter candlemolds, and
many other examples of early pewter, including a teapot, plates, bowls,
warming pans, etc. There is also on exhibit a chest of drawers made of
cherry hewn from a Greenwich tree by a local craftsman in the early
1 8th century. The bedrooms are furnished with Colonial pieces, includ-
ing a fine example of an early American cradle.

5. The High Low House, Round Hill Road, a composite structure, com-

GREENWICH. POINTS OF INTEREST

1. Bruce Museum 5. High Low House

2. Second Congregational Church 6. Milbank Mausoleum

3. Christ Episcopal Church 7. Edgewood School

4. Putnam Cottage 8. Rosemary Hall

154 Main Street and Village Green

bining a 16th-century English manor house, transported to this country
from England in 1911, and a granite Tudor residence, erected in 1905
by I. N. Phelps Stokes, architect and owner, is on private grounds, not
open to the public. British supervision of British-American labor as-
sured the sympathetic handling of the 16th-century material. The
English dwelling for which the residence is named was erected in Ipswich,
Suffolk County, England, about 1507. Built of half timber and brick,
with seven sharp gables in its red tiled roof, the old house has a great
i2-panel, heavily studded oaken entrance door with a Gothic top and
original hardware, a hand-carved header and broad carved lintel. Hand-
carved half -columns rise to Gothic brackets; a hand-carved frieze on
the second-floor end-overhang, and random brick and timber panels
spread to either side of the entrance. The heavy corner posts and brackets
are elaborately hand-carved, and weathered rift-grain oak shows wherever
the timbering is revealed.

6. The Milbank Mausoleum, occupying a commanding position in the
Putnam Cemetery, Parsonage Rd., is a scholarly reproduction of an
Ionic temple, with columns extending around all sides. From the road
below, it appears to be an open colonnade.

7. Edgewood School, on Glenville Rd. and Brookside Lane, opened in
1910 on the estate of Mrs. Charles D. Lanier, is a co-educational pro-
gressive school with an enrollment of about 200 pupils from 3 to 20
years of age. Conducted on the principle that education to be successful
must be interesting from early childhood, the courses in this school seek
first to establish an appreciation of intellectual discipline.

The main school building, a spreading structure of granite boulders with
a wide covered porch, stands on a i2o-acre campus across which Horse-
neck Brook winds, tumbling in falls and rapids and spreading out in
quiet pools.

8. Rosemary Hall, at junction Ridgeway and Zaccheus Mead Lane, is a
preparatory school for girls founded in Wallingford in 1890 and moved
to its present site in 1900. The 25-acre campus includes six school
buildings, two hockey fields, two gymnasiums, and a running track. About
200 students are enrolled.

Points of Interest Of shore:

On Great Captain's Island, 3 m. out, in Long Island Sound, opposite
the entrance to Greenwich Harbor, named for Captain Daniel
Patrick, first military commander of the town, is a square stone
lighthouse erected by the U.S. Government in the early nineteenth
century.

On Little Captain's Island, 2 m. out, the town has established a public
recreational center. (Boats, every 20 min. from Memorial Day to
Labor Day, leave dock at foot of Steamboat Road; 20-minute sail; boat
fee 25j round trip; Island Beach, bath-house rental

Groton 155

Points of Interest in Environs:

Lyon House; Conde Nast Press, Laddin's Rock; Keofferam Lodge,
Shore Road; Arcadia (headquarters of National Agassiz Associa-
tion) ; Perrot Memorial Library (headquarters Greenwich Historical
Society), Old Greenwich (see Tour 1).

GROTON

Town: Alt. 60, pop. 10,770, sett. 1649, organized 1705.

Airport: Trumbull Airport, Eastern Point; taxi fare from center of Groton,
75^ for one or two passengers; time, 15 min. Sightseeing planes, $1 per ride,
over harbor. No scheduled service.
Taxis: 50^ anywhere in village.

Accommodations: One large hotel, open in summer only.

Annual Events: Navy Day Celebration, U.S. Submarine Base, October 26.

GROTON, spreading along the eastern bank of the Thames River
opposite New London, clings to the steep slope of Groton Heights, dom-
inated by the granite shaft erected in memory of the militiamen who
attempted to withstand two regiments of British regulars in 1781.
From the water's edge to the hill crest, the old shipbuilding village of
narrow streets and small vine-grown houses seems to have slumbered for
years, growing in its sleep and awakening just before the World War
to be rediscovered by industry. Although submarines, engines, banjos,
thread and castings are produced here, Groton remains a Yankee com-
munity with nearly sixty per cent of its population of full native parent-
age. Village politics, the affairs of the Nation and of the Odd Fellows, the
principal organization in town, are discussed in the back room of Groton's
leading ' department store/ In summer, a steady stream of sleek motors
rolls through the Main Street, en route to Eastern Point, three miles
south, an exclusive shore resort.

The countryside around Groton has been drenched with the blood of
Indians, patriots, and British invaders. Before the white men came,
some of the bloodiest of tribal wars were fought in this hunting ground
of the Pequot Indians, who were seldom on friendly terms with the
Narragansetts, or later, with the English.

Land in Groton was granted to New London settlers in 1648-49 and,
originally known as the ' East Side,' was first occupied in 1649 by Jonathan
Brewster, eldest son of Elder William Brewster of the Plymouth Colony,
who established a trading post at Brewster's Neck on the Thames River

156 Main Street and Village Green

north of the present Groton. Organized in 1705, the town was named
for the county seat of the Winthrops in Suffolk, England. The settle-
ment did not develop into a compact little village like most Yankee towns
but spread over the broken terrains of ' breezy ridges and sunny valleys '
into numerous little streamside communities in the back country and a
fringe of shipbuilding and fishing settlements along the shore of the
river and Sound. (See NOANK and WEST MYSTIC, Tour 1.) The
township extends from the Mystic to the Thames Rivers and originally
reached from the Sound to the Preston line, until Ledyard (then North
Groton) became a separate town in 1836. The town now includes the
Borough of Groton, Center Groton, Poquonock Bridge, Noank, and
West Mystic. Agriculture was not profitable, but fisheries were. By
1838 some three hundred Groton men and boys were regularly engaged at
sea, some fishing off Cuba for the Spanish trade, some in West Indian
trade, and others in salvaging operations up and down the coast.

Among the distinguished Groton skippers was Captain Ebenezer Morgan,
who returned to New London harbor on September 18, 1865, in his
' Pioneer,' with 1391 pounds of whale oil and 22,650 pounds of bone.
The cargo was sold for $151,060, and as the ship and outfit cost only
$35,800, a net profit of over 300 per cent was made in the fifteen months'
voyage.

Captain James M. Buddington of Groton, commanding the ship 'George
and Henry,' in 1855 discovered the abandoned British frigate ' Resolute,'
one of the squadron sent out in search of Sir John Franklin. Ice bound
in Baffin's Bay, the ' Resolute' was abandoned and drifted 900 miles
out into the Atlantic. Captain Buddington brought her safely to New
London harbor and received $30,000 for salvage from the United States
Government. The English ship was refitted at the Brooklyn Navy
Yard and returned to England as a gift from the United States to the
Queen.

Captain Joseph Warren Holmes, a Groton skipper, doubled Cape Horn
more times than any man afloat, with eighty-three trips to his credit.
For pure adventure, little in the annals of the sea surpasses the experience
of Captain Ambrose H. Burrows, who sailed from New York, January
24, 1823, commanding the brig 'Frederick' bound for Lima, Peru. At
Callao, after a passage of 158 days, he found the city in a state of insur-
rection. General Bolivar arrived with reinforcements and restored order.
Later, on sailing for Quilca, the seaport for Arequipa, capital of Upper
Peru, the brig was fired upon and boarded by a crew from a pirate craft,
'Quintanelia,' commanded by an Italian. Short of navigators, the
pirates forced Captain Burrows to navigate his own vessel. The skipper
asked for the company of his sixteen-year-old son and smuggled his
pistols aboard. At pistol point, Captain Burrows took over the ship
again, cast the pirates adrift in a longboat, sailed his ship back to Callao,
and found the city in the midst of another revolt. Rescued by the U.S.
frigate 'Franklin,' Captain Burrows sold his vessel and returned to
America on the 'Constitution.'

Groton 157

The wanderlust of John Ledyard, born in Groton in 1751, nephew of
the commander at Fort Griswold, is said to have inspired the recurring
mystery of ' disappearing freshmen' at Dartmouth College. While a
Dartmouth freshman, in 1772, Ledyard fashioned a canoe fifty feet long
from a pine tree and paddled down the Connecticut on the first of many
voyages which took him to unexplored countries. Arriving at Hartford,
young Ledyard shipped before the mast and made a voyage to Gibraltar,
the Barbary Coast, and the West Indies. Sailing from London as a
corporal of marines under Captain Cook, the Groton youngster was
absent for four years on a cruise that took him to Hawaii at its discovery,
China, Siberia, and into the Arctic. On his return to America, Ledyard
published his journal. In 1786, following Thomas Jefferson's plan for
exploration of the Pacific Northwest by way of Siberia, Ledyard traveled
on foot from Stockholm, Sweden, to St. Petersburg, Russia, a distance
of 1400 miles in seven weeks. He was stopped at Irkutsk and ordered to
leave Russia. He returned to London, undaunted in his quest for unknown
places. While fitting out an expedition at Cairo, to explore Africa, Led-
yard died at the age of thirty-seven.

Shipbuilding was one of the village's important early industries. Large
ships were built in Groton yards as early as 1724, and during the Revolu-
tion a thirty-six-gun frigate was built in the Poquetanock River at the
order of the Continental Congress. In 1812 many privateers were fitted
out to run the British blockade. The Eastern Shipbuilding Company
established a plant in Groton in 1900 and commenced the construction
of two large steamships for the Great Northern Steamship Company, the
'Minnesota' and 'Dakota,' largest merchant vessels of their day, with
a displacement of 33,000 tons each.

Groton has had its share of strange cults. Spiritualism held sway under
the banner of the First Spiritual and Liberal Society for some years
in the early seventeenth century, but gradually died out. The Rogerene
Quakers, organized by John Rogers of New London about 1675, were a
very strong sect and were so determined in their efforts to make the
town of Groton pure that they were occasionally whipped or treated to a
coat of tar and feathers by their fellow townsfolks. The only remaining
trace of this sect now is in the back country.

TOUR

5. from Post Road (US 1) on Thames St.

i. The Mother Bailey House (private) (1782), 108 Thames St., is a two-
and-a-half-story frame building with two end chimneys. The entrance
porch, supported by Ionic columns, is a later addition. The house
owes its fame to an episode of the War of 1812. In June 1813, Com-
modore Stephen Decatur and his small fleet, pursued by a British squad-
ron, had taken shelter in New London harbor. Fearful of a repetition of

158 Main Street and Village Green

the attack of 1781, terrified inhabitants bundled their household goods
into carts and hastened inland. A messenger from the fort, sent through
town to collect old rags for gunwadding, was unsuccessful in his quest
until he met Mother Bailey (Anna Warner Bailey), who promptly re-
moved her red flannel petticoat and remarked, 'There are plenty more
where that came from.' When the petticoat and its story reached the
fort, the garrison promptly displayed 'The Martial Petticoat' from
a pikestaff planted on the ramparts as a symbol of the devotion of a
patriotic lady. After the war, President Andrew Jackson is reported to
have visited Mrs. Bailey and presented the iron fence at the west of the
house, as a token of appreciation.

2. The Gary Latham House (private), 157 Thames St., called Ferry
Tavern, a narrow two-and-a-half-story, peak-roofed structure with a lone
chimney, is so small that there are only two rooms within, one above the
other. There is little architectural evidence to justify the early date
claimed for it (1655).

3. The Colonel Ebenezer Avery House (1754), NE. cor. Thames and
Latham Sts., with a peak roof and central chimney, was used as a hos-
pital for the wounded in 1781. Although it has been remodeled, this
frame dwelling retains the original paneling around the staircase, a
fine corner cupboard with a carved rose at the top, and three or four
paneled and battened interior doors on the first floor.

L. from Thames on Fort St.

4. Fort Griswold, Fort and Thames Sts., commanding the entrance to
the Thames, was the site of one of the tragedies of the American Revolu-
tion. Here on September 6, 1781, Lieutenant-Colonel William Ledyard
hastily assembled 150 militiamen in an attempt to repulse the attack
of two regiments of British regulars and the 3d Battalion of New Jersey
volunteers, who advanced on Groton after capturing Fort Trumbull,
New London. Under the direction of Benedict Arnold, who watched
from across the river, the British stormed the fort and killed Colonel
Ledyard and most of his brave company. The untrained Colonial rifle-
men, recruited from near-by farms, sold their lives dearly, accounting
for 193 British. Looting, mistreatment of the wounded and prisoners,
and the burning of the town followed the slaughter of the defenders.
Eighty-five militiamen were killed at the fort and all male members of
many families were destroyed; of the Avery family alone, nine men were
killed and three wounded.

The General Assembly of May, 1792, offered to those involved in the
tragedy, or to the heirs and legal representatives, a half-million acres
of land in the Western Reserve, as partial compensation. Ninety-two
Groton families benefited by this grant. In May, 1842, title to Fort
Griswold was ceded to the U.S. Government. A stone marker, enclosed
by an iron fence, marks the spot where Ledyard, the military commander
of the district, fell by his own sword which he had trustingly extended to
the conquering officer as a token of surrender. Another marker, strangely

Groton 1 59

enough, is a memorial to the Major Montgomery of the British forces,
who, while leading the attack over the parapet, was killed by a pike
wielded by Gordon Freeman, a Negro servant of Ledyard.

The feeling generated by the massacre has not abated despite the passing
years. Commemorative exercises are frequently held on the old battle-
ground. For many years Jonathan Brooks of New London (d. 1848)
delivered an unsolicited address from the breastworks on the anniversary
of the massacre. One year, when only a few people gathered to listen,
Mr. Brooks looked out over their heads, cleared his throat, and bellowed,
'Attention, Universe!'

5. Groton Monument (grounds open free; 15^ admission to monument)
(i 830) , Fort St., was erected under State patronage with funds secured from
a lottery. This monument, commemorating the battle of Fort Griswold,
is a granite obelisk 22 feet square and 134 feet high. From windows at
the top, a view unfolds in all directions, including Watch Hill, Block
Island, Gardner's Island, Montauk Point, and the Connecticut coast as
far west as the Connecticut River.

At the foot of the monument a little Monument House (open 9-5 during
the summer months, free), built of stone left over from the construction of
the shaft, has been furnished by the D.A.R., with relics of the battle and
other antiques.

6. Bill Memorial Library (open Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-6, Saturdays,
2-7) (1890), NW. of the monument, a brownstone building in the roman-
tic style of Richardson, has a fine collection of butterflies.

7. The Joseph Latham House (private) (1717), Monument St., a plain
story-and-a-half cottage of four rooms, is called the 'Gore House,'
because so many wounded men were quartered here after the battle
of Groton Heights.

8. Electric Boat Company, Eastern Point Rd., probably the world's
largest builder of submarines, operates almost exclusively for the execu-
tion of the U.S. Navy contracts. This firm is a successor to the New
London Ship and Engine Company which was the first concern to install
Diesel engines in submarines (February 14, 1912). On this site were
previously located the shipyards of the Eastern Ship Building Company.

Points of Interest in Environs:

United States Submarine Base (visitors admitted), Atlantic sub-
marine headquarters, 5 m. (see Tour 9 A).

Fort Hill, 4.4 m., West Mystic; Pequot Hill, 5.6 m., US 1 (see Tour 1) ;
the Governor Winthrop House, Bluff Rd., 5.7 m. (see Tour 1).

GUILFORD

Town: Alt. 10, borough pop. 1880, sett. 1639.

Railroad Station: N.Y., N.H. & H. R.R., Whitfield St.

Accommodations: One hotel.

Annual Events: Guilford Fair and exhibit of local agricultural products; held

last Wednesday in September from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M.

GUILFORD, named for the town of Guildford in Surrey, England, retains
the appearance of a New England village of the early days. More than
150 old houses border its quiet streets, and the wide Green, with its
elms and stately Greek Revival church, has a tranquil simplicity char-
acteristic of the town. Situated on the irregular shore of Long Island
Sound, the community has attracted many summer residents in recent
years.

Founded in 1639, and originally named Menunkatucket, Guilford was
settled by a body of Puritans from Kent and Surrey under the leader-
ship of Henry Wnitfield and Samuel Desborough. Land extending from
the present Branford to Niantic was purchased from the Mohegan Chief,
Uncas, under a grant from the British Crown. One of the bloodiest of
Indian battles was fought between the fleeing Pequots and the combined
English and Mohegan forces at Sachem's Head (see Side Trip of Tour 1).
Although Guilford was one of the few shore towns to escape pillaging
by the British fleet and General Tryon's troops, the residents, determined
to retaliate for the losses suffered by other towns, organized a whale-
boat raid, May 29, 1777, on the British provision stores at Sag Harbor,
L.I. Rowing from Sachem's Head to the beach at Plum Gut, 200 men,
under Lieutenant Colonel Meigs, dragged their whaleboats overland,
launched them again on the ocean side, and rowed to a short distance off
Sag Harbor. They surprised the British sentry, withstood the fire of a
i2-gun schooner, set fire to about 100 tons of hay, 10 transports, wharves,
and i armed schooner mounting 8 guns, and returned unharmed within
24 hours. In return, the British landed at Guilford in June, but met such
spirited opposition that they retired after burning only two houses on
Leete's Island.

Guilford is the birthplace of such distinguished men as Abraham Baldwin
(1754-1807), member of the Continental Congress, founder of the Uni-
versity of Georgia, and U.S. Senator from Georgia; the Rev. Samuel
Johnson, the first president of King's College, now Columbia University
(1696-1772), and Fitz-Greene Halleck, the poet (see Literature). The
town's most picturesque political character, Samuel Hill (1677-1752), is
said to have been responsible for the expression 'Running like Sam Hill,'
because he ran for office from young manhood. At the time of his death

Guilford 161

in 1752, he was not only State representative, but also town clerk,
probate judge, and clerk of the Proprietors.

Granite quarrying and oyster culture have flourished in the town through-
out most of its existence. Quarries opened in 1837 have provided stone
for the foundation of the Statue of Liberty, for breakwaters at Block
Island, 13 bridges over the Harlem River, New York City, the foundation
of the Brooklyn Bridge, the northern half of the Battery wall in New
York, and the lighthouse at Lighthouse Point, New Haven.

A leading occupation is the cultivation of roses, carried on at the Pinch-
beck greenhouse on State St., said to be the largest single hothouse in the
United States. Covered by more than 125,000 square feet of glass, the
greenhouse is 1200 feet long, and has produced a record maximum output
of 18,000 roses in one day; average production is about 7000 daily.

Schoolroom furniture, canned goods, birch extract, toilet articles, iron,
brass and bronze castings are made in Guilford.

TOUR 1

S. from the Boston Post Road on Fair St.

Nine salt-box-type houses on Fair St. give an opportunity to compare

the differing lines of this type of dwelling for which Guilford is famous.

1. The Spencer Homestead (private) (1761), 101 Fair St., retains its original
lines, except for the addition of a Greek Revival doorway.

2. The Stevens House (private) (1726), 77 Fair St., another outstanding
example, is built around the chimney of an earlier house (1670), which
measures 17 feet X 26 at the base, probably a record size.

3. Captain Nathaniel Johnson House (private), another salt-box, at 58
Fair St., was built in 1732.

R. from Fair St. on Broad St.

4. Site of Governor William Leete Homestead, 6 Broad St., is marked by
a later house, an attractive, modernized salt-box dwelling (private), built
in 1769 by Caleb Stone. Under the garage behind the house is the cellar
foundation of the earlier house, where the regicides, Goffe and Whalley,
were hidden for ten days and fed by Mr. Leete.

5. Jared Leete's House (private) (1781), 76 Broad St., was the home of
that injudicious drinker of cider and prolific composer of ribald verse.
When hunting one day on Moose Hill, he became very thirsty and asked
at a farmhouse for a drink of cider. The housewife, who recognized him,
at first refused and then agreed to furnish the drink if he would write
an epitaph for her. Jared immediately complied with:

'Margaret, who died of late,
Ascended up to heaven's gate.*

1 62 Main Street and Village Green

The satisfied Margaret brought the cider and he immediately added:

'But Gabriel met her with a club
And drove her down to BEELZEBUB.'

Retrace Broad St. TT^;

6. The Hubbard House (private) (1717), 53 Broad St., with a five-inch
overhang at the second-story level, is the largest Colonial house in
Guilford. In it the Rev. Bela Hubbard, D.D., was born in 1739. So
beloved was he for his faithfulness in attending his congregation through
a severe epidemic of yellow fever that he remained an active minister
in New Haven throughout the Revolution, despite his pronounced
Royalist sympathies.

7. The Congregational Church (L), Broad Street, framed through the
trees on the Green, was built in 1829 during the decade in which the
Greek Revival reached its fullest development, and offers an interesting
comparison withjjie Litchfield Congregational Church, built in the same
year. The church is very broad and has an Ionic portico which repeats
the lines of the gable. Three arched windows are placed over the three
square-topped doors of equal height. These details, although authenti-
cally Greek, are somewhat modified by a freer treatment. The rather low
steeple has two octagonal stages over the square tower and is surmounted
by a conical spire. The architect is unknown, but his skill with classical
forms is evident in the design of this building, distinguishing it from the
average village church of the time.

R. from Broad St. on Park St.

8. Smyth House (private) (1820), 55 Park St., where Ralph Dunning
Smyth, lawyer, judge, representative, and local historian lived for many
years, has an elaborate cornice and a hip-roofed portico, supported by
Ionic columns that are typical of the Greek Revival. The large front
windows have finely molded heads. According to tradition, Lafayette,
who stopped for refreshment on the opposite corner of the Green, re-
marked of this house ' C'est gentille.'

GUILFORD. POINTS OF INTEREST

1. Spencer Homestead u. Lot Benton House

2. Stevens House 12. Ebenezer Bartlett House

3. Captain Nathaniel Johnson 13. Ruth Hart Homestead

House 14. Hyland or Fiske-Wildman House

4. Site of Governor William Leete 15. Levi Hubbard Homestead

Homestead 16. Caldwell House

5. Jared Leete's House 17. Ezra Griswold House

6. Hubbard House 18. Acadian House

7. Congregational Church 19. Sabbath Day House

8. Smyth House 20. Daniel Bowen House

9. Episcopal Church 21. Comfort Starr House
10. WHitfield House

1 64 Main Street and Village Green

9. The Episcopal Church (L), Park St., between Boston and Broad Sts.,
a granite building of 1836, is an example of the Gothic Revival, a style
popularized in the State by the erection of Trinity Church in New
Haven.

R. from Park St. on Boston St.; L. on Whitfield St.

10. Whitfield House (open 9-5 daily; free), on Whitfield St., is one of the
earliest stone houses in America and probably the oldest house in Con-
necticut. It has been remodeled many times in the last century, and was
restored in 1903 and in 1936, so that only about a third of the heavy rear
wall, the immense chimney which covers the whole north end of the
house, and the line of the foundation remain. The original fortified house
was built in 1639-40 by the Rev. Henry Whitfield to serve not only as his
home but for all the public uses of the community. The most important
house in the town often did have to serve community uses and was,
therefore, likely to be a departure from the usual type. In 1936, under
a Works Progress Administration project, which was directed by J.
Frederick Kelly, an authority on early Connecticut architecture, the
house was restored as nearly as possible to its original appearance, even
to the odd window which old prints show across the southwest corner.
Now maintained by the State as a museum, the building houses a varied
collection of antiques and curios.

11. Lot Benton House (private), on Whitfield St., half a mile south, was
erected about 1770 in the center of town where the present Congrega-
tional Church stands, but was moved to its present site in 1824, drawn
by 35 yoke of oxen. Dr. Lyman Beecher, a ward of Lot Benton, lived
in the house occasionally and inherited it.

Retrace Whitfield St.; L. on Water St.

12. Ebenezer Bartlett House (private), 15 Water St., dating from the
second quarter of the i8th century, has a great T-shaped chimney. In
this house died the poet Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790-1867).

13. Ruth Hart Homestead (open) (1780), 68 Water St., a little story-and-
a-half Dutch-roofed house, a type rarely found in Guilford, has one very
old, many-paned window, with wooden muntins more than an inch wide
in the southwest room on the first floor.

Retrace Water St. which becomes Boston St.

14. The Hyland or Fiske-Wildman House (open 9-5 during the summer;
adm. 25ff), Boston St. (L), between Graves Ave. and Pearl St., has been
restored by the Dorothy Whitfield Historical Society, Inc., and is main-
tained as a museum. Its date has been the subject of much discussion.
Because of the height of its rooms, the best authorities are inclined to
believe that it cannot merit the 17th-century date commonly assigned
to it. Certainly, with its reconstructed casement windows, it closely
resembles the average house of about 1 700. The beautifully carved over-
hang, with its molded chamfer, lambs' tongue, and brackets beneath, is
one of the finest examples in Guilford. In this house lived Ebenezer
Parmelee, who, in 1727, built one of the first town clocks in America and

Guilford 165

installed it in the First Congregational Church on the Green. It served
in two succeeding edifices until 1892.

15. Levi Hubbard Homestead (private) (1761), 311 Boston St., tradi-
tionally known as 'Black House,' was the home of Nicholas Loysel, a
French refugee, from the Island of Guadeloupe. When Nicholas heard
of the execution of Louis XVI, he painted his house black, and traces of
the paint remain.

16. The Caldwell Home (private) (1740), southwest corner of Boston St.
and Lovers' Lane, was remodeled in the early igth century, but retains
features that link it with the first half of the i8th century. It was origi-
nally a central-chimney house, of the 'hewn overhang' type, predominant
in the southern portions of Connecticut. The 'hewing out' of the solid
corner posts into exterior corbels is plainly visible under the second-story
overhang. The excellent portico, the chimneys and windows, are igth-
century; the dormers are 20th-century.

17. On the opposite corner, across Lovers' Lane at 161 Boston St., is
the Ezra Griswold House (1777), an attractive white salt-box dwelHng on
a high bank, behind an odd picket fence. Its excellent state of preserva-
tion and its charming setting have caused it to be the most photographed
house in Connecticut.

L. from Boston St. on Union St.

18. The Acadian House (private), Union St., between Pearl and Market
Place, a sparsely windowed, primitive salt-box dwelling built about 1670
by Joseph Clay, sheltered exiles from Acadia who were put ashore by a
British ship after the destruction of Grand Pre in 1755.

On Union St. are two of the tiny, seldom preserved Sabbath Day
houses, built by settlers living in distant outlying districts who came into
the village on Saturday in order to attend the Sunday services.

19. One Sabbath Day House (private), at No. 5 Union St., is a story-and-
a-half house, with a sharp-peaked roof and a wide cornice, dating from
1730.

20. The Daniel Bowen House (private), 19 Union St., the other Sabbath
Day House, is an exceptionally small dwelling of 1734 with a sharp
gambrel at the front and a lean-to at the rear.

Right from Union St. on State St.

21. Comfort Starr House (private), 138 State St., is one of the oldest
frame houses in the State and one of the few remaining homes of the
'Signers' who first settled Guilford. Built by Henry Kingsnorth in
1645-46 and sold to Comfort Starr in 1694, this house retains most of its
primitive features, including the five-window front and plain doorway,
the stone chimney, the gable overhang, and the awkward roof-line
formed by the lean-to added at the rear. The position of this house
indicates that in Guilford and the larger communities the usual 17th-
century rule of having a house face the south did not always prevail.

1 66 Main Street and Village Green

Points of Interest in Environs:

Captain Lee House, 0.3 m.; Leete Homestead, Leete's Island, 4 m.;
Sachem's Head, 4.8 m. (see Side Tour from Tour 1) ; old churches,
North Guilford, 6.5 m.; old settlement of Nut Plains, 2.7 m.\
Thimble Islands, 4.5 m. (see Tour IF).

HARTFORD

City: Alt. 40, pop. 164,072, inc. 1784.

Railroad Station: Hartford Station, Union Place and Asylum Ave., for N.Y.,

N.H. & H. R.R.

Airports: Rentschler Field, 400 Main St., East Hartford, 3^ m. from center,

taxi fare $1.05, time 20 min.; American Airlines, Newark-Boston route, 2

stops each way daily, 3 stops each way on summer schedule, Brainard Field

(municipally owned), Aviation Rd. at Maxim Rd., 2 m. S. of center, taxi fare

60^, time 10 min.; United Airlines, Seaplane Dock.

Taxis: 35^ first mile, 25^ each additional mile, $2 per hour, waiting time; $3 per

hour, traveling in city; $4 per hour, traveling outside city.

Accommodations: Five hotels.

Information Service: Travelers' Aid, Railroad Station, Union Place; Informa-
tion Desk, Municipal Bldg., Main St.; Hartford Chamber of Commerce, 805
Main St.; Hartford Better Business Bureau, 190 Trumbull St.; Business &
Technical Branch, Hartford Public Library, 730 Main St.; Conn. Motor Club,
Heublein Hotel, 180 Wells St.

Boat Landing: Hartford Yacht Club, E. bank of Connecticut River, below
Bulkeley Memorial Bridge.

Auditoriums: Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall, 166 Capitol Ave. (3227 seats);
Foot Guard Armory, 165 High St. (1500 seats); Avery Memorial Hall, 35
Prospect St.; State Armory, Broad St. and Capitol Ave. (10,000 seats).

Recreation: Tennis courts in city parks, for use after 4 P.M. weekdays or any
time Sundays, 5^ per hour per player, obtain permit at municipal building.
Golf: Keney Park, Barbour St. and Windsor Ave., 25f nine holes, $15.00 yearly
membership, i8-hole course; Goodwin Park, Maple Ave., 15^ nine holes, $10.00
yearly membership, i8-hole course.
Swimming: Colt Park Pool; Riverside Park Pool.
Bridle Paths: Keney Park.

Annual Events: Community Sing, Christmas Eve, in front of Hartford, Times
Bldg., Prospect St.; Rose Week, Elizabeth Park, June, date varies; Conn. State
Teachers Association Convention, Bushnell Memorial, 3d Friday in October;
Gladiola Show, 3d week in August, Old State House, under auspices of Conn.
Gladiola Society; Flower Show, Conn. Horticultural Society, June, Old State

Hartford 167

House; Shrine Circus, State Armory, April; Sportsmen's Show, February, State
Armory; Home Progress Exposition, March, State Armory; Automobile Show,
November, State Armory; Radio Exhibition, October, Foot Guard Armory;
Hartford County Food Exhibit, September, State Armory; Conn. Pomological
Show, Women's Club, Broad St., December; Transportation Dinner, C. of C.,
February, Hotel Bond; Lawn Bowling Tournament, August, Elizabeth Park;
Opera, at Bushnell Memorial, with nationally known opera companies, twice
yearly, either December and February, or January and March.

HARTFORD, the State Capital and the largest city in the State, is a
financial-industrial center on the west bank of the Connecticut River.
The lofty Travelers' Tower, New England's tallest structure, dominates
the serrated skyline, reaching 527 feet into the blue. The gilded dome of
the State Capitol, rising above the trees of Bushnell Park, the tower of
Trinity Chapel, and the cupola of the JEtna, Building also furnish land-
marks for aviators. Through the center of the city meanders the narrow,
muddy Park River, but the Connecticut River to the east is hidden be-
hind dikes and the railway embankment.

On a gently rolling plain that gradually rises to merge with the foothills
of distant mountains, retaining much of the past in the older sections and
an almost cosmopolitan sophistication in the modern shopping district,
Hartford offers many contrasts. The group of State and county buildings
at the crest of the slight rise known as Capitol Hill is one section of na-
tional interest. The insurance capitols in the business district, and west-
ward on the edge of the residential area, show a different aspect of Hart-
ford life. To the north, along Main Street, many ultra-modern depart-
ment stores reflect the prosperity of the city. In a central triangular plot
on Main Street is the handsome Old State House. Southward, on the
main thoroughfare, the imposing pink granite Morgan Memorial reminds
the visitor that Hartford is the birth and burial place of J. Pierpont
Morgan and his ancestors. The First, or Center Church building recalls
the life of the Reverend Thomas Hooker (1586-1647), its first pastor, who
is credited with the liberal ideas embodied in Connecticut's Fundamental
Orders of 1639.

Main Street is only forty feet above sea level; Front Street is much lower,
and only Capitol Hill and points to the westward are higher than the
main thoroughfare. Ever conscious of the flood hazard, the city has built
an extensive system of dikes along the lower meadows and around the
older factory buildings, and plans have been made for a loftier highway
bridge. The better residential sections are farther back from the river.
Hartford has rather distinct foreign residential areas. Front Street,
along the river, removed barely enough to escape the ordinary freshets,
has an Italian population closely knit and clannish. Windsor Avenue,
to the northward, is the quarter where Hartford's Negroes reside. Park
Street, to the southwest, is the factory section where Slavs flock together
in dingy tenements. On Albany and Blue Hills Avenues, to the northwest,
lives most of Hartford's Jewish population, which has enormously in-
creased, until the city has a proportionately larger number of Jews than

1 68 Main Street and Village Green

any other American community except New York or Atlantic City. This
growth, the result of an influx between the years 1920 to 1930, is the only
noticeable racial trend other than a gradual elimination of the full native
parentage group, which has decreased to twenty-eight per cent.
Hartford is the hub of many excellent highways radiating in all directions
to the important cities of this and adjacent States. Many of the em-
ployees of Hartford's insurance offices and industrial plants are com-
muters from near-by towns, and highways are crowded during business
hours.

Fully twenty- two per cent, or 2700 acres, of the total area of the city is
in municipal parks or squares. A city planning commission has functioned
in Hartford since 1907, but even before that date careful attention was
given to the location of buildings and layout of streets. Approaching the
city from any direction, visitors are impressed with the orderliness and
width of the main arteries of traffic.

Known chiefly as an insurance center because of the concentration of in-
surance companies which outnumber those of any other city in the world,
Hartford is also an important tobacco and agricultural market. Crops
valued at $15,000,000 annually clear through the city. The agricultural
influence is also conspicuous during the sessions of the General Assembly
when rural gentry from the 169 towns of Connecticut mingle with sales-
men in hotel lobbies, or gather in front of shop windows to gaze at the
latest styles.

The hotels are crowded during the many conventions, flower, or sports
shows held here. Military balls are gay affairs because this is the home
city of the ist Company, Governor's Foot Guard and the ancient Putnam
Phalanx. Bearskin shakoes, brilliant uniforms, even the deep drums of
Colonial days, are familiar accouterment when the old military organiza-
tions pass in review on Inauguration Day.

Hartford has distinct sounds, too. The constant, deep-throated drone
of powerful motors and the whir of spinning propellers are forever rising
above the street noises. A fleet of army planes roars in from the west for
the installation of new motors; a combat ship solos topside, hanging to the
highest fleecy cloud; or a * flying laboratory' grumbles under a test load
before attempting to span distant oceans. Motors, ships, variable pitch
propellers have all been developed by Hartford manufacturers now serv-
ing world markets from their plants just across the broad Connecticut
River. The river, ever ready to spread over the lowlands and inundate
Hartford's own aviation field, has forced this concentration of the air-
craft industry out of the metropolis itself.

The stream has ceased to be important in the commercial life of the city,
except for incoming barges, tankers, and coal carriers. Pleasure craft
have their anchorage overstream by the left bank, but a hucksters'
market operates almost on the river level on Commerce Street, where
now rotting steamboat docks were once piled with incoming and outgoing
freight.

Hartford 169

As a cultural center Hartford has contributed much to the Nation.
J. Pierpont Morgan was internationally known as a patron of the arts.
Samuel Clemens, Noah Webster, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Dudley
Warner, and William Gillette have all claimed Hartford as their home.
More than one hundred periodicals were established in the city, among
them The Children's Magazine (1789), the first juvenile periodical in
America. The Hartford Courant dates back to 1764, and the Hartford
Times first went on the street in 1817. Amelia Simmons wrote, and
Hudson and Goodwin of Hartford printed, America's first cook book
(forty-six pages) in 1796.

The slogan '45 minutes in Havana' was not coined in the Cuban city,
but in a Yankee cigar factory here. Tobacco sorting, inspecting, and
packing is an important industry, and there is constant competition
during the tobacco season between the mechanical industries and the
warehouses for the limited supply of female help available after the in-
surance firms have had their choice. A larger number of female employees
is gainfully employed in Hartford than in any other city in Connecticut
(23,608). The typewriter plants also furnish employment to many
women. Other Hartford industries produce electrical equipment, ma-
chinery, precision tools, gold leaf, firearms, printing, screws, castings,
tools and dies, coffins, taps, artificial limbs, millwork, forgings, lithogra-
phy, saddlery, blowers, bedsprings, and pool tables.

Hartford mechanics gave the world the first standard inch when, in 1885,
Pratt and Whitney Company perfected a standard measuring machine
accurate to one one-hundred-thousandth of an inch. The first pneumatic
tires ever built in America came from a Hartford plant in 1894, and Colt's,
'The Arm of Law and Order/ has carried a local trademark to the ends
of the earth.

A modern electric generating plant occupies almost the exact spot where
the first white men landed in Hartford. In 1633, Jacob van Curler, under
orders from the Governor of New Amsterdam (Wouter van Twiller), built
a fort and mounted two guns at 'Suckiage.' The Dutch called it 'The
House of Hope,' but today the site is known as Dutch Point.
The first permanent settlement was made by the English in 1635 when
John Steel and sixty pioneers from Newtowne (Cambridge, Mass.)
settled here in October, 1635, followed by the Reverend Thomas Hooker
and his company in the spring of 1636. The settlement was named in
1637, from Hartford in England. The General Court of the Bay Colony
met to consider the authorization of town governments in the Plantation
of Connecticut on October 10, 1639, and laid down definite rulings on
April 9, 1640. However, when the colonists discovered that they were
no longer within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, representatives of the
river settlements met at Hartford to draw up a plan of government.
Connecticut's Fundamental Orders, said to have been the constitution
known to history that created a government, setting forth the radical
principle that 'the foundation of authority is in the free consent of

170 Main Street and Village Green

the people,' was written in Hartford by Roger Ludlow and adopted here
by representatives of the River Towns on January 14, 1639.

Hartford County was organized in 1665, but the city and town were not
incorporated until the May session of the General Assembly in 1784,
although town meetings and town courts were held and community action
taken in the usual manner of the New England town.

The British proved to be better colonizers than the Dutch, and their
Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford settlements cut off the Dutch trade
with the Indians to such an extent that the garrison finally left the fort
unoccupied. The Colonial Court met in 1654 and called on Captain John
Underbill to occupy the fort in the name of England, a procedure ac-
complished without firing a shot. The English thereupon posted notices
on the doors of 'The House of Hope' and the Dutch were seen no more
along the river.

By 1662, the Hartford Colony comprised fourteen towns; it was united
with the six New Haven settlements in 1665, and, by decree of the Con-
necticut General Court, the legislature was ordered to meet in Hartford.
For the sake of convenience this agreement was not adhered to, but
sessions were held alternately in New Haven and Hartford (both main-
taining State Houses) until 1875, when all sessions were held in Hartford.

The charter granted by King Charles II on April 26, 1662, made the
Colony independent. The Great Seal was added to the document in
May, 1662. John Winthrop, Jr., forwarded it to Connecticut, where it
was read to the freemen of Hartford on October 9, 1662. Sir Edmund
Andros, appointed Governor of all New England Colonies in 1687, en-
deavored to induce Connecticut to relinquish its liberal charter. Failing
in this, he arrived in Hartford with an armed escort, October 31, 1687,
conferred with all officials, read his commission aloud, and formally took
office. When Andros demanded the charter, it was brought forth, but the
lights were suddenly extinguished and, when the candles were relighted,
the charter had vanished. Joseph Wadsworth had secreted the parch-
ment in the hollow of an oak tree on the property of Samuel Wyllys,
which thereafter was known as the ' Charter Oak.'

The Andros government lasted only two years and Connecticut returned
to its charter form of government. The charter was kept by Wadsworth
until May, 1715. About 1817, the wife of one of the keepers of the
document is reported to have allowed a neighbor to cut the lining for a
bonnet from the history-making parchment. A portion of the charter was
saved and can be seen in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society
in Hartford. The historical duplicate of the original is preserved in a
special safe in the Memorial Hall of the State Library. The wood of the
Charter Oak has been made into chairs, gavels, and other odd articles
now in museums and private collections. A tablet marks the spot where
the great tree formerly grew; the name 'Charter Oak' has been freely
used on all manner of places and articles, from soft drinks and cigars to
a harness-racing track where Grand Circuit horses once pounded down

Hartford 171

the homestretch, but where poultrymen now auction off eggs. The Har-
vester made records at Charter Oak Park; Pop Geers drove there against
Tommy Murphy and Walter Cox; men and animals as sturdy as the
great tree itself fought it out for 'The Charter Oak' or 'The Nutmeg'
purses. Hartford should have copyrighted the name. The proceeds
would have paid for a forest of oaks.

There is no record of any serious trouble with the Indians in or near
Hartford. John Eliot came to preach to the Podunks in 1657, translated
the Bible into their language, but made little progress in aboriginal soul-
saving. The Indians answered his pleas with: 'No, you have taken away
our lands, and now you wish to make us a race of slaves.'
Hartford's fertile meadows produced bumper crops and an early effort
was made to control crops and planting. Each landholder was ordered
by the town authorities to plant the teaspoonful of flaxseed given him.
When John Winthrop, Jr., went to England to secure the charter, his
passage was paid with five hundred bushels of wheat and three hundred
bushels of peas.

Hartford citizenry took an active part in the Revolutionary War, but
there is no record of any outstanding accomplishment by any one in-
dividual. The expedition against Fort Ticonderoga was planned in
Hartford by Silas Deane, Samuel Holden Parsons, and Colonel Samuel
Wyllys, but the capture was accomplished by a lad from Roxbury named
Ethan Allen, accompanied by Seth Warner and Remember Baker. The
little settlement was already showing signs of becoming a financial and
cultural center, concerned more with politics and the social side of war.
The city welcomed George Washington in June of 1775 when he was on
his way to take command of the Continental Army at Cambridge.
Major Thomas Y. Seymour of Hartford convoyed General Burgoyne to
Boston after the surrender.

Shipping grew to its zenith in the eighteenth century, and a fleet of vessels
plied between Hartford and English, Mediterranean, and West Indian
ports. The War of 181 2 caused a depression in shipping circles from which
the water-borne commerce was never to recover.

Hartford was a center of anti-slavery propaganda and, after the begin-
ning of the Civil War in 1861, its banks lent the Governor of Connecticut
half a million dollars to finance the recruiting and equipment of a regiment.
Following the Civil War most of Hartford's history concerns industry
and the development of machinery and transportation. As early as 1876,
the Hartford Fire Department purchased and operated a steam-propelled
fire engine with great success and only minor damage to the nerves of
drivers of horse-drawn vehicles. These pieces of fire-fighting equipment
remained in service for nearly fifty years and proved an excellent invest-
ment for the city.

In 1878, Colonel A. A. Pope built and popularized the Columbia bicycle,
which did not differ greatly from the British 'Ordinary' formerly im-
ported by Colonel Pope. The development of the pneumatic tire in 1889,

172 Main Street and Village Green

together with the drop-frame machine for lady riders (who were not
called ' ladies' after their first ride in public), boomed the business.
Pope employed five hundred workers in 1888 and had thirty-eight
hundred on his payroll in 1900.

Colonel Pope built and marketed a high-priced vehicle known as the
Columbia Electric Phaeton, in 1907. One of these cars is still (1937) in
operation in Hartford, driven by a very conservative person who looks
with suspicion on the internal combustion motors of the present day.
The Pope factory switched from electric-driven cars to gas-propelled
vehicles, but the Pope-Hartford motorcar was a short-lived venture in
quality automotive history.

In the early i89o's the Whitney Steam Car was seen on the streets of
Hartford. F. W. Manross startled the motor world in 1898 when he
drove a Winton from Forestville to Hartford, a distance of eighteen
miles, in fifty-five minutes. Motors became such a traffic problem in
1901 that the State enforced motor laws, limiting speed to fifteen miles
an hour in the open country and to twelve miles within the limits of towns
and villages.

The United States Rubber Company built tires in the old Hartford
Rubber Works, but closed the plant after the World War, when local
labor became too costly. Pipe organs were once an important Hartford
product, and the Austin Organ Company has been credited with many
important developments in organ manufacturing, such as the ' Austin
Universal Air Chest' for the great cathedral instruments such as the
Cyrus H. K. Curtis Organ in the Public Ledger Auditorium, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, often claimed to be the largest organ in the world, having
four manuals and two hundred and eighty-three stops.

Aircraft motors were developed by the Pratt and Whitney plant and
Hartford forged ahead in that line, hoping to hold its well-earned lead
over lesser competitors. The concentration of aircraft manufacturing
plants across the stream in East Hartford promises well for the future of
the Insurance City as a center of aviation.

The most unusual industry in Hartford today is gold-beating. Marcus
Bull started the work prior to 1819, as a pioneer in the gold-beating pro-
fession. Dentists patronized him and, in 1866, John M. Ney took over
sole control of the business. The company is still doing a modest business,
and there are interesting stories about its work. The gold leaf of the
dome of the State Capitol (440 square feet of it) was beaten in Hartford
by this concern. A Sioux warrior, killed in a Wyoming mail robbery,
was found to have all the buttons and metal on his clothing covered with
Ney's gold leaf. During the Civil War, the Confederacy was so in need
of gold that books with leaves of the Ney product were smuggled in
from Havana. Gold leaf takes its name from the fact that it is sold in
books.

Insurance was an outgrowth of the banks which grew with early trade
and commerce at this river port of entry. Marine insurance was written

Hartford 173

to cover shipping hazards, but the shifting of commerce to more favorable
ports resulted in a trend from marine insurance coverage to fire risks,
and, eventually, to the accident, life, and liability fields. Legislation in
Connecticut has been favorable to the growth of this business and today
forty-four companies have home offices in Hartford, and four hundred
and fifty licensed firms or benefit societies are represented here.

The growth of the insurance industry in Hartford dates from February
8, 1794, when a fire insurance policy was issued by the Hartford Fire
Insurance Company. The present company of that name was chartered
in 1810.

The dramatic manner in which Eliphalet Terry arrived at the scene of
the great New York fire, in 1835, an d, near the smoldering ruins of some
seven hundred buildings, is reported to have mounted a soapbox and
assured all of his policy-holders that they would get their money, estab-
lished public confidence in the firm's integrity. Terry's share of the total
$20,000,000 loss was only $64,973.34, but the pay-off was handled in such
a dramatic manner that an immediate rush of business came to the
Hartford companies. Weathering the Chicago, Boston, Jacksonville,
and Baltimore fires successfully, Hartford companies next met a severe
test in the San Francisco disaster of 1906 when they paid a total of
$15,000,000 in claims.

The first boiler insurance was issued in June, 1866, by the Hartford
Steam Boiler Insurance and Inspection Company. The first American
automobile insurance was also written in Hartford, February i, 1898, for
a $5ooo-$io,ooo coverage, at a premium of only $11.25.

Travelers, ^Etna, Phoenix, Hartford Fire, and Connecticut Mutual are
leading companies operating from Hartford, and their claims paid to
December 31, 1935, total about six and one-half billion dollars.

TOUR 1

W. from Washington Ave. on Capitol Ave.

i. The State Capitol overlooks the city from the landscaped crest of
Capitol Hill, with other State buildings standing at a respectful distance
to the south, and Bushnell Park sloping down to the business district
on the north. The marble and granite structure, designed by Richard Up-
john in 1878, was erected at a cost of $2,532,524.43. The architecture
might be considered Gothic from the profusion of crockets, finials, and
niches that rise above its somewhat pointed arches to the elongated dome;
but it is exuberant and eclectic in spirit, and does not confine itself to
the historical precedents of any one style. The mass of the building is
dignified and impressive. Two lofty, five-story wings, rising at the
east and west facades of the central main building, culminate in the

174

Main Street and Village Green

twelve-sided gilded dome, topped with a winged figure of the 'Genius
of Connecticut' by Randolph Rogers. The well-composed exterior is of
modified Venetian and French Gothic style with corner towers.

On the first floor are oifices, and in the lobbies the battle flags of Connecti-
cut troops hi different wars, Lafayette's army cot, the tombstone of
Israel Putnam, and a plaster model of the statue on the dome. On the
stairway to the House of Representatives, on the mezzanine floor, are
copies of the statues around the dome. The second floor contains the
offices of Governor, Secretary of State, the legislative halls, and the rooms
used for hearings. The presiding officer's chair in the Senate is hand-

HARTFORD. POINTS OF INTEREST

3-
4-

7-
8.

10.
ii.

12.

13-
14.

IS-

16.

17-
18.
19.

20.
21.

22.

23-
24.

25-
26.

27.

28.
2 9 .

State Capitol

Bushnell Park

Equestrian Statue of Lafayette

State Office Building

State Library and Supreme
Court Building

Timothy Steele House

County Building

Bushnell Memorial Hall

Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance
Company Building

Butler McCook Homestead

South Congregational Church

Charter Oak Memorial

Municipal Building

Burial Ground

First Church of Christ

Morgan Memorial Art Galleries

Wadsworth Atheneum

Avery Memorial Art Museum

Hunt Memorial

Daniel Wadsworth Barn

Hartford Steam Boiler Inspec-
tion and Insurance Company
Building

Travelers' Insurance Company
Buildings

Site of Oliver Ellsworth House

Old State House

Hartford Courant Offices

Christ Church Cathedral

Federal Building, Post Office
and U.S. Court House

Connecticut Mutual Life Insur-
ance Company Building

Hartford Fire Insurance Com-
pany Building

30. State Armory

31. Caledonia Insurance Company

Building

32. Site of the George Catlin House

33. ^Etna Life Insurance Company

Building

34. St. Joseph's Cathedral

35. Harriet Beecher Stowe House

36. Charles Dudley Warner House

37. William Gillette House

38. John Hooker House

39. Katherine Hepburn's Birthplace

40. Mark Twain's House and Memorial

Library

41. Children's Museum of Hartford

42. Hartford Seminary Foundation

43. Elizabeth Park

44. Hartford School of Music

45. Keney Memorial Tower

46. St. Justin's Roman Catholic

Church

47. Connecticut Institute for the Blind

48. Keney Park

49. Fuller Brush Company Building

50. Bulkeley Memorial Bridge

51. Pratt and Whitney Manufacturing

Company Plant

52. Pope Park

53. Trinity College

54. Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manu-

facturing Company Plant
Colt Park
Goodwin Park

55-
56.

57. Royal Typewriter Company Plant

58. Underwood Elliot Fisher Company

Plant

178 Main Street and Village Green

carved from the Charter Oak. The Attorney General has offices on the
third floor, and the fourth floor is devoted to committee rooms. From the
Dome (open 11 and 3.30) is a magnificent view of the city and surrounding
countryside.

The approach to the Capitol from the east passes the bronze equestrian
Lafayette Statue, the ugly 13-inch seacoast mortar used at the siege of
Petersburg by the ist Connecticut Heavy Artillery and known as The
Petersburg Express, a Statue of Governor Richard D. Hubbard, and the
Colonel Thomas Knowlton Statue, erected in honor of the officer in direct
command of Connecticut troops at Bunker Hill, the commander of
Knowlton's Rangers (see Tour 3, ASHFORD).

E. from Capitol Grounds into Bushnell Park.

2. Bushnell Park (1853), between the Capitol Grounds, Trinity, Ford, and
Asylum Sts. (41.27 acres), was purchased by the city of Hartford in
1853, from Horace Bushnell, for whom the park is named. The Park
River, winding along the eastern, northern, and western boundaries,
increases the beauty of the tree-lined walks, flower-beds, shrubbery, lily
pond, Music Shell, and children's playground. The most pretentious
statuary group here is the Corning Memorial Fountain, near the north
end (Asylum St.) of the park by the river, erected in 1899 by John J.
Corning, as a tribute to his father. Designed by Massey Rhind, the
fountain has a granite basin and column about which stand the full-
sized figures of four Indian maidens and four braves. The Spanish War
Memorial, at the corner of Trinity and Elm Sts., is the work of the
Windsor sculptor, Evelyn Beatrice Longman Batchelder. Its massive
central figure of golden bronze represents Columbia with an uplifted
torch above bas-relief figures of a soldier and sailor on either side. The
Soldiers' and Sailors 7 Memorial Arch, at Trinity St. approach to the Capi-
tol, was designed by Sylvester Bissell in 1 88 5 . A medieval arch, 30 feet wide,
supported by free-stone round towers at either end, each over 100 feet
high and 63 feet in circumference, the structure is enlivened by a terra-
cotta frieze representing Civil War soldiers in action. Among other
statues in the park are the Anders onmlle Prison Boy, a bronze memorial
by Bela Lyon Pratt, to Northern soldiers who died in Southern prisons
during the Civil War; the tall bronze Statue of General Israel Putnam,
just west of Trinity St.; and in the eastern section of the park, a Statue
of Dr. Horace Wells % the discoverer of the use of nitrous oxide gas as
anesthesia; and the Dahlgren Guns, taken from the warship ' Hartford. 7

S. from Bushnell Park on Trinity St.; R. on Capitol Ave.

3. The Equestrian Statue of Lafayette, center of Capitol Ave., at the
north end of Washington St., was cast from the plaster model of the
original by Paul W. Bartlett, the gift of American school children to the
city of Paris.

4. The State Office Building, Capitol Ave. (L), between Washington and
West Sts., erected in 1930-31, is of modern design. Bronze plaques
between the floors are in contrast to the limestone walls ; a course v of

Hartford 1 79

heavy dentils lines the cornice below the top floor. J. Henry Miller,
Inc. was the architect. The offices of various State departments are
housed here.

5. The State Library and Supreme Court Building, opposite the Capitol,
on Capitol Ave., between Lafayette and Oak Sts., was built in 1910 from
designs by Bonn Barber. It is of Italian Renaissance design, a style
popularized for public buildings by the great expositions, but is here
treated with a special vigor and nobility of proportions. An imposing
entrance pavilion, with Roman columns, arched doorways, and a heavy
superstructure, is flanked with two great sculptural groups over a pro-
jecting pair of columns at each end. A long broad flight of steps com-
pletes the composition.

The State Library (open weekdays 9-5), in the east wing of the building,
combines the State law, legislative, war, and archives libraries, and is
the depository of public records and official publications, and many
historical and genealogical collections per taming to towns, States, the
United States, and the British Empire.

The Connecticut Supreme Court occupies the west wing in which is
Albert Herter's mural, ' Signing of the Colonial Orders. 7

Memorial Hall, in the south wing, facing the main entrance, houses some
of the State's most cherished relics, among them the Gilbert Stuart
'Portrait of George Washington,' the historical duplicate of the original
charter of 1662, signed by Charles II, and complete except for the loss
of its green wax seal, portraits of Connecticut governors, the table on
which Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Mitchelson
Collection of coins and medals.
Return on Capitol Ave.; R. on Lafayette St.

6. The Timothy Steele House (private}, 91 Lafayette St., behind the li-
brary and erected in 1715, is the oldest building in Hartford. Its T-shaped
chimney rises behind a roof that was originally salt-box.

L. from Lafayette St. on Russ St.; R. on Washington St.

7. County Building, 95 Washington St., rising from a low stone terrace,
is a limestone building designed in a modified Roman style by Paul P.
Cret of Philadelphia, and Smith and Bassette of Hartford. It was com-
pleted in 1929. The austerity of the facade, with its flat columns and
heavy entablature, is relieved by a bas-relief in the center of the latter, by
grilles between the columns, and by four large Roman votive urns.
Unlike the usual building of its type, it has only a center entrance to its
long hall. Three Murals by J. R. L. St. Hubert, a French artist, adorn
the main lobby, and the corridor ceilings are decorated with Homeric
scenes.

Return on Washington St.; R. on Capitol Ave.

8. Bushnell Memorial Hall, 166 Capitol Ave. at Trinity St., a red-brick
and limestone building designed by Harvey Corbett, was erected in 1930
by members of the family of Dr. Horace Bushnell, D.D., and contains a

i8o Main Street and Village Green

large auditorium (seating capacity 3227). This building has provided
Hartford with a perennial topic of discussion. Neither conservative nor
modern, its architecture fails to achieve distinction except as a hybrid.
The Capitol Ave. facade, taken by itself, is a conservative rendering
of old forms, although the Bulfinch-inspired cupola bears little relation
to the big foyer building devoted to the many secondary purposes of a
community building. The gable end of the building, toward Capitol
Ave., with its raised pediment and unevenly spaced Ionic columns, is
distinctive, but loses force from the long mass of the auditorium stretch-
ing down Trinity St.

The interior of this hall, as large as the Metropolitan Opera House in
New York, is a surprise, a bizarre medley of gold leaf and barbaric de-
sign. The stage is rimmed in concentric circles of gilt ornament con-
ventionalized bossed stars caught in a seeming cobweb of cross-lines;
and finally, lifted above the center of the auditorium, a zodiacal composi-
tion gleams from a field of stars. Torchlike, indirect lighting at the sides
makes it all shine in fantastic brilliance, which dims gradually to a sort
of moonlight before the curtain goes up. It has a four-manual organ, and
complete stage equipment. Metropolitan operas, as well as a series of
concerts, are produced here every year. A smaller hall, the Colonial
Room, seating 300, is available for chamber music.

L. from Capitol Ave. on Clinton St.

g. Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company Building, 79 Elm St., at
Clinton St. (1917), is a 7-story, dark green ornamental brick structure
with inlaid designs of red and blue tile, and a red, Spanish tile roof.
Chartered in June, 1851, as the American Temperance Life Insurance
Company, insuring only those who totally abstained from alcoholic bev-
erages, the firm in 1861 changed its name and policies, and is reputed to
be the first insurance company in this country to have conducted a
school for insurance agents.

Return on Clinton St.; L. on Capitol Ave.; L. on Main St.

10. The Butler McCook Homestead (private), 396 Main St., is a two-and-
a-half-story, central-hall, end-chimney house with four yellow, fluted
columns at the entrance, built about 1782. Dr. McCook, the present
occupant and great-grandson of the builder, has in his possession his
doctor-ancestor's record books, antiquated scales, and the old mortar
and pestle used for preparing drugs. This is the ancestral home of the
'fighting McCooks,' celebrated in the book of that name.

11. South Congregational Church, 307 Main St., at Buckingham St., was
organized in 1670 and the present church building, of red brick with
wooden trim, was built in 1827. While not of the exquisite proportions of
New Haven's churches, it has a restrained Georgian sophistication of
spirit that is very pleasing. Three fan-lighted doors in the projecting
pediment are separated by composite columns. The steeple rises in
several stages, the lowest of brick with clock faces on three sides.

TOWN AND COUNTRY

THE average Connecticut city is an overgrown town with
little evidence of planning beyond the central square. Irregu-
lar skylines show clusters of stacks, church spires, and an
occasional tall building rising above the roof-tops of the more
ordinary structures. Shade trees are evident everywhere.

The township is an important political and social subdivision
in the State. Every city retains certain town officers and the
old town boundaries. In the snug conservatism of the smaller
towns, the Yankee 'winds up the world.' The church, a gen-
eral store, sometimes a pre-Revolutionary inn, the town hall,
a Soldiers' Monument, and the village Green form a center
from which radiate shady streets lined with comfortable frame
dwellings, painted white with green trim. The picket fence is
vanishing, but lilac bushes mark the old fence lines. Back-
yard gardens bloom from spring until early fall, and the tiger
lily and lily-of-the-valley hug the foundation stones of mod-
est houses. The village barn is now a garage, and gayly
painted gasoline pumps stand in front of the Post Office. In
many of these small towns the socio-economic scheme of
things has changed but little since the last century.

LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, HARTFORD

THE STATE CAPITOL, HARTFORD

OLD STATE HOUSE, HARTFORD

OLD ACADEMY, BRANFORD

CEMENT KILN, WOODBRIDGE

ELY HOMESTEAD, KILLINGWORTH

^^fct '

IN SOUTH BRITAIN

TOWN HALL, SALISBURY

THE NEW HAVEN GREEN

HARTFORD SKY LIN!

RAILROAD STATION, WATERBURY

OLD IRON FURNACE, ROXBURY

WORLD WAR MEMORIAL, NEW BRITAIN

HART S BRIDGE, WEST CORNWALL

OLD NEWGATE PRISON, EAST GRANBY

STANTON STORE, CLINTON

Hartford 181

L. from Main St. on Charter Oak Ave.

12. Charter Oak Memorial (1906), at the junction of Charter Oak Ave.
and Charter Oak Place, a large granite column, a gift of the Society of
Colonial Dames, bears this inscription: 'Near this spot stood the Charter
Oak, known in the history of the Colony of Connecticut, as the hiding
place of the Charter, October 31, 1687.' The tree was 33 feet in circum-
ference when it was blown down in 1856. Mark Twain mentioned that
he had seen 'a walking-stick, dog collar, needle-case, three-legged stool,
bootjack, dinner table, tenpin alley, toothpick, and enough Charter Oak
to build a plank road from Hartford to Salt Lake City.'

TOUR 2

N. from Arch on Main St.

13. Municipal Building, 550 Main St., a four-story stone structure in
the French Renaissance style, was designed by Davis and Brooks, local
architects, in 1915. Rich and sophisticated, its style more delicate and
elaborate toward the upper stories, with its arched windows, Corinthian
columns and pilasters, it is an imposing structure.

L. from Main St. on Wells St.; R. on Gold St.

14. Burial Ground, Gold St. (L), next to Center Church House, is the
oldest cemetery in Hartford, used from 1640 to 1803. One and one-third
acres are enclosed by a high, block, iron fence, with two red-brick ports
at each side of the gate bearing inscribed tablets. Many of the early
governors of Connecticut are buried here.

R. from Gold Street on Main St.

15. First Church of Christ (Center Congregational) (1807), 675 Main St.,
is the oldest ecclesiastical society in the State (1632). The building
dates from the early days when experiments in design were being made.
The architecture of Hartford, influenced by that of Boston, never quite
fitted into the Connecticut style. The unusual features of this building are
the squared fronts disguising the pediments and the profusion of urns
and classical ornamentation. The steeple, too, is unusually tall and heavy,
with four wooden sections surmounting the square brick tower which has
clocks in all four faces. It is more elaborate, but not so perfectly pro-
portioned as the churches on the Green at New Haven. Seven of the
stained-glass windows came from England. One of them, called the
'Pastor's Window/ was installed in memory of Thomas Hooker, first
pastor of the church.

1 6. Morgan Memorial (temporarily closed to the public), 590 Main
St., built in 1910 of Tennessee marble from the plans of Benjamin Wistar
Morris, was donated to the city by J. Pierpont Morgan as a memorial to
his father, a former Hartford merchant. The square Gothic windows of

1 82 Main Street and Village Green

the first story are in contrast with the Renaissance pilasters, framing
medallions in the windowless portion above. A carved head of Minerva
in the keystone of the arched entrance and an ornate balustrade around
the roof-line are the only conspicuous embellishments.

The Morgan Memorial (1910) is connected, through the Colt Memorial
Wing, with the Wadsworth Atheneum. Designed by Benjamin Wistar
Morris in rough granite with marble trim to harmonize with the build-
ings on either side, this memorial in Neo-Classic Italian Renaissance style,
now housing paintings and objects of art from the Colt home ' Armsmear '
and the James B. Cone Collection of Firearms, was provided through the
bequest of Mrs. Elizabeth Colt, widow of Colonel Samuel Colt.

Return on Main St.

17. Wadsworth Atheneum, 624 Main St., covering one city block, was the
first of a group of buildings, including the Colt Memorial Museum, 1910,
the Avery Museum, 1934, and the Morgan Memorial, 1910. It was
designed in 1842 by Ithiel Town in Gothic Revival style to house a
gallery of fine arts, the public library, the Historical Society, and the
Hartford Young Men's Institute. The Yale Library had just been done
in a collegiate rendering of the style : this structure, somewhat reminiscent
of a castle, with its turrets and machicolations, was to be more secular.
Funds for the provision of this large Gothic creation of South Glaston-
bury granite were in the main donated by Daniel Wadsworth and added
to by public subscription.

The Hartford Public Library (open weekdays 9-9) (1844), first floor of
the Wadsworth Atheneum, has a collection of more than 208,000
volumes. Among these are about 4000 bound volumes of music, a col-
lection of over 50,000 photographs, engravings, and reproductions, and
10,000 books printed in foreign languages.

The Watkinson Reference Library (open weekdays 9.30-5.30) (1857),
in the east wing, second floor of the Wadsworth Atheneum, contains
approximately 118,000 volumes of reference books. Among the priceless
and important collections of this library, which was established in con-
nection with the Connecticut Historical Society through the bequest of
David Watkinson, a local merchant, are the Trumbull-Prime Collection
of looo rare books including 200 incunabula (printed before 1500), a
58-line German Bible, believed to be the first illustrated Bible, and six
copies of the Nuernberg Chronicle, printed in 1492, a library of American
Linguistics, and the Trumbull Documents on the Indian language.

The Connecticut Historical Society (open weekdays 9.30-5.30), on the
second floor of the Wadsworth Atheneum, is noted for its newspaper
files and books on Connecticut history and genealogy. Besides numerous
rare maps, manuscripts, and unbound pamphlets, the society has on
display a portion of the original Connecticut Charter, Mark Twain's
bicycle, Nathan Hale's Diary, two bricks from the Dutch fort on the site
of Hartford, and Elder Brewster's sea chest, on which the Mayflower
Compact was signed.

Hartford 183

R. from Main St. on Atheneum Sq. N.

18. The Avery Memorial Art Museum (open weekdays free, W-4, Oct.
March; 10-5, April Sept.; Sun. and holidays 2-5), 25 Atheneum Sq. N.,
is a three-story structure of gleaming Tennessee marble, completed in
1934. Its Prospect St. facade is unadorned, except for four sculptured
medallions designed in the conventionalized Greek style, wide fluted
pilasters, and a bronze grilled door. Funds for this building, designed by
Morris and O'Connor, in the modernistic style, were provided by the late
Samuel P. Avery. Benjamin Wistar Morris designed the Morgan Memo-
rial and the State Armory. Built around a central court in which stands
a marble statue done by Pietro Francavilla about 1600, the museum is
notable for its splendid indirect lighting effects. In rooms to the right of
the main entrance are prints and water-colors including the work of such
outstanding artists as Cezanne, Sargent, and Picasso; to the left of the
entrance are three rooms containing the Avery Collection of European and
Oriental objects of art. On the second floor is a notable collection of
paintings including Copley's portrait of Mrs. Seymour Fort and several
by Gilbert Stuart. In the Marine Room near the stairway, are paintings
and models of ships. The rest of the second floor is devoted to the Wallace
Nutting Collection of Early American Furniture, the gift of J. P. Morgan;
the Brainard Collection of signs from early Connecticut inns; and the
Pitkin Collection of pottery. In the third-floor galleries hang works by
Goya, Tintoretto, Whistler, Veronese, Poussin, Greuze, Bellotto, Cana-
letto, Guardi, Strozzi, Giordano, Magnasco, Reni, Rosa, Daumier, Tie-
polo, Longhi, Piero di Cosimo, Cranach, Largilliere, Murillo, David, and
Degas; in addition there is a section reserved for the Welch Collection of
works by William Gedney Bunce, one of Hartford's foremost artists, and
for the Diaghilew-Lifar Collection of designs for the Russian Ballet. The
auditorium is notable for the skillful suppression of all lines except the
horizontal curves of the ceiling.

L.from Atheneum Sq. N., on Prospect St.

19. Hunt Memorial (open free, 9-5) (1897), 38 Prospect St., opposite
Atheneum Sq. N., designed by McKim, Mead and White, is a three-
story, red-brick building in modified Georgian style, given by Mrs. E. K.
Hunt, in memory of her husband, Dr. Ebenezer K. Hunt, for use by the
Hartford Medical Society. The library of the Medical Society is on the
second floor and contains more than 17,000 books dealing with medicine
and medical problems.

20. The Daniel Wadsworth Barn, built in the early i9th century, is at the
rear of the Henry A. Perkins House, owned by the Hartford Public
Library (private) (1843), 43 Prospect St.

21. Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company Building,
56 Prospect St., cor. of Grove and Prospect Sts. was designed by Carl J.
Malmfeldt. This three-story limestone building has the flat facade,
square, plain windows, and fluted pilasters characteristic of many modern
buildings, but with notable references to traditional ornament in the

1 84 Main Street and Village Green

scroll course between the stories, the diaper panels between the second-
and third-floor windows, and fluted triglyphs and circles beneath a row
of conventional dentils in the Prospect St. cornice. This company wrote
the first boiler insurance policy in America in the year of its organization,
June, 1866.
L. from Prospect St. on Grove St.

22. Travelers Insurance Company Buildings (tower open free weekdays
9-1.30, 2.30 to sunset}, 26 Grove St., three in number, form a single
architectural unit. Designed by Donn Barber of New York, the building,
of pink Westerly granite (faced with a light brick on the courtyard side),
is the highest in New England (527 feet), its tower, rising from the gth
story, topping the structure above the south wing to the height of 34
stories. It is an architectural focal point in Hartford, a business capitol,
dwarfing even the old legislative capitol on the hill. On the i;th and
1 8th stories is a loggia, and above the 2oth, a recession in the long face
of the tower brings it into a square. It is very effective seen from the
broader sides, but suffers from its narrowness seen from the east or west.
Above the pyramidal roof is a metal cupola, the lower portions serving as
an outlet for the smokestack, and the upper portions supporting a finial
with a cluster of metal balls. The cupola is really a great lantern, 81 feet
high, constructed of copper, and covered with gold leaf. A beacon here
consists of 36 4oo-watt projectors and 8 of 2oo-watt power. The band
of white light cast skyward is visible for many miles.

A tablet on the wall of the Travelers Building states that here once
stood the Zachary Sanford Tavern, scene of many General Assembly
sessions and of the celebrated Charter hiding episode. Radio Station
WTIC (open), owned by the insurance company, operates from the 6th
floor of this building.

The first American accident policy was written by the Travelers
in 1863. It offered $1000 protection to James Bolter and covered only
the time he spent walking from the post office to his home. During 1866
the Travelers offered accident tickets to passengers on train, ship, or
coach; the first aircraft liability and property damage insurance was
issued in 1919. The company employs 4200 people.
R. from Grove St. on Main St.

23. Site of Oliver Ellsworth House (1790), 740 Main St., which was for-
merly a tavern and for a while the home of the famous jurist (see WIND-
SOR}.

24. Old State House (1796), Main St. at Central Row, contrasts the
epoch-making architecture of the early Republic with^such skyscraper
developments as its neighbor, the Travelers Tower. It was designed by
Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the State House in Boston (1798).
The entrances, on the west toward Main St., and the original main
entrance on the east, are unpretentious doors hi the substructure of
high enclosed porticoes. The dominant feature is the arched windows
over the doors. The balustrade, added in 1815, ties the whole together,

Hartford 185

and the cupola, without which the design would seem unfinished, was
added hi 1827; the clock was installed in 1848. The wide paneled stair-
case, with its elaborately turned balusters, rises on either side of the
hall, joining in one and turning back on itself. On the landing is the
Secretary of State's little office, outfitted by the Daughters of the
American Revolution in period furniture and containing the famous,
unsupported spiral staircase against the rounded north end. The Senate
Chamber, at the south end upstairs, is elaborate with fluted pilasters (a
combination of Ionic and Corinthian), and a false balustrade above them
around the whole room. Two fireplaces, which look totally inadequate
today, once heated the room from the side of the hall. The House of
Representatives' Chamber, opposite, contains a paneled gallery sup-
ported by fluted Ionic columns over the entrance doorway and the two
fireplaces. Downstairs, under this chamber, is the Supreme Court Room.
Fluted columns on paneled bases support the ceiling, and corresponding
pilasters divide the window spaces on the three outer walls. Only Rhode
Island, of the New England States, has an older State House, and nowhere
is there a finer example of the civic architecture of the early Federal
period.

R. from Main St. on Central Row.
L. from Central Row on American Row; L. on State St.

25. Hartford C our ant Offices, 64-66 State St. This 5-story, red-brick build-
ing houses one of the older daily newspapers in the United States, founded
by Thomas Green, on October 29, 1764. The Hartford Courant was
awarded the N. W. Ayer Cup in 1932, for having the best typographical
appearance of any newspaper in the United States.

R. from State St. on Main St.

26. Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal), at 955 Main St., cor. of Church
St., is interesting as a Gothic Revival church built at a time (1829)
when the Post-Colonial style of church architecture in Connecticut was
reaching its peak. It is a dark, ornate building, neither as large nor as
early as Trinity Church, New Haven (1814-15). The parish was or-
ganized in 1762, and the church was declared a Cathedral in 1919.

L. from Main St. on Church St.

27. Federal Building, Post Office and U.S. Court House (1931), Church
St. between High St., Foot Guard Place, and Hoadley Place, is a long
modernistic structure of Indiana limestone. A square, heavy entablature
rests on a series of pilasters, with elaborate grille work over the interven-
ing windows. The facade would be monotonous if not broken by a long
inscription and a central bas-relief of a youth on horseback passing the
torch of life to another youth. Surmounting either end are huge bronze
eagles with folded wings. Adams, Prentice, and Malmfeldt were the
architects.

Church St. becomes Myrtle St.; R. from Myrtle St. on Garden St.

28. Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company Building (1926), 140
Garden St., cor. Myrtle and Collins Sts., houses the oldest life insurance

1 86 Main Street and Village Green

company in Connecticut, organized in 1846, and the sixth oldest in the
country, noted for having fought against speculative types of insurance
for many years.

Return on Garden St.; R. on Cogswell St.; R. on Asylum St.

29. Hartford Fire Insurance Company Building (1921), 690 Asylum St.,
between Summer and Collins Sts., Garden and Cogswell Sts., is one of
the oldest insurance companies in the city and State, organized in
1 8 10. Its portico of six columns and flat dome relieve the severity of
its mass. It stands on the site of the American School for the Deaf,
existent here from 1821 to 1921.

Return on Asylum St.; R. on Broad St.

30. State Armory (1909), Broad St. (R), on twelve and a half acres of
ground bordering Bushnell Park, is the largest armory in the State, with
quarters for thirteen units of the Connecticut National Guard, a divisional
headquarters, and an auditorium that seats 10,000. This building stands
just west of the Capitol where a railway roundhouse once stood.
Return on Broad St., which becomes Cogswell St.

31. The Caledonia Insurance Company Building (1936), Cogswell St.,
cor. of Garden St., is a branch of the oldest insurance company in Scot-
land. The structure, designed by Carl J. Malmfeldt, is of modified
Georgian design. A bronze bas-relief, representing the company arms in
the pediment, and slight flutings around the windows are the only orna-
mentation. The design of the building recalls the Leominster House in
Dublin, which is reputed to have been the basis for the design of the
White House in Washington.

R. from Cogswell St. on Garden St.; L. on Asylum St.; R. on Hurlburt St.

32. The Site of the George Catlin House (1820), 17 Hurlburt St. Here was
the former home of Lydia Huntley Sigourney (Mrs. George Catlin,
1791-1865), Connecticut's famous poetess (see Literature), who was
allegedly visited by every President in office during her lifetime with
the exception of Washington and Polk.

TOUR 3

W. from Asylum St. on Farmington Ave.

33. The &tna Life Insurance Company Building, 151 Farmington Ave.,
on 28 acres of landscaped grounds, at the geographical center of Hartford,
is the most monumental of the city's insurance capitols (1929). It was
designed by James Gamble Rogers, in a Georgian style. The building is
approached by a semicircular courtyard which. leads up to a colonnaded
portico. Here the main building, six stories in height, is topped with a
lofty cupola. The square cupola is designed with a high Greek pediment,
and a New England belfry above it. The plan consists of two main wings

Hartford 187

which cross the building like transepts, near the ends, and a larger one
at the center, from which rises the tower and cupola. The Colonial
lines are especially evident in the eighth floor.

The executive offices on the eighth floor are elaborately finished with
teak floors and paneling taken from an old house in Torrington. They
open on a roof garden. The hand-carved mahogany table in the directors'
room once belonged to Jefferson. The total floor space is 769,000 square
feet, so arranged that the building is a unified, though complicated plan,
without the usual recourse to a skyscraper solution. The 250-foot belfry
is illuminated at night.

34. St. Joseph's Cathedral, 150 Farmington Ave., a brownstone edifice,
is opposite the ^Etna Life Insurance building, and the center of the Ro-
man Catholic Diocese of Connecticut.

L. from Farmington Ave. on Forest St.

35. Harriet Beecher Stowe House (private) (about 1870), 73 Forest St.,
a mid- Victorian gray-brick structure entered through a gabled porch,
is famous as the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of ' Uncle Tom's
Cabin' (see Literature), who lived here during the last twenty- three
years of her life (1873-96).

36. Charles Dudley Warner House (private) (1872), 57 Forest St., a red-
brick structure with many gables and chimneys, was the home of the
former literary editor of Harper's Magazine, who was often hailed as
'the greatest literary man of his day' (see Literature).

37. William Gillette House (private) (1830), 49 Forest St., was the home of
the former U.S. Senator Francis Gillette and his noted son, the late
William Gillette, Shakespearian actor.

38. The John Hooker House (private) (1857), 34 Forest St., a red-brick
structure with yellow wooden trim, was a noted gathering place for literary
celebrities during the lifetime of Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, pioneer
woman suffragist and the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe. For several
years preceding the erection of the Twain House, now the Mark Twain
Memorial Library, Samuel Clemens and his wife boarded here with the
Hookers, occupying a western semicircular room, with fireplace and
French windows, that has been changed but little.

L. from Forest St. on Hawthorne St.

39. Katherine Hepburn's Birthplace (private), 133 Hawthorne St., was
the home of the motion-picture star, who lived here with her parents until
she began her career in the theater.

Return on Hawthorne St.; R. on Forest St.; L. on Farmington Ave.

40. Mark Twain's House and Memorial Library (open weekdays 9-5;
free) (1873), 351 Farmington Ave. This huge, rambling, twenty-room, red
and yellow brick structure of Victorian-Gothic architecture was built by
Mark Twain who resided here from 1874 to 1879. In 1929 it was ac-
quired by the Mark Twain Library and Memorial Commission and par-
tially restored. The stair hall is rich with quartered oak and inlaid paneled

1 88 Main Street and Village Green

walls of various woods. In the Memorial Room is a bust of the humorist
modeled from life by Louis W. Potter, and a large model of the Mark
Twain Memorial; the latter, representing characters from his books
flanking the seated figure of Clemens, is to be erected at Hannibal,
Missouri, the author's birthplace. Mr. Clemens had the kitchen and
servants' quarters built in the front part of his house so that they could
look out of the windows ' to see the parade go by.' As he commented, ' It
saves time and wear on the rugs.' Unusual features in the Mark Twain
House are a Tiffany window over the main fireplace and, in the rear, an
addition constructed like a pilot house, which served the elderly author
as a reminder that he had, at one time, been a Mississippi River steamboat
pilot.

41. The Children's Museum of Hartford (open weekdays 10-5; Sun. and
holidays 2-5), 609 Farmington Ave., at Oxford St., maintained by the
city, instructs and entertains young people with many fine exhibits,
lecture programs, and motion pictures. As floor space is limited, the
museum has adopted a system of rotary exhibits, displaying from time
to time a variety of collections of minerals, insects, plants, animals, and
birds, as well as dolls, stamps, handicraft, and articles from foreign lands.
Classes from the primary and grammar schools of the vicinity make
regular trips to the museum, which is particularly popular during sum-
mer vacations.

Return on Farmington Ave.; L. on Girard St.; R. on Elizabeth St.

42. Hartford Seminary Foundation (1926), at 55 Elizabeth St., was or-
ganized in 1833 by 36 Congregational ministers at East Windsor, and called
the Congregational Ministers College. It received its charter as the Theo-
logical Institute of Connecticut in May, 1834, and in 1865 removed to Hart-
ford. The Hartford School of Religious Education and the Kennedy School
of Missions are housed in the Foundation and continue to function as in-
dividual units of religious education. Special training is given students
seeking to qualify for a missionary career. The 35 acres of landscaped
campus contain administrative offices, library, dining-hall, dormitory for
women, dormitory for men, furnished apartments for missionary families,
and furnished apartments for married students. Parts of the building
program were carried out in 1924-25 by Allen and Collens. The buildings,
though as yet they seem unrelated, are in sturdy, unassuming Gothic
in the Perpendicular style, enlivened by some Elizabethan half-timber
work. The design of the tower at the entrance is based upon that of
Magdalen College, Oxford.

Case Memorial Library (open), Avery Hall, on the campus of the Hart-
ford Seminary, contains 140,890 volumes and 61,062 pamphlets of special
interest to students of theology and related subjects. Books in the
exceptionally fine Mission Department include, in addition to works on
history, philosophy, and religion, the classical literature of the Japanese,
Chinese, Arabic, Moslem, Turkish, and Armenian civilizations.

Return on Elizabeth St.; R. on Whitney St.; L. on Asylum St.

Hartford 189

43. Elizabeth Park (1895), entrance Asylum St., comprises 100 acres,
the gift of Charles M. Pond in memory of his wife Elizabeth, for whom it
was named. Thousands of people annually visit here during Rose Week
in June, to view the 500 varieties of roses in a natural setting of lily
ponds, streams, and groves. In hothouses and experimental houses not
far from the rose-beds, specialists continually develop more beautiful
varieties. National lawn bowling tournaments are held here annually in
June; other facilities include the children's playground, picnic groves,
tennis courts, and baseball diamond. Most of the park is in West Hart-
ford, but it is owned and cared for by the city of Hartford.

Return on Asylum St.

44. Hartford School of Music (1890), 834 Asylum St., reputedly the oldest
endowed school of music in Connecticut, is a non-profit corporation
providing musical instruction and encouragement to gifted students.
Junior and Senior string ensembles are maintained and concerts rendered
in both Bushnell and Avery Memorials.

TOUR 4

N. from Pleasant St. on Main St.

45. Keney Memorial Tower (1898), cor. of Main and Ely Sts., a French
Gothic tower like the Tour St. Jacques in Paris, was built to house a
clock and chimes, and to provide 'a monument to a Mother/ by Walter
and Henry Keney, Hartford merchants, on the site of their former home.
It is said to be the first monument erected to commemorate a woman
who had no other claim to greatness than that of being a true and self-
sacrificing parent.

L. from Main St. on Albany Ave.; R. on Blue Hills Ave.

46. St. Justin's Roman Catholic Church, 256 Blue Hills Ave., attached
to a convent, is the most interesting modern church in the city. Erected
in 1931, the design of the structure by Whiten and McMann is hard to
classify, having Gothic elements, such as its crossing tower and its per-
pendicular windows, and a Romanesque basilican interior, all treated with
a rigorous modern suppression of unnecessary lines. But the perfect
proportions, the light and shade concentrated at the altar, and the
facade, which might be called a composition of block surfaces, are admi-
rably handled in spite of stylistic inconsistencies.

R. from Blue Hills Ave. on Holcomb St.

47. Connecticut Institute for the Blind (open) (1911), 260 Holcomb St.,
at Blue Hills Ave., a three-and-a-half-story red-brick, Georgian-Colonial
structure, accommodates 60 blind and partially blind pupils, who re-
ceive general elementary education and board. Using the latest aids for
the blind, such as guide dogs, the Braille system of writing, and talking

190 Main Street and Village Green

books, every effort is made to make the students as self-supporting as
possible.

48. Keney Park (1924), entrance at end of Holcomb St., was donated to
the city by Henry Keney in August, 1924. This park contains a difficult
i8-hole golf course, clubhouse, archery, and lawn bowling grounds,
tennis courts, a children's playgound, a refectory, football, baseball, and
soccer fields, and bridle paths. Throughout its 694 acres, the scenic
drives wind past streams and ponds in acres of natural woodland.

Return on Holcomb St.; R. on Coventry St.; R. on Tower Ave.; L. on Main
St.

49. The Fuller Brush Company Building (adm. on application at office}
(1906), 3580 Main St., houses a firm founded in 1906 and incorporated in
1913; this three-story, yellow-brick building occupies more than 160,000
square feet and is the largest brush factory in the world, manufacturing
brushes for household use sold on a direct- to-consumer basis. These
brushes are sold from door to door by young men, who are as clever sales-
men as the original Yankee peddlers.

OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

50. Bulkeley Memorial Bridge, at the end of Morgan St., erected in 1908
at a cost of $1,600,000, spans the Connecticut River between Hartford
and East Hartford. Named for Morgan G. Bulkeley, former Mayor of
Hartford, Governor of Connecticut, and U.S. Senator, the 9 spans and
approaches, 1192 feet long and 83 feet wide, include 100,000 cubic yards
of masonry.

51. Pratt and Whitney Manufacturing Company Plant (adm. on applica-
tion at office] (1860), 436 Capitol Ave., at Flower St., is noted for its
development of standard-length precision gauges and tools. The Sharps
rifle was first manufactured on this site by the Sharps Company (1851).
Through history-making Civil War and western pioneering days, this
early br