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The
Historical Society’s Museum on the Green tries to illustrate was
life was like in Glastonbury, from the
time the first settlers came here from Wethersfield, up through present
day. We are still working at
this. Two years ago, we began
arrange our museum in a new layout.
We expect to finish it over this coming winter.
In
addition to our permanent exhibits, which are outlined on this website, there is an
exhibit that changes every three months. From April through June, the changing display
will hold the Lantern Collection of society member Joe Sullivan. While in college, Joe worked on a road
construction crew. Part of his job
was to daily clean and refill the warning lanterns. He began collecting 20 years ago when
lantern at an antique show filled him with nostalgia. Some of the kerosene lamps have been restored, others remain in their original
condition. Most were made by the
Dietz Manufacturing company in the first half of the 19th
century. In addition to warning
lanterns, there are lanterns made for carriage, car, barn, skating, and
other uses.
SHIP BUILDING
From 1614 when Adriaen Block sailed up
the Quinnihticut
River until 1931 when the
steamship, Middletown,
last docked across from the coming Community Center, many people first
saw Glastonbury
from the river.
A model of The Exact (1830) stands in the entrance. She was one of more than 350 ships
built in Glastonbury
shipyards. Known as the Seattle Mayflower, she was hired
at a stop in California by the first
group of emigrants to Seattle,
Washington.
The Shipyard Diorama gives a sketch of how a ship was built. It is based on Roswell
Hollister’s Log Landing Shipyard.
Ships built at Glastonbury could
not be large, ocean-going vessels because of the sandbar at the mouth of
the Connecticut River. Smaller ships, used for trade along the
coastlines and to Caribbean
Islands, had
shallower drafts and could pass over the sandbar.
Shipbuilding required supplies, and many industries grew up in Glastonbury to meet
those needs. One of these was the
South Glastonbury Anchor Works, later known as Pratt’s Forge. The anchor on the bottom shelf of the
display case is an example of a small Pratt’s Forge anchor. The photographs show anchors as heavy
as 3,900 pounds, which were also made at the Forge and shipped to New York for use
on ocean going vessels.
In the display case are many items used by sailors. The logbook is from the whaler, the Alert, and kept by Hezekiah Hale
of Glastonbury. On each day a whale was killed,
Hezekiah stamped a picture of a whale.
Sailors would occasionally leave their ships when in port, so new
sailors would be hired along the way to keep a full crew. When the Alert reached San
Francisco, Hezekiah Hale hired a young seaman
whose name was Richard Henry Dana. From his travels on the Alert under Hezekiah Hale, Dana
wrote the novel, Two Years Before the Mast.
HOW THE WORLD LOOKED - The
Keith Hook Map Collection
These maps were printed in England
and France
between 1775 and 1835. The United States did not have the technology
to do fine lithography so surveys were taken and brought back to Europe to have plates engraved and maps
printed. One of the surveyors was
Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas Jefferson.
There are seven maps in the collection, which are shown on a
revolving basis.
NATIVE AMERICANS
The Native Americans of Glastonbury were members of Algonkian-speaking tribes. They lived in clans of
approximately100 individuals, each group ruled by a sachem. Clans took names from features of the
land where they were centered. Naubucs lived in the Plains to the East, the flat
area at the North End of town. Nayaugs lived near the Noisy Water, at the mouth of
Roaring Brook. Wongonks
lived at the Bend in the River, where the Connecticut River turned in the 1600’s. The tribes were peaceful and
agricultural.
In the summer, clans lived along the river in Longhouses like
the model on the table, made of saplings and bark or woven mats. In winter, they moved to the hills and
lived in South- or West- facing caves.
The artifacts from the Phillips Dig were found in such
a cave in East Glastonbury. The cases contain many examples of
stone implements and clay pottery created by the tribes, as well as
contact material; items which were probably received in trade from
colonists who settled in the area.
Note the pottery along the back of the bottom shelf. The oldest piece was made between 1,000
and 1 BC. On the right of the top
shelf is a soapstone dish. It is
very rare that one is found whole.
Dishes carved from soapstone were used before Native Americans
learned to make clay pottery.
COLONIAL GLASSENBURY
Glastonbury
was purchased from the sachem, Sowheag, and his
clan in 1636 for 12 yards of trading cloth. In 1639, surveyors laid out 34 strips
of land running 6 miles north to south and 3 miles from the river into
the wilderness. Glastonbury’s current Three Mile Road marks the three
miles from where the river flowed in 1639. Width of the strips was determined by
the amount of useable, fertile land in each strip and adjustments were
made to accommodate rocky or swampy land, unsuitable for farming. This
was the First
Survey in Connecticut. An interpretation of it hangs on the
wall over the display case. For 50
years, this land was known as Naubuc Farms and was part of Wethersfield. In 1650, the General Court granted
permission to form a militia. In
1673, an additional four miles to the east, known as East Farms, was
purchased. The 34 households
living in this area built a Meeting House on the site of this Museum and
hired Timothy Stevens as a minister.
Permission was granted to them in 1690 to form a town, and in
1693, Glassenbury was incorporated.
In the case are examples of colonial currency, household, and
building materials. The brick is
from the
Matthew Miller House (1780). It is imprinted with Spanish Pieces
of Eight and is most likely a ballast brick carried on a ship traveling
from South America or the West Indies.
The spoon
mold, dating from 1710, is one of the oldest known
American made spoon molds still in existence.
Also in the case is a photograph of Thomas High Lord Talcott, who lived in the house
shown in the photo below his. It
stood on Main Street,
about where the J.B. Williams Memorial (south wing of Academy School)
stands today. A sample of the wallpaper in
the photo is beside it. It was the
first wallpaper in Glastonbury, imported
from England
in 1738. The leaded window glass is
from the Talcott house and is one of a very few
examples of Colonial leaded glass known to exist. Mr. Talcott
is shown holding a musket. It hangs
on the wall over the display.
Above the musket hangs a Colonial Era pike. The blade of this pike is make from the blade of a sword.
On the wall over the case is a 1776 Map of New
England from the Keith Hook Collection, a tin lantern
made in 1776, and a Paymaster’s Sheet, recording the signatures
of men from Glastenbury who received their pay
for serving with the Sixth Regiment at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights
under General George Washington.
Of note is the Pilgrim Era Chest, made in the 17th century and
updated in the 19th century.
The original construction is visible on the back of the chest.
EARLY INDUSTRY
The strongest industrial influence in Glastonbury was shipbuilding. Sawmills, forges, blacksmiths, and
coopers were needed to supply materials to build the 350 ships that came
from three shipyards. Men were
needed to do the work of producing raw materials and assembling
them. The workers and their
families required food, clothing, shoes, and other things.
All of these needs made Glastonbury
a busy place. In 1760, one of
several gristmills in town was built at Nayaug. This Great Gristmill boasted a bakeshop
and an oven, as well. In 1769, Elisha Treat’s “Lineet
Mill” produced linseed oil, important for wood finishing. The first sawmill was built in
1667. By 1791, there were 7. In
1801, Oswen Welles was operating his woodenware
shop. In 1814, cotton, imported
from the Southern states, was woven into fabric in Cotton Hollow, and by
1822, Samuel Welles’ factory was producing woolen goods in
Eagleville. In 1826, Azial Goslee was producing
hoes and other farm implements.
George Stocking and his sons’ gun powder factory on Roaring
Brook in South Glastonbury was one of 4 suppliers in New
England bringing ammunition to General Washington’s
army during the Revolution. In
August 23, 1777, Eunice Cobb Stocking was returning from Boston after
delivering a shipment of gunpowder.
In Bolton Notch, 15 miles from home, she felt the earth shake and
saw a cloud of black smoke to the west.
Knowing that only the gunpowder factory could cause such an
explosion, Eunice returned home. Her husband and three of her four sons
had been killed. With a lot of
courage and some help from Howell Woodbridge, Eunice rebuilt the factory
and continued to supply Colonial Troops.
The story of the explosion is on the gravestone of Thomas
Kimberly in the Green
Cemetery.
Glassenbury
Glass Works was located in the Wassuc section,
south of Buck’s Corners on New London Turnpike near the entrance to
Route 2. The industry was started
in 1816 as a spin-off of the Pitkin Glass
Factory in Manchester. It closed in 1830. Examples of its products are
in the case.
SAMPLERS
So important was needlework to early American Society that it was
taught to all young girls, regardless of social class. They began with simple stitches and
marking, or the embroidering of letters.
A sampler may have been kept for the remainder of a woman’s
life, used as a personal pattern book when marking household items after
marriage. A young girl might learn
this skill at a “dame school”, or a neighborhood school
taught by a woman for young children, approximately 4 to 9 years of
age.
Having learned the basics well, older girls sometimes attended a
“female academy” where they would have their first chance to
live away from home. Painted and
silk embroidered pictures were a measure of the young lady’s
accomplishment while attending such a school.
Look at the sampler done by Sarah S. Harris. We know this sampler was done at Anna Cornwall’s
school in her home at 1200 Main Street. Read the poem and look at the formation
of the letters. Now look at Sophia
Hill’s work. Do you think
she attended Miss Cornwall’s school, too?
THE J.B. WILLIAMS SOAP FACTORY
James B. Williams had a drug business in Manchester in 1840. On the side, he experimented with
chemical formulas for shaving soap.
When he had produced a formula that satisfied him, he moved his
business to Glastonbury. Two years later, he was joined by his
brother, William Stuart Williams.
They formed what is believed to be the first commercial soap
manufacturing business in the world.
Although shaving soap was their first product, they also made ink
and shoe blacking. Products made
by the J.B. Williams Company included Williams ‘Lectric
Shave and Aqua Velva, which were known world wide.
Around 1922, J.B. Williams expanded to Montreal,
then later, to England
and Argentina. In 1957, the company was sold to
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Cranston,
NJ. The plant was moved to New Jersey in
1960. Ten former employees
organized Glastonbury Toiletries and continued operation into the
1970’s. Remaining parts of
the complex are currently the Soap Factory Condominiums and the
Glastonbury Board of Education office.
THE CIVIL WAR
After the firing on Fort
Sumpter
by Confederate troops, Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers across the
country. James B. Williams,
William S. Williams, Isaac W. Plummer, Thaddeus Welles, and Benjamin
Taylor signed a promissory note to provide funding for Glastonbury’s volunteers and 10 young men stepped
forward. Among them was William S.
Abby, who became a captain in the 25th CV Regiment.
Also among the first 10 was Edward Risley,
who was captured by the Confederates and was held at Andersonville
Prison, where he died.
Robert G. Welles, son of Thaddeus Welles and nephew of Gideon
Welles, served as a captain in the 10th Regular Infantry
Division. He was severely wounded
at Gettysburg and died in Glastonbury in 1866.
Men from Glastonbury
served in the 1st Connecticut Cavalry Unit. Connecticut’s
only Cavalry unit, it accompanied General Ulysses S. Grant to Appomattox
Court House to meet General Robert E. Lee. This unit was chosen to represent the
entire Cavalry at the laying of the cornerstone at the Gettysburg Monument. It was the only Cavalry unit present at
the ceremony.
Glastonbury’s involvement in the War
Between the States was more than military. Before the battles began, 40 women,
including Hannah Hickok Smith and her 5
daughters, signed a petition denouncing slavery. It was presented to Congress by the
former president, John Quincy Adams, and is believed to be the first
anti-slavery petition brought before Congress.
By the time the war began, Glastonbury
was becoming an industrial town.
At Hopewell Mills, cloth was produced for Union troop
uniforms. In Curtisville,
the Connecticut Arms & Manufacturing Co. produced pistols and rifles
used by the Grand Army of the Potomac.
Gideon Welles, born in the house that currently stands at 17 Hebron Avenue,
served as Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of Abraham Lincoln. He is considered the Father of the
Modern Navy and is responsible for the development of Iron Clad
ships.
Gideon Welles was a Glastonbury Tax Gatherer, editor of the Hartford Times, representative to
the State Legislature from Hartford,
and Hartford Postmaster. President
Abraham Lincoln became aware of Gideon Welles through his newspaper
articles. An early supporter of Lincoln, Welles knew he would be asked to serve in Lincoln’s
cabinet and hoped to serve as Postmaster General. Because of Welles’ shipbuilding
knowledge, Lincoln
named him Secretary of the Navy.
Gideon Welles served under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson from
1861 until 1869. It is said that he and Admiral Farragut
planned the Battle of Mobile Bay on the front porch of the Welles Home on
Hebron Avenue. A piece of the boom from Farragut’s ship, the U.S.S. Hartford, is part
of the shipbuilding display. The
lithograph of Lincoln’s
Cabinet includes Gideon Welles. He
is the gentleman with the impressive beard. The wooden gate is from the Welles Home
on Hebron Avenue.
THE PRISONER’S PEN
Originally, this structure was in the criminal courtroom of the
old Hartford Court House; a square, red brick building with sandstone
trim, high arched windows and mansard roof of blue slate, which stood at
the southeast corner of Allyn and Trumbull
Streets.
Perhaps the most noted criminal to occupy this pen was Gerald
Chapman, on trial for the murder of Policeman James Skelly
of New Britain,
October 12, 1924. Here Chapman stood
at 10:35a.m., Saturday, April 4, 1925, to hear the judge call for the
verdict, and the foreman of the jury respond, “Guilty”. He stepped from this pen and was led
before the judge’s bench to receive the sentence, “that you,
Gerald Chapman, forthwith be taken to the State’s prison at Wethersfield and
there confined until June 25, 1925 when, before sunrise of that day, you
shall be hanged by the neck until dead!”
Gerald Chapman received three reprieves and was not hung until
midnight, April 5-6, 1926.
By an act of the General Assembly in 1935, the method of
execution was changed from hanging to electrocution. The old courthouse was demolished soon
after the new Hartford County building was build on Washington Street in
the late twenties, and this pen was brought to Glastonbury and used in
the town court which was held in the south room of the second floor of
the old Town Office Building, once the Second District School, on the
northeast corner of Main and School Streets.
THE ERASTUS SALISBURY FIELD PORTRAITS
The portraits on
the wall are the Jedidiah Post and George Merrick
Families done by Erastus Salisbury
Field in 1831. The two women, Eliza Post and Nancy Merrick are sisters; they are the
daughters of shipbuilder Roswell Hollister of South Glastonbury. The three children are the son and
daughters of Jedidiah and Eliza. One of the earrings both women are
wearing was made into a necklace by one of their descendents. It is in the case near the Bill of Sale
for the paintings, showing the cost of these six portraits to be $30.00. The sixth portrait may have been one of
the Merrick Children. Its
whereabouts is not known.
THE RISE OF FELDSPAR
courtesy of Brian Chiffer
The Tryon Street Bridge
in South Glastonbury crosses Roaring
Brook at a point approximately one quarter of a mile upstream from its
mouth, where High Street, Water
Street, and Tryon Street intersect. It used to be known as the Spar Mill Bridge. Records suggest that as many as five
different businesses existed on the banks near this bridge. Many artifacts and remains persist to
this day for the curious history-minded to explore. Early on, the land in this area was
owned by members of the Hollister and Welles families. In 1720, a Welles built a sawmill just upstream from the bridge, and in 1775,
a gristmill on the opposite bank, the foundation of which still
exists. A red private home
adjacent to it may have served as a bakery shop. In 1854, because a flood had weakened
the foundation of the gristmill, it was moved downstream below the bridge,
to an area where a fulling and carding mill may
once have been. This move set the
stage for the industry for which the area is best known, the milling of
feldspar.
“Spar” is a mineral composed mainly of
silica and alumina. It is added to
ceramics to decrease its melting point during firing and to lend body to
it during shaping. It can be found
in everything from bathtubs, to ceramic tiles, to false teeth.
In the 1860s, George Andrews discovered spar on his
farm in South Glastonbury near the Portland
town line. In 1870, he started to
quarry it and built a small mill there.
About 10 years later, he sold his operation to Joshua and William
Husband who then moved the mill to the site of the old gristmill on
Roaring Brook. The old stone
wheels that once ground grain proved ideal for grinding feldspar. In 1905, after several other changes in
ownership, the mill was bought and expanded by Louis Howe.
The intricate design of this fascinating area is
evident from the remains that still exist. The mill was powered by water from
behind a wooden dam located just 15 feet upstream from the bridge. When water was required, a gate would
be opened, sending water through an underground flume located beneath the
bridge on the mill property. The
water turned a wheel connected to the grinding stones that sat in
concrete cylinders which remain today.
Little chase stones, seen scattered about, were added to the spar
to make it easier to grind.
The raw spar was mined at the Andrews quarry located
diagonally across the street from Old Maids Lane, then carted down
this street to Tryon Street,
over the bridge and into the entrance to the mill were the wagon was
weighed on a scale by the office building (now a private home).
The milled spar was also weighed going out and
carted to loading docks where it was ferried to the railroad across the Connecticut River for shipment. Howe operated his mill until well into
the 1920s when the mining of spare became unprofitable. Records show that he closed the mill in
1928.
Interestingly, another spar mill existed further
upstream from Howe’s mill on Water Street, close to the Main Street Bridge
on Roaring Brook’s north bank.
Very little is known about this particular mill which, in 1901,
was owned and operated by the Glastonbury Flint and Spar Company, with
its president, John W. Scanlon of Hartford. Although a law office and a private
home now occupy this site, remnants of the mill’s foundations, a
few grinding wheels, and bits of feldspar are still there. This mill went bankrupt in 1904.
THE PEACH KING
In 1866, John Howard Hale and his brother, George,
planted their first strawberries on a sandy hillside on the
family’s 200-year-old farm.
They borrowed a push cart from a neighbor, which they later
purchased for $1, and had modest success selling their berries from
it. When it became apparent that
more money was needed to buy more plants and fertilizer, thus increasing
their profits, 14-year-old J.H. took a job milking cows twice a day, 7 days
a week, for $12.50 a month. He also
assisted in selling the milk door to door from the milk wagon. When the dairy farmer’s garden
produced an excess of vegetables, they were also sold from the milk
wagon. Except for money spent on a
good suit of clothes and the first bought overcoat he had ever had, J.H.
put all the money he earned back into the business he and his brother
were building. When neighbors
warned their mother that the boys were ruining her best planting ground
with their briar patch, she acknowledged them, but did not stop the boys
from planting more strawberries and raspberries. J.H. and George learned that fruits
brought larger profits than vegetables, that healthy plants could be sold
for a profit, that a catalogue with good pictures and descriptions of the
fruit plants could sell more plants, and that fruit packaged in a way
that was pleasing to the eye could bring a higher price than the same
fruit packaged less carefully.
Commercially growing peaches had been abandoned in New England because disease and heavy frost frequently
killed the trees before they reached fruit-bearing age. J.H. and George noticed a small grove
of their grandfather’s peach trees.
These trees were 70-years-old.
They did not suffer from “yellows”. They did produce fruit. From these old trees, J.H. and George
developed an orchard. For seven
years, the orchard produced nothing and the berries carried the
farm. When a May freeze killed the
strawberry crop, a church group, comprised mostly of tobacco growers,
which held the $2,000 mortgage on the farm, gave the Hales until October
to pay. By September, the peach
orchards finally produced as the brothers had hoped. The crop brought $9,000.
By 1915, Hale Farms had grown from a borrowed
pushcart to 2,000 acres in Glastonbury and
Seymour, Connecticut,
and 1,000 acres in Georgia. They had cultivated over 350,000 peach
trees. A special railway spur
picked up peaches at the Hale property every evening and delivered them
before dawn to New York City. Hale peaches were shipped all over the
country, and J.H. Hale became a pioneer in nationwide produce
marketing. He was the first to
grade his fruit, so that a crate held the same size peaches all the way
to the bottom.
Not only are Hale peaches still available, but they
have been used to create some of the modern hybrid fruit available today.
Although John Howard Hale never went beyond grade
school, he understood the value of education. His efforts contributed largely to the
founding of the Glastonbury Grange and the Connecticut State Grange. He was also important in the
establishment of Storrs Agricultural College,
which we know today as the University
of Connecticut.
HARRIMAN MOTORS
Frank Herbert “Bert” Harriman was born
in 1868 in East Orland, Maine. He was an avid reader with a
photographic memory and a knack for mechanics. At the age of 19, he left Maine for the industrial town of Brockton,
Massachusetts. There, Bert met a man who thought he
had possibilities and secured a position for him in Menlo Park, New Jersey
with Thomas Edison. By 1898, Bert
was working at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut with Dr. Ansel Cook, a pioneer in the development of
X-rays. Bert developed an arc
light and sold all rights to GE for $10,000. With this money, he opened a marine
motor manufactory in Hartford. In 1907, Harriman Motors moved to 1123 Main Street, South Glastonbury. Bert took out mortgages and bought a
manufacturing building and a house for himself, his wife, Bertha, and his
daughter, Gladys, from the Taylor
family.
Bert was fascinated by the work of the Wright
Brothers and by 1909, had built and flown his own aero plane. The fuselage and propellers were made
at Taylor’s
sawmill and cooperage. Doug
Taylor, a cabinet maker, carved the propellers from laminated layers of
wood. Several fabrics were experimented
with for the skin of the aircraft, including rubberized Goodyear cloth
and silk which had been doped and varnished. In the end, unbleached
linen woven 60-70 threads per inch was used. It was pulled taut over the frame, then
shellacked or varnished. The skin
was two layers of cloth with wire reinforcement between. Given coats of linseed oil, it had a
yellowish appearance. In his foundry,
Harriman cast bearings of brass or bronze. His sales slogan read, “Raw
Material to Finished Product in one factory”.
When Harriman’s planes would not fly because
of overheated bearings, he experimented with coating them in silver. Legend says Bertha canvassed the
neighborhood for silver to purchase for her husband’s bearings. Gladys remembered the silver being
bought from a company on Elm
Street in Hartford. Years later, Pratt & Whitney solved
its own overheating difficulties by coating engine bearings with silver.
The first plane crashed and was repaired in the
meadows of South Glastonbury. By 1910, Bert was flying in the meadows
of South Windsor. By 1915, he flew in air shows at Minneola, New
York. He
gave flying lessons in the Meadows south of the ferry in Glastonbury.
Around 1910, Bert built the concrete and steel
building that still stands at 1123
Main Street, South Glastonbury. This was the first factory built
specifically for the manufacture of airplanes in the state of Connecticut, and
Harriman Motors was the first organized manufacturer. The original wood frame building was
demolished in 1932.
In 1914, a four-ox team hauled a seaplane, its wings
detached, down Water Street
to Log Landing for a test flight.
It crashed on the breakwater near Red Hill but still drew
attention to Harriman Motors. A
U.S. Government Inspector came to Glastonbury
to keep an eye on the developing hydroplane. This aircraft had a wingspan of 32
feet. Harriman claimed it could
lift 2,000 pounds which included fuel, operator, a small machine gun, and
1,000 rounds of ammunition. It had
two seats, was dual-controlled and armored. Bert Harriman believed he had a firm
commitment from the U.S. Navy for 20 seaplanes.
Harriman Motors built aero planes and aero plane
engines in 30, 50, and 100 horsepower models. They continued to build marine
engines. Anticipating orders from
the U.S. Navy for engines for use in torpedo boats, Bert Harriman
increased the size of his plant and his work force. Mr. Huen Chi
from China
came to observe the factory and the hydroplane experiments. He stayed in the Harriman home during
his visit to the United
States. Prices and specifications for the 100hp
aero plane engine were requested by Russia and sent. Mr. D.A.Thomas,
a purchasing agent for European countries, met with Harriman to negotiate
a $500,000 contract which included 125 planes for England and 30 for France. None of these orders ever materialized.
Harriman Motors logo includes a winged gear with the
letters “HF” on it.
The “F” is J.F. Fitzpatrick, a company officer who
lived with the Harrimans for a time and may
have helped with design. He was
believed to have stolen equipment worth $3,000 from Harriman Motors. Bert Harriman hired a watchman to guard
planes and equipment left overnight in the cove south of the coal docks.
Bert Harriman held one patent, dated 1920, for a
fuel economizer for automobiles.
It was manufactured in Essex,
Connecticut.
The Wright Brothers owned all the patents on aero
planes and actively pursued large licensing fees from anyone attempting
to sell planes or plane engines for profit. Enlarging his plant and his workforce
had overextended Harriman.
Claiming Harriman’s motors to be useless, Albert Oulette of Sanford,
ME sued him for
$1,000. There were other lawsuits,
including one for $37.50 due on the company typewriter. Heavily in dept, Harriman re-formed his
company with Joe Pratt of Hartford. Mr. Pratt was to manage the business,
leaving Bert free to develop engines.
Bert tried to convince the superintendent of Cheshire Correctional
Institute to have the inmates produce his planes as part of a
machinist’s training program, but the plan didn’t come to
be. Lacking capitol, Bert Harriman
filed for bankruptcy on May 13, 1921 in Hartford Superior Court and left Connecticut for Long Island. There, he sold his ideas to a company
that put them into profitable practice.
By the time he left Glastonbury, Bert Harriman had built
and flown a bi-plane, a tri-plane, and a hydroplane. His were the first aero planes built in
the State of Connecticut. Frank “Bert” Harriman is
acknowledged as a forerunner of modern aviation.
ROSER’S PIGSKIN TANNERY
In 1695, just about the time Glastonbury
became a town, Kasper Roser left his home in Strasburg, France, seeking religious
freedom. He moved his family and
his tanning business to Stuttgart,
Germany. Seven generations later, in 1883, the Roser family was still known for quality leather
tanning.
Herman, the seventh son of that seventh generation saw no future
for himself in Stuttgart. There were too many brothers ahead of
him and traditionally, the oldest inherited the family business. A cousin, who had traveled in England and Scotland
selling leather, said Scotland
thought the best quality pigskin came from America. After much discussion, Herman’s
father allowed him to cross the ocean to the land “over run with
Indians and gun-toting criminals”.
In 1883, Herman traveled to the United States. Each Roser
had learned every job in the family tannery from the most menial to the
most skilled, then had worked in other tanneries across Europe. Herman came with solid experience and
had little trouble finding work in American tanneries but he wanted to
run his own tannery. He looked for
an established tannery with a good source of pure water, a good source of
oak bark for the tannin it provided, and a good source of pigs.
Isaac Broadhead and Edward Hubbard had
established a tannery in Glastonbury
in 1854. Edward Hubbard died in
1872 and by 1886 Isaac Broadhead was ready to
sell his tannery. It used the
water from nearby Neipsic pools. Oak trees grew well on Glastonbury’s hillsides.
Glastonbury
was a farm town: there were a lot
of pigs. Herman Roser bought the tannery in Glastonbury.
When Herman first took over the Tannery, the only machinery used
was a water-powered bark grinder.
As time passed, technology developed and power went from water to
steam to electricity. New machines
were assessed and added to the process.
Herman’s sons, John and Martin, joined him in the business. Other industries were progressing
toward modern methods, too, and industrial wastes were dumped into the
brooks and ponds. Because tanning
requires pure water, Roser’s developed
its own research department. In
1942, the Tannery received one of the first awards from the Connecticut
Riverside Council for water purification research. By 1949, Roser’s
had one of the most complete plants for disposal of tannery wastes in America. Its capacity was 100,000 gallons per
day.
Leather tanned at Roser’s was
used to make saddles for the U.S. Cavalry, upholstery for Pierce Arrow
limousines, watch bands, book binding, luggage, belts, briefcases,
wallets, and fine shoes. When the
tannery was sold to Allied Kid Corporation in 1965, Herman Roser was considered one of the founders of pigskin
processing in the United
States.
PEQUOT SODA WATER
The third family business was begun in 1916 on today’s
Spring Street Extension. It used
the pure spring water in its soda.
Local Native Americans had believed these springs to have magical
properties. In the 1960’s,
trucks delivered cases of soda to homes in and around the Glastonbury
area. In the case are original ads
and bottles.
THE FATHER OF THE MODERN POULTRY INDUSTRY
About 1900, Frank Saglio
arrived in Glastonbury from Italy. He took a job with J.H.Hale
and worked his way up to foreman, supervising other Italian immigrants. By 1917, he had earned enough money to
buy a farm on John Tom Hill. He
raised vegetables and fruit for market and, in two discarded piano
crates, chickens for his family’s use. As his sons matured to an age where
they could take on some of the responsibilities of the farm, each son
developed a specialty.
Frank’s oldest son took on the vegetables. His second son took on the fruits. When his third son reached 8th
grade, the chickens were all that was left. Henry earned his electrician’s
license and built the first real coop the farm had had. The flock grew. When the vegetables and fruits went to
market, eggs went with them. Henry
also worked on breeding a white bird because the black pinfeathers were
difficult to get out of a bird headed for a meal.
Prior to World War II, broiler chickens were a
by-product of the egg industry.
Female chickens produced eggs.
Males did not so they became broilers. Broilers were called Spring Chickens
because most hatching was done in the early part of the year. The war caused meat shortages. Because chickens reached eating size
more quickly than beef or pork, poultry became an important source of
food. To stimulate interest in
production, the poultry industry, the government, and food distributors
held a competition, sponsored by A&P, to find the Chicken of Tomorrow. State and local officials urged Henry
to enter. Reluctantly, he
agreed. Arbor Acres was already
the largest cauliflower producer in Connecticut.
In 1948, Henry Saglio’s
Arbor Acre White Rocks came in second, the highest ranked purebred
chicken. The 3-year competition
was held a second time and the farms who had achieved a high rank in the
first competition did so again.
Henry hired the marketing agent of the competition for his
birds. White birds were unpopular
as food poultry because the color was associated with Leghorns, a good
egg-producing bird but a poor eating hen.
Henry and his marketer went to the processors and convinced them
of all the benefits of a white eating hen. The processors demanded white hens from
the producers. There was only one
source from which the producers could buy a good white eating hen: Arbor Acres.
By 1950, Arbor Acres was marketing breeding hens
coast to coast, both as day-old chicks and as fertile eggs to be
incubated by chicken farmers.
Because of the difficulty in shipping fragile goods, branches of
Arbor Acres were established across the United States. By 1958, Arbor Acres had gone
world-wide with its headquarters still in Glastonbury. Approximately half of the chickens
being consumed around the world were from Arbor Acres breeding stock.
Arbor Acres was one of the first to use genetic
engineering to develop chickens that were meatier, matured more quickly,
and laid more eggs. In 1977, Henry
Saglio was inducted into the Poultry Hall of
Fame.
CURTISVILLE (Established 1846)
The Naubuc section of town was the early town center. At Pratt’s Landing near the end
of Pratt Street,
a ferry operated from 1673 until 1829.
Salmon Brook provided the waterpower for early mills. A gristmill and Glastonbury’s first sawmill were located in this area.
These early sawmills produced clapboards for local building and pipe
staves (barrel staves) for export down the river to New
York and other colonies, and the West
Indies. These
products, as well as tar distilled from pinewood, proved saleable
cargoes. Shipbuilding was a major
industry between 1650 and 1820.
The Welles family first operated a shipyard at Naubuc, then later,
the Welles Lumber Company. Gideon
Welles was a member of this family.
Shipping was Glastonbury’s first industry. It provided employment through forges,
sail-making, and needs for seaman.
Until 1846, there was a woodenware business at Naubuc.
In 1846, Frederick and Joseph Curtis built the first factory for
making Britanniaware or “German
Silver” in the United
States. This is a white metal which is+ an
alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel
The factory made Victorian silverware including ladles, pie, cake
and ice cream knives, tea sets, tureens, spectacles, and tobacco
boxes. At the time of the Civil
War, the factory was purchased by the Connecticut Arms Manufacturing
Company, which made rifles and derringer-style handguns until 1869. In 1880, James B. and William Williams
founded the Williams Brothers Silver Company and produced silver
plate. The company stayed in
business until 1946, providing work for residents of Naubuc, as well as
an auditorium for meetings and entertainment.
The village
of Curtisville
had a post office, little shops, and homes. Among the items of interest in the
display case, in addition to the silver plate and the handgun,
are a pair
of Glastonbury
runners (skates), and surgical splints used to join broken
bones during the time of World War I.
The factory buildings are currently occupied by several
businesses, including Nap Brothers and Maurer and Shepard. It is listed on the National Register
of Historic Places.
GLASTENBURY KNITTING COMPANY
In 1822, Fraray Hale and Samuel Welles
organized a clothing and fulling mill known as
Eagle Manufacturing
Company. They built
a mill on Salmon Brook near Hebron
Avenue at the location of Mill Street and Addison Road for the production of
woolen goods.
In 1855, the plant was bought by the Glastenbury
Knitting Company. Eagleville become
known as Addison, named for Addison L.
Clark, president of the new company.
The village had its own post office. The factory made men’s shirts and
good, warm underwear that didn’t shrink. Notice the spelling of Glastonbury on the underwear box.
After the knitting company closed, velvet was finished at Addison
Mills. A picture of the mill is on
the wall above the Smith Sisters display.
HOPEWELL MILLS was
located on Roaring Brook in South Glastonbury. The woolen blanket in the case was
made there.
In 1814,the Hartford Manufacturing
Company built a dam and a five-story factory to make cotton sheeting in
the area. They built a community
with a school, a post office, shops, and workers’ homes, which
became known as Cotton Hollow.
Later, the building was sold to Jedidiah
Post, (the
Post family pictures are on the back wall of the museum) who operated the
Post-Purtill Paper Mill. The building burned after a boiler
explosion in 1920.
THE SMITH SISTERS
The Smiths owned the largest parcel of the 34 original
tracts. Zephaniah Hollister
Smith (1759-1836) was a graduate of Yale. He had been a minister. When theological problems arose, he
became a merchant and studied law.
He was quite successful as a lawyer. His wife, Hannah Hickok Smith (1767-1850), was an
intelligent and determined woman.
She was educated by her father who was a Yale graduate. She was an abolitionist. She and her daughters circulated an
anti-slavery petition in Glastonbury. About 40 Glastonbury women signed the petition,
which was presented to Congress by former President John Quincy
Adams. This is believed to be the
first petition against slavery.
The sisters were:
Hancy Zephina
(1787-1871), very mechanical. She built things like a keyboard made
of wood and a boat which she sailed on the river. She also invented a device for shoeing
cattle that was used by local blacksmiths. Her name was probably a combination of
Hannah and Zephiniah. She was called Zephina
and signed her name H. Zephina Smith.
Cyrinthia Sacretia (1788-1864), a
skilled needle woman and a botanist.
She had a greenhouse behind the Smith home on Main Street.
Laurilla Aleroyia (1785-1857), artist. The Victorian cottage across the street
from the Smith home was built as her art studio. Her watercolor sketches are in the book
in the display case. It is because
of her drawings that we know how the houses on Main Street appear in her lifetime.
Julia Evelina (1792-1886), classics
scholar. She taught at the Emma Willard
School at Troy, New York.
She belonged to a religious order that believed the world was coming to
an end. When it did not, Julia
wrote 5 literal translations of the Bible from Hebrew, Latin, and Greek
to find out why.
Julia was the only sister to marry. At age 87, she married Judge Amos
Parker from New Hampshire
with whom she had corresponded, but had never met. It was not a happy marriage. When Julia died 7 years later, she left
a note asking to be buried next to her sisters with only her maiden name
on the headstone.
Abby Hadassah (1797-1878), speaker for women’s
suffrage.
A problem began in 1869 when Julia was 77 and Abby was 72. The town increased the property tax of
several widows and unmarried women, but not of any men. Julia and Abby objected to the
discrimination, but got nowhere with the town. They turned to the Women’s
Suffrage Movement. Abby had
attended the first Women’s Congress in New
York in 1873 and come home inspired to take on the Town of Glastonbury. On Election Day, Abby and Julia went to
the Town House (this museum). Although women had not yet gained the right
to vote, Abby and Julia asked the moderator for permission to speak. He refused and they left. Outside, Abby climbed onto an oxcart and
gave a speech on Taxation without Representation. From that day, they
refused to pay their taxes. The
town took their 7 Alderny cows named Jesse,
Daisy, Proxy, Minnie, Bessie, and Lily.
The Smiths managed to buy back the cows at auction. The following year, the Tax Collector
put the Smith land up for auction instead of the cows. This was illegal. The Smiths sued the town and won. Reporters from as far away as Boston came to Glastonbury
to cover the story of the two old ladies and their cows. As a memoir, Julia wrote Abby Smith and Her Cows, a book
published in 1877.
SCHOOLS
In 1700, Glastonbury’s Town Men (the elected governing body) voted
to purchase nails to build a schoolhouse “eighteen feet square
beside the chimney”. The
walls of this schoolroom are 9 feet long, as a size comparison. Because of disagreements among the Town
Men, the first school was actually built eleven years later.
In 1855, Glastonbury was divided
into 18 School Districts. Note the pictures on the poster. Early schools were in session a minimum
of 4 months a year by state law.
The children were needed at home the rest of the time for farm
work and to help with spinning, weaving, candle making, and other
chores. In 1865, it became
mandatory to keep schools open for 6 months. Students were taught reading, writing,
arithmetic, and later, geography was added.
There was no free high school until 1893, although there was Glastonbury Academy
on the Green in 1798, Glastonbury Seminary from 1792 to 1845 located next
to the Welles-Shipman-Ward House, Academy Hall from 1862 to 1864 near Stockade Road,
and Glastonbury Academy, founded 1870 and re-organized in 1893
as Glastonbury Free Academy,
on the site of the present Academy
School. These were private academies and students
paid tuition to attend.
TREAT TAVERN SIGN
This
Tavern is now a private home. It
is located on Hebron Avenue.
March 16, 2005
The WELLES-SHIPMAN-WARD HOUSE
Colonel Thomas Welles, a
wealthy Glastonbury shipbuilder and his
wife, Martha Pitkin Welles, built the house at 972 Main Street
(Rte 17), S. Glastonbury, in 1755 for
their son, John Welles. In 1753,
John married Jerusha Edwards, daughter of Samuel and Jerusha Pitkin Edwards.
They had 6 children born from 1754 through 1763. One died in infancy. In 1764, John died from pneumonia at
age 35, leaving Jerusha with 5 children ranging from age 1 to age
10. In 1773, the eldest son, John,
Jr., married Mehitabel Hollister Goodrich. They made their home with Jerusha and
John’s siblings at this property.
Their 7 children were born from 1774-1788. The eldest died young.
The Revolutionary War was
costly to the Welles family having built 3 privateers, which were not
profitable, putting the family heavily into dept. In 1789, the house was lost to two
creditors, Stephen shipman, Jr. and Nathaniel Talcott,
Jr. Shipman bought Talcott’s share of the house around 1790 and
the Shipman family retained the home for more than 100 years. Dr. and Mrs. James Ward purchased it in
1925. The Historical Society of
Glastonbury obtained the House in 1963 through a bequest from Berdena Hart Ward, a Society member.
The House, cited by the
United States Department of the Interior as “possessing exceptional
architectural interest”, is known for its enormous fireplace in the
kitchen. The elaborate paneling
and molding in the parlors have been noted in books on New
England architecture as prime examples of their style. Upstairs, the Glastonbury Weavers
display their craft on antique equipment, while the Northeast Chamber has
children’s drawings etched on the walls. The Glastonbury Garden Club maintains
the 18th century-style herb garden and grounds. The barns are filled with antique
farming, household, and 19th century horse drawn vehicles.
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