Early Manufacturing in Killingly, Connecticut
The manufacturing excitement raged with great violence in this town,
its numerous rivers offering such convenient facilities that her own
citizens were able to embark in such enterprises with less foreign aid
than was requisite in other towns. " Danielson's Factory," at the
Quinebaug Falls, enjoyed a high place in popular favor, its twenty liberal
handed stockholders, mostly town residents, prosecuting its various
business affairs with much energy. William Reed served most efficiently
for many years as its agent. Its well filled store was managed for many
years by the Tiffany Brothers, from Rhode Island.
The " Stone Chapel," on the present site of the, Attawaugan, was built by
Captain John and Ebenezer Kelly, for John Mason of Thompson, in 1810, but
did not get into successful operation for some years, when John, James B.
and Edward Mason, Jr., were incorporated as the " Stone Chapel
Manufacturing Company." Messrs. John Mason and Harvey Blashfield had the
oversight of this establishment. The tallow candles needed for its morning
and evening service were dipped by Miss Harriet Kelly, in batches of forty
dozen at a time.
The privilege on the Five Mile river, long occupied by Talbot's grist
mill, passed into the hands of the Killingly Manufacturing Company in
1814. Its constituent members were: Rufus Waterman, Thomas Thompson, John
Andrews, of Providence; David Wilkinson, Henry Howe, of North Providence;
Doctor Robert Grosvenor, Jedidiah Sabin, Elisha Howe, Benjamin Greene, of
Killingly; Smith Wilkinson, Eleazer Sabin, of Pomfret. The Howes had
charge of the business, and the factory soon built was called by their
name.
The remarkable descent of the Whetstone brook furnished privileges quite
out of proportion to its volume of water. The first Chestnut Hill Company
to take advantage of this fall was constituted by Joseph Harris, Ebenezer
Young, Calvin Leffingwell, -Asa Alexander, George Danielson and Lemuel
Starkweather, whose wheels and spindles were soon competing with those of
other manufacturers.
The greatest spirit and activity prevailed in these growing villages.
Everybody was hard at work, building, digging, planting, carting, weaving,
spinning, picking cotton, making harnesses, dipping candles, and attending
the thousand wants of the hour. The intense mechanical activity of the
time was manifested by a remarkable feminine achievement, the exercise of
the inventive faculty hitherto dormant in the female mind. Mrs. Mary Kies
of South Killingly, invented " a new and useful improvement in weaving
straw with silk or thread," for which she obtained in May, 1809, the first
patent issued to any woman in the United States, and she is also said to
have been the first female applicant. Mrs. President Madison expressed her
gratification by a complimentary note to Mrs. Kies. The fabrication of
this graceful and ingenious complication was thus added to the other
industries of Killingly.
Killingly's excessive activity during the war of 1812 was followed by
corresponding depression. Mills owned by men of moderate means were
generally closed, and those still kept at work did so at pecuniary loss to
the proprietors. Experiments in machinery and modes of working were
meanwhile tested, power looms introduced, and many improvements effected.
Companies were reorganized, new men and capital brought in, and when
business revived, Killingly mills were soon under fresh headway. In
1819-the town had so far recovered from its losses as to report four
factories in operation, all of which contained about five thousand
spindles, and had been erected at an expense, including buildings and
machinery, of nearly $300,000. At the Danielson Manufactory water looms
had been introduced, and in general the business was carried on upon the
most improved principles and very advantaeously. Besides the cotton
factories there were one woolen factory, one gin distillery, one paper
hanging manufactory, four dye houses, three clothiers' works, three
carding machines, three tanneries, eight grain mills and eight sawmills.
Experiments in straw weaving were brought to an untimely end by a
sovereign decree from the supreme arbiter of fashion, and hopes of
pecuniary profit proved as brittle as the straw with which Mrs. Kies had
wrought out her ingenious invention. Her son, Daniel Kies, Esq., of
Brooklyn, as well as friends at home, lost heavily by investing in a
manufacture, which, by a sudden change of fashion, became utterly
valueless.
Killingly is reported by Barber in 1836, " the greatest cotton
manufacturing town in the. State." Its reputation and resources had been
magnified by the building up of Williamsville on the Quinebaug, and
Dayville on the Five Mile river. Dayville was commended " for its neat
appearance, and for a bridge composed of two finely constructed stone
arches, each 27 feet broad and 12 high." Captain John Day-sold two-thirds
of this privilege to Prosper and William Alexander, and joined them in
building and equipping a cotton factory in 1832. Caleb Williams of
Providence, purchased the Quinebaug privilege, and erected a handsome
stone building in 1827. Danielson's mills had passed into the hands of the
sons-of General Danielson, and began to be noted " as a thriving village."
The temperance reform had swept away the distillery at Mason's factory,
and "Gin-town " was transferred into Ruggles' factory. The Killingly
Company owning Howe's factory was reorganized in 1828. Smaller factories
on the Five Mile river were run by Ballou and Amsbury. The carding machine
on the outlet of Alexander's lake had been superseded by a woolen factory.
Great activity prevailed in the east part of the town, where some half
dozen mills were propelled by the lively little Whetstone, under the
patronage of Ebenezer Young, Richard Bartlett, Prosper Leffingwell, Asa
Alexander, John S. Harris, Thomas Pray and others. An aggregate of
twenty-five thousand spindles was reported, with three woolen mills, one
furnace and one axe factory. In 1840 Killingly boasted the largest
population in Windham county, having gained upon Thompson, which stood at
the head in 1830.
Among the early manufacturing interests of Killingly was that of Calvin
Leffingwell, a native of Pomfret, who came to East Killingly in 1828, and
in company with Jedidiah Leavens built a mill for the manufacture of
cotton cloth, of twenty-four looms. This mill, after running many years
and passing into other hands, was burned and not rebuilt. Mr. Leffingwell
died at Danielsonville in 1872.
Back to: Killingly, Windham County, Connecticut History
Source: History of Windham County, Connecticut, Bayles, Richard M.; New York: W.W. Preston, 1889