History of Industry in Putnam, Connecticut
Killingly hill was now an important center, with its reconstructed
meeting house and military gatherings, its common being one of the amplest
and finest in the county. Doctor Robert Grosvenor, now established there
in medical practice, was the leading physician and surgeon. Justice
Sampson Howe had opened its first store. Its tavern was kept by Captain
Aaron Arnold.
Putnam's cotton manufacture dates back to remote periods, the factory
opened by Mr. Smith Wilkinson below the High Falls of the Quinebaug, in
1807, being the first of the kind in Windham county, and one of the first
in Connecticut. Experimenters in Rhode Island had succeeded after much
labor and trouble in constructing machines for spinning cotton by water
power. Ozias Wilkinson and his ingenious sons had established a factory in
Pawtucket, in 1798, and then sought a wider field of enterprise. The
Quinebaug Falls and valley was the site selected, and the Pomfret
Manufacturing Company formed January 1st, 1806. Its constituent members
were Ozias Wilkinson, his sons, Abraham, Isaac, David, Daniel and Smith
Wilkinson, his sons-in-law, Timothy Green and William Wilkinson, and
James, Christopher and William Rhodes. James Rhodes, of Warwick, R. I.,
had previously purchased of John Harris a half interest of his share of
the Cargill property. All this interest, with the remainder of the
privilege and much other land in the vicinity both sides the river, were
now secured by the Pomfreb Manufacturing Company, and its charge and the
care of building the projected factory, and superintending the various
works, entrusted to the youngest brother, Mr. Smith Wilkinson, who soon
proved himself master of the situation.
The lonely vale, with its rocky hills and heavy forests, rang with the
busy clatter of the numerous workmen. With happy forethought Mr. Wilkinson
selected the Fourth of July for raising the frame of the factory, when a
great concourse of people from all the adjoining towns came together to
help about the work and satisfy their curiosity in regard to this novel
enterprise. The work of building and reconstruction went rapidly forward.
The solitary walk " laid out by Mr. Knight was less attractive to the
young manager than a brisk ride to Killingly hill, where he found
agreeable society in the hospitable home of Captain Sampson Howe. In a few
months he married bliss Elizabeth Howe, and began housekeeping in a small
house east of the river (Site now occupied by Putnam Bank). Machinery and
all needful appurtenances were hauled up from Providence, and on April
1st, 1807, the first cotton factory in eastern Connecticut was set in
motion-a four story wooden building, 100 by 32 feet in dimensions. Its
business was to spin cotton- yarn to be woven on hand looms into coarse
cloth and bed-ticking. Its working force was a few children picked up in
the neighborhood, with a man in each room to help and oversee them. The
boys and girls were delighted with the new employment, and thought the
glittering machines " the prettiest things in the world." When a heavy
snow storm blocked the roads one morning the little girls put on men's
boots and waded through the drifts in their eagerness to work. They were
paid about seven shillings a week.
The children were not alone in rejoicing over the new industry. To the
women who wove the cloth it was a boon beyond expression. It is hard to
realize the scarcity of money in those days, especially in farming
families, when produce was cheap, markets few, business openings rare and
wages low. The privilege of earning things for themselves was thus most
joyfully welcomed by hundreds' of active women. A store promptly opened by
the company, offered all manner of useful and ornamental articles in
exchange for weaving. Women of every rank, the well-to-do as well as the
poor, hastened to avail themselves of this golden opportunity. The impulse
given by the new mill was felt in many ways. Many workmen were needed for
teaming, farming, mill tending, house building and other purposes. The
grain mill was kept busily at work. A handsome house opposite the mill was
soon built by Mr. Wilkinson, for his own residence, and other houses for
operatives and new residents.
So rapid was the increase of population that in 1812 Mr. Wilkinson found
it needful to build a school house for his village. A neat brick building
was erected on a steep hill east of the river, which was also used on
Sundays for a house of worship. Though himself a member of the
Congregational church at Killingly hill, and a regular attendant upon its
service, Mr. Wilkinson was on friendly terms with all other denominations,
and most willingly accorded them the use of the school house. The
Methodists held service every alternate Sabbath for some years, under the
charge of the Thompson circuit preacher. On other Sundays the Baptists
"held the fort," under Elders Grow, Crosby, Nichols, Ross or Cooper.
Reverends Daniel Dow or Elisha Atkins or Eliphalet Lyman would often carry
on "a five o'clock meeting " in the brick school house. So sober and
substantial was the character of the Pomfret Factory residents that there
were but two families in fifteen years which habitually refused church
attendance. The singing, according to a trustworthy reporter, was as
varied as the sect of the preachers. When the Methodists held service
choristers like John M. Sabin and Augustus W. Perrin led such a volume of
male and female voices as would shake the rafters of the house and waken
the soundest sleeper. The Baptist singers were led by Artemas Bruce,
especially on funeral occasions, and the Congregationalists by Mr.
Jedidiah Leavens, unless Mr. Dow preferred to set his own favorite
tunes-Windham, Mortality, Florida or Hebron. Sunday was Sunday indeed
under Mr. Wilkinson's forcible administration, and any deviation from its
proper observance was promptly noted and punished, and even those
audacious youngsters who presumed to play ball upon the day of the state
fast had the law enforced against them and were made to pay legal fines.
During the war with Great Britain Pomfret factory flourished greatly,
making one year a dividend of $86,00. By paying, large prices they were
able to secure sufficient supplies of cotton from Philadelphia, the large
profit more than reimbursing the heavy outlay. Thus solidly established
the company met the reverses that followed without embarrassment, and
succeeded in introducing power looms and other new methods of labor
without serious inconvenience. Continued improvements were made in the
village and surrounding country. The factory farms were brought under good
cultivation. Mr. Wilkinson took much pride in the great mowing lot near
the Upper Falls, and in other parts of his farm. It is said that
thirty-five hay-makers might sometimes be seen on a good hay day swinging
their scythes in time with each other. Methodical in all things, Mr.
Wilkinson once announced "that he had upon count a cock of hay for every
day in the year--365." A village cow was taken from house to house every
night and morning in summer that all the families might have a supply of
new milk. Each tenant had a garden spot for raising his own vegetables,
and laid up his own beef and pork for family consumption. Fresh meat was
brought in- occasionally by farmers as they slaughtered, and meat, milk
and ice carts were all unknown in those primitive days.
Upon the request of Mr. Wilkinson, a road `vas laid by the selectmen of
Thompson from the old road over Parks hill direct to the village in 1818.
The town voted to accept the road as laid out and also voted, " That it is
the sense of the town that the old road from Pomfret Factory, until it
intersects the above reported road, be discontinued." Bundy's bridge was
newly covered and a new road laid out to the Brick Factory. Sufficient
travel passed through the village to support a respectable tavern under
the old yew tree at the west end of Cargill's block. Malachi Green is
remembered among its landlords. In 1823 a new stone building was erected,
to be used for the manufacture of woolen goods. Its foundations were laid
by Asa White, a veteran mill constructor, who had overseen the building of
some of the first factories in New England, but who died while this was in
progress. In 1826 Mr. Wilkinson became chief proprietor, as well as
manager, associating with Mr. James Rhodes in place of the former company.
The new stone mill was now used for cotton manufacturing and the old mill
for woolen goods. More houses and workmen were demanded and business
operations extended. A new interest grew up at the upper privilege, with
the building of a brick factory there by Mr. James Rhodes in 1830. Through
the good offices of a former resident of this section, we are indebted for
an unique Directory, giving a full report of the residents of the old
Pomfret Factory between 18151830, viz :
"Smith Wilkinson-agent Pomfret Manufacturing company. Superintendents in
their order-Augustus Howe, Thomas Dike, Gen. Reuben Whitman. Overseers of
weaving shop-David Whitman, John N. Leavens. Machinists--Eden Leavens, Asa
White, James Cunningham, A. Blanchard, Alpheus Chaffee. Blacksmiths-John
Phipps, `William Phipps, Jonathan Clough. Overseers of carding and
repairing-Arthur Tripp, P. Carpenter, Ira Graves, Almon Graves, Benjamin
Morris, Jebediah Morris, J. H. Morris, Jr., George Morris, Thomas Chapman,
Lyman Lawrence, G.. W. Eddy, William Andrews, Welcome Eddy, Benjamin
Matthews, Charles Richmond, Joseph Cundall, Obadiah Grinnell, J. Keach,
Charles Chaffee, J. Dike, D. Harrington, S. Harrington, Jr. Manager of
Picker Mill and general painter -David Hall. Mule spinners-Green Capron,
William Johnson, Jonathan Perrin, George B. Carey, Martin Leach. Clothiers
and fullers-A. Thompson, J. Basset. House carpenters-Sylvester Stanley,
Joseph Heath, Samuel Truesdale, Jr., Asa Park. Blue dyer-Jedidiah Leavens.
Bleachers-Ephraim Con-den, E. Chase, Jacob Mann. The clerks in the store
were James Hopkins, William Arnold, S. Davis Leavens, George Howe,
Augustus Wilkinson, Henry Wilkinson, Daniel P. Dew, Horace Whittaker,
Edmond Wilkinson, William Warren, Sampson Howe. Clerks in the Domestic
department were Lemuel H. Elliott, N. Aldrich, Jedidiah Leavens, Jr., A.
W. Perrin. The keepers of the general boarding house were, in order,
Stephen Stone, L. H. Elliott (afterward steward of Brown University), N.
Aldrich, Willard Arnold, Asahel Elliott, Benjamin Warren, Eleazer Sabin.
The grain miller was Frank Pearce; the saw miller, Isaac Moore; the
butcher, J. H. Morris; the cow-herder was Thomas Richmond; the freight-teamer
to and from Providence was Joseph Stone, with a yoke of venerable oxen,
Bug and Bright, and a younger yoke, beside Hezekiah Converse (a-grand bass
singer) was farm teamer for many years; his successors were Harvey White
and Reuben Hoar. There were `captain farmers' alsoDarius Starr, William
Martin, Elliot Hammond. Others in the vicinity who plied the plow, scythe
and hoe, while their sons and daughters worked in the mills, were Messrs.
Bean, Harrington, Chaffee, Faulkner, Brown, Keach, Cary, Weld, Willard,
Herandean, Johnson, Kelley, Gallup, Maserve, Chamberlin. Among those who
tried to keep them all with a good understanding (the shoe-makers) were S.
Truesdale, A. Plummer, J. Harris, G. Glasco."
Back to: Putnam, Windham County,
Connecticut History
Source: History of Windham County, Connecticut,
Bayles, Richard M.; New York: W.W. Preston, 1889
Back to: Windham County, Connecticut
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