History of Industry in Windham, Connecticut
In the revival of business following the close of the French war,
Windham actively participated. Some enterprising local merchants opened
commercial exchange with the West Indies, and by this means a market was
provided for the products of the town. Under this stimulus much attention
was given to wool growing, the culture of hemp, flax and tobacco, and the
making of cheese and butter. - Great flocks of sheep and herds of cattle
ranged over Windham pastures and commons. Wheat and other cereals were
extensively grown and exported, and so the agricultural prosperity of the
town continued until the foreign trade was choked by English exactions.
Then the Windham people turned their energies to manufactures. John Brown
of Willimantic, in addition to other branches of business, manufactured
potash and refined saltpetre. Ezekiel Cary carried on his trade as tanner
and currier in this vicinity. Colonel Elderkin, among his other
avocations, interested himself in silk culture, and set out a fine orchard
of mulberry trees in the south part of Windham. His efforts reached a
moderate degree of success, and he was able to make a strong, coarse silk,
which was used for handkerchiefs and vestings.
Through the gloomy days of the revolution Windham shared the hardships and
burdens common to all the towns of the county. From her prominent position
as the shiretown of the county, she saw much of the military activity and
public demonstrations of the people, not only of this town but of other
neighboring towns; and bravely did the people of the town of Windham
maintain their prominent position as the banner town of the county. The
conditions of the war have been so fully reviewed as to the whole county
that it seems unnecessary to go over the ground as to the details of this
particular town. After the war was over, and when the federal constitution
was presented to the people for adoption, Windham, having appointed a day
for its special consideration, after a lengthy and able discussion of the
question, resolved that the proposed constitution, being a subject to be
acted upon by a state convention, it was not proper for the town to pass
any vote upon it. There were during several years succeeding the war- many
returned soldiers about town destitute of employment, and many idlers
hanging about the village without regular business, depending mostly upon
jobs at court sessions, and the town considered it necessary to instruct
its selectmen " to attend vigilantly to the laws respecting idleness, bad
husbandry and tavern haunting, and see that the same be carried into
effectual execution against such of the inhabitants of the town as shall
in future be guilty of a breach of said law." With the revival of business
and the improvement of finances this charge became less needful. The
pressure of English restriction having been removed, the various
industries initiated in Windham before the war were now resumed with
redoubled spirit. Great attention was given to stock raising and dairy
manufactures. A large surplus of beef and pork was barreled on the-farms
for market, and cheese became so plentiful that " a speculator could
sometimes buy a hundred thousand pounds in a neighborhood." Wool was
produced in considerable quantities, and many of the industrious women of
the town found profitable employment in knitting stockings and mittens,
which found their way to the New York market. It is estimated that this
industry annually brought several thousand dollars into the town. As an
instance of the business of importance carried on at Windham may be
mentioned the drug business established by Doctor Benjamin Dyer, who
claimed to have the largest assortment of goods in that line to be found
in eastern Connecticut. Among his stock might be found at one time a
hundred and fifty pounds of wafers, an article which was in every day use
at that time, but now -almost unknown. His trade extended to all the
physicians in the surrounding country. At one time he was accustomed to
import goods directly from London. Manufactures were also progressing. u p
to January 1st, 1795, the people were supplied with mail from Norwich, but
on the date mentioned a post office was opened at Windham Green, John
Byrne being postmaster. Residents of all the neighboring towns now
received mail through this office. Letters for Ashford, Brooklyn,
Canterbury, Hampton, Mansfield, Killingly, and even distant Thompson, were
advertised in the Windham Herald, which had been started in 1791, and was
published by the postmaster.
Thus for many years Windham maintained her position of prominence among
Windham county towns; but in 1820 the courts were transferred to Brooklyn,
as being a more central point in the county. This was not done without
many years' effort and agitation of the question. As early as 1817 public
meetings were held and arguments presented for and against different
sites. The question. was referred to a committee, and upon their report
the assembly, May 29th, 1819, provided that as soon as a court house and
jail should be erected in Brooklyn, without being any direct tax upon the
county, and the buildings approved by the judges of the county and
superior courts respectively, the courts should be held there, and at the
same time the county buildings and land given up at the old county seat
should be the property of the town of Windham. After considerable
difficulty the necessary funds were raised and the buildings erected. They
were approved by Chief Justice Stephen T. Hosmer and Judge John T. Peters,
July 26th, 1820. Windham made a strong effort to obtain half-shire
privileges, but without success. Then the glory of Windham Green began to
fade. In addition to the loss of all the patronage brought to it by the
county business, the upspringing of manufacturing enterprises at
Willimantic Falls was drawing business rapidly away from the old to a new
center. The Green," however, still kept its place as the head of the town,
exercising its ancient sway over the border villages. Their growth at
first added in some respects to the importance of the mother settlement.
Proprietors and managers of Willimantic factories found pleasant homes at
Windham Green, and Windham's six stores; bank, probate and town clerk's
offices, accommodated all the villages. But this favor was only temporary,
for the demands of the growing center of Willimantic were rapidly growing
stronger and she could not long withstand them. Gradually her stores,
public offices and business interests lapsed to the borough.
The original territory of Windham has been reduced several times. In 1703
nearly one-half of it was taken by the formation of Mansfield; in 1786 the
northern part was taken by the formation of Hampton; in 1822 it was
further reduced by the formation of Chaplin; and again in 1857 a large
part of its remaining territory was taken to form the town of Scotland.
During the early years of this town, the boundary dispute with Canterbury
on the east was one of the chief sources of annoyance. From time to time
the vexed question broke out afresh, with ever increasing bitterness and
violence. Various legal decisions adjudged the disputed land to
Canterbury, but were not recognized by Windham, who continued to retain it
in possession, and kept an agent constantly in the field to defend the
claim before the courts and the assembly. Another grievance was the
diminution of its territory. The growing population could barely find room
for the exercise of its energies upon its own soil. It is true there was
land enough in the town, but much of it was unavailable hillsides, and
still more was held by speculators, who then as now were a burden upon the
development of the country. As a result, many of the young men, and even
the growing families, emigrated to other localities where the conditions
were more favorable. Many valued families were lost to churches and town
by the rage for emigration. The children of Wyoming emigrants returned to
Susquehanna valley, and gained possession of the lands claimed by their
fathers. Representatives of the old Windham families were scattered abroad
in all parts of the opening republic. Thus matters continued for half a
century, until the census disclosed an actual decline in the population,
amounting in the decade between 1790 and 1800 to one hundred and twenty.
During the long and trying struggle of the revolution the old town of
Windham acquitted herself nobly, fully sustaining her reputation for
patriotic devotion, and even gaining many fresh laurels to add to her
already honorable reputation. When the port of Boston was formally closed
by the British parliament the people of this town in public meeting passed
vehement expressions of the popular sentiment, asking the general assembly
to appoint a day of fasting and prayer, that the impending calamities
might be averted,-calling also for a general congress of the colonies, and
condemning the East India Company and their action in the East Indies in
most extravagant terms, a single sentence of which we quote by way of
illustration: "Let the Spanish barbarities in Mexico, and the name of
Cortez sink in everlasting oblivion, while such more recent superior
cruelties bear away the palm in the late annals of their rapine and
cruelty." The sentiment of that meeting found expression in language so
noble and pathetic that we cannot refrain from preserving some of its most
striking passages. " Let us, dear fellow Americans, for a few years at
least, abandon that narrow, contracted principle of self love, which is
the source of every vice; let us once feel for our country and posterity;
let our hearts expand and dilate with the noble and generous sentiments of
benevolence, though attended with the severer virtue of self-denial. The
blessings of Heaven attending, America is saved; children yet unborn will
rise and call you blessed; the present generation will; by future-to the
latest period of American glory-be extolled and celebrated as the happy
instruments, under God, of delivering millions from thraldom and slavery,
and secure permanent freedom and liberty to America." At that meeting the
people at once set about the practical demonstration of the sentiment
which they so nobly uttered. Nine of their most respected citizens, from
different parts of the town, viz.: Samuel Gray, Nathaniel Wales, Ebenezer
Devotion, Ebenezer Mosely, Hezekiah Bissel, Joseph Ginnings, William
Durkee, John Howard and Hezekiah Manning, were appointed a committee of
correspondence, and authorized to procure subscriptions for the aid of
Boston. Their appeal was most effectual. The fields and hills of Windham
abounded with fine flocks of sheep, and the generous owners of them,
whether rich or poor, were ready to contribute from them to make up a
flock, which, within five days were on the road to. Boston. With them was
sent a letter, abounding in expressions of sympathy and encouragement,
exhorting the people of Boston to stand true to the common cause of
opposition against the tyranny of the British parliament. This was the
first contribution from outside towns to reach Boston in that hour of
emergency, and thus to Windham belongs the signal honor of leading the
towns of New England in a voluntary movement for the relief of oppressed
Boston, and indeed we might say taking the first practical steps in the
direction of American independence. The town of Boston received the gift
with gratitude, as will be seen from the following vote of the town passed
July 4th, 1774
"That the thanks of this town be, and hereby are given to our worthy
friends, the inhabitants of the town of Windham, Connecticut colony, for
the kind and generous assistance they have granted this town under its
present distress and calamity in voluntarily sending two hundred and
fifty-eight sheep as a present for the relief of the-poor, distressed
inhabitants of this place, who by a late oppressive and cruel act of
parliament for blocking up the harbor of Boston are prevented getting
subsistence for themselves and families."
In subsequent events the town of Windham participated with other towns of
the county whose action in general has been already noticed in another
chapter. In 1775, Windham was represented in the general congress at
Philadelphia, by Colonel Dyer, and the action of that body was reviewed in
town meeting December 5th, with the resulting vote " That this town does
accept, approve and adopt the doings of the Continental Congress held at
Philadelphia in September last, and agree and oblige ourselves religiously
to keep and observe the same."
In 1777 the depreciation of the currency became a cause of great distress
and general embarrassment, and regulations were attempted to stay the
evils resulting therefrom. Windham voted March 24th, " That the
inhabitants of this town will with one consent join with, and support to
the utmost of their power in carrying into execution the laws made for
regulating and affixing the prices of certain articles." The town also
appointed a committee to provide necessaries for the families of soldiers
belonging to the town, who should go into any of the continental armies.
In the spring of the following year the quota of this town was
thirty-seven men. A bounty of six pounds was offered every man who would
enlist for one year, and this in addition to a like sum offered by the
state, and twelve pounds at the end of the year, besides forty shillings a
month, "all in lawful money." To meet this outlay a rate of sixpence on
all the polls and ratable estates was levied, to be paid in beef, pork,
flour and other articles of produce.
Messrs. Elderkin and Gray had a powder mill in the town, an considerable
supplies were manufacture here, and Hezekiah Huntington carried on the
manufacture end repair of fire-arms at Willimantic, so it will be seen
this town was an important factor among its sister towns in the great
struggle. Town action was unanimous. No attempt was made to evade military
or civil requisitions. The leaders kept their post and the people
faithfully upheld them. That spirit of detraction and suspicion which
often wrought such mischief in the patriotic ranks was here denounced and
held in abeyance. Many anecdotes of remarkable performances are preserved,
some of the more notable ones being ably told by Miss Fuller in another
chapter of this work.
The " grand list " of this town in 1775 showed a valuation of thirty-two
thousand two hundred and twenty-two pounds, ten shillings, seven pence. At
that time the population consisted of three thousand four hundred and
thirty-seven whites, and ninetyone negroes. Among this population were
many honored names, but after the revolution they soon passed off the
stage of action: having served their generation, they rested from their
labors, while their works followed them.. Among such examples were Colonel
Ebenezer Gray, who after suffering greatly from disease contracted in the
service of his country during the war, died in 1795, greatly respected and
beloved. With other Windham officers he was an honored member of the
Cincinnati Society, an organization hating for its object the perpetuation
of revolutionary friendships and associations, and the relief of widows
and orphans of those who had fallen. His brother Thomas Gray, physician
and merchant, died in 1792. Colonel Jedidiah Elderkin died in 1794, Deacon
Eleazer Fitch in 1800, Elder Benjamin Lathrop in 1804 and Samuel Linkon,
in the one hundred and second year of his age, in 1794. Arthur Bibbins,
another centenarian, though he had never known a sick day, was thrown from
his horse, receiving injuries which caused his death, as w e might say,
prematurely, at the age of about one hundred and two years. Colonel Dyer,
far advanced in years, but still hale and hearty, though retired from
active participation in public affairs, might often be seen on Windham
street raising his earnest protest against the alarming growth of
radicalism, Jacobinism, infidelity and immorality. The new generation of
men in active life taking the places of those honored veterans were Swift,
the compiler of a famous " Digest of the laws of Connecticut; " lawyers
Samuel Perkins, John Baldwin and David W. Young; Henry Webb, high sheriff;
Charles Abbe, deputy sheriff; Phinehas Abbe, jailer; William Williams,
chief judge of the county court, succeeded in 1806 by Thomas Grosvenor of
Pomfret; and Samuel Gray, clerk of the courts. In the year 1800 the grand
list" of the town amounted to $64,272.20, and the population was 2,644.
At Windham Green trade and business continued lively. The introduction of
wagons with four wheels, which occurred about 1809, was an episode of
wonderful interest. Roger Huntington owned the first one brought into
town, and in September of the year mentioned he sent it up to Leicester,
after a load of hand and machine cards. The lads who drove the horse,
George Webb and Thomas Gray, found themselves the objects of great
curiosity. People on the road everywhere stopped to look at them, and
women and children flocked to the doors and windows as if a menagerie was
passing. At Woodstock a crowd gathered around them to examine the new
vehicle, that they predicted was destined to kill all the horses. One man
had seen such a thing before, in Hartford, "and the horse drawing it was
nearly fagged to death." When Leicester was reached at three o'clock, the
wagon having been driven from Pomfret that morning, it was found that the
horse was neither dead nor badly tired. On their return the next day
'Squire McClellan and other Woodstock people came out to see them, and as
the horse had traveled over twenty miles with a load of cards and still
appeared fresh, they decided that " perhaps such wagons might come into
use after all."
Projects for village improvement excited much discussion in the early
years of the present century. An Aqueduct Company was formed in 1807,
which by bringing water into the town street by means of pipes laid under
the ground, accomplished a great public benefit. The men composing this
company were Jabez Clark, Benjamin Dyer, Elisha White, John and Charles
Taintor, John Staniford, Jr., Benjamin Brewster, Samuel Gray, John Byrne
and Henry Webb. The consent of the town to needed improvements in this
central district was often difficult to obtain, consequently an act of
incorporation was asked for and granted, with power to enact by-laws
within certain limits and to maintain a clerk. This was accomplished in
1814. Cattle and geese were now forbidden the roads, and encroachments
upon the highways were removed. Ancient grants allowing tanworks, shops
and houses on the public highways were revoked. Shad and salmon were up to
this time quite numerous in the Willimantic river, and fishing for them
was a much relished and exciting sport.
But a few years later the energies of Windham were concentrated upon the
vital question of the county seat. When this was decided against her, and
the courts removed to Brooklyn, still Windham contended for half shire
privileges, and long and earnestly was this contest maintained. But at
last Windham was obliged to yield to the inevitable, and accepting the
situation she then turned her attention to new channels of enterprise and
new sources of prosperity, which were in a short time destined to prove
far more fruitful than that which she so reluctantly surrendered.
Roads and bridges were among the most important public improvements for
which the people of the town had to provide. The Willimantic was a
vigorous stream and the preservation of bridges over it required vigilance
and outlay of money and labor. The Natchaug was also a difficult river to
cross. At first no attempt was made to bridge it, but it was crossed by a
ferry. One of the first acts of the town on this subject was passed in
August, 1692, to the effect " That thirty-five acres of upland and five of
meadow be sequestered upon the account of a ferry-land to be laid out
between ye two riding-places." Twenty-five acres on the south side of the
river, above the upper " riding-place " were ordered to be " measured and
laid out to John Larrabee, upon condition that he keep the ferry seven
years, with a good and sufficient canoe upon his own cost, and in case the
towns shall see cause to make a boat, this likewise to be kept and
maintained by him for the time aforesaid, his charge being two-pence a
head for single persons; hors and man carried over in the
boat-four-pence." The conditions of the grant were probably carried out.
But the ferry was probably not satisfactory. It was too slow, and its
operation might be impeded or obstructed by too many circumstances. In
February, 1695, a committee was appointed " to choose a place on the
Natchauge river for a sufficient bridge suitable for man and beast to pass
with a load, the selectmen to agree with men to make it, lay a rate for
the .same and find help to raise the bridge." This bridge was built by
Robert Fenton, for the sum of fourteen pounds.
Traveling facilities up to this time had received but little attention.
This bridge had been built and the one road which passed over it had been
laid out. The only other roads were those marked out by the first
surveyors of the tract and as yet tut vaguely defined and unimproved. The
road from the Crotch or Centre to Windham Green, it is said, was never
regularly laid out, but gradually developed from an original foot-path.
Rude bridle-paths and foot trails led from the settlements to the mills,
the meadows, the cedar swamp and the outlying parts of the town.
In 1713 the highway surveyors were ordered to portion out the town for
convenience in mending highways. Joseph Dingley was appointed " to call
out the inhabitants east of the Willimantic and north from meeting house;
" Stephen Tracey to call out those who dwelt west of the Willimantic and
Shetucket; John Burnap and John Bemis were to warn all who lived east from
John Ormsbee's, the whole length and breadth of the tract; while to
Richard Abbe was assigned all south of meeting house." Liberty was also
given to Plainfield proprietors " to join their field with that of
proprietors south and west of Shetucket river, so that the highway by that
river to the mill and that over the upper riding-place to Norwich might be
pent-ways -provided Plainfield makes and maintains good, handy gates."
In 1746 the matter of the public highways appears to have fallen into
neglect. In that year Isaac Burnap and Joseph Huntington were appointed a
committee to provide suitable accommodations for all the people of the
town to travel " to the several places of public worship." The bridge
across the Shetucket, between Windham and Lebanon, which had for many
years been maintained by private enterprise, was consigned to the care of
Windham in 1735, by an act of the assembly. Robert Hebard, Jr., was chosen
by the town to inspect and take care of it.
The burden of bridge making, always heavy in Windham, was greatly
augmented by the increase of travel consequent upon the popular emigration
to Wyoming and other new sections of the country. An extraordinary flood
and great accumulation of ice in 1771 demolished and carried away nearly
every bridge in the whole county, making a clean sweep of the Natchaug,
Willimantic and Shetucket. As these bridges were upon public highways much
frequented by trains of emigrants traveling from other towns of this
colony, as well as Rhode Island, to parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire
and New York, the authorities of this town refused to reconstruct them
without aid from other quarters. Several roads were thus rendered
impassable, travelers were compelled to go many miles out- of their way to
find suitable fording places, and were then often flung from their horses
and placed in imminent danger of drowning. Complaints were laid before the
general assembly in regard to the refusal of Windham to rebuild her
bridges. In answer the town replied that within a few years five large
bridges had been built at an expense of £800, all of which had been swept
away by the floods; that the floods seemed to be increasing in frequency
and force, and that these bridges were more for the accommodation of other
towns than Windham. Relief was therefore petitioned. This, however, was
denied, and the town was ordered to rebuild and maintain a bridge over the
Shetucket on the road from Windham to Hartford, known as the Old Town
bridge, and another over the Willimantic called the Iron Works bridge.
Mansfield was directed to rebuild the bridge over the Natchaug. In 1774
the town of Windham was ordered to 'build and maintain a bridge over the
Shetucket upon a roadd lately laid out to New Hampshire, to accommodate
the travel to the new college in Hanover.
About the beginning of the present century considerable attention was
renewed in behalf of the improvement of highways. The town was divided
into districts for the purpose, these districts being made identical with
the school districts, and authority was obtained to levy a tax to keep the
roads in order. The organization of turnpike companies now began to
agitate the public mind. The Windham Turnpike Company was organized in
1799, for the purpose of constructing a turnpike from Plainfield to
Coventry, past Windham court house. The original members of the company
were Jeremiah Ripley, Timothy Larrabee, Moses Cleveland, Luther Payne and
James Gordon, the charter being granted to them and their associates. This
turnpike became a part of the great thoroughfare between Hartford and
Providence. Efforts were made by the town to compel this company to lay
its road over the Shetucket where the bridge was already standing, so as
to place upon the company the burden of maintaining the bridge to the
relief of the town, but a new crossing was determined upon by the company,
and the old town bridge was in 1806 abandoned. The Windham and Mansfield
Turnpike Society was incorporated in 1800, having for its object the
opening of a turnpike from Joshua Hide's dwelling house in Franklin to the
meeting house in Stafford, connecting with a turnpike leading from New
London and Norwich. The leading men in this enterprise were Timothy
Larrabee, Charles Taintor, Eleazer Huntington and Roger Waldo. Some other
turnpike projects were opposed by this town with such energy that they
were abandoned, or at least diverted from the designed course. A proposed
turnpike from the Massachusetts line to New London was projected to run
through Scotland parish, but this town opposed it so vigorously that it
was laid out further eastward. Another road was planned to run from
Woodstock through Ashford and Mansfield to Windham court house, but this
also was defeated by Windham. The town, however, manifested a favorable
spirit toward its local roads and bridges. At the request of Joseph Skiff
and others, the Horseshoe bridge was taken under the charge of the town,
and two hundred dollars were appropriated from its treasury for reducing
the hills and mending the road from Scotland meeting house to Jared
Webb's.
Still, as the years advanced, additional responsibilities forced
themselves upon the town, in the line of road and bridge maintenance. Five
great bridges, requiring constant supervision and frequent repairs or
renewal, were not sufficient to meet the wants of the growing communities.
The growing village around Taintor & Badger's paper mill required a new
bridge and a better road to Willimantic. A new turnpike to Killingly, and
other roads, were demanded. The petition for a bridge and road from the
paper mill, referred to above, headed by John Taintor, was opposed by a
committee appointed for the purpose in 1815, but without avail, and in
1818 the selectmen were authorized to contract for the building of
Horseshoe bridge over the Natchaug river on the road leading to the paper
mill. The six bridges thus maintained at the expense of the town were
placed in charge of overseers, as follows: Manning's bridge, Nathaniel
Wales; Newtown bridge, Zenas Howes the Iron Works bridge, Alfred Young;
the Horseshoe bridge, Waldo Cary; Badger's bridge, Edmond Badger; the
Island bridge, Joshua Smith. A few years later two new bridges over
Merrick's brook were granted to Scotland; one near John Burnett's house,
called Church bridge, and the other near Zaccheus Waldo's mill.
Willimantic manufacturers in 1826 petitioned for roads and bridges to
accommodate more fully the needs of their growing business, but for a time
such matters were compelled to wait while the entire energies of the town
were engaged in the contest for the court house. But after that absorbing
question was decided they were able to gain a hearing. Anew bridge was
built to accommodate the Windham Company, and the old public highway was
widened and transformed into Main street of the village of Willimantic,
and along its sides buildings for stores and other public uses soon sprang
up.
Back to: Windham, 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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