Southington High School - Chronicle Yearbook (Southington, CT)

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5 Exif . . 'HQ 4: - . 1'-I if, y. 1:4 ' 'sf it-'M' .-.fy ,- . K vb' t . n E -Stiff 333:-f.':2.I! ' A . ix ta ' lg. 6 , .F '-iii 4 CHRONICLE 3+ 'No writing on historic Connecticut ould be complete without mention of the famous Charter Oak. Who but a Cori- necticut Yankee would have thought of hiding a charter in a tree? The charter, believed to be the original one now hangs in the office of the Secretary of State. The oak tree on the lawn of our own Lewis High School is an offspring of this famous parent tree. The Tercentenary Committees have unearthed many other historical facts, too numerous to mention here, but I am sure that their work has tended to make the people of our state more Connecticut- minded than ever before. May we always cherish in our hearts the noble history of om' great State! CATHERINE COOK miuszfffies of Connecticut Essay by FRED BAUER Mr. Principal, Mr. Superintendent, Members of the Board of Education and Faculty, Fellow Students and Guests: Since the majority of the Class of 1938 will this night go forth from the shelter- ing walls of Lewis High School into the world of business and industry, I should like to tell my classmates something about the inception and growth of Con- necticut industries. Although agriculture has always oc- cupied a prominent place in Connecti- cut life, manufacturing early began to outstrip the farms in material productiv- ity. Since Connecticut's agriculture is less important, I shall dispose of that first. Because of the fertility of the soil of the Connecticut River Valley, the first settlers were lured into the state. How- ever, in the first century and a half, nearly all land outside this strip proved to be rocky and not very good for inten- sive agriculture. The cultivation of potatoes was not extensive, being con- sidered as little more than cattle food: small fruits were likewise treated and were used in the brewing of Appleiack which formed quite a profitable occupa- tion for the enterprising Hartford Coimty farmers. In the early colonial times Connecticut Park was considered the acme of quality and economy. The early Connecticut farmer, I am sorry to say, was not very kind to his land. The prac- tices of continued planting without fer- tilization and the lack of crop rotation rapidly depleted the soil until it was gradually turned into pasturage. This gave rise to the dairy industry in which Connecticut excelled. Connecticut dairy products were sold extensively all over the eastern seaboard. Nowadays, dairy- ing is a highly specialized division of agriculture, in which at least three- fourths of the state's farmers engage. An early attempt was made to en- courage the raising of hemp in Connecti- cut but it soon died out. The tobacco industry, however, began to outstrip all others in the return of wealth to the farmer. Progressive methods of culture brought about the production of the world's finest tobacco, a distinction which Connecticut holds to this day. A decade ago the acreage was halved, yet Connecticut continued to produce thirty- five million pounds of fine tobacco an- nually. ln closing this account of agricul- ture, I must not forget to mention that famous product of Connecticut ingenu- ity, the wooden nutmeg. And now we come to the manufactur- ing industry. Almost as soon as the first settlers came to Connecticut, the manu- facturing industry began in a very modest way. From these beginnings, Page Twenty-five

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Greenwich, Connecticut, boasts of a Revolutionary Tavern of quite unusual interest. Lafayette and Washington are only two of the people Wl'lO HlCICl9 if famous by passing by, or stopping there. Now, automobiles by the hundreds rush by and passengers still stop in for re- freshments at the Putnam Cottage Tea- room. The Newgate Prison, located in East Granby, some miles beyond Simsbury, dates far back into history. lt was first made into a prison from an abandoned copper mine in l773 and named after that dreaded place in London. Newgate, as a prison, was always more romantic than secure. Trying to keep wrongdoers there was like carry- ing water in a sieve. Prisoner after prisoner escaped. Men tore their blan- kets into strips, wove them into ropes, and hauled one another from the murky depths. Tools were improvised from bones to dig tunnels through the sand- stone rocks. ln spite of these escapes, Newgate gained the reputation of being one of the strongest prisons in the country. A few years later, N ewgate was made into a government jail for prisoners of war. Prisoners continued to escape and to disappearg wild and romantic fiction was written about them: and finally, when Wethersfield was made the state prison, Newgate was permanently abandoned. The Whitfield House in Guilford is the earliest house now standing in Connecti- cut, and it is believed to be the oldest stone house in the United States. This house is regularly open to inspection and attracts many sight-seers every season. ' The Whitman House located in Farm- ington is the last of the three original seventeenth century houses. lt stands today, as it did in l66O, without paint or ornament, yet as fine and lovely in line as when it was first built. Since houses of this kind are few, it is easy to see why our State is proud of this beautiful relic of its early days. Page Twenty-four T -..ltr cl-1RoNlcLE Jw- The Ioseph Webb House in Wethers- field is of great interest to many people because of the fact that the CCf1'I1pCfign which resulted in the victory' at York- town was planned there. We must not forget to mention the Old State House in Hartford, now restored to its original architecture, a truly beautiful building. I ' Yale University was the idea of the early settlers in the New Haven Colony. lt had been their ambition for a long time, but they believed that Harvard was sufficient to supply the needs for higher education for a while. By the end of the seventeenth century, however, it be- came clear that there was room for an- other college and as a result, Yale was founded. lt first began its existence in Saybrook with one student, but it grew rapidly and was transferred to New Haven in l7l6 and was renamed Yale after Elihu Yale, who donated money and books. Early in the nineteenth cen- tury, professional schools were organ- ized in connection with the college, but it did not become a university until l887. There are now in 1938 ten profes- sional and graduate schools in addition to the original Yale College. It is interesting to note that even before the founding of Yale, a law school was established in Litchfield, Connecticut, the first in the United States. Many famous people lived in Connec- ticut. Nathan Hale, the great American soldier and patriot was born in Coven- try, Connecticut, and was a graduate of Yale University. Mark Twain, famous author of Huckleberry F inn and Tom Sawyer, lived in Hartford, and his home is visited daily by school children. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the great book Uncle Tom's Cabin, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, and made her home in Hartford. Amos Bron- son Alcott, the father of Little Women, was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, and began his career there as a Yankee peddler and a school teacher. 'K

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thanks to the poorness of the soil and to grinding necessity, the manufacturing increased rapidly. The mineral deposits were worked extensively, and iron and copper were produced in abundance. One of the first industries l find mention of is the distillation of the spiritus fru- menti commonly known as gin. lt ex- ceeded in value all other exports. The center of the industry was at East Wind- sor. Tanning, cabinet-making, tin work- ing, woolen fabric weaving, harness making and iron fashioning were quick to spring up. The tin and hat trade thrived since materials were imported and little power used. h Since all statistics and accounts of in- dustries seem to begin after the advent of the nineteenth century I shall begin my account at that period. The manu- facture at this time of metal products was becoming more and more important. The pay at the time was extremely low. Farm workers seem to have had the more favorable wages. At New Britain, Philip Corbin, the founder of one of the world's greatest hardware concerns, began work at fourteen dollars monthly. During his rise, he brought about many progres- sive reforms in manufacturing. The tinware industry seems to have started in our neighboring town of Berlin whence it spread to Meriden and Bristol. The surprising thing about the industry was that it employed more men in sell- ing the article than in making it. At first the tools were obsolete but l remember counting in an old History of Southing- ton, close to seventy-five patents granted to Southington men on tin-working articles. One of the early Connecticut Yankees, Ierome by name, improved clocks, in- stalled brass works in them, and by mass production, if it may be so called, reduced the price to the reach of every man. A British commission was amazed at the Bristol clock works. Astonished at the low price and excellent workman- ship, the British government made a con- tract to buy all clocks shipped to Eng- Page Twenty-six -,si CHRONICLE PW' land at the invoiced price plus ten pei' cent, but they soon gave up the contract when he began pouring clocks into the British market. The world's greatest brass center in Waterbury is a proper testimonial to the memory of the Scoville brothers who in l834 entered the business with two part- ners and built it up rapidly bY Th9iT energy and teamwork. A contemporary of theirs and co-founder of the great New Britain hardware industry, Frederick Stanley, started in the very modest way of making, of all things, suspenders. The name of Collinsville became known throughout the world for the ex- cellence of the axes produced there. In 1818 Eli Whitney, inventory of the cotton gin, and a man whom Connecticut may remember with pride, invented a machine which has later become indis- pensable to all machine industries-the milling machine. This machine itself re- volved, instead of the metal being worked, and enabled small parts to be manufactured exact to gauge. This machine was shortly turned to the use of rifling pistol and rifle barrels. This gives rise to the subject of the manufacture of fire-arms in Connecticut. Connecticut, it seems, has always been of prime importance in the manu- facture of arms both for the defense of the nation and for sport. Cannon were cast in Litchfield for the British govern- ment and later for the use of the Con- tinental Armies. The development of the Connecticut munitions industry would be a story in itself. The gigantic Heming- ton plants in Bridgeport bear witness to the man whose father once refused a rifle. Samuel Colt, another Connecticut man, invented the repeating pistol. ln the middle of the last century Colt's fac- tories at Hartford were the acme of effici- ency. The estimate was that only twenty- five percent of the work could be attrib- uted to human labor. Other small arms plants at New Haven and Middletown helped to make Connecticut important in this field.