Southington High School - Chronicle Yearbook (Southington, CT)

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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.

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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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-.F -:FE ng? gr. if I I it N but ,W ...M n ith.. fb ,, F37 4, ,k it , iw Q , f'3N t'f: IE'-T' -is-V., 7 1 rf: f,-3.-nz' 1 ,ir U fa STE ,ff-'ri-sr',,,,,1.4 57? r Eg: . ,,, t fm'f f. CHRONICLE yr . At first the manufacture of arms as- sumed no greatest contribution to man- kind in the field of making fire-arms was the fact that it introduced the machine- hades into industry as a whole, without which our highly efficient industries of the present day Could not exist. In this account I must not forget the place Southington has occupied in the industrial development of the state. Southington has had the distinctive part of being the seat of two industries- namely, cement and bolts. In 1829 the first cement mill in the United States was established in the eastern part of the town. the ruins, pits, mill ponds and water courses are still there. Visualize, classmates, the long lines ot ox-wagons crossing the valley to Waterbury or Middletown, laden with cement. The first bolt factory was established here at an early date. Copper mining was carried on in a modest way in the eastern part of the town. In closing, we must not forget the debt we owe to the men whose ingenuity, foresight and courage has placed Con- necticut in her unique position in the nation. To Ierome, Howe, Whitney, Colt, Corbin, Stanley, Remington, Fitch, Win- chester, the Scoville brothers and many other illustrious men, belongs our ever- lasting thanks and reverence. To the State whose interest in industrial prog- ress and in fostering invention and in- itiative made their success possible- eternal love and devotion! aledicto ry SCENIC' BEAUTY IN coumacrrcur My two classmates have told you of the early industries which sprang up in Connecticut and of the places of historic interest. I would like to picture for you, or rather let us visualize together the scenic beauty of this great state. Scenic beauty in our State? you question. Yes, of course, you say. But your thoughts fly at once to the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, Niagara Falls, the valley of the Shenadoah and the Great Smokies, and the Golden Gate. How does little Connecticut compare with these? You are skeptical. Professor Odell Shepard of Trinity College, Hartford, author of the book Pedlar's Progress, a biography of Bronson Alcott which this year received a Pulitzer Prize, says, We know that if the entire globe should suddenly shrink to one millionth of its present bulk, we should not feel any difference, because it would still be a fully furnished earth. lust so is Connecticut, though small, fur- nished fully as a stateg for she possesses all the radiant beauty of which the human mind is able to conceive. Her beauty and her exquisite panoramas are unsurpassed. She contains in miniature all the beauty spots of our country. Let us begin with our mountains. I'll grant they are not as high as the Rocky Mountains, or as precipitous as the Grand Canyon, but we do have our gorgeous mountains just the same. What mountains could be more beautiful than our own East and West which bound our own little community? Are these not priceless treasures to behold? Because they are not so vast, they are friendly rather than awe inspiring. From the summit of Meriden Mountain talso known as the Hanging Hills of Meriden? one may see across to Long Island Sound to the south: and to the north, as for as the hills of Massachusetts. Artists have been known to say that they can more easily capture on their canvas the landscapes of Connecticut than those of Page Twenty-seven