The Romance of Norwalk

From the tiny little shop where horsehair sieves were woven by hand, to the flourishing wire business of today, is the story of the growth and gain of the Gilbert and Ben¬ nett Wire Manufacturing Company, one of the earliest factories in this section of the state, located in Georgetown. The business was founded in 1 8 1 8 by Benjamin Gilbert, a native of Connecticut. Gilbert was a shoemaker by trade who first established a workshop for mending shoes, in the basement of his Weston home. In those days, families sifted their meal through horse hair sieves which were much in demand. Gilbert, seeing a market, gave up his shoe¬ making and concentrated on sieve making. His wife and daughters wove the hair, while he shaved wooden hoops to form the rims of his sieves, according to “One Hundred Years of Progress,” publication of the Gilbert and Bennett Mfg. Co. The horsehair sieve market did not prove as large as he anticipated, so Mr. Gilbert increased his busi¬ ness by adding the manufacture of curled hair, used for cushions, mattresses and upholstered furniture. The busi¬ ness grew and shortly the Gilbert family moved from Wes¬ ton to Georgetown where the little sieve making business was again set up, this time in one of the rooms of the new house. In the ensuing years Mr. Gilbert installed and put into operation the first machinery ever used in picking hair; 212 ROMANCE OF NORWALK moved his growing business into a separate factory; adopted a machine for the making of sieve rims although the horse¬ hair cloth was still made by hand; produced the first wire cloth on a carpet loom; commenced the manufacture of dry glue; and during the Civil War astounded the indus¬ trial world by putting woven wire window screens on the market. Hitherto all screens had been made of cloth or hair netting. A wire mill was built and the business ex¬ panded rapidly. The firm name became Gilbert and Ben¬ nett in 1828; Gilbert, Bennett and Co., in 1832; and Gilbert and Bennett Manufacturing Co., incorporated in 1874. In 1887 a western branch was established in Chicago. The company which literally has “made” Georgetown, watches over the little community with care and interest, constructs houses, schools and other buildings when necessary, takes care of the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Co., and in general acts the part of a fond father. TRANSPORTATION Chapter XXI Norwalkers Leave For Ohio In uPrairie Schooners ” — Glor¬ ious Stage Coach Days — Early Steamboat Puffs Into Harbor — First Trains Run Through Norwalk — Draw¬ bridge Catastrophe Here Shocks Country. During the next 35 years, 1820 to 1855, Norwalk found herself in the midst of an unprecedented progress in trans¬ portation of all kinds. This was the time of the glorious coaching days; of the first steamboat in Norwalk; of the extending of the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad through this town; of the building of the Danbury and Norwalk railroad. The great white covered “prairie schooner” was still in vogue when the third decade of the nineteenth century opened. These wagons were employed by the little company of families who left Norwalk in 1820, bound for Ohio. One writer says: “Well I remember that assembly on the village green, for the first emigration to the West, to found Norwalk, Ohio. I can see those white covered wagons as they disappeared down Barkmill Hill; can hear the Doxology, the partings, as if forever.” The travelers were families who were taking advantage of- the gift of land in the middle west, made to Norwalk by the Connecticut government before the close of the 1 8th century, to recompense this town in part, for the losses suf¬ fered by it during the Revolutionary War. After their arrival in Norwalk, Ohio, eight communicants founded St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1820. Five of them were from St. Paul’s Parish and included Luke and Jemima Keeler, Mr. and Mrs. John Keeler and Ruth Boult. But the “prai¬ rie schooner” was used only for covering very long distances 213 214 ROMANCE OF NORWALK when household furniture, trunks and farming implements must be carried along with the passengers. GLORIOUS STAGE DAYS The most popular mode of transportation for ordinary travel was the stage coach, which saw its glorious era from 1820 to 1840. Up to this time, 1820, the coach had been an awkward, ungainly, uncomfortable thing, slow of speed, disagreeable in movement. But in 1827, Louis Downing, a carriage maker of Concord, New Hampshire, announced the completion of the famous Concord Coach which revolu¬ tionized passenger transportation. The new coach had a strong body swung on leather straps, a stout top, comfortable seats and a luggage compartment. This coach is the same which has been made immortal in “wild west” moving pictures. When the first railroad was built the owners used Concord coaches, merely altering the wheels to fit the rails. When the new stage came into favor, Norwalk, in com¬ pany with other towns along the line, found itself forced into extensive road improvement work, which not only made travel a deal more pleasant but much faster. It now took but two days to get from New York to Boston; there were fre¬ quent relays of horses along the road, and a driver was scheduled to make at least ten miles an hour. Norwalk was a point of importance not only on the stage line between New York and Boston, but it was also the termination of a stage route between Danbury and Norwalk. Captain PI*att of Danbury ran a stage between the two towns in the years 1815 to 1824. He left Danbury at noon and arrived here in the early evening. Passengers who intended going on to New York by boat, took supper at a tavern kept by one Hezekiah Whitlock, better known as Uncle Kiah. After the evening meal, every¬ one went on board the boat, and later to the berths. During the night, if the tide was right, the ship sailed for New York. TRANS POR TA TION 215 Were the weather good, the passengers might expect to be in the city by morning. But the trip usually consumed all next day, and if the weather were “dirty” it might be three or four days before the boat finally made New York. There were generally ten or twelve berths on the boat, passage on which might be secured for the sum of fifty cents. Meals were twenty-five cents each and invariably consisted of beef¬ steak and fried onions. Hiram Barnes of the hat city ran a stage between Danbury and Norwalk in 1830. FIRST STEAMBOAT Thrilling days came to Norwalk in the spring of 1824 when the first steamboat appeared in the harbor. Excited cries rang through the streets of the little town when the “lookouts” sighted the boat coming up the sound, and all rushed down to Old Well (South Norwalk) wharfs to greet the dawn of a new era in shipping. As the boat, which called itself the “General Lafayette,” steamed “majesti¬ cally” into harbor, the populace screamed for joy, hats and caps were lost by the dozen and some even fell into the water in their excitement. The only somber note in the whole event was struck by some of the older men, who shook their heads in sadness, for they saw in the coming of steam, the passing of their beloved old sailboats. Vessels of all kinds, passenger and freight, played a major role in Norwalk’s history from earliest times. It is inter¬ esting to trace the growth of shipping here, from the days when birch bark canoes afforded the only means of water transportation, until the era of the steamboat. According to Historian Selleck, who has recorded the names and deeds of the earliest ship owners in the community: “Captain Richard Raymond of Saybrook, heads the roll of Norwalk navigators. He ran a coasting vessel (tran¬ siently) in and out of Norwalk harbor in the seventeenth century, his ‘pier’ being in all probability near Fort Point. Old wharf remains have there been discovered.” 2l6 ROMANCE OF NORWALK Among those who followed Captain Raymond were Cap¬ tain Josiah Thatcher, Captain James Hurlbutt, Saugatuck shipbuilder, and in 1750 appears the name of Commodore John Cannon whose vessels ploughed to West India waters. A number of Norwalk boats went to the southern islands taking horses, oxen, pigs, goats, corn, wooden staves, flour, earthenware, butter and woven goods and bringing back molasses, sugar and plenty of rum. Then there was Captain Nathan Mallory, 1757-1800; Captain David Whitney, 1775; Esaias Bouton, Norwalk Tory who owned a vessel which plied between this town and Boston; and scores of others. The era of the sail packet lasted from 1800 to 1830. Uriah Selleck was a coasting proprietor in Norwalk during those years and Eben D. Hoyt was a shipmaster at that time. The latter ran a boat line from Norwalk to New York, the vessels making two trips a week. The line passed through several hands in succeeding years. The last vessel of the regular line, “The Domestic” was burned to the water’s edge off Shippan Point. In 1815, the first steamboat came up Long Island Sound past Norwalk, on its way to New Haven. This was Robert Fulton’s with its great side wheels, its noisy engine unmuffled and its stacks emitting clouds of smoke and sparks from the dry wood fuel. Historians give Robert Fulton credit for the invention of the steamboat, yet Connecticut claims that it was John Fitch of Windsor who first made practical use of steam in a sea-going vessel. So sure is Connecticut of her claims that she caused to be erected a bronze portrait and has relief of Fitch in the state capitol at Hartford, the inscription on which reads: “This tablet, erected by the state of Connecticut commem¬ orates the genius, patience and perseverance of John Fitch, a native of the town of Windsor, the first to apply steam successfully to the propulsion of vessels through water.” Fitch launched his boat on the Delaware river in 1786. It was forced through the water by mechanical paddles, six TRANSPOR TA TION 217 on each side. The boat, which was 45 feet long had a speed of only three miles an hour. Norwalk may be per¬ mitted a hold on the tail end of the glory, for John Fitch’s great grandfather resided for a short time, about the year 1652, in this town.