History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

" 181G.— Two of our citizens, K. & E. T. Hoyt, mer- chants in the place, receiving, as the custom was, hats in exchange for their goods, taking a few hats, went South and opened a store at Charleston, S. C. The hats were made by Tweedy & Benedict, and fin- ished partly iu the old finishing-shop yet standing on the corner of Main and Franklin Streets. The Messrs. Hoyt began on a small scale, the sales at first amount- ing to but 815,000 or $20,000 per year. But as the trade increased in importance throughout the country they took advantage of it, and through their efforts was built up a large establishment, increasing until at one period the yearly sales reached .S100,000. Tlie business continued in the hands of some of the Hoyt family until the death of John E. Hoyt (son of Ilussellj, some twelve years since, and is yet in active o[)eration under F. T. Fanning. David H. Bonghton was the fir.st partner taken into the firm, and the following individuals were from time to time connected with the same house : David M. Benedict, Edgar S. Tweedy, F. T. Fanning, Lucius P. Hcyt, and A. E. Tweedy. This hat-.store was connected with manufacturing in Danbury up to 1854, and afibrds an example of i)ros- perity and continued success, with close attention to business as the caiLse. " In the fall of the .same year, 181G,Zalm( 111 Wilclmau (who, as before mentioned, was engaged in the South- ern trade as early as 1802), with Ezra M. Starr, — the latter still one of our most respected aMil inlluential citizens, — started another hat-store in Charleston. This firm also commenced with about $20,000 as the yearly .sales, but an enterprise like this, in the hands of such thorough and aclive business men, could but succeed; they were soon firmly cstablisheil, and went on extending their trade and enlarging their opera- tions, until we have as the anumnt of sales per annum $G0,000. Hats worth here ninety dollars jier dozen were taken South and sold at one hundred and twenty dollars per dozen. " 1817. — Capt. John Foot, witli one Mr. Hodge, man- ufoctured hats for the firm of Wildman & Starr, em- 240 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. ploying six or eight men, and getting up about six hundred dozen per annum. Elins Houghton, Abel Hoyt, and others, carried on hatting in Danbury about this time. The hats were tlien eiglit or nine ounces in weight. The price for nuiking them — that is, the Kussia hat — was ninety-two cents, or five shillings six pence, Yankee currency. " 1824. — Among the manufacturers of this period were Isaac H. Seclye, Wliitc & Keelcr, Hatch & Gregory, Josej)!! Taylor, Hugh Starr, and Tavlor & Dibble. " 182.5. — Fry, (Jrcgory & Co. conducted at this time an extensive trade, working up §80,000 worth of stock per annum ; capital invested, $50,000 ; hands em- ployed at making, .30 ; trimming, 10. This firm also had a store (now occupied by Mr. Osborne) in West Street, where the hands emi)loyed traded, receiving orders instead of cash for their work. " In 183,3, Fry, Gregory & Co. sold out their make- sliop to William Montgomery, who had commenced hatting in 1S32 with Edward S. Brockett. Mr. Mont- gomery made the hats for Fry, Gregory & Co., wlio, having finished and trimmed them, sent them to their store in Charleston for sale. Mr. Montgomery carried on the fur-hat trade until 18-53, when, building a large factory in connection with the buildings already on the ground, he entered into the manufacture of wool hats in company with Charles Henedict and .Tar- vis P. Hull. Mr. Hull soon withdrew from the firm, and it is now that of Benedict & Montgomery. " From an old bill dated New York, June 5, 1825, we find that .Tocl Taylor bought of E. & H. Raymond one hundred Spanish wool bodies at thirty-four cents apiece. " 183.5. — Mr. Alvin Hurd, having learned the art of making silk liats from two Englishmen in the city of New York, returned here and set up the business in the shop of Starr Nichols, manufocturing for the firm of Swift & Nichols, with five men employed, thus in- troducing into Danbury the art of making silk hats. This branch of the trade increased so that in fact it became the most popular one of the day, and in the years intervening between 1810 and 1850 was carried on almost exclusively, Messrs. Tweedy & White, Wil- liam Montgomery, N. H. Wildnian, and others being engaged in it. After 1850 it gradnally decreased, and now nothing is done here at this branch, the soft hat taking its place. " During 1835 and several following years Messrs. Fry & Gregory, together with Samuel SprouUs, kept in operation a large wholesale establishment in New York City. " 1840.— Hoyt, Tweedy it Co. had a factory at the north enil of Main Street, and were also connected with the hat-store established at Charleston by the Hoyts in 1816. Since 1840, under Edgar S. Tweedy, John R. Hoyt, F. T. Fanning, Lucius Hoyt, A. E. Tweedy, William R. White, and others, the firm has been known successively as that of Hoyt, Tweedy & Co., Tweedy, Hoyt & Co., Tweedy & Hoyt, A. E. Tweedy & Co., Tweedy & White, and now (since 1857) Tweedy, White & Co. " 1841. — After the napped hats had gone out of fash- ion, Medsrs. Niram Wildman and John Pry went to Roxbury for the purpose of getting information con- cerning the wool-hatting. They called on Col. La- throp, in that place, wlio was then considered the best manufacturer of wool hats in this section of the country. Having obtained the necessary information, Messrs. AV^ildman & Fry returned and commenced the manufacture of wool hats in the old building .some time since removed from the grounds of Mr. Fry, employ- ing five? men as makers and two women as trimmers, turning off from eight to ten dozen per day, tiie bodies being formed in the 'old factory.' Wildman it l'"ry subsequently sold out to Cliarles Fry and David Wild- man (the latter now deceased), who continued the manufacture in a building in Main Street, since re- moved. "1846. — Nathaniel H. Wildnian was at this time manufacturing fur hats. He kept up the manufacture until a few years since, and is now engaged in a liat- store at Augusta, Ga. Trunuvn Trowbridge employed a number of hands, also Frederick Nichols. "1849. — Mr. Nathan Benedict came from New York with one of the fur-hat forming machines. When it was rumored that such a machine was to be brouglit here it created considerable excitement among the mechanics in the trade, and when it actually did arrive a majority of hatters were opposed to it. It was put up by Mr. Benedict in the old Hurlbut fac- tory as an experiment, under the patronage of A. E. Tweedy & Co. But very little wjus done the first year, and the enterprise progressed slowly ; but a< the public confidence in it was strengthened the old prejudice died out, and its ])opularity increased. " 1852. — S. A. Brower & Co. started the business of paper-box making in Danburj-. Until the soil hat came into use hats were packed in wooden cases alone. Now one dozj.'n hats arc jdaced in a paper box, and these, to the number of six, .are i>laced in a wooden case. This mode of packing hats for transportation is a little more expensive than the former, but it is at the .same time more safe, neat, and convenient. "Mr. E. S. Davis, who bought out Brower & Co. in 1852, now carries on the business quit*' extensively. At first the demand W!us very small, but .as the manu- facture of soft hats increased so did that of paper boxes. Mr. Davis now occupies the whole of the new building seventy by thirty and three stories high (near Tweedy Brothers). Capital invested, $7000; sales per nnniun, $25,000; paid out to hands per month, i?2<Ni; hands employed, 11. Boards or straw paper used per annum, 125 tons ; number of pajier boxes of all sizes made per annum, 216,(»00. The 'boards' are manu- factured in the neighboring towns of Brookfield, Newtown, and New Milford. " 1853.— James S. Taylor, of this town, patented his DANBURY. 241 machines for felting or sizing hats, to which tlioir orig- inality and perfect operation has been satisfactorily applied. The-ic machines have been introduced into general use among the best and most extensive wool- hat manufacturers in the United Htates. It is a fact worthy of notice that these machines have been in- vented, perfected, and brought into general use in less time than |)erhaps ever before recorded of any otlier invention of the same relative value in tlie mechanic arts in this or any other country, and it is owing to this invention of Mr. Taylor's that our w(i(d-hat man- ufacturers have been enabled to snpjdy the increasing demand for the finer qualities of that artiide. "'The Taylor's Patent Hat-Felting Company have about three hundred of these machines in use in va- rious parts of the United States, felting at least six dozen hats per day ou each machine, equal to 1800 dozen per day for the three hundred machines, or 540,000 dozen, on an average, per year, being 6,480,000 hats!' They have secured the patent on the machine in various European countries, and now have machines in constant operation in several of the largest estab- lishments in Kngland, where an agency is about being established. ' The largest single day's work performed by these machines was, probably, 171 tlie shop of Wild- man & Cros])y, in 185(5, they having sized on two sets of machines fifty-four dozen hats in one day, the ma- chines being (qierated by lour men, working only ten hours.' A Frenchman, J. Raptiste L.acillc bj- name, and many others, have invented machines for sizing hats and sold their patents for large sums, but the machines failed, not having been brought to perfec- tion, and the Taylor machines have taken the ])lace of all. " 1855. — Abi jah Abbott commenced the manufacture of band-boxes for Messrs. Benedict & ^lontgomery. Mr. Abbott now cmjiloys four hands, making thirty thousand large paper boxes per year and consuming fifty tons of boards per annum. His sales amount ta five thousand dollars per annum. "The making of wooden cases is a large item, and three firms, George Starr, George Stevens i*c Co., and Raymond & Ambler, are constantly employed.