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New Haven Enterprise Hall of Fame
Business & Civic Award winners for the ages
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Business New Haven
1/22/2001
By:
Priscilla Searles
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Businessperson of the Year (1794): Eli Whitney
In 1794 Eli Whitney was granted a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that would change the economic and social landscape of the entire country. Prior to the invention of the cotton gin it took a man an entire day to clean one pound of cotton by hand, rendering cotton a luxury. The Southern states needed a profitable cash crop; Whitney's gin provided the South with a means of economic survival.
Although there had been earlier gins, Whitney's gin employed a sawtooth design, making it the first machine to remove the seeds from the cotton in large quantities without severely damaging the fibers. One pound per man per day jumped to 1,000 pounds a day. Whitney's cotton gin had given a struggling national economy a major shot in the arm.
Whitney was elated at the acceptance of the cotton gin and expected honor and wealth for himself as well as prosperity for the South. But Whitney did not foresee the storm clouds on the horizon. Rival patents began to pop up throughout the South and Whitney was denied royalties stemming from the use of his gin. After his first model was stolen, he and partner Phineas Miller decided not to sell machines but rather to gin cotton for planters on shares, keeping one pound of cotton from every three. The plan failed, and then in 1795 his New Haven factory, at the time housing 20 gins, burned to the ground. Years of legal wrangling over infringement of the patent followed. Whitney found himself on the verge of bankruptcy.
Persistent and utterly unwilling to surrender his dream of success, Whitney decided to manufacture firearms for the federal government - despite the fact that he'd never made a gun, didn't have a factory, equipment, materials, a site or money. But he did have an idea - one he was able to Oliver Wolcott, then secretary of the U.S. treasury. Up to that time, most firearms had been imported from England and France, but the threat of war had put those source at risk. Whitney agreed to produce “10,000 stand of muskets” within two years, at a cost of $134,000.
Delays caused Whitney to miss his first delivery of muskets - throwing his entire timetable permanently out of kilter. In 1799 he wrote to Wolcott outlining how he planned to produce the product:
“One of my primary objectives is to form the tools so the tools themselves shall fashion the work and give to every part its just proportion - which, once accomplished, will give expedition, uniformity, and exactness to the whole.”
The genius of Whitney's system was that each piece in the gun could be made independently and in quantity. All parts were interchangeable: If one piece broke, it could simply be replaced. Up to this point guns had been made by gunsmiths, with no two alike.
Endlessly innovating, Whitney trained mechanics and provided an agreeable work environment for his employees as well as spacious and comfortable lodgings in the neighborhood, looking after the material and moral welfare of workers and their families.
He employed cost accounting to calculate the true cost of his wares, including interest on invested capital and insurance charges as part of the cost factor. He also developed expertise contracts and finance and quickly learned the importance of accessing funds for future expansion.
Eli Whitney was a forward-thinking businessman who learned the hard way that it isn't enough to have a great idea or product. His hallmarks were ingenuity, initiative and persistence. To become successful Whitney, not unlike business people today, had to develop expertise in many areas, plan for setbacks, allow time for problem-solving, treat his employees with the respect he felt they deserved, be a first-class salesman and, lastly, do exactly what he promised: delivering a quality product.
In doing so, Whitney paved the way for the industrial growth of New Haven, a process that continued well into the 20th century. And the concept that he developed to remove seeds from cotton is still employed today.
Corporate Citizen (1870s): Hobart B. Bigelow
Hobart B. Bigelow was born in North Haven in 1834. His mother was a Pierpont, a descendant of the Rev. James Pierpont, one of the founders of Yale College and pastor of Center Church on the Green. Bigelow attended local schools until his family moved to Massachusetts.
He began his business career at age 17 when he went to work for the Guilford Manufacturing Co. to learn the trade of machinist. Completing his apprenticeship at the New Haven Manufacturing Co., he then went to work for Henry Ives and Addison Smith.
Ives and Smith had acquired a company that had been established by Cyrian Wilcox in 1833. The original foundry and machine shop was located on Whitney Avenue near Grove Street on the banks of the Farmington Canal. By 1836 the company was manufacturing malleable iron under the name Wilcox and Pryor. The company underwent a number of changes and names over the years, and a year after Bigelow joined the firm, Wilcox was back in control.
By 1861 Bigelow had bought out Wilcox's interest in the machine shop, conducting business under the name of the Bigelow Manufacturing Co. He advertised he was located at the old stand of Wilcox and Gay at 8 Whitney Avenue at the head of Church Street in New Haven. Bigelow claimed to be prepared to do all manner of shafting and well work. His ads also stated that he had or could make to order presses, drops, fan blowers, tire-benders, etc. and carried a line of stopcocks or valves of every description, from two-inch (costing $12) to 36-inch ($500).
Despite the turbulent economic climate during the Civil War, Bigelow's business grew rapidly. The war created enormous demand for implements and machinery. Under a contract with the Union government, Bigelow began to manufacture machinery for the production of rifles as well as producing individual rifle parts, in the process earning high praise from the War Department. By 1870 the plant extended through Temple Street, forcing Bigelow to move to a new location on Grapevine Point in Fair Haven. He began filling orders for the Imperial German Armory in the former Civil War barracks.
In 1873, a fire nearly destroyed the new plant. The company was disbanded, but Bigelow continued on for a number of years under his own name. He remained successful in the business world by continuing to diversify, producing the Lefell turbine water wheel, gold mining machinery, portable engines and apparatus for sinking oil wells, paper-box machinery, waterfront forges, crane, and cock valves. The Bigelow Co. was incorporated 1883 by George Barnum and Hobart's sons, E.L. and W.P. Bigelow.
Bigelow's success in the business world made him a popular choice for the world of politics. Between 1863 and 1881 he held a number of political offices, including member of the Common Council, councilman, alderman, supervisor, fire commissioner and member of the General Assembly. In 1878 Bigelow was elected mayor of New Haven. It was under Bigelow's administration that the East Rock Park Commission was created and the park chartered and opened. Bigelow also pushed for the building of breakwaters in New Haven Harbor. In 1880 he was elected governor of Connecticut.
Following his retirement from politics, Bigelow returned to the business world, serving as president of the Merchants' National Bank of New Haven and as an officer of the Bigelow Co. The company that still bears his name was now producing steam engines, sugar mill machinery and boilers for the West Indies. Today the company, still a manufacturer of boilers, is headquartered in Madison.
Minority Businessperson (18th and 19th Centuries): The Working Woman
From the earliest days of New Haven, women found ways to supplement their families' incomes. Many sold cheese or butter, hand-woven cloth or vegetables from the kitchen garden to tide the family over lean times. For women, there were few opportunities for employment outside the home. Working for other households as servants and later as teachers and nurses were about the only choices most women had.
So it was the rare woman in the 18th century who had the courage and means to run her own business. A New Haven newspaper carried the following advertisement: “Umbrellas Made, Repaired and New Covered by the subscriber on the shortest notice on reasonable terms at the shop directly opposite Major Munson's. Signed, Mary Sherry, April 5, 1798.”
There were always a few women willing to buck the system, choosing to become writers, lawyers, doctors, businesswomen and entertainers. Dr. Emeline Robert Jones of Danielson was the first woman dentist in the nation, traveling from town to town before the Civil War. In 1850 Ann Stiles of Southbury received the first photographic patent ever issued to a female. Born in 1843, Mary Hall of Marlborough was the first woman lawyer in Connecticut.
With only a handful of female lawyers in the entire country, her achievement was great, and certainly not easy. Hall passed her bar examination in March 1882, but had to appeal to the Supreme Court of Connecticut before being admitted to the bar in October of that year. A New York Times editor clearly did not approve, writing, “Comparatively few parties to a suit would trust their property or their liberty into the hands of a female attorney, for the same reasons a man about to shave himself would not employ the convex mirror - so much is oddity out of place in serious matters.”
Beginning in the 19th century, many women found that obtaining work outside the home was essential to the survival of their families. For most, however, the only work available was in sweatshops, where wages were low and the women often abused and mistreated.
In New Haven as in many other cities, the garment industry was a magnet for female workers, who often suffered sexual harassment on top of putting in ten-hour days. It wasn't until 1933 that unions were organized for shirtmakers and dressmakers in New Haven and improvements to sweatshop conditions began to be made.
For immigrants, the availability of job opportunities could be even more difficult. Rachel Huggins Baker arrived in New Haven in 1905 from the West Indies as a teacher by training, but because of prejudice was unable to find work in her profession. Her daughter gives this account: “My mother did housework, sleep-in. In those days, you had to sleep on the job. She made two dollars a week. She was training to be a school teacher...When she came here she didn't have a chance...that's why she had to do housework.”
Since Baker's time, many Connecticut women have risen to the challenge of succeeding in fields once thought to be the exclusive domain of men.
Innovation Award: Connecticut Agricultural Center
Opened in 1875, the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station was the first of its kind in the nation. Today there is one in every state.
Before the founding of the Connecticut Experimental Station, virtually no money was spent on agricultural research. The establishment of the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station was a turning point: For the first time in the history of the nation, taxpayers were supporting science for the benefit of society, and scientists were now professionals, not amateurs.
Yale professor Samuel William Johnson pushed the idea of an agricultural experimental station for Connecticut. Johnson wanted to put chemistry to work for agriculture, an idea he developed while studying agricultural chemistry in Germany. When Johnson returned to Yale, he discovered that many commonly employed fertilizers were in fact frauds, and a farmer couldn't tell whether he had the real thing or just dried mud. He convinced the newly convened Connecticut Board of Agriculture that fertilizer analysis was needed. Provided funds by the board, he established the first consumer protection office in the nation.
Actively campaigning for a permanent research, Johnson faced a number of setbacks before his dream would become a reality, and was joined by others in his quest. On July 20, 1875, Gov. Charles R. Ingersoll signed the bill establishing the Connecticut Agricultural Experiential Station. At first, much to Johnson's disappointment, the facility was located at Wesleyan University in Middletown. In 1877 the legislature passed a new bill, transferring the station to New Haven and giving it the charter it needed to fulfill Johnson's specifications.
Yale offered space in the old Sheff building, located on the corner of College and Grove streets. In 1881 the legislature provided enough funds to purchased six acres on Suburban Street, now known as Huntington Street. Land was purchased from the estate of Eli Whitney Jr. and his former residence became the office building for the new station.
In 1913 station scientists, studying animal nutrition, discovered that the yellow substance in butter fat is essential for growth in animals. Today we call that discovery Vitamin A. Another critical discovery was the fungus that keeps the gypsy moth under control. In 1889 the station introduced the first soil fungicide in America. In 1960 the station discovered the first chemical control of ozone damage, a spray with a dithiocarbamate fungicide.
The discovery of hybrid corn at the station by Donald F. Jones in 1917 more than doubling the yield of this important crop. When Governor Ingersoll signed the bill creating the station, an acre of land yielded about 40 bushels of corn; today that same acre will yield 100 bushels. In 1926 the station introduced the first crossed sweet-corn variety. And it was an agriculture station scientist who discovered, imported and released a Japanese ladybird beetle predator of hemlock woolly adelgid in an attempt to save hemlocks in Connecticut forests.
The station published its first report on Connecticut mosquitoes in 1904 and in 1998 opened a laboratory where the eastern equine encephalitis virus was isolated from mosquitoes collected in five towns in eastern, central and western Connecticut. In 1997 the station initiated a community-based Lyme disease tick-control project encompassing 2.25 square miles and many residences in Old Lyme by attracting deer to feeding stations where a chemical pesticide to kill ticks feeding on the head and neck of the deer could be applied.
Today the station's staff investigates insects, ticks, forests, plant diseases, fruit, vegetable and nursery crops, plant breeding, soils and water, analyzes fertilizers, feeds, food, drugs, cosmetics and other consumer products in cooperation with other state agencies. It also registers beekeepers and nurseries and inspects for pest insects and plant diseases.
Founders Award: Joseph B. Sargent
Joseph Bradford Sargent, founder of Sargent & Co., began his career at age 16 when he left his home in Leicester, Mass. to work for a dry goods firm in Boston. He had acquired a talent for business from his father, a prosperous farmer who had founded a successful hand carding business. Hired as an office boy, Sargent was soon managing the Boston business. J.B. Sargent's career was off and running.
Turning his talent to selling for a number of concerns, Sargent became a major stockholder in one of the companies, Peck & Walter Hardware of New Britain. By 1857 he had gained control of the enterprise, but several years later, when Sargent attempted to purchase property needed for expansion he was met with some opposition. Exasperated, he moved the entire operation to New Haven, a more suitable site for the expansion he envisioned.
It was a convenient location for trade: its harbor, accessed by four steamboat companies and four railroads, made New Haven an ideal location for industry. With his brothers George and Edward, J.B. Sargent purchased waterfront property at Water, Wallace and Hamilton streets and in May 1864, the plant, now known as Sargent & Co., opened for business.
Sargent began manufacturing in New Haven with a workforce of 150. Years later Sargent would actively recruit Italian immigrants, often lending his workmen money to send to families still in Europe. He is credited with being the first manufacturer in the city to pay his employees weekly. Later he would be responsible for the passage of a state regulation requiring prompt weekly payment of wages.
Sargent's ideas on manufacturing were highly progressive for his day. The new factory was thoroughly modern, with running water on each floor for washing, manufacturing and fire purposes, adequate bathroom facilities and a slate roof. A building on Water Street was used for manufacturing and office space. A foundry for gray iron castings ran the entire length of the block on Collins Street and the brass foundry was located on Wallace Street. A dock on the property was renovated to accommodate coal barges and other large vessels. The old Pavilion Hotel, once a summer resort for families from the South, was renovated and served as a dwelling for workers and their families.
Starting with the production of approximately 1,000 items, by 1871 the company was adding extensive additions to the plant to accommodate 2,000 workmen. Using the alphabet to mark each new building, by 1882 the company had reached the letter V. Following the Civil War, Sargent & Co. became the largest supplier and distributor of hardware in the United States, in the process buying out many smaller companies. A major new line was introduced by the company in 1884 when it began to manufacture locks.
Sargent the man was extremely civic minded, serving as alderman and a member of the Board of Public Works. In 1890 he was elected mayor of New Haven, serving two terms. He pushed for municipal ownership of public utilities and improvements to the harbor. Ambitious politically, in 1896 Sargent ran for governor on the Democratic ticket, but lost to Republican Lorrin A. Cooke.
Corporate Citizen (19th Century): New Haven Savings Bank
In July 1838, a modest statement appeared in the Columbia Register: “The New Haven Savings Bank is now in readiness to commence business, in a Room adjoining the New Haven Bank, in Orange Street. Persons wishing information on the subject can obtain the same by called on the subscriber at the place, W.G. Hooker, Treasurer.”
The first two deposits were five dollars from Chandler Sanderson in the name of his baby daughter, and $100 from Amos Townsend Jr., cashier of the New Haven Bank. New Haven Savings wasn't the first institution of its kind in the city. A savings bank had opened in 1820 but closed in 1830. But New Haven Savings seems to have been popular from the outset. At the close of its first year in business, the New Haven bank returned the $75 dollar rental fee for use of one room by New Haven Savings.
In 1838 New Haven was a city of approximately 13,000 and the first city directory had yet to be published. The city had the appearance of a country village. Although cows and horses were no longer pastured on the Green, the grass was allowed to grow to hay. Land in the center of the city was still being farmed.
The Farmington Canal wasn't the great financial success everyone thought it would be, although there was packet service to Northampton, Mass. The first railroad from New Haven to Hartford was opened as far as Meriden in 1840. In 1838 New Haven had no sewage system, no gas mains, no public water system. But New Haven was beginning to grow.
The petition for the charter of the New Haven Savings Bank stated the necessity for people with modest or irregular incomes to have a safe place of deposit and the advice of informed persons regarding the best securities for small investments. One editorial produced by the bank in 1838 said, “The object of this institution is to assist the industrious and frugal to lay by such part of their earnings as they may be able to spare, against future exigencies.” Signers of the petition for the charter included such names as Roger Sherman, Ralph I. Ingersoll, Simeon Baldwin, Noah Webster and James Brewster, all representatives of various business interests.
Apparently the founders of the bank where correct in the assumption that a savings bank was needed. By January 1840, nearly 600 depositors had made use of the new institution. Loans were a little more difficult to come by in the early days. The first loan was tendered on August 10, 1838 to Harry Griswold and others of Meriden, for $1,000. The bank treasurer had to come up with $274 out of his own pocket to make the loan. He received interest for four days, when the bank repaid him.
With the exception of a few bank stocks and New York City Corporation Bonds, from 1838 to 1861 all assets of the bank were invested in real estate. New Haven Savings Bank remained at its first location for nine years, moving in 1847 to its own building at 99 (later 145) Orange Street, where it remained for 52 years. In 1902 the building was sold to the National Savings Bank.
The founders of New Haven Savings Bank must have known what they were doing. For nearly 163 years New Haven Savings Bank has helped its home city grow.
Small Businessperson: Amos Munson
Store-bought pies are something we don't think much about these days. If we don't bake, we just drive down to the local bakery or grocery and take our pick.
But it wasn't always that easy. We can thank a New Havener for developing the notion of store-bought pies. It was Amos Munson's appetite - and his son's homesickness for sweets - that gave birth to the first New England (and, some believe, American) bakery devoted to the production of pies.
Munson was a blacksmith by trade, but the long days of standing ruined his health, forcing him to abandon his occupation. Munson's son, Lucius, was working around the same time in New York City, consumed with a desire for home-baked pies. Figuring that there must be others in New York with the same craving, he and his brother Henry sold Amos on the idea, and a new enterprise was born.
In June 1844, New Haven's first pie factory opened on Wall Street. Because New Haven's only restaurants at the time were small lunch counters at the old railroad station and at the Tomlinson Bridge, nearly all the pies were shipped to New York via steamboat. Two of Munson's sons pulled the wagon to the dock. The business was soon a success, requiring the company to use a horse-drawn vehicle for delivery to the dock.
A small lunchroom soon opened in New York called the Connecticut Pie Depot. New Yorkers loved the pies and soon bakers in the city began to produce Connecticut pies. Not easily outwitted, the company changed its name to Munson's Connecticut Pies. Within five years, Munson was producing thousands of pies each day. Freight bills were so high that in 1849 Munson opened a manufacturing concern in New York on 21st Street near Third Avenue. In 1874 Munson turned over the New Haven business to his son, Samuel, retaining control of the New York company. Amos Munson died in 1877.
Munson's legacy was training numerous people who went on to establish their own bakeries, among them Henry H. Olds. Olds and his wife opened a pie business in 1859, and by the end of that year they were producing 200 to 300 pies a day. Olds went into partnership with Samuel Munson from 1868 to 1872. Olds remained in the pie business and by 1887 it took five double teams of horses to deliver pies in New Haven and an additional three to delivery to various depots and express offices.
The great American pie: We can't live without it.
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