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Business & Civic Award Winners For The Ages -The New Haven Enterprise Hall of Fame
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Business New Haven
1/20/2003
By: Priscilla Searles
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No. 1 - With a Bullet
Businessperson of the Century (19th): Oliver Fisher Winchester
Oliver Fisher Winchester, forever known as the man who manufactured “The Gun That Won the West,” actually got his start manufacturing clothing. Born in Boston in 1810, Winchester in 1837 opened a store in Baltimore making and selling shirts.
In 1847 Winchester took on a partner, John M. Davies, and moved the operation to New York. A year later Winchester and his partner established a modern shirt factory in New Haven. Winchester patented a new method for manufacturing men's shirts. In less than ten years Winchester was turning out 100 dozen shirts a day, with 300 employees working in the factory and 3,700 doing part-time work from their homes. The home laborers include people from Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts.
Winchester entered the firearms business only gradually. In 1854 Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson had patented an improved loading mechanism, a toggle-link lever action, for the repeating rifle. Volcanic Repeating Arms Co. was formed in 1855 in Norwich, with Winchester and 39 others as initial investors. In 1856 the company's offices were moved to New Haven and the name changed to New Haven Arms Co. In spite of the apparent promise of this new innovation, the company was poorly managed and in February 1857, failed. Winchester faced the loss of his initial investment.
Buying out the other investors, Winchester reorganized the company under the name the New Haven Arms Co. Winchester obtained all patents of the Volcanic Firearms as well as Horace Smith's and Daniel Wesson's agreement concerning rights on future inventions and improvements regarding firearms and ammunition.
In 1866, the Connecticut legislature granted Winchester a charter to incorporate under the name the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. The first gun to bear the Winchester name was the Model 1866, a “Yellow Boy” lever-action model. Winchester claimed that the rifle could fire two shots a second with no compromise of aim.
The Model 1866 was quickly accepted in the West and was used by several of the Sioux who defeated Custer at the Little Big Horn a decade following its introduction. Hundreds of family albums show photos taken during the mid-19th century of a family member holding what is clearly a Winchester. Emperor Maximilian of Mexico had a custom-made silver-plated Winchester Model 1866 rifle with a carved ivory stock.
During the Reconstruction years up to 1900, Winchester was the household name in repeating rifles. With the assistance of Benjamin Tyler Henry and Nelson King, Oliver Winchester made many modifications to the popular Winchester rifle.
In the meantime, Winchester continued to expand his production line as well as acquire additional companies. In 1868 he purchased the assets of Spencer Co. He introduced the Model 1873 lever action in center fire and rim fire (using cartridge located in rim rather than the center.) In 1875 Winchester bought the rights to Hotchkiss bolt-action center-fire rifle and a year later introduced the Model 1876 lever-action rifle.
Following the Civil War Winchester (the company) became one of New Haven's largest and most important industrial enterprises. In July 1870 the New Haven Register reported, “The Winchester Repeating Arms Company are erecting mammoth factory at the corner of Munson and Canal streets, which will be one of the largest factories in the State.”
Eleven years later Winchester added several more buildings to its plant to be used entirely for the production of cartridges. By 1881 it was one of the largest cartridge-producers in the United States.
A political and philanthropic figure as well as titan of industry, Winchester was lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1866-67 and made large donations to Yale. He died on December 11, 1880. Winchester made millions after purchasing the right to B. Henry Tyler's 1860 repeating rifle.
But the “Gun That Won the West” plagued Winchester's widow, Sarah, for the rest of her days. Believing that she was somehow responsible for many of the deaths her late husband's invention had caused, she consulted a medium, who convinced the heiress the evil spirits of those killed by the rifle cursed her.
So Sarah Winchester moved to California and spent the rest of her life constructing a strange mansion and having “nightly rendezvous” in its séance room.
New Haven's King of the Carriage Trade
Corporate Citizen of the Century (19th): James Brewster
James Brewster's introduction to New Haven in 1809 was not exactly a promising one: His stagecoach broke down while passing through. But it was a propitious one: A year later he opened his first carriage shop in a one-story building at Elm and High streets, ultimately producing vehicles that nearly 200 years later continue to be coveted by museums and collectors.
A direct descent of the William Brewster who had arrived in Plymouth aboard the Mayflower in 1621, James Brewster had a limited education. In 1804 he was apprenticed to learn the carriage-making trade. When his apprenticeship was completed his employer offered him an interest in the business. But Brewster preferred to go into business for himself.
Brewster's skill as a mechanic soon helped him build an impressive client list. Starting with the manufacture of improved wagons, Brewster turned his talents to the construction of fine vehicles of various styles, the type normally credited to English manufacturers. The Brewster line included buggies, phaetons (a light, open, four-wheeled carriage), victoria (a low, four-wheeled vehicle for two with a folding top) and other equipment.
The Brewster Carriage Co. relocated several times, moving to Orange Street, then to the foot of Wooster Street, helping to create an entirely new neighborhood known as Brewsterville.
Known for his then-novel production method of dividing the work of the factory into different departments, Brewster paid his employees in cash rather than with orders for goods, which was commonplace at the time. And although most factories permitted liquor in the shops, Brewster barred intoxicating drinks. A religious man, he also encouraged his employees to read the bible.
The reputation of the Brewster firm spread and famous customers' names, such as President Andrew Jackson, began to appear on sales slips. According to the New Haven Register in November 1832, “The Hon. Martin Van Buren, Vice President, elect, just ordered a carriage from the manufactory of our enterprising fellow citizen, Mr. James Brewster.”
The Young Mechanics' Institute was another Brewster creation, located in a rented room in the Glebe Building at Church and Chapel streets. Brewster also financed the renovation of the Morse Hotel at Church and Crown streets for the use by the Franklin Institute.
With John Lawrence as a partner Brewster opened a New York City facility, maintaining a warehouse and repair shop, later to become the Brewster Carriage Co. of New York. When the Brewsterville plant burned in 1836, Brewster sold his interest in the company and established a new carriage company with his son, James.
The carriage business was an important part of New Haven's economy but came to a grinding halt when manufacturers became suddenly powerless to collect their accounts receivable from seceding Confederate states when the Civil War ignited in 1861.
So Brewster expanded into other fields, obtaining a charter with others for the construction of the railroad between New Haven and Hartford - and serving as its first president. He also helped to found the New Haven Savings Bank in 1836 and encouraged New Haven to purchase its first horse-drawn steam fire engine in 1860.
Brewster died in 1866. He had given American carriages a style of their own and had helped New Haven enter the Industrial Age.
Where There's Smoke
Minority Businessperson: Lewis Osterweis
For decades Connecticut was renowned for producing an outstanding tobacco leaf used in the production of fine cigars. Although the “Connecticut type” was cultivated mainly in the northern part of the state it was developed in New Haven, by blending the Connecticut broadleaf wrapper and binder with a filler of Vuelta-Abajor Cuban tobacco. The pioneer manufacturer of this successful product was Lewis Osterweis.
Born in Horb-am-Main, Bavaria, Germany, in 1836, Osterweis was one of a handful of immigrants to establish a successful New Haven business in the mid-19th century. He learned about the various types of leaves used in the manufacture of cigars while serving as an apprentice to a cigar manufacturer in New York.
Later he became a tobacco buyer in Cuba, eventually establishing a small factory in Fort Madison, Ia. But the South Windsor broadleaf fields were too much for Osterweis to resist, and in 1858 he settled in New Haven.
In 1860 Osterweis established Osterweis & Co. Later that same year the company, located on Congress Avenue, became known by his full name. In 1863 Joseph Oppenheimer joined him and the company changed its name to Osterweis & Oppenheimer. A short while later the business was moved to 93 Church Street. When Oppenheimer died in 1876, Osterweis took over control of the company, eventually renamed Lewis Osterweis & Sons.
Prior to the founding of Osterweis' company, cigars of all-Connecticut leaf were being produced on a small scale in the Suffield area and carried throughout the state by Yankee peddlers. Considered extremely strong of aroma and flavor, of the leaf it was said that its main acceptability was “on the docks of the seaport towns.”
The company's manufacturing facilities consisted of two floors plus the basement. Starting off on a very small scale, the business soon expanded, extending throughout New York, New England and the West. Osterweis began to sell an enormous number of cigars in addition to large quantities of leaf tobacco. Osterweis' brands of blended Connecticut and Cuban tobacco won immediate and broad acceptance, helping to making tobacco a major Connecticut product for many decades.
In deed, the legacy long outlived the man, as the Lewis Osterweis & Sons cigar company continued to produce cigars until 1954, when the company was acquired by F.D. Grace & Sons.
Goodyear's Happy Accident
Innovator for the Eons: Charles Goodyear
The invention of vulcanizing rubber may have been an accident, but it breathed new life into a moribund American rubber industry. Charles Goodyear had been conducting a long series of experiments trying to find a means to prevent India rubber from melting and decomposing at high temperatures. The answer came when Goodyear accidentally dropped some rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove.
Born in New Haven in 1800, Goodyear started out in his father's hardware business, but when that venture failed in 1830 he turned his talents to the commercial improvement of India rubber.
Forsaking for the time being gainful employment and living off the charity of his friends and relatives, Goodyear's total focus was the challenge of improved rubber. But his early experiments proved fruitless. In 1834 he designed a valve for inflating India rubber life preservers, but was told that a more beneficial invention would be to cure the rubber and make it harder.
It wasn't until 1837 that he met any measure of success, obtaining a patent for a process that destroyed the adhesive properties of rubber by mixing it with nitric acid and copper.
With this newly discovered compound Goodyear began producing toys, surgical bandages and maps and even designed a suit of clothing for himself. But he was unable to find capital for marketing his products and soon faced financial difficulties.
The accidental discovery of vulcanizing rubber came about after Goodyear met Nathaniel Hayward, a former employee in a rubber factory, who was about to patent his discovery that sulfur spread on rubber eliminated its stickiness. Hayward assigned his patent, granted in 1839, to Goodyear, who combined the Hayward process with his own patented nitric-acid coating.
The final step in the discovery was made when Goodyear accidentally dropped a mass of rubber treated with Hayward's sulfur solution onto a hot stove. The rubber did not melt, but remained solid.
Goodyear quickly realized that the problems that had been responsible for the rapid decline of the India rubber industry had been solved. Now he would be able to produce both hard and soft rubber products.
In 1844 Goodyear was awarded a patent for his process, but he was unable to reap any immediate financial rewards. To pay off his debts he was forced to sell licenses and establish royalties at prices far below their actual value. In 1852 Daniel Webster defended the patent rights of companies operating under Goodyear's patents. His fee was $25,000, which was more than Goodyear managed to acquire for himself for his inventions over the course of his entire life.
With the rubber industry re-established in the U.S. Goodyear traveled to Europe in 1851 in an effort to extend his patent. He designed an exhibition in London. The entire exhibit contents were fabricated of rubber - furniture, floor coverings, books, etc. In 1855 he mounted a similar exhibition at the Paris Exposition.
As a result of his European tour he was granted patents in every European country except England. In 1843 an infringement suit was brought against an Englishman who had patented a process similar to Goodyear's, but the suit was unsuccessful. Goodyear sold manufacturing licenses in England, France and Germany, setting alight what would become a vigorous European rubber industry.
In 1859 he returned to America, continuing his experiments and discovering many new uses for rubber, eventually claiming nearly 500 applications for his discovery. But Goodyear never found financial success. When he died in 1860 he was in debt to relatives and financial backers for $200,000 - a king's ransom in those days.
When Talk Wasn't Cheap
Founders Award: Herrick P. Frost
On January 28, 1878 the world's first commercial telephone exchange began operation in New Haven as the New Haven Telephone Exchange. Two weeks earlier a joint stock company had been formed, the District Telephone Co. of New Haven.
Much of the credit for its founding goes to businessman and promoter Herrick P. Frost. Frost had no capital to invest but was equipped with a keen business acumen that would make him one of the most important figures in the early days of telephony in Connecticut.
Frost came to New Haven in 1856. Forming a partnership with Julius Tyler Jr., the pair opened a wholesale grocery and liquor business. But the venture eventually failed and Frost began to look for a new project.
He soon became intrigued by Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, brought to his attention by George W. Coy, an electrician and local manager of the Franklin Telephone Co. It was Coy who had foreseen the commercial application of telephones for business use and constructed the pioneer switchboard.
The two men obtained a franchise to try out the telephone in New Haven, but outside capital was needed for the formation of the first telephone exchange. Frost convinced his brother-in-law, Walter Lewis, to invest $600. As a reward for his faith, Lewis was named president of the first telephone exchange in Connecticut. Some months later the company was reorganized as the Connecticut District Telephone Co.
To house the fledgling firm a small room was rented in the Boardman Building at State and Chapel streets. The goal of Frost and his partners was to lay five miles of wire and operate 100 telephones for ten years. The general public at first viewed the telephone as an amusement until people began to realize they could easily talk to people across the city without leaving home.
When the exchange commenced operation it had 21 subscribers; less than a month later the number had grown to 50.
By 1880 the small company had expanded beyond its initial limited capital base. Morris F. Tyler, legal advisor to the enterprise, created the Connecticut District Telephone Co. At the same time another company was set up to manufacture and sell telephone equipment. Gaining the attention of people around the world, the Connecticut Telephone Co. was formed - an enterprise that later gave birth to the Southern New England Telephone Co.
Frost spent his life promoting business. He was the founder of the Boston Electric Light Co., the New Haven Steam Heat Co. and the New Haven Electric Light Co. (predecessor of the United Illuminating Co.). He served New Haven in public positions including councilman, alderman, police commissioner and chairman of the Board of Finance.
Harnessing Liquid Assets
Corporate Citizen of the Century (19th): The New Haven Water Co.
In the early days of New Haven, no one much worried about water or where it came from. Most people in the port city could sink a well only a few feet and hit water, while even the less fortunate had to go only 20 to 25 feet to tap all the water they needed. Public wells were located on the New Haven Green and State Street as well as other New Haven locations. Local creeks and rivers supplied water for the fire department.
With expansion of New Haven came industrialization, and with the use of steam in many workshops and factories came the ever-present risk of being wiped out by fire. When railroad track was laid along what had once been the Farmington Canal, New Haven's need for water became more acute.
In 1849 James Brewster, Henry Hotchkiss, Henry Peck and others organized the New Haven Water Co. It appears that the incorporators intended to get the operation going then turn the charter over to the city. The company made little progress in the first few years while the public argued over whether it was better that the city, in a corporate capacity, should provide water, or leave it to be provided by a private company.
In 1852 the city appointed a committee to investigate the most feasible method of supplying the city with water for extinguishing fires and other purposes. The committee hired Alexander C. Twining, an engineer and inventor, to analyze the available sources and their relative advantages.
The report concluded that water should be brought from the Quinnipiac or Mill Rivers at city expense. It also recommended making application to the state legislature to provide for the transfer of rights from the New Haven Water Co. to the city. But in 1854 a proposal to have the city build the water works was defeated.
Nevertheless, the successors to those who held the original charter tried to move forward, financing the project and enlisting the aid of Eli Whitney II to construct the necessary works. It took years to construct an operating system but finally, on December 2, 1861, the New Haven Water Co. began to pump water from the Mill River, damned up into a reservoir on Prospect Hill. A month later water was running through 17 miles of cast-iron mains to most parts of the city.
One distinguishing characteristic of the New Haven Water Co. was the long and bitter battle for control of the company. Many New Haveners were staunch advocates for public ownership; they were pitted against those pushing for private ownership. Ultimately it was decided to have public control by the municipalities served by the water company.
Renaissance Manufacturer
Small Businessperson of the Century (19th): Cornelius Pierpont
C. Pierpont & Co. was a manufacturer of fodder and ensilage cutters. Fodder and ensilage are feed for cattle, typically consisting of corn stalks and leaves mixed with hay. The fodder cutter cuts the corn stalks; the ensilage cutter chops the feed.
Born in Litchfield in 1829, Cornelius Pierpont spent his early years on his father's farm. After leaving home he taught school for a while and in 1854 he established a grocery store in New Haven, on Broad Street. He continued to do business in that location for 30 years. Known to his customers as “the temperance grocer,” Pierpont refused to sell liquor with his other goods.
Cornelius Pierpont established the fodder and ensilage cutter business in 1865, at a time when agriculture was still the predominant industry in the New Haven area, if not the rapidly industrializing city itself. By 1870 Pierpont was doing business from a four-story wooden frame building on the corner of Crown and Park streets. His firm employed 25 workers.
Throughout the next decade Pierpont diversified, adding to the manufacturing line rubber-bucket chair pumps, well curbs (a guard that surrounded the well to protect it) and a money drawer secured with a “patent” alarm and combination lock. He also added an illustrated catalogue of his products, which customers could send for, an early harbinger of the mail-order empires later built by giants such as Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward.
Apparently Pierpont's empire grew at a rapid pace. After only a few years, C. Pierpont & Co. had extended its trade to “every State in the Union and the Canadian provinces and into Mexico, South America, Europe, Australia and other remote countries,” according to an advertisement of the time.
C. Pierpont & Co. was represented at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, along with 28 other New Haven firms. But in 1879 a fire destroyed the top floor of the factory. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, the company was then manufacturing tricycles for girls and a variety of toys in addition to its other products. The fire damage toll was approximately $10,000.
Pierpont was well thought of in the community, as is evident in a published 1880s account: “Mr. Pierpont is a progressive, public-spirited citizen,” reported a citation in The Palladium, “who takes a lively interest in the growth and development of New Haven's important interests.”
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