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Industries Build on Innovation
The 19th century brings a surge of commercial activity to turn New Haven into a major center of invention
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Business New Haven
9/29/2003
By: Priscilla Searles
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In 1784, New Haven became the first Connecticut city to be incorporated following the conclusion of the Revolution, and the fifth city to be incorporated in the United States (after New York, Philadelphia, Albany, N.Y. and Richmond, Va.).
When the Connecticut General Assembly granted New Haven a city charter, lawmakers pared it down to its present shape by also granting charters to East Haven, North Haven, Hamden and Woodbridge, later to be incorporated as individual municipalities.
For more than two centuries New Haven Harbor was the center of commerce for south-central Connecticut. But the harbor was (and is) shallow, making it difficult for large ships to navigate. For decades ships were forced to off-load cargo onto a platform structure some distance from shore. Small boats were used to deliver people and goods to shore. Although the first settlers built a wharf extending out into New Haven Harbor, it wasn’t until 1736 that the "Long Wharf" was extended to approximately 400 feet.
The heyday of New Haven shipping was between 1789 and 1807. As many as 100 foreign-bound ships left New Haven each year. Long Wharf itself was lined with commercial establishments serving the shipping trade. Weekly packets carrying passengers and merchandise connected New Haven with New York and New London. Grain, meat, vegetables, cattle, horses and lumber were shipped to British colonies and the French West Indies. The ships returned with sugar and molasses, which was made into rum.
The glory days ended with the Embargo Act of 1807. Import duties dropped from $158,000 to $56,000 just two years later. Farmers markets disappeared and sailors and others in the maritime trade were idled.
In spite of the economic struggle, in 1810 Long Wharf was extended an additional 1,350 feet. At its it maximum length it reached three-quarters of a mile from shore, making it the longest wharf in the United States.
In the years leading up to the War of 1812, New Haven hosted a South Seas fleet. Numbering 20 full-rigged ships in the fleet, sealing ships sailed to for Canton in China to seek their fortune. Among the most successful of these was the Sealer Neptune, owned by Ebenezer Townsend, with Daniel Greene serving as the ship’s master. The New Haven ship left home in 1796, returning three years later. Greene had sailed to the Galapagos Islands, where the crew killed thousands of seals. The skins were then taken to the coast of Patagonia in South America to be dried. When Greene reached Canton, 80,000 skins were sold for $3.50 each. It took three months to unload the ship and reload with 3,000 chests of tea, silks and 547 boxes of china.
Abraham Bishop, the collector of the port, summed up the economic impact of the voyage best when he wrote a letter to the editor of the New Haven Journal, stating: "The ship Neptune, lately arrived from Canton, pays to the revenue of the United States about $76,000 in duties. This sum is at least $20,000 more than the civil list tax of the whole State of Connecticut for any one year within the last ten years."
Townsend alone cleared $100,000 from the enterprise, and all crew members shared in the profits. New Haven sealers took so many furs that there was a section of beach in the South Pacific used to dry skins called the New Haven Green.
Greene’s success notwithstanding, no other ships were able to hunt as many seals and because of overhunting, sealing soon came to an end.
Transportation inland was a major obstacle. A proposal to build a canal from New Haven Harbor to inland communities to the north and west represented a partial solution.
The Farmington Canal was in operation for only 19 years, but the waterway had an enormous impact — for good and ill — on businesses and investors in southern New England.
Named after the river that would supply its watery roadbed, the canal’s birth came about in part because people were seeking improved transportation systems to link the country with roads and waterways. Another motivating factor in the building of the canal was the longstanding envy of Hartford among New Haveners. Supporters of the new project hoped to divert business from that city and the Connecticut River that fed its growth.
The original proposal was to build an independent canal route from New Haven Harbor to central Massachusetts, to be extended perhaps to Vermont and as far as Canada beyond. In 1822, Connecticut granted a charter to the Farmington Canal Co. One year later Massachusetts granted a charter to the Hampshire & Hampden Canal Co. for an extension of the canal to Northampton, Mass.
The following years were spent promoting the project, selling stock in both companies and dealing with disputes that arose even before construction commenced. James Hillhouse was elected president and superintendent of the project. On July 4, 1825 Gov. Oliver Wolcott participated in the ground-breaking ceremony.
Construction of the canal was estimated to cost $420,698.88, excluding land damages, but there was never enough money and contractors periodically stopped working on the canal while they waited for payments. Lawsuits piled up. While the canal was in operation, thousands of dollars in land damages were paid to compensate farmers for water damage to crops in the spring when the canal leaked or to pay for oxen that ended up in the canal when bridges gave out.
Expenses continued to escalate and investors lost more and more money. Mechanics Bank was founded to help finance the canal by New Haven investors, who contributed $200,000. The city of New Haven lent the canal company $100,000 and James Hillhouse attempted, unsuccessfully, to secure a federal grant of $155,000.
In 1831 City Bank of New Haven was formed to help raise funds to resume construction of the last stretch of the waterway. When the 86-mile canal was completed it measured 36 feet across on the water’s surface. Although the canal opened for business in many towns in 1828, it wasn’t completed to Northampton until 1835.
Many of those hired for construction lost a great deal of money on the venture. For example, William Larson, who built the canal basin wharf, lost some $2,600 on the endeavor. For others the canal had a positive impact. New stores, mills and hotels sprang up along the canal route. Products such as lumber that were transported along the waterway dropped in price. It wasn’t the investors that were the canal’s beneficiaries, but the businesses that used the canal. By the 1840s pressure was on to convert the canal to a railroad right-of-way. After the close of the 1847 season the canal closed for good.
In 1785 Abel Buell and others established a mint on Water Street in New Haven. Buell, a brilliant eccentric, had perfected a machine that, within two years, minted 29,000 pounds of copper
coins. In 1787 he and a partner built a new mint on East Water Street to produce coins for the federal government.
New Haven’s population continued to grow slowly throughout the 18th century. The first U.S. Census, conducted in 1790, counted 4,484 people living in New Haven, including 76 slaves, 2,234 "free white women," 2,053 "free white men" and 121 "all other free."
In 1794 the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce was formed to advance mercantile interests. It was the second such group to be founded in the United States.
That same year Eli Whitney, a Yale graduate, received a patent for his cotton gin at a time when the South’s annual cotton crop totaled less than 190,000 pounds. Before his invention it took a man an entire day to clean one pound of cotton by hand, making cotton a luxury item. Whitney’s invention resulted in an average productivity jump to 1,000 pounds daily per picker.
Cotton production skyrocketed nationwide and led to the expansion of slavery and ultimately, the Civil War. Whitney thought the cotton gin would make him a wealthy man but, because rival patents appeared throughout the South, he spent years in patent-infringement battles.
Determined to find a successful venture, Whitney then decided to make guns for the government — a radical notion given that he’d never made a gun, had no factory, equipment, materials, site or money. But in 1798, with a U.S. government contract in hand, Whitney opened the Whitneyville Armory at Mill Rock (the present-day Hamden), producing firearms using assembly-line techniques that permitted high-volume manufacture.
Whitney’s firearms were the first to be manufactured using interchangeable parts. Whitney’s operation was eventually bought by the Winchester Arms Co., which became one of New Haven’s largest employers.
The 19th century was a period of tremendous commercial growth for New Haven. New businesses sprang up like cropsy as creative New Haveners developed products and processes that would change not only New Haven, but also impact the entire nation.
In 1806 General David Humphreys of Seymour built the first large and successful woolen mill in the new nation.
In 1807 Ashbil Griswold opened shop in Meriden, becoming one of the first manufacturers of pewter ware. The company would eventually become the International Silver Co., which became its host city’s namesake.
In 1810 James Brewster opened the Brewster Carriage Co. at the corner of Elm and High streets in New Haven, producing fine vehicles of various styles, the type normally credited to English manufacturers. Brewster had given American carriages a style of their own and had helped New Haven enter the Industrial Age. The carriage business was an important part of New Haven’s economy from 1830 to 1861, but came to an abrupt halt when manufacturers were suddenly unable to collect their accounts receivable from the Confederate states as the Civil War unfolded.
In 1812 Joseph Barber began publication of the Columbia Register, which became the New Haven Evening Register in 1875.
The invention of steel fishhooks by Eb Jenkins of New Haven in 1813 contributed greatly to developing the American fishing industry. It remains in use to this day. That same year the first course in pediatric medicine in the United States was offered in New Haven.
Engineer and architect Ithiel Town devised something true Yankees love to boast about — the covered bridge, otherwise known as the truss bridge. Described as the bridge that could be built by the mile and cut off by the yard, the bridge was simple, practical and possible to construct even by those who lacked Town’s engineering acumen. Town, who constructed the first truss bridge in New Haven in 1823, received a royalty of $1 per foot for all truss bridges built in this country.
The Connecticut Steamboat Co. was formed in New Haven in 1822, carrying passengers and goods between New Haven and New York. In 1884 the company was renamed the New Haven Steamboat Co.
Connecticut’s first hospital — the fifth general hospital in the United States, now known as Yale-New Haven Hospital — opened in 1833. Early hospitals were generally charity institutions, intended for the poor. Physicians worked on a rotating basis without pay, making their money treating wealthier patients at home. In 1826 the New Haven County Medical Association discussed the possibility of creating a New Haven hospital, presenting a petition to the Connecticut General Assembly. The charter, approved by the Assembly on May 26, 1826, established the General Hospital Society of Connecticut for the purpose of "establishing and maintaining a general Hospital in the city of New Haven."
The principal motivation for opening a hospital in New Haven was not necessarily concern for the poor who couldn’t afford home care, but to provide clinical experience for students in the Medical Institution of Yale College, now the Yale School of Medicine.
Chartered in 1810 and opened in 1813, the medical school had no formal arrangement with the hospital, and clinical training was not part of the curriculum. However, most of the school’s professors were attending physicians at the hospital. Students gained practical experience by doing an apprenticeship with a "preceptor."
Raising money to open the first facility, originally known as the State Hospital, took several years. At that time New Haven was a small port town of less than 10,000 residents. It took quite a bit of pleading, but the state finally came through with $5,000. Yale medical school faculty members each pledged ten percent of their annual income, or a minimum of $100 a year for five years. In addition, the Connecticut Medical Society donated examination fees collected for medical graduates. An arrangement was made with the federal government for the hospital to receive the port fees paid by sailors in New Haven in return for free medical care in the hospital.
The first hospital, located on Grove Street, was constructed at a cost of approximately $13,000. In the early years there weren’t enough patients to fill the hospital’s 75 beds, so rooms were let out to lodgers. It would be nearly 20 years before demand increased to the point that all the space was needed for patients. Money to keep the hospital going continued to be a problem. Unable to provide free services, the hospital charged most patients $3 a week for board, medical attendance and medicines.
The invention of the process of vulcanizing rubber in 1839 by New Havener Charles Goodyear, though discovered by accident, was in fact the culmination of a long series of experiments in which Goodyear sought a means to prevent India rubber from melting and decomposing. He began perfecting the vulcanization process and patented it in 1844.
His invention breathed new life into the American rubber industry. Goodyear himself never reaped any financial rewards from his invention: 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 — more than Goodyear ever made for his inventions. But his invention had a major impact on New Haven when Leverett Candee, possibly Goodyear’s first patent licensee, formed the L. Candee Rubber Co. in 1843 to manufacture rubber overshoes. In 1892 the company, which by then employed 1,000 workers, was merged into the United States Rubber Co. At the time Candee was the third-largest rubber factory in the nation. In 1929 the plant was closed and the operation moved away from the area.
In 1833 a group of New Haven men obtained a charter from the state for a railroad from New Haven to Hartford. The rails for this line, Connecticut’s first, were imported from England. In 1839 the railroad began operation between New Haven & Meriden, reaching Hartford a year later.
The New York & New Haven Railroad was chartered in 1844, making its first run to New York on Christmas Day in 1845.
James Brewster and Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll founded New Haven Savings Bank in 1838. It is the only 19th-century New Haven bank still in existence. That same year another company was formed that is still in existence, C. Cowles & Co., founded in New Haven by Chandler Cowles. The company has evolved from a manufacturer of lanterns for horse-drawn carriages to a world-class, precision metal stamping company, producing components for U.S. and Japanese automakers.
Today, with five operating divisions, C. Cowles has diversified into plastic injection molding, commercial lighting, automotive accessories, and boiler controls.
In 1839 the United States Navy captured the Spanish schooner Amistad with 53 Mendi, including Cinqué. The Africans had been captured and place onm a slave ship headed for Cuba, eventually purchaased by two Spaniards. With Cinqué leaading the way, the African cpatured the Amistad, ending up off the tip of Long Island. The Africans were imprisoned in New Haven while awaiting trial for murder and mutiny. They underwent years of legal battles before beding released and sent back to Africa.
Clocks were also a major New Haven product. One of the largest manufacturers was Chauncey Jerome, who opened a clock factory in New Haven in 1845 after his Bristol factory was destroyed by fire. Credited with "the greatest and most far-researching contribution to the clock industry in Connecticut — that of the substitution of
brass works for wooden works," Jerome later served as mayor of New Haven.
The New Haven Gas Co. was organized in 1847 Two years later the New Haven Water Co. began operations at Lake Whitney on the New Haven/Hamden line.
Before 1848, if you wanted to keep food from spoiling, you had to hope that you still had ice cut from lakes during the winter. That year New Haven engineer Alexander Catlin Twining came up with an artificial ice-making machine, making ice available year-round.
By 1850 the estimated population of New Haven was 20,345.
An invention in 1854 by Smith & Wesson led Oliver F. Winchester, a New Haven shirt manufacturer, into a new line of business — an enterprise that would ultimately make his name a household word around the world. When Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson patented an improved loading mechanism for the repeating rifle, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Co. was formed. Winchester invested in the company, becoming principal shareholder.
When the company failed, Winchester bought out the other investors and reorganized the company under the name the New Haven Arms Co. In 1866, the Connecticut legislature granted him a charter too incorporate under the name of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. A political and philanthropic figure, he was lieutenant governor of Connecticut in 1866–67 and made substantial donations to Yale.
In 1852 Edward Malley rented a small building on Chapel Street in New Haven for $75 a year, establishing a retail store that would carry his name for 132 years.
Spreinkling sand from a salt-shaker-like container on a document was the popular way to dry ink until Joseph Parker produced blotting paper in 1856 at the West Rock Paper Mill in New Haven. (Small quantities of a similar paper, not as eeffective, were available from England.) Parker also manufactured the first tissue paper made in America. His company was the first U.S. producer of book papere made from cotton waste.
Eli Whitney Blake made a major contribution to America’s highway system in 1858 with the invention of the stone crusher. In 1835 Blake and his two brothers, Philos and John, had opened a hardware factory in Westville. Blake was the first to introduce mortised locks built into doors. In 1851 Blake was placed on a New Haven town commission charged with laying two miles of macadam pavement between on Whalley Avenue west to Westville. He observed the waste of labor in producing the crushed stone for the road. His answer was the stone crusher, which took the largest of the stones and crushed them to the required size, using two upright steel jaws, which closed with a force of 27,000 pounds per square inch. The development of the stone crusher led to an increase in American industrial productivity, an improved highway system and gave birth to what has been called "The Age of Concrete."
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