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The New Haven Enterprise Hall of Fame
Business & Civic Award winners for the ages
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Business New Haven
2/2/2004
By: Priscilla Searles
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Businessman:
Nathaniel Jocelyn
Born in New Haven in 1796, the son of a watchmaker, Nathaniel Jocelyn was fully expected to enter into the family business.
Introduced to engraving by his father, Jocelyn became an apprentice at age 17. Eli Whitney had gone into the manufacture of clocks with Jocelyn's father, Simeon. Discerning that the junior Jocelyn showed an unusually keen talent for engraving, Whitney introduced him to his business associates.
By age 21 Jocelyn had become a partner in the Hartford Graphic & Bank Note Engraving Co. Seeking to do business in New Haven, in 1818 he opened a firm with his brother under the name N. & S.S. Jocelyn. They soon branched out into the production of maps and atlases.
In time Jocelyn helped to found the National Bank Note Engraving Co. In 1858 he brought together seven firms which formed the American Bank Note Company. Later he would develop a green ink that could not be adulterated, selling this patent to the U. S. Government.
An ardent abolitionist, Jocelyn was committed to the anti-slavery cause in New Haven. He made himself conspicuous at a town meeting in 1831 when he supported the establishment of a high school for "Negroes" in New Haven.
A self-taught artist, Jocelyn had begun to paint portraits and by age 30 his work had been hung at the inaugural exhibition of the National Academy. He was commissioned by Robert Purvias, first president of the Underground Railroad, to paint a portrait of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrision and Cinqué, leader of the Amistad captives.
The Cinqué portrait, on view at the New Haven Colony Historical Society, was commissioned while the Amistad prisoners were being held in detention in the New Haven Jail. Engravings of the portrait were sold to raise money to liberate the captives.
Citizen:
Roger Sherman Baldwin
Lawyer, politician, abolitionist, reformer - Roger Sherman Baldwin's background is impressive. His skills as a barrister impacted New Haven, the state and the nation.
Born in New Haven in 1793, Roger Sherman Baldwin was the son of Simeon Baldwin, a New Haven lawyer and congressman. His mother, Rebecca, was the daughter of Roger Sherman.
Baldwin attended Hopkins School in New Haven. At age 14 he entered Yale College, graduating with honors in 1811. Following his graduation he studied law in the office of Seth B. Staples, Esq. After a year Baldwin entered the Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield. He was admitted to the New Haven Bar in 1814.
Opening a law practice in New Haven, he attained almost instant success. By 1826 he was elected to the New Haven Common Council and the following year earned a seat on the New Haven Board of Alderman. In 1837 he was elected to the state senate.
Probably best known for his opposition to slavery, in 1838 he helped to pass a law that required those who captured free blacks and then claimed that they were their runaway slaves, to prove this in court. In 1844 he also attempted to permanently abolish slavery in Connecticut and also tried to get a law passed that would permit blacks to vote.
In 1839 Baldwin defended the Amistad captives. He stayed with the involved case through the district and circuit courts of Connecticut, finally facing the Supreme Court of the United States. For his last battle, ex-President John Quincy Adams joined him. The case won, the captives were returned to their African home.
In 1844 Baldwin was elected governor of Connecticut (as a Whig) and again in 1845. In 1847 he was appointed U.S. Senator to fill the unexpired term made vacant by the death of Jabez W. Huntington of Norwich. Defeated in 1851, Baldwin returned to his law practice in New Haven, becoming one of the highest paid lawyers in the state.
Baldwin is credited with bringing about educational reform in Connecticut during his term as governor. He also helped to implement laws to reduce restrictions concerning how much land foreign-born citizens could own. To eliminate double voting in elections, Baldwin helped to reinstate a law that required voters to register with local officials.
In 1861 Baldwin served as a delegate to the National Peace Conference in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the conference was to attempt to divert the country from its headlong plunge toward civil war. The attempt failed and Baldwin again returned to New Haven. The conference was his last act of public service.
Baldwin died in 1863 and is buried in New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery.
Minority Businessperson:
Max Adler
Max Adler was born in Berkunstadt, Bavaria, Germany in 1840. His father owned a weaving establishment and manufactured bed-ticking. Faced with financial troubles, Adler came to America in 1841, settling in New York City. In 1843 the family moved to New Haven.
Max Adler attended the Washington Street School, studying English in the morning and German and Hebrew in the afternoon. He later attended the Lancasterian School and finished his education at the Webster School on George Street.
Adler acquired a taste for business at an early age. By age ten he was running errands for a local tailor. At 13 he became a cash boy at a fancy-goods store on Chapel Street, ultimately becoming manager.
In 1862 Isaac Strouse hired Adler to manage his dry-goods store on Chapel Street. It marked the beginning of a very successful business association. Following the Civil War, New Haven became the largest center of corset-manufacturing in the world. When Strouse bought out the McAlister & Smith Co., Adler became his partner and began to develop a home industry for corset production by selling newly minted Singer sewing machines door to door.
Operating under several different names, the company eventually became the Strouse Adler Corset Co. Under Adler's leadership the company rose to the pinnacle of its industry. In charge of the manufacturing department, Adler became an acknowledged expert in the manufacture of corsets. He served as secretary of the Corset Makers' Association of the United States and often appeared before congressional committees in Washington to advocate changes he felt would benefit the corset trade in the U.S.
Adler, who died in 1916, was also active in New Haven politics. He served on the New Haven Civic Improvements Committee and the Board of Associated Charities. He served on the board of directors of several corporations and banks and was active with the New Haven Chamber of Commerce.
The company Alder had helped to found continued to thrive for decades but as women gained more freedom - figuratively and literally - corsets eventually were consigned to the dustbin of history. By 1998 the Strouse Adler plant on Olive Street had closed its doors for good. Today it houses luxury apartments.
Innovator: Ithiel Town
It took a stiff dose of Yankee ingenuity and the creative powers of New Haven engineer and architect Ithiel Town to design the ultimate covered bridge, the truss bridge. Sometimes referred to as the "Town-bridge," it is considered one of the earliest examples of standardized construction in America.
Born in Thompson in 1784, Town began his career as a house carpenter, later becoming a contracting engineer and builder. He apprenticed under the architect Asher Benjamin in Boston, coming to New Haven in 1810. In 1812 Town, who achieved almost instant success as an architect, was hired to design Center Church on the Green. He also designed the third church on the Green, Trinity Episcopal Church, one of the first Gothic Revival structures in America.
Town developed what would become a universal design for the wooden covered bridge in 1821. Previous wood truss designs required engineering abilities that most carpenters lacked as well as specially hewn timbers. Town's design was simple, practical and possible to construct even by those who lacked his engineering ability.
Characterized as "the bridge that could be built by the mile and cut off by the yard," the Town design used ordinary wooden planks arranged in an uninterrupted series of diagonal latticework that formed a diamond pattern and was pegged as the crossings. The bridges were covered to protect the underpinnings from rot. Bridges no longer required special beams, and lumber to construct them could be purchased at common mills. Rivers could now be bridged without great difficulty, tying the nation's roads together.
Town's first truss bridge was constructed in New Haven in 1823 for the Hartford & New Haven Turnpike, spanning the millpond at Eli Whitney's gun factory. Reconstructed in 1980 on what is believed to be the original piers, the bridge had a 100-foot clear span.
Town collected royalties from builders using his design at the rate of $1 per foot. With "Town Lattice Truss" bridges popping up all over the country, Town soon became a wealthy man.
In 1829 Town became associated with Alexander J. Davis as the two opened an office in New York City, becoming one of the earliest American architectural partnerships. Their association lasted until 1835. The firm produced important works such as the state capitol of New Haven, City Hall in Hartford and the capitols of Indiana and North Carolina. Town is also credited with the design of the Yale College Library and the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford.
In 1825 Town received an honorary of master of arts degree from Yale College and the following year became one of the founders and original members of the National Academy of Design in New York. He died in New Haven in 1844 and was interred in New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery.
Founders Award:
New Haven Clock Co.
In its heyday, the New Haven Clock Co. was the largest manufacturer of timepieces in Connecticut, and one of the biggest in the world. Founded by Hiram Camp in 1853, the company by the 1920s employed nearly 2,000 New Haveners and turned out more than two million clocks and watches each year.
Camp got his start in the clock business from his uncle, Chauncey Jerome, who had founded a clock company in 1817. Going to work for his uncle in 1829 at age 18, Camp learned the clockmaking trade from bottom to top. He founded the New Haven Clock Co. for the purpose of supplying clock movements to his uncle's firm, at the time the largest clockmaking operation in the world. When three years later the Jerome firm went bankrupt, the New Haven Clock Co. raised $20,000 to purchase the Jerome operation. Camp was named its president.
Chauncey Jerome's inventions and patents helped the New Haven Clock Co. achieve its initial success. By 1860 the firm employed 300 men and 15 women and was producing 170,000 clocks a year. By 1880 its workforce had swelled to 460 men, 52 women and 88 children. That year nearly $500,000 worth of clocks were produced.
Non-jeweled pocket watches were soon added to the line and continued to be offered until the 1950s. The company went on to carve a well-deserved reputation for innovation, pioneering the famous dollar watch in 1885. Recognizing the trend away from pocket watches to wristwatches, the company produced the first jeweled wristwatches.
Despite its notable successes, by 1890 the company was in serious financial trouble, due in large part to large dividends that had drained its resources. Camp resigned as president in 1891. His successor, Samuel A. Galpin, struggled to keep the company afloat. Nearly bankrupt in 1894, the company raised enough money to continue until 1897, when the firm was reorganized.
In 1902 Walter C. Camp, better known as "father of American football" for his pioneering work on the Yale gridiron, took over leadership of the company. He modernized the watch-manufacturing department, resulting in cheaper production costs. Camp added wristwatches to the line in 1915.
In the 1920s the company began to supply dashboard clocks to automobile manufacturers such as Chrysler. It also developed to the first electric clock for automobiles.
During World War II, the company ceased manufacturing commercial timepieces and began producing timing devices for proximity fuses for antiaircraft shells, aerial bombs and naval mines. After the war the company attempted to switch back to manufacturing traditional timepieces. But electric clocks had become popular and the New Haven Clock Co. was tooled to produce mechanical timepieces.
New ownership, a series of CEOs and mismanagement finally took their toll. In 1956 the company filed for bankruptcy, continuing operations for a time in the hands of receivers. In 1959, the company closed its doors for good. Equipment was sold at auction in 1960 and most of the Hamilton Street plant was razed to make way for I-95.
Corporate Citizen:
The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
Once the greatest of the greatest, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad evolved through the acquisition of many railroads, but it was the merger of the Hartford & New Haven and the New York & New Haven that formed the basis for future growth.
The Hartford & New Haven made its inaugural run on December 14, 1839. The 36-mile journey between the state's (then) twin capital cities took approximately two and a half hours, as the train traveled at an astounding 20 miles per hour.
The New York & New Haven Railroad, chartered in Connecticut in May 1844, made its first run to New York on Christmas Day, 1846. Passengers disembarked at the corner of Canal Street and Broadway. It would be 1913 before Grand Central terminal opened.
The line to New York began as a single track and by 1858 was double-tracked. Leasing the New Haven & Northampton gave the line an alternate route to Massachusetts and ensured its permanent access to Manhattan over rails, reaching to what is now Park Avenue South.
On August 3, 1870, the New York & New Haven entered into an agreement with the Hartford & New Haven to operate jointly. An inaugural trial proved successful, and on August 6, 1872, the two combined to form the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co. By 1893 the line had 1,493 miles of leased and owned track.
Expansion through leases escalated through the first decade of the 20th century. In 1927 the last merger took place as New Haven absorbed the Central New England Railroad.
A pioneer in electrification, the New Haven ran and operated the first electric train in the country in 1895, the 6.5-mile Nantasket Beach Branch. The company's four-track electrification project between New Haven and New York was completed in 1912.
The peak years for the New Haven were romantic times, with trains known by evocative names such as the Speed Witch and the White Train, also called the "Ghost Train" because of its white exterior trimmed in gold.
An increase in motor transportation and rising costs for railroads began to take their toll on the New Haven, as it did an all rail carriers after World War II. The New York, New Haven & Hartford filed for final bankruptcy on July 7, 1961. In 1969, federal regulators forced the Penn Central to absorb the New Haven, which had posted a $22 million deficit the previous year.
One year later the Penn Central crashed - the largest railroad failure in the history of the United States.
Small Businessperson: Hezekiah Augur
Hezekiah Augur was born in New Haven in 1891. The son of a carpenter, Augur grew up "carving and cutting," resisting pressure from his father to enter into a more suitable profession.
Augur was apprenticed to a grocer from ages nine to 14, the first of a number of jobs that prevented him from doing what he felt he was meant to do: to carve wood. Eventually Augur's talent was recognized by a cabinetmaker who encouraged him to go into the wood-carving business professionally.
A self-taught furniture carver, Augur found work from various cabinetmakers in the area and was able to employ skilled workman as well as apprentices. He soon added the manufacture of looking glasses to his oeuvre.
None other than Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph receiver, encouraged Augur to give up wood-carving in favor of carving marble, and he employed Augur to construct a marble-cutting machine. Augur produced a number of marble busts, including one of U.S. Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth, commissioned by Congress, which is on view at the Old Supreme Court Room in the nation's Capitol.
Augur turned his attention to inventing a wood-carving machine. The process was slow and eventually Augur was forced to sell his property to satisfy his many creditors. But with the help of his friends, a joint stock company was formed in 1849. Thus Augur is listed as one of the originators of the New England Carving Co. The operation was not successful, however, and in 1857 its stockholders authorized the directors to dispose of the company assets to pay off outstanding debts.
Augur died in 1859. He had lived in a time that saw the beginning of a national effort to mass-produce works of art, made feasible by surging American technology - and the lack of financial security for American artists. Augur left only enough of his work to testify to those yet unborn that he was a genius who probably was born too soon.
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