History of the American Clock Business for the Past Sixty Years, and Life of Chauncey Jerome Part 3

This Mr. Welton, who is now an old man, as stout and large as Gen. Ca.s.s, and looking something like him, was then a young man nineteen years old, and without exception the funniest and drollest fellow that I ever saw.

He kept us all laughing while we were going down to fight that awful battle, which, however, proved to be bloodless. This incident occurred at New London, and I have often thought of it in latter days. Mr. Welton Is said to be a great business man, and the company with which he is connected is doing a good business.

The next clock company which I shall speak of, is that of Seth Thomas & Co., of Plymouth Hollow, Connecticut. As I have mentioned before, the senior Thomas is not living. The business is carried on by a company, the members of which are all Republicans in politics and respectable men. Fifty years ago this spring, Heman Clark built the factory which Seth Thomas, two or three years afterwards, bought, and in which he carried on business until his death, about two years since. It was never Mr. Thomas' practice to get up any thing new. He never would change his patterns or mode of manufacturing, until he was driven to it to keep his customers. At the time when I invented the one-day bra.s.s clock in 1838, he said much against it, that it was not half so good as a wood clock, and that he never would take up any thing again that Jerome had adopted; but he was compelled to, in a year or two, to keep his customers. He sent his foreman over to Bristol, where I was then carrying on business, to get patterns of movements and cases and take all the advantage he could of my experience, labors, and improvements which I had been studying upon so long. I allowed my foreman to spend more than two days with his, giving him all the knowledge and insight he could of the business, knowing what his object was. A friend asked me why I was doing this, and said that if I should send my man to Thomas' factory he would be kicked out immediately. I told him I knew that perfectly well, but that if Mr. Thomas set out to get into the business, he certainly would find out, and that the course I was taking was wisest and more friendly.

I have thought since how quickly such kind treatment as I showed towards his man can be forgotten; yes; this company have all forgotten the service that I rendered them twenty years ago, and as I have said before, would probably have been making the old wood clock to this day, had it not been for other parties. There always has been a great deal of jealousy among the Yankee clock-makers, and they all seemed to hate the one who took the lead. The next establishment of which I shall speak, is that of William L. Gilbert, of Winsted, Connecticut. He is said to be miserly in feeling, and is quite rich; not very enterprising, but has made a great deal of money by availing himself of the improvements of others.

The next one in the business to whom I shall allude is E.N. Welch, of Bristol, Connecticut. He is about fifty years of age, and has been in many kinds of business. He was deeply interested in the failure of J.C.

Brown a few years ago, and succeeded him in the clock business. He is a leading man in the Baptist church, and has a great tact for making money; but he says that all he wants of money is to do good with it. He is a Democrat in politics, and never wants an office from his party.

These five companies which I have named, make nearly all of the clocks manufactured in Connecticut; though movements are made by three other companies. Beach and Hubbell of Bristol, are largely engaged in manufacturing the movements of bra.s.s marine clocks. Also two brothers by the name of Manross, in Bristol, are engaged in the same business. Noah Pomeroy of Bristol, is also engaged in making pendulum movements for other parties. I should, however, mention Ireneus Atkins, of Bristol, who is making a first-rate thirty-day bra.s.s clock, and I am told there is no better one for time in the country. The movement for this kind of clock was invented by Joseph Ives, who has spent most of his time for the last twenty-five years in improving on springs and escapements for clocks, and who has done a great deal for the advancement of this business. Mr. Atkins, who is making this thirty-day time-piece, is an excellent man to deal with. The five large companies which I have named, manufacture about a half a million clocks per annum; the New Haven company about two hundred thousand; and the others about three hundred thousand between them.

CHAPTER X.

BARNUM'S CONNECTION WITH THE JEROME CLOCK CO.--CAUSES AND RESULTS OF ITS FAILURE.

The connection of Barnum with the Jerome Manufacturing Company of New Haven, and the failure of the Company have been the subject of much speculation to the whole world, and has never been clearly understood.

Barnum claimed that he was cheated and swindled by this company, robbed of his property and name, and reduced to poverty. But before giving any statements, I call attention to the following article taken from the New York Daily _Tribune_, of March 24th, 1860:

THE GREAT SHOWMAN.--P.T. Barnum, "the great American showman," as he loves to hear himself called, who furnishes more amus.e.m.e.nt for a quarter of a dollar than any other man in America, is, we are happy to announce, himself again. He has disposed of the last of those villainous clock notes, re-established his credit up on a cash basis, and once more comes forward to cater for the public amus.e.m.e.nt at the American museum. To day, between the acts of the play, Mr. Barnum will appear upon his own stage, in his own costly character of the Yankee Clockmaker, for which he qualified himself, with the most reckless disregard of expense, and will "give a brief history of his adventures as a clockmaker, showing how the clock ran down, and how it was wound up; shadowing forth in the same the future of the museum." Of course, Barnum's benefit will be a b.u.mper. Next week the Museum will be closed for renovation and repairs, and the week after it will reopen under the popular P.T.B., once more.

I will now give the true statement of facts and particulars of his connection with the Jerome Manufacturing Company--which, however, was not his first experience in clock-making. Some time before this, he was interested in a Company located in the town of Litchfield, Connecticut, and, I believe, owned about ten thousand dollars worth of stock. They made a very poor article which was called a marine clock, if I am rightly informed. That Company failed, and Barnum took the stock as security for endorsing and furnis.h.i.+ng them with cash. I do not suppose the whole of the effects were worth transporting to Bridgeport, although estimated by him at a large amount. About this time Theodore Terry's clock factory, at Ansonia, was destroyed by fire. A large portion of the stock was saved, though in a damaged condition, much of which was worth nothing--the tools and machinery being but little better than so much old iron. Terry knowing that Barnum was largely interested in real estate in East Bridgeport, and anxious to have it improved, thought he could make a good arrangement with him for building a factory there for the manufacture of clocks, and did so. Terry had a large quant.i.ty of old clocks in a store in New York--many of them old-fas.h.i.+oned and unsaleable, and thousands of these were not worth fifty cents apiece.

Terry and Barnum now proposed forming a joint-stock company, putting in their old rubbish as stock, and estimating it, most likely, at four times its value in cash. They built a factory in East Bridgeport, and made preparations for manufacturing. Terry knew ten times as much about the business as Barnum did, and knowing, also, that the old stock was comparatively worthless, held back while Barnum was urging him to push ahead with the manufacturing. Terry made a great bl.u.s.ter, saying that he was going to hire men and do a great business, while, unknown to Barnum, he was trying to sell the stock he held in the company. They finally cooked up a plan to sell their New York store and the Bridgeport factory and machinery, if they could, to the Jerome Manufacturing Company, taking stock in that company for pay, and--the Jerome Company stock being issued to the owners of the Terry & Barnum stock--thus merge the two companies into one. This transaction was made and closed without my knowledge, (I being at the time from the State,) though the "old man"

has had to bear all the blame. As I afterwards found out, Barnum told my son, the Secretary of the Company, that Terry & Barnum owed about twenty thousand dollars: this was the amount Terry had drawn for on the New York store. They made a written agreement with the Jerome Manufacturing Company, to this effect;--that our Company should a.s.sume the liabilities of their old Company, which were stated at twenty thousand dollars, and Barnum was to endorse to any extent for the Jerome Company. It afterwards proved that the entire debts of Terry & Barnum amounted to about seventy-two thousand dollars, which the Jerome Company were obliged to a.s.sume. The great difference in the real and supposed amount of their indebtedness and the unsaleable property turned in as stock were enough to ruin any company. It is a positive fact that the stock of the Jerome Company was not worth half as much, three months after Barnum came into the concern as it was before that time. Some of the stock-holders did not like to have Terry own stock, and Barnum to satisfy them, bought him out, paying him twelve thousand dollars in cash--he in the end, making a grand thing out his Ansonia remains. It is well known that the Jerome Manufacturing Company failed in the fall of 1855, to the wonder and astonishment of myself and of every body else.

The true causes of this great failure never have been made public. I myself did not know them at that time, but have found them out from time to time since, and I now propose to make them public, as it has been the general impression almost every where that Barnum and myself were a.s.sociated in defrauding the community. _I wish to have it understood that I never saw P.T. Barnum_, while he was connected with the Company of which I was a member, have never seen him but once since, and that was in February after the failure. About this time law suits were being brought against him, and as some supposed, by his friends. He was called upon, or offered himself as a witness, and I believe testified that he was worth nothing. The natural effect of this testimony was to depreciate the paper which his name was on. At the time when I saw him, he told me that the Museum was his just as much as it ever was, and that he received the profits, which had never been less than twenty-five thousand and were sometimes thirty thousand dollars per annum; and yet, he was publicly stating that he was worth nothing! He also, as I supposed, held securities of the Jerome Manufacturing Company, to a large amount, (as I suppose about one hundred thousand dollars,) for I know that such papers had been in his hands. There were many persons who were interested in the revival of the business, who were in some way flattered into the belief that Barnum would re-purchase the whole clock establishment and put them back into the business again. Several men were sent by some one to examine the property and estimate its value, and those persons who were anxious for a restoration of the business were in some way led to believe that Barnum intended to re-commence the business of clock-making. For myself, I do not suppose that Barnum ever seriously contemplated any such thing; but the belief that he did, made some men quiet who might otherwise have been active and troublesome.

The manner in which this matter has been represented would reflect dishonesty upon the Secretary, which would be untrue. No one who knows him will, or can accuse him of dishonesty. I love truth, honesty and religion; I do not mean, however, the religion that Barnum believes in: (I believe that the wicked are punished in another world.) I ask the reader to look at my situation in my old age. I think as much of a good name, as to purity of character and honesty at heart, as any man living; and very often reading in the New York papers of speeches that Barnum has made, alluding to his being defrauded by the Jerome Manufacturing Company, I wish the world to know the whole facts in the case, and what my position was in the Company which bore my name. After many years-- years of very active business life--I had retired from active duty in the Company, although I took a deep interest in every thing connected with it, and also a great pride, as it was a business that I had built up and had been many years in perfecting. The manufacturing had been systematized in the most perfect manner and every thing looked prosperous to me. I owned stock as others did, but did not know of its financial standing, and was always informed that it was all right, and that I should be perfectly safe in endorsing. I wish to have it understood that I did not sign my name to any of this paper, it being done by the Secretary himself, that therefore I could not know of the amounts that were raised in that way, that I did not find out till after the failure, and then the large amounts overwhelmed me with surprise.

It will be remembered that Barnum made two or three trips to Europe to provide in some way for the support of his "poor and dest.i.tute" family, which as he claimed, had been robbed and ruined by the Connecticut clock-makers. At one time he was stopped on a pier in New York, just as he was starting for Europe, by a suit brought against him. Thus the news went abroad that poor Barnum was hunted and troubled on every side with these clock notes. It was reported that he was quite sick in England and could not live, and, at another time, that being much depressed and discouraged on account of his many troubles, he had taken to drinking very hard, and in all probability would live but a short time; while at the same time, he was lecturing on temperance to the English people, and was in fact a total-abstinence man. These stories were extensively circulated; the value of his paper was depreciated in the market, and was, in several instances bought for a small sum.

Since writing the foregoing with regard to his coming into the Company, and, as he states, being ruined by it, I have ascertained to my own satisfaction, that our connection with him was the means of ruining the Company. A few days since I was talking with a man who has been more familiar than myself with the whole transaction, and he told me it was his opinion that if we had never seen Barnum we should still have been making clocks in that factory. It was a great mystery to me, and to every body else, how the Company could run down so rapidly during the last year. I think I have found out, and these are my reasons. Instead of having an amount of twenty thousand dollars to cancel of the Terry & Barnum debts and accounts (which the Secretary foolishly agreed to do.) it eventually proved to be about seventy thousand; (this I have found out since the failure.) This great loss the Secretary kept to himself, and it involved the Company so deeply that he became almost desperate; for knowing by this time that he had been greatly embarra.s.sed, he was determined to raise money in any way that he could, honestly, and get out of the difficulty if possible. He had, as he thought, got to keep this an entire secret, because if known it would ruin the credit of the Company. When these extra drafts and notes of Terry & Barnum were added to the debts of the Company, he was obliged to resort to various expedients to raise money to pay them. This led him to the exchange of notes on a large scale, which proved to be a great loss, as many of the parties were irresponsible. There was a loss of thirty thousand dollars by one man, and I am sure that there must have been more than fifty thousand dollars lost in this way. He was also obliged to issue short drafts and notes and raise money on them at fearful rates. The Terry & Barnum stock which was taken in at par, was not worth twenty-five per cent, which had a tendency to reduce the value of the stock of our Company, though I have recently heard that the Secretary bought stock at par for the Jerome Company of some former owners in the Terry & Barnum Company, in Bridgeport, only a short time before the failure. To show the confidence the Secretary had in the standing of the Company, he recommended one of his own brothers, not more than one month before the Company failed, to buy five thousand dollars worth of the stock, which he did. It was owned by a Bridgeport man and he paid par value for it in good gold and silver watches at cash prices. All of these transactions were made without my knowledge, and I have found them out by piece-meal ever since. I do fully believe that if the Secretary had been worth half a million of dollars, he would have sacrificed every dollar, rather than have had the Company failed under his management as it did.

It has been publicly stated that Mr. Barnum endorsed largely on blank notes and drafts and that he was thus rendered responsible to a far greater extent than he was aware of; such, however, was not the case.

The troubles that have grown out of the failure of this great business, have left me poor and broken down in spirit, const.i.tution and health. I was never designed by Providence to eat the bread of dependence, for it is like poison to me, and will surely kill me in a short time. I have now lost more than forty pounds of flesh, though my ambition has not yet died within me.

CHAPTER XI.

EFFECTS OF THE FAILURE ON MYSELF--REMOVAL TO WATERBURY AND ANSONIA-- UNFORTUNATE BUSINESS CONNECTIONS.

After saying so much as I have about my misfortunes in life, I must say a few words about what has happened and what I have been through with during the last four years.

When the Jerome Manufacturing Company failed, every dollar that I had saved out of a long life of toil and labor was not enough to support my family for one year. It was hard indeed for a man sixty-three years old, and my heart sickened at the prospect ahead. Perhaps there never was a man that wanted more than I did to be in business and be somebody by the side of my neighbors. There never was a man more grieved than I was when I had to give up those splendid factories with the great facilities they had over all others in the world for the manufacture of clocks both good and cheap, all of which had been effected through my untiring efforts.

No one but myself can know what my feelings were when I was compelled, through no fault of my own, to leave that splendid cl.u.s.tre [sic] of buildings with all its machinery, and its thousands of good customers all over this country and Europe, and in fact the whole world, which in itself was a fortune. And then to leave that beautiful mansion at the head of the New Haven bay, which I had almost wors.h.i.+pped. I say to leave all these things for others, with that spirit and pride that still remained within me, and at my time of life, was almost too much for flesh and blood to bear. What could have been the feelings of my family, and my large circle of friends and acquaintances, to see creditors and officers coming to our house every day with their pockets full of attachments and piles of them on the table every night. If any one can ever begin to know my feelings at this time, they must have pa.s.sed through the same experience. Yet mortified and abused as I was, I had to put up with it. Thank G.o.d, I have never been the means of such trouble for others. I had to move to Waterbury in my old age, and there commence again to try to get a living. I moved in the fall of 1856, and as bad luck would have it, rented a house not two rods from a large church with a very large steeple attached to it, which had been built but a short time before. In one of the most terrific hurricanes and snow storms that I ever knew in my life, at four o'clock in the morning of January 19th, 1857, this large steeple fell on the top of our house which was a three story brick building. It broke through the roof and smashed in all the upper tier of rooms, the bricks and mortar falling to the lower floor.

We were in the second story, and some of the bricks came into our room, breaking the gla.s.s and furniture, and the heaviest part of the whole lay directly on our house. It was the opinion of all who saw the ruins that we did not stand one chance in ten thousand of not being killed in a moment. I heard many a man say he would not take the chances that we had for all the money in the State. One man in the other part of the house was so frightened that he was crazy for a long time. Timbers in this steeple, ten inches square, broke in two directly over my bed and their weight was tremendous. I now began to think that my troubles were coming in a different form; but it seems I was not to die in that way. The business took a different shape in the spring, and I moved (another task of moving!) to Ansonia. Here I lived two years, but very unfortunately happened to get in with the worst men that could be found on the line of Rail-road between Winsted and Bridgeport. In another part of this book I have spoken of them; I do not now wish to think of them, for it makes me sick to see their names on paper. I had worked hard ever since I left New Haven--one year at Waterbury, and two at this place (Ansonia,)--but got not one dollar for the whole time. I was robbed of all the money which Mr. Stevens, (my son-in-law,) had paid me for the use of my trade- mark in England, for the years 1857-'58. This advantage was taken of me, because I could collect nothing in my own name.

I should consider my history incomplete, unless I went back for many years to speak of the treatment which I received from a certain man. I shall not mention his name, and my object in relating these circ.u.mstances, is to ill.u.s.trate a principle there is in man, and to caution the young men to be careful when they get to be older and are carrying on business, not to do too much for one individual. If you do, in nine cases out of ten, he will hate and injure you in the end. This has been my experience. Many years ago, I hired two men from a neighboring town to work for me. It was about the time that I invented the Bronze Looking-Gla.s.s Clock, which was, at that time, decidedly the best kind made. After a while these two men contrived a plan to get up a company, go into another town, and manufacture the same kind of clock.

This company was formed about six months before I found it out, and much of their time was spent in making small tools and clock-parts to take with them. This was done when they were at work for me on wages. They induced as many of my men as they could to go with them, and took some of them into company. When they had finished some clocks, they went round to my customers and under-sold me to get the trade. This is the first chapter. When I invented the thirty-hour bra.s.s clock in 1838, one of these men had returned to Bristol again, and was out of business; but he had some money which he had made out of my former improvements. I had lost a great deal of money in the great panic of 1837. After I had started a little in making this new clock, he proposed to put in some money and become interested with me, and as I was in want of funds to carry on the business, I told him that if he would put in three thousand dollars, he should have a share of the profits. I went on with him one year, but got sick of it and bought him out. I had to pay six thousand dollars to get rid of him. He took this money, went to a neighboring town, bought an old wood clock factory, fitted it up for making the same clock that I had just got well introduced, and induced several of my workmen to go with him, some of whom he took in company with him. As soon as I had the clock business well a going in England, he sent over two men to sell the same patterns. He has kept this up ever since, and has made a great deal of money.

After the failure of the Jerome Manufacturing Company, as I have already stated, I went to Waterbury to a.s.sist the Benedict & Burnham Company.

After I had been there six or eight months, and had got the case-making well started, (my brother, n.o.ble Jerome, had got the movements in the works the year before.) this same man I have been speaking about, came to me and made me a first-rate offer to go with him into a town a short distance from Waterbury, and make clocks there. I accepted his offer, but should not have done so, had it not been for the depressed condition to which I had been brought by previous events. I accordingly moved to the town where he had hired a factory. He was carrying on the business at the same time in his old factory, and came to this new place about twice a week. My work was in the third story, and it was very hard for an old man to go up and down a dozen times a day. About this time I obtained a patent on a new clock case, and as I was to be interested in the business, I let the Company make several thousand of them. We could make forty cents more on each clock than we could on an O-G. clock. As I was favorably known throughout the world as a clockmaker, this Company wanted to use my label as the clocks would sell better in some parts of the country than with his label. They were put upon many thousands. Soon after we commenced, I told him I would make out a writing of our bargain because life was uncertain. He said that was all right, and that he would attend to it soon. As he always seemed to be in a hurry when he came, I wrote one and sent it to him, so that he might look it over at his leisure and be ready to sign it when he came down again. The next time I saw him, I asked him if the writing was not as we agreed; he said he supposed it was, but that he had no time to look it over and sign it then, but would do so when he had time. I paid into the business about one thousand nine hundred dollars in small sums, as it was wanted from time to time, and worked at this man for eight months to get a writing from him, but he always had an excuse. He had agreed to give the case-maker a share of the profits if he would make the cases at a certain price, but put him off in the same way. We both became satisfied that he did not mean to do as he had agreed, and I therefore left him.

The money which I had paid in was what I had received for the use of my name in England. I had the privilege of paying it in as it was wanted, working eight months, keeping the accounts which I did evenings, and giving this man a home at my house whenever he was in town. All of this which I had done, he refused to give me one dollar for, and it was with great difficulty that I got my money back. I had to put it into another man's hands, as his property, to recover it. This man, probably, had two objects in view when he went to Waterbury to flatter me away. He did not want me to be there with my name on the movements and cases, and therefore he made me a first-rate offer. I had been broken up in all my business, and felt very anxious to be doing something again. I was a little afraid when he made the offer, but knew that he had made a great deal of money out of my improvements and was very wealthy, and I did think he would be true to me, knowing as he did my circ.u.mstances. Look at this miser, with not a child in the world, and no one on earth that he cares one straw about, and yet so grasping! Oh! what will the poor creature do in eternity!

CHAPTER XII.

MORE MISPLACED CONFIDENCE--ANOTHER UNFORTUNATE PARTNERs.h.i.+P.

Before closing the history of the many trials and troubles which I have experienced during my life, I will here say that I have never found, in all my dealings with men for more than forty years, such an untruthful and dishonest a man as ---- of a certain town in Connecticut. In 1858, he induced me to come into his factory to carry on a little business. My situation was such, in consequence of the failure of the Jerome Manufacturing Company, that I could do nothing in my own name, as he knew. I had a little money that had been paid me for the use of my trademark in England, and I felt very anxious, as old as I was, to make a little money so that I could pay some small debts which my family had made a short time before the company failed. I had also two children who looked to me for some help. This man said to me, "you may have the use of my factory for 'so much,' and you may carry on the business for one year in my name for so 'much.'" This was agreed to by both parties. In a few days he came to me and said that he had been talking with his nephew about having the business carried on in his name "& Co.;" ---- being the "Company" and he was to keep his nephew harmless, as he had nothing for the use of his name. The nephew came into the factory a short time after, and I asked him if he had agreed to what ---- had stated to me; he said that he had, and that I could go on with the business in the name of himself & Co.; he was quite sure that his uncle would keep him harmless. I went on with the business in this name from May to December, both of those men knowing all the while just as much about the business as I did, and they never said but that it was all right as we had agreed. I paid in my money from time to time as it was wanted. Late in the fall, I paid in at one time, one thousand nine hundred dollars, through a firm who owed me that amount, and who gave their notes to ---- on short time, which notes were paid. A short time after this, knowing that I had no more money to put into the business, he undoubtedly thought it time to do what he had intended to do at a suitable time from the beginning. One day when I was unwell and confined to the house, a man who had a claim against the company, called on ---- to make a settlement. Before this time he had made two payments on this same account, but he now told this man that there never had been such a company, and that he would never pay it--while at the same time, he had the same property which the man offered to take back but which he had refused to give up, and said that I had no right to use the name of ---- & Co. This was after he had been using the name for me in drafts and notes, and all other business transactions, for more than eight months. He said that he would have me arrested for fraud and put in the State Prison. This treatment was rather hard towards a man who had never before been accused of dishonesty, and who had done business on a large scale with thousands of men for more than forty years. He at one time requested me to borrow a note for him from one of my friends, which I did, and which he paid promptly when due. He did this, as I now suppose, because the business was not in as good shape for him as it might be in another three months; so he wished me to get the favor renewed, which I did. When it became due, he denied that it was a borrowed note, declared that I was owing him, and had handed this note to him as one that was good and would be paid. One of his best friends has since told me that there was more honor among horse-thieves than this man had shown towards me. I put into the business between four and five thousand dollars, worked hard almost a year, and have received about five hundred dollars. ---- is trying to scare me by threatening to sue me for perjury; so that if he could make me fool enough to pay the debts of ---- & Co., he would have just so much more to put into his own pocket. When he can get a grand jury to find a true bill against me for fraud or perjury, I will promise to go to Wethersfield and stay there the remainder of my life, without any further trial. After all that I have said, I think of him just as all his neighbors do; for they have told me that it was the common talk among them, when I first went into his factory, that he would in some way cheat me out of every dollar that I put into his hands. It would take just about as much evidence to prove that young crows would be black when their feathers are grown, as it would to satisfy the community that these statements are true, especially where he is known. For knavery, untruthfulness, and wickedness, I have never seen anything, in all my business experience of forty years, that will compare with this. He would not have taken such a course with me once, but he took advantage of my age and misfortunes to commit these frauds, thinking that I could not defend myself, and that he could defraud and crush me.

I had paid every dollar of my money into this business which I had at that time, and had nothing to live on through the winter. But John Woodruff in his kindness, raised money enough for me to live on through the winter, and the following spring I moved to New Haven.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WOOSTER PLACE CHURCH.--GROWTH OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS IN NEW HAVEN.

In order to have my history complete I must give my reason for building the Wooster Place Church, as my motives have been misconstrued by many persons, I will make a short statement of what I know to be true. It is well known that with the exception of one, all the Congregational churches in New Haven, were located west of the centre of the city. The majority of the inhabitants lived in the eastern section. Meeting after meeting was called by the different churches to consider the importance of building a church in the eastern part. It was strongly advocated by the ministers and many others, that this part of the city was rapidly filling up, a great deal of manufacturing was carried on there, and the strangers who were constantly coming in would fall into other denominations. I heard their speeches advocating this course with great pleasure, as I lived in the eastern part of the city, had a long distance to go to attend church, and nearly all the workmen in my employ lived in the same section. The church which I have mentioned as the only one located east of the centre, was in a very prosperous condition. By the talent, popularity and piety of its minister, as his church and congregation believed, he had filled the church to overflowing. There were no slips to be bought in that church. We heard this minister say that he could spare thirty families from his congregation to build up a new church. In view of all the facts, I started a subscription paper, in as good faith as I ever did anything in my life, for the raising of funds to build an edifice. The subscription was headed by myself with five thousand dollars and many large sums were added to it. A number of wealthy men lived near the contemplated place of building the new church, who belonged to other churches. It was supposed, by what their ministers had said in public and in private, that they would use their influence in advancing this good work, and to have some of their members join in it; but for some reason they changed their minds. I heard that the minister of the church located in the eastern section (which I mentioned before,) had got up a subscription paper to raise ten or twelve thousand dollars to beautify the front of his church, raise a higher steeple, and make some other alterations that he thought important. I was told that he called on the men who lived in the locality where we proposed erecting the new church, with his subscription, and that they subscribed to carry out his plans. Some of those who had subscribed to build the new church, after he had made these calls, wrote me that they wished their names crossed off from my paper--Others came and told me the same thing, and wished their names erased. I began at this time to understand that there were influences working against our enterprise and that this way of building a church must be given up. I however, went forward myself, as is very well known, and built a church second to none in New England. I should have built one that would not have cost one half of the money, had I acted on my own judgement, but I was influenced by a few others differently. I paid more than twenty thousand dollars out of my own pocket into this church.

Public opinion in the community was, that if the several ministers had given their influence in favor of this matter, a church would have been built by subscription. They could very easily have influenced their friends in that part of the city to unite in this enterprise without detriment to their own congregation. Had this course been taken, it is evident that by this time it would have been a large and prosperous church.

A correspondent of the Independent in writing upon the growth of Congregationalism, in New Haven, had a great deal to say about the Wooster Place church--calling the man that built it, "a sagacious mechanic, who built it on speculation etc." Yet; added "if they had called a young man for its Pastor from New England, it might have succeeded after all."

It is well known that the Congregational denomination has made but very small advancement compared with others for the last twenty years. It is supposed that the inhabitants of New Haven have doubled in number during that time; but only one small Mission church has been added to the Congregational churches. Four Episcopal churches have been built, and filled with wors.h.i.+pers, many of whom formerly belonged to Congregational families. The Methodists have built two large churches, and more than trebled in number. The Baptists have more than doubled, and now own and occupy the Wooster Place church. And to have kept pace with the others, the Congregational denomination should now have as many as three more large churches.

CHAPTER XIV.

NEW HAVEN AS A BUSINESS PLACE--GROWTH--EXTENSIVE MANUFACTORIES, ETC.

For many years I have extensively advertised throughout every part of the civilized world, and in the most conspicuous places, such a city as New Haven Connecticut, U.S.A., and its name is hourly brought to notice wherever American clocks are used, and I know of no more conspicuous or prominent place than the dial of a clock for this purpose. More of these clocks have been manufactured in this city for the past sixteen years than any other one place in this country, and the company now manufacturing, turn out seven hundred daily.

I now propose to give a brief description of New Haven and its inhabitants in the words of a business man who loves the town. New Haven, is to-day a city of more than forty thousand inhabitants, remarkable as the New Englanders generally are for their ingenuity, industry, shrewd practical good sense, and their large aggregate wealth; and with forty thousand such people it is not strange that New Haven is now growing like a city in the west. It was settled in 1638, and incorporated as a city in 1784. Its population in 1830, was less than eleven thousand, and in 1840, but little more than fourteen thousand, its increase from 1840 to 1850, was about eight thousand, and from 1850 to 1860, the population has nearly doubled. The a.s.sessed value of property in 1830, amounted to about two and a half millions. The amount at the present time is estimated at over twenty seven millions. New Haven is situated at the head of a fine bay, four miles from Long Island Sound, and seventy-six miles from New York, on the direct line of Rail-road, and great thoroughfare between that city and Boston, and can be reached in three hours by Rail-road and about five by water from New York. New Haven has long been known as the city of Elms, and it far surpa.s.ses any other city in America in the number and beauty of these n.o.ble elm trees which shade and adorn its streets and public squares. It is a place of large manufacturing interests, the persevering genius and enterprise of its people having made New Haven in a variety of ways, prominent in industrial pursuits. Mr. Whitney, the inventor of the Cotton Gin, Mr. Goodyear of india rubber notoriety, and many other great and good men who by their ingenuity and perseverance have added millions to the wealth of mankind, were citizens of New Haven. Nearly every kind of manufactured article known in the market, can here be found and bought direct from the manufactory--such as carriages and all kind of carriage goods, firearms, s.h.i.+rts, locks, furniture, clothing, shoes, hardware, iron castings, daguerrotype-cases, machinery, plated goods, &c., &c.