THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY
The most casual consideration of New England’s mechanical development
brings one squarely against a most interesting and baffling phase of
American industrial life, the brass industry of the Naugatuck Valley.
Here, in a narrow district scarcely thirty miles long, centering about
Waterbury, is produced approximately 80 per cent of the rolled brass
and copper and finished brass wares used in the United States, an
output amounting to upward of $80,000,000 a year. No concentration
on so large a scale exists elsewhere in the country. For example, in
1900, Pennsylvania produced but 54 per cent of the iron and steel, and
Massachusetts but 45 per cent of the boots and shoes. Furthermore,
there seems to be no serious tendency to dislodge it. While there is
more competition from outside, its ascendency is nearly as marked today
as it was a generation ago. Why should this small district, a thousand
miles or more from its sources of raw material, far from its market,
and without cheap coal or adequate water power, gain and hold this
leadership?[197]
[197] The best study of the brass industry of the Naugatuck Valley
has been made by William G. Lathrop, and has been published by him
at Shelton, Conn., 1909, under the name of “The Brass Industry.”
Mr. Lathrop had intimate knowledge of the subject and, in addition,
unusual facilities for investigation. The personal history of many of
the men who have figured in its growth will be found in Anderson’s
“History of the Town and City of Waterbury,” 3 vols. 1895.
It was not the first in the field. The Revere Copper Company, in
Massachusetts, founded by Paul Revere, began rolling copper in 1801,
and the Soho Copper Company, at Belleville, N. J., in 1813. The
brass business in Connecticut had its origin with Henry Grilley, of
Waterbury, who began making pewter buttons there in 1790. In 1802 Abel
and Levi Porter joined him, and they started making brass buttons under
the name of Abel Porter & Company. In 1811 all the original partners
retired and a new firm was formed, Leavenworth, Hayden & Scovill. In
1827 Leavenworth and Hayden sold out to William H. Scovill, and the
firm became J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill. J. M. L. Scovill did the selling
and his brother ran the shop and the finances. In 1850 the firm was
incorporated as the present Scovill Manufacturing Company.
Meantime, Aaron Benedict established, in 1812, a factory at Waterbury
for making bone and ivory buttons, and, in 1823, he too began making
brass buttons. About 1820 James Croft, a brass worker from Birmingham,
England, came to the Scovills. A year later Benedict secured him, and
when Benedict and Israel Coe formed the firm of Benedict & Coe, in
1829, Croft became one of the partners. Croft’s coming marks a vital
point in the history of the industry. On his advice, both Scovill
and Benedict began to do their own rolling. It was his influence
which induced them to import from Birmingham workmen, processes and
machinery. He went to England seven times for Benedict, and Israel
Holmes went three times for Scovill to bring back English machinery,
rollers and finishers. Israel Coe also went to England when the
Wolcottville Brass Company was started.[198] From that time, the
business may be said to have passed the experimental stage, and its
growth from 1830 was rapid. William Lathrop, who has made a study of
it, has traced, perhaps better than any other, the coincident growth of
the market and the industry. The raw material was at first mainly scrap
copper, old ship sheathing, kettles, boilers and stills, collected by
the Connecticut peddlers. More and more copper was imported until after
1850 when the mining of western copper began developing. All of the
zinc was imported until about 1870.
[198] Lathrop, p. 89.
[Illustration: FIGURE 48. HIRAM W. HAYDEN]
[Illustration: FIGURE 49. ISRAEL HOLMES]
At first they rolled brass only for their own use, but new demands for
it were arising. By 1840 Chauncey Jerome had developed the cheap brass
clock. The discovery and refining of petroleum created a lamp industry.
The pin machinery, invented by Dr. J. I. Howe, Fowler, and Slocum &
Jillson, opened up another great outlet. Daguerreotype plates gave
another, and metallic cartridges another, while the invention of the
telegraph enormously extended the use of copper wire. The Waterbury men
were best able to meet these new demands, as they were the only ones in
the country with the facilities and experience needed, and they “got
in first.” While the rolling and the drawing processes were imported
bodily from England, and have continued almost unchanged, Yankee
ingenuity was constantly at work devising new articles made of brass
and improving the machinery for making the old ones.
With the increasing demand, firms began to multiply. Israel Holmes, who
had been with the Scovills for ten years, started Holmes & Hotchkiss
in 1830, and with English workmen and machinery made wire and tubing
for the market. After several changes in partnership, the firm became
Brown & Elton in 1838. Meantime, Holmes, with Israel Coe, Anson Phelps
and John Hungerford, started the Wolcottville Brass Company in 1834,
in what is now Torrington. They built up a prosperous business in
sheet-brass kettles, but lost heavily when Hiram W. Hayden, then with
Scovill, invented the spinning process. Their property was eventually
sold to Lyman Coe, and became the Coe Brass Company. The Waterbury
Brass Company was started in 1845, with Holmes as president. Associated
with him were H. W. Hayden, Elton, and Lyman Coe, son of Israel Coe. In
1853 Holmes founded Holmes, Booth & Haydens,[199] and in 1869 Holmes,
Booth & Atwood, which two years later was forced to change its name to
Plume & Atwood on account of its resemblance to the older company.
[199] There were two Haydens in the firm, H. W. Hayden was in charge
of the manufacturing and H. H. Hayden in charge of marketing the
product.
Israel Holmes stands out among the indomitable personalities who built
up the brass industry. In addition to his invaluable work for the
Scovills, he started five of the strongest firms in the valley, and was
the first president of three.
Benedict & Coe became Benedict & Burnham in 1834, and from this firm
has come the American Pin Company, the Waterbury Button Company and the
Waterbury Clock and Watch companies. Anson Phelps soon withdrew from
the Wolcottville Brass Company and started Smith & Phelps at Derby in
1836. Encouraged by its success, Phelps planned to organize a large
manufacturing community there, but he was held up by a man who raised
the price of some necessary land from $5,000 to $30,000, so he moved
two miles up the river and founded what is now the city of Ansonia. In
1854 the firm was incorporated as the Ansonia Brass & Copper Company.
Mr. George P. Cowles, who came from Wolcottville in 1848, was its
executive head for forty years until his death. From it sprang the
Ansonia Clock Company, of Brooklyn, Wallace & Sons, which failed in
1896 and became part of the Coe Brass Company, and a number of other
companies. The Chase Rolling Mills Company developed from the Waterbury
Manufacturing Company, Benedict & Burnham, and Holmes, Booth & Haydens.
Randolph & Clowes came down through Brown & Brothers, and Brown & Elton
from the old Holmes & Hotchkiss firm.
[Illustration:
HENRY GRILLEY, 1790
Pewter Buttons
*1*
#1#
ABEL PORTER & CO., 1802 AARON BENEDICT, 1812
Begins making brass buttons Bone and ivory buttons.
*2* Started making brass ones 1823
*3*
#2#
LEAVENWORTH, HAYDEN & SCOVILL, #3 5#
1811 BENEDICT & COE, 1829
Fred’k Leavenworth, David Hayden, Aaron Benedict, Israel Coe,
J. M. L. Scovill, James Croft, Jas. Croft
Israel Holmes. *6 7*
*4 5*
#4# #10#
J. M. L. & W. H. HOLMES & HOTCHKISS,
SCOVILL, 1827 1830
Israel Holmes, Israel Holmes,
H. W. Hayden Horace Hotchkiss,
*8 9 10* Philo Brown
*11 12*
#6# #7 12#
Howe Mfg. Co., BENEDICT & BURNHAM, WOLCOTTVILLE BRASS CO.,
Darby; Slocum & 1834 1834
Jillson, A. & Chas. Benedict, Israel Coe, Israel
Poughkeepsie, G. W. Burnham, A. S. Holmes, Anson G. Phelps,
N. Y., and Fowler Chase, F. A. Mason, John Hungerford, Geo. P.
Bros., Northford, Geo. Somers Cowles, John Davol--
Ct., developed *14 15 16 17 18 19 20* Torrington, Conn.
successful pin *21 22 23*
machinery
*13*
#11 13# #20# #23#
BROWN & ELTON, WATERBURY BUTTON CO., SMITH & PHELPS, 1836
1838 1849 Anson G. Phelps, Geo. P.
Philo Brown, J. Cowles, Thos. Wallace,
P. Elton--Sold Thos. James.First at
to Brown & Bros. Derby--Co. founded at
and Holmes, Ansonia in 1844
Booth & Haydens *29 30 31*
*24 25 26 27*
#14 27# #22#
AMERICAN PIN CO., 1846 Davol organised Brooklyn
Brass & Copper Co. in 1853
*28*
#9 21 26# #29# #31#
WATERBURY BRASS WALLACE & SON, 1848 HUMPHREYSVILLE COPPER
CO., 1845 Thos. Wallace--Co. CO., 1849
Israel Holmes, J. failed in 1895--Plant Thos. James, Seymour, Ct.
P. Elton, H. W. sold to Coe Br. Co. in *35*
Hayden, Lyman W. 1896
Coe, son of Israel
Coe
*32 33 34*
#8# #19# #35#
SCOVILL MFG. CO., WATERBURY CLOCK CO., NEW HAVEN COPPER CO.,
1850 1857 1855
The Scovill
Brothers, F. J.
Kingsbery, Sr.
#24# #34#
BROWN & BROS., 1851 COE BRASS CO., 1863
Philo Brown--Failed in 1886. L. W. Coe, Chas. F. Brooker
Geo H. Clowes *38*
*36 37*
#15 25 32# #30#
HOLMES, BOOTH & HAYDENS, 1853 ANSONIA BRASS & COPPER CO.,
Israel Holmes, G. W. Burnham, 1854
A. S. Chase, L. J. Atwood Anson Phelps, Geo. P. Cowles
*39 40 41 42* *43*
#39# #18 28# #43#
Holmes, Booth & BRIDGEPORT BRASS ANSONIA CLOCK CO.,
Atwood, 1869. CO., 1865 1878
Name changed to John Davol, F. A. Brooklyn, N. Y.
PLUME & ATWOOD, Mason, Geo. Somers,
1871 F. J. Kingsbury,
Israel Holmes, Jr.
J. C. Booth,
L. J. Atwood
#40# #17#
WATERBURY MFG. CO., WATERBURY WATCH
1876 CO., 1880
A. S. Chase, Henry #44#
S. Chase, Fredk. S. CHASE ROLLING MILL
Chase CO., 1900
*44* Henry S. Chase,
#37# #42# Fredk. S. Chase
SEYMOUR-MFG. CO., WATERBURY BRASS *45*
1878 GOODS CORPORATION
#36# #16 33 38 41# #45#
RANDOLPH & CLOWES, AMERICAN BRASS CO., CHASE METAL WORKS,
1886 1899 1914
R. F. Randolph, Chas. F. Brooker
Geo. H. Clowes
FIGURE 50. GENEALOGY OF THE NAUGATUCK BRASS INDUSTRY]
The American Brass Company was formed in 1899, and now comprises the
Waterbury Brass Company, Holmes, Booth & Haydens, Benedict & Burnham,
the Coe Brass Company and the Ansonia Brass & Copper Company. This is
the largest brass company in the world.
Such, briefly, is an outline of the history of the larger companies.
To an outsider their interrelations are almost inextricable. The
chart (Fig. 50) does little more than indicate them. As phases of the
business grew, there was a clearly defined policy of setting them off
as separate enterprises. The American Pin Company, the Clock, Watch and
Button companies, and the Brass Goods Corporation are examples. Only
the more important of these manufacturing companies are shown. While
there has been at times sharp competition among them, it always stopped
short of war, and when facing outside competition the companies pull
together.
Many of the heavy stockholders, as Holmes, Elton, Burnham and Chase,
were interested in several companies. Nearly all of the leaders were
born and grew up in the valley and were full of local spirit. Israel
Coe, Holmes, the Scovill brothers and Phelps, of the earlier order,
were men of great ability, as also Lyman Coe, Cowles and Charles F.
Brooker, of the later generation. The inventions of Hiram W. Hayden
vitally affected the history of four companies. They seriously
undermined the old Wolcottville company, shut the Brooklyn Brass
Company out of important phases of its business, and built up the
prosperity of the Waterbury Brass Company, and Holmes, Booth & Haydens.
L. J. Atwood, of Holmes, Booth & Haydens, and, later, Plume & Atwood,
L. S. White, of Brown & Brothers, and W. N. Weeden, of Benedict &
Burnham, were prolific inventors, and their work contributed to the
growth of the industry.
Other influential men have built machinery for the large companies.
Almon Farrel founded the Farrel Foundry & Machine Company in 1851,
and had two establishments, one in Ansonia and one in Waterbury. The
Waterbury plant was operated for many years by E. C. Lewis as agent. He
bought it in 1880, but as a matter of sentiment retained the old name,
prefixing the word Waterbury. The two plants have come to specialize
somewhat, the Waterbury one building mainly presses and stamping
machines, and the Ansonia one rolling mills and heavy machinery. E. J.
Manville, an expert mechanic from the Pratt & Whitney shop in Hartford,
with his five sons, founded the E. J. Manville Machine Company, which
has built up a wide reputation for its presses and headers. Among the
many others are William Wallace of Wallace & Sons, Ansonia, Charles
Johnson and A. C. Campbell.
The answer, then, to our question as to origin and success of the
Naugatuck brass industry is as follows. It sprang from the local
manufacture of buttons. A small group of able, forceful and ingenious
men developed the best facilities in the country for rolling and
drawing brass, and when new demands came they were the only ones with
experience prepared to meet them. They were originally well situated
for raw material. Later they bought their copper in Baltimore. By
the time copper began coming from the West, the Waterbury companies
were firmly established. Copper is expensive, its unit of weight is
the pound and not the ton, and freight rates are far less important
than with steel, so the industry’s detached location did not outweigh
the advantage of its early start. A large force of workmen skilled
in handling brass has been developed in these factories and no large
enterprise could now be started elsewhere without drawing upon them.
Many of these workmen own their homes, and their relations with the
employers have generally been so friendly that higher wages elsewhere
do not seem to attract them.
Finally, and perhaps most important of all, are the men who have
designed and built the tools used. Connecticut leads all other states
in the ratio of patents to the population, and Waterbury has led the
rest of Connecticut in the proportion of nearly two to one. All the
finishing or “cutting up” shops, as they are locally known, contain
highly developed machinery--nearly all of it special, much of it
designed and built in the shop where it is used.
This includes machinery for making eyelets, hooks and eyes, pins,
cartridges, wire forming machinery, thread rolling, and headers and
stamping machinery. Some of these machines, as, for instance, the last
two mentioned, are more or less standard, but their tool equipment has
been wonderfully developed and is bewildering in its variety. Much of
this machinery has never been made public, and nearly all of it is
too special, too intricate and too varied for description here. It is
natural, under these circumstances, that the mechanics who developed
these tools should be comparatively little known. They have, however,
been a vital element in the Naugatuck brass industry, and should be
recognized as successful American tool builders.