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 clustre [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 worshipped. 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 passed
through the same experience. Yet mortified and abused as I was, I had to
put up with it. Thank God, 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 glass 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
circumstances, is to illustrate 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-Glass 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 brass 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 assist the Benedict & Burnham Company.
After I had been there six or eight months, and had got the case-making
well started, (my brother, Noble 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 circumstances. 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!