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    Thomaston
    Thomaston
    Thomaston
    Ebook203 pages43 minutes

    Thomaston

    By Joseph F. Wassong Jr.

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    About this ebook

    Thomaston, a gateway to the Litchfield Hills and the Berkshires, is situated in the picturesque Naugauck River Valley. This town of Victorian charm grew as local industry developed. Today, it includes a population representing many occupations and nationalities and a mixture of urban and suburban culture. Thomaston reveals the history of this town and its people, including a nineteenth-century priest who is a candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, the grandfather of a Nobel Prize-winning author, and a hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor for valor at Pearl Harbor. The first part of the book is designed as a guide for a walking tour of the downtown area.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439628980
    Thomaston
    Author

    Joseph F. Wassong Jr.

    Joseph F. Wassong Jr., a retired professor of history, taught for thirty-one years at Naugatuck Valley Community College. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity College, he is the curator of the Thomaston Historical Society and chairman of the Thomaston Board of Finance. His family has lived in Thomaston for nearly one hundred years. Using photographs from the historical society, friends and acquaintances, and his own collection, he presents an engaging study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century life.

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      Book preview

      Thomaston - Joseph F. Wassong Jr.

      hall.

      INTRODUCTION

      The early history of Thomaston revolves around the life of the successful entrepreneur Seth Thomas. A Wolcott native, Thomas came to Thomaston (then called Plymouth Hollow) in 1813. Purchasing a factory from Heman Clark on the site of a later masonry complex, the 28-year-old began the manufacture of clocks. He was not the first settler but perhaps the most important.

      This book is a pictorial history of Thomaston from the mid-19th century to 1975. In the period prior to 1875, Thomaston was a part of Plymouth. Neighboring towns included Harwinton, Morris, Bethlehem, Watertown, Litchfield, Torrington, and the brass center of Waterbury, the largest. The town was initially part of Northbury, then Plymouth Hollow, then Thomastown, and, finally, Thomaston. Incorporated by an act of the Connecticut General Assembly in July 1875, the town entered a period of change that would establish the nature of the town and, indeed, its appearance for the next 100 years. What was formerly a town of wood became a town of brick. American Hall was the first brick building, constructed in 1866. Then followed the Morse Block (in 1876), the Bradstreet Block (in 1877), and the town hall (in 1883). In a short span of years, Thomaston’s appearance was permanently altered. Thus, the concentration is upon the period of 1875 to 1975. The Thomaston Historical Society has been generous with a number of photographs of this century. Its museum is housed in the same building that contains the town hall and opera house.

      A town of Victorian charm, Thomaston’s growth was attributable originally to industry. An economic dynamo in the first half of the 20th century, it has since come to include a population representing many occupations and nationalities. As such, it is a nice mixture of the urban and the suburban, a New England story in microcosm.

      The first part of the book is designed to provide readers with a guide to a walking tour of the downtown area. Its scope encompasses Victorian portraits, wars and their impact, street scenes of homes, stores, and factories that are now gone, sports, leisure, and recreation, education, culture, and the personalities that have contributed much to the enrichment of life in Thomaston. Thomaston does not pretend to be comprehensive; instead, it is a series of vignettes designed to illustrate episodes in the past.

      A recent candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church was Fr. Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. McGivney’s only pastorate was at St. Thomas Church in Thomaston, where he died of consumption in 1890, two days after his 38th birthday.

      The book includes the heroic Medal of Honor winner Thomas Reeves, who died aboard the battleship California at Pearl Harbor. We have an official U.S. Navy photograph of him.

      We have images of the Thomaston Ponies football teams (state semiprofessional champions in the 1920s), the fire department, individual portraits of soldiers and politicians, group photographs of charitable activities, schools that have disappeared, and bridges whose appearances have been absolutely altered. In short, we can offer the reader a collection of images that will give the observer a good sampling of Thomaston life, presented in vignette form.

      This document is a deed for a parcel of land that Abel Ford sold to his brother Ebenezer for two pounds Sixteen Shillings & Six pence Lawfull Money on May 2, 1774. It was the 14th Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Third of Great-Britain &c. KING. It involved a section of Abel’s farm in the parish of Northbury, Colony of Connecticut. The Ford brothers and their father, Barnabas, were large landowners in the parish, which was reportedly referred to as Fordton. (Courtesy of the Robinson Family Collection, Thomaston Historical Society.)

      One

      A STROLL THROUGH VICTORIAN THOMASTON

      Thomaston was a part of Plymouth until its incorporation as a municipality in 1875. This lithograph shows what the village was like at the time of the Civil War, still nine years away. The Seth Thomas Clock Company was already nearly 40 years old. The Seth Thomas movement shop is just west of the river, to the left of the covered bridge. To its right in the image and just beyond is the First Congregational Church, which still looks much as it did in 1852. At the extreme left is another factory of the Seth Thomas Company.

      As we see the Naugatuck River wind southward, the covered bridge appears at the right in this c. 1880 photograph. Other recognizable features are, from left to right, the Methodist church, American Hall, the five identical houses of Cotton Row, the Seth Thomas Clock Company movement shop, the Hillside Academy School, and North Main Street. Chapel Street, in the foreground, disappeared with the construction of Route 8. The church remains as it was; the hall and houses are much altered but still exist.

      As we look west across the river, we see a useful view of Thomaston in 1908. The rail line is on the near side of the river, as is the Plume & Atwood brass factory. Just across the bridge is the Seth Thomas movement shop, while on South Main Street sits the case

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