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Adm.
Harold E. Shear: A typical factory would be
operating 8 to 10 steamers. Quite
a few were built right here in Noank, a dozen or more.
All of these steamers had large crews.
MUSIC: Forebitter,
Luce
Bros.
We
were out from the factory on Long Island Sound,
From Greenport to Nepeg, and the promise land grounds.
On the good steamer Beatrice the pride of us all
Perseinin’ menhaden from spring till the fall.
Hall
on the bunt boys and walkem on down,
Hall
on the bunt boys and walk
'em around. CRONKITE: The Connecticut-based menhaden industry flourished until
its decline in the 1930s. TWINE
CAPITAL OF AMERICA
CRONKITE: The 18th and 19th Century maritime
economy in Connecticut brought prosperity to both shoreline towns
and areas farther inland. One
Connecticut River town that greatly prospered was East Haddam and
its village of Moodus.
Bruce
Sievers (Author,
Mills Along the River):
Moodus can actually be justifiably be nicknamed “the twine capital
of America” because Moodus initiated the development of ¾
of cotton twine and then later nylon twine.
In
the 1820’s Ebenezer Nichols who was one of the founders of the industry
here in town developed a machine that was able to twist strands of
cotton into a seine twine. And
that’s what produces a hard laid cord which was used in the maritime
industry.
The
mills in Moodus existed basically because of the maritime industry
and the maritime industry created a great demand for cotton duct which
was used as sail cloth which was manufactured in many of the mills
here in Moodus. They also had a great need for ¾
for cordage, for rope and twine on the ship, which was made here in
Moodus.
Each
of the 12 mills located along the banks of the Moodus River employed
anywhere from 25 to 50 people depending on the size of the mill.
The
mill owners sold their twine to the fishermen or they sold twine to
other companies that would then take the twine and make it into fish
netting. Most of the
netting that was used in the United States.
ED
STOLARZ (President, Cofish International):
Back in the 1880’s , 1890’s, 1900’s we were the big town,
Moodus and East Haddam. Wilbur Square, invented the Yankee
gill net machine in 1872 in the cow pasture across the street.
It revolutionized the fish netting industry.
The
normal netting, the knots ran this way which were very, very bulky
and with the Yankee gill net the knots ran this way so that they could
get behind the gills much easier.
And not only that the machine could tie 3,000 knots per minute.
There was no other machine on Earth that could duplicate that.
I
turned off my machines April 1st, 1979.
I was working 7 days a week and losing money at it. I
was one of the last makers of gill netting in the United States.
BUILDING
WITH BROWNSTONE
CRONKITE: Another inland town that prospered through access to the
sea was Portland and its brownstone quarry industry.
ALISON
GUINNESS (Curator, CT River Museum): Quarrying began in the late 1600’s
when the first settlers arrived in the Middletown settlement area.
Because of the proximity of the river to the sea they were
able to develop a commercial industry that involved many distant locations.
It was easy to get the stone there by water.
The
stone was loaded onto scows, barges, schooners, taken down the river
and then shipped out to other locations along the east coast. By 1850 there were three major companies and these three companies
employed about 1,500 men during peak operations between1850 and 1890
and those men were primarily Immigrants.
The
stone was used for buildings: churches, row houses, mansions, all
sorts of buildings.
By
the 1880’s most of the stone used in building in New York City came
from Portland and approximately 10 million cubic yards of stone had
been quarried at that site.
Towards
the end of the 1800’s brownstone gradually went out of use.
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