File:The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884; (1886) (14593553040).jpg

Identifier: memorialhistoryo02trum (find matches)
Title: The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884;
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors: Trumbull, J. Hammond (James Hammond), 1821-1897
Subjects: Hartford County (Conn.) -- History
Publisher: Boston, E. L. Osgood
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Connecticut Libraries

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merce, and, with the exception of a few persons engagedto a limited extent in the West India trade and in trade with Boston,made no eftort to establish commercial relations with other places.When Middletown was the largest city in the State, a limited ex-change of surplus products for foreign articles needed was made inthat city. Hartford and Rocky Hill were the other shipping ports forNew Britain. The articles of early manufacture were distributed frombaskets by foot-pedlers, and afterward from wagons, to the neighboring-towns, and were transported on horseback to Boston, New York, andother markets. As business increased, goods were transported nine orten miles to the Connecticut River by teams, and then shipped to theirdestination. The opening of the Hartford and New Haven Railroad in1839 lessened the cartage of freight to two miles; and tlie extensionof the Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill Railroad to Bristol in 1850gave New Britain direct railway communication with Hartford. The
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NEW BRITAIN. 307 New Britain railroad to Berlin Avas opened in 1865, giving direct con-nection with New Haven and New York; and the New York and NewEngland road was extended to Fishkill in 1881, making connectionswith roads to the coal-mines and west. All the facilities of commnni-cation and transportation were favorable to the business of New Britain. The first store within the present limits of the city was kept byElnathan Smith on East Street, near the Rhodes place. In 1805 and1806 Isaac and Thomas Lee built a store at the northwest corner of theGreen, on the south side of West Main Street. In 1823 the Lees alsobuilt the stone store which is on the west side of Main Street, oppositeEast Main, and is still occupied as a place of business. As the popula-tion became greater, new stores were erected, and when the placebecame a manufacturing city, with the resulting increase in the demandfor articles for domestic use and for business, stores were multipliedand goods classified until the

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