Document text
ORIGINAL MSS. OR FIELD NOTES (Cheok one)
PUB. Liviinj Lore in Now ftland
(Connecticut)
TITLE Conneetput clookaaker (m06100
MITER Freneis Donovan
Dm 1l9/38 WDS. PP. 6
CHECKER
SOURCES GIVEN Interview
COMMENTS
Federal Writers' Project Connecticut
December 19, 1938,
Francis Donovan, Thomaston, Conn. (Dec. 13)
CONNECTICUT CLOCKMAKING
W. Botsford is absorbed in a "History of Plymouth" which I
loaned him on my last visit. As I enter, he looks up from the volume.
"I thought you'd show up about now," he says. "I was just lookin'
through the book. Lot of folks here I remember well. Old Man Sutliffe
here, he built that house over on Marine St., first house on the street.
"When we first moved up here that street wasn't nothin' but a cow
1\ /L track. You could look right across the meadow from here and see old
t•P
Sutliffe's house. There used to be a spring up in.back of there
supplied all the houses in this section, summer of 1870. Had a big
droughth that year. Driest period I ever knew. All the wells were
dry but one or two and those that weren't dry were very low. Used to
get water for the Skop hands from that spring over there big buckets
of tt, they'd carry down to the shop. There was only one well left
in Plymouth with water in it. That well furnished water for the whole
town of Plymouth. Lots of folks hers who had water in their wells
wouldn't let nobody outside the families use tem.
"Here's Old Baldwin's picture. He came from over back of Plymouth
what they used to call the Baldwin section. I remember him first
time I ever saw him was when I was goin' to school. Old Baldwin was
on the school committee. He came down one noon or four o'clock
I forget when it was and he called all the children out of school.
He had a big long ash stick 7 or 8 ft. long and a wooden box.
W/5-073
VP
Be opened up the box, and out slid a rattlesnake first one I
ever saw. Be kept proddin' that thing around with the stick,
explainin' about it and how he'd caught it, and all us kids was rooted
there scared it would get away from him. But it didn't. When
he was through, he just steered it back in the box as nice as you
please.
"Here's Dorrence Atwater that's the man who kept the records in
Andersonville prison and helped Clara Barton to find the graves of all
the Union soldiers. Here's old Dr. Woodruff and Zudge Bradstreet and
Frank Etheridge. Some of them look just as natural Mr. Botsford
closes the book. "It's a real pleasure to look through that book again
I haven't seen one of them in a long time.
"Now what was we talkint about yesterday. Nationalities, for one
thing. I told you how the English and the Irish came in here first,
and then the Germans and then the Scotch and the Swedes and then the
Russians and the Ftlacks. We never got many Italian families and only
one or two Sews. There was some Polish Sews cans here a number of years
ago, worked in the shop. They was always lookin' for live poultry and
such that they could kill accordin'to their beliefs kosher, or
whatever you call it.
"The Scotch used to have some great times here. Had what they called
a Caledonian society. Every summer they used to have picnics up to
Ely's Grove some called it Caledonia. They used to have running and
jumping and pole vaulting, and tossing the caber, and hammer throwing.
Old Tom Kellie he was young Tom then he used to be best at pole
vaulting. And old Bob Innen was the champion at tossing the caber.
C
BA was as strong as an ox. That daber looks like a young telegraph
A
pole. They grab it by one end and hoist it up in the air, then they
run a few feet with it and give it a heave a very interestin' thing
to watch.
"Then they always had a greased pig chase, and climbini a greased
pole. And they had what they called a sword dance and old, old custom,
came down from the Scottish Highlands. They'd lay tae two swords down,
with the edges up, and dance in between 'am. The icreawas never to
touch the edge. In the old days, they say, they did it with razor sharp
swords, and if you touched one of them it was too bad.
"Had a Hibernian Society here, but they wasn't quite so active.
They always went to Waterbury to parade on Saint PatrickAs Day. They'd
usually have rainy weather, and they's have to wade up to their ankles
in mud. There wasn't any pavements in them days.
"I ever show you my library? Might find somethin' of interest."
W. Botsford leads the way into the front room. The "library" is a
glass -enclosed bookcase half a dozen shelves crammed with books of
assorted sizes and varied subject matter. There is a set of "The American
Cyclopedia;" a number of Scott's Bibles; a huge volume entitled "The
Living World," containing illustrations and descriptions of every
animal known to man, and which W. Botsford declares cans as a premium
with the purchase of a suit of clothes; a small volume of early American
poetry; a number of histories; a set of 100 7Famous Detective
Stories," a "Concordance," which Wt.' Botsford explains will give
you the exact verses in the Bible in which to find desired quotes;
and several other volumes.
"Here's something," says Mk,. Botsford, pulling out a thickish red
covered book entitled "The American Indian;" "Tow this was a favorite
of mine when I was a kid." He turns the pages, disclosing brightly
colored prints of the famous Indian chieftains Tecumseh* Joseph
Brant, King Philip. Mr. Botsford points to Joseph Brant. "He was
a white man the skunk masqueradin' as an Indian." There is a
vivid reproduction of Capt. John Smith's harrowing experience, which
Botsford confesses MAS always one of his favorites. Shows W. Smith
being rescued by Pocahontas. Most of these books have been published
in the 1850's.
"Here's somethint else." W. Botsford reaches into the bookcase,
brings forth a small box, from which he removes the cover. wirisitint
cards," says he. "It used to be an old habit to swap these cards with
your friends. Not leave 'em when you called at someone's home,
understand, just swap 'em." He takes the cards out, one by one,
recalling old friends whose names are printed, or in some cases
handwritten. "Papers used to be full of advertcsements for these
cards. Here's one should interest you. Used to be the custom to hand
one of these to a girl when she was comin' out of church."
The card bore this message: "Escort card. Fair Lady, will
you allow me the pleasure of escorting you hoes? If so, keep this
card, if not return it. Yours respectfully," with a space for the
gallant's signature.
"Deed to have lozenges, too," says W. Botsford, "With some
sentimental message printed on tem. You'd hand one to a girl you was
sweet on. Another great thing was advertisint cards. Did I mention
them before? Kids used to collect 'em and paste 'em in big books,
like scrap books. It was a great fad back in the seventies. Older
people used to collect 'em too. You go in any drug store, in them days,
and the counters would tA piled high with these big books. You got
the cards from the merchants. Come on out in the woodshed and show
you some."
We repair to the woodshed, where Mr. Botsford digs out two old
books, turns the pages. "See what I mean?" The cards are an interesting
sidelight on the vast changes in advertising methods coincident with
the dawn of the motor age. Every conceivable subject was covered by them.
1
They ran the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous, dwelt on matters
political and matters amorous, touched such widely diversified subjects
as religion and warfare advocated temperance and advertised liquor.
In virtually no instance was the "sponsor's" product, or goods, prominently
mentioned, and on some of them the merchant's name was in such small
print as to almost escape attention.
"There's a good story about them advertising cards. You remember how
old W. Lemon, the druggist, used to stutter. When he first came to
town here and went to work in the drug store, there was another fellow
used to stutter just as bad, name was Fred Birch.
"Birch went into the store one day, and he says, 0G-g-g-g-imme,
s -s -s -some advertisinl c-c-c-ards.' Lemon says, You g -g -g -get the
he-he-hel outs here.' Thought be was mockinl him, you see.
"All the merchants handled them cards. Sometimes they'd give
you one or two, sometimes, if they was in a good humor, they'd give
you a whole stack of tem.
"Cards came in cigarette packages later, the kids took to collectin'
them. And some of them gave out printed flags of all countries. Idea
was to get as many different flags as you could, and then the girls
would make sofa pillows out of them.
"Times change. In the old days, there was so little to do, now
it's all different. The kids now have a million things they can do."