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Oldest in point of service of the Plume and Atwood Comp-
pany employees is Harry Thayer, who retired last spring after
working for the concern for more than fifty four years. Mr.
Thayer 's 35 acre farm, on which he has lived most of his life,
is located in the windswept hill country immediately beyond
High street, known disrespectfully as "Cracker Hill," and
from the eminence of his hilltop home he commands an imposing
view of the community. lie takes advantage of this situation
to remark jocularly that he doesn't think much of the local
aristocracy, and that as a matter of fact, be is probably the
only man in town who "can look down on tem." He is proud
being the oldeet living employee, clings to the designation
obdurately, though he no longer works.
"worked there 54 years, five months and six days when I
had to quit last May," he says. "Bad a couple of shocks, one
right. after the other, and I can't use my right arm so good
any more. Whole right side was paralyzed there for a while,
.but it's coming back gradually. I can still do a little around
the farm, and I can hitch up and drive the horse. Hoge I'll
never see the day when I'm so helpless I can't do that. But
I can't drive nails worth a damn any more. There was a time
when I could drive 'em with the best man that ever lived, if
I say it myself. Shouldn't be bragging, I suppose."
Mr. Thayer 'a education has been better than average, and
his diction is uncommonly good. He explains that he attended
Gunnery prop school in Washington, but was forced by the death
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of his father to forego further schooling at the age of
fifteen.
nUy dad was a hotel man. And a good one. He ran hotels
all over country. One in San Francisco. one in Aeokuk„ Ioway,
and in other cities in the west. Then he came east, and
started in this section. Ran one in Naugatuck for a while,
then came up here and took over the Thomaston House. My
mother helped him, and I went to school, and he got Jim Chat-
field to tend bar for him after he Lot the license, because
in those days there was no sense trying to run a hotel without
liquor.
"He died from overwork. He worked hard and he worked
late, and he had a lot of vitality, but it was too much for
him at last. Things were tough for my mother and me after he
went, trying to run the place. But we stuck it out for two
years bofore we sold out.
"Then I went in the mill. Got the job through old Er.
D. S. Plume, he used to be president of the company. Used to
eat his lunch at the hotel, old D. S. did, and that's how I
got acquainted with him.
"Started ma in the overhauling room at a dollar and a
half a day. A. J. Grilley was superintendent. Stayed in the
overhauling room a year, and then fr. Grilley put me in the
packing room. And that was a relief, because T never liked
the overhauling room. Work was very crude in those days, very
crude. Everything done by hand. It was so crude they used
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to out metal in five feet lengths and run it through the rolls,
and the only measurement they had was a pin or a. chalk line
on the floor.
"They only had one drying out machine. And they shoved
the metal in the muffles by hand from the front -..twenty men
on a side --and draw it out by hand. Now they've got a machine,
puts the netal in from the rear, draws it through by chain
power regulated from above. They used to do all the cutting by
hand, now they've got a cutting up machine. There's no OW to
the improvements. And of course the mill hasn't gone as far as
some of the bigger concerns in the installation of new methods.
"They've got a new roll for the rich metal ---Rich metal?
That's metal with more copper, a better quality brass. It's
used for jewelry. Good money in rolling, though I never did it.
How do they break 'em in? Why it's :met a case of learning and
experience. Probably start a man on the breaking down rolls
that's the first operation in rolling.. -and let him work for a
while. They put a good roller with a beginner, that's the way
they teach tem.
"But I spent most of my time in the packing room. After
I'd worked there five years, they discharged the boas. nothing
was said about hiring anybody else, and I just went along and
did his work and my own too. But they didn't give me any more
money. Paid me a dollar seventy five cents a day —quarter more
than I got to start with. After a while I see they weren't
going to do anything about it and I went to Mr. Plume. I said,
ILOOk here Mr. Plume, I'm doing two men's work down there in
the packing room, and I don't see any more money. Nowt I said,
'what's the answer, do I get two dollars a day, or -do I make
a change?' He said, ',Well, Harry, I'll have to talk it over
with Grilley„ you wait a while.' And a few days later I saw
him, and he said !Aow would ten cents more suit you'.'' I
said, 'No, Mr. Plume, I happen to know the other fella was
making his two dollars, and I think I'm a better man than he
was, and I'm doing his work and mine too. Now,' I says, 'if
you can't see your way clear to giving me the two dollars,
I think I can do better somewhere else.' He says, Well,
wait, don't be impatient.' A few days later be sent word I
could have the raise.
"He was a pretty good old man. They've always been good
people to work for. I could've gone back to work after I'd
had my shock. They would've taken me back. But I decided I
had enough. I got the farm to look after here, and I have
a fella cons in to work by the day, and it keeps me pretty
busy. Kept a couple of horses until I got sick. Now I only
got the one. You ever see me driving the sorrel and the black?
"When I first came up here I had the finest stable in
town, if I do say so myself. Six horses, and they were beauties.
I sold a couple to Dr. Forman up in Torrington, first 0011Bill
of nine.
"Tried to teach him how to drive, but he never could
learn. He just wasn't a horseman. He was a little bit of a
wen. I'm short, but he was shorter yet. And those horses
turned out to be the death of him.
"ills wife practiced medicine too. She wanted to study
after they got married, and he was against it, but finally he
sent her out west aid she got her degree. Came back and prac-
ticed in women's and Children's diseases.
"Well, as I was sating those horses were the death of him.
He always had a hired man to drive him* but one night he had
to. make a trip to Terryville and the in wasn't around. So he
went out and hitched ap the pair himself and started, aj,ainst
his wife's advice. Last he was seen was in the Austin House
just before he started home. die asked if anyone there would
drive him, and how much they wanted* and a fella at the bar
said he'd take him up for three dollars. 'Three dollars, says
my cousin, 'why you ought to pay me for ttinil; you drive a
pair of horses like I've got cut there.'
"So he went out* and that's the last he was seen alive.
His wife was worried from the time he'd left, so of course when
he didn't come back in a reasonable time* she got up a party
to go look for him. They found the off horse coining along with
part of the wreckage behind him, and farther on they came to
a wooden bridge. And there was the white horse in a ditch with
a broken neck. And up the road a bit was my uncle's body with
his head crushed in. He never could drive* poor fella.
"But I've always had horses. Only time I ever was
without a horse was when I went to school at the Gunnery* and
then I did plenty of riding on hired horses. Since they've
discontinued the road past my place here it's a bit tricky
getting down to the rosin highway, but I cap do it. I had that
lane cut through for just that purpose years ago. Figured
they night discontinue the main road some day. They wanted to
hard surface the lane for me* but I says if you do you'll
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claim it, and I don't dare for that idea. I like my privacy
here.
YOU 308 that house to the north up there, and all that
pasture land. That was Mr. French's farm, president of the
company. He came from farming stock. His people had a place
up on V:alnnt Hill. And he came in the mill as a caster and
worked up to what he is now. Jo ran the old place over there
for a hobby, but he gave it up a number of years ago.
"Fine man and a fine business man, Mr. French. He takes
a deep interest in whatever goes on in the plant. He knows
every department, and he gives his personal attention to all
kinds of*details. You knew these Westclox people that bought
out 2eth Thomas? We used to make brass for their plant out
west. We got cemplaint after complaint. Finally Mr. French
went out there to find out what was wrong. They vent through
a rigamarole of some kind, but he saw they were just interested
in making complaints without any good reason.
"So he said, rde make a pretty good grade of brass, and
we make it for quite a few companies, but we get more complaints
from you people than from any six of our other customers*
From now en,' he says, 'you eon take your business someWhere
else. We don't want it. 'And that's all there was to that.
He told me that hiumelf* And that's the kind of people you've
got running your Seth Thomas clock factory today.
"He's a,topnotch business man. And another good man is
Billy Byers. The superintendent. I remember him when he
came to work, just in from the ad country. He wore a rough,
checked shirt and corduroy pants and a celluloid collar. But
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he wa alart. They were beginning to build on at that time,
and Chatfield, the boss joiner was in charge of the work.
Bill Byers was just pushing a wheelbarrow. I renember•they
were having trouble of some kind with theirUaprints and
Billy came along and looked over Chatfield'! ahoulder.
'That ain't right,' he sas. Chatfield looked around, and he
ilf you know so much about it, show me Where I'm wrong.
"And Billy did* He was an accountant, or something,
over in Scotland. He knew figures. From that time on Chat—
field took a fancy to him, and he went up in the wcrld.
"And there's one thing you might mentitin, if you write
anything about Plume and Atwood. They always say in this
section, it's the barometer of the brass business. If business
is good at P and A, the brass business -will pick up all
around. And vice versa* Not Chase's, nor American Brass, nor
any of the rest, young fella, but little old Plume and Atwood.
The barometer of the brass business."