Editing Hartford, Connecticut (section)

===19th century===

[[File:OldHartfordMap.jpg|thumb|1877 map of Hartford|220x220px|left]]

====Political turmoil====

[[File:State Street Looking East, Hartford, CT.jpg|thumb|220x220px|State Street in 1914|left]]

On December 15, 1814, delegates from the five [[New England]] states ([[Maine]] was still part of [[Massachusetts]] at that time) gathered at the [[Hartford Convention]] to discuss New England's possible [[secession]] from the United States.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Hartford-Convention|title=Hartford Convention {{!}} United States history|work=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=April 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507231518/https://www.britannica.com/event/Hartford-Convention|archive-date=May 7, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> During the early 19th century, the Hartford area was a center of [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] activity, and the most famous abolitionist family was the Beechers. The Reverend [[Lyman Beecher]] was an important Congregational minister known for his anti-slavery sermons.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/lyman-beecher.html|title=God in America – People – Lyman Beecher|work=God in America|access-date=April 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429164855/http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/lyman-beecher.html|archive-date=April 29, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Lyman_Beecher|title=Lyman Beecher – Ohio History Central|website=ohiohistorycentral.org|access-date=April 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506054110/http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Lyman_Beecher|archive-date=May 6, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> His daughter [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] wrote ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''; her brother [[Henry Ward Beecher]] was a noted clergyman who vehemently opposed slavery and supported the temperance movement and women's suffrage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Harriet_B._Stowe|title=Harriet B. Stowe – Ohio History Central|website=ohiohistorycentral.org|access-date=April 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516151333/http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Harriet_B._Stowe|archive-date=May 16, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/hbs/|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20170525015804/https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/hbs/|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 25, 2017|title=Harriet Beecher Stowe's Life|website=harrietbeecherstowecenter.org|access-date=April 30, 2017}}</ref> The Stowes' sister [[Isabella Beecher Hooker]] was a leading member of the [[feminism|women's rights movement]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/isabella-beecher-hooker/|title=Education & Resources – National Women's History Museum – NWHM|website=nwhm.org|access-date=April 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108015237/https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/isabella-beecher-hooker/|archive-date=November 8, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:PostcardBulkeleyBridgeHartfordCT19061916.jpg|thumb|220x220px|Bulkeley Bridge, {{circa|1906}}–1916|left]]

In 1860, Hartford was the site of the first "[[Wide Awakes]]", abolitionist supporters of [[Abraham Lincoln]]. These supporters organized torch-light parades that were both political and social events, often including fireworks and music, in celebration of Lincoln's visit to the city. This type of event caught on and eventually became a staple of mid-to-late 19th-century campaigning.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hartford Wide-Awakes – Today in History: July 26 |url=https://connecticuthistory.org/hartford-wide-awakes-today-in-history/ |website=Connecticuthistory.org |access-date=April 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501231223/http://connecticuthistory.org/hartford-wide-awakes-today-in-history/ |archive-date=May 1, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Hartford was a major manufacturing city from the 19th century until the mid-20th century. During the Industrial Revolution into the mid-20th century, the Connecticut River Valley cities produced many major precision manufacturing innovations. Among these was Hartford's pioneer bicycle and automobile maker [[Pope Manufacturing Company|Pope]].<ref>Clymer, Floyd. ''Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925'' (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.37.</ref> Many factories have been closed or relocated, or have reduced operations, as in nearly all former Northern manufacturing cities.

====Rise of a major manufacturing center====

[[File:Colt Armory (1857).jpg|220x220px|thumb|Colt's Armory from an 1857 engraving viewed from the east]] [[File:Hartfort CT Post Office and Customhouse, 1903.jpg|thumb|Old Post Office and Custom House next to the Old State House (left) in 1903. The building was completed in 1882 and demolished in 1934.|220x220px]] [[File:Underwood Typewriter factory 1911.png|thumbnail|left|Underwood Typewriter factory in Hartford, {{circa|1911}}–1912]]Around 1850, Hartford native Samuel Colt perfected the precision manufacturing process that enabled the mass production of thousands of his revolvers with interchangeable parts. A variety of industries adopted and adapted these techniques over the next several decades, and Hartford became the center of production for a wide array of products, including: [[Colt's Manufacturing Company|Colt]], [[Richard Gatling]], and [[John Browning]] firearms; Weed [[sewing machines]]; Columbia bicycles; Pope automobiles; and leading typewriter manufacturers [[Royal Typewriter Company]] and [[Underwood Typewriter Company]] which together made Hartford the “Typewriter Capitol of the World” during the first half of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hintz|first1=Eric|title=Samuel Colt&nbsp;... and Sewing Machines?|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/06/samuel-coltand-sewing-machines-part-1.html|access-date=June 8, 2015|work=O, Say Can You See Blog|publisher=National Museum of American History|date=June 6, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150608195811/http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/06/samuel-coltand-sewing-machines-part-1.html|archive-date=June 8, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Pratt & Whitney Measurement Systems|Pratt & Whitney Company]] was founded in Hartford in 1860 by Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney. They built a substantial factory in which the company manufactured a wide range of machine tools, including tools for the makers of sewing machines, and gun-making machinery for use by the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1925, the company expanded into aircraft engine design at its Hartford factory.

[[File:Connecticut - Hartford - NARA - 23936447 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Pratt & Whitney Factory, 1940]]

Just three years after Colt's first factory opened, the [[Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company]] set up shop in 1852 at a nearby site along the now-buried [[Park River (Connecticut)|Park River]], located in the present-day neighborhood of [[Frog Hollow, Hartford, Connecticut|Frog Hollow]]. Their factory heralded the beginning of the area's transformation from marshy farmland into a major industrial zone. The road leading from town to the factory was called Rifle Lane; the name was later changed to College Street and then Capitol Avenue.<ref name="Flayderman 2007 193–196">{{cite book|last=Flayderman|first=Norm|title=Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms and Their Values|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=THeWYkwoLSUC&pg=PA195|year=2007|publisher=F+W Media, Inc|location=Iola, Wisconsin|isbn=978-0-89689-455-6|pages=193–196|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102051906/https://books.google.com/books?id=THeWYkwoLSUC&pg=PA195|archive-date=January 2, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> A century earlier, mills had located along the Park River because of the water power, but by the 1850s water power was approaching obsolescence. Sharps located there specifically to take advantage of the railroad line that had been constructed alongside the river in 1838.

The Sharps Rifle Company failed in 1870, and the Weed Sewing Machine Company took over its factory. The invention of a new type of sewing machine led to a new application of mass production after the principles of interchangeability were applied to clocks and guns. The Weed Company played a major role in making Hartford one of three machine tool centers in New England and even outranked the [[Colt Armory]] in nearby Coltsville in size.<ref name="Flayderman 2007 193–196"/> Weed eventually became the birthplace of both the bicycle and automobile industries in Hartford.

Industrialist [[Albert Augustus Pope|Albert Pope]] was inspired by a British-made, high-wheeled bicycle (called a velocipede) that he saw at the [[Centennial Exposition|1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition]], and he bought patent rights for bicycle production in the United States. He wanted to contract out his first order, however, so he approached George Fairfield of Weed Sewing Machine Company, who produced Pope's first run of bicycles in 1878.<ref>{{cite web|title=Invention hot spot: Beginnings of mass production in 19th-century Hartford, Connecticut |url=http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/poi-hartford.aspx |website=invention.smithsonian.org |publisher=Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Smithsonian Institution |access-date=August 15, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819083138/http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/poi-hartford.aspx |archive-date=August 19, 2014 }}</ref> Bicycles proved to be a huge commercial success, and production expanded in the Weed factory, with Weed making every part but the tires. Demand for bicycles overshadowed the failing sewing machine market by 1890, so Pope bought the Weed factory, took over as its president, and renamed it the [[Pope Manufacturing Company]]. The bicycle boom was short-lived, peaking near the turn of the century when more and more consumers craved individual automobile travel, and Pope's company suffered financially from over-production amidst falling demand.

In an effort to save his business, Pope opened a motor carriage department and turned out electric carriages, beginning with the "Mark III" in 1897. His venture might have made Hartford the capital of the automobile industry were it not for the ascendancy of Henry Ford and a series of pitfalls and patent struggles that outlived Pope himself.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goddard|first1=Stephen B.|title=Colonel Albert Pope and His American Dream Machines: The Life and Times of a Bicycle Tycoon Turned Automotive Pioneer|date=December 30, 2008|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-4089-4|pages=176–182}}</ref>

In 1876, Hartford Machine Screw was granted a charter "for the purpose of manufacturing screws, hardware and machinery of every variety." The basis for its incorporation was the invention of the first single-spindle automatic screw machine. For its next four years, the new firm occupied one of Weed's buildings, milling thousands of screws daily on over 50 machines. Its president was George Fairfield, who ran Weed, and its superintendent was Christopher Spencer, one of Connecticut's most versatile inventors. Soon Hartford Machine Screw outgrew its quarters and built a new factory adjacent to Weed, where it remained until 1948.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/12/nyregion/116-year-old-company-thrives-on-innovation.html|title=116-Year-Old Company Thrives on Innovation|last=Hamilton|first=Robert A.|date=April 12, 1992|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 30, 2017|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526054145/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/12/nyregion/116-year-old-company-thrives-on-innovation.html|archive-date=May 26, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>