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| Notes for Harvey (Spouse 1) | ||||||||||
| 211In 1823, Harvey removed to Torringford to farm and make bricks. In 1827, he located to West Hartford in the manufacture of pottery, commencing business on his own account in 1832. He transferred the business to his sons in 1870. In 1891, Harvey still resided in Elmwood, West Hartford, a few rods east of Goodwin Brothers' pottery works. A TOUCH OF HISTORY Goodwin Potters: Start of Manufacturing in Town All that is called manufacturing in West Hartford traces its beginning to the pre-Revolutionary making of earthenware, an extensive and prospering enterprise here for more than a century and-a-quarter. Its success lay in the high quality of the firing clay which is plentiful in the Elmwood portion of the early village. It also drew those who wanted to make brick. Even before the Revoluton, Ebenezer Faxon came, at 21, to the West Division and set up a thriving pottery near where Beachland Park is today. His classic home rose on the corner of Quaker Lane and New Britain Avenue in 1777. Just as the Center has its Four Mile Road, at approximately the same distance from the Old State House, New Britain rose over FOur Mile Hill, and at its foot, on the north side of the Avenue, Thomas O. Goodwin started his own pottery business very early in the 1800's. Nearby, in 1821, he built his home. In 1832, Harvey Goodwin started another pottery farther east on New Britain Avenue on the south side of the street near its present confluence with South Street, the Piper Brook area. His wooden plant was destroyed by fire in 1867. Although all these potters has the West Division as their headquarters, their business were far-flung. Their distribution was wagon and boat, for the most part. A variegated load of pottery jars and containers would be made up here, then start out behind a team, travelling from town to town, Records indicate that some of these loads would be carried as far as northern Vermont, the driver hurrying back to get another load and set off to the west. After the fire (1908), Harvey Goodwin's sons, H. Burdett, Wilbur E. and Newell E., decided they would take up the business under the Goodwin Brothers Pottery Co., to be a long-remembered name in the town's commercial story. The three young men purchased three acres from Charles Cadwell on the south side of New Britain Avenue somewhat west of the New York, New Haven and Hartford railway station which had just been built, a long important Elmwood stop for both freight and passengers by the thousands when the Charter Oak race track flourished toward the end of the 19th century. Goodwin Brothers diversified their product line, adding the making of terra cotta objects of ornate design for both indoor and outdoor decoration and building . This enterprise called for continuous expansion of the Goodwin plant, until its group of buildings covered an estimated 10 acres or more in the area where there are several metal-working plants today. As Goodwin Bros. business grew, they hires a number of salesmen who fanned out from the West Division all over the eastern part of the United States. And then, once more, fire broke out in a Goodwin building and before it could be checked, nothing remained but a small brick office structure. Although the fire department of Hartford came quickly to the rescue, the frame was construction was too vulnerable a target. The conflagration was a blow to the brothers' fortunes. H. Burdett Goodwin was in his 60's, and competition from other processes for making containers did not encourage restoration of the pottery. | ||||||||||
| Last Modified 24 Feb 2001 | Created 6 Jan 2007 by EasyTree for Windows |