Historian Jeff Murray takes a look into West Hartford’s past to uncover some surprising information, stir up some memories, or reflect on how much life has changed – or hasn’t changed at all. Enjoy this week’s ‘From West Hartford’s Archives’ …

By Jeff Murray

This photograph was taken on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1904 at the entrance to the Town Office Building, located at the northwest corner of Farmington Avenue and Main Street (now the Veterans Memorial). What was going on in West Hartford during that week?

On Monday, Aug. 22, 1904, Ethel Strong married Charles H. Pease, a man from Canaan. It was held at 2 p.m. at the Strong house, her parents being Joseph H. Strong and Amelia Wheeler. Her father worked as an early constable, then a horse trainer, and then managed a real estate business. The house was decorated with evergreen, goldenrod, and potted plants, with a dinner set gifted by the bride’s former office associates at the R. G. Dun & Company in Hartford, one of the earliest credit reporting agencies in the U.S. After their honeymoon, Ethel moved to Canaan with Charles, who was employed there. She would visit her parents in West Hartford often. She lived in Canaan until her death at the end of 1963, and she did not leave any survivors besides her two sisters.

The next day opened with a caucus meeting of the Democrats in West Hartford, where local party members gathered to select the delegates for the upcoming conventions. Held at the Town Hall (the former Congregational Church), over 30 people participated, with some others excluded because their names weren’t on the caucus list. Delegates were chosen to represent the town at the State convention, the Congressional convention, the Senatorial convention, and the Probate convention. These conventions would then decide on the Democratic candidates for elections at those levels.

The delegates chosen tell us a lot about the Democratic Party in West Hartford in 1904 – the majority of those selected were from a single area – Park Road through Oakwood Avenue to New Park Avenue. All four of the Congressional delegates lived on Oakwood Avenue and other delegates, Dennis Ahern and Frank Stadtmueller, were immensely powerful in the south end of West Hartford. Stadtmueller served as president of the caucus, leading the discussion and overseeing the nomination process.

At some point in the day, the featured photograph was taken outside of the Town Office Building, which had been built a few years prior to house all of the town records and expand operations from the town hall. Seen on the left is Henry C. Whitman, the town clerk and treasurer. He had succeeded his father Samuel as treasurer in 1890 at the age of 26, and he would retire from the town clerk’s office entirely in 1929.

Later in the evening, the West Hartford Grange held its only meeting for the month. The Grange at a high level not only supported the farmers and producers in town, but also lobbied for rural issues in general, typical of a small town like West Hartford. Four years before, they had initiated a Rural Free Delivery mail service, the first in Connecticut. The Grange served as a community organization that fundraised through dances, picnics, fairs, and lectures. In fact, Frank Stadtmueller gave a lecture to the group six months before on the production of milk. He was, after all, the manager of the Vine Hill dairy farm owned by the Beach family.

On Wednesday, news reached residents that Frank Hayes, an employee at St. Mary’s Home for the Aged, was appointed special constable in response to a recent incident where a so-called “deranged” man caused a disturbance. Disturbances were surprisingly common at the home – chicken thieves, conmen, drunk middle-aged women, and family disputes. Nearly a decade before, the brand new facility was built at Albany Avenue and Steele Road (and it is still there today). Extensive remodeling was being done throughout July of 1904 when this man made a disturbance and it was apparently enough to warrant deputizing one of the employees for the remainder of the year. I couldn’t find any more information on him, so I assume it all worked out.

Back in West Hartford Center, Edgar Linn was starting the process of packing up his belongings – he and his wife Harriet had just sold their house on Farmington Avenue and was planning to move to 33 Arnoldale Road, which had just been recently constructed. Arnoldale Road was barely a new street by 1904 and only a few houses had been built at the intersection of Farmington Avenue by this point. Linn had been the Secretary-Treasurer of the Connecticut Building & Loan Association and would go into the real estate business as a dealer soon after. Real estate transactions in West Hartford were always ongoing, but this is the only one of note that happened in this week.

In 1898, Linn had bought the Farmington Avenue house from Francis Butler, a Civil War veteran who lived in the section of the Center now dominated by the Central Theater block. Linn bought the house just before Francis died and now, after six years of occupation, he was selling it to Francis’ daughter Susie Andrews. Susie was in the early stages of building her real estate empire with her husband Myron – by 1920, she would control the most valuable land in the Center (and a lot of it). The real estate holdings were later managed by each of her four children as the Andrews Corporation, which exists under a slightly different name today.

At the end of Wednesday night, the North End Endeavor Society held a fundraising social with an ice cream and cake sale at the North School, which was just north of Bishop’s Corner. West Hartford had a number of local branches of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor (YPSCE), which had been founded in Maine in 1881 and had grown into a global movement by 1904. This society in West Hartford encouraged young people to participate in church leadership and spiritual development; created prayer meetings, Bible studies, and moral discussions; and organized charity and missionary work to help the poor, visit the sick, and support the movement against alcohol and gambling. The North End Endeavor Society was the first one in West Hartford with 12 members. Twenty years later, they were up to 60, which is quite impressive for an area of town that did not have that many people. It was common to see ice cream and cake sales, popcorn socials, and dances, all appealing to younger residents.

On Friday, Aug. 26, the Republican caucus was held at the town hall. Fifty voters were present and the meeting lasted only a few minutes – all of the delegates were chosen without a ballot (except for one). Like the Democratic caucus, the delegates chosen were often powerful movers and shakers, like Frederick Rockwell (who built the Boulevard in 1896), Charles A. Griswold of a large family, and First Selectman Everett T. Stanley.

Meanwhile, West Hartford residents came together across the street for a large church social at the Congregational Church’s parsonage and lawn on South Main Street. Organized by the church’s social committee, it took the form of a reception for Dr. Caroline F. Hamilton, who was leaving soon for Turkey in early September for missionary work. Hamilton was the daughter of Benedict and Electa Hamilton, who lived at the corner of what is now Trout Brook Drive and Farmington Avenue. Born in 1861, she graduated from Hartford Public High School and then from Smith College in 1885. She attended the New York Women’s Medical College and then interned in the hospital after she graduated. This college was one of the few places where women could study medicine. She worked for a time as visiting physician in college settlement work in New York and then at the New York Infant Asylum.

The Settlement House Movement of the 1880s and 1890s focused on social services, healthcare, infant mortality, and education for immigrants and the poor – all under the umbrella of the larger Progressive Era reform movement. In 1892, Caroline was appointed to a hospital in Turkey as a medical missionary, where she served on-and-off for 30 years. Chrisitan missionary work had expanded significantly and the Women’s Medical Missionary Movement sent doctors abroad to provide medical care and evangelize, particularly in Asia and the Middle East.

In Aintab, southern Turkey (now the city of Gaziantep), Hamilton worked closely with Armenian and other Christian minorities, which coincided with a period of increasing violence and repression by the ruler of the Ottoman Empire. Dr. Hamilton often returned home to West Hartford and gave lectures on her experiences there. The Congregational Church here played a direct role in supporting her travels and work there (and this church social on Friday the 26thof August was one of the many send-offs). During World War I, she transitioned to Red Cross work and cared for many of the thousands of Armenians that were deported or ultimately killed during the Armenian Genocide.

In 1920, after the war, Turkish forces fought against  French occupation forces besieging Aintab. In the process, the Armenians were victims of three massacres and the hospital Hamilton worked at had to be abandoned after an attack by a Turkish mob. She sought refuge in Beirut, Lebanon, where she ran an orphanage for 300 children. After the violence calmed and the modern Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 after independence, Hamilton returned to Gaziantep until she retired in 1932 and returned to the U.S., where she died in 1944.

Forty years before her death, in this week in August 1904, she was being given a farewell before yet another trip overseas for medical work. The hospital she worked at – Azariah Smith Memorial Hospital – is today named MMT Amerikan Hastanesi (and I wonder what Dr. Hamilton would even think of the idea of me looking at the hospital’s Instagram page, which has 5,000 followers).

The summer of 1904, like many summers of this era, was quite slow. Many residents were simply on vacation.

Herbert and Harold Wells, around 20 years old, were camping in New Hampshire. Nettie Thomson and her son Carlyle were enjoying a trip to the West. Alexander Keeney and his wife were hosting friends through the week. A dozen people were at the beach – the Connecticut shoreline has always been the go-to for those who could afford it – the Flagg and Foote families were at Crescent Beach; the Ellsworths and Conrads were in Madison; and Frank J. Dellert was noted as simply “away” for the summer. Walter Brigham and family, who lived in a cottage where the Central Theater would be built a quarter century later, were camping out of the state.

Eugenia Flagg (of the Flagg family on Flagg Road, of course) was celebrating her fifth year as an actress on the stage. In 1899, she had won a scholarship from the Wheatcroft Dramatic School and since then had been featured at several theaters. She worked in companies with actors like Joseph Jefferson and Otis Skinner. She became a prolific author and playwright until World War I when she was appointed organizing secretary of the British, French, and Belgian Blind Relief War Fund of New York and London. She died in 1942 in Manhattan, having never married.

Sometimes it’s good to focus on ordinary people, daily events, and lived experiences rather than the major milestones. Unfortunately, not every person and event makes it into the history books, but local newspapers and snippets from life, like this sleepy week in August 1904, bring a richer depth to the past.

Jeff Murray was born and raised in West Hartford and has been involved with the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society since 2011 when he was a high school student and won the Meyer Prize for his essay on local history. Jeff routinely volunteers as local history researcher uncovering information for numerous museum programs such as the West Hartford House Tour and West Hartford Hauntings. Jeff works as a data analyst at Pratt & Whitney.

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