The Newtown bee., 1905-03-24

Rubber. The firm were also in part nership with Samuel B. Peck in the building still standing opposite MI Corbett's shoe store. Dick & Sanford also built many houses in Sandy .Hool for their workmen and were to the vii lage what the Fabric Fire Hose Go. k now,-the principal means of occupa tion. The partners boarded their ap prentices and David Noble, though he worked for the firm but a week, vivid. ly remembers how hungry the boys used to be after working from 12.3O p m. to 9 o'clock at night before stop ping for supper, and how busy they kept Mrs Dick frying pancakes to sat isfy their hunger. They allowed Sl.5( a week for board then. But lawine finally broke up the business. The firm first had a suit with Squire John Sanford, which they won, ano finally long and bitter contest be- tween the partners themselves was decided by the appointment of Samue. B. Peck as receiver to divide the prop. erty. Joseph Dick did not long sur vive the separation, dying in 1S46, the year that the dysentery ragged so fatal ly in Sandy Hook, 59 years of age. MI Dick died just as daguerrotypes began to be introduced and there is no pic. ture of him in existence. He is de. scribed, however as much like his son, the late William J. Dick, though less stocky and devoid of beard.
 MT Dick was twice married, first to Sarah Griffin, a woman brought up in Zoar, where she worked for Alfred D. Curtis, as we'll as for others. The late Mrs Wetmore of Mile Hill, who was related to Mrs Dick, remembered working in the family when they lived in the old house that stood in MT Hard's garden. Mrs Dick left two sons, Charles L., and John. MT Dick then married Electa Crittenden, moth CT of Landlord Dick, who survived her husband nine years, dying in 1855. She was New Jersey woman, though of Connecticut antecedents. She had a daughter, Clarissa, who married Jos eph Wheeler, tailor. Mrs Nathan Shepard relates that MT Wheeler was struck down during the dysentery at tack of 1846 while busy at his work. MT Dick moved into Abijah Merrltt's old house. Mir Merritt moving out when his new house was finished. The old house of MT Merritt stood where William Sherman lived and was moved off in about lS4O: when MT Dick built anew.
 After Dick & Sanford separated, the shop, which was MT Dicks own prop erty, was used for making screws and rivets. The three sons, Charles L., John and William J., carried on the business after their fathers death un- der the firm name of John Dick SJ Go. The firm turned 100 tons of wire year into rivets and made the first gimlet- pointed screws. Lorenzo Bidwell as- sisted in their invention and the ma chinery for their manufacture was made in the shop. The invention was not patented, however, and the New England screw company of Providence ruined the business and froze out the smaller concerns by putting down the price so that screws were sold 75 and 80 per cent below list prices. The firm rented power to Isaac Beers and other comb makers and also to Loren and LeGrande Platt, brother and cousin of the late William Platt, for the manu- facture of buttons. The business was finally wound up in 1856 and the shop was sold to the Rubber folks, who tore it down and flooded it's site. John had left in 1s49, going to California, where he was first alcalde, and then judge of court, member of the Legisla- ture and prominent man generally. He was interested in mining ventures and was sent as delegate to the Phila. delphia convention that nominated his friend, John c. Fremont, as a presidential candidate. This was the only time that he visited his boyhood home. John never married and died at Orovi]le, Cal, December Is, 1873, 59 years old.-his fathers age at death. John Dicks picture in his later years represents him as clean Shaven, like his father before him, though when he attended the Philadelphia conven- tion he wore a luxuriant beard. Charles l.. Dick went to the war in 1861 and died at Harper's Ferry, De. cember 22, 1862, aged AT years. He lived in Sandy Hook where Dr Betts | does.