The Press., 1910-08-24
WILMINGTON.
Rsmiaisesness of WiIlnstsn by Native of ths
 Town-No. g.

c6nceE of WilltDRCOn, last Wlu6efs | referred to the organization and growth of the Wilmington Thread company as the first company to manufacture what has been known as spool cotton In this country. told of it's growth from it's organization in
 1S40 to it's merging with Willimantic
 Linen company in 1858 9, and of the evolution of the manufacture of the spools that were needed. There was
 a missing link in my chain of the evolution that was supplied . few
 weeks later by an old friend, also a
 native of the town, Ira Dimock of
 Hartford. He was. as he says, that
 broker link, and I recall very dis
 tinctly the time to which he refers
 and of the building of the rough
 stone house just across the brook. nearly opposite the then home of Wall
 ter Nswcome and Charles Morrison.
 I also remember of being in his spool
 department and watching the manu-
 facture of the spools from the birch poles that he then used. There is 9
 great deal said in these days about
 conservation of our resources. and es-
 pecially of our forests, so trust that
 will be pardoned in suggesting to
 the farmers of Holland county to con-
 serve their white birch poles. It is a curious fact, perhaps not too well
 known, that the white birch is the only wood from which spools for silk and cotton thread has been successful ly manufactured, unless 1t has been done very recently. The companies composing the American Thread tom
 pany have for many years been cutting township after township of birch from the forests of Maine. The paper, or what is known as the cut-leaf birch of the northern forests, is of rapid growth and attains to quite 8 large size, while the birch poles of Oonneo- ticut ssldom grow to more than three or four inches in diameter, and I presume that since their use has be come so common few are allowed to grow larger than are required for spools In letter in The Press some weeks ago referred to the building of the Dea Turner house by E. P. Williams in the summer of 1849, and that is a good point to resume these "reminiscences. MT. Williams was also native of the town, born about 1915 in what was then known as the Topliff district, and was the youngest know but very little, but of him. I know that he was 8 self made man, one whom I ever respected for his mortal worth during long and inti- mate acquaintance of more than forty years He had the courage of his and when convinced that he was right it was hard to convince him that he was wrong, and he was sometimes called stubborn by those who thought different from him
 Knowing from my parents of his early life, I have often remarked that that ipfisxible trait in his character was
 
 honored him so much the more. When quite young he left Wilmington and entered the employ of the old Rock company of Rockville, then just at it's beginning, in their repair shop. As the master mechanic of those days he had also the building of the tene. ment houses for the oompany, and 1t gave him 8 chance to become 8 good house builder as we'll as machinist. He was a good natural mechanic and what he did he did we'll About 184O he warried one Charlotte Love- land of Glastonbury, and returned to
 Wilmington and lived in the red house that was afterwards owned and ccou. pied by the late Dea. Turner, and there I think all of his children were born. He soon won the respect of the community, and as he devoted
 himseH entirely to his trade he had
 all that he could do, and in the carly
 forties had to do with the building of a number of houses and other build ings that are still to be seen in the town. Among those that recall are the Baptist conference room, the Solyman Taylor or Lucius Preston place, which Anton Wostrel now owns and occupies, the Bancroft place or what has been known as the M L.
 Dimock place, and the Marcus John- son place at the Glass Factory. He gave me my first lessons as carpenter in the few days that he worked for my father early in 1844, just as he was taken i'll of very severe illness that lasted him all of that summer. After he was token III in the spring of 1844 father engaged Jonathan 0. Walker to complete the repairs that Mir. Williams began. I was then Is years of age and able to do a mans work on the farm, and my brother, two years younger, was we'll grown ! and could lock after the farm while l the repairs were going on, so tot k | my first lessons as carpenter. Mr. l Walker furnished me with the tools | and my first lesson, as I recall it, was the blaming and beveling of what was then almost the only olapboard in use, the Union pine clapboards, sawed | about seven inches wide and one. half inch thick. In the fall of 1844 Il worked with MT. Walker two months, and had my second lesson as a car penter in some repairs that he was making for H. O. Rider on tho house near the Ashford line. I think that it W as the house since occupied by Mr. Upham. My lesson, that recall very distinctly, was the blaming of l oak floor boards In the evening, by tallow dip candles, while Mr.. Walker and MT. Rider sat on the benches and ohatted. The boards, aS recall them, were of yellow oak that were grown