History of Manchester, Connecticut, USA

Utilizing innovative silk production methods and new spinning technology, the company became the largest and wealthiest silk mill in the country by the late 1880s.

Manchester, Connecticut
Hartford county. An important manufacturing town on the Hockanum, a valuable mill stream, 10 miles E. from Hartford. The first cotton mill in this state was built here in 1794. There are three pleasant villages, six or seven paper mills, two powder mills, woolen and other manufactures. The face of the town is uneven, but the soil, a sandy and gravelly loam, is quite productive. It was called Orford, a parish in East Hartford, until its incorporation in 1823. Population, 1830, 1,576.

Manchester, a post-township of Hartford county, Connecticut, intersected by the Providence, Hartford, and Fishkill railroad, 8 miles E. from the city of Hartford. Pop., 2546.

In a paper mill in Manchester, Connecticut, is in use an improved machine, in building which the maker says that he followed the directions given by the spirit of his dead brother.

The machinery in a paper mill at Manchester, Connecticut, was stopped by four large eels blocking the wheels. One was taken out whole. Its length was three feet three inches, and its weight four and three fourths pounds. The other eels were so mutilated that they could not be measured, but they were all of enormous size. It took all day to get the eel fragments out of the wheel.

Hartford, Conn., March 28. - There was a bad accident on the New York and New England Railroad near Manchester at 8 o'clock this morning by which the engineer and fireman of a passenger train were killed. The train was an accommodation between Willimantic and Hartford. The crew was composed of CHARLES A. GRANT, conductor; JAMES E. KELSO, engineer, and THOMAS BOYLE, fireman. It left Manchester with three cars loaded with commuters bound for Hartford. Half a mile west of the station is a high railroad bridge over the Hockanum River. As the train approached the bridge the engineer shut off steam to slow up, when, without warning, the boiler burst. The force of the shock was terrific. The locomotive was shattered and the tender thrown from the track. The momentum of the train was sufficient to push the wrecked engine 200 feet. The front platform of the baggage car was demolished, but beyond that no serious damage was done to the train. With the explosion came a cloud of steam, which...

A young woman bookkeeper employed in an office at South Manchester, Connecticut, has been in the habit for some time past of giving the office cat a piece of meat for its lunch every day. Precaution is taken to lay a piece of paper under the meat to avoid greasing the floor. The other day, at lunch hour, when there was no meat, pussy begged for some in her most intelligent fashion, and at last going to the waste basket dragged forth her regular paper table cloth and laid it properly for the meat.

Manchester, a post-village and township of Hartford co., Conn., on the Hockanum River, 9 miles by rail B.N.B. of Hartford. Two weekly newspapers are published. The township contains 7 churches, paper-mills, cotton-mills, and woollen-, silk-, gingham-, and stockinet factories. Pop. of the township in 1890, 8222.