Shirts "By far the largest industrial production in Wilton at the outbreak of the Civil War was the making of shirts. Two plants, of about the same size, turned out 8000 dozen per year with a value of $80,000. This was about half of the total industrial production of Wilton, $179,100 per year."
Lewis Olmstead started making shirts around 1835. "They were of common calico with puff bosoms. There being as yet no sewing machines, all the work had to be done by hand. The patterns were cut by Mr. Olmstead at his home and the work done by women on the farms. After 1850, when the sewing machines of Wheeler & Wilcox of Bridgeport came into general use, Mr. Olmstead's business greatly increased so that by 1860 150 women were working on his shirts.
In 1860 the Olmstead shirt factory used each year 20,000 yards of linen cloth at 35 cents a yard and 50,000 yards of muslin at 12 cents. The cutter rreceived $40 a month and the 150 sewing machine operators $12 a month each. On a gross of $40,000 for 4,000 doz. shirts, the net was about $5,200 on a capital investment of $5,000.
William A. Sturges also had a shirt factory doing almost exactly the same amount of business. He was 41 in 1860 and living in the house west of the Salt Pound where Henry Tompson, the artist, later resided (d. 1937). His factory, however, was in the Center at what was in 1840 the site of the Post Office. He also employed 150 women and one cutter. His product was also valued at $40,000 per year with a profit of $5,200. During the Civil War he bought the former St. Matthews church building and moved it to the Center. Here he had a store on the ground floor and probably continued the shirt business on the upper floors."
Keeler had a somewhat larger production and a much larger profit. This was because he specialized in men's boots worth $3 a pair while Benedict made the cheaper women's shoes at $1..... In 1860, when he was 46, he had an investment of $7,000 and employed 20 men and 4 women. He produced 2,000 pairs of men's boots at $3, 3,000 of men's shoes at $2, and 8,000 pairs of ladies' shoes at $1. The total gross was $20,000 a year.....His male employees made $30 a month, as against $40 for shirt cutters. The women earned the same amount as in the shirt factories, $12 a month....Keeler had accumulated $15,000 in personal property by 1860, the second largest amount in Wilton.
Frederick Reed Benedict was a Norwalk man who bought his home and shoe factory on Belden's Hill from his father-in-law, Seth Osborn in 1829.... By 1860 he was 55 yeas of age with $2,000 invested in the shoe business and 18 employees, 10 men and 8 women. His product was 12,000 pairs of women's shoes at $1 a pair."
George Green & Co., being the brothers George and Marcellus Green, both young men, had their slaughter house on the Westport road. Between them they owned 35 acres and kept some livstock. The slaughter house was valued at $2,000. With three male employees, earning about $25 a month each, they slaughtered 175,000 lbs of meat a year which they sold at about 7.2 cents a lb or $12,500. As the animals cost them $10,500, and wages were $900 the profit of $1,100 a year for the two partners was not very substantial.
Egbert Smith was an older man who was already a butcher in 1850. He had a farm of 40 acres at the foot of Nod Hill. With 2 employees he dressed 90,000 lbs of meat a year. His profit was about $1,000.
Although the butchers accounted for $19,500 worth of animal products a year, even more were killed on the farms, $21,234 worth. The combined $40,734, or about 512,200 lbs of meat would have provided 230 lbs per year for every man, woman and child in the town. As Americans consumed only 140 lbs of meat per capita in 1940, the Wilton product of 1860 must have been largely intended for shipment to Norwalk or New York."
Perry Andrews of Redding was operating the new sawmill at Georgetown, valued at $2,000, which had been built by Abraham Cotrell of New Jersey after 1855. Andrews cut 200,000 board feet of "ship and other timber", twice the amount of any of his competitors. With two employees earning $25 a month, Andrews made about $1,400 a year from his water power mill.
Charles Morgan and George Whitlock each had sawmills in the Nod district. They each cut 100,000 board feet, had one employee each, and the same gross, $3,500, of which they retained $1,700 a year as profit.
William Daniel Gregory's sawmill on the Fall branch was probably only a side line to his farm of 160 acres. This had been the Hickox mill, the oldest in Wilton. He cut only 75,000 board feet a year and employed one sawyer, Moses Lockwood.. Ou of his gross of $@,800, he had only about $500 profit. Whether he still operated the grist mill at the falls does not appear in the census. In fact, no grist mills are listed in Wilton."
The southern dam furnished power for Samuel Perry. Here Dr. Nehemiah Perry of Ridgefield had converted the stone textile mill, built by John Seymour Taylor in 1831, into a spice mill... When he had installed the necessary grinding machinery, he called this the "Glenburg Chemical Works". It was very successful, the Glenbury spices being sold all over the statte as was a lline of patent medicines also made by Dr. Perry... The management of the mill had devolved onto his son, Samuel Perry, aged 28.
The value of the mill is given as $8,000. With three employees it ground 20,000 lbs. of spices having a value of $7,000. As the cost of material was $4,500 and wages $1,200, the profit was about $1,300 a year"
The second plant of Gilbert, Bennett & Co. in Wilton made coal hods. The production was 1,500 doz. per year selling at $9,000 or 50 cents each. The 20,000 lbs of sheet iron used cost $5,000 and five employees were engaged at $30 a month each. The profit was therefore $2,200."
A second hub shop was in operation on the Saugatuck at the southeast corner of Wilton. Here Henry Finch, aged 57, was making 3,000 sets of hubs a year with three employees. He sold his hubs at an average of 83 cents or $2,500 and had a profit of $1,100 a year.
David Platt also had a hub shop on the Saugatuck where it is crossed by the road to Norfield. In 1860 he was 63 and is listed as a farmer. However, his neighbor, Henry A. Raymond, from Norwalk, is listed as a hub maker in 1860. Raymond had worked for Henry Finch in 1850 and was a turner.
The other wagon shop was on Belden's Hill just north of the Benedict shoe shop. Here the Rockwell brothers, Thomas Fitch and Jehiel Gregory had been building wagons for several years. They had no sawmill but were probably expert blacksmiths. Thomas died in 1858 but Jehiel continued the business. He was only 30 in 1860. His product was 20 wagons a year selling at an average of $75 each 0r $1500. With two employees at $30 a month, 5,000 lbs of iron at $200 and6,000 board feet of lumber at $200, the profit was only $380 a year. However, this was probably a winter occupation for Rockwell who had a farm of 83 acres with a horse, a pair of oxen and 7 cattle."
A unique specialty shop in Wilton was Stephen Riches' plant for making cane ferrules on Grumman's Hill...Stephen was a brazier and turner by trade who probably developed some original ideas in the making of steel tips for canes. Jacob C. Hoffman, a young man of 25 from New York, was his assistant. Together they turned out 600 gross of ferrules a year which they sold at 20 cents a dozen for $1,500...Riches died here in 1865 and his business then ceased. Hoffman became a teacher in the Whitlock Academy and also ran a school of his own on Drum Hill."
