Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/501

 HARTFORD 487 luring which time steamers run daily to New r ork and different points on the river, and in summer to various watering places on Long Island sound. There are also lines of steam- ers to Philadelphia and Baltimore, and packet ines to New York, Boston, Albany, Phila- lelphia, and other points. Railroad com- mnication with New York and the principal in New England is furnished hy the i"ew Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, the [artford, Providence, and Fishkill, the Con- lecticut Valley, and the Connecticut Western while local travel is accommodated by cars, by omnibus to West Hartford, and stages to the neighboring towns. Hartford ias an active trade with the surrounding coun- ry, and carries on an extensive wholesale busi- with the west and south. The tobacco of the immediate vicinity is mostly sold lere. The manufactures are varied and exten- ive, embracing iron and brass foundery prod- steam engines and boilers, screws, sad- jry hardware, carriage hardware, sewing ma- les, files, water wheels, forgings, wire, steel, lachinists' tools, plumbers' materials, lawn lowers, eyelets, stone ware, britannia ware, Iver-plated ware, gold pens, spectacles, or- is, carriages, sash, doors, and blinds, wool- rag carpets, envelopes, saddlery and har- beer, gin, soap for fulling and scouring, fertilizers, &c. Three companies are en- in the manufacture of firearms, Sharps's and Colt's pistols being manufactured 3re. The Colt company has a capital of >1, 000,000, and possesses works and grounds >vering 123 acres diked in from the river. )heney brothers, an incorporated company, rith a capital of $1,000,000, manufacture silk Is and sewing silk ; their principal mills in South Manchester. The aggregate value the manufactures for 1873 was about $10,- ),000. Including the New York and New England railroad company, with a capital of ), 000, 000, there are 103 incorporated com- lies in Hartford, having an aggregate cap- of $37,740,300, of which about one half manufacturing companies, 8 or 10 are lining companies, and the rest are trans- station companies, benevolent associations, Book publishing is extensively carried 11 firms being engaged in the business, greater part of the books published here sold by subscription through agents, who employed in all parts of the country, le city contains 14 hotels. There are 10 itional banks, with an aggregate capital of 5,562,800 ; 2 state banks, with $650,000 eap- " ; 5 savings institutions, with deposits, Jan. L, 1873, amounting to $10,041,600 65 ; and 3 trust companies, with a capital of $650,000. "" deposits of " the society for savings," in- sorporated in 1819, alone amounted to $7,020,- 54. The insurance business is proportion- ally far more extensive than that of any other city of the United States, and has ramifications all parts of the country. The number of fire insurance companies is 8, having an aggre- gate capital of $7,100,000, besides 2 mutual companies, with cash assets, Jan. 1, 1873, amounting to $152,341 18. The oldest com- pany is the Hartford, incorporated in 1810, and having a capital of $1,000,000. The ^Etna, with a capital of $3,000,000, was incorporated in 1819, and in 54 years paid losses to the amount of $39,000,000. There are 8 life in- surance companies (3 mutual), a life and ac- cident, and an accident insurance company, having gross assets, Jan. 1, 1873, to the amount of $78,330,201. The Connecticut mutual com- pany, incorporated in 1846, had nearly $35,- 000,000 assets; the ^tna, over $17,500,000; the Connecticut general, about $10,800,000; and the Phoenix mutual, over $8,000,000. The aggregate assets of the banking and insurance companies at the beginning of 1874 were over $135,000,000. The city is divided into 7 wards, and is governed by a mayor holding office for two years, a board of aldermen of 14, and a common council of 28 members. One alder- man is elected annually from each ward for two years; the councilmen hold office one year. The recorder holds the city court, and the police judge, with an associate, the police court. The police force consists of 40 men. A paid fire department was organized in 1864; it comprises six steam engines, one hook and ladder, and two hose companies. A fire alarm telegraph is in operation, with 35 alarm boxes, and there are 261 hydrants and 5 reservoirs. Works were erected in 1855 (still maintained to meet any emergency) for pumping water from the Connecticut river, which supplied the city till 1867, when the new works at West Hartford went into operation. These works furnish water from a stream in that town to two reservoirs, one having a capacity of 165,- 000,000 and the other of 229,000,000 gallons, whence it is distributed through nearly 54 m. of mains. The total cost of apparatus for sup- plying the city with water to March 1, 1873 V was $1,065,826. The streets are well paved and drained, and lighted with gas. The ordi- nary receipts into the city treasury for the year ending April 1, 1873, amounted to $638,691 72 ; the ordinary expenditures, including $100,000 for the purchase of the Trinity college grounds, were $648,196 16; total receipts, $1,160,115- 05; total expenditures, $1,157,793 89. The floating debt was $221,404 ; funded debt, $1,- 986,000. The sinking fund amounted to $161,- 167. The grand list, or assessed valuation of the town, in 1860, was $24,813,190; in 1865, $36,948,305 ; in 1870, $44,509,427 ; in 1872, $45,676,497. Sessions of the United States cir- cuit and district courts are held here annually. The benevolent organizations of Hartford are numerous. The American deaf and dumb asy- lum was chartered in 1816. The main build- ing is 130 ft. by 50, and four stories high. In 1873 the asylum had 18 teachers, 280. pupils, and a library of 2,500 volumes. (See DEAF AND DUMB.) The Connecticut retreat for the in-