The house at 88 Garden Street in the Forestville section of Bristol was built c. 1900. One of several houses on the street constructed by builder Austin Wooster, it was the home of James F. Holden (born 1858), who was a charter member of Palos Council 35, Knights of Columbus, and served as Forestville postmaster for over half a century, from the 1880s to the 1930s. His father was Felix Holden, who also lived on Garden Street for many years, and his brother was the prominent Hartford lawyer Benedict M. Holden (1874-1937).
In 1870, John Humphrey Sessions (1828-1899) of Bristol merged his wood turning business with a trunk hinge factory that had been established by his late brother, Albert J. Sessions. The company expanded in the following decades under the leadership of J. H. Sessions, who brought his son, John Henry Sessions, on as a partner. After the elder Sessions’ death in 1899, the family would continue to run the business well into the twentieth century. In addition to the hardware business, the family built a huge foundry on Farmington Avenue in 1895 and acquired a large clock factory on East Main Street in Forestville after taking over the E. N. Welch Manufacturing Company in 1902. Elisha N. Welch (1809-1887) had started manufacturing clocks in the 1850s. The company he founded began to decline after his death in 1887. Although it rebuilt its East Main Street factory complex a year after it was devastated by two fires in 1899, the firm had had to borrow money and continued to suffer financially. William E. Sessions, a son of John Humphrey Sessions, and his nephew, Albert L. Sessions, son of John Henry Sessions, soon bought enough Welch stock to take control of the company in 1902. They changed its name to the Sessions Clock Company on January 9, 1903. The company would flourish for many years, but went into decline after World War II. The company was sold in the 1950s and eventually liquidated. By the early 1970s the various factory buildings were sold off. The complex is now known as the Forestville Industrial Center and is now used by small industrial and commercial firms.
Wallace Barnes began manufacturing springs for clocks in Bristol in 1857. His grandsons, Fuller and Henry Barnes, developed the business into the Associated Spring Corporation, created by a merger of three companies in 1922. They also acquired other companies, including the spring-making firm of Dunbar Brothers. Fuller Barnes (1887-1955) served as president and his brother, Henry Clarke Barnes (1889-1966), was secretary-treasurer. In 1920, Fuller acquired a large property in Bristol where he and his brother would erect their mansions. Fuller built the Colonial Revival house called Copper Ledges in 1924 and Henry built the 32-room Tudor-style residence called Chimney Crest in 1930-1931. Located at 5 Founders Drive in Bristol, the house was designed by Perry & Bishop of New Britain. It was home to Henry and his wife, Lilian Houbertz Barnes (1891-1986) until they moved to Green Acre Farms on Perkins Street in Bristol. In the 1960s the Barnes mansions were used by Laurel Crest Academy, a prep school for boys, and more recently
The Forestville Passenger Station is a former train station in the village of Forestville in Bristol. It was built in 1881 by the New York and New England Railroad and remained in service until 1960. According to local tradition, the building was prefabricated elsewhere and delivered to Forestville by rail. The station originally had a two-story tower over the east entrance and vestibule, but this was destroyed in a fire in 1900. It was replaced by the current platform shelter that extends out from the east end of the building. When it opened, the station had thirteen passenger rail stops a day, which contributed to the economic prosperity of the village. The Roberge Painting Company owns and restored the historic station.
Peck has been taken into partnership with his father, since Sexennial, and their insurance agency is now run under the firm name of M. L. Peck & Son. He has been and still is a clerk in the Bristol Savings Bank, besides. “Took a trip to New York last fall,” he writes. “Was there three days. Stayed with one Dwight Rockwell. Did not see much of him. He was too busy making money. Took in a championship ball game between New York and the Athletics, also the Vanderbilt cup race. Dropped in the Yale Club and found Publius. He was sober. So was I.”
This concise staccato pervades Howard’s answers throughout. “Have you held political office?” “Close second.” “Have you done any teaching?” “One dog. Failure.” . . . “Please give your daughter’s date of birth.” “June 30, 1904. She is a peach.”
It is not clear whether Peck absents himself from class functions from a sense of caution or a wish to hoard. Or may it be, perhaps, a compassionate determination on his part no longer to invite a possibly fatal competition with his prowess?
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