All Aboard for the Holidays a

Tremendous Success

We would like to thank and acknowledge all the people who were instrumental in making our holiday event a success.

First, thank you to HHS board member, Bill Schneider for all the work he did including crafting the five beautiful model Haddam train stations which were auctioned to support the museum. These models were works of art and will be cherished by their new owners for years to come. Bill also brought pieces of his significant train collection to display and set up mid-1940s vintage Lionel trains for all to enjoy.

A big shout out to Brendan Matthews, a mover and shaker in the Friends of the Valley Railroad, who researched and wrote a comprehensive history of the five train stations in town with the assistance of Max Miller. Brendan also displayed a number of artifacts from his extensive collection as well.

Cindy Sola and Lynn MacLennan were responsible for our lovely Holiday store and did a tremendous job stocking and decorating for season. Their commitment is unmatched. Cindy was also responsible for making our lovely kissing balls.

We can’t forget to thank the volunteers who assisted:

Sue Costa

Gloria Gorton

Bill Gresham

Tracy and Kevin LaComb

Dianne McHutchison

Kate Morrison

Nancy Myers

Sarah Neal

Cindy O’Neill

Terry and Carol Smith

Susan Thompson

Thank you also to those who donated “greens” to make our kissing balls. 

Thank you to Terri’s Package Store for libations for our members event.

Thank you to Essex Steam Train for the generous donation for our raffle drawing

The Scovil Hoe Archives

In 2016 the Haddam Historical Society received an extensive donation of material from the American Precision Museum in Vermont related to the D. & H. Scovil hoe company of Higganum, Connecticut. The collection included Day Books, Payroll Journals, Ledgers, Letter Copying Books, and Order Books dating from 1844 to the early 1940s. This treasure trove consisted of 35 bankers boxes containing 281 volumes of detailed information related to the company.

Lindamae Peck, a historical society board member and Higganum native, volunteered to review the donation and figure out exactly what we had. Dr. Peck. who is a retired research geophysicist from the Signature Physics Branch, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, has a special connection to the Scovil firm. Her grandfather, Eugene Burr, and Orlando Burr, her great- grandfather, were employees at D & H Scovil in managerial positions as bookkeepers and company superintendent.

First, Lindamae methodically catalogued the volumes in each box and identified the dates, contents and people involved with each specific book. The volumes, which range almost a hundred years, included handwritten ledgers, rice-paper copying pages and typed records. The material also includes payroll records that identify employees who worked and lived in Higganum during our industrial heyday.

Next, Lindamae started meticulously going through the actual books and discovered the volumes covered everything from individual orders, shipping records, daily running accounts of income and expenses and even the personal account book of Hezekiah Scovil, Sr., the father of Daniel and Hezekiah Jr., who started D. & H. Scovil. These records tracked the number hoes made, who bought them and where they were shipped.

Lindamae spent considerable time reviewing the volumes and selected a few specific time-periods to do exhaustive review and research which resulted in (so far) three comprehensive and fascinating talks on the D & H Scovil company which she presented in 2017, 2018 and 2019. A Year in the Life of D. & H. Scovil Dec. 1889 to Dec. 1890; D. & H. Scovil: The Early Years Including the Manufacturing of Gun Barrels; and D. & H. Scovil: Through the Civil War Years (1854 – 1865). These talks can be viewed through our website at www.haddamhistory.org. Furthermore, Lindamae’s work has been used to prepare the National Register Nomination for the Scovil buildings and the video on the Scovil complex prepared by Valley Shore Community TV.

In March, the Haddam Historical Society will host a fourth talk on D. and H. Scovil by Lindamae. This talk will cover the company’s recovery after the Civil War, which had severely curtailed the sale of hoes to the southern states to under a few 1000s, leading to the sale of 353,894 hoes in 1890.

We cannot thank Lindamae enough for the hours, weeks, and months she has dedicated to examining the Scovil boxes and for sharing her research and knowledge with us. This important collection offers a rare and in-depth look at the operations of a small, but successful New England manufacturing company. The Haddam Historical Society is honored to be the stewards of these significant archives.