Magyar News, 1993. szeptember-1994. augusztus (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1994-04-01 / 8. szám

A HELPING HAND OF 100 YEARS

by Dr. Alexander Havadtoy

The First United Church of Christ is celebrating their 100th Anniversary this year. Recently Rev. Dr. Alexander Havadtoy was invited to give a sermon. We are happy to be able to share it with our readers, because of its content, history of our Hungarian churches, and the spirit of our forefathers.

My Dear Friends:

Antioch of Syria, the city mentioned in our text, was founded by the Greek leader Seleucus Nicator in 300 B.C. who named the city Antioch for his father. When Rome took control of the city, it became the capital of the new Roman province, called Syria. The city was beautified, roads were built theaters were constructed, fresh waterpipes installed, a seaport was added, and as a result the city became the third greatest city in the Greco-Roman world, being surpassed only by Rome and Alexandria. The city prospered in every respect and looked forward to a great future.

The city of Bridgeport was like Antioch one hundred years ago. It was an expanding city with a rapidly growing industrial base and a growing seaport with thousands of ships coming and departing. This was the age of innocence and yet of sophistication, of exaggeration and gaudiness. Yet it was withal a live age of hopefulness and expectations and anticipations, a riotous era filled with great investments and even greater aspirations.

That was the age when men treated women with extreme politeness, superfluous gestures and flowery speech, but spent much of their time at the “lodge” or at the crossroads talking politics. Women embroidered, gossiped, entertained and fainted. No wonder that they fainted frequently for it was not only fashionable, it was a mark of refinement. Considering the corsets they wore, it is a wonder that they were able to remain conscious at all. Behind them they dragged a huge bustle with bone, stiff cambric or even newspapers. From the girdle hung two or three bags, some metal junk and a fan. A tight bodice with high neck was accentuated by enormouspuff sleeves, while atop a hat decked out wit ribbons, birds,

cherries or ostrich plumes. Veil, lace gloves, button boots and a parasol completed the outfit. Under all this paraphernalia every breath was a misery but which was absolutely necessary to maintain the hour-glass figure. Wasp waists for the ladies and waxed whiskers for the men were the fashion of the age.

Thus garbed, you can imagine the ladies walking down Main Street with their mustachiod husbands, resplendent in their tight striped trousers, short light overcoats, derby hats, spats and razor pointed patent leather shoes.

That was the age when the “working girls” were just coming into their own in the city. The boys who had been employed at the telephone switchboards were too rude and vulgar, therefore they were replaced by girls. When Underwood invented the typewriter, they became invaluable in the office, with a salary that ranged from $10.00 to $30.00 a month.

That was the age when the automobile came to town. Dr. Beete of Wood Avenue, created no end of commotion when he drove down Main Street in his new locomobile steam car. The car was operated under steam power, generated in a boiler under the driver’s seat, a gasoline bumerproviding the heat. Motoring in those days was more of a trial than a joy. It was not an uncommon sight in those days to see an automobile halt at a horse trough to replenish the boiler. Not only did the car prove obstinate and balky, it continually lost parts, and owners often rigged up aprons beneath the car to catch pieces as they were jolted off. Driving was a dirty job especially along the dusty roads, and goggles, veils and dusters were the order of the day.

That was the age when Bridgeport’s famous “mounted Police” were inaugurated, mounted not on Arabian Steeds, but on bicycles. Officers mounted on bicycles were sent to Beardsley Park and to Seaside Park during the months of June, July and August. A scandal was brewing at the police department. The incumbent police chief, John Rylands, was slated to go. But he wouldn’ t leave, and because the police board was made up of eight men who were evenly divided for or against the chief, it was impossible to get a majority. The politicians in power found a solution for the problem by prevailing upon the state legislature to abolish the office of chief-ofpolice, thereby abolishing also, Rylands. As soon as he was out of the way, the office of superintendent of police was inaugurated and another man was installed in office. This is the reason that Bridgeport has no chief of police but a superintendent of police to this day.

And what extravagance! Two fire houses were built on Cedar Street and Golden Hill for which the city council appropriated $75.00 each.

The policemen and firemen petitioned for uniforms but were advised that in view of the “heavy taxation and other embarrassments” only caps and belts could be provided and $120.00 was appropriated for that purpose. To make matters worse, these articles belonged to the city and were to be left at the headquarters. However, to make up for this, new stars and shields were ordered all around.

In those days, drunks were a greater source of concern to the police force than burglars or murderers. Their main job was to turn on the gaslights on the streets and to turn them off at 11:00 p.m.

That was the age when the formerly pastoral landscape turned into a dynamo of industrial energy. Bridgeport became the center of the world in a sense. Goods and machines, manufactured here, played a role in every American city and in practically every large industrial plant in the world. Automatic machines built in Bridgeport turned out products that were rebuilding the

world. Planes fabricated here were opening new air routes across azure seas. The manufacture of sewing machines was one of the most important industries in the city’s history. Then came the Howe Corset Machine Company, the Couch and Wisner fine ladies shoes factory, the Diamond Saw Company, the Bridgeport Boiler Works, the Canfield rubber goods outfit, the Bridgeport Coach Lace Company. Then the huge plant which houses the General Electric Company was built, followed by the Bridgeport Brass, Remington Arms, Singer Manufacturing, Bullard, Underwood, Bryant Electric, Warner Brothers, Stanley Works, Raybestos, Jenkins Brothers, Harvey Hűbbel, Inc., Bridgeport Metal Goods and other giant industries numbering over 300 manufacturing establishments. Bridgeport was on its way to conquer the industrial world.

In the ancient world the growing city of Antioch with its commerce and industry and rebuilt seaport attracted thousands of people from all over the Roman empire. When the first Christian deacon, Stephen, was stoned to death in Jerusalem, the Christians began to flee to Antioch. Within a few years the cosmopolitan Antioch became the center of the Christian world.

The growing city of Bridgeport attracted thousands of European immigrants who flocked to the factories of this dynamic industrial center. Among other nationalities, Hungarians came by the thousands to this promising place and numbered over four thousand by the turn of the century. They did not come as settlers. They came only to make money! Bridgeport for them was the most ideal place. Being close to the water, they could return to their homeland easily with their hard earned monies. The precious dollars could buy four or five times as much as their equally strong homeland currency. If they ran out of money at home, they would return again and again to Bridgeport to replenish their wallets in order to purchase their neighbors land or build a new bam.

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