The Old Naugatuck Hotel
By William Ward
Naugatuck, Conn. 1906

The land on which the Old Naugatuck Hotel stood was deeded by Irijah Terrell to his daughter Hannah, wife of Chauncey Lewis, as part of her portion, estimated at 300 dollars and containing 30 rods of land. Chauncey Lewis must have commenced building the hotel in the year 1804 as appears by the following, Ansel Terrell to Chauncey Lewis: A piece of land in the Society of Salem, containing about forty foots of land, it being land on which the east part of the house stands, which she said Chauncey is now building.
August 9th, 1804

The writer’s first knowledge of the hotel was during the ownership and management of Mr. Beecher. His earliest recollection of the tavern or hotel was about 1831 or 2. It was a great pleasure for the boys in those days to race from the afternoon school to the hotel, to see the New Haven and Litchfield stage pass on its way, carrying the United States Mail.

The stage attracted more attention then than the railroad cars do now. On the upper floor of the hotel at that time there was a fine ball room, extending across the entire front of the building. In this room the writer first saw an exhibition of slight of hand and the first Punch and Judy show.

The other event occurring on St. John’s day, was the rough and tumble fight. At that time there was living in Naugatuck a young man by the name of Goodyear, he was said to possess remarkable strength. He was not called a quarrelsome person but in a rough and tumble contest, he always downed his man. His courage and pluck was well known in the surrounding towns, and he soon became known as the champion bully of the Naugatuck valley. On the St. John’s day referred to, William H. Ellis, the Collector of the Port of New Haven came from New Haven to aid the Masonic celebration. Mr. Ellis had a coachman a big burly fellow, the best bully of New Haven City. He had heard of young Goodyear and he soon commenced to bluster and brag that before the sun set he would whip him. It was said that he sought his man and dared him to fight but Goodyear declined and it was only after he had slapped the young man in the face that young Goodyear consented. Soon a large crowd was seen rushing up Cannon Hill. A crowd of boys cautiously followed. The most we saw was that Goodyear had his man down and was pounding him hard, but his brother Nelson and others interfered. I remember that the bully from New Haven got up and the boys saw his bloody face they said “He’s licked.” One trial with young Goodyear was enough and the New Haven bully was quiet the rest of the day.

During the winter of 1837 and 1838 an incident occurred at Salem hotel which was unusual and interesting. At that time the rebellion in Canada was in full blast. An English officer of high rank with a number of his staff passed through Salem on the stage, they being on their way to Canada to assist in the suppression of the rebellion. This officer was of gigantic frame, being considerable over six feet in height. Such a conspicuous person in British regiments soon attracted attention. While this officer and his staff were eating their supper, the guard, not caring to leave the strong iron bound money box in the stage carried it into the hotel and stood guard over the box until it was returned to the stage coach. This precaution seemed unnecessary to those standing about for they said, “What do we want of British gold?”

Another interesting event occurred in the year of 1841 in that year Lyman Bradley and George Beecher commenced the manufacture of pocket cutlery in the old factory at the west end of the Naugatuck Bridge. This was the first attempt to establish this industry in this country. They obtained their skilled workmen from England and until their families came to this country all of the Englishmen boarded at the Naugatuck Hotel. At that time there were more foreign born persons in the hotel than had ever been seen in any building in this part of Waterbury. It was interesting to the people of Naugatuck to observe the new comers, for they brought with them their peculiar ways and customs.

Source - Naugatuck Historical Society Newsletter, January–February 2006 issue