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Map of the Town of Canaan, Litchfield Co. Conn.
Philadelphia: Published by Richard Clark, 42 Moyamensing Road, 1853. Lith. of Friend & Aub 80 Walnut St.; Wagner & McGuigan’s Lith Steam Press. Hand-colored lithograph, mounted on linen, 40” x 32.5” and attached to wooden rods. CONDITION: Good, dampstain to upper-left corner between “H. Ames’ Iron Works” and “Residence of Judge Burrall,” minimal dampstaining to upper portion near vignettes, some wear to upper edges of sheet, silk selvage perished. A scarce and handsome wall map of the Northwestern Connecticut iron-boom town of Canaan, with mines, ironworks, and sawmills shown along the Housatonic Railroad. This informative map shows the “Town of Canaan,” its ten administrative districts, and its notable environs. The town consists of a “Village” (identified on the map and vignettes as “Canaan”), which is the oldest part of the town, located in “District No. 2,” Huntsville, also in “District No. 2,” East Canaan in “District No. 1,” South Canaan in “District No. 6,” and Falls Village, the town center, in “District No. 10.” Identified throughout the map are prominent householders’ names, buildings, and such features as “Canaan” and “Barrack” mountains, and the “Housatonic R.R.” traveling north from Cornwall along the Housatonic River, connecting Districts No. 9, 1, 10, 8, and 2. Surrounding the map are vignettes of notable buildings in the region, including “H. Ames’ Iron Works, Falls Village, Ct.,” “Monk & Cook’s Store, Falls Village,” “M.C. Peck’s Hotel, Canaan Depot” (in Canaan Village), two “Congregational” churches in East and South Canaan, and several residences including those of the Brewster and Monson families. Additionally, there are two inset maps, one of Falls Village showing “H. Ames’ Iron Works,” “Canfield & Robbins’ Iron Works,” and a “Depot,” all situated along the “Housatonic R.R.,” “Water Co.,” and “Water Power,” and the other of the Village of Canaan, showing the “N. Beach Tin Facty,” a “Depot,” the “Blackberry River,” a tributary of the Housatonic, and a continuation of the Housatonic Railroad to the north. Known for its proximity to high quality iron ore in northwestern Connecticut, Canaan was one of the few producers of “Salisbury iron,” which was used to manufacture “nails, hinges, cooking utensils, hardware…plows…stoves…musket barrels, cannon and cannon balls…railroad car wheels, and locomotive driving wheel tires” (Kirby). Harnessing the waterpower from the “great Falls” of the Housatonic River, by the second quarter of the nineteenth century Canaan (especially the Falls Village district) saw the development of several iron works, chief among them Horatio Ames’ Iron Works, established in 1833. Upon its opening, “Ames Iron Works specialized in the production of train wheels. It also manufactured crowbars, railroad axles, wagon axles, railroad car wheels, and iron crankshafts” (Adam), which were all used to develop the nearby Housatonic railroad and other trains and railroads across the country. By the middle of the century, Ames’ “ironworks boasted over two hundred employees and one of the largest steam hammers in the United States. Over time, the complex grew so large that it became known as Amesville” (Adam). Supplemented by its many sawmills, furnaces, mines, and other iron works, while also boasting several depots to transport goods to and from the Housatonic Railroad, by 1853 the Town of Canaan truly was a hub of industrial and entrepreneurial activity. Lawrence Fagan was an Irish artist and surveyor active in the United States from the 1850s onwards. He produced numerous plans of townships and maps of counties, and is noted for his work relating to wall maps of towns in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, between 1852 and 1868. Publisher Richard Clark “published many plans of Connecticut towns prepared by E.M. Woodford and Lawrence Fagan, 1851–1854.” This map of Canaan is not mentioned in Tooley’s entry on Clark or Fagan. OCLC records just two holdings, at the Library of Congress and The Canaan Museum of History and Culture. A third example is held by the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History (formerly the Connecticut Historical Society). REFERENCES: Adams, Abigail. “Titans for a Battlefield: Horatio Ames and his Colossal Cannon,” The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History, online; Kirby, Ed. “Salisbury Iron Forged Early Industry,” at Connecticut History online; Tooley, Vol. 1, p. 270, Vol. 2, p. 46.
Item #8320
Price: $2,750.00
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