Willimantic’s Lewiston Avenue was named after Joseph
A. Lewis (1829-1900) who became Willimantic's leading market gardener.
He was also a forceful figure in the
Prohibitionist party, and was very
active in the Willimantic local politics. He managed the Lewis
Nursery for almost 42 years, and saw it grow from a small nine-acre
plot, to over 100 acres along Jackson Street in the northern part of the
city. Lewis‘ extensive business was also known as
the City Market Gardens. In the late 19th century Willimantic was
renowned for its beautiful tree-lined avenues and streets, particularly
Iackson Street that was lined with tall, handsome maple trees. Joseph
Lewis had raised all these trees from seed. In the mid 19th century,
travelers heading northwards out of Willimantic, into Mansfield,
along Iackson Street would pass several farms
located on their right. Immediately to the left was
the farm of Eli Hewitt, who gave his name to
Hewitt Street.On the right were the Capen estates, the Freeman
farm, and then the nursery and
farms of Ioseph A. Lewis. The Lewis farm began at Terry Avenue. The
Lewis nurseries frontage continued south down Iackson Street to Ash
Street. Early in life,
Lewis’ had found his first love to be horticulture, and he found
employment as a nurseryman in Providence, and then in horticultural
nurseries in Springfield and in
Dighton, Massachusetts. In 1858
he began looking for an opportunity to begin his own nursery. Lewis and
his brother-in-law, Ioseph Frye, purchased an original tract of nine
acres of land on Iackson Street, from Martin Harris, in the rapidly
expanding borough of Willimantic. Lewis and Frye immediately began
growing vegetables and trees on the fertile land just north of the
borough. In 1861 Lewis erected a fine house at the nursery, and moved in
with his family in April 1862. Lewis and Frye first concentrated on
raising trees from seed, and growing fruit. But the partners soon became
experts in raising tomatoes. Lewis eventually had over 70 acres under
cultivation, growing and canning for the wholesale trade. He erected a
cannery on North Street in 1892, and began canning his fruits, berries
and other vegetables. Local Farmers used the cannery to can their
produce. In one season alone, Lewis canned 40,000 bushels of apples.
Unfortunately, the cannery was destroyed by fire on August 21, 1895. The
headline in the next day’s Chronicle read, “KETCHUP AFLAME : J.A. Lewis
Cannery burned to the ground”. In colorful language the story said, “The
peacefulness and quietude attendant upon a (sleeping) community had
commenced to steal over the city last night when the brazen clang of the
big bell on Bank Street rent the still night air into shreds”. People
from all over town were awakened and since the flames shooting into the
air could be seen for quite a distance in the Hill Section, a large
crown began heading toward the burning cannery “on upper North Street”.
The alarm had been rung in by Irwin Morse from Bugbee’s store on Jackson
Street at 9:45 PM and the Chronicle noted that Morse had to break the
store’s window glass to reach the alarm box key which had been hanging
inside the window since the store was closed for the night. The fire had
broken out in the cannery’s boiler room and flames rapidly consumed the
building and its contents. Because of the cannery’s distance from the
fire companies’ quarters, the run to the fire was “long and fatiguing”
and the cannery was in ruins even as the first streams of water were put
on the fire. The Montgomery Fire Company was the first on the scene. The
Alert and Excelsior companies reached the scene a bit later due to
trouble locating the fire and having to run down to Jackson Street, then
up Spruce Street to North Street. The burning of the cannery threw a
number of people out of work, and Lewis then sent his produce to a
cannery in Colchester. Nevertheless, the Lewis nurseries regularly
employed 75 people, and thanks to Willimantic‘s rail links, Lewis‘
canned fruits and vegetables were
transported and sold across New England. At their height, the nurseries
had 100 acres of land under cultivation, with 18,000 feet under glass.
Lewis‘ strawberries and pickles
were also particularly popular. Lewis died in
March,1900, after a short illness. He left the entire business in
the hands of his assistant, Clark Olney Terry, who carried on the J.
Lewis vegetable and fruit farm until his own death in 1916.
The Lewis Cannery on North Street
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