Person:Austin Dunham (3)

Known to the family as "Cornelius," Austin C. Dunham graduated from Yale University in 1854. He was a scholar and an inventor, but played an active role in the business life of Hartford. A member of the firm of Austin Dunham and Sons, he was responsible for establishing the "Tunxis Worsted Company" in Windsor, CT., the first French worsted mill in this country. Later he organized and ran the Dunham Hosiery Company with woolen mills at Naugatuck, CT. He acquired the charter and organized the Hartford Electric Light Company and became its first president. In addition he was a director on the board of several banks. His main interest was the development of new ideas in industry rather than working on the financial side of the business. (E.C. Dunham)

Dunham was a friend of Thomas Edison, and this friendship led to the Willimantic Mills being the first to become illuminated by electricity in 1879. A new mill built in 1880 was the largest textile mill in the world at that time and the first to be built on one floor. Ever since the summer of 1883, when he had experimented with the installation of a storage battery at his Willimantic Linen Company, he had envisioned the day when hydroelectric power could be produced around the clock and stored during the "off" hours for use during the "peak." The mills were sold in the 1880's.

He was responsible for many innovations in the electric industry, perfecting an ice-making machine and spending a decade experimenting with electric cooking and heating. By 1908, the Hartford Electric Light Company was marketing the Dunham electric range, complete with broiler, cooker, roaster, and wiring, for $40. In 1896, Dunham had a 300-ton, 400-kilowatt lead-acid battery installed to store surplus electricity for minimizing service interruptions caused by machine breakdowns.

References

• Dunham, Ethel Collins, Samuel G. and Alice Collins Dunham, their descendants and antecedents (Washington, DC 1955)
• Dunham, Isaac Watson, Deacon John Dunham of Plymouth 1589-1669, and his descendants (Hartford, CT 1907)
• Messier, Betty Brook and Janet Sutherland Aronson, The Roots of Coventry, Connecticut (Coventry, CT 1987)

Links

• Mansfield Historical Society
• Windham Historical Society
• Connecticut Historical Society
• Windham Textile and History Museum, 411 Main Street, Willimantic, CT

1. ↑ Dunham Genealogy
   p. 38.
2. ↑ Messier, Betty Brook, and Janet Sutherland Aronson. The Roots of Coventry, Connecticut. (Coventry, CT: Coventry 275th Anniversary Committee, 1987)
   p. 197.
3. ↑ Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut. (Hartford, Connecticut: Cedar Hill Cemetery, 1903).