Ezekiel Daboll

In the early 1800s, south of the East Canaan Congregational Church, there was a factory operated by Ezekiel Daboll, an inveterate inventor, who moved to Canaan from his birthplace in East Windsor. He was resident in Canaan by 1813 when he married the widow, Laura Fellows.

Daboll had many interests and made quite a business out of making foot stoves that parishioners carried to the nearby church to provide a modicum of comfort during hours-long sermons in an unheated sanctuary. Thomas Richards, who worked in a blast furnace about a mile down the road from the church, recalled in 1899 that these footwarmers had frames of wood and were lined with tin perforated in attractive designs. A cup inside held charcoal embers to warm the stoves. They were reported to have been extremely popular.

But he was not content with just that line of business. He also built fire engines, taking out a patent on April 12, 1828. This advertisement was printed in the New York Farmer in that same month while in July 26, 1823 in the Hartford Courant he promised that the orders “will receive prompt attention,” and that the machines would be “made and delivered to order.”

He also received patents for a clothes pounder—which predated washing machines—and a stove with one of the first hoods for removing cooking smoke and odors.

Daboll was inventive but he was not crafty when it came to business. He refused an offer of $5,000 (more than $102,000 today) for his foot stove and clothes pounder patents. The items were soon produced by another company which drove him out of business. Wheeler Smith then set up business in Daboll’s factory, making oyster kegs, and the shop was later used by a cooper. It is no longer standing.