The company was founded on the
Scantic River in 1835 by Allen Loomis in an area then known as Powder Hollow, with the construction of a small gun
powder mill. A company called Loomis, Denslow and Company, named for Loomis and his business partner, was established the following year. The company manufactured powder from
saltpeter,
sulfur, and
charcoal. Employees lived in a
company town named Hazardville, which took its name from Colonel
Augustus George Hazard (1802-1868), who bought into the company in 1837 and eventually built it to become a major producer of gunpowder. The company changed its name to Loomis, Hazard & Company in 1837, and became the Hazard Powder Company in 1843 when Hazard bought Loomis' share of the business. Production increased over the years in response to the needs of the U.S. military for gunpowder during the
Mexican–American War, demand for blasting powder during the
California Gold Rush of 1849, and the
Crimean War, when the Hazard Powder Company supplied both
Britain and
Russia with gunpowder, shipping a total of 500 tons to Britain. During the
American Civil War, the mill was one of the three chief sources of gunpowder for the
Union forces, producing up to a day. At its peak, the Hazard Powder Company operated in 125 buildings occupying hundreds of acres of land. The business declined after the Civil War. Hazard Powder was one of the three largest (with
DuPont and
Laflin & Rand) among the six companies of the
United States Gunpowder Trade Association (popularly known as the
powder trust). DuPont gained majority stock control of the company in 1876 after Colonel Hazard died in 1868. The plant became part of
Hercules Powder Company when DuPont assets were divided in 1912 under provisions of the
Sherman Antitrust Act, and it closed permanently after a major explosion on January 14, 1913, destroyed much of the plant. ==Notes==