With the increasing demand, firms began to multiply. Israel Holmes, who had been with the Scovills for ten years, started Holmes & Hotchkiss in 1830, and with English workmen and machinery made wire and tubing for the market. After several changes in partnership, the firm became Brown & Elton in 1838. Meantime, Holmes, with Israel Coe, Anson Phelps and John Hungerford, started the Wolcottville Brass Company in 1834, in what is now Torrington. They built up a prosperous business in sheet-brass kettles, but lost heavily when Hiram W. Hayden, then with Scovill, invented the spinning process. Their property was eventually sold to Lyman Coe, and became the Coe Brass Company. The Waterbury Brass Company was started in 1845, with Holmes as president. Associated with him were H. W. Hayden, Elton, and Lyman Coe, son of Israel Coe. In 1853 Holmes founded Holmes, Booth & Haydens,[199] and in 1869 Holmes, Booth & Atwood, which two years later was forced to change its name to Plume & Atwood on account of its resemblance to the older company. [199] There were two Haydens in the firm, H. W. Hayden was in charge of the manufacturing and H. H. Hayden in charge of marketing the product. Israel Holmes stands out among the indomitable personalities who built up the brass industry. In addition to his invaluable work for the Scovills, he started five of the strongest firms in the valley, and was the first president of three. Benedict & Coe became Benedict & Burnham in 1834, and from this firm has come the American Pin Company, the Waterbury Button Company and the Waterbury Clock and Watch companies. Anson Phelps soon withdrew from the Wolcottville Brass Company and started Smith & Phelps at Derby in 1836. Encouraged by its success, Phelps planned to organize a large manufacturing community there, but he was held up by a man who raised the price of some necessary land from $5,000 to $30,000, so he moved two miles up the river and founded what is now the city of Ansonia. In 1854 the firm was incorporated as the Ansonia Brass & Copper Company. Mr. George P. Cowles, who came from Wolcottville in 1848, was its executive head for forty years until his death. From it sprang the Ansonia Clock Company, of Brooklyn, Wallace & Sons, which failed in 1896 and became part of the Coe Brass Company, and a number of other companies. The Chase Rolling Mills Company developed from the Waterbury Manufacturing Company, Benedict & Burnham, and Holmes, Booth & Haydens. Randolph & Clowes came down through Brown & Brothers, and Brown & Elton from the old Holmes & Hotchkiss firm. [Illustration: HENRY GRILLEY, 1790 Pewter Buttons *1*