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LAWRENCE YESTERDAY AND TODAY MAURICE B. DORGAN
Gc 974.402 L435do 1715767
Jamestown, n.4. May. 22- 1941
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 1192
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/lawrenceyesterda00dorg
LAWRENCE YESTERDAY AND TODAY 1845-1918)
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A CONCISE HISTORY OF LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS-HER INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS; MUNICIPAL STA- TISTICS AND A VARIETY OF INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CITY
By MAURICE B. DORGAN
LAWRENCE June, 1918
PRESS OF DICK & TRUMPOLD
TRADES HY FEWHON COUNCIL
LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS
1715767
PREFACE
In the preparation of this work, I have endeavored to produce a historical reference book, giving a compact story of the founding of Lawrence and its development up to the present day. The table of contents has been laid out in a manner that should make it easy for the reader or student of local history to find information relative to any particular phase or period of the life of the community. I have been painstaking in my search for facts, and I am confident that what is printed will prove reliable.
Much has been written about the early history of the city. The story of its conception and early development has been graphically told by able writers. But, little has been written, in a permanent form, about the activities of the last quarter of a century, during which the most marked progress has been made. In covering this great construc- tive period, attention has been given to all the important happenings. To many of the present residents the story is familiar; to the more recent comers it should prove instructive, as I hopeiit will be to future generations. To those outside our gates, who read, it may be con- vincing of the city's enterprise and progress, and its advantages.
In the research pertaining to the early history of Lawrence, val- uable assistance was obtained by reference to Hayes' and Wadsworth's histories, and also to the historical sketches by the late Hon. Robert H. Tewksbury. I am deeply indebted to Mrs. R. H. Tewksbury for her co-operation in permitting recourse to Mr. Tewksbury's last man- uscript on Lawrence. Thereby, I have been enabled to clear up a number of inconsistencies that have appeared, besides securing some interesting facts in regard to the early days, which have not hitherto been printed.
I wish to express my thanks to Charles H. Littlefield, William T. Kimball and Arthur, D. Marble, all of whom are well versed in the early history of the city, and who gave valuable counsel; to Charles F. Hill who was associated with me in the beginning of the research; to William A. Walsh, the public librarian, for many courtesies extend- ed; also, to the industrial, banking and mercantile enterprises, and public-spirited men whose co-operation made it possible to produce the work.
June 20, 1918.
M. B. D.
CONTENTS
Preface
Indian History and Traditions
7
The Pioneers
IO
Topography of Lawrence
15
Early Roads and Ferries
17
Andover Bridge
18
The Essex Company
21
Building of the Dam
26
First Comers to "New City"
28 31
Industrial Growth
Twenty-seven Years of Progress
Lawrence Today
First Disaster in Lawrence
Fall of the Pemberton Mill
Lawrence Cyclone
The Bathhouse Tragedy
Industrial Upheaval of 1912
Aftermath of the Strike
Municipal Government and Departments
The City Hall ; its History and Traditions
Filtration System and Water Works
The Fire Department
The Police Department
Development of Public School System
The Parochial Schools
Public Library
103 106 100
The Lawrence Common
Playground Movement
II3
Church History
115
Responses to Country's Calls
124 126
Public Buildings and Institutions
130
Street Railways
138
City's Lighting System
141
Lawrence's Industries
144
Banking Institutions
163
Mercantile Development
I71
Chamber of Commerce
172
The Central Bridge
173
Deep Waterway Possibilities
177
78 85 88 93 95
Lawrence in World War
43 49 52 5 55 60 63 66 72 75
Early History of Lawrence
PAGE 3
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CONTENTS
Journalism in Lawrence
179
Lawrence Bar Association 182
Social and Fraternal Organizations 183
Old Landmarks and Designations 18. Historical Remnants
187
Who's Who in Public Life 197
General Statistics 218
Population, Valuation, Tax Rate, etc.
Selectmen of Lawrence
Town and City Clerks
Mayors of Lawrence
Town and City Auditors
Superintendents of Schools
Aldermen of Lawrence
Common Councilmen of Lawrence
Commission Governments
Vote for Mayor
Town and City Treasurers
Vote on License
Judges of Police Court
Chiefs of Police
Chiefs of Fire Department
Clerks of Police Court
City Solicitors
Postmasters of Lawrence
State Senators and Representatives
Destructive Fires
1
INDIAN HISTORY AND TRADITIONS
One looking down from the encompassing hills upon the hive of industry, that is Lawrence today, can hardly imagine that a few generations past, the Red men roamed the territory within the city limits, now so densely populated by whites. Yet, it was not so very long ago that Indians camped on both sides of the river.
Reliable history of man in this vicinity begins with the Indians. The Merrimack River ( Menomack by the Indians, from Mena, an island, and awke, a place, because of the number of beautiful islands in the river) furnished a locality attractive to the Indians who were great admirers of the beauties of nature. Along its banks was a favorable resort for their mode of life. There was plenty of fish in the river and numerous streams running into it; the light land near the water was suitable for cultivation of corn and beans, and the forests afforded abundant game.
At the time of the first settlements upon the Merrimack River the most powerful and important tribe along its banks was the Pennacooks. Their headquarters were on the river near where Con- cord, N. H., is now built. Their great chief was Passaconnaway. He had conquered and subdued all tribes on the river, and all in some manner paid tribute to him. The Agawams inhabited the river east below tidewater, having their homes from the Merrimack to the Cape. The Pentuckets owned and occupied the Merrimack from "Little River" in Haverhill to Pawtucket Falls at Lowell; then came the Wamesits, Nashua, Souhegan, Namoskeag, Winnipesaukee and several other tribes.
There is no evidence showing that any particular tribe had a home in Methuen, or what is now North Lawrence, but it is certain that Bodwell's Falls (then situated a short distance above the present Lawrence dam), and the shores of the Spicket River were favorite resorts, especially in the fishing season. On the Andover side, a company of Pentuckets had a settlement near Cochichewick Brook. Some writers have located the ancient seat of the Agawams at Bodwell's Falls, and to this place came to reside the daughter of Passaconnaway, who was wedded to Winnepurket, a sachem of Saugus and who has been characterized by one writer as the "dog of the marshes". It turned out to be an unhappy union and war might have resulted, had not the "pale faces" appeared upon the stage at this time and diverted attention from tribal troubles.
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LAWRENCE-YESTERDAY AND TODAY
Passaconnaway proved a friend of the first white settlers and desired peace. The residents along the river were never disturbed by Indian depredations during his life. He resigned his power as Grand Sachem of the tribes in 1660 to Wonolancet, about 20 years after the first white settlements upon the river. After Passaconna- way's death a war sprang up between the Indians and the whites which was waged at intervals till the year 1696. During these years the settlers of Andover had much trouble with the Indians.
It was on the extreme southern border of Lawrence that a band of northern warriors were discovered when about to fall upon and destroy Andover settlements. As late as 1722, seventy-eight years after the settlement of Andover, we find the town voting money to repair block-houses protecting "Shawsheen Fields" (South Lawrence). The severest Indian raids upon Andover settlers were nearly 50 years after settlement.
Local writers of early history have told us of an Indian village on Pine Island, and within very recent years their places of sepulchre on the Shattuck farm in West Andover have been desecrated in the hunt for skeletons as well as stone implements which the Indians were accustomed to bury with their dead. They had a factory for arrow points among the sand dunes where the Wood mills now stand, and quantities of their chips, the waste product of their manufacture, could be picked up there before the great mills covered the grounds.
That the Indians undoubtedly found this locality favorable, not only for fish and game, but for the tilling of the sandy fields for their supply of corn is evident. Speaking of this phase of Indian activity, Arthur D. Marble, the present city engineer, says that when he made the survey of Den Rock Cemetery in 1876 he was accompanied by two members of the Peters family in whose possession the land had been since white men first settled here. Back of the rock on a gentle slope to the southeast, towards the little brook which runs through the valley, he was shown an old Indian corn field. The little hills were as pronounced and unmistakable as though it was but a year or so ago that the Indian squaw, with her crude stone hoe, piled up the earth around the tender blades.
On the south bank of the river were the Indian burial grounds, one at the western limit of the city near Laurel grove, already mentioned, and another for their chieftains just east of Cold spring, through which South Union street now runs. To this crude sepulchre of savages, wandering Indians have made pilgrimages, within the memory of man now living. The burial ground on Shattuck's farm, just below the old steamer landing at Laurel grove, was extensive. Whether a battlefield, a burial site in the days of pestilence (when ninety percent. of the savages died and Merrimack valley became a vast charnel house), or a usual place of burial, is not known.
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INDIAN HISTORY AND TRADITIONS
There is a tradition that Tower Hill was an important outlook or signal station in Indian warfare; that from the summit smoke of fire signalled wandering bands.
Of the Indian village, referred to, on Pine Island, four miles above Lawrence, Nancy Parker was apparently the last remnant. She was remembered by the very old settlers as a tall, wild-looking, but harmless and industrious Indian woman, making her rounds among the farmers of the region,-"little dreaming that spinners would crowd to the valley by the hundreds, and that the noisy river-rapids would be harnessed to the wheels at which they toiled. From Nancy Parker's spinning wheel to the monster mill wheel is a long step".
In 1676 a party of savages crossed the river at Bodwell's Ferry (about a mile above the dam), chased the people of Andover, killed a young man named Abbott and took his brother captive.
There is a tradition that old Bodwell, standing on the spot now occupied by Davis' foundry, with a long English musket, shot an Indian spy skulking through the tall grass on the opposite side of the river. He not only probably saved the Andover settlements from harm, but secured a fine wolf-skin robe which he found on the dead savage.
There is another tradition that a thieving Indian, seeking to enter one of the old dwellings on the plain, was shot through the chinks of the timber wall, and buried beneath a great tree, standing near City hall; also that an early settler, seeing a movement in the grass near the site of the South canal, discovered a creeping savage working his way towards a pioneer's cabin. He shot the wily Indian, when three others broke from cover and made good their retreat. A story is told of a young pioneer who, returning from a courting visit to the fair daughter of an up-river settler, had his dream of bliss suddenly disturbed by the whizzing of a tomahawk past his head. Finding two Indians in chase, he saved himself by his knowledge of by-paths.
There are other traditions that relate the perils of the hardy pioneers in this section, all of which are interesting but too numerous to mention.
THE PIONEERS
It is difficult to determine who were the first white settlers in the territory which comprises Lawrence today, but it is said that lands along the river bank were occupied by whites as early as 1655, and pioneers named Messer, Frye and Cross appear to have been the first comers in this section. An interesting tradition is handed down which relates how, for a roll of cloth a pioneer purchased of the Indians their rights in all the lands he could surround in a day's travel through the forest. Commencing on the river, with his savage companions, he took a course northwestward over highlands about Spicket Falls, thence southward along the slopes of Tower Hill to the Merrimack, and by the north bank to the point of starting; thus compassing a favorite hunting ground, and including the site of a future city.
Indian sachems received, in 1642, for their rights in Haverhi !! lands, including the site of the town of Methuen, three pounds and ten shillings. For six pounds, and a coat, the Andover territory was secured. As Lawrence is but a speck in those great townships, the little over seven square miles comprising it, according to the valuation placed on it by the Indian owners, would not have exceeded five shillings. It is not probable that many whites had permanent residence within Lawrence limits prior to the year 1700, though Shawsheen Fields (South Lawrence) were cultivated by residents of Andover Village, protected by block houses, and Methuen Intervales (North Lawrence) were mown by commoners, from the direction of Haver- hill, for years before that date.
Probably the first permanent habitation was a rude dwelling occupied by one Bodwell, and located on the Merrimack River bank near the mouth of the Spicket. This old dwelling was removed to a location where East Haverhill street now crosses Elm street. Here it still stands, enlarged and remodelled, almost the oniy relic deeply marked by time in the central wards of the city. It has a history which goes back into dim obscurity. The pioneer who occupied the original house controlled a large area of land, and he may have been the hardy settler referred to in the chapter on Indian traditions, who slew a savage on the river bank.
An ancient house, known as the Swan house, stood on the line of the common, just east of Trinity church. The stones of the cellar underlie the much travelled Haverhill street. Tradition locates a rude log fort, or refuge for settlers, in Jackson Terrace; by some, it is
II
4
THE PIONEERS
said to have stood nearer the mouth of the Spicket River. There was also, it is said. a timber fort or stockade on the slope of Tower Hill, overlooking this valley.
The pioneers were mainly from the agricultural districts of Eng- land, and upon locating here most of them continued to follow the industrial pursuit to which they were accustomed, while others got their living as raftsmen or fishermen on the river. When Methuen was set off from Haverhill in 1725 probably not over fifty persons resided within the site of Lawrence. \ It was an isolated spot before the bridging of the Merrimack. World's End Pond was a sort of inland boundary of civilization, beyond which pioneers ventured with fear. The Andover tract was known as the "Moose Country" or the Plain of Sodom, and the chief innkeeper at the cross roads was familiarly called Lot. The Methuen district was in retaliation re- ferred to as Gomorrah by dwellers on the opposite bank. The phrase, "out of the world into Methuen", was commonly used.
Nearly 100 years had rolled on after the incorporation of Me- thuen, bringing little change to the isolated farmers. The future site of the city had been converted into peaceful farms. Dams had been built upon the Spicket River, and small paper mills and the Stevens shop for the manufacture of pianoforte cases had been erected, but the Merrimack flowed in its natural channel, undisturbed by the arts of man. At this time dwelling houses were not numerous, and, as in other farming towns, were somewhat remote from one another. The number of buildings in the now thickly populated portion of Lawrence could have been counted upon the fingers of the hand.
No church spires pointed to heaven ; three small school houses offered their primitive accommodations. There was no hum of machinery except the simple movements of the small paper and grist mills on the lower Spicket and activity of Stevens' box-shop further upstream. In this sleepy hollow was born the wonderful industrial city of today, and the change that came in 1845 was so rapid, radical and entire, that it completely overshadowed the leaven of original population, till only here and there we find a descendent of a pioneer family, and but few landmarks of the early days.
The site of Lawrence in the olden time was not the place of sand heaps and swamps, such as some writers have represented it to be. The great central farm of Hon. Daniel Appleton White and his ancestry included at one time 300 acres, divided into tillage, pasturage and woodland. These lands are now covered by large mills and the most compactly settled districts of Wards Two, Three and Four. The farms of Daniel Merrill and Phineas M. Gage, that lay along the lines of Jackson, Newbury and Union streets, between the Merrimack and Spicket rivers, had thriving orchards and many fertile acres. The great Trull farm on Tower Hill was a fertile tract, a portion in
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LAWRENCE-YESTERDAY AND TODAY
forest. The poor farm lands of the Town of Methuen along the west side of the turnpike (Broadway) were rich in pasturage. Joshua Thwing's lands, including all the central common and the compactly settled portions of Ward Two, were fertile, as were the farms, north of the Spicket River, owned by Herrick, Huse, Stevens, Graves and Tarbox. The corn fields, rye fields, and orchards of the Poor, Richardson, Stevens, Saunders and Shattuck families in South Law- rence gave evidence of a good soil and of careful, old-time husbandry.
Among the very early pioneers of South Lawrence were the Barnards, Stevenses and Poors; later came the Parkers and other families. The first named family trace back the title to lands nearly 250 years. To North Lawrence came, as early pioneer settlers, who remained, the Bodwells, Swans, Sargents, Barkers, Poors and Marstons ; possibly others, whose descendents do not remain. Notable among the sturdy yeomen, native residents, who had homesteads on the plain before the forming of the town, were Capt. Nathan Shattuck and Joseph Shattuck, Daniel Saunders, Ebenezer Poor, Phineas M. Gage, Benjamin Richardson, Asa Towne, Nehemiah Herrick, John Tarbox, Michael Parker, Thomas Poor, Caleb Richardson, Nathan Wells, Abiel Stevens, James and Edwin Sargent, Adolphus Durant, Samuel Ames, Fairfield White, Stephen Huse, John Graves, James Stevens and Henry Cutler. Abiel Stevens and Adolphus Durant were men of marked character, being the first manufacturers in this section.
The few dwellings of the pioneers dotting the plain on the north- side were mostly upon the road leading from Lowell to Haverhill, now straightened, graded and known as Haverhill and East Haverhill streets, and upon the Londonderry Turnpike (now Broadway). Opposite the ancient dwelling on East Haverhill street, already mentioned, was the more modern house of Adolphus Durant, built about 1830. The farm house and buildings of Phineas M. Gage stood in the fields on the spot now known as Jackson Terrace; the farm orchard was in the section of the city now crossed by Orchard street, his garden extending along the line of Garden street. Thus the names of two city streets are naturally accounted for. One old house was removed to make room for the original High school building opposite the Haverhill street mall of the common. The ancient home- stead of Capt. White stood near the corner of Haverhill and Lawrence streets. His son, Judge Daniel Appleton White who gave the citizens of Lawrence the White Fund, by which has been established an instructive course of lectures besides material aid for the maintenance of the Public Library, was born beneath its sloping roof. The farm house of Fairfield White was located at the corner of Amesbury and Haverhill streets. Another farm house at the corner of Franklin and Haverhill streets was known at one time as the Sargent house. It was torn down about the time the city was incorporated.
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THE PIONEERS
The original farm house of the Methuen poor farm, formerly owned by Nathaniel Sargent, stood near the corner of Bradford street and Broadway, then the corner of Haverhill road and the old turnpike. The town farm lands lay along either side of the turnpike from An- dover Bridge northward, with a great pasture on the easterly slope of Tower Hill, the lands of Alpheus Bodwell being in the Ward Five lowlands. West of the railway near the corner of Haverhill and May streets was the dwelling of Capt. John Smith. The Bodwell farni buildings stood on the hill, just westward of the ferry road. The old farm house has been supplanted by a modern brick structure. On the farm of Levi Emery (now cut up into house-lots) was the old farm house of one Ordway, a Bunker Hill patriot.
A rickety dwelling, known as the Rogers house, stood at the upper guard locks, and was demolished and replaced at the founding of the city. The Samuel Ames farm was also located in Ward Five, and below, on the river bank near the ferry, were two ancient houses, once much resorted to in the days of ferries and fords.
On the lower Spicket was the Foster house, just below East Haverhill street bridge, and the paper mill of A. Durant, long since supplanted and removed. The little old school house at the corner of East Haverhill and Prospect streets was replaced by the present school building ; the one on Tower Hill was years ago removed, and the one in South Lawrence was made into a dwelling.
Where are now the Arlington Mills, stood the piano case factory of Abiel Stevens, afterwards turned into a hat factory, and in the imme- diate neighborhood were the residence of father and son, the Susan Huse place, and the square house in which resided Nathan Wells.
In South Lawrence, the cross-road settlement, where Andover street crosses Broadway, was the nearest approach to a village within the present city limits. Here were located the Essex Tavern (later converted into a dwelling), the Shawsheen Tavern (later the Revere House which was torn down several years ago), the old pioneer county store, and the brick building occupied by Daniel Saunders, founder of the city. The Shawsheen House was built by one John Poor with bricks made at Den Rock in a brickyard run by the Peters family in the olden days. On the Lowell road westward from this corner were the farm house of Theodore Poor, the Caleb Richardson estate, and the old dwellings erected by the pioneers Barnard and Stevens. On the corner of Andover and Parker streets stood the dwelling of Capt. Michael Parker. Parker street perpetuates his name.
The present City Farm is a part of the old farm of Col. Thomas Poor who saw service, with a company of 50 young men from North Andover, at Lexington and Concord, and took part in several other important engagements during the Revolutionary War.
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LAWRENCE-YESTERDAY AND TODAY
Among the most noticeable of recent landmarks were the Tarbox dwelling at the foot of Clover Hill (one time known as Graves Hill), where the late Hon. John K. Tarbox was born, and the old dwellings of the Sargents and Swans, to the eastward of Prospect Hill. Some still remember the remnants of the rude fish wharves along the line of the Merrimack. In the old days these were busy localities in the fishing season ; there were five of them between the dam and the Essex County Training School, simple structures of rough stone and logs, each creating an eddy where the fish gathered in immense num- bers. They disappeared before the onrush of progress, started with the building of the dam.
TOPOGRAPHY OF LAWRENCE
The topography of the territory hereabouts has undergone most remarkable changes, according to geologists and early historians. Far back in the dim past, we are told, the region comprising Lawrence and the surrounding towns constituted a vast lake, and that by some up- heaval in nature the surface of the earth was changed, leaving a few ponds as slight remnants of that inland sea. Cochichewick, Mystic, Haggett's and World's End (Stillwater) Ponds are said to be puddles remaining after subsidence of waters let loose from their beds by an unusual convulsion of nature.
We are also told that during the glacial period the Merrimack flowed in a closed tunnel under the ice and emptied its waters into Boston harbor. The glaciers gradually melted away and slowly re- treated northward. At Lowell was left a pile of drift which formed a dam so strong that the river was turned to its present course, in a north-easterly direction, through Lawrence, Haverhill and Amesbury, thus finding its ocean outlet at Newburyport.
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