The story of Essex County, Volume III, Part 1

Author: Fuess, Claude Moore, 1885-1963
Publication date: 1935
Publisher: New York : American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 610

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GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01101 6539

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https://archive.org/details/storyofessexcoun03fues

THE STORY

ESSEX COUNTY

Scott H Paradise

THE STORY

ESSEX COUNTY maas

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CLAUDE M. FUESS, PH. D., LITT. D. Headmaster, Phillips Academy, Andover

COMPILED BY SCOTT H. PARADISE, M. A., OXON. Instructor in English, Phillips Academy, Andover

VOLUME III

THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC. NEW YORK

$5.00

new-

THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY

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STEVENS-For almost three centuries the Stevens family has been prominently identi- fied with the life and development of New England. One of the original settlers of An- dover, the pioneer ancestor of the family did his full share to found this Essex County town in Massachusetts in the earliest Colo- nial times. He apparently handed on to his descendants his pioneering spirit. For suc- cessive generations the family, down to the present time, have always been leaders in various phases of the community's life. Moreover many members of the Stevens fam- ily have made important contributions also to State and Nation. Public-spirited, they have served in public offices, always with unselfishness and for the purpose of further- ing the public weal. As manufacturers and bankers they have long been outstanding, and their reputations today are as high and their services as valuable, as was the case with their forebears.

(I) John Stevens, born in England in 1605, came from Andover, England, about 1635. He settled first in Newbury, Massachusetts, and was admitted a freeman May 18, 1642, removed to Andover, where he was a man of note and substance, and his name often ap- pears in the town and court records; he was called yeoman and was sergeant, or chief commander, of the militia company of An- dover. His gravestone in the North Andover graveyard, near the corner of Prospect and Court streets, the only one erected for a first settler, is quaintly carved and ornamented, but bears no eulogy or text, simply this in- scription : "Here lyes buried the body of Mr. John Stevens, who deceased ye II Day of April 1662 in ye 57 Year of his age." His

wife Elizabeth was appointed administratrix June 14, 1662. The inventory showed a Bible and other books, also musket, corslet, head- piece, a sword, cutlass and halberd, table cloths, and napkins, table board, chairs, etc. Elizabeth testified June 16, 1673, that she was sixty years old, concerning Samuel Parker, son of her brother Joseph Parker, of An- dover, and presumably her maiden name was Parker, though the word "brother" was often used for brother-in-law, etc. She died May I, 1694, aged eighty-one years. Among their eight children was Joseph, of whom further.

(II) Joseph Stevens, son of John and Eliz- abeth Stevens, was born in Andover, Massa- chusetts, May 15, 1654, and died February 23, 1743, aged eighty-nine years. He settled in his native town, in 1675 took the oath of al- legiance prescribed by the king, was elected deacon of the church in 1694, and was a lead- ing citizen of the town for many years, con- stable, highway surveyor, and on committee for care of the church.

He married (first), May 28, 1679, Mary Ingalls, born January 25, 1659, died Septem- ber 21, 1699, daughter of Henry and Mary (Osgood) Ingalls. He married (second) Elizabeth Brown. Among the children of the first marriage was James (I), of whom further.

(III) Captain James (1) Stevens, son of Deacon Joseph and Mary (Ingalls) Stevens, was born in Andover, November 30, 1686, and died May 25, 1769, aged eighty-three years. On his gravestone is inscribed : "Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord." He was in the French and Indian wars, 1744- 1749, and commanded a company of Andover men in the Cape Breton expedition, taking

Essex-1

THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY

part in the capture of Louisburg. With others of this army he was one of the first who petitioned for a grant of land for serv- ices, November 22, 1751, and received land in the Province of Maine. He was a promi- nent man in his day ; selectman in 1742; town treasurer from 1721 to 1729 and from 1733 to 1734. In his will, dated 1768, he bequeathed to grandson Jonathan, son of deceased son James, the land east of the road from John Johnson's to the meetinghouse.

He married, March 18, 1713, Dorothy Frye, born in 1695, died March 7, 1751, aged fifty-six, daughter of Captain James and Ly- dia (Osgood) Frye. Among their ten chil- dren was James (2), of whom further.

(IV) Ensign James (2) Stevens, son of Captain James (1) and Dorothy (Frye) Stevens, was born at Andover, October 17, 1721. He raised a company at Andover, fought in the French and Indian War, marched to Lake George as ensign at the head of his company, and died there of camp fever, November 28, 1755, in his thirty-fifth year. He was in Captain Abiel Frye's com- pany, Colonel Williams' regiment.

He married, August 1, 1745, Sara Pea- body, born March 31, 1728, died September 26, 1808, aged eighty years, daughter of John and Sarah (Ingalls) Peabody. She married (second) John Peters. Among their three children was Jonathan, of whom further.

(V) Jonathan Stevens, son of Ensign James (2) and Sara (Peabody) Stevens, was born April 8, 1747, in Andover, and died April 3. 1834. aged eighty-seven years. He marched on the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1775, with his brother, James, in Captain Thomas Poor's company, Colonel James Frye's regiment. He served in Captain Ben- jamin Ames' company, Colonel Frye's regi- ment, at the battle of Bunker Hill, and on the anniversary of the battle he invariably invited his comrades in the fight and entertained them at his home with hearty, old-fashioned

hospitality, while the old veterans fought their battles over again. He was also in the battle of Ticonderoga. A large strong man, he worked as a farmer all day and carried on the trade of currier after candle light. In 1799, when it was desired to establish Frank- lin Academy, he gave land on the hill north of the meetinghouse for the academy.

He married, December 15, 1773, Susannah Bragg, born August 19, 1755, died March 20, 1840, aged eighty-five years, daughter of Thomas and Dorothy (Ingalls) Bragg. They had sixteen children, of whom seven lived to be over seventy years of age, including Na- thaniel, of whom further.

(VI) Captain Nathaniel Stevens, son of Jonathan and Susannah (Bragg) Stevens, was born in Andover, October 15, 1786, and died at North Andover, March 7, 1865, aged seventy-nine years. He was educated in the public schools and at Franklin Academy. As a boy Nathaniel Stevens was bound out to John Carleton, a farmer living on the farm on the old Ipswich Road, which later became the property of the town of North Andover and the town farm and almshouse. After serving his time he worked for a few months in a livery stable in Danvers. After that, in 1804, he made a sea voyage to Leghorn as a common sailor before the mast, for the sake of his health and the experience. After his return he kept a store in North Andover, near the Unitarian Church. He was a lieu- tenant in the Andover company in the War of 1812, and in 1818 was captain of a militia company and from then on was always known as "Captain Nat."

In October, 1813, he commenced to build a mill for the manufacture of woolen goods at the present site of the Stevens Mills, located on the first fall on Cochickewick Brook, at the place where Governor Bradstreet had built a gristmill early in the settlement of the colony. The mill was built of wood, thirty-six by sixty feet, two and one-half stories and base-

Martin Stevens

THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY

ment, for the purpose of making goods for the country trade. In this enterprise he had at first two partners, Dr. Thomas Kittredge and Josiah Monroe. By perseverance and energy he soon mastered in all its details the art of manufacturing cloth, then decided to give up making broadcloth, in which he ex- perimented first, because of the difficulty of making the goods and the uncertainty of profit. About 1820 the mill was run on a variety of goods-blankets, cassimeres, sat- inets, etc., which reduced the amount of goods produced, and Nathaniel Stevens con- sulted with Abraham Marland, of Andover, founder of the Marland Mills, in regard to the best kind of goods for him to make in the mill and get a larger production by reducing the variety. Mr. Marland told him that, as far as he had observed before coming from England, the men who made flannels were about as successful as any class of manufac- turers. Acting on that advice, Mr. Stevens decided to run the mill entirely on flannels and continued in that trade during his life- time. In 1830 a dam was built at the outlet of the Great Pond, the cost of which and land damages were paid, one quarter each, by Mr. Stevens, Isaac Osgood, George Hodges, and Eben Sutton, who at that time occupied the four falls on Cochickewick Brook. The same year an addition of brick was built on the north end of the original building, and in 1837 the wooden walls of the original building were replaced by brick. At that time there were four sets of cards. In 1846 a fur- ther addition was made on the north end of the 1830 brick addition and two sets of cards were added. In 1855 the mills known as "Hale's Mills" on Little River in Haverhill, later operated under the name of Stevens and Company, now called Pentucket Mills, consisting of four sets of thirty-inch cards, were bought at the assignee's sale of the estate of Ezekiel Hale and run under the same administration as the Stevens Mills.

The Hale Mills were started by Ezekiel Hale as a grist and clothing mill on the present site of the Pentucket Mills. About 1815 he built a wooden mill. His son and successor, Ezek- iel Hale, Jr., built a brick addition in 1830. His son, E. J. M. Hale, operated them for some years beginning about 1838. Later they reverted to Ezekiel Hale, Jr., who failed in 1854, this failure resulting in the above-men- tioned sale of the mills to Stevens and Com- pany. In 1860 the mills were partially burned, but were repaired and run until 1876, when the old wooden mill was torn down and a new brick mill, No. 2, was built. Other improve- ments and additions have been made at vari- ous times.

In the meantime, in 1828 and 1831, Mr. Stevens had bought out his partners and had taken entire charge of the mill and business, being later joined by several of his sons. He was warned by well-meaning friends that he would lose his time and sink his capital, and they advised him urgently to sell out. "Never," replied Mr. Stevens, "as long as I can get water to turn my mill wheel." Cap- tain Stevens continued despite many dis- couragements and won eventually a brilliant success. He lived to become one of the most wealthy, honored and influential manufactur- ers of the country, a leader in the woolen in- dustry of the nation, carrying on a business for half a century with continuous success and increasing volume. He had the satisfac- tion also of seeing the industry, in which he was a pioneer, become of large proportions in the United States and, perhaps, no one manufacturer, no single individual in this country, contributed more than Mr. Stevens in paving the way for the textile industries that have held the prestige of New England when she ceased to be of importance as an agricultural community.

Mr. Stevens was a remarkably shrewd and far-sighted business man, of much common sense and consummate executive ability. Al-

THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY

ways generous with the wealth that came as a fruit of his enterprise and industry, he con- tributed to every charity within his reach and was especially eager to contribute to the welfare and progress of his native town. The leading citizen of North Andover for many years, he derived much pleasure from the cul- tivation of his ancestral acres. He was a man of iron constitution and phenomenal indus- try. He was a member of the Merrimac Power Association, and one of the founders of the city of Lawrence, formerly a part of An- dover. He believed in the value of sound learning, and gave the best possible education to all of his family. In politics he was an ardent Democrat, a loyal supporter of An- drew Jackson's administration. When the Civil War came, he was loyal to the Union and did his utmost to support the adminis- tration in his old age. In religion he was a Unitarian. Three of his sons became asso- ciated with him in business in Andover, and all five sons became prominent manufactur- ers. To the sons as well as to the father, the town of Andover, the town of North An- dover, and all the other villages in which the family has mills, owe a great debt. They have been model mill proprietors in every sense of the word.

Smith. 9. Horace N., who was a partner of Nathaniel Stevens and Sons.

(VII) Moses Tyler Stevens, son of Cap- tain Nathaniel and Harriet (Hale) Stevens, was born in Andover, October 10, 1825, and died at North Andover, Massachusetts, March 25, 1907. He was educated in the public schools, at Franklin Academy and at Phil- lips Academy of Andover, from which he was graduated in 1842. He then entered Dart- mouth College, but left college after one year, in May, 1843, to become associated in business with his father. He learned every detail of the manufacturing and marketing of flannel and in 1850 was admitted to partner- ship with his father under the name of Na- thaniel Stevens and Son. Following his fa- ther's death in 1865, Moses T. Stevens, to- gether with his brothers, George and Horace N., continued the business under the firm name of Nathaniel Stevens and Sons. On June 18, 1871, George Stevens died, and Moses T. and Horace N. Stevens continued the business under the same name, Nathaniel Stevens and Sons. Following the death of Horace N. Stevens, May 1, 1876, this firm name was closed out as of July 1, 1876, and Moses T. Stevens continued the business under his own name. On December 1, 1885, his sons, Nathaniel and Samuel D. Stevens, were admitted to partnership and the firm name M. T. Stevens and Sons was adopted. Moses T. Stevens, Jr., was admitted as a partner, May 1, 1899. On January 4, 1901, the business was incorporated under the name of M. T. Stevens and Sons Company, with Nathaniel Stevens, president; Moses T. Ste- vens, treasurer ; Samuel D. Stevens, assistant treasurer ; and Moses T. Stevens, Jr., clerk and secretary.

Captain Stevens married, November 6, 1815. Harriet Hale, born August 21, 1794, died January 28, 1881, aged eighty-seven years, daughter of Moses Hale, of Chelms- ford. Massachusetts, a pioneer carder, cloth finisher and manufacturer in Chelmsford, now a part of Lowell. They had nine chil- dren : 1. Charles A., who settled in Ware. 2. Henry H., who founded the Stevens Linen Works in Webster. 3. Harriet L., who died in 1845. 4. Julia Maria, who married the Rev. S. S. Hunting. 5. Moses Tyler, of During these years of development and growth numerous changes in equipment were made and additional plants were purchased. In 1870 a lease was taken of the Franklin whom further. 6. Catharine, who married Oliver Stevens. 7. George, who was a partner in the business of Nathaniel Stevens and Sons. 8. Ann Eliza, who married J. H. D. Mills at Franklin, New Hampshire, built in

M.7. James

THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY

1863 and consisting of twelve sets of cards. They were operated under the same general management until 1882, when, with a variety of other changes, four more sets of cards were added, and in 1886 the mills were pur- chased. On July 19, 1879, the property known as the Marland Mills, in Andover, was purchased and added to the business. This property has an interesting history. There, in 1775 and the year following, on the east side of the Shawsheen River, powder was made for the Revolutionary army by Lieutenant-Governor Phillips. Later Gov- ernor Phillips and Amos Blanchard operated a paper mill there. In 1807 Abraham Mar- land, who had come from England in 1801, and had located in Andover, had a carding and finishing mill on the Shawsheen River below the stone bridge in Abbott Village. In 1821 Peter C. Brooks, of Boston, who owned the property then, built for Mr. Marland a brick mill, which became known as the Mar- land Mill, and which he bought in 1828. He added other buildings to it, and on April 16, 1834, transferred the property to the Marland Manufacturing Company. Eventually the business failed and it was then that the prop- erty was bought in by Mr. Stevens, who made numerous additions and improvements to it in the years following. On January 1, 1900, the North Andover Mills were purchased, and the name was changed to Osgood Mills.

These mills date back to 1825, when a stone mill was built by Dr. Kittredge on the middle of the dam of the present Osgood Mills. From 1828 until 1835 Captain George Hodges and Edward Pranker manufactured flannels

there. In 1837 the present Osgood Mills, then known as the Hodges Mills, were built by George Hodges, Dr. Joseph Kittredge and Eben Sutton, their interests being equal. The business was continued by the three partners until the death of Dr. Kittredge, when the two remaining partners bought his interest. The mills were then run by Captain Hodges

and Francis Hodges under the name Hodges and Son, until 1860, when Samuel L. and Frances Hodges leased them and continued the business as Hodges Brothers. Captain Hodges died in 1862, and Eben Sutton, who had continued to hold his interest in the real estate, died in 1864. In 1867 a corporation was formed under the name of the North An- dover Mills, with Moses T. Stevens as one of the stockholders, and it leased the mills from the estate of Eben Sutton. In 1881 General Eben Sutton, nephew of the original Eben Sutton, bought out the other stock- holders and continued the business until his death on January 1, 1890, after which the mills were run by various members of the Sutton family, until they were sold to M. T. Stevens and Sons in 1900. On June 29, 1904, the M. T. Stevens and Sons Company pur- chased the Aiken Mills at Franklin, New Hampshire, and combined them with their other mills in that town, the Franklin Mills. The Aiken Mills date back to 1838, when Herrick Aiken, expert mechanic and inventor, came to Franklin from Dracut, Massachu- setts. In 1864 he sold his property to his son, Jonas B. Aiken, who had inherited his father's inventive and mechanical genius and applied himself chiefly to the manufacture of hosiery knitting machinery. His brother, Walter Aiken, bought the property in 1865, after a fire had destroyed the wooden build- ing, and rebuilt the mill, replacing it with a brick building in 1869. He died in 1893, leav- ing the mill property to his sons, Fred and James Aiken, who operated the mills under the firm name of Walter Aikens Sons until 1904, when they closed the mills on account of business depression, selling them later to the M. T. Stevens and Sons Company. The original Stevens Mills at Andover under- went numerous improvements as well. In 1865 a new dam was built at the outlet of the Great Pond, now called Lake Cochicke- wick. In 1887 and 1888 the addition to the

THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY

mills, which had been built in 1846, was re- moved and the present buildings were con- structed and connected with the original mills, which had been built in 1813 and 1830, and equipped with twelve sets of cards.

As a manufacturer of woolen goods Mr. Stevens ranked among the foremost in the country and was conceded to be the owner of the largest private woolen manufacturing establishment in the country. He was also president of the Stevens Linen Works, of Webster, Massachusetts. This company, too, has interesting antecedents, dating back to July 9, 1811, when the Merino Wool Factory Company was organized at Dudley, Massa- chusetts, by Captain Jepthah Bacon and others. The following year a stone mill was built and a woolen plant installed, which was run with varying success until August 20, ISIS, when it was sold at auction to Jepthah Bacon. The property remained idle until 1845, when it was bought by Henry H. Stevens, brother of Moses T. Stevens. In 1846 machinery for a linen plant was installed and the property improved in many ways. In 1862 Mill No. 2 was commenced and com- pleted in 1864. In 1870 the manufacture of jute and gunny cloth was added to that of linen. In the same year the mills were or- ganized into a corporation under the name of Stevens Linen Works. In 1900 the capacity of the mills was increased fifty per cent.

Mr. Stevens was as prominent in public life as in the business world. He represented his district in the General Court in 1861, and was State Senator in 1868, serving on im- portant committees. He was the first Dem- ocrat elected to Congress from his district, the Fifth District, formerly the Eighth. Elected in 1890, he was made a member of the ways and means committee and, in the Fifty-second Congress, introduced the bill placing wool on the free list. He was the most prominent American woolen manufac- turer favoring free wool, and was a powerful

factor in framing tariff legislation. Reëlected for the next term, he again served on the ways and means committee. Mr. Stevens gave freely to private and public charities, and was keenly interested in all that made for the material and moral welfare of North An- dover. In 1904 he gave to the town of North Andover the Stevens Memorial Library, giv- ing both the land and a modern library build- ing erected on it. He was a director and for- mer president of the Andover National Bank, a trustee and former president of the An- dover Savings Bank, and a director of the Merrimac Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In religion he was a Unitarian and was treas- urer and one of the chief supporters of the North Parish Church and prominent in the Unitarian Club of Beacon Street, Boston.

Moses Tyler Stevens married, at North An- dover, May 5, 1853, Charlotte Emeline Os- good, daughter of Captain Isaac and Char- lotte (Adams) Osgood. They had six chil- dren : 1. Mary Osgood, who married John F. Tyler. 2. Nathaniel, of whom further. 3. Samuel Dale, of whom further. 4. Virginia, who married Whitman Cross. 5. Helen, who married Arthur C. Lovekin. 6. Moses Tyler, of whom further.

(VIII-A) Nathaniel Stevens, oldest son of the late Moses Tyler and Charlotte Emeline (Osgood) Stevens, was born at North An- dover, September II, 1857. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, and early in life, in 1876, when he was nineteen years old, became connected with the woolen manu- facturing business established by his grand- father, and then operated by his father. In 1885 he became a partner in the firm of M. T. Stevens and Sons, continuing as such un- til 1901. At that time the firm was incor- porated under the name of M. T. Stevens and Sons Company, and since then Nathaniel Stevens has been president of this corpora- tion. Associated with him in the manage- ment of the business are: Moses T. Stevens,

Hartanul Stevino

THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY

vice-president and secretary ; Abbot Stevens, treasurer ; Carl Vetter, general manager. The company, whose earlier history has already been related in connection with the review of the lives of Captain Nathaniel Stevens and his son, Moses Tyler Stevens, now owns the following mills: Stevens Mills, North An- dover; Osgood Mills, North Andover; Mar- land Mills, Andover ; Pentucket Mills, Haver- hill, Massachusetts ; Franklin Mills, Franklin, New Hampshire; Peace Dale Mills, Peace Dale, Rhode Island ; Merrimack Woolen Mills, Dracut, Massachusetts ; and Hockanum Mills, Rockville, Connecticut. Identified with this great and important enterprise throughout his entire business career, Mr. Stevens has guided it for the last third of a century with a sure and steady hand along the pathway of success, in good times and in times of diffi- culties. He is thoroughly acquainted with and deeply interested in the history of the woolen industry, and is the author of "A Sketch of the Early Days of the Woolen In- dustry in North Andover, Massachusetts," an address delivered before the North Andover Historical Society on February 13, 1925, and published in pamphlet form in the same year.

Mr. Stevens is also president of the An- dover National Bank, the Stevens Linen Works, and the Pemberton Company, for- merly a director of the First National Bank of Boston, a director of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, the Arkwright Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and presi- dent of the North Andover Historical Soci- ety. He is a member of the National Asso- ciation of Wool Manufacturers, of which he has served as vice-president. His religious affiliations are with the Unitarian church.

Nathaniel Stevens married, March 25, 1885, Elizabeth Priscilla White, of Haver- hill, daughter of James Davis and H. Ann (Tenny) White. Her father, representing the eighth generation of his family in Haver- hill, Massachusetts, was a farmer. Her

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The story of Essex County, Volume III, Part 1

Author: Fuess, Claude Moore, 1885-1963 Publication date: 1935 Publisher: New York : American Historical Society Number of Pages: 610

Author: Fuess, Claude Moore, 1885-1963
Publication date: 1935
Publisher: New York : American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 610