USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > A History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, vol 1 > Part 39
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boro and Pawtucket, the interest of the concern has been centered in the production of its own feeds.
The Taunton Grain Company and A. Milot and Sons are long-estab- lished firms.
Metallurgic Industries .- The oldest establishment of its kind in the United States is that of Reed & Barton, manufacturers of sterling silver and electroplate, whose extensive works occupy the site and privilege of ancient mills of grain, wood-sawing and fulling. This is the story of the beginnings of the present business. Isaac Babbitt, born in Taunton, July 26, 1799, was a nephew of the jeweler, Charles Babbitt, and of whom he learned the jewelry trade. He with William Crossman, also a jeweler, and born in Taunton, September 19, 1794, formed partnership in 1822. Mr. Babbitt having his attention called to the imported Britannia ware from England, began to experiment with it, and he was assisted in his efforts by William W. Porter, who had some experience in the pewter button shop of his father. Babbitt and Porter, with William A. West, one day rolled a small sheet of the mixture they had made, and found that it rolled well. It was done with a pair of jeweler's hand rolls, and this was the first Britannia metal rolled in America.
Babbitt and Crossman concluded to start in the business, and they hired a room with power, of Roswell Ballard, in his woolen mill on Spring street, afterwards the Albert Field tack works. They had several lathes, and a set of four-by-twelve steel rolls, made by Elias Strange of Taunton, and these are the set of grooved rolls now used by Reed and Barton for rolling wire. Their dies and moulds for the work were made by Caleb Porter. In 1826 they built a new mill on School street, the Leo brick building, and installed a James Rotary engine, the first steam power started in town; and the mill force was organized by choice of Isaac Babbitt, superintendent; William W. Porter, foreman; and about fifteen hands were set at work during the year. In 1827 they commenced on tea ware, and the first tea-pot finished was exhibited in their show window on Main street, now Tisdale's jewelry store, and attracted much attention as the
first American manufacture of this sort. An order of eight sets was laid out, and was the first lot made, they being fluted in a lead die, under a screw press, and soldered by a blast of hot air from a charcoal stove. Charles E. Barton entered as an apprentice in 1827, he being a brother-in- law to Mr. Crossman, of the firm. William A. West joining the company, it was then known as Babbitt, Crossman & Company, and in the spring of 1828 Henry G. Reed entered as an apprentice. In 1829, Isaac Babbitt, superintendent, was receiving two dollars a day wages; William W. Porter, foreman, one dollar; Charles E. Barton, thirty-one cents, and so on. Mr. Babbitt, retired from the company in 1830, but retained the superin- tendency ; he was succeeded in the company by Zephaniah Leonard, and the firm became Crossman, West & Leonard.
Goods at this time were ordered to come from Boston "by first wagon," and the agent went into the city to drum Boston, in a chaise, with his goods packed in an old-fashioned round chaise trunk. In 1830 also, William Porter introduced the ring die, under screw press, and the company was incorporated as the Taunton Britannia Manufacturing Company. In 1830 work was commenced on a new mill at Hopewell, this being the "Old Mill"
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or north end of the West Side factory, dimensions one hundred by forty feet. It is a matter of interest at this time to state that William Porter, having seen a description of Professor Silliman's new blow pipe, had the new mill fitted with similar lamps for soldering, to use whale oil. Early in 1831 the plant was installed in the new mill, with about thirty hands at work. In 1832, William Porter spun a lot of about three hundred dozen looking-glass frames, the idea having originated with him, and this being the first spinning done with a burnisher in this country. Pratt & Crossman had this spinning process patented, but never succeeded in en- forcing their patent.
William Porter prepared a soft metal box or bearing for the rolls, and named it box metal; it proved a success, and Babbitt some six years later having left the factory, got it patented under the name of Babbitt metal, by which name it is now called. Business becoming poor, the factory was forced to suspend in 1833. Crossman & Pratt had the plant for awhile, but did not make a success of it, and soon gave it up. The Taunton Britannia Manufacturing Company failed in 1834, and sold out to Horatio Leonard, son of Zephaniah Leonard, who owned the water power, and had leased it to them. Nothing was done at the factory for an entire season. In 1835, Henry G. Reed and Charles E. Barton formed a company under the style of Reed & Barton, and taking the plant of Horatio Leonard, began business in a small way, Mr. Reed presiding at the lathe and Mr. Barton at the soldering. In 1837, Horatio Leonard gave his son Gustavus a deed of the Britannia mill plant, and he joining the Reed & Barton Company, they adopted the name of Leonard, Reed & Barton, with Leonard as financial agent, and Reed as superintendent. This placed the company on a substantial basis, and by the end of the year they had about twelve hands at work. A display of the goods of the company was made at the exhibition of the American Institute at New York in 1838, and an award of a gold medal was made them. During the following year their business increased, more hands were employed and progress was made, the pewter wares of the earlier years being laid aside and nothing but pure Britannia goods being put upon the market. Then commenced the manu- facture of coffin plates, they being pioneers in this line of ware. Mr. Leon- ard died in the spring of 1845, and the appraisal of the plant after his death was $20,000, not including real estate and water power. The firm at this time consisted of Henry G. Reed, Charles E. Barton, Estate of Gustavus Leonard. The employes were: Clerk, Alfred Brabrook; polish- ers: Fred A. Harvey, William P. Barker, James A. B. Woodward, Charles H. White, George Graves; fitters: Noah Williams, Nathan Wilbur, Solomon Dean; solderers: Barnus L. Burbank, John Allen, Andrew Reed, Rebecca Robinson, Patty White; spinners: Calvin T. Macomber, Peleg Francis; turners: William W. Porter, Eli Eldridge, Edwin Reed, Nathaniel B. Leonard, E. W. Porter; stampers: Jahaziah Burbank; casters: Edmund Perry, John W. Thayer; designers : Josiah W. Strange; wrapper, Mrs. Mary W. Barker.
At this time, skilled workmen were receiving but $1.50 to $1.75 per day, and a man's board was about $1.75 a week, working hours at that time being from 5 a. m. to 7 p. m. There was no time-keeper in the factory, each hand keeping his own time. Pay-day was once in three months, or
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quarterly. The mill was heated very imperfectly by a few small cylinder stoves for coal; the burnishing suds would often freeze on the lathes while at work in cold weather. The casting furnaces were run by a wood fire, and the entire mill was lighted with small whale oil lamps. The wood handles for tea ware were made in Rehoboth by Jarvis Smith, and the hinges and joints for covers were made by Charles Babbitt, a jeweler at the Green. Alfred Brabrook kept the books, did all the packing, and japanned the wood handles and tips; Henry G. Reed worked at the turn- ing lathe; and Charles E. Barton was the head solderer. Both these men lived in the double tenement house next south of the Bay street school. At that time, also, William Mason occupied about two-thirds of the third story of the old mill as a machine shop, with about thirty hands; and Stephen Rhodes had one-third of the basement for a tack works, with twenty hands. Marcus M. Rhodes was the "boss" of the Rhodes factory. James Dixon had a shop on the third floor; and later he was the founder of the crucible business in this town. Cotton Bradbury had a small machine shop on the third floor, where Luther R. Babbitt made tools for his Dighton Cotton factory. In 1847, Henry H. Fish, brother-in-law of Gustavus Leonard, purchased the interest of Leonard in the company as a silent partner, and the name Leonard being dropped, it became again simply "Reed & Barton," which name it has held since that time. Mr. Fish's son, George H., came that year to learn the trade. Reed and Barton then bought the block tin plant of Nathan Lawrence, of Baltimore, Maryland, and moved it into their works, bringing Mr. Lawrence to manage it, and hiring his two hands, James Williams and John C. McDonald, as workmen. This block tin was simply a new name for ancient pewter, and the firm made a large line of it for many years. In 1848, Reed & Barton com- menced making hand-rubbed Britannia ware, and they imported several Englishwomen to introduce the work. That year, too, they commenced electro-plating, and DeForest H. Peck was brought from Connecticut to install a plant for them; Manning W. Fox was secured from Connecticut to introduce the silver burnishing. The firm established a branch of pearl- cutting to furnish the non-conductors for tea-pot handles, of which they used large quantities. In 1850 George Brabrook came as a helper for his brother Alfred in the packing department, and he became a partner in 1859. The firm began the manufacture of sterling silver in 1889. The Reed & Barton corporation was incorporated in 1888, with a capital of $600,000. Their present manufactory includes a cluster of sixteen spacious and substantial buildings erected from year to year, as exigencies required, and covering six acres of flooring. In 1923 six hundred and fifty hands were employed at this plant, the product being in the order named, thus: sterling silver, electro silver-plated ware, and gold-ware, bronze, etc. The officers of the corporation : President, William B. H. Dowse; vice-president, Charles S. Weeks; treasurer, William R. Mitchell; secretary, Franklin D. Putnam; assistant secretary and general manager, Mark Anthony.
In 1826 three brothers, Samuel L., George A. and William A. Crocker, commenced the rolling of sheet copper at a water power in the town of Norton. The business under their management prospered and increased to such an extent that in 1831 it was incorporated under the name of the Taun- ton Copper Manufacturing Company. One of the principal uses for copper
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when the business was started was for sheathing the hulls of wooden ships to protect them against fouling, the destructive work of marine borers. Soon after their incorporation, a composition of copper and zinc was patented in England known as Muntz or Yellow Metal, which answered the same purpose as copper for sheathing ships, and could be produced at a lower figure. Within a few years the Taunton Copper Manufacturing Com- pany secured expert labor from England, and commenced the manufac- ture of Muntz Metal in this country, that product being a large part of its output until the wooden hulls were replaced with iron or steel, when it was no longer needed. About the year 1836 the company purchased the next power above them on Wading river, and constructed a canal above the dam, which gave them an increased head of water from twelve to twenty-one feet. The location, however, in Norton was not a favorable one for transportation, and in 1848 additional plant was started at Weir Village in Taunton. The Norton plant was operated in connection with the Taunton plant until 1886, when the whole works were consolidated at Weir Village.
At the start and until after the Civil War, the copper used by the company was imported from foreign countries in the form of ore, and a large smelting plant was operated first in Norton, then in Taunton, and then at Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Early in the seventies the mining of copper in the United States had reached a point where it became un- profitable to import foreign ores, and the refining of copper was gradually assumed by the mining companies so that smelting works at Portsmouth were finally entirely abandoned. The company followed the changes in the market in its products and has kept abreast of the requirements at all times. Samuel L. Crocker acted as treasurer of the company from its organization until his death in 1883. He was succeeded in 1884 by Henry F. Bassett, who served as treasurer until 1919, when he became president and agent. In 1900, owing to the radical changes in the nature of the business, it became wise and perhaps necessary to consolidate with com- petition in the immediate neighborhood, and as a consequence the interests of the Bridgewater Iron Works, which manufactured non-ferrous material, was purchased. Taunton Copper Manufacturing Company, Revere Copper Company, and the New Bedford Copper Company, were consolidated under the name of the Taunton-New Bedford Copper Company, and two plants, one in Taunton and one in New Bedford, were maintained. C. A. Cook, the president of the New Bedford Copper Company, became vice-president and agent of the Taunton-New Bedford Copper Company, and filled that office and later that of president until his death, January 1, 1919. The business has grown from comparatively small volume to a maximum of twenty million pounds per year during the war period, and is maintaining its proportion of the existing business in this country at the present time.
Famous in its day was the Taunton Locomotive Manufacturing Company, this being among the first companies established especially to manufacture locomotives in New England, the first locomotive being built here in May, 1847. The works were built in 1846 near the Central station of the N. Y., N. H. & H. railroad, and incorporation took place in 1847, the incorporators being William A. Crocker, Willard W. Fairbanks, William R. Lee, and associates. William A. Crocker was elected presi-
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dent, W. W. Fairbanks agent and treasurer, and Charles R. Olney clerk. The capital stock at first was $50,000, but in 1864 it was established at $218,500. The company attained a high reputation for its product, and the locomo- tives turned out from the plant were a propelling power throughout the country. The company added to its business in 1883 the Huber, later the Huber-Hodgman, printing press. The business was discontinued about the year 1905, the officers at that time being: President, Robert T. Gammell; treasurer, William R. Billings; directors: Robert T. Gammell, Henry F. Bassett, Charles T. Dorrance, Walter C. Baylies, William C. Davenport.
The Mason Machine Works Company was founded by William Mason in 1845, who built the most complete plant for the manufacture of cotton machinery in this country. Previous to the erection of the present plant, Mr. Mason had engaged in the building of power looms, in 1829, when he was but twenty years old. In 1833 he brought out the first successful ring-spinning frame, and in 1842, he perfected his wonderful invention, the self-acting mule. In 1842 he became the proprietor of the machine shop formerly owned by Crocker and Richmond; but this shop soon proving inadequate for the growing business, the present plant was begun in 1845. In 1852, preparations were made for building locomotives in addition to cotton machinery, the first locomotive from this plant being turned out in 1853. After the financial crisis of 1857, Mr. Mason accepted a contract to furnish one hundred thousand Springfield rifled muskets for the United States government, the larger portion of the machines required being designed by Mr. Mason. In 1873, the business was incorporated under the name of Mason Machine Works, the first officers being William Mason, president; William H. Bent, treasurer; Frederick Mason, agent. The Campbell printing press was added to the manufacture in 1879. William Mason died May 25, 1883. A very com- plete line of carding, spinning, and weaving machinery is now being built, and wherever cotton is spun or cloth woven, Mason machinery will be found in operation. The full operating capacity of the plant is about one thousand men, and the ownership and management of the plant remains in the Mason family. Colonel Frederick Mason, who has spent his life-time in connection with the plant, is the president of the corporation. Associ- ated with him are several direct members of the family.
Stove Manufacturing .- A commendable affiliation of municipality and industry was demonstrated on June 2, 1923, when the new William E. Walker Memorial Park at Weir Village was donated to the city by Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Leach, son-in-law and daughter of the late captain of in- dustry for whom the park was named. The transfer of the park to the city was accompanied with the presence and speech-making of His Excel- lency Channing H. Cox, Governor of the Commonwealth; His Honor Leo H. Coughlin, mayor of Taunton; Oscar A. Hillard, commander of William H. Bartlett Post, No. 3, G. A. R .; and William H. Reed, publisher of the Taunton Daily Gazette. "He being dead, yet liveth," might well be de- clared of the man for whom the new park was named, and in whose memory a multitude of people had assembled-for it was in large part through his own toil, foresight and enterprise that the vast plant adjoin- ing the park, that of the Weir Stove Company, was assured for Taunton. It may well be said that the new park, for years since the passing of the
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former grain business an unsightly place, is now a beauty spot for the city, a culmination of a life work. When we speak of the Weir Stove Company as a concern that is a monument to older and allied industries, as well as to the specialty in stove-manufacturing that it represents, we might add another syllable to the word, "monumental," since that is more expressive of the present-hour growth and activity of the plant that has made this municipality the outstanding one in New England for the pro- duct, the Glenwood Range.
The incident of the park presentation has been referred to in order to show how the past of this manufacturing foundation is linked up with the present, locally, and how completely of Taunton are its origin and neighborhood relationships, though the fame of it is nothing less than world-wide. The plant and its immediate location have shared in every one of the changes that have come to pass in stove-manufacture for about a half century. Of course, stoves were made much earlier than that, but from this one great industrial fabric there has been a veritable gene- alogical succession of stoves from the great-grandparent stove of the simplest style to the radiant grand-daughter range of this moment, a revelation to generations past and present. History proves all things, and the history of the stove here and of its builders is proof of its value to the economics of industry. A widespread and remarkably well equipped set of buildings occupies a section of the extreme south part of the city at that ancient Weir along by the river, where the Indians of the Wampanoag tribe set their fish weirs from time immemorial, and whither the first white settlers followed, and established their own weir, and lay their first rough bridge, fully as early as 1637. The story of the beginnings of things is always of interest, particularly so when the present-day business of cor- porations is so successful and progressive that it may be looked upon as a monument to the earliest industries associated with the location.
As for the beginnings of the Weir Stove Company's plant itself, they were made in the year 1879, when Charles F. Baker, William E. Walker and George E. Wilbur, first associates of the present extensive plant, pur- chased the flagstone manufacturing shop and adjoining property of Zabina Blake, on West Water street, and there lay the foundations of a group of buildings and of the business that is planned and carried out therein that have not their equal this side of the city of Detroit. The three men who thus opened the way for the long procession of newer interests in the line of buildings and inventions and appliances that were to follow, were practical men of affairs and expert moulders, and they started business in their small shop, Mr. Wilbur having direct oversight of the pattern-mak- ing department from the first. Little by little, with the increase of their business, the larger buildings began to be constructed, and in a short time thirty men were being employed in the manufacture of the Glenwood Range. A small, plain and simply made stove that worked itself into the market quickly was the original of that stove, and today, all the goods of the firm, improved and modern to the minute, bear that name and stamp. The set of buildings on the west side of West Water street were con- structed in 1902, and with that, the old forges of the past have given way to the splendidly equipped foundries of the present; and a set of skilled workmen in one line of iron production has been succeeded by another
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yet more skilful in the manufacture of the more economic and modernized of household utensils. Hence comes the product, the Glenwood Range, that goes out into the uttermost parts of the earth; and it is often asserted that the Taunton globe-trotter has found no warmer nor more welcome friend in Manitoba or in Russia than the Glenwood. Annually, thousands of tons of pig-iron are made use of in the manufacture of this stove -- pig-iron that is brought here from Buffalo and the Great Lakes front, as well as from the Pennsylvania furnace districts. The big brick and iron furnaces or cupolas at the plant take care of and make fluid all the iron that comes to the plant for the moulding-room processes, the largest of the cupolas having a capacity of twenty-five tons. Two hundred and sixty pieces enter into the making of the stove, and the processes of making and fitting these pieces are intensely interesting, from the pattern- making to the final polishing of the completed range. From this plant are sent forth, annually, seventy to eighty thousand stoves, and several hundred moulders and other employes are engaged in the occupation of making the Range. Aside from Detroit, no other plant has so large a capacity for stove manufacturing. It is estimated that the buildings have an area of about nine and one-half acres. Joseph L. Anthony is president and Robert M. Leach treasurer of the company.
Taunton successors to the founders and moulders of a century ago share both the memory and the remnants of the materials of one of the city's earliest industries, as they bend to their labors in the work shops of the White Warner Company-once those of the Taunton Iron Works. The conflagration of a few years ago and the consecutive changes incident to the building and improvement of the property, have eradicated the founda- tions and the ash-heaps of a business that once kept pace with every era of the progress of the town. Upon the former situation of two old busi- ness houses, the White Warner Company, manufacturers of the Household Range, have laid their foundations; and twice from the ashes of serious loss by fire has this concern arisen to become as it is today, the second largest of the stove-building plants in New England. Hon. Richard E. Warner, treasurer of the company and former mayor of Taunton, tells the interesting story of a firm that continues the more than traditions of excel- lence of workmanship and of production, begun long ago:
Though we have not always been the White Warner Company, for nearly forty years, or from the time this firm started out in the industrial world, the Household Range has been with us-a range created in our own foundry and warm- ing hearts and homes throughout this country and abroad. Our own pioneers were Charles P. White and George L. Walker, capable men with business brains and foresight, who in March, 1882, established themselves on land and in buildings leased of the Strange Cylinder Saw and Machine Company, 31 Tremont street. There they first erected a small foundry and employed eight moulders, as a beginning and a nucleus for the plant of the present hour. They continued under that style for a little over a year, or until July 1, 1883, when Richard E. Warner was admitted to the firm, which then became known as White, Walker & Company. Mr. Walker retired in 1886, and the present firm was incorporated as White Warner Company. We were a blue-shirted and overalls-wearing group of men, with the experience taught of practical men. Old foundrymen will recall Charles P. White, of our firm, whom I have no hesitation in naming as the then first foundryman in New England. He was one of those old-line men who had the privilege of beginning their
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iron-working experiences at what I would call the very foundation-stone of iron work in New England-the ancient Leonard lot. Those were the hard years, when he drove a horse around the windlass then in use to provide the forced draught for his foundry cupola at those old works. Later on he became the foreman at the Oscar G. Thomas foundry, then he launched the beginnings of our present concern. We built our office last, not first, as is the custom today, and there we kept our books, holding our meetings in the carpenter's shop, and our safe was the carpenter's chest itself. Mr. White died in 1903, and his partner, George L. Walker, went into the insurance business.
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