USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > A History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, vol 1 > Part 41
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The Taunton Aluminum Novelty Company was started in 1899 by Amos A. Fisher to make novelties, fancy goods and tableware in aluminum. Mr. Fisher died in 1902, and the plant was sold to George Mulligan, who ran it about a year, when he sold the works to Yates and Corr, who re- moved the business to Granite street. E. A. Fargo & Company started another aluminum novelty works in 1904. in the new Field Tack Works. in the rear of the armory.
The F. B. Rogers Silver Company was incorporated February 11, 1883, the Rogers Cutlery Company, of Shelburne Falls, this State, taking about one-third of the stock, and turning in their plant as their share, the bal- ance being taken by Taunton parties. The factory of the Porter Company, on Winthrop street, was purchased by the Oliver Ames Company, of Eas- ton, and the Shelburne plant was moved there and put into operation. Soon afterwards, or in 1899, the West Silver Company was incorporated, with L. B. West as president; A. H. Williams, treasurer; and Lewis Williams, E. W. Porter and A. W. Williams, directors. In January, 1907, the personnel of the firm was again changed, when W. J. Davison, C. A. Woodward and H. E. Nearing became stockholders, and entered the board of management, with A. H. Williams as business manager and W. F. Preston as the presi- dent of the company. The product is silver-plated hollow ware, and about sixty-five hands are employed.
The Cohannet Silver Company was begun in 1903 by A. M. Burns, William A. Dreghorn, William E. McIsaacs and E. W. Burns, as a britan- nia and silver-plating company. The Cohannet Vulcanizing Company was incorporated September 29, 1917, with capital stock, preferred $500,000, common $500,000; Charles S. Davis is the president; Myron E. Wood, treas- urer.
In 1892, George Poole and Edward F. Roche left the West Silver Com- pany and formed the Poole & Roche Company, to start a britannia works in the shop vacated by Reed, Barton & Company, on Court street. They began with a similar line of table ware. In 1893, Louis Busiere joined them, and, removing to Whittenton, they started under the name of Poole, Roche & Company. In 1895 they incorporated as the Poole Silver Company. Mr. Roche died in November, 1906, and Mr. Poole in January, 1907. Mrs. Minnie Poole is the president, and Arthur E. Poole treasurer and clerk.
In 1907, E. D. Paige and James M. Westgate, both residents of Taun-
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ton, and formerly connected with the Taunton Crucible Company, of Taun- ton, organized a company with the capital stock of $50,000 for the manu- facture of graphite crucibles and retorts, now known as the Bay State . Crucible Company, on the site formerly occupied and known as Wright's Pottery. The first officers were Willis K. Hodgman, president; E. D. Paige, treasurer; with the above-named and Franklin D. Williams as directors, and James M. Westgate, clerk. The concern has enjoyed a successful busi- ness career ever since its organization, its products being shipped and used from coast to coast in the United States, as well as being exported to sev- eral foreign countries. During the World War, the company was com- pelled to increase its plant output 200 per cent, until now its annual output is 85,000 crucibles. Practically all of the raw material entering into the manufacture of these goods has to be imported from India, Africa and Ger- many, only two ingredients of the several used being produced in America. The goods manufactured by this concern and known as the Bay State Brand are used for melting brass, bronze, gold, silver, steel, and other metal alloys, and are used by many of the largest smelting and refining com- panies in America, for the refining of gold and silver, as well as in their lead refining process. It is generally understood that the first graphite crucibles manufactured in the United States were manufactured in Taun- ton; but out of the seven concerns who later occupied themselves with this line of manufacture in the New England States, the Bay State Crucible Company is now one of the two remaining concerns in the New England States manufacturing this product, and the only one in Massachusetts.
The M. M. Rhodes & Sons Company business house was established in 1861, for the manufacture of hoopskirt trimmings and linings nails. Its founder, Marcus M. Rhodes, was an ingenious inventor, bringing out from time to time new articles as the trade demanded. In 1872, he took his two oldest sons, Charles M. and George H., into the business with him, at which time they commenced the manufacture of papier maché shoe buttons, this being the first factory in America to turn out this product. In 1888 a third son was taken into the firm, and the company was incorporated. In the late nineties the shoe-button industry was at a standstill, and the plant was obliged to find other products to manufacture. Mr. Rhodes then designed a tufting or upholstery button, with a papier maché top, which has now been on the market for twenty-five years. He next produced a new method for covering shoe-lacing hocks with enamel, and this department of the busi- ness is still carried on. In 1910, a grandson, Marcus A. Rhodes, was taken into the firm. The year 1918 marked the addition of another branch of the business in braiding; and for the past five years they have been build- ing up an active trade in shoe laces, which are sold chiefly in the New England shoe district. The officers of the company in 1923: President, Ralph E. Barker; vice-president, Charles M. Rhodes; treasurer, Marcus A. Rhodes.
The Hughes Eyelet Company was organized in February, 1903, for the manufacture of high-grade shoe eyelets. For two years this manufac- ture was carried on and domestic trade taken care of. In 1905 fire practi- cally destroyed the factory and the company was reorganized under the same management as before and the plant rebuilt on the same site. The manufacture of shoe eyelets was continued for the next ten years, handling
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demands of both domestic and foreign markets and gradually branching out into special and fancy eyelets, to which has recently been added the manufacture of small metal stampings used extensively and in great assort- ment by the electrical trade. A large part of the plant is today kept busy with the manufacture of these small metal specialties.
One of the pioneers in the lumber business in this city was the late Captain Abiathar Williams, at his location on Ingell street. He was suc- ceeded by his sons, Abiathar K. and George B. Williams. Their successors are Abiathar G. and Alfred B. Williams.
The Emery Record Preserving Company does a business of restoring valuable books and records of all kinds which are sent in from all parts of the country to this specializing plant for expert treatment. This firm is a successor to the business of F. W. R. Emery, a well known citizen of Taunton. Mr. Emery was a son of Rev. Dr. Emery, the Taunton historian, from whom he probably received the idea of utilizing his book binding busi- ness for the more special work of caring for the deteriorating records and manuscripts which up to this time had been a book binding problem to properly handle, especially where the material was badly broken and de- cayed, as many of them were. Mr. Emery perfected and patented the Emery process, as it was later called, which consisted in placing the leaves or documents between sheets of transparent silk, which restored and pre- served the original record. He treated many of the earlier record books of the surrounding towns and cities. After his death the business was taken over by Edwin A. Tetlow and Allen P. Hoard, Taunton, who continued the work under the name of the Emery Record Preserving Company. Mr. Hoard acted as manager. New forms of treatment have been perfected and additions made to the process. The firm has a plant all fitted with special equipment and fire-proof vault for the special handling of the valuable rec- ords and documents placed in their care. The business not only consists of the repairing and restoring of damaged records, but also the binding of collections in special forms of inlaying and mounting. Damaged maps and plans are remounted on new mountings, and also oil paintings, these latter having the painted film removed from the old canvas and remounted on new material.
The Taunton works of the General Electric Company were opened in July, 1917, the General Electric Company having taken over the land and buildings of the Huber-Hodgman Printing Press Company. The Taunton works were started principally to manufacture alternating current induction motors. These works employ, when running to full capacity, approximately 650 people; the output from the plant will be approximately 1500 motors per week of sizes ranging from one-half to twenty-five horsepower inclusive. This plant was started in operation under the supervision of George M. Stevens, who is still in charge.
The Phoenix Manufacturing Company, afterwards known as the Phoenix Crucible Company, was established in 1844 by Charles R. Atwood, and was one of the oldest crucible companies in the United States. The pro- duct was known for its high quality, and was used at the United States assay offices and mints many years. In 1894, most of the stockholders hav- ing died, the works were sold to Henry D. Atwood of this city. In the sum- mer of 1895, the Omaha and Grant Smelting and Refining Company, of
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Omaha, Nebraska, and Denver, Colorado, made a contract with Henry D. Atwood and his son, Henry C. Atwood, to make up one thousand of their largest-sized retorts. In the meantime the American Smelting and Refining Company was formed, comprising all the large plants of the kind in this country, with the exception of the Guggenheims'. On May 8, 1899, the former company purchased the old Phoenix works of Mr. Atwood, taking on Henry D. and Henry S. Atwood for the management, and to manufacture retorts and crucibles. In 1902, the Guggenheims came into the smelters' trust and dominated it. On May 10, 1902, Harry C. Atwood resigned his position with the American Smelting and Refining Company, and on May 16, 1902, that company sold the plant to the Taunton Crucible Company, and they in turn sold out their entire business to the Bridgeport Crucible Company, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The plant was idle a few years, and then, in 1922, the Oscar G. Thomas Company purchased the property.
The Atlas Buckram Company, at their large plant on Spring street, are manufacturers and dealers in cloths and fabrics of all kinds and descrip- tions, especially buckram and other cloths of similar make. On August 25, 1903, Herbert H. Shumway was one of the purchasers of the plant of the United Tack Company, that succeeded the Atlas Tack Company, that had been doing business with A. Field & Son as incorporators. The Atlas Buckram Company organized May 11, 1915, with H. H. Shumway as presi- dent and A. H. Shumway treasurer. The company had been formed Decem- ber 28, 1908, under the laws of Maine, with a capital of $5000, the officers at that time being Oswald E. Schneider, president; H. H. Shumway, secretary and agent; and Louis Busiere, treasurer. In 1910, H. H. and A. H. Shum- way purchased the business. In 1912, the capital was raised to $10,000; and in 1919 the change was made from a Maine to a Massachusetts corporation, the amount of capital at that time being raised to $58,000. The firm was doing a business of $800,000 annually in 1922.
A. J. Barker Company, druggists and stationers, were incorporated in 1906; president, Ralph E. Barker; treasurer, Merle T. Barker. The busi- ness was founded in 1849 by A. J. Barker, and his son succeeded him in 1865, at the close of the Civil War. Ralph E. Barker, grandson of the founder, became affiliated with the business in 1899, and his brother, Merle T. Barker, in 1904.
The Ever Sharp File Company, was started in March, 1920, for the purpose of the reclamation of old files and the re-sharpening of new files. It is located at 148 Dean street, Taunton. The business was incorporated April 7, 1923. Elihu G. Sibley is president, and Charles S. McNulty is sec- retary, treasurer and general manager. The output of the concern goes principally to the shoe and auto industries and is distributed from Wis- consin and Missouri in the West, to Cincinnati in the South, and points north and east of these places.
The catalogue book and job printing plant of C. A. Hack & Son, Inc., was established in 1844 by the late Christopher A. Hack, who for many years was a printer and publisher in the town of Taunton. Henry S. Hack for a number of years carried on the business, which developed, largely through his skill and business ability. The present firm was incorporated February 3, 1913, by Henry S. Hack, Harold W. Hack and Francis P. Calla- han. The business was purchased by Francis P. Callahan, November 8,
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1919. The company are high grade printers, who specialize in color-print- ing, book, and catalogue work. They have a department which handles miscellaneous job printing. They are located in their one-story brick build- ing on 42 Court street, with 10,000 square feet of floor space. The com- pany serves customers throughout New England and in New York City.
Keeping up with the demands of the present, just as the founder of the plant started in business with the same popular plan and intent for his own day, the print shop of Charles W. Davol takes pride in being an establish- ment of the first class, and with a long record of so doing. Ezra Davol, publisher and printer, made the beginnings of the concern in 1858. He had the misfortune to be burned out in the extensive conflagration of Novem- ber, 1859, but he started all over again in the Crocker building, where he remained a number of years. Thence the business was removed to the present place, School and Main streets, where the plant has been located since January 1, 1900. Ezra Davol was formerly publisher of the Bristol County "Republican." Charles W. Davol entered the firm in 1898, upon graduation from college, and the business has since increased ten times. A specialty is made of job printing of the better class, specializing in the mill work of this section.
Other concerns that have a large share in the industry of Taunton to- day are as follows :
Brownell & Burt, carriage manufacturers, incorporated July, 1919; president, Daniel L. Brownell; secretary, Eugene H. Brownell; treasurer, G. H. Burt. The Chandler Oil Cloth and Buckram Company incorporated in 1922; president, Frank W. Whitcher, of Boston; treasurer and general manager, E. M. S. Chandler; secretary, Paul D. Dean of Boston. Colby's Clothing Store, incorporated February 10, 1912; president, Eugene Leach; treasurer, Russell C. Paige; clerk, Charlotte Colby. H. L. Davis Company, incorporated January 1, 1918, capital $16,000; president, E. W. Sturgis; treasurer, I. H. Bosworth; secretary, A. C. Lewis. Etna Company, in- corporated January 1, 1903; treasurer, Chester S. Godfrey; superintendent, William F. Congdon. Evans Stamping and Plating Company, organized 1902, capital $30,000; president, treasurer and general manager, Richard Wastcoat; clerk, Paul D. Dean. John D. Fahey Company, incorporated 1916; treasurer, John D. Fahey; vice-president, Lawrence P. Fahey. E. A. Fargo Company, aluminum manufacturers, incorporated 1902; capital $20,000; president, Oscar C. Lane; secretary and treasurer, W. H. Cush- man. James P. Galligan Company, wholesale grocers, incorporated May 20, 1907, capital $25,000; president, James P. Galligan, Jr .; vice-president, Charles R. Galligan; treasurer, James P. Galligan; secretary, Nellie F. Galligan. Harrington Press, incorporated 1910, capital $8,000; president and treasurer, George S. Harrington. Manhasset Manufacturing Company, incorporated 1919; president, Edwin V. Livesey; treasurer, Roland H. Bal- lou. New England Brass Company, organized 1916, capital $75,000; president, William M. Lovering; treasurer, Frederick H. Gooch; manager, William H. Rayment. Nobska Spinning Company, organized September 28, 1917; treasurer, F. W. Nichols, Jr .; superintendent, Michael T. Harri- son. Pierce Hardware Company, incorporated January 16, 1893, capital $30,000; president, Bion C. Pierce; treasurer and clerk, George L. White; secretary, Bion L. Pierce. N. R. Reed Company, incorporated 1906; capital $24,000; president and treasurer, Arthur D. Fisher; secretary, Clara N. Reed. Sanders Lumber Company, incorporated 1915, capital $70,000;
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president and treasurer, Clinton V. Sanders; vice-president and secretary; George H. Robinson. N. H. Skinner Company, capital $80,000; president, Charles L. Coombs; vice-president, Brenton G. Brownell. Taunton Dye Works and Bleachery Company, incorporated, May, 1893, capital $84,000; president, Frederick H. Gooch; treasurer, William M. Lovering. Taunton Pearl Works, incorporated 1907, capital $100,000; president, Albert A. Ormsbee; secretary and treasurer, Willard A. Ormsbee. Taunton Planing Mill Company, incorporated 1905; president, W. P. Crowley; secretary and treasurer, Allen E. Padelford. Taunton Rivet Works, incorporated 1908, capital $20,000; president and treasurer, William J. Davison. H. K. Perkins & Company, brass founders. Taunton Rubber Company, incorporated 1913, capital $45,200; president, W. L. Gifford; treasurer and clerk, Joseph L. Gifford. Taunton Silk Fibre Company, incorporated 1912; president, William E. Emery; treasurer, George W. Read. Taunton Teaming Com- pany, incorporated 1907, capital $60,000; president, Charles W. Hammett; treasurer, Charles W. Hammett; secretary, R. A. Austin. Taunton Wool Stock Company, incorporated May, 1902; capital $21,000; president, George W. Read; treasurer, William M. Lovering. I. F. Whitmarsh Company, in- corporated 1914, capital $5000; president, Edward F. Whitmarsh. Whitten- ton Hosiery Corporation, incorporated 1918, capital $100,000; president, Louis F. Lyon; vice-president, William A. Haskell; treasurer, John L. Barry. W. W. Gibson & Company, printers. Taunton has twenty-six labor organizations connected with the varous trades and professions in the city.
Former business concerns were the following-named :
Williams Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of twist drills, com- mencing business under management of H. A. Williams, in 1877, and erecting a building in 1880 near Weir Junction. The Old Colony Iron Company was started in 1824, when Horatio Leonard and Company (Crocker and Richmond), built a forge on the Stephen King farm at East Taunton for the purpose of making charcoal iron of scraps and pig-iron. Later, iron was made with bituminous coal. The works were suspended from 1837 to 1842, but in 1844 a new company, the Old Colony Iron Com- pany, was organized with a capital of $260,000. Samuel L. Crocker was the president; Charles Robinson, treasurer. The works covered several acres, where the firm made their own iron, and manufactured shovels and nails and nail-plates. During the fire of August 7, 1881, a large part of the works were destroyed. The last officers of the concern were: Oliver A. Washburn, agent and treasurer; Charles T. Robinson, clerk; Enoch Robin- son, Nahum Stetson, Charles T. Robinson, and Oliver A. Washburn, direc- tors; Enoch Robinson, superintendent. Anthony . & Cushman manufac- tured shoe nails and tacks at Weir Village in 1864, but in 1882 they re- moved to Court street, where over one hundred hands were employed. L. B. West & Company for years represented an enterprising manufactory of stoves. Jathniel A. Peck and William L. White, Jr., as Peck & White, manufactured carriages. Daniel S. Brownell and George H. Burt are car- riage builders today. Horatio L. Cushman & Company, beginning business in 1882, manufactured tufting and shoe buttons. E. H. Eldridge & Sons continuing the business started by Eli H. Eldridge in 1848, manufactured coffin plates. D. A. Trefethen was a brass founder and finisher.
The first of the stone ware in this county was produced at the manufac- tory of Major William Sever on the present Ingell street, opposite the old No. 2 landing-place on Taunton river. It is also claimed that the first American crucible was made at this factory. Major Sever had been engaged in the same business while in Dorchester, with Ebenezer Baker, before
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his removal to Taunton. The business here was given up before 1830, Major Sever having been succeeded by his sons John and William.
James Sproat in 1837 constructed his well known mills on Mill river to manufacture box boards and nail kegs. He was succeeded by his son and grandson, James H. and James C. Sproat.
PART III.
HISTORY OF FALL RIVER
OLD MILL AT GLOBE CORNERS-FALL RIVER
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RUG STORE,
....
HISTORY OF FALL RIVER
CHAPTER I.
PREPARING THE WAY.
It is now the industrial high noon of the history of the city of Fall River. Engrossed as never before with the care of the manifold threads of labor, the city keeps rythmically at work. There never was a season when shuttles ran so swiftly or when weavers kept time so true, or were so attuned to the throbbing march in the weave-shed. Their allied and other lines of toil have caught up the refrain. Here, if nowhere else in the New World, has the call of labor become cosmopolitan, and her voice is heard in many tongues. And as you pass through this factory-land, and on through the city where homes in plenty and institutions many have established themselves as a result of the mill and the factory, the oldest inhabitant will tell you that industry has never failed to be the keynote of the existence of the old township; and that his ancestors had handed along the selfsame declaration from the days of the hamlet.
The concentrated interests that keep four million spindles moving year by year, and that furnish the world more than two billion one hundred million yards of cloth annually, distinguish Fall River among the great manufacturing cities. This practical truth we keep first in mind whenever we speak of Fall River. Yet that fact is itself comprehended in the mis- sion of history, and it is through history that Fall River captains of indus- try are not displeased to have made record of the meagre beginnings of the town and all its business. They are aware that the first purchasers of the land and the earliest comers here were people of simple tastes, and because of the conditions of their times, and the surroundings they had adopted for their new homeland, they had consecrated themselves to hard work. There were no men of wealth among them; nor, Plymouth Court Records would have it understood. were there any with ulterior designs upon the native and his lands.
The majority of writers of good judgment have in their writings held to their belief that the men from the outside world who first trod these territories were mechanics and artisans, who, paying well for their lands, paid doubly for them in their toil that made those lands worth their while. They did not come sight-seeing nor adventuring, but to make their living in the colony, and to build their homes here. They sought freedom from oppression,-ship-load after ship-load of the first of the immigrants hasten- ing away from those conditions that William Bradford in his book, and that others of his time agreed to, was a form of religious oppression. Neither at first did they oppress the natives, in turn; nor, at first, did they molest other sectarians as they made their appearance in America; though the arrogance of individuals, and the assertiveness of an increasingly dominant race did practise oppression, as time passed on. Aside from all else, the main purpose of the majority of the new-comers, so far as research has discovered for us. was to seek freedom from tyranny in the worship of
Bristol --- 20
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God, to build their homes, to lay the stone walls, a few of which remain near the foundations of old dwellings, to construct their mills along the rivers, to launch their boats, to fish and to trade. Any other than this finding of the earliest aims they had in view must be conjectural.
The first to buy lands, and before the actual settlers themselves came, were not the racial progenitors of the Fall River as we know it today-for most of the primitive purchasers never made their homes on the Quequechan. But their heritage, and that of those who immediately succeeded them, to the Fall River of today, is labor and the various enterprises of toil; and all Fall River's traditions of success at this hour are due to the fact that the real founders of the town kept busy at tilling the soil or turning the wheels of the mills. Plymouth Colony neighborhood and Pilgrim Father traditions of incessant hard work were very real to those men who first looked about the present Fall River region for a place to settle down; for only thirty-six years after the first arrival of the "Mayflower" came the purchasers, and from Plymouth itself-a fact that has not been sufficiently dwelt upon by any writer-for descendants of "Mayflower" Pilgrims were purchasers of Quequechan. Falling Water, we know, the name signifies; and though the variously named town became Troy, the reversion to the Fall River of today has become a perennial memorial to the aborigines.
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