USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > A History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, vol 2 > Part 25
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Clegg Manufacturing & Tool Company was started November 2, 1909. Joseph Clegg is the owner. Five males are employed and four females. They manufacture patented articles in sheet metal. They do toolmaking, blanking, piercing and forming, dies.
Mr. W. E. Coles started a concern in 1893. He is the owner and employs three male workers. They manufacture dies and tools.
Collingwood Brothers was started in 1911. They are not incorporated. They employ eleven males and one female. They manufacture woven wire, soft collar pins, lingerie pins, belt clips and findings.
F. J. Cooper is an enameler and started his business in November, 1917. He is the owner and employs three males and seven females.
A. B. Cummings was started in 1912, and Mr. Cummings is the indi- vidual owner. He employs thirty males and twenty-one females. They manufacture toy movie machines and phonographs.
Dominick & Haff was started in 1821 and incorporated on March 1, 1889. H. B. Dominick is the president; G. L. Crowell, Jr., vice-president ; Wm. F. McChesney, treasurer; and Harrison Hebbard, secretary. They employ forty males. They manufacture sterling silver holloware and cut- lery. The office at Attleboro is only a branch of the main office of Domi- nick & Haff, 144 Orange street, Newark, N. J.
C. H. Eden Company was started in 1901 and incorporated in 1901. S. M. Einstein is the president; F. L. Pond, vice-president; E. H. Brown, treasurer ; C. O. Mathewson, secretary. The directors are P. O. Wilmarth, Eugene Mason and above officers. They employ twenty-five males and one hundred females. Thy manufacture popular-priced jewelry.
Electric Chain Company was started in 1900 and incorporated in 1904. George F. Sawyer is president and treasurer, Alfred S. Rees is vice-presi- dent, Gilbert C. Hall is secretary. They employ thirty-five males and thirty-five females. They manufacture chain and findings for manufacturers.
J. B. Ellis started a business in 1890 and is the owner. He employs three males, and does engraving and chasing.
L. M. Flanders Company was started August 1, 1920, and incorporated July 5, 1922. L. M. Flanders is the president and treasurer and Frederick S. Sibley is vice-president. They have ten male employees and fifteen female employees. They manufacture beauty pins, lingerie clasps, knives, earrings, bracelets, etc.
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Fuller-MacFarlane was started January, 1913. The partners are Gor- dom E. Fuller and H. H. MacFarlane. They have from two to ten male employees. They are chasers and designers of steel jewelry, bronze and silverware.
General Findings & Supply Company was started in 1912 and has not been incorporated. Edwin F. Leach is the president and Stephen H. Garner is the treasurer. They have fifty male employees and fifty female employees. They manufacture swivels and spring rings and bars for chains.
E. D. Gilmore & Company was started in 1891 and has not been in- corporated. The partners are E. D. Gilmore, Wm. L. King and E. L. Gil- more. They have thirty-six male employees and four females. They manu- facture 10K and 14K jewelry for men and women.
The Gunner Manufacturing Company was started January, 1920. Ralph R. Gummer is president and Albert T. Gunner is treasurer. They employ Eve males. They manufacture jewelry Endings, belt clips. bracelet buckles and hooks, novelties, rosary cases, sautoir cups and tassels. They also do spinning in gold, silver and platinum, and they do toolmaking, soldering, stamping. etc.
Guyot Brothers was started in 1904. Arthur F. Guyot is president and Gaston A. Guyot is secretary and treasurer. They employ eighteen males and two females. They manufacture jewelry findings, and are tool makers, bub and die cutters.
H. & B. American Machine Company was started in 1894. C. E. Riley is president: E. R. Richardson, treasurer: E. L. Martin, secretary; and J. W. Richardson, P. A. They have 1,000 male employees. Cotton mill ma- chinery.
The present firm of Walter E. Hayward Company was started in 1851 and incorporated January 1, 1921. Charles C. Wilmarth is president; Frank E. Smith, vice-president: Frank ]. Ryder, treasurer; Walter G. Moon, sec- retary. Directors: Frank J. Ryder, Charles C. Wilmarth, Frank E. Smith, Joke A. Maicoim and Elmer S. Smith. They employ eighty males and seventeen females. They manufacture solid gold front and gold plated jewelry, such as knives, cuf links, belt buckles, fobs, cuff pins, bar pins, tie clasps, ribbon waldemars, sautoirs, etc. Firm name has changed a number of times since first starting in business.
Thomas Heath started a business in 1906. They have from nine to eleven male employees and one female employee. They manufacture dies and tools.
Home Bleach & Dre Works was started in 1880 and incorporated 1902 in Rhode Island and in Maine in 1919. E. Kent Swift is president; Arthur R. Sharp, vice-president; T. E. Hatch, treasurer and clerk; directors : above cfcers and A. D. Milliken. They employ 250 males and 70 females. They do mercerizing, bleaching, dyeing, winding of cotton yarn and tape.
J. T. Inman & Company was started in 1882. They employ ten males and two females. They manufacture cigarette cases, vanity cases, souvenir novelties, bracelets, lockets, etc.
The I. & L. Tool Company was started January 1, 1912, and has not been incorporated. Emil L. Johnson and Olof Lundsten are the partners.
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They employ thirty-five males and no females. They manufacture jewelers' tools and findings, sold to manufacturers only.
W. D. Jordan Company was started in August, 1920. W. D. Jordan is the sole owner. He employs one male and two females. Manufacture sterling silver rosaries, rosary cases, lockets, links, chains. A great deal of this work is done in job shops.
Keller Manufacturing Company, formerly Morse Pencil Company, was started in October, 1920, and incorporated on October 4, 1920. William J. Morse, E. I. Perry, Geo. W. Cook, and E. C. Keller are the officers. They employ five males and one female. They manufacture sterling holloware, pencils and novelties.
B. B. & R. Knight, Incorporated, Dodgeville Mill, employs 125 males and 80 females. They make sheetings.
B. B. & R. Knight, Incorporated, Hebron Mill, was started in 1865 and incorporated in 1919. Andrew G. Pierce is the president; F. L. Bran- son, general manager; and A. B. Benson, superintendent. They employ sixty-five males and sixty females. They manufacture cotton yarns.
Larson Tool & Stamping Company was started March 15, 1920, and incorporated at the same time. Mr. N. G. Larson is the president; C. G. Larson, vice-president; C. W. Cederberg, treasurer; and J. E. Straker and C. L. Watson, directors. They employ thirty males and no females. They manufacture metal stampings, wrenches, and metal signs, and tools of all descriptions.
Leach & Garner Company was started December, 1899, and incorpo- rated at the same time. Edwin F. Leach is the president; Stephen H. Garner is the treasurer; they are also the directors. They employ eighty males and three females. They manufacture rolled gold plate in sheet, wire and seamless tubing (for the manufacturing trade).
Leach & Miller Company was started in 1900 and is not incorporated. The partners are L. A. Leach and Letty Leach. They employ twenty males and five females. They manufacture bracelets and lockets, scarf pins, ear drops and novelties.
McRae & Keeler, Incorporated, was started July, 1893, and incorpo- rated December 31, 1921. L. P. Keeler, president; A. A. McRae, treasurer ; Ada G. Keeler, clerk; and all are directors. They employ seventy-one males and seventy-nine females. They manufacture chains of all kinds, cigarette cases, knives, belt buckles, fobs, cuff links, jewelry and novelties.
M. S. Company was started December, 1913, and incorporated in 1923. S. M. Einstein is president; Max Schweinshaut, treasurer; and Eugene Claupin, clerk. They employ fifty males and seventy females. They manu- facture chains and chain findings in gold, silver, plate and brass for the manufacturing jewelers and kindred trades.
R. B. MacDonald & Company, incorporated, was started in 1874 and incorporated in 1913. Robert B. MacDonald is the president and treasurer; Walter M. Thayer, vice-president and general manager. The above and H. M. Thayer are directors. They employ forty-five men and twenty-three women. They manufacture emblem goods, lockets, crosses, bracelets, knives, neckchain photo cases, saints medallions for export. Mr. MacDonald is the dean of manufacturing jewelers in this vicinity, having been the original owner, and is still active in its management. Mr. Thayer
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became identified with the firm when it was incorporated in 1913. In 1923, Irving L. Hodges and Percy G. Marshall, factory superintendent and sales- man, respectively, for several years, became stockholders.
D. E. Makepeace Company was started in 1888 and incorporated on July 30, 1902, Rhode Island. David E. Makepeace, president; Aldro A. French, vice-president and treasurer; William E. Sweeney, secretary; and the above with Lawrence C. Miller, directors. They employ 100 men and 18 women. They manufacture flat stock, wire and tubing in platinum, gold and silver; rolled gold and silver plate, inlaid gold on gold and sterling silver.
C. A. Marsh & Company was started in 1892. The partners are William E. Rounseville and George L. Shepardson. They employ eighteen men and nine women. They manufacture men's belt buckles in sterling, plate, gold inlaid and solid gold. Men's chains and knives.
Metal Specialties Company was started in January, 1916 and incorpo- rated in 1918. H. R. Holbrook is president and treasurer and L. M. Hol- brook is clerk. They employ ten men and six women. They make drafting instruments, stampings, mailing box fasteners, and automatic machinery.
Millard Leather Company was started in January, 1916, and incorpo- rated in July, 1922. Harry S. Millard is president; Karl B. Brooks, treas- urer; William F. Harty, secretary; Paul J. Brooks, George H. Armstrong, directors. They employ twenty-five men and one woman. They are tan- ners and finishers of calfskins for fancy leather goods and shoes.
Mossberg Pressed Steel Corporation was started in 1919 and incorpo- rated at the same time. Frank Mossberg is president; D. E. Makepeace, vice-president ; A. A. Underwood, secretary; C. A. VanderPyl, treasurer. Directors : Frank Mossberg, C. A. VanderPyl, D. E. Makepeace, Rev. J. Lee Mitchell, S. O. Bigney, W. H. Lamb, S. J. Clulee, E. A. Eddy. They employ 100 men and 8 women. They manufacture steel spools, reels and braider carriers for wire trade, steel beams, beam heads, loom beam heads, section beam heads, adjustable beam heads, braider carriers, drop wires, jack spools for textile mills. "To the best of our knowledge we are the first company in this country formed to specialize in the making of steel spools and reels for the wire mills and all steel loom, section beam heads, ad- justable beam heads, etc., for the textile mills. Our textile line is particu- larly a new development and is designed and constructed to replace cast- iron heads which are used in the mills."
Pitman & Durell was started March 1, 1919, and they have four male employees. They make tools and dies.
The Qroil Company was started June, 1923, and is not incorporated. W. H. Saart is president and treasurer, and Ormond Saart is manager. They have one employee. They manufacture Schneider's Qroil.
The R. & G. Company would like to have their name included in the list but do not care to give the other information.
W. E. Richards Company was started in 1904 and incorporated in 1907. Raymond M. Horton is president and treasurer and C. A. Howard is secre- tary. They employ forty men and ten women. They make ten and four- teen-karat gold rings, bar pins and scarf pins.
Saart Brothers Company was started in 1905 and incorporated in 1916. W. H. Saart is president and treasurer; A. G. Saart, secretary; Herman
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HISTORY OF ATTLEBORO
Saart, vice-president. Same are directors. They employ seventy-one men and twenty-seven women. They make sterling silver and silver-plated novelties.
Sadler Brothers, South Attleboro, started in 1863 and were reorganized in 1884. The partners are Herbert A. Sadler and Thomas G. Sadler. They employ thirty men and thirty-six women. They make celluloid jewelry and novelties.
F. H. Sadler Company was started in 1881 and incorporated in 1904 in Rhode Island and in 1917 in Massachusetts. L. E. Sadler is president ; F. H. Sadler, treasurer; directors, Nettie D. Sadler, Mrs. Irma S. Webb, with the officers. They employ eighteen men and twenty-two women. They make bar pins, cuff pins, bracelets, tie clasps, buckles, belt chains, 10K gold top scarf pins, 10K pendants, gold plated bar pins, scarf pins, tie clasps, cuff pins, belt chains, soft collar holders, fancy line of ear drops and tasselettes. Sadler gold-filled solderless lockets. "Sadler's Gold-Filled Sol- derless Patent (S) Ring."
R. F. Simmons Company was started in 1873. Joseph L. Sweet and Harold E. Sweet are co-partners. They employ 160 men and 60 women. They make gold-filled watch chains and kindred articles.
Smith & Crosby was started in 1874. Alfred D. Crosby and George H. Crosby are partners. They employ thirty-five men and fifteen women. They make cuff buttons, fobs, knives, chains, full-dress sets, bracelets, ear drops, brooches, crosses, etc.
Spellmeyer & Carey was started in 1913. The partners are George A. Spellmeyer and George A. Carey. They employ ten men and one woman. They do engraving.
W. A. Spier was started in 1891 and employs four men. They make hubs, dies, and jewelers' tools.
Sweet Manufacturing Company was started in 1904. Frank R. Sweet is the owner. They make machine chain.
Sykes & Strandberg was started in 1899 and is a co-partnership. The partners are George H. Sykes and G. W. Strandberg. They employ sixty men and twenty-five women. They make a general line of gold front engraved jewelry for men and women.
H. E. S. Thompson Company was started in November, 1909. They employ five men and three women. They do electro-plating on all kinds of metal goods. Deposits of gold, silver, copper, nickel, brass.
F. L. Torrey & Company was started in 1906. The partners are Fred L. Torrey and Joseph Kerkhoff. They employ thirty men and eight women. They make men's belt buckles and belt chain, and novelties.
Union Plate & Wire Company was started in 1911 and incorporated April 1, 1913. Amos S. Blackinton is president; George Fife, vice-presi- dent; F. C. Wilmarth, treasurer. They employ ninety men and three women. They make gold and silver flat stock, wire and tubing.
J. A. Varieur started a business March 1, 1921, and employs four men. They make jewelers' supplies.
Watson Company was started in 1874 and incorporated May 1, 1920. Clarence L. Watson is president and treasurer. They make sterling silver holloware and flatware. They employ 250 men and 25 women.
W. D. Wilmarth & Company was started in 1864 and incorporated in
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1894. W. H. Wilmarth is president; H. P. Wilmarth, treasurer; and E. J. Wilmarth is clerk. They employ twelve men and ten women. They make coffin and casket hardware.
Barden & Hull, manufacturers of solid gold jewelry, 1906, succeeding Chapman & Bardin, who succeeded Barden, Blake & Company, Plainville, 1897, sold plant to Le Stage Manufacturing Company in 1916. Standard Jewelry Company organized in 1893 at Plainville, moved to Attleboro in 1900. W. F. Barden, treasurer and manager.
The Bay State Optical Company is the outgrowth of a lifelong busi- ness partnership formed in 1862 between Peter Nerney and Mace Short, who for years manufactured jewelry, and won an exceptional reputation for the manufacture of the gold-filled chains. The Bay State Optical Company was founded in 1894, for the manufacture of spectacles and eye-glasses from rolled gold stock. The company is owned by two sons of Peter Nerney, the founder, namely, Frank J. and Edwin D. Nerney, who with Stephen J. Clulee, make up the officers and sole ownership.
Among the earlier industries of the Attleboros, there is the pre-Revo- lutionary record of Forgemaster Robert Saunderson's ironworks at East Attleboro, and of the successive superintendencies there of Robert Light- foot, Thomas Baylies, Thomas Cobb, Jonathan Cobb, Nathaniel Robinson, Elijah Ingraham, Ezra and Jabel Ingraham, and Henry Smith, its history inclusive of the dates 1742 and 1809. In their turn, too, came the cotton manufacturers, the first to erect a cotton mill here being Ingraham Rich- ardson & Company, in 1811-Whittaker, Richardson & Company being the succeeding style of the firm, in 1821. The Farmers' Factory, maintained by neighboring farmers, was soon followed, nearby, by the Mechanics' Manufacturing Company, Samuel and Jesse Carpenter, proprietors, and within a very few years there were many changes in the proprietorship. There, a stock company was formed in 1871, and about 2,000,000 yards of cloth were woven annually. The Beaver Dam factory, formerly a nail- making establishment, became a cotton mill in 1809, and after a succession of ownerships the mill was burned in 1832. The Falls Manufacturing Com- pany, incorporated in 1813, built the Falls factory. Jonathan and George Bliss were proprietors up to 1849, when H. N. and H. M. Daggett were owners, to 1856. H. M. Richards then purchased the plant. Not long after- wards, H. N. Daggett repurchased and converted the plant into a braid factory. The City Factory, on Seven Mile River, was built in 1813, and the Attleboro City Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1818. The building was burned in 1826, and was rebuilt. In the eighties, it was occu- pied by the Nottingham Knitting Company. ' The Lanesville factory, in Adamsdale, was built in 1826, and ran two thousand spindles and fifty looms. It had many owners, and was destroyed by fire in 1881. John F. Adams rebuilt the mill in 1882.
Under the firm name of the Attleboro Manufacturing Company, Dodge's factory was established in 1809. In 1812, the name was changed to the Tyler Manufacturing Company. The property was sold at auction in 1854. In 1870, the new owners incorporated as Hebron Manufacturing Company. The Atherton factory was established in 1812 at Hebronville as Atherton Manufacturing Company, and was owned and improved by several different companies, coming under the Knight ownership in 1848.
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HISTORY OF ATTLEBORO
Button manufacturing had its beginning here in 1793 by Edward Price. He was succeeded in 1812 by Obed and Otis Robinson-this being the first company formed for this business in the United States. Richard Robin- son & Company began the manufacture of glass buttons in 1823; they formed a new firm in 1826 under the same style. Robinson, Jones & Com- pany began making buttons in 1826, and the button-making machine was invented by John Hatch, in their employ, in 1845. D. Evans & Company succeeded the Robinsons in 1848. Robinson, Hall & Company established their factory in 1832. Coupe & Knowles, predecessors of William Coupe & Company, began business in 1865. The works were swept by fire in 1872. Power loom shuttles were first manufactured here in 1827 by Colonel Willard Blackinton, and in 1842 this firm was organized as W. Blackinton & Sons. Box manufacturing was begun here in 1852 by Hartford Babcock, and in 1879, H. S. Babcock began the same sort of business. The Attle- boro Dye Works were founded by Robert Wolfenden in 1868.
PART VI.
TOWNS OF BRISTOL COUNTY
TOWNS OF BRISTOL COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
ACUSHNET*
Acushnet has a distinction among the southwestern towns of Bristol county of having preserved one of the original Indian names from oblivion, or as near the original as may be, since old clerks and writers have spelled Acushnet with forty-two variations. For a period of twelve years, or from the time of the purchase from the Indians in 1652, to June 8, 1664, when all this territory became Dartmouth, the settlements were called by original names; and afterwards, as new divisions were made and new towns appeared, Acushnet survived among New Bedford, Fairhaven, Dart- mouth and the Westports. Here the old town roads take the same direc- tion as the early paths that brought John Cooke of Indian War garrison house fame, and son of Francis Cook of the "Mayflower," from Plymouth; and throughout this town and country are to be seen some of the oldest and some of the best preserved of the gambrel-roof houses of 1712 and thereabouts to 1770. The late Henry Worth, Esq., antiquarian, made a very complete survey of the old homes of this part of the county, and his collections included within the work of the late Franklyn Howland are of great value, since he has followed out the ownership of most of the ancient dwellings from the time of their building.
But the Acushnet of today also is a town of handsome, modern resi- dences, attractive churches and schools. The population is over 3,000, the personal estate is valued at $474,956, the real estate at $2,680,470. It is sec- ond youngest town in the county, the act of incorporation having been ap- proved February 13, 1860, and the town clerks since that time have been Benjamin White, George P. Morse, Dennis Mason, Alden White, Henry F. Taber, George T. Parker. Acushnet town meeting was first held in the engine house east of the bridge, March 14, 1860; from 1874 to 1878 at the Parting Ways schoolhouse; from 1878 at the old District Four schoolhouse. Hon. William W. Crapo has pointed out the fact that Acushnet Village was fifty years older than Bedford Village, and that there, in the early days, was the seat of government of old Dartmouth. He states that in 1739 a new town house was ordered to be built (this then being Dartmouth), and that it was in the Acushnet section; and the vote of the town indicated that the town house that superseded it was also in Acushnet.
In regard to the naming of the town, and the preservation of the Indian name, Franklyn Howland states in his history: The leaders of the movement for division were Jones Robinson, Rev. Israel Washburn, Cyrus Clark, Captain Martin L. Eldridge, Colonel Abiel P. Robinson, Walter Spooner, Benjamin White, William H. Washburn, Jabez Wood, Levi Wing and other townsmen. Their efforts were crowned with success, the coin-
*The story of the smaller townships of Bristol county here follows in alphabetical order, in preference to chronological sequence.
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mittee of towns in 1860 reporting in favor of an act to incorporate the town of "North Fairhaven," a name by which this section of the town had been previously known. And the new town would have unfortunately been christened by the name of "North Fairhaven" had not Captain Eldridge led a protest against it, upon discovering the name in the bill as it passed the senate. He at once wrote the senator from this district, to have the bill held up until he received a petition to change the name. Then Captain Eldridge wrote a petition to the Legislature, which was liberally signed, to strike out the words "North Fairhaven" and insert the word "Acushnet."
The Wars .- The town has experienced the hardships and sufferings consequent upon all wars, beginning with that of the last struggle of the natives in 1675, when King Philip's warriors ravaged the settlements in their effort to get back what Massasoit and Wamsutta had peacefully exchanged in 1652. The historian Howland states that every house within the bounds was consumed by fire. The people had been here but a little. while, some of them no more than twenty-five years, and now they were homeless and almost penniless in the midst of barbarous war.
The town was in arms against the encroachments upon the rights of the colonists on the part of the mother country at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, and at town meeting of July 18, 1774, it was voted to "boycott all articles manufactured in Great Britain and Ireland," and the town also voted to take measures against the use of Bohea tea. Before the war had started, committees of correspondence and safety were ap- pointed, including such men in this part of the town as Captains Philip Taber, Seth Pope, Thomas Crandon, Seth Hathaway, Hannaniah Cornish, Walter Spooner, Obed Nye. Acushnet shared in the results of the invasion by the British on that memorable Saturday, September 5, 1778, when the enemy sailed from New London, Connecticut, in two frigates, an eighteen- gun brig-of-war and six transports, and with fire and sword almost an- nihilated the little settlement. All along the route of the invaders through this village, old homes were destroyed, following the demolition of the Fort Phenix at the entrance to Bedford harbor.
Five hundred men from Dartmouth, in which Acushnet was included at the time, were furnished for the Continental army. Among them were: Eleazar Hathaway, James Spooner, Jonathan Cushman, Thomas Crandon, Reuben Hathaway, David Hathaway, Daniel Bennett, Elisha Parker, Jonathan Hathaway, Elnathan Jenney, David Pope, David Spooner, Lemuel Cushman, John Hathaway, Jethro Taber, Silas Hathaway, Jesse Keen. Samuel Parker was among those from this part of the county who were incarcerated at Dartmoor prison.
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