USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Hudson > Abstract of the history of Hudson, Mass. : from its first settlement to the centennial anniversary of the declaration of our national independence, July 4, 1876 > Part 4
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" If the town of Hudson, at a legal meeting called for that purpose, vote to establish a free town library for the use of all the inhabitants of the town, and shall appropriate or otherwise secure the sum of five hundred dollars, to be devoted to that object, they may call upon me, my executors or administrators, for the like sum of five hundred dollars, to be expended in furtherance of that object."
The committee recommended the acceptance of the proposition, and the town accordingly voted the sum mentioned, and then made choice of Messrs. James T. . Joslin, David B. Goodale, and Luman T. Jefts, as a committee to select the books, and adopt all such measures as they might deem necessary to carry forward the enterprise. With a thousand dollars, and some other liberal donations, they were able to open a library in 1867, and with the additions that have been made, they have now a well selected library of about 2,300 volumes ; and the liberal appropriations made by the town give assurance of a continued interest felt in this institution, -important in every community, but
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especially valuable in a manufacturing town, where the operatives have time to read, and generally a mind to improve it.
But the people were not only mindful of the living, but of the dead. At a meeting in April, 1866, James T. Joslin, Esq., Joseph S. Bradley, and Charles Brigham, were chosen a committee to lay out and dispose of the lots in the cemetery, and all money received was to be devoted to the improvement of the 'grounds. The place is pleasantly located, and the soil and surface are admirably adapted to the purpose for which it is designed. It contains six acres, and is handsomely laid out and the avenues are well graded. Most of the monumental stones are of marble, tastefully wrought. Any visitor will be struck by the seeming equality which characterizes the spot. The graveyard is no place for aristocratic display, and a community which furnishes headstones for their paupers, will, we presume, preserve a modest simplicity in their cemetery. It is in good taste now, and may it so continue.
A subject which engaged the attention of the citizens more than any other, was the need of acquiring a portion of land from Bolton. This arose not merely from an ambition to enlarge their borders, but from the fact that the territory desired, approached so near the village as to prevent its natural expansion. And besides, this Bolton territory furnished some of the best building land near the village of Hudson ; people doing business there were unwilling to fix their resi- ence in another town and county, and thus be cut off in all municipal affairs from their associates. It was in fact needed for the 'public benefit, and hence it was eagerly sought. The people residing there also, were anxious that it should become a part of Hudson. And Bolton, a purely agricultural town, began to
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suspect that a hundred voters engaged in manufactures, and living at least three miles from the centre of their town, might become a troublesome element in their municipal affairs-and it might be wise to let them go. Consequently, they expressed a willingness to make some arrangement with Hudson, and sell out upon the best terms they could. The latter place, standing ready at all times to open negotiations on the subject, appointed Francis Brigham, Joseph S. Bradley, George Houghton, James T. Joslin, and A. K. Graves a com- mittee, with certain individuals residing on the territory, to meet and make such an arrangement with the rep- resentatives of Bolton, as they might deem for the benefit the town. After full deliberation, it was agreed that " The question of where the proposed line in contem- plation of a division of the town of Bolton, shall be established between said town of Bolton and the said town of Hudson, the terms on which the division of said town of Bolton and the annexation of a part thereof to said town of Hudson, shall be consummated," shall be referred to three competent and disinterested persons, without the limits of the counties of Middlesex and Worcester ; and Hon. James D. Colt of Pittsfield, Hon. George P. Sanger of Boston, and Hon. Josiah G. Abbott of Boston, were agreed upon as referees.
After visiting the premises, hearing the parties, and duly considering the subject, the arbitrators decided upon the dividing line, and after stating divers details, such as naturally present themselves in the division of towns, they provided that Bolton, upon the request of the town of Hudson, shall convey by sufficient deed, the said lot of land with its appurtenances to the town of Hudson. And that the town of Hudson shall pay to the town of Bolton, within three months from the passage of any act by the Legislature establishing the
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said dividing line,* as the boundary between the towns of Bolton and Hudson, and annexing the territory within said line to the town of Hudson, the sum of ten thousand dollars, with interest from the twentieth day of February, 1868." This award, with the draft of an Act confirming the same, was submitted to the Legislature, and the Act was passed without oppo- sition.
Thus ended the controversy between the two towns, and though the mode of settlement was a novel one, we are inclined to the belief that it was beneficial to both parties ; it left Bolton with a good boundary line, and forever relieved her from an evil which she must have one day felt, - of a population uncongenial with her own, -and the ten thousand dollars would pay her for any loss of property which she sustained. And as to Hudson, the taxable property brought into the town, and the inducement which this arrangement offers to the inhabitants of the village, and others who are seek- ing a country residence, to settle upon this territory, will in the end more than reimburse any expense which may have been incurred. Besides, this acquisi- tion greatly improves the shape of the town, and practically makes the village and places of business somewhat central, which, before this, were upon the very borders. On the whole, the citizens of Hudson have been very fortunate in their efforts for incorpora-
* This dividing line is as follows: "Beginning at a stone monument on the present boundary line between the counties of Worcester and Middlesex, at the south- westerly corner of the town of Stow, and at the northerly corner of the town of Hudson, thence running south eighty-six degrees west four hundred thirty-eight and twenty one hundredths rods to a stone monument at an angle ; thence south sixty-six and one-half degrees west, three hundred and forty-six rods to the present dividing line between the said town of Bolton and the town of Berlin, in the county of Wor- cester ; thence south fifty and one-fourth degrees east four hundred and fifty-seven rods along the said dividing line between Bolton and Berlin to the present line of the town of Hudson.
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tion. While many communities which have aspired at a separate existence have struggled long, and when they have succeeded, have come out of great tribulation, the good people of Feltonville were able to obtain the consent of the parent town,* and subsequently so to arrange matters with Bolton, as to live in peace and harmony. And we think that great credit is due to all parties concerned, for the kind and accommodating manner in which they have met this subject.
After having laid out and constructed roads, provided for the schools, and whatever else was deemed neces- sary for the public prosperity, in 1871 it was decided to build a Town Hall, the cost of which should not exceed $35,000, exclusive of the site, and Edmund M. Stowe, Francis Brigham, George Houghton, L. T. Jefts, and C. H. Robinson, were chosen a committee to carry the vote into effect. A plan was submitted and adopted, which will show the character of the house. The design represents a brick building about 55 by 97 feet on the ground, with a vestibule 17 by 34 feet. The elevation is two stories, with a French roof and tower; granite underpinning, granite key- stones at the top of arched windows, granite steps at each entrance, and a granite belt inserted in the outside wall between the first and second story, extending entirely around the building. The lower story is 12
* We have before mentioned the good feeling always existing between the different parts of Marlborough, and the fact that its citizens offered little or no opposition to the wishes of the northern portion in establishing a separate municipality. If any further evidence were necessary to show the readiness of Marlborough to recognize the rights and respect the feelings of the citizens of what is now Hudson, the fact might be mentioned, that when the town, in 1862, celebrated her bi-centennial, David B. Goodale, George E. Manson, and Charles Brigham were put upon the Committee of Arrangements; and when a list of the officers for the day was agreed upon, Col. William H. Wood was selected as Chief Marshal, with Capt. Francis Brigham as his assistant, and Stephen Pope, Ezekiel Bruce, Jabez Rice, and John Goodale were among the Vice-Presidents. This was a just recognition of the standing of the men from the northern part of old Marlborough.
HE TOWN HALL, HUDSON, MASE,
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ROSSELE & RICHARDSON SC
THE TOWN HALL, HUDSON, MASS.
From a Photograph by RUSSELL B. LEWIS, Hudson.
Architect, S. S. WOODCOCK, Boston.
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feet in height inside, when finished, and contains a number of rooms designed for various uses of the town, also a large fire-proof safe, and four cells or lock-ups. The second story is 22 feet in height, when finished, and contains the main hall, with gallery, stage, &c. Above this story are a number of rooms, enclosed within the French roof.
The committee were subsequently authorized to employ such means for heating the building, and to furnish the same in such a manner as in their judgment the case might demand ; and they were instructed to cause the building to be properly fitted up with gas pipes and all necessary plumbing apparatus.
The Town Hall having been completed, was publicly dedicated, September 26, 1872. The building is well located, most thoroughly finished, and makes a fine and imposing appearance. It is a substantial, and at the same time a beautiful structure, and admirably adapted to the purposes for which it was erected. But few
towns in the county can boast a town hall as orna- mental and as convenient as this. It cost, with its furniture, $48,531 ; the site and the grading cost $10,000, making a total cost of $58,530. It is situated in the immediate neighborhood of three handsome churches, and taken together they present quite a city- like appearance.
The people residing in that part of Marlborough which is now the village of Hudson, early manifested a deep interest in the subject of education. When citizens ; of Marlborough, they urged the matter of better ac- commodation for their children, there being but one school house on the territory under consideration, and that, (near Amos Ray's,) was nearly two miles from the " mills," as the village was then called. And what made it still worse, was the fact that there was no open,
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direct road to the school house. This inconvenience was so seriously felt, that some of the families employed a private teacher. But after a struggle of several years, they succeeded, in 1812, in being made a new and additional district, and a school house was erected on the road leading to the centre of the town, about a hundred rods south of the river. Such was the opposi- tion to this measure, that it was openly declared that at the adjournment of the meeting, the vote to build the school house should be rescinded. But such was the zeal of the citizens in the village, that trees standing in the forest when the vote was passed, were standing in a frame house, covered with boards, clapboards and shingles, before the day to which the meeting had been adjourned. Marlborough was for a time rather behind her sister towns in her appropriations for schools, but about 1850 a new interest was awakened, and several new school houses were erected. The appropriation in 1856 was but $2,220; in 1860 it was increased to $3,910, and a high school had also been established, not only in the centre, but at Feltonville. About 1855, the house built in 1812 was abandoned, and a larger and better one erected on School street, near the river; and here the Feltonville high school was kept till after the town was incorporated.
Since that time Hudson has not been unmindful of the cause of education. The citizens have built one school house in the westerly part of the town, one ' in the easterly part, and one on the road leading from the depot to Marlborough. But perhaps the most important, and certainly the most expensive edifice, was one erected in 1867 for the High School, which cost between five and six thousand dollars. The appropri- ations for the schools have always been liberal. There is, perhaps, no surer index of the intelligence, culture,
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and prosperity of any town, than the interest manifested in its public schools. There may be a few families actuated by a false pride, who will maintain a select school for the education of their children, where there is little or no interest felt in the community at large. But where the people generally, the voters in any town, come forward year after year, and consent to be taxed for the support of schools, where the rich and the poor can send their children to obtain that instruction which will fit them for future usefulness, we may safely infer that the value of free schools is justly appreciated.
The town of Hudson can present a good record in this respect. With a population of some nineteen hundred inhabitants, at their first meeting after they were incorporated, they appropriated $3,000 for the support of education. We have already seen that in the short space of a single decade, they have built four good school houses, which would seem to indicate that they had an interest in the welfare of their children. But they have shown that they do not trust to houses alone for the diffusion of knowledge. They have been sensible that money forms not only the sinews of war, but the support of moral and intellectual instruction. And hence they have raised their appropriation for schools from $3,000 in 1866 to $5,000 in 1870, and $6,300 in 1876. They have also endeavored to improve the qualifications of their instructors, as is indicated by the increase of the pay of the high school teacher from $800 to $1,200, and the teachers in the district schools in the same proportion. Such facts reflect the intelligence of the people, and give assurance that their children will rise up and call them blessed.
As temporal and moral welfare are more or less blended, and the safety of life and property are inti- mately connected, it cannot be amiss to state the efforts
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which have been directed to the protection of both against the devouring element which, within a few years, has desolated some of the principal cities in our country. Hudson has a full and perfectly organized Fire Department, - three engineers, one full and com- plete company, and an engine equal to any in the com- munity. The shoe and other manufactures employing a large number of hands, the engine company is not composed of young boys or feeble individuals, but of active, stalwart men, whose power and skill at the brakes have been admitted in well-contested fields. They have another, an impromptu company, which is ready and can do good service in the village. The box manufacturing company have a force pump and hose, and Brigham & Company also have a force pump driven by water, and Houghton one by steam. These pumps have great power, and considering their location, can do a great deal towards checking or extinguishing a fire, should one break out. There is also a good Hook and Ladder company connected with the Department.
And while they strive to save property from the flames, the citizens have furnished means of saving the earnings of honest toil from dangers as great and more insidious than flaming fire. They have a well regu- lated Savings Bank, with an aggregate deposit of about $250,000.
Though Hudson may be regarded as a good agri- cultural town, and many of her farms are rich and fer- tile, she is more distinguished for the production of her workshops than the fruits of her soil. The shoe manufacture is the business that has built up the place and given her a distinctive character. Nowhere in the State is the shoe trade carried on more systematically, or is so great a per cent. of modern improved machinery to be found as in Hudson. Other,
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and older, and larger towns, have more machinery, it may be, and some as modern and improved as that of Hudson, but being longer in business they still have some of their old machinery in use, and adhere to their old habits, so that they naturally have both old and new intermingled. But in Hudson, the intro- duction of the business being recent, their shops .and their machinery are all of the most approved character. The shops are of modern construction, two and three stories, high studded, a wide hall extending the length of the building, with large rooms or halls upon each side, well lighted and ventilated, and heated with steam. As these buildings are separate and isolated, the best light and air can be enjoyed, and they are comparatively safe from fire in consequence of their position, and the hose and other appliances which they possess. The reputation of the Hudson shoe factories was such that when the Japanese Embassy visited this country, and the Boston merchants and manufacturers intended to show them the best specimens of our productions, after taking them to Lowell and Lawrence, to exhibit the facility of weaving cloth, they conducted their guests to Hudson, to show them the best system of making shoes.
We have no disposition to attempt even a brief des- cription of the methods employed. Suffice it to say that there is a great division of labor. The heels, the soles, and the uppers, the sewing, the pegging, the buffing, and the polishing, are all separate processes, and are performed by different hands ; other parts of the busi- ness require appliances of labor or machinery. Skill and economy are observed in cutting, which is done by dies, and as shoes are made for women, misses, and chil- dren, a piece of leather not large enough for a woman's, may answer for a miss, and what is too small for her may answer for a child, and what cannot be cut into a
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shoe. may be sent into another department, to be manu- factured into heels, where the same assortment of sizes takes place. There is also in the village a striking illustration of the principle that one thing calls for another. Shoes are made upon lasts, and hence a factory is established, which turns out fifty thousand lasts annually. And as the heels and the leather gener- ally are cut by dies, these articles are in demand, and hence an establishment for their manufacture has been set up, with sales to the amount of $75,000 in the year. The lasts and the dies here produced are not all consumed in the place, but the domestic demand undoubtedly gave birth to the manufacture. Then the shoes, when prepared for the market, must be boxed up, and this calls for a box factory, and one is found in the village, demanding not only laborers, but requiring lumber and all the appliances of the lumber business. The annual product of the factory is $18,000. The tannery in the village is almost a branch of the shoe trade, and they all combine to aid one another.
In speaking of the thrift and employments of the place, we ought to mention a large piano factory, which was established and well under way, when it fell a prey to the devouring element. But the enterprising pro- prietors are preparing to continue the business, not- withstanding the fire.
The ordinary mechanics, -the carpenter and the mason, the painter and the plumber, -find their busi- ness affected directly by the growth of manufactures, and the tillers of the soil participate in the same pros- perity. Land within miles of the village would rise or fall in value, as the shoe business was prosperous or depressed. The effect of these various branches of trade will be seen, when we consider that in 1820, there were only thirteen or fourteen dwelling houses and one
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store in the place. The only thing that sustained the village at that period was its water power, driving a grist and saw mill, a cloth dressing establishment and a small cotton factory. Now, the dwellings there are about four hundred, and instead of a single English and West India goods store, there are now six such stores ; there are also five provision stores, two shoe stores, three dressmakers and milliners' shops, two tailors' shops, two grain and flour stores, one jeweller's shop, two apothecary and druggist stores,' one hardware store, two tinmen's shops, where stoves, pumps, &c., are found, one paint and oil store, two machine shops, two dealers in wood and coal, one lumber yard, three paint shops, two box factories, one photographer's gallery, one toy shop, one book and toy store, one post-office, with a newspaper and stationery shop attached, three livery stables, one hotel, three eating houses, one printing office, one bakery, and three custom shoemakers' shops. There are also several professional men and mechanics, who have places of business or residence, which should be mentioned, to show the accommodation and resources of the village. Three physicians, two dentists, one veterinary surgeon, two lawyers' offices, one plumber, three barbers, two master masons or contractors, three insurance agencies and conveyancers, one ice-house and dealer, three green houses, with vegetables and flowers for sale.
The population, when the town was incorporated in 1866, was about 1,800; in 1875 it was 3,493. It is true that this increase of population was aided by the acquisition from Bolton ; but this Bolton population was the product of the Hudson manufactories. In May, 1875, the number of polls in Hudson was 930; the personal property was valued at $280,413, and the real 8
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estate at $1,464,865, making a grand total of $1,745,278. The number of dwelling houses at that time was 615.
Although the earth may yield her increase, and the ordinary mechanical industry may add to the wealth and advance the prosperity of the place, yet it must be confessed, that manufacturing, and that of shoes in particular, must be regarded as the life blood of the village, which circulates through the whole system, and warms and invigorates every member. But the present is an unfortunate time to show the product of the shops. The depression of business in every department of industry, falls heavily upon the shoe manufacture, and consequently reduces the product and the number of hands, and so lessens the amount paid out monthly to the laborers. But, even as it is, the show is very flattering.
The capital employed in the five principal factories, viz : Francis Brigham & Co's., Wm. F. Trowbridge's, George Houghton's, Luman T. Jefts, and Stowe, Bills & Whitney's, is $410,000, and the annual production of shoes is 1,715,000 pairs, the estimated value of sales is $1,415,000 ; giving employment to 1,000 persons, 315 of whom are females. The united pay of the laborers is $320,000 a year, or $26,666 a month. The effect upon any country village of having twenty-six thousand dollars distributed monthly, can easily be conceived, as it is well known that the sums thus paid out, by passing from hand to hand, will pay a large number of debts, or procure many necessaries and luxuries of life, and thus produce a state of general prosperity. So much for the shoe business alone. But there are other branches of manufacture connected with or dependent upon the shoe manufacture, which should be taken into the account. The tannery, the die factory, the last factory, and the box factory, furnish a capital of more than
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$1 10,000, and employ some 120 hands, whose monthly pay would be some $6,000 ; so that the present depressed state of business, actually taken in the aggregate, ensures a payment for labor of about $33,000 dollars per month.
One pleasant feature of this prosperity is, that it is produced by the industry of the village. In many instances where a manufacturing village grows up rapidly, it is the effect of combined foreign capital. This in fact was true of Lowell and Lawrence. But in the case of Hudson, there was no such foreign aid. No combined capital from abroad, -- no rich individual outside the town, has built up the place. On the contrary, the money here invested is village capital, earned by labor and toil performed mostly in the village itself. And it is a fact, that the principal owners of these large establishments, and the men who have done most to build up the place, have commenced life without means, and owe their success to their own efforts. This is especially true of Francis Brigham. the largest capi- talist in the place, who first started the shoe manufac- ture in the village, and has contributed so largely to the growth of Hudson. This fact produces a better state of things than would be likely to exist, if one over- grown capitalist, or a foreign corporation, owned the property and controlled the destiny of the town.
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