USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > Athol, Massachusetts, past and present > Part 25
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Mr. Twichell has made his home in Fitchburg for many years, and owns extensive and valuable tracts of land and buildings in that city. He has been a special police officer for over thirty years, is a member of the Fitchburg Board of Trade, the Fruit Growing Association and the Worcester North Agricultural Society. He has never taken much interest in political affairs, having voted but once in his life, which was in the days of the abolition party. He married Phebe O. Farnsworth, daughter of Asa Farnsworth of Athol in 1845, by whom he had one child. Mrs. Twichell died Aug. 8, 1855, and he was married again in 1856 to Martha C. Whitney, by whom he had three children. She died in 1885 and Oct. 12, 1886 he married Emma S. Merriam. They have one son.
DR. MAURICE H. RICHARDSON, son of Nathan H. Richardson, was born in Athol, Dec, 31, 1851. His par- ents moved to Fitchburg when he was six months old. He attended the Fitchburg schools, fitted for college in the Fitchburg High School, and entered Harvard College in 1869, from which he graduated in 1873. He began the
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JOSIAH W. FLINT.
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SONS OF ATHOL.
study of medicine in the office of Dr. Peirson of Salem in 1873. and entered the medical school of Harvard Univer- sity in' 1874, from which he graduated in 1877. He was surgical house pupil at the Massachusetts General Hospi- tal in 1876. and resigned that position to be assistant in anatomy to Dr. Porter who was the Demonstrator of Anatomy. He dissected for the lectures of Oliver Wendell Holmes. until Mr. Holmes retired from the school, about 1882. and was then made Demonstrator of Anatomy, in which position he continued until 1888 or 1889 when he became Assistant Professor of Anatomy. In 1894 he was transferred from the anatomical to the surgical department, and is now Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery. He now holds the position of surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and is consulting surgeon to the follow- ing institutions: Carney Hospital, New England Hospital for Women and Children, the Free Hospital for Women, the Public Hospital at Deer Island, the State Hospital at Tewksbury. the State Farm at Bridgewater, the Melrose Hospital, Fitchburg Hospital, etc. He is secretary of the American Surgical Association, and a member of several surgical and medical societies. On the 10th of July, 1879, he married Margaret White Peirson of Salem and has six children.
JOSIAH W. FLINT was born in Athol, on Chestnut Hill, Nov. 4, 1839. He lived at home on the farm until fifteen years of age, attending the district schools. When sixteen years old he went to Hardwick to live with a sister, where he also attended school, and then took charge of his
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sister's farm for nine years. He then carried on the meat business for a year or two, and then purchased a farm in Enfield, Mass., which town has since been his home. After farming a few years he sold his farm and then engaged in the lumber business in which he has continued to the pres- ent time. For many years he has been in partnership with Hon. D. B Gillett of Enfield, and they have carried on an extensive lumbering business all through Hampshire county and southeastern Franklin, employing from fifty to seventy-five men. Mr. Flint has been prominently identi- fied with town affairs in Enfield, having been selectman since 1891, was road commissioner twelve years, constable eighteen years and tax collector nine years. He has also been one of the Deputy Sheriffs of Hampshire County since 1891, and has been frequently called upon by the Boston & Albany Railroad Co. to appraise fire damages. He has been married three times, his first marriage being Dec. 27, 1865, to Emma E. Taft of Athol. She died Aug. 12, 1891, and in 1894 he married Martha Maria Shoals of Easthampton. She died the same year, and he was mar- ried a third time to Charlotte Maria Shoals, March 4, 1896.
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CHAPTER XX.
EARLY AND LATER INDUSTRIES.
The artisan with cunning skill Compels the idle flood To bow obsequious to his will, And labor for his good.
ITES of wate rpower along Millers River, Mill Brook, Tully Brook, and other streams in the south part of the town, have from early days of the town been utilized for manufacturing purposes, until Athol has become conspicuous as one of the manufacturing towns of the State. The first record we have in re- gard to any mill is an agreement made by a committee of the Proprietors of Poquoaig and Samuel Kendall, Jr., of Woburn, May 24, 1737, whereby Mr. Kendall was to receive fifty acres of land as part pay or encouragement for building a saw mill. The next year, Oct. 18, 1738, the Proprietors made a grant of sixty acres of land "to Mr. Samuel Kendall for building a corn mill and keeping it in repair for ye space of ten years, so as to grind for ye Above said Proprietors."
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Rev. S. F. Clarke in his centennial discourse says, "It is a matter of doubt where the saw mill or grist mill was first erected." As near as can be ascertained the first grist mill was built near where the Richardson machine shop is now located, and it is believed that the saw mill was erected near the location of the present match shop on Mill Brook. The first grist mill must have been given up for some reason for at a Proprietors' meeting held Jan. 3, 1759, article three of the warrant was to see "Whether the Proprietors will give any encouragement to any suita- ble person or persons, or be at any expense towards build- ing a good Grist Mill in said Pequoig, provided a suitable stream can be obtained whereon to build one-and it passed in the affirmative." It was also "Voted to raise four shillings lawful money on each Right for the use and encouragement of any Person that shall build a good and sufficient Grist Mill at Mill Brook, so called, provided the said person shall come under proper obligation to have the same running on or before the 18th Day of October next ensuing and to keep the same in due repair for the space of fifteen years next coming-and to give due at- tendance at said mill, two Days in the Week if business requires, during said term, allowing for extraordinary oc- currences." The place that this second grist mill was built was undoubtedly the location near the Richardson machine shop, from which place it was moved about 1768 to the present location of the Ethan Lord grist mill. Those who owned and operated the mill before it came into the possession of Ethan Lord were Simeon and Ezra Fish,
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William and Augustus Newhall, Joshua Newhall and Joseph Richardson.
At a town meeting held Jan. 11, 1775 an article ap- pears in the warrant as follows: "To see if the Town will choose a Committee to look out for, and to see if they can find a good Clothier to come and settle in Town so that the town may be the Better Enabled to carry on their own Man- ufacturies." Under this article it was voted to choose a committee, said committee to do the service of getting a clothier gratis. In 1791, according to the Historian Whitney, there was in the town four grist mills, six saw mills, one fulling mill and one trip hammer. The trip hammer was located near what is now known as Pine Dale, where there was also a grist mill. Previous to 1798 Just- ice Ketcham had mills in the south part of the town, and in 1801 Levi Lovering had a fulling mill on what is now Freedom Street.
Early in the present century quite an impetus was given the manufacturing interests of Athol by the intro- duction of several new kinds of business into the town. Before the close of the last century David Lilley was mak- ing nails in a shop near the present silk mill. About 1800 he sold the premises to Perley Sibley and Stephen Hammond who established a scythe factory, which for more than half a century was a flourishing industry. Sum- ner, Gideon, Paul and Willard Sibley were engaged with their father in the business, which was also carried on by Russell Smith for many years. Eliphalet Thorpe came to Athol from Dorchester, in 1812, and bought a paper mill
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on Freedom Street then owned by a man by the name of Leland. He manufactured paper for more than a third of a century, and the business was also carried on by his sons, Albert and Fenno, until about 1868 when it was discon- tinued. Greenfield and Amherst newspapers were printed on paper made at this mill.
The cotton factory was built in 1811, where business has been carried on to the present time by various owners. In 1837 the factory contained ten hundred and twenty-four spindles, employed ten males and forty-five females and turned out three hundred and sixteen thousand yards of cotton goods. At the Centre, Paul Morse established a tannery on Mill Brook in 1807, which was carried on by himself and his son Laban until 1845, when the works were destroyed by a freshet. Prescott Jones also had a tannery on Mill Brook, on the premises now owned by Geo. S. Brewer, which was operated many years by him- self and also by his sons Frederick and Prescott, Jr. About 1816 Timothy Hoar commenced to develop the water power at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets, and en- gaged in the manufacture of sleighs, and between the years 1833 and 1835 he built a dam and erected a factory on Mill Brook, on the site of the Morse factory, and about 1842 with William Fletcher and Jonathan Kidder built a dam and saw mill on the site of the Ellis factory.
We shall not attempt in this chapter to give a history of all the various manufacturing enterprises of the town as many of them are described in connection with personal sketches of their founders in other chapters.
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BOOT AND SHOE INDUSTRY.
The manufacture of boots and shoes has been the lead- ing industry of the town for more than half a century. In 1831 Frederick Jones added to his business of tanning that of the manufacture of heavy shoes and brogans. Some light shoes had been made previously in Athol, but only in a small way. Mr. Jones started the industry on a larger plan. In 1832 he enlarged his operations and took his first lot of shoes to New York for sale, teaming them over the road to Hartford, and then by steamer. Four years afterwards the manufacture was changed from shoes to boots and the business finally became one of the impor- tant industries of the town. The tannery and boot factory were operated by Mr. Jones and his partners until about 1872.
In 1834 Ozi Kendall commenced the manufacture of boots in a little shop on Main Street adjoining the house in which he lived. As the business increased he took in partners and the firm became Ozi Kendall & Co., the fame of whose boots extended all over New England and the West. At one time they turned out calf boots to the value of seventy thousand dollars a year. Mr. Kendall retired from the business at the end of fifty years, and the other members of the firm continued three years longer, until 1887, when the business was closed up.
There is no one family that occupies so prominent a position in the manufacturing annals of Athol for the last half century as the Lee family. The father, William Dexter Lee, was descended from John Lee, or Leigh, as
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the name was originally spelled, who came to this country in 1634 and settled in what is now Ipswich, Mass. The family is said to have been noted for ability and energy. The family of William Dexter Lee was large, there having been twelve children born to Mr. Lee and his wife, Lydia H. The family was in humble circumstances, and each member was dependent on his own resources at an early age. The boys of the family who grew to manhood were William Dexter, James M., Merritt, Charles Milton, John Howard and Solon Wetherbee.
CHARLES MILTON LEE, who for many years was the largest manufacturer and the leading figure in the up- building of the town was born May 23, 1828. He com- menced the manufacture of shoes in 1850 with a capital of about one hundred dollars, going on foot to Boston to purchase his stock, and returning to his father's farm among the Bears Den hills, where he made his first shoes, a few dozen pairs, which were sold to the merchants of this and adjoining towns. During the first year the goods made and sold by him brought about six hundred dollars. His first real shop was on Exchange street, where he em- ployed about twenty-five hands, and Mr. Lee himself did all the selling of his goods, travelling in northern Vermont and New Hampshire with his shoes packed away, at first in an old box, and later in a fine two-horse wagon. In 1858 he formed a partnership with his two brothers, John Howard and Solou W., which continued for ten years, meanwhile establishing a business house in Boston for the sale of their goods. In 1869 this partnership was dissolved,
CHARLES M. LEE.
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EARLY AND LATER INDUSTRIES.
C. M. Lee continuing the manufacture in Athol, while his brothers carried on the business in Boston. He year by year increased his business until in four large shops he was employing about six hundred hands, and turning out goods to the amount of nearly half a million dollars annually. This business, which was for many years the great industry of Athol, was built up by the indomitable energy and enterprise of Mr. Lee. who believed in every fibre of his being in industry and persistent effort. He cared nothing for public honors and devoted himself steadfastly to his business and his family and home. He married Amanda M. Simonds of Lyme, N. H., by whom he had seven chil- dren, George MI .. Everett. W. Starr, Angie, Auburn, Bay- ard and Carrie. who married Chas. H. Brown. Of these all but Angie and Bayard are living. He was married a second time to Miss Minnie Howe of Post Mills, Vt., by whom he had two daughters, Marion and Minnie. Mr. Lee died June 29. 1896. Since his death the business has been continued by his sons, George M., W. Starr and Auburn, under the firm name of C. M. Lee Sons.
JOHN HOWARD LEE was born in Athol, Aug. 15, 1834. He attended the public schools of the town, and the Acad- emy in Townsend, Vt., for one term. When a boy he worked in the pail factory of Jonathan Wheeler, and was clerk for a year in the store of Lee & Bassett. He en- gaged in the manufacture of shoes with his brothers, Chas. M. and Solon W., in 1858, which was continued for ten years, when the partnership was dissolved, and he con- tinued the business in Boston. He was also in the shoe
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business for many years with his brother Merritt. He in- vested largely in real estate in Boston and also engaged in other business, in all of which he has been eminently suc- cessful. He married Miss Abbie M. Lamb, daughter of James Lamb of Athol, Jan. 4, 1858. She died Oct. 31, 1859. He was married a second time, Oct. 9, 1862, to Sarah E. Emmons of Boston. They have had five children, Carlton Howard, Evelyn, Bertha, John Howard, Jr., who died when four years old, and Robert E. Mr. Lee is a director of the Continental National Bank of Boston, Athol National Bank, and the Merchants' and Clerks' Savings Bank of Toledo, Ohio. He is a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co., St. John's Lodge of Masons, and other organizations.
SOLON W. LEE was born in Athol, July 11, 1836. He attended the Athol schools, and the High school of Peters- ham three terms. He engaged in the shoe manufacturing business with his brothers, Chas. M. and J. Howard, in 1858, and when the partnership was dissolved in 1869, and the business divided, he with his brother Howard took the Boston part of the business, where he remained until 1871, when he sold out and returned to Athol and engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes in which he contin- ued until 1883 when he went into the lumber business, in which he has remained to the present time. Mr. Lee has served the town as selectman and assessor. He was married in 1859 to Martha A. Coville of Templeton. They had three children, Myra A., Cora H. and Mary H. The latter, who married C. J. Kratt, is the only one now living.
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MERRITT LEE was born March 22, 1825. He was employed for a number of years in the shoe shop of Jones & Baker at the upper village. and in 1861 with his broth- ers. established the firm of M. L. Lee & Co., for the man- ufacture of men's. youths' and boys' kip boots, brogans and plow shoes. The business was carried on for thirty-five years. when he retired in 1896. His shop for three or four years was in the building known as the Pitts block on Exchange Street. and later in the block now occupied by W. H. Brock & Co .. opposite the depot, and in Union block at the upper village. In 1879 the firm employed upwards of one hundred hands, and the annual sales amounted to one hundred thousand dollars He married Ellen E. Fessenden. of Guilford Vt., in May, 1852. Their children are Walter M .. Geo. H., Wm. D. and Ellen F.
WILLIAM D. LEE, JR., was born Aug. 7, 1816. He was engaged for some time in the manufacture of women's, and children's shoes with John S. Lewis at the upper vil- lage. He was for a number of years in business with Samuel Lee in a general country store, the firm being Lee & Co .. and was also engaged with John Lewis in the lum- ber business at Warwick. and was an extensive dealer in real estate. He was a member of the board of selectmen in 1848 and 1849. On June 27, 1841, he married Sarah H. Munsell of Winchester. N. H. They had two daugh- ters. Clara the wife of O. A. Fay, and Anna, who married Elmer Merriam. Mr. Lee died Nov. 29. 1869.
JAMES M. LEE. the only one of the Lec brothers not engaged in the shoe business, was born March 2, 1822.
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From early boyhood until his death he kept a livery stable, and was an extensive dealer in horses. He invested largely in real estate, and his judgment in business matters was excellent. He was trustee of the Athol Savings Bank, and a member of its investment committee, also a director of the Athol National Bank, in which he was a large stock- holder. He served the town as assessor and road surveyor, and was one of the founders of the Worcester Northwest Agricultural Society. He accumulated a large property, the result of shrewd business management and good in- vestments. He married Rachel Dexter of Royalston in 1847. They had two children, Warren D. and Mabel. Mr. Lee died Nov. 10, 1893.
ATHOL SHOE Co. F. W. Breed of Lynn commenced operations in November, 1887 in a large brick factory, one hundred and fifty feet long, sixty feet wide and three stories high, which was built that year for his occupancy at the upper village at a cost of over twenty thousand dollars, in which he did business five years. Employment was given to about three hundred hands, and nearly four hundred thousand dollars worth of goods were produced annually.
HILL & GREENE. This firm moved a part of their busi- ness from Beverly to Athol in February, 1889, and occupied the large shop that had been erected on Riverbend Street by the Citizeu's Building Co., where they employed about one hundred and fifty hands and turned out about twelve hundred pairs of shoes a day. They bought the shop for- merly occupied by the Athol Shoe Co., to which they moved their business in January, 1893, and are now em- ploying about two hundred hands.
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L.J. Starrett
Krutt
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EARLY AND LATER INDUSTRIES.
ELI G. GREENE, the resident partner of the firm, was born in Cambridge, Mass., July 11, 1854. He engaged in the wholesale shoe business in Boston in 1882 and be- gan manufacturing shoes in Beverly in 1886. Mr. Greene takes a deep interest in the affairs of his adopted town and its social organizations, and is a member of the Republican town committee. He married Miss Grace Putnam Kilham, daughter of Capt. Daniel A. Kilham of Beverly, Jan. 22, 1890, and came to Athol in February, 1891.
LEROY S. STARRETT was born in China, Maine, April 25, 1836. He is of Scotch descent, and one of twelve children of Daniel D. and Anna Starrett. He was brought up on a farm and attended the public schools but two or three months in the year. He had a natural taste for mechanical pursuits, and when a boy spent his pennies for small tools, such as knives, gimlets. chisels, planes, etc., with which he delighted to work. When seventeen years of age he left his home and came to Massachusetts where he engaged in farming, and from 1861 to 1864 carried on a stock farm of six hundred acres in Newburyport, Mass., called "Tur- key Hill Farm." At the same time that he was success- fully engaged in carrying on this farm he displayed his inventive genius in the mechanical line by taking out sev- eral patents in 1864, and the next year sold his farming interest and started a machine shop in Newburyport, where he employed several skilled mechanics. In the spring of 1868 he came to Athol and put his business into the Athol Machine Company, which was incorporated especially for the manufacture of his inventions, prominent
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among which was the American meat-chopper. He was the general agent and superintendent of this company, and was connected with it until 1878, when he resigned and made arrangements to manufacture some of his inven- tions on his own account, having taken out a number of patents. One of the inventions that entered into his new enterprise was the combination square, and others were surface gauges, steel rules, caliper's etc. He started his business in 1880, employing ten hands. The usefulness of his inventions and the thorough manner in which the articles were made soon gave his goods great popularity among mechanics and established his business on a solid foundation. The quarters in which he commenced were soon outgrown, and he purchased a new building eighty by forty feet, three stories high, and equipped it with the most improved machinery. This soon proved insufficient to accommodate his rapidly increasing business, and in three years he added a story and a half to the building, and in 1894 built an addition one hundred and sixty by forty feet, with three stories and a basement, and a brick annex seventy-five by forty-two feet. These buildings are fur- nished with all modern improvements and everything for the comfort and convenience of the employees. In 1887 he bought out the Fay Caliper Manufacturing plant of Springfield, and in 1894 a Providence plant, engaged in the manufacture of milling cutters, and added them to the Athol establishment, making one of the best plants en- gaged in the manufacture of fine mechanical tools in the country, that gives employment to one hundred and eighty-
GEORGE D. BATES.
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five skilled workmen. In 1882 Mr. Starrett visited Europe where he established agencies in England, France, Belgi- um and Germany that have made his productions about as well known in Europe as in the United States. The busi- ness is conducted under the name of the L. S. Starrett Co. Mr. Starrett devotes his whole time and energy to his business, and has not been tempted to turn aside into poli- tics or public life. He is a member of the Methodist church of which he is one of the trustees. He was married April 20, 1861, to Lydia W. Bartlett, daughter of Henry A. and Hannah Bartlett, of Newburyport. a descendant of Josiah Bartlett. one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Mrs. Starret died Feb. 3, 1878. He has four children living.
GEORGE D. BATES, son of Alonzo and Eliza Bates, was born in South Deerfield, April 2, 1846. He attended the common schools and High school of his native village, and commenced his life work at the age of sixteen years. From eighteen to twenty-one years of age he was em- ployed in the wallet shop at South Deerfield. In 1867 he went to Montague and formed a copartnership with the late George K. Palmer, for the manufacture of wallets. under the firm name of Palmer & Bates, employ- ing about thirty hands. In 1871, desiring a more central field of operations the business was removed to Athol, and temporary quarters were fitted up for it in Lord's block on Exchange Street. In the fall of that year the firm occupied the large and commodious factory built for them by the citizens of Athol near the Lower Village
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common. In 1879 the firm of Palmer & Bates was dis- solved, and the firm of Bates Brothers was formed, consist- ing of James P., George D. and Charles A. Bates. They commenced business in a building near the Upham Ma- chine shop. The business soon outgrew the quarters it occupied, and in June, 1882, a factory was built on the Island, near Main Street. Additions have been made at various times, the latest and most extensive being the improvements of 1897. The business has now been in- corporated as the Bates Brothers Company of which Geo. D. Bates is treasurer and resident manager. Upwards of two hundred hands are now employed. In addition to looking after the interests of this extensive business Mr. Bates is prominently identified with various other business and financial interests of the town, and his worth as a citi- zen and business man is shown by the important positions he holds. He is president of the Athol Co-Operative Bank, vice president and director of the Millers River National Bank, president of the Athol Board of Trade, president of the Athol and Orange Electric Railway Co., and a member of the school committee. He married Hat- tie M. Warner, daughter of H. W. Warner of Greenfield in 1869. She died in 1876, leaving one daughter, Maud, now the wife of A. N. Ellis. He married a second time Miss Abbie J. Sheldon, June 9, 1880, by whom he had two daughters. She died March 17, 1897. He married Anna M. Tenney, Aug. 31, 1898.
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