USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Leicester > Brief history of Leicester, Massachusetts > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
Meantime Mr. Mann had been engaged in the same business in Holden with Albert Marshall. In 1853 Mann & Marshall purchased the property, en- larged the mill and continued the manufacture of satinety twenty-two years. They were heavy losers in the Boston fire in 1872, and were obliged soon after to suspend business. George and Billings Mann were associated with them for about one year. In 1879 George and Billings Mann and John P. Stephen, their brother-in-law, began business. They have en- larged and improved the plant, built cottages for the operatives and conducted a prosperous business.
Cherry Volley Woolen - Mills .- In 1836 Thos. Bottomly laid the foundations of the factory now run by the Cherry Valley Woolen-Mills on the privilege early occupied by Nathan Sargent as a grist-mill. In 1837 he began there the manufacture of broad-eloths. He sold to Effingham L. Capron in 1845.
In 1859 the mill was owned by E. D. Thayer and used by Mowry Lapham and James A. Smith, under the firm-name of Lapham & Smith, until 1862, when Mr. Smith sold to Mr. Lapham and removed to Rhode Island.
In 1863 the building was destroyed by fire, and the privilege remained vacant till 1865, when George N. and James A. Smith bought it and built a six-set mill for the manufacture of fancy eassimeres. In 1868 George N. Smith sold his share to James A. In 1876 the factory was nearly destroyed by the " Flood." Mr. Smith rebuilt in 1878 and leased to Eli Collier and A. E. Smith. Collier & Smith dissolved in 1879, and A. E. Smith continued the business until 1887, when the mill was leased to the present "Cherry Valley Woolen-Mills" Company. The property was sold to F. T. Blaekmer, Esq., of Worcester, in 1881, and is now owned by his heirs. This mill now manufactures ladies' dress and skirt goods.
Kettle Brook, which furnishes the water-power for all the factories in Mannville, Lakeside, Cherry Val- ley, Valley Falls and Jamesville, and which has repeat- edly, in time of freshets, been the source of serious ap- prehension through the valley, was originally only a little stream winding in picturesque beauty through meadows and forests, and leaping down the rocks through narrow defiles. Says one who lived by it " When I was a little girl, Kettle Brook was a small stream of water, that I have waded aeross many times."
Collier's Mill .- About the year 1835 L. G. Diekin-
son built the embankment north of Main Street, and the dam south of the road, where Collier's mill stands. To this place Mr. Dickinson moved his saw-mill, which formerly was located where A. W. Darling & Co.'s mill now is. This mill of Mr. Dickinson was used as a saw-mill until 1844, when it was converted into a satinet factory. The business was carried on by Jonathan Earle. In the same building was the cabinet shop of Silas A. Morse. It was burned to the ground March 24, 1848, but afterwards rebuilt by Mr. Diekinson, of lumber from an old elmireh in Charlton. It was leased to Baker & Bellows October 1, 1848. October 1, 1853, it was leased to Eli Collier. It was burned January 5, 1866, but rebuilt the next summer from the lumber of the Lower Tophet ma- chine-shop and was leased to Collier. April 8, 1881, it was sold to Collier & Butler. September 1, 1888, Butler sold out to Collier. It has been a satinet-mill since it was first changed from a saw mill.
Chapel Mill .- In the year 1836 or '37 John Waite bought land of Samuel Waite, built a dam and canal and erected a mill where the Chapel Mill now stands, on Chapel Street, a few rods north of Main Street. Here he made churns. It was afterwards a shuttle- shop. It was used later, about 1844, by II. G. Hen- shaw for drawing wire. It was here that Richard Sugden, whose extensive wire business is one of the important factors in the wealth of Spencer, first drew wire in this country; both he and Mr. Myrick worked for Mr. Henshaw. In 1849 Myrick and Sugden bought the machinery of Mr. Henshaw and formed a partnership under the name of Henshaw, Myrick & Sugden, of Speneer. The partnership was dissolved in 1854.
The Chapel Mill property was afterward owned by N. R. Parkherst, and was sold by him to L. G. Dick- inson, October, 1854. It has been occupied by John Q. Adams, who used it for a shoddy-mill, and by Bottomly & Fay, who made satinets there.
James Fay was in business there when it was burned, March 7, 1865. The property was bought by Samuel Chism, of Newton, and he rebuilt from the lumber of the old Baptist Church in Greenville, thus giving to the mill the name of Chapel Mill. It was leased to H. G. Kitredge, who made satinets there for two years, then to George A. Kimball and I. R. Bar- bour, who occupied it until sold to William N. Pierce, April 18, 1871. It was then leased to James A. Smith & Co., who made satinets there until March 6, 1879. May 5, 1879, it was leased to Collier & Butler for three years and nine months, when A. E. Smith bought the property and used it as a satinet-mill until May 1, 1887. George N. Smith then leased it and made satinets until June 15, 1887, when it was burned. Collier & Butler bought the property, re- built the mill and leased it to George N. Smith, who now occupies it.
There are in 1889 ten woolen-mills in the town of Leicester, and nine firmns engaged in the manufacture
37
LEICESTER.
of woolen eloth. The average annual value of the products of these mills is about $1,286,000.
A. W. Darling & Co .- In 1827 Thomas Bottomly built a dam upon Kettle Brook, on Chapel Street, about half a mile from the corner of Main Street. The pond formed thereby was considered a reservoir for the privileges below until 1847, when the present Bottomly Mill was erected by Thomas Bottomly. Previous to this, about 1833 or 1834, L. G. Dickenson erected a saw-mill on the same privilege as the pres- ent mill. In 1845, Mr. Bottomly opened a briek-yard on this spot, and made the brick of which, in 1847, he began the present Bottomly Mill. About the same year he caused the Waite meadow to be over- flowed; this was the beginning of the Waite reservoir; the property afterwards came into the hands of Booth Bottomly.
In 1874 E. D. Thayer bought the property of the trustees of the Bottomly estate, and has owned it ever since.
Booth Bottomly began to manufacture here in 1855 or 1856, and continued until his death in 1868. Other firms who have occupied the mill are R. L. Hawes & Co., George Kimball & Co., for a short time; E. D. Thayer, for twenty years, Bramley Bottomly being for some years associated with him. After 1876 or 1877 the Hopeville Company used the mill for a few years, then E. D. Thayer, Jr., from 1884 to 1886, when the firm of A. W. Darling & Co. assumed the business. It is a four-set satinet-mill.
The Greenville Woolen-Factory was first built in 1871 by A. W. & J. D. Clark. It was of wood, fifty feet square, and three stories high, with a brick picker-house adjoining. The buildings were rented to Joseph Peel, of Spencer, who began the manufae- ture of woolen goods in the winter of 1872, and eon- tinued until January, 1877; since that time the business has been carried on by J. D. Clark. The mill was enlarged in 1880.
The Lakeside Manufacturing Co .- In 1847, D. Waldo Kent put up a saw-mill at Lakeside. In 1853 he built his planing-mill and box-factory. In this building, in 1857, he set up the first circular saw-mill introdneed into this part of the State. In 1866 he began the manufacture of shoddy, and, in 1880, of satinets. The present factory was erected in 1883. Sinee April, 1885, it has been running night and day. The surroundings of the factory have been much improved, and around it has sprung up a neat little village. The business of the Lakeside Manufactur- ing Company is carried on by P. G. & Daniel Kent. The factory was first lighted by electricity in July, 1887. In 1885 they bought the Jamesville Mills, in Worcester, and, with the two mills, they are said to be the largest manufacturers of satinets in the country.
The Leicester Wire Company had its origin in 1871. At this time Mr. Cyrns D. Howard, an experienced workman, set up machines and began the drawing of
wire for eards in the building which had been used by successive firms as a card manufactory, and later as a box shop. Thomas Shaw was afterward associated with him for a short time as the firm of Cyrus D. Howard & Co. David Bemis went into company with Howard in 1876, as the firm of Howard & Bemis. In 1880 J. Bradford Sargent joined the firm, which became Howard, Bemis & Co. Mr. Howard retired in 1884, and the Leicester Wire Company was organized. Harry E. Sargent came into the firm in 1885, and Mr. Bemis retired. Of this firm H. E. Sar- gent is president, and J. B. Sargent treasurer. The new buildings were erected in 1881, and engine-house and boiler in 1883. The machinery is principally employed in drawing card, reed and stone wire.
The Lakeside Woolen Mills put in a dynamo and lighted their factory by electricity in July, 1887. Since that time dynamos have been placed in the card factories of J. & J. Murdock, and Decker, Bonitz & Co. On December 19, 1887, an eleetrie plant was estab- lished at the Leicester Wire Company's works, by which the other card factories are lighted, also the Leicester Hotel, the stores in the centre, and several private houses.
Charles W. Warren began the making of shoe-count- ers in the house on the southwest corner of Main and Rawson Streets about the year 1852, then moved to the house on the lot between the bank and the post- office about the year 1854, there manufacturing in- soles. The buildings were burnt in 1862. In 1867 he built his house and factory on Pleasant Street. The factory has been several times enlarged, and is devoted to the manufacture of shoe-heels, employing about forty persons.
Boots and Shoes .- The only shoe manufactory in town is that of Horace & Warren Smith, on Mt. Pleasant, begun in 1865. Among those who at dif- ferent times have carried on the boot and shoe business are Amasa Watson, Delphus Washburn, Baldwin Wat- son, Cheney Hatel, Wm. F. Holman.
About the year 1849 several gentlemen formed a company for the manufacture of boots, having in mind the increase of business in town. The work was at first carried on in the house on Market Street in which is Wheeler's meat market, where there was horse-power. After a few years it was removed to Main Street, where now stands the house of E. D. Waite. On the 25th of September, 1860, the building was burnt. The company had met with heavy losses in consequence of the failures of that period, and after the fire the business was abandoned.
Leather .- The tanning and currying of leather appears to have been a prominent industry in former times. Elijah Warren had a tannery on the main road, half a mile from the Spencer line, at a very early date. He was succeeded by his son, Joseph. Henry E. Warren afterward owned it, and had also a tan-house north of Main Street, near the Spencer line. It was burned in 1848. John Lynde, the early settler,
4
30
LEICESTER.
also had a tannery in the north part of the town. Jonathan Warren had a tannery on Pine Street, two miles from the village, and was succeeded by his sons Jonathan and Elijah. It was burned in 1825. Lieut. Jonas Stone, built a tannery at the foot of Strawberry Hill in 1790, where work was continued by different persons for thirty or forty years,-among them Thaddeus Upham, and E. HI. & George Bowen. Mr. Studley had a tannery in Cherry Valley, where the post-office now stands. Amasa Warren and Horaee and Baldwin Watson were tanners in the west part of the town.
Leander Warren, when a young man, began the currying business near the house of his father, Joseph Warren. In 1845 he bought the place south of the Centre School-house, where he carried on the business till his death, in 1862, when he was succeeded by John N. Grout. Since Mr. Grout's time there has been ro eurrying done in town, except in connection with Murdock's Card Manufactory.
A. Hunkey & Co., Manufacturers of Machine Knives. -In 1798 Caleb Wall bought land of the Green family and built above the present works of A. Ilankey & Co. a blacksmith shop, where he made scythes, carry- ing on a large business. In 1830 Thomas Wall and Nathan Harkness built on the present site of the "Lower Shop," and carried on the business three or four years, and were followed by Cadsey, Brown & Draper.
In 1818 Hankey, Stiles & Co. purchased the prop- erty and remodeled it for the manufacture of machine- knives. The firm was Anthony Hankey, Francis Stiles and II. C. Bishop. About 1851 Mr. Hankey went into the dredging business in Boston, where he had invented a dredging-machine. The business in Greenville was carried on by Stiles & Co. (F. Stiles and F. W. Taylor) until a few years later, when Mr. Hankey returned and managed the business under the firm-name of Stiles & Co. This partnership was dissolved July 14, 1866, and in October of the same year Stiles sold his entire interest to A. Hankey & Co. J. E. Jones was admitted as a partner, but he only remained a short time. The firm was A. Hankey and George A. Corser. In February, 1877, Ilankey bought out Corser, and continued the business alone until March, 1881, when J. X. Rogers was admitted to the partnership under the old firm-name of A. Ilankey & Co., which continues to this date.
In 1881 a system of improvements was inaugurated. The old buildings were torn down and new and larger ones erected ; new water-ways and new machinery were added, and it is to-day the largest and most com- plete shop in the world for the exclusive manufacture
of machine-knives. The products of this shop go to all parts of the world, in many instances direct to Cuba, South America, Spain, Germany and China. In 1887 a branch was started in Philadelphia. It is an interesting fact that the first knives that were used on a planing-machine in this country were forged by hand by Mr. Hankey in Boston, and also that the first dies for cutting out paper collars were made at this shop.
LEICESTER NATIONAL BANK .- " Leicester Bank " was chartered as a State bank March 4, 1826, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, which in 1853 was inereased to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and in 1854 to two hundred thousand dollars. John Clapp was made president of the bank April 26, 1826; N. P. Denny, October 4, 1830; Joshua Clapp, October 3, 1836 ; Waldo Flint, October 2, 1837 ; Joseph A. Denny, October 1, 1838; Cheney Hatch, October 2, 1843; Charles A. Denny, December 16, 1878. John A. Smith was appointed cashier May 26, 1826; H. G. Henshaw, October 21, 1826; D. E. Merriam, December 15, 1845; George H. Sprague, May 20, 1885. The institution was made a national bank March 21, 1865.
The first bank building was in connection with the old town-house, built in 1826 by the town and the bank. In 1853 the bank was removed to the brick building east of Leicester Hotel. In 1871 the present bank was completed and the business removed to it.
LEICESTER SAVINGS BANK .- TIre Leicester Savings Bank was incorporated April 17, 1869. Cheney Hateh was elected president May 5, 1869, and Lory S. Watson, May 21, 1879. D. E. Merriam was the first treasurer, appointed May 14, 1869, and was suc- ceeded by the present incumbent, George H. Sprague, May 24, 1885. The present amount of deposits is three hundred and ninety-one thousand two hundred and eighty dollars.
MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES .- There have been several hatters. John Whittemore bound books where the Whittemore Card Factory now stands. Hori Brown had a printing-office on the west corner of Main and Mechanic Streets, where he not only did job-work, but printed books; among these was "Scott's Lessons," printed in 1815.
At the foot of the hill, from 1823 to 1853, was the grocery of Evi Chilson, especially prized by students of the academy for the rare quality of its entertain- ment for the inner man. It is remembered by them after many other things are forgotten.
It would be impossible to mention all the different kinds of business carried on at different times in town, or to give the history of the many stores.
39
LEICESTER.
CHAPTER VII.
LEICESTER-(Continued.)
THE CIVIL WAR.
Sixth Massachusetts Regiment-War Meetings-Twenty-Fifth Regiment- Fifteenth, Twenty-first, Thirty-fourth, Forty-second -. letion of the Town-Other Soldiers-Expenditures-Casualties-Close of the War.
NEWS of the attack on Fort Sumter reached Lei- eester on Saturday, April 13, 1861, and occasioned the most intense excitement. Then first the people comprehended the faet that the war had begun. Young men at once declared their intention to re- spond to the first call for soldiers, and men too old for service avowed their readiness to make any sacrifice required for the preservation of the Union. From that day to the close of the war the town of Leicester loyally and liberally accepted all the demands of the government upon it for money and for men. The eall of President Lincoln for 75,000 volunteers met here the same prompt answer which it received throughout the loyal North.
Leicester had a special interest in the Sixth Massa- chusetts Regiment, the first to march from the State and to receive the baptism of blood. Its commander, Col. Edward F. Jones, was a native of Leicester, as was also Joseph Waldo Denny, lieutenant in the Worcester Light Infantry. They had been pupils together in Leicester Academy. There were other Leicester men in the regiment.
There were sixteen Leicester men in the Third Battalion of Rifles, which left Worcester on the 20th of April. Their names were: Henry H. Bowman, Bramley A. Bottomly, Michael Collins, John P. Crim- mins, Jaeob H. Gibson, George W. Hateh, John Kirk, Joseph Laverty, Martin Leonard, Randall H. Mann, John MeDonald, John Moriarty, J. Daw- son Robinson, Emerson Stone, Jesse S. Scott and William B. White. Church Howe and Myron J. Newton enlisted in the Sixth Regiment.
The battalion was stationed at Fort McHenry, and returned on the 2d day of August, and was re- ceived with great joy. Several of these men re- enlisted, and their records are given in eonneetion with the regiments which they joined. The evening before the departure of the Third Battalion for the seat of war, news of the attack on the Sixth Regi- ment had been received, and had deepened the agi- tation. That day the national flag, before seldom seen except on government buildings, and sometimes on the Fourth of July, was thrown to the breeze on the flag-staff on the Common. The war was the all- absorbing subjeet of thought, conversation, discourse and prayer on the following day, which was the Sabbath.
On Monday evening, April 22d, was held the first of those memorable war meetings, which made the
town-hall a historic building, and in which the fer- vent patriotism of the people of Leicester .found earnest and eloquent expression, as in the days of the Revolution it had done in the old " First Meet- ing-House." On the 26th forty or fifty of the young men of the town commenced military drill in the town-hall, under the instruction of John M. Studley, of Worcester. A town-meeting was held the 4th of May, and $500 was raised and appropriated, and a committee was authorized to borrow $5000 if neces- sary. A bounty of $10 a month, in addition to government pay, was offered to volunteers, and uni- forms, guns and equipments were to be furnished if necessary. The women were equally patriotic and efficient. Their first meeting for work was in the town-hall, May 13th, where, in response to notices from the pulpit the day before, they assembled, to the number of about sixty, and with four or five sewing- machines and many busy hands, made garments for the Third Battalion of Rifles. On the 15th, at 6} o'clock on a pleasant May day, a beautiful flag was raised over the Centre School-house, with music by the band and addresses by the School Committee- Dr. Pliny Earle, Dr. John Murdock and Rev. A. H. Coolidge. Flags were also flying in different parts of the town. Says one, writing at the time, " The war feeling seems to absorb every other thought, and the subject of religion seems secondary to patriotism, which now occupies the mind not only of the private individual, but the pulpit and the press."
There had not been for a generation such a revul- sion of feeling as was occasioned in town by the ex- aggerated tidings of the disaster of Bull Run. Men turned pale, and abandoning all hope of easy victory, nerved themselves for the long struggle, which was not to be ended until many of our own citizens had laid down their lives for their country.
In the early autumn of 1861 the Twenty-fifth Mas- sachusetts Regiment was formed, with a larger num- ber of men from Leieester than any other three years' regiment. In it were many representatives of the families in town, and it was followed in all its eventful and honorable career with the special so- licitude and interest of the people.
The national fast, appointed by President Lin- eoln for September 26th, on account of the peri- lous and gloomy condition of the country, was a memorable occasion in Leicester. Services were held in the First Church. The attendance was large, and the congregation deeply affected. The re- eruits for the Twenty-fifth Regiment were to leave for camp that day, and this fact added to the impres- siveness of the occasion.
In this regiment were Corp. Augustus Adams, in ten engagements, taken prisoner at Drury's Bluff, died at Florence, S. C .; Charles M. Ball, arm broken at Cold Harbor, killed at Petersburg; Corporal James Brady, Edwin Y. Brown, William Carson, David B. Collier, in six engagements; Isaae Creed, in eight engage-
40
LEICESTER.
ments, three wounds at Cold Harbor ; Otis Cutting, wounded at Drary's Bluff; William Eddy, wounded at Petersburg ; William Fernley, taken prisoner at Drury's Bluff, died at Andersonville; Owen Finnegan, in several , engagements, wounded at Arrowfiekl Church; Horace L. Fisk; James S. Foster, died at Newbern; Levander M. Gould, died at Newbern ; James Gehegan, wounded at Arrowfield Church, in ten engagements; John Galooly, died at Charlotte, N. C .; David Gotha, in seven engagements ; George W. Gould, killed at Cold Harbor ; Edward R. Graton, wounded at Roanoke Island and died of the wounds. He was saved from instant death by his prayer-book, the ball stopping at the verse,
Thon, gracious Lord, art my defence, On thee my hopes rely.
Braman Grout, in two battles; George L. Grout, in two battles ; Thomas Grooves, died at Newbern ; William Henshaw, Patrick W. Hannagan, wounded at Cold Harbor ; Albert S. Hurd, killed at Cold Har- bor, in most of the battles of the regiment ; George E. Kent, wounded at Roanoke Island, died at New- bern ; Hngh Kenney, in three engagements, wounded at Arrowfield Church ; Peter Kenney, wounded at Arrowfield Church and at Cold Harbor ; William H. Kenney, killed at Cold Harbor ; Sergeant John Kirk, in most of the battles of the regiment, taken prisoner at Drnry's Bluff; Eugene D. Lacount, wounded and taken prisoner at Drury's Bluff; Michael Leonard, wounded at Drury's Bluff; John McMannis, wounded at Drury's Bluff; Corporal Randall Mann, killed at the battle of Roanoke Island; John Mclaughlin, in ten battles, wounded at Cold Harbor ; Lyman Moul- ton, killed at Cold Harbor ; Ezra Reed, Albert Stock- dale, wounded at Arrowfield Church and at Petersburg; First Sergeant Emerson Stone, lost an arm at Drury's Bluff, passed as captain of United States Colored Troops just as the war came to an end; Sergeant H. A. White, wounded in the foot at Drury's Bluff, in the battles of his regiment till his discharge in the summer of 1864.
The Twenty-fifth Regiment formed a part of the Burnside Expedition in North Carolina, and remained in that State till 1864, when it was united with the Army of the James, serving in Virginia before Rich- mond and Petersburg. After suffering severely and becoming reduced to a mere skeleton, it returned to North Carolina, and being recruited, participated in the closing scenes of the war under General Sherman. It will be noticed that the casualties of Leicester men in this regiment were especially numerous at Cold Harbor. Of the charge, in which the Twenty-fifth Regiment bore the brunt, Gen. Horace Porter writes in the Century, of June, 1888: "Perhaps the most striking ease of desperate and deliberate courage which the history of modern warfare hus furnished was witnessed at Cold Harbor. The men had been repeatedly repulsed in assaulting earthworks, had each time lost heavily, and had become impressed
with the conviction that such attacks meant certain death. One evening after a dangerous assault had been ordered for daylight the next morning, I noticed in passing along the fine that many of the men had taken off their coats and seemed engaged in mending rents in the back. Upon closer examination I found that they were calmly writing their names and home addresses on slips of paper and pinning these slips upon the backs of their coats, so that their dead bodies might be recognized upon the field and their fate made known to their friends at home. Never was there a more gallant assault than that made by those men the next day, though their act of the night be- fore bore painful proof that they had entered upon their work withont a hope of surviving. Such courage is more than heroic, it is sublime." Of this eharge Gen. P. D. Bowles, who had command of the Con- federate line, wrote, "The regiment that made this gallant charge was the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts. This we learned from the twenty-odd officers and men who fell down among the dead and wounded at the first fire. Not since the charge of the six hundred at Balaklava has a more heroie act been performed."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.