USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fall River > Centennial history of Fall River, Mass. : comprising a record of its corporate progress from 1656 to 1876, with sketches of its manufacturing industries, local and general characteristics, valuable statistical tables, etc. > Part 2
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" Fall River is a eity and port of entry of Bristol county, Mass., and is pleasantly situated on a rather abrupt elevation of land, rising at the head of Mount Hope Bay, an arm of Narragansett Bay. It comprises an area of about thirty-six and a half square miles, and about 23,330 acres, ineluding both land and water. It is eminently a manufacturing place, but is specially noted for its eotton manufactories ; while its favorable position as regards railway and steamboat communications, its improvements in eommereial and mechanical industry, and its reeent almost unparalleled inerease in popula- tion and wealth, have given it a name and importanee second to none in the commonwealth.
" In the union of hydraulie power and navigable waters, it is perhaps without a parallel upon the Ameriean continent. Its hydraulie power is derived from a small stream-Fall River-whenee the name of the eity which has its souree, or is in reality the outflow of a chain of ponds lying two miles east of the bay, eovering an area of some 3500 aeres, and having a length of about eight miles, and an average breadth of three quarters of a mile. They are mostly supplied by perennial springs, though receiving the outlets of several other sheets of water. The extent of country drained is comparatively small-not over 20,0co aeres, and the quantity of power there- fore is to be attributed to the springs alluded to, and to the great and rapid
7
ITS NATURAL ADVANTAGES.
fall of the river, which in less than half a mile is more than 132 feet. Within this distance there are no less than eight falls, each occupied by mills-the height of fall at each mill being as follows :
Dam to Troy.
2 feet 6 inches.
Troy C. & W. Manufactory.
..
5年
Pocasset Mill .
2I
8
Quequechan Mill.
Watuppa Mill. I5
17
F. R. Print Works.
IC
0
F. R. Manufactory.
I.1
53
Annawan Manufacturing Company.
S&
F. R. Iron Works Company.
13
JI
0
4 4
129 feet I4 inches.
The whole of this fall occurs in a distance of 2300 feet. In one case the falls are only 136 feet apart, and this distance occurs between the two greater falls. The flow of the river is one hundred and twenty-one and a half cubic feet per second, or 9,841,500,000 imperial gallons in a year of three hundred days, of ten hours each. The remarkable advantages of this river as a mill stream have been increased by building a dam at the outlet of the ponds, which gives the water an additional fall of two feet ; and its lower banks are entirely built up with large manufacturing establishments, which so rapidly succeed each other as scarcely to leave space between somc of the buildings sufficient for light and air. The river for almost its entire length runs upon a granite bed, and for much of the distance is confined between high banks, also of granite. Differing therefore from most other water-powers, this one allows the entire space between the banks to be occupied, and most of the water-wheels connected with the older factories are placed directly in the bed of the river. Moreover, while the river affords an almost uniform and constant supply of water, it is never subject to excess, and an injury in consequence of a freshet has never yet been known. The river is perfectly controllable, and thus it is that the mills were built directly across the river, the wheels placed in the bed of the river, and yet from an excess of water no damage was to be apprehendcd. In later years, however, most of the breast wheels employed in these older mills have been supplanted by the modern appliances of turbine wheels and steam power."
" With the increase of wealth and skill in manufacture, and the entrance upon the stage of action of younger men of enterprise and ambition, new projects were formed, and as the older mills occupied all available space upon the river banks, new situations were sought out and appropriated, and the 'New Mills,' so called, were first erected on the margin of the ponds to the south and east of the city, and of which the stream is the outlet, and after- wards in the northerly and southerly sections of the city, on the banks of Taunton River and Laurel Lake. The growth of the city in this respect was almost marvellous, no less than eleven large mills, of from 30,000 to 40,000 spindles each, having been erected in one year (1872), involving an outlay of capital to the extent of $10,000,000, employing 5000 hands, and adding an immediate population of some 15,000 persons. Villages rapidly sprung up and clustered around each mill, while much of the intermediate space was
8
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
divided into house lots, and appropriated for dwellings and stores. This sudden occupation of outlying scctions, and the necessary throwing out of strects and lancs, progresscd with unexceptional rapidity, cspecially for a placc of seventy years' settlement. In fact, so rapid was the change in appearance, that what were once familiar scenes remained so no longer, varying from day to day, as though viewed through a kaleidoscope.
" The number of incorporated companies for the manufacture of cotton goods is now (1876) thirty-three, owning forty mills, or forty-three, counting those having two mills under one roof, with an incorporated capital of $14,735,000, but a probable investment of $30,000,000, containing 1,269,048 spindles and 30,144 looms.
" The latest statistics report the total number of mills in the United States as 847, containing 186,975 looms and 9,415,383 spindles, manufactur- ing 588,000,000 yards of print cloths per annum. Of these, New England has 489 mills, containing 148,189 looms and 7,538,369 spindles, manufactur- ing 481,000,000 yards of print cloths. Fall River has thus over one eighth of all the spindles in the country, or one sixth of those in New England, and manufactures over a half of all the print cloths.
" The following table will show the number of spindles in the mills of Fall River at the close of each year respectively :
1865
265,328
1871
780,138
1866.
403,624
1872
1,094,702
1867
470,360
1873
. 1, 21 2,694
1868
. 537,416
1874
1,258,508
1869.
540,614
1875 1,269,048 "
1870
.544,606
Notwithstanding the great natural advantages of the locality and their appreciation by the colonial grantors, who had expressly reserved the water and adjacent land on both sides as being of superior available value, except the grain mill of Church, and subsequent small ventures by other persons in the same general direction, no permanent foundation of Fall River manu- facture was made till after the war of 1812.
In 1811, however, at Globe village, as it has since been known, within the then town of Tiverton, but the present southern wards of the city of Fall River, Colonel Joseph Durfce, in company with a few other persons, erected a small wooden building, which was, chronologically speaking, the first cotton factory in the neighborhood. The little mill stood on ground which is now the northcast corner of Globe and South Main streets. Its operations con- tinued till 1829, when it was turned into a print works, and so occupied till its destruction by firc in 1838. 1
In soliciting subscriptions to the capital of this initial enterprise, tradi- tion has it that the most effective argument put to the local magnates was
9
COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1810-20.
that " cotton cloth would darn much easier than linen." It seems difficult to realize that the period is so short a remove from our own era when such persuasion was necessary. We must remember, however, that even in Eng- land, until the decade from 1780 to 1790, which saw the full development of Hargreaves' and Arkwright's inventions, it was thought necessary to make the warp of linen, using cotton simply for the weft of cloth. This was due to two reasons: that the fibre of flax was so much longer and capable of a greater tenuity than that of cotton, enabling it to be spun much more suc- cessfully on the domestic spinning-wheels or the mill-jennys, and that the raw material of the former was much cheaper than that of the latter. Nearly all the cloth worn by New England people at this period was home-spun and woven, the wheel and hand loom being essential properties of every household.
How much of the work of yarn-making in Colonel Durfee's mill was done by machine process does not admit of positive assertion. The raw cotton was given out to the farmers' families of the neighborhood and hand-picked. The yarn likewise was distributed among the diligent housewives to be woven into cloth, then collected, put in merchantable shape, and thrown upon the market. We may presume that the machine appointments of the mill included a few of the Arkwright spinning-frames, carders, and probably a calender.
The success of Colonel Durfee's enterprise was not great at any time, and generally its operation seems to have been disastrous to its promoters. They exhibited great energy and considerable nerve, but with hardly com- mensurate judgment, due probably to want of practical knowledge. One of their experiments is still remembered as illustrative of their operative ability. Having heard that a "tub-wheel" would run better and easier than a breast- wheel, they put one into the mill. A short trial, however, soon dissipated their sanguine anticipation, the new affair not working at all well, but run- ning without steadiness, being difficult of control, and consequently breaking the ends of the thread in the spinning processes.
Occasional reference will be made to the original Durfee mill, and its subsequent fortunes detailed as we proceed. Colonel Durfee was a citizen of considerable local prominence. During the Revolutionary war and the British occupation of Newport and Rhode Island, he was a zealous patriot, and received his grade of lieutenant-colonel, with the command of a regiment recruited from the neighboring region, in merited recognition of his gallant service.
From such contemporary memoranda as are accessible, and the use of a very valuable MS. record, written nearly half a century subsequently by a gentleman now deceased, who was one of the originators of cotton manufac-
IO
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
turing, we are able to sketch the village as it was in size and population about the year 1813.
The resident community of Fall River, or Troy, as it was then called, was located about what is now the centre of the city, the main street follow- ing the line of the present principal thoroughfare northward, and another considerable strcet trending eastward to the lake. The greater part of the residences were in these two avenues. Within a territory approximating to one and a half miles square, which would be designated at that day the village, were about thirty dwelling-houses, three saw-mills, four grist-mills, one full- ing-mill, a blacksmithy with trip-hammer, and several small stores. The population was estimated at three hundred.
One small, three-masted vessel, which had been engaged in foreign trade, but was, for a short period after the war, hauled up in the creek where the " Old Depot " was afterwards located, and a few small sloops, carrying cord- wood to Newport and Bristol, constituted the local shipping interest. There was no regular conveyance to Providence, and what freight was transferred between the two places went by craft plying between Providence and Taunton, which, in default of wharfage convenience at the Falls, stopped at the ferry two miles up the river, where all the cotton and merchandise was landed for some years. The first craft regularly sailing to Providence was a small schooner, or two-masted lighter, large enough to load ten bales of cotton and a small additional cargo of flour and miscellaneous goods. This was succeeded by the sloop Fall River, of thirty or forty tons capacity, and that again by the sloop Argonaut, and another craft whose name is for- gotten, which sustained the communication till the steamer Hancock was put on.
The religious and educational structures of the village were far from suggestive of their present number, convenience, or architectural beauty. “ In 1813," says our chronicle, " there was one poor old dilapidated wooden meet- ing-house, neither plastered nor lathed, which stood upon the line dividing the States, occupied occasionally. The regular place of worship on the Sabbath was at the Narrows, about two miles east. There was one, and only one, good schoolhouse in the village, which stood on the corner of Annawan and South Main streets." The residences were of the usual simple and plain construction adopted in early New England communitics, the most preten- tious one being erected by Charles Durfcc in 1811, and standing until 1857, when it was burned down. The richest resident from 1813 to 1824 was estimated worth $40,000, " and there werc but a small number of this class." The entire valuation for some years did not exceed $500,000, and the total taxation in 1813 was $1500.
David Anthony
COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1810-20.
The year 1813 is memorable as inaugurating the first regular cloth- manufacturing enterprise, on a substantial basis, in Fall River, this twelve- month witnessing the organization of two companies and the erection of two considerable factories. The corporate names were the Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufactory and the Fall River Manufactory, the former having a capital of $50,000 and the latter of $40,000. About fifty per cent of the sub- scriptions for the foundation of enterprises so considerable for the period were secured in neighboring towns, notably Tiverton, Newport, Warren, Rehoboth, Swansea, and Somerset. The companies were both formed in the month of March, the prominent promoters of the Fall River being David Anthony, Dexter Wheeler, and Abraham Bowen; and of the Troy, Oliver Chace, Nathaniel Wheeler, and Eber Slade. Mr. Anthony was chosen treas- urer and agent of the former company, and Mr. Chace agent of the latter, with Mr. Slade as treasurer.
David Anthony, to whose previous experience of mill-work was due the construction of one of the two original cotton mills of Fall River, and through whose far-sighted and enlarged appreciation of the future of cloth manufac- turing was subsequently wrought what may be termed " a departure," to which Fall River industry is believed by many persons to owe a large degree of its present advancement, was born in Somerset, Mass., January 9th, 1786. At the age of fourteen he left the home farm to enter the service of the rich man of the neighborhood, a large real-estate owner and country merchant, John Bowers, who resided near by on Somerset shore. Young Anthony's occupa- tion was various for the first two years in Mr. Bowers' service. But he was faithful and intelligent, and soon rose from the duties of " chore-boy" to the more responsible office of grain and salt measurer at the store, varied by an occasional rent-collecting expedition, or a trip to Providence or Taunton, on - his master's business. In order to educate him in book-keeping he was shortly taken into the counting-room, and not long after charged with the superintendence of the retail department of the store.
In 1804, to the amazement and great disturbance of the neighboring region, Mr. Bowers' affairs became so embarrassed as to force his suspension. By the concurrent action of all parties, the youthful manager, then in his nine- teenth year, was employed in closing out the stock of goods and settling up the bankrupt estate.
Young Anthony's educational advantages had not been of a large nature, but he was one to realize the best possible result of whatever opportunities were offered him, so that his intelligence was of a thorough and correct stand- ard. In the winter following his conduct of Mr. Bowers' affairs, the local authorities engaged him to teach a small school. He accepted, and of his
1 2
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
experience was accustomed to say that he found himself so poorly preparcd for imparting knowledge as to necessitate his own constant application to the various studies pursued, in order to avoid a failure. Though urgcd to remain the teacher a second season, he declined, satisfied that the discipline of tuition had been of morc profit to himself than to his pupils.
Leaving the pursuit of teaching, he made a four months' engagement with John P. Hellen, a crockery dealer of Providence, travelling from Somerset on horseback with his little pack of personal effects, and with a boy mounted behind him to return the horse. Not choosing to take the horse all the way, he finished the last half of his journey on foot. Mr. Hellen was so well satis- fied with his services that he continued him in the same situation for two years.
Mr. Anthony's connection with manufacturing commenced in 1808, when he moved to Pawtucket, where Samuel Slater had been operating a cotton- spinning mill for some years successfully, and obtained employment in the factory of that extraordinary man, of whom he often afterwards spoke as thc " father of the cotton-manufacturing business in this country." In Mr. Slater's service, and that of the brothers Wilkinson, who at that day were also large yarn producers, Anthony acquired all that experience and contemporary knowledge could impart of the infant pursuit. His industry, honest deter- mination, and intelligent aptncss made him both valued and kindly regarded by Mr. Slater, himself a prodigious worker and persistent projector of work, while his own natural inclination for mechanical business was developed, and the course of his future life shaped out.
Having to his satisfaction acquired a thorough practical knowledge of manufacturing, Mr. Anthony in April, 1812, not finding the occupation suited to his ambition in Pawtucket, went to Rehoboth, Mass., where Dexter Wheeler, with other persons, was operating a small factory. His connection there does not seem to have been permanent, as he left Rehoboth in March, 1813, and moved to Fall River, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Mr. Anthony's immediate purpose in moving to Fall River was probably to organize a cotton-manufacturing company. Dexter Wheeler, associated with him, had run a small yarn mill by horse-power at Rchoboth as early as 1807, and possessed experience both as manufacturer and machinist.
The Fall River mill, which was the result of the efforts of these two men, both yet in early manhood, was finished in October, 1813. It was erected at the head of the third fall from tide-water, a structure sixty by forty feet in dimensions, three stories high, and intended for fifteen hundred spindles. The lower story was of stone and the upper two of wood, an alleged reason for using the latter material in completing the factory being that " there was
I3
COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1810-20.
not enough stone in Fall River to finish it with." A better explanation may have been the general ignorance of the use of derricks for some years throughout this region, an exemplification of which will be observed in the account of the erection of the Annawan mill farther on. Though it is mat- ter of tradition that stone was not regularly quarried in Fall River till 1823, the suggestion of its insufficient supply for any conceivable scheme of erec- tion, even though it contemplated building all the Pyramids along the shores of Watuppa, seems absurd enough in view of the fact that the city is full of immense granite structures constructed of material taken out of ledges on the premises.
Mr. Anthony's subsequent life was identified with the progress of Fall River. He retired from active business about 1839, having won the success which his vast resources of judgment and energy were sure to achieve. Of his return to his old pursuit of manufacturing twenty years after, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, the subsequent record will include the proper mention. When seventy years old, in a brief review of his own career, he wrote the following words of counsel to young men : "Happiness and success in a business life are promoted by correct habits, systematic living in all matters, and great promptness in fulfilling engagements."
David Anthony was the first, in point of time, of the strong, energetic and sagacious natures that have built up a community of substantial and pro- gressive industries. No better analysis of his own sterling character could be made than is indicated in his sententious counsel to a youthful friend quoted above, each of the qualities therein mentioned as requisites to happiness and success being distinctly and conspicuously his own.
Mr. Anthony was socially known as Deacon Anthony, he holding that office in the First Congregational Church from 1834 till his decease. He was President of the Fall River Bank from its organization in 1825 for forty years. He was three times married, his last wife, whom he survived but four years, being the daughter of Thomas Borden. Of his seven children, two sons are still resident in Fall River, and another, John B. Anthony, of Provi- dence, worthily known as for some years the executive officer and head of the Providence Tool Company, is the President of the Union Mill Company.
David Anthony died in Fall River on the 6th of July, 1867, closing a long, useful, and honored career, as one to whom the " well done, good and faithful servant" is spoken through all the centuries.
As above stated, the structure of the Fall River mill was completed, and the machinery, made for it by Dexter Wheeler, in operation in October, 1813, seven months from the initial movement of the enterprise. With all the resources of the great machine shops of the United States and Great Britain,
14
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
such expedition as this would be extraordinary did we not remember that the processes available in 1813 were hardly a third of those now necessary to the equipment of a cotton factory. But even with this consideration, this possi- bility suggests itself, that a part of the machinery set up in the new mill may have been transferred from the Rchoboth factory. However the case may be, it is certain that this mill, started by David Anthony and Dexter Wheeler, was the first cotton-spinning organization in the village known as Fall River.
Coincident with the starting of the Fall River manufactory was that of the Troy Manufacturing Company. The articles of association upon which this enterprise was inaugurated are dated, as approved, March 8th, 1813 : " Articles of agreement for the regulation and well-ordering the concerns and proceedings of the subscribers associated for the purpose of building a manu- factory of cotton or other goods in the town of Troy, county of Bristol and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with a capital stock of $50,000, divided into one hundred shares, to be paid by instalments. Article First: The company shall be known and called by the name of the Troy Manufacturing Company, etc." The articles, eleven in number, were signed by the following- named persons, together subscribing for all the shares, namely: Amey Borden, Clark Chase, Oliver Chace, James Maxwell, Jonathan Brown William Slade, N. M. Wheaton, Oliver Earl, Eber Slade, Joseph G. Luther, Sheffel Weaver, John Stackford for Charles Wheaton and self, Nathaniel Wheeler, James Driscol, Benjamin Slade, Moses Buffinton, Nathan Slade, Daniel Buffinton, Hezekiah Wilson, Benjamin E. Bennet, Joseph Buffinton, Walter Durfee, William Read, Robinson Buffinton, John Martin, and Ben- jamin Buffinton. Article Second providing for an annual meeting, at which were to be chosen a moderator, clerk, and standing committee, consisting of five persons, " whose duty it shall be to transact and do all the business of the company during the year;" this annual meeting of the stockholders was holden on the 7th of June, and James Maxwell, Sheffel Weaver, Nathan Wheeler, Benjamin Slade, and Jonathan Brown were chosen Standing Com- mittee for the ensuing twelvemonth. At this meeting it was voted to petition the Legislature for a charter of incorporation. This charter having been issued, February 22, 1814, a meeting was holden, July 25th, 1814, to organize under the Act, and the name of the company was changed to the Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufactory. There is also a record of a meeting on the 7th of the same month, at which it was voted to increase the amount of capital $16,000, assessing each share $40, payable quarterly during the ensuing year.
The Troy Company's mill was built of stone gathered from the neigh- boring fields, and designed to run 2000 spindles. The building was one
illantic Publishing & Engraving Com
OLIVER CHACE.
15
COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1810-20.
hundred and eight feet long, thirty-seven feet wide, four stories, and had a low hip roof. It was located at the foot of the fall, near to or directly on the site of an old saw-mill. The date of its commencing operation was about the middle of March, 1814, the building having been finished in the previous September.
At the first meeting on March 9th, 1813 (after the capital had been sub- scribed), of the Standing Committee chosen by the stockholders the previous day to superintend the affairs of the company till the annual meeting, it seems the Committee effected an arrangement with Oliver Chace as agent. The following extracts from the minutes of this meeting are interesting :
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