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 3
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 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
" Agreed with Oliver Chace to superintend the company's business, as agent for and on behalf of the Committee until the annual meeting in the 6th month next, at two dollars and fifty cents per day, he to find himself horse and to do the company's riding; said company to pay his board and expenses and find the horse provender, etc., when in their service.
" Agreed to build the factory of stone, one hundred feet by thirty-six feet, two stories above the main sill; the windows in the body thereof to be seven by nine glass, and for the loft six by eight.
" Agreed to have an iron shaft for the water-wheel seven inches square in the middle and six at each end, fourteen feet long; said wheel to be four- teen feet diameter and twelve feet float.
" Agreed to build a machine shop, twenty-five feet. by thirty-six, two stories high, and a blacksmith's shop, sixteen by twenty-five feet, with two forges ; the two shops to be rented to John Borden, Junior, at one hundred and fifty dollars per year."
John Borden, Jr., above named, and his brothers Isaac, Asa, and Levi, were born on the island of Rhode Island. Their father pursued the trade of a blacksmith, and after learning it in his shop, they went to Waltham and ·worked in the machine shop there. John, who had probably acquired a knowl- edge of cotton machinery at Waltham, where Mr. Lowell's manufacturing enterprise was then developing, came to Fall River in 1813, and by him, in association with his brother Isaac, probably, the machinery for the Troy Manufactory was constructed. He finally moved to Indiana, where he died many years since.
Oliver Chace, the originator and agent of the Troy mill, had been brought up as a carpenter and wheelwright, and could often be seen in his early days with his broad-axe on his shoulder, around among the farmers repairing their carts and farming utensils, an active, restless nature with a keen eye for business, and not disposed to settle down in one place or occupation. He was progressive, energetic, and always ready to look into and entertain
16
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
new projects. When, therefore, attention was invited to the comparatively ncw enterprise of cotton-yarn spinning by power, he was at once an inter- ested observer, and soon was induced to embark personally in the business at Dighton. With the experience of manufacturing thus acquired, he came to Fall River, and of the entire list of stockholders in the Troy was the only one having a practical acquaintance with the industry.
The spinning enterprise in Fall River was started at a period when the stimulus of a market closed to foreign production was giving an inflated encouragement to domestic enterprise. The mills were hardly finished and ready to operate before peace was declared and a revulsion came, cotton cloth going down fifty per cent in price, and a general depression ruling the country, so that factory stock was not worth more than half the original investment. The depression was, however, but temporary ; yet, what with the effect of the panic and the difficulties attending a new business, the Troy does not seem to have made a profit during its first few years. The follow- ing memorandum of a new contract with the agent, passed by the Committee Dec. 30, 1816, indicates an economizing disposition : " Agreed with Oliver Chace to transact the business of the company in behalf of the Directors, and to give him two dollars per day and find him sufficient house room for his family (and garden), and he, the said Oliver, to board the Directors at these meetings, as heretofore, without making any charge to the company ; this until further agreement."
The matter of salary must have been a frequent and annoying subject of settlement between the Board and its agent. The original contract with him for three years from December 3, 1813, gave him " one thousand dollars a ycar and a convenient house for his family to live in, unless he shall build one sooner, in which case hc is to live in his own housc." Whatever may be thought of the smallness of the agent's remuneration, however, it seems really munificent in comparison with that awarded the treasurer, Eber Slade, who was annually voted " ten shillings per day, he to board himself."
Power-weaving was first done in the Fall River Manufactory, early in 1817, Sarah Winters starting the first loom, Mary Healy the second, and Hannah Borden the third. The last namcd (Mrs. William Cook), who was then, fourteen years of age, possesses a thorough recollection of the then new fcature of factory work. Thc looms used were the invention of Dexter Wheeler. They were very heavy and clumsy and constantly getting out of order, weaving one yard of good cloth and ruining the next through the want of control of the shuttle. The dressing was very poor, and at times the yarn would mildew and rot on the beam, causing large quantitics to be thrown away, and a consequent great waste of material.
-
17
COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1810-20.
In the interesting MS. previously quoted, the statement is made that " looms were first built in Fall River by John Orswell and Wheaton Bailey, for the two above-named companies, perhaps about the year 1817, each com- pany putting in opcration twelve to fifteen." This is probably an error as to time, and the machines constructed by Orswell and Bailey werc doubtless on the model of the Cartwright or Scotch loom, introduced into the country in 1816, by Gilmorc. In the records of the Troy Company is found the fol- lowing memorandum of action taken at a meeting, June 5th, 1820: " Voted that the agent build and put in operation ten pair of water-looms, with prepa- rations, besides the present ten now building, if he shall deem it expedient." And again at the quarterly meeting the succeeding September, the agent was instructed to put in "a new flume where the old saw-mill stood, and cut down the raceway as low as that of the main stream, and remove the machinc-shop up to the said new flume, for the purpose of putting in a new water-wheel, to carry machinery for spinning or weaving as he shall think most cxpedient." Both of the above memoranda may be accepted as indications that water or power looms were not set up in the Troy mill prior to the last quarter of the year 1820.
The first weavers in the Fall River Manufactory were hired by the week, at the rate of $2.50 per week; but, when the looms were made to operate more regularly and the weavers had acquired some experience, so that one could run two looms and produce thirty yards of cloth from the pair, the system of paying by the yard was adopted, and one cent per yard or thirty cents per day became the average wages. Cloth was woven one yard wide, and sold at twenty-five cents per yard, the production of water-looms at first being plain cloth only.
As a suggestion of the number of employés in an early cotton factory of the average size, the following statement, also embodying Mrs. Cook's recollections, is interesting. The Fall River Manufactory employed in the wcaving-room fifteen persons to tend thirty looms, in the dressing-room three, the spinning-room ten, and the carding-room three ; so that, including over- seers, the total number directly engaged in cloth production in 1819 probably did not exceed thirty-five.
When the Troy commenced the production of stripes (1821), the company colored its yarn in a small dye-housc belonging to the mill.
The spinning framcs set up in the two mills were of seventy-two spindles each, and the best spinners could tend a pair of frames, producing two and a half skeins per spindle in a day's work.
Previously to 1820 stripes were woven in hand looms, and termed r and
18
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
3, or 2 and 2, as there was one white thread and three bluc threads, or two white and two blue, etc.
The two companies found it necessary not only to conduct the details of manufacturing, but, it is evident, to exercise all the enterprise and shrewdness of merchants in disposing of their production. The Fall River mill sold a fair portion of its yarn in Philadelphia, and through commission houses. The Troy sought a market in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and especially in Maine. This adding merchandising to producing rendered the business much more like drudgery than our own times afford any instance of. With the Providence mill-owners weekly sending their yarn into every nook of the country to be woven, it was hard enough finding a farm-housc whose women- folk had not already been employed by those carlier birds from Rhode Island ; but it was harder yet to sell the goods in those days when the voice of the broker was not heard in the land-at least not as much as it is now. The following resolution of the Troy Directors, October 18th, 1819, touches this matter : " Voted and agreed to establish a store at Hallowell, in the District of Maine, for the purpose of vending cotton and other goods, for and on account of the Troy Cotton and Woollen Manufactory, and that Harvey Chace was chosen agent to conduct the business there, to be paid for his services at and after the rate of $300 per year, his board to be paid by the company. The company's agent was also authorized to make a shipment of cotton and other goods to the State of Georgia this fall (if he shall think it expedient), for the purpose of purchasing cotton and other kinds of Southern produce on account of the company."
The Harvey Chace above named, now proprietor of the Albion Mills at Valley Falls, R. I., was a son of the agent. Succeeding minutes of record from time to time indicate the continued support of his mission Down East by the directors of the Troy, and also their approval of the Georgia ship- ments. In this connection we refer again to the interesting Memorabilia pre- viously quoted : " In the cotton business of that day there was a great amount of book-keeping and clerical work, of which very few manufacturers now have any idea. Every bale of cotton put out to be picked was booked, as was also every web given out to be woven. A mill of seven thousand to ten thousand spindles required more labor to take care of the yarn after its leaving the reel and prepare it for or get it into the market, than all the spindles in Fall River now (1859) demand.
" The price paid by the mills for picking the cotton given out was four cents per pound, and five or six pounds was considered a fair day's work. The Fall River mill secured Blair's Picking Machine, the first one in the place, and it was in fact just introduced in the country. This acquisition in 1814 was calculated to save three quarters of the cost of picking. The improvement encountered a violent opposition in the ignorant prejudice of
19
COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1810-20.
consumers both of yarn and cloth, who believed its operation was detrimental to the staple and consequently to the cloth itself.
" The dressing of the yarn for the looms was at first attended with much difficulty and vexation. The first dresser used by the Fall River Company warped the beam by scctions, say, one eighth of a yard at a time, the beam which received the yarn having as many sections as there were quarters of a yard to the web. This process of dressing was so trying and troublesome that an altogether different machine was devised, an improvement upon the Waltham dresser, which received the yarn of section warps from beams revolving over a small round roll. It was some years before this device gave place to the dresser now in use.
" Until about the years 1820 to 1825, the roping was made in cans, with open tops, or with tops which required to be wound upon the bobbin, by hand, for use. The want of a better roving machine was a serious evil in early manufacturing, greater speed of process being sadly wanted. Speeders, so called, were used of various designs : Hinds', Arnold's, Simmons', Orswell's (a kind known only in Fall River), and the Waltham, which, with all the other Waltham inventions, for a time enjoyed the precedence.
"The yarn spun was reeled from the bobbin upon reels, 18 inches over, into skeins of 7 knots, 80 threads to the knot. Twenty skeins was termed a doff, for which some three or four cents were paid ; the yarn was next sorted, and every skein weighed separately, thus determining how many skeins weighed a pound.
" The yarn so sorted was put up into five-pound bundles, ready for market.
" In the early stages of cotton spinning, only a small proportion of yarn was spun over No. 16, for simple want of a demand. Yarn designed for plain cloth, sheetings, or shirtings, was bleached upon the grass, no chemicals being used, and a good whitening required from four to six wecks. Most of the yarn produced was woven into blue and white stripes, chambrays, tick- ings, etc. The several prices werc, for stripes 38 cents, shirtings II cents, sheetings 50 cents, and tickings occasionally as high as $1 per yard.
" The wcaring apparel of male operatives was generally cotton velvet, five eighths wide, costing about $1 per yard. Females worc stripes, 1 and 3, 2 and 2, 4 and 2, etc., for their dresses, the making up costing from 50 cents to 75 cents.
" The imperfect development of the weaving machinery of the loom, particularly through the unreliable motion of the shuttle, made a great deal of poor cloth during those opening years of our manufacture. The best weaving was at the rate of 85 to 100 picks per minute, turning out from 17 to 20 yards a day as an excellent result. Power-loom production was also regarded at first suspiciously, some still clinging to hand-wove fabrics, while others insisted upon the threads being all warp, on account of its having more twist than the weft spun for filling. A popular use for the warps then made, the coarser yarns, among the country people, was to weave them into flannels for sheets and underclothing; but for the finer article of production, really fit for good shirtings, we were still dependent on the foreign manufacturers.
" During the years 1813-14 both the Troy and Fall River companies
20
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
erected several tenement houses, at a cost of $1500 cach, for their work- people, in which the agents also lived. The capacity of these first tenement structures in the place was large enough for four familics.
"The operatives, with the rare exception of an occasional Englishman, were all natives. Very many of them, and ncarly all the overseers, were persons whosc previous occupation had been seafaring, the suspension of commerce during the war obliging them to seck a new industry. Capable and good men could be hired as oversecrs at from 4s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. per day, payable mostly from the factory stores. Fcmalc operatives received from $2.75 to $3.25 per week, having to pay $1.75 for their board. Groceries were exceedingly high-tea Ios. 6d. per pound, sugar 25 cents, coffec 33 cents, molasses from $1 to $1.25 per gallon, and flour $17 per barrel. Fuel (wood exclusively) and house rent were of course very much lower than they are at the present time (1859), however, so that families were able to live quite comfortably."
The first dividend paid to the stockholders of the Troy was in 1820: "At a meeting of the directors the fifth day of sixth month, at nine o'clock A.M., it was voted and resolved that the treasurer be authorized and directed to pay out to the stockholders a dividend of twenty-five ($25) dollars on a share at the expiration of three months from this time, and another dividend of the same amount at the expiration of six months from this date."
Succeeding dividends are recorded, but one of which seems to have a present interest, however : "At a regular meeting of the directors at Troy, fifth month, twenty-fifth day, 1824, voted that a dividend of twenty-five dollars on a share be paid to the stockholders in goods on demand, at the following prices, namely :
Brown shirtings at 10 cents.
Gingham shirtings at 143 cents.
3. Check
I4
66
4
66
& Stripes
15 I4 132
7
66
66 I6 18
Fair quality.
At the quarterly meeting, September 5, 1820, it was voted "to run the mill evenings from the fifth day of tenth month to the first day of third month, 1821, and keep a watch all night for the same term of time."
" Also, to stop the practice of making fires in the vicinity of the mill for the purpose of boiling clothes."
The two provisions against conflagration above recorded seem almost prophetic, for the mill was burned down so completely that only a portion of the walls were left standing, in the succceding October. Immediate
66 at II
21
COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1810-20.
preparations were made for rebuilding, and machinery ordered of Harris, Hawes & Co .; but there must have been some delay, as the agent was authorized by resolution, September 3d, 1822, to dispose of half of the contract. It was also voted "that the agent be authorized to have what money he may find necessary for the company, if it does not exceed two thousand and five hundred dollars, before our next quarterly meeting."
In December, 1821, we find that negotiation was pending to lease for a term of five years the Globe Manufactory, real estate and machinery, and " also the Union factory in said Tiverton for one year." It does not appear certain that the company sccured the control of the Globe-Colonel Durfee's original enterprise, in which he had met with disaster only, and which was operated by various parties for some years preceding its occupation as a print works in 1829. At any rate its own new mill was completed and in condi- tion to run in the fall of 1823.
In 1821, the Troy Company had erected a small building where the old saw-mill, previously referred to, stood, which was called the " Little Mill." This addition was nearly ready for occupation when the main building was burned, and was immediately equipped with the few carders and looms rescued from the fire, and a small supplement of machinery from the Globe, and put in operation.
In 1843, an addition, of stone, three stories high, and 75 by 47 feet in proportions on the ground, was made to the original Troy Mill. Ten years later this new part was raised two stories and the building extended 80 feet on the south, all the old wooden erections being removed. In 1860 the original mill of 1823 was removed, and the part known as the New Mill erected, on the north, reaching to Bedford street, 296 feet long, 70 feet wide, and five stories high.
Oliver Chace remained agent of the Troy until 1822, when he accepted a similar position with the Pocasset Company. He was succeeded by his son Harvey, who filled the place till 1842. The agents of the Troy since 1842 have been : Stephen Davol, 1842-1860; Thomas J. Borden, 1860-1876; and the superintendents since 1827 (when the office of agent was divided into the two now termed treasurer and superintendent), William C. Davol to 1843 ; Abel Borden, 1843-1849 ; Joseph D. Brown, 1849-1872; John C. Bartlett, 1872-1873 ; Chas. Green, 1873-1874 ; and William E. Sharples, 1875 to the present time.
During the reconstruction of the Troy Company's factory, other manu- facturing enterprises being in contemplation, the control and preservation of the water-power seem to have been subjects of consideration, and instructions were voted to the agent " to use his best endeavors to prevent the water being
22
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
turned, or any part of it, from any of the ponds that empty themselves into the one from which we draw our water, and for him to pay our proportion of all expenses that may arise from legal or other means that shall be deemed proper to prevent the course of said waters being turned, cither by digging, building, or otherwise."
At a meeting, held June 13th, 1822, it was voted that James Driscoll, on the part of the Troy Company, should bc empowered to settle with the Pocasset Company upon " a permanent mark for the height of flowage of the pond."
From the mass of record and reminiscence accumulated in the foregoing pages, it is hoped the reader will be able not only to compose for himself a picture of Fall River as it was during the period from 1813 to 1820, but also to form a correct appreciation of domestic cotton manufacturing in its inchoatc stage. If the illustrations and authorities furnished are wanting in detail, or have been discursively and incoherently presented, a gencrous con- sideration for such defaults of construction is asked, in view of the fact that the generation which witnessed the origin of Fall River industry has passed away, the oldest now living, to whose memory appeal has been made, having been but children at the period narrated ; and thus, with the exception of oral testimony on a few isolated points, the writer has been obliged to depend upon minutes of record, which certainly were not made in anticipation of futurc historic treatment, and upon memoranda, provokingly suggestive of what their author could have done, jotted down nearly half a century after the events and circumstances they indicate.
The ten years from 1820 to 1830 beheld a decided advance of the local industry, not only in its cotton manufacture, but in other directions of effort as well. During the period there were organized the Pocasset Manufacturing Company, the Annawan and Massasoit, Robeson's, or the Fall River Print Works, the Satinet Factory, the Fall River Iron Works Company, and the Watuppa Reservoir Company, besides several minor establishments, and addi- tions were also made to the older mills.
The Fall River Manufactory was enlarged in 1827, a small brick mill, three stories high, being crected on the north. This mill, called the " Nan- keen Mill," was run by Azariah and Jarvis Shove, for the manufacture of nankeen cloth, until it was torn down, together with the old " Yellow Mill," as the first mill of the Fall River Manufactory was called, to make way for the " White Mill," put up by the same company in 1839.
In 1821, the land, including the falls just west of Main strect, came into the possession, largely, of the Rodmans of New Bedford, who organized the
23
COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1820-30.
Pocasset Manufacturing Company with the original paid-in capital of $100,000, with Samuel Rodman as President and principal owner.
Mr. Rodman was a gentleman of the "old school," and wore short clothes, with long, fine silk stockings, knee-buckles, and buckled shoes; a coat, broad-skirted, wide-cuffed, and of a drab color ; and a long waistcoat, with broad flaps over the pockets. His appearance in town was always a great source of attraction to the boys, who admired his tall, straight figure, set off by his old-time costume.
The company proceeded at once to develop their property, voting at first to erect a grist-mill, but subsequently changed their plans, and having engaged Oliver Chacc, of the Troy Mill, as agent, began the erection of the old " Bridge Mill," as it was known. This mill, standing just north of the stream, and in front of the present Granite Block, Main street, was built of stone, about 100 by 40 feet, three stories high, with a long ell on the south end, parallel with, and extending over, the stream. The company's first purchase of machinery for this mill was a thousand spindles, which were placed in the south half, the north half being leased to D. & D. Buffington, for the manu- facture of warp and batting. The old grist-mill, which formerly stood on this spot, was torn down to make room for the new structure, but the old fulling- mill still remaincd just to the south. The latter was the only mill of the kind in this region. It was run by Major Brayton, and in it was cleansed and fulled all the cloth woven by the farmers for heavy winter clothing. Both of these mills were destroyed in the " Great Fire of '43."
The Pocasset Company seemed to have made it a point to encourage smaller manufacturers, and to this cnd erected buildings successively for some ten or fifteen years, which were leased to other parties. A small building, to the west of the ell of the old " Bridge Mill," was occupied by Job Eddy, of New Bedford, and subsequently by Edward and Oliver S. Hawes and others for printing calicoes in a small way ; but this was of short continuance.
In the fall of 1824, Andrew Robeson, of New Bedford, came to Fall River to establish a calico-printing business, and made arrangements with the Pocasset Company to occupy a part of the building erected in 1825, and known as the Satinet Factory. The capital ($50,000) for this enterprise was generally subscribed in New Bedford. The south half of this building was occupied by J. & J. Eddy for the manufacture of woollen goods (whence the name " Satinet "), and continued to be so used by them till the erection of the Wamsutta Steam Woolen Mill, on " Mosquito Island," in 1849. In 1826 a stone building, on the site of the present Quequechan Mill, known in those days as the " New Pocasset," was erected and leased to A. & J. Shove, who sub-leased the north half to Chase & Luther, both firms engaging in the
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.