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 7
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In the mean time, being the second year (1847) of the Fall River Rail- road, observing the success of the two steamboat lines running between Stonington and Norwich (Conn.) and New York, Colonel Borden determincd to inaugurate a similar water communication for Fall River. His sole asso- eiate in this enterprise was his brother Jefferson. The capital appropriated was $300,000, and the line was started in 1847 with the Bay State, a fine eraft for that day, built for the company, and the old Massachusetts chartered as an alternate boat. The following year the Empire State was launched and put on the route, and in 1854 the mammoth Metropolis, the most superb boat of her period on Eastern waters. Both of these boats were paid for out of the earnings of the line, which was indced such a sueeess as in 1850 to pay six per cent monthly dividends for ten successive months.
In 1864, dissatisfied with his connection with Boston vid the Old Colony Railroad, Colonel Borden* obtained an act of organization and set about a second through route to Boston, starting from the west side of Mount Hope " Jefferson also was prominent in this scheme at the start.
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1830-45.
Bay, opposite Fall River. It was a great scheme, with a warranty of profit- able result, through its control of the New York boat connection, but entail- ing great effort and care upon a man, however energetic and indefatigable, who was far advanced in life. Unquestionably the road would have been constructed, but the Old Colony corporation could not permit a competing route to either terminus, and its policy, as it could not prevent the action of the new company, was to control it by a purchase. The proposition was accordingly made to Colonel Borden to transfer his charter to the Old Colony Company, upon terms of a very favorable character to himself and his stockholders. Had he been in middle life, retaining the physical as he still did the mental vigor of maturity, it is doubtful if he would have enter- tained any proposition, however favorable. In his consideration of the business he determined to make it a condition of his acceptance that the Old Colony Railroad Company should purchase the steamboat line to New York. With this proviso, he made known his acquiescence in the proposition, and, after a short deliberation, the Old Colony became possessed of the most profitable water route to New York, and at the same time secured relief from the certainty of a very dangerous competition.
It is hardly necessary to add, that, with the exception of a short interval, during which the line was operated by the late Jamcs Fisk, the Old Colony Railroad Company has sustained it in a manner acceptable to the public and largely profitable to the region for which it furnishcs an outlet and communication with the metropolis. The two immense stcamers, Providence and Bristol, originally built to equip a projected route, whose eastern terminus was to be Bristol, R. I., but through a default in that enterprise, falling into the control of Fisk's company, have for some years been the summer boats of the Old Colony route, attracting by their extraordinary size and magnificent appointments altogether the greater part of the travel between New York and New England. The sister craft, the Old Colony and Newport, designed for winter navigation, are smaller boats, of exceptional strength and staunch- ness, but equally rich in all the appliances of comfort and luxury.
During the war of 1812, the young Richard Borden joined the local militia company as a private, and was promoted while yet in his minority. From this first promotion hc rose, step by step, till he attained the rank of colonel, when he withdrew from the service that others might gain for them- selves as noble or higher honors. His patriotism during our internecine war developed in a most active interest on behalf of the Union and an earnest care for the well-being of its defenders, will not be forgotten, while the beautiful monument and grounds of the soldiers' burial-place, given by him, at the entrance of Oak Grove Cemetery and the Richard Borden Post of the
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Grand Army of the Republic, named in honor of his benevolence to the soldiers and their families in the trying days of the rebellion, remain to perpetuate his memory.
Personally, Richard Borden represented the best type of that pure, straightforward, stalwart Saxon virtue which has proven New England's best inheritance from the mother country. His sympathies were given to all good things; he was a man broad in his views, true and steadfast in his convictions and feelings. A sincere, outspoken Christian in early life, iden- tifying himself with those observant of the Sabbath, the public services of the sanctuary and the requirements of the gospel, he became, in 1826, a member of the First Congregational Church of the city, and afterwards one of the leaders of the Central Congregational Church, which, to his energy, liberality, piety, and judicious counsel, is largely indebted for the success that has marked its subsequent history. In the mission Sabbath-school work he engaged with his characteristic energy, for a long time going seven miles out of the village for this purpose. His interest in this department of work continued so long as he lived. The benevolence of his nature flowed out as a deep and silent stream. He gave as to him had been given. None sought aid from him in vain, when they presented a worthy cause. He was always willing to listen to the appeal of the needy, and sent none such empty away. " Home and foreign charities alike found him ready, yea, often waiting to attend on their calls, and among our institutions of learning not a few are ready to rise up and call him blessed for the timely aid rendered in the hour of their greatest need. Thus he came to be looked upon as the foremost citizen of the place, and his death left a void in the community which no one man will probably ever fill again. Generous, noble-hearted, sagacious, enterprising, of untiring energy and spotless integrity, far-seeing, judicious, ever throwing his influence and his means on the right side, he presents a character for admiration and example, which is fragrant with all the best qualities of our New England life."
The cursory sketch of his business carecr which space has permitted will suggest the conspicuous qualities of Colonel Borden's mind and tempera- ment, as the world saw them and events caused them to develop. It is doubtful, however, if any qualities of his can be termed more conspicuous than others, among those who really knew him, so well rounded was his nature. His achievements were many and great, a few of them extraordinary in view of his resources and experience, yet he did not possess one spark of the so-called genius, to which exceptional successes are generally ascribed. His brain was like his body, robust and full of forces ; his mental process direct and simple ; his faculties of perception and deduction more than the
Martin Dorfer
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1830-45.
average in quickness and correctness of action ; his scope of observation and consideration general and yet effective. He had, moreover, a thorough self- reliance and self-assertion, yet was not over-sanguine. The possession of such a mental structure always assures excellence of judgment and conse- quent success, if combined with a suitable temperament, and such was the fact in the present instance. Colonel Borden's nerve was strong and undis- turbed by sudden or severe trials. Exceedingly honest of purpose, he was wonderfully persistent when his judgment supported his efforts, never giving up when legitimate means and thorough industry could compass an end he had started for. His industry was his conspicuous quality-if he had one. He was an indefatigable worker while the day lasted.
Fall River, in every development of its thrifty daily life, its marvellous, yet substantial, progress ; its financial stability in the storm that has shaken older communities; its constant advancement in the industrial arts ; its con- servation and harmony of industrial forces; its industrious, law-observing population, bears the impress of the Bordens, Durfees, Anthonys, and Davols, the sterling mark of honest artisans upon pure coin. As Samuel Smiles says of Josiah Wedgwood : " Men such as these are fairly entitled to take rank as the Industrial Heroes of the civilized world. Their patient self-reliance amidst trials and difficulties ; their courage and perseverance in the pursuit of worthy objects are not less heroic of their kind than the bravery and. devo- tion of the soldier and the sailor, whose duty and pride it is to heroically defend what these valiant leaders of industry have so heroically achieved."
From the panic of 1837, which affected every business centre in the country, Fall River seems to have speedily recovered, since within a few years from that date nearly every mill in the place was enlarged, though only one new one built. The lease of the old Massasoit Mill, started by Holder Borden, having nearly expired, a new mill, called also the Massasoit, was built in 1843 near the shore, and the machinery transferred thereto. This mill was better known locally as "the Doctor's Mill," because in later years it was largely owned and run by Dr. Nathan Durfee.
Dr. Durfee married the eldest sister of Holder Borden, whose widowed mother, a sister of Colonel Richard and Jefferson Borden, had previously married his cousin, Major Bradford Durfee. After the death of Holder Borden, Dr. Durfee became identified with the manufacturing interests of the town, which Holder Borden, Major Durfee, and Colonel Borden had so successfully started, though his personal attention was not much given to the details of management.
Dr. Durfee was born in Fall River, then Freetown, in 1799. He was a graduate (with his brother Thomas R.) of Brown University in 1824, they
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FALL, RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
being the first college graduates from this town. He studied medicinc and received the degree of M.D. at Harvard University, but the practice of the profession was not suited to his tastes, and he continued in it but a brief period of time. He opened a drug-store on what is now Central street, a little distance west of Main, erecting for this purpose the first briek building in the township. It was very small, but was then remarkable for its neatness and beauty, and its adaptedness to the use for which it was constructed. This he oeeupied until the ereetion of his brick dwelling-house on the corner of Bank and North Main streets, where the Mount Hope House now stands. The first story of this house he occupied for his store until he gave up the business, after a brief experience in it.
He soon discovered an interest in the growing industrics of the placc, and though not entering directly upon the management of any one business, was associated with others in the general direction of many new enterprises eoineident with the progress of Fall River. In this way he became a director in the Fall River Iron Works, American Print Works, the old Fall River Railroad, and the Cape Cod Railroad ; was one of the proprietors of the Bay State Steamboat Line ; was largely interested in several of the banks, and, in later years, entered heartily into the new manufacturing projeets of the city, and at his death was direetor in at least seven of the corporations and presi- dent of three. In earlier times, as a mereantile venture, he embarked in the whaling business, fitting out, in company with other persons, at this port, several vessels for the whale fishery, and establishing oil works. The venture did not prove very successful, however, and was finally abandoned. A more successful enterprise was a flour-mill, which did an extensive business for many years. As before stated, he was principal owner of the Massasoit Steam Mills, for the manufacture of print cloths, which were destroyed by fire in 1875.
Besides filling various municipal offiees, Dr. Durfee was a Representative to the General Court for several years, and was always one of the most publie-spirited of citizens. After the "Great Fire" he erected the Mount Hope Block for a public house, not as a profitable investment, but to give character and respectability to the then growing town. At the time of that great calamity, his mansion house, which had been ereeted that year, was thrown wide open for the reception and shelter of the suffering eommunity, its spacious halls and drawing-rooms affording sleeping aeeommodations for eighty persons, whose homes had been destroyed.
Dr. Durfce was a large land proprietor, owning nearly one thousand acres, a portion of it valuable for real-estate purposes, in and about the city.
He was always more fond of agricultural pursuits than of the details of
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1830-45.
business. He took great pleasure in reclaiming swamp land, and bringing into a high state of cultivation, and consequent utility, rocky and almost value- less pastures. This taste closely identified him with the agricultural interests of the commonwealth. Besides being for some years the president of the Bristol County Agricultural Society, he was the originator and president for a long period of the Bristol County Central Society, and contributed liberally both of money and zeal to its advancement. He was a trustee of the State Agricultural College, and its treasurer until declining health necessitated his resignation. Kind-hearted and genial in his disposition, he was ever ready to help and encourage the unfortunate and despondent, the frequent losses sustained by him in his readiness to aid those secking his assistance never chilling his sympathy or preventing his efficient action when again sought by any who needed a helping hand. His large charity of nature forgave and forgot hasty expressions of feeling, so frequent in active life, and closed his heart against harsh or bitter rccollections of differences with his fellow-men. Dr. Durfec was always largely interested in the education of youth, and aided many institutions by his contributions. He was a strong advocate of the cause of temperance, and, during the active period of his life, was a public and efficient worker in it. His public spirit was conspicuously illustrated by his liberality to the city in opening streets and avenues through his property without charge, and ornamenting them with shade trees trans- planted from his own grounds, under his personal supervision. His spacious lawns and greenhouses, which were kept in a high state of cultivation, were always open to the community, and in the season of fruits and flowers especially, affording gratification and delight to multitudes of pcople; and this gratification of others always gave him the greatest pleasure.
The moral and spiritual welfare of his native town and city was cver prominent in the mind of Dr. Durfee, who was one of the earliest projectors of the Sunday-school work, and instrumental in establishing several suburban mission schools. Hc was closely identified with the Central Congregational Church, being an original member and contributor of one quarter of the lot upon which the society's first house of worship was erected. Always one of its most active and efficient members, he took an especially deep interest in its development, and, with the late Colonel Richard Borden, furnished a large portion of the funds used in the construction of the new and elegant edifice crected in 1875, and considered one of the most perfect ecclesiastical struc- tures in the country.
Dr. Durfee was made up on a large plan, not with a calm and even temperament ; he was not destined to the treadmill of life, but rather to larger conceptions of things; to deal with wholes, and not with parts. While he
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received much by nature, and added to it by culture, he was not scholarly in minutiæ, but scholarly in general. His opinions were to be regarded as not open to question, but to be accepted as facts ; such was the impression made by him upon instructors, preachers, and publie men. His life was closely interwoven with all the life of the city, and while circumstances often mould life, it was his part to mould circumstances, not to float on the tide, but rather to seize opportunities and to use them to advantage. His talents were not hid in a napkin, they were put at usury ; and in developing and advancing the interests of others he was blessed in his own. He dicd April 6th, 1876.
Up to 1846, the mills for cotton manufacture were all small, about 100 by 40 or 50 feet, and two or three stories high ; but at that time the experi- encc acquired by thirty years' practice led some of the manufacturers to believe that a larger mill could be worked more economically and to better advantage. The improvements in machinery also demanded a different arrangement from that heretofore adopted.
The Pocasset Company was the first to put this theory into practice by building the present Pocasset Mill, 219 feet by 75 feet, and five stories high. There were not wanting those who predicted a failure as the result of this innovation, but the man who had planned the mill was not one to lose heart because of adverse eriticism. The mill rose story by story, and in the end fully justified the anticipations of its builders. To Stephen Davol, then super- intendent of the Poeasset Company's mills, belongs the credit of first ventur- ing on this improvement. From childhood he had been connected with cotton-mills, beginning with the Troy, where he rose through all the grades from doffer boy to agent (1842 to 1860), and whenee he was called, when only twenty-six years of age, to the superintendeney of the Poeasset Mill in 1833. By him were drawn all the plans for the erection and alteration of the mills of the company. Up to the building of this mill it had been customary to arrange the machinery floor by floor, introducing the belts or gearing, often at a disadvantage or at great expense, wherever required ; but in this construction the plan of the whole interior was determined upon in advance, the sectional drawings made, and the best connections provided for. This fact becoming known, manufacturers from abroad came to inspect the drawings and satisfy themselves that what had before been regarded as an impossibility had really been accomplished. The skill and experience of Mr. Davol as a cotton manufacturer have been largely called upon in later years, as indicated by the faet of his election on no less than ten different boards of directors.
Stephen Davol is now one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, cot- ton manufacturers in New England, if we consider the number of ycars devoted exclusively to that pursuit. Born in November, 1807, he entered
-.
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1845-60.
the Troy Mill in 1818, standing at the foot of the ladder of which for years he has kept the highest round. His elder brothers were already doffer boys, and he cried because he could not likewise be earning money in the carding- room instead of going to school. His urgency finally prevailed with his father, who apprenticed him for three years, after a first trial of the cotton- mill, in the print works of Duncan, Wright & Co. The work there being irregular, one week on and two off, he was not satisfied with it, and returned, after a few months' trial of the printing business, to the Troy Manufactory, of which, as has been stated, he was eventually to be the chief executive officer.
In 1846, also, the Metacomet Mill was erected by the Iron Works Com- pany, and filled with machinery. The plans of this mill were brought from England by Major Durfee and William C. Davol, and varied in a number of particulars from any in this country. The original mill, in Bolton, was the " model mill" of England at that time, and its production was the standard to determine the rating of all the cloth produced in the cotton-manufacturing districts. It was a wide mill, 75 feet, and had iron posts and girders. In all the old mills, timber alone had been used, and where these were exposed to moisture, they became soft, and the floors settled slightly, producing friction and a consequent loss of power. The new arrangement obviated this difficulty, and was seen to be an improvement at once. The mill started up smoothly from the first, turned out a good production, and made money for its owners. The death of Major Durfee left Mr. Davol as the only one conversant with the plans, and the machinery was made, put in, and arranged wholly under his supervision, and the success of the enterprise is largely due to his skill, judgment, and experience.
William C. Davol was born January 5, 1806, in Fall River, and while yet a lad entered the Troy Mill, then just commencing operations. He was made overseer of the spinning in 1819, and superintendent in 1827, a posi- tion which he occupied until 1841, when he became partner in the firm of Hawes, Marvel & Davol, and engaged in the manufacture of cotton machin- ery. He was an intimate friend of Holder Borden and Major Durfee, and, when the latter went to Europe in 1838 to investigate the improvements in cotton and iron machinery, accompanied him. Increased consumption neces- sitated increased production, and foreign competition demanded a large reduction in the cost. For instance, skeins or hanks of yarn cost II cents here, but only 33 cents in England ; and Mr. Davol, being a practical manu- facturer, made it a point to ascertain the kinds of machinery used, and the methods of working the raw cotton into the finished cloth. By letters of introduction, a little Yankee ingenuity and persistence, he accomplished his purpose so far as to effect an arrangement with the owners of the Sharp
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& Roberts self-acting Mule, to secure patents for their manufacture in the United States, and the manufacture of cotton and other kinds of machinery from the most approved patterns was entered upon at once by the new firm of Hawes, Marvel & Davol. Mr. Davol soon projected improvements to beautify and perfect the operation and durability of the self-aeting mule, and from these patterns built 180,000 spindles. In 1847, a new set of patterns were made, which superseded the old, and from which 100,000 spindles were soon constructed. In 1852 and in 1854 other new mules were perfected with a combination of improved principles for spinning fine yarn. At the same time Mr. Davol's inventive genius was at work upon other parts of cotton machinery, resulting in patent carders, speeders and drawing-frames, by which the productive power was quadrupled. The advantage to any manufacturing community to have among its number one such man, cannot well be esti- mated, and the high opinion of Mr. Davol's practical worth may be gathered from the opinion of a well-known cotton manufacturer, as expressed in the statement that " William C. Davol was worth more to Fall River, for the twenty years succeeding the building of the Metacomet Mill, than all others put together, because of his improvements in cotton machinery." This is high praise, but is in some respects justified by the statement of another noted manufacturer, who said, " There's more in the man than in the mill."
The Davol Mills for the manufacture of sheetings, shirtings, silesias, etc., were named after Mr. Davol, who was elected and still holds the position of president of the corporation.
In securing for the benefit of American cotton manufacturers the self- acting mule of Sharp, Roberts & Co., Mr. Davol, by his clever persistency, repeated the aet of Samuel Slater in bringing over in his brain the spinning machinery of Arkwright. Great Britain, while preaching free-trade to every other industrial nation on the globe, and even spending largely of her gold to undermine the protective poliey in whatever country her manufactures have sought a market, has never lost an opportunity to protect her own industries. Shrewdly appreciating the fact that there is more than one mode of protee- tion, and realizing the inconsistency of doing the work by imposts, while she was advocating the abolition of imposts by competing countries, she has availed herself of many ways to effect her purpose : in one ease encouraging her exports by a drawback in the shape of a remission of tax on particular production ; in another, fostering a foreign trade by granting handsome sub. sidies to a shipping linc ; and in a third, securing all the economieal advan- tages of invention and improvement to her own production, by a rigid Par- liamentary prohibition of the exportation of labor-saving machinery. From the very dawn of her own industry, no people has been so intolerant of for-
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Farol, Hills Fall River. Mas
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1845-60.
eign competition in its own markets as the English, and no government answered so fully and quickly the appeal of its subjects for protection, in one shape or another, as that of England.
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