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 8
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In our colonial days, if a guild of London artisans found a small lot of hats, made in the lean-tos of Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania farm-houses, underselling their own manufacture, whether in England or any spot of its domain, their immediate recourse was a petition to the lords in council, praying that Americans be forbidden sending their fabrics for sale out of their own provinces, and a favorable response was certain, without much tying or untying of red-tape. When a fancy grew among the Manchester and London weavers, during the first quarter of this century, that their American and Continental brethren were interfering with their interests, by weaving English-spun yarn, they beset Parliament for an act prohibiting the spinners exporting yarn at all, and probably would have gained their wish, if they had not assailed a more solid power in capital and influence than they possessed in numbers.
As England was foremost for half a century in the machining of cotton, a favorite policy of the government was to monopolize and retain every mechanical improvement or invention in that department of industry. Baines, in his " History of the Cotton Manufacture," published in 1835, in a very serious consideration of the dangers of foreign competition to the supremacy of the English production, lays this same flattering unction to his soul : "English manufactures can be sold cheaper than those of other coun- tries, especially owing to the extensive employment of machinery. This country excels every other in the making of machines, and in the means of making them advantageously ; and besides this, for the reason just mentioned, our manufacturers are interested in having their goods produced as much as possible by machinery." It is curious that neither he, nor any English writer on this theme, has even suggested the well-known fact, that government always forbade the exportation even of drawings of a new machine, at once its decided economical value became recognized.
When the water-frame spinning system of Arkwright was introduced in England, its appreciation by government was so high, that a prohibition was immediately enforced against its exportation, and so rigid restrictions instituted, that every passenger for America was searched at the custom- houses, with the view of preventing the departure from the country of that great improvement, even in the shape of patterns or drawings. To the cor- rect eye, retentive brain, and constructive mechanical ability of Samuel Slater, who had operated the machines for a considerable period, in one of the invent-
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or's own mills, was alone due the possession of the improvement in the United States, for some years.
The story of Davol's securing the Roberts self-acting mule, a much more elaborate' machine in its action, is interesting, and develops, at a much later day, the same monopolizing policy of the government. Mr. Davol spent some weeks in Manchester, while Major Durfee had gone with other friends to make a tour on the Continent, for the express purpose of studying the various improvements in English machinery, and cspecially the new mule, which had been patented by Mr. Roberts in 1830 and 1835, the most perfect development of Compton's original idea. Major Durfee had hardly reached the Continent before he wrote Mr. Davol that the Roberts machine must be secured for Fall River. Ere his return to England, an arrangement had been made with the inventor for the patenting of the improvement in America, and its manufacture under royalty, and a machine purchased, to be shipped, as Mr. Davol supposed, at once. Upon applying, shortly before his own time to take passage, for information as to his freight, he was apprised that the mule would be delivered in the yard of the works. Surprised by such an unaccom- modating mode of business, his inquiry elicited the fact, of which he was heretofore utterly ignorant, that the sending or permitting the invention to go abroad, in any shape, was not only disallowed by the authorities, but a severe penalty prescribed against any attempt to evade the law. In this posi- tion of affairs, no longer amazed by the non-action of Sharp, Roberts & Co., but still determined to possess the machine, an answer was made in response to his anxious query how the freight could be placed on board ship at Liver- pool, that a certain person in King street was accustomed to attend to such business. Mr. Davol at once approached this mysterious agent, and after a few words of mutual assurance, a verbal agreement-a written contract being refused-was made, that the contraband freight should be shipped as soon as possible, the reward to be seventy per cent of its cost, payable on its arrival at New York. Satisfied at last that the machine would be sent at an early moment, Major Durfee and Mr. Davol sailed for America. With all due allowance for custom-house espionage and the consequent difficulties, they looked for the arrival of their important freight a few weeks after their own return. Some months elapsing, and still no receipt, they wrote. More than a year passed, an unsatisfactory correspondence being the only result, the Eng- lish side obviously fearing to compromise itself by letters at all matter of fact. Finally, the organization of a new mill necessitating a considerable machine equipment, it was decided to send out an order for £10,000 in English machin- ery, with the stipulation that the long-expected self-acting mule should be shipped at once. About two years from the date of Mr. Davol's original
Amb. Lavil
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1845-60.
purchase in Manchester, an invoice of small metal-ware, paeked in the broad, thin eases peculiar to plate-glass shipments, was entered through the New York custom-house, for Fall River order. It came in a vessel from Havre, suggesting the probability that the English authorities had been advised of the presence of American manufacturers' agents in Manchester, and were eon- sequently on the watch for shipments to this country. The cases were in due time received in Fall River. Upon opening them the machine was diseov- ered, its framework and every considerable pieee, of iron or wood, with the greatest neatness, sawn into bits a few inehes in length. The assembling of these bits together into the complete mule was, though a matter of difficulty, and requiring a degree of patienec, soon achieved by Mr. Davol, and the Rob- erts invention at last entirely at his disposition.
In previous pages Mr. Davol's success in introdueing the new spinning machine, and his own improvements upon the English invention, have been narrated. Any account of the full results of his enterprise, however, would be imperfeet without a supplementary relation, involving an cpisode which seems to be inseparable from the eareers of almost all who originate or improve the details of production.
As already indieated, no sooner had the merits of the self-aeting mule and its production in Fall River become known, than an instant demand for it sprang up in all directions. Manufacturers of cotton machinery resorted to every possible deviee to possess themselves of the patterns, many of them sending their draftsmen to inspect and furtively carry away working sketehes of them ; while one builder, bolder than the rest, declared openly that "he had come with his designer to seeure drawings of the whole machine. He was told he could have the patterns and a right to manufacture by paying a royalty, but warned at his peril not to infringe the patent.
This default of success was succeeded by attempts to break down the patent through elaims of previous invention, similarity to other machines, and various kindred subterfuges, until finally, discovering that they could not accomplish their purpose eovertly, the cotton manufacturers and machine builders combined openly to wrest the advantages, profits, and eontrol of the new machine from the patentees. For a single small firm to oppose such a combination seemed almost an absurdity. But Mr. Davol was not a man to surrender to difficulties easily, and securing the best legal talent the country could produce, fought the ease to a successful issue. The cause attracted universal attention, as it was one of the first patent suits brought prominently into the courts, and was regarded as in some measure determining the rights of inventors and the boundaries of inventions.
In the prosecution of his rights, Mr. Dayol received mueh encourage-
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ment and personal assistance from Micah H. Ruggles, agent of the Pocasset Manufacturing Company. Mr. Ruggles had come to Fall River in 1826, and seems to have made an impression upon the community almost at once ; for on the organization of the Fall River Savings Bank in 1828 he was made its president, and continued in the position until the year of his death, in 1857. In 1837 he was appointed agent of the Pocasset Company, and for twenty years eondueted its inereasing business with a skill and suecess which manifested executive talent of the first order. From the ease with which he grasped alike minute detail and general principles, and his knowledge of the leading principles of law, it was obvious that if he had turned his atten- tion to that profession he would have taken rank with the foremost among its great leaders. A prudent counsellor, far-seeing and sagacious ; an excel- lent observer, clear, quiek, accurate ; executing with ability whatever he under- took, and having a mind stored by experienee with a large and unusually varied knowledge of men and things, he was invaluable as a friend and helper in a ease which assumed sueh proportions and involved sueh interests as did that of Mr. Davol's. It was, as it were, Fall River against the country, and Fall River won.
Mr. Ruggles always occupied a prominent position in the Fall River community. He was its representative to the General Court from 1833 to 1838 inelusive. He took a leading part in politics, and was eonspicuous in the great Anti-Masonie movement of 1831. His sympathies were strongly on the side of freedom, caring but little for the trivial details of conventional life ; he manifested a degree of independence in the formation and expression of his opinions but seldom met with. Rising above mere party views upon the great questions of the day, it was sometimes his fortune to stand alone in his poliey and action. Believing that what was worth doing, was worth doing well, he earried this sentiment into practice, and, when the great fire swept away the old " Bridge Mill" and contiguous buildings on Main street, as agent of the Poeasset Company he projected and carried to completion the erection of the Granite Bloek, and a year or two later the present Pocasset Mill. The former has ever since been one of the principal features of the centre of the eity, an enduring monument in its massive proportions and substantial construction of the liberal foreeast and sterling honesty that reared its walls. While, therefore, Mr. Ruggles was not so prominent as a manufacturer, in other and important partieulars he exerted a marked influ- ence in the community up to the time of his death, in 1857.
In 1852, a new enterprise was established in the formation of the Ameriean Linen Company for the purpose of manufacturing the finer linen fabries on a large scale. As it was the first enterprise of the kind in the country, considerable interest was manifested, both at home and abroad,
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1860-76.
concerning the success of the undertaking. The buildings of the company, of stone, werc erected on an extensive scale and in a very substantial manner. These consisted of a factory, 300 fect by 63, four stories high, with store and heckling-house, 150 feet by 48; a bleach housc, 176 feet by 75, and a finishing building, 176 feet by 45, three stories high, with 10,500 spindles and 300 looms. An agent was sent to Europc to select and import the necessary operatives, and to mect their immediate wants it was necessary also to import several hundred tons of flax fibrc. In the spring of 1853, the first productions werc sent into the market. These consisted of blay linens, coating and pantaloon lincn, sheeting, pillow and table linen, huckaback, and damask towelling, crash and diaper, which were received with such favor by the trade that at first it was impossible to supply the demand. But before the mill was in full operation, the demand for such goods as the company proposed to manufacture almost entirely ceased, for the reason that cotton and thin woollen fabrics were very generally substituted for linen goods. On this account it was determined, in the ycar 1858, to remove the machinery from the main mill into the outer buildings, and substitute machinery for the manufacture of cotton print cloths, and in this department the company has continued to the present time.
Up to the year 1859, what may be termcd a sort of centralization char- acterized and directed the progress of industry in Fall River. One business organization, the Iron Works Company, exercised over the enterprise and advancement of the place a recognized power and influence. Prosperous in its own legitimate pursuits, successful in all its outlying projects, numbering among its stockholders the large land-owners and leading capitalists, and thus representing, if not itself owning, interests in every productive institution ; through its riparian property commanding that part of the shore-line most eligible for wharfage, and thereby controlling both water and land communi- cation, this corporate Briareus, with the brain of Mercury, for nearly four decades, seemed to hold the growing town and city, with all its industries and enterprises, in its hundred arms. That this embrace had been a kindly and fostering one, our previous record abundantly witnesses. In the nature of things, however, it could not last forever ; the day must come when the child would leap forth from his guardian's and mentor's lap,-when the very material strength and wisdom that guardian had imparted would prove the essential features of his charge's independence.
While the Iron Works had enjoyed for so many years the direction and control of the interests of the place, introducing, promoting, and fostering new industries, and more firmly establishing in its own prosperity the fortuncs of the community, the individual wealth was year by year increasing, and the business men of the city gradually acquiring the means which, when the in-
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spiration should come, would be available for a new departure. But the suggestion was needed, and in 1859 it was given by a citizen supposed to be outside the circle of industrial pursuits.
Ilale Remington, to whose instrumentality was mainly due the last stage of Fall River manufacturing development, eamc to the city in 1833, entering the drug-store of Dr. Nathan Durfee. In a short time he purchased the entire interest from his principal, and extended the business by adding to the stoek dye-stuffs and chemicals consumed in manufacturing. Subsequently, his restless and ambitious temperament requiring occupation more active, hc engaged in the eoal business, adding to it in time a general insurance ageney. For the latter, his genial and affable bearing, combined with a nature full of energy, gave him especial fitness, and he became popularly and worthily known throughout New England as a leader in the business.
Mr. Remington's general acquaintance with the individual resources of Fall River, and his observation of the success of combined movement in other places, led him to propose the organization of a cotton-manufacturing company, based upon the general contributions of men of small capital. Fortunately he found a counsellor and active eooperator in David Anthony, who, though in his seventy-fourth year, was still earnestly interested in local progress, and the man of all, from his thorough experience in manufacturing and the general esteem he possessed as a praetieal business operator, to assure the success of a new enterprise. Indeed, it is very doubtful if, without Mr. Anthony's active association, Mr. Remington would have attained any sub- stantial sueeess, his own identity with the cotton industry having been limited to a brief ageney of the Globe Print Works.
The result of the combined efforts of Mr. Remington and Mr. Anthony was the formation of the Union Mill Company. The latter subscribed very largely to the capital and was chosen treasurer, Mr. Remington being one of the original directors. The president of the company to-day is John B. Anthony, of Providence, a son of the man so largely instrumental in the industrial progress of Fall River.
A fortunate hit as to the time of starting, and the excellent management of the veteran treasurer, made the Union Mill a splendid and immediate suc- eess. Recognizing no antagonism between the new departure and the old controlling influence of local industry, the example of combining a multitude of small resourees beeame speedily a topic of consideration and discussion, and the sueeessful precedent gave such a stimulus to popular enterprise, that the formation of similar companies was an almost immediate result. Within fifteen years suceceding the development of Mr. Remington's original sugges- tion, twenty-five distinet manufacturing corporations have been organized, adding an immense number of spindles, and a corresponding inerease of
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1860-76.
capital, business, and population, and raising the city to its permanent suprem- acy among the cloth-producing centres of America.
The way once opened, and the first experiment proving that the idea was not only among the possibilities, but capable of a realization even beyond the hopes of its most sanguine projectors, others were not slow to pursue the lead, and the Union Mill Company was followed in 1863 by the formation of the Granite Mills, in 1866 by the Durfec and Tecumseh Mills, in 1867 by the Davol, Merchant's, and Robeson Mills, and in 1868 by the Mechanic's Mills.
But it was the two years 1871-2 that witnessed the most surprising developments in this direction. For a city of its size, wealth, and population, it would seem that two or three new companies were sufficient to absorb its surplus capital, energy, and ambition ; but company succeeded company, until fifteen new corporations had been formed, the land purchased, laid out into mill sites and tenement lots, the foundations put in, and the massive walls reared story by story, the machinery contracted for, received and set in place, and the busy hum of more than a million spindles added to the pervading anthem of labor and production.
So surely does enterprise beget enterprise, that scarcely had one company been organized and located, before a second, a third, and even a fourth would purchase the neighboring property ; and what had before barely given a farmer's family its moderate subsistence, became the home of hundreds, and furnished a product in manufactured goods to the value of thousands of dollars. The price of land took an immense leap upward, that in the centre of the city doubling and trebling in value, while in the outskirts a foot was held almost at the former rate per rod. Masons, carpenters, and mechanics were in excessive demand; wages were increased, and work was abundant. The machine shops at home not having the capacity to supply the imme- diate demand, cotton machinery was imported in large quantities from abroad, special agents being sent out in some cases to hasten it forward. Every- where was hurry and bustle. Shares in the new corporations were at a premium before even the foundation was in. The news spread abroad, and capital flowed in from the neighboring cities. Old conservative manu- facturers, traders, and bankers at first stood aghast, then yielded to the subtle influence, and finally rivalled the most venturesome in their investments and in the formation of still other companies.
Young and old partook of the spirit of the times and made their sub- scriptions, and while some of the companies had less than fifty stockholders, others had from three to four hundred. By a wise provision of State law, under which the various companies were incorporated, the shares (whatever was the capital stock in total) were made one hundred dollars each, thus giving an opportunity to all, to rich and poor alike, as well to the man of
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moderate means as to the man of wealth, to become owners in these various enterprises; and it not unfrequently happened that the operatives of a mill became joint owners with the larger capitalists, and sharers in the proceeds of their own productive industry. The subscriptions were made payable in instalments of about ten per cent per month and spread over a year, so that there was no sudden draft to bear onerously upon the stockholders, and the principle of partial payments enabled many to make small investments of from one to five or ten shares each.
When at length the summer of 1872 drew to a close, and a little space was given to review the proceedings of the past two years, to gather up the scattered threads of enterprise here and there, to comprehend as a whole what had been done, and to devise plans for the future, it was found that the fifteen companies just organized, involved an outlay of capital to the extent of $13,000,000, had added over half a million spindles to the number already running, required 6000 more hands, and had brought into the city an imme- diate population of some 20,000 persons.
In full running time (averaging ten hours per day), the mills now incor- porated will employ 14,000 hands, using 135,000 bales of cotton yearly, in the manufacture of 340,000,000 yards of cloth. The monthly pay-rolls amount to over $400,000, which are paid as follows: one fourth of the mills paying the first week, another fourth the second week, and so on consecu- tively through the month.
From statistical reports for the year 1872 (the era of " new mills"), and a comparison of the relative wealth of the cities of the commonwealth, it appears that Fall River ranked fourth in valuation of personal, and sixth in real estate valuation; that the aggregate gain in one year (1872) was $8,701,300, or forty-one per cent-with one exception the largest gain, either in amount or percentage, in the whole State. In the scale of tax rates, the city stood third on the list, but two having a lower rate, and in point of population advanced from the eighth to the fifth.
It is cspecially noteworthy, that notwithstanding the extraordinary growth of the industries of the place during the last decade, but a small pro- portion of foreign capital is invested, or has been sought for, in so remarkable developments of enterprise. This statement, while particularly truc of the later growth, will, moreover, apply to the history of thirty years back with almost equal justice. The wealth of Fall River is its own earnings, and to the studious economist there is no more interesting example of an accretion of resources through the provident care of small beginnings, an unpre- tentious and silent, but unremitting energy, and a singularly wise and tena- cious grasp of opportunitics, than this true history, stranger than any fiction, more exciting than any romance, affords.
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COTTON MANUFACTURE A.D. 1860-76.
Some small suggestion of the original contributions to the industrial capital of the place has been given in the foregoing pages. About half the original investment in the year 1813, for instance, was furnished in the adjacent towns of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The advent of the Robeson family brought in $50,000 of New Bedford money. The larger part of the $100,000 upon which the Massasoit was started was furnished by Brown & Ives, of Providence; and from one third to one half of the Anna- wan's original capital was raised out of town. But in six or seven years Holder Borden's management of the Massasoit had made so much profit for the firm, that he was able, out of his own share, to purchase the interests of his Rhode Island backers; and this is but one instance.
In the case of the Linen Mill Company, $200,000 of its whole capital of $500,000 was invested by outside parties, and when the original amount required an additional $200,000 to rearrange the factory for a production of cotton, the aggregate was reached by an assessment of stockholders.
A very cautious and conservative citizen, whose means of information were exceptionally good, writing of the resources of Fall River about 1858, before the extraordinary development of the place had commenced, remarks : " My impressions are, that several years after the commencement of business in Fall River the valuation of all the property in the whole town reached only $500,000. It is now over $9,000,000." His estimate of the aggregate of original investments in manufactures up to that time, " owned by the resi- dents, brought into the place, and earned," is $650,000. "The valuation of property by the assessors is about ten millions of dollars-about as much of real as of personal estate. The items may be set down as follows :
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