USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Holyoke > Complete program of Holyoke's seventy-fifth anniversary and home coming days > Part 8
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It was just at the close of the war that Au- gust and Ilerman Stursberg came to Holyoke and purchased control of one of the new wool- en mills thereby founding the Germania Mills. Many of the workers in these mills were brought from Germany, chiefly from the Rhineland area, and have from that day to this constituted a substantial, hard-working element of the city's population. Over a long period of years the best heavy woolen overcoating material made in America was made in Holyoke.
Whereas cotton manufacturing reached its peak during the 50's, and was thereafter sub- jeet to highly competitive conditions, and at times precarious profits, the paper industry was at this time still in its infaney. Here was a growth situation.
Holyoke had plenty of water for power and plenty of pure water for processing. The Par- sons Paper Company had shown that paper conld be manufactured on a successful basis. In rapid snecession were launched, the Holyoke Paper Company, the Hampden Paper Company,. the Beebe & Webber Company, the Whiting Pa-
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per Company, the Riverside, the Valley, the Franklin, the Wauregan, the Albion, the Union, the Crocker, the Beebe & Holbrook, the Newton, the Massasoit, and the Excelsior. By 1870, Hol- yoke had become the Paper City of the United States, and the world.
Other non-paper making mills which came in during this period were the Hadley Thread
WILLIAM WHITING
Company, the Holyoke Machine, the New York Woolen, the Merrick Thread, the Germania Mills, the Holyoke Steam Boiler Works, the Holyoke Warp Company, the Springfield Blanket, the Farr Alpaca, the Massachusetts Screw, William Skinner & Company, Dean Steam Pump, Sey- mour Cutlery, Buchanan Bolt, National Blank Book and Merrick Lumber.
Around 1880, nine more paper or paper processing companies were organized : the Dick- inson, the American Pad and Paper, the Chem- ical, the Winona, the Syms & Dudley, the Non- otuck, the Holyoke Envelope, the llampden Glaze, and the Whitmore. By this time Hol- yoke was a community whose identity was recognized all over the country, and on whose paper much of the business of the United States of America was written.
Unlike the cotton barons, whose habitat was Boston, the new erop of Holyoke mill owners were Holyoke men. Those who had not been
raised in the town, moved into it with the ad- vent of their business. Henceforth they were to have a stake in its future and a hand in shap- ing its destiny. Some of them grew to giant stature in their leadership. These were the haleyon days of the American entrepreneur.
Names well remembered and honored in Hol- yoke today: Joseph C. Parsons, E. P. Bagg, George W. Prentiss, N. H. Whitten, Charles lohnan, the Whitings, the Stursbergs, the Ram- ages, George F. Fowler, Charles B. Prescott, Henry Seymour, E. N. White, the Newtons, the Chapins, the Metcalf's, the Skinners, the Townes, the Heywoods, the Mackintoshes, and dozens of others who by their vigorons power and clarity of vision created the industrial productivity that was to spell livelihood for a city of 60,000 people.
Several of these early industrialists contrib- uted so much to the life of Holyoke in its earlier years that no history of the city would be com- plete without a brief description of their efforts. Foremost among them was the Honorable Wil- liam B. Whiting.
WILLIAM B. WHITING
Mr. Whiting was born at Dudley, Mass., in 1841. While still a young boy he came with his father to Holyoke. Here William attended High School, selling papers on the side, and acquiring an ability with figures and written expression which was to stand him in good stead all of his life. From early youth his judgment was quick and sound. As a boy he frequently found employment in mill offices, and finally learned the paper business as bookkeeper and agent for the Hampden Paper Company. Out of the $5000 a year which he worked up to in this eapaeity he saved enough money to set up a paper mill of his own.
The young manufacturer purchased a mill which had been used for making wire, remodeled the structure and installed a paper making ma- chine with a daily capacity of six tons of fine writing paper. From this beginning he built up the business until greater manufacturing facil- ities were needed. Then, purchasing land on Dwight Street, he erected the large mill known as Whiting Number 2, which had a 15-ton ca- pacity. The total manufacturing activity was incorporated in 1865 as the Whiting Paper Company.
Throughout the years the Whiting Mills have maintained a high reputation for quality, and their fine writing paper has found acceptance the width and breadth of the land. For many years these mills furnished employment for six or seven hundred Holyoke citizens, and still are
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-- A
LOGGING ON THE RIVER
one of the larger employers of the city. Mr. Whiting was president and general manager of the company from its organization nearly all of his life. He was also President of the Collins Manufacturing Company of North Wilbraham, and several other companies in Holyoke. Pres- ident of the Holyoke Savings Bank, he helped to organize the Holyoke National Bank, of which he also served as guiding genius for a time.
As a citizen of Holyoke, Mr. Whiting played an important part in getting the movement started to build the Public Library, and for many years served as Chairman of its Board of Trustees. In 1873, he was elected to the State Senate; in 1876 and 1877, served as City Treas- nrer ; and in 1878 and 1879, was mayor by the umanimous support of both parties. From 1883 to 1889, he served as Congressman from this district, and was a prominent member of the House of Representatives.
While in Washington, Mr. Whiting became a close friend of William McKinley and later, MeKinley, as President of the United States, visited at the Whiting home in Holyoke.
The close association of the Whiting family with national affairs continued from generation to generation. William F. Whiting, son of the founder of the Whiting firm was for many years friend and close adviser of Calvin Coolidge, and was appointed by him to the position of Secre- tary of Commerce in the Coolidge Cabinet.
In 1928, when the Lyman Mills finally decided to liquidate, its great plant was taken over by
the Whiting Paper Company as an avenue of expansion, and in this plant the most modern machines known to the paper industry were in- stalled to keep pace with the constantly increas- ing demand for the company's product.
MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS
The decade of the sixties was one of the most satisfactory expansion periods in the Hol- yoke history. Population was trebled. Improve- ments were added to the municipal capital of the town. The Hadley Thread Company was incorporated with a capitalization of $600,000 even during the war. Employed were 164 men and 271 women. The Merrick Thread Company angmented thread-making activity and also of- fered work to hundreds more women and dozens more men. By 1870, there were better than 12,000 souls living within a two-mile radius of the dam.
In 1870, a petition signed by 1500 citizens of Holyoke and surrounding towns asking for a bridge across the river was forwarded to the Legislature. When the committee came out to investigate it found that a flood had swept away the ferry boat and all the visitors could do was wave their hands at the reception committee and the crowd awaiting them on the South Hadley side. Here was prima facie evidence, however, of a critical need. The bridge was built.
In the summer of 1871, the water in the river was very low and the bridge construction was
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PKŮ
HIGH STREET FROM DWIGHT-1880
aided greatly. Teams were actually driven across through the shallow water on the river bed.
The first bridge was somewhat shaky and teams were not allowed to go faster than a walk. That was the law. South Hadley milkmen sometimes violated this regulation. Once a year, however, a policeman would be stationed there on the night shift. The police court in the morning would look like a dairymen's conven- tion.
It was about this time that the Holyoke Warp, the Springfield Blanket, and the Farr Alpaca companies were organized with a total capital close to a million dollars. Holyoke employment figures jumped again with their coming. Hol- voke, intended to be a cotton town, was eveu at this early date showing signs of becoming a city of diversified industry.
GERMAN SETTLERS
Practically all of the early German families came to Holyoke in the '60's. They were textile workers from the Rhineland and Saxony, high- ly trained in hand weaving and with a fine ex- perience iu making woolens for the markets of Leipsig. The transition to machine production had thrown them out of work in their own land and the political regimentation of the Bismarek program of nationalization had deprived them of their freedom. They came to America look- ing for opportunity.
They were the Friedrichs, the Sattlers, the Beckerts, the Suenderhaufs, the Hneblers, the Kremendahls, the Schmidts, the Klemms, the Leinings, the Koegels, the Schwindlers, the Henigs, Bausehes, the Ruthers, the Scheibels, the Pauls and the Ayens. Also they were the Egers, the Renners, the Rheimers, and the Drei- korns; the Liebecks, the Kresses, the Schuberts, the Vosses and the Foersters; the Ezolds, the Koehlers, the Bleumers, and the Wilms; the Bretschneiders, the Waguers, and Mr. Greile.
Mr. Greile organized the German Band and the gentlemen, Wilms, Sattler, and Stursburg, helped in setting up the Turn Verein. Most of the newcomers lived, for a time at least, in the old Germania block and the first social gather- ings were in this block, apartment 13. Mr. Greile was a bachelor and made good money as a foreman in the mill. On Sundays he used to take great pleasure in treating other peoples' children to sweets and amusements. He was the idol of the children of the community.
Mrs. Selma Kretschman, mother of Mrs. Har- riet Kroepel, likes to tell the story of some of the lost opportunities of the investors of th. se days. Mr. Brown, of the Old Brown House offered to sell all the land between Brown Ave- nue and Northampton Street, south of South Street for $300 to a member of this German community. The gentleman promptly passed up the offer with the scoffing remark, "I couldn't keep a cow or a goat on the land. It's nothing but rattle boxes and brush."
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When the Hadley Falls Company folded up owing an employe by the name of Wagner for one month's work, it tried to settle by deeding him Depot Hill. He refused with the superior remark, "What do E want with that sand hill and pine trees." Most of these German settlers were devont Lutherans. They lived near their church and their whole life centered around it. When the ehnrch bell rang, one and all hurried to the church.
When fire broke out in the neighborhood a Mr. Sehubert ran up and down the street ring- ing a hand bell calling the volunteer firemen to bring the hose reel.
They were industrious and took great pride in the perfection of their workmanship. Much of the ontstanding success of the Germania Mills was premised upon their conseientious devotion to detail.
Like all Europeans, they loved the land and knew what valnes could be found in its cultiva- tion. Under their devoted eare the region of Springdale, to which they extended their settle- ment, bloomed as a garden.
In 1870, Holyoke boasted a school population of more than a thousand pupils and 29 school buildings spread out from one end of the town to the other. The High School was flourishing to the extent that it was regularly putting out a school newspaper called "Our Little Pet." Classics were the basis of the curriculum, and the chief purpose of the school was preparation for college.
Two years later a significant event occurred in the formation of a publie library association and the official incorporation of the Holyoke Public Library. Among the names of the founders were William Whiting, Reverend J. L. R. Trask, Moses Newton, Henry A. Chase, George W. Prentiss, J. S. Webber, Charles H. Lyman, Oscar Ely, W. D. C. Pearsons, Timothy Merrick, C. B. Prescott, Chalmers Chapin, W. S. Loomis, C. P. Chase, J. S. MeElwain, J. P. Bnekland, Jolm E. Chase, R. B. Johnson and Joseph Skinner.
In the Spring of 1899, the Holyoke Water Power Company gave to the association the en- tire city block enclosed by Maple, Cabot, Chest- nnt and Essex Streets for the purpose of having erected thereon a library suitable for the needs of a constantly growing eity. The direetors secured pledges to the amount of $75,000 for an initial fund and raised more money as the building progressed. F. H. Dibble was the eon- tractor. The building committee consisted of William Whiting, James H. Newton, Joseph A. Skinner, Charles W. Rider, N. H. Whitten, J. S. Webber, Joseph Metealf, E. P. Bagg, and J.
S. MeElwain. James A. Clough was the archi- tect.
WESTFIELD RAILROAD
These were days of railroad manipulations, of special rates for long hauls or large custom- ers, of rebates and discriminatory practices against less favored and remote communities. Holyoke industry was in a fair way to suffer as a result of being a one-railroad town. The Con- nectieut River Railroad Company, having a virtual monopoly of freight traffic became arbi- trary.
To meet this situation it was decided to build a railroad to Westfield, there to make a junction with the New Haven and Northampton line. Joseph C. Parsons, Timothy Merrick and George W. Prentiss saw the projeet through. When the road was completed and an exenrsion train ran to Northampton in celebration, Deacon Ander- son Allyn and Jeremiah F. Sullivan returned sober. Sullivan was a member of the new St. Jerome Temperance Society which was to have enormous influence in Holyoke of the next gen- eration. Allyn was a teetotaler.
The water supply of the Town of Holyoke ha.' never been satisfactory. River water in sum- mer was always warm and sometimes stagnant. Many Holyokers were of the opinion that mueh of the ill health of the community was attrib- ntable to contagion through its use. In 1871, a severe drought focused attention upon the short- comings of the small reservoir system in the renter of the business district. As a result of general dissatisfaction a Water Board compris- ing Judge Buckland, W. B. C. Pearsons, JJohn Delaney, Dennis Higgins, Joel Russell, and John E. Chase was chosen to look into the whole matter.
Ashley and Wright Ponds were taken over by this Water Board and work was begun to- ward bringing water down from the hills to the people of the city that was soon to be. This was a decision fraught with far-reaching conse- quences in the health and well-being of the people and the desirability of Holyoke as a community in which to live. From such a sig- nificant beginning other devoted members of the Water Department have developed the Hol- voke system until today it is without question the finest in the State. Chief among them was Holyoke's outstanding citizen, Thomas Car- mody.
Came the year 1873. The town now had 27 manufacturing firms with a property valuation of more than $4,000.000. Its paper mills were turning ont more than 30 tons of paper a day. Its cotton mills had more than 12,000 loomns, and
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!
A RESIDENTIAL STREET (1900)-Walnut St.
its thread mills more than 30,000 spindles. Woolen manufacture was well established. The population was approaching 15,000.
With such a sizeable population and so many diverse needs of a growing community to be attended to, the old town meeting structure of government was proving cumbersome. As a re- sult of intelligent presentation of this condition, "An Act to Establish the City of Holyoke" was passed by the Legislature and approved by the governor April 7, 1873. On May 29, 1873, it was accepted by the citizens of Holyoke.
THE CITY
By provision of the original City Charter, the government of Holyoke was vested in a Mayor, a Board of Aldermen of seven members, and a Common Council of 21 members. These officials, as well as a clerk and treasurer were elected directly by the people. Other officials necessary for the proper carrying on of munic- ipal affairs could be elected by the voters or appointed by the Mayor and Council.
The greatest power of government is in the hands of the Mayor, who since the passage of the biennial amendment is elected every second year. The aldermen have authority to check the Mayor's budget of expenditures but none to increase it, or to introduce new items. The Board of Aldermen is the true legislative body in all other respects.
The Board of Health, Board of Public Works. and Fire Commission, consisting of three mem- bers each, and the City Marshall are appointed by the Mayor. The city clerk and the city treasurer are elected by the people. The mem- bers of the School Committee are also elected directly by the people, one from each of the respective wards and two at-large. Assessors, relief commissioners, water commissioners, the tax collector, and city auditor are chosen by the aldermen.
In 1896, this original charter was drastically revised so that all administrative affairs were vested in an executive department made up of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen. This Board of Aldermen consisted of 14 members elected at-large and seven elected from the seven re- spective wards of the city.
Within the corporate limits as established in 1873, the City of Holyoke has an area of 16.35 square miles, a greatest east-west measurement of 5.12 miles and a greatest north-south meas- urement of 4.75 miles. It has 7.06 miles of river frontage.
Although the plans for a town hall had been drawn as early as 1870, the actnal construction of the municipal building was accomplished un- der the newly constituted city government. Thus it was truly a City Hall, erected under the su- pervision of a committee consisting of William Grover, Timothy Merrick, John C. Newton. James Doyle and Charles Ranlet.
The first Mayor of the new city was William
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PHOTOSTATIC COPY OF PETITION FOR CITY CHARTER
Clerk"
Petition of
Inhabitants of Holyher
City charter
Presented by
Falhatin of Holyoke
He of R Jan 15:73
Refusing to
Committee on Towns
Sentup for
concurrence
Chan 26 Jay les
Senato form 16. 1878.
To the How Serrate and House of Représentation
The undersignal selective of the Town of Holyoke hereby represent, that the Inhabitants of Saint Town, at a meeting duely Warned and held for the purpose on the Thirteenth day freember A.D. 1872, and acting under the following article twil: " art, 3" To see if the Town will make application. " to the next General boust for an act of " incorporation as a city, and to take " all necessary a time for procuring "a city charter + raise money father " same". Voted & a large majority of the said Inhabitants present ance voting thereon as follows ing :.
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PHOTOSTATIC COPY OF PETITION FOR CITY CHARTER - Continued
"Finch" that we apply to the cheveral , houst haft " in sessions for awract of interfunction as " a city
-
Secondes that the selective be instructie to cause. " a census of the tour to be taken withers delay and if the number of Teacher "Thousands in habitants be found in the " town. Where to take all actions messing "and Mimake application to the revenue " Grunt at its with session for an och 4 of incorporation on a city That acting under saire indications
to be Taken auce finde that there are Fourteen those sauer One Hundred cent servente inhabitants in Seiner bouton. Wherefore we respectfully petition Your Here budin to constitute a city, govern at in one thereglament
Sie lestiren with all the powers and privileges usually givne to cities Curren in duty berand we will Ever perony Helyeta Jamming 4, 18/2,'
Perfus Preacher. John Delaney
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CRAFTS TAVERN
B. C. Pearsons, followed by Roswell P. Crafts and William Whiting. Holyoke took its pol- ities seriously even in the early days. The first contest between Crafts and Pearsons was a spirited one, characterized by quite a little name calling. The Transcript, even then the leading newspaper of the city, backed Pearsons to the extent of columns and columns of editorial en- dorsement. The morning after election, its front page was given over for the most part to the cartoon of a crowing rooster.
THE SKINNER MILLS
On May 16, 1874, the mountain reservoir located in the hollow of the hills north of the town of Williamsburg and built by the mill own- ers of Williamsburg and Northampton gave way before the accumulated waters of a spring freshet. Within 30 minutes the towns of Wil- liamsburg, Skinnerville, Haydenville, and Leeds had been wiped out of existence. More than 150 lives were lost as the waters swept down the. valley, and more than a million dollars worth of property destroyed.
Although only four persons were drowned in Skinnerville, the silk factory, a new three-story brick building 130 feet long and 30 feet wid> and cquipped with the newest machinery of the time; was engulfed and demolished in 30 seconds. A moment later an older, two-story building was destroyed. With these buildings went the largest stock of silk that the company had ever had on hand at one time.
The following Tuesday the Springfield Re- publican made this comment on the Skinner- ville disaster: "The ruin of Mr. Skinner's property is a matter of peculiar hardship and regret. His career is one of those splendid ex- amples of strong, steady development of a busi- ness and reputation, by industry, earnestness, and honesty, that are so characteristic of our land. Mr. Skinner came from England, a youth without other capital than his pluck and native force, was employed in the silk mills at North- ampton, and presently moved himself and his fortunes to his present location and began busi- ness for himself in a blacksmith shop.
He had built this handsome factory and de- servedly prospered in it, and a few years ago erected a spacious and elegant house at consid- erable expense and furnished and appointed it in excellent taste; where amid his delightful family, he seemed as enviably situated as is often granted to man. He has simply lost here the results of an honorable and strenuous life- time, and has to start anew, with the valuable capital of his good name alone."
In 1874, William Skinner built the first of the Skinner Mills in Holyoke. In the new start he was aided by the Holyoke Water Power Com- pany, but through the quick resurgence of pro- duction was able to hold the market for his Usquomonk product and within a decade emerged as one of the leading silk and satin manufacturers of America. For more than half a century Skinner Satins have connoted the
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finest tradition in American Manufacture as well as the finest American product in the Satin field. Skinner Mills were the first in America to adopt the practice of weaving the Skinner name into the selvage of their satin as a means of identification.
The Skiner family has always shown a friendly interest in the social well-being and economic sufficiency of the people of Holyoke. Shortly after the death of the founder of the mills family members set np the Skinner Cof- fee House in his memory, a place where workers
WILLIAM SKINNER
could obtain nourishing food at nominal cost, and find wholesome recreational, social, and edu- cational opportunity. For two generations this institution was maintained as a private Skin- ner charity.
During his lifetime JJoseph A. Skinner made large contributions to the neighboring Mount IIolyoke College. ` The family also built the beautiful Skinner Chapel adjunctive to the Sec- ond Congregational Church. After the first World War Miss Belle Skinner contributed large sums of money for the reconstruction of Hatton-Chattel, a village destroyed by the Ger- mans in their invasion of France. The Public Library has been aided by Skinner generosity.
Skinner Mills at the present time are operat- ed under the direction of William Hubbard and
William Skinner, II, third generation descend- ants of the original William Skinner who found- ed the family industry.
COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS
With the chartering of the city, the provision for Holyoke's civic progress was made. Its in- dustrial pattern had already been set, the major theme being paper and papetries, and the minor textiles and thread. Henceforward growth was to be in the nature of more and more of the same design As the markets of America broadened and the demand for IIol- yoke's products increased, new mills were con- structed, old ones enlarged and modernized ; generally within the framework of the basic industries. More help was employed. Home; were built. Apartment blocks for the workers began to dot the "Field." New stores were opened overnight. lligh Street, Maple, and Main began to blossom forth.
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