USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume IV > Part 12
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It was further agreed that whatever money was advanced by Almy and Brown, either for Samuel Slater or to carry on his part of the business, was to be repaid them with interest for which pur- pose they were to receive all of the yarn made, one-half of which was on their account and the other half they were to receive and dis- pose of on account of said Slater crediting the net proceeds to him towards their advance and stocking his part of the works so that the business could go forward. The witnesses to the agreement were Oziel Wilkinson (soon to become Slater's father-in-law) and Abra- ham Wilkinson.
The following letter * written from Pomfret, Conn., 30 May 1835, by Samuel Slater's brother-in-law, Smith Wilkinson, con- tributes additional data:
Pomfret, 30 May 1835
"Mr. Samuel Slater came to Pawtucket [falls] early in January 1790 in company with Moses Brown, Wm Almy, Obadiah Brown, and Smith Brown, who did a small business in Providence, at manufacturing on billies and jennies, driven by men, as also were the carding machines. They wove and finished jeans, fustians, thicksetts, velverets, &c .; the work being mostly performed by Irish emigrants. There was a spinning frame in the building, which used to stand on the south-west abutment of Pawtucket bridge, owned by Ezekiel Carpenter, which started for trial (after it was built for Andrew Dexter and Lewis Peck) by Joseph and Richard Anthony, who are now living at or near Providence. But the machine was very imperfect, and made very uneven yarn. The cotton for this experiment was carded by hand, and roped on a woollen wheel, by a female.
"Mr. Slater entered into contract with Wm. Almy and Smith Brown, and commenced building a water frame of 24 spindles, two carding machines, and the drawing and roping frames necessary to prepare for the spinning, and soon after added a frame of 48 spindles. He commenced some time in the fall of 1790, or in the winter of 1791. I was then in my tenth year, and went to work for him, and began at tending the breaker
To Mr. George S. White
"Smith Wilkinson"
In a letter t written from Providence on 19 Apr. 1791 to the Beverly, Mass., cotton manufacturers on the subject of an applica- tion to Congress for an additional duty on imported cotton goods, Moses Brown says that "my son-in-law, William Almy, has handed me three sizes of cotton yarn : a lay of each I enclose for your inspec-
* White, Memoir of Samuel Slater, p. 76.
t White, Memoir of Samuel Slater, p. 83.
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Pawtucket
THE OLD SLATER MILL
A photograph of a wood-cut picture of the old Slater Mill first published in 1881 in Prof. Wilfred H. Munro's Picturesque Rhode Island, and next used in 1886 in Providence Plantations, 250th Anniversary. The mill, still standing, was built in the village of Pawtucket, town of Rehoboth, Mass., in 1793 and was the first successful water-driven cotton mill in America.
Some of Samuel Slater's original machinery is still in existence. The Smith- sonian Institution at Washington, D. C., has the cotton carding machine and the 48-spindle spinning frame built and operated in 1790 by Slater in Carpenter's old fulling mill at the west end of the wooden bridge at Pawtucket Falls, town of North Providence, Rhode Island, where the first successful water power cotton spinning in America was effected. Three years later this machinery was moved into the new Slater Mill where it was in operation for many years. For pictures of this machinery and Samuel Slater's indenture, see the Providence Sunday Journal, 16 Jan. 1949.
To preserve this property, the Old Slater Mill Association was organized and is raising an endowment fund of $300,000 for the permanent maintenance of the mill as a textile industry museum. The Association is now endeavoring to assemble some of the old type machinery and install it in the old mill with the idea of reproducing, as closely as possible, the actual operating set-up of the mill as in Samuel Slater's time.
In the summer of 1949 the mill was painted red with white trim. This was unfortunate for red oxide bridge paint has killed all of the old mill's ancient look. To realize the enormity of the mistake, one has only to look at the excellent picture in the Providence Evening Bulletin, 6 Dec. 1948, taken before the mill was painted, and compare it with the picture in the Pawtucket Times, 30 Sept. 1949, taken after the red paint was applied.
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tion. Almy and Brown *, who conduct the business of the cotton manufactory, with an English workman from Arkwright's works, have often fourteen laborers of the various mechanics necessary, completed the water spinning machines to the perfection as to make the enclosed yarn . . . the doubling and twisting mill, by water is not yet ready".
This letter refers to the first yarn spun by Samuel Slater on his newly erected machinery in Ezekiel Carpenter's fulling mill near the southwest abutment of the bridge at Pawtucket Falls. That Moses Brown did not mention Samuel Slater by name, but instead referred to him "as an English workman from Arkwright's works", seems rather strange in view of the fact that not only had he built the water power spinning machines, the first and only ones in Amer- ica, but he was also owner of half of the machinery in this mill, while Moses Brown's son-in-law Almy and his kinsman Brown were owners of only a quarter share each.
This rather belittling reference to Slater by Moses Brown, per- haps adds a little substance to the tradition that the reason why Samuel Slater built his own mill in 1799 was his dissatisfaction with his former partners who he suspected were ready to displace him now that they thought that they had learned all about the cotton business.
The cotton machinery erected by Samuel Slater in Carpenter's old fulling mill at Pawtucket bridge appears to have been fully in operation by the end of the year 1791. Business increased so that a new mill was built further north of the Pawtucket Falls on the west bank of the river in 1793. This was a comparatively small building which, with additions, now bears the name Old Slater Mill.t
In 1798, Oziel Wilkinson and his three sons-in-law, Samuel Slater, who married daughter Hannah; Timothy Greene, who married Lucy; and William Wilkinson (of the Connecticut family) who married Mercy, formed a co-partnership under the name Samuel Slater & Co. Samuel Slater owned one-half of the stock. A new cotton mill was built in Rehoboth near the east approach to the bridge at Pawtucket Falls. The following advertisement of the new mill appeared in a Providence newspaper:
* The cotton piece goods business of the firm of Almy & Brown from 11 June 1789 to 1 Jan: 1791 amounted to sales of 4,556 yards of cotton cloth, or about 700 yards per month. From 1 Jan. 1791 to 10 Oct. 1791, they sold 7,823 yards, or about 900 yards per month [White, Memoir of Samuel Slater, p. 65].
t Early in January 1949, Representative Joseph W. Martin, Jr., of Massachusetts, in behalf of the Cotton Textile Association, asked Congress to authorize the issuance of a U. S. postal stamp to commemorate the one hundred and sixty years of the cotton industry in this country. A news report in the Providence Evening Bulletin, 27 Jan. 1949, is illustrated with a rough sketch of the proposed postage stamp prepared for submission to the post office department.
This provisional stamp sketch shows the present Slater Mill in the center; "1789-1949" in the upper left hand corner; and "160 years of Cotton Textile Manufacturing" in the upper right hand corner. Under the picture is the title "Old Slater Mill", and a line across the bottom of the pro- posed stamp reads "3g UNITED STATES POSTAGE". The newspaper reports the officials of the Textile Association as saying "that the year 1789 was selected because in that year George Wash- ington recorded in his diary a visit to a cotton mill in Beverly, Mass. In the same year Samuel Slater arrived in this country from England and soon [two years later] established his mill in Paw- tucket, reproducing from memory the English machinery prohibited by British law". No town or state name appears on the sketch of the proposed stamp.
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Early Rehoboth
tion. Almy and Brown *, who conduct the business of the cotton manufactory, with an English workman from Arkwright's works, have often fourteen laborers of the various mechanics necessary, completed the water spinning machines to the perfection as to make the enclosed yarn the doubling and twisting mill, by water is not yet ready".
This letter refers to the first yarn spun by Samuel Slater on his newly erected machinery in Ezekiel Carpenter's fulling mill near the southwest abutment of the bridge at Pawtucket Falls. That Moses Brown did not mention Samuel Slater by name, but instead referred to him "as an English workman from Arkwright's works", seems rather strange in view of the fact that not only had he built the water power spinning machines, the first and only ones in Amer- ica, but he was also owner of half of the machinery in this mill, while Moses Brown's son-in-law Almy and his kinsman Brown were owners of only a quarter share each.
This rather belittling reference to Slater by Moses Brown, per- haps adds a little substance to the tradition that the reason why Samuel Slater built his own mill in 1799 was his dissatisfaction with his former partners who he suspected were ready to displace him now that they thought that they had learned all about the cotton business.
The cotton machinery erected by Samuel Slater in Carpenter's old fulling mill at Pawtucket bridge appears to have been fully in operation by the end of the year 1791. Business increased so that a new mill was built further north of the Pawtucket Falls on the west bank of the river in 1793. This was a comparatively small building which, with additions, now bears the name Old Slater Mill.t
In 1798, Oziel Wilkinson and his three sons-in-law, Samuel Slater, who married daughter Hannah; Timothy Greene, who married Lucy; and William Wilkinson (of the Connecticut family) who married Mercy, formed a co-partnership under the name Samuel Slater & Co. Samuel Slater owned one-half of the stock. A new cotton mill was built in Rehoboth near the east approach to the bridge at Pawtucket Falls. The following advertisement of the new mill appeared in a Providence newspaper:
* The cotton piece goods business of the firm of Almy & Brown from 11 June 1789 to 1 Jan: 1791 amounted to sales of 4,556 yards of cotton cloth, or about 700 yards per month. From 1 Jan. 1791 to 10 Oct. 1791, they sold 7,823 yards, or about 900 yards per month [White, Memoir of Samuel Slater, p. 65].
t Early in January 1949, Representative Joseph W. Martin, Jr., of Massachusetts, in behalf of the Cotton Textile Association, asked Congress to authorize the issuance of a U. S. postal stamp to commemorate the one hundred and sixty years of the cotton industry in this country. A news report in the Providence Evening Bulletin, 27 Jan. 1949, is illustrated with a rough sketch of the proposed postage stamp prepared for submission to the post office department.
This provisional stamp sketch shows the present Slater Mill in the center; "1789-1949" in the upper left hand corner; and "160 years of Cotton Textile Manufacturing" in the upper right hand corner. Under the picture is the title "Old Slater Mill", and a line across the bottom of the pro- posed stamp reads "3g UNITED STATES POSTAGE". The newspaper reports the officials of the Textile Association as saying "that the year 1789 was selected because in that year George Wash- ington recorded in his diary a visit to a cotton mill in Beverly, Mass. In the same year Samuel Slater arrived in this country from England and soon [two years later] established his mill in Paw- tucket, reproducing from memory the English machinery prohibited by British law". No town or state name appears on the sketch of the proposed stamp.
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Pawtucket
"SAMUEL SLATER & Co.
"The subscribers having erected an extensive Manufactory for spinning Cotton at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, near Pawtucket Falls, four miles from Providence, R. I., have entered into Co-Partnership under the above firm, for conducting the same, and now inform the Public that they are ready to supply any Quantity of Yarn, of almost every Number and Description, as Warp, Filling, 2 and 3 threaded Stocking Yarn, suitable for Weaving and Knitting, whitened or brown, Wholesale or Retail, at a short Notice. Their Yarn is at least equal, if not superior to any manufactured in America. Orders to any Amount can speedily be complied with, and shall be carefully attended to, by addressing to Samuel Slater & Co., North Providence, or William Wilkinson, Postmaster, Providence.
"OZIEL WILKINSON "SAMUEL SLATER *
"TIMOTHY GREENE *
"WILLIAM WILKINSON
"N. Providence, July 15th, 1801". [United States Chronicle (Providence), 30 July 1801.]
The cotton machinery built by Samuel Slater was copied by the mechanics who helped him build it, with the result that shortly after the turn of the century cotton mills in increasing numbers were to spring up on every little stream that was big enough to furnish water power.
A statistical table t for the year 1812 shows that within a radius of thirty miles of Providence there were thirty-three Rhode Island cotton mills with 30,663 spindles in operation, and twenty Massa- chusetts cotton mills with 17,371 spindles in operation.
The list shows that Rehoboth led every town in Massachusetts in cotton manufacture, with twice as many cotton mills as any other town-a total of eight, with 5,250 spindles. Listed under North Providence, Rhode Island, are five cotton mills with 3,592 spindles. As some of these mills were located on the river north of Pawtucket Falls, they also were in the town of Rehoboth and should be cred- ited to Massachusetts.
In 1812, each spindle would produce enough yarn weekly to weave two and one-half yards of cloth valued at thirty cents per yard. On this basis, the weekly yarn production of the eight Rehoboth mills was equivalent to 13,125 yards of cotton cloth valued at $3,938. The five Rehoboth mills on the west side of the river (listed as in North Providence, R. I.), had a weekly production of yarn equiva- lent to 8,980 yards of cloth valued at $2,694.
The eight Rehoboth cotton mills on the east side of the Pawtucket River were: Samuel Slater's mill, near the east approach of the Pawtucket Falls bridge, built in 1799; the "Yellow Mill", erected near the falls by the Pawtucket Oil and Cotton Manufacturing Co. in 1805; the so-called Swansea Factory, built in 1806; the Rehoboth Union Manufacturing Co. factory at the present Rehoboth village, built in 1809; Kent's factory on the Ten Mile River near the Attle- borough line, built in 1809; the Seekonk Central factory, built in
* Oziel Wilkinson and Timothy Greene were both Quakers and lived on what was originally called Quaker Lane, later Pleasant Street, near the west side of the river in the town of North Providence, R. I. It is to be noticed that at this early date their address in the advertisement is given as "North Providence" and not as "Pawtucket".
t White, Memoir of Samuel Slater , p. 188.
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Early Rehoboth
the spring of 1810; and the Orleans Factory at Palmer's River, built in 1810. The eighth mill was probably the Cove factory at the head of the Seekonk Cove.
Near the turn of the nineteenth century, Ezra Perry had a wood turning factory in Rehoboth on the west branch of the Palmer's River. Here he is said to have manufactured the first bobbins used in cotton mills in this country, first in the Slater and later in other mills.
CHAPTER V
REHOBOTH TAX LISTS
In this chapter, which is perhaps one of the most valuable in this Rehoboth series, will be found three heretofore unknown Rehoboth tax lists for the years 1759, 1765, and 1769. These lists appear in none of the original Rehoboth town records and are here published for the first time.
In the early years of the town, and continuing up to the period of King Philip's War, the tax lists are found entered in the town meeting books. The constable was the tax collector and in the early years when the town was small one constable could collect the taxes for the entire town. By 1675 the town had so increased in size that it was necessary to have a second constable, after which each collected half of the town tax. By the middle of the eighteenth century Rehoboth had six constables, each collecting one-sixth of the town tax in districts which were numbered according to the order in which constables were appointed. In 1769 these six con- stables, in their six districts, collected a total tax of £214: 09: 02. Ten years later, in 1779, the number of constables was increased to seven who collected a total tax of £2,338: 00: 03. The substantial ten-year tax increase was principally due to the inflated money of this period.
As the inhabitants increased in numbers in the town, the select- men, acting as a board of assessors, made out the individual tax lists for the districts and turned these over to the constables for collec- tion, and the constables turned the money into the town treasury. The total money to be collected for the district was the important thing, not the names of the men who paid it. When the full amount of money represented by the list was collected the list was then of no particular importance. Each constable was supposed to return his list to the town clerk. Sometimes he returned it, but often did not. When the list was returned the town clerk folded it into a size about two by six or seven inches, noted the number of the list on the back with the district and year and filed it away. To him it was finished business and of no further interest. These lists were packed away and later were lost or destroyed, for their value, except historically, was ended. Some towns have a few of these original tax lists, but in most towns they are irretrievably lost.
It sometimes seems to the writer that the good Lord often makes a special effort to aid the really sincere original source mate- rial researcher by helping him in various inexplicable ways, so many instances of which could be cited. In an old farmhouse in Rehoboth, on a Saturday afternoon, 20 Apr. 1946, the writer was shown a little wooden chest brought down from the attic where it had been for upwards of three-quarters of a century. It was full of old papers
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Early Rehoboth
which the writer was told he might have to do with as he pleased, but that he could not have the wooden chest.
Among those papers were more than one hundred and ten original Rehoboth tax lists dating from 1754 to 1822, together with many duplicates. In all this mass of papers there were complete returns for only the years 1759, 1761, 1765, 1766, 1768, and 1769. The years 1760, 1762, 1763, and 1764 each have one district missing; 1758 has two districts missing; 1754 has three districts missing; and 1755 has four districts missing. The year 1781 has three districts missing out of seven.
Out of these documents the lists for the years 1759, 1765, and 1769 have been selected as the best to print, and these will be found in the following pages.
As the same six districts are shown in each of the tax lists for the years 1759, 1765, and 1769, we have before us three records of all the Rehoboth taxpayers by districts for a period of eleven years, divided into intervals of seven and four years, a record for this third-quarter period of the eighteenth century the counterpart of which is found in print for no other town in New England. This is the period of the sixth and seventh generations from the original settler and these tax lists are of great value to the genealogist, for this particular period is a difficult one for research in Rehoboth and these tax lists give us just the anchor that has heretofore been so greatly needed.
To appreciate the full value of these tax lists we must understand how they were made up. In each district, as is apparent by a superficial inspection, the property owners were listed in order on streets in each section, and this order is maintained throughout the years, so that from the known location of neighbors on either side it is possible to find the original location of a particular piece of property. Again, considerable genealogical knowledge, obtainable in no other way, can be gained by noting that the name of the head of a family appearing in one tax list is succeeded by a widow in the second and perhaps by a son in the third. In many cases this is the only proof positive of a hitherto unsolved genealogical problem. Military titles are often discovered, or confirmed, as in the case of Robert Abell who is listed as an ensign in 1759; as plain Robert Abell in 1765, and as a captain in 1769.
Unfortunately, in putting these tax lists for the years 1759, 1765, and 1769 into type many of the names are not in the same order as on the original lists. The names on the first 1759 tax list are in correct order, the other five lists are not. The following corrections take care of the year 1759. The names follow the same sequence in the other years.
Second List-John Ellis to John Barker and Widow Sarah Humphrey to Dr. John Wheeler should follow widow Sarah Corbin; Samuel Luther to Eleizer Smith should follow Dr. John Wheeler.
Third List-Oliver Carpenter to William Healy should follow Andrew Carpenter; Ephraim Hunt, Jr., to Ebenezer Jordan should follow William Healy; Ichabod Ide to Ebenezer Peck, Jr., should
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Rehoboth Tax Lists
follow Ebenezer Jordan; widow Hannah Peck to Timothy Titus should follow Ebenezer Peck, Jr.
Fourth List-Elcony Bullock to William Goff should follow John Bullock; Dea. Ephraim Hix to Benjamin Sanders should follow William Goff; Peleg Martin to William Salisbury should follow Benjamin Sanders; Samuel Ingalls to George Jenkins should follow William Salisbury; John Kilton to Comfort Pierce should follow George Jenkins; and John Mason and Nicholas Thomas should follow Capt. Mial Pierce.
Fifth List-Hugh Bullock to Caleb Goff should follow Urial Bowen; Benjamin Hix to James Redway, Jr., should follow Caleb Goff.
Sixth List-Jonathan Chaffee to John Lyon, Jr., should follow Thomas Chaffee; and Samuel Mason to Willson Torry should follow John Lyon, Jr.
REHOBOTH TAX LISTS 1759
At a Rehoboth town meeting held at the meeting house in the west precinct of the town on 26 Mar. 1759, Capt. Timothy Walker, Silvanus Martin, Samuel Bullock, John Cooper, and Capt. Nathaniel Bliss were elected select men. Nehemiah Barrows, elected first constable, informed the meeting that he had hired Joshua Tower to serve in his place, which substitution was accepted. Abiezar Peck was elected second constable; Thomas Read, third; Hezekiah Martin, fourth; David Perry, fifth; and John Bullock, sixth.
At a town meeting held 26 Mar. 1759 and continued by adjourn- ment to 21 May 1759, Abiezar Peck, who had been chosen second constable, was dismissed, "he being enlisted into the King's service", and Aaron Fuller was elected second constable in his place. Heze- kiah Martin hired Col. Philip Wheeler to serve in his place, and the town accepted Col. Wheeler to serve as fourth constable. John Bullock hired Nathaniel Paine to serve in his place, and the town accepted Paine to serve as sixth constable [Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book III, pp. 199, 200].
On 17 Dec. 1759 John Hunt, Town Treasurer, paid the following select men for services as assessors,-Capt. Nathaniel Bliss, £2 1s .; Capt. Timothy Walker, £1 6s. 3d .; Samuel Bullock, £2 6d .; John Cooper, £2 11s., and Silvanus Martin, £2 2s. [Rehoboth Town Book of Accounts & Records of Rates & Orders].
No warrant from the assessors to the Town Treasurer stating the amount of tax assessed for the year 1759 and the amount of tax to be collected by each constable is found in the town records for this year or in the records for several years before and after this date. The records seem to be loosely kept for this particular year.
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