USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Spencer > Historical sketches relating to Spencer, Mass., Volume I > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
I34
SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
Spencer, for 12 dollars paid me by Alpha Bemis of said Spencer," sold all his "right in and unto a certain building called a wire fac- tory, with all the apparatus and privileges of every kind which belongs to said factory. Said factory is situated in the south westerly part of said Spencer on Pigeon Brook, so called, and on land belonging to Jonas Bemis."
In the running of this peg factory at that date there were probably employed as a regular force from two to three men, as
JOHN BEMIS.
Farmer, born in Spencer, March 6, 1792; died in Spencer, June 28, 1881. Son of Nathan Bemis Sr. and great grandson of Samuel . Bemis Sr. Original inventor of rotary peg cutting machinery.
many young women, and a boy. Ruel Jones and Winthrop Liv- ermore are known to have worked there and also two or more young women by the name of Converse and a boy named Napoleon B. Prouty.
This boy became a life-long peg maker, and it may be well here to speak of his earlier history. The father, William Prouty, in 1798 married Lydia Hatch and kept a small store on upper Main street. Thinking to improve his opportunity for acquiring wealth, he removed to New York City and engaged in the same business. It was here that Napoleon B. was born,
I35
HISTORY OF BOOT AND SHOE PEG INDUSTRY.
Feb. 24, 1810. About 1814 Mrs. Prouty separated from her hus- band and returned to Spencer with five children, and then Napo- leon went to live with his grandfather, Isaac. At the age of fif- teen we find him learning the art of peg making at the mill of Alpha Bemis, and presumably living in his family. This factory had not been in operation but two or three years when John Bemis, father of Theodore J. Bemis, conceived the idea of a rotary peg cutter, and after some experimenting, succeeded in developing a practical machine and thus became the pioneer inventor of power peg cutting machinery. He at once utilized the basement of the
PLINY SNOW, Spencer Peg Manufacturer. Father of John W. Snow of Leicester.
Nathan Bemis saw mill as a workshop and commenced the manu- facture of pegs by the improved process. He hired Napoleon B. Prouty, then about twenty years of age, as a foreman, and also two sisters by the name of Witt, Laura and Clara, from Huntington, the latter becoming later the wife of Mr. Prouty. Business with Mr. Bemis was good and at one time he employed eight persons, but for some unknown reason continued the business only two or three years when we find he had abandoned the same and was busily engaged in placing his machines in other factories and
I 36
SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
teaching men how to operate them. Presumably he had done this for Alpha Bemis, and now we find him fitting up a peg fac- tory for Pliny Snow, on the Shaw Pond brook near the house of the late William Robinson. Previous to this Mr. Snow had been drawing wire at his little mill and had in his employ one of the most expert wire drawers in the country, with a prospect ahead of an extending and profitable business. Ichabod Washburn, then a small wire manufacturer in Worcester, had heard of this ex-
DANIEL BALL,
Peg and Last Manufacturer at North Spencer. His father and grandfather Ball were both niamed Daniel. His father was con- stable and collector in 1801-2 in the town of Spencer, north of the Great Post road, for which he received for his ser- vices .011/2 per cent in 1801 and .02 per cent in 1802. After he sold his peg factory to Zenas Draper he built a small shop for making lasts by hand, which is now standing, the last build- ing on the right hand side on the road going from North Spencer to Browning pond.
pert mechanic and was determined to secure his services, which he did, and this so discouraged Mr. Snow that he determined to quit the business, arguing with himself that there were already men enough in it to supply any probable demand. He therefore took out all of his wire drawing appliances, stored the same in his
I37
HISTORY OF BOOT AND SHOE PEG INDUSTRY.
barn and got ready to make pegs. He hired Napoleon B. Prouty, who purchased a house near by and prepared to commence busi- ness. Ruel Jones was also engaged and two sisters by the name of White, one of whom, Laurinda, later became the wife of Mr. Jones.
At about the same time, Daniel Ball, built a peg factory on a small stream at North Spencer. This was the smallest of the four factories. By 1838 it is thought the manufacture of pegs in Spencer ceased, from the most natural of causes and one, which
THE DANIEL BALL PEG FACTORY,
Which was built on a smail stream at North Spencer, northwest from the village toward Browning pond. After peg making became impracticable through lack of a supply of suitable timber, he sold the building to Zenas Draper who moved it to a lot just north of the present residence of Aniasa T. Bemis. The window on the side having large panes of glass was not in the building originally.
seems almost incredible, should not have been foreseen by the pro- moters of this industry, namely, a lack of timber. The supply, never very large, was soon exhausted, and the manufacturers of pegs had to seek new fields in which to pursue their avocation. Alpha Bemis did not purpose going out of the peg business, but on Aug. 22, 1837 purchased a saw and grist mill at Royalston, in which he had been making pegs for several years, and in a sec- tion where there was a bountiful supply of birch timber. He en- tered into partnership with Silas Jones, a citizen of Royalston, and the peg business was there carried on under the firm name of
138
SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
Bemis & Jones. Ruel Jones also went to Royalston as a foreman in this factory, Mr. Bemis all the while living in Spencer. How long this partnership continued cannot now be determined.
The first pegs made in Spencer were at the Alpha Bemis peg factory, and the last ones, according to Joel Howe, were made at the same place from timber hauled overland from Royalston. The making of pegs at the Pliny Snow factory was abandoned before 1838, at which time it was in use by Otis Newhall as a place for turning posts for bedsteads, and later was demolished and an up-and-down saw mill erected. Daniel Ball about 1837 sold his mill to Zenas Draper, a carpenter and grand- father of Deputy Sheriff Henry P. Draper, who purchased a lot just north of the present residence of Amasa T. Bemis. He loaded the mill onto a low truck, having small wheels, and secured the co-operation of his friends for its removal. Agreeable to promise they came quite early one morning with twelve yoke of oxen and the mill was soon on its way to its present location. It took two days to complete the task, having at the close of the first day reached the valley below the Pliny Allen place. Zenas Draper fitted up the building as a car- penter shop where he did odd work and made wooden boot cases for Draper & Hall in Spencer village and later for his brother- in-law, William A. Draper, at Worcester. After a time making boxes by hand in such a small way became unprofitable and put- ting on an addition to his shop he converted the whole into a dwelling.
After John Bemis had taught his improved methods to all the peg makers in this section, he took his family, moved to Athol and there instructed Abraham and Ira Oakes, peg makers, who had established a factory in 1825 and continued to operate it for thirty years. His stay with them was about three years when his services were sought by parties at Muddy Brook, Connecticut, a small hamlet in Windham County, about six miles south of Dudley and presumably in a region of large birches. He engaged with them and with his family moved to this new field of labor, when after a stay of about three years, he returned to the home of his boyhood and settled down to the life of a farmer. Had he patented his invention he might have secured quite a fortune for those days.
Napoleon B. Prouty made pegs for a time at Woodstock, Connecticut, before his engagement with Pliny Snow, and soon after the latter ceased to operate his factory, moved to Chester near Huntington, his wife's home. Here he went into partner- ship with a man named Day and continued some years, when in connection with a son he established a separate business under the name of N. B. Prouty & Son. Here he was successful and con-
1
139
HISTORY OF BOOT AND SHOE PEG INDUSTRY.
tinued in the business until the infirmities of age obliged him to relinquish its cares. He always held, however, a portion of Spen- cer trade and Thomas A. Prouty says when he kept store he used to purchase pegs of him, a hundred bushels at a time.
His daughter, Sarah J. Prouty of New Hartford, Ct., writes August 28, 1901, concerning her father, Napoleon : "He had an undercurrent of dry humor and in his younger days was fond of a joke and liked a good story immensely. Once during a severe
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE PROUTY,
Born in New York, Feb. 10, 1810. Died at Chester, Mass., April 13, 1896. The veteran peg manufacturer learned the trade in Spencer when a youth and followed the business until old age.
storm he told a young lady he never knew it to rain but once and not clear off, with such an air of a story to tell, that she involunta- rily asked: 'When was that?' He used frequently to relate the quaint stories of his grandfather Isaac and other Spencer worthies with a gusto that was more amusing than the stories themselves, but years of ill health made him at last sober and retiring. He always retained a strong affection for his boyhood home and many Spencer names are as familiar as household words, they were so often on his lips. He was neat in person, gentle and courteous in
140
SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
manner, peaceful in disposition, honest and upright in heart, painstaking in business and prompt and honorable in his dealings with mankind."
RUEL JONES,
Son of Josiah Jones, born Jan. 20, 1813; married to Laurinda White, Oct. 11, 1838; died April 4, 1888. This half tone is from a picture taken at marriage. He was a school teacher, peg maker, wooden box manufacturer and farmer. After the powder mills on Moose Pond brook exploded, he built a small building near the old wheel pit and made wooden boxes for boots, probably for Chas. E. Denny. The building was destroyed by fire within about two years after its erection. This little mill pond has, since then, always been called Ruel's pond. In his earlier years he taught school to some extent, and is said by Henry H. Kingsbury to have been a most excellent teacher. It is the consensus of opinion of our older citizens that Mr. Jones had better natural gifts as a debater than any other man Spencer has produced in the last one hundred years. Before he became bent with age he could always be depended on to take a leading part in town meetings; dis- cnssing intelligently almost all debatable questions He was a most persistent advocate of generous appropriations for the public schools. He was a man unusually well read, in debate quick and skillful at repartee, and his illustrations were generally to the point. In the days of the Washingtonian temperance movement he is said to have made some very creditable temperance addresses. To illustrate his versatility of thought it is related of him that at one time in town nieeting the question of building a new schoolhouse on Pleasant street was up for consideration. Mr. Jones was well along in years, lived on a farm on an unfrequented road and was not posted on modern methods of heating school houses by steam generated in the cellar. The estimates of expense for this schoolhouse had been read and included an item for a cellar. Mr. Jones immediately arose and asked if he understood that a cellar was asked for. He was answered in the affirmative: "Mr. Moderator," said he, "I don't understand what this means. I should as soon think of building an attic to a tomb as putting a cellar under a schoolhouse." At another time after the Town of Spencer had acquired the control of the Spencer branch R. R., and the question came up for regrading the roadbed, he spoke in favor of the question as a measure of safety to the traveling public, and said: "The roadbed is now so crooked, you couldn't not run a wheelbarrow over it without running it off the track." His presence, voice and gestures are needed, however, to make the thoughts as alive as they appeared to be to the hearers.
HISTORY OF FIRST CHURCH BELL IN SPENCER.
The bell was ordered in 1801, just a hundred years ago, and Dexter Bullard Esq. remembers that the date 1801 was cast on the bell. It was not hung probably until the summer of 1802 as a tower had to be built on the Congregational church for its re- ception. The records which follow, largely explain themselves:
"Preamble."
"Proposals of Subscriptions for a Bell .- Whereas, much has been said by divers persons at one time and another about having a Tower Cupola and bell to the meeting house in Spencer, but
PIECE OF THE OLD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH BELL
Which was melted in the fire of January 1, 1862, and donated to the spencer Museum by Nathan Hersey.
nothing has hitherto been done by any person to bring forward the matter, and as a tower cupola and bell will be both useful and ornamental to the town, therefore for the promoting and bringing forward the same, We, the subscribers whose names are hereunto
142
SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
annexed are willing to advance as much money as we hereunto annex to our names respectively, for the sole purpose of purchas- ing a bell upon the following conditions; that is, if the Town will come into any measures such as they may think most conducive to their peace and interest, whereby a Tower Cupola shall be built and finished, that the payment of the money by us respectively subscribed shall be secured to the town treasurer for the time be- ing by our Respective Notes or Obligations, which shall become due and payable immediately after the Tower Cupola shall be raised before the first day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three or otherwise to be void and of no effect. In witness whereof we hereunto subscribe our names and sums annexed in dollars and cents :
Spencer, March, 1801.
Silas Allen
$5 00
Moses Livermore
3 00
Ivory Allen
1 00
Enoch Ludden
1 17
Levi Baldwin
I 00
Ebenezer Mason
1 50
Daniel Ball
I IO
Eliot Mason
12 00
David Barnes Jr.
7 25
Betty Mason
I
50
Ezekiel Baxter
10 00
William May
4 00
Richard Beers Jr.
5 00
Caleb Morse
6 50
David Bemis
5 00
Amos Munrow
5 00
Amasa Bemis
7 00
Johnathan Monrow
15 00
William Bemis
10 50
John Muzzy
7 50
Nathan Bemis
8 00
Jonas Muzzy
9 99
Jesse Bemis
3 00
Edmund Muzzy
6 00
John Bisco Sr.
1I OO
Reuben Newhall
2 00
John Bisco Jr.
5 00
David Prouty
10 00
Jacob Bisco
4 00
Nathan Prouty
10 00
Elijah Bridges
I 00
Isaac Prouty Jr.
7 00
Timothy Capen
3 00
Seth Snow
3 00-080.
James Capen Jr.
1 00
Thomas Sprague
5 00
Gersham Comings
3 00
John Stebbins
20 00
Jedediah Cutter
3 00
John Sumner
7 00
John Draper
5 25
William Sumner
3 00
Benj. Drury
10 00
Reuben Underwood
5 00
Eben Drury Jr.
1 00
John Upham
5 00
Jonas Guilford
5 00
Samuel Watson
6 00
Moses Hall
5 00
William Watson
9 00
Elisha Harrington
16 0I
Jacob Watson
7 00
James Hathaway
5 00
James Watson
5 00
Shadrach Hathaway
2 00
William White
15 00
Kerley How
6 00
Thomas White
10 00
Elijah How Jr.
5 00
Samuel White
I OO
1
John Butler
II 00
Eli Prouty
4 50
Oliver Watson Jr.
10 00
John and Samuel Gleason
5 50
143
HISTORY OF FIRST CHURCH BELL IN SPENCER.
Isaac Jenks 12 00
Nathan and David White 4 00
Ruth Jenks
5 00
Reuben Whittemore 8 55
John Knapp
6 00
Jeremiah Whittemore 6 00
Isaac Lamb
10 00
Josiah Q. Lamb
3 00
$443 82
The foregoing is a true copy of the articles of subscription and the names in alphabetical order with the sums annexed.
JOHN BISCO,
Collector of the Subscription.
To pay for the Tower the town voted Aug. 24, 1801, "to grant the sum of three hundred dollars for the purpose of building the tower and cupola to the meeting house in said town to be taxed on the polls and estates of those that are taxed to the min- ister of said town."
The balance of the money needed was secured by sale of floor space in the meeting house on which to build pews. There were four spaces set apart for this purpose and sold at auction Aug. 24, 1801. Joseph Garfield bought space No. I, for which he paid $ 120.00. Silas Beinis paid the same amount for space No. 2, being the "first pew ground on the left hand of the broad alley and gave security agreeable to conditions of sale." Eli Prouty bid off space No. 3, Thomas Loring No. 4, price not given.
At a town meeting held March 7, 1803, it was "voted that the subscription for the bell with the subscribers' names be recorded on the town book." "Voted April 10, 1803, to have the Bell rung twice a day, viz: at twelve o'clock and nine in the evening and on the Sabbaths as usual, and toled at funerals, etc., and to be left with the selectmen to employ some person for that purpose. The selectmen have agreed with Mr. Josiah Q. Lamb to perform said service for one year for $19.91."
JOHN BISCO, Moderator. BENJ. DRURY, JONAS MUZZY, JAMES WATSON, Selectmen of Spencer.
John Bisco, Town Treasurer in 1802, credits himself with the following payments, made on account of the bell and cupola by paying selectmen's orders as follows:
Order 35. Paid Daniel Ball twenty-five dollars for money ad- vanced for raising Tower.
Order 47. Paid Nathan Wilson ten dollars for money advanced for raising the Tower and Cupola.
Order 55. Paid Daniel Ball three dollars for his services in un- derpinning the Tower.
.
144
SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
Order 56. Paid Isaac Jenks $38.61 for entertainment, Raising the Tower.
Order 77. Johnathan Winslow $6.00 for his service and Ropes to Raise the Bell.
Order 78. Elisha Harrington $4.00 for money advanced in Rais- ing the Tower.
Order 83. William Knight Jr. $15.00 for Iron work done to the Bell.
Order 88. Wm. Knight Jr. $2.50 for making spikes for Raising the Tower.
Order 94. Josiah Q. Lamb $7.30 for hanging the Bell.
Order 95. Elijah How Jr. $4.00 for his providing timber for the Bell Frame.
Order 96. William Knight Jr. $5.00 for work done for the Tower.
Order 105. Jonas Muzzy $5.00 in part for his service of under- pinning the Tower.
Order 117. Josiah Q. Lamb $5.49 for service done for the Tower.
Order 119. Jonas Muzzy $3.00 for his purchasing a rope for the Bell.
Order 120. Jonas Muzzy $1 12.57 for sheet lead.
Order 121. Joshua Lamb $5.00 for extra service about the Tower and Cupola.
Order 130. Paid Baxter & Lamb $600.00 for Building the Tower and Cupola to the meeting house.
And in 1803:
Order 41. Wm. Knight Jr. $8.00 for Iron for the Bell and Tower.
About noon Jan. 1, 1862, the church caught fire from a su- perheated stove and was totally destroyed. The bell was melted and a piece of the same picked up the next day by Nathan Hersey who donated it to the museum in 1874.
PEAR STORY OF EBENEZER MASON JR.
Ebenezer Mason Jr's story of the stolen pears, related to the author by his grandmother, Betsey ( Beers) Adams, who received it from her aunt Sally, wife of Mr. Mason:
Somewhat over a hundred years ago Ebenezer Mason Jr. kept a tavern in what is now known as the Mason house in
BETSEY BEERS.
Daughter of Richard Beers Jr., and granddaughter of Beulah Bemis, daughter of Samuel Bemis Jr. Born in Spencer, Jan. 7, 1799; died in Spencer, Sept. 8, 1874. She married Levi Adams of Brookfield. Mother of the late Rosamond D. Tower and of Daniel W. Adams of Pleasant street.
the Isaac Prouty & Co.'s shop yard and just fifty-nine miles from Boston, according to the sandstone marker in front of the
IC
146
SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
house underneath the big elms. These stones were erected by order of the General Court in 1771, a mile apart between Boston and Springfield. This was a busy place in those days, when nearly all the travel through the state, east and west, passed along 59 the Great Post Road. Mr. Mason Mile Fro not only kept tavern but also had a tannery across the road and near BasTor the Moose pond brook. The ground east of his house was used as a gar- den and in this he had, some twenty feet away, two pear trees of quite large growth. In those days pear trees were not plentiful and none of the fruit was for sale. Every man, if he had pears, must grow them or else go without; that is, as a rule. One fall these trees were loaded with fruit nearly ripe, and presented a tempting picture to the eye. One dark night in Sep- tember Mr. Mason, who slept up- stairs on the east side of the house, heard an unusual rustling of leaves, and on listening at the open window ascertained that some one was in the pear tree. Hastily dressing and getting his lan- tern under his great coat he was soon underneath the tree and had a thief treed. He spoke kindly to him and asked if he was pick- ing the best of the pears, and advised him to do so, if such was not the case. All was quiet but in a short time the thief, doubt- less thinking it the best way to do, slowly descended and was soon standing beside Mr. Mason with nearly a half bushel of pears in his basket. To Mr. Mason's surprise he saw one of the leading men of the town, a man of wealth and one whose character was above suspicion. Now, said this man, I am ready to settle. Let me off as reasonably as you can, but for no amount of money would I have it known that you caught me in the act of stealing. Well, said Mr. Mason, I can't take your money and you are welcome to the pears, and you must take them home with you, but this much I will do, as long as I live I will tell the story but never reveal your name, and he kept his word. Within a few days the town was busy guessing who the thief could be, but no more was ever known; and this is doubtless one of the finest examples of heaping coals of fire on a neighbor's head, that ever occurred in the town of Spencer.
When the Great Post Road through Spencer was resurveyed and in many places straightened and rebuilt by the county in
147
PEAR STORY OF EBENEZER MASON JR.
1856, a large quantity of land and rock was taken from the north side of the road near the late Calvin Kent house and dumped in the valley below, from Mechanic to Wall streets. This raised the road in some places some six feet and in the filling-in process the milestone became buried out of sight. Some years afterward Jere- miah Grout, a public-spirited citizen living near by, determined to resurrect the stone and did so, employing to do the work one John
THE MASON HOUSE,
Spencer village, built by Capt. Ebenezer Mason, who marched from Spencer with a company of minutemen on the alarm of April 19, 1775. For many years it was known as the Mason tavern.
Hart, a Frenchman, long in his service as a gardener and general all-around out-doors workman. Soon after the stone was once more in position as a marker of distance, a middle-aged Spencer woman came walking down Main street on the south side and noticing the milestone opposite stopped to inquire of one of our most prominent business men then passing if he knew who was "buried over there: " "Strange," said she, "that I never should have seen that headstone before." He dryly told her there was an inscription on the stone which would give her the information desired; so over she went and read it to the enlarge- ment of her understanding and the mortification of her pride.
HORATIO HALL,
Born in Spencer, Aug. 12, 1806 and died Oct. 20, 1901. He was a communicant of the Con- gregational church longer than any other member living and was a lifelong, con- sistent example of temperate living. He followed nearly all his active life the avocation of a boot maker and from about 1833 to 1838 was engaged with Williamn A. Draper in manufacturing boots under the firm name of Draper & Hall, with a place of business over what was then a store owned by Walton Livermore on what is now the corner of Main and North streets. The firm became insolvent during the great financial crisis of 1837, and failed for nine thousand dollars. Unlike many they did not try to effect a compromise with their creditors but said to them if they could have time they would try to liquidate their indebtedness and this they were enabled to do by the close of the following year. This half tone is from a photograph taken by Chas. F. Pond in 1900.
SPENCER DISTILLERIES.
The manufacture of gin, and probably one or more other kinds of distilled liquors, was commenced in Spencer in 1813 on quite a large scale for the times. The incentive for inaugurating this line of business probably lay in what appear to be the facts, which are as follows, positive information in regard to all points being unattainable: Prior to the War of 1812 with England, the principal liquors used in New England were West India rum, and New England rum, so-called, distilled from molasses brought from the West Indies. At the opening of the war in the fall of 1812, nearly if not quite all our available shipping fitted out as cruisers to prey on the enemy's commerce, thus shutting off the usual method of transportation between the West Indies and New England. It also appears probable that our ships, after the dec- laration of war became known, could not have obtained a cargo in the West Indies had they so desired, nor would the English have dared to have sent a vessel into our waters.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.