USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 25
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There are references in deeds as early as 1754 to the "upper dam" some distance west of the corn mill lot which may well be the diversion dam on the ledges in the river a few rods west of Crescent Street and as early as 1757 to "a certain dugway that leds to the mills" (Saml K. to Seth K. Wor. Dist. Deeds 38, 293), which would seem to be the canal directly west of the Y. M. C. A. (See Saml. Kendall to Seth Kendall, Worcester District Deeds Book 44, Page 9).
Probably Mr. Kendall built his first saw mill at the Freedom Street location as per his agreement with the proprietors May 24, 1737, relying at first entirely upon the waters of Mill Brook, but they proving hardly equal to the task he built a diversion dam in the south branch of Millers River just east of Island Street, and excavated the "dugway" into the head
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waters of his pond a hundred yards or so southwest of this diversion.
January 3, 1759 we find the proprietors decreeing that the improved grist mill they were negotiating for should be on Mill Brook and not at Old Mill Place, which would well ex-
THE FIRST INDUSTRY OF ATHOL, GRIST MILL ETC., FREEDOM STREET
plain the strong tradition that the grist mill was taken down about 1760 and rebuilt at the Freedom Street location, the mill stones being hung on an underslung wagon so that they occasionally struck fire as they hit the rocks in the roadway.
In 1736 Mr. Kendall received a grant of 50 acres comprising most of the present down-town business section of our town as "Encouragement."
October 18, 1738, Mr. Kendall contracted to build a grist mill here and as payment he was given some 60 acres extend- ing from east of Chestnut Hill Avenue southerly including the Center Common. On the northerly portion of this latter tract the Kendall family long maintained a saw mill but there is little evidence that a grist mill was in operation there after the close of the eighteenth century.
Aside from the grist mill and the saw mill both taking water from the common pond, no further tasks seem to have been put upon this Freedom Street power during the nearly sixty years which the Kendall family owned it.
March 30, 1795, another family entered the industrial life of Athol. On that day Dea. Jesse Kendall conveyed to Simeon W. Fish of Mendon upwards of eighty acres comprising practically
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all the land lying between Millers Rivers on the north and west, and the south bank of the canal of the mill pond on the south. On this tract there were at the time three houses, one standing almost directly in front of the present Pequoig House and another northwest of it, and a third at about 31 Freedom Street, together with several barns and two mills, the old red grist mill on the east side of Freedom Street and the saw mill a short distance west of the grist mill.
The Fish family soon began expanding the uses put upon this water power. First, December 5, 1797, they sold a small tract with limited water rights to David Lilley and Simon Stock- well. These partners installed a trip hammer and began the manufacture of nails. Soon one Levi Lovering was operating a fulling mill there, probably as a tenant. In 1799 Mr. Lilley conveyed his half interest to Perley Sibley of Sutton and in 1802 Mr. Stockwell likewise sold his half to Mr. Sibley and the same day Mr. Sibley took in Stephen Harwood of Sutton as an equal partner with him.
Almost immediately after this partnership was formed they began the manufacture of scythes. This was in those days one of the thriving industries of Athol. Mr. Sibley lived at 137
CHENEY
SIBLEY & HARWOOD SCYTHE SHOP
Main Stret, his "Cape Cod" house now greatly altered, being the funeral home now standing there, while Mr. Harwood lived at Number 62 Lumber Street in a house but little changed for a century and a half.
Disagreements, litigation and financial reverses were the lot of these owners but through it all they carried on for many
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years. Mr. Sibley brought into the business his sons, Sumner, Gideon, Willard and Paul, while Mr. Harwood for a time added his sons, Stephen Jr., Seth and Reuben, to the operatives.
In 1854 the Sibley interest passed by Sheriff's Sale to Ethan Lord. Stephen Harwood died September 25, 1835 but the sons continued in the business until 1842 when the Harwood interest passed to Russell Smith, a native of Athol and a des- cendant of Dea. Aaron Smith who came here in 1736.
Mr. Smith in 1849 built the brick house at number 304 Main Street, and continued in the scythe business until 1865 when he sold his half interest to John C. Hill (who had married his sister), Abner Smith and Charles C. Bassett, and the next year these partners conveyed their half to Mr. Ethan Lord, thus giving him the sole ownership of the plant.
The next division of the waters in Fish's Mill Pond was October 14, 1808 when the land south of the dam with certain water rights was sold to Caleb Leland who installed a water wheel after the custom of the times called a "tub" wheel which was some fifteen feet in diameter and revolved horizon- tally, having the buckets on the rim of the wheel. Mr. Leland not only built a paper mill but also built a two-story house on his lot near South Street. April 25, 1811, Mr. Leland sold his entire holdings to Thomas L. and William Parker who, on August 19, 1812, conveyed it to Eliphalet Thorpe of Dor- chester.
For over forty years Mr. Thorpe manufactured paper there, he and his sons after him being prominent citizens of our town.
On January 4, 1853, "Esq" Thorpe, as he was called, deeded his mill to two of his sons, Albert and Fenno Thorpe, who, after carrying on for ten years, conveyed to Ethan Lord.
The grist and saw mill, known as Fish's Mills, remained in the Fish family until February 5, 1816, when Ezra Fish sold it to William Newhall of Stratton, Vermont, and Augustine W. Newhall of Athol. Two years later these two sold to Joshua Newhall who, six years later (1824), conveyed to Joseph Richardson who after twelve years passed title to Perley Sibley, Reuben and Stephen Harwood, and nearly two years later the Harwoods conveyed their one-half to Ethan Lord, and thus began a remarkable and successful half-century and more of mill operations by Mr. Lord.
Perley Sibley was never really active in these mills and after a little more than two years he sold his interest in the saw
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mill and grist mill to Samuel Newhall who continued his half ownership until February 10, 1853 when he conveyed his holdings to Mr. Lord.
Ethan Lord stood in his saw mill and counted the farms developing all around him and visioned the great amount of grist that must for convenience come to his mill. Likewise, he viewed the millions of board feet of timber standing over a wide area that had no saw mill but his to come to for manu- facture into lumber, but alas, his dream never to any large extent came true; the young men abandoned the farms for the high wages and better opportunities of the Civil War era, thus creating a rapidly decreasing annual farm crop, and the devel- opment of the steam saw mill made the long haul of logs to Lord's mill far from economical. These changing conditions, while disappointing, still did not cripple this sagacious miller for he had invested quite heavily in real estate which he lived to see greatly increased in value. Instead of local grains busy- ing his mil!, he looked to the developing West for his grist, but persisted to the day of his death in trucking by his oxen the corn from the freight car as well as making delivery of retail grain sales.
After he acquired the paper mill he removed the old build- ing and antiquated water wheel, built a three-story mill on the site equipped with a then modern turbine water wheel. This building was occupied at times as a satinet mill, the longest tenancy being Handy & Kauffman, but much of the time it remained idle. After Mr. Lord's death in 1889 and the death of his wife Thankful (Richardson) in 1892, this particular item of his estate was allotted in the settlement of his affairs to his son, Lucien Lord, and from him it passed by mortgage foreclosure to his sister, Sabra J. Taylor, who sold it to Slate & Lord and they to Mr. L. S. Starrett. Mr. Starrett sold the mill building to one Fanny Rosenberg who removed it to 363 South Street where it stands as a store buildings and tenement block.
The Esq. Thorpe house, built by Mr. Leland, south of the mill was demolished, only one of the ells being preserved and that was sold to Charles Adams and removed by him to 605 Pequoig Avenue. There it still stands as a private dwelling.
After Mr. Starrett's death his heirs sold the water power and land of the paper mill to William G. Lord who, in 1947, deeded it with other rights in Lord's Pond to Athol Memorial Hospital.
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After acquiring full title to the Scythe Shop and outlying buildings in 1865 Mr. Ethan Lord rented them for various uses until 1881 when he sold the land and buildings with a limited amount of water power to Adams & Downs who at once erected the present three-story brick building standing there,
THORPE HOUSE, FREEDOM STREET 1815 - 1905
and soon began the manufacture of silk products. This in- dustry, largely controlled by Mr. Daniel E. Adams of Boston, continued to operate for nearly a half century but Mr. Adams wearied of the responsibility of this small factory, especially after the death of his general manager, Charles L. Morse, and in 1928 sold the business to other interests who speedily re- moved the machinery and business from town.
The effects of the building of the huge Quabbin dam below Enfield were far-reaching throughout Central Massachusetts. One of its casualties was the elimination of the woolen industry at North Rutland operated by three generations of the Moulton family. The mill and business was at the time of taking owned by two Moulton brothers, J. Warren Moulton and Albert C. Moulton. When compensation was received, Mr. Albert C. Moulton took his portion and hied himself to another loca- tion, while his brother, J. Warren, took his own son, J. Warren, Jr., in with him and started business anew in Athol, buying the abandoned Silk Mill. But this venture was not a success and ere long the concern was bankrupt and the factory passed by mortgage foreclosure to Gardner Trust Company as mort- gagee. After a considerable period of idleness the mill was
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bought by Gauthier & Beal (Mohawk Upholstering Company), who had just been burned out at the old pump shop at Fletcher Street.
From them it passed to the ownership of the Cass interests who now operate Cass Games there.
The Ethan Lord saw and grist mills passed in the settlement of his affairs to his youngest son, Wallace Lord, who continued the grist mill until 1920 when he sold his mill holdings and retired from active business.
The steam saw mill having taken away the business of the old water power mill, Mr. Wallace Lord soon wrecked the old building and built in its place a substantial building suitable for any industry that might want it.
There for a time Horace Hager operated a shoe factory and Burnside E. Sawyer, under the name of Sawyer Tool Company, manufactured fine mechanical tools, eventually removing to Fitchburg.
East of the saw mill and west of Freedom Street was a rather unpretentious building occupied many years by C. Warren Cheney as a machine shop.
Mr. Cheney was the son of Samuel French Cheney and was of remarkable mechanical ability. Several of his inventions are in quite general use today, notably his Cheney adjustable S wrench and his Climax mower.
In 1920 Wallace Lord sold his entire mill holdings to John T. Jeffers and Theodore W. Merrit of Greenfield and Orange, and they soon rented and later sold the newest mill to one- Richard Stinson who employed a few hands and put out light metal items for use of furniture manufacturers and the like, under the name of S. D. Company, the initials said to be ab- breviation of Square Deal.
Mr. Stinson died suddenly January 12, 1947 and in the settlement of his affairs the real estate passed to the Cass: interests. Recently they have rented the factory to Winchester Chemical and Paint Corporation.
The bounds of Freedom Street were a subject of investiga- tions and negotiations for many years. In 1766 the town ''swapped" with Jesse Kendall a roadway through his land from his mills to the fordway (across Millers River just west of where Tully River enters it) "for the road that now goeth through his land from his mills by his house (31 Freedom St.) to Mr. George
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Kelton's (260 Fairview Ave.)" Subsequent layouts were made from near the Pequoig House to Fish's Mills and thence to Mr. Kelton's and from there to New Salem, but location of the buildings made it apparent that this was never a continuous through road or else that long ago serious encroachments had been made, as there was but some fifteen feet between the corner of the old red grist mill and the Cheney shop. In 1930 the town took this matter in hand and effected a relocation of the street, but in so doing the old grist mill was demolished, only the mill stones being preserved as a memento of this pioneer industry.
And now on our journey down Mill Brook we come to the last obstruction before the back waters of the New Home Plant at Orange confront us; in fact the owners of the two wheels next to be mentioned have asserted at times that their powers had been curtailed by the set back waters from Orange.
The two powers referred to are the old White Mill plant, now the Cass Toy Company factory, and the Athol Machine Company.
John C. Hill was born John Cheney in North Orange, March 2, 1816. When a young man, he was adopted by Abijah Hill, likewise a resident of Orange who came here about 1825, lo- cating at Number 201 South Main Street.
Soon after John C. Hill attained his majority, his adopting father died and he was left with a farm to manage and his livelihood to make. He continued to live at the Hill homestead until his death May 3, 1890. Few men have left so indelible an impression on Athol as has he.
During his long life he was active in more than a score of enterprises. More than a half-dozen water powers were a few of these activities.
Early in life he, in company with his brother-in-law, George Smith, operated a foundry at about Number 93 South Main Street, the producing of cast iron plows being the principal product of this firm.
In 1844-45 he acquired a considerable area of land south of Main Street and west of the Scythe factory, and there, around the middle of the last century, he threw up a dam across the stream and produced two powers, one on either side of the brook. North of the brook he located his foundry which he removed from across the river and gradually erected a substantial structure known in those days as the "White
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Mill." In this area several men operated woodworking plants; George Farr, Joseph F. Dunbar and others manufactured matches and pails there. In 1860 the White Mill was owned by Johnson, Hill and Company, textile operators.
THE WHITE MILL, CANAL STREET, NOW N. D. CASS CO. ATHOL MACHINE CO. LEFT CENTER
December 1, 1863, the members of this co-partnership were incorporated as Millers River Manufacturing Company and soon moved the business to the Kendall Mill site. For twenty years this White Mill had a number of occupants and stood idle quite a portion of the time.
In a small shop north of the White Mill, Samuel S. Tower manufactured blankets for quite a period up to about 1890, being succeeded by H. Marshall Peckham as heretofore stated.
Around 1860 Mr. Hill sold his foundry to Daniel W. Houghton and he was the owner when it was burned April 22, 1868. A substitute building was erected which later was sold to Athol Machine Company.
In 1886 A. G. Osgood, with some associates, moved their soapstone works from North Dana to this White Mill, they having discovered a considerable vein of that rock on Big Tully Mountain in Orange. For a few years they carted the massive chunks of this stone over the road to the White Mill where they worked it into various household articles then in much demand.
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HISTORY OF ATHOL
About 1892 Horace Hager established a paper box business- there and that business is the foundation on which the present Cass factories have been built.
Nathan D. Cass, a native of Amsterdam, New York, had come to Athol about 1892 as a mechanic to repair some dis- abled paper box machinery for the Lee Brothers Shoe Plant. In
NATHAN DAVID CASS 1875 - 1949
1893 he acted as a Columbian Guard, the title of the police force at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago.
After that Exposition closed Mr. Cass came here looking for employment and found it in Horace Hager's Box factory.
In 1896 Mr. Cass, in company with Daniel E. Gilkey, another operative there, purchased this business. In 1902 Mr. Gilkey disposed of his share in the business to his partner and went to the far west.
The company still continues the paper box business but it has been long since eclipsed by toy production. For fifty years the history of this industry has been one of expansion. The frame of the old White Mill is still there but its area is but a small portion of the area covered by the present plant. The
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Silk Mill and the Wallace Lord mill have been added to the holding, as have two huge warehouses on South Athol Road.
Some years ago, N. D. Cass retired from active management of the business and removed his residence to Haines City, Florida; his son, William Fish Cass, carrying on the manage- ment. N. D. Cass continued to oversee in a general way until his death, September 21, 1949.
Soon after acquiring title to this area John C. Hill had cut canals and installed one or more wheels on the land south of Mill Brook adjoining Millers River, and had built at least one shop there, taking half of the water to that side of the stream and allocating the other half to the northerly side where the White Mill was in operation.
We have no very specific data as to what uses were made of the southerly shop and water power but we do know that for a time it was designated as a plaster mill.
Early in the year 1868 there was a chance meeting on a Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad train and that meeting was unquestionably the most momentous event in the eco- nomic history of Athol.
John C. Hill had been to Boston on a business trip and was riding home to Athol.
Laroy S. Starrett had come from Newburyport and was on his way to some town in this general area, some say it was Greenfield and some assert that Leominster was the intended destination. He was looking for a factory which would under- take the manufacture of a chopping machine he had recently invented. The principle of this machine was a slowly revolv- ing metal bucket with a wooden bottom in which was sus- pended a sizable knife raised and lowered by a metal walking beam copied from the walking beam then in use on side wheel steam boats.
These two men met, and seeing the possibility of a new industry for Athol, Mr. Hill used all his remarkable persuasive powers, finally convincing Mr. Starrett that his future success would be greatly enhanced by locating in Athol.
Because of this, the trip to Greenfield (or was it Leomin- ster?) was never made and in a few days a new corporation was formed, called Athol Machine Company, to manufacture this household appliance.
The company was organized June 3, 1868, with $25,000.
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capitalization. The officers were George T. Johnson, Presi- den,; J. Sumner Parmenter, Treasurer; and D. W. Houghton, L. S. Starrett, L. D. Rich, and Abner Smith, Directors.
This company took over the Hill holdings south of Mill Brook and erected necessary additions to the shop to make the equipment adequate for the new venture.
LAROY SUNDERLIN STARRETT 1836 - 1922
For ten years this industry prospered, its chopping machines were a household necessity in most homes, the plant being col- loquially known as "the Hasher" because of it, and Mr. Star- rett turned his personel attention to other inventions such as tri-squares, levels and the like.
As time went on, men from other communities came to the business and the stock was widely held among the well-to-do of the town.
But friction developed in the management and one day there was an open break. The control rested in the stockholders, in which group Mr. Starrett's holdings were a hopeless minority, thus the test of the irresistible force of Mr. Starrett's person- ality ran head on to the immovable management of the cor-
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poration, and the end of the row was that Mr. Starrett gath- ered up a few personal belongings and with measured tread marched away from the plant, stopping occasionally to shake his fist at the group he had left and making the unbelievable threat that some day he would go back there as the owner of that business.
This writer well remembers the sneers and guffaws of the stockholders when this "joke" was repeated, for to no one did it seem possible that this man, leaving a powerful corporation, he without resources and they holding the patents on all his inventions, could hope to become financially able to make good his threat.
The story of Mr. Starrett's success will be told on other pages of this work, but suffice it to say that for a generation Athol Machine Company prospered, its nickname "the Hasher" being synonymous with solid business stability.
Litigation between Mr. Starrett and this company dragged through the courts for many years, but in the end Mr. Star- rett seemed to have triumphed and was able to build up his small empire. L. S. Starrett Company, Union Twist Drill Com- pany, and Athol Manufacturing Company are his major achievements. Thus the reader will see that had not Mr. Star- rett and Mr. Hill met on the Vermont and the Massachusetts train in 1868, it is highly probable that Athol would not have been considered in Mr. Starrett's choice of locations and the story of our industrial progress would be a vastly different one.
After the break with Mr. Starrett, Athol Machine Company carried on with increasing prosperity. Eventually the old foun- dry north of the brook was abandoned and a new one built adjacent to the plant. New items were added to the list of products and new equipment frequently added.
The meat grinder, now in everybody's kitchen, superseded the use of the Starrett "hasher", but until very recent times, oversized choppers were in demand on whaling vessels to dice the whale blubber.
Gradually the old management succumbed to the all-devour- ing scythe of time and having no successors trained in the in- dustry the control was sold in 1902 to three men from Orange with machinist training, Frank S. Ewing, Dresser T. Bates and Stephen E. French. After a time, Mr. Ewing became affiliated with interests in Leominster and removed there, then Mr. Star- rett, grown affluent and powerful, made good his threat. This he did without fan-fare or blare of trumpets; he quietly ap-
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proached Mr. Bates and Mr. French and bought their control- ling stock in the company.
Well does this chronicler remember that eighteenth of No- vember, 1905, when he made an evening call at the Starrett home at 373 School Street in regard to the sale of the vacant mill on Freedom Street, and at the close of the interview, Mr. Starrett, with a twinkle in his eye, gave the information that he had that day effected his Athol Machine Company pur- chase. He was standing in the hallway of his home with his son-in-law, Frank A. Ball, slightly behind him. When the story was briefly told, Mr. Ball said over Mr. Starrett's shoulder (Mr. S. was totally deaf by that time) "Gee, he is telling you some- thing which his family don't know."
I think he got the most personal satisfaction in tantalizing some of the old stockholders who laughed so loud at his 1878 threat. They had been without dividends for some years and naturally wished to sell their stock, but Mr. Starrett simply of- fered to "consider the matter", as he stated he had all the stock he needed at present. Eventually he acquired all the outstand- ing stock but in his own good time and at his own not too gen- erous price. As this was the first of Mr. Starrett's investments (when he acquired some stock in 1868 at organization) so it was the last of his assets to be liquidated, the stock having passed from the numerous heirs to Mr. Arthur H. Starrett and Mr. Mervin Kessler (now general manager of the plant), in 1945.
Long ago, this water power so essential to the prosperity of the company it its early days, was allowed to fall into disuse and it, with all the other powers on Mill Brook, is now only a memory so far as practical use is concerned.
The Water Powers on Millers River
And now having cruised South Brook and Mill Brook we will next turn our attention to the Great River, as it was sometimes called in Pequage Indian times.
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