History of Athol, Massachusetts, Part 26

Author: , William G., compiler
Publication date: 1953
Publisher: Athol, Mass
Number of Pages: 756

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 26

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The original boundaries of Athol included the entire village of South Royalston. This little hamlet seems to have had but few residents until after the Revolutionary War. It was on the County Highway from Templeton to Royalston but this high- way crossed the river just over the town line into Templeton. The bridge over which this way crossed was long a topic of agitation before County Officials. Templeton resented the ; heavy expense of so sizable a bridge on the very border of her

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domain while Athol was none too generous towards this far- away suburb. It did maintain a passable road, allowed the peo- ple there to spend all their "school money" in their midst but when the need came for a burial place, individual citizens took title to the little cemetery now in the heart of that village. But Templeton was on the job in the Worcester Court House while Athol's Justice of the Peace who sat on the Board of Quarter Sessions (the County Commissioners of those days) seems to have nodded, for in 1799 the location of the County Road from Royalston to Templeton and Worcester was moved some fifteen rods downstream, thus locating the bridge within the limits of Athol. Then our town rose in its wrath and de- clined to obey the order to build the bridge. The compromise of that dispute was the arrangement whereby that whole ham- let was set off into Royalston and the burden of the bridge saddled on that town.

But previous to the change of the township lines, men with an eye to potential water power had cruised the area and negotiated for land owership there.

One Jonathan Beals in 1781 conveyed 521/2 acres there to Oliver Holman, and in 1784 Oliver Holman mortgaged this to William Watson. Evidently this man Holman was one of the casualties of the great depression following the Revolution, for without recorded foreclosure we find Mr. Watson deeding this in 1788 to Cheney Reed. In 1794 Mr. Reed conveys to Ben- jamin Blanchard but in none of these deeds is there mention of any mill on the land.

Some years previous to this the farm on the hilltop, known to us as the Jesse Wheeler or Charles H. Brooks Farm, had been "improved" by one Josiah Waite, his holdings extending to the river below the present South Royalston. November 17, 1785 Mr. Waite conveyed a portion of his river land to Ben- jamin Blanchard.

Mr. Blanchard was a carpenter, mill wright and surveyor who lived long years in South Royalston operating a mill or mills there, and it is quite evident that he established the first mill in that village in 1794, for on January 2, 1795, Mr. Blanchard conveyed the land east of his mills to Edward Cambridge for a fulling mill and tender bars.

The two powers referred to above are the upper one (Cam- bridge) long the woolen mill site there, while the other, or Blanchard mills, were what was last known as the Farrar priv- ilege. Evidently Mr. Blanchard first operated a grist mill there,.

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for there are frequent references in the deeds of that period to a grist mill at his power.

It has been generally understood that Mr. Blanchard oper- ated both a grist mill and a saw mill there from his first locat- ing on the spot, and the references to his "mills" would seem to bear this out. Certainly both were there in 1806 for in that year Mr. Blanchard recites that he has there "a saw mill with one saw and one grist mill containing two pair of stones and running geers, one for rye and one for corn and other grain also a bolting mill . .. two saws to saw clapboards-the whole contained under one roof." Further, it has been assumed that both these mills were among those included in Whitney's statement that in 1795 there were six saw mills and five grist mills in town but as they were undoubtedly not erected until well into 1794 and Whitney purports to have his work com- pleted and published in 1795 it is doubtful if these mills were existing when he gathered his Athol data.

As almost at the beginning of the last century these mills passed out of our domain I have not pursued their history fur- ther except to note that both are now idle and may well be classified as abandoned mill powers.

The next power down stream was at the "ox bow", a sharp bend in the river a short half mile east of Bearsden Road. Here practically coincident with the coming of the railroad, Jonathan Wheeler ditched across the peninsular formed by a curve in the river, installed a water wheel and erected a dwell- ing house and pail shop.

The isolation of this mill site, powerful from a hydraulic point of view was in a few years its undoing. Financial reverses overtook Mr. Wheeler, George Farr acquired the property, took down the buildings and moved them to 232-242 Walnut Street where he established a match factory. No further use has been made of this power.

About a quarter of a mile west of Bearsden Road on what is known as the Isaac Miller Farm, Ira L. Wiley in 1882-3 built a diversion obstruction in the river, installed a water wheel and did a limited amount of lumber sawing but the plant was soon abandoned and is now hardly discernible.

The next water power development on the river was less than two miles east of Athol Main Street. Here, about coincident with the building of the railroad, Job Frye built a diversion dam in the river and by a canal on its south shore paralleling the railroad conveyed water to the mill.

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Here he operated a saw mill followed by Isaac Stevens and Jonathan Wheeler.

As has already been stated in telling the story of the Me- chanic Street (Morse) power when Amsden Brothers were burned out there in 1864 Mr. Washington H. Amsden acquired this Millers River power. There as sole owner he operated his factory, the principal product of which was doors, until 1879-

KENNEBUNK MILLS ABOUT 1890

80 when he took two of his sons into the partnership, adopt- ing the trade name of W. H. Amsden & Sons.

Washington H. Amsden died November 6, 1886 and the business was continued by Otto F. Amsden and William H. Amsden until 1897 when financial reverses overtook them and the business was liquidated, the plant being purchased by Edward F. Bragg of Cambridge. This was Mr. Bragg's initial purchase of real estate along the river and was the nucleus around which he eventually acquired what is tantamount to a control of the waters of the river between Athol and Royalston.

The mill was occupied for a time by one Leonard E. Turner as a wet wash laundry. The factory built there by Mr. Amsden was burned April 3, 1905, and the location has since remained idle.

Early in the Amsden occupancy a Mr. George Swann came. here from Kennebunk, Maine, and entered Mr. Amsden's em-

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ploy. With his former home vividly in mind he referred to this location as Kennebunk and the name caught the public imagina- tion and was generally accepted as the name of this hamlet and the road running to it. When in 1894 Athol adopted of- ficial names for its streets and ways, that name was adopted for this street and as such it is still known.

As we journey down our river we next come to the location of a very early use of its water power, probably the first use except the trial at Memorial Building.

This location was for a century and a quarter known as Ken- dall's Mill. It is a part of the so-called Corn Mill Lot allotted as compensation for building a grist mill but is probably not the site of either the first grist or saw mill, however it remained in the Kendall family nearly seventy years after the Freedom Street mills passed out of their ownership. Here was built a saw mill and for a time a grist mill was also operated there.

The first use was by means of a low diversion dam some way east of the present dam and a canal leading from it to the mill site.

A short distance below the location of the present dam the town in 1763 laid out its first town road leading from the Meet- ing House to Royalston.

The location of this road was changed to the present Chest- nut Hill Avenue location in 1848 as the aftermath of several accidents on the railroad crossing at the foot of the "long hill", as the continual descent from Athol Common to the river was called.

Here directly below this dam and east of the highway was located the Clothiers Shop, first operated by one Buckley who was engaged by the town in 1775 as an incident of our sever- ing our connections with Mother England.

Tradition has it that this artisan had escaped from England enclosed in a hogshead (large barrel) at a time when Great Britain placed an embargo on emmigration of mechanics to the rebellious colonies.

After doing business at the White Mill for a comparatively short time Millers River Manufacturing Company acquired this site of Mr. Kendall. The first factory it built there was burned January 23, 1875 but a new factory was ready for use in July of that year. This three-story factory has undergone many changes in recent years but nevertheless bears quite a resem- blance to the mill built in 1875.

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The chief product of this plant was blankets made almost exclusively from satinet cloth as it was graciously called. The controlling force in this industry was George T. Johnson, also an affiliate of Athol Machine Company.

CHESTNUT HILL AVENUE BRIDGE, 1850

Mr. Johnson came here from Dana eventually acquiring the Perley Sibley house at 137 Main Street and remodelling it into much its present form.

After his death December 7, 1892, the business was car- ried on by his son, William G. Johnson, for some years and then the control of the stock was sold to Eugene C. Gaynor, a native of Canton, New York, who had come here and married Bertha Stowell, daughter of Henry R. Stowell.

In 1915 the entire plant was acquired by Mr. L. S. Starrett who organized Athol Manufacturing Company there and be- gan the making of artificial leather and coated cloths. In the liquidation of Mr. Starrett's estate after his death in April 1922, the control of the stock passed to Mr. Edwin A. Clare and Mr. Ira J. Wheeler who are still carrying on the business.

The next plant down stream is that of Union Twist Drill, Athol's second largest industry.

James Munroe Cheney was born in Orange, a blood brother of John C. Hill, and he, like Mr. Hill, was much interested in water power and industrial development. In 1855 he acquired.

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title to the land bounded by the river, the road to Royalston and the railroad. He quickly threw up a diversion dam and opened a canal through his property. On this canal he erected a two-story ,wooden factory and further down stream a not too elaborate saw mill. He personally operated the saw mill and

A GROUP OF ATHOL INDUSTRIES ABOUT 1915 Millers River Mfg. Co., in foreground Arthur F. Tyler Co., partially obscured by chimney L. S. Starrett Co., right center Union Twist Drill Co., at right

by it manufactured many million feet of logs into merchant- able lumber. In a mixup with the railroad long ago, he lost much of his left arm, but he continued at the saw mill lever until his old age.

His factory he sub-let to various interests. There L. Morse & Sons operated for a time. There James Cotton first began operations getting out commodities from lumber purchased on Chestnut Hill. There in 1876 Mr. Cheney's son-in-law, Arthur F. Tyler began his business career, later removing to his new plant at 900 Main Street, and there the Co-operative Furniture Company found a haven of refuge after their Riverband Street plant was burned in 1883, removing from there to West Con- cord.

But eventually old age overtook both Mr. Cheney and his not too substantial factory, and it was practically abandoned

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when a lightning bolt descended upon it August 9, 1892, re- sulting in its almost complete destruction.

Before the close of the last century Mr. Starrett effected the purchase of a gear and cutter business at Providence and moved it to his wooden factory south of the river where he de- veloped it and put it on a firm basis, but this was not exactly in line with Mr. Starrett's program for his own output and therefore, an opportunity presenting itself, he effected a sale of this business to Francis J. Gay of Providence and Edgar J. Ward of Boston, under the name of Gay & Ward.

Shortly after this purchase this firm acquired the Cheney holdings and erected a substantial brick factory there. In 1905 after Mr. Gay's death, a group of men came from Providence and took over the Gay & Ward interests. The leaders of this group were John A. McGregor, William B. McSkimmon, John W. Boynton, Simon Mackay and J. Henry Drury.

They soon organized themselves into Union Twist Drill Company and as such they still prosper here. Only one of the original group remains, Mr. Mackay, but many able and younger men have affiliated with the organization and the company has gone forward to remarkable successes.

In 1951-52 a substantial addition has been made to the fac- tory and many internal rearrangements made to modernize the plant.

As will be told on later pages of this chapter the company has developed a commodious parking lot south of the railroad right of way.

And now we come to the development which for a quarter of a century was not only the leading industry of Athol but both the admiration and envy of many other towns-the Athol Cotton Mill, from which the now central part of the town ac- quired the name "Factory Village."

Although isolated from the seaboard and large centers of activity yet our town has ever been sensitive to the general trends of the times-thus when Thomas Jefferson placed an embargo on transportation of foreign goods our industrial life quickened. First came the paper mill mentioned above and later came a group of industrialists to establish a textile fac- tory.

The undeveloped water power adjacent to the old Brattle- boro Turnpike, (Crescent Street from Main to Fish) appealed to them and there they established their little empire. June 8, 1814, Ezra Fish sold to Ebenezer Nickerson and Ammi

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Cutler, merchants of Boston, Aaron Brigham, merchant of Northampton, and Adin Holbrook, Jr., of Keene, New Hamp- shire, millwright, an acreage extending east on Crescent Street to approximately Wellington Street, northerly to the foot of the hill on Fish Street, and southerly and westerly across the present railroad location and to Traverse Street. These men were incor- porated under the name of Athol Manufacturing Company by Chapter 8 of the Acts of 1814.

Evidently these men had some prior agreement with Mr. Fish for they must have begun operations earlier than the date

COTTON FACTORY, 1814-1862

of the above-mentioned deed, as by June 10, 1814, they had the excavation completed for the wheel pit, the foundations of their factory laid and were in the process of "raising" the structure on that day which was the date of a major disaster. Much of the frame was upright and several workmen were aloft on the frame when the entire structure collapsed, killing Henry Ward of Athol and Gamaliel Smith of Phillipston. Dan- iel Bigelow of Athol was on the plate timber directly over the wheel pit, falling the entire depth; gathering himself up un- harmed but thoroughly frightened, he ran at full speed up the Turnpike towards his uptown home.

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The original factory was a two-story building with a pitch roof and much available space in the basement. On the south end was a bell tower in which on October 4, 1828, was hung the factory bell weighing 170 pounds, to call the operatives to work.

In 1815 a blacksmith shop was built which later was the "Lowe House" standing on the site of the present power plant. Likewise in 1815 the Factory Boarding House was built where the present Starrett executive offices are now situated. The Lowe House was eventually torn down to make room for the power station but the boarding house was removed to 90 Fish Street where it stands as a two-tenement dwelling.

In about two years after the organization of the corporation, Ebenezer Nickerson brought his nephew, Nathan Nickerson, Jr., of Phillipston, into the business and eventually this nephew became the dominating factor in the corporation. One of his activities was the management of the Factory Store which stood where our present Memorial Hall now stands. He built for his own home the dwelling now numbered 585 Main Street.

Adin Holbrook was superintendent of the mill for seventeen years, residing at the so-called "Gerry House" at 118 Crescent Street. He removed to Lowell in 1831 being succeeded in the management by Col. Nickerson.

Public confidence in this company was unlimited-to it they brought their surplus funds for investment and in it their sons and daughters found employment.

As will be told in another chapter, this entire area was greatly disturbed because of the sudden absconding of Col. Nickerson on April 29, 1839.

Chaos existed here for some time after this catastrophe; as the assets of the Company fell far short of meeting the de- mands of the creditors, the sheriff levied on the stockholders for the deficit, thus crippling not a few well-to-do citizens. The machinery was purchased by John Smith of Barre and removed to that town. One Captain Ephraim Parker acquired control of the factory and operated a saw mill there, putting in some tex- tile machinery. Later Brown & Ackley were the operators for a time, followed by C. B. Snow as operator but for several years preceding the Civil War days little business was done there. The business activity incident to the war between the states brought some prosperity to this mill but it was not until after the close of hostilities that real successful activities were ap- parent. In those years, one Waterman A. Fisher became the

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owner and in 1867 he materially enlarged and modernized the plant. An ell was built on, a mansard roof replaced the old pitch roof and the bell tower moved onto the ell. For fifteen succeeding years this was again an important industry in Athol but the death of Mr. Fisher in 1882 changed the picture. A new company, taking the old Athol Manufacturing Company

ATHOL COTTON FACTORY FROM ABOUT SCHOOL ST. CROSSING ABOUT 1879

name, was organized and it operated about a year to be suc- ceeded by one R. L. Jones of Windsor, Vermont, who employed upwards of a hundred hands there, but in six months his affairs were in bankruptcy. Willis Phelps of Springfield, the promoter of the Springfield Railroad, had taken a mortgage on the real estate and he then took over under his mortgage, placing in charge A. G. Bennett, one of his conductors on the railroad, and Levi S. VanVaulkenburg who had come here to work under W. A. Fisher in 1865. Several men were interested in this industry during those days, among them Wilson D. Smith and later Stephen M. Allen who built the two-story wooden factory west of Crescent Street. Mr. Allen was essentially a paper manufacturer and this new mill was built with that use in mind but he, like the others, was not successful.

In October 1887 the entire plant was purchased by Augustus Coolidge and by him sold out in parcels. On the Crescent Street frontage east of the boarding house, he erected all but three of the houses now standing there west of the east line of Wellington Street projected. One of the houses he built was removed to make way for the present office building and is now at number 589 Pequoig Avenue. The three houses which he did not build are the ones numbered 229, 237 and 257.

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The first of these was built by Mr. Fisher for his son-in-law, Edward F. Shaw, the next one by one John Stuart, while 257-59 was built by Mr. VanVaulkenburg.

For his own home Mr. Coolidge built the house at 289' Crescent Street, attaching to the rear of it a water tower and' wind-mill for a water supply for all his nearby holdings.

Fram Did withs Looking

THE FIRST FACTORY OWNED BY L. S. STARRETT It was built by Stephen Allen for a Paper Mill but never used as such. When Mr. Starrett acquired this Mill it was only two stories high. This picture taken probably about 1906

In the Coolidge division, Bennett and Van Vaulkenburg bought the old mill and boarding house, while Mr. Starrett bought the mill erected by Stephen M. Allen.

In the enlargements by Mr. Fisher in 1867, two buildings. were built partly encroaching over the line of Crescent Street. One of these was a brick steam heating plant with a second: story occupied many years later by W. H. Brock and W. K. Briggs with their printing business; the other building was first a one-story affair but raised soon after Mr. Fisher's death and a story erected under it. In this last named building Mr .. Starrett carried on his business from 1881 to 1886, the first- floor being the grinding room and japan oven, the second floor for the finer mechanical work and the general office, while in the attic was Mr. Starrett's private experimental and drafting, room.

In the autumn of 1886 Mr. Starrett leased the Allen paper mill building and in June 1888 he bought that mill.

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Mr. Coolidge disposed of the land south of the river east of Crescent Street to other parties but in 1890 Mr. Starrett ac- quired the tract west of Crescent Street of the J. C. Hill heirs and later the present boiler house site. On this Hill land was a blacksmith shop occupied for several years by one Finley McRae and later acquired by James Oliver, 2nd. Mr. Oliver moved his building to 40 Lake Street in the rear of his home at 73 Fish Street, and it is still standing there utilized as a dwelling with several small apartments.

It was known for some years that Mr. Starrett would like to buy the Bennett & VanVaulkenburg holdings (the old cotton mill) but they were doing a moderately successful business and desired to continue. At length Mr. Bennett died and Mr. Starrett acquired his half of the mill and installed his recently acquired steel tape department in the mansard roof story of the building, but still Mr. VanVaulkenburg continued his cot- ton mill. At last on March 30, 1901, a Saturday afternoon when the operations were all suspended for the week and the shutters of the Starrett Shop across the way were firmly closed, the old cotton mill was afire and was damaged beyond easy repair. Then Mr. VanVaulkenburg surrendered, releasing his interests, and Mr. Starrett was the sole owner. Then the old building as well as the brick boiler room was demolished, the wooden factory occupied by the Starrett Company from '81 to '86 was removed to 96-98 Fish Street where it still stands.

Space will not permit the chronicling of all the changes in this plant which houses our principal local industry-suffice it to say that expansions have been continuous for fifty years. Long did the company desire to purchase the Gerry property lying on Crescent and Fish Streets, directly opposite its main plant, but that family was reluctant to sell.

The Gerry shop lying just north of the Stephen Allen Mill was built by the owners of the factory in 1853 as a machine shop. Mr. George Gerry had come here previous to May 1, 1847 and been employed more or less regularly in the Cotton Factory, and for a year or two he was one of its owners. When his official connection with the factory ceased he continued in the little "red shop" doing a general machinist business, later acquiring that building and continuing until comparatively re- cent times to obtain his power from the mill. The family also acquired the Adin Holbrook house at 118 Crescent Street with several acres of land.

Three generations of the Gerry family were owners of that home and that little shop with the business conducted there,

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George Gerry and his wife, Sophia, George Manderville Gerry and his sons, Reno M. and Harry A. Gerry. In the last days of their occupancy there Mr. Harry Gerry had been succeeded in everything except actual ownership by his son, Arthur H. Gerry. Orders incident to World War II forced the Starrett interests to liberalize their offer for this real estate while the attraction of war prices induced Mr. Arthur Gerry to effect a sale. The Gerry Company quickly moved to the old Paul Morse site at Main & Pleasant Streets and the Starrett Company pro- ceeded to expand practically a thousand feet down the river bank, the most recent and largest extension being erected in 1948-9.

In the early days of his planning Mr. Starrett desired the site of the local Methodist Church at the corner of Main and Crescent Streets but although he was long a member of that church he failed for twenty years to effect its removal. Had he been able to acquire this land around the turn of the century he would have planned his new shops so that his main offices could be conveniently located there, but failing in that he built on a different plan so that all production heads away from Main Street rather than towards it and his offices and shipping department are of necessity located far up Crescent Street. Eventually when World War I with its excess profits tax and heavy surtaxes made liberal donations to charities only slightly expensive, Mr. Starrett acquired land on Island Street once occupied by the Fish-Coolidge-Howard Blacksmith Shop, the L. C. Sawin carriage works, and the Wellman & Blake monumental works, wrecked one building and sold two others to Lord & Cass who removed them to Fish Circle, and pro- ceeded to build on the site the present Starrett Memorial Methodist Church Building.

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History of Athol, Massachusetts, Part 26

Author: , William G., compiler Publication date: 1953 Publisher: Athol, Mass Number of Pages: 756

Author: , William G., compiler
Publication date: 1953
Publisher: Athol, Mass
Number of Pages: 756