USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 27
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 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
The old Church was deeded to the Starrett interests and after use by them for storage and the like for a time, it was razed and the grounds leveled into a parking lot.
While speaking of this location, for most of 135 years the site of our principal industrial activity, a few small and short- lived industries come to mind.
The building now a dwelling at number 96-98 Fish Street was first a small knitting mill, next it was taken over by Asa Albee Ward who installed mill stones and operated a grain and feed mill for a time, later removing to 503 South Street where they erected the nucleus of the present Potter Grain Store. About 1880 the building was elevated and another story built under it for the use of Wilson D. Smith and W.
323
HISTORY OF ATHOL
Haskell King who operated a "stockinett" mill there, but the factory was vacant when Mr. Starrett first hired it.
In 1892 a group of men came here and established Athol Reed and Rattan Company in the second floor of the main Cotton Factory. They manufactured rattan chairs and the like, but their stay here was short.
A short space below the Starrett buildings the waters of Millers River divided, forming an island of perhaps 20 acres. At the head of this island was a diversion dam maintained there
WATER GATES IN MAIN STREET, 1908
from time immemorial by the Kendall-Fish-Lord mill interests and the associated industries around Freedom Street. The maintenance of this dam was a subject of litigation in the early years of this century and the final decree of the Land Court was displeasing to all concerned. Then Mr. Starrett took matters in hand and getting an appropriation from the town to eliminate the wooden sidewalk that hung over the river on the north side of Main Street, he proceeded to elimi- nate the South branch of the river. He constructed a cement penstock from the head of the island to the line of the William G. Lord land at 57 Traverse Street and placed modern water gates at the inlet of the penstock thus making of no use the old wooden gate with its gate stems which encroached some seventeen feet into Main Street where the penstock now crosses under Main Street.
324
INDUSTRY
Soon after coming here in 1868 Mr. Starrett became a tenant in the old factory store building long since converted into a private dwelling, and after some fifteen years he acquired title to this land from the heirs of Dr. James Coolidge who occupied it at the time of his death. This ownership ex- tended westerly to these water gates but much of the westerly portion of the lot was within the limits of the South Branch. Naturally when this branch was eliminated except for an un- derground conduit, many feet of Main Street frontage became available for occupancy. Two sizable parts of this frontage were subsequently donated by Mr. Starrett to the town, first the Library site in 1914 and the Memorial Hall site in 1916, but under both of these buildings the waters of the river flow into the Lord's pond area.
At the extreme westerly end of Mr. Starrett's holdings was another diversion dam to turn the waters of the South Branch into the canal, this dam being at about 536 Main Street. Inci- dentally, in the area made all but useless by the protruding water gates and just west of them, the town long maintained a public watering trough, and from the pond made by this diver- sion dam the town laid a cast iron pipe into the first section of its sewer system which began just west of the canal. The pipe is still there but the pond from which it was fed when the sewer was flushed has long since been obliterated.
Crossing Main Street on the dugway or canal we come to another water power where the Y. M. C. A. now stands.
The Y. M. C. A. site
Here in 1824 James Young and Isaiah Willard established a small industry and with the approval of the mill owners be- low, installed in the canal west of their shop an under current wooden water wheel some fifteen feet in diameter. Various owners in this shop were J. H. Snow, one Mallory, Stilman Knowlton, and after 1835 Nathaniel Richardson who continued as its part owner and finally its sole proprietor until his death February 23, 1883. Throughout these years it was operated as a general machine shop but in the later years of his life the active management of the plant was in his sons, George H. and C. Fred Richardson. After their father's death, George Richardson disposed of his half to his brother, Fred. In 1878 soon after Mr. Starrett went out from Athol Machine Company, he engaged a small portion of this shop and operated there until his removal to Crescent Street.
C. F. Richardson manufactured transits, levels and other
325
HISTORY OF ATHOL
tools for a time, but after the advent of the bicycle and later the automobile, he devoted most of his time to the repair and sale of these transportation innovations. In 1892 he drove an artesian well just outside his shop and by it supplied his shop with pure cold water, but in the building of the Y this was obliterated.
RICHARDSON'S SHOP AT Y.M.C.A. CORNER, 1824-1910
Mr. Nathaniel Richardson lived at about 521 Main Street in a house now standing at corner of South and Pine Streets, while in 1878 Mr. C. F. Richardson built for a home the dwel- ling at 43 Traverse Street which was demolished in 1949-50. In 1891 he built on his mother's orchard the block still stand- ing at 501-5 Main Street which, after a disastrous fire March 23, 1916, he sold to the Cooke interests.
February 18, 1907 he sold his dwelling, his shop and his father's old home to Mr. Starrett who proceeded to change the picture in that locality most decidedly. The bowling alley which stood on the N. Richardson home lot was moved to number 56 School Street, the old dwelling to South and Pine Streets, and in 1910 the old machine shop was razed and its picturesque water wheel which revolved in the wheel house beside Main Street was demolished. The site he donated to the Y. M. C. A. and he was the largest contributor towards the erection of the Y building there which was dedicated March 15, 1912.
326
INDUSTRY
NATHANIEL RICHARDSON 1804 - 1883
Other Millers River Water Powers
Very early in the history of our town the lands lying adjacent to Millers River at the lower end of Main Street were known as "ye hop field."
When irrigation was first commenced on this area we do not know, probably not until well into the nineteenth century, but we do have in our files the original protest served upon Henry Fish by Paul Sibley, Constable of Athol, dated May 29, 1840. The purport of this notice is to dispute the authority of Mr. Fish to maintain and keep open a floom or ditch for the pur- pose of taking water to irrigate his land. Evidently this floom or canal took waters above the lower diversion dam, thus cur- tailing at times the flow of water into the Lord's Pond area. This notice is signed by Perley Sibley, Eliphalet Thorpe, Ethan Lord, Russell Smith and Samuel Newhall.
Either previous to or subsequent to the date of this instru- ment there had been a diversion dam erected in the South Branch nearly north of the north end of Sally Fish Circle and a canal extended therefrom to the hop meadow in the rear of 132 Maple Street.
327
HISTORY OF ATHOL
April 14, 1827 Ezra Fish sold to Abner C. Goodale a frontage on Main Street extending from about the center of the present lot of First Church Unitarian to the canal dam above Island Street and northerly to the south branch of the river.
On this land Goodale and his successors in title built several small shops. West of Island Street there was a dam erected and a tail race run from it some distance westerly, this tail race being the northern boundary of the present church property. A. L. Cheney had a hatters shop at about No. 506 Main Street, east of that Stilman Knowlton had a small shop, while on a right of way called in more recent years Market Place, H. R. Goodrich had a wheelwright shop within the mem- ory of this chronicler, later disposing of it to Charles W. Daven- port. About 1875 the dam went out in a time of high water and was never restored although some of its frame was visible for many years and its mud sills may be still preserved in the dampness.
In the late seventies or early eighties one William Welch, the owner of quite an acreage of land lying mostly west of Ex- change Street and north of the river, built a nondescript diver- sion dam in the north branch and dug a canal from it to about a hundred yards west of the present Exchange Street location. At the terminus of this canal he dug a wheelpit and installed a water wheel but it is not remembered that he ever built much if any of a mill structure there, nor that any practical use was ever made of the power generated there. After a comparatively short time he sold his holdings to Mr. James Cotton who filled in the canal and wheelpit, thus obliterating all evidences of this abortive attempt at water power develop- ment.
The next water course which we will consider is the Tullys. Rising in Fitzwilliam, Tully East entered the original boundary of our town some two miles east of our northwest corner but by the taking to form the District of Orange in 1783 it became a portion of our westerly line.
Only a short distance below Royalston line is a diversion dam built first in 1825 which diverts the flood waters into Packard Pond; thence they flow westerly through a conduit into Tully Pond furnishing water for the two powers there. Until the Fryville and Pinedale powers were abandoned these Tully mills were entitled to only the flood waters, but by recent conveyances they and the Packard Pond residents have the first claim on the water.
328
INDUSTRY
The mills at Fryville were always in Orange, the change in the town line probably having been effected previous to their erection, but as their dams attached to the south bank of the stream they were half in Athol. When Fryville, named after a one-time owner and operator, Job Frye, was a really flourish- ing industrial village there were at least four houses classed in that village situate south of the stream. Two of these have been demolished but there have been two new ones built, so the situation is about the same. The mills, however, have long since been abandoned. I would doubt very much if there was any mill in operation there previous to 1783 when this passed out of the control of Athol, but it was not long after that before some of the Young family were operating there. In the period after the Civil War, Bills & Taylor operated a furni- ture factory, and John C. Hill and Rufus Frost of Chelsea built a shoddy mill, they being the principal stockholders of Tully Mill Corporation which was the owner of the plant.
The next and only other power development on this Tully East is the Wheelerville or Pinedale development.
There has come to this writer a very full story of this suburb written in 1917 by Herbert L. Hapgood and it is given in full herewith.
Hackmitack Swamp, Wheelerville, and Pinedale, are three designations by which one of Athol's once important industrial centers has been known at as many different intervals. The foundation of this industrial center was laid by Paul Knapp and Timothy Peters, the former building a saw mill, the latter a grist mill and dwelling house; the mill properties were located on the East Branch of Tully Brook and were built together with the dwelling house between the years 1785 and 1790, the saw mill stood just below the bridge, the grist mill about 100 feet above the bridge, the dwelling house stood on the north side of the brook about 300 feet below the bridge. This property passed from Knapp to Peters March 15, 1787 and later to Oliver Chapin.
Zacheus Wheeler (Millwright) was born in Grafton, Massa- chusetts, on September 30, 1749, married Silence Leland, moved to Athol in February 1790, and on December 2, 1791 acquired 108 acres of land of Oliver Chapin, which land in- cluded the two mills and dwelling house. Other land was bought of Nathan Goddard and Hiram Newhall April 17, 1793, and of Oliver Chapin December 27, 1793, making a total of 250 acres.
329
HISTORY OF ATHOL
On March 30, 1792 a son, Jonathan Wheeler, was born. The road leading from the Richmond Turnpike to Pinedale and Tully was laid out and built in the year 1796. On July 30, 1796 Zacheus Wheeler deeded to Cyrus Dunbar a small tract of land situated on the east side of this road and 100 feet
JONOTHAN WHEELER 1790 - 1872 Developed Wheelerville, later called Pinedale
south of bridge. Upon this land was built a blacksmith and triphammer shop. On October 8, 1797 this property passed to David Dunbar, Jr.
Following the year 1800 Zacheus Wheeler improved a water privilege and built a saw mill on Goddard Brook, the location of which was a short distance below the present dam of the Sportsmans Pond. On March 5, 1825 Zacheus deeded to his son, Jonathan, a good portion of his property including the mill property which was in reality one piece, the saw mill on God- dard Brook, as the two mills on Tully Brook had ceased to exist.
On April 29 of this same year David Dunbar sold his trip hammer shop to Clement Bryant.
Jonathan Wheeler operated the Saw Mill on the Goddard
330
INDUSTRY
Brook for a few years and then improved and built upon the site of the Paul Knapp privilege.
It was during the year 1834 that machinery for the manu- facture of pails was added to his equipment of machinery.
On August 26, 1835, Clement Bryant sold to Jonathan Wheeler, the triphammer shop lot.
Zacheus Wheeler died March 31, 1836.
With the addition of the manufacture of pails, there was a lively increase of business from time to time up to the year 1840 when a fire destroyed a good part of the plant. However, the plant was immediately rebuilt on a much larger scale.
In the year 1851 the manufacture of matches was com- menced followed with the manufacture of sash doors and blinds. Again in the year 1857 fire consumed a portion of the main factory which was rebuilt and a new stone dam was built at a cost of four thousand dollars.
At about this time Wheelerville (the name by which it was best known in those days) was quite a sizable industrial center. Outside of the manufacturing plant there were eight dwelling houses, three large barns, a schoolhouse, and a system of water works for supplying the houses with running water. The popu- lation numbered over one hundred persons.
From the year 1858 to 1862 Mr. Wheeler was associated with Hollon Farr and Chester Bancroft as partners. During the year 1862 the manufacturing plant passed into the hands of David Smith & Co. who displaced the machinery with machin- ery suitable for the manufacture of woolen goods. On July 29, 1864 a corporation with a capital of $30,000. was formed under Massachusetts Laws to be known as the Pinedale Woolen Company. Its organization consisted of David Smith, Presi- dent; Walter Thorpe, Treasurer; and Nathaniel Richardson, James W. Hunt. John H. Williams and Washington H. Ams- den, Directors. The business was carried on for about eight years under this management. The Treasurer, Walter Thorpe, was responsible for the name Wheelerville being changed to Pinedale. Jonathan Wheeler died July 14, 1872. Following the decease of Jonathan Wheeler, the property passed into the hands of Gilbert Southard, James W. Hunt and Thomas H. Goodspeed. During a portion of the time of this ownership the factory was leased to E. M. Smith and used by him in the manufacture of woolen goods.
331
HISTORY OF ATHOL
D. E. Tebo was the succeeding owner for a period of ten years. The plant was consumed by fire April 5, 1893 and has never been rebuilt. At present (1917) the factory site and water power are owned by Edward F. Bragg of Cambridge, Mass. A once prosperous center has ceased to exist except as a residential suburb of Athol.
All we can add to the Hapgood Story is that subsequent to the Bragg purchase the stone dam has fallen and practically all signs of the old water power, once the best in Athol, have disappeared. The village has been sold to a dozen or more separate owners, while in 1949 the water power and mill rights with a minimum of land have passed into the ownership of William G. Lord and Jesse C. Worrick of Tully.
When some two miles of Tully West was in Athol, one David Goddard built in this stream perhaps a half mile below Tully Village a dam, a grist mill and a log house where he and his successors in title did business for long years, but this location is now a wilderness and few know of the existence of this in- dustry of long ago.
Below the confluence of Tully East and Tully West there never was but one development and that was near the point where the stream enters into Millers River. Here in 1879 John C. Hill threw up a low dam and cut a canal on the west side of the stream some distance below its junction with the larger river. Well down on this canal he built a mill fabricated from the demolition of the cider mill at about 600 South Main Street. This mill was operated only a few years when it was abandoned but the dam in Tully Brook is still maintained by Athol's small boys to provide a swimming hole.
By the original survey, some three miles of West Brook lay in Athol adjacent to our western boundary but this was more than cut in half by the division of 1783 when Orange was constituted.
This brook rises in Warwick and flows southerly into Millers River a comparatively short distance west of Daniel Shays Highway.
So far as we have any record there was never but one power development on this brook within the limits of our town. That mill was within the present limits of Orange at the point where our Brickyard Road used to extend and connect with Goddard Road in Orange.
There Joseph Dexter, Samuel Dexter, Benjamin Dexter, Capt. Thomas Lord and several others operated mills, for there
332
INDUSTRY
were both a saw mill and a grist mill there. In later years the site was known as Graham's Mills. This power has long since been abandoned.
In the West Brook valley south of the Graham Mill was located the only brickyard in Athol township of which we have definite record.
When in the early nineties Lucien Lord developed Pleasant Valley he found in that area unmistakable evidence that the pioneers made bricks around the clay pits there for a time, but that small operation does not account for the many thousands of brick used here in the dwellings built in the full century following our first settlement in 1735.
However, we do know that around 1845 Adin H. Smith began brick manufacturing in the valley west of his father's dwelling where his family had been domiciled since pioneer days. One historical writer says Mr. Smith followed the trade of his father before him, brickmaking, and it is possible that his family even before the days of Joshua Smith, the father of Adin H., supplied the bricks used locally.
For nearly thirty years Adin H. Smith carried on the busi- ness, expanding his operations as demand increased. After the Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad was built through here, that company supplied him with a siding about in the rear of the present dwelling numbered 289 Brookside Road, and to that siding Mr. Smith's ox teams hauled much of his product.
In the seventies Mr. Smith sold his business to Erastus Sprague and removed to 487 Main Street where he spent the- remainder of his long life.
But the new operators could not survive the financial crash. of 1873 and soon Mr. Smith was compelled to resume owner- ship and operations. His son, H. Waldo Smith, took over some. of the control in later years but he never assumed full manage -. ment.
Around 1888 Mr. Smith again sold his plant and farm, this time to R. A. Bailey & Son of Danielsonville, Connecticut, who soon incorporated the business as Athol Brick Company with the son, Russell A. Bailey, in charge. This new company ob- tained a right of way and actually contemplated building a spur tract up the valley to the kiln but again a general financial crisis was its undoing. Struggling under adverse conditions incident to the "hard times" of 1893 the company carried on
333
HISTORY OF ATHOL
until 1899 when the plant was sold and the equipment re- moved.
The farm is now owned by Mr. Herbert E. Codding who came here from Connecticut with the Bailey interests, but it is purely farming land now.
The old Smith dwelling was burned May 23, 1890, at a time when the plant was in full operation, and as a dwelling was a great necessity the present house was speedily erected. Like- wise time has taken its toll of the other farm buildings so that very little remains today as a reminder that this was once a scene of much activity.
Next we will consider the several mills on Riceville Brook, or Oliver Brook, or frequently called South Athol Brook, but apparently from the early records first called Stoney Branch Brook.
This stream has its source in the westerly part of Petersham and empties its waters into Millers River a short half mile east of Orange town line.
The first development on this stream seems to have been at New Sherburn, later called Riceville, east of the Monson Turn- pike. This location was close to if not a part of Kendall Farm spoken of elsewhere in this work.
The first trace which I find of this mill power is August 20, 1792, when Daniel Foster sold thirty-five acres to John Clemence. This Daniel Foster was married here to Polly Faunce, March 17, 1791.
Nov. 5, 1793, John Clemence conveyed all the above to Justus Ketchum and Samuel Stearns. Both these deeds include "a house and a saw mill thereon."
Notes dictated about 1886 by my father, Gardiner Lord, state that on this site was once Steven's Tannery but I find no Stevens name in the chain of title. March 4, 1795 Stearns and Ketchum bought some thirty acres more, evidently on the east side of the road, of Joseph Stratton.
Probably these men made many more additions to their holdings, for September 1, 1808, when they dissolved their mutual associations, Mr. Stearns released to Mr. Ketchum 218 acres lying in Athol and Petersham "with a house, barn, grist mill and saw mill thereon and is part of the Secretary Land so called."
334
INDUSTRY
Perhaps Mr. Stearns retained title to another saw and grist mill for November 25, 1814, he conveyed to Ithamer Ward twelve acres and 34 rods lying west of the turnpike with a grist mill and saw mill thereon.
This Ithamer Ward was the son of Gen. Artemas Ward of Shrewsbury who was Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary forces until that duty was taken over by Gen. Washington. Capt. Ithamer Ward had settled on Ward Hill in Phillipston where his descendants lived until about the close of the last century.
On November 21, 1825, Captain Ward conveyed his hold- ing (apparently on both sides of the Turnpike) to Walter Ward.
May 18, 1830 Walter Ward sold his holdings to William Cutting, "also a certain dwelling house and store standing on one of said lots in Athol which was built by the grantor and Ira Ellis in company."
April 6, 1833 Cutting sold the above to Simeon Mayo.
September 28, 1847, Simeon Mayo sold 184 acres 89 rods to Joseph Haskell, Isaac Cowdry both of Leominster, and Charles Frye of Athol.
March 7, 1848 Mr. Frye released his interest to his associate owners and on July 1, 1850 these two sold to Dutton Wood who evidently built a furniture factory there.
On December 2, 1856, Mr. Wood sold the entire tract to James Rice who operated the furniture factory doing a flourish- ing business the remainder of his days.
After his death in 1877 the business was continued for a time by his son, B. Madison Rice, and his son-in-law, Charles F. Barlow, but eventually financial difficulties overtook these younger men climaxing in the destruction of the mill by fire November 4, 1881. Mr. B. Madison Rice continued to operate the saw mill west of the road for a time but at length it passed into other hands.
In 1889 one John A. Terry with his numerous family ac- quired the village, continuing less than fifteen years.
Mr. Terry operated a general store on the east side of the turnpike, did an extensive lumbering business at the saw mill down stream from the road, making the village a hive of in- dustry, but in 1903 financial reverses overtook him and his holdings went under the auctioneer's hammer.
335
HISTORY OF ATHOL
The lower water power was used for a time but soon fell into disuse and this is another of Athol's once prosperous suburbs which has little to identify it as a once manufacturing village.
The Atlas of Worcester County published in 1870 shows a third dam at Riceville, west of the two adjacent to New Sher- born Road, this westerly one being marked "W. H. & I. E. Pollard S. Mill and Match Fact." I assume that this most westerly power is part of the several mills there owned before 1808 by Ketchum and Stearns.
Wallings wall map of Worcester County dated 1857 shows at the junction of New Sherborn Road and Riceville Road "C. Sprage Improved Ox Yoke Mfgr. The old Caleb Sprage "dwelling is still standing there but the above notation is all the information this author has of the ox yoke industry here.
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.