USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume I pt 2 > Part 38
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The second paper mill in the county was built at Lee, in 1806. by Samuel Church. The third in Berkshire, and the second in Dalton was built by Joseph Chamberlin in 1809. It was located upon a water priv- ilege equally good with that of the first mill and about an eighth of a mile further down the stream. The site was owned by Martin Chamber- lin, who retained his old cautious habits, and, not until " the thing was done," sold to David Carson, Joseph Chamberlin, and Henry Wiswell
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
"Thirteen acres and seventy-two rods of land on which was situated the saw mill." The mill was started in the fall of 1809 by the firm of Car- son, Chamberlin & Wiswell. Mr. Wiswell did not discontinue his con- nection with the old mill and the chief manager of the new enterprise was David Carson.
Mr. Carson, who was destined to play a large part in the business of the town and county, had come to Dalton in the previous summer, very opportunely for the undertaking in which he engaged, if not with an ex- press view to it. Ile was a young paper maker, well skilled in his art and of rare business ability otherwise, as was shown in a long life of almost uniform success. He was well fitted to carry to the front any business of which he assumed the lead, and his memory is still honored in the highest financial circles of Western Massachusetts. He was born at Albany in 1783, of Scotch parentage, and it should be mentioned here that Miss Margaret Green, of Dalton, whom he married in 1810, was of the same honorable lineage and a near relative of General Nathaniel Green, of Revolutionary fame.
Mr. Carson learned the art of paper making in the mill of Hector Craig, a Scotch manufacturer at Goshen, N. Y., but in 1804, at the age of twenty-one, he went to Worcester, where he worked as a journeyman, and doubtless heard of what had been done in Berkshire by those who had gone thither from that town. In August, 1809, he went to Dalton, and worked in the old mill while the new one was building. In this he retained the management until, in 1810, he sold his interest in it to Zenas Crane.
In 1812 he bought Daniel Gilbert's interest in the first mill. and in 1816 became its sole owner. His sons, Thomas G. and William W., were associated with him as they attained their majority, and under their management the mill grew in its capacity, both for the quantity and quality of its work, until it secured a national reputation for its writing papers which brought fame and fortune to its owners. All this of course implies a vast extension of the works from the little one vat affair of 1801. before it was sold, April 1st, 1867, to Charles O. Brown, of Dalton, George T. Plunkett, of Hinsdale, and Lewis J. Powers, of Springfield, who or- ganized as a corporation in which they were afterward joined by other corporators.
In 1853 David Carson was chosen the first president of the Pittsfield Bank, and removed to Pittsfield soon afterward. He died at his resi- dence in that town, September 20th, 1858, but was buried in the Dalton Cemetery. In 1863 his son, Thomas G., removed to Boston, where he en- gaged successfully in commercial and manufacturing enterprises. In 1867 William W. Carson purchased the famous " Downing Place." at Newburgh on the Hudson, and removed to that city, of which he was soon chosen mayor. David Carson had presented his son, David B., on his twenty-first birthday, with a well equipped paper mill in the same place.
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The "Old Berkshire " had been in operation for nearly three quar- ters of a century, and had grown from the little old-time " one. vat mill" of the humblest proportions and the smallest product to a concern which sent out 2,300 pounds per day of the finest linen writing and ledger paper, when, on the morning of December 7th, 1872, it was totally de- stroyed by fire. It was, however, rebuilt in 1873-4, on a much more liberal scale ; the building being spacious and the machinery the best that could be obtained for the manufacture of the choice papers which were its specialty. It was built and equipped under the sole superintendence of Mr. Brown, and when completed was pronounced by experts to be the model paper mill in the country. . The members of the stock company which owns it in 1885 are the legitimate representatives of the men who founded it in the early years of the century, and fought the early battles of the paper manufacture in Berkshire. The president is Charles O. Brown, who was born at Windsor in 1827, being the son of Deacon A. Brown, who soon afterward removed to Dalton. He commenced his life as a paper maker with Zenas Crane & Sons, in the "Old Red " mill, and changed from that to the "Old Berkshire," which he left in 1854, after becoming superintendent. After much experience in various places he returned to it in 1867 as half owner. John D. Carson, the treasurer and business manager, son of Thomas G., and grandson of David Carson, was born in Dalton, and after a course of study at the military school in Worcester and an extended European tour, learned the art of paper making practically and thoroughly. The other members of the company in 1885 are Hon. William W. Carson, of Newburgh, and Hon. Zenas Crane, jr., of Dalton.
We have interrupted our account of Zenas Crane, the pioneer paper maker of the region, and of the mill of which he assumed charge in 1810, in order to give consecutively the history of that which he built in 1801 and left in 1807, and of its successors under the name of " The Old Berk- shire." We now return to the latter year.
From 1807 until 1810 Mr. Crane was engaged in mercantile business at the eastern part of the town, having fair success and gaining at the same time no little business knowledge and acquaintance with the people of the neighboring region. While thus employed he married, November 30th, 1809, Miss Lucinda, daughter of Gains and Lucretia (Babcock) Brewer, of Wilbraham, in Hampden county.
On the 6th of April, 1810, he bought David Carson's interest in what was then known as " The New Mill, " but which, enlarged and remodeled until almost all trace of its earliest self was lost, afterward grew famous and venerable as "The Oldl Red Mill." Messrs. Crane and Carson thus practically exchanged places in the mills whose work they had respect- ively been the chief agents in starting. After 1810 the new mill was run for awhile by the firm of Crane, Wiswell, Chamberlin & Cole, and after- ward by Crane. Chamberlin & Cole : but in 1822 Mr. Crane, who from the date of his purchase had been superintendent and chief manager, became
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sole proprietor. He carried on his mill successfully until 1842, although like other business men of the period he was obliged to breast its regu- larly recurring financial storms. In spite of these and other depressing circumstances he constantly increased the capacity of the mill and added improved machinery, which, however, inferior to the automatic marvels which give their aid to his descendants, was of great value in its time. The first Fourdrinier machines made in America were in 1835, when only two or three had been imported. The first in Berkshire reached Lee in 1848. One was placed in the Old Berkshire mill in 1850. The cost of one of them was about three times as much as that of an entire mill of the pattern of 1801-9.
In the meantime, the first paper making machine in Berkshire was placed in the "Thatcher" mill at Lee, of which Mr. Crane was one of the proprietors ; and in 1831 he introduced one of the same kind in " The Old Red Mill." This was the very ingenious and satisfactory cylinder ma- chine invented by John Ames, of Springfield, and which was better adapted to small works than the Fourdrinier. To this Mr. Crane, in 1834, added the cylinder dryers. He was also among the first Massachusetts paper makers to bleach rags by the use of chloride of lime, or " bleach- ing powders," which are the same thing.
In 1842 Mr. Crane transferred his interest in the Old Red Mill and his business in general to his two eldest sons, Zenas Marshall and James Brewer, who had some years before become his partners. He died June 29th, 1845. at the age of sixty-eight. His widow survived him until May 2d. 1872, when she died at the ripe age of eighty-four. Like every man who succeeds in business Zenas Crane gave to his the larger share of his time and thought ; but it did not narrow his mind and was very far from absorbing his whole being. He recognized to the full all his family. so- cial, political, and religious duties, and performed them as was to be ex- pected of a kindly and wise man, a good husband, father, and citizen. He was a constant student of books and an independent, investigating thinker, both in matters pertaining to his own and to those regarding general subjects. In politics he was at first a federalist and then a whig : and these parties, which were as a rule very scrupulous as to the personal character of their candidates, elected him to several offices of honor and trust. Besides those of a municipal character, he was several times chosen representative, beginning in the year 1811. In 1836 and 1837 he was chosen a member of the Executive Council of Massachusetts under Gov- ernor Edward Everett. There were at this time nine councillors annually elected by the Legislature. The last selected for this district before Mr. Crane was Hon. Henry Hubbard, of Pittsfield, and those next succeeding him were Hon. Henry Shaw, of Lanesboro, and Hon. Edward A. Newton, of Pittsfield : all men of ability and character, and all warm personal as well as political friends of Mr. Crane. In his place as councillor and in the House of Representatives his sound sense, practical knowledge, extensive general information, and unquestioned integrity made him of peculiar
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valne. And in this connection there are matters of interesting note re- garding his descendants. His son Zenas Marshall, who became a leading member of the free soil party of the county in 1848-when no office could be expected from it-and who aided in organizing the republican party. was chosen one of the Senators from Berkshire county in 1856 and 1857, and executive councillor in 1862-3, under Governor Andrew, and his son Zenas Crane, jr., has the same place in 1884 and 1885, under Governor Robinson. Three generations of the Crane family have thus furnished a member of the same name to the Executive Council of the common- wealth. This is an instance very rare in the history of families in this country of constant changes ; and it will seem the more remarkable when our further record shall show, as it will, that the same family for the same three generations have adhered strictly. and generally successfully, to one manufacture. and that for the most part in the immediate locality where their progenitor established it. Some peculiar and substantial family characteristics are required to account for so extraordinary per- sistence in well doing.
Among the obstacles which impeded Zenas Crane's business during his whole life, in common with other Berkshire manufacturers, the next after foreign competition was the cost of sending his goods to the great central markets and other impediments incident to the isolated position of Berkshire county. In his time the little territory comprised in the commonwealth of Massachusetts was then less within the reach of the mer chant seated in his counting room in Boston than "the whole boundless continent "-we might almost say the whole civilized world-now is. A manufacturer can to-day receive and respond to an order from San Fran- cisco with greater ease and promptitude than he then could had the call come from the metropolis of his own State. Much of this change, to be - sure, arises from inventions and achievements which have in like manner affected the whole country. The business isolation of Dalton and other towns in Central Berkshire ceased or was greatly reduced by the opening of the railroad between Boston and Albany. This was in 1842 ; the very year in which Mr. Crane transferred his business to his sons.
The increased facilities furnished by the railroad stimulated all the industries of the central portion of the county and inspired all its busi- ness men with new courage and ambition. It gave to the new firm easier access to the general and to some local markets, the lack of which had embarrassed their father. Under these and other favoring circumstances the Brothers Crane continued steadily and judiciously to increase the capacity of the old mill, improve the quality of its work, and extend its reputation until it was burned, October 29th, 1870.
The loss, including building, machinery, stock. etc., was large. There was no insurance, but the mill was immediately rebuilt of stone. upon a larger scale, and fitted with the best machinery then to be obtained. which has been bettered as often as new inventions have given opportu.
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nity. It is now called "The Pioneer Mill." in honor of the pioneer. Zenas Crane, although "The Old Berkshire" occupies the site upon which he first built.
Following the tendency of the times, or rather considerably in ad- vance of it, Crane & Co. gradually came to devote themselves to special . ties, including colored papers, paper for the manufacture of neck collars. which proved Incrative, Parchment, Bond, and Bank Note paper. Fi- nally they came to the exclusive product of the three last named varie- ties, and chiefly the Bank Note. For this they supply not only a large , portion of the general market, but the United States and several foreign governments exclusively.
In 1879 the Messrs. Crane were awarded the contract which they still hold for supplying the United States government with all the paper which it requires for national bank bills, bonds, certificates, and treasury notes. In order to properly fill this contract, they purchased the fine brick mill which Hon. Thomas Colt had built in 1863 at Coltsville, in Pittsfield, very near the Dalton line. This mill is 100 feet long by 50 wide, besides an attic and basement, and it has also a "lean-to" in the rear of 100 by 28 feet. It is popularly called "The Government Mill." from the fact of its being devoted exclusively to the manufacture of paper for the national government, whose flag constantly floats before it, and by whose officers it is constantly watched and guarded to prevent robbery of the distinctive paper made in it. For the same reason, ser- eral of its employes are detailed from the treasury department at Wash- ington. Winthrop Murray, the youngest, son of Hon. Z. M. Crane, is the immediate manager of the business. The Pioneer mill continues to make a considerable quantity of parchment and bond paper, but its chief product is bank note paper. Of this, even setting aside what they make under contract for the United States government. the Messrs. Crane send out from the Pioneer mill alone more than any other establishment in the world of the paper upon which the world's paper circulating medium is printed ; and this is simply because their integrity is beyond the shadow of a question and because by patiently acquired skill they have been able to produce an article which possesses in the highest degree the qualities required for its purposes : great strength of texture and a sur- face perfectly fitted for both engraving and writing.
In this connection there is an incident well worth telling for its moral. In 1846 it seemed to Zenas Marshall Crane, now the senior member of the Crane paper making family, that by the introduction into the fiber of bank bills of silken threads in numbers representing their respective de- nominations the fraudulent raising of their values from a lower to a higher grade might be prevented. The opinions of conservative bankers discouraged Mr. Crane from applying for a patent. Nearly twenty years afterward. however, when the government found it necessary for its pres- ervation to establish a national banking system. the practical men then at the head of its financial affairs deemed it expedient to adopt a plan
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essentially the same as that of Mr. Crane to prevent the counterfeiting of its paper. When this was done an Englishman appeared at Washing- ton with a claim as patentee. It fortunately happened that the Mahaiwe Bank of Great Barrington and a few others had adopted Mr. Crane's idea long before the date of the Englishman's patent, and preserved specimens of their bills exhibiting it. These men sent to Washington and saved the government from paying to a foreign party a royalty probably quite equal at least to all the profit which Crane & Co. ever derived from gov- ernment contracts.
We now come to the third generation of Crane paper makers, al- though two in this generation have been already mentioned incidentally.
Abont midway between the sites of the Old Red and the Government mill is an excellent water power upon which the Ashuelot woolen mill was built of stone in 1836. The history of that enterprise is told in its proper connection. After its failure the building and water power re- mained unoccupied until about 1850, when, under a lease, it was converted into a paper mill by the firm of Crane & Wilson, the active partners being Seymour Crane, the youngest son of the first Zenas, and. James Wilson. a skillful workman, who learned his trade of him, having become his apprentice in 1817. The mill, then known as " The Bay State," made buff and other writing papers, the buff being a favorite with Thurlow Weed, the New York editor and politician, and others, who conceived that the constant use of white paper is injurious to the eye.
George C. Martin, a son of Calvin Martin, of Pittsfield, soon after- ward bought an interest in the concern, and the firm became Crane. Mar- tin & Co. Mr. Martin died October 24th, 1859. In 1865 the property was leased by the eldest son of Hon. Z. M. Crane, Zenas Crane, jr., who after- ward bought up all the interests which had arisen in its succession of transfers. The new owner commenced the manufacture of fine papers of a more delicate character than had previously been made in the country. and continued it successfully until the mill was burned, May 15th, 1877.
A new structure of much better capacity at once took its place. the proprietors being Zenas Crane, jr., & Brother, and the junior partner. Winthrop Murray Crane. The manager of the business is Hon. Zenas Crane, jr., his brother being manager at the Pioneer and Government mills, in which he is also interested. The mill of Zenas Crane, jr .. & Brother is among the best of the country in its construction and appoint- ments. For safety against fire, and convenient arrangement for work, it is absolutely perfect, several important additions and improvements hav- ing been made since it was first built. Early in its history Mr. Zenas Crane, jr., madea tour among the paper making establishments of Europe. hoping to learn something to aid him in his own; but he found the European processes and machinery no better than the American, and came home wiser as to paper making, only to that extent.
The mill is fitted with machinery of astonishing delicacy and power,
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devoted to the manufacture of what the Paper World calls "The Cream of fine Stationery." Sometimes it is called Ladies' Stationery, and is known to the trade as "Wedding Goods." It consists of the choicest grades of paper and bristol board, such as are used for all dainty pur- poses ; notes of invitation, billet-doux, and all polite correspondence. Ladies do not consider their escritoires completely furnished without a full supply of these pearls of the paper mill, nor does any fashionable engraver consider his stock complete without the bristol board. The firm are more solicitous as to the quality than the quantity of their product. but they daily send to market an average of five thousand pounds of the choicest goods. Every swift and nice requirement in the vicissitudes of changeful fashion, in shape, edge, surface. or tint, meets a speedy and satisfactory response, if, as is more probable, the mill does not create the fashion.
It is no wonder that the purchasers of the Crane fine stationery are found wherever there are fastidious people fond of the beautiful all over this continent, and eren beyond the seas. "It is papers like these," says the Paper World, " that have taken control of the fine stationery market of the United States, which the English held until a few years ago when they were obliged to give it up because they could not make paper good enough for us." A great change this from the time of the first Zenas Crane, when the best American letter paper could not be sold to Ameri- can citizens, not very fastidious in other respects, without an English or a French imprint.
Zenas Crane, jr., & Brother have within the last three years estab. lished a library for the use of their employes at a cost of about $3,000, but its benefits are open to all who desire them. The building, a hand- some structure, stands near the mill and is surrounded by lawns and shade trees. The reading room is supplied with all the leading magazines and many of the principal newspapers, from the illustrated weekly to the daily sheet. The object of the Messrs. Crane is to provide a place where their friends can enjoy innocent and intellectual pleasure. The influence of the pioneer Zenas Crane has extended among his own de- scendants beyond Berkshire county, besides its great effects upon others. In 1843 his third son, Lindley Murray Crane, established a mil! at Balls- ton Spa, New York, where he resided until his death.
His grandsons, Robert B. and James A., have built up mills of great repute at Westfield, in Hampden county, where they manufacture ledger and linen paper, baskets, etc. Surely by pushing the paper into new varieties and new localities the descendants of Zenas Crane have proved that the pioneer spirit has not deserted the family. They honor their ancestor by following in his footsteps and pushing on where he pointed the way ; and still they all look back with reverence and pride to that little mill of 1801, with its imperfect appliances, its limited and almost local market.
Preliminary to the history of the splendid paper mills, built and
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CPANESYITHE LIBRARY.
M
UTHYRERS OF PAPER STA
TIONERY
A.
Z. CRANE. JR. & BRO., DALTON.
( ZENAS CRANE, Jr. ¡W. MURRAY CRANE.
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owned by ex- Lieutenant-Governor Byron Weston, some account of the leading members of the Weston family, which has long been prominent in Dalton, will be of interest.
Rev. Isaiah Weston, a man of liberal education. and at one time pastor of a Unitarian church in Fair Haven, came to Dalton in 1814. hav- ing previously been collector of the port of New Bedford under Madison's appointment. He was active in the measures for the protection of that coast against British cruisers, and was of course a democrat of that period. In all his relations he was active and energetic. He married Sarah, daugh- ter of Eliab Dean, of Taunton, who represented the Bristol district in Congress. He was a busy man in Dalton. building the first woolen mill in town, and being also engaged with his brother-in-law, Colonel Thomas Green, in the smelting furnace and foundry elsewhere mentioned. His death, in 1821, at the age of only forty-eight, was a serious misfortune to the town. He left five children: Grenville, Franklin, Sarah. Isaiah, and Josiah.
Grenville, better known as Colonel Weston, was a man of note and influence in town, county, and church affairs. Locally, he is remem- bered as a popular and efficient militia officer ; a man of large and stal- wart frame, over six feet high, and weighing 250 pounds. He held many offices of trust. the last being that of county commissioner. for which he was especially well fitted. He lost much of his large property by the great failure of his brother-in-law, Henry Marsh, Esq., for whom he had endorsed heavily. He died in 1866, at the age of sixty-nine. He left three children, Grenville, Sarah, and Harriet, all now living in the West- ern States.
Franklin engaged in the woolen manufacture, but was not very suc- cessful in it. He was among the foremost men in the masonic order, and master of Mystic Lodge, of Pittsfield, when it suspended work on account of the Morgan excitement. Twenty years after, when, the excitement having passed, the lodge resumed work, he resumed his post. He died in 1867.
Isaiah was a partner of his brother Franklin in the woolen mill and the store connected with it, and also engaged a little in farming, as almost all men of means, whatever their main occupation, did at that time. He married Caroline Curtis. He removed to Tremont, Ill., in 1835, where he died soon afterward, leaving four children : Isaiah, who now lives in Colorado ; Byron, the Dalton paper manufacturer; and two who are dead.
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