USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1913 > Part 39
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
No great business house in Cambridge has a more interesting history than the John P. Squire Company. When John P. Squire started in business in 1842 he was the entire concern and his plant was a wheelbarrow. Today the company employs one thousand men in its plant at East Cambridge alone. This means that fully five thousand people, or a large-sized town, are dependent upon this concern. This does not include the great chain of wholesale houses throughout New England and the millions of dollars that are paid annually to farmers through- out Iowa, Illinois and in sections of Ohio for hogs. The success of the John P. Squire Com- pany from its humble beginning to the great success of today is a romance in business that has no rival in fiction.
When John P. Squire started to kill hogs for the Boston market he chose a site along what was then the Miller river, a section that is now the busy manufacturing section of Cambridge and Somerville. He chose this site because he could dispose of the garbage of his plant in the creek. Here he started killing hogs and carted them along the turnpike to Harvard Square and into Boston via what is now Allston and the Back Bay. This was the only way he could get to Boston in those days. The carcass was taken to North Street, Boston, where it was cut up for the trade. Up to within a few years the little shed or shanty where Mr. Squire did his work stood in the center of the present plant, but it was torn down to make room for another large building of the plant.
Success met Mr. Squire's efforts from the start. He worked hard and prospered.
The packing industry of this country had its origin at the Squire plant. He was the origina- tor of the packing system as it is now carried on throughout the country. The work up to this time had been done by butchers. Through the original efforts of Mr. Squire the packing busi- ness has developed in this country as in no other nation in the world.
As Mr. Squire's business increased he found that he must butcher in the summer time if he wished to keep pace with his trade. Animal food to be cured must be kept at a temperature of thirty-eight degrees or less until the process is completed. This necessitated his butchering
only in the winter time. Mr. Squire built a large ice-house with a room in the center. He found that by packing ice all around this room he could maintain a temperature so that he could kill hogs during the summer months. This was an immense task, however, as hundreds of men had to be employed winters to gather an ice supply sufficient to last during the summer months. The freshly-killed carcasses coming into this chilled room, added to the presence of a large force of workmen, consumed immense quantities of ice. For a number of years he could not secure an ice supply to carry him through the summer months with his constantly increasing business. Finally over one thousand men were employed to cut ice from ponds throughout this section of the State during the winter months to supply ice for the great icehouse which he built. Candle light was used inside the packing house and this consumed large quantities of ice. Finally a gas plant was in- stalled to take the place of the candle light. Mr. Squire manufactured his own gas and sold the coke. One of the old coke pits is still a part of the present works and is used as a storage place for chemicals.
Even with the iced refrigerating rooms the products of the plant could not all be properly cured during the summer months. There was yearly a heavy loss caused by some of the meat spoiling because it could not be kept at the right temperature.
Another great difficulty was in the employ- ment of men. While one thousand men were engaged in the winter in harvesting ice, jobs could not be found for them during the summer months. Most of the help that worked for Mr. Squire in the winter time had to find other employment during the summer months.
It was about twenty-five years ago that the present system of artificial refrigeration was discovered. This solved the problem of the meat packers, and the tremendous business of the present Squire Company came as a result of modern refrigeration. Modern refrigeration caused other packing companies to spring into existence, but they came without the struggle and romance of beginning that had been the story of the John P. Squire Company.
Under the old system of refrigeration the
INDUSTRIES
295
packing year was divided into two seasons. One was the summer and the other the winter packing season. The summer season was from March to November and the winter period from November to March. These terms of winter and summer packing are still used in the trade, although packing is carried on just as much in the hottest of the summer months as in the winter time. But the trade papers and even the government reports still cling to the old system of dividing the packing season into sum- mer and winter seasons and giving the statistics
panic of 1907, when money was so scarce that but very few industries were able to pay off their help in cash. One of the great exceptions to this rule was the John P. Squire Company. Every man in its employ received cash during the panic. The company's daily receipts in cash from its local business was enough for its weekly payroll, and when banks could not take care of their payroll the management used its own cash supply. The present Squire Company plant covers nineteen acres of land and one million feet of floor space. There are seven
JOHN F
E & CD 1885
JOHNSON- THOMPSON
JOHN P. SQUIRE BUILDING
of the two seasons in all their reports and quo- tations.
The present Squire plant is a marvel in its size, cleanliness and modern equipment.
It is a man's industry. There is but one woman and fifteen girls employed in the plant. The woman and girls are employed in the pack- ing room. All the other work of the great plant is done by over one thousand men, who are constantly upon the pay roll.
The stability and soundness of the Squire Company as a New England institution was well illustrated during the disastrous financial
acres used for artificial refrigeration. Four enormous ice machines have a capacity of seven hundred and fifty tons a day. What is known as packer town, the three great concerns in the neighborhood of the Squire plant, have an ice capacity sufficient to supply the whole city of Boston, if its ice men should go on strike and refuse to supply ice.
The John P. Squire Company is complete in itself. It maintains its own machine, carpenter, paint, blacksmith and electrical shops and a box mill with a capacity of turning out one million feet of lumber a month. It has its own
296
A HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
cooper shop, its own masons and plumbers and does all its own repair work. There is a dupli- cate of every part of every machine used in the plant constantly on hand in case of accident. The plant is run night and day, and Sunday is the only time that the huge plant is idle.
The plant has a capacity of killing and dressing six thousand hogs a day, but the usual run is from twenty-five hundred to three thousand hogs a day.
The selection of hogs for the John P. Squire Company is one of the features that have made its products notable for their excellence. Throughout the great hog-raising districts of the Middle West there is a brand of hogs known as the "Squire kind," and this means that they are the best that a farmer raises. He picks out of his herd of hogs the "Squire kind," and sends the rest to the great packing houses in Chicago in one lot. For the "Squire kind" he is paid a better price than he gets for other hogs, which are usually sold as a whole. The Company maintains stations along the Mississippi River for the collection of these hogs, which are taken by the train load and shipped to its plant in East Cambridge.
All along the route the company maintains feeding and watering stations so that the hogs arrive at the plant prime and healthy.
The Company distributes its products along the entire Atlantic Coast and the New England States and the Provinces. It maintains branch packing houses equipped with cold storage plants in all the large New England cities. The Company also does a large export business, sending its products to the British Isles, Norway and Sweden, Russia and Germany, Italy and Spain. On account of a high protective tariff none are sent to France.
Mr. Squire introduced the first "Pure Food Bill" ever written as a law in the State of Ver- mont. He found that other packers had been adulterating their lard. He used only the pure leaf and he scorned adulteration. He tried to have his "Pure Food Bill" passed in Massa- chusetts, but the opposition of other packers was so strong that he did not succeed. He finally had the bill passed in Vermont, thereby giving that State the honor of passing the first "Pure Food Law." Mr. Squire spent a large fortune in trying to get Congress to pass a pure food bill in 1895, but was unsuccessful. Mr. Squire always insisted upon only the most pure of products being sent from his factory. This high standard has always been maintained. It was conspicuous how little change was necessary at this plant when the recent pure food law was passed. The only changes the company had to make was in a few cases where the law called for the percentages of different materials used. Its labels of "pure" were made years ago and had always stood.
The John P. Squire Company is the largest manufacturer of sausages east of Chicago. Its goods are sold strictly fresh to the retail trade, and New England is one of the greatest sausage consuming communities in the world. By its chain of branch houses the company puts on the market only goods that are strictly fresh and perfect in every respect.
The purity of the Squire products is open to any who care to see. There are no secret rooms in the Squire plant. In the hands of accommo- dating guides, men and women throughout the east daily visit the plant in East Cambridge and marvel at the care and cleanliness with which the products are produced.
INDUSTRIES
297
One of the most notable manufacturing insti- tutions in Cambridge is the factory of Mason & Hamlin Co., located at 162 Broadway, where are made the celebrated Mason & Hamlin pianos. It is visited by manufacturers and musicians from all over the world, and has been called an atelier rather than a factory, owing to the artistic atmosphere which envelops the place.
It has often been said that an organization, corporation or institution, just as a family,
returned to this country in the early fifties. He was casting about for some pursuit and fell in with a young man by the name of Emmons Hamlin, who had been at work in Buffalo making melodeons. Hamlin, with a spark of genius had made a rich discovery, namely the art of voicing reeds, and by this discovery opened up an El Dorado of tone quality for the instrument. With small capital Henry Mason and Emmons Hamlin joined forces and started, in 1854, under the firm name of Mason
MASON & HAMLIN, ORGAN AND PIANO FACTORY
receives its color or characteristics from its head. This is strongly apparent in the case of the Mason & Hamlin Co. Since its inception in 1854, the ideals of this eminent house have been high and lofty.
The founder of the House, Henry Mason, was a son of Dr. Lowell Mason, one of the most illustrious educators and pioneers in the building up of music in this country. Having graduated from a German University, young Henry Mason
& Hamlin, the manufacture of melodeons. Before long they developed the instrument into what has since been known as the American Cabinet organ, a name which they coined and copyrighted. In all great world expositions in this country and abroad wherever these instruments have been exhibited, they have invariably received the highest possible awards and honors, a fact made doubly noteworthy when it is considered that no other American
298
A HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
instrument of similar kind ever received the highest award at any great foreign exposition.
In 1882, imbued still with the same lofty ideals as to quality, they added the manufacture of pianos to their industry. The Mason & Hamlin piano sprang by leaps and bounds into public favor. It was greeted by musical associations, by the world's greatest musicians, by the most eminent virtuosi of the day, as an artistic in- strument par excellence.
In the meantime the third generation of Masons, born and reared under the same shib- boleth which had served their father and their grandfather, worked unremittingly for the maintenance of the highest quality in the in- struments produced by the Mason & Hamlin Co. Associated with this third generation has been a remarkable man, Richard W. Gertz, an expert in piano construction, recognized through- out the world as one of the greatest of all times. Together they have worked for a common end, the highest possible acme in pianoforte con- struction. A new system of piano construction was evolved, overcoming the inherent weak- nesses in the old systems and resulting in what is admittedly the finest piano the world has ever seen.
In 1900 the Mason & Hamlin Tension Reso- nator was introduced in all Mason & Hamlin Grand Pianos, a device which is justly regarded
as one of the three great epoch-making discov- eries in pianoforte construction, the first being the French action, introduced in 1821, the second the full iron frame and overstrung scale intro- duced in 1859, and the third the Mason & Ham- lin Tension Resonator, introduced in 1900, the most important of the three, as it pertains to tone production and permanency. Without it a piano gradually loses its tone; with it, its tone is maintained permanently with its pristine beauty and sonority.
A visit to the great plant of Mason & Hamlin Co. will show conclusively why the Mason & Hamlin piano is today the highest-priced piano in the world, and why it is conceded to have gone ahead of what the world has heretofore seen in piano construction.
The same principle which was in evidence at the inception of the Company is today at work with splendid energy and ceaseless activity. There is but one real end in view, and that is to make a contribution to the world's artistic in- struments which shall ever and ever set its standard higher and higher. At the head of the Company are men who are abreast of the times in matters artistic and scientific, as well as financial, men whose moral structures are such that they could not rest easy were they not producing results in advance of their fellows.
The Fresh Pond Ice Company and Cambridge people are indeed fortunate in the source of supply at their command. The Company took its name from Fresh Pond in this city, the origi- nal source of the city's water supply. When ice cutting was forced off this pond the Fresh Pond Ice Company was compelled to seek another place to obtain its supply. More for- tunate still were the people of this city when the company secured rights on Lake Muscatanapus at Brookline, N.H., for here was found a supply fully equal if not better than that of Fresh Pond. This New Hampshire lake is situated among the rocks and woodlands of the Old Granite State, about sixty-five miles from Boston, in the little town of Brookline, secluded, peaceful
and picturesque. This lake, itself fed by two mountain streams and innumerable crystal springs, gets its name from the Indians, who, pleased with the clearness and purity of its waters, called it in their language, Muscatanapus -The Great Mirror.
On the eastern shore, surrounded by tall pines are the big white buildings of solid and enduring construction comprising the extensive plant of the Fresh Pond Ice Company. The ice is stored in the houses thirty tiers high, and the capacity of these houses is from 65,000 to 75,000 tons. The lake yields during an average season 150,000 tons.
The Company's New Hampshire plant is a most complete one. Order and neatness every-
BU LING. L.
GRAY & DAVIS COMPANY BUILDING
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION BUILDING
STA.K.HEWS & CO.ME
-
1165
-
A.HEWS
A. H. HEWS & CO., INC. MANUFACTURERS OF POTTERY
The insert shows the original building, erected in 1765. The large picture gives a fairly accurate idea of the present group of buildings, though since it was made there have been several additions.
299
INDUSTRIES
where prevail. The grounds and surroundings are in keeping with the rest of the plant and it would seem as though the sanitary and hygienic conditions had been the point always in the minds of the promoters of this vast enterprise. The Company owns and controls the land on all sides of the lake and along the banks of the streams which have their source in the mountains beyond. No mills or hamlets are allowed any- where near the banks, and every possible pre- caution is taken to insure the purity of the water. In fact, the Company now owns several hundred acres of land adjacent to the lake and rivers. The Company has the reputation of cutting the purest ice in the country, and this fact is admitted by experts who have analyzed and scientifically examined it.
The main yards for the distribution of the ice and the general offices are situated on the Fitchburg division of the Boston & Maine Rail- road, a short distance above the Union Square Station, Somerville. While the principal end of the retail business is carried on from the Somerville yard, the Company's property on Crescent Avenue, North Cambridge, aids ma-
terially in expediting the delivery of ice in that vicinity.
The Fresh Pond Ice Company, organized in 1882, is the outgrowth of the business established by Jacob Hittinger, one of the pioneers in the ice business of this country. He was among the first shippers of ice to Calcutta and the West Indies, but after the ice-shipping trade was largely transferred to other ports or supplanted by the ice machine, he developed an extensive local trade. Upon the death of Mr. Hittinger in 1880, his son, Thomas S. Hittinger, succeeded to the business. When the company was in- corporated in 1887, T. S. Hittinger became its superintendent, a position which he held until his death, October 26, 1904. Mr. Hittinger's inventive faculty and great experience in the harvesting and storage of ice placed him at the head of his profession and the Company's plant at Brookline, N.H., which was designed and perfected by him, will be a lasting evidence of his ability. The present officers of the Company are Josiah Q. Bennett, president; E. A. Daven- port, treasurer; H. H. Davenport, assistant treasurer; and E. L. Hadley, superintendent.
With the development of modern civilization, articles which at one time were looked upon as luxuries, if in fact they were known at all, have come to be ranked among the necessities of life. Ice is a typical illustration of this development, for ice has come to be one of the primary comforts of the people and is regarded as a necessity not only in warm seasons, but throughout the entire year. In a large city like Cambridge the sup- plying of ice to its inhabitants is a no unimpor- tant industry. The Cambridge Ice Company is one of the larger concerns engaged in the ice business in this city and adjacent territory. The Company has been in existence under one name or another since 1847, when the business was established as the Durgin Ice Company. It was incorporated under its present style in 1896, with a paid-up capital of $40,000.00. J. E. ยท Kimball, who is very familiar with the ice
business, has been treasurer and manager of the Company since its incorporation. The Company's office and distributing plant, stables and storage house are located on Cottage Park Avenue, North Cambridge, where there is a storehouse with a capacity of 40,000 tons, prac- tically every inch of which is made use of by the Company for its business. A considerable quantity of ice is shipped to outside points, as the storehouse is connected with the main line of the Boston & Maine Railroad by a spur track. The principal part of the business of the Com- pany is done in Cambridge and vicinity, where thirty-three wagons are called into requisition. From seventy-five to one hundred employees are carried on the pay roll.
The ice houses of the Company are located at Spy Pond, in Arlington, and its annual crop is from 30,000 to 40,000 tons.
300
A HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
One of the notable modern buildings of Cam- bridge is the Shoe and Leather Exposition Building, which lends picturesqueness to the Cambridge bank of the Charles River. It is a source of self-congratulation to all progressive citizens that this structure has been allowed to remain one of the permanent landmarks of the city. This building is now the home of the J. Frank Cutter automobile industry. For about twenty-five years Mr. Cutter has been identified
with the carriage and automobile business, first with Hugh Stewart & Company. This firm now is J. Frank Cutter, having been so the past five years. The firm has been located in the Shoe and Leather Exposition building since the first of February, 1911. The firm is one of the most extensive builders of Limousines and Landaulet bodies, automobile tops and slip covers, and also paints and upholsters cars.
THE WARREN BROTHERS COMPANY, the origi- nators of the bitulithic pavement, with its head- quarters in Boston, has a large manufacturing plant and laboratory located on Potter Street, this city, and employs many citizens of Cam- bridge, both at its plant and in its street work here and in Boston.
pavements which have been laid are all in good condition and are a credit to both the Company and the City.
Bitulithic pavement was laid on Temple Street in Cambridge, in 1901, and its use has been continued in increasing quantities since then. The city should be congratulated in
PLANT OF WARREN BROTHERS COMPANY
In the past eleven years the citizens of Cam- bridge have seen a number of different forms of pavement used on its streets, many of which have not been satisfactory, while the bitulithic
having the bitulithic pavement for a number of its prominent streets, and the policy recom- mended by the paving commission of continuing the work along main thoroughfares is sure to
301
INDUSTRIES
meet with the hearty approval of the citizens. The bitulithic pavement in this city is laid on a concrete base, the excavation and concrete work being done by the city with municipal labor.
Upon the foundation is spread the wearing surface which is compressed with a heavy road roller to a thickness of two inches. The surface is made of the best stone obtainable, varying in size from a maximum of one-quarter inch to dust. The proportion of the different size of stone being so arranged that the finer fit into the interstices of the coarser, so as to reduce the air spaces or voids between the stones. The proportion used of the various sizes of mineral are predetermined by physical tests, with a view to obtain the smallest percentage of air spaces or voids in the mineral mixture and vary with the character and shape of particles of the stone in each particular case.
After the proportions have been determined, the mineral material is passed through a rotary dryer, from which it is carried by an elevator and through a rotary screen which separates the mineral material in several different sizes. The proper proportions by weight of each of these sizes is secured by the use of a "multi- beam scale," and the exact required amount being weighed out into a twin pug rotary mixer, where it is combined with the bituminous ce- ment accurately weighed in proper proportions. The mixture is then dumped while hot into carts and hauled to the streets, spread and thoroughly rolled with a heavy steam roller. Upon this is spread a flush coat of special bituminous cement, thoroughly sealing and waterproofing the surface. There is then applied a thin layer
of finely crushed stone, which is rolled into the surface, making it rough, and thereby affording a good foothold for horses and a surface upon which automobiles will not skid.
Cambridge was one of the pioneer cities to adopt this kind of construction for its streets in 1901, when it was first introduced, and it now has eighteen streets aggregating one hun- dred and thirty-five thousand square yards of bitulithic pavement. While Cambridge has largely increased its area of bitulithic pave- ment, its development in this city is much less in proportion than the increase of its use throughout the United States and Canada, as is shown by the following table:
DEVELOPMENT OF BITULITHIC PAVEMENT
Year
Cities
Square Yards
1901
7
16,400
1902
33
400,831
1903
40
915,630
1904
45
1,041,724
1905
42
1,041,327
1906
57
1,508,095
1907
66 1,924,222
1908
62 1,676,433
1909
74.
2,071,987
1910
97
3,047,276
1911
99
4,189,182
1912.
103. 4,785,327
(Laid and under contract July 31, 1912) 1,285 miles roadway, 30 ft. wide be-
tween curbs
22,618,434
Laid and under contract July 31, 1911. .
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.