History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 229

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 229

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At the winter session of the Legislature of 1844-45 this company petitioned for a charter, which was granted, and the act was approved by Gov. Briggs in March, 1845.

" CHARTER 1844.

" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Gener- al Court assembled, and by the authority of the Same as follows :

"SECT. I. Samuel Lawrence, John Nesmith, Daniel Saunders and Edmund Bartlett, their Associates and Successors, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Essex Company, for the purpose of constructing a dam across Merrimack river, and constructing one or more locks and canals in connection with said dam, to remove ob- structions in said river by falls and rapids, from Hnut's Falls to the month of Shawsheen river, and to create a water-power to use, or sell, or lease to other persons or Corporations, to use for manufacturing and mechanical purposes ; and for these purposes, shall have all the powers and privileges, and be subject to all the duties and liabilities and re- strictions set forth in the 38th and 44th Chapters of the Revised Sta- tutes.

"SECY. II. Said Corporation may hold real estate notexceeding, excln- sive of the expenditure for the dan & Canals, three hundred thousand dollars. And the whole capital stock of said corporation shall not ex- ceed one million dollars, and said stock shall be divided into shares not exceeding one hundred dollars each.

" SECT. III. The said corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to construct and maintain a dam across said river, either at Deer Jump Falls, or Bodwell's Falls, or some point in said river between said falls, and all such canals and locks as may be necessary for the purposes aforesaid ; and for the purpose of making said dam, and constructing the main canal for navigation or transports, may take, occupy and inclose any of the lands adjoining said canals and locks, or dam, which may be necessary for building or repairing the same, for towing paths and other necessary purposes, not exceeding twenty feet on each side of said canal or locks, and may blow up and remove any rocks in said river, and dig in any of the lands near the said river, through which it may be neces- Bary to pass said main canal, provided that said corporation shall not obstruct the passage of rafts, masts, or floats of timber down said river, earlier than the first day of June, in building said dam, nor keep the siune obstructed for a longer time than five months before the opening of said canal for the passage thereof.

"Srcr. IV. If there shall be occasion, in the prosecution of the pow. ers and purposes aforesaid, to make a canal across any public highway, or if highways shall bereafter be laid ont across euch canal, it shall be the duty of said corporation to make sufficient bridges across said canal, and to keep them in good repair.

"SKIT. V. Tbe said corporation shall make and maintain in the dam so built by them across said river, suitable and reasonable fish ways, to be kept open at such seasons as are necessary and nenal for the passage of fiel).

" SECT. VI. The quid corporation shall erect, and forever maintain such canal and locks as shall be necessary around any dam constructed by them ; the lock to be not less than twenty feet in width, and ninety feet in length ; aod said canal shall be eo constructed, that there shall be easy, safe and convenient access to, and egress from, the same, with fastenings and moorings for the reconstruction of rafts or floats, after the egress ; and shall be free, and not subject to any charges whatever for the passage of rafts of wood and lumber, masts and floats of timber. aint be tended by a keeper employed by said corporation, and opened at all reasonable times, promptly, for such passage.

SECT. VII. The tishways in said dam, and the entrance and exit of said canal, and the moorings and fastenings at the exit, shall be made to the satisfaction of the County Commissionere of the County of Essex, who sball, on application to them by said corporation, after due notice, in

such manner as they shall deem reasonable, to all persons interested therein, and a hearing of the parties, prescribe the mode of constructing the same ; and any person who shall be dissatisfied with the construction thereof, when the same are completed, may make complaint to said County Commissioners, setting forth that the same, or either ot them, are not constructed according to the prescription of said commissioners : and said commissioners, after due notice as aforesaid, chall proceed to examine the same, and shall accept the same, if they shall be of opinion that they are built and made accordiog to ench prescriptions : or if they shall be of opinion that the same are not made according to the pre- scription, may require the same to be further made and completed till they shall be satisfied to accept the same: and the expenses of said commissioners, in such examination shall be paid by said corporation.

"SECT. VIII. Any person who shall be damaged in his property by said corporation, in cutting or making canals through his land, or by flowing the same, or in any other way io carrying into effect the powers hereby granted, uoless said corporation shall, within thirty days after re- quest in writing, pay or tender to said person a reasonable satisfaction therefor, shall have the same remedies as are provided by law for persons damaged by railroad corporations, io the 39th Chap. of the Revised Statutes.

"SECT. IX. For the purpose of reimbursing said corporation in part for the cost and expense of keeping said locks and canals in repair, and io tending the same, and in clearing the passages necessary for the transit of boats and merchandise, and other articles through said canal, the following toll is hereby established and granted to said corporation, on all goods, boats and merchandise, except rafts of wood and lumber masts and floats of timber passing down said canal, aud on all goods car- ried up through said canal, namely : on salt, lime, plaster, bar iron, pig iron, iron castings, anthracite coal, stone and hay, eight cents per ton of twenty-two hundred and forty ponnds ; ou bituminous coal, twelve cents per chaldron of thirty-six bushels ; on brick, sixteen cents per thousand ; on manure, fifty cents per load ; on oak timber, thirty-five cents per too of forty cubic feet ; on pioe plank and bourds, thirty cents per thousand, board measure ; on ash and other hard stuff, forty cents per thousand, board measure; on posts and rails, fifteen cents per hundred ; on tree nails, thirty ceuts per thousand ; on hop poles, twenty cents per thou- sand ; on hard wood, twenty cents per cord ; on pine wood, sixteen cents per cord ; on bark, twenty cents per cord ; on white oak pipe staves, one dollar per thousand ; on red oak pipe staves, sixty-seven cents per thou- sand; on white oak bogshead staves, sixty cents per thousand ; on red oak hogshead staves, forty cents per thousand; on white oak barrel staves, twenty cents per thousand ; on hogshead hoops, sixteen cents per thousand ; on barrel hoops, twelve cents per thousand; on hogshead hoop-poles, thirty cents per thousand ; ou barrel hoop poles, twenty cents per thousand ; on all articles of merchandise not enumerated, ten cents per ton of twenty-two hundred and forty pounds ; provided that the rates of toll aforesaid shall be subject to the direction of the Legislature.

"SECT. X. The said dam shall not be built to flow the water in said river higher than the foot of Hunt's Falls in the ordinary run and amount of water in the river, and a commission of three competent per- son8, to be appointed, one by the said corporation, and one by the pro- prietors of the locks and canals of Merrimac River ; and a third by the two thus appointed, shall, upon the application of either party, fix and determine, by permanent monuments, the point in said river, which is the foot of ITunt'e Falls ; and shall also, upon the like application, fix and determine the height of the damn of this corporation, and of the flash - boards to be used thereon, whose award and determination shall be final and binding upon all parties forever. And if either party shall refuse, after request in writing by tho other, for the space of thirty days, to name such commissioner, or in case of a vacancy in such commission, for any cause, either party may apply to the Governor of this Common- wealth, who is hereby empowered to fill such vacancy. And the said point of the foot of Hunt's Falls shall be fixed within sixty days after such application to the commissioners, and the height of the permanent damı shall be fixed and determined within one year after such applica- tion.

SECY. XI. Thie act shall take effect from and after its passage. (Ap- proved by the Governor March 20, 18:45.)"

On the same day that the act received the approval of the Governor, a party of gentlemen, the pioneers in the establishment of American manufactures, vis- ited the Falls at Andover, and before the close of the day had purchased of the Water-Power Association

867

LAWRENCE.

all their right and interests in the Falls for the stipu- lated sum of $30,000. This party included Abbott Lawrence, William Lawrence, Samuel Lawrence, John A. Lowell, George W. Lyman, Nathan Apple- ton, Theodore Lyman, Patrick T. Jackson, William Sturgis, John Nesmith, Jonathan Tyler, and the engineers, James B. Francis and Charles S. Storrow.

On the 22d (two days later), subscriptions were received to the stock of the new company, Mr. Abbott Lawrence heading the list by a subscription to one thousand shares of one hundred dollars each; others followed in varying sums-fifty, forty, thirty, twenty and ten thousand dollars each, and less, until the whole amount of stock, one million dollars, was taken, and with little delay, for on the 16th of April following the company organized by the choice of Abbott Lawrence, Nathan Appleton, Patrick T. Jack- son, John A. Lowell, Ignatius Sargent, William Sturgis and Charles S. Storrow as Directors.

At the first meeting of the Directors, Abbott Law- rence was elected President, and remained in office till his decease, with the exception of the time when he was the American Minister to England, when J. Wiley Edmands occupied the position. Mr. Storrow was the Treasurer and General Agent of the Company till 1882, when he was succeeded by the present. Treasurer, Howard Stockton.

A very cursory glance at the history of these men will suffice to show that they were eminently qualified for the task they had undertaken of founding a new town.

Patrick Tracy Jackson, the youngest son of Hon. Jonathan Jackson, of Newburyport, was born August 14, 1780; received his early education in the public schools of his native town, and afterward at Dummer Academy, Byfield. When about fifteen, he was appren- ticed to Mr. William Bartlett, a merchant of New- buryport. At the age of twenty-eight, he engaged in mercantile business in Boston, his acquaintance with the East India trade (he had made several voyages to India) specially fitting him for that branch of business ; and he continned in the East and West Indies trade till the breaking out of the War of 1812. At this time, his brother-in-law, Francis C. Lowell, who had returned from a long visit to England and Scotland, conceived the idea that the cotton manu- facture, then almost monopolized by Great Britain, might be advantageously prosecuted at home. We had the raw material; and the character of our popu- lation-educated, moral, enterprising-could not fail, he thought, to secure success, though England had the advantage of cheap labor, improved machinery, and reputation.1 Most of us, at the present day, sur- rounded as we are with manufacturing establishments, are not apt to realize the boldness of this undertaking, or the obstacles to be overcome. Neither machinery, patterns, nor drawings could be had from England,

for we were then at war; and even in time of peace, it would not have been an easy task, since it was but a few years before (1809) that William Hewitt was fined at the Middlesex Sessions in the sum of £500 and imprisoned for three months, for enticing an English artificer, John Hutchinson, a dyer, to emigrate with him to the United States, to be employed in a cotton manufactory ; and Hutchinson himself was put under bonds to remain at home. Messrs. Knapp & Baldwin, attorneys at law, in writing of this case, proceed to say : "This is an offence against the law, of which few are aware of the consequences, or of the national loss arising from its infraction ; yet it is a statute which-as a nation of trade and agriculture, of the arts and sciences-is highly necessary to the welfare of our country. To have the secrets of our inventions clandestinely carried into foreign countries, must cer- tainly roh us of a part of the fruit of our ingenuity, and consequently reduce the price of labor," &c.2

At this time there was not a power-loom in the United States-mills for spinning were in operation- but weaving was performed by hand-looms. Mr. Lowell associating with himself his brother-in-law, Mr. Jackson, in the enterprise which he proposed to undertake, gave his first attention to the invention of a power-loom. Partially successful in this, he called to his aid Mr. Paul Moody, an ingenious mechanic of Newburyport, subsequently eminent at Lowell. The loom, after some alterations, was brought to comple- tion, other machinery invented, and in 1813 the " Boston Manufacturing Company," at Waltham, was chartered, and erected the first mill, complete in itself, which converted the raw cotton into finished cloth.3 Of this company Mr. Jackson became Presi- dent. In 1817, after Mr. Lowell's death, Mr. Jackson relinquished mercantile pursuits and devoted his attention to manufacturing. In 1821 he purchased the Pawtucket Canal, and secured the water-power of the Merrimack at Chelmsford, and thus laid the foun- dation for the town, which was incorporated in 1825, under the name of Lowell, in honor of his friend and co-worker, Francis C. Lowell. On the completion of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company's mills, Mr. Jackson became a director. He was Treasurer of the Hamilton Mills, Lowell, 1829 to 1832; also Treasurer of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, 1838 to 1845.

In 1830, better facilities being needed for trans- porting the products of the new mills to the seaboard than were offered by the old-time canal and baggage- wagon, Mr. Jackson, in connection with Mr. Kirk Boott, determined upon the new project of a Railway. They had watched with much interest the proceedings of Mr. Stephenson in England, and the apparent suc-

2 See " Newgate Calendar," vol. 5, London.

3 The first mill for producing yarn by machinery was built at Beverly, 1789, the members of that corporation being Jobn, George, Andrew and Deborah Cabot, Joshua Fisher, Henry Higginson, Moses Brown, Israel Thorndike and Isaac Chapman. This was a brick mill, driven by borse- power, and was assisted by the State.

1 Mrs. E. Yale Smith's History of Newburyport.

868

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

cess of Stephenson's experiments encouraged the Legislature to grant a charter for the purpose of car- rying out the project. Engineers were consulted here and abroad, and the first passenger railroad in New England, the Boston and Lowell, was opened for travel in 1835.

Nathan Appleton was a son of Deacon Isaac Ap- pleton, of New Ipswich, N. H., and a descendant of Captain Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich, who com- manded the Massachusetts troops in the Indian war known as King Philip's war, 1675. He was born in 1779, and, after fitting himself at the New Ipswich Academy, entered Dartmouth College at the age of fifteen. He changed his plans and went into mer- cantile business with his brother Samuel in Boston. In 1810 he made a visit to Europe for the purpose of extending his business relations ; and while there met with Francis C. Lowell, and became interested in his plans of introducing manufactures in the United States, and on his return was associated with Messrs. Lowell & Jackson as one of the proprietors of the Waltham Factory. He was also associated with Mr. Jackson and Kirk Boott in the purchase of the water-power at Pawtucket Falls, and was the pro- jector and largest proprietor of the Hamilton Com- pany at Lowell.

Mr. Appleton was in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1815, and served till 1827, and three years later (1830) was elected to the House of Representatives in the United States Congress.

On the expiration of his term he declined a re- election, but in 1842 was again elected to supply the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Winthrop. He was the author of several pamphlets on currency, banking and the tariff.

Robert C. Winthrop wrote a memorial of him, in which he says,-

"Persistent courage and inflexible integrity were indeed the two lending elements of Mr. Appleton's character, and constituted the se- crets of his great success. To these, more than to any thing else, he owed hie fortune and his fame. Hle displayed his boldness by embarking in untried enterprises, by advocating unpopular doctrines, by resisting popular prejudices, by confronting the most powerful and accomplished opponents in oral or written arguments, and by shrinking from no con- troversy into which the independent expression of his opinions might lead him. His integrity was manifested where all the work might read it, in the daily doings of a long mercantile career, and in the principlee which he inculcated in so many forms of moral, commercial and finan- eial discussion."

And in 1861 Mr. Winthrop again writes,-

" Not many men, indeed, have exercised a more important influence among us during the last half-century than the late Hon. Nathan Apple- ton ; not many men have done more than Le has done in promoting the interests and sustaining the institutions to which New England bas owed so much of its prosperity and welfare. No man has done more by example and by precept to elevate the standard of mercantile character, and to exhibit the purenita of commerce in proud association with the highest integrity, liberality and ability." )

A street in Lawrence bears his name, on which are located two of the public buildings, the city hall and court-house.

John Amory Lowell was son of John Lowell and grandson of Judge Lowell of the United States Cir- cuit Court. He graduated (Harvard College 1815) at the age of sixteen, and commenced his business edu- cation at the house of Kirk Boott & Sons, to whose business he succeeded in partnership with the eldest son, Mr. John Wright Boott.

In 1827 he was treasurer of the Boston Manufactur- ing Company at Waltham, succeeding Patrick T. Jackson, and held that position till 1844. In 1835 he built the Boot mill at Lowell, and was treasurer of the Boott Company thirteen years, and, as president and director till his death, contributed largely to its success.

In 1839 he built the Massachusetts Mills, of which he was also the treasurer till 1848 and a director through life; was also a director in the Lake Com- pany and the Lowell machine-shop. He was asso- ciated with Abbott Lawrence and others in the crea- tion of the Essex Company at Lawrence and a di- rector of the Pacific Mills until age compelled him to relinquish some of his cares.

Mr. Lowell was also for fifty-nine years a director of the Suffolk Bank, Boston, and in 1824 originated the system of redemption of country bank notes. He was also one of the fellows of Harvard College for forty years, and for a longer period trustee of the Lowell Institute. He was an accomplished classical scholar, an eminent mathematician, an able botanist and a rare linguist. Generous in his impulsos, he delighted in aiding younger men, and was always ready to give to any cause that appealed to his gen- erosity. Snch a union of business capacity, literary and scientific attainments, unsullied integrity and un- ostentatious generosity, formed a rare combination, and enabled him in a long life of untiring industry to do much for the advancement of his generation, and to add a lustre to the honored name he bore. Born November 11, 1798, he died October 31, 1881.2

Hon. Charles S. Storrow graduated from Harvard College 1829, and subsequently pursued his studies three years in the School of Engineers and Mines, at Paris, France. He was one of the engineers en- gaged in building our first New England Railway, and on its completion, became its general manager for several years, and until the new enterprise at Lawrence was commenced, when he was appointed agent and treasurer of the new company, and at first its engineer. The first step to be taken was the con- struction of the dam, and this was planned and its construction commenced under his direction ; and if nothing else remained, this alonc would be an endur- ing memento of his thorough and skilful work. On the completion of the Atlantic Cotton Mills, which were built by the Essex Company, Mr. Storrow be- came the treasurer. On the establishment of the first Bank (the Bay State), he was its first president.

1 See " History of New Ipswich," N. E. H. G. Society Biographies.

1 From "Records of Old Residents' Association," Lowell.

869

LAWRENCE.

And when the town adopted a City charter, he was very appropriately elected its first mayor, In the multifarious duties devolving upon him in the prose- cutiou of the plans of the company, in 1846 he called to his aid as engineer Capt. Charles H. Bige- low, a graduate of West Point Military Academy, who had been captain in the Corps of United States Engineers, and was then employed on the forts in Boston Harbor, and Mr. Storrow gave his attention mainly to the financial and general affairs of the company. Having seen the City grow to its present proportions, and the company fully and successfully established, he removed to Boston. He resigned his office as treasurer and agent in 1882, and was suc- ceeded by Howard Stockton, but retains his interest in the company, being its president at the present time. He was, for a short time, one of the Park Commissioners of the City of Boston, and also con- sulting engineer at one time of the Hoosac Tunnel, and in 1862, at the request of the Commissioners, made a visit to Enrope, to examine the Enropean tunnels,-upon which he made an extremely inter- esting and elaborate report, which was published, and furnished much valuable information in the prosecu- tion of the work.

Abbott Lawrence, born in Groton December 16, 1792, received his education at the district school and academy in that town, now kuown in consequence of the benefactions of the family as Lawrence Acade- my. At the age of sixteen he went to Boston as an apprentice to his elder brother, Amos, and six years later, 1814, at the age of twenty-one, he became a partner iu the house of A. and A. Lawrence, which, for a long series of years, deservedly held a very high place in the mercantile community of that City.

Under the influence of the War of 1812 the manu- facture of cotton goods in New England had largely increased, but the methods of manufacture were im- perfect. The return of peace gave the movement a severe check. It took a fresh start in connection with improved machinery, and made a prosperous advance under the tariff of 1816, which Messrs. Calhoun and Lowndes, of South Carolina, were so prominent in framing into law, and in connection with which Mr. Clay first appeared as the advocate of "a thorough and decided protection to home manufactures by ample duties." The tariff of 1824 still further pro- moted the manufacture of both cotton and woolen fabrics.

Originally importers of foreign goods, the Messrs. Lawrence engaged early, in the sale of cotton and woolen goods of American manufacture, and became large proprietors in the Lowell Mills, ceasing to im- port, and becoming for a long period the leading house for the sale of American fabrics. When the new enterprise at Lawrence was projected, Mr. Law- rence, as has been previously stated, took a promi- nent part, and on the completion of the Atlantic Cotton Mills, in which he was a large stockholder,

he became president of that company, and later, in 1853, he was president of the Pacific Mills Company, in which office he continued till the close of his life.

During the year following the organization of the company, and many years afterward, the territory was a scene of inteuse and phenomenal activity. The dam aud canal were constructed, boarding- houses and a hotel erected (the Franklin House), thie large machine-shop constructed, saw and planing-mills built, and the entire region cut, gashed and seamed in the laying out of streets, the construction of sewers, building gas-works and water-works, and in sales of laud and in planting trees, which now furnish a grateful shade and add so much to the beauty of many of the principal streets.

Their first and most important work was the dam. This was designed by the agent of the company (Mr. Storrow), and at the time of its construction, was the longest of its kind in the world. The whole length is one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine feet ; distance between the wing walls nine hundred feet. It is thirty-five feet thick at the base and three or three and one-half feet at the top; built of granite, laid in cement, arching toward the stream fifteen feet ; the lower course of stone bolted to the ledge at the bottom of the river. Greatest height forty and one-half feet, mean height thirty-two feet, average fall of water twenty-six feet. Three years were occupied in the construction, and it is, and will remain, an enduring monument of skill, firm as the natural ledges upon which it is constructed.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 229

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538