History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 60

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 60

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LEATHER MANUFACTURE .- The leather business of Salem has had a slow but steady growth, and with bnt few checks. Philemon Dickinson is the first re- corded tanner ; he flourished in 1639. The early tan- neries were probably on land now bordered by the northern side of Washington Square and by Forrester Street,-the excavation for a cellar for a house built by Charles W. Whipple on the latter street, in 1886, having revealed the rotted boards of vats with an ac- cumulation of tan-bark, the deposit going to some depth, causing an inconvenience in placing the foun- dation. Other excavations in the same vicinity also have disclosed traces of ground bark. The same sub- stance, together with the horns of cattle, has been found at the foot of Liberty Street, and it is believed that a tannery was established there at an even earlier date than that of those on Forrester Street.

One, or perhaps two, tanneries sufficed the primitive demands of the early settlers for leather, and even in 1768 there were only four tanneries established in Salem. Just previous to the above date Joseph Southwick, a preacher-tanner of Danvers, introduced the first-recorded improvement in the process by put- ting his old horse at work grinding the bark in a

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stone mill. If the old gentleman looks down now on the labors of his successors, he must be vastly inter- ested in the evolution of his slow-going stones, with their capacity of a slab of bark in half an hour, to the whirring bark-mill of to-day that devours a car- load in an equal time.

From the last part of the eighteenth century the tanneries deserted their location in the lower part of the town and began to make their habitat along the course of the then clear and stenchless North River. In 1801 there were seven tanneries situated in the valley that soon came to be called " Blubber Hollow," and the number of these gradually increased, extending up the stream and along Boston Street till, in 1850, there were eighty-three establishments, of which thirty-four were tanneries, as many currying- shops, fifteen shops which carried on both trades, and two morocco-dressers. The value of the leather tanned and curried was in the vicinity of $869,047.70, and five hundred and fifty hands were employed. The large number of establishments may be accounted for by the fact, stated by a veteran tanner, that the owner of the shop, with only four or five men, gener- ally constituted the shop's crew.

About this time there was a great depression in the leather trade in Salem that continued several years. It eventually was removed, and the American civil war, with the wars of the Crimea, that followed the first years of its recuperation, gave it an impetus it had never before had, and its progress has never since been checked to any material degree, while its present prospects, with improved railroad facilities and im- proved processes of manufacture, are brighter than ever before.

There are at present in Salem fifty-four firms en- gaged in the manufacture of leather,-twelve tanners, fifteen curriers, twenty-one tanners and curriers, and six morocco-dressers. The census of 1880 gives fifty- two establishments with nine hundred and ten employees, $1,167,050 invested as capital, and a value of production of $4,209,004. That there has been an increase in the volume of the business since that date all the leather men agree, and, after careful considera- tion, it is thought that it is not too high to estimate the capital employed at $1,350,000, a volume of pro- duction of $4,750,000, and a total employment of nine hundred and fifty men.

The leather manufactories lie, for the most part, in a well-defined district, well compacted and lying on the following streets: Boston, both sides, from Essex to Goodhue; Goodhue, northern side; Grove, western side, to Harmony Grove Cemetery; Mason, eastern side, to oil works; South Mason and Franklin. There are also a number of scattered shops on the short streets leading up "Gallows Hill."

There have, of course, been great improvements in machinery in the leather trade since Parson South- wick's bark-mill, but there is still room for many inventions that will lessen the time of production of

leather, and aid to supersede, to a degree, hand- labor. There has been, and, perhaps, still is, a preju- dice among manufacturers in favor of hand-labor and against machine, but the late strike taught them that machines could be used, and a revolution in the business in this respect is expected by many leather men.

THE LATE STRIKE .- The late strike above re- ferred to was the second of the great leather strikes that have been inaugurated iu Salem. It had its true origin in the attempts of the Knights of Labor, to which the employees almost universally, belonged, to enforce a new price-list for splitting and some other brauches, together with a ten-hour-a-day time sched- ule. The manufacturers refused to entertain price- list or time schedule, and as a strike in some depart- ments was imminent, posted the following circular :

"WHEREAS, At a meeting of the leather manufacturers of Salem and Peabody, at which over sixty members were present, the subject of dic- tation to us in the management of our business was referred to a com- mittee with full power to act as in their judgment may seem best, and that we follow such course ae they may advise. That committee having met, reported the following resolutions :

" That hereafter we employ only such men as will bargain individu- ally with us and agree to take no part in any strike whatever; and all men desiring so to be employed by us may report Tuesday morning, July 13th, at the usual hour of this factory.

"That we are determined to stand by the men who do so, and aleo determined to run our business without any dictation.

"F. R.TUTTLE, "G. W. VARNEY, "ALVAN A. EVANS, "GEO. H. POOR, "W. F. WILEY, "FRANKLIN OSBORNE. "Committee."

"JULY 12, 1886.

This stroke at once removed the contest from every question of wages and hours, and threw down the gage of battle directly before the order of the Knights of Labor. It took up the defiance and a generally strike was ordered. Men left their work by scores. Shops were left with hides in the lime, without a hand to save them, except the proprietor. Some shop crews worked till the stock was put out of danger, and then lett. The manufacturers combined and helped those whose stock was spoiling, to save it. All, however, could not be cared for, and a loss of several hundred dollars was sustained. The manu- facturers, as soon as possible, began to import non- union help from Maine and the provinces, and the new workmen, by careful supervision, were able to take the place of the skilled labor in part, and the manufacture of leather went on after a short delay.

The success of the manufacturers in partly filling the places of the strikers irritated the latter, and after a series of petty and very annoying persecutions, the enmity broke out into open riot, beginning in Peabody on August 7th, when non-union men and their board- ing-houses were stoned by angry mobs. It extended to Salem on the Monday following, on the 9th, and the non-union men, their boarding-houses and some tanneries were subjected to the same treatment. The riot, however, was promptly suppressed by the police,

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and a system of patrol established that prevented further outbreaks.

Finding that open riot was ineffectual, a guerrilla warfare was adopted; whenever a non-union man was found away from police protection he was assaulted. Details of strikers also followed the non-union men about, the boycott was used, and every means possi- ble put in practice to induce the men to leave. Some men did go, but their places were soon filled, while the strikers, despite help from the Knights of Labor, grew weaker and weaker.

The culmination came on Thanksgiving Day ; a mob attacked two brothers named Yeaton on Boston Street, and also stopped a horse-car and beat three non- union men who were its occupants. The long series of out rages disgusted the better class of the strikers, and, with the cessation of help from the order, the strike was declared off. This was on Sunday, No- vember 28th. Those strikers who could find work went back, but many whose places were filled werc unable to get back and much suffering was caused among the poor employes as a result.

The result of the strike to the manufacturers was that it gave them perfect freedom from the Knights of Labor dictation, and although the losses of stock were considerable, the loss was lessened by the in- crease in the price of leather and the stoppage of a threatened over-production. The result to the em- ployees was disastrous, -- a long term of idleness, with the vice idleness brings, brought want to many a family, and the winter of 1886-87 was one of sore distress in many cases.

COTTON MANUFACTURE .- Next to the leather business, the manufacture of cotton cloth is the most important industry carried on in Salem. The cotton goods manufacture is vested in a single concern, the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company, incorporated April 5,1839. The original capital of the company was $200,- 000. The first mill was erected in 1847, the capital stock being increased to $700,000 meanwhile.

This first mill is four hundred by sixty feet, con- tains 32,768 spindles and 643 looms, with a capacity of 9400 yards of cloth a week. At the time of its completion it was regarded as the finest and best- appointed mill in the country.

The first mill being a success, twelve years later a still larger building was erected by the company, the capital being increased to $1,200,000. The second mill is four hundred and twenty-cight by sixty-four feet and contains 35,000 spindles and 700 looms.

Since the building of the second mill, three addi- tional mills, slightly smaller, have been built, the last one, on the opposite side of Union Street from the others, being constructed in 1883, the first loom being started Jan. 12, 1884.

The Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company has now a capital of one million five hundred thousand dollars, and its plant consists of five mill buildings, with ma- chine-shop, storage-houses, etc. The total number of

spindles in the mills, is one hundred thousand, and of looms, twenty-four hundred. The power in the mills on the eastern side of Union Street is furnished by two pairs of Corliss engines of twenty thousand horse-power total, and in "Mill No. 5" by a four hundred horse-power engine. The mills are lighted by twenty-two hundred gas jets and six hundred and fifty incandescent lights, gas works and an electric light plant being sitnated on the premises.

The production of cotton cloth by the mills during the year 1886 was eighteen million seven hundred and fifty thousand yards, at. a valuation of about one million five hundred thousand dollars, and sixteen thousand bales of cotton were consumed. There are fourteen hundred operatives employed in the mills, and the yearly pay-roll is four hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

The Naumkeag Mills have always taken a front rank in the cotton manufacture of New England for the quality of the cloth produced and their solid financial standing, the stock at present being quoted many points above par. The relations with the oper- atives have for the most part been harmonious. The company has experienced no disastrous fires, and the whole course of the company has been, to a great ex- tent, a prosperous one. The mills are now models of appointment and management.

SHOE MANUFACTURES .- Next to the manufacture of cotton goods, the largest industry in Salem is the manufacture of shoes, which, while not as extensive as that of some other towns of the county, is still fairly large and is increasing. There are twenty-one manufacturers of shoes in the city, the grades being mostly medium and fine ladies' and children's shoes. There are, besides, twenty-five shops for the manu- facture of inner-soles, stiffenings, etc., and two shoe- stitching shops.

The capital employed in the shoe business in Salem is about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dol- lars, with a value of production of about nine hun- dred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and a total number of eight hundred and fifty employees. The manufactories are mostly grouped in the vicinity of the Boston and Maine Railroad depot, on Mill, Wash- ington, Dodge and Lafayette Streets, although two of the largest are on Boston Street.

The relations between employer and employe in the shoe factories of Salem have been harmonious during the past few years and, save one or two minor troubles, there have been no strikes. The projected street over the South River is expected to open up land that will be utilized for shoe manufactories, and with good railroad facilities, nearness to the leather supply and no labor difficulties, Salem offers many advantages for location of shoe manufactories.

JUTE BAGGING .- The manufacture of jute bagging is now carried on in Salem at two establishments. The first jute-mill was established in the fall of 1865, when the late Francis Peabody built the jute-mill on

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Skerry Street. Two years later a tract of land on English aud Webb Streets, the old English estate, was bought and a second mill built by a company known as the India Manufacturing Co., formed at the same time. A second company, called the Bengal Bagging Co., was formed in 1870 to carry on the Skerry Street mill, but, in 1875, all the property fell into the hands of David Nevins & Co., of Boston, and, since the death of the elder Nevins, a year or two ago, has been car- ried on by his son.

The two mills have now over a thousand spindles, with a capacity of five million yards of bagging a year. The total value varies, but averages three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The amount of jute-butts consumed annually is twenty-two thou- sand five hundred bales, at a value of eight dollars per bale. The two mills employ a total of two hundred and sixty-eight hands, of which one hun- dred and one are females and one hundred and two youths and children.

The jute-butts are brought from Bengal, from the port of Chittagong, in large vessels that give the in- habitants of Saletu their only occasional sight of large sized, square-rigged vessels, and the import duties make up the greater part of the receipts of the Salem custom-house, the amount received from each vessel being in the vicinity of two thousand dollars. The bagging is mostly shipped Sonth for use in baling cotton, especially large shipments going to Galveston, Tex.

WHITE-LEAD MANUFACTURE .- The manufacture of white-lead as a pigment from pig, or blue-lead, is one of the oldest industries in the city, it having been established in 1826. In that year two lead-mills were started, one by the first Salem Lead Company and the other by Colonel Francis Peabody. Both were situated in South Salem, the first on the site of the Naumkeag Cotton-Mills, the other where La- grange Street is now situated.

The first Salem Lead Company had a capital stock of over two hundred thousand dollars, but the enter- prise proved unprofitable and, after an expenditure of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, the works were sold at auction in 1835 for the sum of twenty thousand five hundred dollars.

The works established by Colonel Peabody were more successful, and were carried on at Lagrange Street till 1843. In 1830 the Wyman Grist-Mills, at Forest River, were purchased and used for grinding and mixing the lead. In 1843 the Forest River Lead Company (incorporated in 1846) purchased the works of Colonel Peabody, tore down the sheds on Lagrange Street, and established the entire plant at Forest River. The manufacture of white-lead to the amount of one thousand tons annually was carried on by the company till 1882, when it made an assignment. The works were operated for a time by a Boston firm, but were finally abandoned in 1883, and have since remained unoccupied.

The present Salem Lead Company wasincorporated February 7, 1868. It has its works at the foot of Saunders Street. They consist of a large three-story mill, with corroding-sheds in the rear. The company has a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars employed at this factory, and the annual product is about fifteen hundred tons of white-lead, dry and ground in oil, together with a considerable amount of sheet-lead and lead-pipe. About thirty hands are employed.

OIL MANUFACTURE .- The refining and manufac- ture of-oils has been an industry in Salem from 1835, when Caleb Smith began the oil and candle manufac- ture on the site of the present Seccomb Oil Works. Col. Francis Peabody began the same industry a year later, also in South Salem. The latter did a large business, buying in one year one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of sperm and whale oils. He also manufactured a large quantity of candles and imported the first machine for braiding candle- wicks.

There are now four manufactories of oils in the city ; two, however, are unimportant. Seccomb, Thayer & Sons carry on the manufacture at the "old stand," established by Caleb Smith. They manufac- ture lubricating and curriers' oils to a small extent. The Seccomb Oil Company, which was established in 1865, was dissolved in 1885.

The Salem and Sonth Danvers Oil Company was organized in 1855, and have a capital of forty-eight thousand dollars. Since the organization the com- pany has manufactured considerable quantities of kerosene and curriers' grease and oils.

On June 14, 1887, the works of the company took fire from a spark blown from a burning tannery on South Mason Street, and within three-quarters of an hour a stock worth ten thousand dollars, with all the wooden buildings of the plant, were totally destroyed. The stills, however, and other manufacturing piant were not materially injured, and the work of rebuild- ing was re-commenced at once, although some citi- zens made an attempt to have the Board of Aldermen refuse a permit to rebuild on that site. The manu- facture of kerosene has been given up, and the man- facture of curriers' grease and oils entered on on a large scale.

THE ADAMANTA WORKS .- The latest established industry in Salem has been that of the manufacture of paints, etc., by new processes, by the Adamanta Manufacturing Company at the former Rowell farm, on Salem Neck.

The Adamanta Manufacturing Company organized in 1885 with a capital of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for the prosecution of the manufac- ture of a number of articles under different patents, mostly German, purchased, in the autumn of 1885, the estate, on Salem Neck, known as the Rowell farm. This land was admirably fitted for the purpose of the manufactory, being secluded and with easy water

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and land access. Building was commenced in Feb- ruary, 1886. A long, low, fire-proof building was constructed for the manufactory, together with the necessary out-buildings, and in September, 1886, work was commenced. At present there are about twenty- five men employed, a number of whom are Germans, as is the superintendent.

The products of the works are enamel paints, var- nish, a steam-proof pitch and an artificial rubber. The present manufactory is a merely experimental one, but a large quantity of the articles produced has been sold; the demand is said to be increasing, and a large manufactory is among the probabilities; in- deed, plans for such are being now considered.

MANUFACTURE OF TYPE-WRITERS .- A second industry of importance that has lately been estab- lished in Salem is the manufacture of type-writers, under the Hall patents. In May, 1885, the plating and polishing works of E. C. Bates, on Front Street, were removed to the building 200 Derby Street, and with a large plant the manufacture of the Hall type- writer was begun, together with that of light ma- chinery and electrical goods. The Hall Type-Writer and Machine Company was incorporated in April, 1886, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, at one hundred dollars per share. The company now employs fifty men, and produces an average of two hundred type-writers a month, at an annual value of ninety-six thousand dollars. The business of manu- facturing light machinery and electrical work, mostly by contract for Boston and New York firms, is also large.

MANUFACTURE OF CARS .- Two companies for the manufacture of cars have been established in Salem. In 1863 the Salem Car Company began the manu- facture of horse-cars at the present car-shops of the Boston and Maine Railroad, on Bridge Street. The project was unsuccessful, and the works were sold to John Kinsman, after having been in operation a short time. This gentleman manufactured a few railroad cars there, and then sold the works to the Eastern Railroad. They are now operated by the Boston and Maine Railroad as repair-shops, the bulk of the repairs for this section being made there. About one hundred and fifty hands are employed, and during leisure seasons a few cars are built, several of the best rolling stock on the Eastern Division having been constructed here.

The Atlantic Car Company was organized in 1872, and commenced the manufacture of railroad cars at works built by them on Broadway, in South Salem. The works only ran for a year, the business crisis in 1873 being the cause of their closing. The buildings, after being unoccupied for four years, were used as a furniture manufactory. This in turn failed, and, after a long period of idleness, the works were again started up as a manufactory of the "Humiston P're- servative." This also failed, and the United States Patents Company took the plant; that continued for a

year or two, then failed ; and in 1886 the Poor Broth- ers, of Peabody, bought the plant, and altered it over into a tannery, with several hundred vats, and em- ploying a large number of men.

THE GAS-LIGHT COMPANY .- The Salem Gas-Light Company was organized in April, 1850; works were built at the foot of Northey Street, and the first stores lighted December 17, 1850, and the street lights on December 25th of the same year. A large amount of gas has been manufactured. When the city electric light system was put iu operation, in 1886, the greater part of the street lights were given up. The change, however, cansed but little diminution in the produc- tion of gas, as it was found that the increased use of gas by individuals nearly made up the deficit.

The present plant of the company, having been in constant use for thirty-seven years, has gone out of date, besides being in a bad condition, and the com- pany has in process of construction, at its lot on Bridge Street, new retorts and apparatus of an im- proved pattern. A wharf, gas-holder and other build- ings had been constructed there some years before, and when the present works shall be finished the company will have a complete plant. The manufac- ture of gas will be carried on there, and the Northey Street works abandoned.

The present works contain fifty-five retorts, and 41,858,000 cubic feet of gas were manufactured there during 1886. The selling price was $1.75 a thousand feet. The new works will have a much greater capacity than have the old.

ELECTRIC LIGHTING Co .- Salem was among the first cities in New England to introduce electric lights. In 1881 a small plant was set up in the rear of the West Block, and a few lights started. The first lights were lighted December 18, 1881. The light, used at first by the storekeepers as an adver- tisement, came rapidly into favor, and, in April, 1882, the Salem Electric Lighting Compauy, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, was incor- porated, and took the plant established in 1881. The demand for lights increased rapidly, and in the fall of 1886 the city of Salem closed a contract with the com- pany for one hundred and twenty-nine lights for two years from Oct. 1, 1886, at forty-seven cents a night for one hundred lights, and forty-five cents for the re- mainder, the lights to burn all night and superseding four hundred gas-lights. The number was afterward increased to one hundred and forty-seven lights, which are now located and make Salem one of the best lighted cities in the State.

In June, 1885, the incandescent light was intro- duced, and quite a number of stores are lighted with the lights, as well as the Council and Aldermanic chambers at City Hall.

The electric lighting station is situated in the rear of the West Block, on Essex Street, in a specially constructed building, whose tall, iron chimneys are a prominent feature in a bird's-eye view of Salem from

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any point. The plant consists of eight arc dynamos, of a capacity of thirty lights each, of which five are employed on the city lights. There is an incandes- cent dynamo, burning two hundred and fifty lights. The power is supplied by boilers of three hundred horse-power, with three engines, respectively one hun- dred and seventy-five, seventy-five and sixty horse- power. The station is a well-appointed one, and the lights give good satisfaction.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 60

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