History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 163

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Since his death the mills have been operated by his executors and trustees in accordance with the methods he had established.

CRAIGHEAD AND KINTZ MANUFACTURING COM- PANY .- The stone building erected for a machine- shop by Mr. Marland was, for a time, used by a Boston corporation, called the Whipple File and Steel Com- pany. This company, in the spirit of the original designer of its work-shop, laid out a large sum of money in buildings, machinery and improvements, and, for a time, carried on an extensive business in the manufacture of steel and files. After a few years, either from misfortune, mismanagement or the lack of business sagacity in its inception aud conduct, the losses of the company were so great that they were forced to close up their shops. The extensive build- ings remained for a number of years unoccupied- going to decay.

A new company, called the Craighead and Kintz Manufacturing Company, now occupies a portion of the file-shops. This company was started in 1883 for the manufacture of brass and bronze goods of a mis- cellaneous character. It is now in successful opera- tion, employing some two hundred and eighty hands, much the larger portion of whom are men, Their products amount to about one hundred thousand dollars yearly.

A number of other manufacturing enterprises have been started at Ballard Vale, first and last, within the past thirty years, which have flourished for a brief period and then disappeared. The only business that has been carried on there successfully for a series of years has been that of the fine flannel-mill of Captain Bradlee. This has prospered and held on steadily in times of financial stringency, as well as in times of financial plethora. The whole outcome has been a large fortune, which Captain Bradlee has left mostly for charitable purposes, after the decease of his maiden sister.

THE TYER RUBBER COMPANY .- The Tyer Rubber Company was incorporated February, 1876. It manu- factures rubber goods in what was formerly a shop of the Boston and Maine Railroad Company. Among the various articles manufactured by this corporation are to be found the diagonal rubber cloth used in the Congress Arctic over-shoe, and a line of goods in use for medical and surgical purposes. The company employs about fifty hands, mostly females.

The founder of this company, as the name indicates, was Mr. Henry George Tyer. Mr. Tyer was born in England in 1812. He came to this country in 1840. His first settlement here was in New Jersey, where he was connected with the rubber business. After re- maining there for a time he removed to Andover, first establishing himself at Ballard Vale, but afterwards, in 1856, he took up his residence in the centre of the town, to which focality he removed his business. Since this removal the business has gradually in- creased till it has reached it present respectable amount.

Mr. Tyer was an inventor in the line of rubber and rubber goods. He discovered the method of produc- ing white rubber, from which all the white rubber articles now manufactured are made. The full value of this discovery he did not at first appreciate, and consequently did not take the necessary steps to de- rive from it the remuneration to which he was reason- ably entitled. The "Compo shoe " is an invention of his,-also the Arctic over shoe and the diagonal rub- ber cloth. For these and other inventions he re- ceived letters patent, and from some of them derived a fair remuneration.

Mr. Tyer was a business man, confining himself largely to his calling, and, in his business relations and transactions, was strictly upright, straight-for- ward and reliable. By nature he was reticent, self- contained, and was seldom seen in the public gather- ings of the people. He was courteous in manner, and bad the bearing of a well-to-do Englishman, in- tent upon his own affairs. He was a warm adherent of the Episcopal Church, and, as an officer and com- municant in Christ Church, did much to advance its interest and maintain its worship. He was a man of great energy and persistency of purpose, who saw things clearly and pursued the right, according to his judgment, with vigor. He was a firm believer in the Christian religion, and a devout worshipper of his God, after the customs of his fathers, and the mother church he so heartily revered and tenderly loved. He died at his residence in Andover on July 10, 1882, and was buried in the cemetery of Christ Church, in " consecrated ground," for which he had a reverential regard too seldom seen among our native inhabitants.

BANKS AND INSURANCE.

THE ANDOVER NATIONAL BANK .- This bank was originally chartered by the State Legislature, in 1826, under the name of the President, Directors and Com-

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

pany of the Andover Bank. The corporators were Samuel Farrar, Joseph Kittredge, Amos Abbot, Nathaniel Swift, Amos Spaulding, Henry Skinner, Francis Kidder, Hobart Clark and Mark Newman. April 3, 1826, Amos Blanchard was chosen cashier. October 3, 1826, Samuel Farrar was chosen president. The first semi-annual dividend of three and one-half per cent. was declared March 2, 1827. The same rate was continued till April, 1837, with the exception of one in April, 1832, of three per cent. After passing four dividends, they were resumed at the same rate and so continued till 1842. For the five succeeding years the average rate was two and seventy-two hun- dredths dollars. From this date till 1865 the rate of dividends varied from three and one-fourth dollars to three and eighty-three hundredths dollars.

In 1865 the bank was reorganized under the laws of the United States, and took the name of "The Andover National Bank." Since that it has paid four per cent. semi-annual dividends for five years, five per cent. for eight years, three and one-half' per cent. for four years, and a trifle more than three for the re- mainder of the time till 1887.

The bank, like other national banks in the State, has paid the taxes assessed upon the shares of its stockholders, amounting in 1886 to over $3080.

In 18.12 Deacon Blanchard resigned his office of cashier, and was succceded by Mr. Edward Taylor.

Deacon Taylor resigned in May, 1845, and was suc- ceeded by Francis Cogswell, Esq.

Esquire Cogswell resigned in October, 1856, to take the office of president of the Boston and Maine Rail- road, and was succeeded by Moses Foster, Esq., who has held the office continuously to the present time, twenty-one years.

Esquire Farrar held the office of president till Octo- ber. 1856, thirty years, when he resigned, and John Flint, Esq., was chosen to fill the place.

Esquire Flint held the office till his decease, in June, 1873. Professor John L. Taylor was chosen to succeed Mr. Flint, and held the office till Jan., 1880.

Professor Taylor was succeeded by Deacon Edward Taylor, treasurer of Phillips Academy, who still holds the office.

All the presidents of the bank have been treasurers of Phillips Academy with the exception of Mr. Flint.

The present directors are Edward Taylor, George W. W. Dove, Moses T. Stevens, Joseph A. Smart, Joseph W Smith, John HI. Flint and John F. Kim- 1>ak 11

The bank has always been conservative in its man- i gement, running few risks, and hence incurring few

ANDOVER SAVINGS BANK .- The Andover Savings Bank was incorporate l i 1834. The first president of the bank was Deriem Athos Abbot, who was muso February 9, 1830, and resigned January 1, 1845. Illy -19 sor was Nathan W. Huzen, Esq., chosen Jamlary 1 1515, and resigned January 1, 1852. Mr.

Samuel Gray was chosen January 1, 1852, and re- signed January 1, 1861. His successor was Mr. Na- thaniel Swift, who was chosen January 7, 1861, and resigned in 1878. Mr. John E. Abbot was chosen in 1879, and continued till his death, in 1881. Moses Foster, Esq., was chosen May 16, 1881, and is still in office.

The treasurers of the bank have been Mr. John Flint, chosen February 23, 1835, and resigned Octo- ber 1, 1870; Mr. John F. Kimball, chosen September 15, 1870, and still continues in office.

The amount of deposits in 1886 was $1,696,587. Profits on band at that time, $50,123. The guaran- teed fund is $55,000.

The bank, as will be seen, is in good financial standing, has uniformly been honestly and judiciously managed, and has paid fair dividends semi-annually to its depositors. By its regulations no one person can place on deposit to his own account more than five thousand dollars.

MERRIMAC MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY. -This company was incorporated by the General Court, February, 1828, for the limited term of twenty- eight years, the act of incorporation to take effect when subscribers for insurance should be obtained to the amount of $100,000. This amount was speedily obtained, and in the month of April of the same year the company was organized, choosing for its first president Hobart Clark, Esq. Mr. Clark served till April, 1839, and was succeeded by Samuel Merrill, Esq., who served till the time of his death, in Decem- ber, 1869, and was succeeded by Nathan W. Hazen, Esq., who served till January, 1875, and was suc- ceeded by Mr. Samuel Gray, who served till Novem- ber, 1880, and was succeeded by Mr. William S. Jen- kins, the present president.

Samuel Phillips, Esq., was the first secretary. He served one year, and was succeeded by Samuel Mer- rill, Esq., who served till December 19, 1835, and was succeeded by Mr. Samuel Gray, who served till 1885, his successor being Mr. Joseph A. Smart, the present secretary.

This company has had its office in Andover from the first, though doing a large portion of its business in other towns and cities. Its executive officers have always been citizens of this town. Its business has been conducted in a careful and conservative manner, so as to secure the best results for its policy-holders. It avoids specially hazardous risks, and risks ou prop- erty with an inflated valuation. The result of this pol- icy has been that it has given eminent satisfaction to its membership, has steadily grown in strength and in favor in the community, and to-day stands among the most reliable and prosperous companies of its class in the commonwealth. In the year 1886 it divided six- ty per cent. on its five year policies. It now has sur- plus assets for the payment of losses amounting to. nearly $300,000, with outstanding policies amounting to nearly $20,000,-a steady but substantial growth.

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NORTH ANDOVER.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT .- As the author of the pre- where throughout the town. The result of these ceding history was called so suddenly from his almost finished work, the duty of acknowledging assistance in its preparation devolves npon another. Thanks are here given to Professor Edwards A. Park, D.D., for his notices of Professors Pear- son and Stuart, of Dr. Samuel Taylor and of the author; to Rev. William E. Park for his notice of Professor Elwards; also to various persons who have furnished material either by manuscript or funeral sermons to facilitate the writing of memorials of their deceased friends ; and to others who have given verbal information as it was needed. Thanks are given also to the authors of the following works, to which recourse has been had : Abbot's " History of Andover," Miss Bailey's " Historical Sketches of An- dover," Raymond's " Record of Andover in the Rebel- lion," Mooar's "Manual of the South Church," Taylor's

earlier and later geological operations is a most fertile and beautiful tract of country, abounding in imposing lens-shaped hills, originally wooded to the summit, deep valleys of fine extent and sweep, all interspersed with lakelets and streams. It is seldom that a more interesting geological formation than this can be found; and nowhere, as the result of nature's handi- work, does a more lovely landscape appear-the view stretching from each one of these rounded elevations miles away to the Wachusett and Monadnock on the northwest, while, to the immediate gaze, the mysteri- ous gronp stands around as fascinating monuments of an ancient age. The explanation which is given of these unusual hills is most interesting, and carries the mind back to the time when the great seas of ice covered this hemisphere, and left the record of their slow and steady march as a guide to man in his en- " Memoir of Judge Phillips " and Wood's " History of , deavors to unravel the mystery of the earth's forma- the Andover Theological Seminary."

If there is an omission to render thanks where , are really hills "in verdure clad," being immense thanks are due, it is hoped that the peculiar circum- , mounds of fertile soil, composed of clay and sand, stances of the case will furnish a sufficient apology.

C. L. S.

CHAPTER CXXXIX.

NORTHI ANDOVER.

BY GEORGE B. LORING.

Ecclesiastical - Civil and Military - Education - Industries -Witchcraft- Associations.

THE town of North Andover occupies that portion of the original town of Andover which lies northerly and easterly of a line running from the Shawshin River, at a point not far from where the Salem turn- pike crosses it, in a southerly direction to the town- line of North Reading. By this line the town was divided in 1855, and the name of Andover was be- stowed by the Legislature upon that portion of the

and formerly known as the South Parish. The North Parish, as it was called from 1709 to the date of the act dividing the town, became North Andover, and it is bounded on the northwest by the Shawshin and Merri- mac Rivers, on the northeast by Bradford and Boxford, on the southwest by Andover and on the southeast by Middleton and North Reading. It contains about fifteen thousand four hundred acres, and constitutes a territory full of interest to the geologist and the agriculturist. Its rocky foundation belongs to the oldest periods of the world, "antedating by a vast period the strata of the White Mountains in New Hampshire," and it furnishes a field for most inter- esting speculation, wide, diverse and comprehensive, reaching to the more manifest geological arrangements of the glacial epoch, whose marks are visible every- 1044

tion and his own creation. However formed, they

well watered from the far-off' spring-heads which, at their origin, overtop them, and constituting, with the fertile valleys which lie between them, a most attrac- tive and admirable tract of farming land, adapted to grass, and grain, and fruits, and gardens and pas- turage. Standing upon the top of one of these " commanding hills," the observer may view a far-off western horizon whose sunsets vie with those for which Italy is famous,-a wide-spread landscape dotted with villages and towns, and interspersed with field and woodland, the long line of the Merrimac a flash- ing silver stream, the "Great Pond " a crowning gem and the sauntering Cochichewick, which finds its way slowly through reedy meadows before it steps down and at last plunges into the river, which bears its waters to the sea.

It was this territory of which, in 1634, by action of the court, " It is ordered that the land about Cochich- ewick shall be reserved for an inland plantation, and whosoever will go to inhabit there shall have three territory lying southerly and westerly ot this line, , years' immunity from all taxes, levies, public charges and services whatever, military discipline only ex- cepted." "John Winthrop, Richard Bellingham and William Coddington, E-quire, are chosen a com- mittee to license any that may think meet to inhabit there, and that it shall be lawful for no person to go thither without their consent or the major part of them."

The land referred to in this order was purchased by Rev. John Woodbridge, of Newbury in 1641, after a long correspondence with Gov. Winthrop, and vari- ons demonstrations by the people of Ipswich, Newbury and Rowley, which seem to have resulted in a mere temporary occupation. There were acts of the General Court, but exactly to what they applied is not known. In 1646, however, the purchase and grants were confirmed by the court, and the

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

town was named Andover, "with reference to some of the planters who came from Andover in Hamp- shire, England." Upon this order the town began to take shape. The temporary settlers, who were few, gathered themselves together on the banks of the Cochichewick and in the region lying westerly and northwesterly from Wire Hill, a spot which for many years was occupied by the meeting-house and such other buildings as would constitute it the centre of the town. The oldest list of settlers, probably made before 1644, while the affairs of the settlement were somewhat unadjusted, gives the following names as original residents of the plantation of a perma- nent character :

Julia Osgu al.

Henry Jaques.

Joseph Parker.

Juhn Aslett.

Richard Barker.

Richard Blake.

John Stevens.

William Ballard.

Nicholas Hult.

John Lovejoy.

Benjamin Woodbridge .:

Thomas Poor.

John Frye.

George Abbott.

Edmond Faulkner.

John Russ.

Robert Barnard.

Andrew Allen.

Daniel Pour.

Andrew Fuster.

Nathan Parker

Thomas C'handler.

These men received the titles of the lands they oc- cupied from the town, the conveyance being made by a vote of the town, and all freeholders being considered proprietors and voters. The lands were divided into small lots,-ten acres for house lots; remote from these, tillage lots ; wood-lots elsewhere ; swamp and meadow-lands wherever they could be found. A large contiguous farm was unknown, and scattered lots are even now the order of the day.

Meanwhile records of private business transactions have been brought to light by the faithful chroniclers of the town. In 1643 William Hughes, of Ipswich, sells heifers, bulls, kine, calves, a house and a house- Jot to Richard Barker, of Cochichewicke. " In 1650 a house and land and three cows in Andover are mort- gaged by Job Tyler to John Godfrey, of Newbury." Mr. Simon Bradstreet sells a house lot and dwelling- house and fifty acres of land to Richard Sutton, many of whose descendants have had large interests in An- dover, some of whom in this generation are engaged in most important transactions.

The following description of Andover is given by Loptain Edward Johnson, of Woburn, in 1654:

· At gt by then there was a I was founded about one or two miles dis- Be the paceFere Deg dly river of Merrimack receives her Dito leown Ily, Faro upon the tiver Shawshin, which is enheten . ] Mr Simon Bra street taking up his ra, hra pient means to hncher the work, it being a | . . .. 468 11 the hus andan's head, were it not that remoto- = 1 1 ott wayof tadel ch ith both som inconveni-

IL w UFte refer to c . y their . ru far to mar- At Ton\ luth .o .t to of land improved

pla soisdaion of a New England town the je nord . odlotry nature of a civil ort not be forgotten es prodotto Auch privileges which

belong to it. To many nationalities and peoples a town means nothing more than a cluster of honses surrounded by a wall and fortified, or the realm of a constable, or the seat of a church ; but to New Eng- land the town was in the beginning, as it is now, the primary organization, sovereign in itself. "The col- onists had no sooner formed a settlement and erected their cabins in proximity to each other than they or- ganized themselves into a town-an independent na- tionality-in which every citizen had a voice and a vote." The first duty of these organizations in the minds of the fathers was the establishment of a church, and the erection of a meeting-house and a school-house received their earliest care and atten- tion. It is remarkable and interesting to see how, in the little municipalities of New England, all the rights of citizenship were cherished, and how silently and unostentationsly all the elements of a free state were fixed and developed. Starting away from the original colonies, they planted themselves in the wil- derness, and assumed at once the duty of independ- ent organizations. Their citizens, in town-meeting assembled, had control of all matters relating to their civil and criminal jurisdiction. "In the New Eng- land colonies the towns were combined in counties long after their establishment and representation as towns; so that the county here was a collection of towns, rather than the town a sub-division of the county."

This system of town organization is maintained throughout New England to the present day, consti- tuting one of the most interesting features of the civil polity of this section of our country. Says Palfrey in his " History of New England: " With something of the same propriety with which the nation may be said to be a confederacy of republics called States, each New England State may be described as a con- federacy of minor republics called towns." Neither in New York with its great landed properties, at first held and occupied by a kind of fendal tenure, and afterwards with its counties; nor in the Western States, where the town survey carries with it no local political authority ; nor in the South where the county organization is the one which governs local matters, can be found that form of self-government which gives to the New England towns their individuality and which has enabled them to enroll their names on the brightest pages of American history. How in the olden time they cherished the church and built the meeting-house; how they fostered education and erected the school-house; how they selected their wisest and bravest men for the public councils ; how they resolved for freedom in open town-meeting; how they hurled defiance at the oppressor and sprang up, an army of defiant communities, each one feeling its responsibility and ready and anxious to assume it! To study the valor of the early days and learn where the leaders and statesmen were taught their lesson of independence and nationality, it is only necessary to

1659

NORTH ANDOVER.

turn to the recorded resolves of the New England towns.

The motives and manners and customs of those who founded North Andover and its associate towns are interesting and important. They formed a part of that large body of dissenters who, under various names, came to New England and settled the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. They came, it is true, to enjoy religious freedom, but they also sought a eivil organization, founded on the right of every man to a voice in the government under which he lives. In the charters granted to all the towns by the General Court, it was provided that the grantees were " to procure and maintain an able and orthodox minister amongst them," and to build a meeting- house within three years. This was their first motive. In all their customs they were obliged to exercise the utmost simplicity, and they voluntarily regulated their conduet by those formal rules which in their day constituted the Puritans' guide through the world. As an illustration of their character and manners, in 1651 dancing was forbidden at weddings by the laws of the colony.

In 1660 William Walker was imprisoned a month " for courting a maid without the leave of her pa- rents." In 1675, because "there is manifest pride appearing in our streets," the wearing of "long hair or periwigs," and also "superstitious ribands," used to tie up and decorate the hair, were forbidden under severe penalties. Men, too, were forbidden to " keep Christmas," because it was a "Popish custom." In 1677 an act was passed to prevent "the profaneness " of "turning the back upon the publie worship before it is finished and the blessing pronounced." Towns were directed to ereet a cage near the meeting-house, and in this all offenders against the sanetity of the Sabbath were confined.

At the same time children were placed in a partic- ular part of the meeting house by themselves, and tithing men were chosen, whose duty it was to take care of them. So strict were they in the observance of the Sabbath that John Athertou, a soldier in Col- onel Tyng's regiment, was fined by him forty shil- lings for " wetting a piece of an old hat to put into his shoes," which chafed his feet upon the march; and those who neglected to attend meeting for three months were publicly whipped. Even in Harvard College students were whipped for grave offenses in the chapel in the presence of students and professors, and prayers were had before and after the infliction of the punishment.

The domestic economy of the early colonists was simple and, in many cases, rude; their dwellings were small, coarsely constructed and deficient in all those appointments which are now considered neces- sary to the health and comfort of the family ; their diet was coarse and common. Palfrey tells us that " in the early days of New England wheaten bread was not so uncommon as it afterwards became," but

its place was largely supplied by preparations of In- dian corn. A mixture of two parts of the meal of this grain with one part of rye has continued until far into the present century to furnish the bread of the great body of the people. In the beginning there was but a sparing consumption of butcher's meat. The multiplication of flocks for their wool and of herds for draught and for milk was an important care, and they generally bore a high money value. Game and fish, to a considerable extent, supplied the want of animal food. Next to these, swine and poul- try, fowls-ducks, geese and turkeys-were in common use earlier than other kinds of flesh meat. The New Englander of the present time, who, in whatever rank of life, would be at a loss without his tea and coffee twice, at least, in every day, pities the hardships of his ancestors, who, almost universally, for a century and a half, made their morning and evening repast on boiled Indian meal and milk, or a porridge, or a broth made of peas and beans and flavored by being boiled with salted heef or pork. Beer, however, which was brewed in families, was accounted a neces- sary of life, and the orchards soon yielded a bounti- ful supply of eider. Wine and rum found a ready market as soon as they were brought from abroad ; and tobacco and legislation had a long conflict, in which the latter at last gave way.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672