USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Greenfield > History of Greenfield : shire town of Franklin county, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 49
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September 23, 1895. Henry Johnson's house, Shelburne road, burned. Insured $1,500.
November 9, 1895. A small barn belonging to Dr. A. C. Deane damaged and 20 tons of hay burned. Insured for $200.
December 19. This barn was set on fire again and en- tirely burned.
December 17, 1895. John Hafner's barn and shoemaker's shop (Cheapside) were burned.
January 22, 1896. The house of George W. Burnett on Petty's Plain burned.
February 23, 1896. The house of Charles H. Williams on Bernardston road was burned. Insured $600.
May 5, 1896. Fire in the basement of J. E. Lamb's barn.
July 5, 1896. The house and bakery of William W. Smith, at the corner of Davis and Pond streets, was burned. Insur- ance on bakery and furniture $800; on buildings $1,700.
October 3, 1896. John Fitzgerald's house, west of Green
631.
FIRES IN GREENFIELD
river, was burned. Insurance on buildings $525 ; furniture, $100.
March 7, 1897. Sheldon and Newcomb's powder house, near the Smead bridge was burned.
July 16, 1897. A slight fire at the house of C. F. Schuster.
September 19, 1897. The most severe fire which has oc- curred for several years in this village was that in the Warner and the Botsford blocks. It began in the rear of White's drug store. The loss on the Botsford block was estimated at $ 5,000 and in the Warner block at $2,000. H. L. White & Co., drugs, loss $5,000, insured $3,000; William Carney, tailor, loss, $1,200, insurance $800; J. E. N. Mitchell, ten- ant, loss $1,000, no insurance ; W. J. Slattery, barber shop, loss $300, insured ; Dr. R. A. Richards, dentist, loss $200, insurance, $350. Mrs. Botsford and Mrs. Warner were fully insured.
November 20, 1897. The Warner Manufacturing Company buildings burned. Loss $25,000. Insured $16,000.
December 10, 1897. Fire in the rear basement of the Franklin House. Eight valuable dogs were suffocated. Mr. Mead the occupant of the house was fully insured. Loss on building estimated at $2,500. Insured for $3,500.
July 4, 1898. The barn of Mrs. Colle was burned.
July 26, 1898. A small barn near the entrance to the Fair grounds burned.
October 10, 1898. A house at the corner of Garfield and Davis streets, being fitted up for a private hospital by Dr. W. H. Pierce, was gutted by fire.
October 17, 1898. A barn containing sixty tons of hay belonging to Joseph P. Felton, situate upon the " Maxwell farm," was burned by incendiary fire. Herbert D. Smith was arrested and confessed that he set the fire.
October 21, 1898. The barn of Damon L. Fay, on the Bernardston road, and all its contents destroyed by fire. Loss $5,000. Insured, barn $1,500, contents $2,500.
632
FIRES IN GREENFIELD
October 23, 1898. The contents of a large silo upon the Lowe farm in the meadows broke out into fire, and was only put out after a fight of eighteen hours, and the removal of a large portion of the sixty tons of fodder, which was a total loss. The Turners Falls Fire Department aided, and about 125 men worked nearly all night to save the buildings, which they succeeded in doing.
January 13, 1899. A fire broke out in the old High school building on Pleasant street. It caught near the chimney on the first floor, and was extinguished without great damage to the premises.
February 2. There was a slight fire in the house of H. D. Packard.
February 8. Elizabeth Fleming, a servant in the family of Marvin S. Fellows, lost her life by being burned in an attempt to light a fire in the kitchen range by using kerosene oil. The damage to the house and its contents was small.
November 14. A fire broke out in a house owned by Martin Sauter at the corner of Hope and Russell streets, and the ell was badly damaged. Thomas Moore, aged about sixty, an inmate of the house, apparently becoming bewildered. by the smoke, fell into a closet and was smothered. Building insured for $800. Mrs. Powers, tenant, lost $400 not in- sured.
June 26, 1900. House on Washington street just north of the Green river schoolhouse injured by fire. It was owned by George Pond and the loss was about $300.
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CHAPTER XLV
OLD TIME MILLS AND MANUFACTORIES
I T was the custom of the Indians to annually burn over large tracts of timber lands which were so located as to be dry enough to burn, so that it is recorded that deer and other wild animals could be seen through the woods on the high lands, for long distances. The trees were of large size, with thick bark, which protected them from injury by fire. Persons in the least skeptical concerning the size of the im- mense pines which formerly covered the greater part of this town have only to examine the width of the panels above the mantels in some of the old houses still standing. The width of the boards only seemed limited by the length of the primitive saws used in those early days.
The meadows along the streams were also burned over, that the brush might be kept from growing, so that the squaws might cultivate the little patches of corn, beans and pumpkins so far as the rude implements available could enable them to do.
The eyes of the thrifty land seekers of the early days were quick to discover the choice places which might be improved for saw and gristmills, and many a town rejoices in its " Mill brook," a sure indication that the location marked the place of the erection of the first sawmill in the vicinity.
There can be but little doubt that the streams were in the early times much more sizable than now, for mills were built on little runlets which are now for half the season almost completely dry.
633
634
GREEN RIVER MILLS
[1714-1791
The building of the mill upon Green river by Captain Jonathan Wells in 1714 has been mentioned in a former chapter. He outlived his son, Jonathan, and the mill and- much other real estate passed to his grandson, known for years as " Uncle David Wells." He was the miller for many years. He it was who gave the bell to the village school district.
In Willard's history is a story told by Uncle David of watching a salmon try to leap the dam at his mill. The salmon tried once and failed. At his second attempt the salmon went some distance down the river, then turned and making the leap, just touched the top of the dam with his gills ; again he turned and going farther down the stream, came up and cleared the top of the dam by six feet, and passed into the river above. Uncle David died a bachelor, although he was at one time engaged to a fair lady, who declined a great honor which he had intended for her, which was to sit at the head of his table, and do the honors at a great supper he had prepared to entertain a numerous company who had assisted him at a raising, occasions of great interest in those days. Willard says : " This disappointment was so unlooked for, so unexpected, so mortifying to his feelings, that he could not brook it. ' The iron entered his soul.' As this was his first love, so was it his last ; as he had never loved before, so he never loved again."
At the old Captain Wells privilege, of 1714, a gristmill has been sustained nearly two hundred years. David Wells sold in 1791, to Colonel William Moore, a native of Rutland, Worcester county, who came to Greenfield in 1784. He seems not to have been possessed of great means, but was what in the west would be called "a hustler." He was of fine personal appearance, polished manners, and by his energy and perseverance brought to this town what it had never be- fore enjoyed, great business life and energy. He built a six- story mill on the premises where the present mill stands,
635
COLONEL WILLIAM MOORE
1790-1890]
which he filled with various kinds of business enterprises. The upper story was for many years used as a cotton factory by S. Hunt & Co., Joel Parker, and Perry & Mason. Much wheat was then raised in this section, and he established a first-class flouring mill. He had at one time in active opera- tion, a nail mill, a large cooper shop, potash works, works for preparing ginsing for shipment, a tannery, a tallow house, a slaughter house, where 500 head of cattle were barrelled yearly, two stores, one on Main street, and one, called the " great store," where the Union House barn now stands. , It all ended as such ventures are apt to do; it made business for the town, but it proved the financial ruin of the promoter. He brought to the town many first-class men, among others, Captain Ambrose Ames, of Bridgewater, a nail maker, Ben- jamin Swan, David and William Wait, from Groton, coopers, and induced Colonel Eliel Gilbert, of Brookfield, many years a leading citizen, Samuel Pierce, from Middletown, Conn., and many others to settle in Greenfield.
Early in the last century an iron foundry was started, just below the gristmill, using the surplus water power, and was managed by William Wilson and John J. Pierce, Ansel Bullard, Levi Jones, Jones, Brooks & Thompson, Alfred R. Field & Co., Jones, Mitchell & Co., Jones, Moody & Co., Day & Field, Isaac N. Ross, Sidney Smith, and perhaps others, and is now owned by the heirs of Newell Snow, and occupied by the Automatic Machine Co., and the Greenfield Machine Co. (1900).
Many different kinds of business have been carried on at these works. Directly across the street, just southwesterly of the Greenfield Gas Works, there existed for many years a tannery, owned at times by Abner Smead, Nathan Draper, Samuel Lucas, William Edwards, and many others. Some remains of the vats are yet to be seen, although the buildings disappeared three-quarters of a century ago.
John Russell, a native of Greenfield, after being in the
636
JOHN RUSSELL AND COMPANY
[1833-1870
south a few years, where he had done a successful business, returned to Greenfield, and about 1833 began the manufac- ture of chisels and table cutlery, on land southwest of the present Germania House (which was Mr. Russell's resi- dence), most of the work being done by hand labor, although a small steam engine furnished power for grinding and polish- ing. Soon after these works were established they were de- stroyed by fire, but he had proved that a successful business might be built up, and immediately made effort to find a water power suitable for his purpose. Propositions were made for the purchase of the power at Nash's mills, now used by the Warner Manufacturing Co. Not meeting with success, a portion of the power at the " Bascom dam " was purchased, and Mr. Russell forming a partnership with his brother, Francis, erected some of the buildings afterward well known as "The Green River Works." This name has become known as a trade-mark throughout the civilized world. They soon became owners of all manufacturing property on the east, and considerable land on the west side of Green river, and the works were increased from year to year, until they became the largest cutlery works in the United States.
In 1870 it was decided that the business had outgrown the limits of its location, and the concern was removed to Turners Falls, where cheaper power in great abundance could be obtained, and where immense works were con- structed.
The abandoned premises, after standing idle a few years, came into the possession of "The Wiley & Russell Manu- facturing Co.," which concern is doing a very prosperous and extensive business, in the manufacture of taps, dies, and the numerous tools and implements used by blacksmiths in these later days.
Samuel Childs had a grant December 30, 1718, of a few acres of land on the east side of Green river, through which runs the little brook which enters Green river near the aban-
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637
THE BASCOM DAM
1790-1836]
doned abutments on which was erected the bridge of the Troy & Greenfield Railroad. At that point stood the north gate of the Deerfield Common Field's fence. This grant was on condition that Childs forever maintain the meadow gate, and two rods of fence. Childs's heirs conveyed this land to Heze- kiah Goff and Josiah and William Starr in 1791 ; William was a miller, and they built a dam across Green river (not owning the land on the opposite side of the stream), and also erected the frame of a mill. The Starrs sold their interests to Goff, who was the miller at the upper mill, then owned by Colonel William Moore, who also owned the land on the west side of the river, and Moore cut away the west end of the dam, the remainder of which was swept away in the next flood. The mill was never finished. While Goff was miller for Colonel Moore, it was discovered that he and one Jenks were counterfeiting silver coin ; they were both arrested and Goff turned state's evidence.
The " Bascom dam," stood just above the present Wiley & Russell Manufacturing Co. dam, and this was, without much doubt, the first water power to be improved on Green river ; besides furnishing power for a sawmill, it was at dif- ferent times used for many other purposes ; among others, Captain Ambrose Ames and John J. Pierce had a large build- ing there occupied as a bark mill, afterwards as an oil mill, for the manufacture of linseed oil ; this building was afterward removed to Federal street and made into a store.
About 1810 farmers began to raise hemp to quite a large extent, and oil mills were built for the manufacture of linseed oil. In 1811 Captain Samuel Wells of Deerfield raised a crop of hemp on three acres of rich meadow land which he had purchased in 1801 for $200. He marketed twenty-three hundredweight, two quarters, sixteen pounds, which was sold at the ordinary price of thirteen and one half dollars per hun- dredweight, amounting to $319.17, being more than enough to pay for the land and the labor. The quality of this hemp
638
NASH'S MILLS
[1718-1801
was pronounced by good judges as equal to the best imported from Russia.
Another large three-story building stood just below the present Wiley & Russell Co. dam, near the east end of the present bridge, owned by Ezekiel Bascom and occupied by him as a fulling mill. In 1809 Bascom sold this mill to Cyrus Martindale, who died in 1817. His business passed into the hands of his father, Uriah Martindale, who with other sons carried on the business until 1835. In 1835 Isaac New- ton, 2d, and W. W. Draper, under the firm name of Draper & Co., purchased this building and advertised to furnish all kinds of lumber not over twenty feet in length, laths, door and window casings, blinds, etc. They have for sale grind- stones, emery wheels, engines, turning laths, shingle ma- chines, screw plates, hammers, scythe snaths, etc. The next year, in a flood, this building, the dam and the sawmill below were all swept away. When the large building fell it was crushed into so small pieces that it passed under the bridge without damaging the bridge.
Jonathan Catlin had a mill at the falls now known as Nash's mills, at a very early date. In 1755 he deeded a half interest in a mill and mill yard to Daniel Nash, who was a member of the first board of selectmen of Greenfield, and in 1766 the other half to Aaron Denio, Jr. No record has been found by which it could be determined when the first gristmill was built at this place, but it was very soon after the settlement of the town. Members of the Nash family owned this privilege many years. The height of the fall, the large flowage, and the existence of a solid rock formation making easy the con- struction of a dam at this place, makes it very valuable. It was purchased from Frank L. Nash a few years since, by the Warner Manufacturing Co., which concern carries on quite a large business, in the manufacture of table cutlery and baby carriage trimmings.
February 14, 1801, the gristmill then standing here was
639
THE OLD GLEN SAWMILL
1800-1871]
burned. In 1843, a mill was carried away in a flood ; about 1868 the new mill was burned, and in 1871 the chisel shops erected by F. M. Thompson on the old mill stand were also destroyed by fire, and the Warner Manufacturing Co. have also since had a serious fire.
Robert Nash carried on a clothing mill here in 1809, and after his death, Richard Nash succeeded to his business, but that branch of business was long since suspended.
In 1866 Alpheus and Sylvanus Simonds erected below the gristmill a rake factory, and carried on a successful business there, until their decease, when the business ceased.
About 1800 a sawmill was built by Hezekiah Goff and William Starr on Mill brook, the land being leased from Selah and Elihu Allen, at the place now occupied by the Eddy mill. John Lyon purchased the mill in 1803 and sold it to Ephraim Hubbard and Asher Newton. The dam washed away, the mill rotted down and the privilege was unoccupied for a long time, until a few years since the late Joseph W. Miller rebuilt upon the old site.
Almost every little stream in the early days had its saw- mill. What in its day was a nice little purling brook is now the main sewer of the town. It was then known as Grave, Graves and Grays book, according to the spelling of the scriv- ener in ancient deeds. It had a mill on the west side of what is now Elm street on land now covered by the Caroline Miller barn. The pond extended as far east as Conway street, and this mill helped to make the fortune of Colonel Samuel Wells, one of the prominent men of the town, who resided where Baxter B. Noyes now lives.
The old " Glen sawmill " stood on Glen brook, a half mile below the Leyden glen, and was built by an association of the neighboring farmers, in Country Farms, each family having a certain share. This old mill had its tragedies, for near here in 1756 Daniel Graves was killed by Indians, and in 1833, Benjamin Bullock, father of Dwight Bullock, of Greenfield,
640
THE FACTORY HOLLOW
[1730-1786
being in the wheel pit of the mill, about to make some repairs to the crank or pitman, shouted to the man above " Don't hoist the gate; " the man not catching the first word, raised the gate, and Mr. Bullock was killed. In after years this old mill came into possession of the family of the writer, and here in his youthful days, he tended the tail end of the log, sawed up the slabs, jointed the chestnut shingles, and watched long and anxiously for the sun to cast its shadow upon the noon mark cut in the frame of the mill. Never did food taste better than the meals eaten from the old yellow butter box, standing on a saw log, in that old mill. The laying of the pipes of the Greenfield waterworks through the mill pond caused the abandonment of the mill privilege.
About 1837 Isaac Barton erected a water wheel at his tannery, for the purpose of grinding bark, first using for that purpose the waters of a little run discharging into Mill brook, but that stream not proving reliable, he took the water from the main stream through a canal to his bark mill. He afterward much improved the power, by creating the present pond and lowering the level of the tail race below the mill. A large business was carried on here for many years, in tanning hides, by Mr. Isaac Barton and his son Lyman G. Barton, but the increasing scarcity of bark and hides made the business unprofitable, and it was abandoned.
The fine water power at the mouth of Fall river was im- proved at an early date, and became the seat of important industries. In those times the vicinity was called " North- east" and was the centre of large lumbering interests. In 1784 Captain Elisha Mack (afterward the builder of the Turners Falls dam) was assessed for a sawmill at Fall river. He was a forcible man and undoubtedly carried things with a strong hand, for in 1786 there was an article in the warrant for a town meeting " to see if they will chuse a Committee to build a Bridge over Captain Mack's mill pond or act as they think proper Respecting ye Town Road which sd Mack
641
N. E. RUSSELL & CO
1784-1825]
stoped by flowing said pond." At the meeting the article was dismissed. Without doubt the road at that time crossed Fall river above the present dam, and Captain Mack's dam built below the road was raised to such a height that the road was overflowed.
In times of high water the floods would set back from the Connecticut into the mouth of Fall river, creating a great eddy, and logs rushing down the stream could be coaxed into the river's mouth, and when cut up into lumber and shingles. "They knew not their rightful owners, or whence they came."
Nearly one hundred years ago there were sawmills on each side of Fall river, a gristmill on the west side, and Joseph Bascom had a fulling mill on the Greenfield side. Pierce Chase purchased the most of the property there which had formerly belonged to Captain Mack. Pierce Chase who carried on a large business for several years had misfortunes and committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor, Novem- ber 13, 1824, aged 47 years. To add to the horrible record, two weeks after his burial it was discovered that his grave had been robbed of his body, and the selectmen offered a reward of $200 for the detection of the person committing the revolting crime. Time ran on until in 1830 a former physician of this vicinity, named Dennis Cooley, returned to the county, and was placed under arrest for the crime, tried and convicted, but escaped punishment because more than two years had elapsed after the commission of the crime before his arrest and trial.
In 1812 Erastus Clark came down from Colrain, and purchased the property from Chase, David Newman, Seth S. Howland and John E. Hall, and carried on the milling and carding works for some years. In 1825 Nathaniel E. Rus- sell, a native of Greenfield, returned to town from Colrain where he had been in trade, and in partnership with Lyman Kendall purchased all the water power and buildings on both
4 1
642
THE OLD IRON WORKS
[1762
sides of the river, and commenced the manufacture of satinets. In 1829 their mill was destroyed by fire, causing an estimated loss of $30,000. In its place was built that large stone building which for nearly thirty years has stood a monument to a departed industry. In 1834 the Greenfield Manufac- turing Company was incorporated, and this property came into its hands. In 1837 this concern had four sets of machin- ery, and consumed 36,000 pounds of cotton and 150,000 pounds of wool, and manufactured 180,000 yards of satinet valued at $ 110,000. Twenty-six men and sixty-three females were employed. The company had invested $80,000.
Later, under the skillful management of the late Theodore Leonard, the product of their looms (the finest of doeskins and broadcloths) gained a great reputation in the American markets. April 16, 1872, this property came into the hands of the Turners Falls Company, since which time it has been unimproved, and this once busy hamlet now has the appear- ance of Goldsmith's Deserted Village.
John E. Hall also had a sawmill on Fall river a half mile or more above the hamlet of Factory Hollow, on land which he purchased of Joseph Mott, in 1799. The saw tooth has given way to the tooth of time, and little remains to indicate the industry once located there.
Soon after the settlement of the town, iron ore was dis- covered at Falltown, and in 1777 its existence was urged upon the board of war by Major Noah Goodman of South Hadley, as a good reason why a foundry for the manufacture of cannon should be set up at South Hadley. He says in a letter to the board of war, dated April 12, 1777, that there are large deposits of iron ore in Bernardston, on land belonging to Major Timothy Dwight, " who has fled to Mississippi ; the oar could be brought through Greenfield about seven miles to boats on the Connecticut and taken to where the furnace should be set, for about 6 Dollars pr Tun." A forge for manufacturing iron from this ore was built at the place where
1818-1903]
THE GREENFIELD TOOL COMPANY
643
E. S. Hulbert's shops now stand, and in all old deeds and doc- uments it is called " The Iron Works." The power obtained from Fall River, at this place, has been used for fulling mills, a woollen factory, and of late by E. S. Hulbert and his part- ners, for the manufacture of agricultural implements and butcher's tools.
In 1818 this property came into the hands of P. L. Cush- man, Ralph Cushman, Orra Sheldon and Z. C. Newcomb, and at that time there were eight satinet looms, two carding ma- chines and a sawmill, on the premises.
The iron manufactured out of the bog ore did not bear a first-class reputation, one man using a chain which was made from it, in trying to draw a log broke the chain hook; pick- ing it up and examining it, he exclaimed, " Confound that bog iron, they haven't half worked the leaves out of it." Lemuel Robbins owned the " Iron Works " in 1782.
In 1851 the Greenfield Tool Company was organized, and became the successor of the Conway Tool Company, of Conway, whose works had recently been destroyed by fire. A large amount of the capital stock was taken by citizens of the town, and no doubt those who subscribed for the stock were amply rewarded by the removal to Greenfield of a large number of citizens, who have proved themselves to be of the greatest value to the town ; but the stockholders real- ized but little else on their investment. The works for many years gave remunerative employment to a goodly number of first-class workmen, who became permanent citizens, and most worthy members of society, but the manufacture of metal bench tools took the business from the concern, and it was forced into liquidation. After some changes the plant has fallen into the hands of Nichols Brothers, and is finely adapted to their constantly increasing business of manufacturing butch- ers' cutlery.
Sheldon tells a story about a mill which formerly stood upon the little brook which enters the Deerfield from the
644
A QUESTION OF POWER
south at East Deerfield, just above the Fitchburg railroad bridge across the Deerfield river.
The young man who built it, when it was finished, sent for his father to come and see " this great effort of his genius." The old gentleman looked it over with a quizzical smile that troubled the son, but said nothing. "What's the matter daddy ? " asked the son, at length, " don't you think my dam is safe ? " " Wal-yis-tolerbul safe. Twould be parfectly safe in case of a flood, but I was wonderin' what in the world you'd do in case of a fire."
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