History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II, Part 12

Author: Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Boston : Estes and Lauriat
Number of Pages: 650

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 12

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Our municipal craft was now fairly launched, officered, and ready for service. It is well to look at her bill of lading.

The Merrimack Company, with a capital of $1,500,000; running 25,704 spindles, 1,253 looms; employing 1,321 females, 437 males ; making 184,000 yards of cloth weekly, of which 163,000 yards were dyed and printed ; consuming 44,000 pounds of cotton weekly, and 5,200 tons of coal, 1,500 cords of wood, and 8,700 gallons of oil per annum.

1 Elisha Bartlett, born in Smithfield, R. I., October 6, 1804 ; died at Smithfield, R. I., July 19, 1855.

The Hamilton Company, with a capital of $900,000; running 19,456 spindles, 560 looms ; employing 780 females, 200 males ; making 85,000 yards of cloth per week, of which 70,000 yards were dyed and printed ; consuming 28,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 2,000 tons of coal, 1,500 cords of wood, and 6,000 gallons of oil per an- num.

The Appleton Company, with a capital of $500,000; running 11,776 spindles, 380 looms ; employing 470 females, 65 malcs ; making 100,000 yards of cloth per week ; consuming 33,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 300 tons of coal and 3,375 gallons of oil per annum.

The Lowell Company, with a capital of $500,000; one mill running 5,000 spindles for cotton, besides woollen ; 142 looms for cotton, 70 for carpets ; em- ploying 325 females, 150 males ; making 55,000 yards of cotton cloth, 2,500 yards of carpeting, and 150 rugs per week ; consuming 30,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 180 tons of coal, 500 cords of wood, 3,000 gallons of olive and 4,500 gallons of sperm oil per annum.

The Suffolk Company, with a capital of $450,000; running 10,752 spindles, 460 looms ; employing 460 females, 70 males ; making 90,000 yards per week ; consuming 30,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 294 tons of coal, 70 cords of wood, and 3,840 gallons of oil per annum.

The Tremont Company, with a capital of $500,000; running 11,520 spindles, 416 looms ; employing 460 females, 70 males ; making 125,800 yards per week; consuming 34,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 329 tons of coal, 60 cords of wood, and 3,692 gallons of oil per annum.

The Lawrence Company, with a capital of $1,200,000; running 31,000 spindles, 910 looms; employing 1,250 females, 200 males; making 200,000 yards of cloth per week; consuming 64,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 650 tons of coal, 60 cords of wood, and 8,217 gallons of oil per annum.

The Middlesex Company, with a capital of $500,000; running 4,620 spindles, 38 looms for broadcloths, 92 looms for cassimeres ; employing 350 females, 185 males ; making 6,300 yards of cassimere, and 1,500 yards of broadcloth per week ; consuming 600,000 pounds of wool, 3,000,000 teasels, 500 tons of coal, 1,000 cords of wood, 11,000 gallons of olive and 2,500 gallons of sperm oil per annum.

The Boott Cotton Mills, with a capital of

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

$1,000,000; two mills erected but not in opera- tion.

The Proprietors of Locks and Canals, with a capital of $600,000. Their machine-shop em- ploys 290 males, where the complete machinery for a mill of 5,000 spindles can be turned out in four months ; and locomotives built that will run sixty miles in an hour.

In addition to what is stated above, the con- sumption of starch in the mills was 510,000 pounds per annum, flour 3,800 barrels, and charcoal 500,000 bushels. The average wages of females, exclusive of board, two dollars per week, males, eighty cents per day.

Besides these companies, there were the powder- mills of O. M. Whipple, the Lowell Bleachery, the flannel-mills, the card and whip factory, planing- machine, reed-machine, grist and saw mills, alto- gether employing 300 hands and a capital of $300,000. Also a worsted mill, formerly the Hurd Woollen Mill, running 1,200 spindles, em- ploying 125 persons, and consuming 200,000 pounds of wool and 5,250 gallons of oil per annum.

There were twenty schools : one high, four gram- mar, and fifteen primary ; employing thirty-three teachers, and having an average daily attendance as follows : high, 75 ; grammar, 550; primary, 745, - total, 1,370 scholars.

The whole number of churches was thirteen : four Congregational, two Baptist, two Methodist, one Episcopal, one Universalist, one Christian Union, one Free-will Baptist, one Roman Catholic.

The Lowell Bank, with a capital of $250,000, and the Railroad Bank, with a capital of $ 500,000, were both well established, and also the Lowell Institution for Savings.

The Lowell Mutual Fire Insurance Company was incorporated March 6, 1832. Jolm Nesmith was president, Tappan Wentworth secretary.

Total population, 17,633, of which 2,661 were aliens, 44 colored. School-children between four and sixteen, 2,577.

May 2, the new government was organized. The oath of office was administered to the mayor by Judge Locke. In the common council, John Clark was chosen president and George Woodward clerk. In convention, Samuel A. Coburn was chosen city clerk.

The mayor, in his address, said : " Looking back to the period when I came among you, a penniless stranger, alike unknowing and unknown, I find the

interval of more than eight years filled up with manifestations of kindness and good-will. One of the most striking points of the entire history of our town and city consists in the unparalleled rapidity of its growth. The graves of our fathers are not here. The haunts of our childhood are not here. The old trees and the old men, which rendered venerable and sacred the quiet towns of our nativ- ity, are not here. The large and gradually accu- mulated fortunes of nearly all our older towns are not to be found here. The great mass of wealth which is centred here, and which has made our city what it is, is owned abroad. Its proprietors do not reside amongst us. Its profits are not ex- pended amongst us."

April 16, the legislature passed an act remov- ing a term of the Supreme Judicial Court and one of the court of Common Pleas from Concord to Lowell. For the accommodation of these courts, rooms were fitted up in the market-house.

John Clark, James Cook, and James G. Carney, incorporated as the Lowell Dispensary, were or- ganized June 10. Its object was to provide med- ical advice and medicine for the poor. A division of the city into six wards was made Novem- ber 28.

An event of importance to Lowell was the death, of apoplexy, April 11, 1837, of Kirk Boott. At the moment of his decease Mr. Boott was sitting in his chaise near the Merrimack House. Kirk Boott was born in Boston, October 20, 1790. At an early age he was sent to England, and was for some time a member of the Rugby School. On his re- turn he entered Harvard. His name appears among the juniors in 1807, and the seniors in 1808; but he did not graduate. Choosing the military pro- fession, his father obtained for him a commission in the English army, with which he was connected for about five years. He served in the Peninsular War, under the Duke of Wellington, and com- manded a detachment at the siege of San Sebastian in July, 1813. After this his regiment was ordered to New Orleans to serve against the United States. Mr. Boott obtained leave to withdraw, and entered a military academy, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of engineering and surveying, arts which were afterwards of such eminent service to him.1 During the summer of 1821 Kirk Boott was "pass-

1 His father, Kirk Boott, who died January, 1817, came to Boston in the latter part of the last century and established an importing house. In 1810, February 1, Johu Wright Boott was admitted a partner, and the firm hecame Kirk Boott and Son.

LOWELL. 75

ing a day at Nahant, in company with Mr. Patrick T. Jackson ; the latter gentleman expressed great delight in having even that brief respite from his numerous and pressing cares. Mr. Boott expressed a wish that he had cares too, and offered to accept of any post of service which Mr. Jackson might assign him." Thus, accidentally, he found the place for which he was so admirably fitted. We find a communication from him to the owners of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River, dated November 14, 1821, offering to hire the water-power at $1,800 per annum. The offer was refused, and the Boston Company proceeded to buy up a sufficient amount of the stock to control it; when Thomas M. Clark, clerk of the old Locks and Canal Company, was em- ployed to purchase the lands in the vicinity. The property in the hands of J. Wright Boott was in the market seeking a profitable investment. The Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham had solved the problem in regard to the ability of manufactures to sustain themselves in the business. It was here, then, that the trust funds held by J. W. Boott under his father's will were to find a profitable investment, and I find among the articles subscribed to by the founders of Lowell the fol- lowing : -

" Article 6th. Whereas we have been informed that the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River are possessed of valuable mill-seats and water-privileges, and whereas Kirk Boot has with our consent advanced money for the purchase of shares in the stock of that cor- poration, and of lands therennto adjoining, we hereby eon- firm all he has done in the premises, and further anthorize him to buy the remainder of the shares in said stock, and any lands adjoining the Locks and Canals he may judge it for our interest to own; and also to bargain with the above-named corporation for all the mill-seats and water- privileges they may own."

Kirk Boott we find now thoroughly and syste- matically engaged in this new enterprise. He gave himself up heartily to its prosecution, and in the discharge of every duty devolving upon him he amply fulfilled the expectations of his most sanguine friends. But we have become aware of one fact, that he was not a rich man. The interest from his portion of his father's estate did not go a great way toward the support of himself and family, while the pittance allowed him by the company ($3,000

At a subsequent period Francis, another son, was admitted as a partner. The father built the mansion-house where the Revere House. now is, in Boston. This was the family mansion until 1845, when it was sold to William Lawrence.

per annum 1) in the light of salaries of the pres- ent day looks meagre. There was no public-house at that time suitable for the entertainment of his friends or the directors, when they came to Lowell. It fell upon him to make his house their resort, whether they were attracted here by curiosity or business. The Merrimack Company built a house for him which formerly stood on the ground now occupied by the Boott Mills. Besides his cares and duties as resident manager of the Merrimack Company, and afterwards of the Locks and Canals Company, he was the foremost man in every public enterprise. He was chosen moderator of the first town-meeting, and repeatedly represented the town's interests in the state legislature. He married Anne Haden in 1818, and had six children.

March 6, 1838, Luther Lawrence was elected mayor. He was born in Groton, September 28, 1778, and was a son of Samuel Lawrence, a soldier of the Revolution. He graduated at Harvard in 1801, and read law with the Hon. Timothy Bigelow of Boston, whose sister he afterward married. He was several times a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and in 1822 was Speaker of the House. He came to Lowell in 1831, and built the mansion on Lawrence Street now occupied and owned by the widow of Tappan Wentworth. He served the city with ability, and was re-elected in 1839 by an increased majority. He entered upon his second term April 1, 1839: On the 16th of the same month, " while walking through one of the build- ings forming a part of the Middlesex Mills, he suddenly fell into the wheel-pit, a distance of seven- teen feet. His head struck a cast-iron wheel, his skull was fractured, and death ensued almost im- mediately."

October 8, steam-cars commenced making regu- lar trips between Lowell and Nashua. A new jail was built on the land since occupied by the Boiler Works, near the Wamesit Mills; it was taken down after the completion of the County Jail in 1858.

In 1839, as has been stated, Luther Lawrence was re-elected mayor. After the unfortunate ac- cident which terminated his life, the city council declared the office vacant, and April 24 proceeded to fill it. Elisha Huntington had twenty-four of thirty votes, and was declared elected. He was born in Topsfield, April 9, 1796, the son of Rev. Asahel Huntington. He graduated at Dartmouth, at the age of nineteen. In 1823 he received the 1 In 1832 his salary was increased to $ 4,000.

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

degree of M. D. at the Medical School at Yale, and in 1824 came to Lowell or East Chelmsford. May 31, 1825, he married Hannah Hinckley, daughter of Joseph and Deborah Hinckley of Marblehead. He was re-elected mayor in 1840, 1841, 1844, 1845, 1852, 1856, and 1858, making eight years in all. He served in the board of alder- men in 1847, 1853, and 1854. In 1852 he was elected lieutenant-governor with Governor Clifford, but declined the nomination for the next year. He was on the board of overseers of Harvard Col- lege; and served one term as an inspector of the State Almshouse at Tewksbury. His wife died September 19, 1859. He was for many years a vestryman of St. Anne's (Episcopal) Church, and, with others from St. Anne's, in 1860, united to form St. John's Church, of which, during the re- mainder of his life, he was senior warden. He died December 13, 1865, of apoplexy.

When the new city hall was built, it was named in honor of him. His portrait graces the reading- room of the Middlesex Mechanic Association, and a beautiful memorial window was placed in the west end of St. John's Church, in the centre of which is a life-size figure of St. Luke, the " beloved physician."

January 28, the Massachusetts Cotton Mills were incorporated, with a capital of $1,500,000, which was increased in 1846 to $2,000,000. The persons named in the act were Abbott Lawrence, Ozias Goodwin, and John A. Lowell. Homer Bartlett was the agent from 1839 to 1849; he was succeeded by Joseph White from 1849 to 1856; and by Frank F. Battles from 1856 to the present time.

April 26, a proposal was made for the creation of the office of city solicitor. It originated in the board of aldermen, but was rejected in the common council.

July 24, the city council authorized the building of a bridge over Concord River, near O. M. Whip- ple's house. It was completed December 28.

John Nesmith and others were incorporated as the Whitney Mills for the manufacture of blankets, and occupied the Stone Mill in Belvidere. The enterprise proved a failure, and they sold the machinery to Joseph W. Mansur and John D. Sturtevant.

C. P. Talbot & Co. commenced the business of cutting dyewoods and manufacturing and selling chemicals in a small way. The firm is now a lead- ing house in the business.

November 1, 1839, the several incorporated companies united for the purpose of establishing the Lowell Hospital Association. The purpose of this association is "the convenience and comfort of the persons employed by them respectively when sick, or needing medical or surgical treatment." They purchased the house formerly occupied by Kirk Boott, which had been sold August 1, 1838, to Luther Lawrence, and moved it to the spot where it now stands, near Pawtucket Falls. This house, and the land on which it stands, were deeded in trust to the Proprictors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River; the trustees were not to be held liable for insurance, repairs, and taxes. The treasurers of the several companies have the control of the property, and power to elect twelve trustees and a treasurer, to hold office during their pleasure. This board of trustees, made up from the resident agents of the companies, is empowered to hold meetings once a month, to have a chairman and clerk, to appoint one or more surgeons or physi- cians, and a superintendent for the hospital, and to establish the rate of board to be paid by the patient. In case a patient fails to pay, the company in whose service he or she may be at the time of admission pays it.

The location of the hospital is retired, and yet easy of access ; commanding a view of Pawtucket Falls and the adjacent country north and west. Dr. Gilman Kimball had charge of it until 1865 ; he was succeeded by Dr. George H. Whitmore, Dr. John W. Graves, and Dr. Hermon J. Smith, the present physician.

In 1840 Dr. Elisha Huntington was re-elected mayor. April 7, Thomas Hopkinson was elected as city solicitor, the first person who occupied the office.

According to a census taken in June, the popu- lation of Lowell was: males, 7,341; females, 13,640; total, 20,981.

July 29, a call was issued for a meeting of all desirous of establishing a cemetery. The meeting was held at the office of the Lowell Mutual Insur- ance Company, and Elisha Bartlett was chosen chairman and Thomas Hopkinson secretary. A committee of thirty was chosen to take the matter into consideration. This committee reported, at a meeting held Aug. 22, in favor of obtaining a suit- able lot of land for the purpose. At this meeting a new committee of five were chosen to make esti- mates and suggest plans. This committee reported in favor of the Fort-Hill Lot, owned by Oliver

a ta

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

Van Styck & Co Reston.

BOOTT COTTON MILLS. LOWELL, MASS

LOWELL.

M. Whipple, which could be had for $5,000. Subscriptions were opened for lots containing 300 square feet, at $10 each. October 19, five hundred lots having been subscribed for, a committee was chosen to procure a charter. February 22, the act of incorporation granted January 23, 1841, was accepted, and at the meeting of March 8 a code of by-laws was adopted, together with a seal bearing the words, "Lowell Cemetery, 1841. The dead shall be raised." Oliver M. Whipple was chosen presi- dent, James G. Carney treasurer, and Charles Hovey clerk. The grounds were consecrated Sun- day, June 18, 1841, at 4} o'clock, P. M. The ad- dress was delivered by the Rev. Amos Blanchard. In 1847 the chapel was built.

In August the high-school building was dedi- cated.

The first number of The Lowell Offering appeared in October of this year. It was really what it pre- tended to be, a magazine containing original com- positions by girls working in the mills. My experience in the publication of The Album, or Ladies' Common-Place Book, as early as 1833, con- vinced me that there was " mind among the spin- dles." Quite a number of my correspondents were factory-girls, and it was evident that all that was wanted to show their ability was a medium of com- munication with the public. This was obtained in 1840 in the publication of The Offering. The cir- cumstances attending its origin have been faithfully detailed by the Rev. A. C. Thomas and Miss Har- riet Farley. An improvement circle was formed in 1839-40, where written communications were received and read by the pastor of the Second Uni- versalist Church, Mr. Thomas. Their authorship being unknown, they were subject to criticism and amendment. The reading of these articles was the sole entertainment of the circle. This led to the practice of reading, at social meetings of the church- members or the society, those articles which were of a serious and religious character. The talent thus brought out led to the publication of The Offering, a production that caused quite a commo- tion in the literary world.

The two most enterprising and leading members of the circle were Harriet Farley and Harriet F. Cur- tis. Miss Farley, the daughter of the Rev. Stephen Farley of Amesbury, left home, and worked in the mills to obtain funds for the purpose of helping a brother secure a collegiate education. In 1842, while in sole charge of the editorial department of The Offering, she writes of its first appearance :

" We shall never forget our throb of pleasure when we first saw The Lowell Offering in a tangi- ble form, with its bright yellow cover; nor our flutterings of delight as we perused its pages. True, we had seen or heard the articles before, but they seemed so much better in print ! They ap- peared to be as good as anybody's writings. They sounded as if written by people who never worked at all."

The success of The Offering was such that a rival sprung up, called The Operatives' Magazine. It may have grown out of the jealousy of the other denominations, as Mr. Thomas suggests, he being a Universalist. Miss Farley says : "It differed from The Offering by receiving communications from both sexes and from those females who had left the mill . ... After a time, however, the gentle- men's articles were discarded, and the magazine passed entirely into the hands of the young ladies ; they owned, edited, and published it." Previous to this, the male editor, A. C. Thomas, sold The Offering to the printer of The Magazine, William Schouler ; and after a while both works were united in one by the proprietor, and edited by Harriet Farley. After this, all denominations contributed to and sustained it.

Harriet F. Curtis, "who held a dashing pen," as Mr. Thomas says, was a pretty good specimen of the Yankee girls, wide awake, keen, and sharp. Women, in her opinion, were just as fit for business as men, in whose vocations she was very much interested. She wrote a novelette entitled Kate in Search of a Husband, and an essay, S. S. S. Phi- losophy. All her articles were signed " Kate."

Lydia S. Hall, over the signature of " Adelaide," wrote poetry that has won merited encomiums.

Lucy Larcom, another contributor, enjoys a repu- tation that dates back to The Offering. Her sig- nature was " L. L."

Harriet Lees united with Farley and Curtis in presenting Harriet Martineau with an elegantly bound copy of The Offering. This was in response to the publication in England, by Miss Martineau, of selections from The Offering, entitled Mind among the Spindles.

Articles signed " S. G. B." were contributed by Sarah G. Bagley, a New Hampshire girl, from that part of Meredith now called Laconia.

The Rev. William Scoresby, D. D., Vicar of Bradford, Yorkshire, England, visited this country in the summer of 1844. During the month of February, 1845, he delivered two lectures in Brad-

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

ford on American factories and their female opera- tives, in which he quotes very largely from The Offering. Here is his description of the girls as they came from the mills at noon : "They were neatly dressed, and clean in their persons; many with their hair nicely arranged, and not a few with it flowing in nicely curled ringlets. All wore (being the height of summer) a light calico cov- ered bonnet, or sort of calèche, large enough to screen the face, and with a dependent curtain shielding the neck and shoulders. Many wore veils, and some carried silk parasols. By no means a few were exceeding well-looking, more pallid than the factory-girls with us, and generally slight in their figure. There was not the slightest appear- ance of boldness or vulgarity ; on the contrary, a very becoming propriety and respectability of man- ner, approaching with some to genteel."

In regard to the elementary education of the girls, he was assured by the manager of one of the cor- porations that "an examination that had recently taken place in respect to eight hundred girls be- longing to the four mills of his corporation, showed that there were only forty-three out of that number who did not write their names legibly and tolerably well ; of these, forty were Irish, and two not na- tives."

January 11, 1841, Benjamin F. Varnum died at his home in Centralville. Although Mr. Var- num belonged to Dracut, he was identified with the interests of Lowell. He was born in Dracut in 1795, the son of General Joseph B. Varnum. He represented Dracut in the state legislature from 1824 to 1827, and as senator from 1827 to 1831. In 1828 he was appointed one of the board of county commissioners, which office he retained until 1831, when he was appointed sheriff for Mid- dlesex County. He was succeeded in this office by General Samuel Chandler of Lexington, who retained the office until 1851, and was succeeded by Fisher A. Hildreth. In 1853 John S. Keyes of Concord was appointed sheriff, and in 1860 Charles Kimball succeeded him. Mr. Kimball died in 1878. Elisha Huntington was re-elected mayor.

The City Guards, an independent military com- pany, was organized this year. This company, the. Phalanx, and the National Highlanders were allowed' the use of the city hall for drill. The grammar-school house, afterward called the Green School, in honor of Dr. John O. Green, was erected on Middle Street. This building was sold in 1870 to J. C. Ayer & Co., and the school re-

moved to the new Green School-house on Merri- mack Street, built on the spot where the old Mer- rimack Company's school-house stood.

" Until 1841 there had been no substantial bridge over Concord River, connecting Church and Andover Streets. The first structure was a float- ing bridge for foot-passengers. The next was a bridge set upon piles. This year a double-arch stone bridge was constructed, which was replaced in 1858 by the present structure."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II, Part 12

Author: Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Boston : Estes and Lauriat Number of Pages: 650

Author: Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Boston : Estes and Lauriat
Number of Pages: 650