USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 13
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In 1842 Nathaniel Wright was elected mayor. He was born in Sterling, Worcester County, Feb- ruary 13, 1785. He graduated at Harvard in the class of 1808. Shortly afterwards he came to East Chelmsford, and entered the office of Asahel Stearns. He died November 5, 1858, of heart disease.
Charles Dickens made a flying visit to Lowell, the impressions of which were given in his Ameri- can Notes for General Circulation.
Among the most extensive and successful pri- vate enterprises in the city, is the establishment of the "J. C. Ayer Company," which was founded by Dr. James C. Ayer in 1842.
Dr. Ayer passed his early life as a clerk in an apothecary store in this city ; ample scope to gratify his predilections for the study of chemistry and medicine was afforded, and he acquired a skill in compounding preparations which enabled him to build up a business that is almost unparalleled in its extent and success.
In 1855 his brother, Frederick Ayer, became his partner in the concern. His business tact, energy, and executive ability, coupled with the doctor's professional talent, gave a new impetus to the business.
This establishment, attractive to travellers be- cause of its world-wide reputation, has been visited by many foreign potentates, who have admired the magnitude of its proportions and the extent of its facilities.
June 19, 1842, John Tyler, President of the United States, visited Lowell. He was accom- panied by Abbott Lawrence, Isaac Hill, John Tyler, Jr., and others. There was a procession, in which appeared the teachers and scholars of the high school, a citizen's cavalcade, and a military escort. The President visited the works of the Middlesex, Lowell, Boott, and Merrimack com- panies, and expressed himself highly gratified with all of them.
In 1843 Nathaniel Wright was re-elected mayor.
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LOWELL.
February 20, the city council instructed the rep- resentatives to the General Court to oppose the annexation to Lowell of that part of Dracut called Centralville. The Central Bridge Company ob- tained an act authorizing it to rebuild the bridge across Merrimack River, and it was accepted, April 5, by the city council. Foot-tolls were abolished on this bridge, -an inducement for people em- ployed in Lowell to reside in Dracut.
February 5, 1844, the Prescott Manufactur- ing Company was incorporated, with a capital of $800,000. The persons named in the Act were Nathan Appleton, William Sturgis, and Patrick T. Jackson. Homer Bartlett, the agent until 1849, was succeeded by Frank F. Battles from 1849 to 1856, and in 1856 by William Brown. Mr. Brown died October 18, 1875, and was succeeded by Eras- tus Boyden, who is the present superintendent. The Prescott was united to the Massachusetts Com- pany, in December, 1846, and they are now one company.
The city council, February 19, appointed a joint special committee to take into consideration the subject of establishing a city school-library. May 20, an ordinance was passed establishing the City School-Library in Lowell, and the sum of $2,000 was appropriated, to be added to $1,215 received from the state for that purpose. During the thirty- five years since the establishment of the library, end- ing January 1, 1879, there has been appropriated, including $ 1,215 from the state, by the city council the sum of $51,150.95, which, with the receipts from various sources ($21,470.94), makes an ag- gregate of $72,621.89. It is estimated that the number of volumes in the library, including all works of reference, is about twenty-four thou- sand.
The Lowell Machine-Shop was organized as a corporation, at a meeting held in Boston March 12, 1845, by the choice of Kirk Boott clerk, seven directors, John A. Lowell president, and J. Thomas Stevenson treasurer. $300,000 was fixed for the capital stock, and had been previously subscribed for by fifty-five subscribers. The par value of the shares was fixed at $500. The office of the treas- urer has always been in Boston. At a meeting of the directors on the same day, William A. Burke was appointed superintendent at Lowell.
The Lowell Machine-Shop having bought of the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River their machine-shops and foundry, with all the tools and machinery in them, also the tenement
houses and land belonging to them, on the first day of April, 1845, commenced making cotton machin- ery, mill-gearing, and castings. At the present time (1879) the authorized capital is $1,000,000, and the capital stock, as voted by the stockholders and paid in, is $ 600,000.
The Proprietors of the Locks and Canals, pre- vious to 1845, built and equipped with machinery all the cotton-mills, with the exception of two, then in operation in Lowell ; but since then nearly all the machinery, turbine water-wheels, and mill- gearing have been furnished by the Lowell Ma- chine-Shop. The Locks and Canals Company were among the first in this country to build locomo- tives, and the Lowell Machine-Shop continued the manufacture to some extent ; they also made steam- engines, boilers, and machinists' tools. This class of machinery was discontinued a few years since, In 1858 the shop began building paper machinery of the different kinds in use, and it is now one of the departments of its manufacture. Besides the machinery made for the cotton-mills in Lowell, very large quantities have been and are furnished to other mills in the New England States, and to quite a number of the smaller mills in the Southern States.
J. Huntington Wolcott, Esq., is president of the corporation ; J. Thomas Stevenson, Esq., was the treasurer from the first, till his death in August, 1876. To the strictest integrity in all his dealings he joined a rare ability as a business man.
May 5, the city council authorized the purchase of land for two commons. The South Common contains about twenty acres, and cost $ 17,954.98. The North Common contains about ten acres, and cost $12,857.59.
A new grammar-school house, on the corner of Middlesex and Branch Streets, was built this year, and was called the Franklin.
Pentucket Lodge of Masons, organized in 1807, after a checkered experience, in March, 1834, held the last " recorded" meeting. "The charter, jewels, and property of the lodge were surrendered to the Grand Lodge, the furniture divided among the brethren, or sold at auction, and a long, dark night settled down upon masonry in Lowell." In 1845 this was succeeded by brighter promises. A meet- ing was held July 14, at which measures were taken to resuscitate the lodge, and " September 10, Jesse Phelps, Daniel Balch, Joshua Swan, Colburn Blood, Jr., Ransom Reed, Jefferson Bancroft, and Joel Adams petitioned the Grand Lodge for a
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restoration of the charter of Pentucket Lodge, its jewels and its property." This petition was granted, and it was reopened September 16, at the dwelling- house of Jesse Phelps, on the Merrimack Corpora- tion. October 2, the meeting was held for the first time in Wentworth's Hall.
March 10, 1846, the former members of Mount Horeb Royal Arch Chapter petitioned for a restora- tion of their eharter, which had been revoked in 1840. This petition was granted, and the first meeting was held April 6, 1846.
June 19, 1852, a dispensation was granted for a new lodge, ealled the Ancient York, and Jeffer- son Baneroft was appointed Master. The charter bears date June 9, 1853.
October 21, 1855, a charter was granted under which Pilgrim Encampment was instituted, and its officers were installed November 8.
December 9, 1856, a charter was granted for the resuscitation of the Ahasuerus Council. This, origi- nally a "self-constituted " body, was established July 6, 1826.
Mareh 13, 1867, a charter was granted for the Kilwinning Lodge, and its officers were installed March 26.
March 11, 1868, another lodge, called the Wil- liam North, was chartered, and the officers were in- stalled Mareh 26.
In addition to the above there were the Lowell Lodge of Perfection, the Lowell Council of Princes of Jerusalem, and the Mount Calvary Chapter of Rose Croix, and Massachusetts Consistory thirty- two degrees. The eonsistory was removed to Boston in 1871. Charters were obtained for these between 1857 and 1862.
The last meeting held in Masonic Hall on John Street was January 31, 1872. The number of members of the different lodges at that time was : Pentueket 265, Ancient York 196, Kilwinning 43, William North 111, - total 615.
February 13, 1872, the lodges dedicated the new Masonie Temple, ereeted by Hocum Hosford, Esq., on Merrimack Street; on which occasion R. W. William Sewall Gardner delivered an address, from which the above facts in regard to Masonry in Lowell have been gleaned.
This year the Rev. H. A. Miles published a little handbook, entitled Lowell as It Was and as It Is: It was very much needed at that time, giving in- formation that had been carefully gathered from the best authorities, and is considered strictly re- liable.
February 2, 1846, the city council passed an order remonstrating against a petition to the legis- lature asking for the annexation of that part of Dracut called Centralville.
Jefferson Bancroft was mayor this year. He was born in Warwick, Mass., April 30, 1803. The Exchange Coffee House on Lowell Street, the store now occupied by Cook and Taylor on Central Street, and the first dwelling-house built on Tyler Street were erected by him. He purchased of the Locks and Canals Company the Stone House, and leased it to Major Samuel A. Coburn. When that gen- tleman relinquished it, he changed it from a hotel to a private dwelling-house. Eventually it went into the possession of Dr. J. C. Ayer.
When President Polk visited Lowell, June 30, 1847, Mayor Bancroft said, among other things, " Although I have the honor, as mayor of the eity, to welcome you among us to-day, some twenty years ago I commenced my career here, and was a long time employed as an operative in yonder mills."
April 14, the venerable judge of the police court, Hon. Joseph Locke, resigned his office.
Nathan Crosby received the appointment of judge of the police court in May, and has con- tinued, from that time to the present, to discharge the arduous duties of the position acceptably.
The Hamilton Manufacturing Company, finding that their purchases of cloths for printing were inferior in quality, erected a new mill on the bank of the canal in which to manufacture their own printing cloths. April 17, the wall of the new mill towards the canal fell with a crash, filling the canal with the débris.
A new earpet-mill, built for the power-looms, covering over three quarters of an acre of ground, being two hundred and seventy-two feet long, one hundred and thirty-eight feet wide, one story above the basement, was commeneed this year.
The New or Northern Canal was commeneed in June of this year. The necessity of this eanal was felt, from the fact that so many mills were drawing on the old canal. The loss of lead, after running a few hours in the morning, was about five feet, compelling the mills to run at a low speed the re- mainder of the day. The length of this canal is five thousand feet. The water-way is one hundred feet wide and fifteen feet deep. Water was let into it Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1847.
The canal cost $530,000, employing in its con- struction seven hundred to one thousand persons,
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The New Canal.
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LOWELL.
seventy horses, seventy-two oxen, and seven steam- engines. Twelve thousand barrels of cement were used in building it.
The subterranean canal under Worthen Street unites the waters of the New Canal with the old Merrimack Canal, thus giving all the mills located on the latter a more reliable supply. Its length is about one quarter of a mile, width thirty feet, and depth ten feet. It cost about $ 100,000.
The people of Ireland this year (1847) were threatened with starvation, and our country, with a generous liberality, contributed for their relief. Meetings were held in this city, committees organ- ized, and $1,990 contributed for the relief of the sufferers.
May 1, the number of school-children in the city between the ages of four and sixteen was 6,089.
May 11, the county commissioners purchased a lot of land on Gorham Street, Chapel Hill, for the new court-honse, at ten cents per foot, and also five acres of land of Ransom Reed at $800 per acre, on which to locate the jail, or house of cor- rection.
September 12, Patrick Tracy Jackson died at his seaside residence in Beverly. He was born at Newburyport, August 14, 1780, the youngest son of the Hon. Jonathan Jackson. From 1812 to 1817 the life of Mr. Jackson is so interwoven with that of Francis C. Lowell, that to know one is to know both. They were engaged in the same pur- suits, and labored for the same end. Being deprived of the co-operation of Mr. Lowell, who died in 1817, there was no hesitation, no drawing back on his part. The experience he had acquired, united with his sagacity, eminently fitted him for the posi- tion of manager in carrying forward to completion the plans lie had the genius to form. From 1821 to the time of his death the history of Lowell is his history.
The slow process of teaming and boating mer- chandise from Boston to Lowell and back, the in- convenience of being blockaded with snow in winter or delayed by heavy rain-storms in summer, must give way to a more expeditious method, and the Boston and Lowell Railroad was planned and built. To do this, surveying had to be done, estimates to be made, eminent engineers consulted, the objec- tions of opponents answered, friends assured, grum- blers pacified, delays explained, and money sub- scribed. All this Mr. Jackson accomplished.
After the death of Mr. Boott, when it was found that the stock of the Locks and Canals Company
had depreciated, Mr. Jackson was placed at the head of that company, and succeeded in bringing back its palmiest days. This enhanced his previous reputation, and no great public enterprise was undertaken without consulting him. During the last few years of his life he was treasurer and agent of the Great Falls Manufacturing Company at Somersworth, New Hampshire. Bad judgment and injudicious management had made it an unprofitable concern. The changes he made and the capabili- ties he developed soon brought about a different result. The strain, however, was great ; the care and responsibility proved too much for his physical strength. After a year or two the effects were exhibited in a gradual prostration. When attacked by dysentery in the summer of 1847, he sunk uuder it. His biography, written by his friend, John A. Lowell, enters more fully into the beauty and con- sistency of his character. He possessed a nice sense of honor, was governed by an enlightened conscience, and distinguished by a chcerfulness and benevolence that attracted and won all with whom he came in contact.
October 30, the City Institution for Savings was organized. The Appleton Bank was incorporated this year, with a capital of $100,000, since increased to $300,000.
Ayer's New City is the name given to one of the suburbs of Lowell. Daniel Ayer was its founder. He purchased the land, a sandy plain near Hale's Brook, laid out streets and lots, obtained a plan, and had a monster anction salc, enticing attendance by the promise of a barbecue, that is, an ox roasted whole. The occasion drew a crowd of people, but the unsavory smell spoiled their appetites. Ayer went into chancery in 1844, owing money to a number of persons ; but lie eventually paid them.
July 4, 1848, there were two celebrations, and orations were delivered by Elisha Bartlett and the Rev. John Moore.
The reservoir on Lynde's Hill, in Tewksbury, was built by the companies this year under the superintendence of J. B. Francis. It is about one and one half miles from the city hall. The top of the embankment is 190 feet above the water-level in the upper canals. The depth of the reservoir is 18 feet, with 12 feet of water, giving the water in the reservoir a height of 184 feet. The reser- voir is 174 feet square at the top and 102 feet at the bottom. When full it contains 1,201,641 imperial gallons.
It is supplied from the canal near the machine-
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shop by a pump driven by a breast-wheel. The objeet of the reservoir is to supply water in case of fire, when the canals are drawn off, to feed steam-boilers, and for the use of boarding-houses.
September 11, the prevalence of the eholera created much alarm. The number that had died in Lowell, previous to date, was seventy-one, of which fifty-two were buried in the Catholic bury- ing-ground.
September 12, Father Matthew visited Lowell, leetured in the city hall and in some of the Catho- lic churches. Over four thousand of his country- men signed the pledge during his stay.
January 1, 1850, the Lowell Gas Light Com- pany introduced gas.
The spacious court-house on Gorham Street was erected this year. The edifice is of brick, fire-proof throughout, and cost about $100,000.
Captain William Wyman proposed to ereet an observatory on Lynde's Hill in Belvidere. This lill is over two hundred feet higher than the water- level in the canals. He obtained a lithographie plate of the observatory, commenced solieiting sub- scriptions, and put in the foundation, which re- mains the only evidence of his patriotie intentions.
The process of kyanizing timber was com- meneed by J. B. Francis, the agent of the Locks and Canals Company. It is a preservative of wood against wet and dry rot, attacks from insects, and the adherence of animal and vegetable matter. The material is chloride of zine in solution, con- taining fifty-five per cent of dry ehlorine.
April 6, the Prescott Bank was incorporated; eapital $ 100,000, sinee inereased to $300,000.
December 9, the question, "Is it expedient that the part of Dracut called Centralville be annexed to the city of Lowell, according to the petition of L. G. Howe and others ?" was voted upon ; yeas 851, nays 1153. Notwithstanding this vote, the bill before the legislature was passed, to be en- grossed February 27, 1851, and approved by the governor the next day. The addition to Lowell was about three fourths of a square mile.
January 21, 1851, the governor and eouneil ap- pointed Fisher A. Hildreth sheriff for the county of Middlesex. General William Hildreth of Dracut, his ancestor, was sheriff in 1813; he was succeeded by General N. Austin of Charlestown, B. F. Var- num of Dracut, and General Chandler of Lexing- ton. Fisher A. Hildreth was succeeded by John S. Keyes of Coneord, Charles Kimball of Littleton, and Eben Fiske the present incumbent.
This year the manufacturing companies found it necessary to economize in the use of water. The old breast-wheels, having a diameter of from thir- teen to thirty feet, and a length of twelve feet, that had been in use from 1823 to 1845, were being replaced by turbine-wheels. The breast- wheels were held in high estimation, but required an extravagant use of water. The water used did not give more than sixty per cent of the power. The first turbine-wheel was put in at the Appleton Company's Works in 1839.'
December 16, the old Stone Mill in Belvidere, owned by Charles Stott, was burned. The Watson Light Guard was organized this year.
May 22, 1852, the proposition to build a hall in connection with the Boston and Lowell Rail- road Company's depot on Merrimack Street was adopted by the city council, and a committee chosen with full power to make the contract and carry out the plan. The result was Huntington Hall and Jackson Hall.
April 22, the great freshet occurred. The Mer- rimack rose thirteen and one half feet on the dam at Pawtucket Falls. Stones were placed on Paw- tucket Bridge to prevent its demolition. Concord River Bridge was barricaded. In Belvidere, on Davidson, Wall, and Howe streets, nearly all the houses were surrounded by water ; some of them to the depth of four or five feet. Stott's mills, the surrounding workshops, and the Prescott Company's block were deep in the water. The bar-room of the City Hotel had three feet of water in it.
All the houses on the low lands in Centralville were flooded, and the families in them were obliged to move out. The yards of the Middlesex, Pres- eott, Massachusetts, Boott, and Lawrence compa- nies were overflowed, also the lower rooms in their mills.
The premises of Coburn Blood, in Draeut, were flooded ; he saved his cattle by swimming them to dry land. He was ninety-three years old, and never knew the water so high before. The trains on the Stony Brook and Northern Railroads were stopped. The foresight of J. B. Francis in re- building the grand locks became evident when the water reached its highest point. The large gate was lowered for the first time.
June 1, 1853, the Wamesit Bank was organ- ized, with a capital that has since been increased to $250,000. It went into operation Novem- ber 1.
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July 4, Samuel Appleton died in Boston. He was a large stockholder in the various manufactur- ing companies in Lowell.
August 1, the Wamesit Steam Mills Company was formed; Isaac Place, J. G. Peabody, and others were interested in the enterprise.
September 30, the Lowell Museum was burned.
October 6, T. P. Goodhue, postmaster, died. At a later day Fisher A. Hildreth was appointed his successor.
November 1, George Wellman invented one of the simplest and yet most important improvements to the carding-machine, called the " self top-strip- per."
November 10, Joseph Locke died. He was born in Fitzwilliam, N. H., April 8, 1772, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1797. He studied law with Timothy Bigelow, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1801. The next year he opened an office in Billerica. He was elected rep- resentative to the legislature from that town in 1806, and was re-elected seven times. He was president of the court of sessions eight years. He was presidential elector the same year. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1820, and of the governor's council in 1822-23. He came to Lowell in 1833, and received the appoint- ment of justice of the police court. In 1849 he was one of the representatives to the legislature from Lowell.
The old city hall building was remodelled this year at an expense of $13,000.
In 1854 Sewall G. Mack was chosen mayor. Two principal events of this year were the organi- zation of the Merchants' Bank, May 8, and of the Five-Cent Savings Bank, May 16.
In March, 1855, William Livingston died. Chiefly to him Lowell owes the successful comple- tion of the Lowell and Lawrence, and the Salem and Lowell railroads. These roads were incorpo- rated and built, notwithstanding the persistent op- position of the Boston and Lowell Company, which claimed that its chartered rights were violated by their construction.
June 1, the number of school-children was 6,253.
The plans drawn by James H. Rand for the new jail were adopted by the county commissioners.
In June the Middlesex North Agricultural So- ciety was organized, William Spencer president. The society purchased a lot of land of the Bos- ton and Lowell Railroad Company, and in 1860
bought of the Lowell Bleachery Company a build- ing which was moved on the ground and fitted up for the accommodation of the society. This build- ing was dedicated June 18, 1860. Early in Sep-
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Five-Cent Savings Bank.
tember, 1861, this ground was rented to the United States for a camp, called Camp Chase. It was vacated November 19.
In 1860 the Union Agricultural Library Asso- ciation was established, with one hundred and forty members and a library consisting of two hundred and seventy-five volumes. The interest has sub- sided, but the books remain.
July 2, a registry of deeds for the Northern District of Middlesex County was opened in the new court-house, and A. B. Wright was appointed register. Mr. Wright was succeeded by I. W. Beard, and Mr. Beard by J. P. Thompson. The district now comprises Lowell, Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Littleton, Tewks- bury, Tyngsborough, Westford, and Wilmington.
July 4, Augustus Woodbury delivered the ora- tion.
August 18, Hon. Abbott Lawrence died. In 1830 he was induced to take an interest in the manufacturing business established here ; his name
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
is recorded as one of the incorporators of the Tre- mont Mills in 1831, of the Boott Cotton Mills in 1835, and of the Lowell Machine-Shop in 1845.
Central Bridge was laid out as a public highway by the city council. It was opened as such in October, 1856. In 1832 the proprietors of the bridge allowed the occupants of their land in Cen- tralville to cross the bridge toll free, thus offering inducements to people to become their tenants.
When Centralville was annexed to Lowell, it con- tained 909 inhabitants'; its valuation was $294,511. In 1874 it contained 8,000 inhabitants, and its valuation was $2,500,000.
The Lawrence Cadets were organized this year. The name was changed in 1861 to the National Greys.
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