USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 9
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In 1816 two new mills were built. Luke Bow- ers and son built a saw and grist-mill just below the bridge, at Pawtucket Falls. Nathan Tyler built a grist-mill on the canal near Concord River.
It is said that Captain John Ford had a saw-mill at the mouth of Concord River. Captain Ford was a tall, stout, rugged man. Tradition says the In- dians held a grudge against him. One of them, with the intent to kill the captain, was skulking round the mill. Captain Ford was busy moving a log with his grippers, when he caught sight of the Indian near some logs. He kept on with his work until the Indian approached him and stood up to grasp him. The captain, concentrating his whole
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
strength, threw his hand round and knocked the Indian into the stream. Captain Silas Tyler locates the mill just below the bridge, at Pawtucket Falls.
In 1819 the road from Pawtucket Falls to the head of the Middlesex Canal was built.
Before the progress of the waters of the Merri- mack to the sea had been checked and restrained by dams, they bore in their bosoin a bountiful source of supply for the sustenance of not only the Indians, but also the first English settlers. Within the memory of the oldest inhabitant now living, the Merrimack teemed with salmon, shad, alewives, and eels. Occasionally a sturgeon was seen leaping, in sportive activity, high in the air. This is what one of the oldest inhabitants 1 says : " The best haul of fish I ever knew was eleven hundred shad and eight or ten thousand alewives. This was in the Concord River, just below the Middlesex Mills. Formerly there was what was called an island on the Belvidere side of the bridge, near the mouth of the Concord. Occasionally the water from Con- cord River found a course down by the Owen house and the old yellow Tavern House. There were four fishing places, two above and two below the Con- cord-River bridge. Joe Tyler, my uncle, owned those above, and Josiah Fletcher those below the bridge. The first owner of the yellow Tavern House was Brown. The house stood where St. John's Hospital now stands. Brown sold to God- ing (Gedney ?) of Boston; Gedney sold to Wood- ward, and Woodward sold to Major Whittemore2 of West Cambridge; Whittemore sold to Livermore, and Livermore sold to John and Thomas Nesmith.
" My uncle got so many alewives at one time that he did not know what to do with them. He made a box that we called a 'shot,' and filled it full of alewives. This he attempted to run over the falls ; but it struck a rock and spilled the whole. The law allowed us to fish two days each week in the Concord, and three in the Merrimack. This law was enforced about the same as the pro- hibitory law of the present day ; and just about as much attention was paid to it. The fish wardens were the state police.
" The Dracut folks fished in the pond at the foot of Pawtucket Falls. They would set their nets there on the forbidden days. On one occasion the fish wardens from Billerica came, took and carried off their nets. The wardens, when they returned to Billerica, spread the nets on the grass to dry.
1 Captain Silas Tyler.
2 The inventor of the machines for making cards.
The next night the fishermen, in a wagon with a span of horses, drove to Billerica, gathered up the nets, brought them back, and reset them in the pond.
" People would come 15 or 20 miles on fishing days to procure these fish. Shad were worth five dollars per hundred, salmon ten cents per pound."
In concluding the early history of Lowell, we must note that the abundant water-power of the Merrimack River had been made available only for the purpose of propelling the wheel of an insignifi- cant saw-mill near the Pawtucket Falls; and this was done, not by a regularly constructed dam and canal, but by the current of an offshoot from the falls themselves.
During the period over which we have taken the reader, from 1810 to 1820, the calculation, fore- sight, and enterprise of one man had gradually been so shaping the material interests of the state, that he is now considered the author and father of its system of manufactures. It is true that others, with a laudable ambition, were engaged in the same work ; but it is to his systematic efforts and thorough appreciation of the people, their capa- bilities and wants, and the natural facilities they possessed, that he was enabled to win success under difficulties. Perhaps "he builded better than he knew," having only the strong desire and hope of making a fortune. The credit for results that re- dound to his honor cannot be denied.
Francis Cabot Lowell was born in Newburyport, April 7, 1775. His father moved to Boston in 1776, and it was there that the son acquired his education. The Lowells, it is said, were descended from two brothers, Richard and Percival Lowle, who came from Bristol, England, in 1639 and set- tled at Newbury. The Rev. John Lowell, probably a descendant of one of these, was pastor of the first church in Newburyport for forty-two years. He died in 1767, leaving one son, John Lowell, LL. D., who was born in Newbury, June 17, 1743 (O. S.), and graduated at Harvard College in 1760. He was appointed Judge of the United States District Court for Massachusetts by Wash- ington, and was distinguished for his learning and eloquence.
Francis Cabot Lowell, second son of Judge Lowell, graduated at Harvard College in 1793, at the age of eighteen. One of his classmates was Charles Jackson, afterwards judge, a brother of Pat- rick Tracy Jackson, whose sister Lowell married. Very little is known of his early life; it is not
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until he had arrived at the age of thirty-six that we know about him. John A. Lowell speaks of him as " a young man at that time (1810), thirty-five years of age, whose business had been that of a merchant, but who had been driven from his business, at first by the Embargo, afterwards by the Non-intercourse Act, and finally by war." Hon. Nathan Appleton met him in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1811; and it was then that Mr. Lowell communicated his de- termination to obtain all possible information on the subject of the manufacture of cotton, with the purpose of introducing it into the United States. Mr. Appleton says, "I urged him to do so, and promised him my co-operation." In the fulfilment of his purpose we can imagine liow persistently he investigated the whole process of manufacturing cotton as known in England and Scotland. Wil- liam Horrocks of Stockport had patented a power- loom in 1803, another in 1805, and another, with improvements, in 1813. These so alarmed the hand-loom weavers in England and Scotland, that they destroyed many of them. Mr. Lowell undoubtedly improved his opportunities; and, although the construction of these looms was kept secret, he obtained sufficient information to enable him to construct one. He returned home in 1812. It was to Patrick Tracy Jackson he first imparted his designs, and offered a share in the enterprise. Mr. Appleton says of Lowell : " He and Patrick T. Jackson came to me one day on the Boston Exchange, and stated that they had determined to establish a cotton factory ; that they had purchased a water-power in Waltham (Bemis's paper-mill), and that they had obtained an act of incorporation, and Mr. Jackson had agreed to give up all other business and take the management of the concern." Associating themselves with some of the most in- telligent merchants of Boston, they procured in February, 1813, a charter under the name of The Boston Manufacturing Company, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars.
It appears that immediately after Mr. Lowell's return he had at once gone to work to construct a loom ; but he found its construction no easy task. Without patterns, or even drawings, so far as we know, each part had to be planned and tried, altered and rearranged, until the whole as- sumed the shape of a machine. We are told that " many little matters were to be overcome or ad- justed before it would work perfectly." Mr. Appleton says : " Mr. Lowell said to me that he did not wish me to see it until it was complete, of
which he would give me notice. At length the time arrived. He invited me to go out with him and see the loom operate. I well recollect the state of admiration and satisfaction with which we sat by the hour watching the beautiful movement of this new and wonderful machine, destined, as it evidently was, to change the character of all textile industry. This was in the autumn of 1814."
The great obstacle to the use of the power-loom, at that time, proved to be dressing the yarn; it required a man at each loom to dress the warp as it unrolled from the beam. This rendered it necessary to stop the loom while the man was doing it. This difficulty was removed by the in- vention of an ingenious mnode of dressing the warp before it was placed in the loom. Mr. Lowell procured from England a drawing of Horrocks' dressing-frame, and Mr. Moody, whose services he had secured, made an improvement which more thian doubled its efficiency, - a very ingenious machine called a warper, that wound the threads from the bobbins on the beam. After this there was no further difficulty in running a power-loom. " The greatest improvement was in the double- speeder. The original fly-frame introduced in England was without any fixed principle for regu- lating the changing movements necessary in the process of filling a spool. Mr. Lowell undertook to make the numerous mathematical calculations necessary to give accuracy to these complicated movements, which occupied him constantly for more than a week. Mr. Moody carried them into effect by constructing the machinery in conform- ity ..... The last great improvement consisted in a more slack spinning on throstle spindles, and the spinning of filling directly on the cops without the process of winding."
Samuel Batchelder, in his work on cotton man- ufacture, relates the following anecdote : "Mr. Moody also stated to me another incident respect- ing the construction and completion of the dressing- frame. At first they had used wooden rollers where the threads of the warp were submitted to the action of the size; but being constantly wet, the wood swelled and warped, so that the rolls would not fit accurately. They then tried covering the rollers with metal, by casting a coat of pewter on the outside ; but after various methods of cast- ing, sometimes in sand, and sometimes in a mould made of iron, they were still found to be imperfect. He at length thought of making a mould of soap- stone in which to cast them. Meeting his brother
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
David in Boston, who had known the trouble he had experienced, he said to him, 'I think I shall get over the difficulty about the rollers ; I intend to try soapstone,' - meaning for a mould to cast them in. . His brother replied, 'Well, I should think soapstone would made a very good roller.' Mr. Moody made no reply, but took the hint, and made his rollers of soapstone, and they are in gen- eral use."
They had one loom in operation, and it threw off the cotton cloth so fast, that they were fearful the production would exceed the demand. Mr. Lowell thought the goods would not sell ; they called on Mrs. Bowers, who kept the only shop in Boston where domestic goods were sold, and she said everybody praised the goods, and no ob- jection was made to the price ; but still she made no sale. Mr. Appleton had previously formed a copartnership with Benjamin C. Ward, for the purpose of importing British goods. He told Mr. Lowell to send the next parcel to the store of B. C. Ward & Co. Although Mr. Lowell was will- ing to take twenty-five cents per yard for the goods, they were put into an auction-room, and brought " something over thirty cents." This was the commencement of the practice of consigning goods to a house to sell on commission.
The whole economy of a cotton-mill was regu- lated by Mr. Lowell; the different processes fol- lowed each other with the regularity of a clock. His studies led him to a systematic division of labor, and the difficulties he had to encounter taught him that, if he would succeed in his under- taking, he must adopt the strictest economy. He had seen manufacturing establishments in the Old World, and the glitter of wealth growing out of their operations; bnt this did not hide from his view the miserable condition of the operatives. Believing that such a state of things did not legiti- mately belong to manufacturing establishments, he conceived of a community where neatness and com- fort, pleasant residences and happy homes, churches and school-houses, good, wholesome food and decent clothing, were all to be found. In the es- tablishment at Waltham he endeavored to give " a local habitation and a name " to his conception.
Mr. Lowell died September 2, 1817, at the early age of forty-two, " beloved and respected by all who knew him."
Stimulated by the success of the business at Waltham, and sanguine that the time would come when the United States could compete with Great
Britain in the manufacture of cotton goods, Pat- rick T. Jackson, who succeeded Mr. Lowell in the management at Waltham in 1820, began to look round for a locality where the business might be extended as soon as the capabilities of Charles River should be exhausted.
In 1820-21, as has been stated, Patrick T. Jack- son and his associate, Hon. Nathan Appleton, were looking for a water-power in order to extend the manufacturing business. They had been enabled, by the association of capital and their improved machinery, to withstand the financial pressure that crushed so many cotton and woollen manufac- turers in New England after the war, and looked forward to an improved state of things. Mr. Lowell, as early as 1816, had not favored a very high rate of duty on foreign goods; he believed that the improvements in machinery and economy in management operated as a protection. In 1819 the price of domestic cottons had fallen almost one third from 1816; yet the Boston Manufacturing Company were enabled to make a dividend of five per cent in 1820, a time of unusual depression.
Mr. Appleton says : " At the suggestion of Mr. Charles H. Atherton of Amherst, N. H., we met him at a fall of the Souhegan River, a few miles from its entrance into the Merrimack ; but the fall was insufficient for our purpose. This was in September, 1821. In returning, we passed the Nashua River without being aware of the existence of the fall, which has since been made the source of so much power by the Nashua Company. We only saw a small grist-mill standing near the road, in the meadow, with a dam of some six or seven feet. Soon after our return I was at Waltham one day, when I was informed that Mr. Moody had lately been at Salisbury, when Mr. Ezra Worthen, his former partner, said to him, 'I hear Messrs. Jackson and Appleton are looking out for a water- power; why don't they buy up the Pawtucket Canal? That would give them the whole power of the Merrimack, with a fall of over thirty feet.' On the strength of this, Mr. Moody had returned to Waltham by that route, and was satisfied of the extent of the power which might be thus obtained."
We have a record of the first visit of Paul Moody to the Pawtucket Falls, written in 1843, by the venerable rector of St. Anne's Church, Rev. Theodore Edson, related to him by one of the party, Mrs. Susan (Moody) Dana. " An arrange- ment was made for Mr. and Mrs. Worthen to take a chaise and accompany Mr. and Mrs. Moody to
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BOLTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Nathan Appleton.
Kirk Boott.
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Pawtucket Falls; but John Worthen being taken ill Mrs. Worthen could not go, wherefore Mr. Worthen went in one chaise, and Mr. and Mrs. Moody and Susan in the other. When they came to the foot of Hunt's Falls, the gentlemen got out to look round, while Mrs. Moody and Susan sat in the chaise. They then came up to Mr. Jona- than Tyler's to dine. He kept the public-house at that time. After dinner they rode out again, went up the river and reconnoitred the Pawtucket Falls and neighborhood to their satisfaction. The two friends parted, and Mr. Worthen went home to Amesbury."
Returning to Mr. Appleton's narrative : " Our first visit to the spot was in the month of Novem- ber, 1821, and a slight snow covered the ground. The party consisted of Patrick T. Jackson, Kirk Boott, Warren Dutton, Paul Moody, John W. Boott, and myself. We perambulated the grounds and scanned the capabilities of the place, and the remark was made that some of us might live to see the place contain twenty thousand inhabi- tants."
In Kirkland's Anecdotes will be found the fol- lowing amusing notice of Kirk Boott: "When the prospect of founding a large manufacturing town on the Merrimack River was in contempla- tion, some of the persons interested in that great commercial enterprise sent up Mr. B ---- , a young gentleman skilled as an engineer, and who was also fond of sporting, to view the water-privilege carefully, and to make inquiry as to the prices of land in the vicinity. He went with his dog, gun, and fishing-tackle, and obtained board in a farmer's house, a Mr. F -. He spent his time in view- ing the falls, the canal, the river, and the grounds, with occasional fowling and fishing. After spend- ing some time there, in talking with the farmer one evening he told him that he liked the place very well, and thought he should be pleased to come and live there. The man said 'he should be pleased to have him.' ' Well, Mr. F ---- , what will you take for your farm ?' 'Why, I don't want to sell it, Mr. B-, nor would I unless I got twice what it is worth, as I am satisfied here, and don't want to move.' 'Well, what do you say it is worth, Mr. F --? ' ' Why, it's worth fifteen hundred dollars, and I can't sell it for less than three thousand dollars.' 'That is too much,' said Mr. B-, ' I can't give that.' 'Very well, you need not.' Here the conversation ended.
"Mr. B- continued his sporting, and having
received his instructions, in the course of a few days renewed his talk with Mr. F-, and said to him, ' Well, Mr. F-, I have made up my mind that I should like to live here very well ; and though you ask so much, I will take up with your offer, and give you three thousand dollars.' 'Why, as to that, Mr. B-, you did not take my farm when I offered it to you, and I am not willing to sell it now for anything less than six thousand dollars.' ' You are joking, Mr. F -! ' 'Not so, Mr. B --; I am in earnest, and I sha' n't continue my offer more than twenty-four hours.' B-, finding he was determined, went off for instructions, and the next day told Mr. F- he would give him six thousand dollars. The pur- chase was made, deed passed, and money paid.
"Some time afterward Mr. B --- asked the farm- er what reason he had in the course of a few days to double the price of his farm, and to insist upon it. ' Why, Mr. B -- , I will tell you ; a day or two after I offered you the farm for three thousand dollars I saw two men on the opposite side of Merrimack River, sitting on a rock, and talking for some time ; then they got up and one went up the river and the other down, and after some time they returned, seemed in earnest conversation half an hour or more, when they arose and went away. I did not know what it meant, but I thought something was in the wind, and I determined if you asked me again to sell my farm, I would demand double the price.' Thus began the purchase, by Boston merchants, of the land upon which the city of Lowell has been erected."
General Butler, in his address at the semi-cen- tennial celebration, says: "First and foremost of the remarkable men who were its [Lowell's] founders stands the name of Kirk Boott. .. . . I have said that the early engineers reported no water-power here, and it remained for an English half-pay cavalry officer, wandering along the side of our fall, rod in hand, casting the fly for the salmon, to discover and appreciate the mechanical force of a river which now does the work of ten thousand horses. . ... Kirk Boott reported this view of the capabilities of the Merrimack River to Patrick T. Jackson, which view was confirmed by Paul Moody."
John A. Lowell, in his address on the same oc- casion, says : " I should be the last person to say one word in depreciation of Kirk Boott. He was my bosom-friend, and I was his trustee. I would not say anything to detract from his credit; but
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it is no more true as a matter of fact, that he made the first experiment in joint-stock companies in carrying on the cotton manufacture, than it is true that he went ont with a fishing-line and found that there was a water-power at Chelmsford. I pretend to know all about that thing. The first person who suggested this place was Ezra Worthen. Paul Moody knew nothing about it. Mr. Moody and Mr. Jackson came up afterwards, and saw the place. It is not true that Mr. Boott was the first to sug- gest it. So far from it, the whole purchase was made of the Pawtucket Canal, and of most of the farms here, before Mr. Kirk Boott had set foot on the spot."
It will be seen that Mr. Appleton and Mr. J. A. Lowell do not agrec in regard to Mr. Boott's par- ticipation in viewing the premises.
February 6, 1822, the legislature granted " an act to incorporate the Merrimack Manufacturing Company." Kirk Boott, William Appleton, John W. Boott, and Ebenezer Appleton were the persons named in the act. The capital was $600,000. A personal-liability clause was inserted in the charter, " that every person who shall become a member of said corporation shall be liable in his private capacity, after his membership may have ceased, for all debts contracted during the time he was a member of said corporation."
Up to this time they had purchased six hundred and thirty-nine shares in the Pawtucket Canal or Locks and Canals Company, for which they paid $30,607.62 ; the Tyler farm for $8,000, the Josiah Fletcher farm for $6,860, the Joseph Fletcher farm or land for $1,230.62, and eight tenths of Cheever's land for $1,605. These sums, with $2,700 paid to N. Wright, $647.80 paid to T. M. Clark, and other incidental expenses, amounted to $69,815.62.1
In 1822 a dam was built across the Merrimack at Pawtucket Falls, and the main canal enlarged
1 There has been a story current for a long time that Thomas Hurd, reputed to he a shrewd operator, being in Boston about the time these lands were bought, overheard a conversation that led him to hasten back to Chelmsford, secure the refusal of the Bowers saw-mill near Pawtucket Bridge, and of land iu that vicinity. The story is corroborated by the record of the doings of the directors of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company ; for July 29, 1822, the directors received a proposal from Mr. Hurd of Chelmsford relative to his purchases at Pawtucket Bridge, which was referred to a committee. August 17, 1822, Mr. Hurd's mill at Pawtucket Bridge and sundry parcels of land adjoining were purchased. Hurd at that time bought Artemas Holden's place, but he failed without paying for it, - a serious loss to Mr. Holdeu. We shall hear from Hurd again.
to a width of sixty-five feet and a depth of eight feet. The locks were renewed, and the Merrimack and Hamilton canals were commenced. Five hun- dred men were employed. These improvements cost $120,000.
The Lowell Journal, March 10, 1826, in an ac- count of these operations, says : "In digging this canal ledges were found considerably below the old canal, which bore evident traces of its having once been the bed of the river. Many places were found worn in the ledge, as there usually are in falls, by stones kept constantly in motion by the water ; some of these cavities were a foot or more in diameter, and two feet deep."
This year Jonathan C. Morrill was appointed postmaster at East Chelmsford, and continued to hold the office until 1829.
September 1, 1823, the first mill on the Merri- mack was completed, water let into the canal, and the wheel started. The first cloth was turned out in November of this year. October 9 started the first cards on the Merrimack.
There was no suitable public-house in the place at this time. The Stone House, where company was received and entertained, was erected soon after this.
June 18, 1824, Ezra Worthen, while giving directions to his workmen, dropped dead. War- ren Colburn was appointed to the place made vacant by his death. The company gave Mr. Worthen's widow $750, the amount of his salary for six months.
At this time the establishment of another com- pany, to be called the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, was proposed. The Merrimack Com- pany voted to charge the new company thirty dol- lars per spindle, including machinery and land, or four dollars per spindle for land without ma- chinery.
October 25, 1824, J. B. Varnum erected a wing dam near the foot of Pawtucket Falls, on the Dracut side of the river, and the Merrimack Manu- facturing Company remonstrated, asserting its right to the whole falls; but remonstrance being of no avail, May 3, 1825, the agent was author- ized to purchase the land in Dracut of J. B. Var- num. This was another of Mr. Hurd's plans, and Mr. Varnum was selected to assist him in carrying it out. Relying upon the current created by the dam, he attempted to drive a water-wheel by that current, and in 1825 and 1826 built a mill on the spot, the foundation of which still remains. June 1, 1825, the Warren estate was sold to Hurd by
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