History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 69

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 69

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next winter's use, it being much superior to any made later in the year. In the tin can department thirty- eight hands are constantly employed, and tin of spec- ial sizes is imported in lots of five hundred boxes. Over fifty thousand of the one and two-pound cans are packed and sold every month.

Pure cold water from artesian wells is used, there- by assuring the most healthy results, as well as the even quality of the goods. All the factories are sup- plied with the automatic fire alarm system and auto- matic sprinklers, and an electric plant of four hun- dred and fifty lights. There are branch houses in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, Albany, Troy, in the East, and Minneapolis, St. Paul and Kansas City, in the West. Thirty-four horses are in use in expressing goods to the depots in Boston, and the various branches use as many more. The output at present is $4500 per day and the gross business for the year 1889 was over a million dollars, and the Chicago house was about the same. The Cambridge pay-roll is $3400 a week; two men have been em- ployed with this house forty-seven and forty-five years, respectively, and others from fifteen to twenty years.

EARTHEN-WARE-Earthen-ware manufacture oc- cupies a prominent position in the industries of Cam- bridge. The potter, whose occupation dates from nearly the earliest period, plies his trade here in a manner far superior to his prototype of the remote era. Then his craft were few in numher and the fa- cility of doing the work was meagre when compared with the processes now employed. Thousands of years have passed since the first work from clay was wrought in its simplicity.

Specimens of pre-historic work have been exhumed from the ruins of ancient cities, which bore the im- press of indestructiblety, the clay having been so prepared as to resist the inroads of time upon it. The potter's wheel then employed to aid in the fashioning of earthen vessels has been but slightly improved upon, but the preparation of the material used is vast- ly superior to the means employed by the ancient potter. Then the work was slowly forwarded by hand, while now machinery has been introduced of the most approved pattern to expedite the work. The clay is taken from the ground and after having been properly handled is run through different graded mills to secure a proper consistency to be wrought into suit- able and artistic shapes. Steam-power, a motor un- known to the early potter, is now employed to operate the appliances required in the business. The wheel upon which so much depends is moved without the treadle as of yore.

Primitive genius has been superseded by the invent- ive mind of the present potter, so that now his work is more easily performed and to better and more re- munerative advantage. The pottery of the Messrs. A. H. Hews & Co., of North Cambridge, is a model establishment because of the fact that the firm is com-

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posed of energetic men, who are so far progressive in the conduct of the vast business transacted as to intro- duce every labor-saving apparatus which may be pre- sented.

The business to which the firm has succeeded was established in 1765, in the town of Weston, Mass., by Abram Hews, grandfather of the senior member.

An entry in the journal of the founder of the busi- ness reads as follows :

"April 19, 1775.

"Lemuel Sones to Ware, Dr., . 2. 8."

Then again :

" WESTON, August 15, 1789.

" Then Rec'd of Mr. Hewes one pouud in full of all accompts and demands.

" I say Received by me.

" JOHN KINGMAN."

" Jan'y 1st, 1790.

"Then Balanced accompts with Abram Harrington.

"ABRAM HEWS,

" DANIEL EATON."

The business of which the present company are the proprietors was conducted in Weston for over a cen- tury, when it was transferred to Cambridge by Mr. A. H. Hews, the senior partner of the firm, in 1870. The annual transactions exceed the gross earnings of the parent industry for a period of half a century.

The buildings in which this vast business is carried on consist of a three-story brick structure and several outbuildings of suitable dimensions, all covering an area of two acres. The floor-room has an area of 60,000 feet, on which the manufactures, in their sev- eral branches, are forwarded.

On these floors flower-pots are turned out, and the Albertine vase, highly ornamented, is developed in the art department. The art pottery is marvelous in design and ornamentation, and finds a ready market in art circles. Probably nowhere in this country can be found a prettier exhibition of the potter's skill than is displayed here. Copies from the most antique productions, with original designs, are arranged with taste in the exhibition room, making a museum of clay productions unequaled.

Four kilns are used, which have a capacity of hold- ing 35,000 pieces of medium-sized pottery, and which are placed with care and precision for the baking process.

The factory is on the line of the Fitchburg Rail- road, over which the firm receives its coal and for- wards its wares to all parts of the country.

New and improved machinery, of great cost, has just been introduced, so that now the establishment ranks with any other in the country.

Ninety employés find steady employment at this establishment. Mr. Wm. P. Brown is the book- keeper, and Mr. George H. McKee is the art designer and foreman of the works.

SOAP MANUFACTURES .- Cambridge has for many years been noted for the manufacture of this import- ant article, and it is now and has been for nearly a century more extensively engaged in it than any

other place in New England, and less than fifty years ago more soap was shipped from Cambridge than from any other port in this country. The chief places to which it was exported were the West Indies and South America. Hardly a vessel left Boston for either of these places with less than a thousand boxes, and frequently with five times that number, receiv- ing in return either gold or coffee. That trade has almost entirely ceased, and the manufacture is now chiefly confined to the home market, and grades and qualities for domestic purposes, and the business has increased largely in amount and it can now be reck- oned as one of the large and important industries of Cambridge. The business commenced in a small way. In 1804, Nathaniel Livermore came from Waltham to Cambridgeport in search of business and also to benefit his health, which at that time was thought to be in a very critical state tending towards, and by some physicians thought to be, a confirmed case of cousumption. Mr. Livermore found a person who understood the business and another who could fur- nish a small amount of capital and a co-partnership was formed under the name and style of Livermore, Crane and Whitney.

The business began in a very small way in a building in the rear of Main Street, and in the Columbian Centinel of December 22, 1804, they advertise that they are ready to furnish brown soap, dipt candles and groceries. This was the origin of soap-making in Cambridge. Mr. Livermore, who was then twenty-five years old, continued in the business on the same spot until hedied, in 1862, at the advanc- ed age of ninety years.

There are in Cambridge at the present time five large factories making in the aggregate many million pounds per annum, and all finding a ready market for their goods at remunerative prices. Among the long- est in business is the well-known firm of Curtis, Davis and Company. Since the death of Mr. Davis, in 1877, the business has been continued by his son-in- law, James Mellen, under the same name and style, and the quality of the goods made is too well known all over the country to need any words of commenda- tion. The area of land upon which the factory, store-houses, stables and other out-buildings stand is about 66,000 feet, floor area 44,500 feet and daily pro- duct is 35,000 pounds of different grades of laundry a very large per cent. of which (nine-tenths) is the cele- brated " Welcome Soap," of which they manufactured aud sold in the past year (1889) one hundred thou- sand boxes of seventy-five pounds each, and for which they require daily twenty thousand pounds of tallow, four thousand pounds of alkali, two tons of coal and a variety of other supplies, including borax and per- fumes. The alkali is imported from England, the borax from California, the perfumery from China, Germany, France, Florida and the State of New York. The number of hands employed is very large. James C. Davis & Son, Soap Manufacturers .- This

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concern started business in 1840, and since the death of the senior Mr. Davis two years ago the bus- iness has been continued by his sons and his son-in- law, Mr. J. H. Spaulding. The factory, situated on Broadway, Cambridgeport, has been greatly enlarged and improved within the last few years and is now supplied with all the late improvements and machin- ery, and isin every respect a well-appointed establish- ment with all the means and appliances for doing a large and increasing business. Their warehouse and salesroom is at No 3 Chatliam Street, Boston.

C. L. Jones & Co., Soap .- Business started about 1830 by Charles Valentine, who was succeeded in 1845 by the present firm. Buildings consist of main factory, 175x60; connected with this is an ell 60x30, where are the kettles in which the boiling is done; the lat- ter are ten in number, with a united capacity of 400,- 000 pounds. In the rear of the main building is the boiler-house, which contains four boilers of fifty horse- power each. The motive-power is furnished by two engines of twenty-five horse-power each. The weekly output is about 150,000 pounds-about thirty-five men and boys are employed. The goods are sold princi- pally in New England and New York State.

John Reardon d' Sons use about 8,000,000 pounds of fats per year, from which they make in oleo oil about 4,000,000 pounds, butterine about 600,000 pounds, stearine about 1,500,000 pounds, tallow about 1,000,000 pounds, soap about 3,000,000.

WILLIAM L. LOCKHART'S MANUFACTORY .- This large and commodious establishment for the furnishing of funeral supplies is located on Bridge Street, East Cambridge, and is fully equiped with all modern appli- ances and machinery, and is thus always ready to furnish every article in his line, either by night or by day. The business was established in 1849 by Mr. Lockhart, who is, and has been, the sole proprietor, and who has built up a large and extensive business in all sections of the United States and Canada, and keeps constantly employed at the factory about 150 skilled operatives. Besides the factories at Cambridge, Mr. Lockhart has large ware-rooms in Boston, where are kept the largest, finest and most complete stock or undertakers' supplies in the country. The ware- rooms are situated in the business portion of Boston, and are readily accessible from all parts of the city, being within five minutes' walk of the northern and eastern depots and ten minutes' car ride to the south- ern depots, in the extreme parts of the city. The building used, warehouse and salesroom, is six stories high, at the junction of three streets, and was erected by Mr. Lockhart for the express purpose for which it is used, and for which it is admirably adapted ; no pains or expense has been spared in any of the de- tails of arrangement. The different floors of the building are divided as follows (each floor containing about five thousand square feet): Second floor, offices and salesroom, and casket hardware department; third floor, show-rooms; fourth floor, for packing

and shipping; fifth and sixth floors, storage. The show-room is filled with everything of a miscellane- ous nature that is required by a funeral director's use. Mr. Lockhart carries a complete duplicate line of all his goods, so that telegraph or telephone orders may be sent immediately on receipt, by day or night. It has ever been his desire to obtain every facility for the prompt execution of all orders that may be en- trusted to his care, and he guarantees prompt service in all cases. Funeral directors are cordially invited to make his office their headquarters while in the city of Boston, and he feels confident that they will find his rooms to be the most complete of any in America for the purposes and business for which it is designed. Mr. Lockhart has lived in Cambridge for the last forty-five years, and is highly esteemed for his enterprise, geniality of disposition and inflexi- ble integrity.

THE TELESCOPE MANUFACTORY OF CLARK & SONS is the most celebrated institution of its kind in the world. Here was completed in 1887 the largest telescope ever made. This was for the Lick Observatory. The contract was made in 1880, and the telescope was finished and mounted in 1887. Its cost was $53,000. The contract was given to them by the Lick trustees after several years spent in finding a concern willing to undertake the work of making an instrument of the size and power required, which was to be larger and superior to any one ever made. The Clarks had four times been called upon to construct, "a telescope more powerful than any now in existence,"-first in 1860, one for Chicago 183 inches aperture, which was 3} inches larger than any then known; in 1879 one for the Russian Government for a 30-inch objective (3 inches larger than the Vienna telescope); one in 1870 with the United States Government for a refrac- tor of 26-inch aperture, and in 1880 the Lick estate for a 36-inch telescope, all of which contracts they fulfilled to the satisfaction of all the parties concerned. They stand to-day at the head of the telescope-makers of the world, and are ready to undertake the construc- tion of instruments of still greater capacity if ordered. The factory, or workshop, where the firm do all their work is a small, unpretentious building on Brookline Street, Cambridgeport, near the banks of the Charles River. The work was all done by Mr. Alvan Clark and his two sons, George B. and Alvan G., and, with the exception of a few day-laborers, these constitute the whole force employed. Mr. Clark, senior, was for many years a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his eldest son, George B., now enjoys the same honor.

In 1867 Mr. Alvan Clark was awarded the Rumford medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for the perfection of his optical surfaces. The com- pletion of the 30-inch Russian object-glass brought the Clarks the signal honor of the golden medal of the Empire, conferred for the first time by Alexan- der III. The Clarks have built eleven instruments;

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of the type known as the "horizontal photo-helio- graph," with 5-inch aperture and 40 feet focus, appro- priately mounted and moved by clock-work of their own construction.

In the reprint of the appendix of the 23d volume of the "Encyclopedia Britannica," Prof. David P. Todd says, " Of all the makers of telescopes the most cele- brated are Alvan Clark & Sons, of Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A." As a fitting close to this brief notice, we append a few words of an autobiographic nature writ- ten to a friend by Alvan Clark without any idea of publication. "I have never held any office nor at- tended a party caucus, but have always voted with the Republicans since they came into power, altho' up to that time I was a Democrat. I have never been a church-member, but my faith in the universality of God's Providence is entire and unswerving. My grand- fathers died, one at 87 and the other at 88, and they were both good men. I have never heard of one of my progenitors as being a bankrupt, or intemperate. I never sued but one man, and that was Collector Aus- tin, of Boston, and I gained my case. I never stnd- ied music or attended an opera in my life, and know nothing of chess or card-playing. I never learned to dance, but was a good swimmer, though lacking in the points which go to make an expert gymnast. I was born in Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, on the eighth of March, 1804. When I was about 12 years of age I thought that I would be a millwright, but when I was 17 years old I began to think that perhaps I might be better fitted for some other calling, and I went into a wagon-maker's shop and worked about a year, when I put myself at work in good earnest to learn alone engraving and drawing, and in 1824 I visited Boston carrying with me specimens of my work to show my proficiency, which, though not great, was sufficient to secure me a living employment for the time. Supplying myself with some of the most needed materials, I returned to Ashfield and spent the summer with no settled plans farther than the acquisition of skill. While I was learning the art of engraving I offered my services in the vicinity of Ashville in making small portraits, some in India ink and some in water-colors, and with pretty satis- factory measure of success. One little incident I will mention which tends to show what small matters will change the course of a human life. Wanting some fine sable hair brushes I sent to Boston for them, and upon looking over a scrap of newspaper in which they were wrapped my eye fell on an advertisement; headed ' Engravers Wanted,' and I was not long in making up my mind to apply for a situation, which I was de- lighted to get, and where I went to work in the en- graving shop of the Merrimac Co., at East Chelmsford (now Lowell), for the wages of eight dollars per week for one year, and nine dollars per week for the three succeeding years. I was to work nine hours per day in summer and eight hours in winter.

" I was the first person married in the then Town

of, now the City of, Lowell, on the twenty-fifth of March 1826, by the Rev. Theodore Edson, who was living and present at our ' golden wedding.' I have received the degree of A.M. from Amherst, Chicago, Princeton and Harvard. I have read much on As- tronomy, but in its mathematics I am lamentably de- ficient,

" Lives as changeful and varied as mine has been, are frequently troubled in their finances, but I have always been able and fortunate enough to meet my money promises, and I have a fair reserve for a rainy day."

This brief and modest narrative of the life and pursuits of Alvan Clark is the best history of the manufacture as well as of the beginning of telescope- making in this country that can be given, and that is enough in its teachings to encourage and stimulate the young men of this day to manly effort in their callings.

CHAPTER XIV.

CAMBRIDGE -(Continued).

MISCELLANEOUS.

Transportation, Bridges, Press, Societies, etc.

TRANSPORTATION .- Before the erection of any bridge across Charles River connecting Cambridge with Boston there was no method of access to the capital excepting by boats or the circuitous route through Charlestown, four and one-half miles, or Roxbury, eight miles, but soon after the opening of West Baston Bridge in 1793, there was a public con- veyance from Cambridge to Boston once a day, after- wards changed to two trips daily, going in at eight o'clock in the morning and returning at noon and again going in at two o'clock in the afternoon and returning at five or six. Fare, twenty-five cents from Old Cambridge and eighteen and three-fourths cents from Cambridgeport. Passengers were called for at their residences in Cambridge by booking their names the night before and were left at their place of desti- nation in Boston as far south as Summer Street.

The coach used up to the year 1826 was a large, heavy, old-fashioned, stage-coach, similar to such as were then used on all the mail aud stage routes, and had seats for nine passengers inside and could pile on as many more on the outside. This old Cambridge stage was quite an institution in days gone by, and many illustrious men and women were its patrons and many anecdotes might be told of the warm discussions, both theological and political, that took place in the old coach while on its way from Cambridge to Boston.

The veteran driver for many years and up to the days of the omnibus, was Cyrus Morse, who will be long remembered by students of Harvard all over the country. Morse was a good specimen of the old-time

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stage-driver. He was a handsome man, courteous to every one, but dignified in his deportment and re- spected by all.

In 1826 Captain Ebenezer Kimball, the then land- lord of the farmers' inn formerly known as Cutler's Tavern, located at the corner of Pearl and Main Streets, Cambridgeport, started the " Hourly," so called, which was to leave Cambridgeport on the even hours and Boston on the alternate hours, the first coach leaving at eight o'clock in the morning, and during the first year they omitted one or two trips in the middle of the day. The wise ones of that day predicted speedy failure of the enterprise, as it was thought and believed that Cambridge could not possibly support a coach once an hour ; but the enterprising proprietor went on, and after the first season doubled the number of trips and increased the capacity of the coaches, and in less than five years was running a coach every thirty min- utes from Cambridgeport.

When the first long omnibus was built with the door behind, and named the "Cyrus," in honor of the old veteran, Mr. Morse was taken to view the new coach, and after looking it over carefully, expressed his opinion that it was a failure and would never answer the purpose for which it was intended, as the exit for the passengers being so far off they would run away before he could leave the box to collect the fares, as he always did on the old coach. The writer of this article has more than once been kept from school to stop the old stage for his mother, who visited the city twice a year to do all the shopping for a family of twelve persons, a proceeding quite in contrast to the custom of the ladies of the present day.

In 1835 Capt. Kimball bought out the old Cam- bridge line and started the theu bold enterprise of running a four-horse coach from old Cambridge once an hour, and this was kept up until the opening of the horse railroad in March, 1856.

When Mr. Kimball started the "hourlies" it was considered the great event of the day for Cambridge and was celebrated in various ways by the people of Cambridge.

Cambridge Railroad .- After a good deal of talk on the subject a charter was applied for, and in March, 1853, an act was passed incorporating Gardner G. Hubbard, Charles C. Little and Isaac Livermore as the Cambridge Railroad Co.

After obtaining the charter no one could be found willing to risk any money in the enterprise, and it lay dormant for three years, when Gardner Warren, a bold, enterprising man (but a poor financier), was willing to take the contract for building the road if $30,000 in cash could be guaranteed, taking the rest in stock at par. A very few persons in old Cambridge became responsible for $20,000 and one individual in Cam- bridgeport pledged himself for the other $10,000, and the contract was signed the same day and work was begun at once, but before the track was finished it was suspended on account of a severe snow-storm, and the

road-bed was not uncovered until about the Ist of March, 1856, when, in less than twenty days, the cars were runuing as far as Chambers Street, Boston. The writer rode over in the first car that crossed the bridge, and in speaking of the circumstance to one of the pro- prietors of the stage company he remarked that they would never be able to go up the hill to Bowdoin Square or if they did they never could come down in safety. Before the return track was laid through Green Street the cars went only as far as Bowdoin Square, and the horses were taken off and hitched to the other end of the car for the return trip, and as there was but a single track up the hill the incoming cars were obliged to wait at the foot of the hill for the outward bound cars to pass. The first directors were Gardner G. Hubbard, Charles C. Little, John Livermore, T. B. Bigelow and Estes Howe. The stockholders were not very sanguine that the enter- prise would be profitable and preferred to lease the property, which they did to a company chartered for that purpose, called the Union Railroad Company, the first directors of which were Williard Phillips, Charles C. Little, Gardner G. Hubbard, Moses M. Rice and J. C. Stiles.

This company, the first horse railroad in New Eng- land, continued to operate the road successfully until the opening of the Charles River Railroad, when the dividing of the business and the lowering of the fares caused them to give up their lease, as they had a right to do if it ceased to be profitable, and the Cambridge. Railroad alone run the road until they bought out the Charles River road, and they in turn sold to the West End Company, who are now the owners, not only of this, but of all the suburban street railroads in this vicinity and are rapidly adopting the electric sys- tem for running the cars, so that it can hardly be called a horse railroad at the present time. What the next move will be no one cau foretell, but when we look back and see what a great advancement has taken place within the last fifty years from the days of the old lumbering stage-coach, there can be no doubt but that the future will show as great and important changes as the past. Even now the project of estab- lishing an elevated road is being agitated, hoping thereby to solve the problem of rapid transit through our crowded streets and thus save a few minutes in the time now occupied by our people in going to and from their places of business to their suburban homes,

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 69

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034