History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 20

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 20

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In 1858, on account of the great depression of bus- iness, which began in the preceding ycar, he engaged as foreman in the Industrial Works of Bement & Dougherty in Philadelphia, where he remained about two years. Having returncd to Lowell, he became, in 1865, foreman in the machine-shop, a position which he held for fourteen years. In 1879 he was

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

elected superintendent of the machine-shop, an office whose importance is indicated by the fact that these works are the largest of the kind in America, and in them is manufactured most of the machinery of the great manufacturing corporations of the city of Low- ell. This position he has now held for eleven years.

In addition to his regular official duties, Mr. Hil- dreth takes a deep and active interest in various beneficent institutions of the city. To the Middle- sex Mechanic Association he has been especially de- -voted, giving to its affairs much of his time and thought. In remodeling and rearranging its library he took an active interest, and in 1873 he served as president of this association.

From 1868 to 1871 he was a member of the Board of Aldermen of Lowell, and, as chairman of the Committee on Lands and Buildings, he took part in the erection of the Green School-house, the most elegant and imposing of the school-houses of the city.

Mr. Hildreth is a man of broad sympathies, of cordial address, of sound judgment and of firm pur- pose. As the manager of one of the most important institutions of the city he has the affection and re- spect of those in his employ, and the entire confidence of the community. Having served during almost his entire business life in the works of which he now has the oversight, he is thoroughly conversant with all the duties appertaining to his office.

The following table of the statistics of the preced- ing eleven great manufacturing companies of Lowell, is taken from the " Year Book " for 1889, published by the Morning Mail Company :

Total capital invested .

$14,650,000

number of spindles

869,226

looms

24,821

females employed, 11,363 ; males, 7,799

19.162

yards cotton cloth woven per

week

5,005,756

printed per week

1,650,000

dyed per annum . 16,000,000

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carpeting per week 75,000

woolen cloth per week 12,500

pounds bleached per annum . . . 10,000,000

cotton consumed per weok 1,504,293

clean wool per week . . . 120,000

tons coal per annum (including smithy

72,136

Ishels charcoal per anmm

10,200

gallons oil per annum 137,069

לר

pounds starch per annum 3,965,146

tons wrought-iron per annum .

1,200

" cast-iron per anmim

8,500

" steel per annum

300

pounds brass composition per anmim

55,000

turbine-wheels 85

steam-ongines . 166

weekly pay roll (exclusive of Lowell Bleach-

ory) .

$113,038

taxes paid .

$103,795.28

From this table it appears that the number of yards of cotton cloth woven annually in these mills is more than 260,000,000. To enable the mind more clearly to comprehend this vast amount, it may be said that

this cloth would encircle the earth nearly six times, and if stretched in a straight line, would extend over a distance so great that a man traveling forty miles per day would not reach the end of it in ten years.

2. MINOR MANUFACTURES.

FIBRE MANUFACTURES .- The Belvidere Woolen- Mills .- The life of CHARLES STOTT, the late agent and principal proprietor of the Belvidere Woolen Manufacturing Company, is so intimately blended with the history of the mills themselves that both should be written on the same page. .

These mills have a history running further back, perhaps, than that of any other of the mills of Lowell. Thomas Hurd, who began the manufacture of satinet on the Concord River in 1818, owned the water priv- ilege at the mouth of tltat river, both on the east and west sides. He sold the privilege on the east, or Bel- videre side, to Winthrop Howe, a manufacturer of flannel by hand-looms, who in 1827 sold it to Harri- son G. Howe, who introduced the power-loom. In 1832 Mr. Howe sold it to Warren, Barry & Park, of Boston, who in 1834 sold it to Whitwell, Bond & Seaver, who in 1835 sold it to Farnsworth, Baker & Hill.

It was under the latter company that Mr. Stott be- came connected with these mills, and for many years was so identified with them that in common parlance they are known as "Stott's Mills."

Charles Stott was born August 21, 1799; at Roch- dale, a parliamentary borough in Lancashire, England famed, even in the days of Queen Elizabeth, for its manufacture of woolen goods. His parents being in humble life, he was at the early age of seven years put to work in a woolen-mill in which the service was so exacting as to leave him only the opportunity of acquiring the most limited education. The hours of labor extended from five o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock in the evening. When the years of manhood came his ambition prompted him to leave the ranks of the day laborers and to begin business on his own account. But fortune did not smile upon him in England, and at the age of twenty-seven years lie resolved to begin life anew in America. In 1826 he landed in Boston with two shilling pieces in his pocket, his only riches. One of these shillings he kept through life as a souvenir of his early struggles. It still remains in the hands of his son, Hou. Charles A. Stott, ex-mayor of Lowell.

In America Mr. Stott first found employment in a manufactory in Andover, Mass. In 1828, with three associates, he began to operate the Merrimack Mills in Dracut, Mass. After seven years in this business he became, in 1835, agent of the Belvidere Woolen- Mills, then owned by Farnsworth, Baker & Hill. This company having become bankrupt, Mr. Stott formed a partnership with Mr. Farnsworth, one of the company, and under the firm-name of Farnsworth & Stott they engaged in running the mills.

C. P. Talbor

TANIMATT

٠٫٩٣٢٠

LOWELL.

Misfortune, however, pursued Mr. Stott into the new world, for within the space of about one year the mills were twice burned. After these disasters a new company was formed called the Belvidere Woolen Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Stott became the president and the active manager. Under the sagacions and energetic control of Mr. Stott the en- terprise was crowned with remarkable success. In 1862 a new mill was erected by the company on Law- rence Street. Both these mills during the last nine- teen years of his life Mr. Stott managed with a sa- gacity and skill which have been rarely equaled.

Mr. Stott, by his long connection of forty-six years with the Belvidere Mills, acquired a very high and a very honorable reputation among the successful manufacturers of the country. He was a man of de- cided character and very marked characteristics. He led a pure and simple life, and he cared not for office or honors, for dress or fashion, for equipage or dis- play. He loved his business heartily, and to it he devoted all his powers. It is said of him that when age had rendered him too infirm to move with his wonted activity from room to room in his mills, it was his delight to sit for long hours near some new and curious manufacturing machine to admire the skill of its construction and the beanty of its operation.

Outside of his chosen sphere Mr. Stott rarely par- ticipated in the affairs of civil or of social life. He was, however, a director of the Prescott Bank from its organization. He was a member of the Pawtucket Lodge of Masons, having received his degree in Lodge of Hope, Rochdale, England, in 1823. He was a constant and exemplary worshiper in High Street Congregational Church.

He died on June 14, 1881, at his residence on Chestnut Street, at the age of eighty-two years.

At his funeral, in High Street Church, there was a large concourse of citizens by whom he was honored and revered. It was an interesting and touching in- cident of the solemn occasion, that he was borne to the grave by workmen in his mills who had long known him and had toiled by his side.

Hon. Charles A. Stott succeeds his father as agent and president of the Belvidere Woolen Manufacturing Company, MIr. John Stott being superintendent of Mill No. 2. In its two mills the company employs 250 hands, and mannfactures flannels and dress- goods. The oldest mill of the company is situated on Howe Street.

The Stirling Mills were built by Charles Stott, agent of the Belvidere Woolen-Mills, as a private enterprise. They were run by his son, Charles A. Stott, for eight years, when they were purchased by a corporation, the principal owners being Parker, Wilder & Co., of Boston. The agent of the Stirling Mills is Edward D. Holden. The mills have seventy-two looms, 5000 spindles and employ 135 hands, making 2,000,000 yards of flannel per year.

Flonnel Mills, etc., of C. P. Talbot & Co .- The ex-

tensive manufacturing plant of this company is in North Billerica, but from the fact that their store is in Lowell and that the senior partner was long one of the most prominent citizens of Lowell, a sketch of his life containing an account of the manufac- tures of the firm is here inserted.

CHARLES P. TALBOT belongs to that class of ster- ling men, who, by their courage and energy have turned the adversities and defeats of their carly years into the very means of final success and tri- umph.

He was of English extraction and was born in Templemore, Ireland, May 19, 1807, and died at his home on Chestnut Street, Lowell, July 6, 1884, at the age of seventy-seven years. He was the lineal de- scendant of John Talbot, first Earl of Shrewsbury, who, in 1458, at the age of eighty years, died at the battle of Chatillon, leaving cstates in Ireland, on one of which, in Templemore, the ancestors of Mr. Tal- bot resided.

In 1807, William Talbot, the grandfather of Mr. Talbot, with his family, came to America, and in con- nection with his son Charles, the father of the sub- ject of this sketch, engaged in the mannfacture of broadcloth in Cambridge, N. Y. Charles Talbot, the father, was evidently a man of property and culture ; for he brought with him a large library, in which were several editions of Shakspeare. His enterprise in Cambridge was probably nnsuccessful, for in 1819 he removed his business to Danby, Vt., where, after four years, he died, leaving his wife with a family of eight children withont means of support. The two oldest sons, John and Charles P., the latter being then sixteen years of age, were removed from school and pnt to work in aid of the support of the family. The mother was a woman of great energy and possessed those sterling qualities which afterwards character- ized her son.

In 1825, two years after the death of her husband, she removed to Northampton, Mass., with the hope of finding employment for her older sons in the woolen-mills of that place, and for the better educa- tion of the family. Mr. Talbot, after working in the Inills at Northampton, came to Lowell, to act as over- seer in the Middlesex Mills of this city. In 1834, when twenty-seven years of age, lie went from Lowell to Williamsburg, near Northampton, where he engaged in woolen manufacture on his own ac- count. But the business panic of 1837 proved rnin- ous to his enterprise, and he disposed of his business in Williamsburg in 1838, and returning to Lowell, he soon rented of the Middlesex Canal Company certain buildings in North Billerica, where he commenced the mannfacture of dye-stuffs.

And here fortune seems first to have smilcd upon him, for he soon purchased and enlarged the estab- lishment, and in 1839 formed a partnership with his brother Thomas, under the title of C. P. Talbot & Co. For twelve years the brothers operated the dye-

HISTORY. OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

wood mills with such marked success, that in 185] they purchased of the canal company the water- power and other property and erected mills for the manufacture of flannels.

Before this, in 1849, they had started their chemi- eal works in North Billerica, and they had also, as early as 1842, opened a store in Lowell for the sale of dye-stuffs and chemieals. This store was first located on Central Street, opposite the Washington House, subsequently for many years in the Market House on Market Street, and recently in the Talbot Bloek on Middle Street.

And here it is interesting to compare the humble beginning of the enterprise in 1838 with its present condition. We see Mr. Talbot in 1838, his former business having been ruined by the financial panie of the previous year, beginning in a rented building and in a small way a new manufacture, with nothing to aid him but his firm will, his admirable self-reliance and his fixed resolve to retrieve his fortunes.

In order to mark the eontrast, it is cnough to set before the reader a summary of the present condition of the two great manufacturing companies which have arisen out of that humble beginning. 1st. The Talbot Dye-Wood and Chemical Company man- ufactures sulphuric, muriatic and nitric aeids, oil of vitriol, extract of indigo, blue vitriol, solutions of tin, zinc and antimony, tin crystals, drugs, dye-woods, etc., employing thirty men. 2d. The Talbot Mills make all-wool flannels and dress goods, using twenty sets of eards, 166 looms and employing 275 men.

But the reputation of Mr. Talbot does not depend alone upon his business talents and the courage with which he has met the reverses of life, but also upon the noble qualities of his heart, his generous sympa- thies, his indignant scorn of every aet of oppression, his charity for the poor and his open and hearty es- pousal of every good cause. His convictions werc positive, and the friends of humanity knew where to find him.

In all that paternal and generous treatment of the employés of the firm which has already been de- scribed in the sketch of his brother Thomas, found on another page, the elder brother was in hearty sympathy and generous co-operation.

The two brothers were alike and afforded an admi- rable example of fraternal sympathy. In both the moral nature predominated. In both the love of honor, justice and kindness rose nobly above the love of gain.

The earlier years of the elder brother were in- tensely occupied with the unsolved problem of busi- ness success and he had no time and acquired no love for political honors, while the younger brother came later npon the stage when the prospect of suc- cess in business seemed already assured, and very naturally his aetive mind turned npon the important questions of Civil Government and led him to accept the exalted position which he so honorably filled.

Both had their battles in life, both fought with equal bravery and both came out of the conflict with equal honor.

Mr. Talbot loved his home. In the domestic circle he was most tender and indulgent. He was fond of books and was a thoughtful reader. His reading took a wide range, but he was especially familiar with the English Classics.

His wife survives him. Of his two sons, Edward R. died in 1872 and Julian resides in Lowell. His only daughter is the wife of Richard H. Ewart, a merchant in New York. The sketch of the life of Mr. Talbot would not be complete without further reference to his excellent wife and to the memorial chapel whieli she erected in 1886 to her husband's memory.

Mrs. Harriet E. Talbot was born Sept. 7, 1816, and was the daughter of Captain John and Polly Rogers, of Lempster, New Hampshire. She became the wife of Mr. Talbot May 3, 1835. In the year following the death of her husband, wishing to erect some me- morial of his name which would at onee be an honor to the city and a fitting monument of his worth, she devised and ereeted in the Lowell Cemetery a modest and beautiful chapel. It is constructed of stone, hav- ing before the entrance a graceful arch adorned with flowering plants and climbing ivy. The structure admirably comports with the well-known tastes of her departed husband. It was dedieated on Novem- ber 1, 1886. An appropriate eulogy of Mr. Talbot was pronounced by Rev. Mr. Seward, his former pas- tor and friend, and it was formally dedicated by the Rev. Dr. Street in language impressive and solemn, in which he ealled down the benediction of God " upon her who had caused it to be erected."

Lowell Felting-Mills, Pawtucket Street, manufacture all kinds of hair-felting for non-conducting, lining and packing purposes. About 1,200,000 pounds of American and Russian eattle-hair consumed annu- ally. Fifteen hands are employed.

Moses A. Johnson in 1859 started the felting busi- ness on Howe Street. In 1865 Mr. Johnson and his partners, George Bruerton and William E. Bloodgood purchased a saw-mill on Pawtucket Street and trans- formed it into a felting-mill. This firm in 1868 sold out to William H. Thompson, Mr. Johnson taking the position of manager. On the death of Mr. John- son, in 1874, Henry M. Thompson, son of the proprie- tor, became manager. The latter bought out his partner in 1881 and is now sole proprietor.

Novelty Suspender Works, Hale Street, manufacture elastic and non-elastic webs, web-straps, braid, cords and suspenders, employing thirty-five hands. The proprietors, Josiah and John Harriman, removed their business from Tanner Street to Howard Street in 1881 and to Hale Street in 1886. These works have been twice enlarged.

Faulkner Mills .- In 1863, Alfred H. Chase ereeted a large briek mill between Lawrence Street and Con-

Moses Whittier

LOWELL.

cord River, for the manufacture of woolen goods, and, in 1864, L. W. Fanlkner also erected a similar mill in the immediate neighborhood for a like pur- pose. On October 6, 1880, a fire caught in the dry- room of the Chase Mill, and both mills were con- sumed. The loss upon the Chase Mill was $185,000, and upon the Faulkner Mill over $100,000. Both were fully insured. As to amount of loss this was Lowell's largest fire. The Faulkner Mill was rebuilt in 1881, and, in 1886, the Chase Mill property was purchased by L. W. Faulkuer and his sons, Fred- erick and John A. Faulkner, and a large mill erected on its site. The two mills are known as "The Faulkner Mills." The manufactures are dress goods, fabrics, flannels and gents' suitings. The firm also operate the Livingston Mill, on Thorndike Street. The machinery in both mills embraces 13,000 spindles and 184 broad fancy looms, the product being $900,- 000 per year, and the number of operatives about 500. Both water and steam are used as motive powers.

The Sugden Bugging Company, Mechanics' Mills, Dutton Street, manufactures press bagging used in the process of obtaining cotton-seed oil. Five looms are run and 100,000 to 125,000 pounds of worsted are used annually. Five hands are employed. Thomas Sugden started this business about 1873. Mr. Sugden died in 1888. The business is now managed by James Brown and Edward Craven.

J. M. Spurr, on Shattuck Street, manufactures cus- tom shirts, shirt-bosoms, cuffs, etc. He started business in the place which he now occupies, in 1870. He employs four hands.

The New England Bunting Company has its origin in the small manufactory for press-dyeing flannel, started by John Holt, in 1852.

John Holt was born in Dorchester, N. H., Decem- ber 26, 1812. When eighteen years of age he came to Lowell and worked at cabinet-making from 1830 to 1852. In the latter year he commenced the work of press-dyeing flannel in a small wooden building on Davidson Street. In 1863 he began the manufacture of flannel in the stone mill on Davidson Street, now occupied by the New England Bunting Company. In December, 1875, Mr. Hoit commenced the manufac- ture of flags and bunting. In 1880, E. S. Hylan, the son-in-law of Mr. Holt, purchased the business. In 1889 the business was transferred to a joint-stock com- pany, consisting of E. S. Hylan and Ferdinand Rod- liff, Jr.

This company employs forty-five hands, runs twenty broad and fifty narrow looms, producing fancy worsteds for dress goods, Turkey red awning stripes, bunting, flags and carriage robes or dusters.

Whittier Cotton-Mills .- For the history of these mills see sketch of life of Moses Whittier. The mills are on Stackpole Street, and have 5000 spindles and employ seventy-five hands, making yarns, twines, bandings and cord, and using six bales of cotton per day.

MOSES WHITTIER belonged to that class in the city of Lowell, of which but few now remain, who early became identified with the manufactures of the city, and who spent a long and busy and honorable life amidst its thriving industries. He was born in Cauaan, N. H., April 16, 1795, and died at his home on Kirk Street, in Lowell, March 14, 1884, at the age of eighty-nine years. He belonged to the pure New England stock, his most remote American ancestor, Thomas Whittier, having, in 1638, come from South- amptou, England, in the ship "Confidence," of Lon- don, and settled in Salisbury, Mass.

Beginning with Thomas Whittier, the direct gene- alogicalline of descent is as follows : 1. Thomas Whit- tier, of Salisbury, afterwards of Haverhill, who was born in 1620, and died in 1696, at the age of seventy- six years. 2. John Whittier, of Haverhill, who was born in 1649, and died in 1721, at the age of seventy- two years. 3. William Whittier, of Methuen, who was born in 1688, and died in 1729, at the age of forty-one years. 4. Richard Whittier, of Methueu, who was born in 1718, and died in 1778, at the age of sixty years. 5. Richard Whittier, of Methuen, af- terwards of Canaan, N. H., was born in 1755; died in 1813, at the age of fifty-eight years, and was the father of the subject of this sketch.

Thomas Whittier, the earliest of this line of auces- tors, held an honorable position in "church and state," as is attested by the fact that he was admitted " Freeman " by the General Court in 1666. Among his numerous descendants in New England is included the poet Whittier.

Moses Whittier lived upon his father's farm until 1813, when, at the age of eighteen years (his father having died), he removed to Hallowell, Me., to live with an elder brother, where he learned the trade of machinist and jeweler, and for several years was en- gaged in mechanical pursuits. During these years he was so much an iuvalid in health that he hardly dared to venture upon any arduous duty or serious responsibility. But when about thirty years of age he was appointed superintendent of a cotton-mill in Winthrop, Me., and assumed the position with the remarkable result that his new service in the cotton- mills had the effect to confirm his health and give him new strength and courage, so that almost to the end of his long life of eighty-nine years, though always in delicate health, he was able to perform, with great regularity, the many important duties that devolved upon him.

In 1829 he came to Lowell and was employed un- der Warren Colburn, superintendent of the Merri- mack Mills, in starting one of the dressing-rooms of that corporation. Upon the organization of the Boott Mills, in 1835, his skill and experience were in requisition for starting also one of the dressing-rooms of that corporation. In 1852, while still retaining his connection with the Boott Company, and having charge of all the belting in its mills, he began, on his

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

own account, the manufacture of loom-harnesses and twinc.

So successful did this adventure prove, that in 1867 his son, Henry F. Whittier, left his business in Bos- ton, and, coming to Lowell, entered into partnership with his father in the manufacture of twine.

Henry F. Whittier was born in Lowell, Angust 4, 1833, and was educated in the schools of the city. On leaving the High School he engaged, for seven- teen years, in the insurance business in Boston. At the end of this time he came to Lowell and formed the partnership with his father, as stated above.

So remunerative was this enterprise that in 1878 the spacious and substantial building on Stackpole Street was erected to accommodate the increasing business of the firm. This mill has been twice en- larged. The remarkable success of this firm and its high reputation are due, first to the uprightness aud integrity of the father and next to the enterprise and ability of the son.

In 1887 the establishment was incorporated under the name of the " Whittier Cotton-Mills," with E. M. Tucke as president and Henry F. Whittier as treas- urer.

Since the death of Henry F. Whittier, in 1888, four years subsequent to the death of his father, Miss Helen A. Whittier, the only survivor of the children of Moses Whittier, has, as treasurer, had the general supervision of the affairs of the corporation, with Nelson Whittier, his nephew, as practical manager.

The articles now manufactured are cotton twines, bandings and ropes, which, on account of the reputa- tion of the firm, find a ready sale. The business gives employment to about seventy hands.

As a citizen, Moses Whittier was very widely known and very highly respected. The taste which he early formed for farming, followed him through life. He had a special fondness for the cultivation of grapes and fruit-trees, and for keeping bees, and for such other occupations as an agriculturist of culti- vated tastes loves to engage in. He was also a lover of books and kept abreast of the literary progress of the times. He took a lively interest in the library of the Mechanics' Association, and at one time was its treasurer. Perhaps no trait of his character is more worthy of record than the benevolence of his nature. The poor always found in him a cheerful giver, and the many workmen in his employ loved and honored him for the considerate and generous kindness which they received at his hands. In his death Lowell lost a citizen of refined taste, of blameless life, and of great moral worth.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 20

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226