History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 22

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 22

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

F. S. Perkins started the business of making ma-

Ho Q Barker

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chinists' tools and lathes at Mechanics' Mills in 1859. After about two years he removed to Middlesex Street, then to Middle Street, where he remained about three years, and then to his present place on Fletcher Street. He employed about forty-five men His specialty is engine lathes.

T. C. Entwistle, in Gates' Block, Worthen Street, manufactures patent warpers, balling, linking and chaining machines, Entwistle's patent expansion comb and common combs for warpers, beamers and slashers. Mr. Entwistle was formerly with the Hope dale Machine Company in. Hopedale, Mass. He started business on his own account in 1887 in Gates' Block in Lowell.

H. J. Suryer manufactures machinery on Broad- way, employing two hands. Mr. Sawyer, as member of the firm of Smith, Lawrence & Co., began the business on Fletcher Street in 1854. He came to his present location in 1870. The large brick manufac- tory which he now occupies (in part) was erected for his business and that of Benjamin Lawrence.

George L. Cady. corner of Western Avenue aud Fletcher Street. manufactures machinists' tools and loom-harness hooks and eyes. He has occupied his present location about eight years, having previously done business in Perkins' building on Fletcher Street, and in Davis and Sargent's building on Middlesex Street.

The American Wire Goods Company, Payne Street, near School Street, manufactures patented and special wire hardware, and makes a specialty of bronzing, plating and japanning, employing from twenty to thirty hands. The company started business in 1888.

Phillips &. Sanborn, Western Avenue, manufacture files and rasps. The firm consist of J. L. Phillips and A. D. Sanborn, who are successors of John Duckworth. The firm also does business in Salem, Mass., having set up the branch of business in Lowell in 1889.

Wmn. Knowles, Cushing Street, manufactures hand- cut files and rasps of every description, employing four men. He started the business at his present location in 1883, having previously carried it on for ten years on Middlesex Street.

C. S. Dodge, Payne Street, manufactures shoddy- picker machines and pins, and covers shoddy-pickers, employing eight hands. He started the business of making shoddy-picker pins in 1882, in Davis and Sar- gent's building on Middlesex Street. In 1889 he moved into the building on Payne Street erected by himself for accommodating his business.

Samuel G. Cooper, Central Street, manufactures copper stamps, stencils for cotton and woolen-mills, bleacheries, hosieries, etc., employing six hands. He began the business in 1872, having J. H. Corner for partner, who had conducted it for a few months be- fore the partnership was formed. Since the death of Mr. Corner in 1885, Mr. Cooper has been sole pro- prietor .

Joel Knapp d' Son, machinists and manufacturers of nuts, bolts, screws, etc., and wood-work machinery. This business was established by Geo. L. Richardson, who, in 1885, was succeeded by Joel Knapp & Son. Mr. Knapp learned his trade as machinist at the Lowell Machine-Shop. This firm makes special ma- chinery to order, and materials for bridges and all kinds of buildings are manufactured by them. They employ ten skilled workmen.

D. Cole and A. F. Nichols started the manufacture of iron and brass castings in 1858, and still continue the business on the corner of Willie and Dutton Streets. They give special attention to the casting of pulleys and hangers, iron pipe aud columus. Their operations include turbine water-wheel work and machinery castings. They employ fifty men.

Daniel Lovejoy & Son, manufacturers of machine- knives, on Rock and Cushing Streets. This business was started as early as 1838. The firm employs twenty-five hands.

Geo. W. Fifield started the business of making machinists' tools and lathes in 1874. The works are on Fletcher Street, and sixty hands are employed.

Cyrus Perkins manufactures machinists' tools, em- ploying five men. He started the business in 1882, on Dutton Strect, his present place of business being still on Dutton Street.

Woods, Sherwood & Company, manufacturers of lustral wire-ware of every description. This busi- ness was started by E. P. Woods, and Daniel Sherwood in 1861. In 1866 Cyrus H. Latham was received as partner. Mr. Sherwood died in 1877, and since that time the business has been conducted by E. P. Woods and Cyrus H. Latham. The factory is on Bridge Street at foot of Seventh Strect. Number of employees, seventy-five. Nickel and gold-plating is a part of the business, and the firm has a high reputation.

Rice & Co.'s Wire Works .- In 1849 S. L. Hildreth began the manufacture of wire work, in a small way on John Street. He was, about 1860, succeeded by Henry A. Hildreth, who moved the business to Cen- tral Street, and was succeeded by Hildreth & Rice, on Middle Street, about 1872. Hildreth retired in 1874, and the business is now in the control of Frank E. Rice. The firm title is Rice & Co., Mt. Vernon Street. The firm manufactures wire cloth, nettings, office-railings, bird-cages, rat-traps, etc., employing fifty men.

Lowell Steam and Gas-Pipe Works, established by Horace R. Barker, are among the most successful and important of the business enterprises of the city.

HORACE R. BARKER was one of those men of sterling intrinsic worth, who, having risen from a childhood and youth of hardship and toil, have fought a good fight and attained an honorable name. He was of English descent, his early American an- cestors having settled in Pomfret, Conn. His grand- father, John Barker, went from Pomfret to Stratford,

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

N. H., where his father, Albermarle Barker, was born. His father removed to Lexington, Mass., where the subject of our sketch was born on June 27, 1829. While he was yet a child the family moved to New- ton, Mass., where the father pursued his trade as maker of cutlery and other implements of steel.

It was the father's misfortune, at the age of about forty-four years, to be almost fatally injured by fall- ing down a precipice. This injury he survived in a helpless condition for about five years. His wife and eight young children were thus thrown upon their own resources, not only for their own support, but for that also of the invalid father. It was in this struggle that Horace Barker learned that self-reli- ance and efficiency in business which characterized his future career.

At the age of eighteen years he entered the ser- vice of the New England Gas-pipe Company, in Bos- ton, and proved to be a workman most highly prized by his employers for the fidelity of his service. On one occasion, in case of fire, there was the imminent danger of the explosion of a boiler, unless some one would take his life in his hands and prevent the dis- aster, young Barker did not hesitate to encounter the fearful risk, and, after accomplishing his object, he was drawn insensible from his perilous situation. In 1851, with the aid of his employers in Boston, he started the business of steam and gas-fitting in Low- ell. His machine-shop for three years was on Howe Street, but afterwards on Middle Street, in a spacious building erected by himself. He also opened a store in Barrister's Hall, on Central Street, for the sale of steam and gas-fixtures. This extensive business he carried on during the last thirty-five years of his life, gaining for himself a handsome amount of property, as well as the name of a business man of the highest character.

Mr. Barker never sought political honors, though he was often nominated for office, because his name gave strength to the ticket. He was in the Board of Aldermen in 1877-79, and he served the eity with great ability and fidelity. On several occasions he was importuned to be a candidate for the mayoralty, but this honor, on account of the urgent demands of his business, he felt it his duty to decline.

Mr. Barker was greatly interested in the pursuits of agriculture, and he owned a highly-cultivated farm in Dracut. He was at one time president of the trustees of Lowell Cemetery, and at the time of his death he was a director of the Merchants' Bank. Hc was a man of broad and liberal views, and of a gen- erons, benevolent nature.

In the pride of his manhood and in the midst of his successful career there came upon him a fatal dis- ease, the enlargement of the heart. He struggled bravely against it. He sought renewed health at his scaside cottage, but all in vain. As the inevitable hour approached he begged to be carried back to his home in Centralville, which he had himself erected,

and which contained all that he held most dcar. And licre, in a few short days, he quietly passed away.

He died on Sept. 8, 1886, at the age of fifty-seven years. His wife and his two daughters, and also his aged mother, now in her ninetieth year, survive him.

WOOD MANUFACTURES .- A. L. Brooks & Co., Me- chanics' Mills, corner of Fletcher and Dutton Streets, manufacturers of packing cases, moldings, gutters, doffing-boxes, filling-boxes, etc. This is one of Low- cll's oldest and best-known firms.

This company consumes about 2,000,000 feet of lumber annually, employs nearly sixty men, and runs a saw-mill in Middlesex Village.

ARTEMAS L. BROOKS was born in Groton, N. H., September 20, 1803, and died at his home on Fletcher Street, Lowell, July 3, 1878, at the age of seventy-five years. He was the son of Peter Brooks, a farmer in Groton, who removed soon after his son's birth to the neighboring town of Hebron. His early American ancestors belonged to Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

Mr. Brooks received his elementary education in the common schools of Hebron. For a short time he attended the academy at Pembroke, N. H. His early years were mainly spent upon his father's farm. He also learned the carpenter's trade and served as teacher of a district school. When twenty-five years of age he went to Boston, and in that city and in the navy yard at Charlestown he worked at his trade as carpenter and in other employments for two or three years. Subsequently he returned to Hebron and en- gaged in farming for one year. It was in this year that he married Miss Sarah Philips.

In 1831 he came to Lowell while it was yet a town, and worked as carpenter and general builder. Houses constructed by him in this early period are still stand- ing, and are occupied as dwellings. After one year he formed a partnership with Thomas P. Goodhue (afterwards postmaster of the city), for the introduc- tion of Woodworth's planing-machinc. Subsequently, this partnership having been dissolved, he conducted the business alone in a shop which stood near the site of Stott's Mills, in Belvidere. At length, with William Fiske as partner, he carried on the lumber business in the yard of the Middlesex Manufacturing Company, having there a planing-mill. About this time he invented the double surfacing planing-ma- chine, for which he obtained a patent.

In 1846, with Ignatius Tyler as partner, hc erected the Mechanics' Mills, at the corner of Fletcher and Dutton Strects, and engaged in the manufacture of lumber. It was in these mills that Mr. Brooks, through the remaining thirty-one years of his life, carried on a very extensive and very successful lumber business, gaining for himself an enviable name for ability and integrity. Even to the present day the familiar firm-name, A. L. Brooks & Co., is an honor- cd name among the citizens of Lowell.

At different times Mr. George W. Shattuck, Wil-

LOWELL.

liam C. Brooks and George H. Ames were partners of Mr. Brooks.

In 1872 Mr. A. B. Woodworth, his son-in-law, be- came a member of the firm, and during the twelve years since the death of Mr. Brooks he has continued to conduct a very large and successful business in a great variety of Inmber manufactures.

But the history of Mr. Brooks has by no means been written when he has been described as a suc- cessful man of business. It is as a good citizen, as a hearty friend of every work of philanthropy, as a whole-souled Christian gentleman that he will be longest and most affectionately remembered.

Mr. Brooks was long connected with the Fire De- partment of Lowell, and served npon the board of engineers. He was for several years in the Board of School Committee. In 1849 and in 1855 he was in the Board of Aldermen. He also held the office of trustee of the City Institution for Savings, and direc- tor of the Prescott Bank.

It was, however, as a religious and philanthropic man that he was best known. As a member of the Appleton Street (now Eliot) Church for six years, and of the John Street Congregational Church for thirty-six years, he was actively and officially en- gaged in all works of benevolence and philanthropy. Especially ardent were his anti-slavery sentiments. Mr. Brooks' chosen field of religious effort, however, was with the young men of the city. For twenty- five years, in the Sabbath-school of his church, he had a large class of young men, in teaching whom he is said to have taken a " wonderful delight."

The writer cannot do better than to close this brief sketch with an extract from an address delivered soon after the death of Mr. Brooks, at the fortieth anni- versary of the John Street Church, by George Ste- vens, E-q., who had in church work long been associ- ated with him :

" His manly, noble presence, his brave, honest, generous heart, full of all high, holy and honorable aspirations, bis ever-abounding hope and implicit faith in the final triumph of truth and justice, his rugged training and wonderful success in business, which carried him on from the beginning of a jonr- neyman carpenter. dependent upon his daily earnings, to the position of a leading business man in onr city- all combined to fit him for a teacher and leader of young men. No yonng man ever came in contact with him, whom he did not lift and encourage, and who did not learn to respect and love him."

Milton Aldrich commenced in 1842, with E. Hap- good as partner, the manufacture of power-loom and carpet shuttles. They were at first located near the site of the Middlesex Woolen-Mills, but in 1843 re- moved to Middle Street, and in 1844 began the manu- facture of wooden screws. The firm removed to Howe Street in 1846. In 1848 they sold ont the shut- tle business, and dissolved the partnership. Mr. Aldrich continued the making of wooden screws, and

was burned out in Howe Street in 1851. In 1865 he came to Mechanics' Mills, where he is still engaged in making wooden screws and clamps. He employs seven to ten hands.

J. S. Jaques Shuttle Company manufactures power- loom shuttles for every description of work. Factory at Whipple's Mills. This business was started by E. & R. Douglass in 1833, over the old saw-mill in the yard of the "Machine Shop," Mr Jaques being one of the workmen of the firm. At length Mr. Jaques was admitted partner. One of the Douglass partners having died, the business was removed to Middlesex Street, and carried on by the firm of Coburn & Jaques. On July 20, 1863, Mr. Jaques, having be- come sole proprietor, a fatal accident occurred, by which, through the explosion of a boiler, four of the workmen were fatally injured. Mr. Jaques then removed to the present location, where he has erected a spacious and elegant manufactory, and, in company with his son, John L. Jaques carries on a very extensive and profitable business, employing thirty-five hands.

G. W. Bagley, on Middle Street, manufactures Bur- rows' dry-air refrigerators, doors, signs, window- screens, etc., employing ten to twenty men. This business was started by W. L. Floyd about 1878, on Prescott Street, who sold it to Bagley about 1882. Mr. Bagley removed to his present location in 1887.

Marshall & Crosby, Middlesex Street, manufacture cabinet-furniture, side-boards, roll-top desks and book-cases, etc., employing forty hands. This company started business in 1864.' Mr. Marshall had carried on the business in Tewksbury ten years before the partnership in Lowell was formed, and he left the firm in 1885, Crosby now having no partner.

J. G. Peabody & Edward Fifield started the manu- facture of doors, sashes, etc., at the Mechanic Mills, on Warren Street, near the site of the Middlesex Woolen-Mills, in 1844, and removed to the corner of Dutton and Fletcher Streets in 1846. Mr. Fifield left the firm in 1854. Since 1873 the business has been conducted by the company known as J. G. Pea- body & Sons. The manufactory is in Wamesit Mills. The business amounts to $60,000 per year. Sales are made mostly in New York and Boston. Twenty-five or thirty hands are employed.

J. B. Goodwin & Co., manufacturers of house and office furniture, started business on Western Avenne in 1889. They employ ten men and give attention to the interior finish of offices, banks and stores. F. J. Farr is the partner of Mr. Goodwin.

Silas W. Fletcher, manufacturer of doors, sashes, blinds and window-frames, on Western Avenue, started his business at Wamesit Mills in 1863. He employs thirty men.

W. H. Kimball, stair-builder. The business of this manufactory was started by Thomas Pratt in 1840. Pratt was succeeded, about 1870, by Griffin & Ste- vens. About 1877 Gordon & Kimball became the

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

proprietors. Gordon having left the firm in 1885, W. H. Kimball remains the sole proprietor. The manu- factory is on Dutton Street and employs three men.

Davis & Sargent, manufacturers of packing-boxes, on Middlesex Street. Stephen C. Davis, the senior member of this firm, is a veteran in his line of busi- ness. From 1852 to 1866 he was, with Otis Allen, en- gaged in making boxes. In 1866 he formed a partner- ship with Mr. Storer, who soon retired, and the firm became Davis & Melendy. Upon Mr. Melendy's re- tirement, in 1873, Benjamin F. Sargent, of Nashua, who had long been in the same business, took his place, and the firm of Davis & Sargent is one of the most successful in the city, doing a very large and a very lucrative business. Besides box-making, a very large business is done in bringing logs from the north- ern forests and making them into lumber. Their saw-mill turns out 3,500,000 feet of lumber annually, and the firm employs forty-five men. In box-making, etc., they use 225,000 feet per month.

Otis Allen, the veteran manufacturer of boxes, is the father of Charles H. Allen, recently member of Congress. He commenced the business in 1850. In 1851 he enlarged his business by purchasing a saw- mill, and, in 1852, bought a tract of land in the Fran- conia Mountains, and engaged in running logs down the Merrimack. From 1862 to 1872 Mr. Allen was out of business, but in 1872 resumed, in partnership with his son, the manufacture of boxes. It was to ineet the demands of their thriving business that the son has recently retired from political office.

The firm employs about one hundred men. They make Allen's lock-cornered filling-boxes, doffing- boxes, roving cans and mill work generally. The machinery is driven by an engine of 150 horse-power.

D. H. Bemis & Co., Mechanics' Mills, designers and manufacturers of artistic furniture. Mr. Bemis, the head of this firm, in 1880 came to this city from Brattleboro', Vt., and after working for C. I. Taylor as a machine hand for four years, became partner in the firm of Carter & Bemis. Since 1885, Mr. Bemis has been sole proprietor. He employs ten hands and does a large business in the manufacture of all kinds of house finish, brackets, balusters, stair-work, bank, store and office fittings, mantels, sideboards, etc.

Amasa Pratt & Co., manufacture doors, sashes, blinds, mouldings, church furniture, etc. This com- pany's business was started by M. C. Pratt, in 1848. The establishment was burned out in 1865. Mr. Amasa Pratt, in this year, came into the firm. His brother, M. C. Pratt, the original owner, died in 1884, since which time Amasa Pratt has been the only pro- prietor. He employs forty men, and consumes 5,000,000 feet of lumber annually.

Taylor & Co. started the mamifacture of furniture on Middlesex Street, in 1877, and were burnt out in 1878. Ou starting, the firm consisted of C. I. Taylor and Charles F. Heard. The manufactory is at the Wamesit Mills, and the firm consists of C. I. Taylor

and J. T. Carter, who are designers, carvers and man - nfacturers of all kinds of store and office furniture, *interior finish, wood-work, mantels, etc. They em- ploy thirteen men.

The Union Stopple Company, Western Avenue, has facilities for turning out twenty-two barrels of bungs per day. Lowell seems to have been the head- quarters for this manufacture, which was started in this city by Josiah Kirby. John Batchelder, the proprietor of the Union Stopple Company, was first established in the business in 1858. After being three times burned out, and after a prolonged absence from Lowell, about 1886 he resumed his business in this city.

John L. Cheney & Co. established the manufacture of bobbins, spools and shuttles of every description on Payne Street in 1888. They pay special attention to making Cheney's patent spools. They employ seventy-five hands. The manufacture of true-run- ning bobbins for patent spindles is a specialty of their manufucture. Previous to 1887 Mr. Cheney had been, for twenty-two years, a partner of Wm. H. Parker in the same business. Edwards Cheney, his son, is now his partner in business.

The Merrimack Croquet Company, on St. Hyacinth Street, manufactures croquet sets, ten-pins, ring-toss, Indian clubs, base ball bats, and castor wheels, and employs sixty hands. In 1875 Whitney & Willard took this business from Addison Hadley, who had previously run it in a small way. In two years Blair & Son took it, and were followed by Moulton & Co., who sold it to Pease & Ames. In 1879 B. F. Colby took the business and increased it to its present magnitude. He took S. P. Griffin as partner in 1889.

Wm. H. Parker & Son, at Wamesit Mills, Dutton Street, make bobbins, spindles, spools, shuttles, etc., for the manufacture of cotton, wool, silk, flax and jute. They employ 200 hands. Wm. H. Parker and Everett Nichols started the business of making shut- tles, bobbins, etc., in 1859. Subsequently John L. Cheney became a partner, but since 1887 the part- nership has been that of Parker & Son.

The Coburn Shuttle Company, corner of Tanner and Lincoln Streets, manufacture shuttles, bobbins and spools. The business was started by John H. Co- burn in Brooks' Building on Dutton Street in 1866. Mr. Coburn had previously been associated with J. S. Jaques in the shuttle manufacture. Coburn sold to Boardman & Morse in 1869, the works having, in 1867, been removed to First Street, Centralville. In 1870 the firm of Lamson, Thissell & Pickering became proprietors. They were made an incorporated com. pany about 1885, with a capital of $100,000, with Ed- win Lamson president.

Sturtevant & Galer, manufacturers of post-rails, balusters, stairs and wood-turning. This business was started by Fred. A. Sturtevant in 1884. Mr. Galer became his partner in 1888. The firm attends

LOWELL.

to all kinds of house furnishing, and employs four men.

A. Bachelder & Co., on Mt. Vernon Street, are pro- prietors of the New England Bung and Plug Factory, employing ten hands. They started business about 1868.

S. Baker, Fletcher Street, makes tanks and vats for tanneries, bleacheries, breweries and dye and chemical works, also harness frames. Employs two men. Since the death of his son, W. S. Baker, in 1886 (who had been his partner), S. Baker has been sole proprietor.

Mark: Holmes, Jr., & Son, at Wamesit Mills, started their business as wood-turners and house-finish manu- facturers in 1887. The firm does general jobbing in the wood-turning and finishing line. Employssix men.

L. W. Hawkes, furniture and mattress-maker, Mid- dle Street. Mr. Hawkes started business in 1882, in East Merrimack Street, having James Sexton as part- ner. He removed to Prescott Street in 1883, and to his present location on Middle Street in 1890. Mr. Sexton was his partner only for a brief period. Mr. Hawkes gives attention to upholstering and repairing all kinds of furniture. Hair mattresses are made over and put in good condition. He employs twelve hands.

W. E. Hatch, at Wamesit Mills, manufactures brackets, stair-posts, newels, balusters, scrolls, win- dow-frames and house-finish, employing three hands. Mr. Hatch started this business on Cushing Street in 1884, and came to Wamesit Mills in 1886.

John Welch, manufacturer of furniture, started his business in 1885 on Dutton St. His place of sale is on Middlesex St. He employs twenty men. He manu- factures furniture for churches, libraries, stores, etc.

Wm. Kelley & Son, Mechanics' Mills, manufacturers of doors, sashes, blinds, window-frames, etc. This business was started by Wm. Kelley in 1845. Mr. Kelley died in 1887, since which time the business has been in the hands of his son, Frank F. Kelley, who had become partner three years before his father's death. Twenty men are employed, and from 300,000 to 400,000 feet of lumber are annually used.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 22

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