History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 23

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 23

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A. P. Bateman manufactures sash, blinds, mould- ings, window-frames, etc., on Mt. Vernon Street, near Broadway. He started this business in 1879. In 1889 he was burned out, and having no insurance he lost $5000. But he was able to pay his debts, dollar for dollar, and is now (1890) with new buildings doing business again. He employs thirty men.

Edward A. Allen and, Frank P. Cheney are starting on Western Avenue a manufactory of boxes and cloth-boards. The firm-title is Allen & Cheney.

E. G. Cummings, at Wamesit Mills, manufactures plain and fancy boxes, employing six men. The bus- iness was started about 1878.

P. J. Coloord, Wamesit Mills, manufactures refrig- erators and furniture, employing fifteen to twenty men. He began the business about 1880, at his pres- ent location.

Allen Howard began the manufacture of coffins and caskets at Mechanics' Mills in 1888. Employs four men. 7-ii

John Remick, Fletcher Street, makes patterns and models, employing two men. He started the business in 1887, and was the successor of Pierre Cagnon.

Badger & Kimball, Mechanics' Mills, manufacture office and store fittings and furniture of all kinds, ein- ploying twenty-five men. They started the business in 1889.

STONE MANUFACTURES .- Sweat & Davis, granite workers, on Thorndike Street, employ thirty men, and during the year use 15,000 cubic feet of stone .. They make fronts of buildings a specialty. This firm started in business in 1877, succeeding Clough, Davis & Sweat, who began the business about 1852 on Western Avenue.

Andrews & Wheeler, Thorndike Street, at their Monumental Granite and Marble Works, employ twenty-five to thirty men. They started the business in 1857. The firm consists of C. H. Andrews and C. Wheeler.

Carl C. Laurin, Gorham and Anderson Streets, makes all kinds of granite monuments and tablets, employing five men. He started business in 1889.

James Mahan, marble and granite worker, opposite the Fair Grounds. He began business in 1876. He is mostly confined to monumental and cemetery work, employing five hands.

Lewis D. Gumb, off Maple Street, prepares granite for cemetery and building purposes, using steam- power for polishing, and employing fifteen men. These works have been in operation since 1873.

Charles Runels, Congress Street, general granite worker. This establishment has had many changes in its proprietors. It started under George Runels, Clough & Co., in 1855, the senior partner being ex- Mayor Runels, the father of Charles Runels. In 1873 the firm became Runels, Davis & Foster, and in 1877 Runels & Foster. In 1879 Charles Runels be- came sole proprietor, and still continues the business. Among the buildings erected by this firm have been the State Prison at Concord, Mass., the New England Life Insurance Building, the Girard Bank in Phila- delphia and the stone-work of Aiken Street bridge. The number of hands varies from twelve to one lun- dred according to the contracts on hand.

The Staples Brothers, School Street, manufacture sewer gratings and back-water valves, and are agents for the Akron Sewer and Drain Pipe, and are also dealers in fire-bricks, chimney-tops and fire-clay goods. The brothers, R. H. and W. H. Staples, suc- ceeded N. T. Staples & Sons in 1880. N. T. Staples, the father of the Staples Brothers, started this busi- ness about fifty years ago, taking his sons as partners before 1880, and selling out to them in 1880.

C. A. Kendall, near Davis' Corner, manufactures hydraulic cement drain, sewer and culvert pipe from three to twenty-four inch bore, also chimney-tops and well-pipe, employing ten men.

LEATHER MANUFACTURERS .- Whitney & Weston manufacture leather belting, worsted aprons, loom

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

strappings, rubber belting, finished belt leather and raw hide and patent lace leather, employing eight men. This business was started by Whitmarsh & Adams in 1857. From 1862 to 1880, Phineas Whit- ing conducted it. He was succeeded ju 1880 by his son, H. F. Whiting, who has for his partner J. F. Weston. The location of this business has been from the beginning in or near the Savings Bank Building, on Shattuck Street.

Josiah Gates & Sons, 137 Market Street, manufac- turers of belting, hose, lace-leather, loom straps and pickers, banding, harness leather, etc. For the his- tory of this firm, see sketch of life of Josiah Gates in this work. The firm consumes 20,000 hides for belting annually, have a tannery on Chelmsford Street and employ thirty hands.

JOSIAH GATES .- The inauguration of the great manufacturing enterprise in East Chelmsford (now Lowell), in 1822-23, was regarded throughout New England with peculiar interest. Upon the farms on the hillsides there were many young men, in humble life, who had high aspirations and willing hands, and who only waited for an opportunity. Of this number was Josiah Gates.

He was born in Townsend, Vt., August 31, 1805, and was the son of a farmer. On account of the death of both his parents, he was early called to en- dure hardships and take responsibilities which, though grievous to be borue, doubtless laid the foun- dation of his future success.

He labored upon a farm until eighteen years of age, when he entered the service of a clothier in Townsend, and for three years was employed in the work of carding and finishing.

In 1826 he came to Lowell and found employment in the fulling-mill of Daniel Hurd, and afterwards in the service of the Merrimack Company. This com- pany, owning a fulling-mill on Cape Cod, put it in charge of Mr. Gates. But at length, preferring to re- side in Lowell, he returned to his service in the Merri- mack Mills, and after about one year was employed as overseer in the weaving and dressing department of the mills of the Lowell Company.

In 1845 Mr. Gates went into business on his own account, still retaining, however, his relation to the Lowell Company. He rented a store on Dutton Street and commenced the manufacture and sale of leather belting and other manufacturers' supplies. The enterprise proved a decided success, and he was several times compelled to enlarge his facilities for manufacturing. In 1861 he added the manufacture of leather hose for the Fire Department, and did a large business in that line.

In 1858, for the purpose of furnishing leather for his manufacture of hose and belting, he started an extensive tannery on Chelmsford Strect. In 1866 he admitted into partnership his two sons, J. E. and P. C. Gates, and in 1870 his third son, R. W. Gates.

In 1869 Mr. Gates became interested in the manu-

facture of the Markland carpet power-loom, of which he owned the patent. In the interest of this latter enterprise he went to Europe in order to introduce his power-loom into foreign manufactories of carpets.

In 1881 he erected a fine brick block on the corner of Market and Worthen Streets, for the manufacture and sale of hose and belting, a business which is still successfully prosecuted by Prescott C. & Royal W. Gates, the sons who survive him.

The able management of the affairs of this firm from its beginning, and the excellent quality of its goods, have gained for it a wide reputation and brought an ample reward.

Mr. Gates was a man of liberal views and widely extended sympathies. He took an active interest in the welfare of the city, having served in the Common Council in 1863, in the Board of Aldermen in 1865 and 1866, and iu the State Legislature in 1868. He was a director of the Wamesit Bank, of the Lowell and Andover Railroad, of the Lowell Hosiery Com- pany, of the Turner's Falls Manufacturing Company, of the John Russell Cutlery Company of Turner's Falls, and of the Hillsboro' Mills at Milford, N. H. He had a special fondness for agricultural pursuits, and at agricultural shows many of the products of his highly-cultivated lands on Gates Street, on which was his residence, were wont to appear on exhibition.

Mr. Gates did much to build up the city of Lowell. He was a man of strict integrity, of sterling common sense, and of unsullied character. Hc died on May 2, 1882, at the age of nearly seventy-seven years. Two sons and five daughters survived him.

Wm. Parr began the manufacture of belting, etc., on Middlesex Street in 1868, and removed to Dutton Street in 1881. He makes worsted aprons, leather belting, lace leather, and employs three men.

John Pilling established the manufacture of women's, children's and misses' boots, shoes and slip- pers for Southern and Western trade on Worthen Street in 1887. He employs seventy-five male and fifty female operatives.

Arey, Maddock & Locke, Lincoln and Tanner Streets, tan and curry grain, buff, wax and split leather, employing 125 to 150 hands. This firm started in business in 1878, succeeding Shepard & Co., who had succeeded E. G. Cook. The business has been carried on in this place for about thirty-eight years, and has suffered much from fires. It was started by Lund, Clough & Co. in 1852.

Israel Bent, manufacturer of belting, trunk handles and dealer in card clothing ou Market Street, started the business at his present location in 1866. He em- ploys three hands.

White Brothers & Co., on Howe Street, inventors and sole manufacturers of ooze leather, and dealers in organ, piano and fancy leathers, buck, chamois and wool .skins, employ 250 men. They have a salesroom in Summer Strect, Boston. The brothers are E. L., H. K. and W. T. White. Their father, William H.

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White, who is also connected with the firm, estab- lished the business in 1863.

WILLIAM HENRY WHITE was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, October 26, 1829, and is the son of the late Colonel Samuel B. White, of that town. His an- cestors on both sides were of the pure New England type, possessing in a marked degree the energy, cour- age and inflexible principles that characterized the earlier settlers of this country. His father, a true, earnest citizen, was the first treasurer of the town of Winchester and also took the most forward part in establishing a public library in that town. He was the first commander of the "Woburn Mechanics' Phalanx," a military organization of prominence for the past fifty-five years.

From his father Mr. White inherited many of the traits which have made his life a success.

On his mother's side the record is the same. His maternal grandfather, Deacon Calvin Richardson, pos- sessed great intellectual and moral worth, and was blessed with a family of ten children, all of whom, together with all their respective wives and husbands, were, at the same time, members of the church of which he was an honored officer.

Mr. White received his elementary education in the common schools of Woburn, and for one year attended the academy in that town.

Beginning with the sixteenth year of his age he devoted himself for four years to learning the trade of a machinist. When twenty years of age he was em- plored in the locomotive works of the Boston & Lowell Railroad and was soon promoted as overseer of the locomotive repair-shop of the Western Division of the New York and Erie Railroad at Hornellsville, N. Y. At the age of twenty-two years he was appointed superintendent of the repair-shop of this road at Dunkirk, N. Y., where he had under him about seventy-five men engaged in starting the works.

After one year's service at Dunkirk he was induced to return to Woburn (now Winchester) to engage in the manufacture of mahogany and other fancy woods, which was then a very thriving and profitable busi- ness in that town. It was here that he suffered his first reverse ; for after a successful business of three years his works were destroyed by fire.

In 1855 Mr. White, being now twenty-six years of age, began the work of tanning and manufacturing leather, a business which he has now followed for thirty-five years. In the third year of his new business came the financial crisis of 1857, by which his enterprise was completely prostrated. Finding no sale for his large stock of hides, he was compelled to settle with his creditors as best he could.

In the following year Mr. White was employed by a Boston firm as superintendent in building and es- tablishing an extensive tannery in Montreal. After four or five years in this employment, preferring to reside, and educate his family, in New England, he came to Lowell in 1863, during the Civil War, and

started the business of manufacturing gloves from leather prepared by himself. After eight years .he relinquished the manufacture of gloves and devoted himself exclusively to the more remunerative busi- ness of leather manufacture, a business in which he is still extensively engaged with remarkable success.

For twelve years a brother of Mr. White was his partner, but the firm now consists of Mr. White and his three sons, Edward L., Henry K. and William T. White, under the firm-name of White Brothers & Co.

The firm has an extensive tannery in Lowell and a large store in Boston. They employ about 300 hands. Their manufactures consist of the finer grades of leather for boots and shoes and for a great variety of fancy leather goods. The firm has a very extensive business, making sales, not only at home, but also in Europe. They are among the largest users of calf- skins in the country, and in their manufacture of col- ored leathers occupy the very foremost position in the trade. They also tan many varieties of kid and goat-skins, and are daily receiving at their works skins collected by their buyers in every part of the globe.

Mr. White is a gentleman of high character, gen- erous nature and refined taste. Though he has been a member of the City Council of Lowell, he has little fondness for public life or for the numerous societies which invite him to their membership. He finds his chosen pleasures in the retirement of home and the felicities of domestic life.

He has been twice married-in 1854 to Miss Maria Theresa Towle, and in 1888 to Mrs. Maria C. Lyon, daughter of the late Judge Nathan Crosby, of Low- ell. His family consists of the three sons already mentioned, and one daughter, Maria Theresa White.

Mr. White has purchased and now occupies the house and grounds formerly owned and occupied by the father of his present wife, where, upon, the hill- side overlooking the city, he delights in his fine gar- den adorned with comely shade-trees and winding ter- races, and rich with a vast variety of fruits and flowers.

L. S. Kimball, on Shattuck Street, roll-coverer and manufacturer of leather loom-pickers and card-leather belting. He employs six men. Moses F. Kimball, the father of the present proprietor, started the busi- ness in 1866 on Market Street. It was afterwards re- moved to Middlesex Street and then to Middle Street. It was burned out January 1, 1874, and was started anew in 1874, on Shattuck Street. Upon the death of the father, in 1872, the business was managed by his widow, M. E. Kimball, and his son, L. S. Kimball. For some years L. S. Kimball has been sole proprietor.

John Tripp & Co., roll-coverers, in the yard of the Massachusetts Cotton-Mills. This business was es- tablished in 1853 by John Tripp, who came to Lowell in 1825. After serving for several years as an over- seer in the Appleton Mills and in the belting business in company with Josiah Gates, he engaged in the roll-covering business in the yard of the Massachu- setts Mills, where it is still carried on, having been in

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

thic same location for thirty-seven years. Mr. Tripp died in 1888. The business is now conducted by a company consisting of A. C. Pearson, S. C. Wood and Mrs. E. A. Mansur, thic latter being a daughter of Mr. Tripp. This company employs sixteen hands and their customers arc the several corporations and other manufacturers of cotton throughont New England.

William Wilby, Wilson Street, manufacturcs leather belting and worsted aprons, employing two men. He started in business on Middlesex Street in 1878, re- moving to Market Street in 1880, and to his present location in 1888. He succeeded Thomas Wilby.

PAPER MANUFACTURES .- C. F. Hatch & Co., man- ufacturers of paper-boxes. Mr. Hatch, who had been connected with Charles Littlefield in making boxes, started his present business in Prescott Street in 1881. About 1885 he entered his new and elegant quarters in the Hoyt & Shedd Block, on Church Street, where he employs from eighty to one hundred girls and twelve men, producing 300,000 boxes per month.

Charles Littlefield & Co., Middle Street, paper-box makers. Mr. Littlefield, after being engaged for about twelve years in box-making, on Warren Street, re- moved to his present location in the new Talbot Block, on Middle Street, in 1889. At one period C. F. Hatch was a partner of Mr. Littlefield.

The firm manufactures about 6000 boxes per day and employs forty hands.

Bacheller, Dumas & Co., Central Street, do book and pamphlet binding of every description, paper- rnling and lettering in gilt on books, albums, pocket- books, traveling bags, silk, leather, etc., employing abont twenty hands. The company began this bnsi- ness in 1869. Ernest G. Dumas, son of one of the firm, was several years since admitted as partner.

Samuel Du Moulin, paper-ruler and book-binder in Hildreth's Block, Merrimack Street, started business in 1889.

Haworth & Watson, Lincoln and Brooks Streets, mannfacture paper cop tubes for mule-spinning, large paper tubes for use on bobbins, full-length tapered tubes, paper cones, and tubes for cones and parallel winders. This business was started by Mr. Haworth on Arch Street, in 1875. Mr. Watson became his partner in 1877. The business was removed from Arch Street to Market Street and afterwards to Cen- tralville, and then to its present location. It was de- stroyed by fire in 1888.

The company bonght out the Conical Cop Tube Mannfactory in 1889, and the Acme Cop Tube Com- pany in 1879.

Richmond Mills .- Among the earlier business en- terprises of Lowell was the well-known mannfactory of paper and cotton batting on the Concord River, established by Perez O. Richmond in 1834.

PEREZ OTIS RICHMOND was born in Westport, Mass., February 22, 1786. He was the son of Percz and Hannah Richmond, the former being an influen- tial and prosperous farmer in Little Compton, R. I.

John Richmond, the earliest American ancestor of Mr. Richmond, came to this country from Ashton Keynes, of Wiltshire, England. His son Edward, born 1632, settled in Little Compton, R. I., marricd the daughter of Henry Bull, Governor of Rhode Is- land, and held the office of Attorney-General. Syl- vester, the son of Edward, died in 1754, at the age of eighty-two years. Perez, the father of the subject of this sketch, was the son of Sylvester, and a descend- ant of John and Priscilla Alden, of the Pilgrims of Plymouth.

Mr. Richmond entered upon a business life in the store of Mr. John Bours, of Newport, R. I., whose danghter he married, by whom he had six children, only two of whom, Rev. John B. Richmond, of Med- ford, Mass., and Miss Mary L. Richmond, of Lowell, Mass., are living.

Subsequently, with his brother Alanson as part- ner, he engaged in mercantile business in Newport, R. I., and afterwards in Providence, R. I. The part- nership being subsequently dissolved, his brother de- voted himself to farming in Livingston Connty, N. Y., while Mr. Richmond engaged in manufacturing in Windham, Conn., and afterwards in Providence.

In 1834 he came to Lowell, and at his mills, on the Concord River, commenced the manufacture of vari- ons kinds of goods, among which were woolen fabrics, cotton batting and paper. In subsequent years the woolen department was put into other hands, while in the Richmond Mills only paper was mannfactured.

Mr. Richmond's superior ability and great energy and enterprise secured for him an ample estate. He was a man of large stature and commanding personal presence. He died very suddenly at Nashna, N. H., where, in the later years of his life, he had fixed his home, on Sept. 23, 1854, at the age of sixty-eight years.

His son, Charles B. Richmond, who, for fourteen years before the death of his father, had been engaged with him in his business, succeeded him in the man- agement and ownership of the paper-mills. He was. born in Providence, R. I., November 25, 1816. He inherited his father's talent for business.

He was a man of quiet, unobtrusive nature, and was highly respected. He was not a politician, and had no love for public life. He was, however, a trns- tee of the City Institution for Savings, and a director of Appleton Bank.

But his tastes led him to the quiet of home and the congenial endearments of domestic life. His elegant residence, commanding most delightful views of the Merrimack, might well allure him from the turmoil of business to its peaceful retreat.

In his last years his strength was enfeebled by a very severe affection of the lungs. He died at the residence of his father-in-law, Mr. Amos Heywood, in Beverly, Mass., whither he had gone for the bene- fit of the sea-air, August 25, 1873, in the fifty-eighth year of his age.

CARRIAGE MANUFACTURERS .- John H. Swett,

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101

LOWELL.

Arch Street, manufactures all kinds of carriages, and also does carriage, sign and ornamental painting. In 1874 Mr. Swett bought out Joel Jenkins, a veteran carriage-maker, and has since run the busi- ness at the old stand on Arch Street. Joel Jenkins had been in the business for about forty years, first for sixteen years on Pawtucket Street, and afterwards for twenty-four years on Arch Street.

T. W. Hill, Bridge Street, manufactures wagons and sleighs, employing two men. He began the bus- iness in 1884, succeeding John Drew.

C. F. Hill, Middlesex Street, manufactures wagons, sleighs and pungs, employing ten men. He started the business in 1866, having for three years H. B. Hill as partner, but being sole proprietor for about twenty-one years.

Sawyer Carriage Company, Tanner Street, was founded in 1883 by T. C. Sawyer & Sons, of Merri- mack, Mass., where they had acquired a reputation as carriage-makers. The present company, organized in 1886, is under the management of T. C. Sawyer. The proprietors are G. R. Chandler and E. H. Morse. The company occupies a manufactory having three stories and a floorage of 12,000 square feet. They manufacture fine carriages of every description, em- ploying twenty-two men.

Edwin Sanborn, carriage-builder, corner of An- dover and Pleasant Streets, started business in 1867 and is still engaged in the same location.

Fay Brothers & Hosford, in the old Convers factory on Central Street, build carriages, wagons, sleighs, pungs, etc., employing fourteen men. This firm started in 1886, succeeding the well-known firm of Day, Con- vers & Whitredge, which was established in 1857.

E. P. Bryant, West Third Street, manufactures light and heavy wagons of all kinds, employing ten men. He started the business in 1886.

MEDICINE MANUFACTURES .- The J. C. Ayer Com- pany whose laboratory is on Market Street and office on Middle Street, manufactures Ayer's Cherry Pectoral, Ayer's Sarsaparilla, Ayer's Ague Cure, Ayer's Hair Vigor and Ayer's Pills, employing nearly 300 per- sons in the various departments of the business. The frm issues annually 15,000,000 of Ayer's Almanacs in ten languages and consumes 800 tons of paper.

In 1877 the firm of Dr. J. C. Ayer & Co., was suc- ceeded by the J. C. Ayer Company, of which Mr. Frederick Ayer, brother of the founder of the busi- ness, was and is treasurer and manager.

JAMES COOK AYER.1-Among the sons of old Connecticut who have been identified with the past life of Lowell, James Cook Ayer, unquestionably, stands the foremost. He was born May 5, 1818, in that part of Groton which, as a separate town, now bears the name of the famous traveler, Ledyard. His father, who died in 1825, was Frederick Ayer, a soldier in the War of 1812; son of Elisha Ayer, a

soldier of the Revolution. His mother was Persis Cook Ayer, who died in Lowell, July 23, 1880, at the home of her eldest surviving son, Frederick Ayer, Esq.

The Honorable James Cook, for many years agent of the Middlesex Company's woolen-mills in Lowell, and in 1859 mayor of Lowell, was Mr. Ayer's moth- er's brother ; and his wife, Mrs. Lovisa Ayer Cook, was his father's sister.2

In 1836, by arrangement between his widowed mother and his uncle and aunt, James C. Ayer re- moved to Lowell, and made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Cook, who, having lost all their own children by death, henceforth treated their nephew with as much affection as if he had been their own son. Hc ac- quired a good academic education in the South Gram- mar School (now Edson) in Lowell, in the Westford Academy, and in the Lowell High School. He not only completed the course of studies required of those entering Harvard College, but he actually prosecuted for three years the studies prescribed in the college curriculum. The Rev. Dr. Edson acted as his tutor in Latin, but for the most part he pursued his studies alone, without the advantages of college teachers or college associates.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 23

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