History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 4

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 4

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Mr. Moody reported his observations to Mr. Jack- son, then in charge of the mills at Waltham, and Mr. Thomas M. Clark, of Newburyport, father of Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, was engaged to buy up the shares of the proprietors of the locks and canals on Merrimack River. These shares were purchased at half their original cost, their value being very much reduced on account of the construction of the Mid- dlesex Canal. Several farms near the falls were also purchased at low rates.

Mr. Clark was selected as the best agent for the transaction of this important business, in which much prudence and some secrecy were demanded, because in the construction of the canal, many years before, he had held a responsible position, and was well acquainted with all the partics. We have the authority of Bishop Clark for stating that when his father appeared among the farmers to purchase their farms, some supposed that he was intending to start up an enormous tannery, while others judged him to be insane.

It is interesting to recall the locations of the farms

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purchased by Mr. Clark. These farms were as fol- lows : Nathau Tyler's farm of forty acres, between Merrimack Street and Pawtucket Canal, reaching west nearly to Dutton Street, aud east as far as the Massachusetts Mills; Josiah Fletcher's farm of sixty acres, lying between Merrimack Street aud Merri- mack River; the Cheever farm, lying above the Law- rence Corporation; Mrs. Warren's farm, lying be- tween Central Street and Concord River, reaching north as far as Pawtucket Canal, and south as far as Richmond's Mills; Joseph Fletcher's farm of about 100 acres, bounded on the north by Pawtucket Canal, and on the east by Central Street. The farms con- tained about 400 acres, and the average price paid per acre was about $100. The entire purchase re- quired about $40,000. The united cost of the canal and farms was about $100,000.

To show the rapid increase in the value of these farms, I need only mention that nine-tenths of the Cheever farm were sold at eighteen dollars per acre, but the sale of the other tenth being necessarily de- ferred on account of the iusolvency and sudden death of the owner, this tenth when sold brought more than $720 per acre.

And here let us pause for a moment and briefly trace the history of that most important part of the land described above, which lies between the Merri- mac River and the Pawtucket Canal, and on which now stand most of the great manufactories of the city. About 1653, at the solicitation of the Apostle Eliot, it was granted by the State of Massachusetts to the Pawtucket Indians, who had erected their wig- wams in great numbers upon it, and had, to some ex- tent, cultivated the soil. In 1686 it was sold by the Indians to Colonel Jonathan Tyng and Major Thomas Henchman, the former of whom resided near Wicasuck Island, in the Merrimac, which now belongs to the town of Tyngsboro'; the latter was an influential man among the early settlers of Chelmsford. These gentle- men soon sold the land to forty-four citizens of Chelms- ford. The above-named owners are by no means the only proprietors of this interesting tract of land. It was at one time the property of Ensign William Fletcher, one of the most important of the early set- tlers of Chelmsford. In the year 1688 it was by two Indians John Nabersha and Samuel Nabersba- conveyed by deed to Josiah Richardson, an ancestor of the well-known attorneys-at-law of the same name, now members of the Lowell bar. This deed is re- corded at the registry in East Cambridge, and reads as follows :

"Thia present indenture witnesseth an agreement between Josialı Richardson, Senr., of Chelmsford, in the County of Middlesex, in New England, ou ye one part, and John Nesherba, Josephi Line and Samuel Netherha, of Wamasseck, we, for ye love we bear for ye beforesaid Jo- riah, have lett unto him one parcell of land lying at ye mouth of Con- cord river and partly npon Merrimack River, on ye south side of said River ; westerly upon ye Ditch, being ye bounds of ye land which we, ye said Indiana, would to Mr. Tynge and Mr. Heuchinan ; sonth by ye little Brooke called Speen's Brooke, all which land we, ye said Indians alive namel, have lett unto the above said Josiah for the space of One

Thousand and one years to him, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns to use and improve as he, ye said Josiah, or his heires, adminis. trators or assigns shall see cause. For which he, ye said Josiah, is to pay at ye terms aud one tobacco pipe, if it be demanded. In witness hereunto, this 19th of January, in ye year of our Lord one thousand six . hundred eighty and eight.

" JOHN NESHERBA [X] his mark. "SAMUEL NESHERBA [X] his mark."

The indolent and improvident Indians were wont to dispose of their lands very readily and at a low price to their enterprising white neighbors. On ac- count of probable transactions, which have not been recorded, the above account does not admit of an easy and satisfactory explanation. There is, therefore, lit- tle. cause for apprehension that the descendants of " ye said Josiah," now residents of Lowell and mnem- bers of the legal fraternity, will, upon the strength of the above deed, deem it wise to lay claim to the vast possessions of all the great manufacturing corpora- tions of the city.

The site selected for a new manufacturing enter- prise was remarkably adapted to the full development of the designs of its far-seeing projectors. The fall of thirty feet in one of the largest of American rivers was at the time believed to afford a supply of power almost inexhaustible, the river having a water-shed of 4000 square miles. The flattering success of their manufacturing establishment at Waltham filled them with buoyant hope of still greater success on the banks of the Merrimack. They went promptly to the work. First a dam is thrown across the Merri- mack at Pawtucket Falls, and the Pawtucket Canal is made wider and deeper. The work of digging and blasting occupied 500 men. The canal, when com- pleted, was supposed to be capable of supplying power for fifty mills.

THE MERRIMACK MANUFACTURING COMPANY, the first of the great manufacturing companies of Lowell, was incorporated February 6, 1822. The persons named in the bill as forming the company were Kirk Boott, William Appleton, John W. Boott and Ebenezer Appleton. The capital was $600,000. The company promptly began the work of construct- ing their first mill in the spring of the same year. Mr. Boott, as agent, comes upon the scene in April. Under his energetic command the work moves on apace. On September 1st, of the next year, the first' mill is completed ; water is let into the canal and the wheel started.

Of this canal I ought to say that it was a branch of the Pawtucket Canal and was constructed by the Merrimack Company after purchasing the Pawtucket Canal. Its course is near Dutton Street. Other branches have been constructed as new mills have needed them.

Mr. Ezra Worthen comes as superintendent of the mills near the time of Mr. Boott's arrival. He en- tered with energy and zeal upon his new work. While actively pushing forward the enterprise he

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

falls dead in the presence of his workmen. He had served only two years.

Mr. Worthen's successor, as superintendent, was Warren Colburn, who had already, at Waltham, had experience in the management of mills. Mr. Col- burn was born at Dedham 1793, and graduated at Harvard College at the age of twenty-seven years. From the interest in education which he acquired while a teacher in Boston he endeavored to improve upon the text-books in arithmetic then in nse by publishing the Intellectual Arithmetic. The title " Intellectual " was very properly given to the work, because throughont the work fixed rules and formnlæ are studiously avoided, and a direct appeal is con- stantly made to the intellect and reason of the pupil. This, together with other school-books published by him, gave him a high reputation outside his work as a mannfacturer, and throughout his life he took a deep interest in the cause of popular education. He delivered public lectures and often served on the Lowell School Committee. To him the schools of our city are greatly indebted for their efficiency and excellence. Mr. Colburn died September 13, 1833, at the age of forty years.

The superintendents of the Merrimack Mills have been as follows: Ezra Worthen, from 1822 to 1824; Warren Colburn, 1824 to 1833; John Clark, 1833 to 1848; Emory Washburn, 1848 to 1849; Edmund Le Breton, 1849 to 1850; Isaac Hinckley, 1850 to 1866; John C. Palfrey, 1866 to 1874; and Joseph S. Ludlam from 1874 to the present time.

PRINT WORKS .-- We are told by Nathan Appleton that in coming to Lowell it was the purpose of him- self and Mr. Jackson to print calicoes as well as to manufacture cotton cloth.

The work of printing calicoes by the Merrimack Company began in the autumn of 1824 under the supervision of Mr. Allan Pollock. After two years Mr. Polloek resigned his position while the print- works were not yet completed. In 1826, in order to perfect the work of calico printing, Mr. Boott went to England to employ the needed engravers. Mr. John D. Prince, an Englishman of high reputation for skill in this art, was invited to come to Lowell, and having resigned his position in Manchester, he as- sumed the superintendence of the Merrimack Print Works.

Mr. Prince was paid a very liberal salary for as- suming a position of very high responsibility, and well did he incet the high expectations formed of him. He filled the position for twenty-nine ycars, and then retired upon an annuity of $2000. He was a true Englishman in life and manners, a man of generous hospitality and of exemplary fidelity. He dicd January 5, 1860, at the age of eighty years, lcav- ing to his friends the grateful memory of his social virtues and to the poor the honor of being a noble, checrful giver.

In 1855 Henry Burrows succeeded Mr. Prince as

superintendent of the print works. Mr. Burrows was suceceded in turn by James Duck worth (1878) ; Robert Lcatham (1882); Joseph Leatham (1885) ; and by the present incumbent, John J. Hart (1887).

The history of the Merrimack Company will be more fully recorded in the appropriate place, when we come to give an account of the other manufactur- ing companies of the city, but so much of it as has already been given seemed so intimately connected with the history of the eity itself, that it could hardly be omitted.

LOCKS AND CANALS COMPANY .-- When the Mer- rimack Manufacturing Company purchased all the shares of the old Locks and Canals Company in 1822 they secured all the rights and privileges granted by the charter to the old company in 1792. After con- ducting the affairs both of the new mannfactoring company and of the old Locks and Canals Company as of one consolidated company for more than two years, it appeared to be better to re-establish the Locks and Canals Company, giving into its jurisdic- tion all lands and water-power belonging to the com- pany and retaining only the manufacturing opera- tions. This was done on February 28, 1825, nnder a special act of the Legislature permitting it, and down to the present time the company exists under the charter of 1792.

The following have been the agents of this com- pany since its reorganization : Kirk Boott, from 1822 to 1837 ; Joseph Tilden, from 1837 to 1838; William Boott, from 1838 to 1845; James B. Francis, from 1845 to 1885 ; James Francis, from 1885 to the pres- ent time. James B. Francis, on account of his long service, deserves special notice.

JAMES BICHENO FRANCIS was born in Sonthleigh, Oxfordshire, England, May 18, 1815. His father was superintendent of Duffryn, Llynwi and Porth Cawl Railway in South Wales. The son was thus most fortunately situated for acquiring an early knowledge of the work of an engineer, which was to occupy his future life. When fourteen years of age he was em- ployed upon the harbor-works of Porth Cawl, and, subsequently, npon the Grand Western Canal.

At the age of eighteen years he came to America, landing at New York April 11, 1833. Fortune fav- ored him; for at that time several of the earliest American railroads called for the services of men of his profession. He very soon found employment un- der George W. Whistler, the distinguished engineer, in the surveys of the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad.

In the next year, Mr. Whistler having been em- ployed to build the locomotives for the Boston and Lowell Railroad, and to construct extensive hydraulie works for the proprictors of locks and cauals on the Merrimack River, Mr. Francis accompanied him to Lowell, and became associated with him in thicse en- terpriscs.

When Mr. Whistler left Lowell, in 1837, Mr. Fran-

James B. Francis

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cis was appointed by the Proprietors of Locks and Canals as chief engineer. In 1845 he was chosen agent also of the company. These offices he held until 1884, when, after a service of fifty years, he tendered his resignation. The company, however, desiring to retain his services, appointed him to the newly-created office of consulting engineer, and his son, Colonel James Francis, was chosen his suc- cessor as agent and engineer.

In his new position Mr. Francis is the consulting engineer in all important works connected with the hydraulic improvements of Lowell, and where great interests are at stake in other and distant parts of the country, his professional services are frequently de- manded.

Our limited space will permit only a brief notice of Mr. Francis' works as a civil engineer. During his long period of service he had the manage- ment of all the water-power in Lowell, demanding the important and delicate work of making an equita- ble distribution of this power among the various manufacturing companies. This work required many original hydraulic experiments on a scale that had hitherto never been attempted. The results of these experiments were published to the professional world in "Lowell Hydraulic Experiments," in 1855. This work, which was republished in 1868 and 1883, is " a recognized authority among hydraulic engineers, both in America and in Europe." He has also published " The Strength of Cast-Iron Columns," and many other contributions to technical literature.

" Mr. Francis," says an able writer upon engineer- ing, " may be regarded as the founder of a new school of hydraulic engineers by the inauguration of a sys- tem of experimental research, which, through his patient and careful study, has reached a degree of perfection before unknown. His experiments are marked by exactness from their very inception."

There are in Lowell two monuments of his fore- sight and skill which deserve to be recorded. The first is the Northern Canal, constructed in 1846, a work of such massive strength and such perfection of execution, that it cannot fail to command admira- tion for ages to come. The second is what is known as the "Guard Locks," on Pawtucket Canal, con- structed for the purpose of saving the city from in- undation in case of a very high freshet upon the Merrimack. Mr. Francis having learned that in 1785 there had been a freshet in which the water rose thirteen and a half feet above the top of the dam at the mouth of the Pawtucket Canal, and foreseeing that should another similar freshet occur, the guard locks, then existing, would inevitably give way, and the city be inundated, constructed a gate and walls which no freshet could sweep away. This work, completed in 1850, was a model of scientific skill. But to the casual observer who, on a fair day, viewed the quiet waters of the canal, it seemed an unneces- sary structure. The wags even styled it "Francis'

folly." But in two years (1852) there came a freshet like that of 1785. The old works were swept away, but the massive gate of Mr. Francis was now, for the first time, dropped to its place and the city was safe.

Though in his seventy-fifth year, Mr. Francis is still pursuing the active duties of his profession. During his past life he has often been honored with municipal office. He was elected a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers November 5, 1852, and was the president of that society from No- vember 3, 1880, until January 18, 1882.

The first sale of water-power by this company was made to the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated in 1825, with a capital of $600,000.

'The following facts in regard to the Locks and- Canals Company, I quote from Mr. Cowley :

" For twenty years the business of this company was to furnish land & water-power, and build mills & machinery for the various manufac- turing companies. They have never engaged in manufacturing opera- tions. They kept in operation two machine-shops, a foundry & a saw- mill, until 1845, when the Lowell Machine. Shop was incorporated. They constructed all mill canals to supply the various companies with water- power, and erected most of the mills and the boarding houses attached to them. They employed constantly from five to twelve hundred men, and built two hundred & fifty thousand dollars' worth of machinery per annum. Their stock was long the best of which Lowell could boast, be- ing worth thrice and even four times its par value. Their present busi- ness is to superintend the use of the water-power which is leased by them to the several companies. Their stock is held by these companies in the same proportion in which they hold the water-power."

In 1846 this company and the Essex Company, of Lawrence, by acts of the Legislatures of Massachu- setts and New Hampshire, became joint owners of the extensive water-power afforded by Lake Winnipiseo- gee, New Hampshire. This property was, in 1889, transferred by sale to a syndicate of gentlemen, mostly manufacturers, in the State of New Hamp- shire.

The most important of the works of the Locks and Canals Company has been its construction of the Northern Canal, said to be the greatest work of its kind in the United States. This canal was constructed in 1846 and 1847, under the supervision of James B. Francis as chief engincer. "The canal cost $530,- 000, employing in its construction 700 to 1000 persons, and using 12,000 barrels of cement." It is 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep, and about one mile in length. The whole work is one of such massive strength and solidity, a great portion of it being cut through solid rock, that, like very few of modern works, it will stand unchanged in the far distant ages of the future. And not for solidity and strength alone is it worthy of our admiration, but its green banks, adorned with double colonnades of trees and its attractive promenades, with the waters of the Merrimack dashing down the falls in close and full view, afford to the eye a very pleasing prospect, and display to the visitor a pictur- esque scene of no ordinary beauty.

The design of this canal is to afford a fuller head of

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

water for the mills than the old canal could supply. The multiplicity of mills demanded a greater supply than the old canal could afford.

Before coming in our history to the incorporation of the town of Lowell, let us gather up a few facts of a somewhat miscellaneous character.

In 1822 a regular line of stages was established be- tween East Chelmsford and Boston.

In 1824 the Chelmsford Courier, a weekly paper, was started in Middlesex Village.

The United States post-office was established in East Chelmsford (now Lowell) on May 13, 1824, with Mr. Jonathan C. Morrill as postmaster.

On July 4, 1825, the first of the military companies of our city was formed, and took the name of Mechan- ics' Phalanx. Following this was the organization of the City Guards, in 1841, the Watson Light Guards in 1851, the Lawrence Cadets in 1855. But the mili- tary history of our city will appear in another place. On July 4, 1825, the anniversary of American Inde- pendence was celebrated, the orator being Rev. Ber- nard Whitman, of Chelmsford, a public dinner being served at the Stone House, near Pawtucket Falls. I give the names of the Fourth of July orators in Low- ell from that date to the present, following Mr. Cow- ley down to 1866.

They were Bernard Whitman, in 1825; Samuel B. Walcott, in 1826 ; Elisha Bartlett, in 1828 ; Dr. Israel Hildreth, in 1829; Edward Everett, in 1830 ; John P. Robinson, in 1831; Thomas J. Greenwood, in 1832; Thomas Hopkinson, in 1834; Rev. E. W. Freeman, in 1835; Rev. Dr. Blanchard, in 1836 ; Rev. Thomas F. Norris and John C. Park, in 1841 ; Rev. John Moore, in 1847; Dr. Elisha Bartlett, in 1848; Rev. Joseph H. Towne, in 1851; Rev. Mat- thew Hale Smith, in 1852; Jonathan Kimball, in 1853; Rev. Augustus Woodbury, in 1855; Dr. Charles A. Phelps, in 1860; Geo. A. Boutwell, in 1861; Alexander H. Bullock, in 1865.

On July 4, 1867, the statue of "Victory " in Monu- ment Square was unveiled, and, on that occasion, ad- dresses were given by Mayor Geo. F. Richardson, Judge Thomas Russell, Gen. A. B. Underwood, Gen. Wm. Cogswell, Hon. John A. Goodwin and Dr. J. C. Ayer, who presented the statue to the city. Ten years later, on July 4, 1878, Hon. F. T. Greenhalge delivered an oration, and, on July 4, 1879, the orator was Gco. F. Lawton, Esq. Ten years later, on July 4, 1889, an oration was delivered in Huntington Hall by Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge.

The change which took place immediately after the war, in regard to celebrating the 4th of July, is very remarkable. The war scemed to have changed, not the patriotism, but the popular taste of our citi- zens. Our celebrations of the 4th have become spec- tacular. Processions, regettas, games and sports have supplemented everything of an intellectual nature. This, however, may be alleged in behalf of these popular attractions, that, while an oration can be

heard by only a few hundred, these can be enjoyed by fifty thousand.

John Adams, the most eloquent advocate of the Declaration of Independence in the Continental Congress, on the day after that immortal proclama- tion was passed, wrote to his wife thesc well-known words in respect to the future celebration of that day : " It ought to be solemnized with pomps, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bon-fires and illuminations from this time forward forever." This prophetic de- claration would seem to sanction the present methods of celebrating the day. And yet to every patriotic man who seriously reflects upon the dangers which have always threatened human liberty and free insti- tutions there is reason for sober thought even on the 4th of July. Such sober thought the people of Low- ell once had when, on the eve of the celebration of the day in 1881, the startling message came that an assassin's bullet had robbed the Republic of its chief magistrate.

CHAPTER II.

LOWELL-(Continued).

THE TOWN OF LOWELL.

THE town of Lowell was incorporated March 1, 1826. For four years after the work on the Merri- mack Mills was begun the village retained the name of East Chelmsford. The number of inhabitants in this village had risen from 200, in 1820, to 2300, in 1826, more than eleven-fold. These twenty-three hundred people were compelled to go four miles-to Chelmsford Centre-to attend town-meetings and transact other municipal business. The two villages had no common business relations and no social sym- pathies. The taxes raised upon the valuable proper- ty of the mills could be claimed and expended by the town of Chelmsford. The schools of the new village were under the management of the town. Various motives conspired to make it the desire of East Chelmsford to become a town by itself. This desire was gratified by its success before the Legislature in obtaining an act of incorporation.

It is interesting to be able to know the precise way in which the new town received the name of "Lowell."

It seems that Derby, in England, a parliamentary borough and manufacturing town, had, from early as- sociation or other cause, been suggested to the mind of Mr. Boott as a fitting name for the new town. He had also thought of the claims of Francis C. Lowell to the honor of giving its name. When the act of incorporation was completed, with the exception of giving a name, Mr. Nathan Appleton met Mr. Boott . and questioned him in regard to filling the blank with an appropriate name. Mr. Boott declared that

LOWELL.

he considered the question narrowed down to two, " Lowell " or "Derby," to which Mr. Appleton re- plied, " Then Lowell by all means," and Lowell it was.

HISTORIC CLASSIFICATION .- Lowell having now become an incorporated township with a rapidly increasing population, and with rapidly multiplying industrial, ecclesiastical and educational institutions, it becomes necessary at this point, in order that the reader msy follow an unbroken and logically con- nected narrative, to classify the various subjects of its history, and in succession treat each subject by itself. The remaining history of Lowell will there- fore be considered under the following heads :

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 4

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