History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 7

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 7

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On Sunday, Sept. 20th of this year, occurred an event which for years deeply agitated the people of Lowell, and which is still wrapped in mystery. Rev. Enoch W. Freeman, the talented and popular pastor of the First Baptist Church, was suddenly seized with illness when in his pulpit, which became so severe that he was compelled to relinquish the attempted performance of religious service. He was conveyed from the church

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

to his home where he died after intense sufferings on Tuesday morning His wife, in regard to whom thierc were painful suspicions, married a second husband, wlio, about five years after the death of Mr. Freeman, dicd in a similar manner. Many other circumstances conspired to arousc suspicion and to fasten upon the wife the charge of murder. She was tried upon the second offence and acquitted in a court of law. But for many years the sensation lingered in the memory of our citizens.

BOSTON AND LOWELL RAILROAD .- The manu- factures of the town demanded a vast amount of traffic with Boston. In the eolder months of the year, when ice closed the Middlesex Canal, transpor- tation over bad roads by wagons was tedious and done at great cost, and, eveu in the summer months, the eanal afforded only a slow means of conveying the great amount of merchandise. Six stages passed daily from Boston to Lowell and back.

To remedy thesc difficulties it was at first proposed to construct a macadamized road from Boston to Lowell, and even estimates were made for this enter- prise and a line surveyed. At this time the inventive and far-reaching mind of Patrick T. Jackson was turned to this subject of transportation. Already the experiment of transportation by horse-power on iron rails, or trams, used for reducing friction, had been tried. At this juneture there came the tidings across the water that Stephenson had proved that cars pro- pelled by steam could be successfully employed on these iron rails.

This news decided the mind of Mr. Jacksen. He clearly foresaw that what Lowell must have was not a maeadamized road, but a railroad, and that the pro- pelling power must be, not horses, but steam. He was now fifty years of age, and it was ten years since he had accomplished his important work of establish- ing in American the great cotton manufactures. He enters upon the new enterprise with his wonted zeal and energy. Men of wealthi must first be persuaded of the feasibility of the uudertaking. If successful in England, where there were great eities in close prox- imity, the railroad might utterly fail in America. To many, perhaps to most, the project looked quixotic and hazardous. But Mr. Jackson did not falter; a charter was obtained and the stock was taken.

The grading of the road, especially through the miea, slate and gneiss rock near Lowell, proved un- expectedly expensive. " The shareholders were rest- less under increased assessments and delayed ineome." At times the responsibility weighed heavily on Mr. Jackson, and deprived him of his sleep. At length the great work was accomplished, and time lias proved the wisdom of its undertaking. Its cost was $1,800,- 000. The railroad was completed in 1835.

A railroad from Lowell to Boston eould now be constructed at far less expense. Time lias shown that steeper grades and shorter curves are praetieable, and that sleepers of wood are even to be preferred to

those of iron. In a thousand ways time and experi- ence have aided tlie civil engineer.

CHAPTER III.

LOWELL-(Continued).

CITY OF LOWELL.

1836. Governor Edward Everett signed the legis- lative act giving a city charter to the town of Lowell, April 1, 1836. This was the third city charter granted in Massachusetts, that of Boston bearing date of 1822, and that of Salem only one week earlier than that of Lowell. With a population of more than 16,000, it was found impossible properly to transact all official business in publie town-meeting. In the preceding year there had been ten town-meetings, and there was a common sentiment among the best and wisest of the citizens that the time liad come for an efficient eity government. The committee ap- pointed by the town on February 3, 1836, reported in favor of such a government, alleging that under the town government there was a want of executive power and a loose way of spending money.

Still there were citizens so wedded to the demo- cratie methods of town-meetings that they reluctantly surrendered the municipal authority into the hands of a seleet few. When the vote accepting the "char- ter was taken, more than one-fourth of the votes were found in the opposition. The result was yeas, 961, and nays, 328. The first Monday in May was fixed upon as the day for filling the city offiees under the new government. And now begins an ardent politi- cal contest. Ten years before, the Whigs commanded such a preponderance iu number that there would then have been no doubt how a politieal struggle would terminate. But by degrees the Democrats had so gained in numbers and in iufluence that the party which would throw into the canvass the greatest energy and talent might indulge the hope of vietory. Eaeli party put forward for the mayoralty its strong- est mail. Dr. Elisha Bartlett was the candidate of the Whigs and Rev. Eliphalet Case led on the Demo- crats. They were both able men. Dr. Bartlett was perhaps personally the most popular man in Lowell -- a man of pleasing address and high mental culture. He liad oeeupied a professor's chair iu a medical school, and had the elements of a popular leader. Mr. Case was a mau of ruder nature, but still a man of marked ability. He loved the strife and turmoil of politics, and entered with ardor upon the coutest. He had been the editor of the Lowell Mercury, and, more recently, of the Advertiser, both Democratic papers of militant type. He was, at the time of the election, the postmaster of the eity. On the morning of the election Dr. Bartlett called at the post-oflice

LOWELL.

and walked arm-in-arm with Mr. Case to the polls, each courteously voting for his rival. The result favored the Whig candidate, the vote standing 958 for Bartlett and 868 for Case. The aldermen elected were William Austin, Benjamin Walker, Oliver M. Whipple, Aaron Mansur, Seth Ames, Alexander Wright. On the School Committee elected were Lemuel Porter, Amos Blanchard, Jacob Robbins, John O. Green, John A. Knowles, Thomas Hopkinson. Among the twenty-four Councilmen elected were such men as Thomas Nesmith, Thomas Ordway, George Brownell, Sidney Spalding, John Clark, Stephen Mansur, James Cook, Josiah B. French, Jonathan Tyler, Tappan Wentworth.

I cannot do better than to give a very brief notice of some of these men. I shall thus best show the character and spirit of the times. I shall show how our fathers displayed their wisdom by intrusting power in the hands most capable of wielding and most worthy of the honor of possessing it. Such is our method of judgment in private life-we estimate the real character of a man by inquiring who they are in whom he confides.

Of the aldermen, Captain William Austin was the agent of the Lawrence Corporation; Benjamin Walker was a butcher, and one of the early directors of first savings bank; Oliver M. Whipple was one of Lowell's most prominent and successful men of business ; Aaron Mansur was a well-known merchant ; Seth Ames was the son of the celebrated Fisher Ames, of Dedham, a lawyer and a man of high culture; Alexander Wright was the agent of the Lowell Mills, a Scotchman by birth and a man of talent.

Of the Common Council, Thomas Nesmith was a wealthy dealer and owner of real estate; Thomas Ordway was for many years clerk of the city, a re- vered deacon of the Unitarian Church; George Brownell was superintendent of the machine-shop -- a Very responsible position ; Sidney Spalding was a man of wealth and of high position in the world of business ; John Clark was agent of the Merrimack Company ; Stephen Mansur-afterwards mayor-was a dealer in hardware and one of Lowell's most prom- inent men of business; James Cook-afterwards mayor-was agent of the Middlesex Mills; Josiah B. French-afterwards mayor-was a railroad contractor ; Jonathan Tyler was a wealthy dealer in real estate ; Tappan Wentworth was a lawyer of high standing, and subsequently a member of Congress.

Of the School Board, Lemuel Porter was for many years pastor of the Worthen Street Baptist Church; Amos Blanchard, a man of great learning, was long the pastor of the First Congregational Church ; Jacob Robbins was an apothecary, and afterwards post- master of Lowell ; John O. Green was a physician of high professional standing; John A. Knowles was a lawyer, long well known and highly respected in our city ; Thomas Hopkinson was one of the ablest law- yers in the State.

Lowell at that day, as has been often remarked, presented a remarkable array of men of talent. Per- haps the novelty and the importance of the great manufacturing enterprises of the city presented a pe- culiar attraction to the minds of superior and am- bitious men.

But not only is the character of our early city fathers indicated by that of the men whom they in- trusted with power, but still more clearly by the wise and beneficent measures which they promptly con- sidered and promptly adopted. Among these meas- ures were the erection of new edifices for the use of the public schools, the preservation of the public health, the lighting of the streets, the construction of sidewalks, the establishment of a system of drain- age, and the various other works of public utility, which indicate a statesmanlike foresight and a' high moral sense. There were great interests at stake and great responsibilities to be taken. The nine great manufacturing companies alone had a capital of more than $7,000,000, and employed nearly 7000 persons. The city was filled with young men and women, who, having left the rural quiet of their country homes, needed the care and protection of a wise city govern- ment when exposed to the untried temptations of a city life.

The condition of Lowell on becoming a city is ad- mirably told in the following passage, quoted by Mr. Gilman, in the inaugural address of Dr. Bartlett, the first mayor of the city : "Looking back to the period when I came among you, a penniless stranger, alike unknowing and unknown, I find the interval of more than eight years filled up with manifestations of kindness and good will. One of the most striking points of the entire history of our town and city con- sists in the unparalleled rapidity of its growth. The graves of our fathers are not here. The haunts of our childhood are not here. The large and gradually accumulated fortunes of nearly all our older towns are not to be found here. The great mass of wealth which is centered here, and which has made our city what it is, is owned abroad. The proprietors do not reside among us. The profits arc not expended among us."

In 1836 "the number of churches in Lowell was thirteen-four Congregational, two Baptist, two Meth- odist, one Episcopalian, one Universalist, one Chris- tian Union, one Free-Will Baptist and one Catholic."

At the organization of the city government, on May 2d, John Clark was chosen president of the City Council, and George Woodward clerk. Samuel A. Coburn, who had been clerk of the town of Lowell, was chosen city clerk.

The Lowell Dispensary was incorporated in 1836, the corporators being John Clark, James Cook and James G. Carney.

"April 16th the Legislature passed an act, removing a term of the Supreme Judicial Court and one of the Court of Common Pleas from Concord to Lowell.

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

For the accomodation of these courts, rooms were fitted up in the Market-House, which was erected in the following year."

1837. Mayor, Elisha Bartlett; population, 18,010. From this ycar until 1850 the city governments were inaugurated about April 1st, the municipal election being in March.

On the 1st of April a profound sensation was pro- duced by the sudden death of Kirk Boott. He died while sitting in his chaise near the Merrimack House. He was forty-seven years of age.

The suspension of specie payment in all the banks of the United States in 1837 did not seriously affect the mills of Lowell.

As early as 1835 the question was agitated of build- ing a great central market. A population of 17,000, it was thought, stood in sore need of such a structure. At one time a committee was appointed to erect such building, but a short time before Lowell ceased to be a town all votes respecting the erection of a market were rescinded, and it was left to the city govern- ment, in 1837, to commit the folly of erecting, on Market Street, a building which the people did not need and which they would not patronize. The cost was $46,000.

All attempts to make a central market of this building have failed. The stalls hired by market- men were not patronized, and the market-men moved out. If the people would not come to them, they could go to the people. Men prefer a small market near their homes to a large one far away.

1838. Mayor, Luther Lawrence. On October 8th railroad cars began to run regularly from Lowell to Nashua.

"A county jail, on the modern plan of separate cells, was erected in 1838. It was taken down after the completion of the county jail in 1858," having stood about twenty years.

1839. Mayor, Luther Lawrence, who was killed by accident fifteen days after assuming his office, and Elisha Huntington was elected mayor by the City Council. He was at the time a member of the City Council. Mr. Lawrence assumed his office April 1st, and was killed April 16th. In this year the Massa- chusetts Cotton-Mills were incorporated.

November 1st. The Lowell Hospital Association was formed. Kirk Boott's private residence, which stood not far from the site of John Street Congrega- tional Church, was purchased for a hospital building and moved to the place, near Pawtucket Falls, where it now stands. The hospital is the property of the large corporations, the treasurers of the mills having control of it. Its design is to afford medical and sur- gical aid to persons in the employment of the mills who need it. It is not a free hospital. When a pa- tient, who is an operative in the mills, fails to pay, the company for whom he works pays his bills.

The physicians in special charge of this hospital have been Dr. Gilman Kimball, Dr. George H. Whit-

more, Dr. John W. Graves, Dr. Hermon J. Smith. But in recent years the medical charge has been committed to a staff of physicians who gratuitously serve in turn for terms arranged by themselves. There is also a superintendent and resident physician of the hospital, clected by the trustees. For the year 1889 the staff of physicians was L. S. Fox, M.D., W. T. Carolin, M.D., J. B. Field, M.D., H. S. Johnson, M.D., F. W. Chadburne, M.D., and Wm. B. Jackson, M.D. The resident physician was C. E. Simpson. Matron, Miss C. B. Whitford. Number of patients treated from Jan. 1, 1888, to Jan. 1, 1889, 299, of whom eighteen died.

1840. Mayor, Elisha Huntington. Population, 20,981. The South Common, containing twenty acres, and the North Common, containing ten acres, were laid out in 1840.

Mr. Cowley gives us the following: "Several at- tempts had heretofore been made for the establish- ment of a theatre or museum in Lowell, but had failed. In 1840 this project was renewed with better success. The museum was first started in the fourth story of.Wyman's Exchange, by Moses Kimball [af- terwards of the Boston Museum]. The first. per- formance was on the fourth of July, 1840, and was an excellent substitute for the blarney usually indulged in on that day. The first collection of curiosities was procured from Greenwood's old New England Museum in Boston. But the business did not pay. In 1845, Noah Gates purchased the museum of Mr. Kimball, and the removal by him, in 1846, of the museum into the building formerly owned by the Free-Will Baptist Church, provoked 'strong indigna- tion in Zion.' The church was at once fitted up for dramatic entertainments ; but so great was the oppo- sition to it that in 1847 the City Council refused to license any more exhibitions of this kind."

The Lowell Offering was started in 1840. This paper receives notice on another page. From its unique character it has gained, both in this country and in Europe, a distinguished name. All its articles being the contributions of mill girls, it had a charac- ter unlike that of any other publication in the world.

1841. Mayor, Elisha Huntington.

Jan. 11th. Benj. F. Varnum, sheriff of Middlesex County, died at his home in Centralville, at the age of forty-six years. He was the son of General Joseph B. Varnum, of Dracut.

From 12 to 1 o'clock on the 7th of April the bells of the city were tolled on account of the death of President Harrison.

Mr. Cowley gives us the following item : "Until 1841 there had been no substantial bridge over the Concord River connecting Church and Andover Streets. The first structure was a floating bridge for foot-passers. The next was a bridge set upon piles. But in the year above-named a double-arch stone bridge was constructed, which in 1858 was replaced by the present single-arch structure."

LOWELL.

In June, 1841, the Lowell Cemetery, situated near Concord River and Fort Hill in Belvidere, was con- secrated with appropriate ceremonies. The address on the occasion was delivered by Rev. Dr. Amos Blanchard. James G. Carney and O. M. Whipple appear to have been the foremost of our citizens to urge the establishment of this cemetery. Mr. Whip- ple was president of the corporation for its first thirty years. Forty acres were first purchased. Sub- sequently it was enlarged to seventy-two acres. The original price of a lot containing 300 square feet was $10, but from time to time the price has increased uutil a lot, completely prepared for use, costs $250. The cemetery has a beautiful stone chapel, presented by Mrs. C. P. Talbot, also a stone office near the gateway. It has been adorned in various ways, until it has become a cemetery in which the citizens of Lowell take a justifiable pride. A new entrance on tbe Belvidere side will add much to the convenience of the citizens.

The Edson Cemetery, on Gorham Street, belongs to the city of Lowell. It is well cared for by the city and is kept and adorned with much taste. The same may also be said of the Catholic Cemetery, on Gorham Street, near by the Edson Cemetery.

Before the great manufactories were started, East Chelmsford had two cemeteries. One was at the cor- ner of Branch and School Streets, and it is still kept with much care, and is the burial-place of some families who lived upon the spot in early days. The other was on the banks of the Merrimack in Belvidere, lying between East Merrimack and Stackpole Streets, and east of Alder Street. This has been discontinued, the bodies of those who were buried there having been removed. The spot is now appropriated for private residences.

1842. Mayor, Nathaniel Wright.

Charles Dickens visited Lowell in 1842. The im- pression made upon him by the new manufacturing city in America, so unlike any English city, is told in his " American Notes." A brief quotation will suffice :

"In this brief account of Lowell, and inadequate expression of the gratification it yielded me, I have carefully abstained from drawing a comparison be- tween these factories and those of our own land. The contrast would be a strong one, for it would be be- tween the Good and Evil, the living light and deep- est shadow. I abstain from it, because I deem it just to do so. But I only the more earnestly adjure all those whose eyes may rest on these pages to pause and reflect upon the difference between this town and those great haunts of desperate misery."

1843. Mayor, Nathaniel Wright. June 19th was a gala day in Lowell. John Tyler, President of the United States, visited the city. He arrived at the Northern Depot about 10.30 o'clock, and there met an imposing array. A platform was erected near at hand, from which Dr. Huntington, chairman of the committee of arrangements, delivered a speech of

welcome, and the President made reply. It was a beautiful June day, and everything appeared at its best. The children of the public schools graced the occasion. Arrayed in order near the landing were the High School girls, "beautiful as the morning." The Stark Guards, from Manchester, N. H., the Low- ell Mechanics' Phalanx, the National Highlanders, the Lowell Artillery and the Lowell City Guards adorned the procession. A carriage drawn by six black horses conveyed the President, Governor Morton, of Massachusetts, Dr. Huntington and Robert Tyler. Then followed twenty-five carriages and a cavalcade of citizens, under Col. Butterfield. All was beauti- ful-only one thing was wanting, and that was en- thusiasm. The course pursued by Mr. Tyler after the death of the lamented Harrison had chilled the hearts of the men who, in 1840, with wild delight, had shouted, " Tippecanoe and Tyler, too."

1844. Mayor, Elisha Huntington. Population, 25,163. In this year the City School Library was es- tablished, on May 20th. Central Bridge was rebuilt, and an experiment of paving streets was first made. Our city may be justly proud of its streets. It has enjoyed this advantage over older cities, that from its earliest days the belief was universal that its destiny was to become a city. Its broad streets, with gener- ous sidewalks, have been laid out under the influence of this belief.

Feb. 16th. Zadoc Rogers died, at the age of seventy years. He was born in Tewksbury in 1774, and pur- chased the well-known Rogers farm in Belvidere in 1805. Most of Belvidere is built on this farm of 247 acres, and the Livermore farm, of 150 acres. The Rogers farm was kept nearly intact until 1883, when it was purchased by a syndicate, consisting of Ethan A. Smith, Eli W. Hoyt, Freeman B. Shedd and Thomas R. Garrity, and sold in house lots. These lots are being rapidly covered with elegant residences, in modern style.

The Prescott Manufacturing Company was incor- porated, with a capital of $800,000.

In this year the poet Whittier became a resident of Lowell. He came to take charge as editor of the Middlesex Standard, an anti-slavery paper, which, however, failed of success. The people of Lowell do not boast of the short sojourn of the poet in Lowell, but still they feel a pardonable pride and pleasure in knowing that the man whom a distinguished Senator has called " the most beloved man in the nation" was once their fellow-citizen. Though in feeble health while in Lowell, his pen was busy, and in his little work entitled, " The Stranger in Lowell," he has given us a very pleasant transcript of his thoughts and feelings as he walked our streets. I can, per- haps, give no better illustration of these thoughts, and of the humane and generous nature of the poet, than is found in the following quotation from his little book, in which he speaks of the Irish laborers of our city :

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

"For myself, I confess I feel a sympathy for the Irishman. A stranger in a strange land, he is to me always an object of interest. The poorest and rudest has a romance in his history. Amidst all his appar- ent gaycty of heart and national drollery and wit the poor emigrant has sad thoughts of the 'ould mother of him,' sitting lonely in her solitary cabin by the bog, side ; recollections of a father's blessing and a sister's farewell are haunting him; a grave-mound in a dis- tant churchyard, far beyond the 'wide wathers,' has an eternal greenness in his memory : for there, per- haps, lies a 'darlint child ' or a 'swate crather ' who once loved him."

Mr. Whittier was in Lowell during the Presidential canvass of the autumn of 1844, the candidates being Clay, Polk and Birney. His paper, the Standard advocated the election of James G. Birney, of Mich- igan, who received in Lowell 246 votes.

1845. Mayor, Elisha Huntington.

The Stony Brook Railroad Company was incorpor- ated, with a capital of $300,000.

The Lowell Machine-Shop was organized as a cor- poration, with a capital of $300,000.

In 1845 manufacturing in the city of Lawrence was begun by the Essex Company.

In this year was published "Lowell as It Was and as It Is," by Rev. Dr. Henry A. Miles. This excel- lent little work was the first published history of Lowell in book-form. At that time there were two very divergent and antagonistic sentiments in regard to the comparative moral and industrial claims of large corporations and of private enterprise in the manufactures of our country. It was to repel the charge that large corporations led to oppression, cor- ruption and nepotism, that Dr. Miles seems to have written his history. Fully half of the book is de- voted to showing that the mills of Lowell were man- aged by wise and benevolent men, and in a manner calculated to promote the moral welfare and the high- est good, not only of the operatives, but of the com- munity at large. It is the common belief that such a book could not now be truthfully written. No doubt the general character of the operatives has depreci- ated. The Yankee girls, reared among the New England hills, have departed, and girls of foreign birth have taken their places. So, too, the owners and managers of the mills have changed. The early founders are gone. The grime of age has robbed the buildings of some of their freshness and beauty, and the ideal days are past. But we can concede no more. The structures are still noble structures, the owners and mauagers are still noble men. If the great enterprise has lost something of the freshness of youth, it has gained much of the stability of man- hood. A nobler class of men cannot be found thau the agents of our mills. The influence of the man- agement of our mills is consistently and firmly on the side of morality. In every grade of service in these mills may be found very many men of devout relig-

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 7

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