History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 8

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 8

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ious character. In all that promotes the moral wel- fare of man, these great corporations can proudly challenge comparison with the best regulated private manufacturing enterprises in the world.

In 1845 the City Council authorized the purchase of the North Common for $12,857, and the South Common for $17,954.

In this year the Middlesex North District Medical Society was organized. This society has doubtless done much to give dignity and character to the med- ical profession, but quackery, like the hydra slain by Hercules, has a hundred heads, and will not readily relinquish its hold upon the minds of credulous men. What is most disheartening in the labors of a society like this is the fact that very many men who are shrewd and sensible in all things else have a decided predilection for quackery in the healing art.

In October, 1845, a large fire in a building owned by the Middlesex Company, on Warren Street; loss, $30,000.

February 5th. The residence of Wm. Smith, Esq., on Dracut Heights, was burned. This fire will long be remembered. A heavy snow fell throughout the day, and, in the night, when the fire occurred, the driving snow-flakes filled the air, so that it was impossible to locate the fire. All the heavens seemed illumined with a glowing light. The superstitious were said to believe the end of the world had come.

1846. Mayor, Jefferson Bancroft ; population, 29,- 127. Whipple's Mills were established by . O. M. Whipple on the Concord River in this year.

January 2d. A fire occurred in Bent & Bush's store, on Central, opposite Middle Street. The night of the fire was "bitter cold," and there was much suffer- ing from cold.

1847. Mayor, Jefferson Bancroft.

June 30th. President Polk visited Lowell. He was received upon his arrival by Mayor Bancroft, who de- livered a speech of welcome. The mills were closed and thousands of operatives and others filled the streets. A procession (under I. W. Beard, chief mar- skal), in which were the Lowell City Guards, the Westford Rifle Company and the Mechanics' Phalaux, with a cavalcade of citizens, escorted him through the city. A superb supper was furnished at Mechan- ics' Hall. He visited the Middlesex and Prescott Mills on the next morning, and procecded to Concord, N. H. Hon. James Buchanan attended the President upon his tour.

September 12th. Patrick T. Jackson, one of the founders of Lowell, dicd at the age of sixty-seven years. He is noticed on another page.

The City Institution for Savings was organized.

The Appletou Bank was iucorporated with a cap- ital of $100,000.

1848. Mayor, Jefferson Bancroft.

The reservoir on Lynde Hill was constructed under the superintendencc of J. B. Francis. Its capacity is 1,201,641 gals. It is the property of the Corporations

LOWELL.

and is used for extinguishing fires, supplying water to the Corporation, boarding-houses, etc.

The Salem and Lowell Railroad was incorporated ; also the Traders and Mechanics' Fire Insurance Company.

The Stony Brook Railroad was opened to travel September 16, 1848. Abraham Lincoln visited Low- ell. As President Lincoln had not yet attained re- nown, it is interesting to inquire whether the people of Lowell who heard his speech in the City Hall ap- preciated the exalted talents and worth of the man. He was called to Lowell to speak in behalf of the election of Zachary Taylor, the Whig candidate for the Presidency. The City Hall was crowded, ladies being present. Hon. Homer Bartlett was president and Alfred Gilman, Esq., secretary. Of Mr. Lincoln's speech the Courier says : " Abraham Lincoln, of Illi- nois, addressed the assembly in a most able speech. going over the whole subject in a masterly and con- vincing manner, and showing beyond a peradventure that it is the first duty of the Whigs to stand united, and labor with devotion to secure the defeat of that party which has already done so much mischief to the country. He was frequently interrupted by bursts of warm applause."

The discovery of gold in California in 1848, was an event of great importance to Lowell. It diverted the attention of the young men of New England from manufacturing and other enterprises at home to the dazzling prospects of sudden wealth on the shores of the Pacific. What Lowell might now have become, had the gold of California not withdrawn from it so much of its enterprise and talent, is only left to imagination and conjecture. The wonderful development of the States west of the Mississippi has, doubtless, also greatly affected the growth and wealth of our city, by alluring young men to "go west."

1849. Mayor, Josiah B. French.

In April, 1849, George W. Whistler, the distin- guished railroad engineer, died at St. Petersburg, Russia, at the age of forty-nine years. He was born at Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1800; graduated at West Point when nineteen years of age, and was made professor in that school at the age of twenty-one years. He afterwards served as engineer in the army. In 1834 he became engineer to the Proprie- tors of Locks and Canals, at Lowell. His talents were demanded in the construction, at the machine-shops, of locomotives for the Boston and Lowell Railroad, which was then being constructed.

This, being a new work for American engineers, de- manded the highest skill. In this work Mr. Whistler distinguished himself. When other roads were equipped his services were demanded, both in New England and the West. His talents brought him fame. The Emperor of Russia invited him to Rus- sia as consulting engineer of railroads. In this ser- vice he remained until his death, in 1849.

On Sunday, September 9th, occurred what has been

called " The Battle of Suffolk Bridge," an affair which approached more nearly a riot than any other which Lowell has witnessed. The Irish people, who in great numbers had settled on the " Acre " and its vi- cinity, had not left all their national feuds in the old country. The "Corkonians " and " Connaught men," who spoke different dialects, had long indulged a mutual hostility even here in America. In 1849 a large class of lawless and violent men had roused the old factional strife to such an extent that the police of the city were compelled to interfere. At length on Sunday, the 9th of September, the conflict began in earnest. Showers of stones and brickbats filled the air. The women even took part and supplied the combatants with misiles. The bells were rung and the Fire Department came ont and aided in quelling the riot. The "City Guards " and "Phalanx " met in their armories, but they were not called into ac- tion. The mayor persuaded the crowd to disperse.

September 2d. Father Mathew, the apostle of tem- perance, visited Lowell, lectured in the City Hall, and secured about 4000 names to his temperance pledge.

1850. Mayor, Josiah B. French. Population, 33,- 383.

In this year the Prescott Bank was incorporated. Gas was first introduced in Lowell. The Court-House was erected.

December 16th. Great fire in Belvidere, Stott's Mill and other buildings being burned. Loss, $37,- 400.

1851. Mayor, James H. B. Ayer.

The Daily Morning News was started.

The first fair of the Middlesex Mechanics' Associa- tion was opened September 16th.

January 28th. John Clark died at the age of fifty- four years. He was born in Waltham, 1796, and graduated at Harvard College. At first he engaged in teaching in Salem, and then in trade in Boston. He came to Lowell in 1833 to act in the position of agent of the Merrimack Company, to succeed Warren Colburn. He was deeply interested in Lowell's pros- perity. He was once president of the Common Coun- cil and on the Board of Aldermen, and was greatly in- strumental in founding the City Library.

The part of Lowell now called Centralville was, by act of the Legislature, set off from the town of Dra- cut in 1851. In the beginning of this century Dracut was a town of about 1300 inhabitants, sparsely settled and devoted to agricultural pursuits. They were of pure New England stock, devout and orthodox in their religious life. The Varnums and the Coburns were families of high moral and intellectual worth, who have transmitted to their numerous posterity an honorable name. General Joseph B. Varnum held a high position among the statesmen of America, hav- ing been a Representative in Congress for sixteen consecutive years, in four of which he held the office of Speaker of the House. He was also at one time president pro tempore of the United States Senate.

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

In the early years of this century, the only bridge leading from Dracut to East Chelmsford (now Low- ell) was that at Pawtucket Falls, but after the mills of the Merrimack Company began to be crected in 1822, such was the increase in the number of inhabit- ants living near the Merrimack River and below Pawtucket Falls, and such the activity of business, that something more than a chain ferry was needed to meet the wants of travel and business. In 1826 a bridge took the place of the ferry. It was of wood, uncovered, and about 540 feet in length. Its cost was $12,000. It was rebuilt in 1844 and again in 1862, at a cost of about $34,000. The iron bridge built by the city in 1883 at a cost of $118,000 is a graceful and substantial structure and is an honor to the city.

The village of Centralville stands upon the slope of the highest hill within the limits of our city, and commands a splendid view of the great manufactur- ing establishments on the south side of the river. Especially in the evening, when these establishments, stretching far along the river's banks, glow with in- numerable lights, is the scene resplendent and beau- tiful. Few places are more attractive for private residences than the hillsides of Centralville.

1852. Mayor, Elisha Huntington. The proposi- tion to build Huntington Hall was adopted by the City Council.

In April occurred the great freshet of 1852, when boats were used in some of the streets of Belvidere. An account of the freshets in the Merrimack River for a period of more than a hundred years has been written by James B. Francis, Esq., the well-known civil engineer. From this account we learn that the earliest recorded freshet occurred in October, 1785. It was also the greatest of which there is any record or tradition. At Nashua the rise in the river was thirty-two feet, and at the head of Pawtucket Falls it was more than thirteen feet. There was then no bridge at Pawtucket Falls to obstruct the course of the water. In the freshet of 1852, which occurred after the bridge and the dam had been constructed, the water rose fourteen fcet, somewhat higher than in 1785. But from the fact that at Nashua the water rose about two feet higher in 1785 than in 1852, it is evident that the earlier freshet was the greatest.

The guard dam and gates of the Pawtucket Canal, constructed under Mr. Francis' supervision, and des- cribed on another page, to protect the city of Lowell, arc models of engineering skill.

In the freshet of 1870 the water rose thirteen feet above the dam, and in the freshets of 1859, 1862, 1865, 1869 and 1878 its rise was more than ten feet.

May 6th. Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited Lowell. At St. Paul's Church in the evening he was formally received and welcomed by the mayor, Dr. Huntington, and he delivered before the people of Lowell a speech remarkable for its felicity and beauty. In this ycar was made the first attempt to enforce a prohibitory liquor law.

1853. Mayor, Sewall G. Mack. In this year the . Belvidere Woolen Company was organized, and the Wamesit Bank incorporated. Capital of the bank, $100,000. Corporations reduce the hours of labor to eleven per day. Lowell Museum burned.

In the first part of 1853 an attempt was made in Lowell to enforce the prohibitory liquor law, which was enacted in the previous year by the State Legis- lature. This first attempt failed. The law referred to was the first of the kind in Massachusetts.

November 10th. Judge Joseph Locke died at the age of eighty-one years. He was chief justice of the Police Court for thirteen years. He is noticed on another page.

In this year was erected the depot, containing Huntington and Jackson Halls, the former being named from Dr. Elisha Huntington and the latter from Patrick T. Jackson.

1854. Mayor, Sewall G. Mack.

On July 28, 1854, occurred the most extensive fire ever witnessed in Lowell. It caught about 43 o'clock P.M., in a small shed or stable near the corner of Lowell and Dummer Strects. The buildings around were very combustible, and the south wind was blow- ing. The intense heat overpowered the firemen and the fire had its way. Twenty-two buildings were burned and about 600 persons were made houseless. But the buildings burned were so cheap and frail that the actual amount of property destroyed did not ex- ceed $30,000, a loss much smaller than that of many other less extensive fires.

1855. Mayor, Ambrose Lawrence; population 37,- 554. In this year Central Bridge was, by the City Council, made a public highway.

The registry of deeds for the Northern District of Middlesex County was opened. March 17, 1855, Wm. Livingston died.

In June of this year the Middlesex North Agricul- tural Society was organized with Win. Spencer as president. Its history is on another page.

July 22d, Dr. Elisba Bartlett, first mayor of Lowell, died at Smithfield, R. I., at the age of fifty-one years.

August 18th. Abbott Lawrence died at the age of sixty-three years. He was born in Groton in 1792, and was brother to Luther Lawrence, second mayor of Lowell. He employed his great wealth and talents in advancing the manufacturing interests of Lowell, and for him the city of Lawrence was named.

WILLIAM LIVINGSTON affords us a remarkable example of a truly self-made man. Fortune may be said to have smiled upon him only once, and that was when she gave him the rising city of Lowell as a fair field for the exercise of his remarkable force and energy of character. All else he wrought out with his own hands.

He was born April 12, 1803, in Tewksbury, Mass., and was the son of Win. Livingston, a respectable farmer. Having dutifully served his father until he was twenty years of age, he came to East Chelmsford

Living

LOWELL.

(now Lowell) just at the time when the first mills were starting, and when all willing hands could find something to do. He began as a simple laborer. In due time his energy and economy enabled him to purchase a horse and a cart. Soon he begins to employ other men and other teams. His force and ambition bore him still upward. In two years he became a contractor. His enterprise and fidelity gave him a name. He made contracts for excavating earth and constructing the stone-work for cauals in Lowell, in Nashua, N. H., and at Sebago Lake in Maine. At length he took very many and very large contracts for constructing the mills of the great corporations in Lowell. He constructed a canal in the State of Illinois. He erected saw and planing mills for manufacturing lumber from the forests of New Hampshire. His varied contracts and enter- prises from the days of his early manhood to the com- pletion of the Salem and Lowell Railroad, in 1850, are too numerous to be mentioned in this brief sketch.

But these profitable contracts do not satisfy his am- bition. He established in Lowell a depot for the sale of grain, lumber, wood, coal, lime, brick and cement. He purchased land near Thorndike Street, and erected store-houses for his extensive and increasing business. While he was engaged upon his contracts this business assnmed large proportions, employing a capital of $50,000 to $100,000, and it is still carried on in the hands of Hon. Wm. E. Livingston, his enter- prising son.

Mr. Livingston was also a man of courage. When the Boston & Lowell Railroad demanded for freight what he esteemed an exorbitant charge, he did not hesitate to make war upon the monopoly by ad- vocating the construction of competing roads. To this conflict was due the early construction of the Lowell and Lawrence and the Salem and Lowell roads. It was through the persistent efforts of Mr. Livingston before the Legislature of Massachusetts that the charters of these roads were obtained in spite of the earnest remonstrance of the Boston and Lowell road. It was mainly due to his wonderful force and energy that these roads were promptly com- pleted. The act incorporating the Lowell and Law- rence road was passed in 1846, and the road was fin- ished and in running order before the closc of 1847. To accomplish this remarkable work of enterprise and despatch required much night labor, of which Mr. Livingston had the personal supervision. It was in this work that his zeal surpassed his prudence for he contracted a very severe affection of the lungs, rom which he never recovered.

As a citizen, Mr. Livingston was among the most prominent in advancing those public enterprises which pertained to the growth and permanent prosperity of he city.

He was a Democrat in politics, an earnest, sincere, ipright man, and special foc of all monopolies. He 3-ii

did not aspire to political honors, though he fre- quently received the suffrages of his fellow-citizens. He often held office both in the town and city of Lowell. In 1836 and 1837 he was a member of the Senate of Massachusetts. He was also president of the Lowell and Lawrence Railroad.

Mr. Livingston acquired a large estate. In 1852 he erected for himself, on Thorndike Street, one of the most elegant private residences in the city.

In 1855 it became evident that his pulmonary dis- ease would end in consumption. Having gone to Jacksonville, Florida, in the vain hope of regaining his health, he died in that city, March 17, 1855, in the fifty-second year of liis age.

1856. Mayor, Elisha Huntington.

Post-office removed from Middle to Merrimack Street.

November 7th. Thomas Hopkinson died at Cam- bridge in the fifty-third year of hisage. He was born in New Sharou, Maine, in 1804, and graduated at Har- vard in 1830. He was one of Lowell's ablest lawyers. Having been appointed president of the Boston and Worcester Railroad, he left Lowell about 1849, and resided in Cambridge.

1857. Mayor, Stephen Mansur.

This was a year of financial distress. There was a general stagnation in business. Some of the mills stopped, some ran on short time, and many workmen were unemployed.

A chime of eleven bells was placed in the tower of St. Anne's Church.

January 16th. Hon. Thomas H. Benton visited Low- ell. He delivered a lecture before the " Adelphi " in the evening on the "Preservation of the Union," prefacing it with observations upon what he had seen in Lowell during the day. He had visited the mills aud the boarding-houses, and seemed greatly pleased and very agreeably disappointed. The following is one of his remarks: "I had supposed the houses were small, mean and poorly ventilated, as are those of which we read in the old world, but on entering I find the walls and parlors furnished as well as those in which the members of Congress board in Wash- ington."

This celebrated Democratic Senator, peer of Clay, Calhoun and Webster, was cordially welcomed by the people of Lowell.

March 3d. George H. Carleton died at the age of fif- ty-two years. He was born in Haverhill, January 6, 1805; came to Lowell, August, 1827, and bought out Daniel Stone, Lowell's first apothecary. Carleton's apothecary store, on Merrimack Street, was for many years by far the best known of its kind in the city. It still retains his name. His old and almost illegi- ble sign is still over the door, and is a pleasing me- mento of the respect which his successors cherish for his name. His life was identified with the life of the city and of St. Anne's Church, of which he was a warden. He was alderman of the city in 1838-39, '41.

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

From September 10th to October 7th was held the second Fair of the Middlesex Mechanics' Association.

July 1st. Richmond's paper-mill was burned. Loss, $21,000.

In 1857 was started The Trumpet, a sensational paper. The editor, James M. Harmon, found his business of lampooning the respectable people of Lowell somewhat expensive, having received a flog- ging from one of them, and being sent to the House of Correction three months for slandering another.

1858. Mayor, Elisha Huntington.

The present bridge across the Concord, at Church Street, was built at a cost of $11,295.

November 5th. Hon. Nathaniel Wright died at the age of seventy-five years.

March 20th. The new County Jail, on Thorndike Street, was first cecupied. This magnificent structure cost $150,000, and contains one hundred and two cells. If the annual rent of this building should be reckoned at 10 per cent. of its cost, and if every cell were kept constantly occupied, the average annual rent of a cell would be $132. When to this is added the average cost of each occupant for food, salaries of officers, etc., the very lowest annual expense to the county of each prisoner is $400. Thus a scoundrel, who thinks his family of six persons fortunate if they can afford to occupy a tenement whose annual rent is fifty dollars, finds, when he is so fortunate as to get into this magnificent jail, the county lavishes upon him alone an expense which, if bestowed upon his large and suffering family, would enable them to live almost in luxury. To squander money thus ap- proaches very near a crime.

1859. Mayor, James Cook.

Office of superintendent of schools established. The first steam fire-engine procured.

November 14th. Thomas Ordway died at the age of seventy-two years. He was born in Amesbury, Mass., in 1787, and was the son of the principal vil- lage physician. He started business as a trader in Newburyport in 1809, but the great fire in 1810 con- sumed his store and his goods. In 1821 he opened a store in Concord, N. H. After three or four years he came to Lowell and opened a store in the brick block, corner of Worthen and Merrimack Streets. In 1838 lie was elected city clerk, and he held the office nearly twenty years. As city clerk and as a revered deacon of the Unitarian Church he was long one of the best known and most beloved citizens of Lowell.

1860. Mayor, Benjamin C. Sargeant. Population, 36,827.

January 5th. John D. Prince died. He is noticed on another page.

January 12th. Joseph Butterfield, a deputy sheriff for nearly fifty years, died at the age of seventy-five years. ,

March 28th. Park Garden, in Belvidere, purchased by the city for a Common.

July 2d. The Registry of Deeds for the Northern

District of Middlesex County was opened with A. B. Wright as register. Up to this date deeds of real es- tate in Lowell had been recorded in the registry at East Cambridge. Mr. Wright's successors have been I. W. Beard and J. P. Thompson, the present incum- bent.

July 14th. Nicholas G. Norcross died at the age of fifty-five years. He was born in Orono, Maine, De- cember 25, 1805. In his early life he was engaged in an extensive lumber business on the Penobscot River. On coming to Lowell, about 1845, he began a large business in lumber on the Merrimack, by which he gaincd to himself the well-known title of " Lumber Kıng."

1861. Mayor, Benjamin C. Sargeant.

February 20th. Pawtucket Bridge made free and the event celebrated.

April 19th. Addison O. Whitney and Luther C. Ladd killed while marching in the Sixth Massa- chusetts Regiment through Baltimore.

July 14th. Nathan Appleton, died in Boston, at the age of eighty-two years. He was a Boston merchant of great wealth, and was most deeply interested in the establishment of cotton manufactures in Lowell, having subscribed for 180 of the original 600 shares of the Merrimack Company. His fine, full-length portrait graces Mechanics' Hall, and "Appleton Street " and " Appleton Bank " and " Appleton Com- pany " attest the honor in which his name is held in our city.

August 2d. The Sixth Regiment return from the war. September 5th. General Butler having returned to Lowell, after the capture of the forts at Hatteras Inlet, was received with enthusiasm by the people of the city. He was escorted from the depot by four military companies and received an address of wel- come from Mayor Sargeant.

September 24th. Prince Jerome Napoleon, with his wife, the Princess Clotilde, daughter of Vietor Em- manuel, King of Italy, visited Lowell.

1862. Mayor, Hocum Hosford. Central Bridge rebuilt.

Four Lowell companies enlisted for nine months' service in the war.

August 9th. Edward G. Abbott was killed at the bat- tle of Cedar Mountain, at the age of twenty-two years. Major Abbott was the son of Judge J. G. Abbott, and a graduate of our High School and Harvard College. He was a brave soldier and a young man of high promise. His death produced a profound sensation.

FRENCH IMMIGRATION .- The city of Lowell during the last twenty-five years has received into its labor- ing class a very large number of French Canadians. This remarkable migation began about 1863. The number of French in Lowell amounted to about 1200 in 1868, and now has reached 15,000, and forms a very important part of the inhabitants of our city.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 8

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