History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 129

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 129

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Hitherto the library has occupied one of the ante- rooms in the town hall building. At the last meeting of the town a vote was passed to move it into one of the large rooms on the first floor of this building, where it is intended also to fit up a public reading- room.

MILLS, WATERS, ETC .- At the time the town was established, most of its business was done in the mills located upon the river. First in order of importance was the four-story frame mill of the Middlesex Union Factory Company, in which cotton-cloth was manu- factured. This mill, which stood upon the present site of the Dwight Printing Company's machine- shop, at the corner of Main and Myrtle Streets, had been built some thirty years before by a corporation called the Middlesex Manufacturing Company. In 1827 certain Boston parties had bought the property, and one year later had become incorporated under the name first mentioned.

James Jackson, who had had experience in a mill in Sutton, had come to this place about 1825. He was appointed resident manager of the new company, and had remained in this office to the time our narra- tive commences, in 1846. At this time a small build- ing stood near the east end of the factory, occupied for counting-room by the company, and for a store. " Long Block," then glorying in three times its pres- ent length, was across the street, filled with tenants, operatives in the factory. The " Boarding-House," standing at the head of the street, vacated about six years before by Mr. Jackson himself, was now occu- pied, as its name imports, as a home for the unmar- ried employees. The small houses farther to the west were filled with factory tenants. Since Mr. Jackson's advent the enterprise had prospered. By buying stock from time to time, he had, in 1846, become sub- stantially the owner of the property. At this time the mill was still running at its full capacity, turning out products valued at $65,000 annually ; but owing to competition and other causes, later the business be- came unprofitable, and was closed, Mr. Jackson retiring. The factory was never again started ; in 1854 it was burned to the ground, Thus came to au end the

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business enterprise which had given birth and pros- perity to the village of Unionville, and had definitely led up to the establishment of the town.

The counting-room building survived the fire, and, after being used for some years as a store, was moved away ; nothing of the factory remained except the large wooden undershot water-wheel, which for many years afterwards was allowed to revolve, at first, pre- sumably, to keep it from rotting, but finally, as we small boys concluded, solely for amusement. Close upon the dam stood the grist-mill then as now, only that the farmer who then brought his corn to grind, was never sure of having his grist ready when he wanted it, as the factory took what it needed of the water first; if any was left the grist-mill had it. But the failure of the factory brought revenge to the grist- mill, which ever since has had its own way. In the spring of 1868 the Boston Flax-Mills bought the property, and proceeded to erect the frame building, known as the machine-shop, now standing at the corner of Main and Myrtle streets, intending to occupy it for the manutaeture of linen goods. Before the works were completed, in the fall of that year, the whole property was sold to the Dwight Printing Company.

The Dwight Printing Company was organized as a corporation under Massachusetts laws in 1868, with a capital of $300,000. There were originally three stock- holders,-William Dwight, Jordan, Marsh & Com- pany, and Francis Skinner & Company. Subse- quently Jordan, Marsh & Company bought out the other stockholders, thus becoming sole owners of the three hundred shares of stock. Still later the indi- vidual members of this partnership succeeded to the ownership of the stock, and are now its sole owners. The Dwight Printing Company first bonght of the Boston Flax Miils, about six acres of land, which comprised the original plant of the Middlesex Union Factory Company. This conveyance covered the fac- tory and grist-mill water privileges, and the lands below the dam, including the canal, which had been formerly used in connection with them. Other con- veyanees to the company followed, by which title was obtained to 125 acres of additional lands along the northerly banks of the river and the north shore of the Mill Pond.

The purpose of this company was to establish an extensive business in bleaching, dyeing and printing cotton cloths.

Immediately after its organization the company · prepared plans for a series of extensive buildings, such as would be needed in their business. Within the next two years seven large granite buildings, in- tended to be covered with mansard roofs, were begun and carried forward, four of them to completiou. A machine-shop already built was furnished, utilizing the water-power. At the same time a new street was cut through the company's land on the north side of the river, and ten double houses were erected for the

use of employees. Including houses standing upon the lands purchased by the company, tenements for forty families were provided. The company's build- ings were erected under the supervision of Gen. Wil- lian Dwight, Jr., who came to Ashland and remained during the process of erection. Richard M. Ross was chief mechanic, and Adrian Foote was put in general charge of the company's property, taking up his resi- dence in town and remaining to the present time. The effeet of the sudden entrance of this company into town and its conspicuous building operations was to raise the price ofreal estate, and cause other new busi- ness to start up. New stores were opened, houses were built. Land which before had been held only for agricultural purposes, was surveyed and put upon the market for building lots. Workingmen who had saved a few hundred dollars, thought the time had come for them to secure homes; so buying thirty or forty rods of land, they built houses, raising by mort- gage the balance of funds needed to complete them. Those were times of general inflation; the cost of labor and materials was high; consequently their houses, when completed, represented high values. The mortgages placed upon them were sometimes larger than the whole cost of similar premises fifteen years later, or before the war.

The company had only partly erected their build- ings, when it began to be rumored that the city of Boston was in search of a further water supply, and had its eye upon the Sudbury River. This at once put an entirely new complexion upon the prospec- tive value of this enterprise. If the water of the river was to be taken for domestie use, it was clear that the proposed business of the company could not be carried on, as products from the dyeing processes must necessarily go into the water and pollute it. It was therefore decided to cease work upon the buildings until the water question should be finally determined.

This action of the company in suspending all operations came disastrously upon the town. The prospects predicated upon the increase of business which would be caused by the carrying on of the company's operations, came to an end, causing gen- eral disappointment. Houses and other buildings became vacant, and the values in real estate fell away.

In 1872 the city of Boston obtained from the Leg- islature an act which condemned finally to their use the waters of the Sudbury River and its tributaries. From this time it was manifest that the company's buildings could never be occupied as at first intended. The question now was for what purposes, and to what extent could they be used. To determine this question, a suit was brought against the city of Bos- ton, in 1876, in the nature of a claim for damages for injury to the company's water rights. The ques- tions of law involved were carried up to the Supreme Judicial Court, and the decision, drawn up by Justice

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Ames, reported in Volume 122, of the Massachusetts reports, page 585, finds that while riparian proprie- tors " retain all their common law rights in the river, so far as they are not inconsistent with the use de- fined in the statute," the petitioner had acquired no right by express grant or prescription "to befoul the water, or render it unfit for drinking purposes," and was not entitled to damages. This was equivalent to deciding that the water of the river could still be used for " domestic purposes, for watering cattle in it, for cutting ice," and also for mechanical power if not attended with pollution.

Since that time the property has awaited a pur- chaser ; $500,000 have been expended in land and buildings, the latter containing 175,000 feet of floor room. A spur track from the Boston and Albany Railroad brings freight and coal to the doors of the buildings, affording the best of facilities for handling goods. The plant has been kept in good condition, and will some day doubtless be put to a profitable use.

The Dwight Printing Company also owns the " Bigelow Paper-Mill property," including about nine acres of land, a wide flowage, and valuable water rights situated on Sudbury River about one and a half miles west of Ashland Village.

A. D. Warren, a thread manufacturer of Wor- cester, in the latter part of 1879, came to Ashland, and leasing for a term of years one of the Dwight Printing Company's buildings, fitted up a factory for the manufacture of spool cotton.

After the mill had been running but a short time, in January, 1880, a corporation was organized under the name of the Warren Thread Company, with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars. All the stock was immediately bought by Eben D. Jordan, James C. Jordan, Eben D. Jordan, Jr., and Adrian Foote, who from that time to the present have remained the sole owners of the stock. Eben D. Jordan was chosen president, and Adrian Foote treasurer. This mill takes cotton yarn as it comes from various fac- tories in New England and twists it into thread. The thread, which is of many sizes and colors, is wound upon spools, and after being marked accord- ing to quality and to suit customers, is shipped to all parts of the United States. About seventy-five hands are employed at the mill, who have work the year round. The value of the annual product is about three hundred thousand dollars.

The next concern of importance was the paper-mill of Calvin Shepard & Son. The "son" was Calvin Shepard, Jr., who, at his father's death, succeeded to the property and business. The mill stood half a mile east of the village, at the junction of Fountain and Union Streets, just west of the iron bridge. The paper, which was for newspaper supplies, was at first made by hand. Afterwards water-power was used, and finally steam and water-power combined. The water to carry the mill was taken out of the river

just above the dam recently removed, at a point about seventy feet southwest from the bridge, and was car- ried directly across Union Street to the north. The raceway has been filled with earth, though its south- erly end can yet be traced. The old site of the mill has been entirely obliterated by the Boston Water Board in leveling the ground upon the bank of their water-basin. The first mill was burnt down in 1842, and was immediately rebuilt on a larger scale. Shep- ard employed twenty to twenty-five hands. He turned out an annual product of about $30,000. His business, at first successful, owing to competition and other causes, at length became nnremunerative, and was closed about 1850. For a year or two after that date he attempted the manufacture of combs, but did not succeed in making this new business profitable. The property was uow sold to Lee Claflin, and Shepard moved to Taunton. In 1857 he took up his residence in Boston, serving most of the time for thirty years afterward as visitor for the Overseers of the Poor and Provident Association. He was one of the most prominent men in the early history of the town. He is now residing in Edgartown much enfeebled with age.

Charles Alden bought the Shepard Paper-Mill property of Lee Claflin, of Hopkinton, about 1855. He introduced machines to pulverize quartz and other minerals. Just before the war he had succeeded in obtaining a monopoly of the emery manufacture, having the sole right to import the Smyrna stone, the only stone then supposed to be available. The war coming on, the call for emery to be used in polishing and for other purposes was enormously increased, and Alden, having the facilities for its manufacture, turned his whole attention to that bu-iness. During the war his business was thriving and remunerative, and he acquired property. Later there was still a market for emery, as it came more to be used in the arts, but on account of others engaging in its manufacture and other sources for the supply of stone being found, a competition in the business arose, which greatly re- duced the profits of its manufacture.

In 1868 Alden changed the form of the business ownership, which had already become a partnership, to that of a corporation, under the name of the Wash- ington Mills Emery Manufacturing Company, him- self, at first, holding a majority of the stock. This company became owner of the property, and contin- ued to carry on the business at that point until the city of Boston bought its real estate and water rights. Shortly before the expiration of the time allowed the. company to remove their buildings, they were con- sumed by fire, the insurance being recovered only after a protracted lawsuit. The company then re- moved its business to New England Village, now North Grafton.

In about 1870, Alden, having disposed of his inter- est in the emery manufacturing business, built a mill on the west side of Union Street, just north of

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the iron bridge, for the manufacture of emery-wheels. A stock company was formed for this purpose, under the name of the Vitrified Wheel and Emery Com- pany, with Aldeu as first manager. This company carried on its business till bought out by the city of Boston, after which the building was taken down and removed.

After Alden withdrew from this last-named com- pany he built an emery-mill on the spur track at the Cutler Mills ; but had hardly begun business when the city of Boston also absorbed this concern, remov- ing the buildings. This closed the business enter- prises of Alden in Ashland.

Very marked results accompanied the success of his early emery business. He purchased a large tract of land of Benjamin Homer, in 1866, and about the same time smaller tracts from the heirs of John Stone and others, and commenced building houses. His operations were mostly in the neighborhood of Homer Avenue and the street which bears his name. Nearly all the houses ou these streets were built by him or with the aid of his money. To any reputable person who would buy from him a house-lot he would furnish means for erecting the house, taking back a mortgage to secure the money loaned. The registry in which Ashland real estate conveyances are re- corded contains evidence of a large number of deeds given by Alden between the years 1867 and 1873. His share in the work of building the Methodist Church is referred to in the account given of that church.

Iu 1879 Alden removed from town, engaging in other enterprises till nearly the time of his death, which occurred in 1888. Ilis funeral was attended at the Methodist Church, in Ashland, and his re- mains were buried in Wildwood Cemetery, the land for which was bought of himself, and which, as one of the board of town trustees, he had helped to lay out and beautify.

About a mile below the Shepard Paper-Mill stood the Cutler Mills. At this point the water-power ear- ly employed in connection with the iron foundry of Gilbert Marshall and Richard Sears was used by Sears to run the saw-mill built by him, and from 1818 to carry also the grist-mill erected by Calviu Bige- low, the owner at that date of the water privilege. Subsequently the property, passing successively through the hands of James Whittemore and Wil- liam Greenwood, finally came into possession of S. N. Cutler. The grist-mill stood at the northerly extrem - ity of the dam, was a one and one-half story building, and was painted in the old-time Venetian red. At the southerly end of the dam was the saw-mill, with its up-and-down saw and all the openers to the weather, for which such mills of old were famous. This mill was also rigged with a set of stones for the grind- ing of gypsum into flour, or "plaster," as it was called, which in those days was used by farmers to sow upon old pasture lands, and to put in their po-

tato-hills as a fertilizer. The farmers brought their corn to the mill for grinding, and the miller took a toll of two quarts for each bushel ground. In the winter logs were brought to the mill-yard on sleds, and later in the season the boards or planks into which they had been sawed were carried away. All these processes were carried on leisurely, much to the comfort of the patrons of the mill, who, while their grist was being prepared, learned the news from the miller. Cutler at first continued the operating of these mills in the old way, but later he began buying coru, and, after grinding it into meal, selling to the stores. His new business grew rapidly, one or more of his sons were admitted into partnership, and the name of the firm now became S. N. Cutler & Son. They bought their corn by large quantities in the West, and became heavy patrons of the railroads, thus inducing the Boston & Albany Railroad Compa- ny to build a spur track for their benefit. A large and convenient mill furnished with elevators and other apparatus, was erected on the side of the stream next to the track. This mill was wholly burned in the fall of 1867, but the next spring it had been re- placed and was running. Thus by energy au exten- sive and valuable business was established, which was continued till the removal of the firm in 1876. At this time the city of Boston bought the whole prop- erty, and subsequently took down the building, so that now uo trace remains. The original site of the old red mill is now many feet under water in "Basin 2," of the city's system of water supply, on the Sud- bury River. A little to the west of where the high- way formerly passed under the railroad the bed of the spur track may still be traced, but the site of the principal mill has been dug over and is lost in the graded bank, or lies partly covered by water.

One mile west of the village, on the Sudbury River, is located the box-mill of Alvah Metcalf. The dam and the original building were erected about 1835 by John Cloyes, for the manufacture of sash and blinds. Very early a set of stoues was put in for grinding corn. Iu 1844 Cloyes sold to Daniel White, who one year later conveyed to Heury Brown. lu 1847 H. F. Goodale, of Marlborough, became owner. As a tenant under Goodale, Micah B. Priest, also of Marlborough, manufactured boxes used in casing boots shoes and bonnets. Metcalf bought the property of Good- ale in 1860, and continued the business, gradually increasing it. In 1870 the mill proving too small for the amount of business to be done, was pulled down, and the present commodious building erected. To supplement the water-power, not always sufficient in summer, steam was provided. The stones for grind- ing corn were left out of the uew mill. Two years ugo a stone dam was built, so that now the mill has superior facilities for turning out boot-boxes. About two million feet of boards are made into boxes an- nually. The careful supervision and personal labor of the owner have built up this successful business.

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Half a mile farther west are the remains of the Bigelow Paper-Mill dam. This was once the site of a flourishing business in the manufacture of a fine quality of hand-made paper. The original owners were John, David and Perkins Bigelow, and Gardner Wilder (2d.) They bought land lying upon the stream in 1817, and in that or the following year built the dam and mill. Shortly before the establishment of the town, the last of the Bigelows had withdrawn from the business. David Bigelow, who maintained bis hold longest, resided in Framingham Centre, and rode daily to his mill. There are still remaining traditions of the personal beauty and superior social influence of the women belonging to the Bigelow families. About 1846 Hon. Isaac Amês, judge of Suffolk Probate Court, for himself or as attorney for Hazen Morse, was interested in this mill. Silas Warren, Samuel Whitney and probably others were connected with it, and engaged, after the town was organized, in the manufacture of wall-paper. Samuel Whitney used to tell how, when he once found him- self short of materials, he went into his potato-field and gathering the vines and weeds, ground them up and made them into pulp, thus saving fifty dollars in the way of stock. But the business was at length closed and the property remained idle. The mill was burned about 1866.

After this property had ceased to be used it passed successively, by deeds, to John Clark, 1864; E. P. Dewing, 1865, and to Thomas Corey in 1868. In 1869 the Dwight Printing Company bought the land, water privilege and rights of flowing, and are now the owners. The dam had been maintained until very recently, bnt now the middle part has been washed away.

Still farther west on the river, near the town limits, on the site of the "Old Forge," are located the Chattanooga Woolen-Mills, owned and oper- ated by Taft & Allrich. At this point there is a dam and a fall of about twenty-five feet, with two wooden water-wheels of one hundred and sixty horse- power. About the time of the incorporation of the town, W. B. and A. J. Wood, the owners, huilt a paper-mill, which, for several years, was run by Isaac Ames. In 1863 David Fales & Company started up the works, manufacturing satinets and woolen goods. They carried on the business for about eight years, after which the mill was left idle. In 1873 the Woods sold the whole property to C. and C. T. Aldrich, who enlarged the mill and put in steam-power, to be used when the water was low. In 1876 Charles Aldrich sold his interest to L. H. Taft, of Uxbridge, who, six years later, sold to his father, Moses Taft. The pres- ent firm is composed of Moses Taft and Charles T. Aldrich, the latter residing upon the premises and conducting the mill. Taft & Aldrich employ about seventy-five hands. Since Aldrich came, a village has grown up at this point, which is called Chat- tanooga, and a school-house has been built in the neighborhood.

On Cold Spring Brook, about three miles from its junction with Sudbury River, there was formerly a saw-mill and grist-mill, which in early times were in operation when the water in the brook was sufficient to run them. After the incorporation of the town S. N. Cutler & Company appear to have had an in- terest in the property. But the mill was many years ago abandoned, and the privilege is now lost in the flowage of " Dam 4" of the Boston water supply.

On a small brook which empties into Waushakum Pond, at the place late of W. D. Cole, for many years prior to 1850, stood a shop owned by James Bigelow. Here was a small water-power which Bigelow employed to run a turning-lathe and a saw rigged for wheelwright work. Bigelow could make anything, from a clock to an ox-cart. While en- gaged in rimming out a gun-barrel at bis lathe, an end of his neckerchief canght on the shaft of the rimmer, which, winding round quickly, before he could become disengaged, caused his death.

There are no great ponds within the town limits, excepting a portion of Waushakum. The Fram- ingham boundary line, which crosses this pond, leaves in Ashland, perhaps, a little less than a quar- ter part. This part of the pond affords the best fishing. Here, until about twenty years ago, sports- men caught good strings of perch and horned-pont in the summer, and pickerel through the ice in the winter. But since the pond has been "improved," by the cultivation of black bass, no fisherman bas any luck.

The Ashland waters, once a principal source of pecuniary benefit, the town can no longer call its own. Of the six once flourishing mills that stood upon the banks of the Sudbury, only two remain, and these no doubt are doomed. In 1872 the City of Boston ob- tained from the Legislature an act conferring the right to take the waters of the river and all its tributaries for the purpose of acquiring an ad- ditional water supply. As rapidly as its plans could be formed, the city proceeded to obtain, by purchase or seizure, all the business property upon the river east of the village, and cleared off completely the banks of the stream in this section. It placed an em- bargo upon the valuable water-power in the centre, without offering the owners any compensation. The two remaining privileges west of the village it has so far permitted the owners to use, but always in the face of uncertainties as to how long or in what man- ner they may be allowed to use them. With the ex- ception of the small amount of water required to keep up the flowage of the stream, and the amounts that may be necessary for extinguishing fires, for domestic purposes, and for generating steam in the towns bordering on the river, all the waters of the Sud- bury and its tributaries above a certain point in the town of Framingham have been presented as a gift by the Legislature to the city of Boston, reserving only to immediate owners the right to

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 129

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278