History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 24

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 24

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Mr. Seth Boyden, a son of the old town of Foxbor- ough, Massachusetts, but who removed to Newark, New Jersey, in early manhood, invented a nail-ma- chine, and secured his patent in 1815. Mr. Boyden was one of the greatest inventors of his generation. The world to-day is indebted to him for malleable iron, and " patent " or enameled leather, and valua- ble improvements in both stationary and locomotive steam-engines, and many other inventions of a lesser magnitude.

In 1809 the Newton Iron Works Company built a nail factory, and at first used the Odiorne machines. These machines were securely fastened to the top and sides of heavy, white-oak post, about a foot and a half square. and firmly set in the ground. Whether the " Odi- orne" was not adapted to their class of nails, or whether it was too complicated and inconvenient to operate, or for other reasons, it was soon laid aside, and the Reed machine, with Mr. Ripley's improve- ments, was put in its place.

The annual production of manufactured iron from the rolling and slitting-mills was about 2000 tons ; and 1200 tons of nails per annum were shipped from the nail factory. None but the best quality of Rus- sian and Swedish irons were used in the mills-im- ported direct from those countries by the company's ships. In addition to the home markets large consign- ments of manufactured goods were shipped to the West India Islands, New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston and other Southern ports.

In 1814 Mr. Rufus Ellis built a cotton factory of 3000 spindles on the Needham side of the river, for weaving sheetings, which he ran on his own account until 1840, when he leased it to Mr. Milton HI. San- ford, of Medway, to manufacture Osnaburgs for the Southern market. At the close of his lease perma- nent improvements were made in the cotton-mill property by putting in new water-wheels and flumes and other connections ; and in 1844 Mr. Barney L. White took a lease of it and replaced the sheeting machinery and continued the business for nearly five years, and gave it up to Mr. Salmon S. Hewitt ; and, under his direction, it was operated until the factory, building and machinery were totally destroyed by fire on May 8, 1850, and never rebuilt. As a whole, this factory had been a successful and profitable business enterprise.

NEWTON.

In 1821 Mr. Rufus Ellis purchased the entire inter- est of the Newton Iron Works Company, which he held for two years, and then formed a new company consisting of seven stockholders, under a new corpo- rate title of Newton Factories, with Mr. Ellis as resi- dent manager, the same as heretofore. After ten or twelve years of successful business the co-partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Rufus and David Ellis became sole owners of the property.

In 1844 Mr. Frederick Barden leased the rolling and slitting-mill property from the Mesers. Ellis and put the same in thorough repair by building new and larger furnaces, new and improved trains of rollers and new water-wheels and gearing; and by the use of an additional heating furnace he was prepared to manufacture at least 5000 tons of iron annually, and gave employment to quite a number of workmen. After a very successful run of twenty-five years or more, Mr. Barden fully realized that close application to business was undermining his health, and retired from active duties in 1870. The mills remained idle for a few years, and finally were broken up, thus end- ing a thriving iron business of nearly three-quarters of a century.

A short time after the loss of the cotton factory by fire Mr. Ellis erected a new nail factory building upon the same site, and removed the machinery from the old factory into it. At the end of five or six years the nail business was abandoned and the machinery sold out-mainly as old iron-which terminated a thrifty nail-making business that had given steady employment to the nail makers for more than fifty years. The building was subsequently used for a grist-mill and planing-mill, and at last licked up by the flames in 1873.

The old nail factory building was leased in Septem- ber, 1863, to Mr. Benjamin Newell, of Dover, Mas -. , who fitted it up for a paper manufactory, and, after a profitable business for twenty years, making coarse paper, he sold his interest in it to Mr. Hudson Keeney, of the town of Everett, in 1873. The old rolling- mill, made vacant by removing the machinery, was leased to Mr. Keeney in 1880, and filled up with pa- per machinery, thus doubling his facilities for filling his orders. Mr. Keeney availed himself of a good opportunity to sell his property in the mills, in 1882, to Charles P. Clark, Jr., and William F. Wardwell. In 1886 they sold to the Superior Wax Paper Com- pany. They laid out several thousand dollars in pre- paring to make the paper, but were financially obliged to discontinne the business and close up the works before really getting ready for operation.

In 1888 Mr. Willard Marcy and Mr. Eugene L. Crandell, of Newton, and Mr. John M. Moore, of Baldwinsville, Massachusetts, under the title of E. I .. Crandell & Company, purchased the paper-mill prop- erty belonging to the Superior Wax Paper Company, and the real estate connected with it, which included the entire interest in the water-power of the Charles

River and reservoirs and land adjoining, of the David Ellis heirs, and engaged in making wrapping and sheathing papers of good quality ; and by additional machinery and improvements can make about four tons per day when in full operation.

In 1843 Mr. William E. Clarke built a shop on Boylston Street, at the Upper Falls, and employed about fifty men mainly on cotton-spinning machinery for New England manufacturers. He also furnished the machinery for a small cotton factory in Rio Janei- ro, South America. The next year, 1844, Mr. Pliny Bosworth built a shop on High Street, on proportions similar to that of Mr. Clarke, and carried on the machinery busine-s. His specialty was cotton cord- ing machines. The value of the machinery sent out by these two shops while in operation would aggre- gate about a hundred thousand dollars. At the end of a term of five years' business they were both closed up by the owners, and the buildings taken down or removed ; and before the year 1850 they had become items of history.

In 1849 Messrs. Jenkins and Inman started a braided shoe-string factory upon a small scale in a leased room in one of the factory buildings at the Up- per Falls. The enterprise, on their part, was at the time experimental, but proved to be a success. For the want of more room to accommodate their rapidly- growing business they removed, in 1852, to Carver, Massachusetts. The outcome from their experiment in Newton has been the establishment of one of the most extensive shoe-string and lacing factories in the country.

In 1859 Mr. Norman C. Munson, of Shirley, Massa- chusetts, a contractor for filling in a large tract of flat and marshy land in the Back Bay of Boston, part- ly belonging to the Commonwealth, partly to the Mill-dam Water-Power Company, and partly to the city of Boston, came to Newton Upper Falls as a convenient central station for carrying on the work. He purchased a range of gravel hills along the line of the Woonsocket Division of the New York and New England Railroad, adjacent to the Charles River up- on the Needham side. A large building upon the Newton side was leased by him for a machine-shop and engine-house, with a large area outside for storage and repairs to rolling-stock ; two powerful steam ex- cavators were placed in position by the hill-sides to load the trains. New and powerful locomotive en- gines that would handle forty heavily-laden cars, ag- gregating one hundred and fifty cubic yards of gravel to each train, were used for transportation ; and by day and by night for a period of at least ten years a train was loaded and started off from the pit at very nearly regular intervals of forty five minutes. Switching engines were nsed in the pit in loading and making np trains, and a similar system was in use at the dump. This arrangement prevented any loss of time or delays to the train men. Mr. Munson furnished employment to about two hundred workmen, and lev-

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

eled more than a bundred acres of gravel hills in ful- filling his contracts.

In 1872 Mr. Phineas E. Gay, a contractor from Boston, took several jobs of filling the marshes, and opened a gravel pit at the Upper Falls in a large sand bluff, formerly belonging to the Amasa Winchester estate, bounding on Needham Street, and ran steam excavators and gravel trains to Boston most of the time for two or three years.

After Mr. Munson had finished his Back Bay con- tracts, he made others for filling a large area of South Boston flats, and removed his machinery to Readville for gravel. At the end of Mr. Gay's orders for filling flats, he went out of the business.

One of the finest and most perfect pieces of stone masonry in the world is the massive bridge of the Sudbury River Aqueduct, across the Charles River at the Upper Falls. The principal arch spans the river from Needham to Newton, a distance of 132 feet be- tween abutments. It is segmented in shape, and nearly seventy feet high,-twenty feet broad at the base, and eighteen feet at the keystone. Six arches of lesser proportions are required to complete the span across the chasm, a distance of five hundred feet between the headlands. This spot is peculiarly adapted for a structure of this kind, for the bluffs upon either side of the river are of solid rock forma- tion. The trestle frame across the river, to support the arch while building, was firmly secured upon solid foundations in the bed of the river, and upon a plat- form above high water there were placed a large number of jack screws, upon which the trestle rested. These jack-screws had a triple mission to fulfill,- first, to sustain the burden,-second, to raise the superstructure in case of settling, and third to let down and loosen the trestle, so that it could be easily re- moved after the arch was finished. More than a hundred thousand feet of timber were required to form the trestle and supporting platform : the arches are built of Rockport granite, aud was all dressed at the quarries, The contractor, Mr. Phelps, of Springfield, Mass., an expert bridge builder, had the work in charge, and proved himself to be thoroughly master of the situation. 2700 tons of stone had to be held up by the trestle before the key-stones were placed. It required nearly two years to complete the job, which was finished in 1876, at a cost of nearly $200,000; and, during the whole time, no injury was done to any of the workmen ; neither was there any breakage of hoisting machinery or other appliances for doing the work.

Thousands of people visit this charming spot every year, not only to admire the symmetrical proportions of the bridge, but to hear the repeating echo that is produced under the main arch by reverberating tones from a shout by the visitors. As a piece of mechani- cal work it is attractive to the eye, an honor to its designers, and of great credit to the builders.

I have heard it said that more than a hundred years

ago, a Newton man, with a good degree of " push" in him, and I think he must have been of that type of man termed "a live Yankee,"-who had a desire to turn an honest penny, so started an industry entirely upon his own account and resources, by placing a grindstone in position under a shed, and by means of a rude water-wheel improvised for the purpose, applied power to turn the stone, and no doubt but that he had up his "shingle " with the words plainly chalked out, giving notice to the passer-by that "Grinding was done here."

His neighbors could have the use of the stone to do their own grinding by paying the toll of a fourpence ha'penny, or a ninepence, or a pistareen, according to the time wanted :- no dimes, half-dimes, or nickels in those days. Or, if parties preferred, they could leave their edged tools with him to grind, which he was always ready to do for a consideration.

LOWER FALLS-By following the river banks from below the Upper Falls for a distance of two miles we reach the Lower Falls. Here the river makes a leap of sixteen feet over a ledge of rocks, and an eighth of a mile farther down the stream there is another fall of six feet, making a total fall of twenty-two feet. Dams have long since been placed across the river at each of the Falls, and furnish water-power for many manufacturers' use.

In the colonial days of two centuries ago, the lands in this vicinity upon the Newton side were supposed to be owned in common by the Town of Cambridge in Middlesex County ; and the land upon the Needham (now Wellesley) side belonged to Suffolk County.

A forty acre lot, a little distance easterly from the Falls had already been assigned to the Harvard Uni- versity ; and in 1694 Mr. Samuel Green, of Cambridge conveyed a lot of four acres of land more or less, to John Leverett, bordering upon the river, including the Falls, together with all woods, water rights, com- monage liberties and privileges thereto belonging. Whether Mr. Green had previously purchased this land of the Town of Cambridge, or whether he sold it as a representative of the Town, is uncertain.

In 1704 Mr. Leverett sold his land and water rights, and all other interest in the same to Mr. John Hubbard, of Roxbury, a blacksmith by trade, this land now being the present site of all the paper mills, and other works on the Newton side of the river.

Mr. Hubbard formed a co-partnership with Mr. Caleb Church, a bloomer by trade, of Watertown, and improved the water power by building a dam at the head of the rapids, and a forge shop with two fire hearths and a hammer wheel for manufacturing iron. Just what kind of machine or piece of apparatus a hammer wheel is, we will leave for the mechanical ex- perts of the present time to determine for themselves, as they peruse these pages.

In 1705 Mr. Hubbard conveyed to his son Nathaniel Hubbard, one-half of the four acre lot bounded north by the highway, and south by the river, to-

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NEWTON.

gether with a halfinterest in the iron works, with as much of the stream as may be required to drive the machinery, including half of the dam, flume, sluice- ways, utensils and appartenances thereto belonging. The new company continued the business until the death of the senior Mr. Hubbard, in 1717. For the next four or five years the premises were rented to Mr. Jonathan Willard, a bloomer who had previously been in the employ of the company ; and in 1722 Mr. Willard purchased the Hubbard interest in the works. In consequence of the death of Mr. Caleb Church about the same time, his interest was deeded by John Cooledge of Watertown, administrator of the Church estate, to his son, Caleb Church, Jr., on April 11th, 1723.

A few years after his purchase of the iron works, Mr. Willard built a saw-mill, a short distance below the forge-shop, and did quite a large business in the manufacture of luniber.

October 27th, 1740, Mr. Church, then residing in the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, sold his moiety of the iron works to Mr. Jonathan Willard and Henry Pratt, former partners in the concern. Who Mr. Pratt was, or when he first bought an interest there, we find no record.

May 26th, 1739, Mr. Jonathan Trowbridge, of New- ton, conveys to Henry Pratt, bloomer, three acres of land adjoining said Pratt's land at the Lower Falls. To show how accurately lines were defined in those days, we copy from the deed. " Bounded west- erly by said Pratt's land, northerly and easterly by land of John Parker, easterly and southerly by Trow- bridge's land-northwesterly corner being a stake and heap of stones ; thence to a stake and stones be- tween Parker and Trowbridge, thence to a white oak tree, thence to a black oak tree, thence to a white oak stump with stones on it, thence to two black oak trees, thence to stake and stones at southwesterly cor- ner."

By an indenture made on the 10th day of Novem- ber, 1748, by and between Henry Pratt and Jonathan Willard, who were equal owners in the iron works property and land, it was divided, giving to each a separate and distinct moiety of the same, each giving to the other certain rights and easements for con- venience in the transaction of their business. Special mention is made of the great dam belonging to them, which is to be maintained and kept in repair jointly by them and their successors, each to pay half of the cost; and the said dam shall not be made any higher than is indicated by a hole in the face of the rock in the stream. And it is further agreed that when there is a scarcity of water in the river, it shall be equally divided between them and their successors in owner- ship.

Mr. Jonathan Willard continued to carry on the iron-works, and was closely identified with the man- ufacturing business for more than fifty years. A prominent citizen and an ingenious man, he lived to

the ripe old age of ninety-five years, and died May 22, 1772.

Mr. Joseph Davenport, a clothier by occupation, settled at the Lower Falls about the year 1730 or 1731, and built a dwelling-house a third of a mile distant from the forges on the Boston Road (now Woodward Street) ; and opened a shop near the ful- ling-mills and gave employment to a number of workmen in the manufacture of clothing, until his death, in 1752. As we find no record of other cloth- iers in Newton at that time, it is fair to presume that he held a monopoly in the business among the in- habitants for several miles around.

Mr. Azariah Ware may have been a successor of Mr. Davenport in the clothing business. His name is mentioned as a clothier in a deed given by him to Moses Grant & Son, in 1809. In his description of the property conveyed to said Grant, he included clothier's-shop and fulling-mill as one building.

Mention is made of other industries at the Lower Falls, including a grist-mill, a snuff-mill with four mortars, and a calico printing-works. But these were discontinued, and passed into history more than sixty years ago, so it is difficult to procure satisfactory in- formation as to ownership or the amount of business done by them. Mr. Simon Elliot may have been the owner of the snuff-mill, and may have run it in con- nection with his extensive factories at the Upper Falls.

October 20, 1789, Mr. John Ware, of Sherborn, brother of the Rev. Henry Ware, professor in Har- vard University, bought of Timothy Ware, of Need- ham, about fourteen acres of land at the Lower Falls, including dam, stream, water courses, saw-mills and forge, also a dwelling-house and barn. The next spring he built the first paper-mill in the village- The old hand method of paper-making was in vogue at that time, and we presume Mr. Ware had his stone vats for prepared pulp, and rectangular moulds with wire cloth strainers and deckles to form the sheets of pulp to be placed in layers, alternating between sheets of felting cloth for pressing out the water, as well as to give them a uniform thickness. Two or three repetitions of re-packing and pressing are usually sufficient to give the pulpy fibres an affinity to hold together while hanging in the drying lofts. This slow process of paper making was superseded in the early part of the present century by power machin- ery for spreading the pulp upon an endless felt car- rier, and passes it along to a series of steam-drying cyl- inders, aud is finally rolled into large coils for the rotating shears to divide into sheets of uniform dimen- sions, when it is ready to be bundled into reams for market. The latest improved paper-making machine was patented in England or France by Mr. Fonr- drinier, and has since been in general use by all fine paper makers. From the records of the late Benja- min Neal, Esq., we learn that one of the first Four- drinier machines imported into this country was placed in a mill at the Lower Falls.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

August 29, 1808, Mr. John Ware sold to Mr. Aza- riah Ware a small lot of land, with clothiers' shop and fulling-mill thereon, and on the fourth day of September of the next year Azariah Ware sold the same property to Moses Grant & Son, of Boston, re- serving a perpetual right of way over the land, for teams and workmen from the county road to Curtis and Elliot's paper mills and other mills. The Messrs. Grant built a paper mill upon the land for the mann- facture of glazed book-board, and other use, and on August 9, 1811, Moses Grant, Jr., conveyed his inter- est in the property to his father, who then became the sole owner of the same.

Between the years 1812 and 1832 upwards of thirty sales and transfers of property were made among the several mill owners that depended upon the water from the river to operate their machinery ; and so far as the water-power was concerned, it became a com- mon interest to them all. These divisions and sub- divisions of mill property conveyed with them cor- responding divisions of the water-rights each enjoyed in the river ; questions were continually arising, par- ticularly in the seasons of low water, relative to this or that owner's draught from the stream. The grow- ing complexity of this difference of opinion created a question of paramount importance to the several pro- prietors, which terminated in the spring of 1816 by a new apportionment of the water.

The old adjustment of water-rights by and between Jonathan Willard and Henry Pratt in 1748 was still in force, but was not considered sufficient to answer the present requirements, and July 26th a new appor- tionment was made and agreed to by all parties in interest, to-wit :- Simon Elliot and Solomon Curtis owned the two southern paper mills ; IIurd and Bemis owned one paper-mill and the saw-mill ; Moses Grant owned one paper-mill, and John Ware one fulling- mill, all on the Newton side. Simon Elliot and Sol- omon Curtis owned two-thirds of the paper-mill and two-thirds of the saw-mill, and Hurd and Bemis owned the remaining one-third of the mills on Need- ham side. By this agreement all of the paper-mills and fulling-mills were to have the first right of water, the saw-mill on Newton side the second right, the glazing machines in the several paper-mills to have the third right, and the saw-mill in Needham to have the fourth water-right.

This agreement further entailed upon the several parties in interest an apportionment of the cost of keeping the main dam in the best of repair, and to keep the flumes and water-ways to their respective mills in good order, and perfectly tight at all times. This indenture was signed and sealed by Simon Elliot, Solomon Curtis, Moses Grant, William Hurd, Charles Bemis and John Ware; and for a season the vexed question was amicably adjusted.

In the year 1834 important changes in ownership were made upon both sides of theriver. These changes may have been brought about by a destructive fire

that swept down the river bank on the morning of May 19th of this year, totally destroying Messrs. Amos Lyon & Co.'s paper-mill, and Messrs. Reuben Ware and William Clark's machine-shop, all on the Need- ham side of the river.

In October Mr. Lemuel Crehore, by purchase, be- came the sole owner of the Moses Grant and William Hurd mills on the Newton side, which included the old saw and fulling-mills, and the John Ware paper- mill. And at the same time Mr. William Hurd pur- chased Mr. Crehore's rights in a paper-mill upon the Needham side. More than two years previous to this transaction, Messrs. Allen C. and William Curtis, sons of Solomon Curtis, had acquired the entire fee in the Solomon Curtis and Simon Elliott mill. By these sales of property the varied interests upon the New- ton side were separated from the Needham property, and grouped into the hands of two ownerships.

Mr. Lemuel Crehore commenced the paper-making business in company with Mr. William Hurd in 1825, and at the time of his purchase of the property in 1834, the partnership heretofore existing was dissolved, and Mr. Benjamin Neal became a partner with Mr. Crehore and remained in the business until 1845. For the next following two years Mr. Crehore was alone. In 1854 his son, George C. Crehore, was ad- mitted as a partner under the title of L. Crehore & Son. The next change made was in 1867 by Mr. Charles F. Crehore taking the place of Mr. George C. Crehore, deceased; and the next year the senior Mr. Crehore retired from the business and soon after died, which left the mills in the hands of Mr. C. F. Crehore until 1883, when Mr. Fred. M. Crehore was admitted to the business, and the company thus formed assumed the name of C. F. Crehore & Son.

Messrs. Allen C. and William Curtis built a new and commodious stone mill, with new machinery and all modern improvements in 1834, and removed the old and worn-out buildings and machinery. They continued the paper manufacturing business until re- verses in fortune compelled them to make an assign- ment about the year 1860. Their property was sold by the assignees to Hon. J. Wiley Edmands and Gardner Colby, Esq., co-partners in the manufacture of wool.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 24

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