History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 94

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 94

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The large store on Galen Street was begun in 1874, and was gradually extended across the race-way to the island where the pattern store-house stood, and this was replaced with a secure and almost fire-proof brick building in 1880.

This building extends 264 feet along Galen Street, is sixty feet wide and practically three stories high, for it has a high basement story. It occupies the site of what have been known for many years as the Blackman house, the Barrett house, and the Major Peirce house. The Blackman house was where Benjamin Edes printed the Boston Gazette, when Bos- ton was occupied by the British. The pattern store- room on the island, with a solid wall towards Galen Street,-that is, a wall built without windows, although ornamented with piers and arches,-shows on the south side by its tiers of windows, four stories above a solid stone foundation wall. Here are kept the many thousands of dollars worth of patterns required by the great variety and constant progress of their work. Next to this are the store-rooms for furnaces,

stoves and ranges. Here may be seen at certain seasons of the year, hundreds of ranges packed ready for shipment-in fact, very large quantities of all the variety of goods manufactured by the company, which here accumulate when the demand falls off and which are drawn upon when the season for in- creased demand approaches.

Next to these store-rooms, and before we reach the large sample and sales-room of the company, comes the large arch-way through which the teams pass to the inner works, the machine-shops, the foundries, the blacksmith-shop and the other parts of this large interior area. Here in the drive-way are ample facilities for loading and unloading from the store- rooms, above and on either side ; from which can be lowered into the wagons the heavy freight either for the railroad or for Boston. This is furnished not only with hoisting apparatus, but also with platform scales, for weighing each load or any part of a load.

The entire process of manufacture is and has been for thirty years conducted under the constant super- vision of Mr. Oliver Shaw, who watches particularly that all the various departments work harmoniously, and so that the minimum amount of material may do the maximum amount of work-that is, that strength and endurance are secured where required, with the smallest consumption of iron, but with enough to answer the purpose, who, with knowledge of men and with kindly and considerate attention to their peculiar abilities and fitness for their several duties, has, in all these years of growing prosperity of the company, won their confidence and respect. His position, which he seems to hold so easily, has been reached by no favor or chance. The young man may take note that the ability to do every kind of work, to fill any man's place and do any man's work in a superior manner, may naturally constitute one, with modesty in his bearing, a recognized leader among leaders, a master among masters.

The cupola, or furnace, capable of melting fifteen tons of iron at a blast, where skill and knowledge are required to liquefy the iron with no unnecessary loss of fuel, or iron, or time, is under the charge of W. A. Pratt, with his two men to help him.

The moulding department, connected with the furnace-room and situated on either side of it, has an area of about 14,000 square feet. Here one may see fifty or sixty men, at work preparing in the soft and yielding moulding-clay and sand the forms which ornament in iron the homes of the poor and wealthy over the land-men whom no amount of dust and dirt will prevent you from recognizing as the same who in clean linen and neat dress, preside in the chairs of the town fathers, or as orators in town, or parish, or society meetings, who prove that brains are equally effective in the utilities, as in the elegan- cies of life. It is not necessary in this place to de- scribe the mode of work, the improved appliances for securing the ends desired. This foundry does not

400

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

differ from the many foundries in the country, ex- cept as one man differs from another. Some of the men earn quite large wages by their skill and celer- ity. This room is under the charge of Wm. F. At- wood.

The cleaning and mounting-shop, where the rough castings are taken to be dre-sed, cleaned, and put to- gether, is in charge of Geo. B. Moore, who bas seen thirty years' service in this place. Twenty-five or forty stoves or ranges are finished daily, requiring the services of sixteen experienced mounters and six helpers.

Perhaps the most important department, if one de- partment may be said to be more important than an- other, where each one is essential to the whole, as well as to each other, is the pattern-making room. Here twelve men are employed, with a great variety of tools and machinery, in making patterns, both in wood and in iron, This calls for skill and ingenuity, and in making new designs, some degree of artistic sense. Not only this, but some degree of judgment is required to adapt the pattern, in view of the varied rates of cooling and shrinking of iron, in the ligliter and heavier parts of the casting, to produce the desired effects without danger of breaking or change of form. Allowance must be made in the size of the patterns for this shrinkage. Here seven men are employed on wood, and five men on iron, all under the charge of F. II. Edgecomb.

Mr. John Applin has eight men under his direc- tion in the machine-shop, where drills, lathes, plan- ers, and all the usual kinds of tools required in such places, are kept busy in the varied calls for work of such kind.

One of the contrivances patented, by Geo. H. Tainter, a man in their employ, is known as the Tainter Damper. The name Tainter is somewhat famous also, in connection with the mechanical devices, made by a son of Mr. Tainter for Prof. Bell, of Bell's Telephone,

Nickel-plating, required in the present demand for neatness and elegance, even in cook and parlor stoves, is done on the premises under the charge of David Flanders.

All this machinery would be dead and useless without sufficient motive-power. This is supplied by a Campbell & Whittier forty horse-power enginc. There is a powerful steam-pump, ready for fire pur- poxes, which is used in testing the strength and con- dition of boilers and radiators, before they are put into buildings. The steam is produced in two forty- five horse-power sectional boilers, with thirty sec- tions each, manufactured by the company.

The blacksmith-shop is in charge of Mr. Grace.

The tin-shop, where all the varieties of tin, zinc and galvanized iron, piping for furnaces and venti- lation, where ware for cooking purposes is made, is in the main building on Galen Street, next to the sales- room, and is in charge of II. A. Philbrook.

The directors and officers of this company manage for their own interests-this goes without saying,-but also with a liberal policy to their men and to the town. George W. Walker, the president, and his son, Arthur W. Walker, one of the directors, live in the city of Malden. George W. Walker has held many offices of trust and honor in his town and has represented Malden in the Legislature.

George E. Priest, the treasurer, and Oliver Shaw, the general superintendent, and nearly all the employees live here in town. Mr. Shaw is also presi- dent of the only national bank in town, the Union Market National Bank, and has acted during many years as one of the selectmen, for a good part of the time their chairman. Mr. Priest is one of the board of trustees of the Free Public Library, is treasurer of the Watertown Savings Bank, served the town and his country in the army during the late war, and both are identified with most public movements. The re- spect with which they are treated by their townsmen mark the high character of work of this company in all it undertakes.

The business of this establishment was at first almost exclusively in supplying New England house- holds with the essential stove for kitchen and sitting- rovin use. Now contracts are taken for the most ex- tensive and complicated heating apparatus, which they are ready to manufacture and put up, although they do not despise the smaller and humbler class of manufactures. Among the larger contracts which they have executed one might mention the heating apparatus for the Hotel Vendome, Boston, that for the Danvers Hospital for the Insane built by the State, and that in the Madison Square Theatre in New York City. Some of their contracts have amounted to upwards of $80,000 each.

This company are now manufacturing the cele- brated Crawford Range, now known in its improved form as the Crawford Grand, which is selling all over New England. While no great contracts, of course, can be made for so simple and universally employed device for meeting our common needs, probably the success of their business depends as much upon the call for this as for the larger and more extensive, and, therefore, the apparently more important heaters used in the larger institutions. They have recently been getting out a stove or range in which wood will be exclusively used for fuel, known as the Palace Eureka, designed to meet the wants of the Pacific Coast, yet, as they think, adapted to a considerable portion of New England, where wood is still in abun- dance.

This company manufacture hot-water heaters also, one which they have recently patented, and are pre- pared to introduce into buildings where they are pre- ferred. Much is said about the economy of hot-water heaters at the present time. The company allege [ that tho most economical heaters used, as all will allow, are stoves in each separate room, if fuel alone !

401

WATERTOWN.

and not the labor of taking care of them or the inci- dental dirt and discomfort are to be thought of. If good ventilation is also required, with the smallest amount of care, then the question is between hot air furnaces so called, and steam or hot-water heaters. Either steam or hot-water heaters placed in each room may, by direct radiation, supply the required amount of heat without ventilation. If hot-water or steam-pipes are placed iu boxes to which a coustantly fresh supply of air is admitted and this allowed to pass into and heat the rooms of a house, giving the same results as the hot-air furnace, then a little ex- perimenting will determine which is the more eco- nomical and which will give the best distribution of heat, considering all things-the means of egress for vitiated air and the local direction and force of vary- ing winds, for instance.

The requirements of a perfect heater for dwelling- houses and for larger buildings have been the study of this company for years, and as fast as any new ideas are gained, they are, as the company claims, put into substantial and durable form for their own ad- vantage and for the advantage of our large intelligent New England community, to whose wants they chiefly cater in all their manufactures.

.Etna Mills .- The Atna Mills are situated nearly a miile above the first dam, above tide-water, on the Charles River, and have for the last few years ob- tained a reputation for producing various woolen and worsted goods for ladies' dresses of the very finest quality. Goods are made with fine broad-cloth and other styles of finish of every variety of shade and in all colors used for dress-goods by the ladies, as well as in stripes, plaids and figured designs.

The Ætna Mills Company was organized in 1862, and in 1867 the present agent, Albert O. Davidson, came from the Tremont Mills, Lowell, to take charge, and "the present extraordinary success of the institu- tion is largely due to his eminent business tact and to the adoption of those systematic methods which are so essential to the welfare of a large corporation."

The capital stock of the company, organized under the general laws of Massachusetts, is $250,000, the annual product about $500,000. The directors of the company are: Joseph C. Stephens, of Boston ; Arthur Hobart, of Boston ; Edmund W. Converse, of Newton ; Morrill A. Smith, of Boston; Edwin F. Atkins, of Boston ; Edwin A. Hildreth, of Harvard, Mass., and Albert O. Davidson, of Watertown.

Joseph C. Stevens has been president of the corpora- tion for several years, since the death of Nathan Faye. Samuel Smith was treasurer until 1887, and Arthur Hobart, accountant for twenty years, has been treasu- rer since that time.

The number of persons employed by the corpora- tion is from 275 to 300, two-fifths of whom are women, and the weekly pay-rolls amount to over $1600.

A new mill was built a few years ago, 117 feet long, 54 feet wide, and three stories high, the walls of 26-iii

which were made partly of stone, 30 inches thick, partly of brick, 16 inches thick, with heavy hard- pine beam's; built thus firm and strong to support the new and improved machinery then introduced, chiefly looms for the weaving of fiue cloths, of which over 20,000 yards are produced each week.

These mills occupy buildings on both sides of the river, where water-wheels supply a part of the power required by the mills. The power generated by the wheels on the south side of the river is transmitted 125 feet, across the river to the north mill, by an endless wire rope, passing over wheels in the two buildings. Between these mills is a rolling dam- claimed by some to be the only one in America, the only other dam of the kind being in England, at Warwick Castle.

While the water-power was at first sufficient to do all the work required-and at times there is a large amount of water passing over the dam, apparently to great waste-it is found that steam is desirable for various purposes in the manufacture of woolens, and, in order to have at all times sufficient power for all purposes, a steam-engine is required.

The engine-room is on the ground-floor, is 30 feet wide, by 60 feet long, and contains a fine Corliss en- gine of 125 horse-power. The steam for this and for heating, drying and other purposes, is furnished by four large boilers, of which three are constantly in use, the fourth being held in reserve in case of acci- dent to either of the others. Two of these are made of steel. About three tons of coal are required each day.

The different departments of the mill are each un- der competent overseers, who are held responsible each for his part of the work.

The sorting department, under the charge of J. E. Butler, occupies a brick building on the south side of the river, and, with the store-house adjoining, con- tains at times over 100,000 pounds of wool of the va- rious kinds. Here may be seen the finest Australian wools, with their long, silky fibres; the brilliant Cash, mere; the;Alpacca; the finest and softest camels' hair, so delicate, for the finest fabrles. Here are bales of "Ohio clip," some in the natural state, some cleaned to pure white, in contrast with the black Egyptian near by. The more common kinds of wool are used for some purposes.

The scouring-room and the dyeing-room are in charge of Mr. Alfred Pepler, who has in his store- room all the different kinds of dyes required In pro- ducing the greatest variety of shades of all the lend- ing colors. Only by long practice and great skill can all the delicate effects be produced which, either in the sunlight or under artificial light, are so much admired by ladies of taste. One unskilled can only look with wonder on the unmeaning compounds which he sees in the dye-rooms; his admiration must be reserved for the finished fabrics.

The dyed wool is passed through the dryers, the

402

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

picker-room, the gauze-room, to the carding-room, which is under the supervision of Mr. Loveland. Here the wool is carded, a work our grandmothers used frequently to send their wool for miles to have done at carding-mills. There are few old people who do not remember the soft rolls of wool brought home from the carding-mill, which their grandmothers used to spin into thread and yarns for knitting and weav- ing. This work is done now in a superior manner by marvelous mechanism, by which the fibres of the wool are gathered together in fine rolls and wound loosely on large spools, ready for the spinning depart- ment. The automatic, self-feeding cards, with their thousands of steel fingers to arrange the fibres in line ready for spooling, and the nice mechanical adjust- ments, wonderful to us, would have greatly surprised our ancestors, yet it is by the gradual improvements in such mechanism that enabled first Seth Bemis to do the work at all, and now these mills to do work of the quality for which they are notcd. The capacity of this room is fifteen sets of cards.

'The next department in regular order is the spool- ing department, under Mr. J. 11. Clifford, where the wool is spun and wound on bobbins ready for weav- ing. The immense spinning jennies, capable of do- ing the work of several hundred women, do it with almost the same motion,-now advancing, now reced- ing, now twisting, now rolling up on the spool,-but with far greater accuracy and evenness of thread.

In the new building is the weaving department, in charge of Henry G. Chapman. Here looms of dif- ferent degrees of complexity, some capable of utiliz- ing twenty-four frames,-from different manufac- tories,-euch in care of an attendant, push the shuttles with deafening sound through the warp in varying figures according to the faney of the designer. While here we are inclined to think this the principal pro- cess, the most important step of all in the manufac- ture of cloths, but in the finishing department, in charge of Mr. Watslong, where the inspection of the fulling, which has reduced the width one quarter, and increased the thickness and the closeness of thread since it came from the looms, one may see the " teaz- eling," the " trimming," pressing, measuring, folding done, and the cloths packed, after being sampled, ready for market.

All rooms in the factory are furnished with gas fixtures for lighting, and automatic fire sprinklers for extinguishment of accidental fires, while there are hydrants with coils of hose in various parts of the mill and the yard, connected with large pumps read- ily operated by the steam engine or the water-wheels.

The early history of this mill is quite interesting.

This dam it is claimed was first built by David Bemis and Enos Sumner in 1778. David Bemis had bought 39 acres of land on the Watertown side in 1753, and a few years after, 25 acres more, nearly all the lund on which the village now stands. This homestead, where his sons were born, afterwards

known as the Ritchie estate, was the old house so beautifully located on the knoll near the mills, which was removed to make room for Mr. Davidson's house in 1880. Dr. Enos Sumner owued the land on the Newton side, but sold out in 1779 to three men who built a paper mill. David Bemis became two-thirds owner of this the next year, and with his son Capt. Luke Bemis carried on the paper mill until 1790, when he died. After his death his sons, Capt. Luke and Isaac Bemis, became sole owners and continued to carry on the business of paper making until the death of Isaac in 1794. The process of manfacturing paper at that time was necessarily very slow and tedious. The sheets were made in moulds imported from England. Each sheet required separate dipping of the moulds in the pulp, which when sufficiently consolidated, was turned on to a sheet of felt where it was allowed to dry. David Bemis had built in 1778 on the Watertown side a grist-mill and snuff-mill, the first mill on this side at this place. At his death, his two sons, Seth and Luke, became full owners. About 1796, Seth bought out the interest of his brother Luke, and began to manufacture chocolate, and to prepare dye-woods and medicinal woods and roots for use. In 1803 he made additions to the old mill; he com- menced the spinning of cotton by machinery, making cotton warp, which though prepared by quite imper- fect machinery, proved to be so much better than that spun by hand, and therefore, in such great repute, that Mr. Bemis could not supply the demand. The business proved thus very profitable.

To understand the cause of this great demand for cotton warp, we need only to reflect that by many a family through Massachusetts, it was the custom to weave at home cotton cloth, cotton and wool for blankets, and with dyed wool a coarse kind of satinett for home wear, as well as rugs and carpets for the floor. The writer remembers full well the old hand-loom which stood in the capacious attic of his grandmother's house, which was built at this time only a little over twenty miles away on one of the turnpike roads leading off' into the country. This house, built of brick, stood near the centre of a large farm which had always been owned, and still is owned in the family, a Water- town family, since it was first purchased of the Indians. Here were the flax and the wool spinning-wheels also. But it must have been a great relief to the over-worked women of the family to find, by Mr. Bemis' intro- duction of power-machine-spun threads for warps, " Bemis' warp," as it was known, so great a help in their labors.

One is tempted, in speaking of the great improve- ments introduced by Mr. Bemis in the manufacture of cotton goods, to reflect upon the great change that has finally resulted in the present domestic economy of our New England households. Then the women, both young and old, were taught a multiplicity of occupations that trained both the hands, the eye, and the mind as well.

403

WATERTOWN.

" The preparation of the cotton for carding was at that time a slow and expensive operation. It was carried out in small parcels, to be picked by hand in families living in the vicinity, at about four cents per pound, exclusive of carrying out and bringing back, which required most of the time of oue man and horse. To facilitate the process of picking, such families as were engaged in the occupation were mostly provided with a 'whipping frame,' the bottom of which was woven, or made of strong cords so loosely that the seeds and dirt could pass through ; the cotton, being placed thereon, the two sticks, one in each hand, being laid on smartly for two or three minutes, became very much loosened. For several years the business of cotton picking afforded employ- ment to a multitude of persons, enabling them to obtain a comfortable livelihood."

" Mr. Bemis constantly improved and increased his machinery for spinning, etc., discarding the old and adopting that which was new and better. After a few years he caused a machine to be made for preparing cotton for carding, which did not differ materially from the 'cotton pickers' of the present day. This machine bore the grim title of 'the devil'; and though not very attractive in appearauce, particularly when in uotion, performed in a very expeditious and satisfactory manuer the service intended, much to the regret of the numerous laborers, who were obliged, in consequence of the invention, to seek their daily bread by other methods." 1

This Mr. Seth Bemis, the senior of that name, en- gaged in manufactures at this place, was a graduate of Harvard College, graduating in 1795, and, although his knowledge of Greek roots and Latin poetry was not essential to success in the profitable management of a cotton factory, doubtless the knowledge was no great burden to carry, and as it did not from the pride of possession incapacitate him from entering heartily into the solution of the various practical problems that presented themselves, it might have sharpened his wits so that he was able to improve upon all who had gone before and even to almost unconsciously anticipate one of the greatest inventions of the age, namely Whitney's cotton gin.2

The town of Watertown enjoys the distinction, through Mr. Bemis' inventive and active disposition, of having made the first cotton duck ever manu- factured. It was at a time after the embargo of 1807 had been laid by our general government upon all foreign commerce, and great difficulty had been ex- perienced in getting duck for sails, that Mr. Winslow Lewis, of Boston, extensively engaged in commerce,

in conversation with Mr. Seth Bemis, spoke of the difficulty of getting duck, the coarse linen cloth used for sails, asked if he could not make something of cotton that would answer the purpose. Mr. Bemis had been engaged in the manufacture of sheeting, shirting, bagging for the southern market, bed ticking, etc., and had had the aid of some English weavers on hand-looms. He said he would see about it. Mr. Lewis was unwilling to be at the risk alone of pro- viding machinery on the uncertainty of success, but promised to help to find a market for the cotton duck if it could be made, a large quantity of which he him- self would require for his own vessels. Mr. Bemis succeeded in having the work done and for some years received a large return for his venture, as much as $1 per yard being received during the war for duck.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 94

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