History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 95

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 95

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" It was in 1803 that Seth Bemis commenced spin- ning cotton by machinery.

" In March 1809, he employed a Mr. Douglas to construct a twisting machine of 48 spindles.3

" In October of 1809, he employed six English weavers, paying them fourteen cents per yard for weaving, and in November following made sales of duck in Boston, No. 1 at 65 cents, and No. 2 at 58 cents per yard." "The sheetings and shirtings sold for 42 cents per yard." "This was probably the first cotton sail duck ever made and sold in this country." In consequence of the impossibllity of finding a market nearer for all his products, during the war of 1812-15, Mr. Bemis sent his duck and other manufactures, by his owu teams to Baltimore, aud even further south, bringing back cotton, tobacco, and other southern pro- ducts, taking several months to make the journey and return.

In 1812-13 with the aid of an Englishman, Mr. Be- mis made from coal and used to light his factory, the first illuminating gas used in America. This had, how- ever, to be discontinued after a few years, because of its leaking from the tin tuhes through which it was conducted.

During some of the years following, while this was the leading factory for the grinding and preparation of dye woods and dye stuffs by machinery, for the manufacture of cotton goods and woolen yarn, the grinding of glass,-and with which continued to be carried on a grist mill, as also a shop for making and repairing machinery,-the operatives were called to their meals at the house of Captain Luke Bemis, where they found board, by the blowing of a tin horn, from which circumstance the village received and continued to have, even till our day, the rather suggestive title of " Tin Horn."

Mr. Bemis purchased of his brother Luke and his partner, Caleb Eddy, a brother-in-law, in 1811, the mills and water-power on the south side of the river and thus became sole owner of the entire water-power.

1 From S. F. Smith's "History of Newton," published by the American Logotype Company, Boston, 1880.

2 Eli Whitney, a descendant of the Watertown family of that name, had in 1794 obtained his first patents on the celebrated saw gin, that raised a man's effectiveness in cleaning the cotton from the seed, from about six pounds each day to one thousand pounds a day. This was ap- parently not introduced in the North for several yeare.

3 From Report of Boston Board of Trade, 1857, quoted in Nelson's " Waltham."

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IFe soon after sold to the Boston Manufacturing Com- pany his right to raise the height of the water by flash- boards for $1000 per inch for twelve inches. Although gaining $12,000 by the sale, he afterwards regretted this loss of power, or others have who have followed him. In 1822 he built the present stone rolling-dam. In 1827, the Bemis Manufacturing Company was in- corporated, in which his brother Luke was interested, for the manufacture chiefly of satinets and duck. However in 1830 this corporation was dissolved. Mr. Seth Bemis and Thomas Cordis, members of the com- pany, bought the entire property and continued the same business until 1839, when Thomas Cordis sold out to Seth Bemis and Seth Bemis, jr., who continued the business on both sides of the river of manufactur- ing cotton and woolen goods in part, and at last on the Newton side of the manufacture of drugs and dye woods. In 1847 they sold the dye wood business to William F. Freeman, and Seth Bemis continued to manage the Watertown mills until his death in 1849, when on the settlement of the estate in 1851, Seth Bemis, jr., became the sole owner. From 1848 to 1860 the Watertown property was leased to Hiram Cooper, who manufactured hosiery and domet flaut- nels. The product for a part of this time was about $100,000 a year, and a hundred men were employed. In 1860, he sold the entire property to William F. Freeman & Company, who having developed the bus- iness largely, in turn transferred the property to the .Etna Mill Company, who greatly enlarged the works on this side, and although for many years, certainly until after 1867, continued to grind and prepare dye woods, gradually enlarged and improved their manu- facture of woolen goods until at present their products are well known among the finest and best woolen goods for ladies' use to be found in the market.

It was in 1810 that the "Waltham Cotton and Wool Factory Company " was established, although not until 1813 that the " Boston Manufacturing Com - pany," under the lead of Francis C. Lowell, Patrick T. Jackson, and Nathan Appleton began to apply the knowledge of the improved cotton machinery which they had seen in operation in England, and which they greatly improved and put into the new factory two miles above, which turned Waltham from a smaller and an agricultural town to a rapidly growing centre of manufactures. The success of this led in 1822 to the incorporation of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company and the founding of the city of Lowell.

With the advance of improvements it became necessary to specialize, and thus gradually the great variety of kinds of business carried on successfully by Seth Bemis, ar., has come to one of narrower range, but of a magnitude and the product of a quality of which he had never dreamed. We have followed with grent brevity, hardly touching here and there the fortunes of these mills, through their possession by the Bemis family from 1753, the date of the first purchase, for over a bondred years.

The character of Mr. Seth Bemis, sr., is treated by another hand elsewhere. His son, Seth Bemis, jr., was always a friend to educational and religious institu- tions, as he was one of the original contributors, with his brother George, to the fund for the establishment of the Watertown Free Public Library, giving $500. In 1882 he gave $1000 towards the building. The family numbers ten students and graduates of Harvard Col- lege; one of them, George, gave largely to this college and to the Boston Athenaeum, thus showing their own appreciation of the best educational institutions and their willingness to contribute to them for the welfare of others; and proving, in this family at least, the enobling and liberalizing tendency of suc- cessful activity in manufactures. In closing, one might add his testimony of fitness in the change of the old name of "Tin Horn," and even of the later more euphonions and descriptive " _Etna Mills " to the brief, well deserved and suggestive name, Bemis, which the Fitchburg Railroad Company, and the United States Post-office Department, aud all by com- mon consent, apply to this village. Long may it honor its name, but may it never forget by its con- tributions and its commingling in all social and municipal relations, that it is a part of the old town of Watertown.

The Watertown Indurated Fibre Company .- This company, one of the latest formed, incorporated in the year 1888 under the laws of Maine, with a capital of $100,000, of which Mr. J. H. Conant is at present the principal, if not the sole owner, is engaged in the manufacture of various utensils from wood pulp, ornamental or useful, which are impervious to water.

The buildings are located on a large lot of land near the West Grammar School-house, on Howard Street, and very near the Fitchburg Railroad, which gives with its side tracks, facilities for receiving materials, and for sending away their manufactured products to all parts of the country.

The material used is the ground pulp of spruce wood, which is reduced to a semi-liquid state, and pumped into moulds where, under hydraulic pressure, of some 120 pounds to the square inch, the water is forced out, and the masses of fine wood fibres are con- solidated into any desired form.

These forms, when dried, may be sawn, turned, sanded into any more desirable forms like any masses of wood. They are then given a bath of hot linseed oil or of chemicals largely" composed of pure linseed oil, then baked in an oven for about eight hours at a temperature of 270º Fahrenheit. Then the process is repeated several times until the compound is entirely impervious to any liquids. The ware is then fiu- ished, polished, ornamented, and made attractive for the various purposes for which it may be used.

The number of men at present employed is seventy - five, their wages about $750 per week, the value of the products of the factory about $100,000 per year.

These works were started by Mr. Conant in 1885,

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have been increased in extent several times, in the same location, until they are now double their former size. They occupy three principal buildings and five smaller buildings. The largest building is 120 feet long and fifty feet wide, and is three stories high. The engine and boiler-house is fifty feet by forty feet, and is two stories high, the upper stories being occu- pied as a drying-room. The treating building is eighty feet by fifty feet, two stories high. The upper story is used for indurating and water-proofing the product, and consists of a work-room and four ovens. These ovens are thirty feet deep, one seventeen feet wide and nine feet high ; the three others have the same depth and height, but are only niue feet wide. They are heated by steam, which is furnished by two boilers of 100-horse power each, which also furnish steam for driving the engine. The engine is one of the Fitchburg Engine Company's manufac- ture, and has a capacity of seventy-five-horse power.

The buildings are lighted by electricity from a dynamo in the building, are thoroughly protected as far as such buildings can be protected, by a system of pipes and sprinklers throughout the large buildings, the water for this purpose being supplied by the Watertown Water Supply Company. The water for use in the process of manufacture, of which large quantities must be used, is obtained from three or four wells, which give an abundant supply.

Some of the articles now manufactured are water- coolers for ice-water, umbrella-holders, fire-casks, store barrels, pails for ordinary use and for fires, the latter having a peculiar form to fit them for their use and to prevent them from being used for any other purpose, pans, slop-jars, and churns.

In time, utensils required to hold liquids of every kind may be made. The material is much lighter and less brittle than porcelain or other earthen ware, or glass, much less costly, less likely to leak or fall to pieces than wood held together by hoops. The use of this manufacture is increasing each year and its appearance is being constantly improved.

Educated decorative artists are employed to orna- ment the ware with fitting designs, some of which make one think of the lacquer of the Japanese.

Mr. F. E. Keyes was the first superintendent, and leaving because of ill health, Mr. L. S. Frost took his place in July, 4886, and has had charge of the works ever since. Mr. B. S. Bott has charge of the decorative department. U. S. Dixon is the engineer. Mr. F. C. Goss has charge of the machine-shop and repairs.

The Porter Needle Company .- The Porter Needle Company occupied buildings on the south side of the river on Watertown Street, not far from Galen Street. Their business was established October 1, 1879, but manufacturing was not begun until January 1, 1880. The company was composed of Mr. Edward F. Por- ter, of this town, president ; Mr. Hugh Robinson, of Jersey City, vice-president; Mr. Lewis B. Porter, treasurer ; and Mr. W. D. Porter, secretary.

Their business consisted in the manufacture of sew- ing-machine needles, sewing-machine shuttles, bob- bins, tools, and machinery. They employed as many as seventy-five (75) men, and turned out 20,000 needles per day, with a monthly pay-roll of $2000. They also furnished other manufacturers with blanks. They invented some fine machinery for the manufac- ture of shuttles and bobbins.

The business was continued with varying success for six or eight years, until 1888, when

The Porter Shuttle and Bobbin Company, managed by Lewis B. Porter, succeeded to a part of the business, the manufacture of needles having been discontinued. This company continue the manufacture of shuttles and bobbins for sewing-machines, also manufacture various kinds of attachments for several kinds of sew- ing-machines.

The stock in this company is owned entirely by Lewis B. Porter, who carries on the entire business. He employs twenty or twenty-five hands, men and boys, and distributes about $800 monthly. The sales are wholly from the factory to sewing-machine manu- facturers and to large jobbers of sewing-machine sup- plies. This is at present the only factory devoted wholly to the manufacture of shuttles and bobbins in the country, and the outlook indicates a large industry, as the sewing-machine manufacturers are looking more and more to special factories for their shuttles and bobbins.

The Empire Laundry Machinery Company .- This company now occupy a part of the buildings formerly occupied by the Porter Needle Company. It was formed in 1883, with head-quarters in Boston, to man- ufacture a combination of inventions developed by the Cambridge Laundry, of Cambridge, and by Por- ter & Co., of Watertown, and gradually grew to larger proportions as new appliances were manufactured. partly by Porter & Company and tested by the Cam- bridge Laundry, until since 1888 it has succeeded to the use of all the buildings but one occupied formerly by the Needle Company.

The company is at present composed of George L. Shorey, of Lynn ; H. S. Porter, of Roxbury ; and L. B. Porter, of Watertown. It was incorporated under the general laws of the State, with a capital of $10,- 000, with individual loans of $40,000 more, from the members, which with the surplus earnings gives a working capital of about $75,000.

As they are now doing a business of a quarter of a million dollars a year, and require larger buildings they have bought a tract of land containing about 60,000 feet, and are making plans for extensive build- ings and enlargements ; and they propose to include all the capital used, with an enlargement of the same, into its incorporated stock, making it $100,000 or more.

The company's special and patented machinery may be found in nearly every country upon the globe, and there are few hotels or large institutions that do

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not use some of their machines. About fifty different machines and appliances are now made, of every kind, from boilers and engines that supply the power, to the supplies used either in domestic laundries for family work or the laundries of hotels and larger in- stitutions.

Among the machines and appliances manufactured may he mentioned : washing-machines, both of wood and of metal; extractors for removing water from goods, wringers, centrifugal wringers; starching ma- chines ; ironing machines of many kinds, including the mangle, parallel ironer, bosom, neck and wrist- band ironer, shirt body ironer, bosom ironer, univer- sal ironer, collar and cuff dampener, ternary mangles ; with a great variety of hand machines, from washers to sad irons; stoves for heating hand-irons, blowers, presses. As Watertown is quite a centre for all kinds of laundry work, these and more may be seen in oper- ation in some of the laundries near the factory. There are at least three such laundries, a visit to which would at almost any time repay any one to see what can be done in this direction by machinery.

These machines are being sold very widely in this and other countries. The new building planned for this factory is to be 250 by 150 feet, one story high, with solid, well-protected floors for heavy machinery, with good light partly from above, well heated by steam and lighted by electricity, and well protected from danger of fire. Its approaches on three sides will be convenient for receiving materials and sending off machines.

Lewando's French Dyeing and Cleansing Establish- ment .- This establishment cleanses and dyes all kinds of fabrics and materials used as clothing, or as draper- ies, upholstery, carpets or rugs for floors.

The property is at present owned by George S. Harwood, of Newton, who has abont $150,000 invested in it. Wm. Lincoln ( fosby, 17 Temple Place, Boston, is at present manager.

The superintendent of the works at Watertown for the last two years is Peter Burbank, who has had nearly thirty years' experience in the business. There are employed here during the different seasons of the year from one hundred to two hundred persons, over one third of them men, the other two-thirds women. There is distributed in weekly wages from $1000 to $2000.

The principal office for the transaction of business is 17 Temple Place, Boston ; there are branch offices in other parts of Boston, in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities, with a system of advertising and sending by mail and express that reaches the whole of the United States and the Provinces.

The laundry has been recently refitted and fur- ni hed with the improved machinery manufactured by the Empire Lnundry Machinery Company of this place, and turns out about 1500 collars and cuffs, 500 shirts, and a large variety of other articles each day, or about $500 worth each week. Starch made in

Watertown is believed to be the best and is therefore used.

They have a most systematic method of receiving, marking, accounting for and treating each article in each bundle taken into the works, so that each owner is sure to receive his own property when finished. Mistakes seldom occur. Flannels are washed by hand so as to prevent shrinking, but most goods in the huge washers ; they are dryed in the excelsior dryer, turning 1400 revolutions per minute, and starched and ironed when required, by special machinery for the different kinds of fabrics or garments. Those requir- ing polishing are, if collars or cuffs, for instance, passed through a parallel ironer ; all are dried by steam. A large part of the water required here, as well as in the dye-house, is furnished from six artesian wells, although a large quantity of water is taken by measure from the Watertown Water Supply Com- pany.

In the dye-house experienced chemists and expert dyers are employed. Experienced pressmen and presswomen are required in a part of their works. The requisite knowledge and skill necessary to sustain the reputation which the establishment has acquired, is the result of long experience.

A boiler of 120 and two of forty-five horse-power are used to supply the motive- power and to furnish steam for heating and drying purposes. Three steam- engines of about eight, six, and ten horse-power operate the laundry and other machinery, including a large pump for raising the water from the artesian wells. If we had space to describe the processes in the different departments, and give the names of those who have charge, or have acquired greatest skill, we certainly should begin with the dye-rooms. It is understood, of course, that when an old garment is to receive a new color, it is as far as possible discharged of its former color in order that the dye-stuffs may have their proper effect. Otherwise it must be determined by experiment upon a small part, or by former experi- ence, what peculiar combinations are required to be made in order to produce the exact shade desired. Patrons send with their fabrics or garments, bits of color of the kind ordered, little thinking of the patience or skill acquired by long experience, needed to make it possible to make eveu an approach, iu some cases, to the effects desired. The art is so pecu- liar, the knowledge so technical, and so beyond the comprehension of the uninitiated, that for most, ad- mission to this room would be only bewildering, and to those prepared to understand the secrets of the workmen, manifestly unpermissible.

There are drying-frames to prevent shrinking, frames and cushions for laces and for drapery cur- tains, naphtha cleaning rooms for certain kinds of work, a separate department for cleaning and dyeing gloves, of which 10,000 pairs are sometimes done in a month. One might be greatly surprised to see a soiled pair of light-colored gloves come out fresh in

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their delicate tints, as if never worn, while black can always be imparted to those that seem to most, hope- less of further usefulness.

In the cleansing house, men's clothing, ladies' dresses and robes, blankets, carpets, curtains, draper- ies can be thoroughly cleansed by what is known as the dry process. Elaborate ball and stage dresses are thoroughly cleansed without taking them to pieces. Velvets, laces, shawls, are handled with great care, and so skillfully and delicately treated, that they sel- dom receive injury. One of the new and secret pro- cesses on which they pride themselves, and of which they make great use, enables them to remove the dis- agreeable shiny appearance which smooth woolen cloths take on after a little wear; 5000 garments have been thus treated within a year and a half.

The manager says this business was begun by Mr. Lewando, in Boston, in 1829. Still we find in the Watertown Enterprise of 1880 the following state- ment :

"The Watertown Dye-House was founded by Mr. James McGarvey, in a small way, on Pleasant Street, about forty years ago. After a few years Mr. Adolphus Lewando succeeded him. Shortly after, the building was destroyed by fire, and Mr. Lewando decided to re- move the business to Saccarappa, Me. The move, however, proved to be an unfortunate one, as the dis- tance to Boston was a serious obstacle in the way of securing orders, and Mr. Lewando decided to remove to Dedham, Mass. There the enterprise was attended with fair success, but for some reason the proprietor deemed another change necessary, and, in 1865, the business came back to its birth-place-Watertown- since which time it has continued to grow in pros- perity until it has reached its present magnitude. At the time of Mr. Lewando's death, which occurred, we believe, about 1871, a Mr. Farmer, of Boston, suc- ceeded him and carried on the business for about three years. At the expiration of that time a son of Mr. Lewando's associated with him in business a gentleman by the name of Cate, and this firm re- mained in occupation for one year. The business then passed into the hands of Messrs. Harwood and Quincy, who erected at different times the large brick block now almost entirely occupied by them for their business, the block of houses on the river-bank above their works, and the buildings on piles in the river ahove the island, below and on the opposite side of the Galen Street or 'Great Bridge,' and who re- modeled the remaining buildings as the enlarged and improved condition of their business demanded.

"In 1886 Mr. Quincy retired from the firm, so that since that the business has been carried on by Mr. Ilarwood alone.

" This business is now claimed to be larger than that now carried on by any similar establishment in the United States, and is rapidly increasing."

Metropolitan Laundry .- This laundry was started many years ago in connection with the shirt factory

of Mr. Charles J. Hathaway, who began to manufac- ture shirts in large quantities and to sell them in Boston at wholesale as early as 1848. At first a necessity in the manufacture of white shirts, it was managed as a part of the shirt factory. During its history it has passed through many different hands until at present it has grown into an independent establishment by itself and is now owned and man- aged by Mr. H. H. Sawyer, who runs it under the above title. It is true that some of its work comes from the adjoining Metropolitan Shirt Factory, but it has with it no necessary connection, except to sup- ply the latter company with steam and power from their large boiler.

The present capacity of the works is 40,000 or 50,000 pieces cach week, and employs about forty per- sons. The building is large enough for a larger busi- ness, and will be fully utilized soon, if the present rate of increase of business continues. The goods laundered are partly new from manufacturers, or are from families residing in different places, from whom the work is obtained by a regular system of collec- tions, mostly within New England.

This laundry is newly and very fully furnished with new machinery of every variety from the Empire Lanndry Machine Company of this place. It is the aim of the present proprietor to do first-class work ; so he spares no effort in trying to provide, with first- class appliances of every kind, the best help this place affords, where work-people have been trained by long experience to do excellent work, and also seeks in other places their most skillful workmen.

Goods can be lanndered now in a very short time. While following for convenience the old system of weekly collections and deliveries, work is on occasion done very quickly. As in the large hotels of Europe, here one can have his linen thoroughly laundered while he is taking a nap, or a bath,-a Turkish bath.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 95

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