USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 30
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Wellesley > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 30
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
The older paper-mills on this site made about one ton per day each.
In the later decades of the nineteenth century Billings, Clapp & Company had their chemical works where is now the mica plant, which is west of the R. T. Sullivan Company's mill.
In Norfolk County alone there are on record at least one hundred deeds and mortgages affecting these mills at the Lower Falls, and the writer has devoted much time to examining the earlier ones. There were many real estate transactions in the vicinity of the mills by Edward Jackson, and by different individuals who bore the name of Ephraim Jackson, beginning with Colonel Ephraim, the tavern- keeper at the Lower Falls, who died in the army in 1777.
Below the Upper Dam the fall of the water is sixteen feet on the Newton side, and ten on the Needham side, with the exception of a place near the Third Mill, where it is but six feet.
On the brook in the ravine, which is northwest of Saint John's Church, and near the Lower Falls, preliminary steps were taken prior to 1850 to establish an industry, and a dike and a canal were constructed, perhaps also a building. This enterprise was not a success, but as early as 1851 Henry Wood started here the manufacture of mineral paint, and, it is said, began also to make bricks from Portland cement and sand with a mixture of lime, an industry con- tinued by him and his successors for many years, but even- tually given up. These paint works were among the few of that kind then existing, but before 1860 were burned by an incendiary, it was supposed, and Mr. Wood resumed business on Natick Brook, where an important and extensive manu- factory flourishes in the present century, under the control of Mr. Wood's successors, Henry Wood's Sons Company.1
1 Its letter-head in 1911 describes it as "Makers of Fine Colors ", and states that its business was "Established 1837 by Henry Wood". The present Henry Wood of this company is a son of Edmund M. Wood.
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When Mr. Wood retired in 1866, his son, Edmund M. Wood, formed a co-partnership with Horace Humphrey, and in the early eighties they made about six tons of paint per day. In 1873 there had been a fire at their paint-shop to which Natick firemen were summoned. At one time they are said to have made utensils from copper and tin plate at their paint-factory.
Edmund M. Wood was connected with various enter- prises, including the Middlesex Stone Brick Company, and was the proprietor of the great Waban Conservatories, which are situated on one of the ancient Goodenow farms, in what was Needham Leg. These conservatories are noted abroad, as well as in this country, for the large number of huge greenhouses devoted entirely to roses, and there are few, if any, rose conservatories in the world that rival these in size. Mr. Wood died in Natick in 1901.
After the loss of the paint-shop, and the removal of Mr. Wood, General Charles Rice built there a grist-mill and a planing-mill, which were carried on by his son Charles, who also erected a paint-shop about fifteen feet from the mills. This shop was leased for a number of years to Hanchett & Morse, paintmakers, but the two mills and shop were burned completely; it was thought that the fire was incen- diary. Charles Rice, Jr., had a deed of this property from his father about 1860, and built the present large shop, which he rented to Farwell & Conant for a silk-factory, and for seven years spool silk was made there. Isaac Farwell removed to Newton, and Mr. Rice subsequently leased the building for various purposes. In 1870 Charles Rice, Jr., was assessed on $2400 for two acres of privilege and a silk-factory.
LONGFELLOW'S MILL
In 1836 Isaac Keyes of Needham sold to Zenas and Luther Crane of Newton, "Papermakers", one and one quarter acres of land on the Worcester Turnpike, with a paper-
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mill. Mr. Keyes also granted permission to raise the dam two feet higher, and to flow his land above it. In 1847 Rebekah Crane "of the Village of the Lower Falls in New- ton", administratrix of the estate of Zenas Crane, sold an undivided half of this property at auction, and it was bought by Nathan Longfellow for $1100, who at the same time acquired the other half of Luther Crane at the same price. This mill stood at the northwesterly end of Longfellow's Pond, and for years Mr. Longfellow did a fair business there, but the old building was burned in 1870.
On Natick Brook the "Praying Indians" had a sawmill in 1658, but it was destroyed by the white men during King Philip's War, and the saws were taken to Sudbury; the pond was known as "ye sawmill pond". This sawmill on Natick Brook is said to have been the first in Eastern Massachusetts, not including the District of Maine.
The Henry Wood's Sons' paint-works have been referred to. Eighty years since Daniel Morse had his grist-mill on this brook, and earlier Thomas Broad ran a sawmill at or near the same place. Mr. Wood bought the privilege and mill of Mr. Morse.
Within the territory granted to Edward Hawes in 1661, and formerly called "Hawes Hundred", there was nearly two centuries ago a mill on the stream once known as Hawes Brook, which brook connects Morse's and Nonsuch Ponds. About 1725 this mill came into the possession of the Loker family, who were inhabitants of Needham for several gen- erations. In 1831 there was a mill on this site, and it is possible that Otis Jennings made paper there in 1834, when he was taxed for paper-mill stock.
For some years before and after the division of the town, James Tucker & Co. had a shoe-factory of considerable size at the corner of Washington and Cottage Streets in Wellesley, but the prevailing sentiment of the people of Wellesley did not favor an industry of that kind, and the factory was purchased by Mr. H. H. Hunnewell and Mrs.
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Durant and given to the College for a dormitory, and is known as "The Eliot".
MILL AT CHARLES RIVER VILLAGE
This beautiful and valuable water-privilege has been more often availed of by lessees than by owners. Jesse Lyon, a Mr. Daniell and Moses Grant were early proprie- tors of a paper-mill here, but were not the first ones, as there was a paper-mill, or mills, in the south part of the town in 1796. From 1826 to 1840 John Welles was taxed for this property, together with the Ambler house, except in 1831-9, when Josiah Newell, who ran the paper-mill, or his assignees, were the nominal owners. In 1842 and 1843 Barden & Newell were assessed for this mill, and from 1844 to 1846 Benjamin Newell alone. Mr. Newell was for years a paper-manufacturer, but from 1849 to 1852 the plant was owned by Otis Pettee.
Christopher Hancks was designated in deeds as a "Paper- maker" from 1816 to 1835, and Benjamin Newell was succeeded by Hancks & Hagar, and they, prior to the Civil War, by Goss & Russell, who were lessees from H. H. Hunne- well and others, trustees. Apparently William L. Ward purchased this mill about 1862, and made shoddy. He was soon followed by Porter & Lancey, in whose time the mill was burned, together with a small house erected within the mill-grounds by Mr. Ward. All of the foregoing made coarse wrapping paper, but William Hill & Son, who had a small paper-mill on the Dover side, bought from the mortgagees the privilege on the Needham side, built a mill there and made Manilla paper in the early seventies. In 1877 Eugene H. Sampson had acquired the plant, and named it the Waban Mills. He made leather-board for ten years, when he sold out to Edwin Hill, who expended $15,000 for an equipment to make bookpaper, including a Fourdrinier machine eighty. feet long. After six years the cost of freight on the wood used for pulp led Mr. Hill
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and his sons to retire from the business, and in 1892 Frank H. Brown purchased the property of Mr. Hill. In 1893 the mill was burned, and for some years Mr. Brown grad- ually replaced the buildings intending to make paper.
Upward of half a century ago there was a nail-factory near the river, east of the paper-mill, and within the grounds of the mill.
Dr. Noyes noted in his diary "Building the Dam C. River", September 2, 1828, and "Breach made in Dam at Dover Iron Works", September 23, 1832.
More than a century ago supplying poles for barrel- hoops and faggots for the bakers of Roxbury and Boston formed such a considerable industry in Needham that the faggots came to be known as Needham Currency, and, judging by some old accounts, were bartered for goods, New England rum representing an undue per cent of the trade. The manufacture of glue was introduced into Need- ham by Robert Evans, who lived on the O'Neil place, at the corner of Rosemary Street, near Nehoiden Street. He had as apprentices John Mills and Allen Fisher, and did not intend that they should learn the whole process of mak- ing glue, but they did acquire the knowledge, owing to certain complications, and Mr. Mills became a successful manufacturer on a larger scale than Mr. Evans, whose shop was also his dwelling. Mr. Mills for many years made glue in his shops on Great Plain Avenue, nearly opposite the old Mills place, and acquired a fortune. His brother, Matthias, had shops in the rear of his house on Central Avenue, and later purchased John's and made glue in them until into the seventies. In 1872 four nephews of John and Matthias Mills, associating with them for a few months their brother-in-law, Timothy Otis Fuller, built two shops a short distance west of the older ones, and for several years manufactured glue. They found, however, that the conditions had changed from the older time, and that there was great difficulty in getting the stock, which once was
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abundant and cost but little more than the expense of transporting it a few miles; moreover competition with large concerns was ruinous. The business involved night- work, which did not add to its attractions. Galen Orr and his brother Thomas made glue in shops off of Great Plain Avenue, about half a mile west from the railroad track, and Nathan McIntosh produced some on the premises where his home was .. Lemuel Kingsbury had glue shops on Great Plain Avenue, about half a mile east of the rail- road, and Otis and J. Willard Morton had a glue plant north of Rosemary Street, and not far from the railroad, but the best days of these glue industries were prior to the Civil War, and few of them survived to 1870, although the shops remained for many years. The glue shops were all in East Needham, and that part of the town was also en- gaged in the manufacture of hats, and in 1831 there were three small hat-factories, - Lemuel Lyon's was about where the boiler rooms of the Lower Mill of the William Carter Company are now. William G. Jones had a hat- shop on Central Avenue, and between the Lyon houses on Greendale Avenue, near Lyon's Bridge, was the hat- shop of Joshua B. Lyon. Hats, however, do not appear to have been made in Needham much after 1850, although William Bennett is designated as a hatter in 1853. Appar- ently Mr. Jones's place of business was in the old "Bake Shop", which was built by Rufus Mills in the thirties. Mr. Mills was a baker but a short time, and the building was for many years a dwelling.
About 1830 Michael McIntosh bought the property where the hinge-factory is. The dam was then known as the Amos Fuller Dam, and there was a dilapidated sawmill, which Mr. McIntosh ran for two winters, and did a considerable business, as the accumulation of logs and lumber on the premises testified. He paid the Rev. William Ritchie $500 for this water-privilege and land, rebuilt the dam in a substantial manner, put in a flume, and blasted a ledge
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for the pit and raceway, which was for a twelve-foot water- wheel, with six buckets. He also had another wheel "in the same race way 40 feet with two feet buckets these two wheels, and steam engine were burnt with the buildings". There was a fall of about twenty feet where the first wheel was. Mr. McIntosh, who was a skilful machinist, black- smith, moulder, pattern-maker and inventor, had pre- viously had a shop on Great Plain Avenue, west of the residence of the late George C. McIntosh, where he carried on the business of a country blacksmith, besides making blind-hinges. The need of motive power led him to pur- chase the water-privilege, and after he moved to his new site his business rapidly increased, requiring additions to the plant until there were nine roofs. He continued to make hinges and fastenings, and also had a sash and blind-shop, which stood where the west end of the present hinge-fac- tory is, but was much larger, and was equipped with the most improved machinery valued at $5000. Here for some years an average of four hundred sashes per day were made, except in the warm weather, and one year Mr. McIntosh had a contract to furnish the sashes and blinds for one hundred brick houses that were built in Boston. Mr. Joseph Fisher, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Josiah Noyes, was Mr. McIntosh's principal man, and was a first-rate me- chanic who could make machinery. In 1840 [1841?] the entire property was destroyed by fire, and no insurance was received because of the introduction of a steam-boiler with- out permission. There was certainly a fire at Michael McIntosh's mill in 1841, as on November 29 of that year a selectmen's order was drawn to pay $2.97 for refresh- ments supplied to the firemen on that occasion. Edward A. Mills remembers seeing the firemen from the Upper Falls hastening to this fire, and says he was much impressed by their red shirts. Mr. Henry Michael McIntosh, who was eighty years old in 1907, when he furnished the fore- going information as to his father's business career, stated
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that he did not remember when the new dam was built, but did "recollect some gravel was added to the dam and a new sluice way was made at the east end of the pond to carry off the excess of water. It used to be so that all the water could be drawn out of the pond and leaving but the brook, but some water was always left on account of the fish". Michael McIntosh owned the Kingsbury-Rollins place, and had in all about sixty acres bordering on the ponds. His son said that the ponds were very high in cer- tain seasons, and flowage damages had to be considered then, as in Mr. Orr's time. "The small pond next to the hinge factory is not as wide as it was". "On Father's side he filled up and made a wall to the water line, and made a garden of that part. Previous to 1840 Mr. Luther Morse's blacksmith's shop stood mostly on piles over the end of the South corner of the small pond up to the road. On the opposite side of the road from Mr. Morse's shop was the large pond, and there were no buildings, the space of land between road and water belonged to Father; it was land east side, water west side, and he bought the land of Mr. Ritchie so as not to pay flowing damages". (Letter of Henry M. McIntosh of September 26, 1907.) Mr. MeIn- tosh also sent to the writer an interesting plan he drew of his father's manufactory, including the immediate vicinity. He died March 13, 1908, aged eighty years, seven months and fifteen days. The sash and blind-shop, which was taller than the present building, was plainly seen from Nehoiden Street, but the other portions of the plant were farther to the east and north, and were conspicuous from Rosemary Street. About 1836 Mr. McIntosh had located a grist-mill at the Amos Fuller Dam, and had obtained large granite mill-stones from Salem, but lack of water led him to abandon this business. About 1835 he had peti- tioned the General Court for permission to build a reser- voir between the hills, southeast of the George C. M.In- tosh ice-pond, and to draw water from Pine Swamp for
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his mill-pond by means of a ditch, which was to run nearly parallel with Great Plain Avenue, and to cross the road near where the Daniel Kingsbury barn stood. He stated that this would lower the water about six feet in the swamp, and redeem many acres of land, but the opposition of the mill-owners on Charles River was fatal, and Mr. McIntosh had leave to withdraw his petition.
The blacksmith's shop, referred to by Mr. H. M. McIn- tosh, was moved to the south side of the road, and about 1837 Isaac H. Greenwood built another shop adjoining the Luther Morse shop on the south. For many years Mr. Greenwood followed his calling as a blacksmith on this site, and in the early seventies John H. Fitzgerald became his associate, and later his successor, remaining in the old shop until about 1900, when he removed to a larger estab- lishment on Chapel Street. Mr. Fitzgerald took down the Morse shop many years ago, and the Greenwood shop in 1906.
In 1844 Galen Orr acquired the McIntosh water-power, together with five acres of land, with buildings thereon, extending to the junction of Nehoiden and Rosemary Streets, and also two acres on the other side of Nehoiden Street, opposite the larger parcel. He built some shops, and for many years carried on a successful business as a manu- facturer of blind-hinges and fastenings. In 1872 he asso- ciated with him his son-in-law, Edgar H. Bowers, under the firm name of Galen Orr & Co. Mr. Orr died in 1881, and Mr. Bowers has continued the industry. Mr. Orr was one of the most enterprising citizens of Needham, and in his youth had learned the business, or trade, of a nail- maker, working, it is said, in the nail-factory at Charles River Village. From 1839 to 1844 he made hinges on forges, at home, on Central Avenue in the house which he sold to the Rev. Mr. Maynard in 1844. At one time Mr. Orr had a grocery store in the Nehoiden Block, then sometimes called the Revere Block, as it was built by Mr. Revere in 1844, and owned by him for twenty-five years.
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Lemuel Lyon built the dam at the northwest end of Rose- mary Pond, which owes its origin to this dam, and to excavations made by Mr. Lyon, who for a year employed John O'Neil, with a horse and cart, to remove land from one side-hill, and gravel from another. The Honorable Enos H. Tucker stated that in his youth he worked digging out this basin. Henry M. McIntosh said he well remembered when the place was an alder swamp and Dewing's peat- meadow, and recalled a road by Dewing's Hill. Although a part of Rosemary Brook, it is not strange that for some years the pond was known as Lyon's Pond. Mr. Lyon built a small mill, and did business under the firm name of Lyon & Hersey. Their chief industry was the manufacture of huge beaver-hats, with bell-shaped crowns, large rims, and covered with long hair. One of these hats was in the possession of the late Dr. Noyes at the time of his decease, and Leon Divoll is said to have been a skilled hat-maker in the employ of Mr. Lyon. The Lyon mill was burned and rebuilt, and before 1850 had become the silk-mill of Lemuel Cobb, who was from Dedham, and who had some mulberry trees and silk-worms.1 In 1851 Galen Orr acquired the property succeeding Robert Prentiss, who made batting, and for some six years had a cotton-batting-mill, known as the Rosemary Brook Batting Mill. Later he sold the machinery, and in 1860 had a grist-mill there, dealing in flour. This business he continued for several years, and Charles A. Hines, better remembered as the veteran grave- digger, was Mr. Orr's miller. Apparently Mr. Orr retained some of the batting until the Civil War, as he then supplied the women of Needham with it, and they prepared it for
1 At the time that Mr. Cobb started his silk-mill it was thought that a new industry of importance had come to town, and some people, particularly the women, were zealous in setting out mulberry trees in order to feed the silk-worms, anticipating employment, but were disappointed, although the trees remained for many years. There are, or were a few years since, mulberry trees that Mr. Cobb set out near his mill. He was followed by Messenger Brothers in the business of winding silk, and they in turn for a time by Rufus Haven Mills and Dexter Town- send Mills.
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the use of the soldiers, particularly for the hospital service. Beginning with 1857 he had for a year and a half engaged with Thaddeus Bullen of Haverhill in the manufacture of tacks and finishing-nails in the former batting-mill, but it was not a success. In 1864 Mr. Orr sold this property to George and Edward Smith Ashwell for $3000. It then included the dam, mill-privilege, one half acre of land, and "Also the right to raise water by means of said dam to the height of the top of a copper bolt, driven into a hole drilled in a rock in the race way of the upper mill privilege of said Orr and to flow all lands which will be flowed by a pond raised to that height". Another half acre of land near had been purchased by Mr. Orr of Warren Dewing, and was also conveyed by this deed.
George Ashwell, who lived in Needham, soon became the sole owner, and in 1866 he deeded the plant to Isaac A. Hatch of Boston, to George Ashwell (the grantor) and to David A. Andrews, as co-partners under the name of Hatch, Ashwell & Co. This firm erected a new mill, adjoining the old batting-mill, and transferred their title to the Ashwell Manufacturing Company, which engaged in the manu- facture of hosiery and jackets, chiefly the former. The old mill is referred to in deeds as "Orr's lower mill". From 1868 to 1874 the building was occupied by Samuel Sutton & Co., manufacturers of hosiery, and also of yarn, including Merino. They gave employment to one hundred persons, as they had other hosiery establishments in Needham.
Mr. Sutton was an experienced and wealthy manufacturer, and his two older sons were in partnership with him, Thomas Sutton having an interest in the business before he was eighteen years old. Samuel Sutton is said to have been the pioneer in Needham in the employment of power machinery for making hosiery. At first the legs only were made by power, then later also the feet. The goods had to be sewed.
Mr. Sutton was born in Alfreton, Derbyshire, February
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24, 1812, came to America in 1833, and died in Needham June 6, 1897.
From 1868 to 1874 this building also continued the mill of Isaac A. Hatch & Co., who had the two upper floors during the time that Samuel Sutton & Co. had the lower floors. From 1874 to 1879 the former company had the whole plant, and made hosiery and some jackets. In 1880 William Claflin and others as trustees owned this property, and about 1883 it came into the possession of Richard T. Sullivan, who made blankets there for a brief period.1 From 1884 to 1887 the plant was owned by the Keeler Manu- facturing Company, who made a high grade of what is tech- nically known as cut, or flat, underwear, employing upward of one hundred persons. In 1888 William Carter bought the mill, with other property, at a bargain, and leased it to the Union Cycle Company, which company increased the size of the building, and did a large business in the manufacture of bicycles. About 1902 the plant became Mill No. 2, or the Lower Mill, of the William Carter Com- pany, which transferred all of its machinery to this mill.
Notwithstanding the traditional "Old Indian Curse" resting on this valley, the industry now located there ap- pears to be entirely successful.
Before the Lyon dam was built there was a small one at what is now the south end of the large pond, where the water flows in from the hinge-factory pond, and there was a building in which an Englishman, named Townsend, had two carding machines for making woolen rolls. Henry M. McIntosh said that he saw the machines in operation, and that after the Lyon mill was burned Mr. Lyon built a small dam near the one that Mr. Townsend had, and a canal was made along the side-hill extending several hundred feet to a building subsequently finished into a dwelling- house. There was no water-wheel on this canal, and later it was filled up.
1 It is said that before Mr. Sullivan had this mill shoddy was made there.
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The extensive greenhouses of Denys Zirngiebel, formerly of the Botanic Gardens of Harvard University, have been located in Needham for forty years, or more, and are justly noted for rare and beautiful flowers. In 1868 James Cart- wright had greenhouses on Cartwright Street in what is now Wellesley, and his family has continued in the business, both in Needham and Wellesley, to the present time (19II). Prior to the Civil War James Cartwright had been a grower of fine vegetables in Needham.
Arthur Whitaker for a number of years supplied Marston's restaurants with sweet corn, and was described in the news- papers as the "Corn King of New England". In September, 1903, he sent to Boston, by his own teams, three hundred bushels per day, and is said to have had ninety acres in sweet corn, but apparently the acreage was nearer seventy- five. Mr. Whitaker was an enterprising man, and for more than twenty years the Hillside Farm, as he called his estate, was widely and favorably known, and its herd of cows, about forty in number, was a credit to its owner. He died in 1906, while in the prime of life.
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