USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1 > Part 44
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HOLLINGSWORTH & VOSE PAPER MILLS, EAST WALPOLE
OFFICES AND MILL OF F. W. BIRD & SON, EAST WALPOLE
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
are proprietors of the Highland Lake Mill in Norfolk, and the American Glue Company of Walpole manufacture sand paper and emery cloth.
Barber's Historical Collections, published in 1848, give a list of thirteen paper mills in Norfolk County, viz: two in Braintree, three in Dedham, six in Need- ham and two in Walpole. One of the mills in Dedham made a specialty of marble and fancy paper.
STRAW GOODS
The introduction of braided straw bonnets into the United States is due to the ingenuity of Miss Betsey Metcalf, daughter of Joel Metcalf of Wrentham. In 1798 Miss Metcalf was employed in the millinery store of Mrs. Naomi Whip- ple in Wrentham, where she saw her first straw bonnet, recently brought from New York. Together she and Mrs. Whipple unbraided a piece of the work and learned how it was made. Then they procured some straw, imitated the braiding, and made a bonnet. The demand for braided straw bonnets increased and they taught others to do the work, the straw braids being taken by the merchants in exchange for goods. Fisher & Day of Wrentham were the pioneers in the indus- try. They were soon followed by Asa and Davis Thayer of Franklin, and a little later Mason & Ellis of Medfield engaged in the business. Amariah Hall of Wrentham began the manufacture of straw bonnets about 1802 and quickly became the leading producer of this line of goods. He was familiarly known as "Bonnet Hall," on account of his success.
In 1856 Walter Janes, who had commenced making straw bonnets about five years before, formed a partnership with Daniel D. Curtis and employed a number of women and girls at their factory in Medfield. On October 3, 1876, this fac- tory was burned, but was immediately rebuilt and in 1877 Edwin V. Mitchell came into the firm. In 1901 the firm took the name of Edwin V. Mitchell & Company, under which it is still in operation, manufacturing a full line of straw hats for both men and women. E. V. Mitchell died in the spring of 1917.
In 1915 there were three straw hat factories in Foxboro, operated by Caton Brothers, John Castillo & Company and Inman & Kimball. Caton Brothers also manufacture felt hats. E. A. Staples & Company represented the straw indus- try in Franklin, Edwin V. Mitchell & Company in Medfield, Hirsh & Guinzburg in Medway, and the Wrentham Hat Company in Wrentham.
MISCELLANEOUS
The early manufacture of boots, shoes and other lines of small wares made necessary packing cases, and box factories were called into existence. One of the oldest establishments of this class is that of R. Loud & Company of Wey- mouth, which dates its beginning from 1850, when Mr. Loud converted his grist mill into a box factory. Five years later E. & C. Sherman began making boxes and carried on the business for several years, when they turned their attention ex- clusively to the manufacture of paper boxes. In 1915 there were seven factories making wooden packing cases, to wit: A. B. Holden, Caryville; Virgil S. Pond, Foxboro; O. F. Metcalf & Sons, Franklin; Medway Box Company ; Ralph O.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
Brown, Sharon; R. Loud & Sons, South Weymouth; and William D. Smith, Wrentham. Plain and fancy paper boxes were then made by the Medway Box Company ; Edward E. Dailey, Needham Heights; M. B. Claff, Randolph ; F. W. Bird & Son, East Walpole; A. O. Crawford, Elon Sherman's Sons and Wey- mouth Paper Box Company, Weymouth.
About the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, Jonas Welch bought the grist mill of William Allen in Braintree and began the manufacture of chocolate. His goods proved to be the best in the market and Welch's chocolate became known all over the country. The chocolate industry in Norfolk County is now represented by the well known firm of Walter Baker & Company, whose head- quarters are in Boston, but have a mill in the Town of Milton.
In April, 1804, Samuel Morrill was born in the Town of Salisbury. Upon arriving at his majority he removed to Norwood and started making printers' ink in a small wooden building with only one kettle and a limited process of making lamp-black. He had previously learned the trade of printer and knew the demand for ink of good quality. His two sons, George H. and Samuel S. Morrill, were taken into partnership and in 1869 the firm name was changed to George H. Morrill & Company. This firm is now known as the George H. Morrill Company and is one of the largest producers of printers' ink in the country.
In 1866 Alexander W. Robertson started a pottery at Chelsea, and about two years later his brother, Hugh C. Robertson, became his partner. In 1872 their father came from Scotland and joined them, the concern then taking the name of James Robertson & Sons. In 1896 a new pottery was built at Dedham and the old one was abandoned. The Dedham pottery took the grand prize at St. Louis in 1904 in art pottery. In 1912 the business was incorporated as the Dedham Pottery Company, with H. E. Weatherby, president, and W. A. Robertson, manager.
The Town of Plainville has four jewelry manufacturing establishments- Thompson & Remington, who do a reducing and refining business, Scofield, Melcher & Scofield, Whiting, Davis & Company, and the Plainville Stock Com- pany.
The only two hammock factories in Massachusetts are located in Norfolk County : James Brayshaw of North Weymouth, and T. B. Thomas & Company of Quincy. Weymouth also boasts one of the three concerns manufacturing fireworks-Edmund S. Hunt & Sons Company. The Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy is one of the important manufacturing concerns of the county, the plant being greatly enlarged in 1917.
When it is realized that there are over four hundred manufacturing plants in the county, it can be understood how impracticable it would be to attempt a full history of each one in a work of this nature. Some idea of the importance of the manufacturing industries of the county may be gained from the following table, which has been compiled from the 1915 report of the State Bureau of Statistics, a few of the establishments not making returns of the amount of capi- tal invested and the number of employees :
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
Towns
No. of Estab.
Capital
No. of Emp'ees
Paid in Wages
Avon
I
Bellingham
4
Braintree
18
$ 3,299,000
1,900
$ 1,105,000
Brookline
16
233,500
126
98,000
Canton
13
3,176,000
890
521,000
Cohasset
3
613,900
180
93,200
Dover
I
Foxboro
13
746,700
317
177,600
Franklin
24
2,469,000
1,100
627,300
Holbrook
I
Medfield
2
Medway
9
389,300
435
248,300
Millis
4
82.700
51
24,900
Needham
19
1,666,500
690
277,500
Norfolk
3
Norwood
22
8.549,000
2,245
1,545,500
Plainville
6
986,400
315
216,200
Quincy
I57
19,868,200
ยท 6.475
5,233,000
Randolph
9
723,700
380
277,600
Sharon
3
Stoughton
19
2,469,000
1,200
681,500
Walpole
13
5.325,400
1,283
859,000
Wellesley
6
712,600
228
112,800
Weymouth
30
5,774,000
1,824
1,087,000
Wrentham
3
Total
416
$57,084.900
19,639
$13,185,400
.
.
Dedham
13
Milton
4
CHAPTER XLII
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
TASK OF THE PIONEERS-MOTHER BROOK-EARLY HIGHWAYS-TURNPIKES-STAGE LINES-THE RAILROAD ERA-THE GRANITE RAILWAY-FIRST RAILROAD CHARTERS -THE DEDHAM BRANCH-OLD COLONY RAILROAD-NORFOLK COUNTY RAILROAD -- OTHER RAILROADS-ELECTRIC RAILWAY LINES-FORE RIVER IMPROVEMENT.
When the first white men settled in Norfolk County they found the country "fresh from the hands of Nature." Indian trails, dim and indistinct in places, were the only roads, the streams were without bridges and fordable only at certain places. To develop this wild region and render it habitable was the task of the Puritan pioneers. Those who live in the present day, in the full enjoyment of the fruits of three centuries of development, can scarcely realize the magnitude of that task.
MOTHER BROOK
One of the first necessities of the early settlers was some means of grinding their corn into meal. Water power was depended upon to run the mill, but in the neighborhood of Dedham no suitable water power could be found. Some one (it would be interesting to know who) suggested that East Brook, which flowed into the Neponset River, had sufficient fall to run a mill if the volume of water could be increased. To furnish the necessary volume of water it was proposed to cut an artificial canal from the Charles River to the headwaters of East Brook, a distance of about three-fourths of a mile. How long the subject was discussed by the citizens is not known, but it came before a town meeting in Dedham on March 25, 1639, when the following action was taken :
"Ordered yt a Ditch shalbe made at a Comon Charge through purchased medowe unto ye East brooke yt may both be a pticon fence in ye same: as also may serve for a Course unto a water mill: yf it shalbe fownd fitting to set a mill upon ye sayd brooke by ye Judgemt of a workeman for yt purpose."
The ditch was completed some time the following year. It appears that the project was undertaken without the authority of the General Court, and it is quite probable that the work of excavation was done by the citizens as volunteers. This was doubtless the first artificial canal in the United States. Erastus Worth- ington, in speaking of this canal in 1884, said: "The turning of the Waters of Charles River by means of the artificial channel, and uniting them with the head- waters of East Brook in 1640, has proved to be most beneficial and permanent in its consequences through all the subsequent history of the town. Until the beginning of the present century it furnished saw mills and grist mills, then of
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1
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
the highest importance, with power, and from 1807 down to the present time there have been erected upon it cotton and woolen mills, which have been pros- perous and have contributed to the substantial growth of the town."
According to Mann's Annals of Dedham (p. 37), on May II, 1789, "a con- mittee chosen to ascertain the town's claim to Mother Brook stream and land adjoining, formerly granted to Nathaniel Whiting and James Draper, reported that Messrs. Joseph Whiting, Jr., Paul, Moses and Aaron Whiting have con- sented to give the town six pounds for an acquittance of the town's claim to said stream, and advise a compliance with these terms." The report of the committee was accepted and the town treasurer was instructed to give a quit claim deed in behalf of the town upon receipt of the money. The canal is also known as Mill Creek.
EARLY HIGHWAYS
For better protection against Indian depredations, the first settlers built their habitations near to each other, hence the greatest need of highways was for roads from one settlement to another. In looking over the early records of the various towns, one will notice frequent petitions for the opening of highways of this class. Within a few years after it was first settled, Boston became the com- mercial center of Massachusetts and the desire of the people was for roads that would give them access to the metropolis.
One of the first roads in what is now Norfolk County grew out of the act of the General Court in 1634, which "gave Boston enlargement at Mount Wol- laston." Before the close of that year Israel Stoughton built his mill on the Neponset River, at the foot of Milton Hill, on the Dorchester side of the streamn, four miles from the nearest settlement on the north, while on the south the nearest inhabitants were those at Wessagusset. Naturally the scattering settle- ments wanted a road to the mill. The opening of this road consisted merely of the. removal of the trees and other obstructions as might impede the passage of a cart, the matter of grading being left for future consideration. In 1635 the General Court authorized John Holland to "keep a ferry across the Nepon- set, near Stoughton's mill, and to charge each passenger four pence, except in cases where there were more than one passenger, in which event each was to be charged three pence."
In November, 1639, the coast road was ordered laid out by the General Court. but the order was not executed until two years later. This road passed through Braintree, with branches to Squantum Head and Hough's Neck. It remained the principal thoroughfare from that town to Boston until the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. In 1648 the road from Weymouth to Dorchester was formally laid out, passing by the Braintree meeting house and Wright's mill. This road was afterward extended to Hingham, and ultimately to Plymouth.
In April, 1660, two highways were ordered to be laid out through the new grant of land to the Medway proprietors-"one at a distance of half a mile north of the Charles River from east to west, and the other through the midst of the tract from the way that runs west to a line to the north end of the same."
Shortly after the plantation at Wollomonopoag (now Wrentham) was estab- lished in 1663, a highway from that plantation to Dedham was confirmed by the
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
Dedham selectmen, the road to run "at ye east ende of their lotts." Part of this road now forms South street in the Town of Wrentham. After the Indian deed to Needham and Dedham Island was obtained by the settlers in 1680, a road was opened from Dedham to the new purchase and a bridge was built across the Charles River at the place known as "The Canoes." In 1684 the road was extended to Needham Great Plain, where it intersected the road from Boston to Natick.
A road from Medfield to Wrentham was opened in 1684. It crossed the Charles River near the present village of Rockville, in the Town of Millis. From Medfield it was extended westward to Worcester, and from Wrentham eastward to Taunton, in time becoming one of the main thoroughfares of the Common- wealth. Where the Village of Franklin is now situated, this road was crossed by one running from Dedham to Woonsocket, Rhode Island. At Dedham it connected with the road leading to Boston.
Before the middle of the Eighteenth Century a road was opened from Boston to Providence. It passed through the towns of Dedham, Norwood, Walpole, Foxboro and Wrentham, and afterward became a post road, over which mail riders passed each way three times a week. It was a link in the great mail route that ran from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Williamsburg, Virginia. though when that route was first established in 1693, it ran west of Providence, via Saybrook, Connecticut. It continued as mail route until after the advent of the railroad, and it is said that one express rider carried President Jackson's mes- sage from Boston to Providence in two and three-quarter hours. Most of the through roads were formed by building short stretches of highway here and there to connect local roads.
During the first century the question of keeping the roads in repair was one that was difficult of solution. In fact, it is doubtful whether any systematic repairs were made. About the middle of the Eighteenth Century, Weymouth and Roxbury adopted the system of levying a tax for the repair and improve- ment of the highways. These two towns were probably the first in Massachu- setts to apply such a system.
TURNPIKES
About the beginning of the Nineteenth Century a demand arose for better roads. To meet this demand turnpike companies were chartered by the General Court, with authority to build roads and charge toll for their use by travelers. The Boston & Hartford Turnpike Company was one of the first to receive a charter and the road was completed in 1806. From Boston it ran in a south- westerly direction, entering Worcester County not far from the Town of Milford.
The Weymouth & Braintree Turnpike Company was chartered on March 4, 1803, and the road was opened to travel in 1805. It entered Weymouth at Weymouth Landing and followed a southeasterly course to Hingham, on the line from Boston to Plymouth. For nearly fifty years toll was collected on this road, but on July 15, 1852, it was made a public highway. Washington street in Weymouth is a part of this old turnpike.
Another turnpike opened about the same time, was the Norfolk & Bristol, which passed through Dedham. Erastus Worthington, writing of this turnpike
365
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
in 1827, said: "The steamboats from New York land their passengers at Provi- dence, and in a few hours afterwards six or seven stages full may be frequently seen a mile south of the village descending into it, bringing sometimes the dust with them which they raise. Every other day the mail arrives on its way to Washington City."
On February 29, 1804, the New Bedford Turnpike Company obtained a charter to build and operate a turnpike from the Weymouth & Braintree pike, about a mile from Weymouth Landing, running thence southward to the Abing- ton line, on the route from Boston to New Bedford. Before many years the northern part of the road was relinquished by the company, because the expense of keeping it up was greater than the revenue derived from it, and it now forms part of Main street in Weymouth.
The Neponset Turnpike ran from Quincy to the Neponset River near the old site of Israel Stoughton's mill and was opened early in the century. James Thayer began running a "baggage-wagon" from Quincy to Boston upon the completion of this pike, sometimes carrying passengers who were not too fas- tidious to put up with the accommodations.
In 1808 the Quincy & Hingham Bridge and Turnpike Company was incorpo- rated. Bridges were built over the Fore and Back rivers in Weymouth and the company charged vessels tolls for using the draws, as well as travelers who passed over the road. The bridge tolls were the source of much ill feeling and contention and the road was finally thrown upon the towns as a public highway in September, 1862. There were other turnpike companies, but the above were the principal lines in the county.
STAGE LINES
Before railroads were built, stage coaches were the only public means of transportation between Boston and the interior towns. The first stage line between Boston and Providence was established in 1767. At Providence it con- nected with another stage line, running to New York. About 1785 Hazard started his line of mail coaches from Boston to Bristol Ferry, and later to New Haven, where the mail coach connected with a steamer for New York. With the building of the turnpikes the coaching business greatly increased, and in the first quarter of the Nineteenth Century a number of lines were in operation. In the Dedham Gazette of February 1I, 1814, appears the following advertisement :
"Martin Marsh respectfully informs the public that he has commenced running a Stage from Dedham to Boston. The stage will start every day, Sun- day excepted, from his tavern adjoining the Court House in Dedham, at 7 o'clock in the morning in summer, and at half past eight in the winter season, and puts up at Mr. Davenport's tavern, Elm Street, formerly Wing's Lane, Boston. Seats may be taken at Mr. Davenport's, Elm St., or at Mr. Boynton's Sign of the Lamb, Newbury St., Boston, and at Marsh's Tavern, Dedham. Fare each way 621/2 cents."
Two lines of stages-the Peoples' and the Citizens'-were running between Boston and Providence at the time Mr. Marsh started his local stage, and there was much rivalry between the two companies as to which could make the trip in the shortest time. Ordinarily, the coaches made the run in about four and
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
a half hours. Then the Citizens' Company had built some light coaches and shortened the time about one hour. At one time this company owned about three hundred horses, and a relay of fresh horses was always in waiting at the stopping places. In Dedham, the Peoples' stages started from the Phoenix Hotel, and the Citizens' from the Norfolk House. The stables of the former adjoined the hotel and the company lost about sixty horses by the burning of the Phoenix Hotel and stables on October 30, 1832. During the palmy days of the stage coaching era as many as forty stages passed over the road in a single day in the busy season.
In 1815 a line of stages began running between Boston and Cohasset, leaving Dock Square in Boston on Monday, Thursday and Saturday of each week, and returning on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. About the same time Jedediah Little & Company started the Boston & Scituate "Accommodation Stage," which made three trips each way weekly. It carried the mail to Marshfield, Hingham, Cohasset and Scituate.
Simon Gillett purchased the "route and good will" of James Thayer's baggage wagon in 1823, and put on a regular passenger coach called the "John Hancock," which made four trips weekly between Quincy and Boston. The coach left Quincy early in the morning, stopped at Barnard's, Elm Street, Boston, and started upon the return trip about four o'clock in the afternoon.
The south shore towns-Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, Scituate and Plymouth-never depended as much upon stage coaches for communication with Boston as did the towns farther from the coast. About 1821 Capt. George Beal began making regular trips between Hingham and Boston with the packet "Lafayette," charging a fare each way of thirty-seven and a half cents. A few years later he built a better boat-the "General Lincoln"-and stopped at all the "way points" between Scituate and Boston. Other boats came into use, carrying both passengers and freight, which rendered stage coaching in this part of Norfolk County an unprofitable venture.
THE RAILROAD ERA
In January, 1826, a petition signed by Gridley Bryant, Amos Lawrence, Thomas H. Perkins, David Moody, William Sullivan and Solomon Willard, was presented to the Legislature, asking for a charter to build a railroad from the Quincy stone quarries to the Neponset River. All the petitioners were residents of Boston except Mr. Willard, who lived in Quincy. On January 25, 1826, a Quincy town meeting appointed a committee of fifteen to confer with the legis- lative committee that had the bill in charge. with the result that an act of incor- poration was passed and approved by the governor. The "Granite Railway Company" was then organized with Thomas H. Perkins as president.
The idea of building the road originated with Gridley Bryant, who had a contract of furnishing the stone for the Bunker Hill Monument, and hit on this plan of getting the stone to Boston. Work was commenced on the road in April, 1826, and on the 7th of October the first train of cars passed over the entire length of the track, a distance of about four miles. In building the road Mr. Bryant used stone sleepers, placed about six or eight feet apart, upon which were set timbers 6 by 12 inches, placed on edge, and on the top of the wooden
367
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
rails were fastened iron strips four inches wide and a half-inch thick. Years afterward, when the road passed into the hands of the Old Colony Railroad Company, the stone sleepers were replaced by wooden ties and the rails by iron ones. It has been claimed that this was the first railroad ever built in the United States under a charter granted by a state legislature.
In the early years of the Nineteenth Century canals were built from Worcester to Providence and from Northampton to New Haven. These canals connected with Long Island Sound and afforded easy means of transportation to New York. Surveys were made for a canal from Boston to the Hudson River, but before it could be built attention was diverted to the railroad as the best means of carrying freight and passengers. In 1827 the Legislature appointed a board of commissioners "to cause surveys to be made of the most practicable routes for a railroad from Boston to the Hudson River, at or near Albany." Four years later charters were granted to three railroad companies-the Boston & Lowell, the Boston & Providence, and the Boston & Worcester.
The last named road was completed to Wellesley in 1834 and the steam engine as a motive power for moving cars was for the first time introduced in New England. Trains began running on the Boston & Providence in June of the same year. In July, 1835, the first train ran from Boston to Worcester. This road is now a part of the Boston & Albany.
THE DEDHAM BRANCH
When the Boston & Providence Railroad was nearing completion, a meeting was held in Dedham to consider the question of building a branch to that town. A charter was obtained through an act of the Legislature, and the first train ran from Boston to Dedham on December 8, 1834. The coaches used on this branch road were fashioned like the old stage coaches, wide enough to accommodate four persons on a seat. They were at first drawn to and from Boston by horses, but after about a year the horses were used only as far as Readville, where the coaches were attached to the steam trains from Providence. On January 30, 1837, the station building at Dedham was burned, with a locomotive and several cars. Horses then again came into use for the full distance between Dedham and Bos- ton, a change of horses being made at "Toll Gate" (now Forest Hills). In 1889 the Boston & Providence passed under the management of the Old Colony Rail- road, and in July, 1893, it became a part of the New York, New Haven & Hart- ford system.
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