USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > North Brookfield > History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Preceded by an account of old Quabaug, Indian and English occupation, 1647-1676; Brookfield records, 1686-1783 > Part 50
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In District No. I there were eighty-two polls, and the property tax- payers were Alvin Allen, Sophia E. Ayres, William J. Babbitt, Elias Bart- lett, Joseph P. Benoit, Louis Borbou, Patrick Burns, William W. Clark, James P. Coolidge, John DeLand, Cheney Dewing, Jeremiah Dewing, John B. Dewing, John B. Dewing (guardian), Fanny M. Earle, Frank Girard, Tryphosa Graves, William C. Griffin, James A. Hall, George T. Hill, Warner Hill, Francis W. Hill, Lorenzo Holmes, William L. Holmes, Lucinda Holmes, Jesse B. Ives, Hurlbert H. Johnson, Joseph E. Kim- ball, B. G. Kimball, William C. King, Emeline B. King, Nelson A. Lom- bard, William H. Montague, Sally A. Nichols, Pliny Nye, Ebenezer Nye, Frederick A. Potter, Robert Potter, Thomas Potts, William A. Robinson, William H. Sampson, J. Moses Smith, Susannah Smith, Jacob Smith, Charles J. Smith, David W. Smith, John N. Smith, Morris Splane, Joseph W. Thompson, W. W. Torrey, Levi S. Thurston, William P. Whiting, W. H. Whiting. Andrew Whiting, Louisa Whiting. Non-residents : Joseph S. Bates, James M. Corlis, Adolphus Hamilton.
In District No. 2, 592 polls ; property tax-payers : William Adams, Charles Adams, jr., Charles W. Adams, William Agin (or Egan), F. S. Amidon, William H. Ayres, William Barron, John Barry, A. W. Bartlett, Hiram P. Bartlett, Elias H. Bartlett, Marshall Bartlett, Liana P. Barton,
472
SECOND PRECINCT-NORTH BROOKFIELD.
John Barstow, Orra Batcheller, Ezra Batcheller, E. & A. H. Batcheller & Co., Aldin Batcheller, E. D. Batcheller, A. & E. D. Batcheller, William H. Beecher, Katherine E. Beecher, Hiram M. Bemis, Thomas H. Bemis, Norman D. Belding, Louis D. Beauregard, L. E. Bliss, Bliss & Pepper, Enoch Blood, Gilbert Bond, William P. Bosworth, Sylvander Bothwell, E. W. Boynton, Timothy Bresnehan, Lysander Brewer, Alexander L. Brown, John W. Bryant, Isaac Bryant, George Bryant, Charles A. Bush, Alfred Burrill, Louis Byron, James Cain, John Calvert, Dennis Campion, John Carter, Hiram Carruth, Charles H. Cary, Wilder Caswell, Oliver Champney, Alden Chapman, Timothy P. Clark, Samuel Clark, Thomas Collier, Dennis Conroy, Edward Conroy, Alpheus Converse, Jeremiah Costigan, Michael Coughlin, Daniel Coughlin, Patrick Crowley, Benja- min Cummings, jr., Joseph A. Cunningham, Samuel H. Skerry, Foster P. Cutler, John Daley, Andrew Damon, Stillman A. Dane, Emerson Dane, Patrick Daniels, John Daniels, Joseph De Lage, Henry De Land, William M. De Land, B. K. De Land, L. P. De Land, Sarah Ann De Land, G. H. De Bevois, Thomas Delaney, George F. Dewing, Margaret A. Dewing, J. H. P. Dickinson, John Doyle, Daniel Donavan, John Derosier, Ed- ward Dowling, John Dowling, Catherine Dowling, Thomas Donahue, John Doyle, William Doyle, Calvin W. Drury, Cornelius Duggan, Michael Duffy, William Dunn, Charles Duncan, Charles Duncan (agent), William Duncan, James Duncan, T. M. Duncan, L. C. Duncan, Peter Duprey, Thomas Early, L. A. Eddy, S. M. Edmands, Edmands, Duncan, & Hurl- but, S. S. Edmands, S. S. Edmands (guardian), Hiram Edson, Joseph Ellery, Isaac Fairbanks, L. H. Fairbanks, George Faneuf, John Fennel, Robert Fennel, Henry Foote, N. H. Foster, A. C. Foster, Mrs. L. H. Foster, A. H. Foster, Anson H. French, Richard Flynn, William Gaul, Thomas Gilbert, Daniel Gilbert (heirs of), Mary D. Gilbert, Hannah W. Gilbert, George A. Gilmore, George E. Gilmore, Dennis Gleason, Thomas Gleason, H. B. Goodell, Freehold Goddard, Leonard Graves, Addison S. Hair, Lucius M. Harris, Jonas Harwood, Freeman M. Haskell, Edward P. Haskell, William J. Haskell, Erasmus Haston, Erasmus Haston (trus- tee), Patrick Hafey, J. F. Hebard, J. L. Hebard, Charles W. Hebard, James Hennessy, Erastus Hill, Jason B. Hill, Elizabeth R. Hill, Lawson M. Hill, Albert Hobbs, Lyman J. Hobbs, Lorenzo Holmes (trustee Methodist-Episcopal Society), Bartholomew Howard, Michael Howard, Murty Howard, 2d, Eugene Howard, Pliny K. Howe, Walter H. Howe, Thomas R. Howe, Whitney Hooker, Sumner Holmes, John Ivory, Gideon B. Jenks, James N. Jenks, Henry S. Johnson, Joseph Junior, Thomas Kelley, James Kelley, P. H. Kellogg, Charles T. Kendrick, E. M. Kitt- redge, Hiram Knight, Samuel Lamb, Frank Lamareaux, John D. Lamson, J. F. Larkum, John Lawler, jr., John Lawler, Addison Leach, George C. Lincoln, Lincoln & May, Jeremiah Lodge, John Lupien, Wallace
473
SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
Lupien, Timothy Lynch, Jeremiah Lynch, Edward Magner, John Mahan, John Mahar, John McCombs, Patrick Maloney, Michael Maloney, Sax- ton P. Martin, Joel H. May, Jeremiah McCarthy, John B. Maxwell, Patrick McNamara, Mrs. M. C. Meade, James Miller, Elizabeth Moore, Sumner Mullet, John Murphy, William Noone, Bonum Nye, Calvin W. Nutting, Charles O'Brien, 2d, Michael O'Brien, Patrick O'Brien, Dennis O'Brien, Thomas O'Grady, Alden Olmstead, Lysander Olmstead, New- ton M. Perkins, George W. Perkins, Elisha P. Perry, Persis A. Pickard, Horace S. Pike, Henry A. Pepper, Joseph Poland, William L. Poland, Poland & Stoddard, Anson B. Poland, Joshua Porter, J. E. Porter, Eliza- beth Potter, John H. Potter, Peter F. X. Potvin, Patrick Powers, Benja- min Prouty, Melisse Prouty, Dennis Quigley, John Quigley, D. & J. Quigley, John Quigley, 2d, M. T. Reed, Sumner Reed, Henry Reed, jr., Anthony Roberts, James R. Rogers, Warren F. Rogers, John Rusk, Horace F. Rich, Solomon B. Sargent, Daniel A. Sampson, Alexander Scott, Jeremiah Shehan, Anna Shedd, Samuel H. Skerry, Augustus Smith, Benjamin Smith, Edmund Smith, H M. Smythe, Thomas Snell, Tilly P. Snow, William A. Snow, Joseph Snow, Hiram P. Shedd, H. H. Sparks, George Stearns, H. G. Stoddard, Stoddard & Lincoln, John D. Stoddard, George Stoddard, Elijah Stoddard, Dexter Stoddard, Curtis Stoddard, Stoddard & Montague, Frank P. Stoddard, Benjamin F. Stowe, George WV. Stowe, Lorin S. Squire, Hiram G. Thompson, Henry Thompson, Rebecca D. Tomblin, Thomas H. Tucker, Horace Tucker, Henry P. Tucker, Lyman Tucker, John E. Tucker, Edward L. Tucker, Warren Tyler, William Vance, Mary Walker, Amasa Walker, Freeman Walker, F. Walker & Co., Salinda Walker, Arnold F. Wallace, George R. Warren, Elliot D. Webber, David J. Weeks, F. E. Weeks, B. C. Weld, Lewis Whiting, Daniel Whiting, Edward B. Whiting, Martin D. Wires, Rhoda Wilcox, D. B. Woodard, David R. Woodis, Lucius S. Woodis, Woodis & Crawford ; non-residents, Rebecca Adams, Charles P. Adams, A. O. Blood, Blood & De Lane, N. H. De Lane, Gilbert Folsum, George F. Gulliver, John Gilman, J. Evarts Green, Anna Lowe, Francis Miller, Thomas Parsons, Thomas H. Richardson, Richardson, Knight, & Pea- body, Esther Waters.
In District No. 3, 34 polls ; property tax-payers : Amos Adams, James C. Ayres, Henry W. Ayres, Dwight W. Bowen, Jonathan P. Brown, Mar- shall Coy, Jeremiah Crowley, D. Cota, B. W. Dean, Minerva De Land, Stillman Dodge, estate of Rufus Dodge, Leroy Glazier, Alvin Howe, Henry Nealor, Michael Ronan, John J. Sherman, Benjamin Stevens, H. Penn Tyler, Joseph L. Walker, Osburn Whiting, Sidney A. Whiting, James F. Woodard, Paul Wine ; non-residents, A. C. Blanchard, Barnes & Aiken, Warren Dane, John Dresse, Edmand Hunt, David M. Havens, Lewis & Blodgett, Gilbert F. Lincoln, A. W. Reed, A. W. Smith, heirs of L. D. Tomblen, George L. Twichell.
474
SECOND PRECINCT- NORTH BROOKFIELD.
In District No. 4, 61 polls ; property tax-payers : Hiram Allen, Alonzo Bell, John Bigelow, Silas H. Bigelow, Joseph E. Bigelow, Renselaer Bliss, Rufus S. Boynton, John Conroy, John Downey, James Downey, Austin Edgarton, John F. Gilbert, Daniel J. Haley, Alanson Haskell, James M. Haskins, Charles T. Huntington, George Jenks, Gideon Jenks, Joseph Kendrick, Charles H. Kendrick, Mary Luce, John Mahoney, 2d, Timothy Murphy, Cornelius Murphy, Homer R. Prouty, Dwight H. Prouty, John N. Prouty, Jeremiah Shea, Myron W. Sherman, Charles Southworth, James Stone, Ezra B. Stone, Charles C. Torrey, Joseph W. Tucker, Freeman S. Tucker, Harlow Thrasher, jr., Joseph B. Tyler, Judith Waite, Morris Welch, Joseph B. Wheelock; non-residents, John D. Bigelow, Daniel Dane, Oliver A. Davis, H. W. Hamilton, heirs of Comfort Miller, Betsey Nye, Joshua Rainger, Charles M. Rich, Jonathan Webb, Joseph L. Woods.
In District No. 5, 28 polls ; property tax payers : Albert B. Clapp, William F. Doane, Michael Glennon, John Hill, L. E. Hill, Nancy E. Hill, Murty Howard, Lucy Hunter, Joel M. Kingsbury, John Knight, Edward Lodge, John Mahoney, Owen McCarthy, Ebenezer Mead, Michael Murphy, John A. Rice, Charles Robinson, Leonard Stoddard, Curtis Stoddard, 2d, Arunia Woodis, Luther W. Woodis ; non-residents, H. W. & O. Crawford, Nathaniel Harrington, Erastus W. Loomis, Gor- ham H. Wood, Freeman Frost.
In District No. 6, 26 polls ; property tax-payers : Judson E. Adams, Margaret Carney, John Daley, 2d, Rowland F. Doane, Hubbard S. Doane, Lucy Edmands, heirs of Samuel Edmands, James G. Farley, Daniel Griffin, William Johnson, George W. Knight, E. Damon Knight. Sanford Ludden, Joseph A. Moore, Ebenezer Parkman, H. L. Parkman, Charles Parkman, Alfred D. Parkman, John Pellet, Richard M. Powers, J. Bryant Tucker ; non-residents, Otis Barton, Joseph Fobes, Freeman Holman.
In District No. 7, 41 polls ; property tax-payers, Rufus Babcock, H. A. Belcher, George A. Bemis, Carlo R. Bemis, Louis Burno, Edward Cain, Michael Cain, Freeman R. Doane, Hiram Forbes, heirs of Dexter Forbes, William Fullam, Nathaniel Green, Mary Green, Horace Green, Thomas A. Harwood, George Harwood, Ethan A. Harwood, George Harwood (trustee), James Heffron, John Hoone, Timothy Horrigan, Persis Howe, Oliver Hinds, George Jackson, Charles E. Jenks, David W. Lane, Horace Spooner, Avilda B. Stoddard, Edwin M. Tucker, Moses Tyler, Josiah Whiting, Catherine B. Whiting, Nymphus M. Whiting, David L. Winslow, William E. Wright, Catherine J. Wright ; non-resi- dents, T. J. Cowing (or his heirs), Elisha Drake, Pliny Forbes, Jesse Moulton, Abner Smith, heirs of O. A. Tomblin, Aaron Watson.
In District No. 8, 31 polls ; property tax-payers : William M. Allen,
475
HIGH SCHOOL.
Alphonso Avery, Frank Beautiette, Andrew Buxton, Patrick Claffey, Daniel Drake, Hiram Eaton, Charles H. Forbes, Martha A. Forbes, Horace Hamant, Lucius F. Hamant, Parker Johnson, Charles Kittredge, Job Matthews, Catherine Stevens, Loren G. Sherman, Charles K. Stod- dard, John Stone, Israel Wedge, Lawson Wood ; non-residents, Walter S. Allen, Thomas Clark, heirs of T. W. Converse, Reuben Drake, Fran- cis Drake, George Forbes, George F. Forbes, E. B. Hillman, John N. Vaughn.
HIGH SCHOOL.
As stated in the text, on page 277, a public high school was estab- lished in town in 1857. " For several years before this date," says Mr. T. C. Bates in an address delivered at the re-union of past and present members, Dec. 2, 1878, " there had been in the town, occasionally, what were called select schools. These were of a higher grade than our common schools, and were maintained by those who patronized them, a certain sum being paid per term by the scholars to the teacher, who received no money from the town. Some of these were very superior schools, and productive of great good. Many of those present to-night, will remember the excellent school of Rev. William Miller ; and although this was prior to the establishment of our high school, it is doubtful if any person who has ever taught in our town, with perhaps a single exception, was more popular with both scholars and parents than Mr. Miller. The single exception to which I refer, is Mr. O. W. Whitaker, the first princi- pal of our high school. Without doubt it was from the great interest which these select schools inspired among our people generally, that our high school was first established and sustained at the expense of the town by taxation, in the same manner all our public schools were maintained. There was evident need for such a school here, not occasionally a term during the fall or spring, but continuously, from year to year. Many of our people who were very desirous of giving their children a better edu- cation than they could obtain in our common schools, did not have the means with which to carry out their wishes ; and to such an extent was this sentiment pervading the town, that it did not require much of an effort to secure a vote to establish such an institution here in permanent form, to be maintained at the expense of the people as a whole by general taxation. Accordingly, a high-school house was built in 1856-7, at a cost of $9,225.
" There were men, of course, who criticised the investment, and seri- ously questioned the advisability ; some from one motive, and some from another. Some tax payers had no children to be educated, and opposed the appropriations from year to year by the town. Others lived far from the centre village, and deemed it improbable that they would ever get sufficient advantages to justify their cheerfully submitting to taxation for
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SECOND PRECINCT-NORTH BROOKFIELD.
educating the children of others. But as a whole, the people of North Brookfield have been very liberal in their appropriations for this pur- pose, having expended since the school was first started the sum of $20,71I to maintain it, not including the cost the present year of $2,000, which, added to the first cost of the building, makes a total of $29,936. The cost of the new building, to take the place of the one destroyed by fire, will be about $7,000 in excess of the amount received for insurance on the old one. Thus it will be seen that there has been up to the pres- ent time, an outlay by the town of about $40,000 to establish and main- tain for twenty years our high school.
" The following is a list of teachers of the high school, from its open- ing to the close of 1878 : --
1857-60. Mr. O. W. Whitaker, ten terms.
1861. Mr. Francis Burt, one term.
1862. No school this year.
1863.
Mr. Leonard Morrison, one term.
1864. Mr. Henry E. Storrs, one term.
1865-6. Rev. B. P. Snow, seven terms.
1867. Mr. C. F. Spoor, one term.
1867. Mr. C. E. Dunshea, one term.
1867-8. Mr. E. H. Barlow, four terms.
1869-72.
Miss F. A. Caldwell, eleven terms.
1872-3.
Mr. A. H. Jewell, two terms.
1873-4.
Mr. A. H. Mann, three terms.
I874. Mr. A. H. Weaver, one term.
1875-7. Mr. C. M. Clay, ten terms.
1878. Mr. D. N. Putney, one term.
" In this time there have been fourteen principals and eight assistants, and about seven hundred different scholars. And what is the visible re- sult ? One of our number has attained to eminence as a lawyer, and is the present city solicitor of Worcester - I refer to F. T. Blackmer, Esq .; another is sure to make his mark in the same line - I refer to Henry W. King, now in the Law school at Cambridge ; we have sent forth three phy- sicians, viz., Drs. George Spooner, Will. Hebard and Eben Perkins ; three are clergymen, viz. Rev. Edwin Babcock, Charles Huntington and Robert Clark ; two are bankers, E. W. Skerry in Iowa, and Alfred Burrill in Boston ; one, Alonzo Stoddard, is a singer of national reputa- tion. Many young lady graduates have already acquired praiseworthy renown as teachers in our public schools. And every part of our United States is to-day receiving benefits from the former students of this school.
" Who can ever estimate the great advantages of this institution thus far in our community, socially and morally, as well as in an educational
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HIGH SCHOOL.
point of view ? No one. Its benefits have been manifold, and its cost is most amply repaid to our people, in ways that may not be easily dem- onstrated in detail - but are none the less real."
The school committee in their Report for 1878 say : "The high school building was burnt May 14, and a new brick house has been erected on its site. It has double the seating capacity of the old one. . . . Through the liberality of T. C. Bates, Esq., an excellent bell was placed in the tower, soon after its completion. Principal C. M. Clay closed the fourth year of his service, and was succeeded by Mr. D. N. Putney, who re- signed at the close of the first term, and the committee have engaged Mr. R. B. Clarke."
1879. - The town made a special appropriation of $500, for the pur- chase of apparatus for the high school. "The school is well supplied in the department of Physics, and has an excellent cabinet case in which to keep the apparatus." Teachers this year : Mr. R. B. Clarke, Miss Emily Edson.
1880. - The town appropriated the sum of $1,200, to finish and fur- nish two rooms in the high-school building ; and at a special meeting " voted, to elevate the L in the rear, in order to give an exit on that side from all the rooms " - which was done at a cost of $355.
Teachers, Mr. R. B. Clarke, Miss Emily Edson, H. L. Briggs, Clara Coleman, music teacher ; salaries paid in all $1,857.
1881. - The school committee in their annual Report say : " High School - In addition to a preparatory course for college, a course of English studies has been prescribed, in order that pupils not wishing to pursue a college course may have the privilege of receiving the benefit of a three-years English course in the High School, without being com- pelled to study Latin and Greek, or leave the school. A class of the ninth grade is still in the school, so that the aggregate number of pupils is fifty-two. Without this class, and the English department, the school would contain only twenty-six members."
Teachers : first term, Mr. R. B. Clarke, Miss Helen L. R. Briggs ; second and third terms, Mr. George H. Cummings, Miss Mary E. Kim- ball.
1882. - " The course of study in the High School has been revised and completed. The General Course has been much changed and en- larged. Instead of the three years course, a full course of four years has been substituted. It seemed manifestly unjust that those who do not care to pursue the study of Latin and Greek through the whole course, should be cut off from the benefits of equal training, along their chosen line, with those who preferred the Classical Course. And, on the other hand, it was equally unjust, and also detrimental to the interests and to the reputation of our schools, that those who had taken but a partial
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SECOND PRECINCT- NORTH BROOKFIELD.
course of three years should receive the same graduating honors, and a certificate of like attainments as those who had done the work and received the discipline of a full course. The natural limit of time for recitation forbids as wide a divergence in the two courses as we could wish ; and as far as possible they are made to harmonize during the two first years. After the first half of the second year, Latin is dropped from the General Course, and higher English branches take its place.
With the present possibilities of lower grade instruction, it is impossible to fit students properly for college in the four years of High School study. It seemed best, therefore, to add a year of post-graduate study for such as would like to pursue a college course."
Teachers, Mr. George H. Cummings, Miss Mary E. Kimball. Whole number of pupils enrolled, 52.
1883. - Teachers, Mr. Herbert W. Kittridge, Miss Edith J. Ayres.
1884 .- The school year opened with Mr. Kittridge and Miss Ayres in charge of the high school. Mr. K. resigned in the middle of the winter term, much to the regret of the committee and parents. The com- mittee in their report say : " For the good work done, and the noble in- fluences exerted here, great honor and praise are due to Mr. Kittridge, and to his equally able and faithful assistant Miss Edith J. Ayres." Mr. Charles O. Thurston was appointed to fill the place of Mr. K. Number of pupils enrolled, 66.
1885. - Miss Ayres continued her services through the year. Mr. Thurston resigned at the close of the spring term, and Mr. George H. Rockwood was appointed principal, and remained till the close of the year. The number of weeks in the school year, 40 ; number of scholars enrolled, 60 ; average attendance, 57. Amount of salaries paid the two teachers, $1,729.
DEWING & EDMANDS.
REFERRING to ante, p. 275, we will give a somewhat fuller and more accurate statement in regard to the business of this firm and their suc- cessors, than the facts then at hand enabled us to do. Their business was next in amount and importance to that of the Messrs. Batcheller. The firm consisted of G. B. Dewing and S. S. Edmands ; they com- menced business in 1835 at the old Edmands place in the east part of the town, but continned there only a few months, when they removed to the village, and occupied a shop north of the old hotel on the corner where the "Knights of Labor" store now is (1887) ; and after being there two years, they moved into the large three-story shop which they had built on the lot just south of the old hotel, where the "Walker Block " now stands. Here they very much increased their business, making only russet brogans and coarse, thick boots, designed especially
479
DEWING & EDMANDS.
for the Southern trade. In 1837, to increase and facilitate their trade, they established a boot-and-shoe house in Mobile, Ala., where they had a large trade with the planters along the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, furnishing boots and shoes for their slaves, many of whom had feet of enormous size ; and their measures, marked "Tom," "Pete," "Sam," "Joe," etc., were sent on here, and the shoes made and sent on, with each measure inside the shoes with the name. Some of these shoes were made on a last, size IS. Mr. Edmands remembers one pair of shoes of this size, said to be for a slave on a Mississippi plantation, who was formerly an African chief. Mr. Dewing usually spent his winters in Mobile. The firm continued in successful business till 1850, when, hav- ing decided to retire, they sold their shop and the good-will of their trade to S. M. EDMANDS & Co., who succeeded to their business Oct. I, 1850. This company consisted of S. M. Edmands, T. M. Duncan, and L. E. Waite ; but Mr. Waite, having become interested in business at the West, decided to go there, and consequently withdrew from the firm in the spring of 1851. This company manufactured russet brogans (slave- shoes) exclusively, and the great bulk of their goods were sold direct to customers in New Orleans and Mobile, and the balance to jobbing- houses in New York engaged in the Southern trade ; but experience proved that the per cent of losses was much greater on goods sold at New York than those sold direct South. In 1851 the firm sold only forty thousand dollars' worth of goods ; but their trade rapidly increased from year to year, and, feeling the need of more room, they built in 1856 a much larger and more commodious shop nearly opposite Capt. Bonum Nye's on Summer Street, to which they removed in the latter part of 1856 ; and on Aug. I of this year Charles Duncan became a partner in the firm, in which he continued till near the close of 1860, when he sold his interest to the other members of the company, and retired. In I859 the sales of the company amounted to a hundred and ninety-four thousand dollars ; but soon after the presidential election in the fall of 1860, which resulted in the election of Lincoln, the South became en- raged, and secession very soon began. State after State seceded, and all business relations with the slave States were at once terminated ; and if any of the merchants there were disposed to pay their Northern credit- ors, they were strictly prohibited from doing so ; and thus the enormous amounts due to Northern merchants and manufacturers became entirely unavailable so long as the rebellion existed ; and the long and terrible war so impoverished the whole South that all Northern claims were thus almost entirely wiped out. Previous to the war, manufacturers sold nearly all their goods on a credit of six or eight months, and at the breaking-out of the Rebellion this company had claims amounting to upwards of ninety thousand dollars against good customers in New
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SECOND PRECINCT- NORTH BROOKFIELD.
Orleans, Mobile, and one or two other smaller Southern cities, in full settlement of which they received less than twelve thousand dollars after the close of the war ; but the firm paid all their indebtedness, and con- tinued their business with a greatly reduced capital, making mostly, after the war, boots for the New York and Western markets. Mr. E. H. Hurl- but, who had been in the employ of the company ever since it com- menced business in 1850, was admitted as a partner Jan. 1, 1866, and the firm name was changed to EDMANDS, DUNCAN, & HURLBUT ; and the company thus continued with very satisfactory success till Dec. 9, 1871, when their shop and all its contents was destroyed by fire, and the com- pany was dissolved early in 1872.
E. & A. H. BATCHELLER & CO.
ADDITIONAL to what is said (ante, p. 275) in relation to the business of Messrs. E. & A. H. Batcheller & Co., the History Committee are per- mitted to give the following : In 1886 the number of persons employed was thirteen hundred, and the amount of sales of manufactured goods for that year about three millions of dollars.
The factory proper has recently been enlarged, so that in January, 1887, it contained about three acres of flooring.
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