USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 52
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 52
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 52
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Hard Times Showed Need of Machinery-There were hard times in the shoe business in 1857. A Lynn concern, Baker & Brothers, failed for from $100,000 to $200,000, throwing five hundred employees out of work. Many firms were obliged to curtail. H. Bingley Alden's firm in Randolph failed, due to slow pay in the Baltimore market. A factory burned in Canton, on the Stoughton turnpike. News came by the steamer "John L. Stephens" from San Francisco, August 12, 1857, that the California markets were depressed and it would need a sus- pension of shipments for two or three months to relieve the situation. Western trading had become unreliable.
There were at that time 32,000 employed in boot and shoemaking in Massachusetts and of this number Randolph was supplying over 1,000. Randolph's population in 1855 was 5,538, an increase of 19.40 per cent in five years. In October that year the Randolph Bank paid a dividend of five per cent and printed a statement that it had a clear surplus of $47,016.72.
The local shoe industry came through the financial depression of 1857 remarkably, well, but the economic pressure had convinced the
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manufacturers that the factory system was their salvation and installa- tion of machinery a necessity.
Abington Shod Half the Union Army-In 1860 when the mutterings of strife were heard, followed by firing on Fort Sumter, and President Lincoln called for volunteers, factories in Plymouth, Essex and Worces- ter counties in Massachusetts together made more than one-third of the boots and shoes produced in the United States, in terms of value. There were $23,000,000 invested in the shoe industry in the United States. New England had $11,000,000 invested in the industry, and furnished employment for 52,010 males and 22,282 females. The prod- uct of their labor was worth $54,818,148, which was nearly sixty per cent of the value of boot and shoemaking in the whole country. The number of manufacturing concerns in New England, making boots and shoes, was 2,439; and more than half, 1,354, were in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts male shoe workers numbered 43,068 and the females 19,215. The product of their labor had increased 91.8 per cent, since 1850 and was, in 1860, $46,230,529.
The demand for army shoes came and more than one-half of the army shoes provided for the boys in blue were manufactured in Abington, in Plymouth County. This was the home town of Lyman R. Blake, the inventor of the Mckay stitching machine. Seth Bryant, who had made shoes for the West Indies trade at his factory in Joppa, a village of East Bridgewater, took some samples of shoes, sewed on Mckay machines, to Washington and displayed them before Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. They were the first machine-sewed soles that the secretary had ever seen on shoes and he was somewhat skeptical. He agreed, however, to award the contract to Mr. Bryant if he would guarantee the sewing. This Mr. Bryant agreed to, providing the secretary would issue an order that every pair of shoes accepted for army shoes would have the manufacturer's name stamped on the bottom. There was an- other large contract awarded to a Philadelphia firm with the condition suggested by Mr. Bryant imposed.
Oak tanned leather was demanded in the contracts and this was easily available for the Philadelphia concern, since oak bark was a natural resource in Pennsylvania. Hemlock leather was common in Massachusetts markets and Bryant was forced to pay twenty cents per pound more for oak soles, so that one contract cost him $10,000 more than he would have had to pay for hemlock leather. Before the war was over oak leather became exhausted and a substitute was used, by permission. Abington shoemakers were kept busy making 300,000 pairs of army shoes and it proved the value of the Mckay machine better than anything else which could have happened.
Mr. Bryant did not profit, however, from his contracts, one at the
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opening of the first bid in New York and the last bid in Philadelphia, being as much as would have been the case if hemlock leather had been used. At the end of the war the United States Government turned back several thousand pairs of shoes, which was a great loss to him. Further- more the government was very dilatory in making payments and con- tractors were forced to sell their vouchers at ten or fifteen per cent discount.
Many Plymouth County shoemakers volunteered for war service and those who remained secured high wages. Boys and women were ad- mitted into the factories to take the places of those who had enlisted.
In Randolph a group of old men who had retired from shoemaking responded to a call for hand-sewed shoes, assembling in the shop of Hiram Alden, Sr. The young men were accustomed to pegging shoes and only the old men knew the stitch. They received good wages and turned out good work but the Mckay machines stitched on most of the soles and there was great demand for these machines.
Lyman R. Blake, invented the Mckay machine while employed at the factory of Gurney & Mears in South Abington (now Whitman) in 1857. He became a member of the firm and built the first machine with the understanding with his partners that he should build the machine with his own money and give the concern the use of it. In 1861, Mr. Blake joined with Mr. Mckay in the introduction of the machines to public use, making many improvements and transferring the ownership to Mr. Mckay. Mr. Blake claimed that "prior to my invention, no ma- chine existed for sewing soles to boots and shoes."
Colonel Mckay decided not to sell his machines but to rent them to manufacturers on a royalty basis, one reason being that he believed im- portant improvements would be made and it would be hard to sell the perfected machines to the same customers who had once invested in the earlier models. So he attached a numbering device, rented the machine and sold royalty stamps to facilitate the payment of the royalties. It is claimed that the revenue of the Mckay Machine Company rose to $750,000 a year and continued until the fundamental patents on the machine expired.
Dollar Shoe Made Brockton Famous-Brockton's first millionaire was the late Daniel S. Howard, whose residence, now the Elks' Home, Main and Pleasant streets, was for years one of the show places of the coun- try. It was Daniel S. Howard who, by creating a "good, low-priced shoe," started the fame of the Brockton shoe which has gone around the world.
Daniel S. Howard began business in North Bridgewater in 1848. Among his customers were Fisher & Baldwin of New York, who in- formed Seth Bryant that Mr. Howard "made the best shoe for one dol-
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lar of any man in the country." This interested Mr. Bryant who had a large Boston wholesale shoe trade. He asked Mr. Howard to "put one hundred cents into a shoe and let me see it."
The sample aroused Bryant's admiration and he placed an order for one thousand cases, and with the Howard shoes got the lead in the New York trade. Howard was soon making more shoes in Brockton than all the other manufacturers put together. Mr. Howard continued in busi- ness until 1888. In 1884 there were fifty-nine shoe factories in Brock- ton, the aggregate production amounting to $12,208,332. In 1890 Brock- ton had seventy-five shoe factories.
A few years after Daniel S. Howard engaged in the shoe business in North Bridgewater and the fame of "the shoe city" began to be built up on the foundation of a "dollar shoe," in 1855 for instance, there were in Boston, one hundred and seventy-six firms engaged in the trade in boots and shoes and leather. There were forty-three other firms en- gaged in hides and leather trade and fifty-one firms engaged in the sale of leather only. The annual products of the business in North Bridge- water aggregated 56,956 pairs of boots and 694,740 pairs of shoes, repre- senting a value of $724,847; and giving employment to 692 males and 484 females.
Ten years passed during which the Civil War was fought, and, in 1865, the North Bridgewater product was 103,066 pairs of boots, 1,009,- 700 pairs of shoes ; with 1,059 males and 208 females employed. The val- uation was $1,466,900. The increase in the ten years was 37,150 pairs of boots, 314,960 pairs of shoes, and $742,152 in the value of the product. '
The production of North Bridgewater was "a good, cheap shoe." It was after the name of the town changed to Brockton that the manufac- turers began to make distinctive shoes of the better sort, the kind which has justly given the city the fame of producing "the best men's fine shoes in the world." The manufacturers produced the superior article and ad- vertised extensively. Since 1874 Brockton manufacturers have, in the main, produced medium or high grade shoes, largely for the retail trade, and the industry has been in the hands of energetic, progressive business men, many of whom were born in Brockton and most of whom, until twenty-five years ago, had been practical shoemakers, working at the bench. They not only knew how to take a shoe to pieces to see the qual- ity of work put into it, but knew how to put one together.
The World's Greatest Shoe Center-While the late Daniel S. Howard was deservedly selected as the largest shoe manufacturer in this section previous to the Civil War and for some years following that struggle, among the latter-day captains of industry to keep Brockton and the South Shore District famous were George E. Keith, founder and, up to the time of his death, president of the George E. Keith Company, manu-
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facturers of the Walkover Shoes; and ex-Governor William L. Douglas, founder and president of the W. L. Douglas Shoe Company, until his death a few years ago. Both have gone to their reward but the businesses which they built from small beginnings continue. These businesses were and are the two largest in shoemaking plants in the famous Brockton district.
The George E. Keith Company was the first to export shoes on a large scale and establish its own stores in foreign cities. Mr. Keith started in a "ten footer," when sixteen years of age and became an expert shoe cutter. He began business on his own account in 1874 on a capital of $1,000, which represented great self-denial and patient savings. The sales of his company in one recent year were over thirty million dol- lars.
William L. Douglas, native of Plymouth, originator of the famous "Douglas three-dollar shoe," whose face became known in that con- nection internationally, was employed in several North Bridgewater shoe factories as a laster. He began business, on meagre savings and some borrowed capital, in 1876. He originated the Arbitration bill which created the Massachusetts State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, and established the principle of arbitration in his factory in 1888.
He served as governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in numerous other important political and civil capacities.
More good shoes are made in the district of which Brockton is the centre than anywhere else in the world. In addition to the two leaders in the industry named, succeeded in their capacities as presidents of the two big corporations, by Harold C. Keith and Herbert L. Tinkham, re- spectively, leading shoe manufacturing concerns in Plymouth County and vicinity include the following: C. H. Alden Company, Abington; N. M. Arnold Shoe Company and L. A. Crossett Company, North Ab- ington ; J. E. French Company, Hurley Shoe Company, Rice & Hutch- ins, Inc., and E. T. Wright Company of Rockland; Regal Shoe Company and Commonwealth Shoe Company of Whitman; Richards & Brennen Company of Randolph; C. B. Slater Company of South Braintree; Stet- son Shoe Company of South Weymouth; Upham Brothers Shoe Com- pan of Stoughton; T. D. Barry Company, Brockton Shoe Manufactur- ing Company, Brockton Co-operative Boot & Shoe Company, Churchill & Alden Company, Condon Brothers Company, Craig, Reed & Emer- son, Diamond Shoe Company, Doyle Shoe Company, C. A. Eaton Com- pany, Field & Flint Company, A. Freedman & Sons, Inc., Givren & Blunt Shoe Company, Howard & Foster Company, C. E. Lynch Shoe Company, London Character Shoe Company, M. A. Packard Company, Bion F. Reynolds Company, Schwarz-Ruggles, Inc., Stacy, Adams Com- pany, Stone-Tarlow Company, Inc., E. E. Taylor Company, Thompson
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Bros. Shoe Company, Union Shoe Company and Whitman & Keith Company, Inc., all of Brockton.
An appreciative writer concerning the shoe district has left this rec- ord: "The workmanship in good shoes will always depend for perfec- tion on the experience of craftsmen who see in their work ample incen- tive for making it a life calling. Records of workers in the factories show long years of experience and service. It is not uncommon to find a superintendent or foreman who has sons and grandsons working in the same factory. Pride in their work and devotion to their chosen trade inspire these men-and women too-to achieve the same expert crafts- manship as did the master shoemakers of old, who were, in many in- stances, their grandfathers and great-grandfathers. This is one reason why 'more good shoes are made in this district than anywhere else in the world.' "
CHAPTER XXVIII FAIRS, HEALTH AND A NORMAL SCHOOL.
Organizations Which Keep the County Keen, Safe, Sane and Well In- structed-Agricultural Fairs Among Educational Institutions-Brock- ton Fair Largest in North America of Those Unaided by Govern- mental Appropriations-Health Promotion for Children at an Out- door Camp-Normal School Building at Bridgewater First in This Hemisphere.
With all due respect and appreciation to the Chambers of Commerce of various towns in Plymouth County, also the Boards of Trade, Service Clubs and Community Welfare organizations by whatever name, there is no organization which is doing more for the betterment of the Old Colony district than the Brockton Agricultural Society. This is the organization which puts on the Brockton Fair as its special exhibition and achievement in the fall of each year. By means of this annual fair Brockton and the South Shore District are internationally known. It is a trite saying that Brockton is famous for two things: "its shoes and the most wonderful fair in America."
Moreover, the Brockton Fair is a New England institution, cooperat- ing in every movement for the advancement of the northeast corner of the United States. The Brockton Agricultural Society maintains a city office in the heart of Brockton, open every business day in the year, and from which a publicity program is kept in action telling the world those things which cause the district which it represents to be better appreciated.
The purpose of the Brockton Agricultural Society, as stated in the preamble to its constitution adopted July 9, 1874, is "for the encouraging and promoting of the material prosperity of this community in every form of productive industry, in the cultivation of the soil, in the rearing and improving of domestic animals, in the mechanic arts, and in what- ever pertains to these." The original directors and their successors have been faithful to this declaration more than half a century. With an eye single to the advancement and prosperity of the district the successive boards have worked without any other reward than the con- sciousness of doing their bit for the general good. Organized as a stock company, there has never been a dividend declared or even simple interest on the investment returned to the stockholders. The profits have been used to make succeeding fairs more indicative of the excellence of the productions of the community, more worthy of patronage and returning more educational value and enjoyment to the vast crowds drawn to the fairgrounds.
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There are approximately 10,000 agricultural fairs in the United States and Canada, and the Brockton Fair is the one which stands at the head in every feature which goes to make up a great agricultural, industrial and educational exposition without an appropriation from any source or a building on the grounds contributed by any government, organiza- tion or individual.
Exceptional men, with wide-horizoned hopes and confident expecta- tions brought to fruition, have had a share in building the Brockton Fair down through fifty-three years. No one has ever been elected to the directorate who has not reflected credit upon the community and its institutions, more especially the fair which has given the Old Colony District a pleasant fame and world-wide renown. But it is not the purpose of this article to glorify the men who combine vision with action and alert devotion, or deal with the Brockton Fair as something which is fired with the same unconquerable and progressive spirit as the shoe city which is its home. Rather is it the intention to deal with it as the large end of the cornucopia which shows the wealth of op- portunities, the expression of broadmindedness, good citizenship and the joy of living constantly pouring forth from this local habitation which is Plymouth County.
To sketch the history of the Brockton Agricultural Society briefly, the first fair was held October 7, 8 and 9, 1874, with a baseball game on the morning of the third day, followed by a firemen's muster in the afternoon. The "Brockton Fair News," a publication devoted to the purposes of the society, made its initial appearance in September, 1887, with George Clarence Holmes as editor. An exhibition hall was erected in 1876 at a cost of $7,000. In 1877, a Poultry Building was added and ever since the society has held the largest poultry show in the East. Since 1887 children have been admitted free the first day of the fair which has been called "Children's Day."
An amateur athletic meet has been held in connection with the fair every year since 1890. It is the largest outdoor meet held in New Eng- land, with the exception of those taking place at the Harvard Stadium.
The leading sensation of the fair in 1894 was breaking the track record by Gil Curry. The time was 2:111/2, and was at that time the best record on a half-mile track.
In 1895 Professor Williamson headed "The best combination of air navigators which has ever appeared in the United States." He used a monster balloon which soared skyward with the professor, his wife and dog. From a high altitude each of the three descended in a separate parachute.
The first automobiles were seen on the fair grounds in 1896 and it was the first view thousands in attendance had ever had of a "horseless carriage." It was predicted in the "Fair News" of that year: "These
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unique and speedy vehicles are coming rapidly to the front. In a few years they will be 'as common as bicycles are now." A few years ago the society purchased about seven acres of adjoining land, including several residences, had the latter moved away and enlarged its grounds. Now there are ten acres, inside the fairgrounds, devoted to the parking of automobiles, and practically all the front and back yards and road- sides for half a mile in every direction are used, during the days and evenings of the fair, for the same purpose.
Marion Mills, the pacing wonder, beat the world's record for pacing mares (2:06 1/2) held by Pearl C. and Lottie Loraine, in 1897, going the distance at ever-increasing speed, the last quarter being the fastest.
Since 1895 the society has had an emergency hospital on the grounds. There is also a fire station manned by a crew from the Brockton Fire Department, a police station, and other institutions of public safety, befitting a city of 100,000 persons. Such is the attendance on a big day of the fair.
The fair has had a Horse Show as a leading feature since 1898. It is one of the largest out-door Horse Shows in America, with entries from all over the United States and some from Canada, a worthy com- panion of the National Horse Show held in New York. Fred F. Field, president of the Brockton Agricultural Society, is also chairman of the Horse Show Committee. He has been a member of the committee ever since it was first appointed in 1898 and is the only survivor of the original committee. The Horse Show came as an absolute novelty in outdoor entertainment in Massachusetts and has never lost its pop- ularity.
The first Automobile Show in connection with the fair was held in 1899. It was one of the first Automobile Shows in the world. In 1900 one of the novelties on the track was a race between a horse and an ostrich. Hitched to a bicycle sulky the bird paced against the equine and won at a two-minute clip.
One of the sensations at the fair in 1902 was firing a man from a cannon, suspended from a balloon, high in air. The "Charge" also included a parachute, used for wadding, and the professor sailed serenely to earth.
There was an exhibition over the grounds in 1903 of "the nearest approach to flying ever attained by mortal man." For the first time the parachute within a parachute idea was put into operation, the balloonist making two cuts. Since that time there have been numerous ascensions followed by six cuts.
Governor's Day has been a regular feature since 1905, when William L. Douglas, the Brockton shoemaker, was chief executive of the Com- monwealth. Every governor since has had his day at the Brockton Fair, with a military escort, foreign consuls, the military in uniform
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and distinguished civilians in formal dress, high-hatting the occasion.
The largest sum ever paid, up to that time, for a single attraction, was in 1905, when Roy Knabenshue, of Toledo, Ohio, was hired to ride his dirigible over the grounds and the city. Adverse weather conditions made it a disappointment, but the following year he was on hand and gave an exhibition, considered marvelous. He flew low, circled the track, leaped from the machine and placed the reins of the dirigible in the hands of Governor Curtis Guild, which caused the governor to remark "Wonderful."
Claude Graham-White, considered at that time the world's greatest aviator, was secured to make a flight daily at the fairgrounds in 1910. He was guaranteed $15,000 for the appearance. There was a record- breaking attendance but a high wind blew every day and the flying was a disappointment. It was estimated that there were 3,000 auto- mobiles at the fair in 1909, the largest collection of motor cars ever assembled up to that time in the world. The attendance in 1910 was 190,000 with 90,995 on the biggest day.
In 1911 Lincoln Beachey flew over the grounds upside down every day of the fair, furnishing the big crowds plenty of thrills. In 1912 Little Bonita dropped from a balloon, using six parachutes in her progress back to the soil, and never casting a shoe or losing a powder puff, showing that, in spite of the airplane sensations, the old-fashioned balloon still possessed some blood-tingling possibilities in its bag of tricks.
. For many years bicycle racing was a popular feature at the annual fairs. Among the prize winners was the present governor of the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts, Alvan T. Fuller. A diamond prize which he won at the Brockton Fair was sold to procure tuition expenses for a course at a business college. The prize proved genuine, as he was able to sell it for its advertised value. Evidently the business training which it purchased for him was genuine, as he is rated among the multi-millionaires in the State and is still a young man.
Bicycle racing was dropped in 1902, since which time the athletic programme has been more complete and has served to encourage ath- letics in grammar and high schools in this vicinity. Beginning in 1908 the fair management conducted a Marathon Race over a twenty-five mile course, starting at the Boston Athletic Club and finishing in front of the grandstand at the fair. This was continued until 1917, being given up that year on account of the World War and the absence of many of the swiftest contestants. Since 1919 a modified marathon of ten miles, all the distance on the track, has been the successor to the road course which would be impossible under present traffic conditions, with the highways congested with motor cars on their way to the fair.
The only president of the United States who has been a guest at
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the fair at the time he was in office, was President William Howard Taft. President Taft was entertained in 1912 and on that occasion he said: "It is impossible not to feel real interest and pleasure in an exhibition of such magnitude, charm and diversity as the Brockton Fair. It seems to me truly wonderful that you assemble 80,000 people for such a fall carnival and maintain such perfect order. I shall always remember this visit with great pleasure."
The Automobile Show has become such a popular feature of the fair that in 1916 a building, two hundred feet long and one hundred and twenty-five feet wide, was built to contain it. Every year since a mam- moth tent has been employed to take care of the overflow.
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