USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Winchester > History of Winchester, Massachusetts > Part 13
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The Bacon mills had a chequered career. There were two mills by the riverside, as we said in the previous chapter. Both eventually came to be the property of Robert Bacon, and both, it seems, were burned in 1843. They were immediately rebuilt, but Mr. Bacon leased them to a variety of small industries - a cotton batting factory, operated by one Caleb Mills, a sash and blind shop, a print works, and a mahogany sawing mill in which Sullivan Cutter was interested with a Mr. Parker. One of the mills was burned down again but rebuilt, only to be burned a third time.3
In the meantime John H. Bacon, going into business on his own account, had put up another mill near his house, at the present Lakeview Road. There the manufacture of felt was continued successfully until about 1880, when that mill in turn went up in smoke. It was replaced by the mill which still stands by the
1 Josiah Symmes subsequently bought the land on the shore of Mystic Lake opposite the Country Club, now owned by S. S. Langley. While digging a well for the house he meant to build, Symmes was buried by the caving-in of the earth. He was dead when his body was recovered. It was in 1844.
2 The upper part of Upper Mystic Lake did not exist until 1863 when it was formed by the flooding of the old meadow by the building of the Charlestown Water Works dam at the parting between the two lakes.
3 Article by L. R. Symmes, Winchester Press, October 4, 1901. Also printed in Medford Historical Register, Vol. 31, No. 3.
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railroad tracks at the foot of Grove Place, and still (1936) produces felt. The two older mills at the old Symmes dam disappeared in 1863, when Charlestown began to take water from the Upper Mystic Lake. The mill privileges were taken by "eminent domain" and the dams were blown up with explosives.
The activities of the Bacons led to the employment of a num- ber of men and the erection of several houses in the vicinity of the mills. Like the Cutters the Bacons gave their name - for a time -- to the little settlement so formed, which was locally known as Baconville. Here lived Robert Bacon's younger son Charles N. Bacon, and here on the higher land along Grove Street still live his descendants of a later generation, Charles N., Robert and Charles F. Bacon.
As the survey of 1798 was accompanied by the construction of the Middlesex Canal, that of 1831 was quickly followed by the inception of a greater advance in transportation, the Boston and Lowell Railroad. This year of 1831 may indeed be taken as a most significant landmark in Winchester history. Before that year still a community of scattered farms, rural in character in spite of a few promising industries, it was shortly to become, with the advent of the railroad, a thriving and busy village, attracting first a number of manufacturing enterprises and then a flood of new citizens who recognized its advantages as a place of suburban residence. Within twenty years it had grown to such size that it had separated from the mother town and attained to the dignity of municipal inde- pendence. For this rapid change in the character of the village, the railroad was chiefly responsible.
The Boston and Lowell road was projected in 1831; it is there- fore one of the very earliest steam railways in the country. It was undertaken through the enterprise of Patrick T. Jackson, who with Francis C. Lowell, Kirk Boott, Paul Moody and others had estab- lished the first great cotton mills at the falls of the Merrimac, around which grew up the city of Lowell. Mr. Jackson found the existing means of transportation inadequate for bringing to the mills the great quantities of raw cotton required and for returning to Boston the cotton goods he manufactured. The Middlesex Canal was closed by ice four months in the year, and transportation over
THE ROBERT BACON HOUSE
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THE RAILROAD COMES TO TOWN
the roads was slow and expensive. He had, however, learned of the promising experiments made in England with the steam locomo- tive; he believed the railroad to be the answer to all his difficulties, and succeeded in persuading his associates at Lowell and a number of Boston capitalists besides to furnish the money for the new road.
In the beginning it was thought of as a means of transporting freight only, a possible passenger business was hardly taken into account at all. That is why the roadbed as surveyed and built upon avoided the thriving villages of Medford, Woburn, Wilmington and Billerica. It passed through open country almost all the way, following quite closely the old depression through which ages before the preglacial Merrimac had flowed. Even at South Woburn (Winchester) through which the rails were laid there was at first no provision for taking on or discharging passengers. The first station, which stood beside the tracks where they crossed Main Street and on the easterly side of the road, was not occupied until about 1837,1 when the company began to find that people as well as goods could become a profitable source of revenue. Where the rails crossed Church and Main streets, ponderous gates were erected to protect passers-by from the peril of being run over by the three or four trains a day that hurtled past at perhaps fifteen or twenty miles an hour, but there was for a time no gate tender. The gates were pushed back and forth by bystanders when the whistle of an approaching train was heard.2 But primitive as they were, these gates were so novel a local phenomenon that for a time they gave to the village which had in succession been called Waterfield, Black Horse Village and South Woburn a new name, "Woburn Gates."
The first station agent was one John Donohue; he was soon succeeded by Captain Nathan Jaquith, a militia officer who was well regarded for his energy, his solid character and his affable manners. Captain Jaquith combined the offices of depot master, baggage man and gate tender; he also accommodated boarders in his house at the corner of Main and Church streets, and having bought a steady horse from Dr. Sylvanus Plympton of Woburn he acquired also a new two-seated covered carriage and introduced the livery business into the growing village.3 He lived to a great age;
1 It was originally a shoe shop no more than fifteen feet square.
2 Winchester Record, Vol. I, page 57.
3 Winchester Record, Vol. I, page 58.
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at ninety he is said to have walked the seventeen miles from Win- chester to Lowell.
The railway was not finished until 1835. During the three or four years before that its construction was a source of immense excitement to our little village. The patronage of engineers and construction bosses gave a momentary air of bustle and prosperity to the decaying Black Horse Tavern, though it is related that the resultant profit was small since some of them disappeared without settling with the landlord. One Winchester industry that did well by the railroad was the blacksmith and iron working shop of the Johnson brothers, Francis and Nathan B., which stood on Main Street at what is now the corner of Mt. Pleasant Street.
This shop, or rather its predecessor, which stood a little farther south, was originally owned by Captain Joseph Brown, a Revolu- tionary veteran, a good workman, a leading citizen and a man distinguished for generosity and kindness of heart. Francis Johnson, the elder of the two brothers, learned his trade as an apprentice with Captain Brown. It is related that once when the captain had gone to Boston, leaving his apprentice with no special work to do, young Johnson amused himself by turning out what may be thought of as his "masterpiece," entitling him to full and free standing in his craft. In that rural settlement hogs were still allowed to roam at large; they could not, however, get about on ice. On this par- ticular day, it seems, there was ice on the ground, so Francis Johnson made a set of little shoes, calked them and nailed them to the feet of the captain's porker. When the master returned from town, the hog, neatly shod, was trotting about happily on the ice- covered road. Captain Brown, greatly pleased with his pupil's ingenuity, gave him a week's vacation on the spot.1
After Brown's death Francis Johnson succeeded to the business and taught his younger brother Nathan the trade. Both were natives of our West Side and descendants of Major William Johnson and so of his father Captain Edward. Both were excellent iron workers and sound business men. They were far more than shoers of horses or oxen, as most blacksmiths were in those days. Their shop turned out a great variety of articles in iron. We hear of them forging the knives for the leather splitting machines in the Cutter
1 N. A. Richardson in the Winchester Star. Article preserved in his scrapbook.
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mill and elsewhere. They were employed to furnish a great amount of hardware and ironmongery for the new railway; they had a monopoly in making tie bolts for it. In those days their shop was a busy place, its forges glowing and its chimney belching sparks far into the night.
Francis Johnson was always known by his title of "major." Not ambitious for civil office, he was fond of military life. He was a militia captain almost by the time he was of age, and so good an officer that he was, not long afterward, commissioned as major in the Second Middlesex regiment. He lived across the street from his shop. His brother Nathan was a more active figure in the town life, often in responsible office in church and town. He was later one of the first selectmen of Winchester, a man whose erect form, thick head of curly white hair, searching dark eyes and tight-lipped mouth gave him a striking and memorable appearance.1
A former resident of Winchester2 has set down his memories of the day the first railway train carrying passengers ran through our village on its way to Lowell. It was May 27, 1835. Every house not only in South Woburn but for miles around was deserted that morning. Thousands lined the tracks to see the puffing little locomotive draw its train of cars, each shaped very much like the stage coaches that still travelled the roads. Mr. Teel, then a small boy, was seized with the impulse to lay a copper penny on the track to see what the engine would do to it. He was caught in the act by Colonel S. B. White, who was among the interested throng, and severely THE FIRST RAILWAY TRAIN reprimanded. However, the colonel's curiosity was likewise aroused. He thought that the penny might have thrown the
1 Deacon Johnson built the house now numbered 21 Washington Street, a digni- fied house with a high pillared portico, about 1840.
2 Warren Teel, Winchester Record, Vol. I, page 285.
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engine from the track, but that a thin silver sixpence might be safely risked. He took one from his pocket and gave it to the boy, who laid it carefully on the rails. Presently the train made its appearance; as it came nearer and nearer, both man and boy, panic struck by the thought of what might happen if the coin should derail the locomotive, leaped forward to pick it from the track. And as the train rattled by, its coaches full of cheering citizens, Colonel White, says Mr. Teel, gazed after it and remarked, "Sho! You might have put a silver dollar on the rail, and no harm done!"
The building of the railroad through the very center of South Woburn gave an immediate fillip to the growth of the village. Several far-sighted business men in Woburn, recognizing the advan- tages which rail transportation would offer, removed from the center of the town and came to live in South Woburn. One of the first was Samuel Steele Richardson, a singular and interesting man, who was already conducting a successful shoemaking business at Woburn center. He bought the Abel Richardson estate at our village center, which included the remnants of the old Edward Converse farm, and the mill on the Aberjona built almost two hundred years before. The old mill had fallen into decay; its grinding stones lay buried beneath the water of the river. Mr. Richardson tore down the ruins and erected a new and larger mill on their site. He built another shop below it which derived its power from the river also, and a shoe shop for his own use on the spot where Lyceum Hall now stands. The greater part of the new mill and the adjoining shop was let out to a variety of small industries attracted to the village by its new importance. There were at least two sash and blind businesses, one of them operated by Gardner Symmes, a dye shop owned by one John Whittemore, two lasting machines and a manufactory of leather splitting machinery run by Asa P. Johnson, while in part of the mill Amos Whittemore was running a shoe- pegging machine he had himself invented - one of the earliest and most ingenious articles of shoe machinery made in this country.1 Mr. Richardson himself had rooms in the new mill, where his wood- working lathes turned out door knobs, clock pillows and bedsteads. What a hive of industry the old Converse water power was now sup-
1 Mr. Whittemore invented many machines for many purposes. See an article concerning him in Winchester Record, Vol. I, page 349.
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porting, and how gratified Samuel Steele Richardson must have been at the sight, for no busier, more restless, more visionary soul than his ever occupied a human body!
Mr. Richardson was an eccentric, there is no doubt about that. He was a typical Yankee trader; "he would buy a dilapidated meetinghouse, swap it for a sunken steamboat and give or take the difference in a broken-down stagecoach. From Portland to New Orleans he would travel, often in advance of railroads or steam- boats, with his coat under his arm, one shoe in his hand and a change of linen in his pocket; never waiting for anyone yet always behind in starting. Once he missed the steamboat at Memphis, but before the boat got to the next landing he was there ready to jump on board. ... He could write an instrument no lawyer could explain and no court overrule. He could sell real estate and give what looked like a clear title, but time would show that he still owned a corner of it, or a right of way over or under it. He would overreach you in a trade, and next day do you a favor that cost him more than he had gained."1 He had real estate and business interests in a dozen different towns; in Winchester he was once an owner of the Black Horse Tavern. In the crash of 1837 he went down, over- loaded by his numerous speculations, but he revived, plunged again into a variety of enterprises and kept afloat until the panic of 1857 ruined him again, this time beyond successful recovery.
Another Woburn citizen of note, whose temperament and character were in sharp contrast to Mr. Richardson's but who like him staked his future on the growth and prosperity of South Woburn, was Deacon Benjamin F. Thompson. This man was of the distinguished family, associated with Woburn since 1640, which produced Count Rumford. Deacon Thompson was a son of Major Abijah Thompson who was the first to introduce the tanning of leather on a large commercial scale in Woburn. The son learned the leather business in his father's tannery, and then went into business for himself with marked success. In 1838 he resolved to remove to our village and built a good-sized tannery beside the rail- way tracks on what is now Manchester Field. The present Thomp- son Street was originally the lane that led down to his leather works. Deacon Thompson was a man of mark, a sound citizen and
1 N. A. Richardson in Woburn Journal of December 17, 1886.
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a capable business man of high integrity. He entertained no visions and engaged in no far-reaching speculations. There are no amusing stories to tell of him, but he was one of the real fathers of the embryo town of Winchester.
Deacon Thompson lived first in a house at the corner of Main and Thompson streets but he soon got possession of the old Con- verse or Abel Richardson property, and the venerable house that stood there having been removed, Deacon Thompson built a new one on that historic site. The necessities of business long since changed the house into a store and then swept it aside for the block where the Woolworth store stands. Both of Deacon Thompson's sons, Stephen and Abijah, were life-long residents of Winchester; Abijah was conspicuous among the group of men who through the agency of the old Winchester Historical Society collected and per- petuated so much material for which the present writer can never be sufficiently grateful.
A third man who was destined to play an important part in Winchester industry was Harrison Parker. A native of Reading, Mr. Parker married a lady from the numerous Richardson family of Winchester. Early in the thirties he took over the old Jeduthan Richardson mill where the Winn watch hand factory now stands, and began there the cutting of mahogany veneers in partnership with his brother, Loa Parker. When, in 1841, the affairs of S. S. Richardson were at their worst, Mr. Parker bought from him the mill on the old Converse site and transferred his growing business thither. His business succeeded; it was made more profitable by the use of a very ingenious veneer cutting machine which Mr. Parker himself perfected. For years the splendid teams of eight or even ten horses which drew the great logs of mahogany and rose- wood from the ships at Boston to the Parker mill were familiar sights along the road to Winchester. Old timers recalled that the driver was so skillful that he had reins only on the wheel horses, guiding the others entirely by whip and voice. For some years Mr. Parker occupied the mill, sharing it, after 1845, with Joel Whitney who came hither from Wakefield to operate a machine shop and engage in the manufacture of leather working machinery, for which in course of time he obtained several valuable patents.
Eventually the Parker business was removed to Charlestown,
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where Mr. Parker had established large yards for the sale of mahogany and other tropical woods. But he continued to live in Winchester. His first house had been at the Highlands, his second was near the spot where the Unitarian Church now stands. His nephew, Harrison Parker, 2d, and his son-in-law Irving S. Palmer continued the business successfully after his death. Both lived in Winchester and were among the prominent citizens the years before and just after the turn of the century. The house of Harrison Parker the younger, on Main Street not far beyond the Junior High School, has only recently been pulled down. A grand-nephew of the first Harrison Parker1 and several children of the fourth generation still live in Winchester.
I have spoken of Joel Whitney as occupying a part of the mill at the center built by S. S. Richardson and later owned by Harrison Parker. The Whitney family deserves more than casual mention. Joel Whitney was an inventive genius and a mechanic of versatile ability. He carried on in his part of the building a varied industry. He built veneering machines, a number of machines for splitting and working leather and even printing presses.2 After 1857 he became sole owner of the mill, where he and his son, Arthur E. Whitney, continued a profitable business for many years. In 1909 the old mill was sold to the town for its park development, and the building of machinery was transferred to a new factory farther north on Main Street. The building still stands, but Mr. Whitney's grandson, Robert F. Whitney, retired from the business some years since.
Arthur E. Whitney was all his life a notable citizen of the town. He held many public offices, was always an interesting figure in town meetings and was also a diligent local historian, to whose careful researches we owe much of our knowledge of the early history of the town.
In addition to all the new industrial activities that have been mentioned, Cephas Church and Joshua Lane acquired in 1847 the old Belknap mill privilege on Horn Pond Brook, and began there the manufacture of pianoforte cases in mahogany and other expensive woods, which they continued until 1867, when they were succeeded by the firm of Cowdery, Cobb and Nichols.
1 Mr. Gordon Parker.
2 N. A. Richardson in the Winchester Star. Article preserved in his scrapbook.
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The growth of the village of South Woburn in consequence of all these thriving enterprises became for the first time in its long history rapid. A considerable number of workmen were naturally attracted thither by the employment offered them by the Cutters, the Bacons, Parker, Whitney, Church & Lane and others. Other residents came because of the charms of the little village, which by reason of the railroad was easily accessible from Boston. Something like a modest real estate boom occurred. Some of the farms along Main Street and Richardson's Row were divided into building lots, and houses sprang up upon them. Private ways, later to become streets, were opened up the hillside where Vine Street, Park Street, Mt. Vernon Street, Myrtle Street, Winthrop Street, Walnut Street, Elm Street, Kendall Street and Stevens Street are now to be found, and dwelling houses began to dot them. The local builders Sumner Richardson, Gardner Symmes, Dana Fay and John H. Coats were busy men. Mr. Coats was especially enterprising. In the forties and early fifties he built and sold at least a dozen houses along Main Street including the original home of James F. Dwinell, the house long known as the residence of Thomas W. Lawson, and that owned by Arthur E. Whitney, which was subsequently moved around the corner into Mystic Avenue.
For some reason Church Street was long neglected in this season of active house building. Until 1850 the only house along its mile of length between the foot of Rangeley, where stood the "Parker and Collins" house, and Cambridge streets was one at the corner of Wildwood Street built by Gardner Symmes. It was later moved back on to Wildwood Street and still stands. In this house lived Ebenezer Smith, the mysterious donor of a town clock to the infant town of Winchester. The great stretches of the West Side, now so thickly built upon, were in 1840, and remained for many years thereafter, farm land mostly owned and tilled by the Wymans, Marshall, George and William.
As the houses multiplied stores to serve the community began to appear. John Symmes came out from Boston and opened one on Main Street where the Vinton house later arose. Mr. Symmes was succeeded shortly by Humphrey B. Howe and he in turn by John Albert Symmes.
Another store which became for some years the principal
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emporium of the village was built at the center just north of the corner of Main and Thompson streets. Sumner Richardson was the builder. James Bridge was the first occupant (1843), an old- time Yankee merchant of whom it was said that "he never pulled the fins off a salt fish until he had weighed and sold it."1 This was the store later occupied by Edmund Sanderson with Alvin Taylor as a partner, who not only maintained a well-stocked general store but initiated an express business to Boston. In still later times it was kept by B. F. Holbrook. It served in its time as most stores of the kind in New England villages have done, as the popular meet- ing place of citizens in search of local news or eager for political discussion.
Mr. Sanderson was more interested in conducting and building up his express business than in storekeeping. He and his partner Taylor had removed in 1848 to a new store built for them by S. S. Richardson on Main Street at the corner of Main and Park streets. Four years later they dissolved their partnership, and Mr. Sanderson devoted himself to the express enterprise which had so grown that daily trips to Boston were necessary, and a stable of four horses was maintained. This business is the direct ancestor of that of today, Mr. Sanderson, Major Alanson Winn, Denis B. Winn, and Daniel Kelley and Daniel W. Hawes having engaged in it in succession. Mr. Sanderson himself returned to the grocery busi- ness in 1858, adding to it a stock of hardware, and for thirty years his store at the corner of Park Street was one of the landmarks of the town.
In 1841 the United States government took cognizance of the growing importance of South Woburn by establishing a post office here. The first postmaster was Dr. Moses Collins Greene; his com- mission bears date of September 8, 1841. While he lived here - which was not long - Dr. Greene occupied the house then called the Wakefield house, almost directly across the street from the Sanderson store, and the post office was under the same roof. The first mails were, however, opened and distributed in the little rail- way station beside the tracks.2
Humphrey B. Howe became postmaster on December 29,
1 N. A. Richardson.
2 Winchester Record, Vol. III, page 90.
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