History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 35

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 35

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A volunteer fire company, called Torrent, No. 1, was organized September -18, 1850, its members being the chief business men of the town. A Hunneman fire- engine was procured, for which one thousand dollars had been appropriated, and on March 10, 1851. a Fire Department was established by legislative enactment. Franklin Forbes was chosen chief engineer. A sec- ond company, the Cataract, No. 2, was formed June 17, 1853, and a third, the Franklin Hook-and-Ladder Company, July 7, 1858. Organizations bearing the

CLINTON.

same titles yet exist, but the engine companies were disbanded and re-organized as hose companies after the introduction of water for fire purposes, each having in charge six hundred feet of hose. A fourth company, formed in 1870, has care of a steam fire- engine, one of Cole Brothers' manufacture, and twelve hundred feet of hose. The firemen have always re- ceived liberal support from the town, are supplied with every modern appliance for use in the extin- guishment of fires, and provided with comfortable and attractively furnished halls, in the upper stories of the neat structures in which the apparatus is stored. The Gamewell electric fire-alarm system was adopted in July, 1885.

May 15, 1851, Franklin Forbes, Albert S. Carleton, Charles G. Stevens and associates obtained incorpora- tion as the Clinton Savings Bank, and were author- ized to hold real estate not to exceed ten thousand dollars in value. H. N. Bigelow was elected the first president of the bank. In this office he was succeeded by Franklin Forbes. The first treasurer, Charles I .. Swan, is now president, and C. L. S. Hammond has been treasurer since 1864. For several years deposits were received by the treasurer at the office of the Lancaster Mills and by the president at his office in the Bigelow Library building ; later, by the treasurer at the office of the Bigelow Carpet Company. Since 1864 the business of the bank had been conducted in the rooms of the First National Bank. Its deposits now amount to $1,123,109, the number of depositors being about four thousand. The total deposits since organization have been over five million dollars, and the total number of accounts over fourteen thousand.

At the woolen-mill upon South Meadow Brook, Andrew L. Fuller succeeded his father, who retired from the business in 1850, just as their special manu- factures of yarns and cloths began to be unremunera- tive. Mr. Fuller was a man of great business capacity and energy, shrewdly watchful of the market, and he gradually introduced new machinery for the produc- tion of goods for which there was a better demand. When fashion decreed that hoop-skirts should be an essential article of female apparel, he filled his work- rooms with tape-looms and braiders for covering hoop-skirt wire, and soon developed a very successful business. In 1865 he more than doubled the capacity of his main building, added two hundred braiders to the two hundred and fifty he had previously run, and increased the number of his tape-looms to forty. Nearly one hundred hands were given employment. September 10, 1867, Mr. Fuller died, but the manu- facture was continued by his partner, Everett W. Bigelow, until change in fickle fashion destroyed the sale for such goods, and bankruptcy followed in 1870. N. C. Munson, of Shirley, under mortgagee rights, took possession of aud sold the property to Boyce Brothers, of Boston, in whose ownership the mills were when destroyed in 1876, as narrated hereafter. The industry has never heen resumed. The water-

power is now in possession of George P. Taylor, who, in 1885, built a neat, one-story brick mill here, which was for a time leased to the Ridgway Stove and Fur- nace Company, but is now unoccupied.

In 1852 the Bigelow Library Association, a joint stock company, assumed the functions and received the assets of the Bigelow Mechanics' Institute. It began its career under far more favoring auspices than its predecessor, having, beside the capital re- rived from its stock subscription, generous donations from various citizeus, including the sum of one thou- sand dollars given by Erastus B. Bigelow. A substan- tial brick building was erected upon Union Street, giving ample accommodations for the use of the society and several rooms for rent. Here a choice library was gradually gathered, and the association became a prominent factor in the literary life of the town. When, in 1873, the town resolved to maintain a free public library, the association placed in its charge the four thousand four hundred volumes which it had accumulated. It then sold its remaining effects and real estate, and its twenty years' career of usefulness and beneficence closed.

A lot of about four acres in the heart of the village, bounded by Walnut, Chestnut, Church and Union Streets, was, in 1852, given to Clinton by H. N. Big- elow, with the stipulation that it should be laid out according to plans of J. C. Hoadley, that no perma- nent structure of any kind should ever be built upon it, and that it should be suitably embellished and cared for forever as a public square. The town accepted the gift April 5, 1852, and at once appropri- ated one thousand dollars for its improvement. This has now become a tree-shaded park, and is the most useful of Mr. Bigelow's many and wise benefactions to the town which he did so much to found, and was ever striving to improve and adorn.

Joseph B. Parker, who for twelve years had been superintendent of the Clinton Company's machine- shop, built, in the summer of 1852, near the railway station, a shop fitted with steam-power and tools for the manufacture of machinery. Having associated with him Gilman M. Palmer, he began work here on the 1st of January, 1853. The firm of Parker & Pal- mer was dissolved October 31, 1857, and two years later A. C. Dakin was taken into partnership.

September 7, 1853, John T. Dame, E-q., received a commission as postmaster, and removed the office from the Kendall store to the Bigelow Library Asso- ciation's building on Union Street. During the same year a new road from Clinton westward through Lan- caster, now known as Sterling Street, was laid out by the county commissioners and constructed. October 19th of this year a noteworthy celebration of the sur- render of Cornwallis, the last in this part of the State, brought to Clinton fifteen hundred regular and irregu- lar militia and an immense crowd of people. The time-worn comedy of the sham fight was manœuvred to its historic issue on Burditt Hill, with more smoke

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

and noise than the town has ever experienced before or since, and the traditions of former days were out- shone in the farcical evolutions and grotesque accou- trements of the "Continentals."

March 8, 1854, H. N. Bigelow, Franklin Forbes and Henry Kellogg were constituted a corporation, with the title of the Clinton Gas Light Company, and authorized to hold real estate to the value of thirty thousand dollars, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Buildings had been erected the year before in rear of the carpet-mill. Mr. Forbes was elected president, and C. L. Swan, treasurer, of the company. Milton Jewett became surerintendent, and yet holds that position. The Schuyler Electric Light Company began building works in town, March, 1886, and in July were authorized to furnish a few street lights. Their plant and privileges were soon after sold to the Gas Light Co. April 17, 1887, legislation was obtained authorizing the corporation to increase its capital to two hundred thousand dollars, and to hold real estate to the value of seventy-five thousand dollars. By the same act its corporate privileges were extended to include the town of Lancaster.

The little steel forge upon Goodridge Brook was lost to Clinton in 1852. Mr. Gaylord, being unable to find a near market for his products in competition with goods of inferior grade, accepted inducements to remove to Naugatuck, Conn. The water privileges and buildings, owned by Ephraim Fuller, were for several years leased to various parties, chiefly for the manufacture of doors, sash and blinds. Christopher C. Stone then bought the mill and carried on that business here for three years. In 1859 Eben S. Fuller bought out Mr. Stone, and in 1867 supplemented the water-power with a steam-engine, when large addi- tions were also made to the buildings. The establish- ment now embraces a saw-mill, which turns out about three hundred thousand feet of native lumber annu- ally, planing and various other wood-working ma- chines, a large shop for the manufacture of all kinds of wood-finish used by builders, and an extensive lumber and wood-yard. About twenty men are kept constantly employed in its various departments, and a small village has grown up about it.

In 1854 the electric telegraph wires appeared in Clinton, and on the 23d of September the first busi- ness message was sent over them.

The first loom to successfully weave wire cloth was an invention of Erastus B. Bigelow's, and upon its success the Clinton Wire Cloth Company was founded in 1856. Charles H. Waters, of Groton, was chosen to assist H. N. Bigelow in superintending the erection of the original works, and in the summer of 1857 began manufacture. He was made general manager, and served as such with marked ability until March, 1879, when he became president of the company and Charles B. Bigelow manufacturing agent. Buildings of large area have from time to time been added to the first mill, located at the intersection of the railroads-

notably in 1863, 1865, 1870, 1872, 1876, 1880 and 1887 -and now the works cover about six acres. The looms and other machinery have been often improved by new inventions or adaptations, mostly those of Mr. Waters, whereby numerous difficulties attendant upon the weaving of so stubborn a material as wire have gradually been in large measure overcome. At the death of Mr. Waters, March 13, 1883, James H. Beal became the president of the company, and Charles Swinscoe was made manager in 1885, when Mr. Bigelow was called upon to assume the duties of manufacturing agent for the Bigelow Carpet Company.

The capital of the Wire Cloth Company is four hundred thousand dollars, and it is claimed to be the largest manufactory of woven wire goods in the world, turning out fifty million square feet in a year. The mills are of brick, very substantial in construction, and possess attractive architectural features. The most prominent structure in the town, one that earliest engages the attention of every one when approaching it from any direction, is the tower used for the drying of painted wire cloth. It is one hundred and eighty- five feet in height, eighty by thirty-six feet in hori- zontal section, having room for twenty-five tons of cloth suspended in webs of about one hundred feet in length. The chief products of the works are : hex- agonal netting of every width and variety, painted window-screen cloth, wire lathing, locomotive sparker cloth, malt-kiln flooring, sieve and holting cloths, etc. An extensive galvanizing plant has been erected a short distance from the main works beside the Wor- cester and Nashua Railway, where a special process, peculiar to this company, is used for the protection of iron goods; the zinc being chemically united with the iron, instead of simply forming a mechanical coating upon it.

Sidney Harris, who began the making of horn combs by hand in a small way in 1823, continued the business until his death, November 21, 1861, when his shops on the Nashua supported from twenty-five to thirty workmen. His sales sometimes amounted to twenty thousand dollars a year. Mr. Harris was the youngest son of Daniel, and born in West Boylston. He was one of the most enterprising and thrifty citi- zens of Clinton, prominent in church and municipal affairs, and every way worthy of the public esteem in which he was ever held. He was among the earliest and most outspoken advocates of the temperance cause. His sons, George S. and Edwin A., continued the fabrication of horn goods, retaining the partner- ship title of Sidney Harris & Sons, and greatly en- larged the shops in 1866. The elder did not long survive his father, and Edwin, by purchase of his brother's interest, became sole proprietor of the fac- tory, and so remained until his death, in the spring of 1875. August 9th, of that year, a joint-stock com- pany was organized to continue the business, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars, called the S. Harris' Sons Manufacturing Company. Elisha Brimhall,

CLINTON.

Daniel B. Ingalls and Henry E. Starbird were by turns presidents of the company, which gave work to about eiglity hands, and finished goods to the value of from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars per year, chiefly dressing and fancy-back combs. The enterprise won no financial success, and in November, 1881, the whole stock of the company, having much depreciated in value, was bought by Mrs. Edwin A. Harris, who has since managed the manufacture un- der the corporate title, giving work to fifty hands. The present production of the factory is about forty thousand dollars' worth of staple goods, chiefly toilet combs, yearly.

The original incorporators of the Lancaster Quilt Company were succeeded in May, 1859, by James Reed & Co., and the mill changed hands more than once thereafter, though the business was always con- ducted under the name of the first corporation. The firm of Jordan & Marsh finally controlled the prop- erty, and in 1869 started the Marseilles quilt manu- facture as a specialty. A few months later the weav- ing of crochet counterpanes was begun, but the ad- venture not proving sufficiently profitable, the mak- ing of quilts was wholly abandoned in January, 1871, the looms were sold to the Bates Company, of Lew- iston, Me., and machinery for weaving other styles of goods took their place. In the autumn of 1871 the works were closed.

William E. Frost and Sidney T. Howard, forming a partnership under the title of the Clinton Yarn Company, purchased the factory for twelve thousand five hundred dollars March 28, 1873. They fitted it anew for the spinning of cotton, and began manufac- ture in April. The houses and remaining lands of the Quilt Company were sold at auction the following June for forty-three thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. The Clinton Yarn Company has employed from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five hands, and used annually from seven hundred to one thousand bales of cotton ; selling products annually to the value of about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Both partners have deceased, and the mill is now run by John R. Frost as agent. Bleach and dye works are connected with the factory, and seven thousand spinning and thirty-five hundred twisting spindles are run. The power from the twenty-nine feet fall in the South Meadow Brook has been used until recently, assisted by a Wheelock steam-engine of one hundred and fifty horse-power.

CHAPTER X. CLINTON-(Continued).

Clinton in the Rebellion-Soldiers' Roster.

WHEN the political champions of slavery treason- ably sought to break up the Federal Union, nowhere

did the spirit of patriotism-so fervent everywhere in Massachusetts-flame forth sooner, or with more genuine fire, than in Ciinton. In the Presidential election of 1860 four votes out of her every five were cast for Abraham Lincoln. As the plans of traitors gradually disclosed themselves and armed secession tore star after star from the flag, not fonr-fifths, but the whole community as one man declared for the maintenance of the Constitution at even the cost of civil war. In hall and street, mill, shop and home, the national peril was the dominant topic of thought and speech. To the military organizations of the Commonwealth the people naturally looked for the call to action.

The second and third officers of the Ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Militia were Clinton citizens-Lieu- tenant-Colonel Gilman M. Palmer and Major Christo- pher C. Stone; and of that regiment also was the Clinton Light Guard. This company, which dated its existence from May 12, 1853, was composed of some of the best manhood of Clinton and vicinity, and had been efficiently disciplined under the direc- tion of its successive commanders : Captains Gilman M. Palmer, Andrew L. Fuller, Henry Butterfield and Christopher C. Stone. It was now led by Henry Bowman, who, in accordance with a vote of the com- pany io February, 1861, signified to Governor Andrew its readiness for immediate service in defence of the national government. It was supposed that the Ninth Regiment might be sent to the front at once, and the stir of hurried preparation was seen on every hand.

In the annual town-meeting, March 4th, the sum of one thousand dollars was voted for the purpose of furnishing the Guards with a service uniform. Thus Clinton was the first town to anticipate by actual ap- propriation of money the expected call for State troops. Such expenditure of public funds being, however, beyond the authority delegated to towns, a special act of the Legislature was invoked and passed April 2d, sanctioning such action when ratified by two- thirds of the members present and voting at a meeting legally called for the purpose. The company soon after paraded in new suits of gray.

Sunday, April 21st, there came a dispatch from the Governor calling upon the Light Guard to be ready to move at twenty-four hours' warning. Notices were read from the pulpits in the morning, and in the afternoon the vestry of the Baptist Church was thronged with earnest women workers, busily making flannel nnderclothing for the volunteers. At a town- meeting, the next day, generous provision was voted for the care and protection of soldiers' families in the absence of their natural guardians. But the anx- iously expected summons was long delayed, and it was not until June 28th that the volunteers, preceded by the cornet band and an escort of citizens, marched to the railway, and amid the tearful farewells of near friends and the cheers of the multitude assembled, were horne away for Camp Scott, Worcester, to join

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the Fifteenth Massachusetts, to which regiment they were assigned as the color company, C. Just four months later they had passed through the terrible defeat of Ball's Bluff, and the captain, with thirteen other Clinton men, were prisoners at Richmond, five were wounded and two had lost their lives.

The Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was especially noted for its proficiency in drill, its staying qualities in fight, and its exceptionally sanguinary battle record. The men of Company C sustained its colors, and bore at least their full share of the regiment's glory and blood sacrifice. The Clinton men serving in the regiment were seventy-four, all told, of whom, before the Rebel- lion succumbed, fourteen were slain in battle or died of wounds, three died of disease, and over thirty had received wounds not fatal. Their loss was quite severe at Antietam, September 17, 1862, when five received mortal injuries and twenty others were more or less seriously wounded. At Gettysburg, of the twenty- four in the battle line belonging to Company C, six- teen were hit by rebel missiles, of whom Clinton lost Lieutenant Buss and three others killed and four wounded.

Next in numbers to those of the Fifteenth was the group of Clinton mien in the Twenty-fifth Massa- chusetts Volunteer Infantry, thirty-seven in all, including a few recruits enlisted in 1862. These were nearly all German-horn, workmen at the Lancaster Mills, and mostly mustered in Company G. Four of these were killed in battle, five died during the war, and at least sixteen others were wounded. The regiment won an honorable record, serving in North Carolina during 1862 and 1863, and in Heckman's brigade of the Eighteenth Army Corps, chiefly in Virginia, during 1864.

In the Twenty-first Massachusetts Volunteer In- fantry were twenty men claimed for Clinton's credit, tour of whom died of wounds received in battle. The regiment suffered severely at Chantilly, Antietam, and in the final advance upon Richmond. Its first experience was with General Burnside's expedition in North Carolina. Five of the Clinton volunteers re-enlisted after their first term had expired.

The three regiments above mentioned left for the front during 1861. Of those who enlisted for the town in 1862, the majority joined the Thirty-fourth, Thirty-sixth and Fifty-third regiments. In the first were sixteen soldiers accredited to Clinton. They performed garrison duty along the Potomac during 1862 and 1863, and had no serious engagement with the enemy. Their valor and endurance were, however, severely tested during 1864, in the nine battles and constant marching and countermarching of the Shenandoah campaign.

The Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry contained thirty residents of Clinton, une of whom, Henry Bowman, was its colonel. It was attached to the Ninth Army Corps, narrowly escaped participa-

tion in the bloody work at Antietam, and though present met with no loss at Fredericksburg. In 1863 it was transferred to the West, became greatly re- duced in numbers during the campaign against Vicksburg by climatic diseases, and passed through the siege of Knoxville with Burnside. Its eventful experience closed in Virginia, whither it returned in 1864 to join in the final grand struggle for the pos- session of Richmond. But one of its Clinton mem- bers fell in hattle ; three died in captivity and three of disease.

Twenty-eight Clinton men, with Lieutenant Josiah H. Vose, served in the Fifty-third Massachusetts Volunteer Infautry and he, with two others, laid down their lives in battle. Although but a nine- months organization, its stormy voyage by sea to New Orleans, its adventures along the Mississippi River, and its fiery ordeal of battle at Fort Bisland and in the assault and siege of Port Hudson, com- prise a more notable experience than many three- years' regiments could hoast.

The numerous other enlistments to the credit of the town, mostly of a later date, were distributed among many organizations, the record of which can receive no particular mention here.

The action of the town-meetings already noticed was but an earnest of a generous policy pursued through the four years of war, and ever since, towards those who volunteered in their country's service.

The selectmen were given large discretionary pow- ers for the purpose of aiding families dependent for support upon bread-winners who had become soldiers of the Union ; the maximum bounty was paid to citizens enlisting to fill the town's quota ; all soldiers were relieved from the payment of a poll-tax ; and after each successive call for troops Clinton was found registered as furnishing an excess above the number demanded. Private generosity never failed whenever exigencies arose. Large sums were obtained by vol- untary subscription for the equipment of the enlisted ; for forwarding material aid to the wounded and sick in hospitals; for sending agents to the field after the great battles, and for other and constantly-recurring calls upon patriotic sympathy where money could avail. For help to families, known as "State aid," during the five years ending with 1865, the town expended $36,171.28; for other war purposes, $14,- 043.19. Nine thousand dollars raised by various pri- vate subscriptions were also disbursed in bounties to recruits and for kindred objects.

The busy afternoon of that April Sabbath in the crowded vestry taught the people much concerning woman's mission in war-time, and was suggestive of what could be effected under wise organization. Within a week thereafter an association was formed by patriotic women which, in connection with the parish sewing circles, sent to hospital and field thou- sands of useful articles of their own handiwork. After a year's experience, the aims of the society

CLINTON.

taking wider scope, a citizens' meeting was called at the Clinton House Hall, August 1, 1862, and the Soldiers' Aid Society then organized issued a general invitation calling upon all inhabitants of the town to join in the work for the welfare of the volunteers. The directors of the association were: Franklin Forbes, president ; Gilbert Greene, treasurer ; Henry C. Greeley, secretary ; Mrs. J. F. Maynard, Mrs. Jared M. Heard, Mrs. Charles W. Field, Mrs. Charles G. Stevens. A room was furnished for the society's use in the Bigelow Library Association's building, and kept open during three hours each afternoon six days in the week, for work and the reception of articles contributed. The donations of material and labor made by the society to the patriot cause have been estimated at three thousand dollars in value. Its charitable ministrations did not end until long after the surrender at Appomattox.

The quota of Clinton under the various calls of the government amounted to three hundred and seventy- one men for three years' service. Adjutant-General William Schouler credits it with an enlistment of four hundred and nineteen, being a surplus of forty- eight above demands. The enrollment lists of the town fail to account for so many, lacking nearly one hundred of that number after making due allowance for over thirty nine-months' enlistments, aud adding the eighteen who paid commutation and twenty for veteran re-enlistments. It may be therefore inferred, perhaps, that the unknown non-residents hired for the town or assigned to its quota by the State or national authorities, were very numerous.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 35

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1576

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576