History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 38

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 38

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During the administration of Mr. Weeks, the years 1880, 1881, 1887 and 1888 have been marked by very important extensions of the working plant, the ca- pacity for production having been increased at least seventy-five per cent. The weaving-room, supposed to be the largest of the kind in the United States, if not in the world, has a floor area of one hundred and thirty-seven thousand feet, or three and one-seventh acres, affording space for twenty-eight hundred looms. The carding and spinning departments occupy two brick mills of huge dimensions, one three, the other four stories in height. The whole floor area of the works, including basements, etc., used for storage, and the Sawyer's Mills in Boylston, is about sixteen acres, twelve of which are devoted to manufacture. The company has also about two hundred tenements, nearly all of a class superior to those usually found in manufacturing towns, and three large boarding- houses, each accommodating one hundred persons. An unusually large proportion of the employés have dwellings of their own.

When the recently completed extension receives its machinery, the corporation will require the labor of nearly twenty-two hundred operatives, about equally divided between the two sexes, and its yearly product is expected to reach twenty-eight million

yards of twenty-seven inch ginghams; last year it was nearly twenty-five million yards. Three large steam-engines of Corliss pattern, developing fourteen hundred horse-power, are employed to aid the tur- bines, while six small engines are in constant use for various purposes. Among the army of workers are skilled mechanics of various crafts, and corps of chemists and designers perform important duties. But a single quality of goods is here made, a high grade of gingham everywhere known for its always reliable colors and exceptional durability. Althongh combinations of color are restricted to stripes and checks, already about two hundred thousand distinct patterns have been designed.

It will be noticed that the enormous increase of production over that of the earliest years of the cor- poration's life is far in excess of the numerical in- crease of looms and operatives. In every department new processes and improvements in mechanism have been introduced from time to time, and greater speed of movement attained, until the product per operative is two and four-tenths times what it was in 1850. The average wages have during the same period been increased eighty per cent., and this although the hours of labor per day are now two hours less than in 1850.

The present officers of the company are : S. G. Snelling, president; Harcourt Amory, treasurer ; George W. Weeks, agent ; George P. Taylor, superin- tendent.

February 18, 1864, the corporation which gave name to the town ceased to exist, its charter being annulled by legislative enactment. The coach-lace looms had been sent to Philadelphia, it had the year before sold its real estate in Boylston, known as Sawyer's Mills, and certain of its looms for weaving checks, to the Lancaster Mills Company ; and its water-rights, fac- tory buildings, tenant-houses and lands in Clinton to the Bigelow Carpet Company. The latter corpo- ration had already made preparations to do its own wool-cleansing and spinning,-for which preliminary processes of its manufacture it had previously been dependent upon other parties,-and to the extensive plant required for these the grounds and buildings of the coach-lace mills were devoted. A large worsted- mill was completed in 1866, and the dam was rebuilt and raised to control a flowage of two hundred and thirty-six acres, including Mossy and Sandy, two of the three great natural ponds of Clinton.

Upon the death of Horatio N. Bigelow, in 1865, his eldest son, Henry N. Bigelow, was made superin- tendent of the new department, and Charles L. Swan held the same position in the weaving-mill. In De- cember, 1871, Mr. Bigelow became managing agent of the company. Under his supervision extensive additions were made in both departments during 1872. A new worsted-mill, three stories in height, two hundred feet long by sixty-five feet wide, was built in 1875, and great improvements were made in

CLINTON.

the machinery. Upon his retirement, March 26, 1881, he was succeeded in the management by his brother, Charles B. Bigelow. During 1885 the weav- ing department was very greatly enlarged, and in 1886 and 1887 an extension, two hundred feet in length, was added upon the west, reaching to School Street. In this have been placed newly-invented looms for the weaving of Axminster carpeting.

The president of the company is James H. Beal, and C. F. Fairbanks is treasurer. The capital, which was two hundred thousand dollars at the incorpora- tion of the company in 1854, has been increased to one million.

The number of looms is two hundred and forty, and when the works are run to their full capacity, twelve hundred persons are employed, whose pay amounts to fifteen hundred dollars each day, and the production is at the rate of one million eight hundred yards per year. About six million pounds of wool are used annually. The company is complete within itself, importing the grade of wool which it requires, and conducting all the operations of its fabrication, -cleansing, spinning, dyeing, weaving,-on its own premises. The floor space occupied amounts to ten and three-fourths acres. Its various buildings are of brick, and very attractive in appearance. The com- pany also owns houses accommodating sixty-three families, and has three boarding-houses.

Three grades of carpeting are manufactured by the Bigelow Company,-Wilton, Axminster and Brussels. The first power-loom, invented by E. B. Bigelow, thirty years ago won admiration, because with it a single girl wove as much Brussels carpeting in a given time as four men and four boys could do with four hand looms. The perfected loom of to-day has fourfold the capacity of the first Bigelow loom.

C. M. Bailey & Son, a few months after the de- struction hy fire of their property at Sterling in Feb- ruary, 1868, purchased the low-lying land between Sterling Street aud the Boston, Clinton and Fitch- burg Railway in Clinton, and established thereon an extensive tannery with sixty-one vats, a large currier shop, engine and boiler-house, and other accessories of their business. The capacity of the yard was about twenty thousand hides, and required the at- tendance of forty men and boys. The junior member of the firm, George E. Bailey, died in 1873, when Bryant & King, by purchase, succeeded to the busi- ness. They at once enlarged the works to more than double their original capacity, employed about one hundred hands, and were apparently in full tide of prosperity when the breaking of the Mossy Pond reservoir dam in 1876 swept away their large stock of material, demolished their buildings and left them weighed down by too heavy discouragements for re- newal of the enterprise. Two years later C. M. Bailey and William J. Stewart rebuilt some portions of the buildings, gave work to twenty-five or thirty men, and continued the tanning business until

August 28, 1880, when a fire laid the property again in ruins, in which condition it remains.

Deacon Joseph B. Parker, the veteran machinist of Clinton, died September 1, 1874, at the age of seventy years. He was a native of Princeton, but came here from Providence, R. I., where he had a shop, to or- ganize and manage the machine-shop connected with the Clinton Company's works. His practical ability and judgment were of great value to E. B. Bigelow in the adjustment and construction of his inventions. He was a pillar of strength in the Congregational Church, a man of thorough independence and originality.

A joint stock company was formed to continue the business of which he was the founder and had been for nearly twenty-five years the manager, which took the title of the J. B. Parker Machine Company. The capital is forty-five thousand dollars, and the yearly manufacture is estimated as fifty thousand dollars in value .. A. C. Dakin is president, C. C. Murdock, treasurer, and N. E. Stowell, foreman. From seventy- five to one hundred men are required when the machinery of the shops is fully employed. The special line of work done is the construction of carpet- looms, the Bancroft mule, the Clinton yarn-twister, and other mechanism for wool manufacturers. The buildings of the company are commodious, well equipped with power and tools, and conveniently located beside the tracks of the Worcester and Nashua Division of the Boston and Maine Railway.

Closely allied with and adjoining the machine- shops are the new and admirably appointed works of the Clinton Foundry Company, recently completed in place of the old foundry, built by Gilman N. Palmer, in 1849, which was crushed in during the great snow-storm of March 12, 1888. Major Christo- pher C. Stone, for many years associated with Colonel Palmer, bought the foundry in October, 1881, and, forming a partnership with the J. B. Parker Company, under the corporate title above named, became general manager of the husiness. Twenty-six men are regularly employed here, chiefly upon machine and railroad work, casting daily from a three-ton cupola furnace. The value of castings sold annually is about thirty-six thousand dollars.

Colonel Gilman M. Palmer came to Clintonville from Dover, N. H., in 1847, but was born in Gardner, Maine, December 4, 1812. He was foreman of the first engine company, the first captain of the Clinton Light Guards, lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Mili- tia, vice-president of the Savings Bank, and director of the First National Bank. He served the town as selectman for four years ; was one of the founders of the Unitarian Church, and a member of Trinity Masonic Lodge. He died May 27, 1885. By his will nearly fifteen thousand dollars were left in public bequests.

Upon Sterling Street, near the station of the rail- way, stand the neat brick workshops of the Gibbs Loom, Harness and Reed Company, which was incor-

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

porated April 1, 1874, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. William H. Gibbs, the president of the company, became in 1865 associated with George H. Foster in the manufacture of belting, loom-harness and roll-covering, and later began making reeds-in which business they had been preceded by Robert Turner. In the autumn of 1868 the partnership was dissolved, and in a division of the assets Mr. Gibbs retained the loom-harness and reed manufacture, and Mr. Foster that of belting and roll-covering. Hear- ing of an improved heddle machine of English in- vention, Mr. Gibbs imported one, the first brought into the United States. A rapid increase of orders rewarded his enterprise, requiring more machinery and capital, and the formation of a company followed. It now has in operation thirteen heddle-or heald- machines, giving work to forty operatives, male and female. The ebonized loom-harness is a specialty for which the company have a patent, granted February 1, 1881. The reed manufacture was begun in Novem- ber, 1884, and has met with such encouragement that but one reed maker in America now rivals this com- pany in yearly production. This success has been attained by superior workmanship. Charles L. Swan is treasurer of the corporation.

About half-past three o'clock of Sunday, March 26, 1876, the people of Clinton and villages adjoining, were startled by loud and long-continued alarm signals from the steam gong of the wire-mill, giving wide warning of an unforeseen and grievous disaster, one that, because of the fortunate hour of its happening, was not attended with loss of human life, but which forever ruined several useful industries, seriously interrupted others, and utterly destroyed three hun- dred thousand dollars' worth of capital, buildings, machinery and goods.

A snow-storm, quickly followed by copious rains, had filled the great reservoir of the Bigelow Carpet Company to overflowing. In the Mossy Pond portion of it the water stood higher than iu the Clinton basin, the culvert under the Worcester and Nashna Railway, which joined them, proving insufficient to take away the unprecedented flow poured in by the South Meadow Brook. Before danger was suspected, the waters rose so high as to wash over or through an embankment at the northerly side of Mossy Pond, just above the sources of the little brook formerly known as Rigby's. This dam of earth was about forty feet long and ten feet in height, and the ground at either end of and beneath it was porous gravel and sand. The trickling overflow soon grew to a resistless torrent and tore this obstacle from its path, opening a broad gap between the hills down to the level of the marshy ground below.

About sixty rods away the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railway crosses the valley upon a gravel embankment nearly forty feet in height, which dammed the flood for a while, affording time for the residents of houses upon the meadow below to escape.

In less than half an hour, however, a river nearly one hundred feet in width was rushing through the rail- road bank over the vats of Bryant & King's tannery, bearing along the débris of falling buildings and thousands of hides from the extensive yards. Cross- ing Sterling Street, it spread over the wide, level tract below, undermining several dwellings, the occupants of which barely escaped with such valuables as they could hastily snatch and carry away in their arms. The next impediment met was the embankment of the Worcester and Nashua Railway. This, being a much lower and older earthwork than that previously burst through, held firm for a time until a great lake had formed behind it, and the water began to pour over the track ; but at length it gave way at the little brook culvert, when the mad flood poured across Main Street, whirled the old dams and shops built by the early comb-makers, and a house which it had brought from the meadows above, crashing down the ledges into the valley of the South Meadow Brook.

On this stream a factory, then the property of the Boyce Brothers, of Boston, a three-story wooden building, over one hundred and fifty feet in length, stood upon the dam directly in the path of the waters. It was quickly lifted from its foundations and borne away upright over the Currier farm into the Nashua, to bring up with a loud crash against the first island. Nearly half of the structure, caught in a swirl, again floated on at terrific speed towards the iron bridge and the mills at South Lancaster. Luckily, the depth of the flood was so great that the main flow poured outside the river banks, and the wreck following it passed down between the cotton- factory and the grist-mill, struck the Lancaster Rail- road Bridge a sounding blow as it went under it, toppled over and was torn into fragments. Meadow farms along the river for many miles were deeply inundated, strewn with wreckage of buildings, ma- chinery, furniture, hides, horn goods and great masses of peat from Mossy Pond, and covered with a deposit of sandy mud. The gaps in the railroads had to be bridged, and remained serious interrup- tions to travel for several days.

The Carpet Company, during the summer, filled the crevasse through which the reservoir had drained itself so disastrously with a solid structure. Tedious lawsuits for damages followed, and the sites of the manufactories demolished are even now marked by ruins and desolation.

No citizen of Clinton everstood nearer the popular heart than Franklin Forbes, the manager of the Lan- caster Mills, In 1866 some warning from overtaxed brain impelled him to seek much-needed rest, by a vacation in Europe; but although he soon returned to his wonted labors much invigorated, he began to delegate more and more of his duties to the assistant whom he had trained from youth to be his succes- sor-George W. Weeks, then holding the office of superintendent. After a year or two of visibly fad-

CLINTON.

ing strength, he died, December 24, 1877, at the age of sixty-six, mourned as an irreparable less by young and old, in all classes of society, and wherever his genial presence had been known.

Mr. Forbes was born in West Cambridge, Mass., March 8, 1811, but his parents removed to Boston in his early childhood. He was prepared for college at the Latin School, being a schoolmate of Charles Sumner, and was graduated at Amherst in 1833. Thrown upon his own resources, he decided to adopt the profession of teaching for a livelihood, and ac- cepted the position of usher in a Boston school. Scholarly in his tastes and a diligent student, he also possessed the gift of inspiring others with his own enthusiasm for knowledge, and his success as an instructor was correspondingly marked. He became master of the school, and was called thence to Lowell, to become principal of the High School in that city. In 1837 he was married to Martha A. S. Cushing, of Lunenburg. He continued to teach for several years after his marriage, but finding this field of occupation somewhat narrow for his abilities and aspirations, he began to employ his leisure in legal studies. He was not, however, destined to practice at the bar.

The avocation for which his natural powers pre- eminently fitted him, and in which he subsequently won so honorable repute, was pointed out to him and others during his short period of service for the Locks and Canals Company of Lowell. His peculiar ability in the conduct of large business affairs attracted notice and brought him the offer of the agency of the Lancaster Mills, which he accepted, and on December 1, 1849, assumed his new duties, From that day, for twenty-eight years, Mr. Forbes stood prominent among the foremost citizens of Clinton, a respected leader in municipal and church affairs and social cir- cles, whose breadth of culture, genial and sympathetic nature, unselfishness and strong practical sense, made him not only an intelligent adviser in matters of public conceru, but one to whom all were glad to listen.

He believed the true interests of capital and labor to be identical, and his management of the great man- ufactory placed in his charge was consonant with his theory. His services were invaluable to the corpora- tion, whose annual product increased during his administration from four million to fifteen million yards; but he never forget the workman's rights or welfare while he successfully labored to secure for the stockholders their proper yearly harvest of profit. Once, in a period of great depression in businesss circles, his innate kindliness of heart prompted him to keep the mills running half-time for several weeks at a prohable loss, to save the wage-earners from the privations that would inevitably have followed the entire stoppage of the works. He was ever thinking of his operatives' needs and planning for their eleva- tion. To this end he established evening schools and

popular lectures, to which he contributed much per- sonal labor.

His long experience as a teacher and his warm interest in the education of the young made him a valuable member of the town's School Board, of which he was chairman thirteen years, a service exceeded in length only by that of John T. Dame, Esq. He was for many years president of the Savings Bank, of the Clinton Gas-light Company, and of the Bigelow Library Association. He was the first chief en- gineer of the Fire Department, director in the First National Bank, and his counsel was sought on all questions of grave interest to the town. The esteem and respect in which he was universally held were never, perhaps, more conspicuously shown than when, in 1864, he was persuaded to allow himself to be a candidate for Representative of the Eighth Worcester District, then comprising the towns of Clinton and Lancaster. He received every vote cast, save one in Clinton. The Unitarian Society, which he was active in organizing, found in him a generous benefactor and an indefatigable Christian worker. His patriot- ism was not only fervent and inspiriting, but self- sacrificing. He was president of the Soldiers' Aid Society during the Rebellion, and the volunteers and their families knew no more loyal, no more tender- hearted and cheery friend and adviser than he.

Mr. Forbes left two sons and three daughters, and his wife still survives him.

December 2, 1879, Erastns Brigham Bigelow died at his residence on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. His body was, in accordance with his expressed wish, brought for burial to the town which his genius had created, and was there received with public demen- strations of genuine respect and sorrow.

Mr. Bigelow was phenomenal even among inventors for his power of analysis and mental concentration. Some of his inventions consist of very numerous ele- ments in harmonious conjunction, forming the most complex mechanism used in manufacture. But these were all complete mental conceptions, as the author of them himself assures us, fully fashioned and adjusted in his mathematical imagination before draughtsmen attempted to delineate, or workmen wrought a single cam or lever of them. Singularly enough, he was no mechanic, handled no tool well, made only rough pencil sketches, and entrusted to others the draughting of his ideas to working scale for the machinists. His extraordinary power was shown very early in life, for he was but fourteen years of age when his little machine for the making of piping-cord was perfected. During the fifty years of his subsequent career he was granted in the United States more than fifty patents, the larger number of them for improvements in textile machinery.

He was a native of West Boylston, Massachusetts, born April 2, 1814. He was obliged to contribute to his own support when a mere boy by daily labor upon the farm, and at the age of thirteen years began work

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

in a cotton-mill. The fortunate earning of one hun- dred dollars by the sale of the piping-cord machine enabled him to pay for a few terms' tuition at a neigh- boring academy. He earnestly desired a higher education, but means were wanting, and for a few years, apparently unconscious of his special talent, he wandered from one place and occupation to another with youthful instability-displaying, however, great energy not wholly wasted, inasmuch as varied exper- ience was a part of the preparation for his life's work. At sixteen years of age he is found a clerk in a Boston dry-goods store. Next he became a zealous student of stenography ; even published upon that subject his first book, and earned a little money by teaching the art, travelling with a partner through New England and the Middle States. For a time he then became overseer of a cotton factory at Wareham, and later he taught a writing-school and began the study of medicine. Suddenly he conceived the idea of weaving Marseilles quilts by power, and abandoned his intention of becoming a physician to build the counterpane loom, having induced a firm of Boston importers to undertake the cost of the experiment. The financial troubles of 1837 interfering with the expected support by the firm, he came to Lancaster with his brother ; Horatio bringing to the partnership his moderate savings, Erastus contributing an auto- matic device for weaving coach-lace by power which the experts declared would not work, but which the brothers were confident would.

Prosperity rewarded pluck, and did not come with its usual coyness and at laggard pace; fame followed closely after. Mr. Bigelow had at last evidently found his appointed . place in the world's army of workers. He was henceforth to take rank among the creators and organizers of human industry ; a fellow- laborer for human progress with Watts, Arkwright and Eli Whitney. The Lowell Companies employed him at appropriate salary to act as their advising agent, to suggest special improvements in machinery and methods of manufacture. Invention after inven- tion speedily followed. The gingham, the various carpet, the wire and the brocatel looms successively won their victories and extended his reputation. The great English carpet manufacturers acknowledged themselves outdone by American ingenuity, and pur- chased the new machinery.

It is noteworthy that Mr. Bigelow's aim, both as an inventor and a manufacturer, was ever towards greater perfection in the product. No prospective profit could induce him to cheapen manufacture by allowing the quality to fall below his ideal of excel- lence. His object was to produce by machinery a fabric every way better than that wrought by hand- the decreased cost of production inevitably following, and the consumers enjoying a double gain. He always perfected his ideas, resolutely laboring uutil the object sought was consummated, never abandon- ing the half-wrought for some promising afterthought.

Mr. Bigelow first married Miss Susan W. King. She died in 1841, leaving an infant son, Charles, who survived his mother but six years. He found a second wife in Miss Eliza Means, of Amherst, N. H., by whom he had one daughter, Helen, now the wife of Rev. Daniel Merriman. His stay iu Clinton was but brief, though he was a frequent visitor here. His regular residence for most of his life was in Boston, but he owned an estate of two hundred acres at North Conway, N. H., which he named Stonehurst, and there he spent the summers of his later years.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 38

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