History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 85

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 85

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sold the property to the Parkhill Manufacturing Com- pany.

At this time there is but one corporation engaged in this industry here-the Walter Heywood Chair Manufacturing Company. This is a representative establishment, one of the largest in the country and widely known in foreign lands.

The founder of this company was Walter Heywood, who came to Fitchburg in 1841. In company with Leander P. Comee he built the Heywood & Comee block, and for a time the firm dealt in dry goods and groceries in thestore now occupied by Leander Sprague & Co.

In 1844 the firm hired a part of the "Red Mill " on West Street, and began to make chairs. Ten hands were employed at first. The business increased, and two years later was removed to the upper portion of Alvah Crocker's building just erected on the site now occupied by the Fitchburg Steam Engine Company's shop.

December 7, 1849, this building was entirely de- stroyed by fire, and soon afterward the firm of Hey- wood & Comee was dissolved.

Mr. Heywood, by no means dismayed, secured tem- porary accommodations for the business; and as soon as Mr. Crocker completed the erection of a new build- ing, one hundred and thirty by forty feet, three stories high, on the site of the one burned, he hired the whole of it. The business prospered, and in 1852 Messrs. Alton Blodgett, Lovell Williams and George E. Towue were admitted as partners; and soon after- ward the firm leased land belonging to Mr. Crocker, in the rear of the chair-shop, and erected two large buildings thereon.

In 1856 a foreign trade was opened, which, later, extended to nearly every country in the world.

In 1864 George H. Spencer was admitted as a part- ner.

May 31, 1869, the Walter Heywood Chair Company, with a capital of $240,000, was organized as a stock company, under a special act of the Legislature.

The prosperity of the new company was, however, doomed, in the near future, to meet with a serious check. On the night of July 21, 1870, a fire broke out, which proved to be the most disastrous and costly in the history of Fitchburg, even up to the present time. By it was laid in ruins the entire establishment of this company, as well as several other buildings. The property loss amounted to over $120,000, of which $90,000 fell on the Walter Heywood Chair Company. Their insurance was $52,500.

This was a severe, but by no means a fatal, blow. Very soon after the fire the members of the company began to look about for a new site, and shortly pur- chased some nine acres of land on River Street, where the erection of the present commodious and well-appointed buildings was immediately entered upon and prosecuted with vigor.

The plant consists of three large main buildings of

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brick, two stories high, with an attic. Two of these structures are each three hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, and the third is the same length, but ten feet narrower. All of them are located on the west- erly side of River Street, ranging one behind another. Some three hundred men are employed in these shops.

There is also a handsome brick building, just north of the shops, used for office purposes, besides numer- ous lumber sheds, stock-houses, etc. A railroad track, a quarter of a mile long, owned by the com- pany, connects their premises with the main line of the Hoosac Tunnel Route.

The company also own mills in Barton, Vt., where chair stock is prepared.

This corporation successfully weathered the long- continued depression in trade which began soon after the new buildings were occupied, and at the present time has a large and firmly-established business.

In 1874 Mr. Towne sold his interest to Hiram A. Blood.

The founder, Walter Heywood, died in 1880, and, in order to settle Mr. Heywood's estate, the company, in 1885, sold out to a new corporation, composed of the surviving members of the old company, known as the Walter Heywood Chair Manufacturing Com- pany, which company carries on the business at the present time, Lovell Williams being the president and George H. Spencer, superintendent and treas- urer.

Soon after 10 o'clock on the night of April 6, 1888, fire broke out in the shop next to River Street, the eastern of the three main buildings, and for a time threatened to outrival the fire of 1870. The build- ing was used as a paint and varnish-shop, and burnt fast and furiously ; and but for the heroic exertions of the entire Fitchburg Fire Department and the aid of a strong west wind, which blew the flames away from the other two huge buildings close behind it, the entire establishment would have been de- stroyed. As it was, the paint-shop was mainly de. stroyed, the loss being twenty-five thousand dollars. It was rebuilt of its former dimensions during the summer of 1888.

FURNITURE MANUFACTURING .- In connection with chair making comes very naturally the manu- facture of furniture.

Fitchburg has but one establishment devoted to this industry exclusively. The business is con- ducted by Carmi M. Parker, under the name of Parker & Co. Mr. Parker began the manufacture of furniture in Merrimac, N. H., and in 1880 came to Fitchburg, where he has since carried on the same business in a large factory, formerly occupied by the American Rattan Company, in Newton Place.

The machinery is run by steam, and about forty hands are employed, most of whom are skilled workmen. House and office furniture is here manu- factured from the various ornamental and durable

woods, and is of excellent quality and finish. Mr. Parker has a salesroom, under the name of the Fitchburg Furniture Company, on Main Street.

Mr. Parker has already built up a thriving busi- ness, and his factory has made a place for itself among the longer established manufacturing interests of the city.

Furniture is made to some extent by Mial Davis, at his North Street mills; and the Charles A. Priest Lumber Company make the manufacture of school furniture one of their specialties, at their factory on Rollstone Street.

SHOE MANUFACTURING .- Shoes have, of course, been made here on a small scale since the earliest period of our history as a town.

The first individual, however, to use machinery in the manufacture of shoes in Fitchburg was Elijah M. Dickinson. He began to make them by hand in Marlboro' in 1842. Twelve years later he removed to Fitchburg, and continued the business in a shop at the corner of Main and Laurel Streets. He soon removed to a shop that he built on Oliver Street. Here he remained about six years, when, needing more room for his increasing business, he hired the factory in Newton's Lane, formerly the property of Captain Martin Newton, but then owned by Shepard F. Atherton.

Here he first began to use machinery, and soon built up a flourishing business, and after remaining in this factory for some ten years, he moved into a building on Summer Street, owned by the Simonds Manufacturing Company.

During the last few years of his stay in Newton's Lane, Mr. Dickinson was in partnership with Henry D. Goodale, the firm-name being E. M. Dickinson & Co. Nathaniel Corning succeeded Mr. Goodale as partner about the time of the removal of the busi- ness to Summer Street. In 1876 Edgar F. Belding succeeded Mr. Corning, the firm-name remaining E. M. Dickinson & Co. This partnership continued some eight years, during which the firm, in 1881, erected the present substantial brick factory on the corner of Main and North Streets. The firm of E. M. Dickinson & Co., as at present constituted, con- sists of Mr. Dickinson and his son, Charles P. Dick- inson, who has been associated with his father since about 1878.

The firm manufactures a fine grade of misses' and children's shoes, and employs about one hundred and twenty-five hands. The capacity of the factory is one thousand five hundred pairs per day, and the firm's trade is largely in the West and Northwest.

The Sole-Leather Tip Company, located in this building, is also owned and operated by this firm. Several million pairs of sole-leather tips are annually produced by this company, which are purchased by shoe manufacturers all over the United States and in Canada.

Mr. Edgar F. Belding, formerly a partner with Mr.

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Dickinson, began to manufacture shoes on his own account in November, 1885. His business is carried on in the name of E. F. Belding & Co., and occupies the two upper floors of the Fitchburg Steam Engine Company's building. Children's and misses' shoes of a fine grade are here made at the rate of seven hundred pairs per day, and employment is furnished for some eighty hands.

Mr. Belding intends soon to erect a new factory which will double his present capacity and afford better facilities for carrying on his rapidly increasing business.

He was one of the first to make and introduce sole- leather tips, and in 1884 the Fitchburg Sole-Leather Tip Company was incorporated with a capital of thirty thousand dollars, Henry A. Willis being presi- dent and E. F. Belding, treasurer and manager. The company does an extensive business in this line, sell- iog their sole-leatber tips for children's, misses' and youths' shoes to many of the leading shoe manufac- turers of this couutry. The company owns valuable patented machinery expressly designed for the manu- facture of these tips.

PAPER MANUFACTURING .- This has been and still is one of the two largest industries of Fitchburg.

The first paper-mill in town was built by Thomas French in 1804, and stood on the site now occupied by the Rollstone Machine Co.'s works on Water Street. Mr. French also built a dam across the stream at this point. It was the third dam and was constructed in 1804.

General Leonard Burbank was the owner of the mill, which went into operation in 1805; and as long as it remained standing it was known as the Burbank Paper Mill, though it was afterward owned by Crocker & Gardner and still later by Alvah Crocker. For over twenty years it was the only paper-mill in town.

Alvah Crocker was the founder of the paper-mak- in : industry here, though he did not build his first mill until 1826. This mill was erected in what was then a swamp, difficult of access, as there was at that time no road along the river. It occupied the site of Rodney Wallace's present middle mill. Mr. Crocker expended considerable money on this spot, the dam alone costing fifteen hundred dollars; and in addition to the natural disadvantages of the place, he had other great difficulties to contend with.

Soon after his mill was built it was badly damaged by a freshet, and before long, to keep up with the times, he had to change from hand-labor to machinery, involving an expense of some ten thousand dollars. He was owing several thousand dollars on his original investment in the dam and mill, and to cap the climax, the commission house in Boston that had taken his paper in exchange for rags, chemicals, etc., ioformed him that he was in deht to them some four thousand dollars, and refused him further credit.

With his characteristic indomitable pluck, Mr. Crocker worked day and night, opened separate

accounts with his paper customers and exerted him- self to the utmost to pay his debts, both principal and interest. The success of his arduous toil is well known.

Mr. Crocker was a true business man in every sense of the word-honest, clear-headed and possessed of great foresight. The majority of so-called busi- ness men do not look beyond their own particular line of business, and the advancement of their own interests.

Fitchburg has been blessed in the past, and is blessed at the present time, with some men who have broader views-who see that whatever advances the public good will be sure, sooner or later, to help them also. Among such the name of Alvah Crocker stands out prominently, and will be long remembered.

As an instance of his way of doing, the following is worthy of preservation. In 1834 the town of Fitch- burg employed Mr. Crocker to secure a road along the Nashua River to the Westminster line. The land- holders on the route of the proposed road refused to part with their land on terms which Mr. Crocker con- sidered just and favorable to the interests of the town. He therefore bought the whole strip of land along the river to the Westminster line himself, and gave to the town what was needed for the Westminster river road. He did this at considerable personal expense, both of money and time, but it proved to be the basis of his financial success, for since then most of the paper-mills of Crocker, Burbank & Co., have been built on this land.

The building of the Fitchburg Railroad is an - other example of his far-seeing sagacity.

In 1851 Gardner S. Burbank came to Fitchburg, and went into partnership with Mr. Crocker, thus founding the well-known firm of Crocker, Burbank & Co. Charles T. Crocker was admitted to the firm in 1855, and George F. Fay and Samuel E. Crocker in 1863. Mr. Burbank retired from the firm in 1866, and in 1874 Alvah Crocker died. The business was carried on by the surviving members, under the same firm-name, until about 1879, when two new members were admitted-George H. Crocker, son of Samuel E. Crocker, and Alvah Crocker, son of Charles T. Crocker.

Since 1872 the office of the firm has been in the brick building formerly occupied by the Fitchburg National Bank.

During the first twenty years of its existence this firm acquired the control of a number of large paper- mills, of which the following, taken from Mr. Eben Bailey's sketch of Fitchburg in the " History of Wor- cester County," published in 1879, is a brief history :

The Snow Mill, or Upper Mill, was built in 1839 by Samuel S. Crocker. Benjamin Snow, Jr., bought it in 1847, aud Benjamin Snow, Jr., and Samuel Whitney sold it in 1862 to Crocker, Burbank & Co. The Cascade Mill was built about 1847. It was owned in that year by Samuel A, Wheeler, George Brown and Joel Davis. It was afterward bought by Franklin Wyman, E. B. Tileston and Jonathan Ware, who Bold it to Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1863. The Upton Mill, on the road

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to William Woodbury's, was built in 1851 by Edwin Upton and Alvah Crocker, and came into the possession of Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1859. The Lyon Mill was built in 1853 by M. G. & B. F. Lyon, and bought of Moses G. Lyon by Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1869. Tlie Hanna Mill was built by George and Joseph Brown about 1852. It was afterward owned by Samuel Hanna, who bought it in 1853 and sold it in 1860 to Crocker, Burbank & Co. The Whitney Mill, in Rockville, was built by Whitney & Bogart in 1847. It was afterward owned by Crocker, Burbank & Co., then by Samuel Whitney and later by Wil- liam Baldwin, Jr., who sold it in 1868 to Crocker, Burbank & Co. The Stone Mill, below the Snow and Cascade Mills, was built in 1854. One- balf of it was owned for some time by Samuel A. Wheeler and Joel Ames, and the other half by Alvah Crocker. Crocker, Burhank & Co. came into possession of one-half in 1864, and Alvah Crocker sold the remaming half to Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1871.

The Snow Mill was destroyed by fire, October 15, 1884, the loss being thirty-five thousand dollars. All the other mills are in operation at the present time, and produce about thirty tons of book, card and newspaper every twenty-four hours.

As is seen by the above list of mills belonging to this firm, there were other persons here engaged in the manufacture of paper prior to 1860. Prominent among them was the firm of Jesse Lyon & Sons. One of their mills came into the possession of Crocker, Burbank & Co., and the other became the basis of the Fitchburg Paper Company.

December 31, 1864, Rodney Wallace, Benjamin Snow, Jr., and Stephen Shepley bought this paper- mill, and the Kimball scythe-shop near by, and began the manufacture of paper under the firm-name of the Fitchburg Paper Company. Stephen E. Denton was soon after admitted to the firm and took charge of the business at the mill.

In July, 1865, Mr. Shepley sold his interest to Messrs. Wallace and Snow. Mr. Denton died in June, 1866. January 7, 1869, Mr. Wallace bought Mr. Snow's interest, and January 23d of the same year pur- chased the interest of Mr. Denton's estate of Mrs. Denton. Since then Mr. Wallace has been sole pro- prietor of the Fitchburg Paper Company.

He soon made improvements in his mill whereby its product was increased from one ton of paper per day to two tons. In 1876 he built a substantial stone dam, and two years later erected a new brick mill just below the old one, thereby increasing the pro- duct to about six tons of paper per day.

In 1887 he built another large brick mill, near the junction of Phillips' Brook with the Nashua, and the present capacity of the three mills is over twenty tons of hanging, card, coloring and lithographing paper per day.

Quite a village has sprung up around the two older mills. Just across the river are the tracks of the Fitchburg Railroad, and Mr. Wallace has a freight station of his own, where all the raw material is re- ceived and the finished product shipped.

The office of the Fitchburg Paper Company is in the Fitchburg Savings Bank block. Mr. Wallace's two sons, Herbert I. and George R. Wallace, are ac- tively associated with him, as is also his brother, Wil-

liam E. Wallace, in the management of the extensive business and attending to the office duties.

The mill of the George W. Wheelwright Paper Company, on Fourth Street, was built in 1864, by George W. Wheelwright & Son, and was for some years known as the Rollstone paper-mill.

The present company was incorporated in 1880 with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, and man- ufactures news, card, book and staining paper. The capacity of the mill is about five tons per day.

The office of the company is on Devonshire Street, Boston.

The mill of the Falulah Paper Company is located on Scythe-shop road, South Fitchburg. The com- pany consists of Seth L. and Albert N. Lowe. The mill occupies the site of the Richardson scythe-shop, and was built by the Snow Paper Company in 1884. It came into the possession of the Falulah Paper Company in October, 1886.

Manilla paper is made at this mill at the rate of some three tons per day.

IRON INDUSTRIES .- By far the greater portion of the manu acturing companies here are engaged in the production of machinery. Though not begun as early as some of the other industries, it has taken deep root here; and within the last forty years has developed wonderfully.

The steam-engines and machinery made in Fitch- burg have, we may truthfully say, an almost world- wide reputation.

It will be impossible to enter fully into the history and details of our many machine-shops, steam-engine manufactories, foundries, etc., in this limited sketch, but an attempt will be made in the following pages to give some idea of our great interests in this line of manufacturing.

The founders of the iron business here were two brothers, John and Salmon W. Putnam, who, in 1838 removed their business from Ashburnham to Fitch- burg. The firm of J. & S. W. Putnam hired a room, twenty by thirty feet, in the old Burbank Paper Mill, then owned by Alvah Crocker, and began, in a small way, an industry that has since then become so large and important as to give to Fitchburg the name of the " Machine City."

Their business at first was mainly repairing, and furnished employment for themselves only ; soon they began to make new machinery for various mills, and were obliged to hire an apprentice, and soon after a journeyman was engaged. The firm then began to make gear-cutting machines after the model of one devised by John Putnam; and this machine is now, nearly a half century later, made by the Putnam Machine Company with very slight change in its mechanism.

Their business rapidly increased, requiring, from time to time, an addition to their floor-room ; and, in 1845, Alvah Crocker erected for them a brick build- ing, one hundred and fifty by forty feet, they occupy-

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ing the lower floor and Heywood & Comee the upper portion.

On the night of December 7, 1849, this building, as has been before stated, was entirely destroyed by fire, and the machine and chair-making industries of Fitchburg came very near being snuffed out together in their infancy. The firm of J. & S. W. Putnam lost twelve thousand dollars, the accumulation of over ten years of hard work, and had no insurance ; but two weeks after the fire the brothers were at work again under a temporary covering of boards.

They paid all their debts and the next year the firm made, as it were, a new start in a building erected for them by Mr. Crocker, and now occupied by the Union Machine Company.

About this time Charles H. Brown and Benjamin Snow, Jr., were admitted as partners, and the firm- name became J. & S. W. Putnam & Co.

The Putnam Machine Company .- In 1854 the firm of J. & S. W. Putnam & Co. was increased by the addition of four new members-Messrs. Charles Bur- leigh, John Q. and Sylvester C. Wright and Danvers A. Tenney ; and, on August 10, 1854, these eight individuals were organized as a partnership under the name of the Putnam Machine Company. Four years later, in 1858, the company was incorporated as a stock company, with a capital of forty thousand dollars. In 1866 the capital was increased to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.

In 1855 the company began the manufacture of steam-engines. In that year Charles H. Brown brought out a new engine, which was patented by himself and Charles Burleigh. The patent was assigned to the Putnam Machine Company, and the engine, known as the " Putnam" Engine, has since been, and still continues to be, manufactured by the company.

In 1866 it became evident that larger accommoda- tions were imperatively needed. Accordingly, the company purchased about twenty-six acres of land, including the Atherton estate in Newton's Lane, and in July, 1866, began the erection of the extensive shops, foundries, etc., now occupied by the company. These buildings were completed during the next two years at a cost of over $200,000, and were admirably arranged for carrying on the company's large busi- ness.

The main machine-shop, extending along Putnam Street from Main Street nearly to the tracks of the Fitchburg Railroad is a one-story Jbrick building, 625 feet long and 48 feet wide. In it are seven different de- partments, each being devoted to the manufacture of special kinds of machinery, but there is no partition throughout its entire length. Along the centre of the shop are thirty-five iron columns which support the main line of shafting, which runs all the machinery in the building. Power is furnished by three large cut-off steam-engines of the company's own manufac- ture.

Connected with the Main Street end of the main

shop is the office of the company, a handsome brick building of two stories, with a Mansard roof. From the east side of the main shop project five wings, twelve feet square, used as offices for the foremen of the various departments; and from the west side ex- tend seven wings, six being 52 by 36 feet, and the seventh 52 by 44 feet, used for the setting up of the machinery made in the seven corresponding depart- ments.

This extensive building is lighted by about three hundred large windows, and there are five hundred gas-burners ready for use when needed. It is heated by over six miles of steam-pipe, and has a floor-room of 37,000 square feet. In a word, the works, which were built from plans designed by S. W. Putnam, could not have been more conveniently or effectively arranged.

Along the west side of the main shop is a roadway with which each of the seven wings communicates by means of large folding doors, so that heavy machines can easily be loaded upon trucks by powerful cranes.

West of the roadway are located the iron and brass foundries, pattern-shops, store-houses, &c. At the ex- treme southern end of the main shop is the black- smith-shop, with its forges and heavy hammers.

At the time of the incorporation of the company Salmon W. Putnam was chosen president and man- ager, and continued to conduct the large business with great sagacity and ability for nearly fourteen years. His death occurred February 23, 1872, and was deeply felt by the community as well as the company. The senior member, John Putnam, though not active in the management of the affairs of the company, was for many years a director and one of the largest stock- holders. He was daily at his place, where he was a most energetic and skillful workman up to the time he retired from business, in 1886. Many improvements in the machinery made by the company are due to his ingenuity and skill. He died July 31, 1888, aged nearly seventy-eight years, and his funeral was at- tended by the officers and employés of the Putnam Machine Company, whose works were closed during the day.

On the death of S. W. Putnam, in 1872, the presi- dency of the company was offered to John Putnam, but he preferred to continue his work in the field where he had for so many years searched for mechan- ical secrets rather than to accept an office, the duties of which would involve such a radical change, and he used his influence to have the presidential chair of the company given to Charles F. Putnam.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 85

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