History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 96

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 96

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The partiality of his fellow-citizens has found fre- . quent and repeated expression in his election to positions of honor and responsibility. In 1875 he was a member of the Common Council, and was president of the body. In 1877 and '78 he was a member of the Board of Aldermen, and each year he was assigned to important positions on the standing committees.

At the city election in December, 1879, after an animated contest, Mr. Culley was elected mayor, and was re-elected the following year. Succeeding these years of service, his friends did not suffer him to long remain among the retired executive officers of the city.

Again he was elected mayor for the year 1888, and has been chosen for the fourth time and for the year 1889. No other citizen of Fitchburg has been called to the executive chair an equal number of times, and no other has filled all the positions here named. In 1880 Mr. Culley was a member of the House of Representatives.

If briefly narrated, the public service of Mr. Culley has been efficient and honorable. The elements of his successful career are found in his sincerity, the unequivocal expression of his convictions and in his direct methods of speech and conduct. In public affairs and in business he has been industrious, and a life of toil and honest effort has been rewarded with the confidence and esteem of his fellow-men. His

success has been earned. Alone in the world at fifteen years of age, his only capital was courage and a willingness to work. Among a nation of strangers he found in our American institutions and our New England customs a welcome denied to the foreigner in every other land. Young Culley appreciated the conditions, and from that hour, in every thought, aspiration and purpose, he was as thoroughly an American as any native born. Mr. Culley is pre- eminently one of the products of a benign and liberal government and the type of a successful career, the counterpart of which is not found elsewhere. The poor boy, unaided by friends and the supporting in- fluences of wealth, seldom succeeds iu any other country, and only in America does the invitation to industry, morality and good citizenship extend to the ambitious youth of every land.

In characteristics Mr. Culley is free from ostentation and is frank and direct in his methods. His impulses are quick and generous, his sympathies are universal, and his affections are tender and loyal. While toler- ant of the opiniou and liberal in his estimate of other men, he adheres closely to his own conclusions, and in his administration of public affairs he has been conservative and safe. Unconsciously these outlines present many traits and elements of a model citizen, and in his success is found an incentive to an honest purpose, to loyalty to friends and to country, and to faithfulness in the discharge of public trusts.

In his domestic relations Mr. Culley has been fortu- nate and happy. He married, October 5, 1862, Martha A. Redman. They have six children-three sons and three daughters-aged from twelve to twenty-four years.

Mr. Culley became connected with the Masons in 1866, and with the Odd Fellows in 1862, and has been a prominent member of both fraternities. In both organizations he has been honored with the post of District Deputy Grand Master.

SYLVANUS SAWYER.

Sylvanus Sawyer, an eminent inventor and mechan- ical engineer, was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, April 15, 1822. The family is of Saxon ancestry, who came to England with William the Conqueror. The name, it is claimed, is derived from the invention and introduction of mills to saw by power, and in America the name of Sawyer has been associated with mills and a variety of manufactures in every generation. The emigrant ancestor, Thomas Sawyer, settled in Charlestown (now Somerville) and removed to Lancas- ter about 1650. He married Mary Prescott and died 1706. His son, Thomas Sawyer, Jr., born 1648, lived in Lancaster, where he died 1736. In 1705 Thomas Sawyer, Jr., and his son Elias were captured by the Indians and taken to Canada. The mechanical genius of the family secured the freedom of the captives. Here the elder Sawyer observed, on the river wbere

1By Ezra S. Stearns.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

they were confined, fine seats for mills, and proposed to the French Governor that he would build a mill on condition the captives were released. This arrange- ment was consummated and the Sawyers returned to Lancaster. Elias Sawyer, a descendant of the genera- tions named, removed to Templeton, where, following the proclivities of his family for mechanical pursuits, he built one of the early mills of the town. His son, John Sawyer, the father of Sylvanus, was a farmer and a lumber dealer, but also owned and conducted a mill. He was a natural mechanic, doing his own car- pentering, coopering and stone work, and later he sup- plemented his facilities for miscellaneous work with a lathe and a forge. In the midst of such influences and surroundings Sylvanus at an early age manifested a predilection for mechanics and invention. With equal aptnesss he designed and made many articles of utility and the playthings and trinkets of yonth. One of the results of his earlier studies was a water- wheel which has since been made and sold under another name. This was followed by designs for a reed organ, a screw propeller, a hand car operated by foot-power, a steam-engine and many .minor inven- tions. Having neither means nor experience to utilize the fruits of his early thought, the most of them still slumber in his mind.

In youth his health was feeble, and in search of some light employment he went to Augusta, Me., at the age of seventeen and began work in a gun-smith shop. Ill health compelled him to return home, but he brought with him some knowledge of a trade which found exercise in the manufacture of guns and pistols and some of original design. With such em- ployments and assisting as health permitted in the work on his father's farm, he reached his majority. His early educational advantages were limited, but with habits of study and research and by working out his own problems, aided by a judicions selection of books, he is well equipped for the duties of life and easily excels in his favorite lines of research. In his early experience, in the denial of privileges in his youth and in the many embarrassments in his way, Mr. Sawyer has found an apprenticeship which has given him discipline and courage that has led the way to the substantial achievements of his life.

In 1844, or soon after he had reached his majority, he sought employment in Boston and was employed for a short time in a copper-smith shop. Subsequently he remained a year with Jones & Hobbs, manufac- turers of locks and house trimmings. Here he de- vised improvements in several processes of the manu- facture, and to him was entrusted the manufacture of the tools peculiar to the work, and which formerly had been made by specialists at considerable expense. Returning to his home in Templeton, his attention was first called to the cane or rattan business in the winter of 1845-46. Mr. William Wood, a cane-worker of Phillipston, seeking the services of an expert in the manufacture of some tools peculiar to the pro-

cesses then employed in working the cane, came to Mr. Sawyer for advice and assistance, Comprehending the matter at once, Mr. Sawyer informed his visitor the process then employed was faulty, that all the operations could be performed at once, and with a machine operated by power. To this broad assertion Mr. Wood replied that it could not be done, that the ingenuity of many skilled mechanics had been ex- hausted, and thousands of dollars had been expended in useless and unproductive experiments. The faith of Mr. Sawyer remained unimpaired. In his mind the problem had been solved already. With a clear conception of the working principles of the future invention, Mr. Sawyer visited the shop of Mr. Wood and witnessed the different operations employed in reducing a stick of cane to the finished product. Beside scouring, straightening, and the. slow whit- iling at the joints, there were eighteen manipulations. While witnessing these slow and laborious operations, to his former conception he added a device for scraping the joints in the strand, instead of whittling them off in the stick, and combining it with the process of gauging. This last device was immediately expressed in a machine which was a success, and which saved annually one hundred dollars on a man's labor. While he was maturing plans and making application of his conception of the more important machine for split- ting cane, of which the scraper was to be a sectional part, he made and sold several of these machines for scraping the strand. Having matured the designs, and realizing the need of greater skill and experience as a machinist, before putting them into practical form, Mr. Sawyer sought and obtained employment in the then celebrated steam-engine manufactory of Otis Tufts, in Boston. Here he secured the confi- dence of his employers and the esteem of his asso- ciates, and soon was placed in charge of the most important work, with men under him many years his senior in experience. In this service his ingenuity and his ability to abridge processes found frequent exercise. At the completion of the stipulated term of service, he returned to Templeton to prosecute his invention. At this time, the winter of 1848-49, his elder brother, Joseph B. Sawyer, who was then em- ployed in a mill and machine-shop at Palmer, Mass., for an interest in the patents, proposed to furnish needed funds and to assist in the construction of models and experimental machines. The proposition was accepted. In the autumn of 1849 he returned to Templeton, bringing with him a set of cutting- machines and models of the same, and an experi- mental scraper. The patent was issued November 13, 1849, and a half-interest was assigned to his brother. The machines were set up for exhibition in the shop of his father. For motive-power, a man was employed to turn a crank.

The scraper made at Palmer proved defective. Un- daunted, Mr. Sawyer immediately made new drawings, and at Athol constructed another machine after his

Sylvanus Sawyer

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original design. The machines with this scraper were successfully operated until they were worn out beyond repair, and success crowned' the issne. The prophecy of Mr. Wood and other cane-workers that this end could not be reached had come to naught. The early experimenters had vainly attempted to cut down and through the hard, siliceous enameled sur- face of the cane with saws, spurs, loups and dies. The result was that the cutting points, in the passage at fair speed of a stick of cane, became hot, and soon cut off and the saws worn smooth. The invention of Mr. Sawyer, assisted by many mechanical devices, them- selves inventions, is founded upon the device of cut- ting under the enamel and outward, raising the strand so that when the receding edge of the spur or lip, that divides the surface into strands, reaches the surface, the enamel already has been parted without injury to the cutting points. Here is found the key to the situation. This idea dominates all chair cane-cutting machines, including the tubular spurred cutter, as firmly as the Howe method of put- ting the eye in the point of the needle dominates all cloth-sewing machines of the past and the present. In the spring of 1850 Mr. Sawyer invented another ma- chine for cutting cane, which he judged might have some advantages over his first method. Having con- structed an apparatus to test his invention, he put it aside for future consideration. In the mean time many interested parties had been accorded the privi- lege of examining the new invention, and among these were Levi Heywood, of Gardner, and an uncle, Joseph Sawyer, of Royalston, who subsequently ap- plied for a patent.

Mr. Sawyer immediately proved a priority of inven- tion, and to him a patent was issued June 24, 1851, while the application of his uncle was rejected. As an item of history in connection with these patents it is necessary to add that, upon a modified claim, a patent was issued to the uncle in 1854, which failed to meet the purpose of its design. With his attention continually directed to this business, Mr. Sawyer devised a machine for scouring cane in large quantity by power, which superseded the former process of scouring small quantities with broom, soap and sand. In the autumn of 1850 the brothers, Sylvanus and Joseph B. Sawyer, rented a shop with power in East Templeton, and, with their new machinery, hegan the manufacture of cane for the use of chair-makers. In 1851 Sylvanus invented a new machine for shaving thestrands and trimming the edges with great rapidity. It was subsequently modified and adapted to the tubular spurred cutter mentioned hereafter, and patented December 12, 1854. The enterprise at East Templeton established the merit of the machines, and from a business standpoint they were successful and remunerative. A stock company was organized in April, 1852, known as the American Rattan Company, and the business was removed to Fitchburg. The Sawyer patents were assigned to the corporation, and

an extensive business was continned under the super- intendence of Mr. Sawyer, who also was one of the directors. About this time a rival company was organized by Levi Heywood and others, and began business, with the Uncle Joseph patents, in Boston. By a vote of a majority of the American Rattan Company the two companies were consolidated. This action was strenuously opposed by Mr. Sawyer and others, and in the end their judgment was sustained by the facts. The machines of the Boston company were of little value, the manufactured cane was com- paratively worthless, and an inheritance of debt was the prominent item of the assets which the Boston company brought to the treasury of the American Rattan Company. By this arrangement the stock of the old company was doubled and no material benefits were secured. March 7, 1854, a patent on a tubular spurred cutter was issued to Addison M. Sawyer, the youngest brother of Sylvanus. He had been employed by his elder brothers at Templeton, and subsequently by the American Rattan Company, at Fitchburg.

It appears that each of the three brothers had been conducting experiments in this direction, but Addi- son claimed and probably was entitled to priority, and to him the patent was issued. A third interest was immediately assigned to the brothers named. In connection with the machines owned by the Ameri- can Rattan Company, this patent would be valuable, and doubly so, if a shave could be adapted to com- plete the work; but of little value to the brothers without the company's scraper and such a shave. Mr. Sawyer at once went to the shop in Athol, where he had solved many problems, and there remodeled the shave to meet the new demand. As previously stated, the remodeled shave was patented iu 1854. The improvements he introduced at this time in- cluded another knife, which reduced the strand for the shaving-knife, and a scraper with a spring weighted block, which pressed the strand upon the cutter. At this time he devised a feeding apparatus for the cutter and a new guide to present the stick of cane centrally to the cutter and other improvements for handling the strands parted by the cutter.

With these improved equipments the three brothers -Sylvanus, Joseph B. and Addison M. Sawyer-re- sumed business at East Templeton, but they soon sold the business and assigned the new patents to the American Rattan Company. Mr. Sawyer again re- moved to Fitchburg, and assumed the oversight of the setting up of the new machines and the training of the help in the new processes. In June, 1855, he re- ceived a patent on an invention for splitting the rod of cane into sectional strips, removing the strand from each strip and rounding for reeds the triangular part remaining. Having realized his most sangnine expectations, Mr. Sawyer retired from the active man- agement of the business and directed his attentiou mainly to other fields of study and investigation. As early as 1853 he had invented improvements in rifled

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

cannon projectiles, which were patented in 1855, and subsequently were patented in England and in France.

These embrace the placing a coating of lead, or some softer metal than that of which the iron body is composed, on the rear or frusto-conical end of the shell, and the same extended, or not, over the sides of the same, which is expanded laterally by the discharge, and preventing "windage" on the passage of the gas by the projectile, also filling the grooves of the rifling and obviating the necessity of helical projections; and the arrangement in the point of a percussion cap or fuse so as to insure the explosion of the shell on im- pact and the soldering of the soft metal to the shot.

In 1857 and 1858 Mr. Sawyer, with his brother Ad- dison (to whom an interest in the patents had been conveyed), conducted experiments on his inventions at their own expense, in order to demonstrate the practicability of rifled cannon and projectiles to the United States Ordnance Bureau, the Chief of Ordnance refusing to be at any expense, saying that they had already spent mints of money on these visionary schemes, that the subject was exhausted, and that rifle cannon was impracticable; but after learning of their previous tests, and that they had their own guns and ammunition, he readily ordered a trial and an in- vestigation of Mr. Sawyer's invention, which, after thorough test, proved eminently successful, the Secre- tary of War (who witnessed two trials) declaring that the practicability of rifle cannon and projectiles had at last been demonstrated. This trial resulted in the ordering of another trial, with heavy ordnance, at Fortress Monroe, before a board of government offi- cers, and a report was submitted recommending in view of the superiority of the Sawyer projectile in accuracy over all others of which official information had been received, and of its simplicity and the cer- tainty of the fuse bursting the shell after penetration, that fonr field-guns be issued to one or more batteries for practice with the Sawyer projectiles for one year ; but before this order was carried into effect the Civil War was upon us, and these experimental guns were turned upon the enemy with great effect. The forty- two-pounders (rifle) columbiads were mounted at New- port News and upon the Rip Raps (Fort Wool), the latter being the only guns there that could reach Sewell's Point Battery, a distance of three and one- half miles, which they did with great accuracy, and made fearful havoc with the railroad iron-clad bat- teries at the capturing of Sewell's Point, Norfolk, Gosport, etc., and an eighteen-pounder Sawyer rifle did great execution un board the steamer " Fanny."

Notwithstanding the great range and accuracy of the Sawyer guus and projectiles, and the certainty of the operation of their fuse, the ordnance officers did not seem to manifest that enthusiasm that was exhib- ited by the old artillery officers, and they seemed to rather stand aloof, and look askance upon Mr. Sawyer's invention.

This state of affairs was soon explained by an ord- nance officer, who was later on appointed chief of the Ordnance Bureau at Washington, coming for- ward to compete before the Sawyer board with a pro- jectile that directly infringed the Sawyer patent. They evidently did not mean to have their old ord- nance theories overthrown and be left out in the cold. Hence the Chief of Ordnance, of both the army and navy, soon commenced to make, or have made, large quantities of projectiles (principally shells) for the army and navy, the former having his made by a Mr. Knapp, of Pennsylvania, and the latter at the Navy Yard at Washington, and both of them infring- ing Mr. Sawyer's patents, or, as Government So- licitor Whiting said, " It is an adoption of the Sawyer patent." This action of the chiefs of the Ordnance Bureaus was very unfortunate for Mr. Sawyer, who was accorded little or no credit for his inventions, or for his " practical demonstrations," which were made at a heavy cost to himself of both time and money, and almost practically barred him out from govern- ment patronage, except orders from department com- manders who insisted upon having the Sawyer guns and ammunition, for whom he made quite a number of batteries of cast-steel guns, with shot and shell, besides longer guns. He appealed to the Assistant Secretary of War, Mr. Watson, and to the Govern- ment Solicitor, Mr. Whiting (both former patent lawyers). They admitted that they were using his patents, and stated that under martial law the gov- ernment had a right to take and use what they pleased by recompensing the owner ; " but this did not apply to officers as individuals," and advised him to wait till the war was over and then seek redress, his claim being good for six years thereafter ; but Chief Dahlgren, of the navy, died during, or soon after, the war ; Chief Dyer died a little later, and Mr. Knapp, who made the "Dyer projectiles" for him, followed soon after, so that there was no one left whom he could prosecute for these infringements, or compel the yielding of the credit that belonged to him. In 1861 Mr. Sawyer invented a Fuse Hood for centra- ting fire upon a time fuse, also a Loading Mandrel for filling case shot, both of which were patented December 24th the same year, and in August, 1862, he and his brother, Addison M., took out a patent jointly for a Combination Fuse, and on December 17, 1862, he bought his brother's interest in his patents.

In 1864-65 Mr. Sawyer built a large brick shop which he designed mainly for the manufacture of ordnance, and was negotiating with Mexico, Brazil and Chili, as well as our own country, for ordnance supplies ; but all four of the wars ended about the same time and the shop is now occupied by the Fitchburg Machine Works.

In 1867 he took out a patent on Dividers and Cali- pers, and March 3, 1868, a Steam Generator ; May 26th, same year, an improved Rattan Machine, and July 7, 1868, he took another for Calipers and

yours truly - Mã Roman

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FITCHBURG.

Dividers. In 1876 Sawyer & Esty patented a Sole Sewing Machine. About this time Mr. Sawyer com- menced to start a watch factory in Fitchburg and had got considerable of the stock taken in the enter- prise and the tools substantially done when the " hard times " set in, which compelled many to with- draw their subscription ; hence he concluded to give up the enterprise and turned his attention to the manufacture of watch tools, in which business he continued till he moved the business to New York and formed a stock company, in 1881, and subse- quently sold out his interest. On July 10, 1882, a patent was issued to him for a Centring Watchmaker's Lathe, which he manufactured in connection with other tools.

Resting from his labors, Mr. Sawyer has practically retired from active business, renting his shops. He has manifested a love for horticultural pursuits and a deep interest in progressive farming. His labor has been onerous and his achievements substantial. Through many years of constant use his inventions in cane machinery have permitted no improvements and still remain substantially as they left his hand. They have revolutionized an important industry and transferred it from the pestilential climate of South- ern India and from Japan and Holland to this coun- try, offering ample dividends to capital employed and affording employment to many people. And we may add that his inventions in riffe cannon and projectiles has been perhaps equally revolutionary.

ANDREW B. SHERMAN.

The subject of this sketch was born in Plympton, Mass., April 10, 1829. His father, Capt. Zacchæus Sherman, followed the sea fourteen years, and com- manded a vessel about twelve years.

Capt. Sherman was twice married. His first wife was Jane Bradford, by whom he had two sons and two daughters; the second wife was Nancy Bartlett, of Plymouth, by whom he had two sons, Andrew B. and Algernon Sidney.

Andrew B. Sherman was educated in the district and private schools of his native town, and, after reaching the age of eight years, worked diligently dur- ing vacations-in summer on the farm and in winter in the saw-mills, and helping team lumber, &c., in which his father then dealt extensively.

With the exception of one winter, during which he worked in the store of his uncle, the late Zacchaus Parker, he passed his time thus until the age of twenty, acquiring the habits of industry which have so strongly characterized his whole business career.

In 1849 he left home and entered the country store of J. M. Harrub, of North Plympton, where for two years and ten months he worked from fourteen to six- teen hours per day, attending carefully to all parts of the business. He rendered valuable assistance in keeping the books and also in attending to finishing

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 96

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