History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 169

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 169

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February 24, 1836, Goulding & Smith dissolved, D. T. Brigham having retired from the firm in 1834, and Henry Goulding continued the business alone. A co-partnership was formed, April, 1837, under the title of Henry Goulding & Company, consisting of Henry Goulding, John Gates, (2d), and Luke With- erby. They were burned out in August, 1838; the building, which was of brick, was valued at three thousand five hundred dollars, and was owned by Frederick W.'Paine; the tools and machinery, valued at eight thousand dollars, were destroyed. This con- cern built at that time about sixty thousand dollars' worth annually of woolen machinery.

Nov. 15, 1844, Goulding & Davis, who had succeeded, dissolved, and Henry Goulding continued. April 1, 1851, Willard, Williams & Company, bought out Henry Goulding ; the firm was composed of Fitzroy Willard, Warren Williams, N. A. Lombard, Charles A. Whitte- more and H. W. Conklin ; this firm was succeeded April 2, 1855, by F. Willard & Company, composed

of Fitzroy Willard, Charles Whittemore, N. A. Lom- bard and H. W. Conklin. This firm was succeeded April 1, 1861, by Bickford & Lombard, who were succeeded by N. A. Lombard, the present proprie- tor, who has been connected with the business since 1851.

From 1823 until the present time this business has been confined to the manufacture of woolen ma- chinery of different kinds, and at present includes carding and spinning machinery, spinning jacks, pickers, dusters, willowers, etc.

The firm of Phelps & Bickford was composed of Horatio Phelps and William M. Bickford; W. M. Bickford succeeded William Stowell, August 31, 1831, and built woolen machinery, condensing, picking, nap- ping and brushing-machines, also spinning jacks, at the Stowell shop in New Worcester; he was suc- ceeded by Abel Kimball, who continued the business at the same place.

Horatio Phelps manufactured looms of all kinds in the shop formerly occupied by William Howard, at South Worcester, from whom Mr. Phelps had pur- chased the right to make his patent broad looms. Phelps & Bickford continued to manufacture here, after the formation of their copartnership, all kinds of woolen looms. In October, 1834, they removed from South Worcester to Court Mills, then a new building erected by Stephen Salisbury for the accommodation of parties desiring to lease factory room. Phelps & Bickford afterwards occupied part of the wire factory in Grove Street. Later, Mr. Bickford continued the business alone, and in 1859 he employed twenty-three hands in building looms in the west wing of the Grove Street mill. December 28, 1860, he moved to Merrifield's building, in Exchange Street, where he was prepared to build all kinds of Crompton looms and other fancy looms, broad and narrow; also walk- ing, dressing and spooling machinery, with steam cylinders or pipes for drying ; also all kinds of ma- chinery and tools for making wire.

August 17, 1831, John Simmons & Co. announced that they had formed connection in business, and will supply at their new shop in New Worcester the fol- lowing machinery : Broad and narrow shearing ma- chines, pressing-machines, napping-machines. This copartnership was composed of John Simmons, Abel Kimball and Albert Curtis, and was dissolved Febru- ary 21, 1832. Mr. Curtis in 1831 took a lease of Lewis Thayer, the then owner of a part of the water privi- lege which was originally owned by Joshna Hale. Here he erected a machine shop. The old Hale building was a wooden factory, two stories and a basement, and stood where the middle building of the Curtis & Marble factories now is.

Albert Curtis was born in Worcester, 1807. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to White & Boyden, who manufactured woolen machinery at South Worcester, near the present location of the carpet-mills. After learning his trade he worked

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

here for three years as a journeyman, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per day. In December, 1829, he went to Pittsburgh, but returned in January, 183], and again entered the employment of White & Boy- den. While learning his trade he became acquainted with his fellow-workmen, Kimball and Simmons, and they conceived the idea of going to New Worcester and starting for themselves. The firm of Jolin Sim- mons & Co. was succeeded by Simmons & Curtis, who continued to make shearing and other machinery. In 1833 Mr. Curtis purchased Mr. Simmons' interest, and continued alone until 1834, when Mr. William Henshaw became a partner and so continued until 1839, the firm-name being Curtis & Henshaw. They had not room enough at New Worcester for their business, and for a time leased room of Ichabod Washburn, in the wire-mill in Grove Street. This copartnership was dissolved January 8, 1839.

In 1835 Capron & Parkhurst occupied the old Hale building, which was owned by Clarendon Wheelock.

About 1840 Mr. Curtis purchased of him the Rams- horn water privilege, building and satinet machinery, consisting of two full sets. He had previously bought the Lewis Thayer water privilege, where the old dam stood on Tatnuck Brook, to run his machine-shop. Mr. Curtis leased the old building to John Metcalf and William C. Barber, who ran it until 1842, when it was burned, together with the machine-shop of Mr. Curtis, which was a wooden building with a base. ment. The original dam on the privilege stood one hundred feet from the bridge toward the location of the present dam, and was about sixty feet long and four feet high.

After the fire of 1842, Mr. Curtis immediately re- built the machine shop (52 x 30 feet), three stories high. In 1842 be built a factory on the site of the old Hale mill, a portion of which he leased to Sumner Pratt, to make cotton sewing thread. Mr. Curtis afterwards had an equal interest with Mr. Pratt, and bought him out in 1844. The basement of the build- ing was rented to L .. & A. G. Coes, who manufactured wrenches. While Mr. Sumner Pratt was here in the thread business, Mr. L. J. Knowles and a Mr. Hap- good purchased his product and spooled it in another room of the same building, and put it on the market.

Atter Mr. Curtis hought out Mr. Pratt, he put in looms for making cotton sheetings. The mill was con- tinued as a cotton-mill for several years, when it was converted into a satinet-mill. In 1845 the South Mill was built and used for the manufacture of cotton sheetings and drillings.

In 1870 the South Mill was changed to woolen goods, blankets, shawls and dress goods.

At the north end of Curtis bridge was the old wheelwright shop of E. Graves, now used as a dwell- ing-house. Mr. Curtis bought ont Graves in 1837, and continued the wheelwright business until about 1840.

In 1852 Mr. Curtis bought the Trowbridgeville fac- tory and commenced here the manufacture of cotton

sheetings. In 1860 the mill was burned and partially rebuilt and filled with machinery for making woolen goods.

Mr. Curtis changed the 1845 mill to woolen goods in 1871, and has since put in additional machinery for the manufacture of horse blankets.

The mill built in 1842 was changed to satinets in 1857. In 1862 Mr. Curtis took Edwin T. Marble into partnership in his business for manufacturing woolen machinery for finishing woolen, silk and cotton goods, and that partnership has continued to the present time.

This company makes a specialty of shearing ma- chinery, the improvements in which have been greater than in any other machinery used in the manufacture of woolen goods. Mr. Curtis built the first machines for shearing or trimming cotton cloth built in this country ; they were used to remove the fuzz from cot- ton cloth. In old times this was accomplished by singeing or burning.

A shearing-machine made in France was sent from Pawtucket to Mr. Curtis to be repaired. Mr. Curtis examined it and thought it could be improved. He began building the machines then and has continued ever since. Up to that time the French machines had been used in this country. They had one set of shears; the Curtis machine now has from two to five sets. One machine made at the present day will do as much as twelve did in 1830.

December 10, 1833, William H. Howard and Silas Dinsmore made cotton and woolen machinery at their machine shop near the Court-House, and continued in business until September 30, 1834, when they dis- solved. In November, 1834, Silas Dinsmore com- menced the manufacture of power-looms at the same place, aud April 13, 1835, formed a co-partnership with Fitzroy Willard, continuing in the same business. In 1838 Fitzroy Willard was located at Court Mills, where he manufactured broad power, satinet and cassimere looms, and in 1840 Silas Dinsmore manu- factured reeds at Court Mills.

The card-clothing industry has been a most import- ant one, and was naturally among the earliest in which the colonists engaged, for the reason that it is essential to the manufacture of textile fabrics. The use to which carding is put is to separate the fibres of the material being worked, and to lay them parallel. The process consists in the reciprocal motion of two surfaces covered with short pointed teeth, between which the stock is placed. Formerly this was done by hand, aud was conducted in the household.

" It is probable that either cards proper, or tools closely resembling them, were used as far back as the dawn of civilization, when the art of the manufacture of textiles was in its very infancy. To within a com- paratively recent period the processes were very rude, depending mainly on hand labor, and thus the cards employed differed somewhat in their shape from those used at the present day.

Van Slyi. : Boston

Albert Curtis

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WORCESTER.

"To produce them, a sheet of leather was taken about eighteen or twenty inches by about four inches in width. This was ruled by lines into cross sections as a guide for the workman, who used a pricker with two blades, piercing two holes at a time at the point where the lines intersected until the whole sheet was pierced. This accomplished, the wire was taken, each pin or shaft being separately bent into a staple by hand. The prongs of the staples formed the card teeth, which were inserted also by hand, one staple at a time, into the perforated leather sheet above described.

"The sheet, with its wire teeth, was now nailed upon a board, and called a card. With this appliance, or rather with a pair of them, the operator carded. He placed tufts of cotton, wool or other fibre between them, and drew the one over the other for several strokes until both were equally filled, and then, by a reverse stroke, he cleaned out the fibre in the form of a roll, called a carding, which was used by the spinsters for making their yarn."

Tacks were first used in making hand-cards, and they were for a time manufactured in this country by cutting them out of sheet-iron with a pair of shears. The tack was held in a vise and headed by a single blow. About six hundred and fifty tacks were required for nailing each dozen pairs of hand- cards to the boards on which they were used. All the tacks used for this purpose for many years were made by hand in the manner described above, until Thomas Blanchard, of Sutton, invented an automatic machine for making the tacks from strips of sheet- iron.

Daniel Denny, whose card-factory has been no- ticed, probably followed the practice of giving the teeth out to women and children, who would set them in the leather at their homes.

Card-setting by hand was done as late as 1828. Earle & Chase, whose store was at the corner of Thomas and Main Streets, state in August, 1826, that persons who wish for cards to be set can be accom- modated at their store. In 1829 the average price paid for setting cards by hand was forty-two cents per square foot. A good setter would put in about twenty thousand teeth in a day. The best machines to-day will set three hundred teeth per minute, at an average cost of five cents per square foot. Wages paid card- 'setters in 1829, $1.33 per day ; at the present time, $3.50 to $4.50 per day. The cost of setting cards is now something less than one-eighth the amount paid sixty years ago, and the wages paid average three times as large.

Amos Whittemore, of Cambridge, had patented a card-setting machine in 1797, but it could not be used by others, and the cards made by hand at Leicester were of better quality.

In 1785 the manufacture of cards was begun in Leicester, and to this industry the growth and pros- perity of the town is largely indebted. In 1789

Pliny Earle, who had manufactured hard-cards since 1786, made for Almy & Brown, of Providence, R. I., the first machine card clothing in America, as ap- pears from the following interesting letter :

PROVIDENCE, 11th M. 4th, 1789.

RESPECTED FRIEND,

PLINY EARL,-We having pretty much concluded to alter and to cover our Carding Machine, and Joseph Congdon informing us that he ex- pected to go to Leicester soon, we thought we would inclose & send thee the Number & diameter of our Cylinders and propose thy covering them with Cards. We have confered with our Card Makers in Town about doing the Jobb, who appear desirous to do it, and are willing to take their pay, all excepting the cost of the wire in our way, but, it being our object to have it well done, and thinking we could rely upon thy per- formance, have prefered thy doing it.

We have also had it in contemplation to write to Boston, but, being de- sirous of having it dooe soon, and that being likely to protraet the time of having it done, have waved that also.

We are not desirous of beating thee down in thy price, or that thou should do it below what thou could reasonable afford, but we have thought, considering thou hast thy machinery now prepared, which was not when thou did that for the company at Worcester, that if we gave thee the same for covering ours as thou had for theire, tho' a little larger, it would be equivalent to what thou charged them, considering tbe preparations aforesaid, which the first employers, or rather those on whose account it is especially made, in all such cases must expect to pay, as we have had abundant experience. If that price will answer, we should be glad thou would take the pains to go and view the ma- chine at Worcester, and if there can be any improvement made upon the manner of covering, that, should like thou would make it, either in the Length of the Teeth, or in any other particular. Stowel, who su- perintends the business there, will chearfully give thee any information respecting the working of theirs, no doubt, upon thy own account and upon ours also, as we are upon friendly terms with him, having divers times been mutually helpful to each other.

We are much in want of ours being done, and should be glad to have it soon ; propose, therefore, if thon undertakes the business, that thou would set a time when thon thinks thou could bring the cards down to put on, and we will endeavor to have the machine in readiness to re- ceive them. Inclosed is the dimensions of the Cyllinders, that is, their diameters ; the second Cylinder in circumference, thou knows, has the cards placed at some distance from each other, in order that the rake may take the rolls of distinctly ; ours are about 21/2 inches apart.

We are of the opinion that the bind of the teeth ought to be in pro- portion to the circumference of the Cyllinder on which they are placed. We propose having the Cards the same size as those on the Worcester machine, viz .: 16 Inches and all Cotton Cards of equal quality except- ing tbe feeder, and the Cyllinder that takes it off of it, and we need not add of the best quality of the number suitable for the machine, of which, we suppose, the machine at Worcester must be considered as a sample. We should be glad to supply thee with any kind of live Stock, if thou should want, at Cost price, or any kind of produce, clothes in- cluded, for the whole or part of the amount ; if not, we will pay thee the cash. We think that in four weeks from this time we shall be glad of the Cards. A line from thee by Joseph respecting what we may depend on will be agreeable, as we mean to prosecute the accomplishment of the business as fast as may be.

From thy Friend, ALMY & BROWN.

P. S .- The diameters of our Cylinders are here subjoined. The great Cylinder 36 Inches.

the next

the next.

1014 =

1 ditto.

4 4

One of which, the feeder, to be covered with wool Cards.

It has been often said that the first machine card- clothing was made for Samuel Slater in 1790. Mr. Slater landed in New York November 11, 1789. De- cember 2, 1789, he wrote to Almy & Brown, and De- cember 10th received a reply, making an engagement with him. December 14th Pliny Earle set out for

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Providence to put cards on Almy & Brown's ma- chine. There is no doubt that Mr. Slater had much to do with perfecting the carding-engine and making it a success after he went into the employ of Almy & Brown.

(I am indebted to Mr. Thomas A. Dickinson, of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, for this informa- tion and copy of above letter.)

The leather first used in making machine-cards was calfskin, and then cowhide tanned for the pur- pose. Sheepskin was generally used for hand-cards.

In 1791 Mr. Earle's brothers-Jonah and Silas -- be- came associated in business with Pliny, and in 1806 Silas commenced to manufacture on his own account. At his death his son, Timothy, sold his father's ma- chinery to his cousin, Timothy K. Earle, and Reuben Randall. Mr. Randall's interest, after some trans- fers, came into the hands of Edward Earle.

Timothy Keese Earle, founder of the T. K. Earle Manufacturing Company, was born in Leicester in 1823. In December, 1843, Timothy K. Earle & Co., consisting of Timothy and his brother, Edward Earle, moved from Leicester to Worcester, and occu- pied room over Pratt & Earle's iron store, in Wash- ington Square, where they continued the manufac- ture of all kinds of machine-cards of the best quality. Their machines were built by William B. Earle, be- tween 1843 and 1849.

In 1857 T. K. Earle & Co. built the factory now occupied by their successors for the manufacture of card-clothing cotton, gin-clothing and belting. This has always been the largest card-clothing factory in America.

Edward Earle retired from the business in 1869, and was succeeded by his brother Thomas, who died in 1871. In 1872 Mr. Edwin Brown became a part- ner, and subsequently, in 1880, the agent and treas- urer of the T. K. Earle Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. T. K. Earle was the president.

The T. K. Earle Manufacturing Company own a number of patents on their improvements in the method of producing card-clothing. Pliny Earle made one kind of card-clothing, viz. : iron wire teeth set by hand in leather. The T. K. Earle Mannfac- turing Company now make all kinds of leather card- clothing, using both hemlock and oak tanned leather, over ten varieties of cloth card-clothing, and use eighteen or more sizes of soft steel wire, eleven or more sizes of hardened and tempered steel wire, be- sides tinned wire and brass wire of various shapes and sizes. They curry their own leather, manufac- ture card-cloths and rubber-faced card-cloths for themselves and for other card-makers. They have built almost all their card-setting machines in their own machine-shop, and are constantly making im- provements in the quality and the methods of card- clothing.

The T. K. Earle Manufacturing Company of Wor- cester, Mass., have manufactured donble and single

cover cloth for foundation for card-clothing for the past fifteen years, having special and improved ma- chinery for the purpose, and in 1883 they built a factory on their premises for the manufacture of all kinds of card-cloth, including vulcanized rubber fac- ings. With the very best American and English machinery, and the most improved process of vul- canizing rubber for this purpose, they are now pre- pared to furnish not only their own large card- clothing factory with card-cloths, but have sufficient capacity to make them for all the card-makers in America.

In 1866 Joseph B. and Edward Sargent, sons of Joseph B. Sargent, the manufacturer of card-cloth- ing in Leicester, organized the Sargent Card-Cloth- ing Company, and built a factory in Worcester, with Edward Sargent as manager. April 15, 1879, the business was sold to James Smith & Company, of Philadelphia.

Howard Bros. Manufacturing Company, Washing- ington Square, manufacture machine card-clothing, machine wire heddles, hand stripping cattle and curry cards. Established in 1868, by C. A. Howard, A. H. Howard and John P. Howard, continued as a co-partnership until 1888, when the company was in- corporated as the Howard Bros. Manufacturing Com- pany, with a capital of forty-five thousand dollars.

They started with four hands, and now employ twenty-two, and occupy ten thousand square feet of flooring. They have a lumber-mill at Keyes, N. H., where they make the backs of their cards. Their machinery is all of their own construction, and much of it special machinery of their own design, notably the card-setting machines, employed for setting teeth, in the cards of which there are from forty thousand to eighty thousand in each square foot of card-clothing. One feature of this business is the manufacture of diamond-pointed card-clothing and hand stripping cattle and curry cards of every de- scription in wood and leather for cotton, wool and flax. Their trade extends throughout the United States and Canada.

Charles F. Kent started the business of manufac- turing card-clothing in January, 1880.

There appears to have been a number of small manufacturers of cards in Worcester at different times. Daniel Denny and Earle & Chase have al- ready been mentioned. In 1834, William B. Earle had room in Howard & Dinsmore's shop, near the Court-House, for the manufacture of cards.

In 1848, William E. Eames, 43 Front Street, man- ufactured cards ; he was succeeded by Earle Warner.

In 1849, N. Ainsworth occupied the third story of Goddard & Rice's shop in the manufacture of card- setting machinery. The business was purchased by F. G. Ruggles in 1851.

David McFarland at this time manufactured card- setting machinery, and made the best machines then I made in the country. All the machines now running

--- -

ـرة

Edwin Back

Timothy Ho. Earle

I611

WORCESTER.

in the Sargent Card-Clothing Company factory, ex- cepting a few English machines, are the McFarland pattern.1

LOOMS .- " Weaving is the art by which threads or yarns of any substance are interlaced so as to form a continuous web. It is perhaps the most ancient of the manufacturing arts, for clothing was always a first necessity of mankind.

"The simplest form of weaving is that employed in making the mats of uncivilized nations ; these consist of single untwisted fibres, usually vegetable, arranged side by side to the width required, and of the length of the fibres themselves, which are tied at each end to the stick which is so fixed as to keep the fibres straight and on the same plane; then the weaver lifts up every other of these longitudinal threads, and passes under it a transverse one, which he first attaches by tying or twisting to the outermost fibre of the side he commences with ; and afterward, in the same way, to that on the other side, when it is passed through the whole series. The accession to the art of spinning threads of any length enables more ad- vanced nations to give great length to the warp, or series of threads which are first arranged and to pass the weft, or transverse thread, backward and forward by means of a shuttle without the necessity of fixing at the sides. That kind of weaving which consists of passing the weft alternately over and under each thread of the warp is called plain weaving ; but if the weaver takes up first one and then two threads alternately of the warp series, and passes the weft under them for the first shoot of his shuttle, and raised those which were left down before for the second shoot, he produces a cloth with a very different ap- pearance, called twill.

"There are few arts which require more patience than weaving; as many as from one to two thousand threads often constitute the warp, and these threads may be so varied in quality as to produce many vari- eties of fabric. From that cause alone there are almost infinite variations ; many may be produced by the order in which the threads are lifted for the passage of the weft ; that of itself can also be varied as much or more in its quality and other circumstances, so that the inventive genius of the weaver finds incessant opportunities for its display, and nice arithmetical calculations are required in estimating and allotting the numerous threads to the endless variety of pat- terns which are constantly passing through the loom."2

The first practical power-loom was devised in 1785 by Dr. Edmund Cartwright, of Derbyshire, England, a minister of the Gospel, and ignorant of mechanics. He is said to have had his attention turned to the subject by the remark that when Arkwright's patents for spinning yarn by power should have expired, so

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 169

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464