USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 12
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The list of male teachers in this house was as follows: "First, Ebenezer Wilder, who was succeeded by Dr. John Andrews of Boylston; then, Asa Sawyer, who died in Ber- lin ; next, Walter Willard, Baxter Wood, Titus Wilder and Silas Thurston, all of whom died in Lancaster ; Nathaniel
137
SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. II.
Longley died in Bolton ; John Gamble in Sutton; Major Rufus Hastings died recently in Westboro; Rev. N. Briggs, Pelham ; Artemas Barnes, died a few years ago in Worces- ter ; James Davenport, died in Mississippi; Thomas W. Val- entine of Northboro, died recently in Brooklyn, N. Y .; San- ford Kendall, now living in Worcester; Prof. George I. Chace, recently died in Providence ; Rufus Wilder, now liv- ing in Schuylkill Haven, Pa .; Jotham Holt, died in Keene, N. H .; Solon Carter, died in Lancaster ; Samuel I. Ricc, resides in Northboro ; Augustus Whipple, killed by the blowing up of a boiler on a steamboat in New York harbor ; Rev. Andrew Bigelow, D. D., recently deceased in South- boro ; Josiah Pierce, died in West Boylston ; Caleb Maynard, died in Northboro, and Charles Pollard, now residing in Lynn.
"The list of female teachers includes Abigail Fyfe, died in Berlin ; Nancy ( Pierce ) Dorrison, now living in Clinton ; Abigail (Townsend) Whitney, died in Harvard ; Abigail Walden, died in Richmond, N. H .; Achsah ( Houghton) Moore, died in Sterling ; Sally (or Lucy) Stearns, died in Lancaster ; Diana Chace, died in Harvard ; Lucy Pollard, now living in Dorchester; Elizabeth (Carter) Whittenden, died in Cambridgeport ; Susan ( Coffin ) Houghton of Bolton ; Lucena (Wilder) Humphrey, lives in Fort Wayne, Ind; Sophia Locke of Lancaster ; Emmeline ( Bailey) Breck, died in Sterling ; Francena Priest, if living, in Lowell ; Eliza- beth Wilder, wife of Dr. Lee, lives in Barre.
" Of those who went to school in this old house, who sub- sequently became teachers, we have the following: Sarah (Goss) Sawyer, daughter of John Goss; Lucy Pollard ; Emily (Pollard) Ladd ; Anna Gertrude ( Pollard) Adams ; Mary ( Pollard) Nourse-all daughters of Gardner Pollard. George I .. Diana, and Amia Ann Chace-children of Charles Chace ; Edward Fuller, if living, now in Washing- ton, and Mary Ann Fuller-children of Edward Fuller ; Roscoe G. Greene, of Robert Hudson's family, afterwards
I38
THE COMMUNITY EAST OF THE RIVER.
secretary of the commonwealth of Maine, etc .; John, Levi and Sally Wilder-all now deceased-children of Dr. John Wilder ; Rebecca and Sarah, daughters of Abel Wilder, and probably not living, although our informant is not positive ; Rufus A., Lucena, Elizabeth, Clara, Anna and Kate-all liv- ing excepting Anna-and all children of Ebenezer Wilder."
In addition to the families already noted, there were several others which lived for short periods east of the · river, within present Clinton limits. In 1830, for instance, we find four families there which we have passed without notice. M. Howe, a hired man, lived in a little house by that of Titus Wilder, Jr. This house was still standing near the Baxter Wood's place after the incorporation of Clinton. A. Barnes lived near Titus Wilder, Sr., whose home was on the site of the Jonas E. Howe place. Gardner Jacobs, a farmer who had a large family, lived between Charles Chace and Stephen Sargent. Thomas Hildreth, a famous wood- chopper and a pressman at the comb-shop of Gardner Pollard, lived in the little house on the east side of the road between Gardner Pollard's and Charles Chace's. In this year, there were in all eighteen households cast of the river, with a population approximating one hundred souls.
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIRST COTTON MILL.
THE beginning of the present century marks a new era in the history of this section. The saw and grist-mills, which had already ceased to be of prime importance, soon yielded their water rights to more profitable industries. The farms, although many of them were still carried on with profit, became less and less the chief means of support to the people. From this time on, various forms of manu- facturing engaged the attention of the community more and more, until it became appropriately known as the Factory Village. Even the farmers added to the profits of their farms by filling their spare hours with manufacturing, and by sending their children into the shops and mills.
The two leading forms of manufacturing industry which first began to be developed were the making of combs and textile fabrics. The former had a slight priority in time of starting, but was of comparatively slow growth, while the latter, as soon as it did begin, gave employment to consider- able numbers. The comb-making was at first carried on in many little shops and in the sheds of the farmers, while the making of cotton goods, as it required more costly machinery, was necessarily more centralized.
Comb-making, although it held for half a century a most important place among the industries of this region, in time, like the saw and grist-mills of the earlier period, was destined to disappear. The making of textile fabrics, on
I40
THE FIRST COTTON MILL.
the other hand, although at first it scarcely equalled the comb-making in the number of hands employed, had a phenomenal development in the forties, and finally became in its various branches and collateral forms of labor the main source of the prosperity of the community.
In 1805, the saw-mill and grist-mill of the Prescotts', together with adjoining lands and a house to the west of the mills, all of which had in 1793 and 1795 fallen into the hands of John Sprague, the lawyer, were sold by his son, Samuel John Sprague, to Benajah Brigham, mason, of Boston, for one thousand six hundred and fifty dollars. In the following year, the mills were sold to Thomas Willard Lyon, and the consideration named was one thousand dollars. In 1809, Lyon bought small lots of land from Ebenezer Allen and Nathaniel Low. On August 18, 1809, the mills and various lots of land were sold to Poignand & Plant by Lyon for one thousand three hundred dollars. Within the next few years, Poignand & Plant bought additional pieces of land from John Prescott, Jonas Lane, Jeremiah Ballard, Robert Phelps, Esek Pitts, Stephen Sar- gent and Nathan Burdett. What was left of the Prescott estate, as we have already seen, came into their possession from the administrator in 1814. They also bought of Ezekiel Rice and the heirs of Moses Sawyer, their rights in a ditch eight feet in width from Sandy Pond to the water course. This ditch had been dug by one of the earlier Prescotts, probably the pioneer, for conveying water from Sandy Pond to Prescott's Mills. The purchase of these mills by Poignand & Plant was the most important event that had happened in the history of this district since the coming of John Prescott, Ist, in 1653.
Each of the partners was of foreign descent. David Poignand, the elder of the two, was born on the island of Jersey, January 12, 1759. His ancestors were Hugue- nots, who had fled to this island from Poitou, France, to '
DAVID POIGNAND.
141
SAMUEL PLANT.
avoid persecution. We are told that his mother, Mary Magdelene Royel, who was born in 1716, was driven from her estate by the dragoons of Louis XIV. Having disguised herself as a fisherman's wife, she fled to the Isle of Jersey in an open boat. The young David learned the trade of a jeweller and also that of a cabinet-maker. He came to America, and settled in Boston. Here, he became a hard- ware merchant, and is said to have made and lost a fortune in that business. He still had enough capital left to help purchase the mills, and build and equip the new factory. On account of his age, he did not take a very active part in manufacturing beyond attending to the shipping of the goods. He is spoken of by one who knew him, as "a fine old gentleman, dapper and urbane." He wore a queue, and carried a gold-headed cane. He was distinctly French in many of his characteristics, and belonged to the Old Regime. His wife, Delicia Amiraux Poignand, was also a native of the Isle of Jersey, born December 17, 1764. She is spoken of as one of the sweetest of women, full of charity and good works.
The other partner, Samuel Plant, who was the book- keeper and active manager of the concern, was a son-in-law of David Poignand. His ancestors belonged in Bosley, County Palatine of Chester, England. He acted as agent in this country for the Leeds Cloth Manufacturers for the sale of woolens. His account books show that his remittances for goods sold were made to his uncle, Samuel Hague, and that his annual salary was £120. It is said, that he crossed the Atlantic five times, and that his business took him as far south as Charleston. The first authentic information which we have of him is from an old account book, kept in his own handwriting. As this was kept with great exactness from April 6, 1803, to 1808, we are able to glean from it some idea of his history, his personal habits and his dress. We can even trace his courtship from its first inception.
During these years, he did not leave Boston for any great
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THE FIRST COTTON MILL.
length of time. The amount of sales during the last two years was much less than during the first two. He was naturalized July 18, 1804. He bought "segars" and snuff frequently. He was a sportsman. His expenditures for dress were such that he must have been very nice in his appearance. He was a reader and buyer of books. He made a close study of French. He was, perhaps, influenced in this by his relations with Delicia M. Poignand, for her family were even more familiar with French than with English. The first mention of her, made in his account books, is on February 8, 1806, when he took her and her friend, Miss Frances Bazin, to the theatre. It cost him five dollars. It is evident that he did not, at this time, wish to show too particular attention to either of these young ladies, for he gave Gray's and Goldsmith's Poems to Miss Bazin, and the Vicar of Wakefield to "D. M. P." January 23, 1807, he took the two again to the theatre, and again gave each of them a book. This time Miss "D. M. P." received a volume on "Solitude." March 13, he takes them to the theatre once more. Miss Bazin is no more spoken of, and the only direct allusion to D. M. P. is the record of giving her a volume of poems. Through the summer of this year, "a horse and chaise" are hired with suspicious frequency. Perhaps, it was only for business purposes. In 1808, he went to Eng- land, leaving Boston October 26, and arriving in London just one month later. His passage cost him one hundred and fifty-five dollars, besides the stores and wines, which came to thirty-five more. Here the record ceases.
It is probable that he went to England with the definite purpose of closing up his old business and preparing for manufacturing for himself. It has been said that he made a careful study of machinery while abroad, and that he brought back with him drawings of many mechanical in- ventions that he thought might prove useful. He is even accused of having smuggled in parts of the machines them- selves. He was naturally a mechanical genius, and in later
143
SAMUEL PLANT.
years invented a picker, with two beaters, for cleansing cotton. He was also the first to introduce an improved method of spinning by circular spindle boxes.
He must have returned from England by spring, for we find him riding about the country in the summer with Mr. Poignand, to inspect the water privileges near Boston. They were at first attracted by one near Waltham, but the price was too high. At last, the old Prescott Mills in Lancaster were brought to their notice. The water power seemed adapted for their purpose, and the property could be bought at a low price. The bargain was closed, and they became proprietors. Mr. Plant married "D. M. P." during the same year in which he came to Lancaster.
James Pitts has given us a picture of this leader in cotton manufacturing in this section, which is worthy of preser- vation : " Mr. Plant was one of the most methodical men I ever knew ; he was superlatively precise in all his affairs on the farm and in and about the factory; and when the property was sold, not a bruise or a mar or mark of abuse was to be seen on any of their property, whether in doors or out, except in the natural wear and tear, although it had been in constant use over thirty years ; he was also equally precise in his personal appearance ; his dress was never guady or flashy, but plain and good and scrupulously neat ; he was one of those men to whom dirt never adheres; he was also always at home, and seldom, if ever, went away from his business; although the company owned good horses and carriages, he very seldom rode out except to church. Mr. Plant was a man of books; although limited in number of branches, he was quite proficient in the sciences, and very correct ; he had a fine library, a profusion of maps, globes, a theodolite and a beautiful telescope for the amusement and benefit of himself and his family."
As Mr. Poignand displayed many traits of the typical Frenchman, so Mr. Plant was a typical Englishman. He was tenacious of his rights, and firm almost to stubbornness.
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THE FIRST COTTON MILL.
He was determined that the cotton factory should be the center of the community to which his partner and he should stand in a sort of paternal relation. For this reason he bitterly opposed the immigration of people from Lancaster Center not connected with the factory. To prevent their coming, it is said, that he would buy up beforehand the houses and lands which he had heard they were proposing to occupy. He was a man fitted by nature and disposition to make his stamp on the community, which, during his stay, was known as Factory Village.
There was a third man; one employed by the firm who was, perhaps, as important an element as either of the part- ners in the history of the Factory Village. This was Captain Thomas Willard Lyon, whom we have already noticed as making the original purchase. It is probable that it was largely through his influence and from the hope of obtaining his assistance in their projected enterprise that Poignand & Plant entered upon the daring scheme of starting a cotton factory, without machinery and without experienced help, to run in competition with the established factories of England. It was surely largely due to his skill as a machinist that their undertaking met with success, for from the drawings and verbal descriptions of Mr. Plant, aided by his own great in- genuity, he constructed a complete outfit of machinery for the mill, surpassing in many respects the outfits of the English mills. This was done in spite of the apparently unconquerable difficulty of obtaining desired castings.
Although Captain Lyon has received credit for no great inventions, yet he made many ingenious improvements in machinery worthy of being patented. For instance, it is said that he first invented machinery for making a cop. Only a few years since, at the mill on Water Street, they were using some machinery which was built by him seventy years before. It seems possible, in the light of his later life, that Captain Lyon was more generous than shrewd, and that, while he labored, others enjoyed the fruit of his labors.
145
CONSTRUCTION.
In 1812, he bound himself by a pledge under a forfeit of three thousand dollars not to reveal the secrets of the machinery which he had made.
Such were the men whose influence was to be so potent for the next score of years in the life of District No. 10, and whose labors furnished the opportunity which called their still more able successors hither.
As the town of Lancaster had given Prescott certain privileges to encourage him to set up his saw and grist-mill on this stream in 1653, so now in this second great enter- prise, started at the same point, they offered to Poignand & Plant a partial release from taxation for a time, if they would proceed with their work.
The plans of the partners were well laid before the property was purchased, for we find them at once entering upon the work of construction. December 13, 1809, they paid Mr. Newton eleven dollars and forty-six cents, for pull- ing down and removing the old grist-mill. They first built a work-shop and blacksmith-shop for the construction of machinery. Calvin Winter received his pay for shingling this building, January 22, ISIO. On the 18th of the same month, Newton received nine dollars for pulling down the saw-mill. May 1, 1810, Joseph and Peter Kendall signed a contract for building a brick mill, fifty-seven feet by thirty- eight and a half feet, three stories in height. The structure built under this contract, still forms the western end of the Yarn Mill on Water Street.
The building of this mill at once aroused new activity in the whole community and gave employment to many of the farmers. The stone for the mill and dam was furnished by Joseph Rice, Gardner Pollard, Charles Chace, Stephen and Titus Wilder, Nathaniel Low, and others; the lumber came from Peter and Ezra Sawyer, Joseph Rice and Ebene- zer Wilder. It has been said that Peter Sawyer furnished some of the brick from a new kiln which he had opened on
11
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THE FIRST COTTON MILL.
his farm, but most of them surely came from Gates and Johnson, who lived outside present Clinton limits. Mean- while the machinery was being prepared as rapidly as cir- cumstances permitted and such progress was made that the mill was at work before the War of 1812 fairly began.
Companies for the spinning of cotton by hand had been organized in Philadelphia in 1775, and, in 1780, a similar com- pany was organized in Worcester, but neither of these were run upon the factory system. In 1786, some rude machines for cotton spinning had been set at work in East Bridge- water, and others in 1787, at Beverly. Moses Brown had made some attempts at cotton spinning previous to 1790, but had succeeded poorly. During that year, at his invita- tion, Samuel Slater visited Pawtucket. In December of the same year, Slater set into operation the first successful cot- ton machinery in America. Several mills were erected for spinning cotton in Rhode Island during the next twenty years, but the enterprise of Poignand & Plant was the first successful one of the kind, even for cotton spinning, in Mas- sachusetts.
The American Cyclopedia states that a factory built by Francis C. Lovell and others in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1813 was "the first in the world that combined all the pro- cesses necessary for converting the raw cotton into finished cloth." The History of Waltham states: "The first record of its work is on the books of this company under the date of February 2, 1816, at which time the entry was made of one thousand two hundred and forty-two yards, 4-4, or thirty- six inches wide cotton. There is no doubt that this entry records the date of the first manufacture of cotton cloth in America, where all operations were performed under one roof." But cotton cloth and ginghams were made here in Factory Village under one roof and by the factory system in 1813. Records of sales and samples of the goods have been preserved. There seems to be no doubt that the mill
147
ROBERT PHELPS.
of Poignand & Plant may justly assert its claim to the priority falsely assigned to the Waltham factory. Other factories, like those of Slater, had spun by power a little be- fore that of Poignand & Plant. Other individuals and firms had produced finished cloths without the factory sys- tem, or with only a partial development of it, but the old mill now standing on Water Street was probably the first building in the world in which cotton cloth and ginghams were entirely made under the factory system.
The war of 1812, with the accompanying embargo, gave very great advantage to the firm, for, since the importation of goods was stopped and the preparation for home produc- tion was limited, demand was greatly in excess of supply and prices doubled. The two products of the factory were ginghams and sheetings. In 1813, the former brought from forty to fifty cents per yard, the latter, three-fourths of a yard wide, was sold, according to the quality, at from thirty to forty-five cents per yard. As the war went on, these prices, high though they seem, grew higher and higher, giving greater and greater profits to the manufacturer.
The accounts show that a considerable portion of the goods were manufactured on small orders directly from the consumers. The Shaker community was among the heavi- est buyers of this kind. To many of the entries, samples of the goods are attached. These samples are considerably coarser in quality than those made at the Lancaster Mills to-day.
From the beginning, Robert Phelps was the overseer of the mill, and, at first, he is the only male whose name ap- pears on the pay-roll. This Robert Phelps was in 1812 already a man of forty-two. He was the son of Robert and Rachel Phelps. In 1794, he had married Polly Todd. They are recorded to have had five children. April 1, 1814, he bought of Nathan Burdett his house and land on North Main Street. Here, he lived for many years. He died June 9, 1854.
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THE FIRST COTTON MILL.
It was some years before there were more than a dozen names of females on the pay-roll at any one time, and these names changed frequently .* The men and boys at work in- side the mill during the same years were Amos Darling, Charles Whipple, James Carroll and boy, John Low, Blake Mullens and P. Gallie. An examination of the records of Lancaster shows that very few of the females were born within the limits of the town, and doubtless almost all of them came hither for the special purpose of mill work. Of the males, the name of John Low is the only one familiar to our citizens. These workers, although they came from out of town, must have been of Yankee birth. Later in the his- tory of the mills, many are found working, who were born in the district.
The house on North Main Street which Poignand & Plant bought of Stephen Sargent in 1813 was made over into a boarding house. In later years, it became known as the "Tavern," and is now used as W. A. Fuller's lumber office. Mr. Pitts says that Mr. Plant lived in one end of this house until 1824. Willard A. Howe was the keeper of this house. In 1818, he was in Marlboro, and Calvin Howe had charge. Willard A. was back again in 1819. At this time, he made a contract to give board, washing and lodging for one dollar and sixteen cents a week. In 1827, when Isaac Whitney of Harvard agreed to take charge of the boarding-house, the
* NAMES TAKEN FROM THE PAY-ROLL FROM 1812-1814.
Mary Holden.
Sally Rugg.
Abigail Thompson.
Sarah Holden.
Sally Hinds.
Maria Houghton.
Sally Richardson. Mary Brooks.
Sally Haskell.
Abigail McBride.
Elizabeth Brooks.
Lucinda Woods.
Sarah McBride.
Sally Ellenwood.
Sally Newhall.
Abigail Holman. Mary Pierce.
Sally Wilder.
Mary Parker.
Mary Goodridge. Rhoda Tower.
Nancy Fife.
Susan Kingman.
Charlotte Moor.
Ann Parker.
Eunice Kingman.
Eliza Thompson.
Polly Norcross.
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METHOD OF HIRING WORKERS.
rate per week was fixed at one dollar and eight cents. There were twelve beds in the building. Among the regu- lations, we find: "As a light will be lighted every night and placed in a lanthorn, it is expected that no boarder will take a light into the chambers." On Sunday, if not at public wor- ship, the boarders "will keep within doors and improve their time in reading, writing and other employment." In 1818, William Toombs agreed to keep a men's boarding-house, charging two dollars a week for board and washing. Rum produced a "Sunday riot," and after that no more was sold at the store from which the workmen were supplied, and no one was employed in the mill who habitually used it.
The method of hiring workers and the wages paid can be understood from the following case in 1815. A whole family agreed to come together on these terms: The house rent was to be from twenty to thirty dollars per year, and cut wood was to be furnished at two dollars a cord; the man was to receive five dollars per week; his son, sixteen years old, two; his daughter of thirteen, one and a half; his daughter of twelve, one and a quarter; his son of ten, eighty cents; his sister, two dollars and one third; her son of thir- teen, one and a half; her daughter of eight, seventy-five cents. There had at this time been little agitation in regard to the hours of labor and the employment of children. It is prob- able that this child of eight spent twelve hours a day in the factory six days in the week. In the twenties, when the braiding of straw became an established industry in this section, and work was given out to the women and girls to do at home, it became almost impossible to get help from the families near the mills, and the proprietors were obliged to return to their earlier methods and get help from a dis- tance, even sending agents to New Hampshire and Vermont to hunt up girls. Sometimes, much bitterness of feeling came from hiring help away from other mills. It is said that the first family of Irish birth hired to work in the mill was named Quinn. They lived in a building known as the " Laundry," a little south of the girls' boarding-house.
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