USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 16
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1817. Robert Phelps.
1836.
Henry Lewis.
1818. Thomas W. Lyon.
1837.
Jonas B. White.
+ An incomplete list of teachers is given below :
1801. Sally Sawyer (two months).
1802. Sally Sawyer (four months).
1807-8. Peter Larkin (seven weeks), Berlin.
1808-9. Titus Wilder (seven weeks), No. 11 District. ISIO-II. Mr. Hildreth.
1816. Catherine Larkin, Berlin.
1816-17. Silas Thurston.
1817. Betsy Pratt, Sterling.
1817-18. Peter Thurston (six weeks).
( John Prescott.
1823. Willard How.
§ Joseph Rice.
1825.
James Pitts.
§ John Low. First half.
1827. Azahel Harris.
188
SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 10.
caster itself. The ladies taught during the summer and spent the remainder of the year in household duties. The male teachers were either farmers or collegians who devoted themselves to teaching during the winter months. The farmers were in general the better teachers since they ex- celled the collegians in experience and disciplinary power. Two names stand out from the list with especial prominence, both from length of service and the influence they exerted upon their scholars, those of Ezra Kendall and Silas Thurs- ton. The former was born in 1800 and had already had three winters' experience when he began to teach in District No. 10. Although a strict disciplinarian, he seldom resorted to severe measures. He laid down no laws, but told the scholars that he should expect of them "such conduct as was becoming in citizens of such a community as that in which they lived," and he obtained what he expected. Such was his attachment to his scholars that in his ninetieth year he still held each one in memory and delighted to recall their noble qualities. At the close of his first term of ser-
1818. Betsy Pratt (five weeks), Harriet Goodwin (three weeks). 1818-19. Charles Thurston.
1819. Harriet Goodwin (ten weeks), Lancaster.
1819-20. Charles Thurston.
1820. Harriet Goodwin (ten weeks).
1820-21. Samuel Sawyer (ten weeks), Sterling. 1821-22. Samuel Sawyer.
1821-22-23. Sophia Stearns, Lancaster.
1822-23.
1823-24. Ezra Kendall, Sterling.
1824-25. George Harris, No. II District.
1825-26.
1824. Betsy Rice, Cooperstown, N. Y.
1826-27. ) Silas Thurston.
1827-28. & Wm. Houghton, Berlin.
1828-29. ) John Burditt, Jr., No. 10 District. 1828. Sophia White.
1831. Mary Bailey.
1831-32. Rufus Torrey.
1832. Sarah M. Cotton.
1832-33. Capt. M. Lincoln. 1836-37. Samuel Carter.
1837. Sophia C. Johnson.
1837-38. Silas S. Greenleaf.
189
DISCIPLINE.
vice in the district, he married, and during the three succeed- ing winters he lived in Sterling and came to his school from there every morning. He was the first male teacher in the new school building. Here, he had among his scholars the children of the Burdett, Lowe, Harris, Plant, Lyon and Wilder families. The text-books used in his day werc Scott's First Lessons and the American First Class Book in reading, Adams' arithmetic and Cummings' geography. Writing and spelling received especial attention, and the matches in the latter were centers of interest. He taught for many years in Sterling after closing his labors in Lan- caster, District No. 10, and lived there to a vigorous old age. Silas Thurston, whose home was near the Four Ponds, was also noted as a disciplinarian. He meted out justice with impartial severity, and during his administration no scholars were unable to study on account of the disorder of those around them.
The boys were more boisterous in those days than they are at present, and they took every possible advantage of a teacher who was weak in discipline or who failed to secure their respect. We hear of one case in which the teacher was smoked out by closing up the chimney, of another in which the whole school pelted the teacher with snowballs when he appeared one noon. The methods of discipline used by the teachers would seem peculiar to-day. The bodies of some of the old scholars still tingle as they recall the stick, the strap or the ruler which they felt so frequently in their youth. The refractory pupil was often obliged to stand before the school with a split stick upon his nose. In one case, a teacher took off her garter and tied it around the arm of a little boy, and then when his hand began to blacken took out her pen-knife and told the lad she was going to let out the bad blood so that he would not be naughty any more.
Although men have been growing gentler, still human nature was much the same in the earlier portion of the cen- tury that it is to-day. Teachers in general sought with carn-
190
SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 10.
est, though sometimes erring effort, for the good of the scholars, and the scholars, although they sometimes loitered on the way, were, if properly directed, eager to prepare themselves for a life of usefulness and were never happier than when hard at work.
Including the boarding-houses, there were in 1830 some thirty-three dwelling places west of the river within present Clinton limits. The three families near Mine Swamp Brook formed a distinct community of their own, and the people along the South Meadow Road had little in common with those of Factory Village. There were about a score of homes on Main Street between the present site of E. A. Currier's house on the north and the Dorrison place on the south. Two of these were north of John Lowe's on the same side of North Main Street. Hervey Pierce, a day laborer, lived in the house since occupied by Laban Bennett. Ira Stearns lived in the house where Albert Lowe now lives. Levi Harris, then a young man, and T. Sawyer lived south of John Lowe's on the opposite side of the street. Both worked at comb-making. There were five houses on Water Street be- tween the cotton factory and Daniel Harris'. The families at the Pitts Mills were somewhat isolated, as there was only a rude cart-path between the little hamlet and Water Street.
Two cotton factories, together employing less than fifty operatives ; half a dozen small comb shops, sometimes giv- ing work to as many more; a score of farms, for the most part of considerable area, but with limited profits; two little stores, one at Scrabble Hollow and one under control of the Lancaster Cotton Manufacturing Company ; a population of about two hundred, these were the elements, of which the Factory Village was formed. If we add the community cast of the river, which was about half as large, we have fifty- two households and a population of about three hundred souls within present Clinton limits in the carly thirties.
Perhaps the two school districts, Nos. 10 and II, had less
191
THE COMING CHANGE.
in common with each other than either had with Lancaster Center, yet the many intermarriages of families tended to draw them more closely together, while the building of the mills of Mr. Pitts, the comb shop of Sidney Harris and the Harrisville Bridge, and the organization of the little Baptist society, all conduced to unity of interests. No one who had studied the slow growth of the preceding hundred and eighty four years, would have imagined that before the second cen- tury from the coming of Prescott should be completed, these little straggling villages would grow into a flourishing town, with a population larger than all of Lancaster had in 1837.
CHAPTER XII.
1838-1848.
THE COMING OF THE BIGELOWS .*
CIVILIZATION is the product of ideas. At first thought, we might consider mechanical ideas of little importance in comparison with those which are moral and spiritual, yet the great advance made by the human race during the last century is largely due to discoveries in mechanics. The thoughts of inventors have added immeasurably to the com- fort of mankind, and have given the leisure necessary for progress in higher things.
One of these inventors, Erastus Brigham Bigelow, influenced more, perhaps, than any other American, the whole development of the textile art. While his life is of special interest to the people of Clinton, because he is the
* For this account of The Coming of the Bigelows the following authorities have been consulted : An article in Hunt's Merchants' Maga- zine, reprinted in Courant, February 25, 1854 ; articles on Looms in Appleton's Dictionary of Mechanics, etc .; brief address bv Robert C. Winthrop in Addresses and Speeches; Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary ; Volume on application for extension of patent on ingrain carpet looms ; Address before Wool Manufacturers' Association ; Bio- graphical Encyclopædia of Massachusetts; Patent Office Reports ; the writings of E. B. Bigelow ; the books of the Clinton Company. We have also received much direct information from those who have had an opportunity to become acquainted with affairs under consideration, especially from members of the Bigelow and Fairbanks families,
193
HOME.
most important agent in the world's history who has had his home in the community, it demands still more attention, because, without this man, the Clinton of today might yet remain an unrealized possibility, since he furnished most of the ideas which lie at the basis of its industrial prosperity.
Even after mechanical ideas have received expression in material forms, they are of little value until business ability has focused upon them the energies of workers, and scattered the product of these two factors among mankind. Although E. B. Bigelow did not lack in executive power, yet he was fortunate in having united with him in his great enterprises, a brother, Horatio Nelson Bigelow, who had a genius for management. A wide range of vision which saw the future no less clearly than the present, enthusiastic energy which swept his fellow workers along with him, together with a thorough mastery of detail, made Horatio N. Bigelow a manufacturer who has had few equals. His most intimate connection with the community, which under his fostering care grew into Clinton, gave him a direct influence upon its destinies greater even than that of his brother. The two, however, must always remain inseparably united in the honor which is due to them, as the founders of the town.
Their father, Ephraim Bigelow, lived in West Boylston, and gained his livelihood by farming, as his father, Abel Bigelow, had done before him. He eked out a scanty income by making chairs and working as a wheelwright in winter. He was evidently a man of enterprise, for we find him becoming a cotton manufacturer in the days before cotton mills were common. The mother is spoken of as a woman of "fine presence, much dignity, strong character and good sense." It seems probable that the sons inherited their characteristics more from her than from their father. The old homestead was a large, square, wooden farm-house, which is still standing. Horatio Nelson Bigelow, born September 13, 1812, and Erastus Brigham Bigelow, born April 2, 1814, were the only children of the family. They
14
194
THE COMING OF THE BIGELOWS.
attended the district school during the portion of the year that it was in session, and assisted their parents in the work on the farm and in the shop, when they were not engaged in study.
Horatio remained at home until he was sixteen, and then lived for two years with his mother's father, and worked for him upon the farm. In addition to his study in the district schools, he spent two years at Bradford Academy. He then became the overseer of his father's cotton mill. For two years, he took charge of the weaving room at Beaman's Mill, West Boylston. It was here that he met Emily Worcester, whom he married, September 24, 1834. John Smith married her sister, hence the business connection of Smith with the Bigelows. In 1836, he became general superintendent of a cotton mill in Shirley.
The youth of the younger brother was more varied in its experience, and we are able to look more closely into its details. At the age of eight, he wished to study arithmetic. The teacher thought that he was not old enough, and refused to let him enter the class at school. The boy was too much in earnest to be put off in this way, so he took up the study at home and without assistance performed every question in Pike's text-book as far as proportion. At the age of ten, he was employed on the neighboring farm of Mr. Temple. He worked for him during three summers, receiving as wages for a part of the time four dollars a month. He, like his older brother, early exhibited a musical talent. He became proficient on the violin and the delighted villagers predicted for him a musical career. In later years, both of the broth- ers retained their musical tastes, and we find record of them in the orchestra of the Orthodox Society in Lancaster, in a choir led by Gilbert Greenc. Horatio played first violin and Erastus what was then called "second fiddle." He once made a chair of novel pattern, which he embellished with paint and bronze in such a wonderful manner that the neigh- bors looked on it with amazement and declared that he
195
YOUTH.
would become a great painter. He also, from carliest youth, had a constructive habit and made many improvements on farming tools, thus giving promise of his future success as an inventor.
During these early years, he made good use of his slender opportunities at the district school. The knowledge and mental discipline he thus gained, excited his ambition, and a broader education became his one great desire. His father needed his help, however, so he was obliged to go to work in the cotton mill. Although he enjoyed studying the machinery, the toil was irksome to him. Somehow, he must get money for further schooling, so, after working all day in the mill, he played his violin at dancing parties until late at night. While still a young lad, he invented a hand-loom for weaving suspender webbing and another for piping cord. From the latter, which worked well, he realized one hundred dollars. In 1830, he had saved enough to enable him to enter Leicester Academy. He studied Latin, and did so well that his teacher recommended a college course. His father was not in sympathy with this idea, and, when the boy's means were exhausted, he was obliged to go to work again.
As he disliked the mill, he went to Boston and was employed in the dry goods store of S. F. Morse & Co. He did not enjoy this occupation and the pay was so small that he could not hope to save much for further study. He became interested in stenography and after a few days' work without any teacher, he mastered the subject. He wrote a little book on short-hand, called "The Self-taught Sten- ographer." It was published by Carter & Andrews in Lan- caster. In Boston, the book met with a ready sale, but, when, encouraged by this, he took a partner and enlarged the field of his operations, he not only lost all his savings, but found himself several hundred dollars in debt. Thus, his prospect of gaining an education was again blighted.
At the age of eighteen, he joined with J. Munroe in the
196
THE COMING OF THE BIGELOWS.
manufacture of twine. They occupied his father's old mill, but circumstances connected with his father's affairs forced the partners to give up the business. Bigelow & Munroe then tried a cotton factory in Wareham, but did not succeed. We now find the boy, for he was only that in years as yet, taking lessons in penmanship in New York. He soon became a beautiful writer and taught the art for a few months, but he abandoned this occupation as he had others before.
Again he returned home and, with the consent of his father, resolved to study medicine. He began the prepara- tory work at Leicester Academy. After spending a winter there, he entered the medical school, where he worked for a year, but he longed for further general education as a basis for medical knowledge.
Happening to sleep one night under a Marseilles quilt, he began to think of the slow and costly process by which it was woven on the hand-loom. His attention was par- ticularly called in this direction, because he had seen such looms unsuccessfully operated at West Boylston. Could not some power-loom be invented by which the labor could be lessened ? He set himself to work, and invented an automatic loom for weaving knotted counterpanes. Free- man, Cobb & Co., of Boston, took the invention off his hands, agreeing to look after patents, do the manufacturing and give the inventor one-fourth of the profits. Again Bigelow's studies were commenced on a broader basis, for all of his efforts thus far had tended simply toward this object. But he was again destined to disappointment, for Freeman, Cobb & Co. failed in the hard times that prevailed from 1835 to 1837. There is something pathetic, as well as inspiring, in this struggle for an education. The youth is groping so blindly, using his wonderful inventive genius, as the servant of his other more ordinary intellectual faculties.
Still in pursuit of this general education, his attention was drawn to the question whether coachlace could not be
197
COACHLACE LOOM.
manufactured by power. He had seen this fabric laboriously woven by hand, while he was teaching penmanship in New Jersey. He first sought information in regard to the demand for the article, riding about the country in an old yellow chaise, to see the carriage manufacturers, and, becoming con- vinced that, if a power-loom could be invented, it would be profitable, he returned again to his home to meditate on the subject.
This may be considered the turning point in Mr. Bigelow's career. He had now reached manhood. Up to this time, with education as his object, he had tried many things, and had apparently gained permanent success in nothing. His friends were justly anxious about him, yet the years of his apprenticeship had not been spent in vain. Perhaps, no other course could have been found so well suited as the one he had taken, to develop the qualities essential to his after success. From his schools, he had gained a fair degree of general discipline, the power of expressing himself in clear and forcible English and a sufficient knowledge of mathematics and the natural sciences to serve his needs as an inventor. From his varied experience, he had gained self-reliance and a general development of character, and, at the same time, he had learned something of human nature and the art of dealing with men. There was no danger that his mind would become unbalanced from the lack of a firm foundation for his genius, or that he would be robbed, through lack of practical ability, of the result of his labors.
There is often some brief period in a man's life about which all the rest centers. All the past has been simply a preparation for the work of this period and all the future is destined to the elaboration of its accomplishments. Such a period had now come in the life of E. B. Bigelow. He had become possessed by an idea which haunted him day and night. He was so absorbed in his work that he noted noth- ing that was going on around him. The story is told of him,
198
THE COMING OF THE BIGELOWS.
that one evening during this period, when he was asked to show out a visitor, he took an unlighted candle and silently leading the groping, stumbling guest through the long, dark hall-way, gravely opened for him the door, and then returned to meet, with an unconscious stare, the laughter of the family. His sanity began to be doubted. Yet he pondered on for forty days and then his work was finished and the foundation of his future success was laid. A loom for weaving coachlace by power had been invented.
When we consider that this invention contained many of the essential principles of his other greatest inventions and naturally led on to them, and then remember that these arc today giving employment to thousands of workmen and adding to the comfort of millions throughout the world, we may begin to appreciate the fact that this was an important period, not only in his life, as an individual, but also in the history of civilization.
This invention, both in itself and in its issues, directly affected the history of Clinton and hence the following brief description, taken, with slight changes, from "Appleton's Dictionary of Mechanics," is given : "The figure on coach- lace is produced by raising on the surface of the ground cloth a pile similar to the Brussels carpet, formed by looping the warps over fine wires which are inserted under such of the warps as have been selected by the jacquard to deter- mine the figure. The warps are then woven into the body of the cloth to tie and fix the loops. The wires are then withdrawn and re-inserted. Automatic pincers, as if instinct with life, grasp the end of the wire, draw it out from under the forward loops, carry it back toward the laythe, where the warps are spread apart, forming what is called the open shed and then introduce and drop it, that the shed may be closed and opened, that by the throw of the shuttle, the weft-threads which are to tie and weave the warp-threads into the cloth may be beaten up by the reeds. The pincers then move back to draw another wire from under the formed
199
THE INVENTION PROCESS.
loops and repeat the same operation, several such wires being at the same time in the cloth to prevent the loops from being drawn out by the tension which is given on the warps to insure an even and regular surface to the fabric ; but, as there are a number of these wires woven into the cloth, nearly touching one another, it becomes a matter of great difficulty to contrive a mechanism which insures the taking of only one of these wires to draw it out, and the se- lecting of the proper one at cach operation. The pincers could not properly be made so narrow and work so accu- rately as to insure this. This difficulty is overcome by an in- genious mechanism placed on the opposite side of the loom, which at each operation selects the required wire, and pushes gripped sufficiently far beyond the ends of the others to be it out by the fingers, which then draw it out, to carry it back and introduce it in the open shed of the warps."
As the word, lace, is generally associated with fabrics differing entirely from coachlace, the details of this patent may cause surprise to those who are unfamiliar with the article. Coachlace is still manufactured, especially in Phila- delphia, and used commonly in carriages for borders and straps. It resembles Brussels carpeting somewhat in its structure. It was generally woven from two to four inches wide, upon a very narrow loom.
We may here, at the outset of Bigelow's inventions, understand more intimately the working of his mind by studying his self-analysis. It shows a knowledge of the principles of psychology and a power of introspection seldom found in a mind devoted to such work as his, and we are led to say with his friend, Robert C. Winthrop : "His mind seemed capable of intense concentration of thought and he could bring it to bear upon any subject, material or intellectual, which came within the range of his observation and study with something of lens-like precision and direct- ness. He marshalled his statistical tables with the same skill with which he had applied the hands and levers of his
200
THE COMING OF THE BIGELOWS.
magic loom, and illustrated his arguments by facts and figures as distinct and exact as the patterns he had taught that loom to weave."
Mr. Bigelow said : "I am not sure, I can convey to your mind a satisfactory idea of the inventive process in my own case. One thing is certain, it is not chance. Neither does it depend, to any great extent, on suggestive circumstances. These may present the objects, but they are no guide to the invention itself. The falling apple only suggested to New- ton a subject of inquiry. All that we know of the law of gravitation had to be reasoned out afterward.
"My first step toward an invention has always been to get a clear idea of the object aimed at. I learn its require- ments as a whole and also as composed of separate parts. If, for example, that object be the weaving of coachlace, I ascertain the character of the several motions required and the relation which they must sustain to each other in order to effect a combined result. Secondly, I devise means to produce these motions ; and, thirdly, I combine these means, and reduce them to a state of harmonious cooperation.
"To carry an invention through its first and second stages is comparatively easy. The first is simply an investigation of facts ; the second, so far as I can trace the operation of my own mind, comes through an exercise of the imagination. I am never at a loss for means in the sense above explained. On the contrary, my chief difficulty is to select from the variety always at command those which are most appro- priate. To make this choice of the elementary means and to combine them in union and harmony,-to conduct, that is, an invention through its last or practical stage, constitutes the chief labor.
"In making this choice of the elementary parts, one must reason from what is known to what is not so,-keeping in mind at the same time the necessary combinations, examining each element, not only in reference to its peculiar functions, but to its fitness, also, for becoming a part of the
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