USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 20
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While Mr. Bigelow inspired wonder by his inventive genius, and awakened admiration by his ability as a writer, he won esteem and affection by his character as a man. As a citizen he was a patriot, but not a partisan. The only time in which he appeared prominently in the field of politics was in 1860, when he was nominated for Congress on the Conser- vative and Democratic ticket of the Fourth Massachusetts
ERASTUS BRIGHAM BIGELOW.
239
HONORS CONFERRED.
District. He failed of election by a few votes, being defeated by Alexander H. Rice. Although he was desirous, for the sake of saving the Union, to try every compromise, yet, when the war was once begun, he was very earnest in his desire for its prosecution, and had unbounded faith in the final triumph of the North. In the most despondent period of the war, he said : "We shall pass through this trial as many other nations have passed through theirs, and we shall come out of it with spirit unbroken and with augmented energies. The insurrection quelled, the Union re-established, the innate strength of our free institutions demonstrated, the military power of the republic developed and universally respected, we shall have the best, if not, indeed, the only ground a nation can have for expecting a peace which will remain long unbroken." In the latter part of his life, he was a Republican, and, as we have scen, was especially interested in the question of custom duties, and he did much to for- ward such a system of protection, as he believed would serve the best interests of the country by tending toward maximum production.
He did much to build up and foster educational institu- tions. The Bigelow Free Public Library of Clinton is fitly named for him, since he was most liberal in his donations in the establishment of the Bigelow Mechanics' Institute, from which it sprang. He was one of the founders of the School of Technology in Boston, and was, until his death, one of its most devoted friends. As a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he participated with de- light in conferring honors on his brother inventors. He was one of the three trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts. The Massachusetts Historical Society has a fund contributed in his name by his surviving daughter, and also many valu- able gifts made by him personally, while he remained a member. He was, too, a member and regular attendant of the Thursday Evening Club of Boston. A friend who met him often in these societies speaks of the deep interest he
240
THE LATER LIFE OF E. B. BIGELOW.
took in them as a means of promoting the welfare of the community. Many scholastic institutions freely conferred upon him the degrees that he had so longed to win by regu- lar methods in his youth. From Harvard, Yale, Williams and Dartmouth, he received the degree of M. A., and from Amherst that of LL. D.
Of Mr. Bigelow as a gentleman in society, a most inti- mate friend says: "Genial and communicative, and occa- sionally playful in conversation, he was most interested in earnest discussion and grave topics. * * He was so orderly that each day's work to be done was set down upon a memorandum, and his passages for Europe were engaged several months before sailing. Of rare courtesy in his per- sonal manners, he restrained a natural irritability, and usually successfully struggled against his impulses of impatience with those executing his plans who could not conform to his own high and, perhaps, exacting standard. His courtesy resulted from the kindliness of his nature. His refinement in deportment, language and in all his personal habits and surroundings proceeded from his high artistic sense." His friends are especially enthusiastic about his geniality as a host, as he never seemed so happy as when he had guests at his table.
The maiden name of Mr. Bigelow's first wife was Susan W. King. She died in 1841. Their only child, a boy, lived to be six years old. His second wife, Eliza Frances Means, was a daughter of Col. David Means of Amherst, N. H. She was teaching school in Lowell when he first met her. Their only child, a daughter, born in Boston in 1844, is now the wife of Rev. Daniel Merriman, D. D., of the Central Con- gregational Church, Worcester. Mr. Bigelow never lived in Lancaster or Clinton for any long consecutive period. Be- fore the Clinton House was built he used to spend some months at a time when business called him here, with his brother and mother at what is now known as the Parker homestead on Main Street. Later, he stopped several seasons
241
HOME LIFE.
at the Clinton House. He had a house in Boston on Com- monwealth Avenue ; this was built and arranged according to his own plans, and combined convenience and luxury. About ten years before his death, he bought an estate at North Conway, N. H., to which he gave the name of Stone- hurst. This estate was beautifully located, for it had a charming view of the valley of the Saco in the foreground, while beyond, in the near distance, lay Mount Washington, in all its sublime majesty. He found much enjoyment in the construction of his barn and farm buildings, according to his own original plans, but took the greatest delight in his complete system of irrigation, whereby the waters of the Saco were raised to the estate by the power furnished by their own descent, through a mechanical contrivance of his own. Soon after his house had been built with great labor and expense, it was destroyed by fire in his absence, and had to be rebuilt. Here he was accustomed to entertain his friends in that hospitable fashion of his which made every one feel so perfectly at home.
Our picture would not be complete without stealing one glance into the privacy of his domestic life. We learn that he was "a most devoted husband and father," that the en- trance of the children "into the room where he was at work, was always greeted with a smile, although it was evident from the expression of his face that he was not intellectually conscious of their presence, and that the recognition came purely from the sensibilities, for he did not remember after- wards that they had been there." These smiles were called "heat lightning smiles." He was a most indulgent parent, and never refused anything to his children which could be given to them.
In religion, Mr. Bigelow was a Congregationalist, although he was far from being an ardent sectarian. He was "one of the forty original members of the Orthodox Congregational Society in Lancaster, which was organized in 1839. He afterwards attended the Central Church in Boston.
17
242
THE LATER LIFE OF E. B. BIGELOW.
He visited Clinton November 26, 1879, to look after his affairs in the mills here, as it was his custom to do at fre- quent intervals. On the 6th of December, he was at the office of the Carpet Company, of which he was president, in Boston. He met there C. F. Fairbanks, the treasurer, and C. H. Waters, agent of the Clinton Wire Cloth Com- pany. A little later, while talking in his office with Mr. Fay of the Lowell Carpet Company, at 11.30 o'clock, raising his hand to his face he said, "I think I am becoming paralyzed." Consciousness was soon lost, and he died at his home at about six in the evening. Funeral services were held in Boston, and then the remains were brought to Clinton and buried here. The Carpet and Wire Cloth Mills were closed for the day. Business in the stores was suspended during burial rites, and a large concourse of citizens went in proces- sion to the grave. Thus the mortal remains of E. B. Bige- low were consigned to their final resting place in the midst of the town which, in its most vital part-the mills-is but the material expression of his genius, which still lives and acts in its throbbing looms.
HORATIO NELSON BIGELOW.
CHAPTER XV.
THE BIGELOW CARPET COMPANY AND LATER LIFE OF H. N. BIGELOW.
IN 1849, the Bigelow brothers took possession of the building on the present site of the Bigelow Carpet Mills, which had been constructed by H. N. Bigelow in 1847 for a stock company, and had previously been used for minor in- dustries, subsidiary to the work of the great corporations. In this building, the manufacturing of Brussels carpets began in the autumn of 1849. In 1850, Henry P. Fairbanks became a partner of the Bigelows. The old building was raised and a lower story of brick was constructed beneath. The mill, when completed, was two stories in height with an attic. It was two hundred feet long and forty-two wide. The machinery was run by an engine of thirty horse power. In this year, the real estate was assessed at eighteen thousand two hundred dollars ; the personal property at twelve thousand five hundred dollars. In the summer of 1851, the twenty-eight looms produced a daily average of five hundred yards of Brussels carpet. About fifty males and fifty females were employed in this manufacture. Only the dyeing, weaving and finishing were done in this building. The spinning and other preliminary processes were carried on elsewhere. A royalty of one cent per yard was paid to the Clinton Company in consideration of its rights in the pat- ents. It was in this little mill that the inventions bearing on the manufacture of Brussels carpeting were "naturalized," and E. B. Bigelow has given the credit to his brother for their
244
THE BIGELOW CARPET COMPANY.
great success in this undertaking. To produce this marvellous result H. N. Bigelow gave to this new industry his undivided attention for several years. In 1852, an addition fifty feet in length was made to the eastern end of the building.
February 14, 1854, Henry P. Fairbanks died. He was a son of Stephen Fairbanks and at that time a man of forty- five. He was not only the partner and business agent of the Bigelows in carpet manufacture, but he was also the busi- ness agent of the Clinton Company. He had shown his interest in the community, apart from his business relations, by giving to the Unitarian Society its building lot. At the time of his death, he was president of the common council of Charlestown and chairman of the Whig county commit- tee for Middlesex. He was considered one of the most sub- stantial business men of Boston. We are told : "He was a manly man, honoring his name and kind by an independent, yet ever courteous bearing ; stooping to no intrigue and abhorring all meanness and subterfuge."
The Bigelow Carpet Company was incorporated March 16, 1854,* with the privilege of issuing capital stock to the
*"AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE BIGELOW CARPET COMPANY."
"Be it enacted, as follows:
"SECTION I. Horatio N. Bigelow, Erastus B. Bigelow and Stephen Fairbanks, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corpora- tion by the name of the Bigelow Carpet Company; for the purpose of manufacturing woolen, linen and woolen, and cotton and woolen fabrics, and machinery and other articles necessary or convenient to be used therefor, and in carrying on the business thereof, in the town of Clinton, in the county of Worcester: and for these purposes shall have all the powers and privileges, and be subject to all the duties, restrictions and liabilities set forth in the thirty-eighth and forty-fourth chapters of the Revised Statutes.
"SECTION 2. The said corporation may hold, for the purposes afore- said, real estate not exceeding the value of two hundred thousand dol- lars. They may hold not exceeding one-half the stock of the Clinton Gas Light Company, and their whole capital stock shall not exceed five hundred thousand,"
245
OFFICERS.
amount of five hundred thousand dollars. The actual capi- tal stock in 1854 was one hundred and sixty thousand; in 1855, two hundred thousand; in 1860, three hundred thou- sand; in 1861, four hundred thousand; in 1864, five hundred thousand; in 1866, eight hundred thousand; in 1875, it reached its maximum of one million and it remains the same today. The organization was effected July 6, 1854. Stephen Fairbanks was made the first president and retained the office until June 2, 1866. He was succeeded by E. B. Bige- low, who died in office in December, 1879. H. N. Bigelow was treasurer from the date of organization until April, 1861. He was followed by Charles A. Whiting, who served until November, 1874. Charles F. Fairbanks, the present incum- bent, was his successor. Henry M. Simpson was the first clerk. August 1, IS58, C. L. Swan followed him and he was followed by Samuel T. Bigelow, July 12, 1861. June 24, 1868, Charles F. Fairbanks, who still holds the office, was elected. In addition to the two Bigelows and Stephen Fair- banks, the name of Henry Kellogg appears on the list of directors in 1856, and those of Charles A. Whiting, Charles L. Swan and William B. Kendall in 1864.
The new corporation immediately began to enlarge the plant. By the beginning of 1855, a new mill had been com- pleted further to the east. This was a brick structure one hundred and forty-five feet in length by fifty-three feet in width. More attention was paid to beauty of architecture than in the previous corporation buildings in town. At this time, the company contemplated constructing four wings like this to stand two on each side of a main building two hun-
The two remaining sections state that no stock shall be issued under par, and that the act shall take effect on its passage.
By an act of the General Court approved February 6, 1866, the Bige- low Carpet Company was allowed "to increase its capital stock five hun- dred thousand dollars, the same to be divided into shares of one thou- sand dollars each, and to hold real estate not to exceed three hundred and fifty thousand."
246
THE BIGELOW CARPET COMPANY.
dred and forty feet by fifty, and two stories in height. On the thirteenth of January, 1855, a grand levee was held in the newly completed, but as yet unoccupied building, for the benefit of the Bigelow Library Association. The deco- ration of the great room with Brussels and Wilton carpeting was especially effective.
According to a report made by the assessors of the town to the Secretary of the state in June, 1855, two hundred and seventy thousand three hundred and twenty-nine pounds of wool were bought during the preceding year; two hund- red and seven thousand four hundred and sixty-two yards of carpeting were manufactured, valued at two hundred thou- sand dollars; fifty males and one hundred females were employed.
Early in 1857, another addition was completed, and, in March, two similar levees were held in the main room of the new structure, which was sixty-six by fifty feet.
Meanwhile, the affairs of the Clinton Company had not been moving so prosperously. After the resignation of H. N. Bigelow, May 30, 1848, C. W. Blanchard, formerly the agent of the "Old Mill" of the Amoskeag Company, be- came agent here. Mr. Blanchard was an influential and public spirited citizen. He was chairman of the school com- mittee for the year 1850-I, and prepared the first school report of the new town. In the same year, he wrote the report of the committee which founded the pauper estab- lishment and that of the cemetery committee. He also acted as auditor. In 1851, on account of ill health, he could not attend to his work as agent for some months and Frank- lin Forbes acted as his substitute. July 3, 1852, he resigned his position and went to Chicopee. He soon moved to Holyoke. According to the assessor's list of 1850, the mill was valued at one hundred and fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty-eight dollars, the machinery at sixty thousand six hundred and seventy-two dollars. In 1851, the company was employing about two hundred operatives and
247
THE CLINTON COMPANY.
manufacturing one million two hundred thousand yards of coachlace and eight hundred thousand yards of tweeds, cas- simeres and pantaloon stuffs annually. H. N. Bigelow again became agent of the company August 14, 1852, at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars.
From May 7, 1849, the machine shop was no longer fully united with the Clinton Company, but it had, in a measure at least, an independent existence. A charter was obtained for the Clintonville Machine Shop, and it was proposed that the proprietors of the Clinton Company adopt it and form a separate organization. Fifteen thousand dollars were paid for the machinery and tools. The establishment of the ma- chine shop by Palmer and Parker in 1852, led to the dissolu- tion of this company. The old building and tenements were leased.
D. M. Ayer, who had been superintendent of the Clinton Company previous to March, 1854, resigned his position at that time and went to Maine. He was succeeded by A. S. Carleton. The report of a committee of investigation, made October 23, 1854, showed that the company had produced pantaloon stuffs during the previous five years to the amount of seven hundred and twenty thousand nine hundred and sixty-three dollars, with a net loss of thirteen thousand dol- lars. In the same period there had been three hundred and ninety-one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four dollars' worth of coachlace manufactured, with a nominal profit of one hundred and seven thousand seven hundred and twenty- four dollars. But interest, office expenses and so on had eaten up all this and left a net deficit for the mill of eight thousand two hundred and thirty-one dollars, in addition to depreciation in the value of machinery.
As the Lancaster Mills paid a dividend from the manu- facture of ginghams, this business was introduced by the Clinton Company, and, in time, a large portion of the mill was devoted to it. Edwin Andrews, a native of Boylston, the son of Dr. Andrews, was the overseer of the gingham
248
THE BIGELOW CARPET COMPANY.
mill of the Clinton Company for several years. He was afterwards in charge of rubber works at Easthampton and Chelsea and of cotton mills at Harrisburg, Charleston and Baltimore. He died at the latter place July 21, 1888, at the age af sixty-seven. The whole of the coachlace machinery and the patent rights connected therewith were transferred to William H. Horstman & Sons of Philadelphia, January I, 1857, for thirty thousand and five hundred dollars. Eighteen days later, the machine shop and some real estate south of Union Street was sold to the Bigelow Carpet Company for thirteen thousand six hundred and fifty-five dollars. Not- withstanding these sales, the company was assessed in 1857 for one hundred and twelve thousand five hundred dollars, real estate, and eighty-seven thousand five hundred dollars, personal. September 27, 1858, E. B. Bigelow bought out all claims that the company had on the Brussels carpet looms for sixteen thousand one hundred and ninety-eight dollars and sixty-one cents. J. H. Vose followed A. S. Carleton as superintendent. The paymasters from the beginning, were A. S. Carleton, A. E. Bigelow, J. H. Vose, John G. Wright, Henry N. Bigelow, Walter M. Cameron.
The war gave the death blow to the unprofitable company, and July 10, 1862, the business was finally suspended. The great rise in the price of the goods on hand and the ready disposal of the machinery and real estate enabled the stock- holders to get out of it with less serious loss than was ex- pected. The Sawyer's Mills property and the gingham looms were sold to the Lancaster Mills for fifty-five thou- sand dollars, and the tools, real estate and water privilege were sold to the Bigelow Carpet Company for forty-five thousand dollars. The sale was confirmed December II, 1863, and action was taken to dissolve the company.
The property of the Bigelow Carpet Company had grown by building and purchase so that in 1857 it was assessed for one hundred thousand dollars, real estate, and one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, personal. The brick coal shed
249
ENLARGEMENT.
three hundred feet in length was built by the three corpora- tions combined, in 1859. Il. N. Bigelow erected the build- ing now used as a court house for his personal office in 1859. The construction of the dye house and reservoir of the Car- pet Mill belongs to the year 1860. Soon after the purchase of the real estate of the Clinton Company in 1863, steps were taken for great additions. Although the work was begun in March, 1864, it was two years before it was completed. The principal building was one hundred and eighty-seven feet in length, with a width of seventy-six feet at the south part and fifty at the north. It was three stories in height. This building was used mainly for making carpet worsted and blankets. The blankets were such as are now in common usc, and they were made to use up the short wool unfit for Brussels carpeting. A tower was made at the northeast cor- ner of the mill which contained a bell weighing two thousand and seventy-six pounds and costing sixteen hundred dollars. In addition to the main building, there were: a wool sorting house, forty-two by seventy-five feet; a wool washing room, fifty-eight by forty-two feet; a blanket finishing building, seventy-five by forty-nine feet. The old spinning mill at this time was two hundred and eighty by forty-two feet, and had an engine of one hundred and twenty horse power. A new engine of one hundred and fifty horse power was ob- tained for the new part.
Although this work was begun under the direction of Horatio N. Bigelow, it was not completed by him. The task was too great for energies that were already exhausted by so many years of almost superhuman toil. In 1864, his brain gave way. The next year, he went to Europe in company with his physician. His mental powers were never recov- cred, however, and January 2, 1868, at the age of fifty-six, he died of softening of the brain, ending in paralysis.
We have already noted that H. N. Bigelow had been married four years when he came to Factory Village, and that the family first lived in the Plant house, now known as
250
LATER LIFE OF H. N. BIGELOW.
the Parker house on Main Street. A few years later we find them living in a house built by Mr. Bigelow on High Street, now known as the Tyler house. The southern end of the Emory Harris farm had come into his possession and one lot after another was sold to the new settlers. The family lived for a short time in a corporation house on the corner ยท of Union and Nelson Streets. After the success of the various corporations had become assured, he built the man- sion on Chestnut Street in 1851-2, where he spent his last years. A daughter of the family died in 1864, just as she was entering womanhood. The two sons, Henry N. Bigelow, born October 6, 1839, and Charles B. Bigelow, born May 5, 1849, after receiving their elementary education at home and studying in our High School, spent some time at the academy at Easthampton. Each of them had the tastes and aptitudes of their father and followed in his steps. As agents of the Carpet Mill, they have developed the work their father began and various other industrial, as well as municipal and religious institutions, have thriven under their fostering care. The wife and mother, Mrs. Emily W. Bigelow, survived her hus- band many years. It was through her devotion to her home that the work of her husband and children was made possi- ble. In the early days of the Congregational Society and the various organizations connected therewith, no one was more earnest or efficient than she. In her later years, she was an invalid. She died January 16, 1892.
Let us look back and see what the mechanical genius of E. B. Bigelow, cooperating with the executive talents of H. N. Bigelow, had done for the little village of three hundred inhabitants to which the brothers had come some thirty years before. The Clinton Company, originating in E. B. Bigelow's patent for weaving coachlace, after being dc- veloped in the forties, through the labors of H. N. Bigelow, into one of the largest manufacturing concerns at that time in the state, had in the sixties been absorbed into the still larger corporations which owed their establishment to
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SUMMARY.
the same men ; the Quilt Mill, founded on the basis of the counterpane patent, still retained somewhat of the prosperity it had had twenty years before, when under the management of the Bigelows ; the Lancaster Mills, operating E. B. Bige- low's looms for weaving plaids, under a worthy successor to H. N. Bigelow, who had organized the plant, had become one of the strongest corporations in the country; the Bige- low Carpet Company, to which H. N. Bigelow had given the best energies of the last cighteen years of his life, had grown to vast dimensions; the Clinton Wire Cloth Company, the last creation with which the Bigelows had blessed our town, was fast becoming the worthy companion of our earlier industries; the machine shop, the foundry, the loom harness business, the gas works, all growing out of the enterprise of the same leaders, added their mite to the great total; mean- while, the town, owing its existence to the corporations, had reached such fair proportions that it had few rivals among the manufacturing towns of the world.
The influence of H. N. Bigelow for good upon the com- munity was not confined to the mills. Although he acted as a director of the City Bank of Worcester, afterwards the City National Bank, from 1855, and as director of the Worcester Manufacturing Mutual Insurance Company from 1857, and did his part as a citizen of the state and nation, yet this community was the center of all his labors and in- terests. He was far more directly associated with the life of the town than his brother. He served for six years on the school committee; he was the representative in the General Court during the first two years after the incorporation of the town; he gave the town the land for its common and fixed the conditions under which it grew into its present beauty; the whole system of streets in the business and residential center was laid out under his supervision; he was a most earnest sup- porter of the Bigelow Mechanics' Institute and the Bigelow Library Association; the post-office was established through his agency and for the first years, it was under his charge;
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