USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 26
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The changes which were taking place in the population of the manufacturing community at large made a correspond- ing change in the race of the mill operatives here. The Yankees decreased in numbers while those of Irish, German
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LANCASTER MILLS.
or Scotch birth increased. Mr. Forbes encouraged all the workmen who were able to do so to build houses and estab- lish homes of their own, for he believed that, in this way, they would become more thrifty and more inclined to make Clinton a permanent home. Thus hundreds of houses, many of them acquired through Mr. Forbes' assistance, were built upon the Acre and Wilson Hill on land sold to the work- men by the corporation at a nominal price. The German Village began to assume its present proportions during the latter part of Mr. Forbes' agency. As has already been noted, only two tenement houses, one on Cross Street and one on Green Street, were built after 1850.
Up to 1854, the time of work had averaged twelve and a half hours a day. From that time to 1875, it averaged cleven hours per day, and since 1875 ten hours constitute a day's work. The time-table which went into operation in 1854 re- quired work from seven o'clock in the morning to seven at night, with forty-five minutes for dinner, the year round, except upon Saturdays when the work stopped at four. Although this table shortened the time about eight and a half hours per week, yet it required the men to light up in the evening a few weeks later in the spring. Previously there had been no work by lamp or gas light in the evening after March 20th, which was commonly known as the "Blow- ing out time." The interference with this old custom in the new adjustment caused a strike, the only serious affair of the kind with which Mr. Forbes ever had to deal. March 20th, about two hundred operatives left the mill at six o'clock as they had done in previous years. The agent felt that it was the right of the corporation to arrange its own hours of labor and, after a brief struggle, the operatives yielded. Some fifty were discharged for connection with this affair.
In September, 1857, the small demand for goods and the stringency of the money market compelled the directors of the Lancaster Mills to reduce the running to half time. Cir- cumstances demanded that the mills should be closed alto-
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gether, but the earnest entreaties of Mr. Forbes persuaded the directors to sacrifice their pecuniary advantage to the good of the employés. Mr. Forbes used every means to make the period of enforced idleness from manual labor a time of mental improvement. Immediately after half time was declared, a reading room was established at Lancaster Mills. A course of free lectures was organized by Mr. Forbes to be given by local talent on successive Wednesday evenings in Clinton Hall. The Courant of October 24th says: "We cannot forbear a personal reference to the agent of Lancaster Mills, who seems the very incarnation of effi- ciency in devising plans and pushing them through, in order to furnish employment and entertainment for the mind. Times like the present bring out the greatness of such men and show their value in a community." At the end of Octo- ber, the Lancaster Mills still further reduced its time of run- ning by closing up entirely Saturdays. In November, some forty Irish immigrants returned home. So great was the depression that the stock of Lancaster Mills sold at two hundred and twenty-five dollars per share for a short time. Work was resumed on full time in January, 1858.
During the times of idleness between 1857 and 1863, an afternoon and evening school was opened. The boys and men were taught by George W. Weeks in the basement of the A. P. Burdett building. Rev. William Cushing came over occasionally to give lessons in Latin. The girls met in the hall in the building where C. W. Field has his store. Daniel W. Kilburn was teacher. Mr. Forbes had a general oversight of the whole and did some teaching.
From 1861 to 1864 there was a long period of depression. Fortunately the mills owned a large quantity of cotton pur- chased at a low price. Out of this a considerable profit was made. The average amount of work in 1861, was one hun- dred and seventy-eight days; in 1862, one hundred and fifty and one-half days; in 1863, two hundred and forty-eight days; and in 1864, three hundred days.
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In 1866, exhausted by his labors and anxieties during the Civil War and the pressure of the work that came from the rapid development of the mill after the war was over, Mr. Forbes found himself obliged to seek rest. George W. Weeks was made superintendent of the mill. For years, since Jotham D. Otterson had gone away, there had been no superintendent, but the agent had acted directly through the overseers. Mr. Forbes went to Europe. He returned re- freshed after three months of travel and resumed his duties. To his work as agent and the public responsibilities which he accepted, he added a private business as a manufacturer at Fullerville. In the early seventies, his health began to give way under the strain. His nervous system received a severe shock from the sudden death of his daughter, Mrs. Henry N. Bigelow, November 1, 1876. One after another, he reluctantly gave up his duties, outside of the mill or left them more and more to his subordinates. Inside of the mill, the superintendent was given greater and greater re- sponsibilities as Mr. Forbes felt his strength failing. Decem- ber 24, 1877, after an illness of five weeks' duration he passed away.
If we seek to find the causes which underlie the success of Mr. Forbes as a mill agent we shall discover them in the same elements of mind and character which gave him so much power as a school-master and public servant. We might speak again of his integrity, his justice, his com- prehensiveness, the breadth of his culture, his ability to trace the relation of cause and effect, the warmth of his heart, the strength of his will, the delicacy of his tact. He had all these and they all contributed to the crowning cause for his success. He was a natural leader of men. Others may have had more mechanical ability than he or have been more closely acquainted with the details of manufacturing, but there have been few who have had a keener perception of human character. He knew how to choose the best man
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FRANKLIN FORBES.
to accomplish his object and how to keep him working at his utmost until his task was done. Although, when occa- sion demanded, he let it be clearly seen that his will was law, and though he was the master of a merciless sarcasm with which he could goad the idle drone or wither the boasting pretender, yet he was usually the most affable of leaders. Every man in his employ felt that much was ex- pected of him and was inspired with a desire not to be found lacking by one who required of himself more than he asked from others.
It was a source of great benefit to our town that its lead- ing industry should be managed in its infancy by a man of such rare executive power, since the community has ever drawn its life from the mills and has grown only with their growth. For more than a score of years his public spirit, his ability as a man of affairs, his culture, his liberality of views and the all embracing nature of his sympathies made him our foremost citizen, constantly leading towards wise and noble ends and meanwhile he was nourishing the roots of our municipal life by his special work as the agent of the Lancaster Mills.
CHAPTER XXI.
EMPLOYEES OF LANCASTER MILLS.
WHEN Mr. Forbes entered upon his duties as agent of the Lancaster Mills he found Jotham D. Otterson acting as superintendent. He had been called hither by the Bigelows years before from the agency of the mill at Hookset, N. H. He was a practical mechanic, thoroughly acquainted with the details of cotton manufacturing. In such matters, both H. N. Bigelow and Franklin Forbes deferred to him. He bore for a time somewhat the same relation to these men that J. B. Parker bore to E. B. Bigelow. He was already a man of mature age and long experience in his business. He was a man of strict religious views and a member of the Orthodox Church. He lived on Mechanic Street. James Otterson, his son, was sent to England with J. B. Parker to set up the first carpet loom for E. B. Bigelow. When Jotham D. Otterson left Clinton, he went to Nashua, N. H., where he met with a large measure of success in the foundry business. He was, at one time, mayor of that city.
In addition to Mr. Forbes and Mr. Otterson, a notable body of men and boys worked in the Lancaster Mills office between 1850 and 1865. Charles L. Swan was paymas- ter from 1848. As treasurer of the Clinton Savings Bank he received deposits at the mill. As he held other positions of greater importance his life will be considered elsewhere, yet the seven years which he spent in this office, the methods of work which he established and the training he gave to those under his charge, left a permanent impress.
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EMPLOYEES OF LANCASTER MILLS.
When he resigned in 1855, Henry Bowman was called from the Courant office to become his successor. As he was born September 9, 1834, he had not as yet reached his majority. Yet he was already known as one of the most promising young men in the community. He was especially prominent in the Rhetorical Society. Elsewhere we shall have occasion to note his services as an officer of the Light Guard. In 1861, he entered the army as captain of Company C, Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment, and afterwards became Colonel of the Thirty-sixth. His war record belongs to an- other chapter of our history. He did not reside in Clinton after the war, but sought and gained success in business in the distant West.
James Monroe Ingalls was errand boy. His spare mo- ments were spent in studying mathematics and laying the foundation of that knowledge which was in later times to make him an instructor in artillery practice at Fort Monroe, and one of the leading authorities of the world on ballistics .* Later, James A. Morgan, the present paymaster ot the mills, was office boy.t
D. W. Kilburn was the first clerk or assistant to the pay- master in the office, but he soon withdrew to the cloth room. George W. Weeks,¿ who had entered the mill at the age of thirteen as an errand boy in 1851, was made his successor. Although at times he left the office to pursue his studies for a few months at the High School, yet he still kept up his connection with the mills, so that we may consider his forty- five years of service as continuous. So closely was he iden- tified during these years with the Lancaster Mills, that the corporation seems to some of his co-workers as hardly more than the outer coating of his personality. No one has ever known the construction of the mills, the details of the
* See Philip L. Morgan, also War Record.
+ See James Ingalls.
Į See James A. Weeks.
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GEORGE W. WEEKS.
machinery and all the varied processes of manufacture as thoroughly as he. Although he did not obtain patents for any great inventions, yet he made many minor improvements which in the aggregate increased the production of the plant in a remarkable degree. There were no loose ends in his work, no waste. The total amount of available forces used always balanced accurately with the total results secured. But his story belongs to later history. Yet even in his boy- hood he displayed those qualities which were to make him the paymaster in 1861, the superintendent in 1866, the worthy successor of Franklin Forbes in 1877, and a recognized leader among the manufacturers of the country before he retired from the agency in 1896. Passing by his early connection with the Rhetorical Society, the Unitarian Society and the schools, we find that there is one department of the life of our community in which his work was such that it must re- ceive mention. No one gave as much time or rendered such efficient service to the Bigelow Library Association as he. For years he acted as librarian and hundreds of pages of the records of the secretary and treasurer are in his hand-writing. Since the library has come under the control of the town, he has continued his fostering care, and to those who know his work in this direction he seems almost as closely identified with the library as with the Lancaster Mills.
James A. Weeks, the son of Jonathan Weeks and father of George W., was born in Alstead, N. H., in ISII, February 7th. He belonged to the well known Weeks family which lived in Marlboro. He worked on the farm of his uncle, Solomon Weeks of Marlboro, from early boyhood. From the age of fourteen to twenty he drew wood nearly every winter from Marlboro to Boston. He married Caroline Hall of Brewster, Mass., June 19, 1835. At twenty, he went to Waltham and began work in the picker room of a cotton mill. His son, George W. Weeks, was born in Waltham in 1838. James A. Weeks was soon promoted and had charge of various departments of the mill. His health being poor,
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he gave up his position there and entered the provision busi- ness. He had a market at first in Waltham, then in Boston. In 1849, he came to Clintonville and took charge of the work done on a division of Bigelow's new looms at Lancaster Mills. In 1850, he went into the winding department, where he soon became overseer, and here he remained until 1865. He then served for ten years as superintendent of Sawyers Mills in Boylston, which had been purchased by Lancaster Mills. He was postmaster and selectman in Boylston. He was a great lover of music and was a chorister in the Baptist Society, and afterwards in the Unitarian. He died February 22, 1887.
Henry Shedd came to Clinton from Shirley Village in 1853 to work in the Coachlace Mill. In 1865, he followed James A. Weeks as overseer of the winding and quilling in the Lancaster Mills. He died in 1884 at the age of fifty- eight. His son, Charles H. Shedd, entered the Lancaster Mills office, where he has served for many years.
Donald Cameron, a native of Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland, died August 3, 1869, at the age of sixty-nine. He came to Clintonville in 1844. He at once took charge of the dye-house at Lancaster Mills. He lived in the cor- poration building known as the Cameron house, which was connected by a foot-bridge with the mills. Cameron Mill was named from him. He was fatally burned June 17, 1869, by an accident while at work in the mills. He had a large family. One of his sons, Angus Cameron, became promi- nent as a journalist and had a noble war record .* Another, James F., has been engaged in business in New York and Boston ; Walter M. has filled most responsible positions in connection with the Metropolitan Steamship Company and other interests of Henry M. Whitney of Boston. Angus Walker, also of Scotch descent, was second-hand in the dye- house. He has since had charge of a dyc-house in Holyoke.
*See War Record.
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JOSEPH C. SMITH.
William Orr, another Scotchman, was a pattern weaver for many years. He was especially prominent for his con- nection with the Orthodox Church.
Absalom Lord was overscer of the carding. He was a native of Athol, and before he came here in 1849 had been a boss-carder in Barre and Winchendon. He was a man of property. He built the David Haskell house on Chestnut Street. He was a Democrat in politics, a Unitarian in re- ligion. After living here for some years, he bought a farm in West Boylston and moved thither. James Needham fol- lowed him as overseer in this department. He was the son of Henry Needham and was born in Dedham August 17, 1816. He went to work in a mill in Dorchester at the age of eight. He was also employed as a stone-cutter in Quincy before he came to Clinton about 1847. He married Caroline B. Murphy, July 18, 1838, and they had nine children. He was very popular as an overseer. He died May 27, 1878. His son, James A., followed him as overseer of the carding.
The man who held the position in the mill next in im- portance to the superintendent was the overseer of the machine shop, Joseph C. Smith. He was a young man of versatile talents; a most excellent machinist, a musician and a man of considerable literary ability. He remained in this position twelve years, until his death, April 30, 1859. A friend says of him: "He was straightforward in the duties of his calling, scrupulous and exacting in the employment of his time, husbanding his means with a wise economy, yet always liberal in the demands of true benevolence; genial in his intercourse with men and warm-hearted in his friend- ships." He "found it easy to express himself with vigor and propriety." "Temperance and freedom had no firmer or more earnest friend than he."
George M. Lourie, a Scotchman, who died in West Boyl- ston, June 25, 1895, where he was agent of the Clarendon Mills, succeeded Joseph C. Smith as head of the machine shop. Mr. Lourie was born at Bannockburn, Scotland,
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EMPLOYEES OF LANCASTER MILLS.
March II, 1830. His father was a carpet loom fixer, and is said to have woven the first Brussels carpet in the United States. The boy passed his childhood in Enfield, Ct .; here he learned the trade of the machinist. He married Alice Dicksen in 1850. The following year he came to Clinton to work for J. B. Parker. He was a Congregationalist and prominent as a Free Mason and Odd Fellow. He went to West Boylston in the seventies. The record of his younger brother, William, belongs to more recent times.
Samuel Beaven came from England to America in 1844. He first went to Dudley, but came to Clintonville to work in the machine shop of the Clinton Company in the fall of the same year. He worked as a machinist, loom-fixer, engineer and general utility man at the Lancaster Mills for many years. He kept the "Big Boarding-House" for a time. He died July 4, 1877.
Calvin Stanley, who came here in 1847 from Winchendon, had charge of the weaving room. He was one of the select- men of the town in 1851-52. In 1853, he went to Dixfield, Me., where he became a grocer. He remained there until his death. He, like the rest of the overseers of the various departments, received three dollars a day. In 1860, the wages were increased to three dollars and fifty cents. The work of the weavers was entirely piece work. Alvin Whit- ing, a native of Dedham, who had come to town in 1846, and who had been second-hand while Mr. Stanley was over- seer, succeeded him in the charge of the room. He has held that position until the present day. In length of service and in the number of operatives who have been under his direct charge, he has exceeded any overseer who has ever been in Clinton.
Philip L. Morgan, a native of Palmer, born in 1813, was overseer of the winding, reeling and dressing, various de- partments being added or withdrawn from his work as cir- cumstances demanded. He had previously worked in Barre and Winchendon. We have already spoken of his son,
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LANCASTER MILLS LN 1806
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JAMES LOGAN.
James A. Morgan. Philip L. Morgan came to Clintonville in 1848 and remained in his position in the mill until his resignation in 1887. He was selectman of the town in 1861-3. He is still living among us, and it is to his memory that we are indebted for many of the facts which are here recorded in regard to his associates. Levi Carter, who came to Clin- tonville in 1846, is said to have run the first dresser in the mills.
Jacob Wilson was overseer of the mule room. He built a house on Wilson Hill, which thus obtained its name. He went to Hookset, N. H., to take charge of a mule room there. He afterwards became a farmer. After he went away, Eneas Morgan had charge of the mule room. At first, Frank, Cook was second-hand. Mr. Morgan came here from Low- ell. He was a Unitarian. He was a member of the school committee from 1860 to '65. He went to Worcester, where he manufactured plate for tin-types and a variety of other things. He was followed by James Logan, who had been his second-hand.
James Logan was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in Decem- ber, 1827. His father was a cotton spinner, and the boy having attended the schools of his native city learned his father's trade. He came to America while a youth and worked for a time in the mills at West Boylston. He came to Clintonville in 1847 to work for the Lancaster Mills. He was overseer of the mule spinning room for twenty-five years. He remained in the service of the Lancaster Mills over forty years. He married Ellen S. Felton in 1856. They attended the Unitarian Church. They lived in a house which they built on Walnut Street. Mr. Logan died Decem- ber 29, 1891.
James Wrigley, an Englishman, had charge of the finish- ing. The work in this department was done by the job. He owned the house on High Street afterwards known as the Otterson place. He built a group of tenement houses on the Acre. Old inhabitants still speak of the section
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EMPLOYEES OF LANCASTER MILLS.
·
which these occupied as Wrigley's Yard. Mr. Wrigley went from here to Lewiston, Me., and thence to Worcester, where he became the forwarding agent for Washburn & Moen. He died July 12, 1883, at the age of sixty-eight.
Roger Eccles, who afterwards gave his life for his coun- try during the Civil War, had charge of the singeing of the ginghams. When the process of singeing gave way to shearing, James Greenwood, who was born at Leeds, York- shire, England, September 29, 1810, took charge of it. The father of this James Greenwood was a school teacher, yet the circumstances of the family were such that the boy had to begin to earn his own living at eight years of age. He married Sarah Marlow in Leeds, England. They had three children, John W., Henry, and one daughter. He came to the United States in the winter of 1839, and after a voyage of thirteen weeks was shipwrecked on Long Island. He worked in a woolen mill in North Anson, Maine. This mill was closed and he wandered from place to place until he finally reached Worcester in June, 1851. He visited a machine shop and was told that the Lancaster Mills in Clin- ton were having trouble in introducing the new process of shearing. Although he had always worked on broadcloth he thought he would come to Clinton and see if there was any opening for him. Mr. Forbes eagerly seized the oppor- tunity to engage the services of an expert, and Mr. Green- wood settled here at once. He invented a contraction and expansion roller by which the checks in the gingham were kept even. He obtained a patent, but sold his right to the Lancaster Mills. He soon became overseer of the finishing considered as a whole. He worked by contract and is said to have had a very large income. Mr. Greenwood was a large hearted man, full of charity. He married as a second wife Jane Lovelass, by whom he had one son, James, and a daughter. He owned the estate known as Wrigley's Yard. Two of his sons, John and Henry, are now overseers in the Lancaster Mills. James is a journalist. The father died November 26, 1894.
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JAMES INGALLS.
W. W. Parker had charge of the cloth room with Daniel W. Kilburn as his second-hand. We shall find both these men leaders in the affairs of the Congregational Church; both became ministers.
Thomas Haverty, an Irishman, looked after those who had charge of bundling the yarn. He was afterwards in charge of the post-office department of A. T. Stewart's store in New York.
Robert J. Finnie was the boss carpenter for thirty-five years. He is a Scotchman, and was born at Millport, Feb- ruary, 1822. His father, Robert, was a ship builder. He attended a High School. He did his first work in Clinton- ville on Mr. Forbes' house on Chestnut Street, under Jonas E. Howe as contractor, in 1851. He married a sister of Samuel Beaven. For some years he had charge of the " Big Boarding-House." He bought the Bailey estate on Chestnut Street in his later years, where he is still living. His son, James B., has been for some years boss of the yard.
James Ingalls worked as a carpenter for Lancaster Mills. He was born at Canterbury, N. H., January 24, 1791. His father, Samuel Ingalls, a farmer, moved to Ryegate, Vt., when James was four years old. The boy acquired such an education at the district school that he was capable of teach- ing. He also learned the trade of a carpenter. For thirty years, he alternated summer work at his trade with winter work as a teacher at Ryegate, Vt., and elsewhere. He mar- ried Mary Cass of Lyman, N. H. They had nine children. Mr. Ingalls came to Clintonville in the spring of 1848 at the suggestion of his son, Daniel B. Ingalls. One of his first jobs was tearing down the old Pitts mill. After working for some years for the corporation, he started in business on his own account as a carpentering jobber. He built a house for him- self on the east side of Boylston Street. Two of his sons-in- law, Hiram Miner and Dwight Brown, built houses near by. He was a conservative Congregationalist. He was the local leader of the "American" or "Know Nothing" party and
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