USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 27
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332
EMPLOYEES OF LANCASTER MILLS.
served in the General Court in 1855. He was on the school committee in 1852-3. He moved from Clinton to Wisconsin about 1856. He died in Madison, in that state.
John A. Otterson succeeded Mr. Pollard as the overseer of the Lancaster Mills yard. Here he remained for some years. He came from Lowell to Clintonville in 1848. At a later time, he bought the Wrigley cottage on High Street. He died in 1868. Charles A. and Henry N. are his sons. The third overseer was Neil Carmichael. He remained here only one year, but went in 1854 to California. The fourth overseer was George S. Folsom, a native of Maine, born in 1826. He came to Clinton in the early fifties and was over- seer of the yard for many years. He died January 19, 1884. Moses Greenough was the painter. He kept a boarding- house on Green Street. He died while in the employ of the mills.
In the earliest times the operatives in the mills were for the most part natives of this country, but as manufacturing rapidly developed in the middle of the present century, the supply of workmen became unequal to the demand. Mean- while in Europe the relation of supply to demand was such that the condition of the laboring classes was far from satis- factory. Therefore a vast number of immigrants began to arrive on our shores. A few came from England and Scotland. A considerable portion of these had some ac- quaintance with the textile arts. As skilled workmen were rare, these men, if they possessed executive ability, were able to secure lucrative positions. We have found many of them becoming overseers and most substantial citizens. Although these English and Scotch retained to a considerable extent their race characteristics and symyathies, yet they became so united with the original citizens that their story is insep- arable.
The number of Irish immigrants, who found a home in Clinton and employment in the mills, exceeded that of all
333
WILLIAM GOTTLOB BECK.
others combined. Few of them had had any opportunity to learn the textile arts before coming hither and were therefore obliged to begin at the bottom. It was not many years, however, before their thrift enabled them to acquire prop- erty and build houses for themselves, and their progressive spirit gave them a leading place in the affairs of the com- munity. Their story calls for a separate chapter, and, if the later history of the town is ever written, it will be found that during the last quarter of the present century, every depart- ment of private and municipal life has been strongly influ- enced by them and their descendants.
Among the workers in the Lancaster Mills, there was a considerable body of Germans, even before the time of the Civil War. The work of these Germans was for the most part confined to these mills during the first years of their stay among us, and they have always occupied a prominent and well defined place among the operatives. Hence it seems desirable to consider them in this connection. Per- haps their early story can best be suggested by considering in detail the life of one of them.
William Gottlob Beck was the first German to settle in Clintonville, and his biography, with some variation of details, may be taken as a sample of that of his fellow countrymen who settled here. He was a native of Wurtemberg, while a considerable portion of his fellow immigrants came from Bavaria. He was born July 9, 1823. Like all German boys of his time, he attended school from the age of four until he was fourteen and obtained a good elementary education. According to the custom of his country in those days, after leaving school he was apprenticed to learn a trade. The trade in his case was that of a woolen weaver, and during the four years that he served, he learned all the various pro- cesses connected with the manufacture of woolen cloth, from the raw wool to the finished product. His weaving was of course done on a hand loom. After his apprenticeship was ended he traveled about for some years, practicing his art
334
EMPLOYEES OF LANCASTER MILLS.
and picking up new ideas. His father, who was a baker with- out any great amount of property, gave all his six sons an elementary education and a trade, but he could do no more for them. It required capital in those days for a man to carry on the weaver's trade, for no large factories had as yet been established and the business had not been centralized. It was necessary for each man to own his own machinery and to buy enough wool at the proper season to keep him in work until the season for shearing came round again. Now Mr. Beck did not have money enough to do this. He had heard of a country across the sea where a young man had a better chance to make his way in the world than in Germany, and in 1847, he resolved to emigrate. The chief point in which the story of some of our early German operatives dif- fered from that of Mr. Beck previous to leaving the father- land was in regard to military service. In those days, the standing army in Germany was smaller than now. The physical examination and the action of the lot relieved many from serving in time of peace. Mr. Beck escaped, but many of his fellow immigrants were obliged to serve their term in the army, some of them for six years.
Mr. Beck, after a short stay at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where his brother had previously located, and a few weeks spent in Philadelphia, went to Mason Village (now Green- ville), N. H., and from there to Lawrence, Mass. Hearing of an opportunity for work in Clintonville he came here in 1849, before the Lancaster Mills were fairly at work. It was very difficult at this time for the mill managers to get opera- tives who had been educated as weavers, and it was not long before Calvin Stanley, who was overseer of the weaving room, asked Mr. Beck if he could not get some of his coun- trymen who had learned their trade to come here. This re- quest was reinforced by a personal appeal from H. N. Bigc- low. By means of direct solicitation a considerable num- ber of Germans were persuaded to come to the Lancaster Mills, some from Mason Village, N. H., some from Law-
335
THE GERMANS.
rence, some from South Hadley Falls, some from Webster and some direct from the fatherland. Before the Civil War there were some sixty male citizens of German birth in Clin- ton. The skill of these Germans soon gave them a good position in the mills and some of them became section hands.
The noble records of the Germans during the Civil War will be given elsewhere. It is sufficient here to say, that forty-five of them, or about seventy-five per cent of the whole number of male citizens, enlisted. The names of thirteen are on our soldiers' monument. This is twenty-one per cent of the whole number of male citizens.
Although they were economical and laid up money, yet, at first, they were conservative in acquiring real estate, and did not care to build until they had money enough to fully pay for their houses. Thus none were assessed for real estate in the tax list of 1857, and very little was acquired until after the war. In the later sixties, the section north- east of the Lancaster Mills began to be known as the Ger- man Village, and one after another houses were erected until there were few of the Germans of middle age who were liv- ing in corporation houses. Most of them have married within their own race, although a few, like Mr. Beck, have found wives among those of Scotch, English or Irish descent. While they have been quick in acquiring the English lan- guage, yet the German has been chiefly used by the first generation of immigrants among themselves, and many of the second generation use the English and German equally well.
The German organizations have all begun their existence since the Civil War. The Harugari started in 1866. It is an insurance society which pays to each of its members four dollars a week in case of sickness and five hundred to the heirs in case of death. The Turnverein, which was organized in 1867, pays special attention to physical development and social enjoyment. The Schiller Club, which is literary
336
EMPLOYEES OF LANCASTER MILLS.
in its nature, was not organized until 1869. The histories of all these societies belongs to a period subsequent to that with which we are dealing.
In politics, the Germans have acted independently, some- times with one party, sometimes with the other, sometimes as a unit and sometimes with great diversity. In recent years, they have held many local offices.
As children in Germany, most of them have received Lutheran training, but there are a few who were brought up as Catholics. Some have not allied themselves to any religious organizations in this country, while others have worshipped in various congregations, one here and another there. The organization of a German Church is of too recent origin to be dealt with in this work.
SIDNEY HARRIS.
CHAPTER XXII.
MINOR INDUSTRIES.
SIDNEY HARRIS, the youngest son of Daniel Harris, * was born October 8, 1804, in Boylston. He attended school in District No. 10. From boyhood, he was accustomed to work in the comb shops of his older brothers, Emory* and Asahel,* as well as upon the farm of his father. One from among his old account books has been preserved. It is called " Book I." In it, we find the record of his business development. Tradition has stated that he built the Harrisville dam in 1823, but it was seldom that the young men of the early part of this century were independent of paternal control before they reached their majority, and it is not likely that a boy of nineteen built such a dam as this. Moreover, this "Book I" gives ample evidence that he first began business for himself in a small way when he became twenty-one.
The first entries in 1825 show that he began by "cutting out combs" for his brothers, Asahel and Emory, and for various other men as well. He hired the machine with which he worked of Gardner Pollard. His business gradu- ally increased. He began "to make combs" as a whole. He was apparently never the regular partner of either of his brothers. Sometimes, he made combs for each of them; sometimes, they made combs for him. Perhaps, they all worked together on any large order that either received. Before "Book I" was closed up in 1828, Sidney Harris had
* See pages 176-182.
23
338
THE HARRIS COMB SHOPS.
evidently become, as a comb-maker, the business equal of his brothers.
Up to this time, he had lived at home, but, in this year, 1828, he bought of his brother, Asahel, and his father, the homestead east of the river. It is hardly probable that he had acquired in four years through his own labors sufficient capital to pay two thousand dollars for a piece of property like this, so it is likely that his father may have helped him. In a list which he kept of his long series of real estate trans- actions, this stands at the beginning. This property was the nucleus around which grew that great aggregation of lands and houses which made him the chief individual tax-payer of the new town. September 13, 1829, he married Sally Kil- burn who had been born in Shirley, had lived in Lunenburg, and at this time, according to the records, had her residence in Lancaster.
His manufacturing business from 1828 to 1830 or later was done in a shop near his new house, and there is no rea- son to suppose that the water privilege had been improved up to this time. The value of this water privilege in those times may be judged from the story that is told of a possible purchaser. A stranger was riding by one day and in an off- hand way offered three hundred dollars for it. The owner, though eager to accept the offer, apparently hesitated in order to obtain more. The man who made the offer, seeing that there was a disposition to sell, drove away at the top of his speed before he could be bound to a bargain.
The first record we have of the dam was made in 1833, when Asahel and Sidney agreed to share equally the dam which they had jointly built. Asahel had the power on the western half, Sidney on the eastern. It was of the same height then, as it was in later times, that is, four and two-tenths feet. It was once swept away, but was rebuilt in its previous form. Once, flash-boards were so added that the dam was raised one foot, but the water flowed back on Lancaster Mills and there was some trouble which was settled by a sale
339
SIDNEY HARRIS.
of one foot of the flow to that corporation. In later times, two water-wheels were used and an available force of some over fifty horse-power secured.
Sidney probably had a small shop here for the manufac- ture of combs soon after the dam was completed, but Asahel could not have had any very extensive works here, since all that he did have, together with his half right in the dam and water privilege, passed into the hands of Sidney in 1835 for only four hundred dollars. The buildings about the dam increased in number and size as the business developed. A picture has been preserved which was probably drawn before 1850. On the western side of the river, the only build- ing is a saw and grist mill moved from the Pitts Mills in 1844, while on the eastern side there is one large comb shop with several smaller buildings clustered about. At a later time, Mr. Harris built another large shop on the western side of the river .* The road was changed from its location beside the river to the present location of Branch Street to accom- modate the new shop on the west. Mr. Harris met with a loss by fire of five thousand dollars in January, 1853, at the comb shops, but rebuilding and repairs soon effaced all marks of the injury.
During his last years, Sidney Harris was an invalid and gave up to his sons, Edwin A. and George S., the manage- ment of the comb business. His shops then employed from twenty-five to thirty workmen and the sales amounted to more than twenty thousand dollars per year. In 1857, the low valuation of the assessors puts the shops of S. Harris & Sons at six thousand four hundred dollars, machinery twelve hundred dollars and stock three thousand dollars. In the early portion of his life, he was his own buying and selling agent and made frequent trips to New York for this purpose.
* These buildings, except the saw and grist mill, are for the most part standing with various changes of position and have recently been fitted up for tenements by the Lancaster Mills.
340
THE HARRIS COMB SHOPS.
He kept himself thoroughly in touch with the condition of the market and seldom made a poor business venture. Of his credit, one who knew him well said: "His word was as good as his bond, and his bond was as good as gold."
Meanwhile he had invested extensively in real estate elsewhere. He had evidently let Lory F. Bancroft have money for the buildings at the corner of Union and High Streets, and they had fallen into his hands before 1850. He was also a large owner in the Worcester and Nashua Rail- road, and was one of those who did most to secure for this community the advantages of this road .* In 1857, which we may reckon as the close of his active career, his real estate was assessed at thirty-three thousand six hundred and sixty- one dollars, and his personal at twelve thousand three hun- dred and seventy-five, while the comb stock and machinery in the hands of S. Harris & Sons was assessed at four thou- sand two hundred dollars, a total of fifty thousand two hun- dred and thirty-six dollars, or more than was held by any other two individual tax-payers of Clinton combined. It will be seen from this estimate that the value of the comb shop had doubled.
In 1838, Sidney Harris had become so prominent as a citizen that he was chosen one of the selectmen of Lancas- ter. The road from Harris bridge to Berlin and Boylston,
* The extent of his property can best be seen from the following assessors' valuation :---
SIDNEY HARRIS, 1850.
House, barn and shops, 77 acres $3,500
Wood lots, 123 acres. 2,740
Water privilege, mills, etc.
Six houses. 3,000
3,900
Bancroft estate, store, etc. 3,000
Lowe estate. 2,000
$18,140
Personal.
9,000
$27,140
34I
SIDNEY HARRIS.
constructed in part in 1845, must have added considerably to the value of his homestead. The road from Lancaster Mills to the Harris Comb Shops, which was built in 1848, originally followed the course of the river as far as Water Street. Sidney Harris was one of the leading men of School District No. 11, and, when it was united in 1847 with No. 10, he was one of the prudential committee of the united dis- tricts until Clinton was incorporated. By this committee, several new school-houses were built, among others, one on " Harris Hill." He was among the leaders in the movement for the division of Lancaster, and his name appears on every important committee which was chosen to forward that pur- pose. He was chosen the first treasurer of Clinton, and was again elected to the same office in 1855.
Mr. Harris was a most ardent temperance man. It was he who made a hall for the Sons of Temperance in the build- ing on High Street now occupied by C. W. Field. When the famous Charles Jewett was about to give up his work in behalf of the cause for pecuniary reasons, Sidney Harris started a subscription paper which was circulated not only in Clinton, but in many other towns and, by this, he raised such a sum that Mr. Jewett's work was continued. These two examples are taken from many to illustrate the idea that he was the monied representative of temperance in this section.
In religion, he was a Unitarian. In early life, he attended church at Lancaster, and he was prominent among those who furnished means for building the Unitarian meeting- house in Clinton.
Next to the Bigelows, Sidney Harris is the most impor- tant figure in the industrial life of Clintonville. He won this position by his love of work, his integrity, his sound judg- ment in matters of business, his enterprise, his public spirit and his service in behalf of education, temperance and religion.
After the death of their father, which occurred Novem-
342
THE HARRIS COMB SHOPS.
ber 21, 1861, the sons continued the business under the title of Sidney Harris & Sons, a title which was never changed as long as the shops remained under their control.
Edwin Algernon Harris was born May 31, 1837. George Sidney Harris, March 13, 1839. They were the only chil- dren who survived their father. They were both born at the Harris homestead and both attended the public schools. Edwin went for some time to Josiah Bride's famous school in Berlin and took a business course at a school in Worces- ter. The boys were employed about the shops from an early age, and on account of the ill health of their father were in active business before they had reached maturity. Decem- ber 18, 1858, Edwin A. Harris married Adeline K. Damon of Fitchburg. They lived in his father's house.
While their father was yet living, in 1860, large additions were made to the works under the direction of the two brothers. After this, they employed fifty hands. By the conditions of the father's will, the mother had control of the homestead and shops, but she leased the latter to her sons. In May, 1862, the firm undertook the manufacture of paper bags on a large scale, but soon abandoned it and confined itself entirely to horn goods. The staple product was the common varieties of combs, but, at a later date, fancy combs were made. For a time, some horn buckles and horn chains were manufactured. Goods were sold through commission merchants.
George S. Harris bought of Absalom Lord the house more recently owned by Mrs. David Haskell. He was never very strong but was always inclined to work beyond his power. In 1865, he was one of the selectmen of Clinton. He took up his father's mantle in matters of temperance and was an active worker in the society of Good Templars. In his later life, he went to the Congregational Church. He died April 28, 1866, at the age of twenty-eight.
On account of his brother's weakness, the larger portion of the responsibilities connected with the business had fallen
---
THE HARRIS HOMESTEAD.
343
EDWIN A. AND GEORGE S. HARRIS.
upon Edwin A. Before the death of George S., extensive additions had been begun. These consisted of the brick mill and the boiler house on the west of the river and the brick press shop on the east. After these additions from fifty to seventy-five hands were employed and sometimes for short periods from ninety to one hundred. The annual product was worth from one hundred thousand dollars to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1870, five thousand horns were used per day, and twelve thousand combs were made. These comb works were the largest in America.
The brothers had been especially interested in the Agri- cultural Railroad, since known as the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg, then as the Northern Division of the Old Colony, and still later absorbed by the New York, New Haven and Hartford. It was due to Edwin A. Harris more than any one else that this road ran through Clinton. He was a di- rector and large stock holder in the road. He was also a director of the First National Bank of Clinton.
When Mrs. Sidney Harris died March 9, 1872, he came into possession of the homestead and shops. Edwin A. Harris was a man of remarkable financial ability. He was even keener, perhaps, than his father and devoted himself to business with all the energy of his nature. He realized that the building up of a great industry would be the best service he could do the world, and those who knew him best do not doubt that had he lived through his maturity, his mills would have continued a most important factor in the development of the town. He was a man with high ideals of public mor- ality, and gave liberally for the support of all reforms. He was one of the most prominent members of the Unitarian Society. At the age of thirty-eight, when his business was established and he might well expect many years of useful- ness and prosperity, he died May 28, 1875 .*
*A joint stock company, called the S. Harris Sons Manufacturing Company, was formed with a capital of sixty thousand dollars to continue
344
CLINTON WIRE CLOTH COMPANY.
Among the men employed at the comb shop of S. Harris & Sons, Joel Sawtell was among the best known. He was born in Boylston in 1809. From the age of sixteen to that of nineteen, he worked for Nathaniel Lowe of Clinton, and it is supposed that he learned the comb trade of him. He worked for Emory Harris for several years. In 1829, he went into the comb business for himself. This he continued until 1837. He and Mr. Glines seem to have had some sort of a business partnership with Sidney Harris before his sons came into the business. He was afterwards for the greater part of his life employed at the Harris Comb Shops. He died July 18, 1888. Theodore McNeal, who died March I, 1887, at the age of fifty-four, also worked in these shops for twenty-five years or more. He came to Clinton in 1852.
The Clinton Wire Cloth Company was incorporated June 23, 1856. The directors were E. B. Bigelow, H. N. Bigelow and J. C. Hoadley. E. B. Bigelow was made president, H. N. Bigelow, treasurer, and A. E. Bigelow, clerk. Charles H. Waters soon became general manager, and he was made treasurer in January, 1858. He was followed in January, 1865, by Charles A. Whiting. After A. E. Bigelow had served for one year, C. F. W. Parkhurst followed him as clerk. The original capital stock was only twenty thousand dollars. The land for the plant was bought of the Bigelow Carpet Company. The assessors list in 1857 shows that the real estate was valued at seven thousand dollars and the per- sonal at three thousand dollars. There was at this time, one mill thirty-six feet by one hundred and seventy-five. The machine shop, fifty feet by eighty, was built in 1862. No. 2
the business. This company gave employment to about eighty hands, but, after six years of work without profit, they sold out to Mrs. Edwin A. Harris. She continued the business for a time under the corporate title in a smaller way, but finally sold out to the Lancaster Mills and the shops were closed and some of the buildings turned into tenement houses.
345
SOME OF THE EMPLOYEES.
mill was built in 1863 of the same size as No. I. The machine shop stood between the two mills and connected them. In 1865, the larger mill, No. 3, was erected. This was one hundred and four by two hundred and twenty-five feet.
The first patents were granted in England for weaving wire cloth as early as 1770, but there was no successful manu- facture of wire cloth by power before it was made in Clinton in 1856. The wire cloth made here was manufactured in many different patterns and used for window screens, corn poppers, sieve bottoms, spark arrestors, coal and sand rid- dles, and a great variety of other things. Stillman Hough- ton* was the overseer in charge of the manufacturing until February, 1865. Alonzo E. Hardy was engineer for the first twenty years. Benjamin F. Rice was the chief machinist until February, 1865. He was born in District No. 10, Sep- tember 21, 1828. He was the son of Nathaniel Rice and the grandson of Joseph, Senior. He was a man of great mechani- cal ability and the machinery of the Clinton Wire Cloth Mills doubtless owes as much to him as that of the other mills does to J. B. Parker. Mr. Rice invented the first paper bag machine, but he sold his patent. He also made other important inventions. He moved to South Boston and there worked in trying to develop the caloric engine. George F. Wright followed Mr. Rice. After working here for many years, he became the senior member of the Wright & Colton Wire Cloth Company of Worcester. Herbert J. Brown, who* became superintendent in 1872, was employed to some ex- tent by the company before the period with which we are dealing ends.
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