USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 29
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Just about the time that a division of the town took place, Bagley and Carleton began to manufacture carpet bags from Brussels carpeting. Bagley was a Boston merchant and never lived in Clinton. C. Alden Pratt had direct charge of the manufactory. Thirty thousand dollars worth of carpeting was used in a year. Their brick factory on Church Street is now standing in a greatly altered form as the dwelling- house of Dr. J. F. Worcester. Although the business did not succeed in the end, great expectations were entertained of it at this time. May 8, 1852, Carleton is spoken of as carrying on business alone. January 14, 1854, J. W. Caldwell was in management of the concern. His advertisement dis- appears from the Courant September 15, 1855. Albert S. Carleton was the son of Moses Carleton, and was born in 1815. He was the first paymaster of the Quilt Mill. He was paymaster at the Carpet Mill from 1852 to 1855, and superintendent of the Coachlace Mill from 1855 to 1857. He was our first town clerk and served for three years. He was a member of the school committee for three years. He was an earnest Whig, and president of the famous Scott Club in 1852, which voted "to hold weekly meetings until Scott shall be elected." He went to New York state in 1857.
359
JAMES R. AND HENRY S. ROBINSON.
He died at Brownsville, N. Y., November 5, 1885, having been in charge of mills there more than a quarter of a cen- tury.
James R. and Henry S. Robinson, natives of Laconia, N. H., were for some years consulting steam engineers in Clin- ton, and had an office in the Library Building, upper room. James R. was the author of a work on boiler explosions. In 1874, he was appointed by the United States Government on a committee with President Barnard of Columbia College and other leading authorities to investigate the cause of boiler explosions. He resided in the later years of his life at Cambridge. He died February 24, 1891, at the age of sixty-eight.
Amos Stearns was a brush manufacturer on Boylston Street in December, 1851. January 31, 1857, he was in the same business at Howell's old place. James R. Stewart had a dye-house on Main Street. He lived on the Rigby Road. He was a man of ability, and among the foremost in the organization of the Bigelow Mechanics' Institute. He went to Australia. Richard Emmett took his place in 1852. Mark Lund, after he moved from the building on the present site of the Bigelow Mills, had a blacksmith shop on School Street, opposite the stables. He stayed in this village ten years and then went to Billerica. An attempt was made, in the autumn of 1855, to establish a local steam power com- pany, but without success. Ephraim Avery, who had sold boots and shoes at Brimhall's Block in 1858, began the man- ufacture of boots and shoes in April, 1859, at Mark Lund's old shop on School Street. He expected to make five hun- dred pairs per day. H. C. Kendrick was admitted into the firm in 1860. Avery & Kendrick made extensive additions to their shoe shop in November, 1862. In 1864, Mr. Ken- drick withdrew from the partnership, and Mr. Avery con- tinued the business. In May, 1862, Henry T. Goodale, who had sold boots and shoes in the store on Union Street, in Burdett's Block, since 1852, was making some ladies' boots
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EARLY BUILDERS.
and shoes. He sold out his store to G. W. Laythe in 1864. He then went to Fitchburg and manufactured boots and shoes there extensively, in company with E. M. Dickinson. He belonged to the "original" Clinton Brass Band. Later, Goodale & Barrett manufactured here.
In a community which was developing as rapidly as Clin- tonville did in the later forties, the services of many masons, carpenters and others connected with the building industries were required. In the earlier portion of the present century, as we have already seen, Jacob Stone had almost a monopoly as a contractor in this region. His sons, Joseph, James and Oliver, and his sons-in-law, Levi Greene and Nathaniel Rice, succeeded in a large measure to their father's business, and did a large portion of the building in the later thirties and early forties. We have noted that William T. Merrifield took the great contracts on the mills in the period of most rapid development, about 1845. We have now to take a general survey of building and subsidiary industries for the twenty years that followed.
Ezra Sawyer built the brick house on Church Street, where Bagley and Carleton began business as a shop and as a stand for his business as a master mason and contractor. Ezra Sawyer, with his brothers, Luke and Thomas, came of a Sterling branch of the Sawyer family, and were only dis- tantly related to Peter Sawyer. He was born in Shirley in 1794. He married Eliza Houghton of Lancaster. In the forties, he bought of H. N. Bigelow the house now known as the Tyler house, which Mr. Bigelow had built as a dwell- ing place before 1845. He also owned the vacant lot on the northeast corner of Church and High Streets. He sold his house to Gilbert Greene after some years. Thomas Sawyer built in 1845 a cottage house on High Street, a few rods south of Kendall's Block. This house is now owned by G. W. Morse, and is occupied as a laundry.
We have already noted the work of Ezra Sawyer in con-
361
EZRA SAWYER.
nection with the building of the mills. He was also one of the most prominent citizens of the community. He was chairman of the prudential committee of District No. 10 for some years. He was an assessor of Lancaster in 1844, and a selectman in 1846. He served in the General Court as representative from Lancaster two years, in 1847-8, being the only man ever chosen from this section to represent the old town. He took an active part in all the events leading to the incorporation of Clinton, and he was chairman of the board of selectmen in the new town for the first two years. He spent six years with his two sons in Easthampton. He returned to Clinton in 1867. He was for a time an assistant to J. T. Dame at the post-office. He died April 15, 1872. His son, Edmund H. Sawyer, was a prominent manufacturer at Easthampton, and another son, Ezra, held an important position in the mills there.
G. E. Fairbanks and Charles Frazer were in business here as masons before the war. Greene's first brick block was built by them in 1857.
The first dam built on Goodrich Brook where Fuller's Planing Mill now stands was made by Ephraim Fuller and W. F. Conant in the winter of 1846. A shop was built here which was occupied by Luther Gaylord who made hoes, hay and manure forks and other agricultural implements. He had before this manufactured by hand in South Lancaster. In 1850, the assessors valued his machinery, etc., worth only five hundred dollars. Mr. Gaylord hired from six to ten men and made more than one thousand dozen forks in 1851. He continued business until the summer of 1854. He then returned to Naugatuck, Ct. He built the house now occu- pied by E. S. Fuller. He was a prominent Universalist. The upper part of the building was leased to W. F. Conant who made breast water-wheels and carried on a large busi- ness, and to Isaac Taylor, a maker of sashes and blinds.
February 5, 1853, Ephraim Fuller took the door, sash and blind business formerly carried on by Isaac Taylor. Charles
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EARLY BUILDERS.
Sawyer of Lancaster, a comb maker, carried on business in the lower part of the mill. April 4, 1857, C. C. Stone bought all the mill and made sashes and blinds here. In 1857, this shop was valued at nine hundred dollars, and the machinery at one hundred dollars. Mr. Stone sold in 1859 to E. S. and S. T. Fuller, who dissolved partnership August 21, 1862. S. T. Fuller erected a lumber house near the depot in Novem- ber, 1862. Oliver and C. C. Stone had before erected a steam saw and planing mill near the depot. This firm sold. to Ephraim Fuller and Nathaniel Rice. February 17, 1857, the mill was burned. The loss was three thousand five hun- dred dollars.
Oliver Stone, born January 16, 1812, was one of the lead- ing contractors of the community for many years. He was noted as a fine workman. He built the house for the super- intendent of Lancaster Mills on Chestnut Street, the Clinton House, the houses where Charles Bowman, A. A. Burdett, Dr. P. P. Comey and W. J. Coulter now live, as well as many others of the best houses of Clinton and Lancaster. He lived for a few years in the Connecticut Valley, but returned to Clinton and renewed his business here. He was familiarly known as Captain Oliver Stone, as he had once commanded the Lancaster artillery company. He died June 10, 1878. Louis L. Stone is his son.
We have already had occasion to mention Christopher C. Stone several times, and we shall see his name constantly recurring as we go on. It seems hardly possible that one who is still in the fullness of his energies should have held so prominent a position forty years ago. He is the son of James and Eliza (Burdett) Stone. He was born November 27, 1829. He attended school in District No. 10. He learned the carpenter trade and worked on many of the carlier buildings constructed by Oliver Stone, his uncle. We have seen how he afterwards became his uncle's partner and carried on business for himself in the mill now known as
363
SAMUEL BELYEA.
Fuller's Mill. After this business was given up in 1859, he entered Palmer's Foundry, where he has remained to the present time, and of which he now has control. We shall see him as captain of the Light Guard and major of the Ninth Regiment. Whoever writes the later history of Clin- ton will describe his great service to the community as a manufacturer, as a judge in the district court, as a bank director, as a leader in the Unitarian Society, in the develop- ment of the Hospital, the Prescott Club, the Board of Trade, the Historical Society and numerous other organizations for the benefit of the community, and above all will show him as a servant of the town unexcelled in public spirit displayed and honors conferred.
Samuel Belyea was a native of the province of New Brunswick. He came to Clintonville from East Brookfield in May, 1844, to superintend work for William T. Merrifield on his contract for building Lancaster Mills. In addition to his oversight of the woodwork in the construction of these mills, he built the old chapel on Main Street and Mr. Bige- low's private residence on Chestnut Street. He entered into partnership with Jonas E. Howe in 1847 in establishing a planing mill where the Bigelow Carpet Mill now stands. This business was sold out in 1849. From this time on, Mr. Belyea was a contractor and builder, and he constructed many of the houses of Clinton and neighboring towns. The residence of Dr. G. W. Burdett on Church Street was built by him and he lived there until 1867. He afterwards built and lived in the Orin Laythe house, and that at the south- west corner of Walnut and Prospect Streets he made his final homestead. He was a member of the first board of selectmen and was elected again in 1856. In 1859, he was chief engineer of the fire department. He died February 22, 1872, at the age of seventy-one.
Jonas E. Howe, a native of Rutland, Mass., was born October 23, 1814. He came to Clintonville in 1846. He had previously been a machinist in East Brookfield. He became
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EARLY BUILDERS.
the partner of Mr. Belyea in the planing mill. After that business was sold out in 1849, he became a contractor and builder. Mr. Howe, either in company with Mr. Belyea or by himself, built the A. P. Burdett store, the Clinton House Hall building, Franklin Forbes' house and the Bigelow Library Association building. In company with E. E. Har- low, Mr. Howe built the High School building on Walnut Street and some of the Industrial School buildings in Lan- caster. He retired from business about 1870. He was se- lectman in 1853-4-8-9, 1869, 1877-9, 1883-6, and a road commisioner 1873-8. He was a member of the state legis- lature in 1860, although the Democratic party, to which he belonged, cast very few votes on the general ticket compared to the Republicans. He was also elected to the same office in 1870, 1872 and 1887. As Mr. Howe's greatest services to the town belong to a later era, in connection with the intro- duction of water, his story cannot be completed here, but must be reserved until the history of the later development of the town is written.
Edward E. Harlow worked with Jonas E. Howe in the forties and became his partner and an independent con- tractor in the fifties. Although he died in his prime, before the Civil War began, yet he has left behind him many monu- ments of his labors.
Levi Greene was born in Berlin, October 12, 1801. He was an apprentice of Jacob Stone and married his daughter, Achsah, November 5, 1829. He became a builder and lum- ber dealer. After the death of his first wife, he married Lucy Harris, September 19, 1844. In 1846-47, he was an assessor in Lancaster and in 1848 one of the selectmen. He was assessor in Clinton for five years. He lived on the east side of High Street in a house which stood on the ground next north of the present residence of Dr. C. L. French, in 1850. He had lived before in the house built by John Prescott, 4th. He afterwards built and lived in the brick house on the north side of Union Street between School and Nelson.
365
GEORGE W. DINSMORE.
March 29, 1851, Levi Greene bought the interest of J. B. Parker, his partner in the planing mill near the site of the present foundry. Most of his work as a builder was done in the employ of the Bigelow Carpet Mills. Mr. Greene was a member of the Trinity Lodge and Clinton Royal Arch Chap- ter of Free Masons, and was elected to the highest offices. He was a supporter of Congregational worship. Among those who worked for Levi Greene was Charles W. Ware, who came to Clinton in 1852. He worked for the Bigelow Carpet Mills and became an independent contractor after the Civil War.
George W. Dinsmore, a brother-in-law of J. B. Parker, was an overseer in the Parker & Greene planing mill from the beginning. He was born in West Boylston in 1807, but passed his youth in Sterling. He was a captain in the militia company of that place. He married September 23, 1829. In company witb Amos Childs he manufactured cot- ton goods. He came to Clintonville in 1848. He went to Plover, Wisconsin, in the fifties. He returned in 1865, and worked for many years in the wood shops of the Parker Machine Company. Later, he was engaged with his sons in the coal business. He was a member of the Congregation- alist Church, and sang in the choir. He died September 3, 1888. He had three sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, Charles M. and George B., are among our best known business men.
After Mr. Dinsmore went to the West, John E. Marshall hired the mill for two years. Wilson Morse came to Clinton to work for him in 1857. In this year or the next, Mr. Mar- shall built for Mr. Morse the house he has since occupied on High Street. In 1859, Mr. Morse went into the meat busi- ness with John A. Waters, where Fairbank's market now is. The partnership continued for a year and a half. Mr. Morse built a good many houses for the operatives of our mills on mortgages. He was born in Swanzey, N. H., June 10, 1818. He married Eliza J. Stuart. They belonged to the Baptist Society.
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EARLY BUILDERS.
Solomon Greene, millwright, a brother of Levi, had a shop in the basement of the Counterpane Mill, where he conducted his business.
David Wallace was also one of our leading contractors in the period of development. He built the Baptist Church and the tower of the Congregationalist Church. He built the old "Methodist Parsonage" for his own residence and lived there for some years before he sold it to the Methodist Society. He left Clinton before the war. He has since lived in Fitchburg and has done interior finishing. He was selectman in 1857-8.
Caleb, George F., and Sidney T. Howard were all sons of Sidney Howard, who settled on a farm on the South Meadow Road in Lancaster about 1815, and they were nephews of the George Howard who bought the Allen place. They had the education of the district schools of Lancaster and all learned the carpenter's trade. They built many houses in Clintonville and Clinton during the period of greatest de- velopment. George F. and Sidney T. Howard bought out Butterfield's stables in 1858. After two years Sidney T. sold out to George F. and went to Worcester. George F. remained in the livery business until his death, May 6, 1873, at the age of fifty-one. The business has been con- tinued to present day by his sons. George F. Howard was a selectman in 1872, and an assessor for several years. He was a member of the Unitarian Society. Sidney T. Howard returned to Clinton in 1871, and in company with William E. Frost manufactured yarn at the Counterpane Mill under the name of the Clinton Yarn Company. He died October 2, 1887, at the age of sixty.
The name of William Sawyer should also be noticed among our early carpenters and contractors. Elisha Brim- hall was a carpenter. The construction of his own block was his largest job. Haskell & Cowdrey of Leominster also took contracts here in the forties, and Aratus Kelly took contracts, some of which he sub-let.
367
THE RICES.
Nathaniel, Joseph and Abel Rice, all sons of Joseph Rice, Senior, were all more or less connected with the industrial life of Clintonville and Clinton. Nathaniel was a carpenter and a contractor, and built a considerable number of houses in Clinton and Lancaster. Two of his sons, Benjamin F. and Edwin N., have been prominent in local history. Joseph and Abel were both workers in machinery for the manufac- ture of combs. In later life, Abel became the most famous mover of buildings in all the country round. He was select- man in 1853-56.
Contracts for the making of cellars and for stone work were taken by Charles H. Chace, whose story we notice else- where, and Edmund Harris. Mr. Harris was one of our selectmen in 1850-51. Lawrence and MartinMurphy also did stone work.
Among the painters the Gibsons employed the most men and took the largest contracts. Alfred Knight and Edwin Bynner were also painters in their day. Otis H. Kendall, who had a room over Deacon Stearns' harness-shop, has remained longest in service. He was one of the original members of the Baptist Church.
Most of the lumber used in building during the sixties came from the mill of Eben S. Fuller. He was the son of John Fuller, whose homestead was in the Deer's-Horns dis- trict. This John Fuller had a mill on Goodrich Brook, where he made combs, and polished forks for Gaylord. The re- mains of the dam are still visible about half way between Four Ponds and Fuller's saw-mill. E. S. Fuller was born in 1833. He married the daughter of Ephraim Fuller. He had worked for C. C. Stone before he bought the mill of him in 1859. In 1862, he bought the house where he has since lived, and moved to Clinton. He has been among the fore- most of our citizens in the development of the real estate interests of the town.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CERTAIN PUBLIC ENTERPRISES.
THE condition of the new community soon made it desir- able to have a savings bank, for thrifty young men and women were saving money without any opportunity for the investment of small sums, and many were desiring to secure homesteads who did not know where to get the needed pecuniary assistance. On the 15th of May, 1851, the Clin- ton Savings Bank was incorporated .* The by-laws fixed as the date of the annual meeting the fourth Wednesday in September, and declared that the officers should consist of a president, two vice-presidents, twenty-four trustees, and a
* COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-one. An Act to Incorporate THE CLINTON SAVINGS BANK.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : .
Section 1. Franklin Forbes, A. S. Carleton, Charles G. Stevens, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the CLINTON SAVINGS BANK, to be located in Clinton, with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the duties, liabilities and re- strictions set forth in the thirty-sixth and forty-fourth chapters of the Revised Statutes, and in all other laws of this Commonwealth relating to Savings Banks and institutions for savings.
Section 2. The said Institution is authorized to hold real estate not exceeding in amount ten thousand dollars,
Approved, May 15, 1851.
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CLINTON SAVINGS BANK.
secretary. These together constituted the board of trustees. The number of trustees was afterwards reduced to sixteen. The treasurer was to be chosen by the trustees and could not be one of their own number. A financial committee consisting of the president, secretary and three chosen trus- tees had direct charge of all investments and other financial interests of the corporation.t The smallest deposit was fixed at one dollar. Dividends were to be declared on the second Monday of April and October each year.
Of the officers, Charles G. Stevens and George W. Bur- dett have retained their respective positions from the begin- ning to the present day, and Charles L. Swan has always been officially connected with the bank. Of the others, two are still residing in town and one or two are living elsewhere. All the rest of this representative list of our thrifty and pro- gressive men at that earlier time have passed away. Horatio N. Bigelow ceased to be president in September, 1865. Franklin Forbes followed him in this office. When Mr. Forbes died, in January, 1878, Chas. L. Swan was chosen president and he has retained the office to the present day. September 29, 1860, Samuel T. Bigelow became treasurer in the place of C. L. Swan. In May of the next year, Artemas E. Bigelow was elected to the position. May 7, 1864, C. L. S. Hammond, the cashier of the newly created First Na- tional Bank of Clinton, was also made treasurer of the Clin- ton Savings Bank.
*The following board of officers were elected at the annual meeting in September: President, Horatio N. Bigelow; vice-presidents, Horace Faulkner, Gilbert Greene; trustees, Sidney Harris, Franklin Forbes, A. P. Burditt, C. W. Blanchard, Ezra Sawyer, G. M. Palmer, Haskell Mc- Collum, G. M. Morse, Andrew L. Fuller, Calvin Stanley, P. L. Morgan, E. W. Goodale, William Eaton, Donald Cameron, James R. Stewart, George P. Smith, Alanson Chace, Joseph B. Parker, Stillman Houghton, Levi Greene, Edmund Harris, A. Lord, George W. Burditt, Levi Hol- brook; secretary, Charles G. Stevens; treasurer, Charles L. Swan; audi- tors, Ezra Sawyer, G. M. Palmer; financial committee, H. N. Bigelow, Charles G. Stevens, Sidney Harris, Joseph B. Parker, C. W. Blanchard. 25
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CERTAIN PUBLIC ENTERPRISES.
The office of Lancaster Mills was made the first place of deposit, as C. L. Swan was then acting as paymaster there. The hours were from ten in the morning to four in the after- noon. Donald Cameron took out the first book. This book has been used to the present time and is now in the posses- sion of Walter M., son of Donald Cameron. In 1853, de- posits were also received at the Library Building by Isaac Baldwin, the assistant of C. G Stevens, and in 1855 by C. F. Horne, the dentist, at the same place. June 2, 1855, as the treasurer, Mr. Swan, went to the Carpet Mill, the office went with him. When the building now called the Court House was erected by H. N. Bigelow for a private office in 1859, it was at once seen that it would be well to have the bank located there. It was in this building that Samuel T. Bige- low and his successors received deposits until the erection of the new bank building at the corner of High and Church Streets.
The amount of deposits in September, 1851, was two thousand six hundred and sixty-seven dollars. Ten years later, it had become sixty-nine thousand seven hundred dol- lars. In 1865, it was one hundred and twenty-nine thousand dollars. Although this seems small compared with present deposits (one million six hundred and sixty-nine thousand dollars in 1895), yet among the comparatively poor people of that earlier time, a people who were using all their spare means in providing homes, this deposit represents a high degree of thrift. A very large proportion of all the houses now standing in Clinton have been built by the aid of mort- gages taken by this bank. The bank has always been regu- lar in its dividends and confidence in it has never been weakened except for a very brief period in 1857, when there was a slight inclination to make a run upon it.
The First National Bank of Clinton was incorporated in April, 1864, with an authorized capital of three hundred thousand dollars. It began its existence with an actual capi- tal of one hundred and ten thousand dollars August 9, 1864;
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CLINTON SAVINGS BANK.
this was increased to one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and in November of the same year to two hundred thousand dollars, at which figures it has since remained. The incorporators were Franklin Forbes, G. M. Palmer, Elisha Brimhall, G. M. Morse, W. N. Pierce, E. A. Harris, H. C. Greeley, H. N. Bigelow, E. K. Gibbs, C. G. Stevens, C. L. Swan, Eneas Morgan, all of Clinton, and R. S. Hastings of Berlin.
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