USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Carver > History of the town of Carver, Massachusetts : historical review, 1637-1910 > Part 11
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At a subesquent meeting of the proprietors their affairs were vested in a Board of Trustees, which became the permanent form of government, and at the same meeting was adopted the name of the society, The Union Society of South Carver.
Services have usually been held only during the Summer months, with ministers supplied by a pulpit supply committee made up from different sects, and with two exceptions this has always been the custom of the society. During the first year's series of services denominations were rep- resented as follows: One Episcopalian, two Bap- tists, two Unitarians, three Congregationalists, four Universalists and five Methodists.
At the annual meeting in 1861 the following resolution was adopted unanimously :
That a subscription list, as usual, be put in cir- culation to raise funds by voluntary contributions for support of preaching in the Union church the
NE ...
THE CHARLOTTE FURNACE BUILDING Now Used as a Cranberry Screenhouse by the Cranebrook Co.
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THE UNION SOCIETY
ensuing year; but if the present war-like position of the country continues the funds thus contri- buted shall be appropriated to the comfort and necessities of our Carver citizen-soldiers now abroad, or those that may hereafter go, for the defence of our country; or to the support and honorable maintenance of their families while ab- sent, as the Trustees of this Society shall deem best calculated to secure the greatest good.
Accordingly, the church was closed during that year and the funds used agreeable to the resolve. The same custom was followed through the suc- ceeding three years.
The church was opened again for public worship in 1865. Rev. E. W. Barrows, who had been sta- tioned over the Methodist society, had developed a following among the members of the Union society, and at the annual meeting in that year steps were taken to settle him as the minister of the Union church. The free use of the edifice was proffered the friends of Mr. Barrows and William Savery appointed agent to confer in the matter. As a result Rev. Mr. Barrows occupied the pulpit as the first settled minister of the society. But his ministry was of short duration, and the following year the society resumed its former custom.
The church was opened but six Sabbaths this year, three of these services being conducted by Rev. George L. Smith. A Swedenborgian in the- ology, Rev. Mr. Smith developed such a strength in the society that he became its second and last settled preacher, ending his ministry in 1873.
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HISTORY OF CARVER
The building was now out of repair, and this with the outlay necessary for a new organ taxed the finances of the society, and the church was closed for the year 1874. The year following it went back to its first custom of supplying the pulpit through an undenominational supply com- mittee-a custom that has been continued without a lapse.
The last decade of the century revealed the weakness of a church founded on the pew-plan, and the annual meetings of the proprietors dwin- dled to stereotyped and lifeless meetings. As a matter of fact, the changes of time had almost capsized the little craft. Proprietors had died, moved away or assigned, and even the bona fide pew holders that were left were weary of time and they saw the necessity of placing their society on a more modern and permanent basis. As a result of this agitation the society was incorporated in 1908 with sixty-three charter members under the old name: The Union Society of South Carver.
Following is the list of the original proprietors, many of them heirs of the proprietors of the South Meeting house. It was their first intention to erect this building on the site of the old one :
Thomas Wrightington (1), Daniel Shaw (2), Joseph Atwood (3), Thomas Southworth, Jr., (4), Jesse Murdock (5, 8, 27, 33, 35), Matthias Ellis (6, 15, 32), George P. Bowers (7, 14), Joseph Barrows (9), Ellis Griffith (10, 20), Stephen At- wood (11), Marcus Atwood (12), Stephen Cush- man (13), Capt. Samuel Shaw (16), Sampson Mc- Farlin (17), Ira C. Bent (18), Capt. Henry C.
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THE UNION SOCIETY
Murdock (19), Miranda, Lucius, George W. At- wood (21), John Murdock (22), Zenas Tillson (23), Oren Atwood (24), John Shaw, 2d, (25), Silas Shaw (26), Bowers and Jenkins (28, 29), Salmon F. Jenkins (30), Polly Savery (31), Han- nah Weston (34), Andrew M. Bumpus and John Bradley (36), Perez Shaw (37), Jacob Holmes and Eli Southworth (38), Thompson P. Thomas (39), William B. Gibbs (40), William Savery (41, 43, 44), Samuel Vaughan (42). Transfers from orig- inal ownership were made by warranty deed, sup- posed to be recorded with Plymouth County Reg- istry of Deeds.
Presidents of the Society
Jesse Murdock
1853-1874
Capt. Daniel Shaw 1875
George P. Bowers
1876, 78-80, 82-84
Capt. H. C. Murdock 1877
R. C. Freeman 1881
Peleg McFarlin
1885-1904
Alfred M. Shaw
1905-1907
Thomas M. Southworth
1908
Treasurers
Joseph Barrows
1853-1865
Rufus C. Freeman
1867-1868
Nelson Barrows
1869, 72, 84
Peleg McFarlin
1873-1883
Ellis Maxim
1885-1895
Josiah W. Atwood
1896-1908
Secretaries
William Savery
1853-1895
John Bent
1896-1908
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HISTORY OF CARVER
Those who served as trustees in the life of the proprietors :
Marcus Atwood
Thomas Maxim
Lucius Atwood
Peleg McFarlin
Josiah W. Atwood
Jesse Murdock
S. Dexter Atwood
Henry C. Murdock
Joseph Barrows
John Murdock
D. M. Bates
William Savery
Ira C. Bent
William E. Savery
John Bent
Daniel Shaw
George P. Bowers
John F. Shaw
John S. Cartee
Samuel Shaw
Rufus C. Freeman
Alfred M. Shaw
William B. Gibbs
Ichabod Shurtleff
Andrew Griffith
Perez Smith
Henry S. Griffith
Thomas M. Southworth
S. F. Jenkins
Augustus F. Tillson
A. R. Kinney
Samuel Vaughan
HON. PELEG McFARLIN
FURNACES AND FOUNDRIES
The dawn of the 18th century broke upon a New England busy in the twilight of a new era, and the folly of relying upon importations for many of the necessities which could be made at home came to the attention of the people. Under such conditions Yankee ingenuity was developed, and a spirit of enterprise quickened into life the dor- mant resources of the Old Colony.
Three factors were essential to the equipment of an iron manufactory of that age, and these three abounded in the South Precinct of Plymp- ton. The swamps and lakes were bedded with iron ore; the hills were burdened with good coal- ing timber; and the swamps and hills combined formed numerous water privileges without which there was no power to operate a plant. If the question of transportation entered into the reck- oning, the proximity of the locality to tide water on either coast must have been a favorable point. Sea shells that abounded on the coast furnished the lime necessary for separating the iron, and these shells with native charcoal served the pur- poses of the smelting furnaces until lime and anthracite became articles of commerce and smelt- ing furnaces were supplanted by cupola furnaces about a century later. As these smelting furnaces are a thing of the past, a brief reference to the
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HISTORY OF CARVER
conditions under which they were operated, with a description of their mechanical construction, de- serves a place in history.
Selecting a site where a dam could be con- structed the arch or furnace was located so as to make a connection with the water wheel. The furnace was built of stone, lined with fire brick, and leading up to the top house which was built over the arch was made an inclined runway up which the ore, shells and coal were carried in a wheelbarrow. The building extended from the tophouse and in cases of large plants wings were added all leading to the furnace.
Along the walls of the wings bunks were con- structed in which the workmen slept, for the blast usually lasted a month and the iron was trickling constantly from the furnace. When the temp* was full it must be taken away and so the work was in continuous progress, moulders moulding and casting at all hours of night and day, for when the fires went out the process must begin over again.
The general superintendent of the works as- sumed the title of skipper ; the man stationed over the tophouse and whose duty was to feed the fur- nace with coal, ore and shells was called the top- man; while his assistant who worked around the base performing all sorts of work that did not fall within the prescribed duties of any other em- ployee took the appropriate name of gutterman.
*Temp was the technical name of the stone trough which re- ceived the iron as it trickled from the furnace.
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FURNACES AND FOUNDRIES
The fires were kindled in the furnace about one week in advance of the opening of the blast.
A store was a necessary adjunct of a furnace for business was done largely on credit and barter. Molasses, W. I. rum, codfish and pork were the standard stock in trade and accounts were carried from year to year. Often the skipper took the contract to furnish the men and their supplies in which case the regular allowance of rum was a clause in the indenture. A review of these "low- ance" accounts reveals a temperance lecture of the times. Many of the employees appear to have more than their share of black marks while some have but few if any records. It is probable that the thrifty turned their marks to their financial advantage.
The power for operating the plant was derived from the combination of a bellows, a water wheel and a huge beam weighted with rocks and extend- ing out into the road. The wheel carried the end of the beam down and opened the wind chest, and after being freed from the wheel the weight on the beam ejected the wind by closing the bellows.
Coaling developed among neighboring farmers as a business incidental to the furnaces. The numerous "coalpit bottoms " seen about the woods is standing evidence of this industry, for a cen- tury has not restored the life-giving quality of the soil. Brush making was also an industry, but the market for the product of the saw mills made by the demand for lumber in making the flask*
*Flask is the technical name of the boxes in which the moulds are made. That part of the mould that is lifted is called the cope, and the part that remains on the floor is called the nowel.
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HISTORY OF CARVER
and furnace buildings was the largest incidental industry.
The casual traveller through the quiet village called Popes Point would be impressed by the dark color of the soil and without a suggestion might be justified in assuming that once upon a time a blast furnace spit out its coal dust and cinders which as refuse went to harden the road bed, leaving literally "footprints on the sands of time." And if the traveller had a historical curi- osity, he might ask how the place came to receive its name.
The name appears in Old Colony records in 1704, but as such names grow by usage sometimes years before they get sufficiently grounded to give them a place in the public records, it is probable that the name was used long before the dawn of the 18th century.
As a part of the lower South Meadows this vicinity attracted the settlers as they branched out from old Plymouth, and forty years after the landing of the Pilgrims, Thomas Pope and George Watson held land grants. The property of Pope, forming a point of land at the junction of Wat- son's Cove brook and the Weweantic came to be known as Popes Point, a name that in after years was applied to that region. Watson took the land further up the brook in what is now known as Rocky Meadow cove. Among Watson's descend- ants was a grandson, Jonathan Shaw, who prob- ably came into possession of the property through inheritance and who ceded the water privilege with sufficient of the adjacent land for the first
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FURNACES AND FOUNDRIES
iron manufactory that embarked in that business in Plympton.
The village of Popes Point reached the prime of its glory during and shortly after the Revo- lution. The Shurtleff family had prospered nearly a century on the estate eastward of Quit- ticus road, and Barnabas was one of the promo- ters of the first furnace; Capt. Joshua Perkins with his family lived on the old farm on the easterly side of the Lakenham road while a son Luke had a blacksmith shop on the site later occu- pied by Bents mill and a residence where stands the shop of Rufus L. Richards. A saw mill was located on the other branch of the brook where it crosses the Rocky Gutter road and later the black- smith shop of Abial Thomas stood on the Middle- boro side. Coal houses, ware houses and dwel- lings that have long since gone to decay went to make up the thriving village.
The furnace building stood on the east side of the road between the Stephen Atwood farm and the John Bent homestead. The raceway and brook were filled in by the orders of the town in 1845. The store stood on a site northerly from the Stephen Atwood house, on the corner of Pope's Point road and the Rocky Gutter road; the boarding house on the opposite side of the Carver road a little to the north. The furnace building was a structure that excited the pride of the vil- lage people. The water wheel that furnished the power was a massive affair standing thirty feet in the air. Long after the works were discon- tinued the wheel stood as a plaything for the vil- lage boys and girls of the neighborhood.
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HISTORY OF CARVER
In 1735 Jonathan Shaw, whom we have seen in- herit the property from his grandfather, ceded the privilege and land on Watsons Cove brook conditionally as may be seen, to Isaac Lothrop, Esq., Isaac Lothrop, Jr., Lazarus Lebarron, John Cooper of Plymouth; and George Barrows, Samuel Lucas, Elisha Lucas, Barnabas Shurtleff, Abel Crocker, Isaac Waterman, Isaac Churchill, John Shaw and Joseph Lucas of Plympton-"for divers good causes but principally and more es- pecially for the encouragement and ye erecting of a furnace or new iron works at a place called Popes Point in ye town of Plympton-at a place on said land where it shall be most convenient to locate a furnace, coal house or coal houses, pot house or pot houses, dwelling house or dwelling houses, or any other building that may be neces- sary for carrying on said business - also right to a dam already made on Watsons Cove brook and flow land from Sept. 1st to March 31st. - two acres of land for a coal yard and mine yard - the deed to remain in force so long as the men, or the major part of them, keep up the furnace or iron works."
Such was the indenture that gave birth to the industry that built up the village of Popes Point. As the smelting was done with wood and charcoal, an incidental business of making charcoal was es- tablished which has left its marks in numerous sterile spots in the surrounding country, farmers for miles around engaging in the work as a side issue. Ore was brought for miles from Carver and adjacent towns and this was no small feature of the industry of the times.
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FURNACES AND FOUNDRIES
Hollow ware comprised the bulk of the products of this plant. Pots, kettles, tea kettles,* caul- drons, flat irons, bake pans, and fire dogs or and- irons were the staple articles of manufacture. The furnace was in operation upwards of a cen- tury, a record equaled only by the Charlotte. A few of the last years of the operation of the plant was as a cupola furnace ; the last blast was in 1836.
Among the proprietors after the first firm had dwindled away were Skipper John Bent, Skipper Nathaniel Shaw, Seth Morton, Major Branch Harlow, Thomas Weston, and last of all Samuel Briggs and Joshua Eddy under the firm name of Briggs & Eddy.
It is easy to look back to those farmer-residents of 1735 and note what enthusiasm was kindled in their souls at the prospect of the establishment of an iron manufactory in their community. As the monotony of agriculture was the rule of their lives, importing their ware in the main, little was known of the art of making it, and the curiosity of the inhabitants must have been aroused as they watched the progress of the new industrial ven- ture, and perhaps our curiosity would be aroused too if we could witness the way the first iron moulders went about their task.
The boys and girls wandering over the region, little dreamed of the intrinsic value of the ore under their feet, for their untrained eyes saw nothing but repulsive dirt in the red water that
*A favorite tradition says the first tea-kettle made in America was moulded in this furnace. This tradition is not supported.
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HISTORY OF CARVER
trickled from the springs, but older heads saw the opportunity, hence by the time Popes Point vil- lage began to thrive as a manufacturing com- munity most of the residents of the South Pre- cinct of Plympton had become workers of iron, or vitally interested in some of its incidental branches.
The operation of Popes Point furnace created a demand for bog ore that gave life to industrial Plympton and the swamps and ponds were re- garded as valuable properties. A rich bed of this ore was found in Sampsons pond and tributary coves which was being turned to a source of profit to the abutters when the officials of the town raised the point that the bog was public property. The matter found its way into Town meeting in 1749, where the private claimants were defeated and agents appointed to guard the interests of the public. After a few years of clashing between these factions the courts decided in favor of the. private claimants and the pond passed to the con- trol of George Barrows and Bartlett Murdock who in 1758 signed an indenture whereby a line was established extending from a point on the northerly shore to a point near the connection of Sampsons brook, Barrows to have the ore on the westerly side of the line, and Murdock the ore on the easterly side, while each was bound to guard the property of the other against poachers.
In 1760 Bartlett Murdock began active work towards the construction of his first furnace and in 1761 seven-eighths of the land and business was conveyed to the following which comprised
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FURNACES AND FOUNDRIES
the promoters and first partnership that operated Charlotte* furnace: James Hovey and William Thomas of Plymouth; James Murdock, Nathaniel Atwood, Benjamin Shurtleff, Peleg Barrows, John Bridgham, Frances Sturtevant, Benjamin Barrows, Nathaniel Atwood, Jr. and Joseph Bar- rows of Plympton; and Robert Sturtevant and Benjamin Curtice of Halifax.
A few years later Lieut. Thomas Drew began to buy straggling shares of the company and in 1784 he had come into possession of 23/32 of the business, which in that year was transferred to Joshua Eddy of Middleboro. After six years of control, Eddy sold the plant to a partnership of local investors and furnacemen. These early owners conducted the business through the most trying years of their country's history.
The plant had not been fairly established when it was hit by the ante-revolutionary times with their agitations and unsettled business standards. This period was followed by seven years of de- structive war to be followed in turn by the critical
*Charlotte furnace is supposed to have taken its name from Queen Charlotte, wife of George II, who was on the throne when the works were established. This name also, later abbreviated to "The Furnace, " was applied to the village surrounding the works, and not until after the Civil War did it acquire its modern name of South Carver.
In 1872 Matthias Ellis, Peleg McFarlin and Nathaniel S. Cush- ing embarked in the iron business in Kentucky at a place and postoffice named Charlotte Furnace in honor of this furnace. When the enterprise was conceived iron was selling at sixty dollars a ton, but when the new firm placed its first shipment on the market the price had dropped to sixteen dollars. Hence the brief career of the Southern adjunct.
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HISTORY OF CARVER
period during which the country was in a state bordering on anarchy. Throughout this period, stretching from 1760 to 1790, the finances of the country were in such a chaotic state as to render stable business impossible, the currency varied in purchasing power from the low level in the ante- war years to the most alarming inflation in the life and decline of the Continental currency, and the best to be expected in the line of business rested in barter. To this system the early oper- ators of the furnace adjusted their business with as good degree of success as could have been ex- pected under such circumstances.
The new firm that assumed control of the busi- ness in 1790 was composed of Benjamin White, Bartlett Murdock, Jr., Rowland Leonard & Co., Nathaniel Atwood and Skipper John Bent. These were all practical furnacemen whose les- sons had been learned in the school of experience in the days that turned the hard side to the front and under their management the plant was destined to reach the highest point of success in its career up to that date. Coupled with the prac- tical knowledge of affairs on the part of the management was the improvement in the con- dition of national finances and the well established confidence and stability under the Constitution.
A decade of prosperity naturally ensued. As native ore could not be procured in abundance to meet the demands of the increasing business, Jer- sey ore was imported through Wareham wharfs, while an increased demand came for shells, coal, lumber and ore of neighboring farmers. As a
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HON. JESSE MURDOCK
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FURNACES AND FOUNDRIES
result of the business for 1793-94, the first really successful year of the firm, the owners had on hand as dividends 157 tons, 2 cwt. 3 qr. and 10 lbs. of ware valued at nine pounds per ton.
Each of the proprietors assumed his place in the industry. Murdock, White and Bent were blacksmiths and they found useful employment for their accomplishments around the plant making flasks, ironing flasks, repairing, etc. Leonard & Co. and Atwood furnished supplies and made themselves useful in any way which came within their limits. Nathaniel Standish was the most prominent employee, and in addition to his skill as a moulder and maker of iron he practiced his natural instinct for business in boarding the moulders, furnishing the "lowance rum," etc., through which the balance due him at the end of the year compared with the amounts due the owners. Bartlett Murdock and John Bent of the firm also improved their spare time at their trade as moulders.
The following are known to have shared in the prosperity of the furnace during the decade either as employees or furnishers of supplies :
Moulders
David Bonney
Thomas Barrows
Seth Bonney
Elijah Crocker John Samson
Joseph Bonney
Nathaniel Standish Jabez Loring
E. Bonney
Nathaniel Bonney
Ichabod Tillson
Benjamin Cartee
Robert Sturtevant
Union Keith
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HISTORY OF CARVER
John Freelove
Lieut. Caleb Atwood
Benjamin Waterman T. Rogers Waterman Jabez Hall
Caleb Benson
Elisha Murdock Samuel White
Joseph Ellis
Benjamin Ellis
Bartlett Murdock, Jr. Bartlett Murdock
John Bent
Ichabod Waterman
Salmon Washburn
Nathaniel Shurtleff
John Murdock
Stephen Bennett
Topmen
Experience Bent
Ebenezer Atwood
Obed Griffith
Swanzea Hart
Salathiel Perry Henry Richmond
Noah Wood
Simeon Morse
Guttermen
Thomas Shurtleff (minor) Nathaniel Shurtleff Thomas Barrows
Among the employees of this period who were destined to play an important part in the develop- ment of the iron industry in this region were Benjamin Ellis and Bartlett Murdock, while John Savery, as a ten year old boy, loafing around the works may be presumed to have there received the inspiration for his future career. Ellis and Savery began their careers as guttermen and later developed into moulders. From November, 1794, to February, 1795, Ellis earned as a moulder 27 pounds, 10 shillings and 4 pence equal to thirty dollars per month which at that time was con- sidered princely wages. When not engaged at his trade he improved his time housing coal or at any job that came within his reach, and he was con-
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FURNACES AND FOUNDRIES
sidered the best all-round furnaceman connected with the works. In the light of subsequent events it is easy to read the nature of his dreams for in 1800 he began to buy shares in the business and by 1808 he owned a controling interest. In this broader field he retained the services of Bartlett Murdock and John Savery until each had gradu- ated from his school to establish iron works of their own.
The marital connections of Ellis served to keep the business in his family. He married a daughter of Bartlett Murdock, Jr., and in 1810, while he held 13/24 of the business the balance was owned as follows: Jesse Murdock 7/24, Deborah Murdock 2/24, Joseph Ellis and Benjamin Shurt- leff 1/24 each. The firm now assumed the name of Benjamin Ellis & Co. under which it was con- ducted with success for a half century.
In the early years of the industry, traders among neighboring farmers found profitable em- ployment peddling ware. Moulders accepted a portion of their wages in the products of the plant which they peddled and traded between blasts. In some instances ware passed as tender notably in the construction of the South Meeting house by whose proprietors it was accepted from its promoters on subscription both on account of construction and later on account of repairs.
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