USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Dorchester > History of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts > Part 39
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In 1785, the town of Dorchester relinquished to Mr. Daniel Leeds and his heirs " all their right and title to the whole stream and the bottom adjoin- ing to his mill and his lands adjoining upon Nepon- set river." This vote was passed to remove all re- strictions, so that the owner could use the privilege for what purpose he chose, and sell it without the town's consent-two conditions of the original grant to Stoughton by the town.
In 1787, William Walker and Samuel Leeds pur- chased of Daniel Leeds the snuff-mill and privilege, and in 1790 the land between the snuff and fulling mills, and then sold the whole to James Babcock, of Watertown, paper-maker, who at once took down the snuff-mill and erected the present paper-mill (which was raised April 22, 1790) on the land he bought. He deeded to Samuel Leeds, the son of Master Daniel Leeds, and to Michael McCarney, each one quarter of the mill. About the time the mill was completed, Babcock died, and Abel Alline suc- ceeded to his share of the mill; and Alline, Mc- carney and Leeds went on with the paper-making.
After the death of Master Leeds, his estate was divided, in 1793, by setting off the house and a
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part of the land to the widow, and the rest of the estate was settled upon his son Samuel, he paying the other heirs the value of their shares in money, ascertained by an appraisement .* By this arrange- ment, Samuel Leeds owned the corn and fulling mills, and one quarter of the paper-mill, McCarney and Alline owning the rest of the paper-mill.
In 1795, Leeds, Alline & McCarney, owners of the mill on the north end of the dam, made an agree- ment with Daniel Vose, the owner of the mills on the south end, to exchange water in a dry time, when the water did not run over the top of the dam, by which the owners of the mill on the north end were to have the exclusive right of using the water on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday of one week, and Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the next week, which agreement is substantially carried out to this day, although by an arrangement made since that time.
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March 11th, 1795, Abel Alline sold to Samuel Leeds, Jr., the undivided eighth part of the paper- mill formerly owned by James Babcock.
In 1796, Samuel Leeds sold to Benjamin Pierce the fulling-mill he had so long hired, and Pierce and his son Asa after him carried on the mill until it was sold to Edmund Baker, in 1809.
In 1797, Abel Alline sold half of the paper-mill built by Babcock, to William Hawes and Samuel Leeds, three-eighths to the former and one-eighth to the latter, and the new company, composed of Mc-
The whole mill property was appraised at $1390.
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Carney, Joseph and William Hawes and Samuel Leeds, carried on the business of paper-making.
In the year 1800, Samuel Leeds sold Mr. Hawes three-eighths of the corn-mill.
In 1803, the old grist-mill was torn down, and William Hawes conveyed to Samuel Leeds all his rights in the mills and privilege, and the latter erected a new grist-mill on the old site.
McCarney died in 1804.
October 17th, 1805, Samuel Leeds sold all his inte- rest in the mills to Edmund Baker, a native of the town, who had been for several years carrying on the chocolate business. The next year, Mr. Baker erected a new building for both the chocolate and corn mills, and put in the first tub-wheels ever used in this vicinity.
In 1807, John Frederick Enslin, of Boston, a physician, who married the daughter of McCarney, and was the only heir to his estate, sold to Edmund Baker the one quarter of the paper-mill formerly owned by McCarney.
In 1809, Benjamin Pierce sold to Baker the full- ing-mill, which continued to be occupied by Asa Pierce until it was torn down in 1813.
In 1813, the chocolate, corn and fulling mills were taken down, and a stone building, forty feet square and three stories high, was erected, for the purpose of a woolen and a chocolate mill, with a small stone projection, two stories in height, for a corn-mill. Mr. Walter Baker, a son of the owner, commenced the manufacture of broadcloths and sat- tinets, and carried on that business until the news of 69
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the peace in 1815-which was a death blow to it, and it was soon after abandoned. The part used for the manufacture of woolen goods lay idle for some time. It was then used for carding wool and spin- ning knitting yarn, &c., until the increase of the chocolate business demanded all the room and water- power, which it took.
In 1807, Captain Henry Cox and Edmund Baker took the paper-mill, and at the end of the year Ba- ker left the business, Eliab Thorp taking his place, and it was carried on under the style of Cox & Thorp, for five years. In 1813, Thorp left and went to Athol, Ms. Henry Cox carried on the mill until the spring of 1816, when Charles Baker, son of the owner of the mill, became a partner. In 1819, Capt. Cox left the place and put up a paper- mill at North Yarmouth, in Maine, for his two sons ; and Charles Baker took in Caleb Jarvis, who had been for many years a foreman in the mill, and busi- ness was done under the name of Charles Baker & Co.
In 1822, a general war broke out among the mill owners on the Neponset River ; and to establish the rights of the litigants, law was resorted to. It was not until after a long and sharply contested con- troversy, that the rights of the parties were deter- mined. The most important suit was that of Ba- ker, Vose and Gardner, against the Dorchester Cot- ton and Iron Co .; which, after repeated trials and references, was mutually settled by indentures exe- cuted in 1826.
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In 1823, Charles Baker left the paper-mill, and Tileston & Hollingsworth took it, and under the charge of Mr. Jarvis carried it on in connection with their other mills until the fall of 1829.
At this time a change came over the mill, the old- fashioned vats and presses were removed, a paper machine was put in, and a new process of making paper was commenced. Jesse Lyon and Jeremiah Fisher Daniels came from Newton and took the mill, and carried it on until Edmund Baker sold it, in 1843, to his son Walter, who leased it to Tileston & Hollingsworth, and they continue to use it to the present time.
May 25th, 1848, the chocolate-mill took fire, and all the combustible materials in it were consumed. The stone work was so much injured by fire and water, that it was necessary to take most of the building down.
Walter Baker died in May, 1852, and by the terms of his will the mills passed into the hands of his trustees, and the chocolate-mill was let, agreea- bly to the terms of the will, to Sidney B. Williams, who succeeded to the chocolate business, and carried it on extensively, under the style of " Walter Baker & Co.," about eighteen months. Mr. Williams died July 1st, 1854. The chocolate-mill was then leased to Mr. Henry L. Pierce, who now conducts the busi- ness under the old style of Walter Baker & Co.
POWDER-MILL.
From an original deed written on parchment, now in possession of the Dorchester Antiquarian Society,
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it appears that the Reverend John Oxenbridge, pas- tor, the Reverend James Allen, teacher, and Robert Sanderson, one of the deacons, of the First Church in Boston, with Captain John Hull and Freegrace Ben- dall, both merchants of Boston, purchased of John Gill, of Milton, by deed dated August 22, 1673, a piece of land situated at Neponset River, in Milton, thirty rods long and six rods wide, together with one half the stream, for the purpose of erecting a powder-mill-the land described being the mill pri- vilege just above the bridge at the Lower Falls, now .. owned by Webb & Twombly.
Oxenbridge, Allen, Sanderson, Hull, and Bendall, together with Mr. Thomas Thatcher, Sen., Mr. Humphrey Davie, and Mr. John Wiswall, Sen., by written articles of agreement, dated July 16, 1675, entered into a copartnership for erecting a building and improving a powder-mill at Neponset, in the township of Milton.
John Wiswall paid in twenty-four pounds as his share of the stock, by deeding to the proprietors all his share in the first division of lots in the Cow Walks, being lot No. 69, which was laid out in common to him, with George Dyar and Enoch Wiswall, con- taining in all fifteen and three-fourth acres, of which eight acres, one quarter and sixteen rods belonged to Wiswall, and was conveyed to the company as an appendage to the powder-works. This land was situated just below the Lower Falls, in Dorchester, Preston's mill now occupying the mill seat.
The mill was built just above the bridge in Mil- ton, and the stone watch-house and a house for the
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workmen were built upon the last lot, just below the bridge in Dorchester.
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The company employed a young man by the name of Walter Everden (or Everenden) to conduct the business.
Such progress was made in the erection of the buildings and forwarding the work, that at a session of the General Court, held October 13th, 1675 (in less than three months from the foundation of the company), this record was made: " A mill for mak- ing of powder being erected at Unkety or Dorches- ter Mill, by particular persons, and is ready now to work with all materials, and there being danger in this time of war, of destruction by fire or otherwise, to the said mill, which may be prejudicial to the public as well as to particular persons, all which this Court considering, do order that care be taken for a constant watch there for preservation of said mill, and the grist-mill adjoining thereto being so great a concernment to both the Towns of Dorches- ter and Milton, and that two watchmen be appoint- ed there, one from Dorchester and the other from Milton, for that end."
For the defence and safety of the powder-mill, the proprietors commenced a stone watch-house, upon which the General Court, in November, 1675, de- clared that the undertakers of the powder-mill "may repair to any magistrate who by the law is impow- ered to give warrants to impress workmen to carry on public works, of which sort this is."
In February following, the same Court ordered that " six men more be called as a guard to the pow-
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der and grice mill at Naponset, in the manner in the former order is provided."
In 1701, Walter Everden bought the interest of Joseph Wiswall in the concern, which was at that time one sixteenth, and from time to time, as he was able, purchased the interest of the other proprietors, so that in 1717 he was owner of so large an interest as to be able to make an agreement in his own name with Joseph Belcher, who owned the corn-mill on the other end of the dam, that the latter should have all the water in the dry season of the year, to the injury of the powder-mill on the south side of the river-in consideration of which, Belcher con- veyed to Everden all his interest, which amounted to one eighth, in the powder-mill and business.
In 1722, Everden and Israel Howe owned all the mills-Howe seven sixteenths, and Everden the rest ; and they dividing, Everden took all the property in Dorchester, and Howe all in Milton. Howe retired from the business, and Everden hired of him and continued it on his own account.
In 1724, Walter Everden *- having grown old, and having carried on the business nearly fifty years-sold to his son Benjamin Everden the four and a half acres of land, with the dwelling-house and powder-mill, and all the rights and appurte- nances thereto belonging, situated in Dorchester.
In 1729, the town of Dorchester confirmed to Benjamin Everden a right to keep the dam he had erected below the bridge on the north side of the river.
* He died in 1725.
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In the year 1744, the original mill on the Milton side of the river, which had been for several years but an appendage to the powder-mill, blew up in the evening, destroying the building and scattering the mutilated remains of the workman in charge of it upon the hill in the vicinity. This was the end of the powder business in Milton.
Everden continued his work on the Dorchester side of the river until 1757, when he sold his mill at this place to Edward Preston (a clothier by trade), who changed it to a clothing-mill. After Everden sold out his mill, he put up a powder-mill at Canton, where he carried on the business until his death .-
In the year 1706, the Rev. Joseph Belcher, the minister of Dedham, already alluded to, obtained the consent of the Selectmen of Milton, to dig un- der and about the bridge, to carry water to the mill he was about to erect below. The south end of the bridge at that time rested upon what is now a small island in the river, and the digging he proposed to do, was to make the channel which now separates that island from the main land. What kind of a mill he erected, we are at a loss to determine. Mr. Belcher died in 1723, and his property descended to his children.
PAPER-MILL.
In January, 1728, Daniel Henchman, Gillum Phillips, Benjamin Faneuil, Thomas Hancock and Henry Deering, petitioned the General Court for an act authorizing them to carry on the business of
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making paper in the province, and asking for the ex- clusive privilege for fifteen years. September 13th, 1728, an act was passed agreeably to their request, for the term of ten years, upon conditions that the first year they should make two hundred reams of good merchantable brown and printing paper, sixty reams of which were to be of the latter kind. The second year they were to make fifty reams of writing paper, of equal goodness with the paper commonly stamped with the London arms, in addition to the other two hundred reams ; the third year to make twenty-five reams of a finer and better quality of paper than aforesaid, in addition to the former year's work ; and to make five hundred reams per year for each succeeding year for the remaining term of ten years, one hundred and fifty reams of which were to be writing paper. A fine of twenty shillings was im- posed upon every ream manufactured by any one else.
This company took a lease of the mill built by Mr. Belcher and owned by his heirs, and put in the necessary machinery. They built a house for their workmen, leaving the upper story open for the air to draw through to dry the paper which was hung upon poles for that purpose. Mr. Henry Deering, one of the company, acted as agent or superintend- ent ; and one Henry Woodman, an Englishman by birth, was foreman and paper-maker-the latter term signifying the man who formed the sheet of paper from the pulp, that operation requiring more skill, in making the finer kinds of paper, than any other part of the business. In 1737, Woodman left, and
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the trouble of collecting stock was such, that it in- terfered with the other business of Mr. Deering, so that he wished to give up looking after it; and the company then employed Jeremiah Smith, an Irish- man by birth, but who had resided in Boston about twelve years, to take charge of the business, although he was not a paper-maker by trade. One John Ha- zleton, an Englishman by birth, and a paper-maker by trade, was employed as foreman in the mill.
The paper-making, like most business carried on by a company, did not prove so profitable as the owners could wish ; and from time to time-as they were inclined to sell, and Mr. Smith was able to buy -he bought out one after another, until he was sole owner of the property of the company. In 1741, he purchased of the children of Mr. Belcher the mill and seven acres of land, bounded on two sides by the river, and on the county road and the public landing place, subject to a lease to the company which Mr. Smith had previously bought out. A large part of the land is now in the possession of Mr. Smith's descendants. At times a skilful paper- maker could not be procured, when the making of the finer papers was discontinued, and wrapping and other coarse kinds only were manufactured.
Mr. James Boies, who married a daughter of Mr. Smith, was supercargo on board a vessel employed in bringing emigrants from England to the pro- vinces ; and on a voyage to New York, in the year 1760, became acquainted with Richard Clark, whom he prevailed upon to go to Milton and work for Mr. Smith. Mr. Clark was a good workman and a reli-
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able man. He remained with Mr. Smith about five years, when he left and went into partnership with Mr. James Boies, commencing business in Mr. Boies's new mill, built upon the site of the old slitting-mill. Mr. Smith continued the business until 1769, when he sold to his son-in-law, Daniel Vose, one half of the mill, and they carried on the business until 1775, when Mr. Smith, having obtained a competency, and the infirmities of age beginning to settle upon him, sold the other half of the mill to Mr. Vose, and re- tired from business.
In 1788, Dr. James Baker hired a part of the mill of Mr. Daniel Vose, and put in a run of stones and a set of kettles, and commenced the manufacture of chocolate ; and he and his son Edmund Baker after him continued to manufacture chocolate there till 1804, when the business was removed to the mill built by Wentworth in 1765.
As Mr. Smith was the first person in the province of Massachusetts Bay, if not in any of the colonies in America, to carry on the manufacture of paper on his own account, a short notice of him in this place may not be an intrusion. He was born in the north of Ireland, in 1705, and came with his wife to Boston in 1726, and had three daughters born there. He removed to Milton in 1737, but continu- ed his connection with the Rev. Mr. Moorhead's church in Boston until his death. His daughter Margaret married Robert Thompson, of Bridgewa- ter, and died at Canton in 1813, aged 79. Elizabeth married James Boies, and died at Milton in 1760. Rachel (who furnished the writer with many of the
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facts here related) married Daniel Vose, and died at Milton in 1821, aged 84. Mr. Smith died at the same place in 1790, aged 85, having lived with his wife 63 years, she surviving him about one year. Early in the spring after Mr. Smith removed to Milton, he found an emigrant ship had arrived from Ireland, and as his neighbor, Mr. Babcock, wanted a domestic, they went to Boston together. Mr. Bab- cock got his domestic, and Mr. Smith got a bushel of potatoes from the same vessel. Mr. Babcock never having seen a potato, was surprised to see Mr. Smith procure so many. When the time for plant- ing came, Mr. Babcock took a few, and with direc- tions for planting, commenced raising potatoes as an amateur. In the fall he came to Mr. Smith in great trouble, having two bushels of potatoes, and not knowing what to do with them. Mr. Smith re- lieved him by purchasing what he did not want. Mr. Babcock then complained of the ignorance of his Irish help, for he sent her into the field to get some green corn to boil, and she came back and re- ported that she had dug up a dozen hills, and there was no corn to be found in one of them. Mr. Smith told him the ignorance of the Irish about corn was no more laughable than the ignorance of the Ameri- cans about potatoes. These potatoes have always been said to be the first raised in Milton. Mr. Smith was a man of strong mind, and a great wit, which rendered him an amusing companion. Many of his anecdotes are still handed down in the families of his descendants. He was a neighbor and an inti- mate personal friend of Gov. Hutchinson, with
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whom he was fond of exchanging jokes, although they differed widely on the government measures of the day. Nothing but Mr. Smith's age prevented. him from taking up arms in defence of American liberty. While agent for the company, Mr. Smith became the personal friend of Mr. Thomas Hancock, one of the company, and upon his death the friend- ship and intimacy passed to the late Gov. Hancock, at whose hospitable board the wits of the day were ever welcome, and Mr. Smith was never absent for want of an invitation.
Mr. Vose continued the paper-making, as also various other kinds of business, until near the close of the last century, when he relinquished them all. John Sullivan and Joseph Bodge then hired the mill, and carried on the business until the year 1800. The paper-mill lay still about one year, when, on April 1st, 1801, Mr. Isaac Sanderson, from Water- town, took it and carried it on for many years. In September, 1803, Mr. Sanderson manufactured, for the use of the Boston Custom House, the first folio- post and quarto letter paper that was ever made in New England, Mr. Daniel Vose died in December, 1807, and in 1810 his children-Daniel Thomas Vose, and Elizabeth, the wife of Edmund Baker- sold the mill to Mr. Sanderson. In 1817, Mr. San- derson built a new paper-mill just below the old one, and put in a wrought-iron tub-wheel, which was the first iron water-wheel used in this vicinity. In 1827, he put in a machine for making paper, which was the second one in this vicinity. In 1830, while lay- ing among the beach-grass at Cape Cod, waiting for
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birds to pitch to his coys, Mr. S. broke off some of the grass and chewed it. From its appearance, after having undergone the chewing process for some time, he thought it might be made into paper. He collected a quantity, and experimented upon it until his expectations were realized, and the result was a paper and a paste-board valuable in many branches of business.
Mr. Sanderson leased his mill, in 1834, to Mr. Joshua Ayers, who carried it on about two years. In 1839, it was sold to Dr. Jonathan Ware, who the next year tore down the old mill, which had been standing over a century and a quarter, and on its site erected a new one, and put in two re-action wheels. The lower building was abandoned as a mill, and used as a store-house, and afterwards as a stable. Sawing and turning were carried on for a short time in it by various tenants, but not long enough to make it a part of the history of the mill. A grist-mill was attached to one of the wheels, and a chocolate-mill to the other; and in 1843, Josiah Webb and Josiah F. Twombly here commenced the manufacture of chocolate, and continued it until 1850, when they removed to the mill built for them by the Dorchester Cotton and Iron Co. The grist- mill has been in constant use since it was put in, by various tenants ; and the other part has been used for various purposes, as different tenants have chosen.
In 1673, Mr. John Gill sold to a company the pri- vilege, just above the lower bridge, in Milton (a part of the privilege he bought of. Gov. Stoughton), on which to erect a powder-mill, as will more fully ap-
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pear on reference to the account of the powder manu- factory in this chapter. In 1722, Israel Howe, the last of this company, sold out his interest in the powder business, to Walter Everden, by making a division of the property, Howe taking the privilege in Milton, and Everden taking that in Dorchester, with all the rest of the property formerly belonging to the proprietors of the powder-mill. Howe died in 1736, and his property went to his two daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah. Elizabeth married a Gilman, and Sarah died. The widow of Howe married a Jenkins, and after the death of her second husband, inherited a part of the mill-estate of her daughter Elizabeth, who died leaving no children. One half of the mill went into the possession of Nathaniel Gilman, of Halifax, and was set off on execution, in 1752, to Ebenezer Storer. The property remained in common, owned by Ebenezer Storer and Elizabeth Gilman, until 1762, when it was divided. Eliza- beth Gilman died soon after, and her half went to her mother, Judith Jenkins, and was sold by her guardian (she then being non compos) Joseph Howe, to Edward Wentworth and Henry Stone. Ebenezer Storer sold his half, in 1765, to James Boyce, who conveyed the same to Edward Wentworth. From the time the old powder-mill blew up, this privilege had remained unimproved-a space of about twen- ty years. Wentworth and Stone commenced erect- ing a saw and chocolate mill; but on the night of October 17th, 1764, the foundation of the saw-mill was destroyed by some evil-minded persons. The damage, however, was soon repaired, so that by
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March 8th, 1765, the mill was in working order, and the first joist were sawed for Mr. Samuel Pierce. The chocolate-mill was the first ever erected in the British Provinces of North America, and in this mill John Hannan, an Irishman by birth, first com- menced the manufacture of chocolate.
In 1766, Henry Stone sold out his interest in the mill property to Wentworth, making him the sole owner of the original powder-mill privilege. Edward Wentworth conveyed the property to Bar- low Trecothic, July 11th, 1768. Mr. Trecothic let the mill to Mr. Vose, who occupied it until Mr. T.'s death, which took place in London in 1775. The mill then passed into the hands of trustees, who held it for his nephew, James Ivers, the son of his sister Hannah, who married James Ivers. Young Ivers took the name of Trecothic, and his father was appointed by the trustees their agent to manage the real estate in America, and in 1792 he sold the mill to Daniel Vose, who improved it a few years and then gave up business. After this, the saw-mill was run only at times, and the grist-mill a part of the time, by different persons, as circumstances hap- pened. Mr. Baker made chocolate in one of the mills for a short time. Mr. Vose died in 1807, and the mills remained doing little or nothing until about the year 1817, when the heirs of Mr. Vose leased the mill to Mr. Francis Brinley, who convert- ed it into a mill for grinding and pulverizing drugs, medicines and dye-stuffs. He also put in a saw for the purpose of sawing veneers .* This mill was con-
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