USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Dorchester > History of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts > Part 40
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* The veneers sawed here were the first ever sawed in America by other power than by hand.
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
sumed by fire, August 1st, 1827, and was soon after rebuilt by Vose and Gardner. In the division of Mr. Vose's estate, the mill went into the hands of his son, Daniel T. Vose, and Clarissa, the wife of Dr. Henry Gardner, a grand-daughter of Mr. Dan- iel Vose. Upon the death of Mr. Daniel T. Vose, in 1837, this half of the mill passed to Mrs. Gardner, she purchasing what she had not before acquired of the other heirs. The mill was used for grinding drugs and dye-stuffs, until Mrs. Gardner sold it, March 8th, 1850, to the Dorchester Cotton and Iron Co. They tore down the old mills, and erected a chocolate and grist-mill, and Webb & Twombly, in October, 1850, removed from the mill below, and took possession of the new mill.
The Dorchester Cotton and Iron Company sold the mills and privilege to Webb & Twombly, May 18th, 1855. They now carry on the business of manufacturing chocolate and grinding grain, and let a smaller water privilege for the manufacture of India-rubber goods.
MR. JACKSON'S SLITTING-MILL.
In the year 1709, David Colsen, of Boston, a fell- monger, purchased of Mr. Jonathan Babcock a tract of land in Milton, bounding on Neponset River, and about six acres in Dorchester (opposite to it), being a part of lot No. 48 in the third division, in- cluding the island of Mr. Elisha Hutchinson, for the purpose of carrying on the business of dressing skins. The town of Dorchester gave its consent to his dam- ming up the water for that purpose. The land in
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
Dorchester lay in a narrow strip, extending from just above where the dam now stands, above the bridge at Mattapan, easterly about sixty-six rods to a point near where the river and the road branch off. Very soon after that time, a dam was erected, and the canal or trench cut around the fall to conduct the water to the mill. By an arrange- ment with Colson, Ezra Clapp erected a corn-mill, and Colson a fulling-mill, upon the mill-site thus formed. Colson soon sold out all his interest to Jonathan Jackson, of Boston, a brazier by occupa- tion. In 1714, the town of Milton chose a commit- tee to look after its rights in the Neponset River. This movement led Mr. Clapp to ask the consent of the town to his using the water. The town, feeling that a corn-mill was a great convenience to many of its inhabitants, granted his request.
In March, 1710, Mr. Jackson erected a slitting- mill on the premises, and commenced his business. This has always been considered the first mill of the kind in the province. The bus iess was not long continued, as a fire destroyed the mill, and Mr. Jack- son abandoned the privilege. He soon after set up a mill for the purpose of slitting iron and making nails at Pembroke, and in his petition to the Gen- eral Court for protection, he alleges that that was the first mill of the kind in the province. Mr. Jack- son died in Boston in 1736.
The place remained in ruins until 1750, when Mary, the widow of Jonathan Jackson, and Edward his son, sold to John Robinson, of Dorchester, the ten and three quarter acres of land in Dorchester,
71
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
with the dwelling-house, grist-mill, and fulling-mill, half of the mill-dam adjoining the fulling-mill, and one half of the dam a little to the west of the road leading from Dorchester to Brush Hill, with one half of all the rights granted to David Colson. by the Selectmen of the town of Dorchester in March, 1709-10. January 4, 1762, the town of Dorchester relinquished all right to the mill to Mr. Jackson, so that he might hold it in fee simple. It does not appear how Robinson disposed of this pro- perty, but by some means it got into the possession of Samuel Payson, of Dorchester, who sold it to An- drew Gillispie, November 9, 1772. Andrew Gillis- pie mortgaged the premises to Jonathan Payson for £280, in payment for the same. Gillispie altered the fulling-mill into a snuff-mill, and commenced work- ing the same. He was not successful in business, and the interest on the mortgage accumulated so that he could not redeem it. Payson assigned the mortgage to Jonathan Davis, of Roxbury, in 1774, and Davis assigned it to James Boies and Hugh McLean. In 1778, they foreclosed the mortgage, and came in possession of the estate. When Mc- Lean and Boies made partition of their mill property, in 1790, this estate went to Hugh McLean. Mr. McLean died in 1798, and his widow Agnes sold it, in 1809, to Edmund Tileston and Mark Hollings- worth.
The mill property on the Milton side of the river lay unimproved from the time the slitting-mill was consumed until 1764, when the executors of Ed- ward Jackson's will sold it to James Boies, together
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with a piece of land on the west side of the high- way adjoining the river, with a nailer's shop and a house thereon, also one half of the dam west of the road, and all the rights which said Jackson had in the stream, except what he had sold to John Rob- inson. James Boies built a paper-mill on the land, and then sold one half the mill, a house and some land, to Richard Clark, who had for about five years worked as foreman for Jeremiah Smith at the lower falls, and Boies and Clark in company carried on the manufacture of paper.
Mr. Boies erected a slitting-mill in 1769, on the site of the one erected by Mr. Jackson; but the business for which it was designed not proving as profitable as the manufacture of paper, he erected a second paper mill on the land he had not sold to Clark, and conveyed one half of it to Hugh McLean, August 17, 1771. At this time, Boies owned one half of each mill, Clark one half of the old mill, and McLean one half of the new mill. Richard Clark died in 1777, and his son George sold his father's interest in the mill to Hugh McLean, in 1779. Thus Boies and McLean became equal own- ers in the mills.
The mill on the south side of the trench, together with a small chocolate-mill which Boies had erected in 1779, was consumed by fire, April 9, 1782. The paper-mill was soon rebuilt a few feet below where the one was destroyed, and where the south end of the present mill stands, and a new chocolate-mill was erected on the Dorchester side of the river, in which Jeremiah Smith Boies, a son of James Boies, occasionally made chocolate.
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
In 1782, Boies and McLean took into partnership Michael McCarney, an Irishman by birth, who came while a boy to this country with McLean when he followed the sea, and who was brought up in Mc- Lean's family. This firm carried on business until 1790, when the company was dissolved, Boies and McLean dividing their mill property, and McCarney connected himself with James Babcock and Samuel Leeds, and purchased one quarter of the mill built by Babcock at the Lower Mills.
McCarney continued in this new mill with various" partners until his death in 1805. McLean took his mill on the north side of the trench, and carried on business with Henry Cox (who served his time in that mill) as a foreman, until McLean's death in 1799. Capt. Cox hired the mill and purchased the stock, soon after McLean's death, of McLean's widow. He carried on the mill three years, when he left it, to go into business with Amasa Fuller, in the mill on the south side of the trench.
George Bird succeeded Cox in the McLean mill, and continued in it for two years to the spring of 1805, when Bird left and went to a mill in Dedham. Ebenezer Stedman and Josiah Randall took the mill when Bird vacated it, and continued in business two years, when Stedman sold out to John Savels. Ran- dall and Savels occupied the mill about one year, when they vacated it in consequence of Edmund Tileston and Mark Hollingsworth having purchased the mill of Agnes McLean, the widow of Hugh Mc- Lean. Tileston and Hollingsworth put the mill in good repair, and moved into it from the mill which
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they had been hiring of William Sumner. In 1817, they converted the chocolate-mill, built by Boies on the Gillispie privilege, into a paper-mill. In 1828, Tileston and Hollingsworth bought of Hen- ry Gardner and Thomas Crehore, the executors of Amasa Fuller, the mill which Fuller bought of Boies.
On the dissolution of the copartnership of Boies, McLean and McCarney, and the union and division of the mill property between Boies and McLean, in 1790, the mill on the south side of the trench went into the occupation of Jeremiah Smith Boies, the son of the owner of the mill, who commenced the manufacture of paper at that time. James Boies died in 1796, at the advanced age of ninety-six years. The ownership of the mill then passed by will to his son Jeremiah Smith Boies. Boies carried on the mill for a few years, when he leased it to Amasa Ful- ler, who had been a foreman in the mill for some time. Fuller took George Bird into company, and they carried on the paper business until 1803, when Bird left, and Capt. Henry Cox took his place. Ful- ler and Cox carried on the mill until 1807, when Cox left to take the paper-mill at the lower falls in company with Edmund Baker. Fuller carried on the mill until 1825, when he gave it up to his son Richardson Fuller, Benjamin F. Crehore and Jarvis Fenno. The younger Fuller died soon after com- mencing business ; the elder in 1826, and Crehore in 1828. The mill was sold by the executors of the elder Fuller, October 17, 1828, to Edmund Tileston and Mark Hollingsworth, thus uniting the mill property formerly owned by Jonathan
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Jackson into one estate, which had been separated for seventy-eight years.
Tileston and Hollingsworth united, repaired and remodelled both the McLean and Boies mills ; they enlarged their business, and conducted it so success- fully, that in April, 1831, they took into partnership Edmund P. Tileston and Amos Hollingsworth, sons of the old proprietors, and the business continued until the death of the elder Tileston, October 22, 1834. The following spring the elder Hollingsworth retired from the business, and lived upon the pro- perty which he had amassed, until his death, Feb- ruary 28, 1855, at the age of seventy-eight.
These mills are still exclusively devoted to the manufacture of paper, and a firm of the same style that has been so favorably known for upwards of fifty years, but composed of sons of the founders of the firm, still continues to manufacture paper there, as well as at their other mill about one mile above, also at the mill they hire of the trustees under the will of Walter Baker, at the lower falls.
The mill-site, known as Preston's Mill, was con- veyed by John Wiswall to the proprietors of the powder-mill as an appendage to it, in 1675, and the proprietors, one after another, sold out to Walter Everden, so that in time he became sole owner of the privilege, as previously stated. At what time the first water wheel was put in, is not known ; but in 1724, Walter Everden conveyed the land with the powder-mill upon it to his son Benjamin Everden. In 1729, the latter obtained a grant from the town of the right to continue his
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dam there, and he carried on the manufacture of gun-powder until he sold out his mill privilege to Edward Preston, in 1757. Mr. Preston was a clo- thier by trade, and resided at Commercial Point ; but after purchasing this property, he altered the powder-mill to a fulling-mill. He passed part of the year at his mill, and part on his farm at Com- mercial point.
About the year 1770, Mr. Preston fitted up a chocolate-mill, with one kettle, in addition to his fulling-mill, and manufactured chocolate for John Hannan, then residing in Boston. On the 12th of October, 1775, Mr. Preston's mill was consumed by fire, and Mr. Hannan returned to the chocolate- mill built for him in 1765. 'Mr. Preston rebuilt his mill and carried on his business as clothier. Soon after the death of Hannan, in 1780, Mr. Preston again fitted up a chocolate-mill, and for about seven years manufactured chocolate for Dr. James Baker, who commenced the business soon after Hannan's death. Baker then hired the Clark mill. Mr. Preston's son John, who was brought up in his father's mill, con- tinued to work there at both branches of the busi- ness. In 1793, the mill passed into the hands of Mr. John Preston, by virtue of his father's will. In 1812, Mr. John Preston put up a corn and chocolate mill, and carried on the three branches of business- his son John, then a young man, assisting him until the father's death, in 1819. Mr. John Preston, the younger, hired and carried on the mills about two years, when his father's estate was settled, and he purchased the mill, in 1823, of his brothers and sis-
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ters. Soon after this, Mr. Preston increased his business in the manufacture of chocolate, and aban- doned that of a clothier.
He relinquished business in 1854 to his two sons, John and Walter Preston, who now carry on the chocolate business, having abandoned the grinding of corn. Mr. Preston died in 1856, and bequeathed the mills to his above-named sons.
THE SUMNER MILL.
The town of Dorchester, by a committee consist- ing of Ebenezer Pope, Elijah Davis and Philip Withington, sold to George Clark, of Milton, paper- maker, by deed dated September 27, 1773, fourteen acres of land, being a part of the five-hundred-acre lot, for the sum of one hundred and six pounds, thir- teen shillings and fourpence. One of the conditions of the deed was, that all the mills should be erected on the north side of the river, so as to pay taxes in Dorchester. George Clark, the son of Richard, was born in England, came to this country several years after his father, and worked a short time under his father before he purchased the above mill-site He erected a paper-mill upon it, and commenced business on his own account. In 1781, Clark mort- gaged his mill to Abigail Quincy. Not being suc- cessful, he sold one half of the mill to William Sum- ner, and the other half to Patrick Connor, by sepa- rate deeds, July 20, 1786. About a year after Sum- ner bought the mill of Clark, he purchased the mort- gage of Abigail Quincy, and cancelled it in 1798.
Soon after Sumner and Connor purchased the mill,
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
Col. Josiah Hayden bargained for the land in Mil- ton opposite their mills, and put up a saw-mill on the south end of the dam, claiming a right to one half the water, as the dam abutted upon his land. William Sumner and Richard (son of George and grandson of Richard) Clark commenced the paper- making business. In 1787, Patrick Connor sold one half of his half of the mill and privilege to Rich- ard Clark, and that year the proprietors put up a chocolate-mill, which Dr. James Baker hired for a short time, but left in 1788, to go to Mr. Daniel Vose's mill. In 1794, Patrick Connor conveyed a life estate in his remaining quarter of the mill to George Clark, and the reversionary interest to Jere- miah Tucker Clark, a son of George- William Sumner and Richard Clark carrying on the business until the decease of Clark, in 1796, at the age of 29 years. Sumner then assumed the whole business. Finding that the saw-mill was a great detriment to the paper-mill, Sumner purchased of Capt. John Homans a tract of land adjoining his mill-lot on the east, in 1788, and in 1789 got permission of the town to remove his mills to a new dam a few rods below his old one. Hayden not being able to fulfil his agreement for the purchase of the estate on the south side of the river, was forced to give up the bargain, and that property went back to its former owners.
In 1798, William Sumner built a new dam upon the site of the present one, and put up the mill. The next year he built a corn-mill. The south end of the dam abutted upon the church land, situated
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
in Milton, but owned by the town of Dorchester. The town, in 1801, confirmed to Mr. Sumner the right to continue his dam in that place. Tileston and Hollingsworth, having been burned out at Boies's mill, took Sumner's for three years-from the spring of 1806 to the spring of 1809-when they removed to the mill they bought of Agnes McLean.
William Sumner then resumed the mill, and took in his son William as a copartner. They carried on the business until 1822, when the elder William " retired from the business, and his son Edward united with William the younger, and carried on business about five years, when they became embarrassed and gave up the mill. In 1827, the mill was repaired, and a machine for making paper was put in, which was the first in this vicinity, and Col. Nathaniel Crane commenced business. In 1832, a privilege was granted to Frederick O. Taft to erect a cotton- mill, which was to enjoy a prior right to the water. He erected and carried on the cotton-mill, and Ed- ward Sumner took the paper-mill, and continued to carry it on until his death, September 8th, 1836.
William Sumner the elder died January 30th, 1836, and Nathaniel Crane, his administrator, sold the mill property and four acres of land to Edmund P. Tileston and Amor Hollingsworth, September 19th, 1836.
The cotton-mill was consumed by fire, March 1st, 1837. Arrangements were then made with Mr. Taft, who gave up his lease, and Tileston and Hol- lingsworth erected a new paper-mill upon the site
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of the cotton factory, and put in four engines and a Foudrinier machine. The old paper-mill, erected by Sumner, having become much out of repair, was taken down by Tileston and Hollingsworth, and a new one erected on. its site, with four engines and a Foudrinier machine.
COTTON MANUFACTORY.
In 1793, Mr. Jeremiah Smith Boies erected a dam across the Neponset River, about one third of the way from the Upper to the Lower Mills, and Mr. John Capen and Mr. Daniel Vose united and built another dam between that and the Lower Mills. As these parties were both striving to avail themselves of the natural unoccupied fall in the river, they did not clearly understand their own rights, but placed themselves in such a situation that the law was re- sorted to for protection. A bitter and vigorous law- suit paved the way for a compromise, which was consummated by an agreement dated January 1st, 1794. Under this agreement, Capen was to retain his dam at six feet in height, and Boies was to take up his dam and remove it up stream, which he did, and located it where the starch manufactory now stands. Here Mr. Boies erected a paper, chocolate and corn mill, and carried on both, Mark Hollings- worth, a young man from New Jersey, being fore- man of the paper-mill, and Thomas Harlain, an Englishman, and a mill-wright by trade, tending the corn-mill.
In 1801, Mr. Boies, becoming tired of the out-door business of the paper-mill, gave up the active part
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
of it to Mr. Hollingsworth, who associated himself with Edmund Tileston. Mr. T., prior to that time, had been carrying on the business at Needham, although a native of Dorchester, and had served his time with Leeds and McCarney, at the Lower Mills. Mr. Boies retained an interest in the busi- ness, in consideration of the use of the mill and some capital furnished, his name not appearing in the firm. Thus arranged, the firm carried on the manufacture of paper until December 23d, 1805, when the mill was consumed by fire. This event severed Boies from all connection with the other partners, who hired a paper-mill of William Sum- ner, and there went to work.
Some points of difference between Boies and Ca- pen had been overlooked in their settlement in 1794, and a second indenture, defining their rights, was entered into December 24th, 1808. The privilege lay dormant for several years after the fire.
July 4th, 1811, an incorporated company, styled the Dorchester Cotton and Iron Company, purchased. the privilege of Mr. Boies, and immediately com- menced putting up a cotton-mill-intending, at a future day, to add a mill for turning and finishing up iron to be used in machinery. Mr. Boies was- appointed agent of the company. As soon as the building was completed and the machinery in, the company commenced the manufacture of cotton cloth. From the first their business was successful, proving a paying concern to its owners, and a blessing to the community around them, as it furnished much work. for the women and children in the neighboring
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towns during the stagnation of business in the war of 1812. The cotton, at that time, was delivered at the mill to such as chose to take it home and cleanse it from its seeds and other foreign substance. It was then returned, and carded and spun. The yarn was then taken around in the neighboring towns, and wove by hand in families-about eight cents a yard being paid for the weaving.
The water-power not being sufficient to do the work required by an increasing business, the com- pany bought the privilege of John Capen, March 4th, 1812, about three-quarters of a mile below their first dam. . There, in 1815, they erected another mill, and dug a canal or trench to serve as a race- way for the mill above. The wheels of the last mill were set so low, that, in times of a freshet, and in a dry season, when the flush-boards were upon Baker, Vose and Gardner's dam, the back water was a seri- ous hindrance to the mill, and led to protracted law- suits between the parties-which commenced in 1822, and terminated with an indenture, defining the rights of the parties, made in 1826. Mr. Boies resigned as agent, and Enoch Baldwin was appoint- ed in his place, January, 1822.
It was found by experience that the water-power of the privileges could be much more advantage- ously used if united in one fall; therefore the cor- poration, in 1826, raised their lower dam so as to flow out the upper dam, and abandoned the mill built in 1811, putting up a large mill near the small one then standing at the lower dam. The building abandoned stood useless for about three years, when
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Mr. Stephen Liversidge hired it for the purpose of making starch, for which purpose it still continues to be used. Mr. Baldwin resigned his place as agent, and was succeeded by Hananiah Temple, July 1, 1836. .
The business of this company was so judiciously managed, and proved so prosperous, that in 1846 the mill was enlarged, and a powerful steam engine was put in, to work auxiliary with the water-power, to be used in a dry time when there was not water enough to drive all the machinery, as well as in a freshet when back-water prevented the wheels from doing their full work.
In 1854, foundations were laid, water-wheels of great power were contracted for, and other arrange- ments made for a large addition to their water-works. During the suspension of the work of improvement through the winter, the main building took fire, January 11th, 1855, and was completely consumed, with all the machinery, no small amount of stock, and the valuable steam engine was entirely ruined. This calamity happening at a time when the manu- facturing business was depressed throughout the country, and when manufactured stock could be purchased far below its actual cost, the company determined to sell out all their property and wind up the concern, which was accordingly done. Mr. Thomas Liversidge purchased the factory site, the ruins, and the real estate immediately connected with the mill, May 18th, 1855, and the property now lays as when he purchased, awaiting for the future to develop some plan of making it pro- ductive.
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
CHOCOLATE BUSINESS.
Very early one morning, in the fall of the year 1765, a respectable looking young man was found sitting upon a rock in the street near the Lower Mills, in Dorchester, weeping. A benevolent indi- vidual was attracted by the sight of the young way- farer, and inquired into his situation. He reported himself as John Hannan, from Ireland-a protestant in faith, a chocolate-maker by trade, and who hav- ing come to seek his fortune in America, was a stranger in a strange land, with no acquaintances, no work to be obtained, and his outfit all spent. The Samaritan referred him to Mr. James Boies as a countryman of his own, well off in the world, and then erecting mills a mile up the stream. Mr. Boies gave him temporary employment, and interceded with Messrs. Wentworth and Storer, who were then erecting a mill on the old powder-mill site, in Mil- ton. These gentlemen put up a chocolate-mill for Hannan, and he there commenced the manufacture of chocolate, which was the first ever made in New England, if not in the British Provinces of North America.
In 1768, the mill was sold to Barlow Trecothic, and Hannan was forced to leave it. He removed to Boston and took a small shop, and got Mr. Edward Preston to put a run of stones and one kettle into his fulling-mill in Dorchester, and there manufac- ture chocolate for him. This arrangement lasted until October, 1775, when the building was de- stroyed by fire. Hannan then hired the mill in
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