USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hanover > History of the town of Hanover, Massachusetts, with family genealogies > Part 19
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In May, 1872, this mill was burned but it was at once rebuilt. The same partners continued until the retirement of Mr. Ezra Phillips in 1874, when Mr. Perry and Mr. Lot Phillips continued the business until January 1st, 1891. At this time Josiah W. Hinckley, who had been connected with the business since 1877,
BOX FACTORY OF LOT PHILLIPS & COMPANY CORPORATION
WEST HANOVER. "ELIAB" MILL ON LEFT
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was admitted as a partner, and, since then, Lot Phillips, J. W. Hinckley, E. Y. Perry, and the estate of E. Y. Perry have con- ducted the business.
In November, 1904, the business was incorporated under the name of Lot Phillips and Company Corporation. This Corpora- tion now uses annually the greater part of the pine lumber cut in our town besides drawing heavily on the supply in Norwell, Pem- broke, Marshfield, Duxbury, Kingston and other towns; and several millions of feet of boards are used in supplying the de- mands of the factory.
The dwelling-houses in the village of West Hanover have trebled in number since the establishment of this business by the parties first named. Like most of the business of the present day, economy in the use of the material has been reduced to a science, and the most approved machinery is used.
MANUFACTURE OF BOOTS AND SHOES.
Until about 1800, the people of Hanover depended entirely on the local shoemaker for furnishing the necessary foot-wear, who went from house to house, carrying his own tools, and, when neces- sary, his leather, and supplying the family needs.
Later came the small shops, where the leather was supplied by the manufacturer, the shoes being made and returned to him. This subject is treated lightly here as these conditions were com- mon to all towns in the county.
Very early in the nineteenth century, the business of manufac- turing shoes in Hanover began. Among the early manufacturers were Stephen Josselyn, William Morse, and others. The business increased slowly, as in 1837 only 12,000 pairs were made. After this date it increased rapidly, and, as early as 1860, quite a large business was done, Mr. Joseph H. Studley on Main street, and the Messrs. Blanchard at Assinippi, being then the largest manu- facturers.
The Civil War made a great demand on the shoe manufacturers, and, from 1860 to 1880, the business increased rapidly and reached its maximum about the latter date. Mr. Studley, Marcus Morse, Killam and Turner, Rufus S. Crane, Bradford S. Damon, Caleb A. Mann, Samuel F. Buffum, and others, all conducted shoe business on Main street and at Assinippi, the value of the product in 1875 being $200,000.
From 1880 to 1900, the business decreased, although several of the men named above continued to manufacture. During this
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period, Nathan V. Goodrich did a large business, first at his fac- tory at North Hanover, and later at the factory at South Hanover, which was erected for him by Edward Y. Perry and Morrill A. Phillips. At the present time there is no one engaged in the manufacture of shoes in Hanover, although the last named factory still stands equipped for such purpose.
In connection with the shoe industry a word will be said about the Tanneries, of which there were three in the town.
Mr. Simeon Curtis's was the first of which we have knowledge. His works were on Silver street near the cranberry bog-house of Thomas H. Tindale. He died in 1810 and it is doubtful if the work here was continued after that date.
The works of William Church were on Hanover street near Iron Mine brook and were successfully conducted for more than thirty years. But little business was done here after 1860.
The works of Seth Rose were in the field a short distance south- east of the junction of Hanover and Circuit streets and were con- tinued to the date of his death in 1859. Probably Mr. Rose did the most business of any one of the three, his tannery turning out considerable upper-leather.
The statistics for 1837 show that the number of hides tanned was eight hundred, the value being $4,350. It is doubtful if at any time, more than fifteen hundred hides per year were tanned.
CLOTHING.
We have not mentioned the clothing business except incidental- ly in connection with the mills; but, in the early history of the town, nearly all the clothing was made from the wool sheared from the sheep or from the flax of the farmers own raising.
The loom and the spinning wheel were in use within the memory of men now living and the writer remembers when Mrs. Mary Dwelley spun the yarn and wove the cloth which she made into a dress, wearing the same for years.
The maiden seamstress who went from house to house to make the family clothing is also still remembered. Benjamin Franklin said, (he was 21 when our town was incorporated), "I was never prouder of any dress in my life than when I was clothed from head to foot in woolen and linen of my wife's manufacture."
For forty years or more, from 1850 to 1890, William Curtis and his son, George W. Curtis, did what was called a Slop-Work Business. That is, they took the garments (cut) from Oak Hall,
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-from the establishment of John Curtis, and from other places in Boston and distributed them about the town and in Norwell among the women of faculty for such work, who "made them up," when they were returned to the Messrs. Curtis, carefully examined and shipped to the source from which they came.
CLOCK MAKING.
Col. John Bailey had four sons, three of whom became clock makers. One of these, Lebbeus, moved to Maine but John and Calvin spent their active lives in Hanover, John living in said town until his death. John and Calvin were natural mechanics, learning no trade, their natural ingenuity being sufficient for their needs. John Bailey is to-day recognized as one of the most skill- ful mechanics of his time.
They made the eight-day clocks which are now so highly prized. There are many of these clocks in Hanover and the surrounding towns that have run for one hundred and twenty years and still keep as good time as when first constructed. Only the most prim- itive tools were used in their construction and the wood of which they were made was gathered from the nearby forests.
Mr. David Studley of Hanover, a skillful workman, learned his trade of John Bailey. His children and grand-children carried on the business successfully, one of his grand-children, Fred A. Studley of Hanover, being still engaged in repairing clocks and watches, satisfactorily to his clients.
In addition to his work as a clock-maker, John Bailey invented a machine to go by steam. In the patent it was called "Bailey's Steam Jack for roasting meats and poultry before an open fire place, invented by John Bailey of Massachusetts." This steam jack had the elements of the modern steam engine. The patent was dated 23rd of February, 1792, and was signed "Go. Washing- ton. By the President, Thos. Jefferson."
The same day this patent was dated, the following endorsement was made thereon :
"City of Philadelphia, February 23, 1792.
I do hereby certify that the foregoing letters-patent were de- livered to me in pursuance of the Act, entitled "An Act to promote the progress of useful arts," that I have examined the same, and find them comformable to the said Act.
EDW. RANDOLPH, Attorney General of the U. S."
In addition to the above, John Bailey was also a maker of com- passes and invented machinery for revolving lights for lighthouses and also the first spinning-jenny made in Rhode Island.
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His brother, Calvin, prepared an orrery which was used in the schools. This had the sun for a center with several of the planets revolving about it in proper order.
MANUFACTURE OF PLOUGHS.
David Prouty came to Hanover from Scituate about 1811 and settled on Main street, near Webster street. He first opened a store and in connection with his trading joined the business of weaving cloth. This cloth was made from yarn obtained in the factories at Marshfield and other places and was put out to the women in the neighborhood who wove it in the hand looms. This business was continued until power looms caused hand-machinery to be abandoned. When this business ceased to be profitable, Mr. Prouty's attention was called to the ploughs used by the farmers of that date.
Quoting from Barry, "though we cannot confidently say that he was the first inventor of the cast iron ploughs which have since given to his name a world-wide celebrity, yet patents were early obtained by him for their manufacture, on principles whose dis- covery must be attributed to him ;- he was a pioneer in the busi- ness ;- and, to the close of his useful life, he gave all his energies to its prosecution and his efforts were crowned with a success, not only gratifying to him personally, but eminently beneficial to the community, reflecting honor upon his genius and attesting the fertility of his resources."
"At the time Mr. Prouty commenced the manufacture of the ploughs which still bear his name, the implements then in use by farmers were of a far different stamp from those seen at the pres- ent day. That part of the instrument which performs the labor was of wood strapped with iron bars; and the form and durability were far below the ploughs of Mr. Prouty's construction."
"Deacon John Brooks of Hanover well recollects when the first plough made by Mr. P. was put in operation. It was taken to a gravel-knoll, on the highway, near the present residence of Mr. Samuel Brooks, Main street, and many were the prophecies that, as soon as the oxen were attached and an attempt was made to break up the almost impenetrable surface, it would at once be shattered and found worthless. But Mr. P., who had all con- fidence in his success, held the plough himself, guided its opera- tions, and, as the team moved on and the furrows were turned, the prophecies of failure vanished as the dew before the morning sun."
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"The establishment of Mr. Prouty in Hanover was not on so extensive a scale as was that conducted by him subsequent to his removal from the town. About one thousand ploughs per year were made and from three to four hands employed in the shop. There was a blacksmith's shop attached to his premises, also a building in which was machinery for sawing plough beams, etc., by horse power."
"Mr. Prouty left Hanover about the year, 1836, (or at any rate this was the last year he was assessed a poll tax in H.), and established himself in Boston, where, in company with Mr. John Mears and Mr. Lorenzo Prouty and under the firm of Prouty and Mears the business of manufacturing ploughs and other agricul- tural implements was carried on, until the decease of Mr. Prouty, and later by Mr. Lorenzo Prouty and Mr. John Mears, Jr., at their extensive warehouses on North Market and Clinton Streets."
The Industrial Statistics for 1837, show that there was one plough manufactory in Hanover producing 150 ploughs per year, the value thereof being $1,200, the number of hands employed being three. This was about the time that Mr. Prouty left Han- over.
Barry says that, while in Hanover, Mr. Prouty made one thousand ploughs per year. Perhaps the number given in the statistics as above is more nearly correct, though Mr. Barry wrote less than twenty years after Mr. Prouty's removal.
However, Hanover has the distinction of being the town where the first successful iron plows in America were made and the seal of the town has among other devices the figure of a plough.
Mr. Prouty resided while in Hanover in the house on Main street, near Webster street, for many years owned and occupied by George Damon.
Brief mention will be made of the business of carriage-making.
Mr. Thomas Turner for forty years, from about 1850 to 1898, the date of his death, conducted quite a large business at the Corners, in the buildings standing where now stands the Chemical Fire Engine House. Barry says that, in 1853, he was building about forty carriages per year. Later, however, his at- tention was chiefly devoted to the repairing of carriages, including painting and trimming. The three buildings occupied by him were burned in 1900.
Mr. Charles F. Stearns, an efficient workman, who has been in business in Hanover since 1873, for a while manufactured car- riages, but of late years has devoted himself principally to their
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repair; his place of business now being on Broadway, near the Four Corners.
Barry says, "In the days when there were no carriages owned here, the saddle business was a prominent branch of enterprise, and was conducted by Benjamin Stockbridge at the Four Corners, and by the family of Estes on Plain street, and perhaps by others."
We shall not attempt to enumerate the blacksmiths who have carried on their useful work in Hanover. The Eellses and the Dillinghams at the Corners were early, and for a long time, enter- prising and successful workmen along this line.
Mr. Warren Wright, a highly respected man, was for a great many years located at the Four Corners, continuing in this busi- ness until his death.
The blacksmiths now carrying on this business in Hanover are Frank Alger at Assinippi, David H. Stoddard at North Hanover, Florus Josselyn at West Hanover, Fred White at South Hanover, and James Jones, Leslie J. Hayward and Albert Morel at the Four Corners, Mr. Jones occupying the shop of Mr. Warren Wright. This shop is now more than one hundred and seventy- five years old and was first occupied by Samuel Eells. It then stood on the southeast corner of Broadway and Washington street. It was occupied by the Eells family for more than one hundred years, when Mr. Warren Wright purchased it and removed it to its present location.
Lack of space forbids more on this line. Much has been omitted which it would have been a pleasure to have presented. Thus far, only those industries have been referred to, where the raw ma- terial has been prepared for, or converted into, the finished product.
Brief mention will be here made of the merchants or store- keepers, whose vocations have been no less useful.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Hanover Four Corners was noted for miles around for its superior stores and for the life of the place.
A gentleman born in North Bridgewater (now Brockton), dy- ing there less than twenty years ago, said to the writer that, when he was a boy, he considered a trip to Hanover Four Corners as a memorable event, on account of its life and activity.
Could all the persons who have been store-keepers in Hanover be enumerated, an array of names would be presented of which
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any town might be proud. Courtesy and fair dealing has been the rule.
Mr. Isaac M. Wilder, a typical store-keeper, is remembered as one whose word no man doubted; whose weight no one ques- tioned; and the nobility of whose life is still a memory. Mr. John B. Bates at the Corners and Mr. John S. Brooks at North Hanover were both in the business continuously for more than fifty years. Respected always, their integrity no man questioned.
Probably the largest sale business ever carried on in the town is that of Phillips, Bates & Co., of which brief mention is here made. In 1890 Edward Y. Perry, Lot Phillips and William F. Bates became associated under the firm name of Phillips, Bates & Co., for the purpose of carrying on a grain, lumber and coal business on Broadway, near the Hanover railroad station, taking over the grain business that was established by Robert Sylvester and Samuel H. Church. In January, 1896, Mr. Perry purchased of Mr. Phillips his interest, but the firm name remains unchanged. The estate of E. Y. Perry and William F. Bates are the present owners, the active manager being William F. Bates.
One other industry, the noblest of all, must have but slight treatment, as the early history of Hanover in her agriculture dif- fers but slightly from the other towns in the county. For the first one hundred years, this was the sole resource of a large ma- jority of her people. The land was to be cleared of rocks and stumps, houses were to be constructed, food and clothing produced, schools established, roads constructed, and the general welfare secured. The work necessary for all this the farmer, in connec- tion with his fellow laborer, the carpenter, performed.
We can hardly realize the labor required to build a house in the early days. The primitive sawmill furnished the only ma- chinery. All else must be done by hand and yet many of the houses then constructed still stand as memorials of the patience and fore- sight with which the men wrought.
The miles of stone wall, which one hundred years ago formed the boundary lines of the highways and the outlines of the dif- ferent lots, testify to their labor in clearing the lands. The writer believes that, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was, at least, a mile of stone wall to every hundred acres of land; and he is sure that on his father's farm of one hundred and fifty acres there was a mile and a half of such wall.
The food and clothing were, of course, the product of the farm.
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
Rye and Indian corn furnished the bread, the sheep, swine, and kine, the meat, the wool and flax, the clothing, and the hides from the slaughtered creatures, the boots and shoes. The table fur- niture was made by hand of wood or pewter. The large pewter platters, plates, porringers and spoons were run in molds and, when these articles became worn or mutilated, they were melted and molded over, becoming as good as new. The cradle in which the child was rocked, as well as the coffin in which the dead were buried, was made from wood cut on the farm.
The grandmothers of people not yet old, knew not flour or, if they did, it was a luxury to be purchased but once a year and then in quantities not exceeding fourteen pounds. Matches were unknown, the flint and tinder being used to make a fire, although the back log was seldom permitted to go out and when it did it was customary to borrow a brand from a neighbor.
All this and more was common to the early settlers and yet they toiled hopefully. They had, of course, the advantage of the shad, bass, and herring fishing, in the nearby streams, and wild game was abundant. These were days of plain living and high thinking.
So much has been said in memory and in honor of those who laid the foundation of our pleasant homes. Faithful to their families, to their town, and to their country, they met bravely every crisis ; and they stood firm as did their never-to-be-forgotten brothers at Lexington, of whom Emerson said :
"Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world."
Note :- The earliest statistics obtainable are those of 1845 and as late as that date it appears that Hanover raised nearly 4000 bushels of Indian corn; more than 700 bushels of rye; more than 17,000 bushels of potatoes; 1400 bushels of other esculent vegetables; 5000 bushels of fruit; 17,000 pounds of butter; 8500 pounds of cheese; and had within her borders 400 sheep.
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ROADS AND HIGHWAYS.
CHAPTER XI.
ROADS AND HIGHWAYS-STREAMS AND BRIDGES.
The first two pages by John F. Simmons. All else by Jedediah Dwelley.
ROADS AND HIGHWAYS.
All the known methods of transportation have been exemplified within the bounds of our town except canals.
The earliest and most primitive, which Bayard Taylor made classical by his "Views Afoot," was the good old way provided us by nature. This means of movement from place to place was practiced long before Hanover was dreamed of, by the Indian travellers. Their moccasined feet had worn through the leaves of the oak woods and over the pine-needle carpets of the pine forests the old Indian trails or paths.
The territory of our town is known to have been crossed by at least two of these highways of the red men. One led across the town from north to south and connected the tribes of the Massachusetts on the north with the tribes living at Plymouth and the Cape on the south. It is supposed to have entered the town at Assinippi where it was crossed by the trail from the west across the Third Herring brook toward the shore. At these aboriginal cross roads there existed a spring somewhere back of the present residence of Frank Alger at Assinippi village at which travelling red men were went to camp. It was the precursor of the "Halfway House" of more recent years. Now, the spring is choked and its exact location is difficult to establish. It has, how- ever, left its mark upon the locality and the time, by the name "Assinippi," which the white men caught from the Indian words, designating the spring, "Hassen Ippi," Rocky Water.
This oldest path in the state, the Plymouth and Bay Path, followed substantially the course of the present Washington street, veering west as it approached the river to take advantage of the ford at the rubber mills. It was here that Governor Winthrop,
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
on his first visit to Plymouth Colony, was carried across on the back of James Ludden and this crossing, which exemplifies the second means of transportation, became known as Luddam's or Luddin's ford. Deane has "no doubt that James Ludden, an wearly settler of Weymouth, was the Governor's carrier in this instance." The incident occurred in 1632.
This path was probably, like the foot-paths through the woods of to-day, only a few feet wide, winding in and out through the trees of the "forest primeval," over stepping stones through the lower grounds, and seldom coming to a clearing until an Indian village had been reached. Small clearings were occasion- ally met with, near some large pond or marsh. But as a general thing the unbroken forest of oak, maple and pine covered the whole land with the shade of their "old growth" trees, when the Pilgrims landed in 1620.
As horses became more numerous in the colony, the successor of the foot-path was the bridle-path, scarcely wider or better marked than the old Indian trails and usually following their identical course. As the Indian by habit always walked single file if several travelled together and as the white settlers, especi- ally when mounted, found intercourse more comfortable, riding side by side, the old foot-path began to widen out.
In still later times the introduction of wheeled vehicles made it neccessary to prepare more carefully the ways of travel. While the old bridle paths followed usually the way of the foot-path, the cart-path or wagon road in its turn followed the bridle-path. Dr. Holland, in his novel "The Bay Path," describes vividly that thoroughfare from Boston to Worcester : "It was marked by trees a portion of the distance and by slight clearings of brush and thicket for the remainder. No stream was bridged, no hill was graded and no marsh drained. The path led through woods which bore the marks of centuries, over barren hills which had been licked by the Indian hounds of fire and along the banks of streams that the seine had never dragged."
Before Governor Winthrop died, in 1649, Massachusetts had a cavalry corps. The first horses of the Colonists were small and scrubby, but before 1635 a cargo of Flemish draft horses was brought into Boston. Longfellow tells us, in the "Courtship of Miles Standish," that the little captain saw John Alden carry home the bride Priscilla mounted on a white bull. Plymouth had kine before it had horses.
We can imagine one of our sturdy settlers mounted, with ma-
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dam seated behind on the pillion with arm about her lord's waist, treading the still, warm, dewey woods on a Sunday morning in June on their way to the meeting which they scorned to call. church, while the younger generation made an often unwilling" procession behind.
The first roads were but cart-ways, where deep and rocky ruts- made travelling faster than a walk, not only hard but dangerous .. The town slowly adopted the policy of caring for the ways. And. yet the advent, later, of stage coach routes and their outgrowth, the turnpike corporation, caused macadamized roads to be intro -- duced into this country before they were adopted in England or- the continent. In fact, London McAdam, who gave his name to a form of road building, took with him from America in 1783 the: idea upon which his road building was based.
What follows is by Jedediah Dwelley:
The first record of the laying out of highways in Plymouth: Colony was a vote passed the third of January, 1627, by the Plymouth Colony Court .- "It was agreed. . . . . that the old. pathways be still allowed and that every man be allowed a con- venient way to the water, wheresoever the lot fall." This doubt- less meant that all should have access to the sea, the great high- way of nations, and that the paths already travelled should be made free for public use.
In 1639, it was enacted by the court, "that if an highway bee wanting in any township of this Government upon due complaint that then the Govr, or any of his assistants impanel a Jury and upon oath charge them to lay out such waies both for horse and foot as in Conscience they shall find most beneficial for the Com- monwealth and as little prejudiciall as may bee to the particulars and that all old pathes shall bee still allowed except other pro- vision be orderly made, and that where there are alowed foot pathes over any mans ground which is fenced up the owners of such fences shall make convenient stiles or Gates."
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