USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1630 to 1855 > Part 40
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Nov. 14, 1774, the town passed the following vote : "That this town does disapprove of any bricks being car- ried to Boston till the committees of the neighboring towns shall consent to it."
About the same time Captain Caleb Blanchard and his brother Simon made bricks in a yard near Mr. Cradock's house, in the eastern part of the town ; and afterwards in a yard on land on Salem Street, on the edge of Malden.
The bricks used for the construction of the six tombs first built in the old burying-ground were made in a yard owned by Thomas Brooks, Esq. That yard was near Mystic River, about half-way between Rock Hill and the Lowell Railroad Bridge. In that yard, Samuel Francis made bricks as early as 1750, and sold them at ten shil- lings per thousand (lawful money). Mr. Brooks carried on the manufacture in 1760, and sold them at fifteen shil- lings. Mr. Stephen Hall was the next occupant of that yard. In 1795 the price was four dollars per thousand.
Captain Caleb Brooks made bricks on the land after- wards occupied by the Second Meeting-house.
A bed of clay was opened in 1805, about forty rods east of the Wear Bridge, on land belonging to Spencer Buck- nam, lying on the north side of the road. Only one kiln was burned there.
Fountain Yards. - These yards, which were near the " Fountain House," about eighty rods east of "Gravelly Bridge," were early in order of age. Messrs. William Tufts, Thomas Bradshaw, Hutchinson Tufts, Benjamin Tufts, and Sylvanus Blanchard were the manufacturers
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in that locality. These yards were long since discon tinued.
Yards near the "Cradock House" were opened in 1630. Mr. Francis Shedd occupied them in 1700.
" Sodom Yards." - As the familiar but improper sobri- quet of Sodom was early given to that part of Medford which lies south of the river, the brick-yards opened by the brothers Isaac, Jonathan, and Ebenezer Tufts, obtained the local name. After these gentlemen came Seth Tufts, who, with his son Seth, carried on the business many years. These yards were situated near Middlesex Canal and the river, about south-south-east from Rock Hill.
There was once a brick-yard on the low lands just west of Boston Avenue and opposite the " Old Canal House." The evidence of its existence was very clear in our boy- hood, and some traces of it exist at the present day. It was worked in the latter part of the last century.
On land now owned by Mr. Francis Brooks, a little west of Brooks Street, and near the head of Woburn Street, there was once a brick-yard.
The bricks in the wall now standing on Grove Street, owned by Peter C. Brooks and Shepherd Brooks, were probably made on this land by slaves owned by one of their ancestors.
The next in order of age were the yards opened in 1810 by Nathan Adams, Esq. They were situated each side of the old county road, leading from Medford over Winter Hill, and were about half a mile south of the "Great Bridge," in the small valley on the borders of Winter Brook. From the first kiln, Captain Adams built the house now standing on the right side of the road, twenty rods north of the kiln, as an advertisement; and the bricks show the goodness of the clay and the skill of the work- men. These yards were next occupied by Mr. Babbitt, and by him worked for several years. He was succeeded by a Mr. Buzzell, who, with associates, worked the yard ; but they were not successful, and that clay-bed was not disturbed for some years after they left it. In 1876 John Thresher renewed brick-making at that point, and has made, each year since, from two to three millions of bricks.
Still farther south, and near the fork of the roads lead- ing to Boston, through Charlestown and East Cambridge, is another yard, which, for many years, was worked by
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Mr. Littlefield ; but, from 1878 to the present time, has been in the hands of Mr. Thomas Casey, who is now making, every year, five or six hundred thousand pressed bricks of a very superior character.
The Massachusetts Brick Company was started in 1865, and continued business for a few years, on an extensive scale, between the two yards last named. They manufac- tured by the new process of using dry clay ; but the bricks were not durable, and the company abandoned the enter- prise.
The Bay State Brick Company was organized, 1863, by the election of the following officers : -
President. - R. S. Wade.
Treasurer. - J. B. Turner.
Trustees. - H. R. Cumston, Peter Hubbell, Job A. Turner, Charles W. Pearson, William Cumston.
The extensive yards of this company are situated on Riverside Avenue, a short distance below the Cradock House. Their annual product since the organization of the company has been about fifteen million bricks ; and the company has made three hundred millions. It has consumed, annually, six thousand cords of wood, and has employed about three hundred and fifty hands to do the work.
DISTILLERIES.
The manufacture of alcohol was a business held in good repute by our Medford ancestors, and some of the most worthy men of the town were engaged in it. It was not uncommon, in the first century of the growth of Medford, for private families to have a "still," by running which they supplied themselves with alcohol for medicinal pur- poses, sold small quantities to their neighbors, and made for use different kinds of cordials.
It was considered a breach of hospitality not to offer a visitor some kind of spirituous liquor ; and if the bottle was empty when the clergyman made his call, many words of apology were deemed necessary. It is said that on the occasion of one of Rev. Dr. Byles's visits to his parishioners, the following dialogue occurred. The lady of the house, boasting of the beverage just then upon the doctor's lips, asked him to step into the kitchen and see the "still" in which it was made. When she had extolled its wonderful qualities the doctor said, "Well, madam, if it be so very
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remarkable, I wish you would do a job for me with it." - " With all my heart, sir," said the lady; "what shall I do?"-" Why," said the reverend gentleman, "still my wife's tongue."
This story may deserve the name of a myth; but it is not to be doubted that in the early days of New-England history many a pious pastor, by taking a little stimulus at each of numerous calls, found his tongue just loose enough to perpetrate a very silly and scandalous joke.
It is not known who set in operation the first distillery in Medford, but presumably it was Mr. Andrew Hall ; and the date of his enterprise was 1735. The spot he oc- cupied was that on which the present distillery stands. The building was of wood, and the spot was chosen chiefly for the reason that a most copious spring of peculiarly good water issues from the earth at that place. The great reputation obtained by the Medford rum is attributed to the singular properties of this spring.
Mr. Hall died just as his eldest son, Benjamin, had reached his majority. This son stepped into his father's place, and carried on the business.
There is a tradition that a man named Blanchard set up a distillery in this town very early in its history, which was afterwards used by Hezekiah Blanchard the innholder, who distilled there anise-seed, snake-root, clove-water, etc., which liquors were afterwards produced in large quan- tities in Medford. This distillery was located on the first lot east of the bridge, on the south side of the river.
In 1777 Medford rum was sold by the barrel, for 3s. Iod. per gallon, and at 4s. 6d. in smaller quantities.
There was not much profit in making rum at such prices ; but the second Mr. Hall persevered in his voca- tion. One year, having invested his little capital in molasses until he had filled his last vat, there came a tide so high that it overflowed his premises and gave him a stock of salt water and molasses, that proved to be utterly useless. That tidal wave ruined him as effectually as it did his material for rum ; but with true Anglo-Saxon courage he kept up a good heart, and would not acknowledge that he was beaten.
He asked his friends in Malden to aid him in starting again ; and Capt. John Dexter, Capt. Harnden, and Mr. John Bucknam joined him in building the second distill- ery, which, in our day, is converted into a shelter for the
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locomotives of the Medford Branch Railroad. After this time, Mr. John Bishop built a distillery on the opposite side of Riverside Avenue, and nearer the river. Mr. Ben- jamin Hall, in 1797, took down the one which his father had built of wood, and replaced it with the one of brick which is now used. This enlargement of the business, together with the high reputation justly acquired by the manufacturers in Medford, gave employment to many workmen ; and the business was considered lucrative, and desirable as an industry of the town. Distilling has been carried on in this town by Messrs. Andrew Hall, Ben- jamin Hall, John Bishop, Nathaniel Hall, Fitch Tufts, Joseph Swan, Hall & Manning, Joseph Hall, Bishop, Goodrich & Lawrence, Fitch & Lawrence, Daniel Law- rence, and Daniel Lawrence & Sons, by which firm alone it is at present prosecuted.
Soon after 1830 all the distilleries, except the one now used by the firm last mentioned, were discontinued, and three of the buildings were demolished.
WAGON-BUILDING.
Jesse Crosby, in 1816, established at the junction of Main Street and the Medford turnpike (now Mystic Avenue) the business of a wheelwright and plough-manu- facturer ; and conducted it with much success till 1839, when he sold out to Elbridge Teel, who had commenced the same business on Union Street in 1836. Mr. Teel conducted the business alone till 1850, when Thomas O. Hill became an equal partner. In 1872 a third partner was received ; the firm now consisting of Elbridge Teel, Thomas O. Hill, and Josiah R. Teel, under the title of E. Teel & Co. The business from the first had been on the increase, but in the last thirty years has undergone a material change in character. For some time its principal work has been the manufacture of milk, grocers', bread, and express wagons and pungs ; the iron-work, the trimming and painting, as well as the wood-work, being done on the premises. A large amount of repairing is also done. The works cover about an acre of land, with three large fac- tories on Union Street and the depository on Mystic Avenue, erected 1883, which is one hundred and ten feet long by thirty-eight feet wide, and three stories high. From thirty-five to forty-five men are employed in the
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various departments. The wagons and pungs of E. Teel & Co. have a very wide reputation for their thorough work- manship and excellence of finish.
GOLD-BEATING.
Of the very few gold-beating establishments in Massa- chusetts, the largest, owned and conducted by Mr. Charles P. Lauriat, is located in Medford.
He commenced the business on Almont Street in 1856, removed to Salem Street about two years later, and to his present location on Ashland Street in 1866. He has also a smaller factory under the charge of Amos C. Lauriat on Riverside Avenue ; and his entire business, amounting to about fifty thousand dollars per year, gives employ- ment, including both sexes, to some thirty-five or forty persons.
Mr. Lewis A. Lauriat, the popular and successful aëro- naut of fifty years ago, of whose eleven children Charles P. was the youngest, was the first to introduce the gold- beating business in Massachusetts.
A small factory for the same business has been recently opened on Riverside Avenue by Mr. Thomas Wright.
LEATHER MANUFACTURING.
In 1856 Messrs. George Gill and George Walker estab- lished in Medford the business of currying and finishing leather, and continued the same for several years with fair success. Then Mr. Gill withdrew from the firm, and Mr. Myrick purchased his interest. Walker and Myrick car- ried on the business for three or four years, and then Mr. Morris Broderick engaged in it for a short time.
After that, nothing was done in that business in this town, until 1879; when Mr. P. McGowan took hold of it with commendable energy, and has found the reward that enterprise and good management are sure to win. At this time (1885), he employs about fifty men, and present indications promise a large increase in his business.
MYSTIC PRINT-WORKS.
This branch of business was established in the east part of the town in 1863, by John Cochrane, jun. It has been and is an important business, and gives employ-
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ment to nearly one hundred workmen. Its pay-roll an- nually amounts to fifty or sixty thousand dollars.
THE MEDFORD CARPET-FACTORY.
The factory was established in 1866, by John Cochrane, jun., on the same premises occupied by the print-works. It annually produces from two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand yards of the best tapestries in the mar- ket. It gives employment to one hundred and twenty- five or more workmen. Its annual pay-roll is about sixty thousand dollars. At this establishment a "Turkey-red" department for printing and dyeing was quite extensively carried on for several years ; but business accommodations were too limited, and that branch was removed to Malden in 1882, where it is now conducted on a very large scale.
THE BRUNSWICK ANTIMONY COMPANY
was established in Medford in April, 1880. Charles E. Parsons is superintendent and chemist. The ore is shipped from the mines to the factory in Medford, there passed through the various processes till prepared for the market. Some twenty to twenty-five men are now employed, with favorable prospect of an increase.
THE ARCTIC SODA-WATER APPARATUS.
In January, 1884, Mr. William P. Clark established a brass-foundery for the manufacture of soda-water appara- tus. His products are used exclusively by Mr. James W. Tufts, a prominent citizen of Medford, who for twenty years has probably been the largest manufacturer of soda- water apparatus in this State, if not in New England.
BAKERIES.
The first manufacturer of Medford crackers was Con- vers Francis. He served his apprenticeship to the bak- ing-business with Capt. Ebenezer Hall, in Medford. After acting as his foreman for some years, he set up for himself in Arlington, where he remained two years, when Capt. Hall came to him, and proposed that he should return to Medford, and take his bakehouse and business, and carry it on for himself. This he agreed to do. Thus Mr. Francis, in 1797, found himself in Medford, doing a good
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business in the place of his master. In that business he continued till 1818, without intermission, and accumulated a handsome property. He believed in progress; and soon after he was well established in business here, he bent the energies of an active and inventive mind to the work of producing a new kind of crackers. He well knew that the quality of the flour to be used demanded his first consider- ation ; and so skilful did he become in testing that article, that he did not regard the marks, or brands, placed upon it, neither its popularity in the market. He would tell the true quality in a few moments, and was never known to select a bad barrel. In the manufacture of his bread, every component part was personally examined, and every rule most scrupulously complied with. There was a severe exactness in each particular, that helped greatly in securing the final success. Mr. Francis produced a cracker which was considered as more tasteful and healthy than any heretofore invented. Every year increased his reputation, and widened his business ; and, as early as 1805, Medford crackers were known through the country, and sometimes were sent to foreign lands. As early as 1834 a Medford man saw, in a shop-window in London, this sign : “ Med- ford Crackers." This bread deserved all the fame it ac- quired ; for never had there been any so good, and we think there is now none better. Much labor was required in making the crackers, and all the work was done without the aid of machinery. Each cracker was nearly double the size of those now made; and the dough was kneaded, rolled, weighed, pricked, marked, and tossed into the oven, by hand.
The labor of making a barrel of flour into crackers cost then nine dollars, and now about three dollars. This bread was called crackers, because one of them would crack into two equal parts. One piece of dough was rolled out just thick enough to enable it to swell up with the internal steam generated by baking on the hot brick floor of the oven; and holes enough were pricked into the dough to allow a part of the steam to escape, and so leave the mass split into two equal parts, adhering mostly by the edges.
Medford has always maintained a high reputation for its crackers and bread.
Mr. Francis was succeeded in business by Mr. Timothy Brigden, whose bread was excellent.
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Mr. Timothy Cotting carried on the baking-business in this town for nearly half a century, and was very success- ful. His place of business was at the corner of Salem and Forest Streets ; and some of the time he had upon the road four or five teams, that went out into surrounding towns.
There were other bakers in Medford during the first half of this century, some of whom did a fair business, and made good bread.
Among them, we name Messrs. Childs & Sawyer, who occupied for a few years the old Brigden bake-house, already named. After they gave up the business as a firm, Mr. Childs continued to sell bread in the neighbor- ing towns for a long time. Many of our Medford people have pleasant memories of the genial countenance and kind words of Nathan Childs, the deaf baker, who went from house to house with his ear-trumpet in hand, bound to hear precisely what his customers ordered, and sure to fill all orders.
But the man whose bread has been better known in this region than that of any other baker, by the present generation, is Henry Withington. In 1825 Withington & Lane established themselves in the bakery business on Salem Street. Mr. Lane retired from the firm after two years, and Mr. Withington continued in the business to the time of his death, in 1870; but, after 1862, it was carried on by his son, the father assisting him. The son, Henry Withington, still continues the business ; and it is a remarkable fact that father and son have individually or unitedly carried on the same enterprise, on the same spot, under the name of Henry Withington, for fifty-eight years ; and there has been so little change in the general appear- ance of the building, inside and outside, that, should the customers who removed from town fifty years ago return and patronize the son of their former baker, they would be at once at home again.
But, while the building is the same in its general appear- ance, the business facilities have kept pace with the in- creasing demand for the Withington bread. Horse-power was put into the building in 1865, and, in 1870 steam-power was employed in the processes by which the flour was pre- pared for the oven. In the year last named, a patent revolving oven was introduced, by which the process of baking is wonderfully facilitated.
The dough is run through a cylinder, taken upon an
FAN CY CRACKERS BREAD CAKE & PIES
HENRY WITHINGTON
WITHINGTON'S BAKERY.
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apron, and passed along, docked, and taken up, some fifty disks at a time, on a peel, or wooden shovel, and put into the oven. The oven has such capacity that it could bake bread enough for the whole town.
They make at this house a hundred barrels of crackers per week. No one who has visited the bakery will fail to recognize the illustration which our artist has here given. The building was erected more than two hundred and thirty years ago. Long may it stand, and be as honorably and successfully occupied in the future as in the past !
MEDFORD FLORISTS.
Mr. Francis Theiler was the first man in Medford who made the cultivation of flowers a special vocation. He settled first on Highland Avenue; but, in four years, moved into a new house on Fulton Street, where until 1879, the time of his death, he was actively engaged as a florist. He was in the business more than twenty years, and until his death.
Mr. James Bean was the next man to engage in the business extensively. He erected his greenhouse on High Street in 1861, and continued his delightful and lucrative vocation until 1879, when his son George H. Bean became his successor, and is still prosecuting the business on a liberal scale.
Mr. John Duane engaged in floriculture about sixteen years ago, on High Street, near the depot of the Boston and Lowell Railroad, and has to this day prosecuted the work of raising flowers for the market, with great success. His conservatories are extensive.
Mrs. George Gill has large greenhouses on Ashland Street. The first one, built in 1873, was forty-five feet in length. The second, built the following year, was a hun- dred feet long. In 1879 an addition was made to the building, and Mrs. Gill is enjoying a large degree of pros- perity in her charming employment.
A. W. Crockford, on Forest Street, has a greenhouse in which are six thousand feet of glass.
It is estimated that twenty thousand dollars' worth of flowers are sold annually by the florists of Medford.
GAS IN MEDFORD.
The introduction of gas into Medford was preceded by the following legislative action : Malden and Melrose Gas-
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Light Company, chartered Feb. 27, 1854; Medford Gas- Light Company, chartered March 31, 1854; Malden and Medford Gas-Light Company, authorized to unite, April 29, 1854; Malden and Medford Gas-Light Company, au- thorized to extend their pipes into Medford, June 4, 1856.
March 4, 1854, it was "voted that the selectmen be instructed to cause the streets and town-hall to be lighted with gas, in case the Act of Incorporation for a gas-com- pany be obtained." May I, 1857, the selectmen were instructed to make arrangements with the Malden and Melrose Gas Company to light the town-hall and streets ; and gas was introduced into Medford in 1857.
THE T. P. DRESSER MANUFACTURING COMPANY
Was organized in 1882, by special charter from the Legis- lature. Its factory is on Salem Street. It introduces a new branch of business in the place, in the manufacture of machine-knit and hand-made worsted goods, and silk and woollen mittens of all grades. Infants' wear is a specialty.
STAGE-COACHES.
In the early years of Medford, the merchants and other business-men of Boston lived in, or very near, that city, and usually reached their places of business, at an early hour, by a cheerful and healthful walk.
From Cambridge or Charlestown to Boston was consid- ered a short distance by the pedestrians of a hundred years ago; and men and women walked from those places into the metropolis, and home again, without thinking it an inconvenience, much less a hardship. But the residents of Medford could not so easily reach Boston. The larger number of the men and women in Medford visited the city only on urgent occasions. The necessities of the people did not often extend beyond the supply which the Medford shops, stores, and mills had constantly on hand. A visit to Boston for the purpose of shopping was a rare event, especially among the poorer classes ; and when it did occur, the journey was usually made on foot.
But that was in the far past. Nearly three-quarters of a century ago, Mr. Joseph Wyman, mindful of the more intimate business relations of Medford and Boston, and of the constantly increasing demand for conveyance to and from the great centre of trade, put a coach on the
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road, to run to and from Boston and Medford once a day. It was a great enterprise, and furnished the chief theme for conversation for many weeks. The coach was adver- tised to leave Medford at eight o'clock A.M., and to leave Wild's Hotel, No. 11 Elm Street, Boston, for Medford, at four o'clock P.M.
The average number of passengers was at first about ten, each way. It proved to be a profitable business; and when the proprietor added to it light expressage, it paid him handsome returns.
But the demand for conveyance increased ; and in 1836 Mr. Wyman had an omnibus built expressly for this line, at a cost of six hundred dollars. He named it "Gov. Brooks," and it made its first trip on the 18th of October of that year. This was probably the first omnibus built in New England. Eighteen persons could ride inside, and six outside. This was a profitable investment ; for it was. not long before the coach ran over the road twice each way daily, and still later three times, and the number of passengers averaged fifty to sixty per day.
The fare was at first thirty-seven and a half cents each way, but was finally reduced to twenty-five cents. Mr. Wyman was himself the Jehu, and for thirty-four years he drove to and from the city twice a day without a single. serious accident.
He was a very genial and obliging man; so much SO, that people would impose upon his good-nature, and some -. times request him to take on baggage it would be quite .. impossible for him to carry ; but they could not provoke- him to any discourtesy.
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