USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Holyoke > Holyoke to-day : penned and pictured 1887 > Part 2
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170 sections. These sections were connected or tied to each other by 12-inch square sticks running across the river. The structure above the foundation sticks was made up of alternate courses of these ties and rafters, also 12-inch square. Between the rafters, in the same course with the ties, short blocks were introduced to stiffen or prevent the bending of the rafters. At the splicings of the rafter longer pieces were put in and treenailed to the rafter with eight two-inch treenails of oak. The foot of each rafter was scribed and bolted to the rock with 114-inch iron bolts. The structure was thus reared to its full height and its upstream surface covered with 6-inch plank with the exception of a space of 16 feet, which was left temporarily open. The toe of the dam was secured by placing a second covering of plank at right angles to the first with the lower end scribed and bolted to the rock. Except the space left temporarily open, it was filled solid with gravel. The crest of the dam, four feet on the up-stream side, was covered with boiler iron three-eighths of an inch thick to protect the top from the blows of drift wood and ice.
In this manner 400 feet of the dam were completed, 200 feet on each side of the river. As the summer advanced and the water became lower the coffer dams were extended 200 feet farther on each side, crowding the water into a space of 217 feet in width in the middle of the stream. The structure was continued as above described through the extended coffer dam. There then remained only the central portion of 217 feet to be finished. Here, to dispose of the water, it
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became necessary to remove the coffer dams, previously constructed, and let the water on to the portions of the main dam already completed. A strong coffer dam was then thrown across the gap, four feet higher than the first ones, raising the water and turning it through the openings left in the main dam. This accomplished and the water pumped out of the coffer dam, the last piece of the structure was rapidly pressed forward to completion. The coffer dam in the center was then removed and the dam stood complete except the opening in the planking, through which the water was running the whole breadth of the river. Nothing remained but to close this opening. This was done by building gates or doors of the width of the opening, 16 feet, and each 18 feet long. These gates were put together on the slope of the dam above the opening and hung by five strong hinges each to the planking already spiked down. When finished these gates were raised by derricks and lowered partly over the opening, held in place by a post attached to a lever, which, by power applied at the proper time, would remove the post, leaving the gate to drop into place. All the other openings in the dam excepting these gateways had been closed before the removal of the coffer dam. Forty-six gates, each 18 feet long were constructed to close the openings.
In all this work nearly 4,000,000 feet of lumber were used. All open spaces were filled and closely packed with stone, as well as gravel, to a height of ten feet, and the planking of the upper portion of the dam was doubled to a thickness of eighteen inches of solid timber. The bed of
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the river was graveled 70 feet above the dam, and this graveling was continued over 30 feet or more of its sloping surface, which was 92 feet in width from the foot to the crest. The masonry of the abutments, bulkhead and waste-weir immediately below, was made of heavy ashlar work, built on a solid ledge and massive enough to withstand the heavy pressure to which it is subjected. The bulkhead, 140 feet long and 46 feet wide, is now surmounted by an extensive gate house.
It had been intended to close the openings in the dam on October 23, 1849, but recent rains had already begun to raise the river, and the engineers made haste to test the dam before the stream should be too high. So on Monday, October 22, says the Hampden Freeman of October 27, a newspaper then published in Holyoke, "orders were given to shut off the water. The gates had been previously prepared, and were placed parallel with the water and each was supported by a mere prop. At 12 o'clock and 35 minutes the men were all stationed, along the top of the dam, and the signal was given by Mr. Anderson, the chief engineer. In an instant each alternate gate fell, with a heavy plash, into the water, and all was silent :- then another signal, and the remaining gates buried themselves in the eddying floods. The waves, hitherto foaming, restless, checked by the huge breastwork, appeared like a restive horse curbed by a strong hand. The cheers of the multitudes on the western banks, were echoed by cheers from apparently an equal number on the eastern shore, and the waters began to accumulate, and to fill the pond. The note
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of preparation had been sounded along the wires to Hartford and to Boston, and many strangers arrived in town during the afternoon. The banks on either shore were lined with spectators during the day, and the estimated number of persons present was six thousand. The most interesting question was, 'How long will it take to fill?" and it was not definitely answered until about ten o'clock in the evening, when the cheers of the crowd on the South Hadley side indicated that the water had commenced to flow over upon that side, and in less than ten minutes it was flowing over the whole length of the dam. At eleven o'clock the water having acquired a full head, fell in one unbroken sheet, and by the light of fires built upon either shore presented a beautiful spectacle." The next day the village was crowded by people from far and near to see the famous dam. The falling water vibrated doors and windows and, it is said, even caused houses to rock on their foundations for a short time after it began to flow over the dam. It is said that one house rocked to such a degree that an old man who was in it was sea sick, and in another quaking house a man thought he had the shaking palsy! But the key note of the vibrations changed in a few days and they made no further trouble. The pond above the dam came so near the Con- necticut River railroad that the water undermined about 40 rods of the track so that the rails and ties slid into the river, but this was repaired in two days. When the gates were closed, in consequence of the notice that had been sent through the neighboring country, express trains began to run from
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Springfield, Northampton and Hartford. The train coming from Hartford brought 167 persons from that city, and enough from way stations between that city and Springfield to make the number 300. At 7 p. m. the water in the river at Chicopee, a little over three miles below, had fallen five feet, and nearly four feet at Springfield, with scarcely a perceptible current. As the water behind the dam was filling up it was noticed that it leaked only a little,-just enough to bathe the wood and keep it from rotting. During the filling of the pond, the water below left the bed of the river, only a little water remaining in hollows in the rocks where it could not run out. Many tools that had been lost in the work, were then recovered, and eels and fishes were taken out of the pools by the handful. A rough estimate of the lateral pressure, which the dam sustains gives nearly twenty-nine millions of pounds, the vertical pressure being three times that amount. The total cost of the structure in 1849 was set down at $150,000.
Before leaving this subject it may be well to mention that about eighteen years after the building of the dam, the property in the meantime having been purchased by the Holyoke Water Power Co., it was feared that it had become weakened by the action of ice and water, and after the spring freshet of 1868 the anxiety of the company led to an examination of the front foundations, a difficult and perilous undertaking. It was found that the force of heavy logs and huge ice cakes brought down by the floods had worn away the front timbers, to the length of 20 feet in some
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instances, and taken out large pieces of the rock foundation, some of them weighing 20 tons, leaving great holes in the front of the dam. To check this wearing action it was decided to strengthen the dam by building a front extension, similar in form to the original structure, in such a way that the dam should have a sloping front, giving the dam the form of a roof and making it capable to stand any pressure that might be put upon it. The new structure was fifty feet wide at the base, rising about five feet from the level of the stream below, and thence sloping to the top of the old dam. To reach the foundation rock it was decided to sink cribs in front filled with heavy ballasting of rock, over which the net work of massive logs and timbers was constructed. Both the old and new structures were made absolutely solid, the interstices being filled with stone,
leaving no open-work timbers in the old dam. The work was begun the first of September, 1868,
and the middle section, about one-third of the structure, was built the first season. About one hundred skilled dam-builders and lumbermen were at first employed, and the number was soon increased to 200. The following season some 250 men were employed on the work. About a week after the work began forty of the workmen struck for an advance of wages, but all but eight returned to work again after making a slight disturbance. The high water, in consequence of protracted storms, causing a delay in the progress of the work about the middle of the month, a coffer dam was built to protect the work on the cribs. Car loads of timber and stone, and
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rafts of huge logs from the north arrived daily.
The middle section was finished and the water let on to the slope in January, 1869. That portion of the work cost about $80,000.
In the following June the work of extending the completed portion east towards the South Hadley Falls shore was begun. The work had no interruption until the great freshet in October which brought down a great mass of logs, bridges and trees and damaged the crib work to the amount of $25,000, causing a serious delay.
The east side was finished during the following winter and the remaining part was built the succeeding summer. The great work was completed in September, 1870, and its whole cost was about $350,000. When finished it was pronounced a
triumph of engineering skill, and is strong enough to withstand any flood. But, though the dam was thus saved, leaks have been frequent, many of them serious. The plank covering of the dam was too light and has been easily broken through. When the apron was built, heavy stones were dumped or lost out of scows and, falling on the planks, partly broke them through, so that places were left that eventually grew into bad leaks. In other ways the water found passage ways through the covering and the tremendous weight has several times torn out wide passages in the timbers. The stoppage of these leaks was performed in cribs or coffer dams that were placed around them ; but new leaks were sometimes made in this way and the work at the best was unsatisfactory. In 1884 the leaks became so bad that they foreboded disaster to the dam, if not its entire abandon-
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ment, and much was said and written at the time as to what would be the result if this great dam should become useless. The daily product of writing paper in the United States would then be reduced one-half and, while Holyoke manufacturers would suffer from idleness, others would sell more goods and at higher prices. The lessees of water power becoming somewhat frightened, formed an association for the protection of their interest in case the Water Power Company should abandon the dam. But the company had no such design, for it determined to put the dam in
a better condition than it had ever been. A plan of repairs was devised by. Mr. Clemens Herschel, the hydraulic engineer of the Holyoke Water Power Company, conspicuous for originality and for the most thorough protection of the dam against leaks. Nothing of the kind having ever been attempted before. Mr. Herschel's plan was to overhaul the dam in 100 feet sections, keeping the water back with coffers; rip off the covering 20 feet wide from the crest, and puddle gravel into all the spaces between the timbers, having first made a water tight plank sheet piling, and puddling the gravel on both sides of the same. As is well known to engineers, the puddling of gravel makes it exceedingly compact, much more so than it is found in nature. The flowing water in this instance carried the gravel along with it in its passage through the dam until one exit after another was stopped up, until finally the water could find no more space in which to leave gravel. There is no doubt that in this way the open spaces in the dam have been filled
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firmly with gravel far back from the front of the dam. This is proved by the fact that about 100 cubic yards of gravel found place in each section five feet wide clear of timbers. The sheet-piling and all the original timbers of the dam are thus enclosed in wet gravel and hence are absolutely imperishable. The sheet-piling has a front support in the timbers of the dam every twelve inches and, even if the water could penetrate through the gravel, it would present a barrier many times greater than the pressure that would ever be exerted against it. If this work had been done when the dam was built, no serious difficulty whould ever have been had with it, and probably no serious leak would ever have appeared. In this heretofore untried way, and yet in a way that hydraulic engineering pronounces the most effective, Mr. Herschel has succeeded in preserving one of the large dams of the world for many years to come. In the spring of the year, when the ice above the dam gives way and the swollen floods come rushing down from the north, the scene at the dam is a magnificent one. The huge masses of broken ice plunging and crowding over the crest of the dam, the roaring, boiling waters, logs and ice-floes leaping up many feet into the air in their recoil from the plunge, and the great volume of water pouring over unceasingly in one wide, unbroken sheet, with a loud roar, make up a scene that thousands gaze upon from the river banks with admiration. The system of canals as first constructed differed materially from the present system. There was an upper level canal taking water from the bulkhead at the dam and extending nearly south for
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about half a mile. It was 140 feet wide at the upper end and gradually narrowed at the lower end to a width of 80 feet, and was from 15 to 20 feet deep, with substantial walls 9 feet thick at the base. Parallel to this canal was a raceway canal on a lower level 400 feet distant from the upper canal. Between the canal and the raceway were many passages for water, which was sufficient in each instance to turn a powerful water wheel. The raceway received the water from these passages and conveyed it back toward the dam, where it was discharged into a second canal, leading in a southerly direction, from which the water was distributed to mills on the lower side and then dis- charged into the river. Locks for the passage of boats connected all these canals with the river. The survey of these canals began on July 8, 1847, and the first stone was laid in the walls of the canal first made on December 6, of the same year.
During the building of the dam and these canals contractors for the Hadley Falls Co. were making a reservoir on the hill, 1,020 feet distant from the river and 67 feet above the top of the dam, and capable of holding about 3,000,000 gallons of water. In the construction of this reservoir 500 men were at one time employed, the walls were made 15 feet high and 40 feet thick. Water from the river was forced into the reservoir through a 13-inch pipe by two pumps located above the dam. The first water was pumped into it on October 16, 1849, and the whole work pertaining to it was completed in the following November. Pipes connecting with the water in this reservoir
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were then laid through the town, which received its water from this source until 1872, when the growth of the town made a new supply requisite. Before the completion of the dam the prospects of the village were so promising that separation from the town of West Springfield was the common talk. On December 24, 1849, a meeting was held in the village to consider the subject, and it was decided to ask the next legislature to divide the town and call the new town "Hampden." The names of the village, then current, were "Ireland Depot," "New City," and "Hampden City." The legislature incorporated the town March 14, 1850, and called it, not Hampden, but Holyoke, the name being taken from a mountain of the same name, a few miles up the river, which was itself named from Elizur Holyoke, an early and prominent resident of the Connecticut river valley.
At the time the dam and canals were building, Baptist village, two miles distant, was losing its importance hereabouts. That village then had two stores, a tavern, a sash and blinds manufactory, a shoe maker, two doctors, a wheelwright, a blacksmith, a painter, a tailor and two churches. Holyoke, soon after its birth, absorbed all these, except one church. In 1850 it was a "booming" town. A census was taken in the spring of that year and its population was found to be 3,245, half of that number being workmen. One factory had been already built and another was in process of construction ; tenement houses had been erected by the Hadley Falls Co .; gangs of men with teams were grading the surface of the ground and laying out streets; and private individuals were
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building many substantial houses and stores.
Business and professional men were coming in, and in the summer of 1850 there were, in the town, thirteen persons and corporations, each paying taxes on $10,000 and over. A man worth that amount in those days was rich. In the fall of that year the Holyoke House, a fine hotel, and one of the wonderful enterprises of the town, was opened to the public. In that year also, on March 30, the first water wheel, run by water from the great dam, was set in motion, and on April 23, the first work was done in factory No. I of the Hadley Falls Co.
That company had also, a blacksmith's shop, a machine shop and an office, besides the mill that had been built, and had bought a fire engine for the service of the town. The organization of the Lyman mills was already under discussion. Fifty-nine lots of land had been sold by the company and individual enterprise was on the alert. In 1851 the Hadley Falls Co. had two factories, each containing 18,000 spindles, machine, blacksmith and pattern shops, a foundry, offices and several boarding blocks. Gas works were completed by the company in Septem- ber, 1852, and gas mains were laid throughout the village.
The prosperity of Holyoke continued to increase without a check until 1855, when the census showed that the population was 4,631, a gain of 1,386 in five years. There were then three cotton mills in the town, together employing 458 men and 1,035 women. Those mills used in one year 2,000,000 pounds of cotton and their yearly product was 13,000,000 yards of cloth, the gross value
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of which was $1, 161, 178. Also included in the town's yearly product for the year ending June I, 1855, were the following articles : Yarn valued at $20,000; machinery worth toward $400,000, made by about 400 men ; cards for cotton and woolen mills worth $30,000; piano and card wire valued at $15,000; power loom harnesses, $8,000 ; power loom reeds, nearly $2,000. The mill of the Parsons Paper Co., which had been in operation but ten months, had used nearly 200 tons of stock and manufactured $50,000 worth of fine writing paper. The begining of Holyoke's chief industry,-paper-making-was the organization of that company in 1853, with a nominal capital of $60,000 for the manufacture of fine writing paper. Such was the rapid prosperity of that company, that in 1856 a second mill was built and their busines was doubled. In 1857 the Holyoke Paper Co. was organized with a capital of $300,000, also for the manufacture of fine writing paper. The cotton manufacturing industry was started in 1854 by the Lyman mills, the capital stock of which is $1,470,000. The wire works now owned by George W. Prentiss & Co., were established in 1857, for the manufacture of refined iron wire.
The hard times which culminated in the panic of 1857 temporarily checked the growth of Holyoke. There was some stoppage of work and workmen were idle on the streets. The Hadley Falls Co., which had bought the property of the Hadley Falls Machine Co., and the Hadley Falls Thread Co., had been extravagant in its expenditure of money, to say nothing of the great loss of
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COALWHITINGEN NEOD
FANGT 00008
CLOTHING
DWIGHT STREET.
the first dam, and it became apparent, as the financial stress of the times progressed, that it must fail. In May, 1858, the Supreme Court placed its affairs in the hands of a trustee on petition of its creditors, and on February 10, 1859, the property of the company was sold at public auction for $325,000 to Alfred Smith of Hartford, who bought for himself and some associates, who were soon incorporated as the Holyoke Water Power Company. This company, with plenty of capital for the purpose made many improvements, lengthened the canals, sold land and leased mill powers to such extent that the little town, soon budded into a large manufacturing village and, in less than forty years, blossomed into a busy city of nearly 33,000 people.
A most striking view of the growth of Holyoke may be had from an examination of the figures of the census. In 1845 there were only fourteen houses where almost the entire city now stands. The people in the town in 1850 numbered 3,245 ; in 1855, 4,631; in 1860, 4,997; in 1865, 5,648; in 1870, 10,733; in 1875, 16,260; in 1880, 21,915. It is a pretty "rapid " town that gains, in one instance, 40 per cent. in population in five years, in another half decade 60 per cent., and in still another, 100 per cent.
There is not another city in the East that can show such swift and at the same time substantial growth as Holyoke has enjoyed during the two decades or more since the war .. In a few years it became the greatest paper-making center of the country. It has now twenty-four large paper-making
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corporations, one having the largest paper-mill in the world. A long established cotton manufact- uring company employs one thousand and three hundred operatives. A company manufacturing worsted goods employs one thousand persons, the two mammoth thread-mills have some one thousand names on the pay rolls. The Unquomonk silk works, which were destroyed by the great Mill River flood of 1874 were relocated in this city. New mills, factories and workshops are in course of erection all the time. Every year is adding to the aggregation of capital that here finds profitable investment, and to the army of skilled artisans whose deft hands win ample wage. The diversity of the manufacturing interests represented is remarkable, and covers a wide range of produc- tions that is annually extending. They are distributed to every part of the globe. Within a few years the lumber trade has come to be very active and has assumed large proportions. Immense lumber drives are sent down the river from the thick forests on its headwaters, where the trees are felled during the winter. , These logs are held in the booms above the dam, and furnish a cheap and convenient supply to the lumber mills in this section.
Let no one imagine, however, that the city of Holyoke is simply the seat of a thirty-thousand- horse water power and numerous extensive and flourishing manufactories. It is a delightful place in which to live. The city is self-contained and complete in all things that make life rational and worth the living. In building up the great and prosperous business interests that have made it
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famous, its people have not been oblivious to the significant moral and social demands created and imposed by New England civilization. The city is new without being raw-though there is much that is rare. It is modern in every essential regard. Its streets intersect at right angles, all its improvements, public and private, are of a substantial and permanent character, and mush- roomism is conspicuous by its absence. Brick and stone are the prevailing building materials, and some of the most sightly and solid specimens of architecture in the state adorn the thoroughfares of Holyoke, notable among them the elegant City Hall. The number of beautiful private residences framed by cultivated lawns is a distinguishing feature, and manifold signs of prosperity are matched by the countless symbols of intelligence, culture, and refinement that rises on every hand.
The attention given by the people of Holyoke to education and the ample provision they have made for it are commensurate with the importance that has always attached to it throughout New England. The public-school system in vogue here is of a piece with that which generally prevails in Massachusetts, injected, perhaps, with a practical spirit and element superinduced by the pronounced industrial character of the city. It is in charge of a school committee, of which the mayor is chairman, composed of one member of each of the seven wards and two at large; there are also a superintendent and two truant officers. The schools are carefully graded, presided over by earnest, competent teachers, are well attended and generously maintained. For the most part the school-
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