USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 10
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1,016. In 1900 the census shows 4,658; that of 1910 shows 5,777; that
Vincent, Humphrey,
Warren, William, Wattles, Richard,
Pinder, Henry,
Smith, Thomas,
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The idea of religious freedom was deeply set in the hearts of our sturdy forefathers. When they had once a real right to form a govern- ment of their own, they naturally chose the book of all books-the Bible -as their guide. It was to them all authority, and contained the true principles of all municipal, moral and religious governments. This was in fact the origin of our unique form of town government-a pure demo- cracy-which was confirmed and established by law in 1636, when the General Court conferred upon the towns the right to grant lots of land and to make and enforce most of the laws that should govern them. Occasionally there was an exception to this rule, as in the case when in 1636 the General Court ordered that the next term there should be passed a law that Ipswich, with other towns, "shall have libertie to stay soe many of their ffreemen att home for the safety of their own towne as they judged needful, and that the saide ffreemen that are appointed by the towne to stay att home, shall have their libertie for this court to send their votes by proxy." In 1631 it was enacted that only church members could vote, and this was not repealed until 1644. In 1692 a voter for representative had to be worth at least a realty of forty shillings a year, and other estate of forty pounds. Aside from these provisions it was a government of equal rights.
Originally, the title of the office now known as selectmen was called "sevenmen"-doubtless from the Scripture sayings like these: "Wisdom hath hewn out seven pillars;" "Seven men that can render a reason," etc. They began their duties when the town was organized. In 1638 they numbered eleven; from 1723 the number was reduced to five. After 1740 the "seven" seems to have lost its power. In 1794 one man was selected from the north side of the river, one from the south side, and one from Chebacco. In 1798 it was voted to have five selectmen, at a salary of $19. Fifteen men were chosen and all declined the office. The salary was then raised to $38, when it was possible to secure five select- men. In 1797 the meetings were held in the school-house chamber. The town officers included a clerk, constables, tithingmen, treasurer, sur- veyors, commissioner of taxes, fireman, hog-reeves and hog-ringers, hay- wards, fence-viewers, town-crier, clerk of the market, etc.
The first roads for general travel were laid out a rod and one-half wide. But they seldom were worked that width, for a mere path or trail was sufficient, as travel was mostly by horseback or by footmen. A pathway was first opened up between Boston and Newburyport in 1635. In 1641 the road to Salem was determined; another to Andover in 1652. The highway to Essex was laid out in 1654, and from Newburyport to Topsfield in 1717, via Linebrook. Records show that as late as 1832 there were only wagon roads in the town amounting to seventy-two miles. Other chapters will treat on the various railways of Essex county, in- cluding the lines in this town. A former history of this portion of the State has the following on an early canal:
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In 1652, 22:12, Thomas Clark and Reginal Foster, were "to have ten pounds for cutting a passage from this river to Chebacco river of ten foot wide and soe deepe as a lighter laden may pass, and making a forde and foote bridge over." In 1669 the selectmen "are to take care that the bargain concerning the cutting of the creek at Castle Hill be forwarded." In 1681, February 7, any townsman has libertie to perfect the cutting the Cut that comes up to Mr. Eppes his bridge. In 1694, whoso- ever will cut the Cut through the marsh at Mr. Eppes' shall have liberty, who pays five shillings toward it "shall have liberty to pass as they may have occasion for- ever. Others must pay three pence a cord or a ton, in money." The proprietors of the Essex Canal were incorporated June 15, 1820. The corporators' names were William Andrews, Jr., Adam Boyd, Tristram Brown, Robert Crowell, John Dexter, Moses Marshall, Parker, Jonathan, Benjamin, Samuel, Francis, Jacob, Jr., Ebenezer, Jr. and Nathan Burnham; Dudley, George and Joseph Choate; Enoch, Winthrop, and Joshua Low; Jonathan (4th), Jacob, Jonathan, Abel, Daniel and Eps Story. This canal was opened in 1821, was a half mile long and cost one thousand one hundred dollars. The stock was twenty-seven shares at forty dollars each, and paid nearly six per cent. per annumn. It connected the Merrimack river with Chebacco river, and so let in ship timber at reduced rates. Later years it has been of little or no use, and early in the eighties its walls were falling in.
May 11, 1704, the town voted to build "forthwith, if the county could pay half, as it did for the town-house in Salem." Thus they sought to save by having one building serve as school, town-house and court-house. This plan went through, and a building twenty-eight by thirty-five feet in size was built. It had a steeple surmounting its roof. This served the town until 1795, when another town-house was erected. This was also used as a courthouse, the county paying half of the cost. As a town- house, it was discontinued in 1841, the town selling its share to the county for $1,250. In 1843 the town bought the old unused Unitarian church building which served from that date on.
Agriculture, stock-raising and fishing constituted the early re- sources of Ipswich. Farming was the chief industry upon which the people most depended for a good many years after settlement was effected. The early publication, styled the "Wonder-working Provi- dence," remarked away back in the very early decades of the history of the town: "They have very good land for husbandry, where rocks hinder not the course of the plow." This land was used for the growth of cer- eals, such as corn, oats, barley, rye, wheat and flax. As late as 1733-a century after settlement-it was said of the potatoe that it was but a delicacy to accompany roast-beef dinner and unusual occasions; the tur- nip, then raised in abundance, took the place of potatoes on all common occasions. Corn and rye were the principal breadstuffs of our fore- fathers. Pastures were excellent, and all branches of farming then known in New England succeeded here in Ipswich. Without smiling at the orthography of an item in the above named publication, we ask that the following be read: "the Lord hath been pleased to increase them in Corne and Cattell of late [1650;] insomuch that they have many hun- dred quarters to spare yearly, and feed, at the latter end of the summer, the Town of Boston with good beefe."
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Next in importance to farming and stock-raising came the fishing business in Ipswich. This industry had been evidently followed to quite an extent prior to 1633. It was an excellent place for fishing. The Neck furnished the wharfage, while Ipswich and Plum Island rivers, with Plum Island as a breakwater, the harbor. Cod and sturgeon and bass then belonged to these shores and streams. It was made profitable for those who desired to follow such business, for any person so disposed might after 1641 enclose his fishing stages, and each crew could plant an acre of ground. In 1670 they could take wood from the common for needed buildings and for fuel, and each crew could feed a cow on the common. By 1696 there were between seven and eight hundred persons doing a fishing business, together with other lines that naturally followed such an enterprise. History states that in 1758 there were six fishing schoon- ers belonging at Ipswich, but another entry is made that by 1797 "only a few vessels were employed in the fishery."
The Ipswich river was noted from an early date for its fine fresh water fish, including shad, bass and alewives. As late as 1830 several barrels of alewives were being taken yearly out of some of the small tributaries of this stream. But with the settlement of the country, the change in water courses, the establishing of mill-dams and allowing im- purities to enter the streams from factories and mills, these fish have mostly disappeared. Clams have been gathered here for all time since white men knew these wave-washed shores. In 1789 a thousand barrels of clams were dug, and they brought from five to seven dollars a barrel. The Ipswich clam ranks well up with the famous varieties of the Provi- dence river or the Norfolk oyster. Coming down to 1885, the business here in this line amounted to $21,829, on a capital invested amounting to only $2,200.
Ipswich district was made a port of entry in May, 1796, by act of Congress. The first collector of customs was Asa Andrews.
Richard Saltonstall was the first man to employ power for grinding grain in this town; he commenced to grind in 1635, on the site of what was later styled the Farley Stone Mill. Jonathan Wade constructed, from timbers granted to him, a wind-mill on the hill that still bears that name, but it was not used many seasons, for the superiority of water- power was soon demonstrated to mill men. Saw mills were not in evi- dence very early here. Chebacco had several. In 1656 it was ordered that sawyers might fell trees in the woods three and a half miles from the meeting-house. It was provided, however, that one-fifteenth of the lumber thus obtained should go to the town.
1675 saw the first fulling-mill constructed in Ipswich; it was on the banks of Egypt river, but was not fully completed by the time allotted by the permit, hence later the mill-dam was removed from the river. Joseph Caleffe erected a fulling-mill, as will be observed from this town entry: "Joseph Caleffe might erect one where it will not prejudice
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others, if he will full for the town's people sooner than for other town's men for money." This was in 1692. Caleffe, and two others named Potter, started a larger fulling-mill in 1693. Here homemade cloth was received and cleansed, scoured and pressed. When finally finished, such goods made a fine, compact, firm and very strong material, with a soft, glossy nap. Local historian Perley, of Ipswich, many years ago left this picture in words descriptive of early cloth-making in this section of the country :
In 1641 children and servants were to be taught the manufacture of cloth from wild hemp, with which the country abounded. In 1645 wool was scarce, and in 1654 no sheep might be transported, and none killed under two years of age, In 1656 the town was divided into classes of five, six and ten, and taught the art of spin- ning. One person should spin three pounds of linen, cotton, wool, monthly, for thirty weeks each year, or forfeit twelve pence per month for each pound short. Half and quarter spinners were required to do the same proportionately. Samuel Stacy was clothier in 1727. Those were the days of the "independent farmer." All his needs were supplied by his skill or care. Even his clothes were grown on his own field, in the azure-hued flax or the silvery fleece of his sheep. His family converted these into fine cool thread or soft warm yarn, and these latter they wove into cloth from which they made his and his family's garments. Our children's lips delighted to chord with the hum of the spinning-wheel. We have a vivid remembrance of the little wheel for linen and the big wheel for wool, but the clatter of the loom, that so deftly arranged the warp and woof, was a home-thrumming hardly so late as our day. The weaver's thrumms are now supplanted by a noisy profitless thrum- ming of the piano.
The late Thomas Franklin Waters of Ipswich, in his two volume work (1917) entitled "Ipswich in The Massachusetts Bay Colony," has given a fine description of the great textile industry of Ipswich, and from Vol. No. 2 of this work, we are permitted to make liberal extracts. While the following is not a copy of his writings, it is an article based largely on his writings on this topic, and for this we are thankful, for with such good authority, the reader will have no doubt as to the correctness of the statements herein made.
Prior to 1785, no power looms had even been known in the world, so far as our civilization knows. England wanted to keep her industry at home, and hence prohibited the shipment of machinery for making any kind of fabrics to America. American merchants were equally interested in having such industry started here, and were, as will be seen, equal to the emergency. They had to resort to every possible expedient to gain the needful information that was to make this country a manufacturing section. Men went to England and had models of cloth-making machines packed and sent to France, where they were repacked and reshipped to America by the American Minister to France. But these were finally seized in transit. However, later an Englishman acquainted with the business was induced to emigrate to America. He smuggled himself aboard the ship, but the owner of the vessel stopped and searched, and he was found and sent back and placed under bonds not to leave that
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country again. But Yankee ingenuity prevailed in the end, and various portions of the machine found their way across the ocean and were here reassembled.
John Cabot of Beverly petitioned the legislature for the incorpor- tion of a company to engage in the manufacture of cotton cloth in 1788. In the spring of 1789 the first cotton mill in New England, or in America, for that matter, was in successful operation. With it was one carding machine, nine spinning jennies, one warp mill and sixteen looms. The power was that furnished by two strong horses that worked in the base- ment of the factory. General George Washington visited this factory when passing through Beverly in the autumn time, and was greatly in- terested in the weaving of cotton cloth, denims, thicksett, corduroy, vel- veset, etc. This Beverly cotton mill furnished good goods, and found ready market, but financially it was a failure.
The first woolen factory in America was the one started at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1788. Dr. John Manning, the most progressive citizen of Ipswich, and who introduced inoculation as a preventive of small-pox, at the cost of much unpopularity, was now to play a part in a new role in the woolen mill industry. In 1792 he secured a grant from the town, and later purchased a lot now occupied by the Caldwell Block, and there he erected a two story building 32 by 105 feet. The Massachusetts Woolen Company was organized and the manufacture of broadcloth, blankets, flannels and kindred fabrics was begun. Finally, this plant went down, as did also the one at Beverly. It was closed down about 1800. Ipswich had relapsed into the same old routine of "age of home- spuns." The yarn was spun on the great spinning wheel, stockings were ynit, the long webs were woven on the family loom, flax was again spun and woven into fine and beautiful linen, lace of delicate and intricate patterns was wrought on the lace pillows, which found place in every Ipswich home.
One day two Englishmen from Nottingham-Benjamin Fewkes and George Warner-strolled into town, and their coming marked a new era and a gigantic industry was destined for the place. These men were real stocking-makers. Stocking-making as an industry was established many years before this in Nottingham, England, as well as in Derby and Leicester. A warp machine was added in 1782, and soon prices fell for all lace goods. Labor riots prevailed. The factories where the "frames" were in use were attacked and the machines destroyed. Upward of one thousand stocking frames were broken up, and a large number of lace- making machines. This destruction was brought about by the stocking knitters and lace making people in Nottingham, who could not be con- tent with the introduction of machinery. Many of the persons thus thrown out of work in England emigrated to America, where they re- solved to engage in their calling in a free country. Then it was that the English government placed a prohibitive duty on such machines as would
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do this class of work. They placed every known obstacle in the way of these emigrants to their provinces in America. There was a penalty of £40 for the exporting of stocking-making machines to this country. This existed in 1788. In 1818 it amounted to £500. The agitators of the labor question furnished a pretext for extremely stringent laws in this respect. It was boldly stated that the bobbins, points, guides and needles of lace stocking machines came into Boston in 1818 to 1822, se- creted in pots of good Yorkshire butter.
It was in 1818 that the first stocking machine arrived here in America. It finally reached Ipswich in 1822, being brought here by Ben- jamin Fewkes and George Warner. The first pair of stockings woven upon this machine in Ipswich was made by Benjamin Fewkes Sr., in the kitchen of a house then standing on the site of the present South Con- gregational Church building.
In February, 1824, the Boston and Ipswich Lace Company was form- ed, and consisted of Joseph Farley, William H. Sumner, Augustine Heard and George W. Heard, with a capital of $15,000. This company became insolvent, and the dwelling and factory were sold at auction, November 9, 1827, to Theodore Andrews, styled "Lace Manufacturer."
The New England Lace Company was formed January 1827, with a capital of $50,000. The names of the persons employed by the lace enter- prise in Ipswich included: Superintendent, John Clark; machinists, James and Joseph Peatfield; lace weavers, Benjamin Fewkes, Samuel Gadd, George Gadd, James Clark, John Trueman, Mr. Watts, George Warner, Samuel Hunt, Sr., and a Mr. Harrison. Many girls were em- ployed to mend the embroidery and wash laces.
As soon as England found that we were producing such goods in America, they at once placed a very high duty on thread, which then had to be imported from Great Britain. This for a time ruined the Ameri- can industry, causing many investors to lose their money. After the lace-making failed here, the owners of mills turned their attention to making hosiery. In 1841 a round knitting machine was invented, and this changed conditions. But before passing to that, it should be stated that in 1829 there were only four well-started hosiery manufac- tories in this country and they were in Ipswich. In 1831 the United States census reports tell us that the only stocking factory in this coun- try was the one at Newburyport.
The Ipswich Manufacturing Company was organized in 1828, on a capital of $50,000 and real estate amounting to $100,000. A new dam was constructed and a large stone mill was erected. Cotton machinery was installed and operations commenced in 1830. The day's work then consisted of fourteen hours. In 1832 the mill had three thousand spin- dles. There were 260 looms, and 80,000 pounds of cotton was made up into 450,000 yards of cloth annually; it was worth about ten cents a yard. The number of men employed was eighteen, and the number of
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women employed was sixty-three. Meanwhile the manufacture of ho- siery progressed rapidly. A large plant was finished in 1834. In a build- ing erected by the Heads at the lower mills, and James and Joseph Peat- field, brothers, were engaged in knitting shirts and drawers upon a warp machine invented by James Peatfield in 1834. Encouraged by their suc- cess, these two brothers bought land in 1840 and proceeded to build the brick factory now known as the "Hayes Tavern." It was fully equipped with machinery invented by James Peatfield and there underwear was produced in large quantities. At what was called the Manning Mills, during the Civil War, there were made in 1864 over 55,000 pairs of socks for army use, and woolen goods additional to the amount of $135,000.
Hosiery then gave way to the making of blankets, by the Willow- dale Manufacturing Company. This mill was destroyed by fire January 12, 1884, and it was never rebuilt. The decade of 1860 to 1870 was the period of another great advance in the textile industry of the town.
In 1863 a $40,000 stock company was organized with N. W. Pierce and George G. Colman of Boston, Joseph Ross, Captain Thomas Dodge and Henry L. Ordway, of Ipswich, as directors of the firm of Pierce, Hardy & Company, as selling agents. After five years the company de- cided to use its own yarn. The capital was increased to $50,000; knit- ting machinery was introduced, and the manufacture of hosiery was begun. The capital was then increased to $75,000, a new building pro- vided, and improved machinery installed. All went well and a ten per cent. dividend was being declared, until the great Boston fire of 1873, when large warehouses filled with their products and other valuable property were destroyed, causing a financial calamity. Insurance com- panies failed, and only thirty-eight per cent. of the insurance was re- alized. This hosiery company struggled on until July, 1885, when it sus- pended operations.
The making of cotton cloth was carried on in Ipswich until 1868, when Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston, bought for $10,000 the mill and other property owned by the company. The cotton looms were removed and hosiery making was introduced as before related. Mr. Lawrence wrote in January, 1868: "I am starting up my mill at Ipswich again, which has been stopped for a few weeks. This attempt to manufacture cotton stockings by machinery so that they can be sold at $1.50 per dozen, has caused me to lose not less than one hundred dollars a day, for eight hundred days, or equal to $80,000. Yet I am not discouraged, though I feel the loss very much." Year after year the plant grew in popularity and favor with customers of these excellent goods. The old stone mill in which hosiery had first been made, was replaced by a new, large brick set of buildings, all in a modern style. Branch establish- ments have been set in operation in South Boston, Lowell, Belmont, New Hampshire and a large mill at Gloucester, the whole system constituting one of the world's largest plants in this line of goods.
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At Ipswich alone, 1,500 operators usually find employment; seventy -. five per cent. are females; 55,000 dozens of pairs of hose are produced. each week, and an annual output of nearly three million dozen pairs. The total amount produced in the whole plant of the Ipswich Mills, is, four million dozen pairs, valued at $5,000,000. Originally, the whole. product of these mills was cotton goods, but now fully one-fourth are of silk derived from wood fibre. The administration of this extensive fac- tory system is at Ipswich, and here the dyeing in various colors and shades is produced. The paper cartons and wooden packing cases are all made at Ipswich. From these mills go forth the hosiery for men, women and children, to all parts of the earth, including England (where they once laughed at our ability), France, Russia, Spain, Greece, and the South American States. During and after the World War, this fac- tory was never so busy at producing such grades of hosiery as was wanted by army, navy and for domestic use. Now and then a little trou- ble is experienced here, as well as in most factory centers, relative to wages to workmen, but the liberal plan here pursued has usually kept the hundreds of persons employed about satisfied.
Ipswich has also smaller industries-the shoe heel factory of F. L. Burke & Son, one of the largest single plants of its kind in New England; and the Ipswich Tallow Company, makers of soap on an extensive scale. These are about the main industries, and they employ many persons and keep a steady pay-roll active, hence Ipswich never sees very hard times.
April 14, 1890, over thirty years ago, Rev. Augustine Caldwell, Charles A. Sayward, J. Increase Horton, John H. Cogswell and John W. Nourse met at the house of Rev. Thomas Franklin Waters to consider the organization of an Historical Society. Arthur W. Dow was detained, hence not present. It was talked over informally, and then finally voted then and there to organize a society to be known as the Ipswich His- torical Society, and also there elected its first officers: Rev. Thomas Franklin Waters, president; John H. Cogswell, secretary; Charles A. Sayward, J. Increase Horton and John H. Cogswell, executive commit- tee. Various places were used in which to meet as a society, including the South Church. The worthy president read a series of papers on the original locations of the early settlers, and some studies on the old houses. Mr. Sayward contributed an interesting paper on the probable visits of voyagers to the spot now occupied by the town before Win- throp's coming. And upon one occasion the society was interested in listening to a lecture by Winfield S. Nevins on "The Homes and Haunts of Hawthorne in Old Salem."
But with all the interest manifested upon the part of the member- ship, all felt that they would not succeed well until they owned a home of their own as a society. In the autumn of 1895, the postoffice having moved from the Odd Fellows building, this society seized the oppor-
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