USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 32
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We find also that as early as 1780 Westen & Phineas Hardy had built and were operating a tanyard, which was located near the site of the old Harriman mill on Rock Brook (Parker River), Mill street. It was dur- ing this year that Samuel Norris began the manufacture of clothing, the second to engage in this business in town. It was in this year that Captain Benjamin Adams began the tanning and currying of leather, his tanyard being on Salem Road (now Central street). As early as 1782 Captain William Perley had built and equipped a bark-mill, and was grinding bark by water-power. This he sold to the "nine tanneries" cheaper than the tanners could grind the bark by horse-power, and therefore did a large and lucrative business for many years.
The historian tells us that in 1785 Solomon Nelson and his sons built fishing-vessels of 18 to 25 tons burden, which, when completed, were hauled by oxen over the road to tide-water at Rowley, six miles distant. It must have been a grand sight to see the 40-odd yoke of oxen-big, sturdy and willing-slowly and carefully pulling such a great load over the road to the sea. Never again, in the history of man will such a beautiful sight (to the country-bred boy) be seen.
The year 1800 and the years immediately following were very significant years in the town's industrial history, for we are told that in that year Benjamin Wallingford, Jr., began and carried on successfully for "many years" the manufacture of "horse-collars, harness and saddle-bags." At that time, and for forty years afterwards, Deacon Solomon Nelson "ran" a large tannery on Nelson street. It was also in this year that Daniel Clark, one of the three or four largest tanners in the parish, built and "ran" a tannery on North street. Three years later, however, his tannery, lands and buildings were purchased, and the tan-yard was operated by Henry Hilliard, the first of that name to ap- pear in the industrial affairs of the town. This Henry was a very active and pushing tanner and farmer during his long and successful life. At his death, his son Henry took up and carried on the business profitably to himself and his heirs for many years. Upon his death, his nephew, the third Henry (who is today an honored citizen of the town, and its tax collector for twenty-five years) came into possession of the property, and tanned and curried hides and skins up to 1903, when he closed the tan-pits forever and a day. Thus it was that the three Henry Hilliards carried on the business of tanning in the same tan-yard for exactly one hundred years.
During the early years of that century charcoal burning was carried on extensively here in a commercial way. As early as 1800 John Wood
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acquired the great grist-mill, first owned by Daniel Pierce, and which had then been run for one hundred years, and added a sawmill to the plant. Within a few years the property came into the hands of Paul Stickney.
Beginning some thirty years before 1810 shoe manufacturing was "carried on" by the tanners in conjunction with their tanning business. The leather (both upper and under stock) was "given out" in the sides. This was "worked up" into boots and shoes by the farmers, and others, when the weather and other conditions were such that they could do nothing else; but with the opening of the year 1810 there began a new era in the history of our people, for in that year the two brothers Ben- jamin and Joseph Little came here and began the manufacture of boots and shoes on a large scale in a building located near the ancient parish church on the old South Green, on Elm street. Besides "carrying on the shoe business," the Littles "ran" a very large "West India and Dry Goods Store," where could be purchased a cambric needle or an ox-yoke, a quintal of salt mackerel, a gallon or a barrel of rum. Much of their merchandise they bartered for boots and shoes that the farmers made during their off hours, rainy days and during the winter months. Rich- ard and his son, Amos J. Tenney, began manufacturing the regular Georgetown heavy boot and brogan in 1811,-which business was con- tinued many years successfully. Beginning at this time (1811) and for the thirty years following, "Deacon Sol" and Nathaniel Nelson did a very large and prosperous business both as tanners and as shoe manu- facturers.
In 1815 Paul Pillsbury (by some kind of a crude mechanical device of his own invention) produced the first shoe-pegs ever made or used in this field, and, so far as the writer knows, the first ever made except by hand with a knife. It was during this period that Deacon Asa Nelson owned and operated a large tannery on Elm street. Benjamin Winter was another one of the early old-time and successful shoe manufacturers; he began in 1818 and he made a specialty of boys' brogans, the first ever made in a commercial way in the parish. The records tell us that Ste- phen Little commenced the manufacture of "pegged shoes," the first ever made in the county for the general trade. Before that period, be it remembered, all kinds of boots and shoes were made "stitch-downs," "fudge-welt" or "fair-stitch."
It is worthy of note that some of the high-class journeyman tan- ners, men like Amos Nelson and Benjamin Low, and others in their class, "with the money they had saved, carried on an independent tan- ning business by renting and using the 'pits' of the large tanners." These two men especially became "well-off" as contracting tanners. Still another Nelson-Major Jeremiah-operated a very large tannery on Elm street, near the old meeting-house, from 1824 to 1845. But the greatest stride forward in the tanning business came with the year 1825,
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when Colonel John Kimball (who at that period owned the Captain Benj. Adams tan-yard on the Salem Road, now Central street) tanned and cur- ried in that year over four thousand South American horse-hides.
Beginning about 1829 Amos J. Tenney and his son, George J. Tenney, began the manufacture of heavy boots and shoes on a large scale, and in a few years their type of goods were reckoned as "standard" through- out the entire country. The son, George J., and his son, Milton G. Ten- ney, continued the business for upwards of fifty years. D. M. Winter, in 1830, was another member of the old families to enter the shoe busi- ness, and he also was successful.
Incidentally, it may be stated that by this time (1830) there was scarcely a farmhouse (or any other house) but that had in its back-yard a 12x12 foot shoe-shop. It was in these small shops that the country- wide known Georgetown boots and shoes were made until recent years, when they were manufactured in factories.
We are told that "Tailor" Thurlow (the last-known itinerant cloth- ing maker, and the second one that we know by name) was at the height of his business career in 1830. It was in 1831 that Samuel Little, an- other man famous in the annals of Georgetown's history, began to manu- facture shoes ; but two years later (1832) he took Hiram N. Noyes (the father of George W., H. Howard and Miss Elizabeth M. Noyes) in as a partner, and, under the firm name of Little & Noyes, the business was carried on successfully for several years, when the partnership was dis- solved and the business continued for twenty-five years by Little & Moulton, the leading manufacturing concern in the town.
The second manufacturing tailor (the first being Benjamin Plumer, in 1718, as we remember) to do business here was Samuel Plumer (the first of the remarkable trio of manufacturing tailors who made George- town widely known and justly famous as the center of production of high-grade clothing for men). Samuel Plumer commenced business in 1838, and continued it up to the time of his death in 1890, a period of 52 years.
The years between 1827 and 1840 witnessed Georgetown's greatest growth in population, manufacture and commerce. More than fifty buildings, including shops, were erected in one year, 1839. At that time there were 27 factories engaged in the manufacture of shoes. The cap- ital invested was $99,000; the annual product was $221,000. At that time there were nine tanneries being operated, with a total capital of $11,000 and an annual output of $66,000. Carriages were manufactured here at the time to the value of $2,500. It is said that in the three or four years preceding 1835 and the years immediately following, George- town had the largest ratio of people engaged in the shoe industry of any town in the country; at this period, also, Georgetown was the largest producer of men's and boys' heavy boots and shoes in the United States, made almost wholly for the farmer, the fisherman and the miner; and
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even to this day, though but very few of such goods are made anywhere, the Georgetown boot, shoe and brogan of this type is still supreme.
The next man to own the great Pierce-Wood-Stickney mill prop- erty on Mill street was Major Paul Dole, a notable man in the business life of the town for many years. He purchased the property in 1840, and within a few years increased its value five-fold by acquiring the "flowage rights" that naturally belonged to the water-shed that gathers the waters for the two large oval-shaped basins, Rock and Pentucket Ponds.
By thus securing these "flowage rights", and by raising the dam, he could "keep back" the "flood waters of spring," and thus was enabled to "run" his mill practically the year round. Major Paul had a brother, Edmund, who was reputed to be a "little queer." In 1841 he invented a machine that made shoe-pegs, but being "queer"; he never would let anyone see it; and as it was never patented, nothing came of his inven- tion. Up to about 1841 our manufactured products were transported by large two and four-horse teams into Boston, which returned with loads of merchandise for merchants and manufacturers. After the "Eastern" Railroad was built, these teams hauled goods back and forth to Rowley, which became our shipping point. This arrangement con- tinued up to 1849, when the steam railroad was opened between Haver- hill and Newburyport, via Georgetown, and in 1854 between Georgetown and Boston, via Danvers Junction.
Beginning in 1835 and bringing the record up to the present time (1921), we shall deal with men, things and events as chronologically and as briefly as possible, and make the story reasonably clear to the reader.
George W. Chaplin, one of the town's most able men, began the manufacture of boots and shoes in 1835. From the beginning to the end of his business activities in 1872-37 years-he was successful in business, active in public affairs, a staunch supporter of his church, and an honored citizen throughout a long life. Another man, in early life a noted teacher, widely read in ancient, modern and current history, wise in the council of town affairs, and famous in the business life of the town, was Mr. H. Prescott Chaplin. He entered the shoe business the same year that his brother George W. began, and he was actively inter- ested in the business for fifty-five years, until his death, in 1890.
In 1837 Lewis H. Bateman (one of the town's most enterprising and all-around successful business men) formed a partnership with Charles S. Tenney, and they opened one of the largest (at that time) department stores in the county. This was possible, because George- town then, as now, was the "hub" of a large purchasing population. The firm "carried" a varied stock : dry-goods, groceries, boots and shoes; it did dressmaking, and upstairs ran millinery parlors. At the same time the firm was associated with a brother of Mr. Tenney in the con- duct of a meat market.
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In 1841-2 a man by the name of Blodgett came here, and established and carried on for a few years an extensive business in the manufac- ture of men's clothing, employing as many as "forty hands." He was also an inventor of ability. Being a poor mechanic (but a clever business man), he employed skilled mechanics in Boston, and they, under his direction, produced in 1846-8 (during the very same years that Howe, Singer, Wilson and Baker produced their sewing machines) a practical, good, workable sewing machine. When finished, he quickly applied for and was granted patents on his machine by both the United States and Great Britain. Being a wise and far-sighted man, he sold, for a very large sum, both his American and foreign patents. With his large wealth (for those times) he moved to Philadelphia, where he died.
John P. Coker began the manufacture of shoes in 1838, and with his son, Robert A., continued the business for fifty years. This concern was the first in this town to use a sewing machine in the manufacture of boots and shoes. It was a waxed-thread machine. Concerning this par- ticular machine, a long and historically interesting story might be told; but, briefly, the Coker business was mostly the making of long-legged boots. Mr. David Haskell was the first man to operate the machine. Being an ingenius mechanic, he soon discovered that as the machine was of a "flat bed" type (up to that time all makes of machines-the Howe, Singer, Wilson and Baker-were all made "flat-bed") he could not "side- up" the legs of the boot tops. The only real and practical work that he could do on the machine was to "sew on the counters." After a few months of theoretical and practical experimenting, he devised, developed and patented in 1852-3 the first "post" sewing machine ever made. With his improved machine, he could "side-up" the "tops" of boots thirty times quicker than the same work could be done by hand, with "awl, waxed-end and clamps." Today, there are more of the Haskell idea of "post" machines used in shoe factories than all other machines put to- gether.
Moses Atwood, in 1841, began the manufacture of "Atwood's Bit- ters," a patent medicine that attained to nation-wide popularity. Med- icinally and financially the "bitters" were a great success. Lewis H. Bateman and Moses Carter had a hand in compounding the herbs, and aided Atwood in the early stages of the development of the business; but not feeling satisfied with Atwood's "cutting loose" from them when the business showed prospects of large profits, they both entered and carried on the business of making and selling "Atwood's Bitters" for several years. As they found iron ore in the "peat bogs" near the shores of Rock Pond in 1722, from which they smelted an excellent quality of pig-iron, so this same Moses Atwood, in 1844, discovered, at the base of Atwood's Hill (Scribner's), a deposit (not very large, as it proved) of ochreous earth, from which he manufactured and sold large quantities of "a mighty good" paint. The "bitters" and "paint" business making
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him a rich man, he "went West" in 1853 or 1854. It is a notable fact that Atwood, Bateman and Carter, all three, manufactured and sold "Atwood's Bitters" for several years; and afterwards it was manufac- tured by a New York concern, and sold by them as one of the standard patent medicines of the country for fifty years.
The business of "manufacturing chemists" was begun by Moses Carter in 1841-2 and continued by him and his son, Luther F. Carter, up to the time of the latter's death in 1815. The third of this trio of "manu- facturing chemists," Mr. Bateman, became, in 1858, the largest cigar manufacturer in Essex county, carrying on the business up to 1865, when he, disposing of the business, opened and conducted an old- fashioned apothecary-shop up to his death in 1871, the business begun by him being then taken over and continued up to this time by his son, Dr. Lewis H. Bateman.
The third and the most widely known and active of the "trio" of men's clothing manufacturers was Stephen Osgood. He "learned his trade" and later became a partner of Samuel Plumer (the first of his apprentices to do so) ; in 1848 he began business for himself, and he remained interested in the business up to the time of his death in 1911, sixty-three years.
In 1863 Major Moses Tenney purchased the Major Paul Dole mill, with its "flowage rights," enlarged the mill, and installed a full line of modern machinery for making woolen cloth, but the Civil War hurt rather than helped the enterprise, and so the business proved a great financial loss to the company promoters.
George W. Noyes, son of Hiram N. Noyes, became interested in the shoe industry in 1865, and he was prominently identified with the business for a period of forty-five years.
Edwin L. Daniels began his long life in the handling of leather in die making, manufacturing and selling of shoes in 1866, when he went to work for George J. Tenney. Today he runs the only retail shoe store in town, and so he has handled leather, in one way and another, in our town for fifty-six years.
As early as, or it maybe earlier than 1856, George H. Carlton associated himself with H. Prescott Chaplin in the shoe pattern making business. Later with Mr. Chaplin, as a silent partner, he manufactured shoes several years, up to 1870, when he joined A. B. Noyes, and under the firm name of Noyes & Chaplin continued in this business up to 1875, when he retired from the business altogether, and became the first cashier of the Georgetown National Bank.
The name of H. Howard Noyes will always stand high on the list of the town's great and successful shoe manufacturers. He entered the employ of his uncle, Mr. George W. Chaplin, in 1872, and managed the business until 1896. Edward K. Titus, a grandson of George W. Chap- lin, was a partner in the business from 1887 to 1899. Mr. Noyes took
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over the entire business in 1900, and he continued a steadily-increasing business up to 1918 (46 years), when he retired from the shoe business to give his whole time to banking and other financial interests.
In 1875 out-of-town capitalists purchased the old Harriman-Major Dole-Major Tenney mill property. They enlarged the buildings, and for a few years did a very large business in the weaving of fabrics; but the business being unprofitable, after a few years, it was discontinued altogether. Later the whole property was destroyed by fire; today only ruins remain on the site of its ancient glories.
Walter M. Brewster, also one of the town's big shoe manufacturers, having been a partner of H. Prescott Chaplin for a number of years, "came to the corner" in 1877 and "set up" for himself, continuing a successful business up to 1896-7, when he retired, a very wealthy man.
J. K. Nute manufactured shoes here from 1877 to 1881. The Little Corporation was organized in 1881, with Charles P. Tyler as president, Charles E. Jewett as treasurer, and Edwin L. Daniels as general superin- tendent. Not proving financially successful, the company was dis- solved in 1888. John A. Gale, of Haverhill, manufactured women's "calf, buff and split" pegged and standard screw shoes for the Southern trade from 1878 to 1882, when he moved back to Haverhill. Cloutman & Dunham, from Farmington, N. H., in the same building (the "brick block") manufactured a medium-priced Mckay sewed and standard screw line of boots for women for the Western and Southern trade. The firm remained here from 1882 to 1884. Horace E. Harriman, succeeding his father, continued a successful business, the making of men's high grade heavy boots and shoes, and retired from the business in 1896. Prebble & Worth in 1896 fitted up the old "Osgood carriage factory" and manu- factured a cheap grade of women's felt, cloth and kid shoes, but the business was discontinued in 1898.
Major Hamilton L. Perkins, the third of the remarkable "trio" of Georgetown's great manufacturing tailors, having learned his trade of Samuel Plumer, became his partner in 1870, and he remained a partner until 1883, when he started up for himself, doing business here for several years, and then went to Haverhill, where he continued in the same business for nearly thirty years.
In 1885 Mr. George W. Noyes, Edward A. Chaplin and George H. Wilson incorporated the Georgetown Boot & Shoe Corporation. The A. B. Noyes Company was made into a corporation in 1888, with A. B. Noyes, president; Joseph E. Bailey, treasurer; and Edwin L. Daniels, superintendent. In 1896 Mr. Noyes retired from the company and went West; the business, however, was continued for twenty-five years, up to 1913, when the corporation was dissolved.
Cornelius G. Baker, who had done a successful business for more than two-score years, took in his son Fred W., as a partner in 1890, the partnership continuing for ten years to 1900.
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Lawrence L. Chaplin, son of H. Prescott Chaplin, was in partnership with his father in the manufacture of boots and shoes for a number of years, up to 1900, when the business was discontinued. Afterwards he was with the George W. Chaplin company for three years. In 1903 he became the cashier of the Georgetown National Bank, which position he now holds.
At the end of the ten years' partnership with his father, Fred W. Baker, in 1900, began manufacturing "on his own hook" the famous "Little Ripper" shoes for boys and youths. From the start the busi- ness was very successful. The entire plant, however-building, machin- ery and stock-was destroyed by fire in 1917.
In 1895 Justin F. White (with Henry K. Palmer, as a partner) opened a retail shoe store and men's furnishings. At the end of the third year, Mr. Palmer retired from the business, and Mr. White con- tinued the business up to two years ago. During the past few years Mr. White has added and built up a very large insurance agency busi- . ness.
The story of the Pentucket Shoe Company, incorporated in 1896, if told in detail would (psychologically) disclose one of the most curious (certainly one of the most regrettable) chapters in the history of the town's business life. Never was there a business undertaking in our history where so many high-class men, clean cut, and financially respon- sible men, were interested as in this enterprise. Its incorporators in the order of the amount of their subscriptions were Walter M. Brewster, Harold F. Blake, Fred S. Hardy, Sherman Nelson, Dr. R. B. Root, Ed- ward S. Ficket, Lewis H. Bateman, Dr. Edward M. Hoyt, Dr. Thomas Whittle, Theodore A. McDonald, W. W. Smith and George W. Noyes. Mr. Brewster was made president, Mr. Blake was made vice-president, and Mr. Hardy was treasurer and manager. The manager having had years of experience in managing the business that our company took over, success seemed assured; but at the end of the third year, solely under his management, the company failed, practically without assets. This manager afterwards identified himself with an electrical business (of which he had had no previous knowledge) and in a few years be- came a very wealthy man. The moral of the story is that "Every man may succeed in life if he but finds his business affinity."
Martineau & Burke in 1908 began the manufacture of leather skivings into "pancake" for heels and innersoles, and the firm did an ex- tensive business here until 1919-20, when the entire business was re- moved to Ipswich.
In 1910 George W. Noyes and Edward A. Chaplin retiring from the business, the Georgetown Boot & Shoe Co. surrendered its char- ter ; George H. Wilson, as an individual, continuing the business under its corporate name down to the present time.
Mr. Fred W. Baker in 1918 associated himself with men con-
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nected with the firm of Cass & Daly, shoe manufacturers of Salem, Mass., and they incorporated the F. W. Baker Shoe Company, Inc. The com- pany at once purchased and greatly enlarged the H. Prescott Chaplin shoe factory building and installed a full line of modern machinery. With plenty of capital at its disposal, the company will, under normal business conditions, do upwards of half a million dollar business annually.
Henry P. Chaplin, in 1917-18, took over the George W. Chaplin Company business from his uncle, H. H. Noyes, but the great war com- ing on soon after, he closed his factory doors, to help "Uncle Sam" fight the Germans.
The Community Shoe Shop (company) was incorporated in 1918 by Haverhill men; but as none of them were practical shoe men, the com- pany was not a success, notwithstanding that local men, with their time and money, tried to make it successful.
The Georgetown Standard Shoe Company was incorporated by Theo- dore McDonald, John J. Molloy and Henry J. Minchin in 1920, and the company makes men's and boys' medium priced standard screw and loose-nailed goods. As a specialty the firm makes wood-soled brogans for use in foundries, woolen and felt mills, hat-shops, tanneries and by the miners. With the return of general business, the firm will un- doubtedly be of great benefit to the town as a whole.
During the same year (1920) Thomas M. Cook & Son purchased the "old carriage factory" on Clark street, and removed their sole leather business from Haverhill to Georgetown. This business, which runs pretty steadily all the year round, will give employment to many men who formerly worked in Haverhill. George S. Rollins, for several years a growing shoe manufacturer in Haverhill, in 1920 purchased the Molloy factory and other buildings adjoining, remodeled them into a modern factory and moved his entire business here. While his line of work is entirely foreign to the old-time type of Georgetown footwear, ne has, with modern machinery methods, maintained the quality of his former output, and has from the beginning done a capacity business since locating here. Being a large employer of men and women, his business is of great benefit to the town as a whole.
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