USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 8
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This bridge was never a success, either mechanically or financially. Bridge building was then in its infancy. Howe, of "Howe Truss Bridge fame", had not been born, neither had his brother, Elias Howe, the in- ventor of the sewing machine. This bridge, after eight or nine years, in August, 1801, in part fell in ruins, while a drove of cattle was passing over it. Some cattle, fifty-nine sheep, a half-dozen cows and a good sad- dle horse were drowned in the wreck, and had to be paid for by the owners or "proprietors" of the company. In 1802-3 the bridge was in part rebuilt, but soon thereafter the central span collapsed. It was promptly repaired. In February, 1807, a great flood and heavy flow of ice swept away a larger part of the structure. So far the bridge had stood where now stands the substantial railroad bridge, but when it was rebuilt again it was moved up stream to the present bridge site. Here stone in place of wooden piers were put in, and with certain repairs it continued in use until demolished, when the present iron structure was erected in 1881.
As early as 1837 a bridge was built, a rough wooden structure, twenty feet wide, with no railings, yet travelers flocked over it in teams loaded with material for the new dam project, the canal, new buildings and mill foundations. In 1846 this bridge was taken over by the Essex Company (the ruling factor in all enterprises then), and in the spring of 1848 the bridge was raised ten feet, as high as the railroad bridge is to- day. It was of the frame-truss type, but in the spring freshet of 1852 the toll-house, south abutment and fishway all went down in the great rush of angry waters. In 1858 the bridge was thoroughly rebuilt by Morris Knowles. It continued as a toll bridge until 1868, when it be- came free, Lawrence paying the larger part of the value and assuming its
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care under the county commissioners' awards. At the same date Law- rence bridge, at Union street, also became free. The last named had been constructed in 1854-55 for the accommodation of people of North An- dover and Lawrence. Both were destroyed by fire-Andover bridge in 1881, and the Lawrence bridge in 1887. The present iron structures re- placed these bridges.
Soon after operations began on the dam at Lawrence, the first fire engine house was provided, a small one-story house at the corner of Essex and Broadway streets. In it was kept a hand-engine, the "Essex", bought by the Essex Company and handled by the employees of that com- pany. Three years later it was sold to the town. In 1847 the town pur- chased two more fire engines, and two small wooden buildings in which to store them-No. 2, Niagara, "Rough and Ready", and "Syphon No. 3." Since the very earliest days, however, the present fire department's site has been marked by an engine house. Prior to 1860 none of the engine houses was provided with towers. They were occasionally heated by boxwood stoves and had a small bell upon the edge of the roof. The city hose carriage consisted of a two-wheeled affair capable of carrying five hundred feet of hose, and manned by ten firemen, so called, yet they did excellent work with what they had to operate with. In 1870 the Eagle Hose Company was formed and a five-wheel carriage was pur- chased. In 1856 the first brick fire engine house was authorized ; it stood at the corner of Haverhill and White streets, later styled the Old Bat- tery. In 1865 what was known as Bonney Light Battery was formed, and named for Major Bonney. Hence came the name "Battery Build- ing." Another engine house was erected in 1869, and in 1876 another was built on the corner of Concord and Franklin streets. The more re- cent engine houses all are of brick, built as follows: Engine 4's, Oxford street, in 1910; Central Fire station, Lowell street, in 1907; Combina- tion 6's, Howard street, in 1896; Combination 7's, Park street, in 1896; Combination 8's, Ames street, in 1900; Combination 9's, Bailey street, in 1908.
Steam fire engines soon came into general use in Lawrence after the great Pemberton Mill disaster just prior to the Civil War. Pacific No. 1, Atlantic No. 2 (lastnamed exhibited at the London World's Fair in 1861), Tiger No. 3, Essex No. 4, Washington No. 5, are all well known "steamers" that have played well their part in keeping the fire fiend away from the precious lives and valuable property of Lawrence for many a year.
The town Fire Department was organized June 12, 1847, and es- tablished by legislative act the year following. In 1917 this was pub- lished concerning the oldest active fireman in the United States: "Charles W. Foster, engineman at the Central station. He had (in 1917) been en- gaged as a fireman in Lowell for sixty-six years, having joined in 1851.
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CITY OF LAWRENCE
He was still serving when eighty-three years old. For a third of a cen- tury he has run the old Washington 5 steamer."
While the auto-fire trucks are soon to drive from the field the faith- ful horses trained to do the bidding of master firemen, it should be added here that in 1918 the Fire Department in Lawrence was as follows: "Fifty trained horses, four steamers, four hose wagons, four combina- tion hose and chemical wagons, one double tank chemical, four hook and ladder trucks, a water chief and deputy chief's wagons, besides nine supply and exercise wagons. The personnel includes a chief, deputy chief, eleven captains, nine lieutenants, sixty-nine permanent men, sixty call men and one hundred substitutes. There are nine engine houses, including the seven-run central station, one of the largest of the kind in the country."
About 1857 an invention of great importance was produced in the machine shops of Lawrence by Thomas Scott and N. S. Bean, who brought forth the first real practical steam fire engine. The machine was awarded the test in Boston over all others then known. The first engine was constructed in Lawrence and named "Lawrence", and was purchased by the city of Boston. The invention (patents) were bought by the Amoskeag Company of Manchester, New Hampshire, where the engines were manufactured for many years. This fire-engine revolution- ized the fire departments, and Lawrence was not slow to adopt it.
It is generally conceded that considering the area of the burnt dis- tricts, the two fires of 1859 and 1860, the former originating in the United States Hotel and the latter in the steam saw-mill of Wilson & Allyn, were the greatest conflagrations ever had in Lawrence, although in later years a greater amount of property has been destroyed than in those early day fires.
For more than a quarter of a century after Lawrence was platted as a town, it depended upon wells and cisterns for its water supply, save for fire extinguishing and power purposes, which, of course, was obtained from the Merrimack river. The first attention toward a water supply by artificial means was in 1848, when the Lawrence Aqueduct Company was chartered. This corporation was formed by John Tenney of Methuen, Alfred Kittridge of Haverhill, and Daniel Saunders of Lawrence, with their associates. The project of bringing water from Haggett's pond, now the source of supply for the town of Andover, was deemed imprac- ticable. This company was chartered with a capital of $50,000.
In 1851 the Bay State Mills and the Essex Company, dividing the cost of construction, built a reservoir of a million gallons capacity on Prospect Hill. Water was pumped from the canal, and was supposed to stand on a level of 152 feet above the crest of the Merrimack dam. This was owned and operated by associated companies. For twenty-four years, pipes and hydrants in corporation yards and principal business streets were supplied from this source. In the early seventies municipal
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water works were agitated. An act was passed by the legislature, March 8, 1872, providing for a commission of three members of the city council to execute and superintend the direct work. This commission made its report April 18, 1873, and an ordinance was passed calling for the elec- tion of a board of water commissioners. Such commission was as fol- lows: William Barbour (chairman), Patrick Murphy (clerk), and Mor- ris Knowles. The present pumping station was constructed in 1874-75. On October 19, 1875, water was first forced into the reservoir. In 1893 the original filtering plant was finished-the first filtering system in the country eliminating bacteria. It has an area of two and one-half acres. In 1907 the capacity of this filtering plant was increased by the construc- tion of a covered filter west of the first plant. In,1916 work was started on the reconstruction of the east unit of the open filter. At present, the reservoir has a capacity of forty million gallons, and the pumping capacity at the station is five million gallons each twenty-four hours. This ap- plies to the old pump, while the turbine pump has a capacity of two mil- lion gallons each twenty-four hours. The Barr pump also forces water to the amount of 1,500,000 gallons daily. A high service water tower was built in 1896, 102 feet high and thirty feet in diameter. At one hundred feet an eight-inch overflow pipe conveys the overflow back into reser- voir. The stand-pipe holds 520,000 gallons. The first cost of this water system was $1,363,000. The cost today, with the various improvements, is estimated to be $2,421,000. For a number of years this plant has been more than self-sustaining.
First the streets of Lawrence were lighted by kerosene lamps, and later by gas, here and there over the main streets of the place. Police- men turned off the lights at eleven o'clock, and carried matches with them, in order to light or relight any lamps that "had gone out." In 1880 the first electric lights were installed by the Lawrence Electric Light Company in the old fishline mill building. Today the city spends more than $70,000 a year for street lighting. In 1918 there were 1240 lights distributed over the streets, of which 642 were incandescent and 598 arc. The old Gas Company also was among the first stockholders in the Electric Company. One corporation has always handled both plants. In 1905, 275,000,000 cubic feet of gas were consumed; in 1917 it had increased to 576,000,000. In 1887 the Lawrence Gas Company bought out the Lawrence Electric Light Company. In 1890 it acquired the Edison Electric Illuminating Company, located on Common street. In 1900, a new plant was built on the south side of the river. It is run by water power ; also with steam turbine engines. The combined horse- power of these two systems is 11,000. Both gas and electricity are used almost universally, for light, heat, power, and cooking purposes.
One of the finest, most modern type of bridges to be found in all New England is the new Central Bridge. Without going into the details of its origin, its political significance, construction plans, and other un-
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
LAWRENCE-ABOVE, WETHERBEE SCHOOL: BELOW, TARBOX SCHOOL
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CITY OF LAWRENCE
pleasant features and obstacles that had to be overcome before it was finally opened up as a great highway through the city, it may be simply noted that when fully completed and equipped in all particulars its cost will have reached nearly $1,500,000. Of this about $500,000 has to be paid in property damages to the mill owners, etc. The first excavation was made October 1, 1914, the first concrete was laid October 20 of that year, and the bridge was finished March 20, 1918. It is a reinforced concrete structure, 1,500 feet long by eighty feet wide, spanning the Merrimack river at the foot of Amesbury street, approximately 460 feet south of Essex street, the main thoroughfare of the city. With the ex- tensions over the canals, the total length of the bridge is 1,750 feet. One of the great piers is sunk fifty-two feet below the waters of the stream, making a total height of this particular pier ninety-eight feet and six inches-as high as the Bay State Building, it is said. The road-way is fifty-six feet wide between curbing. It is planned to carry two electric car tracks, twelve-foot sidewalks, and driveway. The bridge is hand- somely illuminated by many 200-candle power electric lights. As a modern "White Way" this bridge is unsurpassed. As to its lasting qualities, there is no question. It was built upon honor for all time, as men sometimes remark. The commission in charge of its construction comprised John J. Donovan, chairman; John O. Battershill, secretary ; Joseph J. Flynn, John A. Brackett, and Otto Parthum, with City Solicitor Daniel J. Murphy as counsel. Benjamin H. Davis of New York City was chief engineer. When one reviews the series of bridges-wooden, iron and other patterns of structures-that have spanned the majestic waters of the Merrimack river, since the bridge already mentioned as having been chartered back in the eighteenth century, one cannot but feel that man is a progressive being, and ever responsive to the urge both onward and upward.
The population by five year periods since 1845 for the city of Law- rence has been as follows:
Year
Year
Year
1845
150
1870
28,921
1895
52,654
1850
8,282
1875
34,016
1900
62,559
1855
16,081
1880
39,151
1905
69,939
1860
17,639
1885
38,862
1910
85,892
1865
21,678
1890
44,654
1915
90,258
1920
94,270
It is now (1921) estimated that Lawrence, with its contiguous su- burbs, has a population of not far from 125,000
The city has an area of 4,500 acres; is twenty-six miles from Bos- ton; became a town in 1847; City Hall dedicated December 10, 1849; be- came a city in 1853 ; first mayor was Hon. Charles S. Storrow ; first steam engine built in New England was constructed in Lawrence in 1858; num- ber of voters at last election, 13,101, including the 380 women who voted;
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number of polls, 21,000; the city has one hundred and fifty passenger trains daily ; has public library of 60,000 volumes ; is the center of a street railway system transporting nine million passengers annually; has six- teen parks and play-grounds, 157 acres in all; ninety miles of sewers built at a cost of $1,643,000; main water pipes, 104 miles; water connections used, 8,316; arc lights, 365; half-arc lights, 228; incandescent lights, 615; hydrants, 845; regular firemen, 69; call firemen, 62; policemen, 102; reserve policemen, 26; has thirty mills covering 400 acres; one million spindles ; has 29 public schools ; 9,845 pupils; 334 teachers ; 110 evening teachers ; eight parochial schools; parochial school pupils, 6,000; has 108 miles of streets; 18 miles of paved streets, with granite, cement and grout; second city in Massachusetts in point of value in manufactured products; savings bank deposits amount to more than $22,000,000; has seven bells, with weights as follows: Parker Street Church Bell, 1,557; Pacific Mill Bell, 2,360; Arlington Mill Bell, 3,047; City Hall Bell, 3,446; the John R. Rollins School Bell, 3,984; the A. B. Bruce School Bell, 6,143 pounds.
The Essex Company-In order to gain any definite knowledge con- cerning the early and later history of the city of Lawrence, with all its multitude of industries and commercial interests, one must needs con- sult the formation and activities of the Essex Company, formed by act of incorporation March 20, 1845, seventy-six years ago. In less than a month from the date of the charter, the company was organized in due form, with a capital of $1,000,000, without the issue of a circular or pros- pectus. The directors were Abbott Lawrence, Nathan Appleton, Patrick T. Jackson, John A. Lowell, Ignatius Sargent, William Sturgis and Charles S. Storrow, all manufacturers or financiers of high character.
Harnessing the waters of the Merrimack river to the promotion of a great manufacturing industry was the thought in mind of this company, which, in fact, is the corner stone of the present city and its industries. In 1843 the Merrimack Water Power Association was formed, with Samuel Lawrence as president and treasurer, and Daniel Saunders as agent, with associates mainly from Lowell, as the forerunner of this more powerful chartered company. It had been discovered that near the his- toric Andover Bridge, about Bodwell's Falls, there lay a tract of land underlaid with blue limestone, so situated that a dam could be construct- ed as to be almost imperishable. When it was seen what had been ac- complished at Lowell and elsewhere in New England from 1825 to 1845, far-seeing operators were ready to take hold here at Lawrence. Maur- ic B. D'organ, in his "Lawrence Yesterday and Today," writes of this corporation as follows :
It has been said that Lawrence was at the beginning purely a business enter- prise, but it is also conceded that the needs of a future community were clearly foreseen by the promoters, and that steps were wisely taken to provide for coming population in advance of the then prevailing conception of public needs. Seldom
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CITY OF LAWRENCE
do promoters encounter at the start more difficulties than did the founders of Law- rence. Textile manufacturing, in monster mills, was then an experiment in America. The works designed were upon a large scale, requiring heavy outlay and years of working and waiting for conclusive results. When operations were fairly begun, adverse legislation and financial depression came to hinder and dis- turb, but the directors and managers of this company were men of courage, integrity and loyalty. Their fortunes and their reputations were staked upon the success of an enterprise that would affect the lives of thousands of men and women in this and other lands, and provide new opportunities for bread winners. Failure would result in loss to the stockholders and would also prove a public calamity and a blow at industrial developments in America. The leaders, doubtless, had an eye for ultimate profits, but there was also a philanthropic spirit manifest in their actions.
The public at this day probably does not fully realize the extent of the activities of the Essex Company prior to the incorporation of the city. Besides building the dam, canals, the drainage system and streets, and fitting lands for human habita- tion, the company built, equipped and for years operated the great machine shop, with' foundry and forge shop, all of stone, (afterward controlled by a company or- ganized as the "Lawrence Machine Shop," and now included in the Everett Mill group) ; also built fifty brick buildings and a large boarding-house, and made ex- pensive improvements in deepening and straightening the Spicket river from the machine shop race-way to its mouth.
As a protection against fire, at the joint cost of the company and the Bay State Mills, the Prospect Hill reservoir was built and connected with a system of water mains. Andover bridge was purchased and repaired by it; a fine brick hotel (in later years enlarged and now the present Franklin House) was erected; gas works were needed, and this company, uniting with the Bay State Mills, built the first gas plant; the lumber dock on Water street was excavated, and lumber made and sold in immense quantities during the busy early construction period.
In the loft of the machine shop, a full set of worsted machinery was set up and operated experimentally, the first attempt to develop that since important and growing industry of the city. Flumes, race-ways, wheel-pits and protecting walls were built at great cost at thel Central Mill site. The company also engineered and built for owners, and in some cases built and sold to the original owners, the first Atlantic Cotton Mills, the Upper Pacific Mills, the Pemberton Mills, Duck and machine shop buildings.
The central and beautiful Common, Storrow Park, Bodwell Park, Union Park and Stockton Park, besides a large tract of land on the west bank of the Shawsheen river, from Market to Andover streets, were reserved by the company and conveyed by deed of gift to the inhabitants of Lawrence, to be forever used as public grounds. Besides, for recreation, it gave freely of lands for religious and educa- tional purposes. In fact, there was hardly an activity working toward the develop- ment and advancement of the "New City" in which this corporation was not con- cerned.
It may be truthfully said that few incorporated companies have been operated continuously for more than seventy years along definite lines so little changed. In the whole history of the company there have been but two treasurers in general management-Charles S. Storrow, and Howard Stockton. The engineers in charge have been Captain Charles H. Bigelow, Benjamin Coolidge, and Hiram F. Mills, although of late years Richard A. Hale, assistant engineer of the company, has practically filled the position of engineer. George D. Cabot, Captain John R. Rol- lins, Henry| H. Hall, Robert H. Tewksbury and Rollin A. Prescott have in turn served as accountant and cashier. George Sanborn was connected with the com- pany for fifty-two years from 1845 to 1898, the most of the time as superintendent
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of outside construction. At his death in 1898 he was succeeded by his son, George A. Sanborn, who still holds the position.
The stone dam across the Merrimack river, the base of all later operations, was begun in the summer of 1845 and completed in 1851. After more than three-score and ten years it stands as solid as the day on which it was built. Charles H. Bigelow, a captain of engineers in the United States Army, supervised this great undertaking. The dam is con- structed of immense granite blocks laid in hydraulic cement, firmly bolted upon the river rock bed. It measures thirty-five feet at the base and extends up to the crest, where it is only about thirteen feet wide. The dam and its wings are 1,629 feet in length. The overflow of water is nine hundred feet. At the day it was built, when material and labor were much lower than today, the cost of construction was about $250,000. It stood the test of the Merrimack flood in 1852, when the old toll-house and part of the Falls bridge and fish-way were swept away.
The North Canal, built at the same time as the dam, is a little more than one mile in length and one hundred feet wide at place of beginning, and narrows to sixty feet at the outlet. About 12,500 horse-power or 140 mill powers for ordinary working hours in the driest season was developed. The South canal, built in recent years, is three-fourths of a mile in length by sixty feet in width and ten feet in depth.
Maurice B. Dorgan in his "Lawrence Yesterday and Today" gives the following list of distinguished visitors to the city :
Lawrence has had many distinguished visitors, among them, November 14, 1847, Daniel Webster and his wife; September 8, 1849, Father Theobald Mathew, the distinguished Irish Temperance reformer; in 1850, Horace Greeley, the famous journalist, who twenty-five years later lectured at City Hall on observations from his early visits; in February, 1853, Thomas Francis Meagher, the Irish patriot and after a major-general in the Union Army; in December, 1856, Senator Thomas H. Benton, for thirty years a member of the United States Senate; in 1860, Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's great opponent; in the spring of 1863, General George B. McClellan, famous Union commander, and his wife; in August, 1865, General U. S. Grant, commander-in-chief of the Union Armies, with his family and staff; Decem- ber 21, 1877, General James Shields; January 16, 1880, Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish statesman; in 1889, President Benjamin Harrison; in September, 1896, William J. Bryan, Democratic candidate for President, and later erstwhile Secretary of State under President Wilson; January 2, 1897, Monsignor Martinelli, an apos- tolic delegate to the United States from Rome; August 26, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt, with members of his cabinet. In the fall of 1912, during the presiden- tial campaign, Lawrence had the distinction of receiving a President and an ex- President of the United States on the same day. In the morning ex-President Roosevelt, Progressive candidate for President, visited the city; and in the after- noon President William Howard Taft, Republican candidate for re-election, came to the city and addressed a gathering of citizens on the Common. A Chinese Embassy, a Japanese Embassy, and a company of naval officers and officials repre- senting the Czar of all the Russias, have paid special visits to Lawrence, inspecting the mammoth mills with great interest.
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CITY OF LAWRENCE
Various Historic Paragraphs-The two compass posts on the east- erly side of the Common are about two hundred feet apart, almost parallel with Jackson street. These define a true north and south line. The variation from the true north line is now about twelve degrees. These two granite posts are of invaluable service to civil engineers who come here to adjust their instruments. The placing of these markers was brought about by Gilbert E. Hood, who as school superintendent sent a communication to the school board and city council in 1871 stating that the legislature of 1870 had wisely provided that the county com- missioners of each county should by means of stone posts establish a true north and south line in one or more places within the county. He suggested that the Common was the most logical place for such posts, as of great value to the pupils of the high school. Upon petition of the city council, the county commissioners placed the posts at their present locations.
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