USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, for the year 1881-1882 > Part 2
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Necessarily, in building his house, he had run in debt, and here the great troubles of his life commenced. His creditors pressed him continually so that he was obliged to hire out by the day, clearing woodland and doing farm work, the price of labor then being about 3 shillings per day.
About this time Jonathan Hale, card maker, of Framingham, heard of young Smith, and being pleased with his ingenuity, offered to hire him and help pay his debts. In relation to his living with Hale, he says, "I worked for Hale doing anything he could not get done by other men, such as fixing his bark mill, mending cart wheels, improving machines for making card teeth and card pritching machines : also machines for making card tacks and hand card boards ; and a variety of other busi- ness too tedions to mention or remember. Eighteen months had now elapsed and I had not began the Grand Machine to Stick Cards. Having made machines for bending the teeth, and others for pricking the holes in the leather, for several years
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he had maintained the idea that the two could be united and made into one machine ; and it here appears that Hale was one of the few men who at that time had any faith in his plans. While in the employ of Hale he worked under lock and key, in order to keep him away from the sheriff, Mr. Hale thinking that many of his debts were unjust and ought not to be paid.
After leaving Hale, in 1784, his attention was devoted to ma- chinery for making nails from cold iron. The cutting shears which he invented at this time, and which were made for him by Isaac Cozzens, of Sherborn, afterwards came into general use. The nail machine he describes very minutely. This was made before any patent laws existed in the United States.
There was an agreement between Hale and Smith relating to the card sticking machine, and Hale becoming somewhat dis- couraged, offered to give up his right in the machine for £30. As soon as Smith had settled this matter he was sent for by one Giles Richards, of Boston, who was then forming a company for the manufacture of cards. This company consisted of Giles Richards, Andrew and Gershom Cutler, William and Amos Whittemore. Mr. Smith worked for this company a year and nine months, making improvements in card making machinery. While here le invented a press drill, which was adopted at that time as being the best.
In the autumn of 1789, when Gen. Washington visited Boston. he was invited to visit the factory, and see the process of card making. In relation to this, Mr. Smith says that some one got into the factory and so disarranged the machine that it would not operate well. Nevertheless, it attracted Washington's atten- tion more than all he had seen in his travels, and he inquired who made it, and whether he was abmerican born.
After his return from Boston he became very much debilitated. occasioned by close application and study. The' next machine of which he speaks, was an improvement which he made in the mail machine, to ent nails with the grain of the iron and feed itself. This occupied the whole of a year. Sometime after this while he was at work building a machine for making card teeth. he says "I was visited by Col. Thomas Denny, of Leicester. who paid me 10 dollars "earnest." and afterwards gave me 83
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dollars for it. In 1795 Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport, sent for me to work for him in his brad works. I found he claimed the cutting of nails from cold iron upon the same principle I had made in 1784. I would not consent to give up my right to the invention and so, after working 6 days, returned home, receiv- ing 10 dollars and a bogus order for 16 shillings. It was said by Perkins that my first day's work in fitting his machine, earned him 70 dollars clear profit. On my return home I called to see William Whittemore in Boston, who asked me if I thought it possible to make a machine to stick cards? I tokl him yes, and that I intended to finish mine as soon as I had money of my own to do it."
It appears from his conversation with Mr. Whittemore at this time, and also from the fact that he was visited from time to time by members of this company, that Mr. Smith mistrusted that Amos Whittemore, who was the chief mechanic in the con- cern, was at work on the card sticking machine. Mr. Smith had. at this time. his machine in process of construction, which consisted of an iron bed-plate about 24 inches square, with wrought iron posts for the centers and working parts.
The story told by some of the old inhabitants of Walpole with whom I have conversed, is that Mr. Smith completed his ma- chine so far as to be able to set the teeth straight through the leather. Amos Whittemore at the same time was at work on a similar machine, and occasionally visiting Mr. Smith, getting all the information desired, and applying it to his machine. Mr. Smith's suspicion being aroused, he questioned Mr. Whittemore if he was not then building a Card Sticking Machine, which he denied, and promised he never would. However, Mr. Whitto- more completed his machine, by putting on the second bend, and immediately applied for a patent. This was in 1797.
It is very evident that the idea originated with Mr. Smith, for 15 years previous to the year 1797, he had in his mind the combination of the two machines, and intended some day to complete, as he called it. the Grand Machine to Stick Cards. It is also evident that the card makers of that time who knew Mr. Smith. and also his fellow townsmen, were looking to him as the only man capable of completing the machine.
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In relation to the machine patented by Whittemore, in 1797, Mr. William B. Earle, now living in Needham, 82 years old and blind, who was one of the first to improve the eard setting ma- chine, says : "It was crude, rude and imperfect. No material improvement was made upon it, nor was the price of cards re- duced during the 25 years in which its use was confined exclu- sively to the Whittemore family." Cards were made by hand up to the year 1828.
It is evident that the treatment which Mr. Smith received from the Whittemore Company, and the fact of their obtaining the patent on the machine, had a depressing effect upon him for several years. Still he completed his machine, but never deri- ved any benefit from it. He originated and improved many other machines, especially that for cutting nails from cold iron ; and also one for making wrought nails. One of his inventions, on which he obtained a patent in 1808, was a machine for trim- mning straw braid. Others profited by this, chief among whom was Dr. Nathaniel Miller, of Franklin. The machine for pres- sing straw bonnets, which was used for years in the manufacto- ries of Medfield and vicinity, was invented by him. It is belie- ved that none of his townsmen ever availed themselves dishonor- ably of his inventions.
Mr. Smith was of an honest, frank and candid disposition, always ready to communicate his ideas and plans ; but it is said in this respect, that during the latter part of his life he became more cautious and reserved. especially during his last years, when he had in mind a machine for braiding straw, which he did not live to complete. When at work upon some new machine he would often spend days and nights in his shop withont allow- ing himself time to rest or eat, much to the detriment of his health.
His extreme bashfulness when a boy, he says, worked very much to his disadvantage in love matters, often making him a subject of ridicule, but did not discourage him or cause him to re- linguish his taste for mechanical pursuits. Like many inventors and benefactors of our race, he was poor. With a family of five or six children dependent upon him, his life was a constant struggle, he often being obliged to hire out by the day or month doing farm work, to enable him to support them.
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He died in Walpole, March 9, 1836, aged 82 years. In 1854 an effort was made by the Selectmen of the town, to erect a monument to his memory, but without success. Since then a plain marble slab has been erected in the Walpole Rural Cem- etery, to mark the spot where lies one of the greatest geniuses America ever produced.
The reading of this paper was followed by an in- formal discussion in which Mr. Samuel W. Kent, for many years a Card Machine manufacturer in Wor- cester, Messrs. Knight, Staples, Dickinson, Shumway and II. M. Smith participated.
The next regular meeting was held on Tuesday evening, March 1, the President in the chair; twenty- five members and visitors were present. Mr. Ham- mond W. Hubbard was elected an active member.
Mr. Henry M. Smith then read a paper entitled "A History of Cold Winters," which was full of val- uable statistical information and interesting details of severe winters in the past, carefully selected and admirably arranged. Remarks upon the same were made by the Rev. George Allen, whose memory, covering full four score years, was vivid in recollec- tions of the old-time winters. He was followed by Messrs. Tolman, Crane, Jillson and Sprague.
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The April meeting was held on the evening of Tuesday the 5th, President Crane in the chair.
Mr. William H. Bartlett gave his "Personal Rec- ollections of the Louisiana Campaign of 1863."
This paper was a well written and interesting narration of the exciting scenes witnessed by the writer as a member of the 48th Regt. It was listen- ed to with much pleasure." Adjourned for two weeks.
A special meeting was held on Tuesday evening, April 19, in commemoration of the Battle of Lexing- ton. President Crane presided, and 40 members and visitors were present. Mr. Alfred S. Roe read a paper entitled "Three April Days," comprising his- torical sketches of April 19, 1689, April 19, 1775, and April 19, 1861. This paper, carefully prepared and eloquently delivered, was listened to with marked attention.
* The Committee on Publication would gladly have printed this paper, which was one of the best ever presented at our meetings, had not Mr. Bartlett intended to make further use of it.
THREE. APRIL DAYS.
BY ALFRED S. ROE.
DO NOT be misled by my title into thinking that I am to discourse upon the beauties of Spring, or to enlarge upon the manifold pleasures of the vernal season ; for it is not of Nature that I would discourse to-night, but of man and his deeds. It is with reference to our own Old Bay State and her interesting, nay, thrilling history I would deal ; and your attention is asked as we glance along through many years and try to find wherein Massachusetts is especially interested in Three April Days.
We reckon time by years, decades, centuries, cycles, accord- ing as we speak of ourselves, the state or the earth. Massachu- setts has passed into that age when she can reckon her years in centuries ; but her interesting, recurring year is not one of the hundreds. It is less by several years, and its anniversary falls in April, on the 19th, the day whose evening finds us gathered here. Palfrey in his preface to the third volume of the History of New England says : "In the History of New England, there are chronological paralelisms, not unworthy of remark. Some critical events in it were just a century apart. In 1665, the courtiers tried her temper with Lord Clarendon's Commission ; in 1765, they tried it with Mr. George Grenville's Stamp-Act. In 1675 began the attack on her freedom, which I have record- ed in this volume ; in 1775 began the invasion which led to her independence of Great Britain. But the cycle of New England is eighty-six years. Massachusetts having been betrayed to her
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enemies by her most eminent and trusted citizen, Joseph Dud- ley, the people, on the 19th day of April. 1689, committed their prisoner, the deputy of the Stuart King, to the fort in Boston, which he had built to overawe them. Another cighty-six years passed, and Massachusetts had been betrayed to her enemies by her most eminent and trusted citizen, Thomas Hutchinson, when, at Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, her farmers struck the first blow in the War of American Independ- ence. Another eighty-six years ensued, and a domination of slaveholders, more odious than that of Stuarts or of Guelphs, had been fastened upon her, when, on the 19th of April, 1861, the streets of Baltimore were stained by the blood of her soldiers on their way to uphold liberty and law by the rescue of the National Capitol." These, then, are my Three April Days, and the above thought of Palfrey my text. April 19th,
1689,
1775, 1861.
The events which these days witnessed have modeled us a people, and made us a nation. These days followed each other in logical as well as chronological order. Without the first, neither the second nor the third could have existed. Deprived of the deeds of these days, we know not what degree of abase- ment we might have suffered, and the mind shrinks from the contemplation of what might be our present condition. But Massachusetts soil is sterile. The skeleton of mother earth lies extremely near the surface. Men, here, must delve early and work late to obtain from the land a maintenance. The manual labor necessary to win from the earth a living, early fixed in the minds of Massachusetts people an utter abhorrence of all that would, in the least, detract from the rights of self government. The acts which had hardened the muscles of the body had made equally inflexible the New England character. Men of more genial climes might submit to grinding despotism, but the sturdy Anglo-Saxon who might, himself, have been one of Cromwell's Ironsides, found the soil of this new home even more conducive, than that of his old, to the vigorous assertion of his rights, and we see him resisting the demands of a tyrannous and apostate King. And while James was seeking safety in the Court of the
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Grand Monarch, his miserable minion Andros was seized and shut up in the very fort which he had built to overawe the town of Boston,-the tragedy of Haman repeated.
But another king and another deputy songht to once more lay the hand of oppression on Massachusetts men, and again these men rebelled and, at Concord and Lexington, in the "Shot heard 'round the world," did service for themselves, for civiliza- tion, for humanity. And then that later day ! Even now our blood tingles at the thought. The events are not so far away that we cannot recall them all, and in the memory of the Mas- sachusetts "Sixth" exnlt over the proud privilege of the Old Commonwealth. Thus seriatim. Now to
.
April 19, 1689.
A Stuart king was on the throne of England when the May- flower put out on her memorable voyage. That First James, who was a marvel of wisdom and of folly, and who surprised all by the abundance and variety of his knowledge, and equally disgusted all by his egotism and pedantry, fully merited his cognomen of the "wisest fool in Europe." To escape him and such as him, our Pilgrim and Puritan ancestors sought refuge in this new world. His unhappy son was sovereign when the Arbella weighed anchor and, sailing from Cowes, bore into Massachusetts Bay the germs of the colony, which, with the one at Plymouth, was to undo tyranny and to make a home for the oppressed of all nations. They sought and obtained certain priveleges in their Charter. They were practically self govern- ing. They constituted almost the ideal Democracy ; perfect, bar- ring some suffrage restrictions. They were guaranteed by their Royal Charter, the power forever of electing their own Governor, Deputy Governor and assistants, to make laws and ordinances not repugnant to those of England, for their own benefit and the government of persons inhabiting their territory. The peo- ple had left England when the latter was most prosperous, and their only grievance was the inability to hold the religious belief agreeable to themselves. Coming to Massachusetts, they held their lands by as good a title as that by which they had possessed their English farms. Of course, then, this Charter was, in every
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sense, their Palladium, and to it they clung with the utmost tenacity, but from an early date, there arose a contest, on the part of the home government to recall it, and, on that of the Colony to retain the same. The home government felt that it had accorded too much to the colonists ; the latter were deter- . mined to retain all they had.
In 1635, they determined to resist a Royal Governor should one be sent from England. The fort on Castle Island was ordered perfected and a tower set up on Beacon Hill that, dan- ger from an attack arising, the country might be alarmed. Confusion ensued in the English Court. Charles soon found enough to occupy himself on his own soil, though in 1638 there came an order for the instant return of the Charter to England, on which the General Court, after some months of pondering, concluded to send a letter of excuses for not complying. Win- throp's reply is worthy of perusal, setting forth as he does the reasons for the retention of the document. And even when England had deposed her King, and Cromwell ruled, our Colony was, in no way, disposed to recognize the supremacy of English authority. When, in 1651, Parliament desired the return of the old Charter and the taking of a new one and that thereafter government should be administered in its name, the wily colon- ists took a whole year to fashion their reply, still manifesting a commendable unwillingness to walk into the English spiders' parlor.
When the "Merry Monarch" or Charles the II. came to the throne he was pleased to renew all the power of the original Charter, though he added a dash of bitter to his sweet by enjoin- ing the Colony to require the oath of allegience and that thence- forward Justice should be administered in his name. Accord- ingly the Colonists published the "King's Missive" and then "did as they were a mind to." In 1665 came the first Royal Com- mission. Clarendon had sent this to reduce the obnoxious Puritans to a proper condition of humility. Charles had grant- ed the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware to his brother, the Duke of York, and here we may say the trouble began. We must pass over the debates between the Govern- ment of the Colony and its Royal Commission, though the latter
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found itself beaten at all points, and finally retired completely discomfited. At last England despairing of the return of the Charter, instituted Chancery proceedings and in 1684 obtained a decree vacating the Charter. Massachusetts by no act of her own was humbled. She lapsed into her first estate. Her terri- tory now was as thoroughly that of the King of England as when discovered by the Cabots. In the same year, Colonel Kirke, of subsequent West of England notoriety, was appointed the first Royal Governor ; but his Royal Masters found too much for him to do in England to spare him from home, so Massachusetts was spared the infliction of his presence. A recreant and mis- creant son of Massachusetts, Joseph Dudley, became the tool of oppression under the title of President.
The year 1686 was just closing when Sir Edmund Andros landed in Boston. During two and a third years of his stay in the Colony he succeeded in making his name more hateful than that of any man who had preceded him on these shores, and moreover a synonym for tyranny through all time. James II. had made Andros Governor of New England with the expecta- tion that the recalcitrant colonists would now submit ; but the bed to which Andros had been commended was not one of roses. He early set himself about carrying into effect the same plans which had rendered his Master so distasteful to the people of old England. He claimed that every foot of Massachusetts soil was the King's, and the latter might oust the present occupants whenever he chose. More than that, Massachusetts men were . not entitled to the immunities of Englishmen ; that they were dependencies on the British Crown, a collection of Lazaruses, so to speak. Andros was the fit tool of a most despicable crea- ture ; by far the worst of his erring line. He scrupled at noth- ing that would enhance his own or James's power. His deputed power was almost absolute. Hostile to the prevailing religion of the colony, he was anxious that prelacy should be supreme. Judge Sewall says that sixty Red-Coats attended Andros when he landed at Long Wharf and was escorted by the citizens to the head of King, now State street.
Dudley, the late President, became a judge of the Superior Court. Mandates were sent to the various towns and the
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Commissioners or Selectmen failing to comply with the demands were liable to punishment by fine. The Meeting-house of Bos- ton was opened for Episcopal service, when there were no Epis- copal worshippers. All public records of the "late Goverment" were directed to be brought to Boston. Wills had to be pro- bated and mortgages registered in Boston, where enormous fees were charged. The forin of taking oaths was changed from the Puritanic uplifting of the hand to the (to them) idolatrous kiss- ing of the Bible. The imposition of taxes was wholly arbitrary, and citizens were obliged to take out new patents for lands they had held by purchase, in some instances, from the natives.
Many of the towns refused to comply with the Governor's exactions and hence followed trials where juries were packed in the most flagrant manner. To Mr. Wise, on trial, Dudley said, "You must not think that the laws of England follow you to the end of the earth," and moreover that he had no other privileges left than not to be sokl as a slave. Andros gave out that titles might be confirmed by application to him and the payment of quitrents. A man venturing to disregard this edict was liable to be dispossessed at any moment, as, in fact, many were. The other New England colonies gradually fell in with the rule of Andros and endorsed the same with tolerable resig- nation ; but at no time was the feeling towards him in Massa- chusetts other than that of abhorrence. Tradesmen were com- pelled to restrict their buying and selling to their own towns. Heavy imposts were laid for the sake of increasing his Majesty's Revenues. Only one town meeting would on any pretext, he allowed during the year.
Matters went from bad to worse till finally Increase Mather was sent to England to endeavor to obtain some redress for the Colony's many wrongs. The time of Andros was spent in mak- ing semi-royal progresses through his dominions, now extend- ing from the St. Croix to the Delaware, and in finding new measures to oppress his devoted subjects. The birth of a Prince of Wales was, by him, greeted with the utmost joy and the proclamation of a day of Thanksgiving. Mather, mean- while was laying siege to James's ear, but with little success, the King being willing to make a show of sympathy while in
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reality his heart was harder than Pharoah's. But the end was approaching, though more than three and a half months had passed since the night when England's King had slyly slipped out of his bed-chamber, carrying his country's Scal which he spitefully threw into the Thames in his flight. James had taken up his residence at St. Germain's while the hand of Andros was tolerated in New England. The crisis was impending, though this English Egyptian softened not his heart, nor for a mo- ment relaxed his grasp. The train was laid and the explo- sion at hand when; on April 4th, there came a man, named Winslow, bringing the proclamation of William of Orange on landing in England. The uncertainty of affairs in the Old Coun- try was doubtless all that had prevented this uprising months before. Two weeks elapsed after Winslow's coming and Andros had taken refuge in Fort Hill, where without any note of visible preparation, on the 18th of April, Boston, at an early hour was all astir. It was Thursday. The weekly lecture at the First Church had brought a concourse from the neighboring towns. At the north end of the town it was reported that there was an uprising at the south and vice versa. At nine o'clock the drums beat throughout the town and the ensign was set up on Beacon Hill. The old magistrates were escorted to the Council Cham- ber, and the royal officers were arrested and put in gaol. At noon was proclaimed the "Declaration" of the gentlemen, mer- chants and inhabitants of Boston, and of the territory adjacent. The declaration concludes with these words : "We do therefore seize upon the persons of those few ill men who (next to our sins) have been the grand authors of our miseries. * * * We commit our enterprise unto the blessing of Him who hears the cry of the oppressed." Palfrey thinks this declaration the work of time, prepared a long while before, awaiting the proper moment for its promulgation, and that Cotton Mather was its author. At two o'clock the town was full of soldiers, the signal on Beacon Hill having done its work. Charlestown held several hundred men waiting an opportunity to cross. Andros had sent a messenger, desiring a conference with the principal citizens ; but his request was denied, while he himself was summoned to surrender all his powers on penalty of having the fort knocked
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