USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 33
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The elegant new building adjoining the Woonsocket Co., on Essex street, occupied by Brown, Durrell & Co., small wares, was totally de- stroyed, and the Emergency Hospital rendered untenantable. All the parties burned out were obliged to make such hasty exit that they could not even save their personal effects. The front walls of all the build- ings fell into Lincoln street, filling it completely with debris. The United States Hotel took fire and only by almost superhuman efforts on the part of the fireman was it saved. There were three hundred guests in the hotel. The utmost excitement prevailed, and it looked at one time as if a large section in that vicinity would be destroyed. The loss by this fire was $4,500,000.
336
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
The domain now appropriated to the shoe and leather business in Boston is the finest and most extensive of any used for a similar purpose in the world. The buildings are ample in size, ornamental in appearance, and erected and arranged for the special requirements of the trade. Before the fire the business was cooped up within narrow bounds, and in buildings mostly erected for other purposes. It is now in a compact area, and each street is devoted to a particular branch of the business. The rapid growth of the trade has created a necessity for just such buildings as now adorn the district.
In 1856, when the merchants began to move into Pearl street, that thoroughfare was occupied in part by residences of the oldest Boston families. The Quincy estate and Governor Gore's mansion were there. Daniel Webster studied law there. James and Thomas H. Perkins lived in this street. James Perkins gave to the city the Blind Asylum in South Boston, or rather, he gave his Pearl street mansion for such use, and it was afterwards exchanged for the present building. Gilbert Stuart and Washington Allston, the great painters, during the early part of the last century had studios there. John G. Spurzheim, the phrenologist, lived at the corner of Pearl and Milk streets. The "Old Pearl Street House," on the opposite corner, was for many years a head- quarters for young men in the trade. Harrison Gray Otis was born in Pearl street. Near the foot of this thoroughfare, between that and Congress street, is an old wharf, and a sign reads: "From this wharf the tea was thrown overboard." Dry goods firms occupied stores on the west side of the street previous to the time the shoe trade began to tend in that direction. The dry goods men moved to Franklin street, and Pearl street was noted all over the country as the great mart for shoes when the conflagration occurred. After the burned district be- gan to be rebuilt the streets were all widened and straightened, but on account of the want of a spirit of accommodation on the part of one of the property owners, the trade was attracted in a westerly direction. There are, however, a few shoe houses there yet.
Purchase street originally ran along the border of the water. Fort Hill was on one side. That eminence, one of those that gave Boston the title of " Tri-Mountain," was leveled many years ago. Purchase street is now chiefly occupied by the hide trade.
High street, with its irregular shape, is occupied principally by deal- ers in morocco, sheepskins and light leather.
Congress and Federal street are occupied by shoe jobbers in part.
331
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE.
Summer street was formerly lined on both sides by fine residences. Now the shoe manufacturers have the main portion of the street built over with their stately warehouses. Edward Everett and his father-in- law, Peter C. Brooks, lived on Summer street. Daniel Webster lived here on the site now numbered 136. A tablet on the building com- memorates the fact. Devonshire street runs north from Summer, and several stores on it are used by the shoe trade.
South street is chiefly occupied by the sole leather dealers. The Boston and Western, and Old Colony railway depots are on this street.
The upper leather dealers are mostly on Lincoln street. The rubber shoe trade and some prominent firms who sell shoe goods are there also.
In this district about thirteen hundred firms and individuals carry on the shoe and leather business.
While the shoe manufacturers have enjoyed a measurable degree of prosperity for thirty years, they have suffered periodically from the inter- ference of labor organizations. These associations began to be formid- able when machinery was introduced. Lynn was an objective point of these disturbers and has suffered considerably by their machinations. A general strike was started in 1859. The women favored it because they objected to sewing machines. The men joined in without stating any specific grievance. There were processions, music and speeches for a few weeks, but the machines held their place. They couldn't be starved out, but the operatives were very nearly, and ultimately went back to work. There was another outbreak in 1872. The Knights of St. Cris- pin-organized in 1865-were very strong in Lynn and measurably dom- inated the manufacturers for years. Then came the Knights of Labor. This order was far more powerful than the "Crispins," as in its ranks were marshaled all industrial classes. They brought about a strike in 1848, and walking delegates were appointed to visit the factories and take note of complaints of the workpeople. They also instigated the "boycott " in this country. Then the manufacturers were induced to move out of town to preserve their self respect and their business. Of late years the tendency has been to organize unions of employees in dif- ferent departments. The "Lasters' Union" is the strongest ever known in the shoe trade. It was thought shoes could never be lasted by machinery. Inventive genius worked steadily on the problem, and now it is solved. The union lasters "stumbled in their path," for, of course, skilled labor was wanted on the machines. By order of their
43
338
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
leaders they put every obstacle in the way of their introduction, and new men were, in most instances, taught to run them. The lasters found, too late, that inventive genius was too powerful for them.
In the spring of 1892 the tanners of sole leather held a meeting and agreed not to work on hides for sixty days. The object they had in view was to prevent overstocking the market and get more price for their leather. Both these objects were attained. In the spring of 1893 they undertook to form a combination to control the manufacture and sale of leather and the purchase of hides. This plan culminated in the formation of the United States Leather Association with a capital of $120,000,000. A truly gigantic corporation. Thomas E. Proctor, of Boston, is president of the organization. They control most of the tan- neries, and the bark lands in the Eastern and Middle States. It is dif- ficult at this early day to forecast the effect of this combination on the trade. They claim to be able to greatly reduce the expenses of con- dueting the leather business.
The hide and leather trade of Boston has assumed great proportions. The number of hides received at this port for 1891 and 1892 was:
1891.
Foreign
1892. 1,221,053
1,187,588
Domestic
761,782
981,827
Total
1,982,835
2,169,415
The receipts of leather in Boston for 1892 were:
FINISHED.
Rolls
427,153
Cases
13,949
Bdls
202,469
Sides
14,528
Bales
57,838
Cars
58
ROUGH.
Sides
2,020,357
SOLE.
Hemlock sides
4,704,145
Bellies, bdls
58,197
Union sides
2,653,092
Oak sides
70,063
SCRAP.
Bags
99,547
Packages 693
Bundles
95,984
Crates
372
Bales
42,194
Boxes
312
Pieces
27,714
Casks
73
Sacks
18,295
Trusses
48
Barrels
8,934
Cars
,
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
46
Cases
1
1
1
,
1
1
1
1
7,572
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
I
1
t
1
1
1
I
339
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE.
Shoe manufacturing has not been carried on to any great extent in Boston, although a majority of the goods made in New England are sold here. The shoe production of the city, however, is now increas- ing, and three million dollars' worth were made in 1891 in ten factories. The grades range from the poorest to the highest price. The city affords good facilities for obtaining labor and power, and the workshops are convenient for buyers to visit.
The Brookfields have been famous shoe towns for almost a century. Otis Ward made "sole shoes " in North Brookfield in 1810. Tyler and Ezra Batcheller worked for him; they were brothers. In 1819 they began for themselves making shoes, which at first they consigned to Enoch Train of Boston, who had a line of packets running to Havana. He also shipped the shoes South. 1 It was a profitable business. The goods were low cut, sewed and pegged, and packed in barrels for ship- ment. In 1824 the brothers built a shop, two stories high. It was enlarged in 1825, and at regular periods thereafter, until it was one of the largest in the State. Tyler Batcheller went to Boston and opened a store; Ezra Batcheller superintended the factory at North Brookfield. Both were in an appropriate position, and the business took a front rank. From 1830 to 1834 the house was T. & E. Batcheller & Walker; T. & E. Batcheller to 1852, after which time Chas. Adams, jr., Alfred H. Batcheller, Wm. C. King and George E. Batcheller were in turn admitted, and the firm was T. & E. Batcheller & Co. up to about 1862, when Ezra and his two sons, Alfred H. and Geo. E. Batcheller, formed the firm of E. & A. H. Batcheller & Co. It is a corporation now under the same name.
Chas. Adams, jr., was with the house. He was a representative in 1850-1-2; State senator 1865-68; treasurer and receiver of the Com- monwealth 1865 to 1868 inclusive.
Aaron Kimball began manufacturing shoes in Brookfield in 1821. In 1830 John P. Robinson came with him. They made boots and brogans. In 1852 they had a store in Fulton street. Afterwards they went to Hanover street, and, Chas. S. Kimball being admitted, the house became Kimball, Robinson & Co. Mr. Kimball retired in 1864; died in Brookfield, 1866. John P. Robinson was a direct descendant of Rev. John Robinson, the well known pastor of the Pilgrim Church. Mr. Robinson came to Boston in 1852. About 1865 he formed a part- nership with Jas. Longley, jr., who married his daughter Julia. This firm was Robinson & Longley. They were succeeded in 1867 by
340
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
Loring & Reynolds, but had special capital in the firm. Mr. Robinson sold out his shoe interests and retired in 1881. He died at North Con- way, August 5, 1882.
The census of 1890 gives the following report of Brockton :
SHOE AND LEATHER MANUFACTURES OF BROCKTON, 1890.
Boot and Boot and Shoe Cut Stock.
Shoe Findings
Boots and Shoes-Factory Product.
Establishments
I2
14
73
CAPITAL EMPLOYED -- Aggregate
$116,929
$227,418 84,250
750,100
Plant -- Total
11,737
31,640
1,186,637
Land
525
3,300
182,975
Buildings
1,000
5,050
344,766
Machinery, tools and implements
IO,212
23,290
658,896
Live Assets -- Total
78,992
111,528
4,243,45I
Raw materials
10,025
27,396
799,875
Stock in process and finished product.
15,480
19,419
683.492
Cash, bills and accounts receivable, and all sundries not elsewhere reported
53,487
64,713
2.760,084
WAGES PAID -- Aggregate
$43,875
$58,562
$4,916,936
Average number of hands employed during the year.
8I
115
8,120
Males above 16 years.
71
72
2,925
Females above 15 years
5
13
689
Children
5
30
4,454
MATERIALS USED-Aggregate cost
$195,998
$220,430
$8,844,474
Principal materials
195,448
164,371
8,044,603
Fuel
512
1,724
33,857
Mill supplies.
I
43
All other materials
37
54,335
765,97I
MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES -- Aggregate
$13,587
$16,992
$904,326
Amount paid for contract work
Rent
1,797
5,016
52.428
Power and heat
423
1,244
9,666
Taxes
388
314
22,980
Insurance.
386
1,365
31,815
Repairs, ordinary, of buildings and machinery
500
2,845
57,200
Interest on cash used in the business
3,318
310
54,687
All sundries not elsewhere reported
6,775
5,898
660,629
GOODS MANUFACTURED-Aggregate value
$275,255
$371,942
Principal product
241,574
301,433
$16,171,624 16,134,452
All other products, including receipts from custom work and repairing
33,68I
70,509
37,172
1
.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
It is just about eighty years ago that Micah Faxon began shoe man- ufacturing in Brockton. The name was North Bridgewater then. It was changed in 1873. The Old Colony Railway has two stations: Brockton, and one in the village of Campello. There are in both these places sixty-four shoe factories. Men's and boys' calf, split and buff shoes are made. David Howard and his son, of the same name, fol- lowed Faxon early. There have since been many Howards, and the
52
Pieceworkers
26,200
$6,180,188
Hired Property-Total.
1
14,912
1
341
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE.
Packards also are numerous. The Keiths were great operators. Thirty years ago Martin L. Keith was quoted on Pearl street as an in- commonly large producer: he made "a thousand pair a day." There are others of his name in Brockton now who make four or five times as many.
In 1865 the town's product was $1, 112,256; in 1875, $3,585,103; and in 1885, $11,035,338.
One of the largest industries in Brockton is that of the " Hub Gore Makers," otherwise the Herbert & Rapp Company, who produce goring for congress shoes. They employ several hundred operatives.
Beverly, sixteen miles from Boston on the line of the Boston and Maine Railway, has been a shoe manufacturing site for half a century. Slippers and fine shoes are produced there. Seth Norwood & Co. is the oldest house, established in 1850. B. E. Cole, D. Lefavour & Co. -now Davis & Morgan-and Woodbury Bros. are old houses. There are thirty-one manufacturers in the town.
Danvers was mentioned in the United States census of 1810 as a town in which shoes were largely manufactured. Caleb Oakes and Moses Putnam were among the first who engaged in the business. Col. Gilbert Tapley and John Fowler made up a lot of shoes and took them to Baltimore by teams in 1814. Upon reaching there the English were about bombarding the place. Col. Tapley put the teams at serv- ice, carrying troops and ammunition to North Point, while Mr. Fowler sold the shoes. During that war the soldiers in our army were supplied extensively with shoes made in Danvers. Heavy goods for men's wear were formerly the product of Danvers shops; now men's and women's pegged and sewed shoes are made. There are twenty-two factories in the town. E. & A. Mudge date from 1837.
Grafton, Worcester county, is an old shoe town. J. W. Slocomb was the first to make shoes there in 1813. There are three manufacturers in the place now. The Grafton Flax Mills produce shoe thread there, and William Paton, porpoise; J. R. Leeson & Co., Boston, are the agents of both concerns. J. W. Slocomb & Co. were the first. Samuel Warren tanned card leather there in 1800.
Hudson is thirty-four miles west of Boston, perched on the crest of the tall hills that separate Worcester from Middlesex county. There are eight large factories; women's polkas, grain, buff and split are the main product. Men's heavy " bals" are also made. The oldest firm is F. Brigham & Co., dating from 1834 without change in style. Mr.
342
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
Brigham adopted sewing machines in 1854 and pegging machines in 1857. The firm, of which he is the head, have four factories and two miles of waterways that furnish power.
L. T. Jefts began manufacturing shoes here with a capital of about $500 in 1859. He is now one of the largest manufacturers in the town. He served as a State representative in the Legislature in 1883, and as senator in 1886 and 1887. In the Senate he was chairman of the Com- mittee on Manufactures and on the liquor law. He is president of the Hudson National Bank, also of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Boston University. General A. P. Martin, ex-mayor of Boston, has a factory there. About 5,000,000 pairs of shoes are made in the place yearly.
Haverhill is the largest slipper manufacturing town in the world. That is the specialty of the place, although a good many button boots are made. The business was established about 1800. Moses and James Atwood were in the vanguard of shoe producers. Moses At- wood went to Philadelphia in 1812 with a wagon load of shoes, which he sold. That led to and founded a wholesale shoe house in that city.
David How was a large shoe manufacturer during and before the last war with England. The material he used was roan skins; there were no goat skins in those days, and roan sounded better than sham, though it was the same thing. He is credited with having made and sold as much as $100,000 worth yearly at that early period. His son, Moses How, succeeded him.
Paul Spofford manufactured shoes here in 1811-14. The firm was Hatch & Spofford. He went to New York with Thomas Tileston, a printer in Haverhill, and formed the house of Spofford & Tileston, shoes. This was about 1815.
About 1820 turn shoes were made; morocco began to be tanned in the town.
For many years all shoes were transported from Haverhill in large covered wagons drawn by oxen or horses. In 1836, 26,955 cases were carried to Boston that way. In 1832 there were twenty-eight shoe manufacturers in Haverhill; ninety-eight in 1860; one hundred and fifty-two in 1876; and one hundred and sixty-five in 1892. There are about seventy dealers in leather and shoe stock.
In 1876 there were 5,821,267 pairs of shoes made in the town; in 1885 13,551,905.
343
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE.
The census of 1890 gives the following report of Haverhill industry:
SHOE AND LEATHER MANUFACTURERS OF HAVERHILL, 1890.
Boot and Shoe Cut Stock.
Boot and Shoe Findings
Boots and Shoes- Factory Product.
Slippers- Factory Product.
Establishments
82
I3
201
25
CAPITAL EMPLOYED -- Aggregate
$1,525,865
$177,351 50,000
$5,926,222 1,450,000
134,500
Plant -- Total
81,327
22,515
673,184
28,875
Land
Buildings
Machinery, tools and implements
81,327
22,515
563,384
28,875
Live Assets -- Total
1,048,938
104,836
3,803,038
276,978
Raw materials
109,827
50,461 3,675
835,742 627,886
53,694
Cash, bills, and accounts receivable, and all sun- dries not elsewhere reported.
500, 154
50,700
2,339,410
174,874
WAGES PAID -- Aggregate
$402,962
$64,308
$4,445,164
$342,252
Average number of hands employed during the year
799
429
9,803
1,007
Males above 16 years.
484
58
1,833
I34
Females above 15 years
8
I60
395
39
Children
307
210
7,574
834
MATERIALS USED -- Aggregate cost
$3,109,686
$261,852 261,705
$7,339,815 6,782,227
563,203
Fuel
3,257
97
12,669
631
Mill supplies.
2,168
-- 50
544,919
49,080
MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSE>-Aggregate
$92,014
$10,979
$1,167,455
$168,139
Amount paid for contract work
300
781,350
134,100
Rent
27,480
3,734
101,449
9,483
Power and heat.
7,750
1,080
34,415
2,224
Taxes
4,591
568
15,881
1,439
Insurance
8,923
1,392
30,124
2,79I
Repairs, ordinary, of buildings and machinery.
2,460
627
22,462
1,485
Interest on cash used in the business
8,118
540
27,917
1,025
All sundries not elsewhere reported
32,392
3,038
153,862
15.592
GOODS MANUFACTURED-Aggregate value
$3,854,043
$347,588
$14,963,642 14,875,192
$1,273,7IO 1,261,210
Principal product.
3,854,043
347,588
All other products, including receipts from cus- tom work and repairing.
88,450
12,500
6
--
72,200
$440.353
Hired property-Total.
395,600
- -
37,600
48,410
Stock in process and finished product.
438,957
I
I
Pieceworkers
$612,914
Principal materials
3,104,261
All other materials
Thomas White was born in Holbrook (then East Randolph), April 30, 1816. His father was a shoe manufacturer there in 1810, and when Thomas White left school he went into his shop. In 1839 he com- menced business for himself. In 1843 he took a partner, Samuel Whitcomb, but the firm of White & Whitcomb was soon after dissolved by the death of the latter. He married in 1842, Miss Harriet E. Keith, a sister of F. H. Keith, who was his partner in the village store, and afterwards a prominent dealer in shoe machinery in Philadelphia. Mr. White, however, conducted the shoe business alone. He passed
344
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
through the panic of 1857 unscathed; lost heavily in the South in 1861, but made that good and met all his liabilities. He made a great many army boots during the war period. The business was lucrative. In 1866 he took in his brother, and the firm became T. & E. White. They opened a store on Pearl street, and purchased a large factory in Hol- brook. They took a front rank in the trade and were known as among the largest manufacturers.
In 18:1 Edmund White withdrew and T. Edgar and Henry M. White, sons of Thomas White, were admitted. The house became and is now Thomas White & Co. They lost largely by the great fire in 1822, when their Pearl street store, full of goods, was burned. In 1880 they built a factory at Great Falls, N. H., where they can turn out 1,500 pair of shoes daily. They gave this up, and now manufacture in Broekton and Holbrook. Mr. White lives in Holbrook, and is one of the most liberal and public spirited citizens of the town. He has held many town of- fices and been its representative in the Legislature.
Holbrook is a very prosperous place, made up of pretty and comfort- able-looking houses; and almost every one of them is owned by its oc- cupant. The valuation of the town is nearly $1,000 for every man, woman and child living in it. Holbrook was known as East Randolph until 1872, when Elisha Niles Holbrook, a millionaire shoe manufact- urer, who had already built a church there, left a legacy of $50,000 for a town hall, conditional upon the name being changed. Randolph ob- jected to the separation, which caused a spirited contest in the Legis- lature.
Elisha Niles Holbrook was born in that town October 31, 1800. At the age of twenty years he began manufacturing shoes. He continued the business alone, and with uniform success up to 1870, when he took his son, E. Everett Holbrook, as partner. Mr. Holbrook died Febru- ary 5, 1872. He left a great fortune, and was throughout his life a lib- eral, charitable man. A brother, Caleb S. Holbrook, was a shoe mantt- facturer and a great pomologist.
Lynn has held prestige as the foremost shoe town in the world for more than a century. In fact it was the cradle of the shoe manu- facture.
The first Lynn shoemaker was Philip Kertland. Little is known of him save that he came here from Buckinghamshire, Eng., in 1635, and made shoes for Boston, Salem and Lynn people. He served as a sol- dier in King Philip's (the Wampanoag) war. In 1638 ten acres of land
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE. 345
were allotted to him by the town. He also purchased an estate of Na- thaniel Tyler in 1652. He left this property by will to his wife, to- gether with £10 to each of his four daughters, Mary, Sarah, Hannah and Susanna Kertland. He had two sons, Philip and Nathaniel. He died in 1686, aged seventy years. His widow afterward married Evan Thomas, of Boston. John Thornton Kertland, president of Harvard College, and Rev. S. K. Lothrop, of Boston, are mentioned as among his descendants. Rev. Samuel Kertland, who by request of the Pro- vincial Congress labored to induce the Six Nations of Indians in North- ern New York to espouse the American cause and was to a considerable extent successful, especially with the Oneidas, was a direct descendant from Philip Kertland. Kertland street is named after the first Lynn shoemaker.
It is a tradition that John Adams Dagyr, a Welshman, gave a great impulse to the business. He came to Lynn in 1450. The trade of a shoemaker was then quite popular in Great Britain. The most artistic workers were to be found in London, where Dagyr undoubtedly worked, if he did not serve his time there. He knew how to fashion the shoes of white tawed leather, of " calamink," a fine sort of woolen stuff woven in tasteful figures, the morocco, which had then just begun to be used, or the still finer English kid skins, colored, of all hues, and imprinted with beautiful figures. These stuffs were very fashionable; the toes of these shoes were sharp pointed, the heels high, made of wood and cov- cred with the same material as the shoe. Mr. Dagyr is said to have imported English shoes and taken them apart to see how they were made. Philip Kertland did the same thing a hundred years earlier. It is done to-day. Mr. Dagyr became famous, and the Boston Gasette, of October 21, 1764, said: "It is certain that women's shoes made at Lynn, by the celebrated shoemaker of Essex, do now exceed those usually imported, in strength and beauty, but not in price. Surely, then, it is expected the public-spirited ladies of the town and province will turn their immediate attention to this branch of manufacture." Although Dagyr was an excellent shoemaker, he was slovenly in dress and his habits were bad. He was a hard drinker. He married Susanna Newhall, whose father and grandfather both bore the name of Moses Newhall, and were shoemakers. His shop was in Boston street, near where Carnes street comes in. He had a son, Joseph, and a grandson, Thomas Dagyr, who worked for Benjamin F. Newhall in 1840. Mr.
44
346
SUFFOLK COUNTY
Dagyr became poor and besotted, and died in the Lynn almhouse in 1808. The name is extinct in Lynn.
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