USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 48
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3
200
95,000
487,306
Spectacles and eye-glasses.
7
21
8,200
25,730
Sporting goods
4
71
58,000
133,800
Springs, steel, car and carriage
5
13
4,450
18,509
Stationery goods.
IO
87
48,800
207,050
Steam fitting and heating apparatus
9
203
269,500
398,780
Stencil and brands.
12
35
28,500
53,200
Stereotyping and electrotyping
5
98
38,000
115,630
Stone and earthen ware
5
82
58,000
97,900
Straw goods
3
163
41,000
220,295
Sugar and molasses, refined.
4
395
1,629,500
16,518,760
Surgical appliances
5
51
30,500
106,000
Taxidermy
3
9
1,800
14,000
Tin, copper and sheet iron ware.
94
559
322,280
1,055,472
Tobacco, cigars
88
443
135,556
524,283
Trunks and valises.
20
164
104,500
400,700
Type founding
3
136
72,200
162,000
Umbrellas and canes
3
22
17,600
50,640
Average No. hands emp.
Capital.
Valve cf Product.
Lock and gun smithing.
1
I
I
1
40
28,200
36,000
Musical instrum'ts and materials(not specified) 6
90,000
1
189
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY.
Kind of Industries.
No. Est.
Average No. hands emp.
Capital.
Value of Product.
Upholstering
227
122,757
393,840
Varnish
3
16
65,000
235,000
Watch and clock repairing
6
12
6,700
12,000
Watch cases
5
122
65,000
427,371
Whalebone
1
54
24,500
69,417
Wheelwrighting.
56
218
90,225
232,965
Window blinds and shades
12
57
19,250
76,345
Wire work
15
I34
69,400
214,567
Wooden ware
3
21
6,000
35,500
Wood, turned and carved
44
450
327,960
791,355
*Miscellaneous industries
.117
3,585
4,230,030
8,094,542
Totals
2,521
36,813
42,750,134
123,366,137
1
1
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1
E.
I
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The State census of 1885 gives the number of manufacturing estab- lishments in Suffolk county as 5, 472, in which was invested a capital of $32,315,974, and the value of the manufactured product as $149, 281,- 727. Boots, shoes and slippers made represented a value of $2, 714, 146; building, building material and stone work, $14,160,065; clothing and straw goods, $24,215, 235; findings and trimmings, $265, 175 ; food prep- arations, $39,959,785; iron goods, $7,209,539; other metallic goods, $7,789,726; leather, $1,680,233; paints, colors, oil and chemicals, $1, - 890,970; paper and paper goods, $1,328,181 ; printing and publishing, $11,244, 422; textiles, $4,000,065; wood and metal goods, $6, 413, 435. Employment was furnished to 45,579 persons, of whom all but 4,913 were males.
At the present time Suffolk county presents a more diversified variety of manufactured products than any other county in the Commonwealth, and gives employment to more persons. In 1870 the manufactures of Suffolk county exceeded any other county by more than $40,000,000.
* The 117 establishments classed as miscellaneous industries are grouped in order that the busi- ness of individual establishments may not be disclosed to the public. In this group are embraced agricultural implements ; artificial limbs ; bags, other than paper ; bags, paper ; basket, rattan, and willow ware; belting and hose, linen ; boot and shoe uppers ; boxes, cigar ; brick and tile ; build- ing materials ; buttons ; carpets, rag ; carpets, wood ; carriages and sleds, children's; cars, rail- road, street, and repairs ; cement ; cheese and butter ; chocolate ; cleaning and polishing prepara- tions ; clocks ; cloth finishing ; collars and cuffs, paper ; cordials and syrups ; cotton ties ; drain and sewer pipe ; dye woods, stuffs'and extracts : engraving materials ; explosives and fireworks ; fire arms ; food preparations ; foundry supplies ; gas and lamp fixtures ; gas machines and meters ; glass ; glue ; graphite ; grindstones ; hat and cap materials : hones and whetstones ; ink ; iron, doors and shutters ; iron, nails and spikes, cut and wrought ; iron work, architectural and orna- mental ; jewelry and instrument cases ; lamps and reflectors ; lard, refined ; lead, pipe, sheet and shot ; leather goods ; lime ; lumber, sawed ; malt ; matches ; metal refining ; millstones ; mirrors ; needles and pius ; oilcloth, floor ; oleomargerine ; pens, gold ; photographic apparatus ; plated and britannia ware; regalias and society banners and emblems ; rules, ivory and wood ; safes, doors and vaults, fire-proof ; saws; shoddy ; silverware ; starch ; telegraph and telephone apparatus ; terra cotta ware ; tobacco. chewing, smoking and stuff ; toys and games ; tools ; veneering ; vinegar ; washing machines and clothes wringers ; watches ; and woolen goods.
62
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490
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
In 1875 there were employed 46,917 persons in manufacturing in Bos- ton, and in 1880 the number was 59, 213. In 1890, 90, 198 persons were employed. The earnings of the help employed in Boston have been conspicuously greater than in any other sections of the State. In 1880 the average in Boston was $420.93, and in 1890 $605.62. In 1870 the manufactured products of Boston amounted to $106,000,000, in 1880 $130,531,993, and in 1890 $208,104,683.
The final statistics of manufactures for Boston for the year 1890 have not yet been issued. From preliminary reports from the census de- partments the following facts are obtained, which, however, may be subject to modification in final reports.
Number of industries reported
Number of establishments
252 7,915
Hands employed
90,198
Wages paid
$54,636,695
Cost of materials used
$104,631,879
Value of product $208,104,683 1
Detailed statement by important industries:
No. estab- ments.
Capital employed. $15,792.768
Value of product. $19,672,404
Wages paid. $3,311,837
No. hands employed.
Clothing
-19I
Coffee and spices, roasting and
grinding
15
1,724,425
3,345,498
161,355
228
Confectionery
85
2,746,029
3,555,831
621,885
1,519
Cordage and twine
7
3,488,419
5,290,335
610,498
I,755
Foundry and machine shop pro- ducts
179
9,060,21I
8,536,272
3,315,242
4,723
Furniture.
96
3,602,009
4, 193,301
1,405,258
2,249
Musical instruments
29
3,581,714
3,947,948
1,479,337
1,970
Printing and publishing
.387
12,663,647
13,053,118
4, 130, 175
5,801
Rubber and elastic goods;
15
1,473,085
1,784,781
331,957
980
Steam heating and heating ap-
paratus.
15
1,139,799
1,955,765
612,522
950
I
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1
1
1
1
1
I
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1
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1
1
I
I
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1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
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1
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1
!
1
1
6,528
1
BOSTON'S RELATION TO THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY.
FROM the very beginning of the present factory system, as under- stood in its application to the textile industry, Boston men have been inseparably connected with every stage of its evolution, and from their capital, energy and brains its greatest benefits have been derived. Indeed, to eliminate the part Boston has thus played in the develop- ment of this industry, would be to leave out a vital element in its suc- cessful progress for fully three-quarters of a century. It has been the seat from which has radiated an influence far reaching in its effects upon the manufacturing interest of New England, and no record of the industrial progress of the city would be complete without giving prominence to this well recognized fact. Outside of its various twine and cordage manufactures, this city has, it is true, no mills of great importance within its borders, but as a distributing center and in the furnishing of capital it leads every city in New England.
The location which the settlers of Boston chose for the site of a city was almost entirely devoid of water power. To be sure, that portion of the Charles River flats which was separated from the rest by the mill dam furnished power for three tide mills, but this power was in- adequate for any great manufactures. So as the city grew, and the demands of the people for clothing materials outgrew the facilities of supply by means of the hand looms and spinning wheels, in the use of which every housewife was proficient, some other source of supply be- came imperative." In another portion of this work is recounted the story of how the ladies of Boston used to hold spinning bees on the Common, "vieing with one another in their dexterity in the use of the spinning wheel." But this soon became a thing of the past.
It was in 1803 that the manufacturers of the city first took the step from which has grown the present system of textile manufacturing in
492
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
the large towns and cities in the interior of the State. The nearest bountiful supply of water power to Boston was at Watertown, where the Charles makes its last rapid run to the level of the sea. It was at this point that, in the year mentioned, the first weaving mill was built. It was by Boston money and by Boston ability entirely that this was done, so that this enterprise must fairly be classed as a Boston under- taking.
As the city grew and the population of the State increased, more tex- tile mills became a necessity, and in later years Boston capital and Boston men were to be found pushing out into the rest of the then large territory in search of streams and falls under which they might set their wheels. From these small beginnings on the banks of Mas- sachusetts rivers have grown large and thrifty towns and cities, the offsprings of Boston as truly as though they had been settled by men from Boston entirely. Here the mill population, which the suburbs of Boston could never have economically supported from the natural in- crease in the cost of living in a large city, has made comfortable homes for itself. And almost all these are tributary to the parent city.
Before recounting more specifically the important part performed by Boston men in successfully laying the foundation of the textile indus- tries of Massachusetts, it may be proper to give a brief account of the rise of the cotton mills of New England. The beginning of the modern cotton factory may be said to date from the successful experiments of Samuel Slater at Pawtucket, R. I., in 1290. Previous to this date, however, cotton spinning, further than the hand card, and one thread wheel, was carried on at Beverly, Mass., where in 1787 the Beverly Company was formed, and built a small brick factory on Bass River. John Cabot and Joshua Fisher were the founders of the enterprise.
General Washington, in his diary of his trip through New England in 1789, thus writes of his visit to this factory :
In this manufactory they have the new invented spinning and carding machines. One of the first supplies the warp, and four of the latter, one of which spins eighty- four threads at a time by one person. The cotton is prepared for these machines by being first (lightly) drawn to a thread on the common wheel. There is also another machine for doubling and twisting the threads for particular cloths; this also does many at a time. For winding the cotton from the spindles and preparing it for the warp there is a reel which expedites the work greatly. A number of looms (fifteen or sixteen) were at work with spring shuttles, which do more than double work. In short, the whole seemed perfect and the cotton stuffs which they turn out excellent of their kind; warp and filling both cotton.
493
BOSTON AND THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY.
The enterprise at Beverly, however, was not a financial success. The expense attending the operation of the factory was far greater than was warranted by the small price obtained for the coarse fabric pro- duced by the rude machinery. In 1784, and again in 1790, the man- agers appealed to the Legislature for aid. A grant of £1,000 was made, but the Beverly Company failed to make a success of this enter- prise. The imperfect machinery employed failed to turn out goods of the finish and beauty which the English factories could show, because of superior workmen and improved machinery.
"Such," says George Rich in his history of the cotton industry in New England, published in the New England Magasine, 1890, "was the situation when Samuel Slater arrived in this country at the close of 1789. Slater was fresh from the center of the industry in England. Born in Derbyshire in 1798, he was early apprenticed to Jedediah Strutt, a Milford cotton manufacturer, and a partner of Sir Richard Arkwright, in the spinning business. The latter circumstance was a most important one. It gave young Slater every opportunity to mas- ter the details of the construction of the best cotton machinery then in use. During the last years of his apprenticeship he was a general overseer, not only in making machinery, but in the manufacturing de- partment of Strutt's factory. But Slater was a pushing, energetic young fellow, and was not content with the position even of overseer. He chanced upon a copy of an American newspaper and there learned of the general interest that was being taken by this country in cotton manufacturing, and the generous bounties promised those who should build satisfactory machinery. This determined him to emigrate hither. But he knew he could carry with him neither models nor drawings. He was blessed with a mathematical mind and a retentive memory. These, fortified by his long experience, gave him an equipment that no custom officials could seize. He landed in New York in November, 1789, and after some delay in that city pushed on to Providence, R. I. There Almy & Brown were trying to operate the card jennies which they had brought from the old 'home spun cloth ' company. Slater looked them over and pronounced the whole lot utterly worthless. Moses Brown, the head of the firm, a worthy Friend, was rather astonished at the wholesale condemnation of his plant. He recovered, however, sufficiently to reply: 'But thee hast said thee canst make the Ark- wright machines; why not do it?' The result was that the young mechanic there contracted with Almy & Brown to produce a ' perpetual
494
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
card and spinning system ' for them. .. One can hardly appreciate the difficulties of the task. All the plans had to be made from memory. Skilled machinists and modern tools for working wood and iron were wanting. Secrecy, furthermore, was necessary, lest some rival should get hold of and anticipate the plans. Sylvanus Brown was hired to do the wood work, and David Wilkinson the metallic. These, with Slater and an old colored man, constituted the force. Behind closed doors and barred windows this quartette worked for nearly a year before any of the machinery was ready for trial. On December 20, however, three cards, drawing and roving, together with seventy-two spindles, were complete. These were then taken to an old fulling-mill and a test of them made."
The experiment was in every way satisfactory and justifies the claim made for Slater as "the founder of American textile machinery." His machines were all constructed on the Arkwright principle, a fact of peculiar significance, which Edward Atkinson thus emphasizes:
In the whole treatment of cotton, as it is now practiced in the finest factories of modern kind, there is but one original invention ; all else is but a change or modifi- cation of prehistoric methods. That invention was one which Sir Richard Arkwright borrowed from a previous inventor and put in use about a century ago; namely, the extension of the strand prior to the twisting of the spindles. This was accom- plished by the use of several pairs of rollers, one placed in front of the other, and those in front working at a higher speed than those behind.
At this time nothing but spinning was done. The yarn was sent out among the farmers to be woven into cloth. " The spinning system," says Mr. Rich, "once established, its extension was rapid. At the close of the Revolution there sprang up all over the country societies for the promotion of various objects, such as agricultural, the arts and trades. It was the fashion for gentlemen of leisure to take an active part in some such movement. The result was that a knowledge of the new inventions and improvements was quickly and widely spread. American cotton was then of a very poor quality. The picker was a thing of the future, and the staple had to be sent into the country to be whipped and cleaned. The work was of necessity imperfectly done. Slater declined to use the home cotton when he began his operations, insisting on that imported from the West Indies. Finally the war of 1812 shut off the stream of importation from Great Britain and forced the people of this country to depend upon themselves. Commerce was unnaturally checked. Thousands who had been employed in ship-
/
495
BOSTON AND THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY.
building or the fisheries had then to turn to the various manufacturing industries. Factories and mills sprang up throughout New England. The whirr of the spinning jenny became a common sound. The men who had received their training under Slater took this chance to branch out for themselves." Factories were started at Fitchburg and Water- town in 1804, and at Amoskeag Falls, N. H., in 1810. In the same year the first Maine (then a province of Massachusetts) factory was started at Brunswick.
By the close of 1810 factories were distributed throughout New Eng- land. The census reports of 1810 show that Massachusetts had 54 mills, New Hampshire 12, Vermont 1, Rhode Island 28, and Connecti- cut 14. In New York there were 26 factories, in New Jersey 4, in Delaware 3, in Maryland 11, Kentucky 15, Tennessee 4, Ohio 2, and Pennsylvania 64. Under the impetus given the manufacture by the war, the capital invested in it, in 1815, was estimated at $40,000,000, and the operators numbered 34,000 men and 66,000 women.
But the greatest revolution in the industry was yet to come. This was wrought by the introduction of the power loom. Francis C. Lowell, of Boston, was the principal agent in this change, and from this time can be dated the beginning of the important part performed by Boston men in the development of this great industry.
In 1811 Mr. Lowell made a visit to England for the purpose of in- specting its factories, and inspired by the patriotic idea of securing for his own country the inestimable advantage of being the manufacturer of its own fabrics. While abroad he conceived the idea that the cotton manufacture, then almost monopolized by Great Britain, might be ad- vantageously prosecuted here. The use of machinery was daily super- seding the former manual operations, and it was known that power looms had recently been introduced, though the mode of constructing them had been kept secret. The cheapness of labor and abundance of capital were advantages in favor of the English manufacturer. On the other hand they were burdened with the taxes of a prolonged war. We could obtain the raw material cheaper, and had a great superiority in the abundant water power, then practically unemployed in every part of New England. It was also the belief of Mr. Lowell that the charac- ter of our population, educated, moral and enterprising as it was, could not fail to secure success, when brought into competition with their European rivals. . It was while in Edinburgh that Mr. Lowell met Hon. Nathan Appleton, of Boston, who, even at that day, was a man of large
496
SUFFOLK COUNTY
means. To Mr. Appleton he communicated his plans and purposes, and from the meeting of these two men may be dated the identification of Boston with the development of the cotton manufacture in America. Mr. Appleton in his "Introduction of the Power Loom " thus refers to this incident: " My identification with the cotton manufacture takes date from the year 1811, when I met my friend, Mr. Francis C. Lowell, at Edinburgh, where he had been passing some time with his family. We had frequent conversations on the subject of cotton manufacture, and he informed me that he had determined before his return to Amer- ica, to visit Manchester for the purpose of obtaining all possible in- formation on the subject, with a view to the introduction of the im- proved manufacture in the United States. I urged him to do so, and promised him my co-operation."
In 1813 Mr. Lowell returned to this country, bringing, without doubt, a better knowledge of the manufacturing operations of Great Britain than possessed by any other person in the United States. He at once en- tered enthusiastically upon the work of doing in America what he had seen accomplished in the Old World in cotton manufacturing. So con- fident was he in his calculations that he thought he could in no way so effectually assist the fortunes of his brother-in-law, Patrick T. Jackson, of Boston, whose mercantile business had been seriously affected by the war, than by offering him a share in the enterprise. No more fortunate selection of associate could have been made. Mr. Jackson's was not a spirit to be appalled by obstacles. He entered at once into the project, and from that time until his death, many years later, no one did more than he in the development of the ideas first suggested by Mr. Lowell.
Great were the difficulties that beset the new undertaking. The state of war prevented any communication with England. Not even books and designs, much less models, could be procured. The structure of the machinery, the materials to be used in the construction, the very tools of the machine shop, the arrangement of the mill, the size of its various departments-all these were to be as it were, reinvented. The first object to be accomplished was to procure a power loom, not one having yet been used in America. To obtain one from England was impracticable; and although there were many patents for such ma- chines in the United States patent office, not one had yet exhibited suf- ficient merit to be adopted into use. Under these circumstances but one resource remained -to invent one themselves; and this these earn- est men at once set about. Unacquainted as they were with machinery,
49%
BOSTON AND THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY.
in practice, they dared nevertheless to attempt the solution of a prob- lem that had baffled the most ingenious machinists. The experiments were begun in a store on Broad street, Boston. It was found necessary to procure the assistance of a practical mechanic, and they were fortunate to secure the services of Paul Moody, of whom Edward Everett has said: "To the efforts of his self-taught mind, the early prosperity of the great manufacturing establishments at Waltham and Lowell in no small degree is due." Mr. Lowell, with a frame already wasted by disease, was the inspiring spirit of his associates; fertile in suggesting expedients, and sublimely confident of a successful result, he devoted all of his time and energies to the task, regardless of his strength or health. After months of experimenting their first loom was ready for trial, and with what satisfaction its successful operation was regarded, can be gained from Mr. Appleton's account of his first examination of the machine. Mr. Lowell had told his friend, Mr. Ap- pleton, that he did not wish him to see the machine until it was com- pleted, of which he would give him notice. "At length," says Mr. Appleton, "the time arrived. He invited me to go out with him and see the loom operate. I well recollect the state of admiration and satis- faction with which we sat by the hour watching the beautiful move- ment of this new and wonderful machine, destined as it evidently was to change the character of all textile industry. This was in the autumn of 1814."
Previous to this, however, Mr. Lowell and Mr. Jackson had secured the incorporation of the Boston Manufacturing Company; had pur- chased a water power in Waltham (Bemis's Paper Mill), and built a factory. The capital authorized by the charter was $400,000, but it was agreed to raise only $100,000 until the experiment should be fairly tried. Of this sum Mr. Lowell and Mr. Jackson and his brother sub- scribed the greater part, and Nathan Appleton $5,000. It was not until after the building at Waltham was completed and other machin- ery was running that the first loom was ready for trial. Mr. Lowell's loom was different in several particulars from the English loom, which was afterwards made public. The principal movement was by a cam, revolving with an eccentric motion, which later gave place to the crank motion. As might naturally be expected, many defects were found in this first model loom, but these were gradually remedied.
The project heretofore had been exclusively for a weaving mill, to do by power what had before been done by hand looms. But it was
63
498
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
ascertained that it would be more economical to spin the twist rather than to buy it, and so some 14,000 spindles were introduced in the mill, thus comprising within one establishment all the processes necessary to convert raw cotton into cloth. This made the Waltham mill with- out doubt the first complete factory in the world. The former mills in this country-Slater's, for example, in Rhode Island-were spinning mills only; and in England, though the power loom had been intro- duced, it was used in separate establishments by persons who bought, as the hand weavers had always done, their twist of the spinners. Spinning on throstle spindles and the spinning of filling directly on the cops without the process of winding was also introduced. Of this latter improvement a pleasant anecdote is told. It is given in Nathan Apple- ton's language: "Mr. Shepard, of Taunton, had a patent for a wind- ing machine which was considered the best extant. Mr. Lowell was chaffing with him about purchasing the right of using them on a large scale at some discount from the price asked. Mr. Shepard refused. saying, 'You must have them; you cannot do without them, as you know, Mr. Moody.' Mr. Moody replied: 'I am just thinking 1 can spin the cops direct from the bobbin.' 'You be hanged!' said Mr. Shepard; 'well, I accept your offer.' ' No,' said Mr. Lowell, 'it is too late.' A new born thought had sprung forth from Mr. Moody's inventive mind, and he had no more use for Mr. Shepard's winding machine."
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