USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 50
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After succeeding in establishing the cotton manufacture on a perma- nent basis, and possessed of a fortune quite adequate to his wants, Mr. Jackson determined to retire from the labor and responsibility of busi- ness. With this end in view, he resigned the agency of the factory at Waltham, still remaining a director both in that company and the new one at Lowell, and personally consulted on every occasion of doubt or difficulty. This life of comparative leisure was not of long duration. His spirit was too active to allow him to be happy in retirement, and he soon plunged once more into the cares and perplexities of business. Mr. Moody had recently introduced some important improvements in machinery, and was satisfied that great saving might be made, and a higher rate of speed advantageously adopted. Mr. Jackson proposed to establish a company at Lowell, to be called the Appleton Com- pany, and adopt the new machinery. The stock was soon subscribed, and Mr. Jackson appointed the treasurer and agent. Two large mills were built and conducted by him for several years, till success had fully justified his anticipations. Meanwhile his presence at Lowell was of great advantage to the new city. All men there, as among the stock- holders of Boston, looked up to him as the founder and guardian genius of the place, and were ready to receive from him advice or rebuke, and to refer to him all questions of doubt or controversy. As new com- panies were formed, and claims became conflicting, the advantages be- came more apparent of having a man of such sound judgment, im- partial integrity, and nice discrimination to appeal to, and who occupied a historical position to which no one else could pretend.
In 1830 the interests of Lowell induced Mr. Jackson to enter a busi- ness, new to himself and others. This was the building of the Boston and Lowell Railroad. For some years the practicability of constructing roads, in which the friction should be materially lessened by laying down iron bars or trams, had engaged the attention of practical en- gineers in England. At first it was contemplated that the service of such roads should be performed by horses; and it was not until the brilliant experiments of Mr. Stephenson, on the Liverpool and Man- chester Railroad, that the possibility of using locomotive engines was
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fully established. The necessity of a better communication between Boston and Lowell had been the subject of frequent conversations between Mr. Boott and Mr. Jackson. Estimates had been made and a line surveyed for a macadamized road. The travel between the two places was rapidly increasing, and the transportation of merchan- dise, slowly performed in summer by the Middlesex Canal, was done at great cost, and over bad roads in winter by wagons.
At this moment the success of Mr. Stephenson's experiments decided Mr. Jackson. He saw at once the prodigious revolution that the intro- duction of steam would make in the business of internal communica- tion. Men were, as yet, incredulous. The cost and danger attending the use of the new machines were exaggerated, and even if feasible in England, with a city of one hundred and fifty thousand souls at each of the termini, such a project, it was argued, was Quixotical here, with our more limited means and sparser population. Mr. Jackson took a different view of the matter, and, when after much delay and difficulty, the stock of the road was subscribed for, he undertook to superintend its construction with the especial object that it might be in every way adopted to the use of steam power, and to that increase of travel and transportation which others like him had the sagacity to anticipate. Full of confidence in his own energy he entered on the task, so new to every one in this country, with the same boldness that he had evinced twenty years before in the erection of the first weaving mill. He was not accustomed to waste time in any of his undertakings. But there were, however, many points to be attended to, and many preliminary steps were to be taken. A charter was to be obtained, and, as yet, no charter for a railroad had been granted in New England. With respect to the road itself, nearly everything was to be learned. Mr. Jackson established a correspond- ence with the most distinguished engineers of this country and of Europe; and it was not until he had deliberately and satisfactorily solved all the doubts that arose in his own mind, or were suggested by others, that he would allow any steps to be decided on. In this way, although more time was consumed than on other roads, a more satisfac- tory result was obtained. The road was graded for a double track ; the grades reduced to a level of ten feet to the mile; all curves, but those of very large radius, avoided; and every part constructed with a degree of strength nowhere else, at that time, considered necessary. A distingushed engineer, Mr. Charles Chevalier, spoke of the completed
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work as truly "Cyclopean." Every measure adopted showed con- elusively how clearly Mr. Jackson foresaw the extension and capabil- ities of the railroad.
It required no small degree of moral firmness to conceive and carry out these plans. Few persons realized the difficulties of the undertak- ing, or the magnitude of the results. The shareholders were restless under increased assessments and delayed income. It is not too much to say that no one but Mr. Jackson could, at that time, have commanded the confidence necessary to enable him to pursue his work so deliber- ately and so thoroughly.
The road was opened for travel in 1835, and experience soon justified the wisdom of his anticipation. Its completion and successful opera- tion was a great relief to Mr. Jackson. For several years it had en- grossed his time and attention, and at times deprived him of sleep. He felt it to be a public trust, the responsibility of which was of a nature quite different from that which had attended his previous enterprises.
One difficulty that he had encountered in the prosecution of this work led him into a new undertaking, the completion of which occupied him a year or two longer. He felt the great advantage of making the terminus of the road in Boston, and not, as was done in other instances, on the other side of the river. The obstacles appeared at first sight insurmountable. No land was to be procured in that populated part of the city, except at very high prices; and it was not then the public policy to allow the passage of trains through the streets. A mere site for a passenger depot could, indeed, be obtained; and this seemed to most persons all that was essential. Such narrow policy did not suit Mr. Jackson's ideas. It occurred to him that by an extensive purchase of flats, then unoccupied, a site could be obtained. The excavations made by the railroad at Winter Hill, and elsewhere, within a few miles of Boston, much exceeded the embankments, and would supply the gravel to fill up these flats. Such a speculation not being within the powers of the corporation, a new company was created for the purpose. The land was made, to the extent of about ten acres; and what was not needed for depots, was sold at advantageous prices. It was found, a few years later, that even the large provision made by Mr. Jackson was inadequate to the daily increasing business of the railroad.
Mr. Jackson was now fifty-seven years of age. Released once more from his engagements, in which he would be followed by the respect of the community, and the gratitude of many families that owed their wel-
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fare to his exertions. But a cloud had come over his private fortunes. While laboring for others he had allowed himself to be involved in some speculations, to which he had not leisure to devote his personal attention. The unfortunate issue of these deprived him of a large por- tion of his property.
Uniformly prosperous hitherto, the touchstone of adversity was want- ing to elicit, perhaps even create, some of the most admirable traits in his character. He had long been affluent, and with his generous and hospitable nature, had adopted a style of living fully commensurate with his position. The cheerful dignity with which he met his reverses ; the promptness with which he accommodated his expenses to his altered circumstances; and the almost youthful alacrity with which he once more put on the harness, were themes of daily comment to his friends, and afforded to the world an example of the triest philosophy. He had always been highly respected; the respect was now blended with love and admiration.
The death of his friend, Mr. Boott, in the spring of 1837, had proved a severe blow to the prosperity of Lowell. At the head of the Locks and Canals Company, which controlled the land and water power, and manufactured all the machinery used in the mills, the position he had occupied led him into daily intercourse with the managers of the sev- eral companies. The supervision he had exercised, and the influence of his example, had been felt in all the ramifications of the complicated business of the place. The Locks and Canals Company being under his immediate charge, was, of course, the first to suffer. This property rapidly declined both intrinsically and in public estimation. The shares, which for many years had been worth $1,000 each, were sold for $700 and even less. No one appeared so able to apply the remedy as Mr. Jackson. Familiar, from the first, with the history of the company, of which he had always been a director, and the confidential adviser of Mr. Boott, he alone, perhaps, was fully capable of supplying that gen- tleman's place. He was solicited to accept the office, and tempted by the offer of a higher salary than had, perhaps, up to that time ever been offered in this country, he assumed the trust. During the seven years of his management the proprietors had every reason to congratulate themselves upon the wisdom of their choice. The property was brought into the best condition, extensive and lucrative contracts were made and executed; the annual dividends were large; and when at last it was
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thought expedient to close the affairs of the corporation, the stockhold- ers received of capital nearly $1,600 a share.
The brilliant issue of this business enhanced Mr. Jackson's reputa- tion. He was constantly solicited to aid, by advice, by service and counsel, wherever doubt or intricacy existed. No public enterprises were brought forward till they had received the sanction of his opinion.
During the last years of his life he was the treasurer and agent of the Great Falls Manufacturing Company at Somersworth, a corporation that had been doing an unprofitable business at a great expense of capital. He made radical changes in management, and practically re- built and reconstructed the entire property. The results from his management were highly satisfactory, and the company became very prosperous. His fortune had, in the mean time, been restored to a point that relieved him from anxiety, and he was not ambitious of in- creasing it.
For some time after he assumed the duties of the agency at Somers- worth, the labor and responsibility attending it were very severe, yet he seemed to his friends to have all the vigor and elasticity of middle age. It may be, however, that the exertion was beyond his physical strength ; certainly after a year or two he began to exhibit symptoms of gradual prostration, and when attacked by illness, in the summer of 1847, his constitution had no longer the power of resistance, and he sank rapidly until his death occurred in the following September, at his sea-side residence at Beverly. It had not been generally known in Boston that he was unwell. The news of his death was received as a public calamity. The expressions that spontaneously burst forth from every mouth were a most touching testimonial to his virtues as much as to his ability.
Paul Moody was born in Newbury, Mass., May 23, 1779. His father was a man of much influence in the town, and was known as Captain Paul Moody. He early showed himself to be the possessor of remark- able talent in the direction of mechanical invention. By degrees his talents became so well known that his aid was sought in positions of high responsibility. In such positions he had been employed in the Wool and Cotton Manufacturing Company in Amesbury, previous to his connection with the Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham. He gained a distinguished name as the inventor of machinery for the manufacture of cotton. He invented the winding-frame, a new dress- ing machine, the substitution of soapstone rollers for iron rollers, the
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method of spinning yarn for filling directly on the bobbin for the shuttle, the filling frame, the double speeder, a new governor, the use of the dead spindle, and various other devices which gave speed and completeness to the work of manufacturing cotton. His inventive genius was the animating spirit of the cotton mill. He died in July. 1831, at the age of fifty-two years. Of this event, Dr. Edson, in the funeral sermon delivered at Lowell, July 10, 1831, says: " His death produced a greater sensation than any event that has transpired in this town. He died in full strength of body, in the very vigor of age and constitution."
Kirk Boott was born in Boston, October 20, 1790. His father, Kirk Boott, came to Boston in 1783, and became a wholesale dry goods mer- chant. He was the builder of the Revere House. The son received his early education in Boston. Subsequently he studied at the Rugby School in England, and entered the class of 1809 in Harvard College. Having a taste for military life, he left the college before completing his course, and went to England, where he qualified himself to enter the English army as a civil engineer. At the age of twenty-one years he received a commission in the English army, and was subsequently made lieutenant in the Eighty-fifth Light Infantry, and with this regi- ment took part in the peninsular campaign under Wellington, landing in Spain in August, 1813. At the close of the wars of Napoleon, the Eighty-fifth Regiment was ordered to America to take part in the war of 1812, but Mr. Boott, being by birth an American, refused to bear arms against his native land. He then came home, but later on re- turned to England and completed his engineering studies at the Mili- tary Academy at Sandhurst, before finally resigning his commission. After his marriage to an English lady he returned to Boston and en- gaged with his two brothers in mercantile pursitits. In 1822 he accepted the position of agent of the Merrimack Mills. In this position he found a field congenial to his great executive abilities. "Up to this time," says one biographer of his life, "manufactures in America had been carried on in small, detached establishments, managed by the owners of the property; but now the great experiment was to be tried of so managing the affairs of great stock companies, so as to yield to the owners a satisfactory profit. To do this demanded a man of original commanding intellect, of indomitable courage and iron will. Such a man was Mr. Boott. For such a position his natural ability and his military experience had admirably qualified him. He entered upon his
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task with resolute courage and conscientious devotion to duty. His pen and pencil were busy upon drawings and plans for new structures. He was arbiter in a thousand transactions." So intense was his ap- plication to his tasks that his health became affected, and to his over exertion can be mainly attributed his death, April 11, 1834, in the forty-seventh year of his age, and after fifteen years of most valuable service, during the most critical period of the Merrimack Mills.
It was at Lowell that many of the most important improvements in the manufacture of textile fabrics were inaugurated. There the print- ing of calico was first profitably introduced. The bringing of the busi- ness, however, to any degree of perfection proved a work of difficulty and time; many of the auxiliary arts, such as that of engraving the printing cylinders, being then kept profoundly secret in England, while all exportation of machinery from that country was prohibited. Even under the stimulus afforded by the protective duties, the manufacture was hardly successful before 1825. The highest success was finally attained, with gradually reduced prices to consumers for many succeed- ing years, decreasing in price from 23.02 cents per yard in 1825 to 9.15 cents per yard in 1855.
It was during the protective period, extending from 1824 to 1834, that the most material changes in the texture of American cotton fabrics were made-changes so marked as to have become of national importance. The Hamilton brown drillings, of a twilled texture, were first made in Lowell in 1827. Before, this fabric and that of jeans was first made here by power, no cotton cloth, except of a perfectly plain texture, were made by power in England, although similar fabrics had been made on hand looms. When the drillings were first introduced, the question was generally asked: "What can be done with them?" But this fabric being stronger, thicker, more serviceable, and at the same time cheaper, than anything that could be imported, supplied a universal want of consumers of cotton, and in a few years many of the mills began its manufacture, and to-day it is one of the staples of American manufacture. During the same year (1827) was commenced at the Hamilton Mills the manufacture of a twilled article, blue and white, since known as shirting stripe, which was found to be more serviceable and suitable for the hard service of sailors than the thinner and lighter article they had been accustomed to wear, known as the blue and white check, which was mostly imported from England.
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Soon this fabric came into general use among the sailors and there was great demand for export.
The early founders of Lowell-all Boston men-not only of large means, but of great enterprise, energy and intelligence, soon put the business of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company on a firm and profitable basis. Capital was speedily attracted to this new and prom- ising field. New corporations were organized, new factories were built. So rapid was the growth of the town that, in 1836, it was incorporated as a city. To-day it is one of the leading cities of Massachusetts, with a population of fully 80,000, while the assessors' books for 1890 place the city's valuation at more than $62,000,000.
The capital of the Merrimack Company has been several times in- creased, until now it is $2,200,000. Howard Stockton, of Boston, is treasurer of the company. With 158,976 spindles, 4,483 looms and twenty-one printing machines, this company is able to produce 1,000,- 000 yards of dyed and printed cloth per week. Following the Merri- mack, the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1825, was the next concern to begin operations on a large scale at Lowell. In the organization of this company, as in the Merrimack, Boston men and capital figured. It now has a capital of $1,800,000. With 111,064 spindles and 3,131 looms the weekly capacity of the mills is $20,000 yards, the productions consisting of prints, ticks, stripes, drills and cot- ton flannels. The Appleton Company was incorporated in 1828, and has a capital of $600,000. With 45,564 spindles and 1,224 looms, its productive capacity is 350,000 yards per week, consisting of drilling's, sheetings and shirtings. The Lawrence Manufacturing Company be- gan operations in 1833, with a capital of $1,200,000, which has since been increased to $1,500,000. L. M. Sargent is treasurer and John Kilburn agent. With about 150,000 spindles, the weekly capacity is 700,000 yards, consisting of hosiery, shirting, sheeting, denims and cot- ton flannels. The Boott Cotton Mills commenced operations in 1836, and has a capital of $1,200,000. With 151, 292 spindles and 4, 215 looms, 775,000 yards of drillings, sheetings and shortings are produced weekly. Eliot C. Clark is treasurer, and A. G. Cummack agent. The Suffolk Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1831, with a capital of $600,000, and the Tremont Mill during the same year with a like capi- tal. These two companies were consolidated in 1871, under the name of the Tremont and Suffolk Mills. The capital is $1,500,000. With 120,000 spindles and 4,000 looms, the weekly producing capacity is
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about 600,000 yards of sheeting, shirtings, drills, cotton flannels and colored goods. A. S. Covell is treasurer, and E. W. Thomas agent. The Massachusetts Cotton Mills began operations in 1840. The capital is $1,800,000. With 125,000 spindles and 4,061 looms, 90,000 yards of sheetings, shirtings, drillings and cotton flannels are produced weekly. Chas. L. Lovering is treasurer, and S. Southworth agent. These seven cotton mills of Lowell, with a combined capital of $10, 600,000, have their main offices in Boston, where resides a large proportion of the stockholders and officers of the various companies.
The Lowell Manufacturing Company, which is one of the oldest car- pet mills in the country, was largely a Boston enterprise. It was in- corporated in 1828, with a capital of $900,000, which has since been in- creased to $2,000,000. Among its corporators were Frederic Cabot, William Whitney and Richard C. Cabot. This company was the first to use for weaving carpets the power looms invented by E. B. Bigelow, 1 an invention so wonderful that it seems almost endowed with intellect. The company originally commenced operations with a single mill four stories in height and about 200 feet in length, with a few necessary buildings for storing raw materials and manufactured goods, sorting wool and dyeing. About two-thirds of this space was occupied for the manufacture of coarse cotton cloth, called Osnaburgs, or Negro cloth, which was largely sold in the South for plantation wear. The remain- ing space was utilized for the production of carpeting on hand looms, the weaving being done in the fourth story. It was in one corner of . this weave room, partitioned off for the purpose, that the Bigelow power loom, which was destined to work such a revolution in carpet weaving, was built and perfected in 1842, or about that time. In 1848, when it was evident that Bigelow's invention could be profitably em- ployed, a mill of one story in height and covering nearly an acre of
1 Erastus B. Bigelow was born in West Boylston, Mass., in 1814. At an early age he began in- venting various machines, the first being for making piping cord, followed by looms for weaving suspender webbing, knitting counterpanes, weaving coach lace, ginghams, and finally carpets, which. with various appliances to the machinery, made the number of patents taken out by him about fifty. He saw the carpet industry of the world revolutionized by his processes, and had the satisfaction of having his carpet looms rights for Great Britain bought by the great house of Crossly & Sons, of England, who, until then, had led the world in that manufacture. He was the author of many publications on topics connected with the manufacturing industries. He was one of the incorporators of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, and of the London Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture, and Com- merce. The town of Clinton was founded by the industries based on his inventions. He was president of the Bigelow Carpet Company and the Clinton Wire Cloth Company. He died in 1879.
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ground, was erected, and furnished with 260 of these looms for the manufacture of carpets. About 1883 another spacious mill, three stories high, was erected for the manufacture of Brussels carpets, and furnished with a Hartford automatic engine of 500 horse power. The works of this company now occupy about ten acres of ground. Ingrain, Brussels and Milton carpets are manufactured. The treasurers of the company in order of service have been as follows: Frederic Cabot, George W. Lyman, Nathaniel W. Appleton, William C. Appleton, J. Thomas Ste- venson, Israel Whitney, Charles L. Harding, David B. Jewell, Samuel Fay, George C. Richardson and Arthur T. Lyman. George F. Rich- ardson is president of the company, and Alvin S. Lynn agent.
The Middlesex Company, which manufactures beavers, yacht cloths, coatings, cassimeres and shawls is another Lowell enterprise which owes its origin to Boston men and capital. It was incorporated in 1830 with a capital of $500,000, which has since been increased to $750,000. Among its incorporators were Samuel Lawrence and William W. Stone. This company has suffered far more than any other in Lowell from the mismanagement of the men whom it had entrusted with office. In 1858, the entire capital having been lost by its officers, the company was reorganized with new managers and new subscriptions to stock. Since the reorganization it has had very gratifying success. This com- pany has been a pioneer in the successful manufacture in America of goods which had heretofore been imported from Europe. Samuel Lawrence, for several years treasurer of the company, upon this point says :
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