USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 63
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The shipping tags and the merchandise tags, at once so common and so useful now, had their birth in much the same manner as the jewel- ers' tags. A few years prior to 1863 Victor E. Mauger came from Scotland and established the first manufactory of shipping tags in this country and located in New York. He produced a so-called linen tag (the kind still to be seen on the luggage of the English tourist). Mr. Mauger met with excellent success until the premium on gold made the cost of material so high that other and cheaper material was sought, but none that proved reliable or suitable was found, until cotton shippers complained that their tags became detached, causing much annoyance and risk in consequence of their frequently having to look up lost or strayed goods. This suggested to Mr. Dennison the device patented by him in 1863, and a re-issue of the patent in 1821. by which the acme of strength and economy was attained. It was one of the simplest devices ever patented or invented, and, as afterwards proved, one of the most prominent instances on record of the great value of a very little thing successfully handled in a commercial way. During the first year after its introduction to the public ten millions of ship- ping tags were sold, the Dennison Company and Mr. Mauger then being the only makers of tags in this country. It is now thirty years since these shipping tags were first put upon the market, and where 10,000,000 were then called for, probably 300,000,000 are now sold by the different manufactories, which are numerous, but the bulk of the business, from the very nature of things, will doubtless continue to be, as it is now, done by the Dennison Manufacturing Company.
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From 1863 the growth and expansion of the business of the Dennison Company was rapid, the constantly increasing output of tags, together with the introduction of other new things, forced them to repeatedly enlarge their facilities for manufacturing. A rehearsal of the details of how all the different articles manufactured by the Dennison Company were first introduced to the public and nursed along their different ways to their present haven of usefulness and prosperity would be but a repetition of what has already been given, both as regards the outgo and outcome of each individual instance. One by one the manufacture of useful articles was undertaken, in many instances some of them comparatively trivial at first thought, but of real every day necessity. In 1848 the company was incorporated under the name of the Dennison Manufacturing Company, with Mr. Dennison as president, which posi- tion he held until his death, September 22, 1886. From his connection with the business he was its controlling, animating spirit. Under his excellent management it grew to large proportions, with factories em- ploying hundreds of hands at Roxbury, Mass., Brunswick, Me., Brook- lyn, N. Y., and branch houses for the sale and distribution of goods in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and St. Louis.
Mr. Dennison was a pioneer along original lines. By the application of right business principles and practices properly applied to the detailed manipulation of, in themselves, small and seemingly insignificant things, but of universal convenience, he built up a business of immense proportions, without a peer in its peculiar position before the world, and in many directions without a competitor. Mr. Dennison, in addi- tion to his excellent qualifications as a leader and director, had the happy faculty of calling around him, and of retaining an interest with him, capable, faithful and reliable lieutenants. By nature he was one of the most genial and approachable of men, and his judicious and winning manner endeared him to his large force of employees, con- tributing, no doubt, largely to the success of the business by their hearty co-operation in carrying out his plans. He was a modest man of the world, thorough-going in business life, a lover of the good and true, and a hater of shams and all that pertained to hypocrisy or sub- terfuge. He had an indomitable will, and in any cause he believed right was a good fighter. He was not inclined to public affairs, pre- ferring the attractions of business and the comforts and the quiet pleasures of social and society organizations. In works of practical charity he was untiring, and used his ample means to benefit the un-
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fortunate. With strong affections, pure instincts and predilections for the right, he won distinction to himself by the strict integrity of his business conduct and the purity of his domestic life. By his industry and ingenuity he reared, on the foundation laid by his brother and father, a structure that completes a most interesting chapter in the industrial history of our time.
After the death of Mr. Dennison his son, Henry B. Dennison, became president of the company, and continued as such until the end of the year 1892, when ill health caused him to resign. He was succeeded by H. K. Dyer. The other officers of the company are Charles S. Denni- son, vice-president, and Albert Metcalf, treasurer. Mr. Metcalf is the oldest member of the company, having been admitted as partner in the firm in 1863, after having for ten years previous to that time been intimate with Mr. Dennison and also familiar with his business. Since the company was incorporated he has served as treasurer and has been an important factor in the success attained. About eight years ago the Boston headquarters of the business was removed from 21 Milk street to 26 and 28 Franklin street. Here are found samples of the " thousand and one" articles manufactured or controlled by the com- pany, including tags of all descriptions, morocco, velvet and plush jewelry cases, jewelers' cotton, "absorbent" cotton for surgical and medical uses, apothecaries' powder papers, tissue and crepe papers for making artificial flowers and for decorations, hooks, fasteners and card holders, paper and wood boxes of all descriptions, sealing wax and pre- pared seals, gummed wafers and papers, and scores of other specimens of stationers' supplies, and numerous other articles which are in every day use in every place of business and households where comfort, con- venience and economy are recognized.
To the manufacturing centers at Roxbury, and at Brunswick, Me., was added about ten years ago a sealing wax factory on Green avenue, Brooklyn. At these three centers and in the Franklin street headquar- ters fully one thousand hands are employed. To this again must he added an industry that surely has no duplicate, which is that of string- ing tags by the industrious housewives and children of the Cape Cod cranberry regions, where merchandise tags are sent for stringing in quantities sufficient to call for an expenditure of $15,000 annually to pay for such work there performed; in some cases entire families gain their entire worldly subsistence in this way.
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Thus briefly has been chronicled the story of an interesting industrial enterprise which has grown from a bundle of board and a ream of paper carried under one man's arm, to a business which now demands a con- sumption of tons of the same material daily ; gives employment to hun- dreds of hands, and in magnitude of operations stands without a peer in the world. The inception of the enterprise is due to A. L. Dennison, who is well known as the originator of the American system of watch making, and whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. The foundation was laid by Col. Andrew Dennison, but the development of the business from the early days of experiment to those of great achievement and final success belongs almost solely to E. W. Denni- son. It stands to-day as a monument to his business generalship and will always be laudably associated with his strong and vigorous person- ality.
AARON L. DENNISON.
THE genitts of American mechanics is displayed in the most conspic- uous manner in the development of the watch industry, which in the past forty years has reduced the price of high grade watch movements from $300 to $50 each, in fact as good a watch movement can now be bought for $3 as would have cost $50 forty years ago. In 1850 there were no watches manufactured in this country. In forty-three years the bitsiness has developed so that the output of the American watch industry is sixty-five hundred movements per day, and for which an equal number of cases is made.
The New England mechanic who proposed the general plan of manti- facture and for a long time worked out its details, and was so fully identified with its interests as to earn the title of "the father of the watch industry," is Aaron L. Dennison, whose portrait appears in this voltime.
Mr. Dennison is a son of Col. Andrew Dennison, of Brunswick, Me. He was born in 1812. He commenced work at a very early age, and claims that he walked 1,500 miles driving cows to pasture, and received seventy-five cents and a packing box mounted on wheels in full payment for this work. He also worked at shoemaking with his father. When he was eighteen years old he was apprenticed to a watch and clock repairer in Brunswick, Me., where he remained
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until he was twenty-one. He early showed an organizing and system- atizing turn of mind, and made many improvements in the then crude manner of manufacturing clocks. In 1833 he went to Boston and com- menced work as a watch repairer. He soon discovered that there was a total lack of system in the manufacture of the English and Swiss watches which were brought into this country, and he conceived the idea of carrying on the manufacture of watches upon what may be termed the American system of manufacture, i. e., the making of watches upon a large scale with such exact work that the various parts of a watch could be assembled without the selection and fitting of each individual part. From 1840 to 1850 this subject engrossed all his spare moments, and he devised a plan of manufacture which he felt sure when successfully carried out would produce fifty watches per day, with 250 employees. In other words, that five operatives could make a watch each and every day. He foresaw that the increased mileage of railroads would create a largely increased demand for watches, consequently he endeavored to interest capital in his projects, and in 1850 he succeeded in forming a partnership with Messrs. Ed- ward Howard and D. P. Davis, under firm name of Dennison, Howard & Davis, who were engaged in manufacturing clocks and various other articles in Roxbury. These gentlemen started a factory in Roxbury, in a building opposite the building now used by the E. Howard Watch and Clock Co., where they made their first watches.
They soon discovered that so much travel past their buildings created a great deal of dust, and Mr. Dennison began his explorations into the adjoining country to find a suitable place to which they could remove. One of his excursions extended to Stony Brook Station, in Weston, where he found a site where the romantic scenery and rough surround- ings reminded him of the Swiss watchmaking sections, but being un- able to make terms with the owner, he returned to Waltham, where a friend suggested the purchase of a site where the present American Waltham Watch Co. is now located. They applied for a special act of incorporation for the manufacture of watches, and on receipt of the charter the buildings were immediately commenced, and the machinery was then moved from Roxbury to Waltham.
Mr. Dennison's idea of a proper watch for American use was an 18 size, full plate, four pillared watch, and the wisdom of his selection is proven by the fact that nearly every watch factory that has been started in this country has followed his idea of size and general style.
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The result of his labors is shown in the fact that the American Walt- ham Watch Co. was the first and only company that has ever attempted to make a complete watch, and has the largest watch factory in the world.
Many of what may be termed the foundation principles on which watch manufacture is conducted, originated in Mr. Dennison's mind. So prolific was his ingenious mind in devising ways and means, both mechanical and in general management, that Mr. Robbins, treasurer of the American Waltham Watch Co., once said : "It would be impos- sible for anybody to propose anything in watch manufacture that Mr. Dennison has not at some time suggested."
Mr. Dennison remained in charge of the Waltham factory until Jan- mary, 1862, when he retired, but soon induced Boston capital to start another factory in Boston, which was afterwards moved to Melrose. In this factory they did not attempt to make all the parts of a watch. The train and some of the finer material was manufactured in Switzer- land, and Mr. Dennison soon found it necessary to go to Switzerland to take charge of that department of the business. This project did not prove a financial success, and most of the machinery in Switzerland and in America was transferred to Birmingham, England, and formed the nucleus of the present British Watch Co.
Mr. Dennison, at the age of eighty-one, is still connected with the watch industry, being the senior partner of a firm in Birmingham, England, that is engaged in the manufacture of watch cases. His even temper and disposition, combined with strictly temperate habits, have conduced to a long and useful life, and he is at the present time as deeply interested in the manufacture of watches as he was at thirty- five, when he was working up the projects which resulted in building up the American watch industry.
ALBERT METCALF.
ALBERT METCALF, of West Newton, Mass., treasurer of the Dennison Manufacturing Company, was born in Wrentham, Mass., November 27, 1824. He is a descendant in the eighth generation of Michael Metcalf, who, to escape religious persecution, sailed from Norwich, England, April 15, 1637, and on his arrival in New England became a
Albert Metal
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townsman of Dedham, resident in that part of the town which after- wards became Wrentham. Thomas Metcalf, of the sixth generation, was father of eleven children, constituting a family remarkable for its longevity, attaining to the average age of nearly seventy-six years. The ninth of these children was Reuben Grant Metcalf, Albert's father, a highly esteemed citizen of Wrentham, repeatedly representing his fellow citizens in the Legislature and other positions of honor and trust. He owned and tilled one of those many New England farms that afford a livelihood only on condition of the hard work and rigid economy of every member of the occupant family, and it was under such conditions that the subject of this sketch passed the years of his boyhood. Every day and every hour had their allotted duties, and the opportunities for boyish recreation or amusement were very few. As he approached manhood he sought employment somewhat more varied than constant farm work, but this was by casual engagement only. His education was such as a fairly good district school afforded, supplemented by two winter terms at neighboring academies.
His first commercial venture was as proprietor of a country store in Attleboro, in connection with cotton factories operated by H. N. & H. M. Daggett, which business, after about three years, was succeeded by a five years' engagement with H. M. Richards & Co., manufacturers of jewelry, a portion of the time being passed at the factory. After a few years' experience in the New York office, he became Boston resident agent for the firm.
He was afterwards engaged in the Boston office of Palmer, Richard- son & Co., jewelers, of Newark, N. J., Thomas S. Drowne being the resident partner. He was then for several years partner in a woolen goods jobbing business in Franklin street, Boston.
These varied business experiences admirably fitted him for the re- sponsible position he was thereafter to occupy.
In 1862 he became associated with E. W. Dennison, who had for several years been engaged in the manufacture of tags, tickets, labels, jewelers' paper boxes, and similar goods, and who was then located at the corner of Milk and Congress streets, in the building known as " Julien Hall." The business was then of very moderate dimensions, and Mr. Metcalf became sole salesman, sole bookkeeper and sole general assistant in the Boston office. There was at that time a small New York office at 17 Maiden Lane, in charge of Henry Hawks, whose young assistant was Henry K. Dyer, now president of
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the Dennison Manufacturing Company. Four persons thus constituted the entire commercial force of the now great establishment of the Den- nison Manufacturing Company, with large stores in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis, the commercial corps numbering more than 150, with several factories and a manufacturing force of operatives to be counted by thousands.
Among the characteristics of Mr. Dennison's business genius none was more marked than his accurate judgment in selection of his lieu- tenants. Seldom have two business associates been more unlike than Mr. Dennison and Mr. Metcalf, and as seldom have two men been better fitted to be commercially helpful to each other; the one over- flowing with invention, enthusiasm and energy, the other full of quiet industry, cool judgment, and conservatism without timidity. During thirty years a superb corps of young men have grown up to occupy the many posts of responsibility in the commercial work of the Dennison Manufacturing Company, all of whom regard Albert Metcalf with love and respect, as if he were in truth an elder brother.
Mr. Metcalf's life-long religious associations have been with the Universalist church, in whose work he has been a diligent promoter and generous contributor. In philanthropic and educational interests, especially those organically identified with the Universalist church, his benefactions have been bountiful, although always unostentatious. His comfortable home at West Newton is a center of hospitality alike to rich and poor.
He has never held nor sought public office, although, as a citizen, his duty is always recognized and cheerfully performed.
Mr. Metcalf was married in 1860 to Mary C. Roulstone, and three children have been born to them.
GEORGE THOMAS McLAUTHLIN.
GEORGE THOMAS MCLAUTHLIN, son of Martin and Hannah (Reed) McLauthlin, was born in Duxbury, Mass., October 11, 1826. His an- cestors on his father's side were Scotch and settled in Pembroke in the early part of the eighteenth century, about two miles from the birthplace of Mr. McLauthlin. The Scotch name was Maglathlin, but after undergoing various changes finally became McLauthlin.
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Mr. McLauthlin's mother was a daughter of Col. Jesse Reed, who was born in 1778. His ancestors settled in Weymouth, Mass., in 1635. Colonel Reed was an inventor of wide reputation. Among his earliest and most noted productions were the nail machine and the develop- ment of a line of machinery for making and preparing the nail plates for that machine. The nail machine is used in practically its original form throughout the civilized world, and wherever "cut nails " are made we find the Reed machine. Colonel Reed devoted a long and busy life to inventing and perfecting mechanical devices, many of which were of extensive public benefit and are still in general use. Mr. Mc- Lauthlin inherited largely his grandfather's inventive genius. His parents permanently settled in East Bridgewater, leaving Duxbury when George was two years old. His father was a machinist and his two boys, Martin and George, were brought up in the Old Colony style with close economy and under strict industrial training. Through this beneficent parental discipline the boys early became self-supporting, self-reliant, and full of ambition. The public school was their early educator and later they took academic courses, paying by their own earnings their board and other expenses. George began shoemaking, without instruction, at sixteen years of age, and began to employ help the following year. He applied himself nearly fifteen hours a day, between the terms of the schools, in which he was either pupil or teacher. He continued his studies while at his work, the work bench serving the purpose of a school desk for the open books, so that the mental and physical work could progress simultaneously. At the Adelphian Acad- emy he mainly paid his board and tuition by shoemaking during early and late hours. At the age of twenty he conceived the plan of running the shoe shop on a system of subdivision of the work, so that each work- man taking a certain part might readily become proficient therein, and thus, by the united work of the gang, produce a largely increased re- sult. In the execution of this plan he arranged with his schoolmate, James S. Barrell, now an esteemed master of one of the Cambridge schools, to join him. They used the rolling machine, which had just begun to take the place of the lap-stone, and the shoe-jack in place of the knee-strap. These were the only machines then known in the shoe shop. They employed a boy of sixteen years-now the Hon. James S. Allen, of East Bridgewater-and two sons of Rev. Baalis San- ford, Baalis, then thirteen years old, and now an honored business man of Brockton, and William A., then twelve years old, now in business in
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Winchester. These five boys constituted the "gang " which originated the gang system in shoemaking. All soon became experts in their parts and profitably demonstrated the success of the system. The gang of workers was also a gang of students. Occasionally the members introduced themselves in the morning as historic personages, by whose name they were known during that day, and the prominent incidents of the life of each were reviewed. The school studies were daily re- hearsed in an entertaining and instructive manner, and through this notable combination of profit, education and pleasure, toil disappeared. At the age of eighteen Mr. McLanthlin began teaching in the public schools, and taught four winters, the first in Hanson, the next in Pembroke, and the third and fourth in the North Marshfield Graded School. He succeeded in gaining the esteem and good-will of his pupils so fully as to entirely avoid punishment. In the Marshfield School self-government and mutual instruction were so successfully carried out that the teacher could be absent an entire day, assured that the scholars would conduct the school in as orderly a manner as if he were present. He found his inventive genius as valuable in disci- plining and teaching as in other matters. He taught his scholars how to learn, how to make study a pleasure, how to help each other, how to make the school self-governing; in short, how to run the school successfully without a master.
Mr. McLauthlin's ingenuity and mechanical tastes led him to seek a wider field when he became "of age," and though almost without means he, with his brother, Martin P., began the manufacture of shoe machinery at Marshfield. At that time this now extensive industry was without a special manufactory, though new machines were here and there offered for use, but shoemakers, as a rule, could not be induced to buy even quite inexpensive machines, although it was certain that they would save their cost in a short time. Therefore the new business proved too limited for both, and George T. bought the interest of his brother. In 1850 Mr. McLauthlin moved to Plymouth and added to his shoe machinery business the manufacture of water-wheels and gen- eral machinery. He there became widely known as the " Water-wheel Man." He took his first order for a water-wheel and portable grain mill from Daniel Webster, who in his genial spirit gave the order in the following words: "Give me one of your best Rider Water-wheels and one of your best Harrison Mills, and let me have the best mill in Plym- outh Co., and when it is done come down to my house and take some
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of the results of it in the form of baked bread." Mr. MeLanthlin sold his water-wheels in almost every State and Territory of the United States, and also in Canada, Nova Scotia, South America, Turkey and Africa.
In 1852 he opened an office at 108 State street, Boston, and in 1854 moved his works to Albany street, Boston. In 1858 he moved to East Boston, leasing the East Boston Iron Company's machine works, the business of which he added to his own. In 1861 his works were destroyed in the great East Boston Fourth of July conflagration, where a fire cracker. caused the destruction of some fifteen acres of property. Before the destroyed premises had ceased burning he bought the works of the late William Adams & Company at No. 120 Fulton street, Bos- ton, where his works, and since 1864 his office, have been permanently located. Here he added the manufacture of steam engines, elevators and the general business of that well-known house to his previous lines of work.
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