USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954 > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
268
269
How Our People Lived
these, with such forest products as tar and turpentine, could be exported down the river. The agricultural products were the chief wealth of the village.
But the population after a hundred years amounted to only 1000, and its economic life was essentially primitive. There were, however, enough people, with those of surrounding villages, to support a blacksmith, a cabinet maker, a tanner, a weaver, and other artisans who could give full time to their trades. By 1800 the population had grown to only 2100, but Northampton was a prosperous town, and the most important frontier settlement on the Connecticut north of Hartford. It had already won its place in American history as the home of Jonathan Edwards, as a par- ticipator in four Indian wars and in the Revolution, and as a con- tributor to the state and federal governments.
For some years after 1800 Northampton remained an essen- tially agricultural area. But the decline in soil fertility, the deple- tion of its forest reserves, and competition from the west after the completion of the Erie Canal ended its important period in agriculture. In the 50 years after 1800 there were brief booms in the sheep industry when Merino and Saxon breeds were imported to improve the wool for local manufacturing, and in the growing of mulberry trees for silk worms. Broom corn also became an im- portant cash crop and beef was fattened for the New England market. Although Northampton in the late 1800's raised both tobacco and onions on its meadows, these two great crops of to- day were left largely to its neighbors, Hadley and Hatfield.
By 1800 the trend toward industry was already evident. Indi- vidual artisans were expanding their shops to include apprentices and journeymen. A paper mill had been started in 1796; several tanneries were operating, while bootmakers, cabinet makers, and agricultural toolmakers were producing for the general trade as well as on order. Although production of goods was closely allied with buying and selling, the town provided an opportunity for a few to support themselves by retailing. Moreover, by this time, the town could support such professional men as lawyers and doc- tors, as well as ministers.
The Mill River Valley by the 1820's had shifted definitely to manufacturing. It was made possible by the development of local capital, by enterprising and ingenious men, by the existence of raw materials (although in later years most were imported), and
270
The Northampton Book
by a labor supply either from the town, the nearby hill villages, or brought in from England. Above all, it was the power of the Mill River that made it possible.
The spinning and weaving of wool was the first important manufacturing on the river, and the first fully developed factory was founded by the Shepherd family in 1809. Located at first four miles up the river, it later moved to Leeds, where a new com- munity soon grew up around the factory. In capital and in num- ber of workers it ranked as one of the important woolen mills of New England. Not only did the mills contribute to the improve- ment of their machinery, but the Shepherd brothers did much to improve and increase the wool locally grown.
When the Shepherd mill in 1831 passed into the hands of the Northampton Woolen Manufacturing Company, the total value of all factory output on the Mill River amounted to over $450,000. Of this two-thirds was credited to woolens, with buttons and leather goods ranking next. The Shepherd mill was not the only woolen factory on the river; other mills also produced cotton, paper, tools, and metal goods. Of all of these activities, the manu- facture of buttons was the most important. In value during the 1840's it was the Mill River's leading industry. Founded by Sam- uel Williston and by the two Hayden brothers in the early 1830's, the three men joined forces to manufacture for the first time in this country covered buttons by machinery. Other button fac- tories followed. Among them was that of Alfred P. Critchlow who at Leeds in 1858 turned out the first vegetable ivory (palm seed) buttons made in America. When Williston in 1847 moved his factory to Easthampton, button manufacturing almost disap- peared on the Mill River, only to revive again in the 1860's.
At least one other industry, that of silk thread, destined in the years after the Civil War to be Northampton's leading industry, got its start in these earlier years. Like other areas the Connecti- cut Valley was hit in the 1830's by the mania for growing mul- berry trees and raising silk worms. Samuel Whitmarsh of Boston had encouraged this and in 1836 launched the Northampton Silk Company. Its capital of $100,000, raised in New York, seemed ample, but the company soon fell into trouble and was sold in 1841 to the Northampton Association for Education and Indus- try. Like others of that time the Northampton Association was a cooperative venture (see Chapter 14), inspired by the teachings
27I
How Our People Lived
of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier. But by the 1840's the silk boom in the valley had burst and various economic obstacles pre- vented the success of the Association. It disbanded in 1846 when Samuel Hill took over the property and later established the Nonotuck Silk Company. The chief economic significance of the Association was that it kept the silk industry going for 6 years.
During the first half of the 19th century the industrial history of Northampton was similar to that of many small towns in New England. With the exception of the Northampton Silk Company, which soon failed, it was started by local enterprise and financed by local capital. Its mills were small, but by 1850 there were 74 on the banks of the Mill River. This was 2 5 per cent of all the mills in the entire Connecticut Valley, employing 10 per cent of all industrial labor and representing 10 per cent of all values. Like other areas its power came from water. Although a few factories used steam for supplementary power in the 1850's, it was not until 1857 that a small button plant used it exclusively.
Conditions of labor were about the same as in other areas. The Shepherd factory paid men on an average of $2 1 a month and women $13, with board and housing. Children got much less. The net working day in the winter was from 9 to 10 hours and in the summer from 13 to 14. The labor of women and children, of course, was far more usual in the textile mills than in others. In 1855 the products of the Mill River plants were valued at over $1,000,000; the workers employed in them numbered over 1130 in 1850, and 1440 in 1860. Since the population of the town on these dates was 5278 and 6788, it can be readily seen how impor- tant a part the Mill River industries played in the livelihood of the town.
Without adequate transportation facilities industry of any size is impossible. Although it had the Connecticut River, North- ampton, until the 1840's, faced a difficult problem of transporta- tion, and continued to be handicapped by lack of direct east-west facilities. Its axis was north-south rather than east-west. Even after the coming of railroads, traffic to the west followed a round- about route.
Northampton experienced all the phases of American trans- portation history. Since the trail to Springfield was on the east side of the river, and the need to keep in touch with Boston was great, ferries were early started across the river. If direct river
272
The Northampton Book
transportation was to be improved and cheapened, a canal around South Hadley Falls had to be built, and Northampton citizens cooperated in this project, finished in 1794. A few years later a similar effort was completed at Turner's Falls and river trans- portation was extended from Long Island Sound to far into Ver- mont. During this period Northampton citizens participated in various turnpike projects to improve land routes in the area, but their significance in the transportation of freight was slight. The importance of stagecoach travel from Boston to Albany doubt- less inspired the building of Northampton's first bridge across the Connecticut in 1808.
Despite river improvements, many in Northampton looked to a canal from their town to New Haven to solve the transportation problem. Started in Connecticut in 1825, it reached its North- ampton terminal ten years later. But the Northampton-New Haven canal in which so many local merchants and manufac- turers had heavily invested proved unsuccessful. It failed to at- tract sufficient freight or passengers to pay its overhead and was discontinued in 1847. Years before that time it was obvious that the economic future of New England was in railroads and not canals.
The canal had hardly been completed before Northampton residents were taking the initiative in promoting railroad con- struction in the Connecticut Valley north of Springfield. After that town had achieved railroad connection with Boston in 1837, with the Hudson in 1841, and with Hartford in 1844, construc- tion northward was imperative. The railroad reached Northamp- ton late in 1845, and the next year was extended to Greenfield. From that time, as railroads expanded rapidly in all sections of the nation, Northampton industry enjoyed adequate transportation facilities. In later years two other railroads reached the city-the New Haven and Northampton in 1857 (now part of the New Haven) and the Central Massachusetts in 1887 (now part of the Boston and Maine). The first-named built an extension to Wil- liamsburg, the farthest west that a railroad was to extend from Northampton. Neither of the two later railroads played a major role in Northampton's economic life.
Aided by improved facilities in transportation, communica- tion, and banking, industry continued to expand in the second half of the century. The value of the Mill River products more
Williams Manufacturing Company, once a leading basket maker
The Kollmorgen Optical Company, now a leading manufacturer of precision instruments
St. Michael's High School
$ 8.5.5.3.3
HILL INSTITUTE
The Hill Institute and Samuel L. Hill, Florence's leading citizen
273
How Our People Lived
than doubled from $1,018,000 in 1855 to $2,400,000 in 1865, helped in part by the Civil War boom in the metal trades. By 1900 the value had increased to over $4,000,000. The 1400 mill hands of 1865 grew to almost 2600 in 1900. Earlier types of industry such as wool, cotton goods, and buttons disappeared. The domi- nant products came to be silk and metal goods, with cutlery taking preeminence in the latter group. Waterpower gave way to steam, particularly after the Mill River flood of 1874. Industry con- tinued to be promoted by Northampton entrepreneurs. Except for the Belding Brothers of Rockville, Connecticut, who started a branch of their silk mill here in 1876, the capital remained local. At the same time the earlier type of single ownership or partner- ship shifted to incorporated stockholding companies.
Only a few of the many companies that operated after 1850 can be mentioned here. Leadership in the silk industry was taken by the Nonotuck Silk Company (later, the Corticelli), to which were added the Belding Company, and the McCallum Hosiery Company in 1898. From the old Bay State Tool Company, founded in 1854, which manufactured agricultural tools and later munitions during the war, emerged the Northampton Cutlery Company in 1871 and the Clement Cutlery Company in 1882. Other metal concerns included the Florence Sewing Machine Company, which later added oil stoves to its products, the North- ampton Emery Wheel Company, the Northampton Pegging Ma- chine Company which also made hoes, the Hill and Martin Cash Carrier Company, and the Norwood Engineering Company, which specialized in water filter equipment.
Outside of silk and metal goods was the Florence Manufactur- ing Company, incorporated in 1866, which specialized in hair brushes, toothbrushes and mirrors. It claims to be the oldest tooth- brush firm in the country and grew to be the largest factory in Northampton after the silk mills had closed. The Florence Furni- ture Company (caskets) was organized in 1873 and still continues. Also important in these years was the Williams Manufacturing Company which operated from 1862 to 1929 and at one time was considered the largest basket company in the country.
Unlike such cities as Waltham, Lowell, Lawrence, Holyoke, Chicopee, the wealth that started the first factories in Northamp- ton came from the savings of local farmers and merchants. After industry had got under way the profits went to enlarge the exist-
274
The Northampton Book
ing mills and set up new ones. Local leadership was not limited to one family. To the early enterprisers, the Shepherds, Haydens, and the Willistons, were added in later years the Eaton, Dimock, Hill, Williams, and Otis families, A. T. Lilly, D. G. Littlefield, I. S. Parsons, G. A. Burr, and others. These were not one-industry men. Having made a start in one line they were quick to see pos- sibilities elsewhere. There was no time in Northampton history when some one industry did not far outdistance any other, but there was never a time when industry was not diversified. This gave a certain stability to the economic life as certain types grew or declined.
In the first half of the 19th century the town had seen the growth of the factory system; the second half experienced the industrial revolution with larger mills, improved facilities for transportation and communication, and closer integration with the rapid growth of a great industrial nation. With the 20th cen- tury the number of factories declined and the importance of local capital faded. Outside corporations entered to take over and sometimes end local industries. Of the 15 manufacturing corpora- tions in 1900 only 6 survived in 1952.
The great Nonotuck Silk Company which dominated North- ampton's industrial life for 60 years, and enjoyed an unusual boom during World War I, merged with an outside concern in 192 1 to become the Corticelli Silk Company. This was followed by a merger in 1932 with the Belding Hemingway Silk Company. The Northampton plants were closed in the early 1930's. The Mc- Callum Hosiery Company, so prosperous in the early years of the century, merged first with the Propper and then the Claussner concerns, closed its West Street plant, and continues as one unit in a large outside corporation. In 1924 the Florence Manufactur- ing Company became the Pro-Phy-Lac-Tic Brush Company and in 1930 merged with the Lambert Company. The old Wood Cut- lery plant, purchased by the Rogers Company in 1901, was sold to Oneida Ltd. in 1929 and ten years later was moved out of town. Well-known factories of the late 19th century, such as the Wil- liams Manufacturing Company, the Emery Wheel Company, the Florence Machine Company, and the Norwood Engineering Company, failed as did other smaller concerns.
What were the causes for this decline of certain industries and the end of others? Some failed for lack of business or the decline
275
How Our People Lived
of a market for their particular product; others, such as silk, from overexpansion in World War I and the necessity of curtailing manufacture. This led outside concerns to close up their marginal branches which happened to be in Northampton. The decline of business during the depression of the '30's ruined others. Indus- try, however, remains an important segment of Northampton's life. The replacement of local ownership by outside control has helped to maintain as well as break down local industry. North- ampton's largest factories, the Pro-Phy-Lac-Tic, the International Silver Company, Kollmorgen, the McCallum Hosiery Company, and the Doeskin Products, Inc. are largely owned elsewhere, but they remain the basis of Northampton's industrial life.
Throughout its history a certain type of manufacturing has al- ways dominated Northampton's industry. During the pre-Civil War period it was wool, then buttons. During the Civil War it was metals. Then came silk, and today it is brushes and plastics. For more than a century, however, metal products, when not first, maintained second place, with cutlery the most important of the metals. Today the largest, the International Silver Company, pre- pares its blades to be plated and finished at its Connecticut fac- tories. The two smaller concerns through their long life have specialized in certain types of finished goods as well as executing the preliminary work on order from outside concerns. Metal goods of various types have become New England's greatest in- dustry and Northampton has helped the area to achieve this posi- tion.
While capital and management provide the opportunities for work, it is labor that produces the commodities. During the years of textile supremacy, the proportion of women workers in in- dustry was large, but this has declined. Although conditions of work were as good in Northampton as elsewhere, the hours even in the late 19th century seem incredibly long and wages low. In 1892 the Massachusetts legislature shortened women's work week to 58 hours, but in much of industry men continued to work 72 hours even after 1900. Conditions improved as elsewhere, in no small part as a result of union organization. The first union ap- peared in a cutlery factory in 1886, but the great development in organization came first around the turn of the century, then again after 1910, and finally in the late 1930's and the 1940's. Although several of the larger factories are not organized, the Central Labor
276
The Northampton Book
Union today has an affiliation of 22 locals and some 2200 mem- bers, a larger number than at any time in its history.
Between 1911 and 1926 there were at least 13 years when the number of industrial workers in Northampton's factories was larger than the figure today (about 3548); when its proportion to the population is considered, it was much greater. The value of local manufactured products was estimated in Northampton's biggest year in 1920 at over $18,500,000; in 1953 the value added by manufacture at about $17,700,000. In considering these figures one should remember that 1920 was a year of inflation, and 1953 also represents an inflation of 100 per cent since 1939. In relation to population, number of workers, and value of products, North- ampton was more definitely an industrial town from 1860 to 1930 than it is today, but the revival in the past 15 years has been no- table.
Fortunately for the city, Northampton has been more than an industrial center for the past half century. As elsewhere in the nation the service occupations have greatly increased. North- ampton is a city of many institutions as well as factories. Among them are Smith College, the Clarke School, a State Hospital, a Veterans Hospital, and many others. They employ as many work- ers as do the factories; Smith College with its staff of 950 is the second largest employer in the city. All this has tended to stabilize the city and protect it from the variations in its economic life.
Typically New England in its economic history, Northampton early developed an industrial life powered by the Mill River, served by skilled labor, and developed by local capital. Around these mills the town expanded to Bay State, to Florence and to Leeds. It met and largely solved its transportation problem. Un- like many a New England town, its industries were fortunately diversified. As old ones left, new ones entered. Quite as important it has been strengthened and expanded by its well-known insti- tutions. Like many a New England town Northampton has been hit by varying economic fortunes, but for 300 years it has found a way for its people to live. Relative to population, its industries once were more important in its economic life, but few cities have achieved a prosperity or stability equal to Northampton's.
PART V Town, City, and County Seat
Chapter Thirty-Two
"A House for the Towne"
Notes on Northampton's Government By HARRIET C. BLISS FORD
I
O N a small plot of ground where Main Street turns toward its junction with State, South, West, and Elm, there stands a unique historic building, without doubt the best- known and most important one in the City of Northampton.
Even its location would seem to have acquired a special mean- ing. Flanked on one side by a long line of business blocks running down to the railroad and, on the other, by an almost unbroken series of public buildings extending well beyond the crossroads of the five streets, it stands between the two segments, combining the characteristics of both. Certainly it is the most public of all the public buildings in town, since, together with its many out- lying dependencies, it is owned by the public, tenanted by persons selected by the public, furnished and maintained out of the pub- lic's funds, and all that takes place there is very much the public's business.
On its business side, it is the central office of one of the biggest businesses in town. If there are any doubts about this, a look at some figures related to its extensive operations should help to dis- sipate them.
According to the latest census, some 30,900 persons live within the city limits on a piece of land running 51/2 miles north and south, by 61/2, east and west, approximately 35.5 square miles or 22,720 acres. The assessed valuation (1953) of their Real and Per- sonal Property is $34,300,745. Add $3,713,966 listed for motor vehicles. Total income to the city from taxes on the above is $1,900,000.
279
280
The Northampton Book
As for the Public Properties which the citizens own, these in- clude in addition to the City Hall: 2 Libraries, 14 School Build- ings, I Police and 3 Fire Stations, a Theatre, 3 Parks (2 of which are privately endowed), Smith's School, 2 Skating Rinks, 2 Park- ing Lots (with 2 more under construction), Memorial Hall, the new Board of Public Works Building, an Infirmary, Rifle Range, Pumping Station, Flood Control Dikes, Cemeteries, 14 "Parcels of Land," 77 Fire Alarm Boxes, 4 Reservoirs and 2 Auxiliary Wells, 553,236 feet of Water Pipes, also Sewers, Street Lights, Hydrants, and so on.
The latest (1952) printed City Report, which does not include items acquired in 1953, estimates the value of these public lands and buildings at $6,271,840, plus furniture and equipment, $733,- 750-a total of $7,005,590.
In 1953, the city's income was $3,959,419; Expenditures, $4,- 457,646; Budget, $2,384,827. (The 1954 Budget is $2,557,306.) The city's business was carried on by some 930 paid workers, around 600 of these being on full time, with an annual payroll of $1,616,595. Adding to these some 110 or more people who work week in and week out without pay-Aldermen, Common Council- men, members of city boards, commissions, and committees- and the more than 1700 public-spirited citizens in Civilian De- fense, we discover a grand total of well over 2700 people engaged in the business of the city. Some figures! Some city!
At this point we make a grateful bow to the City Hall statisti- cians and turn to the historians, as we seek to discover from what original, busy, little acorn this many-branched affair of our city government has sprung.
It appears that the early Colonial Government transplanted in the Newer England the procedures of town government that had been developed in the Old Country, "though with certain modi- fications suitable to a pioneer existence." All the powers to be dele- gated to a town were clearly defined by Colonial law and the unit of this local power was always the Town Meeting.
Several members of the original 20 or more families who ar- rived here in 1654 had already had experience in settling new towns. They acted with commendable promptness to establish this newest township on a proper legal basis, securing its incor- poration by order of the General Court in Boston on May 23, 1655.
28I
"A House for the Towne"
There is no certain record of the first Town Meeting, but in- ternal evidence points to December 1654, or January 1655. The second meeting on December 11, 1655, is spoken of in glowing terms as "the most memorable Town Meeting ever convened in this place." "It fully recognized the town as a corporate body and put the machinery of Government in working order." Naturally, one of its first acts was the assessment of property and the collec- tion of taxes!
Records of early meetings are pretty fragmentary up to June 1657, the first meeting date noted in Vol. I of Town Annals 1661. From that time on, the record has continued without a break to the present day. Though for many years we find the handwriting of the "clerks" to have been "atrocious," their spelling variegated and their notation of dates distinctly confusing, nevertheless, Northampton can be justly proud of this priceless set of records covering three centuries of its governmental sessions.
In Chapter One of this historical series, Nora Flahive has given a brief picture of the early government; the compulsory attend- ance of all citizens at Town Meetings, the naming of Townesmen (later Selectmen), and of a Moderator and other appointees, pro- cedures, the courts, and so on. It may, therefore, be interesting to look more particularly at the early meeting houses themselves where all town activities were centered.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.