USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Florence > The history of Florence, Massachusetts : including a complete account of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry > Part 5
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To acquaint himself with the practical details of the contemplated business, Mr. Whitmarsh, before the last of October, had sailed for Europe. He visited the silk growing regions of France, Italy, and Switzerland. and made large purchases in France, so large, in fact, that the Gazette says, "The demand for the morus multicaulis is greater than ever. Mr. Whitmarsh's purchases have raised the price of it in that country [France] nearly fifty per cent." Mr. Whitmarsh had a very competent agent in Mr. C. P. Huntington, the editor of the Gasette, who made good use of his organ to advertise the business. Mr. Whitmarsh did not return
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HISTORY OF FLORENCE.
to Northampton till the first of May (1836), but in March this advertise- ment appeared in the Gazette :-
"FOR SALE.
" 50,000 Trees of the Morus Multicaulis, together with a quantity of the GENUINE SEED of the Chinese Mulberry, in papers sufficient for between three and four thousand plants each."
The seed sold for five dollars a paper, but, notwithstanding the high price, inside of a week orders for two hundred dollars worth had been received. The trees arrived the middle of May, and those three feet long were sold at from thirty to thirty-five cents apiece by the hundred.
VIEW NEAR THE DAM.
I.IL.LY PLACE.
The work now began in good earnest. The company decided to stock one hundred acres with engrafted trees that year. A crop of corn had been raised on the land the year before, this being regarded as a neces- sary preparation of the soil for the cultivation of the mulberry. Mr. William Clark was given the crop for the labor of growing it, and he was now employed to set out the trees. All the land between Park street and the river, fifteen acres in Ross Meadow, and the hillside south of Pine street were covered with cuttings of the multicaulis and the Chinese varieties. The European imported trees were not replanted,
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MULBERRY FEVER AND SILK ENTERPRISE.
but were cut into slips about six inches long, and then set in the earth. The growth was vigorous, and in the fall the tops of the plants were cut off, and set the ensuing spring.
On the eighth of June the company met and re-elected the first board of officers. Success seemed to look them in the face. The quiet hamlet-"the Warner District "-must have presented a busy appear- ance that summer. By the last of June "machines from Europe, and of domestic construction," had arrived, for reeling and weaving silk, and by the first of August the old oil mill was being made ready for the machinery with which to manufacture sewing silk.
It is probable that this season Mr. Whitmarsh built his large cocoon- ery on the Fort Hill estate. It was two hundred feet long, twenty-six feet wide, and two stories high, and accommodated two million worms. The company this year had no raw silk of their own production. During the early fall a committee from Congress came to Northampton to exam- ine the company's plantation. Daniel Webster, Abbott Lawrence, and James K. Mills, then famous for their advocacy of the doctrine of pro- tection to American industries, made up this committee.
September 13, 1833, the company bought of Jennette N. Ridgeway the " wool warehouse," built by James Shepherd, that stood near Paul Strong's tavern, and Mr. Ashley of West Springfield and a gang of men moved it across lots to a spot nearly opposite the old oil mill, where it stands to this day. This afterwards became the "old silk mill boarding house." Some machinery was put into this building, and samples of plain and figured satins were woven here. These Mr. Whitmarsh took to Washington and presented to Henry Clay, who was much gratified with them as specimens of home manufactures.
The fall months were uneventful ones, and the excitement cooled with the weather. The opening of the new year (1837) found the com- pany manufacturing sewing silk, and according to the papers it was " used by all the tailors in town." "Northampton sewing silk " sold well in New York, and the Gazette said : "The company are manufac- turing at the rate of two hundred dollars worth per day and yet can- not supply the demand." In May Mr. Whitmarsh imported from Europe fifteen thousand dollars worth of mulberry trees, but owing to poor packing lost a large quantity of them. More land on the meadows and upland was set with trees this season, making about one hundred acres in all. The Alpine variety was introduced but was not as popular as the multicaulis. The company built this year a substantial brick factory, on a stone foundation, one hundred and twenty by forty feet, and four stories high. This building is now the Braid Mill. The canal was dug from the dam to the factory, and the machinery in the oil mill
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HISTORY OF FLORENCE.
transferred to the large building. A small house was built at the foot of the hill, at the junction of what is now Maple and Nonotuck streets. This was occupied by Mr. Benson in Community times, and some years ago was moved to the corner of River road and Landy avenue.
Not content with the amount of land already theirs, on June first the company bought twenty acres of Allen Clark, and in September paid Luther C. Clark two thousand dollars for one hundred acres additional. Their estate now embraced the whole of the southern and western por- tion of the present village.
The spring of 1838 witnessed no abatement of the mulberry craze, but the silk company was short of funds. Although they claimed a capital of $100,000, with liberty to extend to $150,000, it appears that only about $60,000 had been subscribed. At a meeting held the first of June, they voted to raise $30,000 immediately, in order to pursue their oper- ations with increased vigor. In June a ma- chine for making watch and other nar- row ribbons was put in operation, being " a new application of FACTORY .- AFTERWARDS "COMMUNITY BOARDING HOUSE." machinery " as the papers stated. During the fall of 1838 the excitement ran high. The discussions in the newspapers, and the accounts of sales recently made at large profits, had been too much for even the staid old farmers, and every one rushed into the business, many without any knowledge of it. Small plants were sold for fabulous prices, some even for nearly their weight in gold, and there was hardly a garden in Northampton but rejoiced in these treasures. The fever had spread until it embraced all parts of New England where the mulberry could be grown. Trees sold at one, two, and three dollars apiece. Later, so valuable were they considered that cuttings a few inches in length sold for between two and three dol- lars per bud, and hothouses were pressed into service to supply the demand, the ordinary course of nature being too slow for the dealers.
In the following spring Mr. Whitmarsh published a neat little book, of one hundred and fifty pages, on " Eight Years' Experience and Obser- vation in the Culture of the Mulberry Tree, and in the Care of the Silk-
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MULBERRY FEVER AND SILK ENTERPRISE.
worm." It was printed in Northampton, and, as all previous works on this subject had been reprints from foreign authors, not at all appli- cable to the "American system," it met with a ready sale. His great earnestness and evidently sincere convictions regarding the prosperous future of the new industry permeate the entire volume. The book treats of every detail of the business and, fifty years after the failure of the enterprise, it furnishes interesting reading.
L. P. Brockett, M.D., was in Northampton in the spring of 1839, and says that Mr. Whitmarsh and Dr. Daniel Stebbins were rejoicing over the purchase of a dozen multicaulis cuttings, not more than two feet long and of the thickness of a pipe-stem, for twenty-five dollars. "They are worth sixty dollars," exclaimed the Doctor in his enthusiasm.
On the first of May, pursuant to the state law, the company gave notice that the amount of all assessment voted and actually paid was $94,450, and that all existing debts were $48,494.18. Some silk vesting was woven this year. The first superin- tendent, Thomas W. Shepherd, had left, and Mr. Whitmarsh went to Mansfield, Conn., and, on August 9, hired Mr. Joseph Conant to take charge of the business. Mr. Conant was one of the first silk manufac- turers in the United States, having made silk as early as 1829. He was a man of character and of great ability. Earle Dwight Swift and Or- well S. Chaffee came to Northamp- ton with Mr. Conant. Mr. Whitmarsh soon severed his connection with the company, bought a building in North- CAPTAIN JOSEPH C. CONANT. ampton, later called the "Hive," and began alone the manufacture of silk.
The mulberry bubble, now blown to immense proportions by the breath of the speculators, could stand the strain no longer, and without a word of warning burst, bringing ruin to thousands. The company began to (realize that making silk was not on the whole an easy task : the machinery was rude, and little was accomplished. On March 18, 1840, the Gazette printed a notice, "Property of the Northampton Silk Company For Sale." On April 9, the stockholders appointed Talbot, Alsop, Jr., and Casey, trustees, with directions to sell or lease the prop- erty, and, on May I, they rented the estate to Joseph Conant, for a term
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HISTORY OF FLORENCE.
of three years if desired, for one thousand dollars a year, said Conant to have the leaves of the mulberry plants on said premises." This lease was not satisfactory, for the next year, on the first of April, the estate was sold at auction with the figures standing at $22,250. It appears that the trus- tees above named were the purchasers. Mr. Conant remained as lessee till September 14, 1841, when the property was bought by the leaders of the future " Community."
LATER ENTERPRISES OF MR. WHITMARSH.
After leaving the Northampton Silk Company, Mr. Whitmarsh had not proceeded far in his new project at the "Hive" when he went to Jamaica, led there by a reward offered by the government for the suc- cessful establishment of the culture of silk on that island. After a visit there of several months, he formed a company with a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, one half of which was taken by capitalists there, and the other half was assigned to him. He went to London and disposed of his stock at par value.
At this time Mr. Whitmarsh displayed one of the noblest traits of his character. Having thus come into the possession of ample pecuniary means, he returned to Northampton and paid off his old debts in full, with interest, amounting to about seventy-five thousand dollars. He then collected a company of thirty-five men and women, bought horses, machinery, implements, etc., chartered the vessel "Saxon," and on the sixteenth of November, 1840, sailed from Charlestown for Jamaica. They cleared one hundred acres and set twenty acres with mulberry trees ; and erected a blacksmith shop, cocoonery, and a saw and shingle mill. After a visit to this country Mr. Whitmarsh returned to Jamaica only to find that one of the directors of the company, a lawyer by pro- fession, had had some difficulty with the owners of an icehouse in which the silkworm eggs had been placed, and had removed them to a cellar, the dampness of which had spoiled them. This was a great blow to the enterprise, and in 1846 Mr. Whitmarsh loaded a small vessel with tropical plants, and, accompanied by his family of thirty American workmen, sailed for Boston, with a view of opening a botanical garden there, the ship and cargo being all that was left of a large property. The proposi- tion, not meeting with success in Boston, was abandoned. His next scheme was a steam furnace, and then a kind of belting, but both proved failures, after sinking thousands of dollars in trying to develop them.
Mr. Whitmarsh was one of the most unobtrusive of men. His manner was always quiet, his habits of life correct, and his aim was to do justly and love mercy. The distinguishing trait in his character was his won- derful hopefulness. He was never discouraged. Though failure after
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MULBERRY FEVER AND SILK ENTERPRISE.
failure overtook him, he was still confident that the next revolution of fortune's wheel would bring him ample recompense for all his labors and losses. He was no hypocrite and never sought to take advantage of others. He possessed an extensive knowledge of men, and was a man of unusual intelligence. If he lacked that practical quality which men who achieve greater pecuniary advancement so often possess, he certainly deserves the credit of sowing the seed from which sprang the present industries of Florence, for his "Northampton Silk Company" led the way for the Community, and the Community was the real beginning of the present village of Florence. Mr. Whitmarsh died in Northampton, April 21, 1875.
DAVID LEE AND LYDIA MARIA CHILD.
Before closing this chapter mention should be made of two families afterwards noted in the literary world, who at this time were residents of Florence. While the mulberry fever was raging, another enterprise was also being discussed, namely, the making of sugar from beets. Mr. Child had been in France, where the culture of the beet for this purpose was quite extensive, and, on returning in the spring of 1838, he came to Northamp- ton, determined to make sugar from beet roots. The first year he cultivated a few acres, and in 1840 he invented a " beet cutter" CHILD PLACE ON EASTHAMPTON ROAD. and an improved process for obtaining the sugar. Soon after he bought a farm on the road to East- hampton, near the peat swamps, and here Mrs. Child wrote some of her works. Mr. Child had twenty acres of sugar beets planted at the "Silk Factory Farm," and some machinery was put in the oil mill. Another of his schemes was to press peat that it might be used for fuel. Although he spent considerable money on both these enterprises, neither proved successful, and about 1847 Mr. Child moved from town.
Mrs. Child was not pleased with this region. In her "Letters " she says : "I have never been so discouraged about abolition as since we came into this iron bound valley of the Connecticut." And again : " If I were to choose my home, I certainly would not place it in the valley of the Connecticut. It is true, the river is broad and clear, the hills majes- tic, and the whole aspect of outward nature most lordly. But, oh ! the narrowness, the bigotry of man !" At this time the influence of Jonathan Edwards was still felt, and the old time theological spirit had not been supplanted by the broader religious toleration of to-day.
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HISTORY OF FLORENCE.
DR. JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND.
At about this time (1835-40) this well known author was a resident of Florence. Soon after 1836 his father, Harrison Holland, moved from Granby to Northampton, and seems to have been employed in the silk mill. Josiah was then twenty-three years old. He did not long remain here, for in 1841 he purchased a "daguerreotype apparatus," and had rooms at the "canal building" in the center, where he " executed minia- ture likenesses by this interesting process." In 1843 he taught writing, having his schoolroom at the Gazette office. According to his advertise- ment "All pupils are required to furnish their own lights."
Harrison Holland spent several years in Florence, living in at least three different houses. His first home, as far as ascertained, was in one of the small houses west of the present Brush Factory bridge, on the road to West Farms. For several years he lived in the William Warner (Polly Bosworth) house, and then in the Paul Strong tavern. While living in the latter house two of his daughters died, Clarissa, February 24, and Lucretia B., July 13, 1842. Later the father moved to the small cottage built by Jewett, that stands back of Leonard's Silk Mill boarding house ; his son Harvey at this time having an interest in these mills. Harvey built and lived in the house opposite the mill, which was remodeled a few years ago by the late Mr. John N. Leonard. Harrison Holland died in December, 1848, aged sixty-four. His inventive turn of mind made him a thorough machinist, but he was unfortunate in his dealings with men and never realized any reward for the machines he invented.
TEWEFF PLACE WHERE THE HOLLANDS LIVED.
VIEW SOUTHEAST FROM STRAWBERRY HILL.
CHAPTER VIII.
NORTHAMPTON ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY.
THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES .- THE TRANSCENDENTAL MOVEMENT .- KINDRED ASSOCIA- TIONS, BROOK FARM AND HOPEDALE. - THE PROJECTORS OF THE NORTHAMPTON ASSOCIATION .- WHY FLORENCE WAS SELECTED AS THE SITE OF THE NEW VEN- TURE .- THE LEADERS BUY THE SILK COMPANY'S PROPERTY .- THE PRELIMINARY CIRCULAR .- ORGANIZATION .- CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS .- ITEMS FROM THE SECRETARY'S BOOK.
A FEW months of peace and quiet followed the crisis of the mulberry fever and the failure of the silk company. The inhabitants of this little hamlet were content to till their farms without indulging in speculative ventures, and therefore they inwardly rejoiced when the silk company's project was abandoned. This feeling of satisfaction was not of long dura- tion, however, for soon a number of people, with peculiar ideas, bought the silk company's estate and came to Florence determined to establish a new social order, in accordance with the most advanced ideas of the time. Social innovations are always regarded with disfavor until they have justified themselves, and these earnest men and women encountered many obstacles in their effort to advance the cause of the " brotherhood of man."
Before proceeding to study the new institution, which its founders named the " Northampton Association of Education and Industry," let us consider briefly the spirit of the times that prompted this experiment. The years just preceding the beginning of their undertaking had been years of active agitation on the part of the socialists. Projects of radi- cal social reform filled the air. In the words of John Morley : "A great wave of humanity, of benevolence, of desire for improvement,-a great wave of social sentiment, in short,-poured itself among all who had the faculty of large and disinterested thinking." Among the men who were representatives of the vital movement in the direction of spiritual
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HISTORY OF FLORENCE.
supernaturalism may be mentioned Dr. Pusey and Dr. Newman. The Church of England was the target for the criticism of Thomas Arnold and F. D. Maurice, who were trying to broaden it so that "it might embrace heaven and earth, faith and philosophy, creed and criticism." Carlyle's voice was heard above the uproar, crying against shams in religion and politics. But these were not the only ones who were clam- oring for a better state of society. Dickens in his novels was vividly portraying the wrongs of the established order ; Kingsley was " stirring the caldron of social discontent " ; while George Combe, Cobden, John Bright, and Daniel O'Connell gave their energies to the cause of progress. The teachings of Robert Owen were everywhere discussed. Not England and France alone, but all Europe was invaded by this spirit of reform. In speaking of the twenty years following 1820 Emerson says: "It seemed a war between intellect and affection ; a crack in nature, which split every church in Christendom into Papal and Protestant ; Calvinism into Old and New Schools ; Quakerism into Old and New ; brought new divisions in politics ; as the new conscience touching temperance and slavery."
The influence exerted by this great movement for reform was felt in the United States, and the Americans, with less reverence for old cus- toms and precedents than the English, soon struck out on unbroken ground and resolved to put to a practical test the principles and theories of these reformers. Owen's scheme known as the "New Harmony Settlement" may be said to have reached its greatest popularity in 1826. Before 1842, through the indefatigable zeal of Albert Brisbane and Horace Greeley, the writings of Fourier were interpreted to this country. Eleven experiments followed Owen's, and no less than thirty-four were started from the influence exerted by Fourier's teachings. Noyes, in his "History of American Socialisms," says that of these forty-five Com- munities or Phalanxes, " the majority perished within a year or two of their formation ; many of them did not last more than a few months, and only three survived for a period exceeding five years."
The Northampton Association of Education and Industry seems to Have had its origin in the movement known as "transcendentalism," which sprang up soon after 1836, and enlisted in its interest a company of gifted men and women, among whom were Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, Samuel Robbins, John S. Dwight, Warren Burton, Dr. Convers Francis, Theodore Parker, Rev. Adin Ballou, Dr. Hedge, Orestes Augus- tus Brownson, James Freeman Clark, and William H. Channing. From the informal afternoon meetings which these friends of progress held at one another's houses in Boston, where social topics were discussed, grew the more serious thought, which led to the forming of an association.
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NORTHAMPTON ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY.
There was some difficulty in securing an agreement on principles upon which to lay a foundation. Mr. Ballou believed that success could only be obtained by an avowal of convictions on the part of those uniting, while Mr. Ripley wished to avoid the least appearance of coercion, and to rely wholly on the fraternal spirit to bind the members together. In conse- quence of this difference of opinion a friendly separation took place ; Mr. Ballou and a band of practical re- formers established themselves at Hopedale, Worcester county, Massa- chusetts, where they founded the "Hopedale Community," while Mr. Ripley and his friends in the spring of 1841 proceeded to West Roxbury, where they organized the "Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education." Margaret Fuller, Haw- thorne, Charles Anderson Dana, and others were there, and, as they after- wards became famous in the literary world, Brook Farm is perhaps the most widely known of the contempo- rary associations. DAVID MACK.
While these leaders of thought in Boston were busy discussing tran- scendentalism and the prospects of forming associations, there were others who were equally on the alert to receive, weigh, and consider the ideas advanced at their meetings. Among these were William Adam, David Mack, George W. Benson, and Samuel L. Hill. Mr. Adam was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and a graduate of its famous University. At this time he was professor of Oriental languages at Harvard Univer- sity, and living so near Boston naturally felt the influence of the tran- scendental movement. David Mack was born in Middlefield, Mass., in 1803. Like Mr. Adam he was at this time in Cambridge, having only a few years previous opened a day and boarding school for young ladies in that town. He was so impressed with the spirit of reform that, when Brook Farm was started in the spring of 1841, he became an associate member. Mr. Benson was from Brooklyn, Connecticut. Before his father's death he was engaged in the wholesale leather business, and just before coming to Northampton was in charge of two farms, one in Brooklyn and one in Providence. William Lloyd Garrison had married Mr. Benson's sister, and this union naturally brought Mr. Benson in touch with the more advanced thinkers of the time. Samuel L. Hill was
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HISTORY OF FLORENCE.
an overseer in a Willimantic cotton factory, and had kept pace with the world's thought through contact with Garrison's Liberator and corre- spondence with the Boston transcendentalists. It is not known which of these four men was the first to broach the subject of starting a Com- munity. They had been in correspondence with one another previous to the spring of 1841.
In all probability the failure of the silk company first brought North- ampton to the notice of the four leaders. Whitmarsh's silk enterprise had been the subject of many an article in the New England newspapers, and when the property was advertised for sale it was natural that it should suggest an excellent opportunity to obtain for a very small sum a valuable property, well suited to the needs of the project. Mr. Hill had known Mr. Conant while the latter was in Mansfield (Mr. Conant was related to Mr. Hill by marriage) and it is evident that Mr. Hill was the prime mover in selecting Florence as the site for the experiment. It seems that the plans for organization had been matured before the spring of 1841, for at this time Mr. Hill moved from Willimantic and took up his residence in " Broughton's Meadows." During the summer it is presumed that Messrs. Benson, Adam, and Mack visited Florence to look over the ground and to consult Mr. Conant, who had a lease of the silk property, with reference to his joining the proposed association and giving it his support.
GEORGE W. BENSON. From daguerreotype taken about 1945.
On the 14th of September, 1841, the trustees of the defunct Northamp- ton Silk Company, for twenty thou- sand dollars, sold the estate to Joseph Conant of Northampton, Samuel L. Hill of Windham (Willimantic), Con- necticut, William Coe and George W. Benson, both of Brooklyn, Connecti- cut.
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