USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 17
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ists, just as the same class of New Englanders, engaged in later days in commerce with the southern ports, aided in the recovery of slaves attempting to escape in their vessels. At all events, these laws were enforced, to the exclusion at least of the English improvements in machinery.
Another impediment, nearly as fatal, was found in the poor and costly character of the raw material used in the cotton and woolen manufactures of America, as compared with that employed in Great Britain. The latter country in 1787, imported about 33,- 000,000 pounds of cotton, mostly from the West Indies, East Indies and Turkey, whose markets she controlled, and in which the cheapness of labor enabled the planter to cleanse his produce more perfectly than could be afforded in the United States under the rude hand-processes then used. Indeed, in 1791, when the first successful cotton-mill in America was established, the whole crop did not exceed 2,000,000 pounds ; and that, almost all, of an inferior quality, imperfectly cleansed.
But Whitney's gin, invented in 1793, rendered the process of cleansing cheap and perfectly effective. The Sea-island cotton, introduced into Georgia in 1786, was soon found to surpass every other variety for making the finest goods, and was grown wherever the climate and soil permitted. Better upland varieties were obtained. And the southern states of the Union became the cotton-growers of the world.
These happy changes at the south enabled the northern states to enter into a not altogether hopeless competition with England in the manufacture of cotton, at least for their home-market. Some years of the nineteenth century had, however, passed before this condition of things was well established. But then a desire to take advantage of it spread over New England; and we find Pittsfield joining with her successful projects for woolen manu- factories, others for cotton-mills, which did not succeed.
In making the ruder fabrics, there was less difficulty with American wool than with cotton; but it was coarse and of a loose fiber, entirely unfit for even moderately-fine goods. There had been some efforts to improve the breeds of sheep by the introduc- tion of English stock; but there probably was not a single merino in America until the year 1802, when Col. David Hum- phrey, who had been minister to Spain, and Chancellor Livings- ton, who had held the same position in France, brought home
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from those countries flocks selected by themselves with great care.
The patriotic zeal of these gentlemen was imitated throughout the country; and-as we shall find in our account of the Berk- shire Agricultural Society-with peculiar spirit and success in Pittsfield. In fact, she may fairly claim to stand among the fore- most towns of the Union in refining the American fleece by the introduction of the merino. In the early improvement of woolen machinery, there can be no doubt of her pre-eminence.
The first woolen-mill in America, was erected at Hartford, and the Pittsfield Chronicle of October 12, 1789, states that it made between September 1, 1788 (probably the date at which it com- menced operations), and September 1, 1789, five thousand yards of broadcloth, some of which sold at five dollars a yard. A writer in the Boston Centinel, quoted in the Chronicle of April 12, 1789, says that John Adams had received an elegant suit from this mill, in which he appeared as vice-president of the United States. Washington, when president-elect, visited the same mill in October, 1788, and ordered from it the suit of broad- cloth in which he was inaugurated. He speaks of its product as " good, but not yet of the best quality, as were also their coat- ings, cassimeres, serges, and everlastings. * * All the parts of the business were done at the mill, except the spinning. This was done by the country-people, who were paid by the cut."
About the same time, a woolen-factory was started at Stock- bridge;1 but of what character we are not informed.
The imperfections in the Hartford cloth, mentioned by Presi- dent Washington, were probably due to the coarseness of the wool, to the inequalities which would inevitably arise from the mode of spinning ; and perhaps also, to unskillful dyeing. In the process of spinning, performed by the country-people, the carding was included.
This mill was in operation in 1791, and its fabrics were com- mended by Secretary Hamilton, in his celebrated report upon American manufactures, as having " attained a considerable degree of perfection, certainly surpassing anything which could be expected in so short a time under so great difficulties." Our information regarding this factory and its product, is, neverthe-
1Bishop's History of American Manufactures.
21
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less, very indefinite ; as none of those who speak of it were desirous, or perhaps even capable, of being critical, or technically accurate. President Washington's opinions are the most clearly expressed. We know nothing of the subsequent history of the enterprise ; but it seems not to have had the influence antici- pated for it, as a pioneer in American woolen-manufactures ;1 and their career rested until the introduction of finer raw mate- rial about the year 1800. Precisely with what justice absolute precedence can be claimed for Pittsfield in the revival of, and impulse given to, this great industry at that time, it is difficult for us to determine. A mill for the manufacture of fine broad- cloth, established by Chancellor Livingston at Poughkeepsie, was in successful operation in 1808. At what date it began ope- rations we are not informed, but there is strong probability that a portion, if not all, of its machinery was manufactured by Arthur Scholfield at Pittsfield.
The name of Mr. Scholfield is so intimately connected with the claim of Pittsfield, to priority in the foundation of the woolen-manufacture of the country, that a brief sketch of his life before his removal to this town, will not only be proper here, but will afford a convenient starting-point for the narration which succeeds it.
Arthur Scholfield, the son of a clothier of the same name, was born in 1757, at Saddlesworth, a town of Yorkshire, England, noted for its woolen-manufactures; and was apprenticed, at six- teen, to James .Wrigley, another clothier of that town. Arthur's
1Mr. James B. Hosmer, of Hartford, whose 24th birthday occurred Sep- tember 27, 1875, while the present volume was in press, was, from his earliest youth, familiar with the manufactures of Hartford, and was connected as a clerk with the first woolen-factory. Before the text was written we attempted to obtain his evidence ; but he was then very ill. A friend, Ilon. Lucins M. Boltwood, has since obtained it for us, in the following statement : The com- pany was formed April 28, 1783. The mill, which stood on the west bank of Little river at the foot of Mulberry street, was burned a few years ago. The wool-house is still standing on Gold street. The mill made excellent cassi- meres, but the business did not pay, and was, Mr. llosmer thinks, not con- tinved beyond 1795. His memory is, that the mill used better wool than some of the present day do, and that it was spun harder. But this is very doubtful unless the wool was imported, and the testimony of Washington as to the mode of spinning incorrect. Possibly it may have been true, however, as to a brief portion of its later years, as Mr. Hosmer's reputation for accu- racy is high.
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signature to the indentures shows him to have received the rudi- ments of a common education ; and it was provided, in the articles of agreement, that he should still have two weeks " at Christmas to go to school :" not a very liberal allowance, to be sure, but enough to enable a quick-witted lad to refresh his school-learning.
That he was well-taught in the clothier's art is quite certain.
His father appears to have been of the better class of English artisans, and to have reared his family so that they might rise in the world by their own efforts. His son, Abraham, who died at his native place in 1826, and styled himself "merchant," in his will, by which he bequeathed property of very considerable value in mills, tenements, etc. The family still occupy respectable posi- tions in Saddlesworth and other Yorkshire towns.
In the year 1793, Arthur, then at the age of thirty-six, sailed from Liverpool, on the 24th of March, in the ship " Perseverance " bound for Boston. He was accompanied by his brother John, who was married; he himself being a bachelor. On their arrival, in their search for a tenement, they fell under the notice of Mr. Jedediah Morse, author of the then popular Geography and Gazetteer, who befriended them, and afterwards interested himself largely in their behalf.
Their first venture, after a few weeks' examination of the ground, was in June, when in company with John Shaw, a spin- ner and weaver, who had accompanied them from England, they began the manufacture of woolen-cloth, by hand. John, on the first day of the partnership, expended from his own funds, for wool seventy-one pounds, three shillings and six pence ; for lum- ber, to build the machinery, two pounds, eight shillings and eight pence. John built the first machinery himself ; completing a hand-loom, a spinning-jenny, etc., by the first of August, and charging the company twelve pounds and three shillings for his labor. The first product of this loom-twenty-four and a half yards of broadcloth-was sold for sixteen pounds and sixteen shillings ; and twenty yards of mixed broadcloth for twelve pounds.
" Mr. Morse was an interested observer of all this work, which was carried on in John's house in Charlestown, and, seeing that broadcloth could be made in this country to advantage, and find- ing that Arthur and John understood the construction of the most important machinery, used in England for that purpose, he introduced them to some persons of wealth in Newburyport, and
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they were by them persuaded to remove to that place for the pur- pose of starting a factory, with improved machinery, to be con- structed under their immediate supervision."
Their first work in Newburyport was a carding-machine, which was put together in a room in "Lord" Timothy Dexter's stable, and there operated by hand, for the purpose of showing its opera- tions to parties whom it was desired to engage in the enterprise of the factory.
This factory was started at Byfield, complete in 1795, the building being three stories high, and one hundred feet long. The first carding-machine was made single. Afterwards two double machines were placed in the factory. Arthur was employed as overseer of the carding, John as overseer of the weaving and agent in the purchase of wool. John Shaw was employed as a weaver. 1
" The business at Byfield was conducted prosperously, and was the first successful manufacture of woolen-goods in the United States ; all previous attempts having been conducted by hand, and rendered unprofitable by reason of imperfect machinery." 2
John Scholfield, in one of his wool-purchasing tours, found a mill-privilege in Montville, Conn., which in 1798, he hired for fourteen years, and with his brother established a woolen-factory upon it. Here Arthur remained two years, in which he married Miss Amy Crafts. In the year 1800, he removed to Pittsfield.
Here he found the clothier's business in a flourishing con- dition, but confined to the fulling and finishing of cloths, includ-
1 The machinery of this mill, although 'built under the direction of the Scholfields, is stated in the History of American Manufactures, to have been made by Strandring, Armstrong and Guppy, of Newburyport, the senior partner being probably James Strandring, afterwards manufacturer of comb- plates and spindles in Pittsfield. Byfield is a village of the town of Newbury. The owners of the factory were William Bartlett & Co , of Newburyport.
2 We quote this paragraph from an elaborate article upon The First Woolen Mills in America, published in the Boston Commercial Bulletin of October, 1873, and prepared from original papers, and oral information, furnished by a son of John Scholfield From the same source we have collected most of the facts concerning the 'life of the Scholfields, at Charlestown and Byfield. Another authority-Bishop's History of American Manufactures - states that, having proved unprofitable in their hands, the shares of the Scholfields were, one by one, transferred to William Bartlett, and by him to John Lee, one of the original company, who in 1806, converted the mill into a cotton- factory.
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ing sometimes, but not always, the dyeing. Carding, spinning and weaving were done in private families and with primitive machinery, with tedious labor and imperfect product. Even the processes left to the professional clothier were conducted with machinery that, although improved from that placed in Elder Valentine Rathbun's fulling-mill in 1770, 1 was still exceedingly imperfect. Rathbun's mill, after lying idle for awhile, had been purchased in 1800, by Dan Monroe, who supplied it with improved machinery. Deacon Eli Maynard, who had succeeded James Ensign in the Water street mill, had made a similar change. Deacon Barber, in the mill at Wahconah, built in 1776, used the best machinery of that period.
With the growth of the neighboring country, business increased, and the clothiers found abundant employment. But while in the manufacture of homespun woolen-cloth, the fulling and finishing were done with tolerable economy and fair excellence, the product on the whole was inferior, and the processes by which it was obtained were slow, laborious and imperfect. This, Arthur Scholfield undertook to remedy. What qualifications he had for the task the reader may judge from the foregoing account of his experience. " His memory," says Mr. Clapp, "was remarkably tenacious, and being a good mathematician, he was able to enter into all the nice calculations required in such a labor."
The processes to whose improvement he addressed himself were carding, spinning and weaving. Heretofore the wool had been prepared in rolls by the primitive little hand-cards, a tedious pro- ceeding, whose product was apt to be uneven, and sometimes flimsy. The spinning upon the old-fashioned hand-wheel was liable to the same defects. The weaving was done upon a narrow hand-loom, which made a coarse cloth, generally twenty-three inches wide .. And, for all these machines, Mr. Scholfield undertook to introduce the labor-saving and more efficient inven- tions which were in use in England.
He completed his first carding-machine, November 1, 1801. Its advent was thus modestly announced in the Pittsfield Sun :
1 Described by Thaddeus Clapp, in his Historical statement before the Association of Berkshire Manufacturers, as "none of your new-fangled German inventions, but an old-fashioned, double-action crank-mill, driven by a three-foot open-bucket water-wheel, only warranted to run in a high freshet, or a long spell of weather."
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Arthur Scholfield respectfully informs the inhabitants of Pittsfield and the neighboring towns, that he has a carding-machine half a mile west of the meeting-house, where they may have their wool carded into rolls for 12 1-2 cents per pound; mixed 15 1-2 cents per pound. If they find the grease, and pick and grease it, it will be 10 cents per pound, and 12 1-2 cents mixed. They are requested to send their wool in sheets, as they will serve to bind up the rolls when done. Also a small assortment of woolens for sale.
Pittsfield, November 2, 1801.
This machine was set up in the building erected on the dam a little north of the West street bridge over the Housatonic, and dignified by the title of "the Pittsfield Factory," a building which may well be called the cradle of Pittsfield manufactures ; for here, as Mr. Scholfield informs us in an advertisement of May, 1802, " were carried on, under different firms, dyeing of wool of various colors, making of chairs of various kinds, cut and wrought nails, marble monuments, Rumford fireplaces, common stone for building, hulling and perling of barley, etc., etc." After such a list one would like to know what the double et cetera indicated.
But, to return to Scholfield's carding-machine : the good house- wives were at first rather shy of the innovation, and Mrs. Jared Ingersoll,1 who sent the first fleece, confessed that she did so with great doubts as to the result. But the experiment proved suc- cessful. The rolls were more firm and even than those made by hand; the cost was not great, and the saving of time was consid- erable. Others gave the carding-machines a trial, with the like result, and soon one of the most frequent sights in the streets was a wagon wending its way to the Pittsfield factory with a load of wool, or returning with the rolls nicely wrapped in linen sheets, pinned with thorns.
Capt. Hosea Merrill was an early friend of Scholfield and furnished lumber to him for his machines ; but his good wife thought it prudent to risk but little in her first trial of his card- ing. When the rolls came home there was a little domestic scene, in which the characteristics of the different ladies of the family were exhibited. Mrs. Merrill and her two daughters brought out their spinning-wheels to try the rolls prepared for
1 Readers of our first volume will remember this lady as the intrepid widow of Colonel John Brown.
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them. After working silently for awhile, one of the young ladies remarked, with a satisfied air, "This is good." "Yes," said her mother, after waiting a little longer, and with a little more emphasis, "it is good." The other daughter spun steadily on, and when she had finished, said quietly : " Mother, I can do twice as much spinning with these rolls as with the old hand- carded things !" And it actually proved that, one and a half runs of yarn having been an average day's spinning with the hand- carded rolls, three could be easily spun after Scholfield's carding.1
In May, 1802, Scholfield advertised that he should give no credit ; that if the wool was not properly "sorted, clipped and cleansed," he should charge an extra penny per pound ; and that he would make no abatement for wool that was greased, as "he made use of none but good grease, and that at his own expense." He had learned something and become independent enough to profit by his experience-had he not been of too easy and gen- erous a nature to adhere to his wise determination.
The carding-machines were not made personally by Scholfield, but by carpenters and machinists, working under his direction, from models and drawings prepared by him. He soon, in the same manner, began the manufacture of machines for sale; and in 1806-to the great satisfaction of other carders-he abandoned the carding of wool altogether, in order to devote himself exclu- sively to this business and to perfecting models for looms and spinning-jennies, the making of which he shortly after added to it. His immediate successors in the carding-business were Alex- ander and Elisha Ely; but the carding of wool with machines manufactured by him was entered into as a business by several persons in the county. For some years the greatest obstacle which he encountered was the necessity of himself, or by his workmen, preparing the comb-plates by hand ; punching and filing the teeth one by one, and with very rude appliances. But in 1814, his friend, James Strandring, succeeded in smuggling out from England, a teeth-cutting machine, with which he estab- lished, at Pontoosuc, a small manufactory of comb-plates, to which he afterwards added the making of spindles. It was probably the smuggling exploit of Strandring that gave rise to the tradition that Scholfield returned to England to refresh his memory by an inspection of the machinery which he was intend-
1 A run was twenty knots, and a knot forty threads.
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ing to imitate. In fact he never returned to his native country after he first left it; for the excellent reason that the British government, through the vigilance of its consul at Boston, was sure to be well informed of his infringement of its jealously- guarded monopoly, by his proceedings at Charlestown and Byfield; and would have been sure, had he set foot in his majesty's dominions, to oppose a very effectual ne ereat under the law forbidding the emigration of artisans and machinists.
When Strandring's tooth-cutting machine reached Pittsfield, it was placed in the attic of a little shop near the river, at Pon- toosuc, to which the only access was by a ladder, and through a trap-door which was always closed to Yankee curiosity; none being suffered to pass it except Strandring, Scholfield and Wrig- ley. The machine did its work rapidly and well, and Strandring not only prepared the comb-plates for Scholfield's carding- machines, but made various kinds of saws, and re-cut old ones which were brought to him from a wide range of country. Of course this mysteriously-concealed biter of iron was an object of the most intense curiosity-not always of an entirely disinter- ested character-to all the region roundabout. Among other incidents illustrating this thirst for forbidden knowledge, Mr. Phillips Merrill, relates the following: He was one day in Strandring's shop, when a Shaker entered with a saw to be re- cut ; and as the machinist turned to mount his ladder, offered him five dollars to be permitted to see the operation. "Not for five hundred !" replied Strandring, who, even if he had been off his guard before, would have had his suspicions aroused; for, however moderate a sum five dollars might be for some purposes, it was rather more than the Shaker brethren were wont to pay for the gratification of a profitless curiosity. But, turning to young Merrill, he beckoned him into his dusty arcanum; remarking, " There, Phil! you're the first Yankee that ever saw that machine." Strandring carried on his little manufactory for some years, adding spindles to its product, but he died in middle age, a somewhat frail constitution being unequal to the demands of the free living which prevailed among the Yorkshire artisans in Pittsfield. 1
1 James Wrigley, mentioned above in connection with Scholfield and Strandring, in like manner fell a victim to the fashionable dissipations of the day. He was probably a son of Arthur Scholfield's old master in the cloth-
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Scholfield's carding-machines had a wide reputation and were sold all over the country. Several, as we have said, were set up in Berkshire. The price of those made the first year is said to have been over thirteen hundred dollars. In 1806, he advertised double machines for two hundred and fifty-three dollars each, without the cards, or four hundred dollars including them ; and picking-machines at thirty dollars each. The prices were after- wards still further reduced. His annual manufacture amounted probably to from twenty to thirty double machines, at fair prices.
But he was not without his troubles. Some of his customers turned out to be rogues ; in two or three instances representing themselves as belonging to places which, when they were sought for payment, denied all knowledge of them. Others, ruined by the financial disasters of the day, were unable to pay. His losses from bad debts were considerable, and he was also annoyed by competition. In an advertisement of 1804-after informing the public that he continued to card wool on the old terms, and hoped to give general satisfaction, as he "had been to great expense for machinery both in quantity and quality," he adds :
He has carding-machines for sale, built under his immediate inspec- tion, upon a new and improved plan, which he is determined to sell on the most liberal terms, and will give drafts and other instructions to those who wish to build for themselves ; and cautions all whom it may concern to beware how they are imposed upon by uninformed speculat- ing companies, who demand more than twice as much for machines as they are really worth.
The disjointed political condition of the times also troubled Mr. Scholfield ; and, just after the act laying the embargo on for- eign commerce, he wrote thus to his brother John at Montville :
PITTSFIELD, July 11, 1808.
BROTHER JOHN: Yours of the 4th of June is received. You say you hardly know how you are doing; for there was an Imbargo laid last December, and it still continues. The Imbargo is here too, and
ier's art. He was certainly associated with him at Byfield and Pittsfield, to some extent, in his business undertakings. He was a man of fine personal appearance and of intelligence. In the procession of the first cattle-show of the Berkshire Agricultural society, he was drawn upon a gaily-decorated platform, neatly dressed in black broadcloth and small clothes, and wearing a cocked hat, while he busily worked at one of Scholfield's looms : affording one of the most striking and best-remembered features of that occasion.
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