USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 46
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GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH.
In the year 1858, when the Protestant German population of Pittsfield was about four hundred, arrangements were made by a portion of them for divine service in their own language. These services were at first held in private houses, and with occa- sional visits by clergymen from the State of New York. But in April, 1859, Rev. Augustus Grotrian, a learned and able minister of Albany, accepted a call and organized the German Evangelical Church of Pittsfield, upon the basis of the Augsburg Confession. By invitation of the First Congregational Parish, the services were held in its lecture-room; but measures were at once taken for the erection of a church. The town granted a pleasant site in the corner of the First-street burial-ground. Rev. Drs. Hum- phrey and Todd took a strong interest in the enterprise, and the citizens contributed liberally. The Germans gave as liberally as they then had the power. The church was built at a cost of two thousand three hundred and seventy-four dollars, and dedicated September 14, 1865.
Mr. Grotrian resigned in April, 1865. Rev. A. Kretchner was pastor from September, 1865, to April, 1866, and Rev. J. T. Simon from June, 1866, to October, 1868.
All these pastors were " free " or independent, ministers, and- like the church-without ecclesiastical connection. In the cases of Messrs. Kretchner and Simon, the result of this experiment was not satisfactory; and friends of the parish in the State of
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New York advised that it should associate itself with some estab- lished ecclesiastical body. While this question was pending, Rev. John David Haeger was called to the pastorate, and com- menced his duties, December 20, 1868. Mr. Haeger favored the change, and the church voted to place itself under the jurisdiction of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the State of New York; assuming the name of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Pittsfield. The society is in a flourishing condition, having over fifty male members, and embracing from seventy to ninety families. The German population of the town in 1875, was estimated at eight hundred.
THE SYNAGOGUE ANSHA AMONIUM.
In November, 1869, the Jewish citizens of the town, for the better observance of divine worship, according to their peculiar rites, organized the society Ansha Amonium ; the officers being Edward Friend, president ; Louis England, secretary ; Moses England, treasurer. This society, which included some of the most substantial and respectable citizens of the town, numbered, in 1875, eighteen heads of families. And its officers were L. V. Simons, president; H. Goodman, secretary; Isaac Newman, treasurer.
THE SHAKER SOCIETY.
Throughout the century, the united society of Shakers has maintained a respectable position in the western part of the town. They are embodied with the organization known as the Hancock Shakers, which numbers about a hundred members, of whom, " perhaps, fifty reside within the limits of Pittsfield. The society includes four families, and has a neat church. It is not numer- ous, but it forms a picturesque feature in the religious aspect of the town. The respect in which its members are held by the people, presents a strong contrast to the light in which they were viewed in 1781.
CHAPTER XXI. WOOLEN, DUCK, COTTON, PAPER AND FLOURING MILLS.
[1808-1875.]
State of manufactures in 1812-Effect of Scholfield's machinery-Seth Moore's rope-walk-Root, Maynard & Co's duck-factory-Housatonic woolen and cotton mill-Pittsfield woolen and cotton company-Their mills built ; leased to L. Pomeroy and Josialı Pomeroy-Sold to Josiah Pomeroy & Co. -Bought by L. Pomeroy & Sons-Berkshire agitation for protection to American manufactures-Henry Shaw-Pontoosuc woolen-factory built- Hindrances to success-Saxony sheep introduced-Henry Clay's visit to Pittsfield-Tlie Stearns family and their factories-The Barker brothers and their factories-The Russell factories-The Peck factories-Taconic factory -Pittsfield woolen-factory-Bel Air factory-Tillotson & Collins's factory -Pittsfield cotton-factory-Coltsville paper-mill-Wahconalı flouring-mills -Shaker flouring-mill-Osceola River flouring-mill.
THE machinery introduced by Scholfield, and the refinement of the Berkshire fleece through the better breeds of sheep brought in from the New York flocks, by Elkanah Watson, John B. Root, S. D. Colt and others, or imported directly from Europe by Jonathan Allen, had, previous to the war of 1812, considerably increased the quantity, and very much improved the quality of Pittsfield woolen-manufactures; but not to an extent which enabled them even proximately to meet the market which was brought to their doors. Much the larger part of the cloth pro- duced was still made upon the household-looms; and, even in the so-called factories, so important a process 'as the weaving, was carried on by hand.
The same state of things extended through the country. In 1810, information received from every state in the Union, and from more than sixty different places, showed an extraordinary increase, and rendered it probable that about two-thirds of the cloth, including hosiery, house and table linen, used by the inhab- itants outside the cities, was the product of household-manufac-
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tures. In the eastern and middle states curding machines, driven by water, were everywhere established; and others were extended southward and westerly. Jennies and other spinning-machines and flying-shuttles were introduced in many places.1
From the above and cognate statistics, it is safe to infer that the greater effect of the improvements in machinery introduced by Scholfield, was upon household-manufactures, and by their value, we must measure the benefits conferred by him upon the county, in relieving its necessities during the war. The zeal and capital of Livingston and Humphries, even if unaided by him, were sure soon to overcome the difficulties in the way of supplying their mills with suitable machinery. But it was Schol- field, who came opportunely, at a moment when such relief was most needed, to enable the country to provide for one of its most pressing wants; and, when taxes began alarmingly to increase, to scatter among thousands of families the means of materially adding to the income from their labor. And it was he alone who performed this immense service; for to him must be fairly ascribed, not only the benefits derived from the machinery sent out from his own manufactory, but from that made by his numer- ous imitators.
Still, valuable as the relief thus furnished was, and much as had been accomplished by the impulse imparted in various ways to American manufactures, they were not able to prevent a con- siderable scarcity of cloth, when the foreign supply was inter- rupted by the war. In Berkshire, if the hundred thousand yards of domestic woolens, reported as the product of 1809, had been doubled, or trebled, in 1812, it would, after the necessary reduc- tion for home-wear, have gone but a little way toward meeting the demand which was made upon the county when, in the fall of the latter year, Major Melville advertised, "Cash, Cash, and a generous price, for blue, brown, and mixed woolen cloths, and short stockings."
This demand, however, powerfully stimulated the spirit of man- ufacturing enterprise. This spirit had indeed not slept, but had already accomplished much, and was ready promptly to accom- plish more ; so that Elkanah Watson was able to boast, at the
1Bishop's History of American Manufactures. If tradition is to be at all trusted, the extent to which homespun goods were used in New England must have been much greater than the proportion given by Mr. Bishop.
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Ladies' Cloth Show of the Agricultural Society in January, 1813, that the President of the United States and the President frigate -which he styled "the pride of the American navy "-were clothed from the Pittsfield woolen and duck looms. And, in the same year, the Albany Argus, under the heading " Aid and Com- fort to the Enemy," alleged that a suit of superfine Berkshire broadcloth had been sent as a present to the Prince Regent of Great Britain. "It is thought," added the editor sarcastically, " that it will prove a good negotiator." And, indeed, whatever may be thought of the patriotism or good taste of making pres- ents to a ruler with whom the nation was at war, there was no prince in Europe so well qualified to judge the quality of the arti- cle said to have been sent, or so sure to appreciate it if good.
This story labors under the suspicion of having been invented for political effect; but it bears testimony, even if that suspicion is correct, to the reputation of Berkshire broadcloths. Of the truthfulness of the boast regarding the clothing of the two presi- dents, there is no doubt. Mr. Watson, himself, after exhibiting in several cities the broadcloth upon which he had, in 1812, taken the first premium of the Agricultural Society, sent it to Mr. Madison and some other statesmen at Washington, and suits made of it were worn by them at his inauguration in 1813.1
The frigate President was supplied with a superior suit of linen- duck sails from the duck-factory of Root & Maynard, and her cordage was, in part at least, from the rope-walk of Seth Moore.
Moore's rope-walk was built about the year 1808, in the rear of Maynard & Root's duck-factory, which stood on the east side of Elm street, midway between East street and the river. He carried on the business successfully for several years, making superior cordage and twine, and accumulating some property ; but afterwards, depressed by family troubles, he resorted to spirituous liquors for relief, with the usual result; and, in 1814, he com- mitted suicide, by hanging, in his place of business, having made preparations which indicated great deliberation.
1It is stated in several publications, that Mr. Madison, at his inauguration in 1809, was dressed in a suit of Scholfield's broadcloth. But no mention of anything of the kind is made in the Sun; and the National Intelligencer, in its report of the occasion, states that the president " wore a full suit of cloth of American manufacture, of the wool of merinoes raised in this country ; his coat from the manufactory of Colonel Humphries, and his waistcoat and small- clothes from that of Chancellor Livingston : " presents from those gentlemen.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
John B. Root added manufacturing to his mercantile business in the fall of 1808, when he commenced making sail-duck from flax. In 1810, he was joined in the business by Deacon Eli Maynard, who had just sold his interest in the fulling-mill at White's dam, on Water street, to his junior partner, Jonathan Allen, 2d; and the sails of the frigate President were woven by Root & Maynard. Early in 1812, Oliver Robbins became a part- ner in the concern, which took the name of Root, Maynard & Co. In the fall of 1813, Mr. Root withdrew from the firm, and in 1815, Mr. Robbins also retired; leaving Deacon Maynard, who liad from the first been the practical manufacturer, alone. He continued in the business a few years longer, adding to it a gro- cery-store; but finally the grocery absorbed his entire attention, and the manufacture of sail-duck in Pittsfield ended.
In 1809, Deacon Maynard advertised that he would give a gen- crous price, and furnish directions, for spinning immediately a large quantity of tow; and, in the same year, John B. Root offered to furnish tow for making four thousand yards of such cloth as he should direct.
On the 10th of July, 1810, Mr. Root and Richard S. Chappell,1 as partners, gave notice that they had for sale a number of merino rams of different grades, "derived from the flocks of Colonel Humphries and Chancellor Livingston," and that-hav- ing lately erected a factory for the manufacture of cloths from the merino wool-they would receive in payment well-washed and merchantable merino wool, at the following rates per pound, by the fleece :
Full blood, two dollars; three-quarter blood, one dollar and fifty cents ; half-blood, one dollar; quarter-blood, sixty-seven cents. They also offered to buy common wool of the first quality at fifty cents per pound, and inferior qualities at proportionate prices.
Messrs. Root and Chappell were, in 1812, incorporated as the Housatonuck Manufacturing Company ; the engrossing clerk at Boston substituting the more antique spelling for that previously used by the firm. Their charter conferred power to hold real estate to the amount of thirty thousand dollars, and personal
1Mr. Chappell was, like his partner, a man of restless business-activity and enterprise. He was also fond of military pursuits, and during the war of 1812 made a very efficient captain for the Berkshire Blues.
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property to the value of fifty thousand, for the purpose of making cloth of wool, cotton, flax, or tow. They had also the usual authority to associate other corporators with themselves; but they did not immediately avail themselves of it.
The factory erected by them in 1810, and then styled by them "The Housatonic Woolen Mill," stood at a bend in the east branch of the Housatonic river, about a quarter of a mile south of the crossing of the railroad by Beaver street. The water-power at this point is of a very inferior class; it being impossible to obtain a fall of more than four feet, without flooding a great part of the valuable meadows as far back as the farm now owned by Amasa Rice on Unkamet street. But the manufacturing estab- lishment which grew up around it, however small as compared with those of a later date, was an important enterprise for its time ; comprising, as described in an advertisement of 1816, "a large and commodious building improved as a woolen and cotton factory, four dwelling-houses, a store, a large and convenient building used for spinning, weaving, and finishing cloth, a fulling- mill, dye-house, and four acres of land."
The factory proper was of wood, painted yellow, about seventy- five by thirty-five feet in size, one of the four stories being a base- ment formed by the descending bank of the river.
The machinery was catalogued in the same advertisement as follows :
In the woolen-department, three double carding-machines; three spinning-jennies, containing one hundred and forty spindles; one roping jack ; one picker ; four broad looms, three narrow looms, and com- plete sets of loom-tackle. In the cotton-department, four throstle frames, containing two hundred and forty spindles, with the necessary preparing machinery for five hundred spindles.
Also all the factory-furniture, and implements necessary for manu- facturing and finishing woolen-cloth, and spinning cotton-yarn, and warp.
No cotton-cloth was made at the factory, but the warp spun here was either sold at the shops, to be woven on hand-looms, or sent to mills in other places to be mixed with wool in satinets.1
Even when, in later years, the manufacture of satinet was intro- duced into the Housatonic mill, although warps were made in the
) The manufacture of cotton-cloth on household-looms was quite common in the early part of the 19th century.
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mill by parties to whom the cotton-machinery had been leased, they were all sent out of town for a market ; while those used in the mill were brought from a factory in Valatie, N. Y. It is also worthy of remark that the warps were beamed where they were woven, not where they were spun ; being sent to market in skeins.
The first years of the Housatonic mill were prosperous, the war affording a constant and profitable market for its cloth. But, in common with other American manufactures, it suffered severely from the overslaugh of foreign goods upon the return of peace; besides being greatly embarrassed by the inferiority of its water-power.
The proprietors seem, however, to have struggled bravely against adverse circumstances. In February, 1815, Richard C. Coggswell, clerk of the company, called a meeting, for the purpose of mnak- ing alterations in the by-laws; probably rendered necessary by an increase of the number of stockholders, several gentlemen having taken an interest in the mill, in the hope of sustaining it. They were, however, soon discouraged, as the Sun of March 24, 1816, contained an advertisement signed by Nathan Willis, Simeon Brown, and Royal Millard, as directors, offering the whole establishment, as described in the extract quoted above, for sale at public vendue. The sale did not take place, probably from lack of bidders ; and the proprietors resorted to various expedients to keep the mill in operation until more favorable times, and in the meanwhile to obtain some moderate income from their out- lay.
Richard S. Chappell's name appears in connection with the company, for the last time, in his signature as clerk to a call for a meeting of the stockholders, dated January 24, 1816. The next call of the same kind, which was in the following March, was signed by Nathan Willis, who had purchased Chappell's stock, or a large part of it. Messrs. Root and Willis were, from this time the chief, and finally the sole owners of the Housatonic factory ; sometimes leasing it in whole, or in part, and sometimes carrying it on for themselves.
In May, 1816, the company attempted to add to their income by offering to card wool for customers, "having in their employ one of the best carders in the country." In July, Jonathan N. Chappell, and Joseph Wadsworth, "having connected themselves
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in business at the Housatonuck Factory (east of the meeting- house)," offered to dress cloth, and to take in payment wool, flax, wood, soap, and all kinds of country-produce, for all colors except indigo blue, for which part cash was expected.
Chappell had been the head clothier under the old system, and in August, 1815, advertised to dress cloths at the mill on his own account, in the best European manner. He has in tradition, the reputation of a superior workman. His business-connection with Wadsworth continued only until October 10, 1816.
On the 9th of November a meeting of the company was called to consider its affairs and "raise money." What they did at this meeting is not stated; but work seems to have been contin- ued, as in the following May, the directors, Messrs. Root and Willis, called the stockholders again together, to divide such cloths as were finished, and to provide funds to meet certain demands against the company. In the previous month, Nathan Willis, as agent for the company, advertised that they would card wool for customers, and had engaged Arthur Schofield to take charge of that work.
The Housatonic factory experienced to a moderate extent, the beneficial effects of the tariffs of 1824 and 1828, and continued in operation for some years after that, sharing the vicissitudes of the woolen-manufactures of the country, but generally with a little more of the bad fortune, and a little less of the good, than fell to its contemporaries. By a series of transactions in 1828 and 1829, the factory became the property of William Weller and John Dickinson, for whom it was managed by General Root, who resided on the premises.
The imperfection of the water-power was, from the first, the great drawback to the prosperity of the mill ; and it increased as the enhanced value of the meadows above increased the demands for flowage. Finally, a dispute upon this point arose between the proprietors of the mill and the owners of the meadows, and was referred to a board of arbitrators, to determine the compensation to be paid; but upon the very night previous to the day fixed for their meeting, a freshet carried away the dam, and the water- power was not considered sufficiently valuable to warrant its rebuilding. The water-power was subsequently consolidated with that of the Pittsfield cotton-factory, below. Previous to the destruction of the dam, Curtis T. Fenn and Hamilton Faulkner
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occupied part of the mill for the manufacture of lasts, of which they sent a large quantity to market. On the east end of the dam stood Root's saw-mill, in which John B. Root and Jacob Barton placed a saw of which they owned the patent-right for Berkshire; the improvement in which " consisted principally in hanging the saw in such a manner as to supersede the necessity of using the saw gate or frame, by which a quarter more speed is given to the saw with the same head of water, and the sawing is performed in a more perfect manner, as the saw is so fixed as to operate like sawing by a miter-box." The patent worked well for a while, but the machinery proved liable to get easily out of order. In this mill was also placed the first circular saw in the county, and the first sawed shingles were made by it. The beaming-mill of Simeon Brown's tannery was also on the east · end of the Housatonic dam.
By these various operations quite a village had, previous to 1831, grown up around this dam, most of the dwellings in which, and the factory itself, were afterwards removed, chiefly to Beaver street.
The reader will not be surprised to learn that, in the days of fend, during the war of 1812, as there were democratic and fed- eral hotels, ball-rooms, churches, merchants and physicians, so each political party had its factory. The Housatonic mill made its fabrics under purely democratic guidance, and in February, 1814, the following gentlemen, all federalists, were incorporated as "The Pittsfield Woolen and Cotton Factory." (Sic :) Lem- uel Pomeroy, Joseph Merrick, Ebenezer Center, Samuel D. Colt, David Campbell, Jr., Thomas B. Strong, James Buel and Arthur Schofield. Their charter was subject to the general law of 1809, regarding manufacturing companies, and they were empowered to hold real-estate to the value of thirty thousand dollars and personal property to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. A meet- ing of the corporators was held April 8, 1814, and, it having been determined to fix the par value of the shares at one thousand dol- lars each, the whole capital stock was at once subscribed, as fol- lows: Lemuel Pomeroy, thirty shares; Arthur Scholfield, twenty ; Eben. Center, thirteen ; David Campbell, thirteen ; Thomas Gold, five ; Samuel D. Colt, thirteen ; James Buel, four; James Wrig- ley, seven; Joseph. Merrick, thirteen; William C. Jarvis, one ;
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Thomas A. Gold, two; Isaac Scholfield, seven; Jason Clapp, one. I
Messrs. Center, Colt, Pomeroy, Campbell and Arthur Scholfield were chosen directors, and James Buel clerk.
The directors lost no time, but immediately purchased from Samuel D. Colt, for two thousand one hundred and twenty dollars, a tract of land consisting of five acres on the west side of the west branch of the Housatonic river, and a strip about six rods wide along the east side. Between the two there was a fine water- privilege-the same now used by the lower mill of L. Pomeroy's Sons-and a dam which had recently been erected for a contem- plated powder-mill.
There was no public road; but the most convenient access was by South street, from which a private way extended to the mill, on the line upon which a road was afterwards laid by the town as described below.2
James D. Colt was engaged, at a salary of five hundred dollars per annum, commencing April 11, 1814, "to superintend the build- ing of the factory, under the direction of the directors ; he keep- ing an account of lost time, which was to be deducted from said five hundred dollars."
The factory built under Mr. Colt's superintendence was a sub- stantial brick-structure eighty feet long, forty-five wide, and three stories high, besides an attic. It was lengthened, in 1871, to one hundred and twenty-five feet, and is now the lower mill of L. Pom- eroy's Sons.
The factory went into operation in the spring of 1815, under
1 Within two years Mr. Clapp sold his share to T. A. Gold ; Isaac Schol- field seven shares to Alpheus Smith; James Wrigley seven to Arthur Schol- field, fourteen to Josiah Bissell & Son.
2 In 1820, the company offered, if the town would lay a road from the north- east corner of High-Sheriff Brown's land-a little south of the present corner of South street and Danielson avenue-to Luce's mill, to see that it was built free of expense to the town, to maintain a bridge at their factory, and, with the aid of Messrs. Adams and Luce, to build a bridge at Luce's mill. The offer was accepted, and the road and bridges were built, costing the town only land-damages to the amount of ninety-five dollars paid S. D. Colt, and ninety dollars paid Capt. John Dickinson. For some reason, the town-survey of the road extended to West street, although Mill street had been established in 1795. That portion of the new road between the factory and South street, has been discontinued, having been rendered unnecessary by the opening of West Housatonic street.
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