USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 49
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On the next fall below, the firm, in 1828, built a saw-mill and finishing-shop.
In 1835, Charles T. sold his interest to his brothers, and removed to Michigan. In 1843, Jirah disposed of his share in the same way, and removed to Glenham, and afterwards to New- burgh, N. Y. ; when the firm became D. & H. Stearns.
In 1853, the Messrs. Stearns purchased the water-privilege below their brick-mill, a fall of twenty-eight feet, and built upon
IJirah was born at Lenox Furnace in 1798, and represented the town of Pittsfield in the legislatures of 1831 and 1832. Daniel was born at Lenox Furnace in 1800, and was representative in 1835. Henry was born at Salis- bury in 1800, and was representative in 1861. Charles T. was born at Pitts- field in 1806.
BARKERVILLE.
. ..
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it a stone finishing-mill of one hundred and twenty-five by forty feet, and a number of operatives' cottages. Upon the water-priv- ilege below, they also built what is known as the railroad-mill, a stone-structure one hundred feet long by forty-two wide, and three stories high. In this they placed eight sets of machinery, which they used for making union cassimeres. In 1861, the brick-mill was burned, and the Messrs. Stearns turned their whole attention to the stone-mills until in December, 1865, they sold them to J. Barker & Brothers.
In 1866, a corporation in which the Stearns brothers were the largest stockholders-the others having been their employés, and a commission-house with which they dealt in New York,-was organized as the Stearnsville Woolen Company, and purchased all the water-power of the firm which had not been sold to the Bar- kers ; comprising a water-privilege with a fall of thirty-three feet, in its entire length, to which were attached forty-five acres of land, with a store, an office, and thirty cottages for operatives. The ruins of the brick-mill stood upon the upper part of the water- privilege : and, lengthening the old canal, the new company, in 1866-7, built, a short distance below them, a wooden mill of one hundred and fifty-six by forty feet, and two stories high, and had nearly furnished it with machinery, when it was entirely de- stroyed by fire. Owing to the depression of the woolen-manufac- turing business, which has since prevailed, only the L part of the factory has been rebuilt.
The brothers Barker, who succeeded the Stearns family in the ownership of the earlier mills built by them, and who have built up one of the most prosperous manufacturing-establishments in Berkshire, are sons of Gardner T. Barker, who was born at Cheshire in 1779, and was married in January, 1806, to Harriet Lyon,1 who was born in Warrensbush, near Schenectady, in 1790. John V. Barker was born at Cheshire in 1807, and Charles T. in the same town, in 1809. Otis R. was born in July, 1811, at Moriah, in Essex county, N. Y., to which place Mr. G. T. Barker had removed that spring, and where he reared a family of nine sons and three daughters. Mr. Barker was for many years trial-jus- tice and supervisor of the town of Moriah, and an officer in its company of militia at the battle of Plattsburg. On the death of
1 Mrs. Barker was a daughter of Dr. John Lyon, a physician at Cheshire, both before and after 1790.
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his wife, he removed to Pittsfield, where, after residing for thir- teen years in the families of his sons, he died in April, 1873, at the age of ninety-four.
His eldest son, Mr. Jolin V. Barker, having learned the wool- carding and cloth-dressing business, came to Pittsfield in 1830, and was employed by Messrs. Stearns until 1832, when, his brother, Charles T., joining him, they formed the firm of J. & C. Barker, the middle initials being omitted for the sake of brevity. Otis R. was admitted a partner in 1834, and the firm became J. Barker & Brothers.
In 1832, J. & C. Barker purchased, of Daniel Stearns, the mill built in 1811, which had been disused for some years. It was then only of its original size. There was a basement, but it was built so low, that in freshets the water was often so deep that the unlucky stranger who, unaware of its peculiarities, stepped incautiously into its door, was completely immersed. This diffi- culty, the new owners of the mill remedied by lifting it to a proper level. As their means increased, they added to its height, and lengthened it until it was three stories high, and one hundred and eighty feet long. They also added a wing of the same height thirty feet long by twenty wide; and erected near by a boiler- house of one hundred by thirty feet. In 1869-70, the Messrs. Barker, having removed the wing and one end of the old mill, built around the remainder-in which the machinery meanwhile continued in full operation-the walls of a new brick-factory ; after which they tore down the old, and completed the interior.
The new mill is one hundred and sixty-five feet long by fifty- three wide. It is three stories high, with an attic, and contains eight sets of machinery, making union and all-wool cassimeres, both broad and narrow.
In December, 1865, the Messrs. Barker bought of D. & H. Stearns, their entire lower establishment, consisting of seventy acres of land; two stone-factories with eight sets of machinery ; a wooden weave-shop and wool-house, one hundred feet long and twenty wide; two stores, and a large number of dwelling-houses. The mills continue to make union cassimeres.
THE RUSSELL WOOLEN-FACTORY.
In the account of the manufactories to be given in the follow- ing pages-all of which have been established since 1825-we do
1
CHURY
S. N. & C. RUSSELL'S WOOLEN MILL.
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not deem it advisable to enter into the details which are of inter- est in the story of those founded before that date; for the sole reason that the later manufacturers have had only to encounter the ordinary obstacles of business; and their enterprise and struggles, however noble, have been so similar in their character, that they would become monotonous in the repetition.
About the year 1820, a small building was erected on or near the site of the Rufus Allen iron-forge on Onota brook, and from that date until 1843, was occupied as a manufactory of carpenters' tools, by Moses Sweet.
In 1843, it was purchased by Solomon N. Russell, who, in the following year, associated with himself his brother Charles.1
The brothers Russell, in 1845, converted the little shop into a manufactory of cotton-batting, a class of goods for which they soon obtained a high reputation in the market. The product was afterwards changed to wadding. The mill was burned and rebuilt. Its use for the manufacture of wadding was discontin- ued in 1860.
In 1856, the Messrs. Russell hired the Wahconah woolen- mill for ten years, and run it for a portion of that term upon army-cloths, and for the remainder on balmoral skirts.
In 1863, they built upon Onota brook, nearly opposite their batting-mill, a handsome and substantial brick-mill; one of the most perfect in the town. It is one hundred and eighty feet by fifty on the ground, and three stories high. Connected with it is a dye-house of seventy-five by thirty feet, and also a house, fifty feet square, for the boiler, picker-room, and dry-room. It has a capacity for ten sets of machinery; and in seasons of ordinary prosperity, employs about one hundred and twenty-five hands. It makes various classes of fine woolen-goods.
Mr. Charles L. Russell, one of the most capable and popular Berk- shire manufacturers of his day, died in 1870, and his share in the manufactory was inherited by his father, who divided it among his heirs, Solomon N., Joseph, Zeno, Hezekiah S., and Frank W. Russell, and Mrs. G. L. Weed. Hezekiah and Joseph sold their interest to their co-partners in 1871. Solomon N., who has had thirty-four years' experience as a manufacturer, and Zeno, are the managing partners; Frank being connected with the house of William Turnbull & Co., New York.
1Sons of Solomon L. Russell, of whom a sketch is given in Chapter XVIII.
63
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PECK'S FACTORIES.
In the year 1816, the firm of J. & E. Peck hired one end of John B. Root's store on East street, where they commenced the manufacture of tin-ware; the partners alternating in the charge of this establishment, and a similar one, which they owned at Richmond, Va.1
In the spring of 1828, they purchased the store and stock of Mr. Root, and added largely to the latter. In both the store and the tin-manufactory, they continued in the same locality until 1864; building up a prosperous business, notwithstanding the tendency of trade towards Park square and North street.
In 1844, Elijah Peck and William Barnard purchased the water- privilege, formerly occupied by Seymour's forge, a little west of that owned by the Messrs. Russell, on Onota brook, and erected upon it what was intended for a batting-mill. Mr. Barnard was the active partner, but before the mill was fitted with machinery, Mr. Jabez Peck purchased his interest and, with his brother, began the manufacture of cotton-warps, the firm name being J. & E. Peck. In 1853, Mr. Jabez L. Peck bought the interest of his father, Jabez, and in 1864, purchased that of his uncle Elijah ; since which date, he has remained sole owner.
The warp-mill was destroyed by fire in 1866, and rebuilt the same year; the new structure being a two-story wooden building of two hundred and four by fifty feet. It runs forty cards and four thousand four hundred spindles and, when in full operation, produces, weekly, seventy-five thousand yards of eighteen hundred end warps.
During the war of 1861-5, Mr. Peck engaged with Mr. J. K. Kilbourn in the manufacture of balmoral skirts, with a success which led to the erection, by the firm of Peck & Kilbourn, of a woolen-factory still further up Onota brook, upon the site formerly occupied by the Hicox forge. This mill, which was built in 1864, is a handsome brick-building, two stories high, with a basement. In 1868, Mr. Peck purchased the interest of his partner and has since run the mill with remarkable success on various classes of flannels, for which its reputation in the market has given it an unfailing demand.
1Jabez Peck was born at Berlin, Conn., in 1780. In 1781 his father re- moved with his family to Lenox. Jabez removed to Pittsfield in 1816. Elijah Peck was born at Lenox in 1791, and removed to Pittsfield in 1828.
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The flannel-mill runs four sets of machinery and five jacks, making eleven thousand yards of domett flannel weekly, and employing fifty hands ; one-half of whom are males. The warp- mill runs forty cards and forty-four hundred spindles ; producing, weekly, seventy-five thousand yards of "eighteen hundred yard ends." It employs ninety hands ; one-third of them males.
TACONIC MILL.
The Taconic mill was built in 1856, on the water-privilege two miles north of the village, formerly occupied by the Pomeroy armory. It is a wooden structure of one hundred and fifty by fifty feet ; four stories high and an attic. It has the usual dye, picker, boiler, wool, and store houses. At the time of its erection no pains were spared to make it complete in all its appointments. Its manufacture was union cassimeres, of which it made four . thousand yards weekly, requiring four hundred thousand pounds of wool annually. The original stockholders were William C. Allen, William Pollock, Theodore Pomeroy, Robert Pomeroy, Edward Pomeroy, Charles Atkinson, Edward Learned, Frank Cone, and James L. Baldwin. Edward Learned was the first president of the company, George Y. Learned the first general agent and treasurer, and Charles Atkinson the first superin- tendent.
PITTSFIELD BEL AIR AND WOOLEN COMPANIES.
The west branch of the Housatonic, from Pontoosuc lake to the Wahconah mills, presents a close succession of water-falls; one of the best of which is midway between Taconic and Wahconah. It is formed by the union of two distinct water-privileges, upon the lower of which, having a fall of only six feet, Spencer Churchill, as contractor, built for E. M. Bissell, in 1832, a four-story brick-factory, of eighty by thirty feet. But the owners of the next privilege above, having some business-controversy concern- ing the right to the privilege, put in a mudsill-dam, which ren- dered it impossible to obtain a sufficient regular supply of water ; and the mill never went into operation.
The speculation ruined Mr. Bissell financially, and the build- ing remained uncared for, and gradually falling into a ruinous condition, until, when it seemed about to fall by its own weight,
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it was purchased in 1852, by the newly-organized Pittsfield Woolen Company, who rebuilt the lower story, and thoroughly repaired and remodeled the whole structure.
The new proprietors also bought the water-privilege next above, and combining it with the old, by the erection of a massive stone- dam, obtained a fall of twenty-six feet, instead of six. They placed in the mill four sets of machinery, which had some years before been used for a short time in the unfortunate Ashuelot mill in Dalton.1
The first officers of the company were Henry Colt, president ; Robert Pomeroy, treasurer; W. Frank Bacon, secretary and gen- eral agent. Among the principal stockholders were Theodore Pomeroy, Edward Learned, and Edwin Clapp.
In June, 1861, the upper story of the mill was destroyed by fire; the remainder being saved; very much through the efforts of Company D (the Pollock Guard) of the Tenth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, which was then organizing upon the neighboring grounds of the Berkshire Agricultural Society. The upper story was not rebuilt, and the old mill was converted into spinning and dressing rooms. In 1864, the upper story was again burned off, and it was repaired as a building of two stories.
In the meantime, in 1862, a fine, new brick-mill of four stories one hundred feet by fifty in area, was erected, a short distance up the stream, and supplied with the best and most modern machinery. In 1870, it ran eight sets of machinery, and em- ployed one hundred and fifty hands, one-fifth of them girls ; making, monthly, twelve thousand yards of cassimeres, beavers, and doeskins, worth from three to five dollars per yard. Its monthly pay-roll was forty-five hundred dollars.
In July, 1873, the property of the Pittsfield Woolen Company was purchased for one hundred thousand dollars, by the Bel Air Manufacturing Company. President, Hon. Edward Learned ; secretary, E. MeA. Learned ; treasurer, Frank E. Kernochan. This new company has improved the property, put up new build- ings, and added new machinery, at a cost of between twenty-five and thirty thousand dollars ; and the mill is now turning out, monthly, almost twelve thousand yards of fine, fancy cassimeres, which command as high a price as any similar goods of American
1Owned by Henry Marsh of Dalton, Asahel Buck of Lanesboro, and M. R. Lanckton of Pittsfield; all of whom were seriously involved in its failure.
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manufacture. One hundred and sixty operatives are employed, one-fourth females, and the monthly pay-roll amounts to about forty-five hundred dollars.
THE OSCEOLA WOOLEN-MILL.
The Osceola Woolen-Mill is located near the foot of Mount Osceola, at a point on the south-west branch of the Housatonic, about one mile from its junction with the Housatonic. The fine water-power by which it is operated, was occupied in 1790, by a saw and grist mill, built by King Strong. In 1833, it was bought by Josiah Pomeroy & Co., who built a wooden mill of thirty by twenty-five feet, for grinding plaster-of-Paris, brought from Nova Scotia. Mr. Lemuel Pomeroy, whose policy was to concentrate the investments of the firm about their mill, near the village, yielded reluctantly to this purchase, and when the co-partnership was dissolved in 1839, Josiah Pomeroy took it, and converted it into a grist-mill, for which an opening was made by the disuse of the Luce mill for that purpose.
Upon Mr. Josiah Pomeroy's death in 1851, Noah W. Goodrich bought the grist-mill, and run it mostly on custom-work, until 1862, when the dam was carried away, and work suspended. In 1864, Mr. Goodrich sold the property to Otis L. Tillotson and B. F. Barker, who converted the mill into a woolen-factory. Mr. Barker, before the undertaking was fully under way, sold his interest to his partner, who carried on the business alone for one year, with one set of machinery. In 1865, Mr. Dwight M. Col- lins was admitted as a partner, and an addition, fifty feet square, was made to the mill ; while its capacity was increased to two sets of machinery. In 1866, the machinery was increased to four sets. In 1873, that portion of the mill purchased from Mr. Goodrich was replaced by a building fifty by sixty feet in area, and three stories ; while the capacity of the entire establishment was increased to six sets of machinery; making union cassimeres. New boiler, dye and wool houses were built, and the property generally improved. Additions have been made to the real-estate, until it now amounts to one hundred and fifty acres, with sixteen tenement-houses.
Mr. Tillotson died in 1873, leaving his interest in the property to his brothers.
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Mr. E. Farnham, previously of the Taconic factory, became connected with the Osceola in 1867.
THE PITTSFIELD COTTON-FACTORY.
The first mill-dam in Pittsfield-built by Deacon Crofoot, some few rods south of the Elm-street bridge-passed, in 1778, into the hands of Ebenezer White, under a lease of nine hundred and ninety-nine years, from the town. It remained in the hands of Mr. White, and, after his death, of his son Enoch, until 1832; Mr. Enoch White continuing and improving the saw and grist mills on the east end of the dam, and the successors of Jacob Ensign maintaining the fulling-mill on the west end; Jonathan Allen, 2d, being the last. Simeon Brown also built a bark-mill, for the supply of his tannery, just below the dam, and obtaining its power from it.
In 1832, the privilege, with the considerable amount of land attached to it, was contributed by Mr. White, as stock in trade, to a firm, to which Col. Samuel M. McKay and Capt, Curtis T. Fenn, the other partners, furnished the cash-capital, for building and running a cotton-factory. This factory, which was built of brick, in 1832, was eighty feet by forty in area ; three stories high, besides an attic and basement.1
Messrs. McKay and Fenn soon bought the interest of their partner, and continued to run the mill until the death of Colonel Mckay in 1839, when the property was sold at auction, and pur- chased by Thomas F. Plunkett, who, in 1845, removed the dam down the stream, to a point near the factory.
He also added forty feet to the rear of the building, making it one hundred and twenty feet long; and gave it its present capac- ity of twenty-nine cards, over one hundred looms, and nearly four thousand spindles, producing one million, five hundred and sixty thousand yards of sheeting annually, and employing one hundred operatives.
In the year 1849, Martin Van Sickler, who had become con- nected with the mill in 1840, as overseer, and Lyman Clapp,1
1Mr. Zalmon Markham put in the water wheel-a breast-wheel, thirteen feet in diameter, and twelve feet bucket-one of a hundred built by him for mills in the vicinity of Pittsfield.
2Second son of Mr. Jason Clapp.
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each purchased a quarter-interest in the property, and the firm became Plunkett, Clapp & Company, and, although Mr. Clapp died suddenly at New York in 1853, so continued until 1864; the representatives of the deceased partner retaining his interest. In 1861, at the breaking out of the rebellion, work was sus- pended at the mill, in deference to Mr. Plunkett's judgment, and Mr. Van Sickler entered into a temporary partnership with Mr. N. G. Brown, for the manufacture of gray flannels, at a small factory on Beaver street, where Mr. Brown had formerly made twine. This business proved profitable ; but, in 1864, Mr. Albert Learned purchased Mr. Plunkett's interest in the cotton-factory, -and, with Mr. Van Sickler, that of Mr. Clapp's heirs also-and the firm was again changed, becoming Learned & Van Sickler. In 1867, Mr. Learned sold to Mr. Van Sickler, who has since con- ducted the business alone.
THE COLTSVILLE PAPER-MILL.
The iron-forge of John Snow, at what is now Coltsville, of which an account has been given in another chapter, was suc- ceeded, in 1826, by a tannery established by Alexander Dorn. The tannery was sold a few years afterwards to John Chase & Brother, who, in their turn, sold it, in 1835, to Royal Weller. In 1837, it was purchased by H. N. & A. P. Dean. Stowell Dean succeeded H. N. in 1840; and, in 1843, Benjamin Dean succeeded A. P .; the firm becoming S. & B. Dean, who carried on the tannery until 1847, when Olcott Osborn was admitted as a partner.
In 1848, the tannery was converted into a paper-mill, and the Deans sold their interest to James Wilson and F. W. Gibbs; the firm taking the name of Wilson, Osborn & Gibbs. In 1850, Mr. Wilson sold to his partners. In 1851, Hon. Thomas Colt pur- chased Mr. Osborn's interest, and, in 1855, that of Mr. Gibbs.
The old building was insufficient in size, and otherwise illy adapted to its purposes as a paper-mill; and Mr. Colt, from his first connection with it, intended, in good time, to replace it with a building of proper size, and constructed in the best manner. In 1862, the increasing business of the concern seemed to warrant and demand that the improvement should no longer be delayed, but that a mill worthy of the superior water-power at that point,
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should take the place of the dilapitated old structure. It was accordingly demolished, and in the following year Mr. Colt built, upon its site, a brick-mill, which is one of the most substantial and handsome in the county. Built under his personal super- vision, it is finished, in all its details, with the most scrupulous care and faithfulness, and is filled with machinery of a corre- sponding character.
It is one hundred feet by fifty in area and two stories high, besides a basement and attic ; and has, besides, a "lean-to " in the rear, of one hundred feet by twenty-eight. It has two rag-engines of five hundred pounds capacity, and one of one thousand pounds. When working in full, it consumes about three hundred and fifty tons of rags yearly ; and employs fifteen men and thirty girls. It is lighted by gas made on the premises, and heated by steam.
The manufacture of paper requires a very large and uninter- rupted supply of the purest water ; and, pellucid as are the moun- tain streams of Berkshire, they often-even when not polluted with the refuse matter of the factories, or the sewerage of villages -contain mineral ingredients injurious to the paper. Mr. Colt, therefore, in 1856, bored, near his mill, an artesian-well, two hun- dred and fifty feet deep. And, this not furnishing an adequate supply, he followed it, in 1868, with another, five hundred and one feet in depth. These wells were the first of their kind in western Massachusetts, and they met the usual obstacles which try the faith and patience of those who make the first experiment in penetrating strata like those of the Berkshire geological forma- tion. Their cost was ten thousand dollars; but they proved suc- cessful, affording five hundred and seventy-five thousand gallons of perfectly pure water, daily. And they have been followed by several others, at different points in the Housatonic valley.
WAHCONAH FLOURING AND MEAL MILLS.
A few miles below the Bel Air factory is a water-power of seventeen feet head, upon which, in 1776, Dea. Nathan Barber built his fulling-mill; there being already a saw-mill upon it. The fulling-mill was succeeded, in 1816, by a wooden factory, forty by thirty feet in size, which was erected by Caleb Goodrich and Spencer Churchill ; the latter selling his interest to his part- ner in the following year. Mr. Goodrich used it for turning
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wood for bedsteads, etc., and leased room and power for various minor manufactures, among which were lead-pipe, wheel-hubs, machinery and buttons. Arthur Scholfield transferred his wool- carding to this mill, in 1827, and was succeeded by his son Isaac, who in turn sold the business to James S. Little. The richly gilt buttons manufactured here by Nicholson & Guilford, and exhibited at the cattle-show of 1832, were very honorably men- tioned by the committee upon manufactures. John Webb occu- pied most of the upper story, for the manufacture of carpenters' planes, from 1837 to September 27, 1849, when the building was destroyed by fire. In 1849, Mr. Goodrich replaced it by a wooden mill, eighty feet by thirty, and three stories high; in which he resumed the turning-business, which he continued until 1859, when he sold the premises, including the water-privilege, to George H. Clark,1 Charles T. Bulkley, and Otis Cole, Jr.
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