USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from the year 1876 to the year 1916 > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
Although Walter Cutting was by birth, breeding, and inter- mittent residence, a New Yorker, he touched the life of Pittsfield at many points. He was probably more constantly and closely connected with the life of the two Grand Army posts than with any other local activity. Walter Cutting was born in the city of New York, April nineteenth, 1841, and died in Pittsfield,
MILITARY AND PATRIOTIC ORGANIZATIONS 241
July twenty-third, 1907. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was a junior, in the class of 1862, at Columbia College. He was appointed to the staff of Gen. Christopher C. Augur, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel for "gallant and meritorious services." To the end of his days he retained some- thing of the chivalric dash, in bearing and manner of speech, of the beau sabreur of military tradition.
Col. Cutting was married, in 1869, to Miss Maria Pomeroy, daughter of Robert Pomeroy of Pittsfield, and he made Pittsfield his home after 1870. His connection with various interests of the town soon became influential. He engaged vivaciously in local politics and in the volunteer fire department. In the affairs of St. Stephen's he was an energetic factor. He was a trustee of the Berkshire Athenaeum. A Democrat of en- thusiastic allegiance, Col. Cutting was a delegate to several national presidential conventions, and received from his party in Massachusetts a nomination for the office of lieutenant gov- ernor of the Commonwealth.
In middle life he inherited a comfortable fortune, and at Meadow Farm on Holmes Road, where now is Miss Hall's school for girls, Col. Cutting conducted for several years a stock farm on an extensive scale. This avocation led to his im- portance in the boards of direction of the Berkshire Agricultural Society. Assistance was given by him generously to many associations and individuals; and in his younger days his ex- ceptional talent in entertainment was the chief feature of most of Pittsfield's amateur performances for the benefit of charity. In all of his undertakings, large or small, he was ardent, not seldom headstrong, not often complacent with opposition. His rare and pleasant social graces were conspicuous, and were his by right of aristocracy of Knickerbocker lineage, but the posses- sion of them did not set him apart from the everyday life of a New England town. To his friends and to the causes which attracted him, his loyalty was of the sort which is not to be shaken, and in upholding his friends and his causes he was a hearty, honest fighter, giving no quarter and seeking none.
The local organization of sons of veterans of the Civil War, already mentioned in connection with Berkshire Post, was
1
242
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD
chartered on April cleventh, 1890, its official title being Gen. W. F. Bartlett Camp, No. 108, Division of Massachusetts. There were twenty-five charter members, and the first command- er was Harry D. Sisson. His successors were Edwin B. Tyler, Eugene M. Wilson, Orlando S. Fish, Milton B. Warner, David J. Gimlich, Charles W. Noble, Burdick A. Stewart, Leroy P. Ogden, Donaldson M. Peck, Charles E. Carey, Edward J. Combs, Harry F. Sears, J. Ward Lewis, Walter W. Sisson, and Linus W. Harger. The camp filled with credit its place among the patriotic organizations of the city. Its importance in the state was recognized in 1896, when one of its leaders, Harry D. Sisson, was elected division commander of the Division of Massachusetts. Among the members of the camp in 1915 were a son and a grandson of the heroic general whose name it bears.
The period of Pittsfield's history which is the subject of this volume is that of the declining age of the men who fought in the war between the states. It is right to say that the city's atti- tude toward them and their spirit has been one of properly maintained respect and honor. The two Grand Army posts, gradually decreasing in membership, have been held by the community in increasing regard. The loyal work in their behalf of the faithful and public-spirited women of the two Relief Corps has been generally and gratefully recognized; and the preservation of their traditions by the Sons of Veterans has been rightly esteemed by thinking citizens. The patriotic ap- preciation survived, which prompted the older town to erect the Soldiers' Monument in 1872.
Organization in Pittsfield of a chapter of the national society of Daughters of the American Revolution was effected in 1896, and its first meeting was held in the following year, on February thirteenth. The founder and first regent was Mrs. James Brewer Crane of Dalton, and the name selected was Peace Party Chapter, D. A. R., the title being commemorative of the festal gathering, long famous in village anecdote, whereby Pitts- field celebrated the end of the war in 1783, on the grounds of the "Chandler Williams place", on East Street.
The women of the local chapter have pursued with animated diligence the lines of patriotic and charitable activity prescribed
MILITARY AND PATRIOTIC ORGANIZATIONS 243
by the national society. Their contributions to the Red Cross and to the aid for the soldiers of the Spanish War in 1898 were substantial. They have fostered patriotism in the public schools by the presentation of flags and the offering of prizes for essays on patriotic subjects. In 1915, the graves of more Revolutionary soldiers were visibly honored by Peace Party Chapter than by any other chapter of the society in Massa- chusetts. The chapter presented to Pittsfield a stone sun-dial, marking the spot where grew the historic Old Elm in the Park, which was dedicated June twenty-fourth, 1903; and it has en- couraged the provision of historical memorials in neighboring towns. The Pittsfield women who have served as regents have been Mrs. William A. Whittlesey, Mrs. John M. Stevenson, Mrs. Frank Peirson, and Mrs. H. Neill Wilson. For a number of years after 1896, Peace Party Chapter had the unique privilege of carrying on its membership list the names of two venerable ladies whose fathers saw service in the Revolution.
The Berkshire County Chapter of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution was organized in Pitts- field in 1897; and the charter, for which the application received thirty-one signatures, was granted on June seventh of that year. The first president was Wellington Smith of Lee. Those of his successors whose homes were in Pittsfield were Henry W. Taft, James W. Hull, John M. Stevenson, Allen H. Bagg, Edward T. Slocum, Joseph E. Peirson, and William L. Root.
Efforts of the chapter have resulted in the placing of two important memorial tablets, and in the arrangement of appro- priate dedications of them. On August twentieth, 1908, was unveiled in Lanesborough the bowlder and tablet in honor of Jonathan Smith, the Berkshire farmer whose speech in the con- stitutional convention at Boston in 1788 had so much to do with the acceptance by Massachusetts of the constitution of the United States. The movement to provide the memorial was originated by the Berkshire County Chapter, S. A. R., and the dedicatory exercises were dignified by the participation of the acting governor of the Commonwealth, Eben S. Draper. A stone marker with a bronze inscription was placed by the chapter in 1911 on South Street in Pittsfield on the site of Easton's Tav-
244
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD
ern, where was planned the expedition which captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. The marker was dedicated on July third, 1911; and the exercises were an impressive part of the celebra- tion of the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Pittsfield.
Pittsfield men who had served in the war of 1898 against Spain formed, shortly after the close of the war, a branch of the national organization known as the Regular and Volunteer Army and Navy Union. The local society was named in mem- ory of Franklin W. Manning. It was disbanded in 1914 to be succeeded by the Richard Dowling Camp, No. 35, United Spanish War Veterans. The camp, bearing the name of a Dalton boy who was killed in action in Cuba, has continucd creditably to fulfill its patriotic purpose, joining the Grand Army posts and the Sons of Veterans in public celebrations in honor of the country's flag. Commanders of Dowling Camp have been John B. Mickle, Frank D. Fisher, Frank Kie, and Robert H. Knight.
The city's company of state militia, mustered into the service of the Commonwealth as Co. F, Second Infantry, M. V. M., on June sixth, 1901, was maintained with steadily increasing efficiency, and did not, in this respect, fall behind other units of the military forces of the state. Its headquarters were in the Casino and in the Academy of Music, until its armory on Sum- mer Street was occupied in December, 1908. John Nicholson, the first captain of Co. F, was retired with the rank of major in 1912, and Ambrose Clogher, now captain, was then selected for the command. The lieutenants have been Robert K. Willard, Wellington K. Henry, Ambrose Clogher, Walter E. Warren, Harry F. Sears, Harry Adamson, and Charles H. Ingram.
While these pages were in preparation, Co. F was on duty along the Mexican border, summoned to the service of the nation in June, 1916. The company left Pittsfield, on its way to the mobilization camp of Massachusetts troops, on June twenty- first. This was the first departure, since the days of 1861, of a body of local soldiers on a journey which might lead them to actual war. It was witnessed with pride and with high confi- dence that, whatever the event, the men would sustain the best traditions of the citizen soldiery of Pittsfield.
CHAPTER XVII
INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL
I 1 N respect of the number of people employed, the manufactory of stationery of the Eaton, Crane and Pike Company has been the most important establishment developed in Pitts- field during the last forty years, except the local works of the General Electric Company. The offspring of the Hurlbut Sta- tionery Company, a concern which began operations in Pittsfield in 1893 with less than forty people under employment in factory and office, the Eaton, Crane, and Pike Company in 1915 em- ployed about 1,000 people.
In 1893, Arthur W. Eaton, then president of the Hurlbut Paper Manufacturing Company of South Lee, organized the Hurlbut Stationery Company, in association with William A. Pike of the firm of Hard and Pike, which conducted a modest manufactory of stationery in the city of New York. Pittsfield, rather than South Lee, was finally selected as the headquarters of the enterprise; and the plant of Hard and Pike was removed from New York to the factory on South Church Street, which had been erected in 1883 for the Terry Clock Company, and had for a year been disused. The purchase of this building by Mr. Eaton personally in 1893 probably caused the new industry to be established in Pittsfield. There, in August, 1893, the Hurlbut Stationery Company began its course.
Its infancy was beset not only by nation-wide business de- pression, but also by lack of trained operatives, by the necessity of converting to its uses a shop not intended for them, and by powerful competitors. About 1896, however, the young Pitts- field concern gave many signs of healthful growth. The con- trolling owner was the Hurlbut Paper Manufacturing Company, of South Lee; but the entire property of that corporation was bought by the American Writing Paper Company in 1899, and
246
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD
there was danger that this syndicate would remove the locally valuable industry from the city. The danger was averted by the organization, through the efforts of Arthur W. Eaton, of the Eaton-Hurlbut Paper Company, to which the American Writing Paper Company sold the South Church Street plant in 1899.
The remarkable development of the enterprise thereafter was a salient feature in the industrial aspect of Pittsfield. The erection of three substantial additions in 1901 nearly doubled the employment capacity, increasing it to one of about 450 hands, and this was enlarged repeatedly in the years immediately following. The Eaton-Hurlbut Paper Company soon absorbed the Berkshire Typewriter Paper Company and also the business of Sisson and Robinson, a firm which occupied part of its factory and manufactured its boxes. In 1908 the company announced that arrangements had been effected with the proprietors of the Crane paper mills in Dalton, whereby it was to utilize for its stationery the famous writing paper manufactured by the Messrs. Crane, and to market a product thus made completely in Berk- shire. This alliance caused a reorganization of the Pittsfield corporation; and the corporate name, in March, 1908, was changed to the Eaton, Crane, and Pike Company.
The president of the reorganized company was Arthur W. Eaton, who had served as president of the Eaton-Hurlbut Com- pany during its entire existence. The present officers of the Eaton, Crane, and Pike Company are Arthur W. Eaton, presi- dent; William A. Pike and Charles C. Davis, vice-presidents; and William H. Eaton, secretary and treasurer.
After 1908, added facilities were obtained, by enlargements of the South Church Street shops and by the acquiring of two auxiliary plants nearby, of which one was a veteran mill formerly of L. Pomeroy's Sons. The factories of the company, with an employment capacity of more than 1,000 people, were made cap- able of producing stationery daily to the amount of 60,000 quires of paper and 1,500,000 envelopes. In providing for the safety and well-being of its working force, the company has been a pro- gressive leader among the industrial establishments of New England; and a loyal spirit of co-operation, both in its offices and in its shops, has been not the least effective factor in its
247
INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL
success. The company's market includes not only the United States and Canada, but also South America, Cuba, Mexico, and the Philippine and Hawaiian Islands.
Even wider in geographical extent has been the market de- veloped by the E. D. Jones and Sons Company, whose ma- chinery is used in many of the industrial centers of Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The plant of this company on Mckay Street is a lineal descendant of the small machine shop established there by Gordon Mckay about 1844. In 1872 this was operated by the firm of William Clark and Company, of which Edward D. Jones was a member. A new foundry on Clapp Avenue was built in 1874, when the chief product was beating and washing engines, dusting machines, and mill ele- vators. In 1890 the property was acquired by the partnership of E. D. Jones and Sons Company, which was incorporated in 1893. In the next year, a new machine shop and an addition to the foundry were erected; in 1903, the boiler works of H. S. Russell were purchased, refitted, and made a part of the machine shop; and in 1906 and 1907, the main foundry was entirely re- built. Storage facilities were arranged on land at the corner of Newell and East Streets, and a spur railroad track across East Street connected this storeyard with the main line of the Boston and Albany Railroad, which was connected also with the ma- chine shops by a spur track across Depot Street.
In 1915 the concern employed about 160 people. Its prin- cipal business was the planning and equipment of paper mills, and to its former output had been added rotary pumps, defibering machines, pulpers, and paper-washing, cooking, and refining engines. Edward D. Jones, who laid the foundations of the great prosperity of the company and was its first president, died in 1904, and was succeeded in the presidency by his son, Edward A. Jones.
An unpretentious little brewery, with a daily output of less than six barrels, was conducted on a site near the present corner of South John Street and Columbus Avenue by Michael Benson in 1868, when it was purchased by two energetic young Ger- mans, Jacob Gimlich and John White. In 1880 the partners were able to build a brick cold storage vault, and in 1886 a new malt-
248
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD
house, with a capacity of 30,000 bushels. In 1890 they began the creetion of a large brewhouse, now the center of an establish- ment with a yearly capacity output of about 75,000 barrels, em- ploying about sixty hands, and shipping its produet to Vermont, Connecticut, New York, and North and South Carolina, besides Western Massachusetts. The growth of few other contempora- neous Pittsfield industries has been so rapid and so sound, for improvements of manufacturing methods, especially in the bottling department, have been introduced unsparingly. The brewery is the only one within a radius of fifty miles.
The partnership of Gimlich and White was incorporated in 1892, under the name of the Berkshire Brewing Association. The first president was Jacob Gimlich, who held the office until his death in 1912 and was then succeeded by John White. The present officers are John White, president, David J. Gimlich, vice-president, John A. White, secretary, and George H. White, treasurer.
Between 1880 and 1890, the manufacture of shoes was of a local importance second only to that of textile manufacturing. The shoe factory of Robbins and Kellogg on Fourth Street gave employment to about 450 hands in 1884, and the outlay for wages was larger than that of any other factory in the town. This firm began business in 1870, and was succeeded by the O. W. Robbins Shoe Company, incorporated in 1892. Shortly after 1900 the company was discontinued. Farrell and May began the manufacture of shoes in 1888, in the building of the Kellogg Steam Power Company. The Cheshire Shoe Company in 1889 was induced by the public-spirited investment of local capital to establish a shop in Pittsfield. The shop was purchased in 1902 by the Zimmerman Shoe Company and in 1905 by the Eaton- Hurlbut Paper Company. The Mills Shoe Company and the Holman-Page Shoe Company were in operation in the city be- tween 1900 and 1910; but shoe manufacturing has since lost the prominent place which it once occupied among the industries of the city.
Tack manufacturing was carried on from 1875 to 1889 by the Pittsfield Tack Company, at first in the building of the Kel- logg Steam Power Company and after 1883 in that of the Terry
249
INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL
Clock Company on South Church Street. This tack manufac- tory was discontinued in September, 1889, and was succeeded by that of the Berkshire Tack Company, of which Walter Cut- ting was president and which had its shop in the Kellogg Steam Power building and afterward on Pearl Street. Operations were finally suspended in 1901.
Another of the many tenants of the Kellogg Steam Power building was the Saunders Silk Company. This corporation failed in 1876. Two years later, S. K. Smith, who had been the foreman for the Saunders Company, formed a partnership with William B. and Arthur H. Rice, and the new firm in 1878 began the manufacture of silk thread in a small shop on the corner of Robbins Avenue and Linden Street, where thirty people were employed. In 1880, silk braid, then of rare manufacture in the United States, was added to the output.
The Messrs. Rice in 1884 acquired the interest of their part- ner, organized the new firm of A. H. Rice and Company, and continued the business in the original quarters until 1886, when they moved the manufactory to a building at the corner of Burbank and Spring Streets, formerly used as a woolen mill by Farnham and Lathers. In the meantime, A. H. Rice and Com- pany had commenced the manufacture of mohair braid; and in 1893 they purchased the mohair braid plant of the Barnes Man- ufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, and installed the equipment of this plant in Pittsfield in 1894. The complicated machinery had been made in Germany and required specially trained operatives.
The subsequent growth of the business of A. H. Rice and Company was so considerable as to compel the enlargement of the Burbank Street factory in 1896 by the erection of new build- ings. At present about 250 people are normally employed. The product includes silk threads of all kinds, and braids of silk and mohair. Elaborate machines for making fancy, as dis- tinguished from binding, braids were first added to the plant in 1900, and equipment of this sort has been so developed that the factory has few counterparts in the country.
The firm was incorporated in July, 1905, under the name of the A. H. Rice Company, and Arthur H. Rice has continued to be the president since the formation of the corporation.
250
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD
Limitations of space and plan prohibit the description herc of many non-textile manufactories which assisted in promoting local prosperity. The most ambitious of them was the manu- factory of motor trucks, conducted by Alden Sampson in 1905 in a well-constructed building on the site of the satinct mill of L. Pomcroy's Sons. In 1910 the plant was sold, and in 1911 the fine equipment was removed to Detroit. The Berkshire Auto- mobile Company, in 1904, and the Stilson Motor Car Company, in 1907, also began the manufacture of motor vehicles, which is no longer carried on in the city.
Among minor industries, that of longest standing has been the tannery of Owen Coogan and Sons, purchased by Mr. Coogan in 1849 and occupying a site, near the Elm Street bridge, where a tannery had been in operation as early as 1798. Of far more recent birth are the Berkshire Manufacturing Company, making men's garments and succeeding the Berkshire Overall Company, incorporated in 1881; the Jacobson and Brandow Company, manufacturing automobile parts and developed in 1908; and the Tel-Electric Piano Player Company, manufacturing a me- chanical piano player devised by a Pittsfield inventor, John F. Kelly. Some of the enterprises discontinued have been those of the Sprague-Brimmer Company, which began in 1880 to employ about one hundred hands in the manufacture of shirts; the W. C. Stevenson Manufacturing Company, organized in 1884 to make weaving shuttles and reeds; and the Triumph Voting Machine Company, which began operation in 1904 and of which the plant was removed ten years later to Jamestown, New York.
Three names-Stearns, Pomeroy, and Barker-that had been prominent in the history of Pittsfield textile manufacturing for nearly half a century ceased to be connected with it soon after 1876. In 1881 was announced the failure of the D. and H. Stearns Company. This concern then owned only one woolen mill in the southwestern part of the town, where formerly it had conducted five factorics. Creditors carried on this mill for a few years thereafter, but in 1889 the mechanical equipment was sold to the firm of Petherbridge and Purnell, who then operated the factory at Bel Air.
251
INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL
Theodore Pomeroy, who died in 1881, left his mill property on the west branch of the Housatonic to be managed by trustees until his younger son should come of age. The trustees fell into dissension, and the mills into adversity. After 1893, the Pom- eroy Woolen Company had some measure of success with the factories, but the enterprise was short-lived; and the plant was rented in 1898 and afterwards purchased by Helliwell and Company, manufacturers of broadcloth. Having been dis- mantled in 1912, it finally passed into the possession of the Eaton, Crane, and Pike Company. The "old satinet mill" of L. Pomeroy's Sons was razed in 1904.
The long-maintained prosperity of the woolen mills of J. Barker and Brothers at Barkerville began to languish at the time of the fire which consumed one of the factories in 1879. In 1885 the owners of the property were incorporated as the J. Barker and Brothers Manufacturing Company, and the pro- duct of the plant was cotton and woolen warp, and dress goods. Efforts to revive the industry did not succeed, and they were discontinued by the company about 1890. Soon afterward, the mills, which had once caused Barkerville to be a busy factory village, became idle, were dismantled, and, with a single excep- tion, disappeared.
Of the three brothers, after whom the village was named, Charles T. Barker was born in Cheshire in 1809 and died at Pittsfield in April, 1884; and Otis R. Barker was born in Moriah, New York, in 1811 and died at Pittsfield, October eighteenth, 1904. The senior partner, John V. Barker, was born in Cheshire, March fourteenth, 1807, and died at Pittsfield, January sixth, 1896.
John Vandenburgh Barker was a conspicuous power in busi- ness and public life. He began his career as a Pittsfield manu- facturer in 1832, when, with his brother, he bought the woolen mill built in 1811 by Daniel Stearns in the southwestern part of the town. In 1865 the brothers Barker purchased most of the mill property of D. and H. Stearns, and in 1870 they built a new factory. John V. Barker was identified with the beginnings of the Pittsfield Bank and of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company. His integrity was flawless and his judgment was deliberate and
252
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.