USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from the year 1876 to the year 1916 > Part 23
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sound. In 1849, 1862, and 1867 he represented the town in the General Court, where he instituted valuable reforms in railroad legislation. The final years of his life were shadowed by business reverses, but warmed by the gratitude and respect of those able to remember how much his success and industry had contributed to the welfare of the town.
The cotton factory, erected in 1832 a short distance south of the Elm Street bridge and near the site of the first mill dam built in the town, was owned in 1876 by Martin Van Sickler. He died in 1891, having long outlived his once prosperous enter- prise. Since 1884 the veteran building has been occasionally occupied by miscellaneous industrial concerns.
On Wahconah Street, the woolen mill of the Bel Air Manu- facturing Company, which failed in 1884, was operated after that year by James O. Purnell and W. T. Petherbridge, under the company's trustee. The output was fancy cassimeres. In 1890 the factory was shut down, Messrs. Purnell and Pether- bridge having commenced the business of making yarn on Brown Street, under the name of the Pittsfield Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1887. The Bel Air mill stood idle until it was rented and, in 1904, purchased by James and E. H. Wilson, who used it as auxiliary to their factory next north of it on the stream.
The two factories of Jabez L. Peck on Onota Brook, the upper mill producing flannel and the lower producing cotton warp, continued in successful operation after 1876 under Mr. Peck's direction and after 1890 under that of the J. L. and T. D. Peck Manufacturing Company. Jabez L. Peck died in 1895, and his son, Thomas D. Peck, succeeded him in the presidency of the company. Ralph D. Gillett of Westfield became president and treasurer in 1909. Meanwhile, the output of both mills had included cotton warps, cassimeres, and thread. In 1910 the company ceased to be active, and the factories were closed.
The Berkshire Woolen and Worsted Company was organized in 1910, and took possession of the upper mill on Onota Brook, formerly the property of the J. L. and T. D. Peck Manufacturing Company. In 1911 this plant was enlarged, improved, and equipped with new buildings and machinery by the Berkshire
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Woolen and Worsted Company at an expenditure of about $150,000. The product was fancy cassimeres, and during the early period of the great European war army cloths for use abroad were profitably manufactured. The number of hands employed was approximately 450 in 1915. The enterprise possessed the aggressive vigor of youth, and was a material accession to the city's industries.
The first president of the Berkshire Woolen and Worsted Company was Ralph D. Gillett of Westfield. He was succeeded, after his death on October fourteenth, 1913, by Edgar L. Gillett. A few years ago, the corporate name was altered to the Berkshire Woolen Company. The present general manager, James R. Savery, has served the company in that capacity since its in- corporation.
Passing now from the youngest to the oldest of Pittsfield's textile mills, we find that in 1876 the principal product of the factory of the historic Pontoosuc Woolen Manufacturing Com- pany was blankets, with which for several years the company supplied the Pullman sleeping cars. But the policy of the Pon- toosuc company, since its factory first went into operation in 1827, has been to change its output in order to take advantage of varying markets. The product at present is woolen cloth for men's and women's garments. Improvements in the plant since 1876 have included a new main weave shed, a new card and spinning room, a new boiler house, and almost a complete re-equipment of machinery. The persons under employment now number about 450. Military cloths for foreign armies have recently been produced at the mill in large quantities. A main- stay of Pittsfield industrial life uninterruptedly for nearly ninety years, the Pontoosuc Woolen Manufacturing Company was in 1876 under the presidency of Ensign H. Kellogg, chosen to that office in 1861. Mr. Kellogg was succeeded in 1882 by Thaddeus Clapp, in 1891 by William R. Plunkett, in 1903 by David Campbell, and in 1911 by Henry A. Francis, who is now the president.
Thaddeus Clapp, who served the company either as general agent, superintendent, or president for twenty-five years, was born in Pittsfield in 1827 and died there, November fifth, 1890.
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His father, Col. Thaddeus Clapp, had been factory manager at Pontoosuc from 1827 to 1860. Mr. Clapp was a bustling, cos- mopolitan man, who traveled extensively on business missions, and whose observant inind was the means of conveying to Pittsfield many progressive notions about other than industrial matters and of thus broadening the social horizon of the town.
Another important officer of the company during the same period was J. Dwight Francis, who purchased an interest in the concern in 1864 and acted as assistant superintendent or super- intendent from that year until his death, on September ninth, 1886. Mr. Francis was born in Pittsfield in 1837. His an- cestors were some of the vigorous settlers of the "West Part" of the town; and he was an energetic, industrious citizen, es- pecially popular among the people employed at Pontoosuc.
The woolen mill erected near Onota Brook in 1863 by the firm of S. N. and C. Russell was conducted in 1876 by a firm bearing the same name, of which the managing partners were Solomon N. Russell and his brother Zeno. The latter died in 1881. In 1886 the S. N. and C. Russell Manufacturing Company was organized, Solomon N. Russell being the first president. A new weave shed had been built in 1880; and at this period the product was chiefly union cassimeres. The company built a new boiler house in 1893, an addition to the finishing and spin- ning rooms in 1900 and one to the weave shed in 1910, and a new shipping room in 1915. The plant, constantly and pro- gressively improved, now employs about 250 hands, and the output is piece-dye woolens, kerseys, broadcloths, and thibets. The continuity of successful operation maintained at this manu- factory has been remarkable, and it has been also distinguished by continuity of employment and control. Among those on the pay roll in 1916 were eleven men whose years of continuous service in the mill collectively numbered 296. Solomon N. Russell was followed in the presidency by his brother, Franklin W. Russell, in 1899; and Henry R. Russell, now the president, succeeded Franklin W. Russell in 1908.
Solomon Nash Russell, to whom the company owed its sound establishment, was born in Conway, Massachusetts, in 1822, and came to Pittsfield with his father, Solomon Lincoln
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Russell, in 1827. In 1845, with his brother Charles as a partner, he converted a little tool shop on Onota Brook into a manufac- tory of cotton batting, and there began a business career which culminated in the success of the S. N. and C. Russell Manufac- turing Company. On February sixteenth, 1899, he died at Pittsfield.
Mr. Russell accepted many opportunities of adding to the general prosperity of the town. In partnership with E. D. Jones, he greatly improved North Street by the erection of Central Block, and he stimulated local industry by providing a shop for the once-important Terry Clock Company. He was a sagacious and respected member of the board of selectmen. Benevolent and liberal-minded, he promoted generously the foundation of Pilgrim Memorial Church, and he was a powerful supporter of the House of Mercy, which by his will came into ownership of the spacious tract of land where stands its present hospital on North Street.
Although undemonstrative and a user of few words, he was warm in friendship, and of this fact his mill hands were no less conscious than were the leading citizens of Pittsfield. For half a century, most of the people of the factory village which bears his name depended upon him not only for employment but also for private counsel. This he gave willingly, but not lightly, for he reached his decisions, as he had attained his success, with patience and caution. Like his father, he had a broad notion of the duties of citizenship, and he was content neither to shirk them, nor to condone the shirking of them by others.
After the suspension of operations at the woolen mill of the Taconic Manufacturing Company in 1873, its factory, which had been built in 1856 on the site of Lemuel Pomeroy's musket shop, remained idle until 1880. It was then leased and operated by James Wilson of Pittsfield and Michael Glennon of Dalton, who manufactured union cassimeres and employed about 125 hands. In 1886 Mr. Glennon was succeeded in the partnership by Arthur Horton of New York. The firm of Wilson and Hor- ton discontinued business at the mill in 1898. The partnership of James and E. H. Wilson put the factory again in operation in 1900; and it has since been steadily busy. The number of
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persons now employed is 600. The output is woolen and woolen- and-worsted cloth for garments, the annual production being approximately 1,000,000 yards. From October, 1914, to De- cember, 1915, the concern manufactured about 125,000 military blankets and 750,000 yards of uniform cloth for some of the European armies. In 1904 the plant was greatly enlarged by the construction of a spacious addition to the Taconic mill and by the purchase of the Bel Air factory, a short distance south of it. The Bel Air building was then repaired and refitted by the Messrs. Wilson, and utilized as an auxiliary plant.
The former Osceola woolen mill in southwestern Pittsfield, making union cassimeres, was operated in 1876 by the firm of Tillotson and Collins. Of this firm, Dwight M. Collins was the junior member; while the controlling interest, bequeathed to his brothers by Otis L. Tillotson, was represented by William E. Tillotson. Mr. Collins soon afterward retired from the partnership, wherein he was succeeded, in 1882, by John T. Power, who died in 1890. Mr. Tillotson conducted the mill as an independent concern until 1901, when it became a part of the property of the W. E. Tillotson Manufacturing Company, organized in that year. Its product, in 1915, was fancy worsteds for men's wear. As an auxiliary to this factory, Mr. Tillotson in 1889 built and began to operate a mill for the manufacture of worsted goods on Fourth Street, near Silver Lake, which has since been several times enlarged.
In 1882 Dwight M. Collins established a small knitting shop in Central Block on North Street. William E. Tillotson and John T. Power each had an interest in the concern, which was later incorporated under the name of D. M. Collins and Company. The product was knitted underwear. The enter- prise thrived, and in 1890 the plant was removed to buildings erected for it near Silver Lake. There the rapid expansion of the business of D. M. Collins and Company caused additions to the knitting shops and the employment of several hundred hands.
In 1901 the W. E. Tillotson Manufacturing Company was incorporated, which consolidated the manufacturing interests of Mr. Tillotson and of D. M. Collins and Company. The result
THE HOUSE OF MERCY
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of the amalgamation was increased activity, in both the weaving and the knitting branches of the business, which gave employ- ment to approximately 800 persons in 1915. The Silver Lake plant had been so developed that it was the largest textile manufactory in the city; and, of the two main shops, one was 450, and the other, with a height of three stories, was 200 feet in length. Louis Hollingworth, now the president and general manager of the company, succeeded in those offices William E. Tillotson, who died in 1906.
Mr. Tillotson strengthened and expanded the industrial prosperity of the city more effectually than did any other in- dividual textile manufacturer during the quarter-century follow- ing 1890. He was born in Granville, Massachusetts, November sixteenth, 1842; and he first came to Pittsfield, a poor boy, about 1852. He was in Chicago, engaged in the business of a stove dealer, from 1867 to 1873. In the latter year he returned to Pittsfield to take charge of the Tillotson interest in the Osceola mill. His success with that factory and with the shops which he established near Silver Lake has been herein narrated. That success was peculiarly gratifying to local pride and in a sense reassuring at a time when the absorbent growth of the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company and the likelihood of the removal of its shops from Pittsfield caused apprehensive citizens to believe that it was important to diversify local indsutries.
William E. Tillotson was both shrewd and bold, at once an assiduous worker and a courageous investor, and he amassed a large fortune. Taciturn and reserved, he was quick and positive in decision and action, nor were his decisions and actions de- termined by anybody else. Men often found behind his brisk, sharp demeanor the heart of a tolerant and helpful friend, stanch in foul as in fair weather; and his intimates were aware of a genial, quaint humor which warmed his machine-like faculty of accomplishment. His death occurred at Pittsfield, Novem- ber thirtieth, 1906. He was unmarried and he died intestate; his heirs gave abundant practical expression to the community of his charitable and public-spirited impulses.
Dwight M. Collins, long-time a business associate of Mr. Tillotson, was born at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1835 and
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died at Pittsfield, January twenty-ninth, 1912. He joined the ranks of local manufacturers in 1865. He was a quiet, reflective man of high principles, who made a careful study of his business, but did not allow it to engross him. From 1901 until 1907 he was vice-president of the W. E. Tillotson Manufacturing Com- pany.
In 1882 the superintendent of the knitting shop of D. M. Collins and Company was John H. Musgrove, and in 1895 Mr. Musgrove began to operate a similar establishment in the Noble block on West Street, employing fifteen hands. In 1905 the Musgrove Knitting Company, of which the presidents since its organization have been Joseph H. Wood and Michael Casey, moved this plant to the former Kellogg Steam Power building on Curtis Street. There the knitting company, manufacturing cotton underwear, now employs about 165 people and has an annual product of approximately 100,000 dozen.
In 1876 the annual output at the works of the Pittsfield Coal Gas Company on Water Street was 387,000 feet of gas, supplied to consumers through 418 meters. In 1915 the number of meters was 9,145, and the year's product of gas at the company's works on lower East Street was 209,142,000 feet. Most of this large increase was gained after 1900, and was due to the growing use of gas for fuel. Land was purchased by the company on lower East Street in 1901, and the new works first supplied gas in January, 1902. The chief officers of the company in 1876 were Robert W. Adam, president, and William R. Plunkett, treasurer. Upon the death of Mr. Plunkett in 1903, H. A. Dunbar, the present treasurer, assumed office. William L. Adam, now the president, succeeded Robert W. Adam in 1911. The present manager is H. C. Crafts, under whose direction the recent notable expansion of the business of the company has been effected.
The first concern in the town to supply light by means of electricity was the Pittsfield Electric Light Company, incor- porated in 1883 under the laws of the state of Maine. The officers were Alexander Kennedy, president, and Charles E. Merrill, treasurer and general manager. In 1885 the company relinquished its Maine charter and was reincorporated in Massa-
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chusetts. The Brush arc lamp was then the only electric light- ing device in local use, and the company supplied current from a central station in Merrill's woodworking shop on North Street. Another electric lighting concern, called the Pittsfield Illuminat- ing Company, was organized in 1887, under the presidency of William Stanley of Great Barrington. This company had its power plant in the shop of Robbins and Gamwell on West Street and introduced the Edison incandescent lamp. The companies soon became allied, and in 1890 they were formally united in the Pittsfield Electric Company, which was incorporated in that year and purchased all the stock of the two pioneer com- panies. Alexander Kennedy, at present serving as president of the Pittsfield Electric Company, has continuously held that office since the incorporation of the concern. William A. Whittle- sey was treasurer and general manager until his death in 1906. Mr. Kennedy then became treasurer, and the duties of general manager were assumed by Mr. Whittlesey's son, William A. Whittlesey, 2nd, who now performs them.
The central station in 1890 was in the building erected for the purpose by Mr. Whittlesey, at the corner of Eagle Street and Renne Avenue, and this building is still so utilized. An auxiliary power station near Silver Lake was built by the com- pany in 1906, and was enlarged two years later. The original power capacity of the company's plant in 1890 was 500 horse- power, and this had been increased in 1915 to an aggregate horse-power of 3,800, in the main and auxiliary stations. In other respects, too, the company has improved its equipment, keeping pace with that remarkable development of electrical apparatus in the United States which has been appreciated by few communities so thoroughly as by the community of Pittsfield,
The growth of local prosperity since 1876 is well-indicated by a comparison of the aggregate deposits in the local banks. The town had two national banks in 1876-the Agricultural and the Pittsfield. The amount on deposit in these banks was $623,677.10, on January first, 1876. The Third National Bank was chartered in 1881, and the Berkshire Loan and Trust Com- pany in 1895; and on January first, 1915, the aggregate de- posits in those two institutions and in the Agricultural and the
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Pittsfield National Banks were $5,012,568.02. The town's only savings bank in 1876 was the Berkshire County, which, on January first of that year, had deposits of $1,920,083 and 5,620 depositors. The City Savings Bank having been chartered in 1893, the aggregate deposits in Pittsfield's two savings banks were $10,720,133 on January first, 1915, and the total number of depositors was 29,582.
Chartered as a state bank in 1818, the Agricultural National Bank in 1876 was under the presidency of Ensign H. Kellogg, who served until his death in 1882. He was then succeeded by John R. Warriner. Mr. Warriner was a native of Pittsfield, where he was born in 1827. Having been employed by banks in Springfield and Holyoke, he became cashier of the Agricultural Bank in 1853, and remained with that institution until he died, on June nineteenth, 1889. He was a painstaking, sagacious man, implicitly trusted and greatly respected, and his services for thirty-five years as cashier and president of the bank were of sound value not only to the institution but to the entire com- munity. Mr. Warriner's brother, James L. Warriner, was presi- dent of the Agricultural National Bank from 1889 to 1898, and W. Murray Crane of Dalton from 1898 to 1904. Irving D. Ferrcy, now the president, succeeded Mr. Crane in 1904, having been uninterruptedly in the bank's service since 1862. John R. Warriner was followed as cashier by Mr. Ferrcy in 1882; and Frank W. Dutton, the present cashier, was chosen to the office in 1904.
In 1876, the banking rooms of the Agricultural were those now occupied by the Third National, on the ground floor of the building of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company, north of the main entrance. The erection of the handsome white marble structure on the east side of North Street, between Fenn and Dunham Streets, which is at present occupied in part by the Agricultural, was begun by the bank in June, 1908, and finished in October, 1909. The architects were Messrs. Mowbray and Uffinger of New York; and the result of their labors and of those of the bank's building committee was a notable contribution to the beauty of the business center of the city. The cost of the building was $250,000.
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For forty-seven years the Pittsfield National Bank has oc- cupied the same banking rooms, which have, however, been re- modeled and greatly enlarged. In 1876, the president was Julius Rockwell of Lenox, who had been elected in 1858 and who served until his death in 1888. Born in Colebrook, Connecticut, in 1805, he became a resident of Pittsfield in 1830, and in 1865 removed his home to Lenox. There he died, May nineteenth, 1888, and in the history of that town, as well as in Smith's "History of Pittsfield", may be found the honorable record of the high distinction which he achieved as a citizen, a lawyer, a legislator at Boston and Washington, and a magistrate of the Superior Court of Massachusetts.
Judge Rockwell's successor in the presidency of the Pittsfield National Bank was Zenas Crane of Dalton, who held the office until 1892 and who was followed by Andrew J. Waterman. James Wilson became president of the bank in 1897, William W. Gamwell in 1899, and George H. Tucker, now the president, be- gan to serve in 1907. Edward S. Francis, the cashier in 1876, was succeeded in 1893 by Henry A. Brewster. In 1902 George H. Tucker was chosen to the office; and the present cashier, Edson Bonney, was elected in 1907.
Incorporated in 1881, the Third National Bank had Henry W. Taft for its first president. Ralph B. Bardwell, now the president, succeeded Mr. Taft in 1904. Upon the original board of directors were Solomon N. Russell, Byron Weston, John T. Power, Edward D. Jones, J. Dwight Francis, Charles W. Kellogg, and William H. Hall. The first cashier was Ralph B. Bardwell, who was followed in 1905 by the present cashier, William H. Perkins. The Third National occupied rooms in the southwestern part of the first story of the Berkshire Life building until 1910. The bank was then removed to its present rooms on North Street in the same building, on the north side of the ground floor.
The Berkshire Loan and Trust Company was incorporated in 1895, and began business in the quarters which it occupies at present, in the north part of the ground story of the building of the Berkshire County Savings Bank. The original directors were Franklin K. Paddock, DeWitt Bruce, Charles Atwater,
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A. A. Mills, W. H. Sloan, Henry Colt, Jacob Gimlich, C. C. Gamwell, P. H. Dolan, George W. Bailcy, George K. Baird, Charles E. Hibbard, Benjamin M. England, T. N. Enright, and Charles W. Kellogg. The first president was Franklin K. Pad- dock. Charles W. Kellogg succeeded to the presidency in 1898, and was followed in 1907 by Charles E. Hibbard, who is now in office. Charles W. Kellogg was the first treasurer, and Charles W. Scager, the present treasurer, followed Mr. Kellogg in 1898.
In 1876, the banking rooms of the Berkshire County Savings Bank were on the north side of the second floor of the building of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company. The bank in 1894 began the erection of its building on the corner of Park Square and North Street, and occupied the south part of the ground story of the new building in the following year. The architect was Francis R. Allen of Boston.
Julius Rockwell, president of the Berkshire County Savings Bank in 1876, had been elected to that office in 1863, and was followed in 1888 by John R. Warriner. Mr. Warriner's successor was Joseph Tucker, who was chosen president in 1889; and Arthur H. Rice, now at the head of the institution, followed Judge Tucker in 1908. Incorporated in 1846, the bank had for a period of sixty-five years only two treasurers. Robert W. Adam, elected treasurer in 1865, succeeded the first treasurer, James Warriner; and Mr. Adam retained the position until his death in 1911. He was followed in the treasurership by his son, William L. Adam, who is at present in office.
The City Savings Bank was chartered in 1893, when the officers were Francis W. Rockwell, president; Hiram B. Welling- ton, treasurer; and A. J. Waterman, A. W. Eaton, O. W. Rob- bins, W. M. Mercer, John S. Wolfe, A. A. Mills, Jacob Gimlich, W. F. Gale, Henry R. Peirson, Richard A. Burget, and Benjamin M. England, trustees. On June first, 1893, the bank began business in part of a store in a block at North and Summer Streets, where the banking rooms originally occupied a floor space of eight by twenty-five feet, and in 1899 the institution moved its quarters to the corner of North Street and Eagle Square. In 1906 the City Savings Bank bought the block at the north corner of North and Fenn Streets, and two years later remodeled
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that building, wherein its present banking rooms on the ground floor were occupied by the institution in February, 1908. Francis W. Rockwell has continued to serve as president of the bank since incorporation. In 1913 Hiram B. Wellington was suc- ceeded as treasurer by H. Calvin Ford, who is now in office.
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