USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westborough > The history of Westborough, Massachusetts. Part I. The early history. By Heman Packard De Forest. Part II. The later history. By Edward Craig Bates > Part 26
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The Westborough Milk Company, which was organ- ized about 1840 by John A. Fayerweather, George Denny, Abijah Wood, Elmer Brigham, and Col. Josiah Brigham, did a large business. For twenty-five years, S. Deane Fisher was its agent in Westborough. About 1852, the company's business passed into the hands of George O. Brigham, who had been its Boston agent, and Daniel and Stephen F. Forbush. It was afterwards divided, and was eventually absorbed by C. Brigham & Co. The Boston Milk Company, which was formed soon after the Westborough Company, was composed of some half- dozen Boston milk-dealers, who had separate routes, but combined in bringing their milk to the city. Another
Elmer Brigham
353
AGRICULTURE.
company was the Milk Producers' Association, which was organized in 1865 by farmers who were dissatisfied with the contractors' prices. For a few years it did considera- ble business. In 1866 it built the "Old Cheese Factory," as it was formerly called, now occupied by George E. Fitch & Co. for a beef refrigerator, and for a short time used its surplus milk for making butter and cheese. The enterprise was on a co-operative plan. It failed to be profitable, and in 1873 came to an end.
The milk business, so far as Westborough is concerned, is now almost exclusively in the hands of C. Brigham & Co., though other dealers take a small quantity. This concern, which has the largest milk business of any com- pany in the world, amounting to more than a million dollars per year, was organized in 1859 by Cyrus Brig- ham, a native of Westborough, and Whittemore Rowell, for many years a resident. One car-load of milk per day was at first sufficient for their business; but it has now become so extensive, that the firm receives eight car-loads each day, amounting to ten thousand cans. About seven hundred cans are sent from Westborough. This quantity of milk, however, is not all provided by local dairies, for routes from Shrewsbury, Grafton, Upton, and Hopkinton help to fill the Westborough car. The greatest quantity of milk was sent about ten years ago, before Northborough had a separate car for producers in that section. Twenty- five hundred cans per day were then frequently supplied. The present daily supply, amounting to about seven hun- dred and fifty cans, comes from one hundred and fifty dairies, which contribute from one to thirty cans each. The contractors now take, at a somewhat lower price than when the supply was limited, all the milk which the farmers produce, using the surplus for butter and cheese.
354
LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
In the method of shipment and of distribution, too, the business has greatly changed during the last few years, and it is now managed on a systematic plan, in striking contrast with the old methods. The contractors insist upon a good quality of milk, condemning such as after a careful analysis falls below a certain standard. The prices vary from twenty-one to twenty-five cents per can in summer, and from twenty-seven to thirty-five cents in winter. For the past season the average has been twenty- seven cents per can. In years gone by, the prices have fluctuated considerably, at one time, about 1840, being as low as sixteen cents per can, and at another time as high as fifty cents. The farmers have often found fault with the prices offered, and have tried other ways for disposing of their milk. In 1885 they formed the Westborough Creamery Association, having a capital of $5,000, and two hundred and twelve stockholders, and erected the creamery on Fisher Street; but the venture proved un- profitable, and the farmers are once more sending the usual amount of milk to the Boston market.
At the conclusion of this review of the agricultural in- terests of Westborough, it is interesting to note that the town, ranking sixty-fourth in population, stands fiftieth among the towns and cities of Massachusetts in the value of agricultural products. It is situated in a fertile part of Worcester County, which rivals Champlain in Illinois and Lancaster in Pennsylvania as the leading agricul- tural county in the United States. With a population of 244,039, farm property amounting to $39,353,725, and 847,280 acres devoted to agriculture, its fifty-seven towns, in 1885, raised agricultural products to the value of $9,385,744, the proportion of products to property being 23.85 per centum.
355
MANUFACTURES.
The position of Westborough in the county appears in the following table, which shows the relative standing, according to the census of 1885, of the ten leading agricultural towns and cities : -
Population.
Cultivated land, acres.
Total agri- cultural products.
Total agricul- tural property.
Percentage of products of property.
Worcester,
68,389
7,114
620,756
2,677,579
23.15
Fitchburg
15,375
3,676
294,558
1,304,227
22.58
Barre,
2,093
6,398
289,738
1,016,642
28.50
Charlton,
1,823
6,189
265,657
1,096,400
24.23
Sterling,
1,33I
4,632
229,860
1,010,065
22.76
Harvard,
1,184
4,807
229,533
1,143,001
20.08
Southborough,
2,100
3,375
220,904
1,053,959
20.96
Westborough,
4,880
4,205
218,508
835,666
26.15
Grafton,
4,498
4,267
218,022
882,985
24.69
Spencer,
8,247
4,463
215,658
928,635
23.22
The agricultural interests of Westborough, as regards both the number of persons employed and the value of products, long since yielded the first place to manufac- tures. The latter had established a foothold early in the present century. During the Revolutionary War Eli Whitney, who afterward achieved renown by inventing the cotton-gin, did a small but profitable business making nails; and even earlier than this, Gardner Parker, of " Par- ker's Folly " fame, was making clocks. About 1815 a man named Corbett, who lived in the southern part of the town, near the present residence of James A. Parker, began to make axes. Lawson Harrington, who succeeded him in 1831, continued the business until 1865. At Piccadilly Joshua Mellen and his son, Joshua N. Mellen, during the early part of the century carried on a similar occupation, - making hoes, axes, and scythe-snares. A brass-worker, Ezra Winslow by name, some sixty years ago made and repaired brass clocks in a little shop on Mount Pleasant.
356
LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
Sleigh-making, which furnished work to carpenters and blacksmiths during the dull winter seasons, was an early occupation. The tanning of hides was a former industry. Isaac Davis, before the memory of men now living, had a tannery in the meadow south of Bela J. Stone's residence on the Northborough road. Another tannery, near the Witherby place, on West Main Street, was carried on by Jonas A. Stone from 1826 to 1854. The currying of leather also became an important business. From 1849 to 1874 Austin Underwood had a currier's shop in the rear of Memorial Cemetery ; but this industry, like tanning, has now disappeared. About 1830-to go back a little- Nathan A. Fisher started a small and short-lived thread- factory at Wessonville, where steam-power was used for the first time in Westborough. Between 1833 and 1840 Tris- tram Libby, with two assistants, made piano movements, in Horatio Warren's old sleigh-shop on South Street, for Timothy Gilbert, of Boston, a somewhat famous manu- facturer. There were a few other small manufacturing ventures during the period at which we have glanced, but those already mentioned illustrate their nature and scope.
The earliest event of much importance in the industrial development of Westborough was in 1828, when J. B. Kimball & Co. began to manufacture boots and shoes in a little shop near the residence of the late James M. Kim- ball on West Main Street. In 1832 they made goods to the value of $25,000; and Jonas Stone, who was the sec- ond to enter the business, did nearly half as much. Five years later, when the first statistics of industry were com- piled, the manufacturing interests of Westborough made a creditable showing. The making of boots and shoes employed four hundred persons, and the value of goods produced was $148,774.40. Leather was tanned to the
357
STATISTICS OF MANUFACTURES.
value of $7,800. Three men were employed in making twenty-nine hundred and forty axes, which were valued at $2,870. Sleighs worth $3,840 were the result of ten men's labors. The other manufactured products reported were twelve hundred straw hats, valued at $2,800; chairs and cabinet-ware, valued at $1,500; bricks, valued at $1,160; harnesses, valued at $517; and forty ploughs, valued at $275. This was in 1837. The growth of the leading in- dustries from that year to 1885 is shown by the following table : -
STATISTICS OF MANUFACTURES.
1837
1845
1855
1865
1875
1885
Boots and shoes,
pairs ..
140,748
140,820
597,000
357,000
Value
$148,774 $84 699 $421,000 $450,683
Men employed .
360
200
400
286
$871,014 481
355
Women
214
75
100
58
74
45
Capital invested
$40,000
$150,000
$201,560
Straw goods (hats
and bonnets)
....
1,200
3,000
....
42,300
Value
$2,800
$1,500
...
17
146
197
Women
....
20
....
262
278
398
Capital invested
....
....
$4,700
$337,000
Wagons & sleighs,
Value
$3,840 $13,222
$15,000
$28,250
$73.900
Men employed ..
IO
I5
20
22
24
35
Capital invested
$3,000
$1,000
$3,000
$17,775
$48,150
Hides, tanned and
curried
3,300
2,300
17,245 $77,000
...
....
Value of leather
$7,800
$4,925 $129,000
3
27
20
....
$800
$500
$2,500
$8,000
....
Men employed. . Capital invested
3
2
....
$34,000 $1,112,020 $1,013,212
Men employed
...
$585,600
...
The manufacture of boots and shoes has undergone great changes since J. B. Kimball & Co. started their little shop. The first step toward the modern industry had been taken in 1818, when Joseph Walker, a Hopkinton
....
358
LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
man, invented the process of pegging, instead of sewing, bottoms; but for many years afterward all the work continued to be done by hand, and the processes were slow and toilsome. The cutting, crimping, and treeing employed the few men in the shop; the bottoming, siding, and binding gave employment to many men and women outside. The small, narrow shops, still standing near many of the older farm-houses, are relics of the time when machinery was little used, and work was taken out by "teams." But the introduction of machinery, in nearly every department of the business, has now brought all the processes of manufacture under one roof.
J. B. Kimball & Co. were among the first in adopting the new methods; but in spite of constant improvements in machinery, their facilities failed to keep pace with the growing demand for their goods. Remaining but a short time in their original shop, they moved to another on the Witherby place, nearer the village, and soon afterward built a shop nearly opposite the Blake place. In 1836 their quarters had again become too small for their increasing business, and they erected a brick building, now known as Cobb's Block, at the corner of Main and Milk Streets. Here they continued to manufacture until 1860, when the present Kimball factory -which had been erected in 1848, and used for a box-factory by George Denny, and afterward for a chair-factory by R. G. Holmes - was fitted up for their use. In 1866 the building connected with the "old steam-mill " was erected, and the concern occupied the whole establishment until its failure in 1878. The firm of J. B. Kimball & Co. stood high in the esti- mation of the trade, and during its fifty years of manufac- turing in Westborough did a large business. It reached its maximum in 1868-69, when two hundred and fifty
359
MANUFACTURES.
hands were employed, and the daily product was thirty- six hundred pairs of boots and shoes.
The second to enter the business in Westborough was Jonas Stone, who began to manufacture soon after J. B. Kimball & Co., in a small shop on Mount Pleasant. His brother, Thomas Stone, after manufacturing a short time in the David Nourse house on School Street, in 1839 built ' a shop on Cross Street, now used for a tenement-house. Moses Newton, who with George B. Brigham occupied a building on the site of J. S. Nason & Co.'s grain-store, was an early manufacturer. The building, that was moved away to make room for Grand Army Block, on South Street, was occupied as a boot-shop before the war by Willard Bragg. His brother, Urial Bragg, manufactured in the " Old Arcade." Otis Newton was connected with the business for nearly forty years before his death in 1870. From 1840 to 1860 Daniel F. Newton did an ex- tensive business in the old shop on Cross Street. In more recent years J. H. Pierce, as well as his successors, Griggs & Jackson, manufactured in Smith's Block; and George Forbes was engaged in manufacturing at various times between 1857 and 1880. An old factory at the corner of Cottage and Elm Streets was occupied by C. M. Holmes & Co. several years before its destruction by fire, April 15, 1876 .. The factory which stood at the corner of Milk and Phillips Streets, originally built for a sleigh-shop in 1869, was occupied by Crain, Rising, & Co. from 1879 to 1881 ; and by George B. Brigham & Sons, and Smith, Brown, & Co. from 1882 until it was burned in 1886. In the old Kim- ball factory there have been several attempts at manufac- turing during the last ten years, but with doubtful success. Hunt & Kimball purchased the buildings and machinery when J. B. Kimball & Co. gave up business in 1879, and
360
LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
manufactured a short time for C. B. Lancaster, of Boston. Frederick W. Kimball occupied the factory at different times in manufacturing for various parties; Fogg, Shaw, Thayer, & Co. were there from 1883 to 1885; H. A. Royce & Co. from 1885 to 1887; and Brooks & Wells from 1887 to the fall of 1889. The shop, which is now owned by the Kimball Factory Association, has been unoccupied since the latter date. A stock company is just forming, how- ever, to resume manufacturing at this well-known site.
At present there are two firms manufacturing boots and shoes in Westborough, - George B. Brigham & Sons, and Gould & Walker. The former had its origin in 1858. The senior partner, George B. Brigham, was one of the first to enter the business in Westborough. In 1838 he superintended Thomas Stone's factory, and from 1840 to 1844 manufactured in company with Moses Newton. In 1850, having temporarily abandoned the business, he became superintendent of Daniel F. Newton's shop. After eight years' service in this position he bought out George Forbes, - who then occupied the old Union Block, - and has continued a leading manufacturer to the present time. He remained in Union Block four years, occupied the Cross Street factory two years, and since 1864-with the exception of three years in the Milk Street factory and a year at Southville, while his factory was leased to Gould & Walker -the firms of which he has been the head have occupied the present factory on Cottage Street. It has meanwhile been enlarged to several times its original size. The junior members of the present firm are John L. and Horace E. Brigham, sons of the senior partner. The firm employs one hundred and fifty hands, and manufac- tures goods (twenty-four thousand cases) to the value of about $325,000 each year.
361
MANUFACTURES.
The other firm, Gould & Walker, occupies the new and commodious factory at the corner of Milk and Phillips Streets. It was organized in November, 1883, by William R., Gould and Melvin H. Walker, both of whom had pre- viously manufactured with George B. Brigham. From the fall of 1883 to February, 1887, when they moved to their present quarters, Gould & Walker occupied the Brigham factory on Cottage Street. In December, 1889, Mr. Gould, on account of failing health, withdrew from the firm, and M. V. Dunning, who had been salesman, became a partner. The firm employs three hundred hands. Its annual product is about thirty-five thousand cases, valued at $500,000.
The manufacture of sleighs is another Westborough industry that began early in the century. The first to make them were Nathaniel Fisher, a painter, and Gardner Cloyes, Levi Bowman, Noyes Bryant, James Cochrane, Jonas Longley, and Corning Fairbanks, carpenters and wood-workers, who built houses in summer and sleighs in winter. It was customary, before the business became an independent industry, to make sleighs on a co-operative plan. The carpenter, after spending the early part of the winter in doing the wood-work, would send his lot of sleighs to the blacksmith for the shoes and braces. The blacksmith was entitled to a portion, generally two out of five, for his work and material; and the painter, to whom they were next sent for the finishing touches, would re- ceive another for his pay. The sleighs having in this way been completed, on the appearance of snow strings of six or eight, drawn by a single horse, would be sent to the various markets, - Boston, Providence, Worcester, Lowell, and other places. The number of sleighs- made in 1832 was four hundred, and their value was about $8,000. The average from 1870 to 1880 was over three thousand per
362
LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
year ; but at present, owing principally to the unfavorable seasons, the number is much less. For many years the quality was rather poor, but answered the demand for a plain, substantial, inexpensive sleigh. In recent years, however, it has greatly improved, and "Westborough sleighs," which bring from twenty to sixty dollars each, according to the style of finish and upholstering, now stand well in the market.
The first persons to make a special business of sleigh- making were two brothers, Baxter and Daniel W. Forbes, who built a shop about fifty years ago in the forks of the road near the "No. 4" School-house. During their first year in business they made two hundred sleighs. In 1858 Albert J. Burnap and Edward E. Brigham, both of whom had been engaged in the business several years, became partners with the Forbes brothers, and the new firm of Burnap, Forbes, & Co. built the front part of the present shop on Summer Street. From 1865 to 1875 Nahum Fisher and Daniel W. Forbes carried on the busi- ness under the firm name of Forbes & Fisher. The present firm is composed of Mr. Forbes and his son, Forrest W. Forbes, who manufacture under the name of D. W. Forbes & Son. They are said to be the oldest sleigh manufacturers in the United States. In ordinary seasons their product is about twelve hundred sleighs, which find a ready sale, mostly in the West.
W. H. & F. Sibley, who make about three hundred sleighs per year, have occupied their present shop on Parkman Street since 1844. For many years they paid special attention to making and repairing wagons, and did very little sleigh-making until after the war. They now have a large jobbing business, and in addition to sleighs continue to make wagons.
363
MANUFACTURES.
At Piccadilly Corning Fairbanks, one of the earliest sleigh-makers, carried on the business until his death in 1887. His son, Benjamin N. Fairbanks, succeeded him, and makes about one hundred and fifty sleighs per year.
John O'Brien 2d, who has a shop in the rear of Guild's stable, has been engaged in sleigh-making since 1864, and makes about the same number as Mr. Fairbanks.
Patrick Maguire, on Summer Street, began to make sleighs in 1883. He makes about one hundred per year.
The individuals and firms who have in years past made sleighs in Westborough are numerous. In 1871 there were nine manufacturers. Bacon & Williams, who occupied the shop at the corner of Milk and Phillips Streets from 1869 to 1873, made nine hundred and fifty sleighs, besides doing a large box business. W. H. & F. Sibley made two hundred and fifty, and the remaining firms between one hundred and one hundred and fifty each. Among the more prominent sleigh-makers not already mentioned have been Edward Spaulding, Joseph H. Fairbanks, Frank Brigham, and Wilder F. Brown.
The manufacture of straw hats and bonnets, at present Westborough's most important industry, was established in 1863. The braiding of straw, however, and the sewing of hats from domestic braid were early and common oc- cupations for women and children. The winter rye was cut in June, the straw was scalded and cured, the part within the sheath was whitened by brimstone fumes, and after being split was ready for braiding. Country trades- men took the braid, and sometimes the home-made hats, in exchange for goods. There was a cash price and a straw price for their various commodities, -the former, of course, being somewhat lower than the latter. The im- portation of braid from China, Italy, and other countries
364
LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
long since put an end to the home production; and the invention of a machine for sewing braid, some twenty years ago, gave the death-blow to another common house- hold industry, - the sewing of hats by hand. A Con- necticut inventor, named Baldwin, introduced the first machine; and soon afterward Samuel S. Turner, a West- borough man, brought out the " American " straw sewing- machine, which, although now superseded like the others by the Wilcox & Gibbs, was used for several years. One of the machines now in use does the work of about thirty sewers under the old system. In other departments of the business, too, great improvements in the process of manu- facture have taken place. As in so many other industries, the result has been an enormous increase in the quantity of goods produced, and a great reduction in their cost.
The industry, which was for a long time confined to this part of Massachusetts, began in the adjoining town of Upton as early as 1825. A large number of sewers were required; and for many years before the business was established in Westborough, " stock-carts " brought braid from Knowlton's shop in Upton to be sewed into hats by women in this town. The manufacture was begun here in 1863 by Bates, Parker, & Co., who occupied an old boot-shop standing on the site, and forming part, of L. R. Bates's present factory. During the first season the firm employed twelve men and thirty girls in the shop, and two hundred and fifty sewers outside. In 1870 the junior partner, James E. Parker, withdrew from the firm, and the senior partner, L. R. Bates, manufactured alone until 1875. During the two following years Theodore B. Smart, at present a manufacturer at Stamford, Conn., was a partner, and from 1877 to 1885 Mr. Bates was again alone. From 1885 to 1888 the firm was Bates, Wightman,
365
MANUFACTURES.
& Beaman; and from July, 1888, to July, 1890, Mr. Bates, of the original firm, and Willard W. Beaman carried on the business under the name of Bates & Beaman. Mr. Bates now manufactures alone. His factory on South Street has undergone many alterations, having been enlarged in 1866, and afterward in 1875 and in 1876. Before the introduc- tion of machinery the business employed seven hundred sewers in Westborough and the neighboring towns. At present seventy operatives and machines much more than supply their place. One hundred and twenty-five hands are employed, and goods are manufactured to the value of about $125,c00 each year.
The second straw-shop was started in 1864. Chauncy Mitchell, who had previously done a small business mak- ing " Shaker " hoods, began to make straw hats in the old shop on Cross Street. A year later George N. Smalley became a partner. In 1866 the present Union Building on South Street was fitted up for another straw-factory, and occupied for two years by Snow & Fellows. In 1870 A. J. Snow, who owned the shop, formed a partner- ship with Jeremiah Hewins, and the new firm continued to make straw goods until 1872.
Mr. Mitchell became insolvent, and ceased to manufac- ture, in 1868. In that year Mr. Smalley had withdrawn from the firm, and after manufacturing a short time with Willard Comey, entered into partnership with Henry O. Bernard, a New York salesman. The new firm, under the name of H. O. Bernard & Co., began business in a shop on Cottage Street. It soon proved to be inadequate for their growing trade, and in the winter of 1870 the main building of H. O. Bernard's present factory was erected. During the following season the firm employed eighteen hundred hands, and their sales amounted to $600,000. In 1873 their
366
LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
factory, by the addition of wings, was enlarged to nearly double its former capacity ; and in 1878 the brick building connected with the old factory was erected. Mr. Smalley withdrew from the firm in 1875, but had charge of the manufacturing for several years afterward. In October, 1885, the concern was reorganized, and incorporated under the laws of New York as the H. O. Bernard Manufacturing Company. Its capital is $200,000. H. O. Bernard has been president of the company from the beginning. H. K. Taft was vice-president, and had charge of the manufac- turing, until his death in May, 1887. The present vice- president is Paul D. Bernard. F. W. Patterson is secretary and treasurer. The company, which has one of the largest and best-equipped straw-factories in the world, does a business of over a million dollars per year. It employs between eight and nine hundred hands.
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