USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 22
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II. Stone: "History of Massachusetts Industries," Vol. I, pp. 36 and 389.
12. "Salem," by Rev. George Batchelor, in "History of Essex County," Vol. I, p. 103. J. W. Lewis & Co., Philadelphia, 1888.
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MINING-At Topsfield as early as 1648 mining was an interesting if unprofitable pursuit. In that year a copper mine was discovered on land owned by Governor Endicott, and he spent considerable money working it. One hundred and twenty years after its discovery it was reopened and worked for a short time with considerable loss to its owners. Seventy years later some Salem capitalists made a final attempt, had the shaft cleared, and the ore analyzed. The result of the analysis led them to close the shaft again, probably forever.
Silver mining was one of the earliest industries at Newbury. The Moultons who had been silversmiths in England, settled at Newbury in 1637 on the Merrimac, near Moulton's Mill, and (fate seemed unusually kind in their case) discovered silver on their own lands. They made silver spoons two hundred and fifty years ago. At first there was little trade in precious metals; so the Moultons were also iron and copper workers. But with the fashion of knee buckles, shoe buckles and ladies' gold and silver jewelry the manufacture of such articles reached a value of $1,000 and more a week in Newbury. The trade has been continued through many of the Moulton generations in this country.
At Newburyport
"no attempt at regular mining was made till 1872, when the sil- ver discovery was made at Highfields, about two miles south of Newburyport, which caused an excitement throughout the country, hardly excelled by that which followed the opening of the Nevada mines. Old miners returned from the Pacific Coast to try their fortunes in the Eastern bonanza, which was declared to be equal or superior to the finest lodes of the West. Land went up to fabulous figures, and ancestral farms changed hands daily. At least a hundred shafts were sunk in Newbury and adjoining towns, in most of which specimens were found; and, in short, a regular mining fever broke out, which did not run its course for several years.
"There are at present ( 1878) about twenty mines within the limits of old Newbury, with the appliances of shaft-houses, machinery, etc. The old shafts have been sunk from fifty to two hundred and fifty feet; and have yielded, with the drifts, from fifty to a thousand tons of ore each, chiefly argentiferous galena and gray copper -- which assays, according to Profes-
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sor Richards, of the Institute of Technology, from $179 per ton for the galena, to $1,422 silver, and $145.12 gold for the gray copper. There are several smelting works in connection with the mines, though more ore has been shipped for reduc- tion abroad than has been worked at home. The largest num- ber of hands that have been employed in any mine is a hundred in the Merrimac, the first one opened."13
GRANITE-The rocky structure of Cape Ann has furnished an inexhaustible supply of granite, first used for purely local purposes and later shipped to many cities in the United States, including New Orleans and San Francisco, and even as far away as Cuba and Val- paraiso. Cape Ann granite has always been prized for its firm texture, high crushing test, and freedom from pyrites and other impurities, making it most desirable for paving blocks, building mate- rial, and monumental purposes.
It is said that Joshua Norwood, of Pigeon Cove, cut the first granite on Cape Ann in 1710 for the purpose of supplying the fisher- men with mooring stones. These were slabs of granite about six feet square and ten to fifteen inches thick, with a hole in the center fifteen inches in diameter, through which the trunk of a white oak tree about twenty feet in length, with a portion of the roots attached, was put. Thus prepared, these stones were lowered into the sea in the coves of the cape, at places where the fishing boats would float at low water. Norwood is also supposed to have cut mill stones, and the first stone known to have been shipped from Cape Ann was a mill stone which was loaded on a small fishing boat and sent to Newburyport. This was in 1800.
It was not until 1823 that the Cape Ann granite industry made its real start. In that year Nehemiah Knowlton cut about five hundred tons of stone for cobbles in the vicinity of Pigeon Cove. He advertised his stone for sale in a Boston newspaper, where the notice was seen by Mayor Bates, of Quincy, who came to Sandy Bay and the next year started quarrying. With him came William Torrey, also of Quincy. Abandoned after two years the work was resumed in 1828 at the Torrey Pit, and from 1842 on Rockport granite was used in the United States government fortifications on the islands of Boston Harbor and at the Charlestown and Portsmouth Navy Yards.
13. "Newburyport," by George J. L. Colby, p. 334, in "Standard History of Essex County." C. F. Jewett & Co., Boston, 1878.
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At the height of the business Mr. Torrey owned an interest in at least six sloops, which he kept constantly employed in carrying granite.
The streets of many of the great cities of the United States have been paved with Rockport granite, among them lower Broadway, in New York. Rockport granite is used in the two immense bowls on the Plaza in front of the Union Station at Washington, D. C .; in the polished base of the Woolworth Building, New York; in the Custom House Tower, in Boston; in the great spandrel walls of the Brook- lyn Bridge, in the Williamsburg Bridge, New York; the Manhattan and Queens approaches of the Blackwell's Island Bridge, in New York, and in many other structures known throughout the country.14 One of the largest stones ever quarried in this country was cut at a Bay View ledge. It was twenty-eight feet long, eighteen feet wide, three feet thick, and weighted one hundred and forty-nine tons in the rough. This huge monolith was used in the base of the General Scott eques- trian monument in Washington, D. C.
The Rockport product, known as the "Granite of Character," is a true hornblende, resembling in composition the Egyptian granite from which the ancient monuments were built. Among its great vir- tues are the high polish to which it is susceptible, and its carving quali- ties, the latter asset being illustrated by the fact that Professor John H. Sears, of the Peabody Academy of Science, was able, in his micro- scopic studies of this stone, to make sections of it 1/700 of an inch thick.15
BRICKS-Essex County may claim priority in the making of bricks, for the first brick-kiln erected in Massachusetts was built at Salem. Higginson wrote: "It is thought here is good clay to make Bricke, and Tyles and Earthen pots, as need to be. At this instant we are setting a brick-kill to worke to make Brickes and Tyles for the build- ing of our houses."16. The advantage of their own brick-kilns to the colonists is seen by the fact that in the above year 10,000 bricks had been sent from London to the Colony for use in the construction of fireplaces.
Bricks were made at Haverhill about 1650 by John Hoit, at Tops- field before 1697, and Danvers bricks, the manufacture of which
14. Stone: "History of Massachusetts Industries," Vol. I, p. 426.
15. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 426.
16. Higginson's "New England's Plantation," I Mass. Hist. Coll., VI, 118, quoted by Stone.
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began about 1750, were famous. A quaint story is told of Farmer Andrews, who needed some bricks in that year. He lived at Putnam- ville (a part of Danvers ), and found he must journey to Medford for them. At Medford, Andrews told the brickmaker that there was excellent clay in Danvers, and asked him to send someone to begin working it. "Here's my son," the brickmaker said, "just turned twenty-one. He can go if he wants to." The son came, boarded with Andrews, and, just as he should have, to complete the story, mar- ried Andrews' daughter. His name was Jeremiah Page, and he started the Danvers brick business. He is said to have made the first "clapped bricks," which were really pressed bricks made before machinery facilitated this most important feature of brickmaking. Many of his bricks were used in fortifications and lighthouses, a large number going to Forts Taylor and Jefferson on the Florida Coast. In fact, Danvers bricks were the government standard, specifications calling for them or others as good.
CARRIAGES-Amesbury and Merrimac for years constructed more carriages, wagons, and sleighs than any other two towns of compar- able size in the United States. And, moreover, their quality was so high that the two towns for decades enjoyed the reputation of turning out the world's best products, a reputation more than sustained at the American Industrial Fair and at the Centennial Exhibition.
The first chaise made in the Commonwealth was constructed at Newbury by James Burgess in 1779. After a few years, certain young men, Michael Emery, a woodworker; William Little, a plater; and Stephen Bailey, a trimmer, feeling that they lacked proper encourage- ment in their chosen crafts, migrated to Amesbury and started the industry there about 1800. William Tenney, Jr., established a chaise factory at Bradford in 1798, which flourished for thirty years or more.
Merrimac had specialized in silver buckles for shoes and harness, but when the fashion of shoe-buckles went out, turned, under the guidance of Jacob Little, to the making of carriages. The first car- riage built to go out of the State was sold to Governor Joseph Whip- ple, of Rhode Island, before 1842. In 1840 carriages were shipped to New Orleans, Cincinnati, and many other distant cities, and by 1878 there were thirteen firms engaged in the industry at Merrimac, employing three hundred and sixty-four workers, with an output worth in prosperous times $800,000.
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TOBACCO AND SNUFF-What men wanted in the early days of Essex County they must make themselves, and it is said that a man will almost spend his last cent for tobacco rather than for food. Con- sequently, snuff was manufactured at Newbury. Rowley, Byfield, Sau- gus, Georgetown, and Lynn. At Bradford, in 1770, Moses Parker, with surprising precocity, constructed machinery for the manufacture of tobacco when only thirteen years old, and when he had only once seen such apparatus.
Cliftondale, near Saugus, has owed most or all of its prosperity to the business of making cigars, tobacco, and snuff. The pioneer in this line was William Sweetser, who ground snuff in a handmill pre- vious to 1800 and sold it in Salem and Marblehead. Samuel Copp followed him about 1807. The latter's product consisted chiefly of "Fig and Pig-tail," the upper story of his shop being devoted to the spinning of "Pig-tail" by hand. On the lower story were strong wooden presses by which the tobacco was pressed into kegs and boxes. In 1820 Copp sold out to Charles Sweetser, who added the manufac- ture of cigars known as "short sixes" and "long nines," which found a market all over the United States, in the British provinces, and in some foreign countries.
An interesting account of the Byfield snuff industry appeared Feb- ruary II, 1933, in "The Archon," published by Governor Dummer Academy, South Byfield. It is repeated here :
"A favorite Sunday afternoon walk takes the students of Governor Dummer Academy up the country road, past the Byfield Woolen Mills, over an old country road past the snuff mill, thence down the road to the Byfield Parish church, and so back to school. Those taking the walk for the first time seldom fail to be surprised at finding a snuff mill so far from tobacco fields; and when they hear that the industry continues to flourish despite depression and changing conditions, they usually become incredulous. Such is, however, the case, for the Byfield Snuff Company, formed from the Pearson Tobacco Company and the much older Larkin and Morrill Company, enjoyed a normal trade during 1931 and again in 1932.
"Sailors have always been heavy consumers of snuff, per- haps because the danger of fire prevents indiscriminate smok- ing on shipboard; and sailors were responsible for the estab-
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lishment of the industry in Byfield. A map of the Parker River printed in Ewell's "Story of Byfield" shows a snuff mill in operation in the village as early as 1746. At that time Newburyport was already a shipping center of importance, and when in 1804 Thomas Rand Larkin started the first of the mills included in the present company, Newburyport was at the height of its glory as a seaport. The tobacco for the mill was conveniently brought by sea, and the same ships brought the consumers.
"Larkin, a nephew of the Deacon Larkin whose fast mare carried Paul Revere on his famous ride, was the son of Sam- uel Larkin, a soldier in the Continental Army. Samuel's home in Charlestown was one of the houses burned by the British to drive out snipers at the battle of Bunker Hill, and his wife carried Thomas Rand and his sister to Reading, where they were cared for by the town as its share in caring for the refugees from Charlestown. Thereafter there is no record of the family except that Thomas Rand came from Haverhill in 1804 to buy the mill previously owned by a man named Mc- Kinstry and start grinding snuff. The same mill is described as 'Thurla's Mill' on a map of the river in 1795 published in Currier's 'History of Newbury, Mass.' Apparently it had been both a lumber mill and a cloth mill before Larkin equipped it with mortars for grinding snuff.
"The mortars, of which sixteen were in operaion at a time after the Civil war cut off competition from the south and brought prosperity to the Byfield mills, were made from the trunks of trees. A section two feet in diameter and three feet in length was hollowed out and mounted. Down from the ceiling above it was fixed a wooden shaft carrying perpendicu- lar wooden rollers which pressed out against the sides of the mortar. Tobacco, inserted at the top, was taken out at a square hole in the base and poured through again until it reached the desired degree of fineness. Water power from the river was transmitted entirely by wooden cogwheels parallel to the ceiling. Since belting was unknown in the mill, a complicated train of gears covering practically the whole ceiling was required to transmit power to the sixteen mortars. Mr. C. Ernest Larkin of Newburyport, a descendant of
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Thomas Rand Larkin, spent his boyhood in Byfield and can recall the weird groaning and shrieking which announced to the boys fishing below the mill that the gates had been opened and the wooden wheels of industry were turning for another day.
"Originally the product of the mill was packed in small wooden kegs, each holding five pounds. Later it was packed in pigs' bladders which in turn were packed and shipped in barrels. Some of the old kegs are still preserved as mementos, and until recently the old mortars and the wooden cog wheels with their hand-shaped wooden gear teeth could be identified in the scrap heap of the old mill.
"While the prosperous era following the Civil War seemed to Samuel Larkin and Orlando Morrill, the current operators of the mill, to warrant increasing their personal drawing accounts from seventy-five cents to one dollar a day, it was not an unmixed blessing, for it naturally brought competition. The most important competitor was the Pearson Tobacco Company. The name of Pearson had long been associated with the river, three mills operated by men of that name being shown on the map of the river in 1746; but when Benjamin Pearson began grinding snuff, he took over and transformed a mill which had been a saw mill and then a woolen mill. It was located in the village about half a mile up the river from the Larkin and Morrill mill, standing on the site of the present Byfield Snuff Company plant. The two mills, and at one time a third, operated in amicable rivalry until 1899, when it seemed better to combine under the present name. Even the combined company was in no position to compete with the trust which developed in the snuff industry, as in all others of the period, but fortunately President Roosevelt was prevailed upon to include the snuff trust among the objectives of his memorable "trust-busting" campaign; and since then, without flourishes or great advertising programs, the Byfield Snuff Com- pany has continued, in the words of one of its officials, quietly grinding snuff."
COMBS-It is not perhaps widely known that West Newbury, in the early days, was a large producer of combs, their manufacture starting shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century and being
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the first considerable industry there. At that time Enoch Noyes, a self-taught mechanic, began making buttons and coarse combs in the rudest way. He worked in the kitchen of his house during the winter, having as his only tools a hatchet, a saw, a bit of glass, and a woolen polishing rag. He straightened the horns by steaming them over his kitchen fire and pressing them in a cleft log. After the battle of Bennington he hired a deserter from Burgoyne's army, a Hessian combmaker, who taught him the use of the grail, the guarret, and other contrivances for the manufacture of combs. The combined skill of these two men, Noyes and the Hessian, William Cloud, gave such impulse to the business that by 1835 there were more than thirty comb shops in the town, some using horsepower and others foot lathes. But the foremost man in improving comb machines was David E. Noyes, the grandson of Enoch. He was a splendid mechanic and had had the advantages of travel in this country, South America, and Europe. He invented a valuable machine for twining, or cutting the teeth, and for years he was the most important man in combmaking in America. In 1844 the firm of S. C. Noyes and Company took the lead, set up the first steam engine used in the town, made many mechanical improvements, and together with H. G. and T. M. Chase, the only other comb factory in operation in the 1870's, did an annual business in those years of $110,000.
In his "History of Haverhill," Mirick states that the value of combs manufactured in Haverhill in 1831 exceeded $30,000, and that about one hundred persons were so employed.
ISINGLASS-The first establishment in this country for the manu- facture of isinglass from fish sounds was set up at Rockport by a William Hall, an Englishman, who came to the town because he could best buy there the hake sounds he wished to use. His shop was far down on the westerly side of Bearskin Neck. He paid from three to five cents a pound for the sounds in a raw state, cleaned and dried them, and put them through wooden rollers. But these wooden rollers proved to be too warm and sticky, and the men who turned them did not work at a steady speed, which is not to be wondered at as they received only thirty to fifty cents for a day's work. Iron rollers were later introduced and horsepower substituted for man- power. Finally steam was utilized. After a few years Jabez Row and William Norwood gained control and organized the Rockport
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Isinglass Company, which had sole control of the business for several years until it closed on account of financial difficulties.
CHOCOLATE-Chocolate was manufactured at Groveland, New- bury, and Bradford, but the business on a large scale had its begin- ning17 at Saugus in the mill of George Makepeace about 1796. The machinery in this mill for roasting, cracking, and fanning the cocoa was run by chains from horizontal shafts and the din it made was inde- scribable. Benjamin Sweetser, Amos Rhodes, and Deacon John Wait were the first chocolate manufacturers, and the business was continued for many years by Amariah Childs. The following amusing account of the early chocolate manufacture is from the sketches of Saugus by Benjamin F. Newhall, Esq., printed in the "Lynn Reporter" :
"In 1812 the war with England commenced, which gave a new impetus to the chocolate business. The mill was over- whelmed with work, so that it was carried on in summer, and the cooling was done in cellars. .. . . One of the most amus- ing things connected with this old chocolate manufacture was the pretended art and skill indispensable to a successful issue. This art and skill was believed to be a secret possessed by only here and there an individual. Even the persons who carried on the manufacture did not pretend to any knowledge of the art. It seemed to be a general concession by the public that the science of the manufacture was unknown, except by a very few, who had obtained it, by great labor and expense, from Spain or South America. This acknowledgment gave the pre- tenders a superiority, and placed them in a position not only to be honored, but to be well paid. The man who had brass enough to carry the pretence through successfully, managed everything about to his own mind.
"In my early boyhood I used to work in this chocolate mill, as considerable of the work could be done by boys better than by men. The grand magician of that early day was Josiah Rhodes, nicknamed 'Slim Cæsar.' He exercised the most unlimited control over the whole establishment. So
17. Amos Trask manufactured chocolate and ground cocoa at his home in Danvers as early as 1771, according to an announcement in the "Essex Gazette." Crude cocoa was being brought to America at that period by the Gloucester fishermen, who accepted it in exchange for fish, which they shipped to the West Indies and Central and South America. Stone: "History of Massachusetts Industries," Vol. I, p. 41I.
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arbitrary was he in the exercise of his pretended skill that scarcely anyone dared to look at the chocolate in the process of manufacture. The roaster, and the stirring-kettle were objects forbidden by him to be examined by the ignorant world. I well remember with what veneration I used to look upon this aged, cadaverous veteran. The smoke of the roaster could be seen curling up over the fire, but none had the courage, in his presence, to smell of the forbidden odor.
"Occasionally, a small, mysterious white powder, from a piece of clean white paper, would be cast into the roaster, or the kettle, in a mysterious and magical manner, completely blinding the eyes of the uninitiated. Such was the dignity and haughtiness attendant upon the exercise of his skill that he rarely ever smiled or spoke when engaged. Even his employ- ers hardly ever dared to ask a question. Men who labored years under him never dared to raise a pretence of knowing anything. Such were the pretended mysteries of the trade in olden times."
The following advertisement from the "Boston Gazette," Septem- ber 5/12, 1737, indicates that chocolate manufacture was in operation even before Amos Trask and Mr. Makepeace carried on the business :
"By a Gentleman of this Town is this Day bro't to per- fection, an Engine to Grind Cocoa; it is a contrivance that cost much less than any commonly used; and will effect all that which the Chocolate Grinders do with their Mills and Stoves without any or with very Inconsiderable Labour; and it may be depended on for Truth, that it will in less than six Hours bring one Hundred weight of Nuts to a consistance fit for the Mold. And the Chocolate made by it, is finer and better, the Oyly Spirit of the Nut being almost altogether preserved, and there is little or no need of Fire in the making."
EXPORT OF ICE-One of the classic illustrations of the ingenuity of Essex County traders in using their shipping to make a profit out of the most unpromising ventures is the export of ice to tropical coun- tries. But we remember that "Lord" Timothy Dexter, of Newbury- port, also made a handsome return on shipments of mittens and warm- ing pans to the West Indies. The ice business flourished at Essex,
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Rockport, Wenham, and Lynn, and great quantities of ice so clear that sometimes a newspaper could be read through a block two feet thick, were shipped from Wenham Pond to the uttermost parts of the earth, to Calcutta, to the hot plains of Africa, and to the tropical countries of our own hemisphere.
The growth of this unusual trade is shown by Bishop in his "His- tory of American Manufactures" (Vol. II, p. 116) :
"The first cargo of ice shipped from Massachusetts, was this year loaded at Gray's wharf, in Charlestown, on board the brig 'Favorite,' purchased expressly for that purpose. by Mr. Frederic Tudor. The cargo, consisting of 130 tons from a pond in Saugus (Lynn) belonging to Mr. Tudor's father, was sent to St. Pierre, in Martinique, and was attended by considerable loss. Another shipment of 250 tons was made the following year, per brig 'Tudent,' to Havana. It was resumed, after the war, and in 1816, six cargoes of 12,000 tons were shipped, and in 1856 the trade had increased to 363 cargoes of 146,000 tons, from Boston to domestic and foreign ports."
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