USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Walpole > The story of Walpole, 1724-1924; a narrative history prepared under authority of the town and direction of the Historical Committee of Bi-Centennial > Part 14
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The mill is probably that marked "Old Shingle Mill" on the 1832 map of the town and shown at the junction of the streams. Some time later the property was purchased by Daniel and Elbridge Smith, who built a factory close to the road, and manufactured cotton thread. The mill was later sold to one Jenks who made thread and silk-covered bonnet wire, and some time before 1875 was conveyed to William H. Cary. Cary continued to manufacture bonnet wire in a building just south of the stream, and ran a small shoddy mill on the privilege itself.1 The property passed to James Ogden in 1876 and a year later to the Alden Emory Co., later the Walpole Emery Mill.2 It is now owned and occupied by the Bird Machine Co.
The Bird Machine Company was incorporated in 1909 as the Wandel Screen Manufacturing Company. The name was changed to the Bird
1 See Map in Norfolk Co. Atlas of 1876.
? Norfolk Co. History, 720.
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Machine Company 1916. The business was really started in 1908 by Mr. Otto Wandel, financed by Mr. Charles S. Bird.
Mr. Wandel came here from Germany to work in Bird & Son's paper mill. While there he interested Mr. Bird in a new piece of paper making machinery, a rotary screen. Bird & Son brought over one of these machines from Germany and were so much impressed that the idea followed of having Wandel start in business to make it here.
Until 1909 the business was conducted in the name of Otto Wandel, with Mr. Bird acting as a silent partner. In 1909 the business was in- coporated. In 1912 Mr. Bird bought out Mr. Wandel's interest and himself took over the management of the business.
Throughout Mr. Wandel's management and until 1920 the company owned no plant, and placed their manufacturing work in other shops, very largely with L. F. Fales, Walpole. Be- ginning with 1915, however, the company rented space for manufacturing purposes in one of Bird & Son's buildings, and gradually in- creased this as their business grew, until, in the year 1919, it was decided that it was necessary to own a plant.
In the spring of 1920 the company bought from Mr. Charles Bird the property formerly occupied by the Walpole Emery Mill of South
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Walpole, and in the fall of 1920, after making necessary alterations and installing equipment, commenced manufacturing operations there. A new machine shop was erected in 1923 to meet the growth of business. The principal output of the company is pulp and paper making ma- chinery. It employs 110 persons and the annual value of its output is about $750,000. Opera- tions in Canada are carried on by an associated company, The Bird Machine Co. of Canada, Ltd.
The fourth privilege, the Blackburn, and the fifth, the Union Factory, next below, are the most historic mill sites on the stream. Some- where in this territory was the famous Old Saw Mill with which Walpole history really begins.
Built in 1659, the old mill was still standing in 1723, being mentioned in the record of the laying out of South Street in that year.1
No attempt will be made here to trace in detail or to state with finality the various mill sites and changes of ownership at these two privileges. Here is a field from which some painstaking investigator may reap a fine har- vest. He will tell us, for instance, exactly how the road now South Street ran two cen- turies ago, and in so doing will fix the Old Saw Mill's site. For the road, the record says, went
1 Lewis, 13, 65; Ded. Rec., 1707-1749, page 157.
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"over the River near the old Saw Mill." 1 If the way ran as it does now, the historic mill may be placed at The Multebestos Company factory of today. These things have yet to be done. So far as this account is concerned, I shall content myself with a sketchy outline.
In 1742 Peter Lyon and Sarah, his wife, sold to Ebenezer Fales 11 acres, a dwelling house and one or two saw mills on the east side of the Neponset, at the Blackburn Privilege or its vicinity.2
In 1756 Aaron Blake bought from Lemuel Lyon a 5-acre tract including half of a mill- pond and parts of a dwelling, barn, a corn mill and a saw mill.3 This was the present Black- burn Privilege. Blake picked up other adjoin- ing parcels. He died in 1787, leaving the prop- erty, with its two mill sites, to his wife. In 1800 she sold the privilege, 16 acres, to Timothy Smith, a blacksmith, the deed being so worded as to make it clear that this once had been Peter Lyon's property. 4 The same parcel was trans- ferred in 1802 to James Boyden and Samuel Nason,5 and by them, in 1811, to John Black- burn, a cotton manufacturer of Medway.6
Now, through all these years it is probable that a saw mill had been in operation on the
1 Ded. Rec. 1707-1749, 157. 2 Suffolk Deeds, LXIII, 27.
3 Suffolk Deeds, LXXXVIII, 176. 4 Norfolk Deeds, XIII, 91.
5 Norfolk Deeds, XL, 52. 6 Norfolk Deeds, XXXIX, 148.
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privilege, and in most of the time a corn mill also.
In 1727 Ebenezer Robbins, brother of Ezekiel the tavern keeper, ran a saw mill somewhere in town, possibly the historic Old Saw Mill or its successor on this site.1 In 1744 Peter Lyon appears as a grist miller .? A saw mill is shown on the privilege on the map of 1794. And in 1806, when the place was in the hands of Boyden and Nason, they operated both the saw and grist mills. 3
When Blackburn purchased in 1811, he put up a manufactory for machinery. In the upper part of the shop George Blackburn, a son, began to make cotton yarn. Though both industries were continued, the textile branch evidently became the more prominent, for in 1832 the place was called "Blackburn's Cotton Factory."4 Some time later the factory burned down. The elder Blackburn turned to farming, and George became owner of several celebrated cottonduck establishments in other towns.
The Blackburn Privilege took on new life in 1846, when John Henry Blackburn, son of John, in company with Ollis Clap, bought an iron foundry that had been run by Deacon Everett Stetson, at Stetson's Pond, and re- moved the machinery to the old site. After
1 Town Rec.
' Lewis, 93, 94.
3 Norfolk Co. History, 720.
4 Map of 1832.
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a year Clap left the partnership, and Blackburn carried on the business of making stoves, ma- chinery and other light castings, for about eight years. A building on the lower privilege was used by various lessees for the manufacturing of batting, lamp wicks and wood work.1 All the buildings were there up to a half-century ago, but scarcely a trace today remains.
Downstream from the two Blackburn Privi- leges is the Union Factory, previously referred to. Here, in 1812, was the snuff factory of Samuel Fales. Here too, at various times, Eliphalet Clap manufactured wrought iron at his forge, Thaddeus Clap and Samuel Fuller ran a tanyard, and Daniel Ellis was a clothier. A clothier, by the way, was, in those days, a man who made cloth, not a seller of ready- made clothing, as the word usually implies today.
In 1813 the firm of Oliver Clap & Co., includ- ing Oliver and Warren Clap, Daniel Ellis, Daniel Payson and Edward G. Cundal bought the land from Ebenezer Clap; and later, as the Walpole Union Manufactory, carried on an extensive business in cotton and wool textiles. By agreement with Ebenezer Clap, water was conveyed through the land, so that the factory was on a ditch or sluiceway north of the main stream and west of South Street.2 It was four
1 Norfolk County Hist., 720. 2 Map of 1852.
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and a half stories high and 60 x 40 feet, being surmounted by a bell tower.
After numerous transfers, the property was deeded in 1852 to Charles Manning, Henry R. Glover and Jerome B. Cram, who, as Manning, Glover & Co., manufactured curled hair mat- tresses and cotton batting and wicking. In 1872 Manning left the firm and the property was taken over by Cram and Glover, the former owning two-thirds. The Cram factory em- ployed 24 hands in 1875 and produced 225 tons of curled hair a year.1 New buildings on the south side of the river and west of South Street were at this period in use.2
In 1880 Mr. Cram disposed of his interest to Smith Glover. The property was leased to Stephen Pember and was being operated by him when the original mill was burned, September, 1881. The small factory on the stream at Union Dam, owned by Mr. Cram, was soon afterwards destroyed by fire.3 Mr. Pember operated the Union Carpet Lining Co. until his death in 1891.4
The Union Factory Privilege later passed into the hands of the Massachusetts Chemical Com- pany,5 and subsequently to the Walpole Tire and Rubber Co., which developed an extensive modern industrial plant.
1 State Bd. of Health Report 1876, 93.
? Norfolk County Atlas, 103. 3 Hist. Norfolk County, 721.
4 Boston Journal, Feb. 9, 1891. 5 Lewis, 195.
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In December, 1915, this plant was purchased by the Standard Woven Fabric Co., which had been organized in 1904 at Worcester (as the Multiple Triple Woven Hose & Rubber Co.). Originally manufacturers of fire hose and cotton belting, the company afterwards turned to making asbestos brake lining. A new plant was built at Framingham in 1913, but this was soon outgrown. In December, 1915, the plant of Walpole Tire & Rubber Co. was taken over and within a few weeks manufacturing was in progress.
The Multibestos Company, as it is now called, is confining its efforts to the manufacture of its famous Multibestos brake and clutch linings, the name of which was first used in 1908. Be- tween 200 and 300 persons are employed, and the annual output is valued at about $2,000,000. Multibestos is known everywhere in the United States, and a rapidly growing export business is being developed.
Between the Union Factory Privilege and the Lewis Privilege, next downstream, is another Walpole industry of long standing-S. Gray Co. bleaching and dye works, on Main Street, south of the Neponset.
The business was begun in the '30s by Smith Gray, on the Lewis Privilege; but after a few years, on discovery of a spring of clear water, a new bleachery was erected where the firm is
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still doing business.1 In 1875 the company, then conducted by Robert S. Gray, son of the founder, employed 12 persons, and did 80,000 lbs. of bleaching and 130,000 lbs. of dyeing each year.2
The Lewis Privilege at Walpole Centre has been used for manufacturing certainly since 1794, the map of that year showing a fulling mill on or very near the present site of the Lewis Manufacturing Co. plant. The mill may have been that of Daniel Clap, who appears on the spot, in the same business in 1812, and continued some years after.
The property passed to Harlow Lawrence in 1821. Lawrence, who had been an employee of the Union Factory, built a fine factory of his own and began manufacturing cotton thread. For about 10 years after Mr. Law- rence's death in 1840 the business was con- ducted for the heirs. The factory was after- wards leased, and in 1863 was sold to Deacon Willard Lewis.3
Lewis had learned his trade at the Ellis mill and had been engaged in manufacturing list carpets in a building next to his home at the corner of Short and Washington Streets, East Walpole. When the Civil War broke out he .
1 Hist. Norfolk County, 724.
: State Bd. of Health Report 1875, 93.
3 Hist. Norfolk County, 721.
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made lint bandages for the army. He conceived the idea of producing lint by machine and hired a mill on the Morey Privilege about 1861,1 transferring thence to the Lawrence factory. Deacon Lewis afterwards manufactured carpet lining, cotton batting and cotton percolator, the last used extensively in the South for straining rosin. By 1875 the factory employed 70 hands and turned out two tons of batting a day.2
The old Lawrence factory, together with an adjoining machine shop conducted for many years by William Hart, was destroyed by fire. Deacon Lewis built a two-and-a-half story brick factory on the site. The business was con- tinued by his son W. I. Lewis, and was after- wards sold to George A. Plimpton.3
In 1905 Mr. H. P. Kendall acquired control of the company. The business in cotton bats and related products was sold, and all energies were turned to expanding the sale of absorbent gauze and cotton. Business grew steadily until the United States entered the World War in 1917. Then, as in '61, the Lewis company was called upon to furnish heavy hospital supplies to the government and the Red Cross. This brought about a rapid expansion of business.
Today the Lewis Manufacturing Co. output consists of these hospital supplies, known in
1 Gould Scrap Book, 61.
" State Bd. of Health Report, 1875, p. 93.
3 Lewis, 195.
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trade as "Curity Products," and cheesecloth, which is sold to the dry goods trade. The com- pany operates, in addition to its main plant at Walpole, two cotton mills in South Carolina, one in North Carolina and a general finishing plant at Slatersville, R. I. Curity Products are sold throughout the United States and in many foreign countries, especially Mexico and Central and South America. The company now has what is probably the largest hospital business in the country.
Nearby is now the flourishing industrial plant of L. F. Fales, manufacturer of machinery, castings and Maniplex Sewing Machines.
The business was started in 1894 in a small room now a part of the plant of the Lewis Manu- facturing Company, for the purpose of doing re- pairing, building special machinery and Multiple Needle Sewing Machines of a type designed to be used for heavy manufacturing, the invention of Mr. Fales' father, Charles Fales of Walpole.
In the year 1898 Mr. Fales purchased land and built a small machine shop at the corner of East and Elm Streets. Many additions have since been made. The business now consists very largely of contracting for the manufacture in large quantities of machinery for other con- cerns.
In the year 1907 Mr. Fales leased a foundry at Franklin, Mass., for the purpose of manufac-
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turing small and medium weight gray iron castings, at the same time purchasing land bordering on Glenwood Avenue in Walpole, and beginning the erection of a foundry adjacent to his machine shop. Upon the completion of this foundry the business was moved from Frank- lin to Walpole. Several additions to the foun- dry have been necessitated by the growth of the business. The industry employs, when business is normal, between 175 and 200 people.
Next downstream from Lewis's is the Stetson Privilege, where, as early as 1754, John Hall had a saw mill. 1
In 1779 John Cleaveland, Hall's son-in-law, was a partner, and the place was described as belonging to him.2
One Gay was also interested with Cleaveland; and there was a forge there, at an early date, owned by Cleaveland, John Hooper and Jere- miah and Samuel Dexter. By 1794 the site had become that of Ebenezer Hartshorn's grist mill, previously referred to.
In 1796 Joshua Stetson, who came to Walpole from what is now Randolph,3 bought the privi- lege and began manufacturing farm implements. The high quality of the products soon became recognized, and a century ago the Stetson Hoe was famous. Mr. Stetson retired in 1827, but
1 Suffolk Deeds, LXXXVIII, 70.
2 Suffolk Deeds, CXXX, 118.
3 Lewis, 195.
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the business was continued by his son Everett to 1830. The machinery was sold and removed to the Blackburn Privilege in 1846.
This sale did not, however, bring the manu- facturing activities of the privilege to an end, for not only did Everett Stetson conduct a card- clothing factory there from 1845.1 but Joshua Stetson, Jr., operated an extensive cotton fac- tory from 1830 to 1867. He had the reputation of making one of the best grades of cotton ticking on the market. In 1855 Everett Stetson bought the whole privilege. His son, Edward P. Stetson, assumed charge in 1867 and continued the business until 1890, when he entered into a combination of manufacturers known as the American Card Clothing Company.2 After a period of idleness the factory was operated early in the 20th century by the Walpole Card Cloth- ing Co.3 and is now occupied by the H. E. Plimpton Manufacturing Co., makers of suit- cases, automobile trunks, and the like.
On this privilege was also a hat manufactory run by Ira Gill, who began making hats in 1823. He was the inventor of the process of making felt hats. His earlier shop was on the west side of North Street, between the Rural Cemetery and a point opposite Gill Street.4 In 1855 he began occupancy of buildings at the Stetson dam, and
1 Gould Scrap Book, 2. 2 Ibid., 17.
' Lewis, 195-6. Hist. Norfolk Co., 723.
‘ Map of 1852.
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CLARK'S OLD MILL, SOUTH WALPOLE
PLIMPTON IRON AND STEEL MANUFACTURING COMPANY Formerly located on Plimpton Street, known as the "Plimptonville Privilege."
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in 1875 employed 24 hands and produced 60 dozen felt hats a day.1 Mr. Gill, the father of 22 children, died in September, 1887.
The next privilege, at Plimptonville, is not now used; but the map of 1832 shows two ponds, as now, with "Plimpton's Hoe Works and Linnen Fac'y" at the upper, and "D. & G. Ellis' Sattinet Facy" at the lower.
Back in 1810 the lower privilege, part of a farm belonging to Roland Willett, was deeded to John and Thomas Stanley, who carried on the manufacture of tacks and snuff for about a year. They were from Attleboro. In 1818, after passing through several hands, the privi- lege was bought by Daniel Ellis, who, with his son George, manufactured satinets. The busi- ness was a successful one, the factory evidently being equipped with the most modern machinery then available. The now famous Draper Com- pany of Hopedale, in a newspaper advertisement of 1830, informed manufacturers that their new loom-temple, which was for the then newly- introduced power looms, might be seen in use "at the Sattinet Factory of Messrs. Ellis & Son, at Walpole." ? Daniel Ellis died in 1835. His son continued the business two years, and there- after the property changed hands several times, eventually, in 1844, passing to Henry Plimpton.3
1 State Bd. of Health Report 1876, page 92.
? Other Industries of N. E., 27-28. 3 Norfolk Deeds, CL, 308.
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Henry Plimpton, at 16, had been apprenticed to Joshua Stetson and from that master had learned the business of making farm implements. In 1816 he bought the upper privilege from Roland Willet and began to manufacture hoes on his own account. 1
Plimpton, at a later date, built himself a foundry. After acquiring the lower privilege he continued for a time to make satinets and hosiery yarn, but afterwards converted the factory for making hoes and steel springs, along with his upper plant.
Deacon Plimpton was succeeded by his sons, Calvin G. and H. M. Plimpton, who continued the manufacture of iron goods until the death of the former, in 1865. The property was soon afterwards disposed of to the Linden Spring & Axle Co. In 1875, though the foundry was not then in operation, the company was one of the largest employers of labor in town, 50 · hands being at work in the spring factory .? But busi- ness declined, and the buildings, one after an- other, were destroyed by fire. Today the entire property is owned by George A. Plimpton, a son of Calvin Plimpton.
In addition to the businesses mentioned, O. W. Allen, Henry Plimpton and Jeremiah Allen,
1 Recollections of Elizabeth Plimpton, in possession of George A. Plimpton.
2 State Bd. of Health Report 1876, 92.
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associated as O. W. Allen & Co., carried on the manufacture of twine near the lower privilege, and Everett Stetson the manufacture of cotton wadding. For a time, about 50 years ago, Stephen Pember ran a shoddy mill at the upper privilege, but the building burned down.1 The old twine mill, built in 1825 2 on a sluiceway be- tween the upper and lower ponds, is, the only original manufacturing building now left.
The other privileges on the Neponset, both at East Walpole, are so intimately connected with the history of the Bird family that they will be considered together. The lower privilege, now the property of Hollingsworth & Vose, was pur- chased in 17173 by George Bird, who previously had operated paper mills in Needham and on Mother Brook, East Dedham. It was in this mill that the first of the Neponset Products, now known through the world, were made, and the foundation laid for one of America's great business enterprises.
Associated with George Bird was his son. Josiah W. Bird. The latter, after some years, took over the business, but in 1833 disposed of it to his brother, Francis William Bird, a gradu- ate of Brown University in the class of 1831, who, for a brief period, had been a school-
1 Lewis, 197, 198: Hist. Norfolk County, 722.
2 Recollections of Elizabeth Plimpton.
3 Bird & Son, Inc., Information Book.
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teacher. This younger brother made such a success of the enterprise that, after a year, he purchased the mill property.1
Meanwhile, upstream, another development had taken place. At an early date a grist mill had been erected on the present Bird & Son property by Eliphalet Rhoads. This gave way to a cotton mill, which, after vicissitudes, was operated by Dean, Sayles & Co. as the Nepon- set Manufacturing Co. In 1835 the factory was sold to the Neponset Paper Mill Co., which, for a short time, manufactured printing paper.
In 1836 Jabez Coney, Jr., one of the partners, became sole owner; and he, in turn, sold the property in the fall of 1838 to Francis W. Bird. Mr. Bird immediately formed a partnership with his father, George Bird, his brother Josiah, and his brother-in-law, H. G. Parks. There- after the story of the Birds is chiefly centered around this upper mill, though the old one downstream was continued in operation. For a brief time the upper mill continued to manu- facture newsprint paper, but soon turned to heavy wrapping paper. Its product was about 1700 to 1800 pounds a day.
In 1840 Mr. Parks retired; and two years later, when the firm got into financial difficulties, George Bird also stepped out. A settlement 1 Gould Scrap Book, 20.
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was made with the creditors, and F. W. Bird started in anew to build up the business. He not only retrieved his own fortune, but at the end of 20 years, and without compulsion-for he had received a complete discharge of all debts-paid all his old creditors in full, with interest.
In this period of renewed prosperity there had been associated with Mr. Bird, as partners, a Mr. Cushing (for about six months in the 40s), and Thomas W. Kennedy (for nine years, 1850 to 1859, this being a particularly prosperous period).
The mill was burned down in 1867, but was immediately rebuilt. In 1875 about 20 persons were employed and the daily output was one and a half tons of wrapping paper.1
In 1876 Charles Sumner Bird, son of Francis W. Bird, recently out of Harvard University, became associated with his father. He at once put new life and new ideas into the business and brought about a greater diversification of prod- ucts. The development culminated in the or- ganization of the firm of F. W. Bird, Hollings- worth & Co. in 1878, in which Charles Sumner Bird and Charles Vose of Hyde Park were junior partners. Thus were the activities of the upper and lower mills again combined.
This firm lasted only a year. Upon its dis- 1 State Bd. of Health Report 1876, 92.
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solution the Birds, father and son, continued at the upper mill as F. W. Bird & Son. Steam power was now introduced. to supplant water. New machinery was installed. Within a space of 10 years, the output was increased from five to more than twenty tons of paper and paper products a day. In 1880 the mill was destroyed by fire and rebuilt.
Shortly after the death of F. W. Bird in 1894, his son became sole owner of the rapidly growing concern. In 1913 Charles Sumner Bird, Jr., and Philip R. Allen were admitted as partners and the firm name was changed to Bird & Son. Five years later the firm was incorporated, and the name now stands Bird & Son, Inc.
It is almost impossible to realize that the great industry at East Walpole is the out- growth of a humble beginning of more than a century ago. Even as late as 1875 the daily output was only 1} tons a day. Now the great machines produce from seven to ten tons of paper every hour. From 20 employees in 1875, the list at the Walpole plant has increased to about 2000. Besides this parent mill, there are other plants at Norwood, at Phillipsdale, R. I., Chicago, and two in Canada. The company which George Bird founded is known today in every country in the world. 1
1 State Bd. of Health Report 1876, 93. Other Industries of N. E., 7 et seq. Lewis, 199-200. Gould Scrap Bk., 182.
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