USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 25
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The weaving of woolens is almost as old in Leominster as the making of paper (1799), and is represented in modern times by the Rockwell Woolen Company, and the Leominster Worsted Company. The fabrication of pianos, and especially piano cases, is also one of the older industries, dating from 1845, and J. C. Lane. It was estimated a few years ago that nearly two- thirds of the piano cases made in this country were constructed in Leomin- ster. The Richardson Piano Case Company, and the Wellington Piano Case Company, are the two largest of the modern companies. Jewett Piano Com- pany, dating from 1891, because of a part of the M. Steinert and Company, of Boston, and to it was assigned the business of assembling the pianos marketed under the trade names, Jewett, Curtis, Berkshire and Woodbury. The strange story of the development of the F. A. Whitney Carriage Com- pany, and of baby and doll carriage making as a whole, deserves many pages, and these have been given them in a brochure entitled Chronicles of a Baby Carriage, published in 1923. One paragraph from that authoritative publi- cation reads : "From the single unit which comprised the plant in 1858 the F. A. Whitney Carriage Company has grown to an industry which requires for its housing twenty-nine buildings on twelve acres of land. So admirably are these buildings placed and so efficiently are the machines arranged, that the raw materials-wood, reed, iron, and steel-come in at one point, com- plete a circle and issue a completed carriage. From the plant baby carriages
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go to nearly every town in America and Canada that is reached by railroad or by mail, and to the most distant parts of the world. Since its beginning the F. A. Whitney Carriage Company has been continually improving its product. The results of sixty-five years of untiring endeavor appear today, when its carriages go not only to the homes of the wealthiest families, but to those of the poorest as well."
Reverting to the phenomenal comb industry, of Leominster, its history as taken from the writings of an unknown compiler, briefly is as follows:
"The first to make combs in Leominster was Obadiah Hills. Wilder gives the year of his coming from Newbury in 1770; other records indicate that Hills did not acquire the Elias Carter house on Pleasant Street until 1774. Then, or soon afterwards, he began to make combs from horns, in the kitchen of that house, all of the work for many years being done by hand. There were about twenty persons engaged in that trade in 1793, about half of them being constantly employed therein, the yearly production being about 6,000 dozens, states Whitney. Most of them were working on horn, but Nathaniel Low, Jr., made ivory combs 'equally good perhaps as any imported from any country.' Among the early comb-makers were Silas Hills, a brother of Oba- diah, and Smith Hills, their father. Others from Newbury or West New- bury were Joseph Tenney, Edward Low, John Chase, John Kendall, and Jotham (Jonathan) Johnson. John Buzzell used shell as well as horn. For several decades the combs were made wholly by hand; and some of the early makers would produce in a year about $500 worth of combs on a capital of $100. The first screw-press introduced was installed in the Hills shop; it was patented by McPherson Smith, its inventor, in 1818, and was installed about 1822. Prior to then, the Wedge-press was in general use. The first to think of labor-saving comb-making tools was John Buzzell; he made many. The first to use cotton clothballs for polishing was Jonas Colburn. Ward M. Cotton invented the automatic machine, with cams, for cutting combs. Michael Damon invented the swing-jaw cutting machine.
"The Damon Company is still among the Leominster comb makers, three generations of that family having continued the business. Murray C. Damon, the present head, is grandson of Michael Damon, a pioneer comb-maker. George R. Damon learned the trade under his father, Michael, and in 1865 was admitted to partnership, in the firm of Damon and Son. Later, George Damon joined the firm of Derby, Whitcomb and Company. In 1869 the firm of Look, Damon and Company was organized, and from 1881 until 1901 Damon Howe and Company operated the plant on Cotton Street. In 1901 the present company, the Damon Company, was incorporated by George R. Damon and his three sons, Russell H., Murray C., and Ralph E. Death and
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retirement have taken all but Murray C. Damon, the present head of the firm.
"The Viscoloid Company, although only in its fourth decade, continues the enterprise of sole old Leominster companies. The Viscoloid Company was organized in 1901, by the following incorporators, who became first officers : Alexander S. Paton, president; Ludwig Stross, vice-president ; Bernard W. Doyle, treasurer and secretary ; the last-named being also general manager. A small factory was established for the making of Viscoloid sheeting, a pyroxylin plastic material used in the manufacture of combs and kindred articles. The Sterling Comb Company was organized by the same men, in same executive capacities in 1902, the purpose of this company being the manufacture of combs and hair ornaments from Viscoloid sheeting. Fire destroyed the plant in 1904, but it was rebuilt in the same year. Under same officers and management, the Harvard Novelty Company came into corporate being in 1906, its specialty being the manufacture of mounted combs and novelties from Viscoloid sheeting. Another company owned by the execu- tives of the Viscoloid Company, but antedating that company in establish- ment was the Paton Manufacturing Company, which enterprise was begun in 1879. In 1897 the company was incorporated as the Paton Manufacturing Company, with Alexander S. Paton as president, and Bernard W. Doyle as treasurer and secretary. This company manufactured hairpins from horn and hoof, and for many years prior to 1897 was conducted independently by Mr. Paton, and before him by Mr. W. D. Summers.
"A reorganization of the Viscoloid Company in 1912 consolidated the four companies, Viscoloid, Harvard, Sterling and Paton, under the new Viscoloid Company, a Massachusetts corporation, capitalized at one million dollars, and having the following officers: A. S. Paton, president; Ludwig Stross, vice-president ; B. W. Doyle, treasurer and general manager ; D. J. Reagan, secretary. Another reorganization in 1923 increased the capital and added 'incorporated' to the firm-name; but the officers and management continued as before. The growth of the Viscoloid Company has been remarkable. In about two decades it has developed a manufacturing plant which covers about forty acres with sixty-two buildings upon it, and in them about sixteen hundred operatives find steady employment. The original plant of the Viscoloid Company employed about forty or fifty persons. Vis- coloid sheeting was originally made for use in comb manufacturing and toilet articles, but many other markets have been developed, Viscoloid now finding use in the automobile, shoe, cutlery, and other lines.
"The B. F. Blodgett Company was founded in 1869, and engaged in the manufacture of horn hair ornaments and knife handles. Since 1893 celluloid
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has taken the place of horn in their manufacture of hair ornaments, but the firm still uses horn for knife handles.
"The Goodhue Company was formed in the same year as the Blodgett Company, 1869; and in the same year the firm of W. D. Earl and Company was founded by William D. and Thomas A. Earl, brothers. Their specialties were horn combs and buttons. Thomas A. Earl retired in 1899, but his brother, William D., continued at the head of the company until 1911, when, at the age of eighty-one years, he retired also. His son, William B., took over the management, and is still treasurer of the firm. It was reorganized in January, 1912, as W. D. Earl and Company, Incorporated.
"The firm of Tenney and Porter was founded in 1883 by C. H. Tenney and Charles H. Porter. In the early years horn was their working material, but when celluloid came into use they were prompt to see its usefulness. It is said that the firm of Tenney and Porter was the second in Leominster to change from horn to celluloid, their specialty being hair ornaments. George A. Porter became sole owner in 1914. The Goodale Comb Company, at No. 93 Water Street, has been in existence since 1904. Warren H. Goodale entered into independent business as a comb manufacturer in 1900, in Leo- minster. In 1904 the Goodale Comb Company, which he owned, came into operation, specializing in horn hairpins and combs, and changing to celluloid in 1908. The Farrell and Hyland Company developed a plant that employed about one hundred operatives ; Michael J. Farrell and John Hyland were the founders in 1912, and they began to make celluloid hair ornaments at No. 160 Pleasant Street. Mr. Hyland died some years ago. The Howe Comb Com- pany was organized in 1903 by Charles H. Howe, treasurer, A. S. Paton, president, and George A. Marshall, secretary. Mr. Howe retired in 1913, and Mr. Marshall took his executive offices, Mr. Edward Earl becoming sec- retary. The firm specialized in celluloid novelties and horn hairpins. In January, 1924, the Standard Pyroxoloid Corporation was incorporated to combine the three plants of the Standard Comb Company. The assets and capital were in excess of $1,000,000, and the former officers of the Standard Comb Company were those of the new company,-J. Philip Legere, presi- dent ; William H. Lane, treasurer ; and J. Edmond Cooper. Its Nile Street plant was in a distinctive class, both in equipment and class, for there are only five companies in the country that in 1924 made the raw celluloid into sheet and rod form, the Viscoloid Company of Leominster being one of the largest. The Standard Comb Company was founded about 1906 by Messrs. Legere and Lane.
"The firm of J. W. Pickering and Company, manufacturers of celluloid hair ornaments and novelties was founded in 1899, by J. W. Pickering and
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W. J. Metcalf who founded a partnership. They traded as Pickering and Metcalf until 1912, when Mr. Pickering acquired the interest of his partner. The E. B. Kingman Company, specializing in celluloid hair ornaments, knit- ting pins, tatting shuttles and novelties, was incorporated in February, 1904, with the following officers and directorate : Edward B. Kingman, president ; Charles H. Howe, treasurer ; Thomas C. Howe, secretary ; Harry P. Howe. The Bay State Comb Company was established by A. L. Preston. Mr. Earl S. Fisher eventually became president, and with reorganization in 1918 became general manager and secretary."
Gardner-In more recent years many of the citizens of Gardner have come to resent the name by which it is famed, "Chair Town," or even more, "The Chair Town of the Universe." The objection to such titles is that they tend to create the impression that Gardner is a one-industry city, whereas it has about seventy manufacturing establishments and at its best in post-World War times the value of chair products, however great, was never more than half of the value of its factory products. In the last decade the chair business has suffered proportionately more than a number of other local industries. Nevertheless, when a place has been engaged in making chairs since the first years of the past century, and has exceeded in the numbers and value of these products any other place in the two hemispheres; when as many as 4,000,000 chairs have been turned out in a single year at an average value of three dollars each; and the total worth of the chairs made in the town or city, since the early days, is estimated as approaching a quarter of a billion dollars, it should not be hard to bear up under the name "Chair Town."
One James M. Comee, in 1805, began making wooden chairs in his home on Pearl Street, Gardner, most of the work being done by hand. He improved his product by weaving in "flag" seats, but later found that rattan was a more satisfactory material. His chairs sold well in Springfield, Worcester, Lowell, Boston, and the counties in which they were situated, so that he was compelled to enlarge his plant and employ helpers. Many of his hands later set up their own establishments. Elijah Putnam, after seven years of apprenticeship to James M. Comee, built a shop on Green Street, "about 400 feet from the old Windsor House." At first he used foot-power, later set up a windmill, later changed to horse-power, a tread mill, and still later to water power. He opened his first shop about 1825, but about 1838 bought the mill privilege later used by the John A. Dunn Company. Putnam introduced the cane seat to Gardner. In his employ was one John Comee, presumably a kinsman. The latter saw the process of cane-seating for the first time when passing through Connecticut. The chairs were made in the State Prison. He brought one of the seats to Gardner, in 1832 or 1833, and
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Putnam began to make such seats, which "after being bored with holes for the cane were sent around to families far and near to be seated." The brothers Levi and Walter Heywood began to make chairs in a shop they built "in the home yard," at the corner of Woodland Avenue and Central Street, in 1826. They had a foot lathe, but all other operations were by hand. In 1834, a year after Seth Heywood had joined his brothers, the shop was burned, and was not rebuilt. Still, according to one account, they then had another factory, the firm of B. F. Heywood and Company having, in 1830, acquired the water-right and chair-stock shop of Merrick Wallace, the site of which is still occupied by the Heywood-Wakefield plant. The firm of B. F. Heywood & Company, consisted of Levi, Walter, Benjamin F., and William Heywood. They erected a larger plant, and continued actively. However, in 1841, Levi Heywood bought the interest of Walter, the latter going to Fitchburg, and here building a shop upon part of what is now the site of the Iver Johnson Arms Company plant. Seth continued with Levi until 1844, when Levi Heywood and General Moses Wood formed the firm of Heywood and Wood. Such was the origin of the Heywood-Wakefield Company, whose great plant in prosperous times employed as many as eighteen hundred people. Four generations of the Heywood family have been leaders in the business. Among other old and prominent families connected with the chair industry are : Pierce, Nichols, Stone, Brainard, Brooks, Dunn, Brown, Howe, Carlton, Rothlis, Earle, Tarr, Denney, Connell, Hobby, and others, the biogra- phies of many of whom in this work will give many items of interest to the student of chair-making industry.
From cane chairs to baby carriages was no long step, and was taken by Levi Warren (1868) in connection with the making of toys. As a business it dates from the early eighteen 'seventies and the firm of Ramsdell and Goodall. Later firms in this line were the Collier-Keyworth, Hedstrom Union, and Gem Crib and Cradle Companies. The Florence oil and gas stoves, known for a third of a century are made by the Central Oil and Gas Stove Company, of Gardner. The Frank H. Smith Company has made a name for itself in silverware. The Simplex Time Recording Company was a pioneer in the fabrication of devices for keeping track of employees' time. Textiles, under- takers' supplies, foundry productions, machinery, printing, corsets, clothing, are also included in the manufactured products of Gardner.
The four Worcester County cities already noted herein account for more than half of the manufacturing products of the county, as measured by their values. But towns, such as Clinton, Northbridge, Southbridge, and Webster, compare favorably with Leominster and about equal Gardner.
Clinton is the place of origin of the great Clinton-Wright Wire Com- pany, a combination of the Clinton Wire Cloth Company, the Wright Wire
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Company, the Morgan Spring Company, and the National Manufacturing Company, the consolidation being completed in June, 1919. Members of the Bigelow family were not only responsible for the inception of this immense corporation, but for much of the development of Clinton. One of the first cotton mills in the United States was established in Clinton, or "Factory Town," as it was called in the days of its youth. Out of this grew the Lan- caster Cotton Company, in 1821, whose mills were leased by the brothers Horatio N. and Erastus B. Bigelow. The latter-named was the inventor then of two power looms, and during his long career contributed many other inventions to industry. One of the two looms was devised for weaving figured quilts and the other for making coach lace, then in great demand since stagecoach travel was in its heyday. Companies were founded for manu- facturing both of these products, the Clinton Company, and the Lancaster Quilt Company. Eventually, Charles H. Waters adapted the Bigelow looms to the weaving of wire into various cloths and materials. With H. N. Bige- low he formed the Clinton Wire Cloth Company, in 1856. A factory was built the following year, and at the time of Mr. Waters' death in 1883 this company could claim "to be the largest manufactory of woven wire goods in the world," turning out annually fifty million square feet. Note has already been taken of its consolidation with other corporations in 1919 to create the largest combination of wire goods manufactures extant.
The old Clinton Company was lost in the Bigelow Carpet Company, when the stagecoach went out of style. The latter company added the Clinton Company mills to its own wool cleansing and spinning facilities. A large worsted mill was completed in 1866, and dam rebuilt. After the death of Horatio N. Bigelow in 1865, his son Henry N. Bigelow was appointed man- ager of the new department and Charles J. Swan became manager of the weaving mill. In 1881 Henry N. Bigelow was succeeded, as managing agent of the company by his brother, Charles B. Much expansion had come, with newly invented looms for making Axminster carpeting. In 1888 the com- pany was making Wilton, Axminster and Brussels carpeting, and employing about 1,200 operatives, with equipment of two hundred and forty looms. The expansion has been about doubled since that time.
The Lancaster Quilt Company was succeeded, in 1859, by James Reed and Company, in 1873 by the Clinton Yarn Company, and in later years was incorporated as the New England Woolen Mill. The Lancaster Mills, another offshoot from the mother concern, expanded rapidly in the direction of the production of ginghams, the output in the 1890's rising to about 45,000,000 yards. Then came the shirtwaist era, and Lancaster Mills expanded its tex- tiles to include many varieties of cotton goods. Incidentally, "Lancaster Mills was the first large manufacturing concern in New England to adopt
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this method of transmitting power," the reference being to the generation of electricity and conveying it to motors conveniently placed. Other textile mills in Clinton are the Belle Vue, Earnsdale, Roubaix, and Sterling plants. Other Clinton industrial concerns include: The Gibbs Loom Harness and Reed Company, Clinton Foundry and Machine Company, Osborne Company, William A. Fuller Company, nearly all of long establishment.
Southbridge-Fifth in population and industrial importance in the county, is the center of the American optical business, and for more than a century the seat of the Hamilton Woolen Company. The latter corporation, now a subsidiary, goes back to the ancient fulling and scouring mill of Wil- liam Plimpton, of 1758 or earlier. By 1812 the plant was making cotton yarn and a new impetus was given to the business in 1814 by the reorganizing of the holding concern as the Globe Manufacturing Company. James Wol- cott, Jr., about 1816, formed another firm to make woolen goods, which com- bined with the Globe Company, in 1819, as the Wolcott Woolen Manufactur- ing Company. Power looms were installed in 1824, against the opposition of the hand weavers. Then the destruction of the dam and the periodical business depressions that plague industry, threw this plant of the company upon the market. It was purchased, in 1830, by men who organized the Hamilton Woolen Company, on January 17, 183I.
Few industries are so subject to change as the making of textiles, and the Hamilton Company was no exception. It was interested in cottons prior to the Civil War, then in wools, but did not discard its cotton machinery until the World War period. The story of the cloth coming under the head of delaines would contain most of the history of the variations in weaving in Southbridge for the last ninety years. Delaines were first made in America at Hookset, New Hampshire, but not long after, in 1844, the Hamilton Mills began turning out muslin delaine, with a cotton warp and worsted filling. This fabric in one form or another has been in and out of style a dozen times, with gain or loss to the makers. It is similar to the well liked Danish Cloth, or Danish Poplar Cloth, both trade names so well-liked a few years ago, which is again returning to popularity.
In connection with reviews of the lives of several members of the Wells family, George W. Wells, in particular, the romantic history of the spectacle business in Southbridge has been written. In 1833 one William Beecher began the hand production of this important article in the village; a century later the village was the seat of the American Optical Company, employing about two thousand men and one thousand women in the making of almost every type of optical and optician's supplies. H. C. Wells entered the busi- ness, in 1851, and George W. Wells, in 1864. The latter-named, by his inven-
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tive genius, and by his energetic promotion of nearly every phase of the industry, contributed more than any other man to the creation of the Ameri- can Optical Company, oldest and largest of its kind. The biography of George W. Wells, in this work, contains the brief account of the founding, growth, and the present status, of this famous American concern. There are other optical companies in Southbridge, such as the Central and the De Paul Young Optical Company, just as there are other textile mills than the Hamil- ton, such as the more than century-old Dresser Manufacturing Company and the Central Mills, and there are more than twenty other manufacturing estab- lishments in Southbridge.
Northbridge-The industrial history of the town of Northbridge centers chiefly in Whitinsville, and largely in the enterprises of the Whitin family. A review, of 1922, said in part :
"Whitinsville, it may be said, represents most adequately the work and achievements of one great family, extending through several generations and dating back to the early days of this country's history when Col. Paul Whitin, of Revolutionary fame, first commenced to serve his apprenticeship as a blacksmith in the town of Northbridge.
"Paul Whitin, by his great strength of character, his industry, and per- severance, made his name famous in his own day, and since that time his sons and his sons' sons have done likewise, until today the names of Whitin and Whitinsville are highly honored in all sections . .. where the great textile industry has spread. .
"For a great many years the town of Whitinsville has been known as the home of the Whitin Machine Works, one of the largest textile- machinery manufacturing concerns in the world.
"Likewise, the town of Northbridge has become known to the textile authorities of the United States as the place where some of the finest quality of cotton cloth known to the trade is manufactured.
"The manufacture of cotton cloth and textile machinery constitutes the only manufacturing business of the town of Northbridge, and as far back as 1875 the capital invested in the manufacture of machinery alone is listed at $605,000, with annual output of finished product of more than $900,000, figures which in those days spelled supremacy. .
"Those figures, considered large in those days, are really significant when compared with those of the last industrial census taken in 1920, which gives the total capital invested in manufacturing in Northbridge as $17,437,578, and the grand total of the production of the manufacturing plants of the town as $17,000,000.
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"This is the everlasting monument . . .. to mark the success . . . . of Paul Whitin, and to which every member of the Whitin family has con- tributed since."
Webster-One of the almost forgotten heroes of the history of tex- tiles in the United States is Samuel Slater, immigrant to America from Eng- land, in 1789, who carried in his head the forbidden knowledge of Arkwright's power cotton spinning machinery. Arkwright had by his inventions multi- plied the spindle of the hand-worker by many times, and thereby laid the foundations of England's supremacy in the field of textiles. As indicated in earlier paragraphs, the British made every effort to monopolize all knowledge and machinery that would help them gain and retain that supremacy. It was impossible, however strong the barriers raised against the smuggling of mechanical knowledge in tangible forms, to prevent Arkwright from bring- ing to Massachusetts his training and information and inventive ability. Slater was his apprentice when the master, in 1789, started Rhode Island in the making of textiles on a factory scale. Webster comes into the picture as the place where the first power woolen mill was built in the United States. It was erected by Slater and Tiffany, and from 1818 the mills were operated by Mr. Slater almost to his death in 1835. His son held full control for another forty-five years, retiring in 1888, and his son, Horatio N. Slater, Jr., was the head until 1899, whereafter it was in charge of the trustees who administered his vast holdings. The Slater Mills, the largest in the country, and for many years the mainstay of Webster, have been particularly note- worthy for the immense amounts of woolens and worsteds turned out in times of war, including the Civil, Spanish and World wars. Of the other textile mills in Webster, were the Chase Mills of American Woolen Com- pany, A. F. Jealous, agent; fancy woolens and worsteds. Daniel E. Cum- mings, Main Street, shoddy manufacturer; Intervale Mills, Inc .; Puritan Mill, manufacturing woolen goods for children's wear; Merritt Woolen Com- pany (taken over by Packett Mills, Inc.) ; Packard Mills, Inc., woolens, women's wear; Estate of Josiah Perry, Inc., fancy cassimeres (mill at Dudley) ; Perry Yarn Mills, wool yarns for weaving and knitting ; S. Slater and Sons, Inc., mills at North, South, and East Webster as under: Cotton Mill, sateens, silesias, percalines, linings, shortings and cordings; Woolen Mill, specialties, flannels, broadcloths, carriage cloths, doeskins, serges, cheviots, tricots, kerseys, Army and Navy cloths, suitings, etc .; Converting Mill, bleaching, dyeing, and printing of sateens, silesias, percales, linings and shirtings. Stevens Linen Works, specializing in linen crash toweling. Web- ster Dye and Yarn Mills, Inc., shoddy and yarns; commission carding, spool- ing, winding, twisting. Specializing on carpet yarns. Webster Spinning
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