USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 54
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 54
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 54
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SAW-MILLS. - At a meeting, held September 5, 1716, the proprietors voted to employ persons to look out a proper place for erecting one or two saw-mills within the limits of their purchase, and " that the running Gear therefor be provided Seasonably." Also that the small stream in the gully west of Fort Georges hould be granted to Gyles . and Goodwin, as has already been mentioned, provided a saw-mill or grist-mill should be built thereon within one year.1
At another meeting of the proprietors, held in the following October, it was proposed, unless more convenient places could be found, that two saw-mills should be built at " Bungamunganock" Falls. On No- vember 28, Mr. Samuel Came, of York, offered to build the running gear for a mill with two saws for f27 and the mill itself for £30. His offer was accepted, and he was desired to prepare running gear for two mills, and to set one up, early in the spring, at " Bungamunga- nock " Falls, and the other at the most convenient place he could find for timber, stream, etc., and to suit the settlements. To this Mr. Came agreed.
On October 14, 1717, it was agreed that Captain Gyles should be written to " to put our saw mill at Bungamunganock under Improve- ment till we shall take further order about it." 2 From this it would appear probable that one mill had already been erected, and it is not at all unlikely that the other was built soon afterwards, though prob- ably on the Cathance, for on April 28, 1718, it was voted that those of the proprietors who were going to Pejepscot should as soon as posible get the "two mills put into good order and under good improvement." 3
From a memorandum made upon the cover of the Brunswick Records, in the Pejepscot Collection, it seems that in 1753 there were
1 Pejepscot Records. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
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COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
no less than six saw-mills in Brunswick. Three of these were at New Meadows, one was at Maquoit, one at Bunganock, and one at the Brunswick Falls. This latter was the first mill ever built on the Androscoggin River, and according to McKeen,1 was on the upper dam. It was probably built by Jeremiah Moulton, of York, and David Dunning, though the date of erection may have been as late as 1761.2 The authority for McKeen's statement we have been unable to find, but presume it was a traditional account.
On November 14, 1761, Belcher Noyes, the proprietors' agent, deeded to David Dunning and Jeremiah Moulton the mill privilege that has since been known as the Fort Right. Its bounds, as described in the original deed, were as follows : -
" South on a road laid out to the Indian Carrying Place above the Falls, on said Androscoggin River, which is on the west side of said road to Maquoit, adjoining to lot number one, Northerly on the road laid out on the east side of said road to Maquoit to the landing Place on said Androscoggin River (exclusively of what land belongs to lot number one), and on said Androscoggin River according to the Course thereof above the Falls, so as to comprehend the land included within the said limits, exclusive of what land belongs to lot number one (together with one moiety or half part of any Rocks or Islets adjacent thereto) and one half of privilege of Stream." This included all the land north of Mill and Mason Streets, between the town landing and the upper dam.
By a vote of the proprietors, October 22, 1762, the right and privi- lege granted by this deed was extended so as to embrace the Topsham side of the river. This "right" afterwards became divided among the heirs and those to whom a portion of it had previously been sold, and the larger part of it is now owned by the Cabot Manufacturing Company, although Scribner's flour-mill and the mills in the Cove are located upon it. .
In 1767, Esquire Woodside was the owner of a saw-mill,3 which was probably at Bunganock.
About the year 1772 two saw-mills were erected about where the: pulp-mill now is, by Joshua Nye and Andrew Dunning. In 1792, Samuel Stanwood had a mill at Maquoit.
In 1795 there were, according to Given's plan of Brunswick, two saw-mills on the upper falls and one on the lower, besides four other
Manuscript Lecture.
2 Record of Court of General Sessions in County Commissioners' Office, Portland.
8 Town Records of Brunswick, 1, p. 68.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
saw-mills, the exact location of which cannot be determined in conse- quence of the defaced state of the map. One of them was probably the so-called " Folly " mill, which stood about where the Factory Gas- House now stands. This mill received its name in consequence of what was deemed, at the time, an act of folly. The brook which was to supply the water came from the swamp, which then existed where the depot now is, and ran down what is now Union Street and under Mill Street. On or near the mouth of this stream, Mr. Samuel Page built a mill, which of course failed to be of much practical benefit on account of the small and intermittent supply of water.
In the latter part of the last century Captain John Peterson had a saw-mill at New Meadows.
On July 8, 1808, Johnson Wilson received a deed of Shad Island, then called Fishing Rock Island, and not long afterwards he erected a double mill upon it.
On June 10, 1816, Ephraim Jones entered into an agreement with William Frost and Nathaniel Greene, of Topsham, and perhaps with others, to build a saw-mill on this island, sixty-five by forty feet in size, and to have it finished by August 10. The mill was built that year.
There were at the falls, in 1820, including those in Topsham, twenty- five saws. It has not been found practicable to obtain reliable infor- mation as to the exact date of erection of many of these mills. Their number at this time shows conclusively the importance of the lumber business then carried on, and consequently the thriving condition of these places. It was estimated at this time that not less than 500,000 feet of boards were cut annually by each saw. This would amount to 12,500,000 feet in a year, which, at seven dollars per thousand, would amount to $175,000. The greater part of this lumber was shipped by the way of Bath, and the rivers and bays on the south of the town. The revenue to the government from the duties assessed on the lum - ber in the two towns is said to have been not less than $75,000. A force of about three hundred men was employed in and about the saw- mills.1
There was also at this time a clapboard manufactory, the machinery for which was invented by Mr. Robert Eastman, of Brunswick. The machinery, though simple, was so constructed that it would cut two clapboards in a minute, regulate itself, and cut one hundred and twenty clapboards in an hour, from a block two feet in diameter. About 600.000 could be cut in a season.2
1 Putnam.
2 Ibid.
561
COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
In 1825 a number of these mills were destroyed by what is known as the " Great Fire."
A double saw-mill, which was erected by Jonathan Page near the ruins of the Great Fire, probably this year, was carried away by a freshet in 1827.
In 1831, Mr. Samuel S. Wing, who had for a year and a half pre- viously manufactured sugar-box shooks for a Boston firm, in a mill owned by Benjamin Weld, Esquire, where the pulp-mill now stands, bought out their interest, and commenced the business on his own account. He continued in the business for twenty-five years, a part of the time having three box-machines in operation at the same time. One of these machines was on the lower falls, one on Shad Island. and the other on the upper falls. These three machines manufactured annually upwards of 3,000,000 feet of pine boards.
In 1836 there were twenty saws in Brunswick Village, besides mills of other kinds. The same year Eliphalet P. Pike & Co. built a large saw-mill containing four saws, and a clapboard-mill, on Goat Island. The water was brought from the upper dam by means of a flume, and a bridge connected the island with the Brunswick shore. There was additional space sufficient for four to six more saws. This mill was carried off in 1839. A saw-mill was also erected in 1836 near the toll-bridge.
In 1848. J. C. Humphreys & Co. erected two steam-mills on a point extending into the river about two miles below the village. The machinery of these mills was propelled by two seventeen-inch cylinder engines, which drove one gang-saw, two upright single saws, two shingle, one clapboard, and one lath machine, one machine for making heads for molasses hogsheads, and two machines for making shooks, besides edging, cutting off, and other saws. About 500,000 feet of lumber was manufactured at that time. This com- pany had a ship-yard adjoining their mills. One of these mills was burned in 1864.
In 1857 what was known as the Bourne Mill, in the Cove, was burned. It was built by Abner Bourne early in the present century. In 1856 this mill belonged to R. T. Dunlap, C. J. Gilman, A. B. Thompson. and Ward Coburn.
In 1845, Mr. Abizer Jordan had in operation a machine for planing boards. It is supposed to have been the first one in operation in Brunswick.
In 1859, Messrs. Samson and Eben Colby, of Topsham, bought the Samuel S. Wing Property in Brunswick, at the end of the bridge, 36
562
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
known as the Perry Privilege, where they carried on the manufacture of sashes, doors, blinds, shingles, clapboards, and lathes, until 1871, when the mill was destroyed by fire. Mr. Eben Colby then built the mill on the same privilege, now the pulp-mill, and with J. F. Chaney continued the business under the style of Colby & Chaney for a year and a half, when they sold the mill to the Androscoggin Pulp Com- pany, and then built a large two-story mill in the Cove. In this building Colby, Chaney & Smith manufactured long and short lum- ber. sashes, doors, and blinds until 1875, when the mill passed into the hands of Charles H. Colby, who occupies the lower story, and the second story was leased to the Bangs Brothers.
The most flourishing time in this vicinity, so far as relates to the lumbering business, was undoubtedly between 1835 and 1845. In 1839 there were thirty saws in Brunswick alone. It has been found impracticable to give all the changes of ownership in mill property which have taken place within this century. Among those who have been prominently connected with the lumber business in Brunswick, who have not already been named, may be mentioned Paul Hall and Colonel William Stanwood, who owned the Nye mill in 1800 and sub- sequently ; Captain John Dunlap, who was part owner in a mill on the upper dam in 1800, as well as before and after that date: A. B. Thompson and J. C. Humphreys, who formed a copartnership and carried on the lumber business in a mill at the Cove, about 1825, and did an extensive business until they dissolved, in 1850.
About 1820, Abner Bourne, Richard and David Dunlap, William E. Weld, and Charles Weld were engaged in this business. David Dunlap was, doubtless, the largest mill-owner for many years. In 1829 he owned one saw and a half on the upper dam and two saws in the Cove. In 1831 he sold one half his whole interest to Rodney Forsaith, and they continued in partnership until 1836, when Forsaith bought his remaining interest and kept it until 1845, when the co- partnership of Lemont (Adam), Forsaith (Rodney), & Hall (Wil- liam H.) was made, and continued until about 1858. From about 1830 to 1850, Alfred J. Stone and William H. Morse carried on an extensive business. From 1837 to 1856, Joseph Lunt, 2d, was engaged in this business ; Burt Townsend, from about 1818 to about 1838 ; Phineas Taylor, about 1820 ; and Ward Coburn and Artemas Coburn, somewhat later, were engaged also in this business.
There are now but two saw-mills in operation in Brunswick. They are in the Cove and are owned, one by C. H. Colby and the other by Hiram Toothaker and Trueworthy Brown.
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COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
BOOMS.
I he stringing together of logs across the river, in order to catch the loose logs that might escape from rafts, or be floated from the shores, was doubtless done in the very earliest period of the lumber business, but the erection of regular booms and the incorporation of a company for the express purpose of collecting stray logs did not occur until towards the latter part of the last century. These booms were made of wooden piers filled with stone and connected by timbers fastened with irons. Some of the " King's Masts" were put into a boom below the bridge, by Brigadier Thompson. They were afterwards taken out and put into a boom above the bridge, and were some of them still in use as late as March 22, 1856, having stood this service for about seventy years.
The first boom known to have been erected on the river was the Androscoggin Boom, which extended from Ferry Point to Mason's Rock. The proprietors were Samuel Thompson, Esquire. Ezekiel Thompson, Benjamin Thompson, Stephen Purrington, Thomas Thomp- son, James Purrington, James Wilson, Humphrey Thompson, and James Thompson. They were incorporated February 14, 1789.1
Another company was formed March 15, 1805, at which time the General Court of Massachusetts enacted " that Thomas Thompson, William Stanwood, Elijah Hall, Paul Hall, Humphrey Purinton, Cor- nelius Thompson, Trueworthy Kilgore, Francis Tucker, and Johnson Wilson, and their associates, successors. and assigns be, and they are hereby constituted a corporation for making, laying, and maintaining side-booms in suitable and convenient places in Androscoggin River, from Androscoggin Bridge to the Narrows of said river, in Brunswick and Topsham, so long as they shall continue proprietors of the fund raised, or which may be hereafter raised for that purpose, and shall be a body politic by the name of THE PROPRIETORS OF SIDE-BOOMS IN ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER, and by that name may sue," etc.
The company was entitled to receive compensation of the owners of logs and other lumber by them rafted and properly secured for the owner, the fees being regulated by the charter.
On February 29, 1812, an additional Act authorized the proprietors of side-booms in the Androscoggin River to extend side-booms abore the lower falls.
In 1820 there were six booms above and five below the falls.
1 Massachusetts Special Laws, 1, p. 230.
564
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
· On February 27, 1829, it was provided by the legislature that the selectmen of Brunswick and Topsham should annually appoint two surveyors of logs at the several side-booms in the river at Topsham and Brunswick, in order that the logs caught in the booms should be fairly surveyed and disputes be prevented between the proprietors and the owners of logs.
In October, 1855, three of these booms, said to have cost about $40,000, were carried away by a freshet. There are now no traces of these booms to be seen below the falls. Above the falls can be seen, at low water, the ruins of several stone piers to which the boom-sticks were formerly attached.
COTTON AND WOOLLEN FACTORIES.
Coming under the general term of mills are several which are usually designated as factories. Of these some were for the manu- facture of cotton and some of woollen goods. In early times the manufacture of clothing was quite laborious, as there were then no carding-machines. After the sheep were shorn in the spring the neighbors used to collect for " wool-breaking," as the preparing the wool for the spinning-wheel was called, and after the labor was over the time was spent in amusement and social intercourse. 1
The first factory was established by the BRUNSWICK COTTON MANU- FACTORY COMPANY, which was incorporated March 4, 1809. Ezra Smith, William King, and Doctor Porter were among the propri- etors. The company was formed for the manufacture of cotton yarn, which was shipped to other mills to be made into cloth. The mill did not prove a success, and it is said that the stockholders, lost all their capital. No cloth was made in this mill.2 The mill was a three-story, gambrel-roofed, wooden building, and stood close to the river, on the left-hand side of the lane which passes the east end of the present mill.3 The machinery was put in by Robert Eastman and James Jones.
The second mill was that of the MAINE COTTON AND WOOLLEN FAC- TORY COMPANY, which was incorporated in October, 1812. This com- pany erected a wooden mill about where the blacksmith shop of the Cabot Company now stands. They also bought the building of the Brunswick Company, which they used for a storehouse. Deacon John Perry was the first agent.
1 James Curtis's Journal, in library of Maine Historical Society.
2 Reminiscences of Dean Swift.
8 Reminiscences of Dean Swift and Miss Narcissa Stone.
565
COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
In 1820 there were 1.248 cotton spindles in full operation, and two hundred and forty woollen spindles ; nine woollen looms, and carding and fulling machines in proportion. 100,000 yards of cotton cloth were turned off in a season, "and the broadcloths, from full-blooded merinos, do not follow haud passibus @quis, those of Manchester." About one hundred operatives were employed at that time.1
Both these mills were destroyed in the fire of 1825, the old building being used at the time as a storehouse. Soon after the fire, a mill for carding wool and dressing cloth was established by Jolm Dyer. It was called the EAGLE FACTORY. It stood on the west side of the Shad Island road, near the end of the present mill. It was removed in 1834 across the road, and is now occupied as a tenement.
The BRUNSWICK COMPANY was incorporated in 1834. The corpora- tors were Isaac Lincoln, Joseph McKeen, Richard T. Dunlap, Abner B. Thompson, Ebenezer Everett, Nathaniel Davis, John C. Hum- phreys, David Dunlap, Noah Hinkley, Elijah P. Pike, Narcissa Stone, Robert P. Dunlap, Thomas Pennell. Jolin Dunning, and James McKeen. They were empowered to manufacture cotton, wool, iron, and steel, and other raw material necessarily connected therewith ; and to erect mills, dams, works, machines, and buildings on their own land. They were afterwards, by an additional Act, authorized to carry on the manufacturing business in the town of Topsham, as well as in Brunswick.
According to the by-laws, the stock of the company was divided into shares of one hundred dollars each.
The following was the property belonging to the company in 1836 : -
"1. A new mill of undressed granite, five stories high, 146 feet long, 45 wide, capable of containing 5,120 spindles of cotton spinning. ." 2. Four additional mill-sites of equal extent with the last, two dwelling-houses three stories high, one store, a counting-room, stone picker-house, cotton store, and forging-shop. all completely finished, with convenient land for their use, all situated in Brunswick, and four mill-sites in Topsham.
"3. The whole breadth of the river with the islands and dams, thirteen and a half acres of land in Brunswick and Topsham, and water-power sufficient to carry as many saws and spindles of cotton machinery as there is space to erect the mills."
At a meeting of this company, August 10, 1836, the following officers were chosen : -
1 Henry Putnam, Exquire. printed letters
566
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
William Willis, R. T. Dunlap, H. Goddard, M. Greenwood, and N. F. Deering, directors ; N. F. Deering, treasurer ; Thomas L. Willis, clerk ; I. A. Beard, agent.1
The Brunswick Company ran this factory until 1840, when they leased it to Mr. Allen Colby, who managed it until March, 1843, when it was sold at auction in Boston, to Whitwell, Seaver, & Co., for $34,400. The original cost was about $190,000. This latter company intrusted the management of it to Messrs. A. P. Kimball and John Dunning Coburn, of Boston, who soon afterwards pur- chased it.2
This firm, after carrying on the business for a few years, failed, and the mill went into other hands.
On July 3, 1847, the WARUMBO MANUFACTURING COMPANY Was incorporated. The stock of this company "consisted of mortgages and other claims on the late firm of Kimball & Coburn, which fell into their hands for debts against the said firm, of which they expected to realize nothing except through the earnings of the factory, and of other mortgaged property in Brunswick, subject to an amount of prior encumbrances exceeding $40,000."
The company was organized in the summer of 1848. Who were the directors at that time is not known, but in 1849 they were Abner B. Thompson, John Coburn, Nathaniel Davis, James K. Mills, Thomas Gray, Hollis Thayer, and William Perkins. This company carried on business but a few years before it also failed, probably on account of the encumbrances upon its property and the heavy liabili- ties it had to meet. The regulations of this company in regard to its operatives were quite strict. Amongst others was one refusing to employ any one " who is habitually absent from public worship on the Sabbath, or who uses profane or indecent language in the mill or else- where, or who uses ardent spirits as a beverage."
The Warumbo Company was succeeded by the CABOT COMPANY. This company bought the factory in 1853, but on account of debt and a number of the stockholders failing to pay their assessments, it was sold at auction in 1857. A number of the former members bought up the stock, and organized a company under the name of THE CABOT MANUFACTURING COMPANY, with a capital of $400,000. In 1857 the company had two hundred and thirty-five looms in operation and had expended $40,000. There were 9,000 spindles at work ; the mill gave employment to one hundred and seventy-five persons, at a total
1 From the Regulator.
2 Reminiscences of Allen Colby.
567
COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK.
monthly pay of $3.000, and it turned out 50.000 yards of plain and drill cotton per week. In 1865 or 1866 an addition of seventy feet was made on the east side and one of fifty feet on the west side, with two wings on the ends. In 1867 the mill had 26,000 spindles. The company owned thirty acres of land on the two sides of the river and seventy-five tenements, and made its own gas, which it also supplied to the town. At the present time (1877) the officers of this com- pany are as follows : president, C. W. Freeland ; treasurer, Francis Cabot ; agent and clerk. Benjamin Greene ; directors, C. W. Free- land, B. W. Gleason, Peter Butler, William Amory, Q. A. Shaw, B. H. Silsbee. John T. Anderson. The capital stock is $600,000; the number of spindles, 35,000 ; the number of operatives employed is five hundred and fifty. The buildings of the company are a factory. office, storehouse, store, and one hundred tenements.
The BRUNSWICK WOOLLEN FACTORY was established by Whitten & Meder in 1841. It was situated a short distance below the upper dam, and the water was brought to it through a flume. This mill was not only a fulling and carding mill, but cloth was manufactured in it. The business was carried on by this firm until the mill was burned in 1849. Since then it has been carried on in various localities by the late Mr. William Whitten alone, whose business, however, was con- fined exclusively to wool carding.
A WARP YARN MANUFACTORY was carried on by Mr. Allen Colby, from 1844 to the latter part of 1846, on the spot where Scribner's flour-mill now stands.
A partially successful attempt has been made to utilize the water- power of the Androscoggin away from the vicinity of the river by using it for the purpose of compressing air which could be sent through pipes to the places where needed. For this purpose the COMPRESSED-AIR COMPANY was formed, and in 1872 pipes were laid and the air-power was used in Dennison's box factory, at Parent & Dufrend's blacksmith shop, at the depot. in the college laboratory, and at the printing-office of the Brunswick Telegraph. After a trial of one or two years the project was abandoned, owing principally to the action of the railroad company, which decided to use steam in preference to the air-power. This deprived the Compressed-Air Com- pany of its principal source of revenue, and it was obliged to suspend operations.
568
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
OTHER MANUFACTORIES.
BANDBOX MANUFACTORY. - From 1850 to 1860, Mr. B. G. Denions carried on the manufacture of bandboxes quite extensively, employ- ing eight or ten persons. The boxes were made in eight sizes and put up in " nests." Three of these nests were put up in one bundle. They were sold in Boston to wholesale dealers in millinery goods. At that time the bandbox was an indispensable article with the ladies, and the manufacture of them was a profitable business. After the modern improvements in trunks came into vogue, they were less used in travelling, and are now almost unknown.
BRICK-YARDS. - At what time, and where, the earliest brick-yards were, has not been ascertained. There have probably been one or more in operation from an early period of the settlement of the town. The earliest yard which has come to our notice was one near Gatch- ell's Mills, owned by Unite Mariner and Barstow Gatchell. This yard was established about the year 1800, and if tradition is correct, it fur- nished the brick for the first college building, Massachusetts Hall.
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