USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume I > Part 69
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Furniture manufacture was at one time an important industry, for besides the shops engaged in this work at Penacook, the central wards had several establishments involving large capital, and giving employ- ment to hundreds of hands.
For many years Isaac Elwell, who had long employed the state prison convicts in making furniture, had a large factory near the rail- road at the South end, where he carried on the business for many years. Then Benjamin F. Caldwell entered into the same business, building a large factory and plant near the gas works (now occupied by the E. B. Hutchinson Building Company).
In the seventies L. H. Clough carried on an extensive commerce in bedsteads and chamber-sets, employing upwards of a hundred workmen. At the present time in Concord there scarcely remains a vestige of this once brisk industry, and, with the exception of the Caldwell factory, the buildings once connected with furniture mak- ing have all but disappeared.
Another Concord industry is the hub and spoke manufactory of Holt Brothers, established in 1872. This firm consisted of William H., Charles H., A. Frank, and Benjamin Holt. The Concord branch of the company was under the direction of A. Frank Holt until his death in 1889. The principal business is in Stockton, California, where the firm manufactures farming implements and wagon sup- plies, and employs several hundred hands. Holt Brothers is one of Concord's most extensive business houses.
The industrial policy of Concord, unlike that of so many New England towns, has always shown a conservative preference for diver- sity, as was strikingly proved in the introduction of shoe manufac- ture. There never was a time when the shoemaker did not ply his trade among us, but it was only for the local demands ; no attempt to establish a factory was made until about 1884. Having in mind
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what had been done elsewhere, a citizens' meeting was called and the question of building a shoe factory thoroughly discussed. An association was formed, subscriptions to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars paid in, and a spacious and well arranged building erected on the lot just east of the railroad on Bridge street, which the city government exempted from taxation for a term of ten years.
Howard L. Porter, a shoe manufacturer of Lynn, became the lessee, and in January, 1885, the shop was put in operation. Few factories of its kind surpass this in architectural and structural features, or in its equipment with the best and latest machinery. The latter com- prises four full sets, with a capacity of forty cases or twenty-five hun- dred pairs of shoes a day. The entire output of the factory passes through the wholesale trade to every state in the Union, and to Mexico and the West Indies. In the first ten years under Mr. Por- ter's management the product of this industry was one million nine hundred and fifteen thousand three hundred and twenty pairs of shoes, the sales amounting to two million and a half of dollars. In the meantime the pay-roll of the successive Saturdays during that period reached six hundred and fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-one dollars, nearly all of which found its way into the retail stores of Concord. This factory is now occupied by the Morrison Shoe Company and by the Peerless Manufacturing Company.
In the finer arts Concord has achieved a wide reputation by reason of the William B. Durgin silver factory. In the forties Mr. Durgin came to Concord and began the business of making spoons in a little shop opposite Free Bridge road, and in 1854 he added the manufac- ture of silverware in a small one-story wooden structure then stand- ing on School street, not far from the site of his present factory. It was one of a row of similar buildings destroyed in the conflagration that swept away the Damon house in 1860.
In 1866 Mr. Durgin built his large brick factory on School street, and has enlarged it more than once, but so extensive has the business become that much of the work is done in the Insurance building oppo- site the factory. The output of this house is of the highest repute everywhere, and finds its way to the choicest customers. In the excel- lence of workmanship, and in the value of material used, Concord has nothing in the point of commerce that equals the Durgin silver man- ufactory. The number of artisans employed in the different branches of this trade is frequently as many as one hundred and twenty, some of the men receiving wages amounting to many dollars a day. The business is now done under the corporate name of William B. Durgin & Son, the latter, George F. Durgin, having charge as manager.
The direct and material good done to Concord by the railroads is
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beyond estimation. The interests involved in these corporations have contributed in every way to the progress and permanent growth of the city. Aside from the history of railroads related in another chapter is that feature of their management which properly comes under mate- rial advancement. Fifty or more years ago Concord began to feel the impulse of new methods of transportation in the construction of a few railroad buildings and shops, mostly wooden, which after a short service gave way to larger structures of brick, the older buildings being used for car houses, paint shops, and storehouses. The new station was long considered an architectural ornament to the town, with its pillars and offices, its double track, and its large public hall, where social and political Concord was wont to gather to listen to lectures, music, and political speeches.
Among the new railroad buildings of a generation ago was a brick machine shop several hundred feet long and sixty-five wide, and a wood-working shop of smaller size situated east of the imposing pas- senger station of our time. The cost of the shops was not far from twenty thousand dollars, a sum thought considerable in the early days of railroading. The entire force of workmen-under the direction of a foreman who received three dollars and nineteen cents a day-was not far from forty, with a pay-roll of about three thousand dollars a month. A few yards northerly the Northern Railroad maintained its own machine, wood, and paint shops, employing a fewer number of mechanics and carpenters and workmen than the Concord corpora- tion.
In our day the few miles of rails and the seventeen acres of land owned by the railroads in Concord yard in 1850 have increased to forty miles of side-tracks extending over a broad territory from the main rails to the very banks of the Merrimack, while passing over this domain are more than fourteen hundred cars daily.
The new shops at the South end are as complete as possible, and their influence on future Concord must be immeasurable. There are five and a half acres covered with workshops and construction plant, situated in an enclosed yard containing twenty-eight acres and six miles of traek. In this undertaking alone may be read an interesting chapter of Concord's growth. Here in these great shops with arrange- ments made for further enlargement, are seven hundred operatives or more in place of half that number under the roof of the old Concord and the Northern shops of less than a decade ago.
From the time when one of the famous Rogers's Rangers, named Richard Elliot, built a rude sawmill at the outlet of the Contoocook river in the Borough prior to the Revolution, that part of Concord first known as the Borough, then Fisherville, and in our day Pena-
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cook, has been singularly industrious in the utilization of its exceed- ingly good water power. Very much in contrast with the city itself has been the mill activity of Ward 1. According to tradition the Borough outlet was discovered by Ensign Elliot while on one of his scouting expeditions ; at all events, the locality was favorable to saw- ing timber, and Elliot's sawmill marked the industrial beginnings of Penacook. Not long after building his mill (1770) he sold to his brothers, who continued to carry on the business for many years. The site of the first sawmill is substantially the spot now covered with the Amsden-Whitaker mill, conducted by C. M. & A. W. Rolfe. About 1789 Abel Baker put up a grist-mill not far beyond the Elliot property, and afterwards added a sawmill, running both till near 1816. The favorable location of the outlet soon developed a thriving lumber industry that increased year after year until it became a most impor- tant factor in developing the growth of the village. The country drained by the Contoocook river was plentifully covered with timber of the most marketable kind, and the felling of trees and the floating of logs to the local mills was for many years a considerable source of income, but it was nothing as compared to the vaster business of hauling logs from the Borough across the town to the banks of the Merrimack, whence they were sent on their journey to the big mills about Lowell.
For years the various parts of the lumbering business gave steady employment to wood choppers, river men, and teamsters, bringing ready money to the town and starting more than one family on the road to subsequent prosperity. Millions of fcet floated along the river, the amount being as incalculable as the numbering of the leaves, but the supply was maintained for several generations, and even now one seldom fails to sec booms of logs somewhere along the Contoocook.
Some two decades after this sawmill was started in the Borough a grist-mill with two run of stones was built on the Contoocook near the site of the Harris woolen factory, and tradition has it that the builders were Isaac and Jeremiah Chandler. Near the grist-mill was a sawmill which was in use for many years and passed through sev- eral ownerships. To-day the site is covered by one of the most busy industries of Concord, namely, the flouring establishment of Stratton & Company. This business was started by John H. Pearson & Com- . pany, who erected a mill in 1858, which was run by that firm, and by the firm of Barron, Dodge & Company, until December, 1871, when the plant passed to the firm of Whitcher, Stratton & Company, and finally to the present proprietors,-Stratton & Company (George L. Stratton, William K. McFarland, and John W. Johnston). The flour mill and the corn mill are equipped with the most improved machin-
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ery, the former having adopted in 1885 the Hungarian roller process with a daily capacity of three hundred barrels of flour; both employ thirty-five operatives, in day and night gangs. The corn mill was rebuilt in 1885, and its enlarged plant can grind five thousand bush- els of corn every day. Both mills are in constant operation, and have been since the beginning, for the flour made by Stratton & Company is of the highest grade, and finds ready markets in the states of New England.
A blacksmith shop was opened in 1825 by Warren Johnson, and it was here that the first axles and edge tools were said to have been made. About this time H. W. Gage started a carding and cloth dressing mill to which farmers brought their wool and took away the finished rolls.
Another sawmill was built in 1825 by Nathaniel Rolfe, not far from the Merrimack, of which traces may be seen to-day. In this vicinity the Rolfe name and industry still continues, for in the busy sash, door, and blind factory of C. M. & A. W. Rolfe, Penacook has one of its largest pay-rolls. Forty to sixty men are employed by the firm in shaping into merchandise more than a million feet of lumber annually. Among the men that formerly owned mills turning out sash, doors, and blinds were William Blanehard and H. N. Harvey. The manufacture of kits for mackerel, onee a West Concord enter- prise, was removed here in the eighties. In 1847 Almon Harris started the woolen mills now carried on by his descendants. Another man of business was Benjamin Kimball, who built the dam at the second fall and put up a grist-mill about 1830. This property soon passed into the control of Calvin Gage and others, who sold to the Fishers of Boston (Freeman and Francis). The Fishers ereeted the Contoocook mill, a granite building since used for various kinds of manufacture and now in active operation. Winn & Messenger made what was styled negro eloth in this mill. Then followed, in the early forties, an impetus in cotton manufacturing and the granite mill was leased to II. H. & J. S. Brown of Attleboro. The coming of these practical men was an epoch in the history of the place. A canal was dug and the Penacook mill erected. Both mills were conducted by the Browns, print cloths being the chief output. During the height of activity both mills had nearly five hundred operatives.
Another industry in Penaeook has been furniture making. Prob- ably the pioneer was a Mr. Robinson, whose mill was situated at the lower fall, but Benjamin F. Caldwell soon became the leader in the new business. In 1848 the business called for enlargement, conse- quently Mr. Caldwell secured control of a power at the upper fall and built his first factory. He soon took as partners Henry H.
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View of Penacook, showing Dam and Stone Mill.
ASIA
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Amsden and Samuel Merriman, and the business became highly pros- perous. In later years this industry grew to be the leading one in the village, and of its kind the largest in the state. After Mr. Cald- well and Mr. Merriman retired, the concern passed to the Amsdens, father and son,-the latter Charles H. Amsden. At one time the number of hands employed in the Amsden factory was two hundred, and the pay-roll averaged several thousand dollars weekly.
The J. E. Symonds Company (J. E. Symonds, George W. Abbott, Arthur C. Stewart), occupying extensive buildings on the island, do a large business in manufacturing tables, book-cases, and interior fur- nishings, employing fifty mechanies. Mr. Symonds and Mr. Abbott began business many years ago on the site owned by Jacob B. Rand, and used by him in the fifties for a piano factory. Moving thence in 1888 because of fire, they established their works on the island.
Not far from the iron bridge there used to be several industries that contributed to the growth of Penacook; among them was a small foundry, operated by Gerrish & Ames, also a peg factory owned by George Brett.
For more than half a century axle making has been carried on in Ward 1. The first person to engage in that business was Warren Johnson, who constructed a trip-hammer and set up the first engine lathe for finishing axles in the brick building on Water street near the flour mill, and used later as a stone-polishing shop. For several years little more than the local trade was supplied, and the business was carried on by several proprietors until 1864, when it came into the possession of D. Arthur Brown & Company. About 1855 L. & A. H. Drown started a similar business, which was afterwards con- dueted by A. B. Winn & Company, the Messrs. Drown giving up business and entering the army, one as captain, the other as quarter- master. The former, Leonard Drown, was the first New Hampshire officer killed in the Civil War. Since 1865 D. Arthur Brown has been the continuous manager of the business, the other members of the firm being HI. II., J. S., and H. F. Brown. When this firm began operations the force consisted of three men, whose place of labor was a small shop. Constant growth has attended the business, so that there are now employed seventy-five workmen, with a product of seven hundred tons of axles, four hundred and fifty tons of iron castings, besides machinery of various kinds every year. To produce all this requires thousands of tons of bar and pig iron and steel, and a thousand tons of coal, besides water-wheels of large horse power. The works now occupy four extensive buildings with necessary store- houses. Since the beginning of this industry a careful estimate shows that more than a million dollars have been paid in wages. The com-
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pany became a corporation in 1880, and is known as the Concord Axle Company.
During the last decade of the century just passed Penacook expe- rienced its share of suffering, owing to a general depression to which were added local troubles, but at the present time its prospects are bright with new enterprises and renewed energy. The electric mill, so called, built by Charles H. Amsden in 1890, afterwards became the property of the Whitney Electrical Instrument Company. This corporation, under the management of Dr. A. H. Hoyt, is engaged in the manufacture of electrical instruments, and gives employment to a good number of skilled workmen. No factory in Concord has so many interesting features connected with it as this one has, for "among its output are the most delicate electrical machines, x-ray machines, and automobiles. Not far distant from this interesting factory was erected, in 1890, a large woolen mill for the Concord Manufacturing Company (Holden & Sons). This mill, built on the most approved plans, contains six sets of machinery and employs upwards of two hundred operatives, whose influence is deeply felt in the community.
It was near the middle of the eighteenth century, or to be exact, in 1746, that Benning Wentworth, last but one of our royal gov- ernors, received a memorial from the hands of certain freeholders of Rumford which affords an interesting sketch of the first industry sit- uated in the West Parish. The object of the memorial was to call the attention of the gouty and headstrong governor to the perilous situation of affairs and to ask for protection.
"The Petition of the Subscribers, Inhabitants of Rumford, Canter- bury and Contoocook-
" Humbly sheweth, that we, especially at the two last mentioned places, are greatly distressed for want of suitable Grist mills ; that Mr. Henry Lovejoy has, at great expense, erected a good mill at a place the most advantageously situated to accommodate the three towns; that it is the only mill in all the three towns that stands under the command of the guns of the garrison ;- that the ill conse- quences of abandoning the said garrison the year past has been severely felt by us ; That the said Lovejoy appears desirous of resid- ing there again, provided he might be favored with such a number of soldiers as just to keep his garrison with a tolerable degree of safety ; and that as an additional encouragement to us to appear as petition- ers on his behalf, and to your Excellency and Honours to grant our said petition, he will become engaged, with all convenient speed, to erect a forge for the making of Barr Iron which may also stand under the guns of the said garrison ; which undertaking would prob-
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ably be vastly advantageous to all the towns and plantations up this way as well as to the general interest of the Province."
This paper received seventy signatures, but nothing directly respon- sive appears to have been done. However, we know that West Con- cord had one of the first mills for grinding grain, and that an attempt was made to make iron. Some years after, Mr. Lovejoy did build a dam and erect a forge, obtaining the ore from a locality near the Sou- cook river, and in more recent times traces of the iron industry have been found along the site of the old mills.
Like all the subsequent water-wheels of this neighborhood, Love- joy's mills were situated on Rattlesnake brook, which issuing from Lake Penacook swirls easterly through the woods, plunging over the hill and disappearing beneath the highway at Holden's mills, then emerging beyond the ancient foundations of the Renton mill, flows on to the Merrimack. Rattlesnake brook is to West Concord what Turkey river once was to Concord, and what the Contoocook now is to Penacook.
About 1832, George Brodie, a Scotch millwright, persuaded Dr. Peter Renton and John Jarvis of the practicability of erecting a flouring mill at the falls near the highway in West Parish. The rea- son for choosing this site was because there was a steep and abrupt decline at this point which in reference to the brook furnished just the place for the wheel pit. This great cavern in the earth may be seen to-day, its huge foundation stones and massive side walls sug- gesting some old castle in Mr. Brodie's native Scotland. The mill was built and milling began, but the enterprise was not a success. In those days the flour was all shipped by the Middlesex canal, being drawn to the landing in large and cumbersome four-horse teams. The wheel pit was thirty feet deep, the wheel was of the overshot kind and turned four runs of stones. This Renton mill is still standing, a sturdy challenge to time and innovation. It is on the east side of the street, opposite the Holden residence, and is now used as a storehouse.
Where the new mill stands almost facing it there was once a small collection of industries now all but forgotten, yet in their day of some importance. A man named Dunklee carried on a silk factory there, making skein silk and dyeing it in hues most gorgeous. There were but few hands employed, yet so well managed was the business and so profitable the occupation that the owner left a large estate as measured by the rule prevailing in those days.
Near by was a pipe shop owned by Clough & Eastman, where lead pipe was made. The process of making was simple, for it was in the days before reels were used, so the pipe was cast in lengths of several
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feet, very much as ordinary iron pipe. The business, however, was limited, few workmen were employed, as much of the labor was per- formed by the proprietors, and yet most of the water pipe used in town came from this shop. Farnum & Houston had a blacksmith shop, and during staging days did a brisk business, for the stage- coaches stopped at the tavern near by as did the traveling pub- lic. This shop was in front of the north end of Holden's new mill.
For years there was another industry somewhat peculiar to West Concord,-the making of mackerel kits. Moses Humphrey started this business in the forties, and carried it on successfully for many years, or until the water power passed into the hands of the city. This mill, said to be one of the oldest of its kind in New England, was situated at the foot of the hill east of the old Renton flour mill, and gave constant employment to many workmen. The output was some seventy-five thousand kits a year, and the amount of pine nee- cssary to make this number brought many dollars into the pockets of the lumbermen.
To the north of Renton's factory, Squire Dow had a large tan-yard, his vats encroaching nearly to the sidewalk. A generation ago this neighborhood used to present a picturesque aspect, when one side of the street was embellished with Holden Brothers' soft and gleaming blankets hung out to weather, while on the other side Squire Dow's hides, with their healthful offensiveness, sagged heavily on the dry- ing frames.
About 1842 Benjamin F. Holden secured the control of the flour- ing mill, and after making necessary changes, started the manufac- ture of woolen goods. In 1847 his brother Daniel joined in the busi- ness, which grew into large proportions under the joint management. In 1863 the mill on the west side of the street was erected, additions following as needed, so that along in 1893 the Renton mill was dis- continued.
In 1874, at the death of Benjamin F. Holden, the partnership ended, and a corporation styled the Concord Manufacturing Company was organized to continue the business. When the city constructed the water-works an arrangement had to be made with the company, the account of which is another part of this history.
Within a twelvemonth after the settlers in the ancient part of Concord, now known as Ward 2, began putting up their first rude dwellings, they also set about erecting mills for grinding corn and sawing boards, for on the 15th of May, 1727, Captain Ebenezer Eastman, Henry Rolfe, and James Mitchell were made a committee to sec to this important subject. Turtle brook seemed to them to afford a good and convenient privilege, so they arranged with Nathan
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Symonds, a year or two later, to build a grist-mill on the site since used by Cyrus Robinson as a bark mill, and also to build a sawmill further up the brook where in after days stood the blacksmith and machine shop of Isaac Eastman. Later still this site was occupied by Samuel Eastman as a plaster mill, and in more recent times by Joseph T. Clough. These mills were put in operation, and having been accepted by the committee, Mr. Symonds received in payment therefor one hundred acres of land. The building owned and occu- pied by John Chandler as an inn during the last quarter of the eighteenth century was afterwards converted into a grist-mill. It was situated on the west bank of Turtle brook, opposite the bark mill. Some time in the forties it was again sold to Jeremiah Smith, the village blacksmith, who had his shop west of the curry shop of Cyrus Robinson, near the bridge across the brook, on the road leading to what was once called the "Dark Plains." This property again changed hands about 1853, when it was sold to Cyrus Farrar of Lowell, who came to East Concord and carried on the business of silk and woolen dyer for many years. Later it was bought by Samuel Ordway, changed into a carriage factory, and ultimately destroyed by fire.
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