USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume III > Part 15
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There is a loud cry for the abolishment of grade crossings, and many who join in the clamor do not know that the execu- tion of such a plan throughout the Boston and Maine system would cost as much as the original construction of the system,
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or about a hundred million dollars; yet much has been done in the larger cities to eliminate danger by elevation or depression of tracks and the expense has been great. Many other improve- ments have been made in costly terminals and double tracks, that do not at once yield revenues. It might have been better in the past to have paid smaller dividends and put more of the surplus into permanent improvements, but stockholders are always clamoring for greater returns on money invested. The penny- wise policy of saving for the present proves to be pound-foolish in the long run. The long delayed expenditures have to be made, and then stockholders must patiently wait and live on the liberal earnings of the past and the expectations of the future.
The rapid rise in the cost of all material and wages seems to demand a corresponding rise in the cost of travel and freightage. The Public Service Commission are trying to adjust the railroad rates to present wise and necessary expenditures. In making purchases people should cheerfully pay what a thing now costs to make it, with reasonable compensation to the carrier. When- ever it is discovered that the stockholders of railroads are get- ting too great a revenue, the rates can be reduced as easily as they were advanced.
All concerned are to be congratulated that the abuse of free passes has ceased to exist. Thereby, it was charged, legis- lation was controlled, and a moneyed system was exalted to political power. The debate over this subject was stormy and prolonged. Justice triumphed in the end. The railroads are saving money, and legislators are likely to be less biased and more independent. The State must keep on improving its rail- roads and adapting them to the needs of the entire population, till the air-ship or some other invention takes their place.
Chapter XII MANUFACTURES
Chapter XII
MANUFACTURES.
Relative Rank as a Manufacturing State-Value of Textile Output-Cot- ton Mills-Woolen Mills-Paper and Pulp at Berlin-Gloves and Photographs at Littleton-Stone Cutting at Concord-Granite for the Congressional Library-Red Granite at North Conway-Pink Granite at Lebanon-Extent of the Granite Industry-Other Industries at Con- cord-Manufacture of Boots and Shoes-Lumber-Wages Earned-Dis- content of Workmen-Character of Operatives-Influence of Occupa- tion on Character-Does Machinery Save Labor or Make More of It? -The Shop and Farm compared.
N EW HAMPSHIRE had at the last census a population of 430,572, or about thirty-seven persons to each square mile. It ranked thirty-ninth among the states and territories of the United States, while in manufacures it ranked twenty-eighth. Of natural products the State has little to work upon, save lum- ber and granite, and the former is fast disappearing. It takes the products of other states and works them over into finished goods for the market. The immense waterpower of the Merrimack and other rivers invites capitalists here, as well as excellent means of transportation and proximity to seaport markets. In 1909 the State had 1,961 manufacturing establishments, or factories, em- ploying 84,191 workmen and the salaries and wages of the same were $40,391,000. In sixty years the value of its manufactured products had increased from $23,165,000 to $164,581,000, or over sixfold, while during the same time the population had increased only thirty-five per cent. During the last fifteen years the in- crease has been very marked. Ninety-three per cent. of all persons engaged in manufactures are wage-earners. The manu- facturing centers, in the order of their rank, are Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Dover, Berlin, Laconia, Keene, and Ports- mouth. Small waterfalls unharnessed may be found in almost every town of the State, where once was a saw-mill or a grist- mill. The manufactures have been drawn to within easy dis- tance of the railroads, and railroads have been sending out short
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branches to extensive waterpowers and lumbering regions. Thus New Hampshire is being transformed from an agricultural into a manufacturing State.
The combined value of the textile manufactures of the State, in 1909, including cotton goods, woolen and worsted goods, and hosiery and knit goods, amounted to $55,097,000, or one- third of the total value of the manufactures of the State. The value of the cotton goods alone was excelled only by that of boots and shoes. The first cotton mill in New Hampshire was put into operation in the year 1804, in New Ipswich, only four- teen years after the Arkwright machinery was introduced into Providence, Rhode Island. The prime mover in this industry was Charles Robbins. The first mill contained five hundred spindles which spun four and a half pounds of yarn the first day of operation. A second factory was commenced in the same town in 1807. The legislature encouraged these enterprises by granting exemption from taxation for five years, on the build- ings, machinery and stock not exceeding the value of twenty thousand dollars. These two mills were in operation for some years before any other machinery was set up in the State for the manufacture of cotton yarn. The first mill spun about three hundred pounds of cotton per week at a cost of twenty-six cents per pound. All the cotton, or cotton wool, as it was then called, was picked by hand at a cost of four or five cents per pound and was distributed for that purpose among the farm houses. In 1812 a picking machine was invented. In 1820 power looms were introduced into New Ipswich for the manufacture of sheetings. Prior to that date hand-looms wove some cotton fabrics that did not find an inviting market, since nearly all cotton products were imported from England.
Benjamin Pritchard learned his trade at New Ipswich. He associated with him Ephraim, David, and Robert Stevens, and they built a small mill on the west side of the falls at Amoskeag village in 1809, in what was then Goffstown. This led to the incorporation in 1810 of the Amoskeag Cotton and Woolen Man- ufacturing Company. Thus were founded the textile industries of Manchester. The cotton was picked and the yarn woven in the neighborhood, and a smart weaver could earn thirty-six cents a day. In 1831 the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was formed with a capital of one million dollars. Lyman Tif-
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fany was the first president of the company, and Ira Gray clerk. The property of the old firm was exchanged for stock, and land was purchased on both sides of the Merrimack river, but chiefly on the east side, where it was more advantageous to build canals and mills. The company purchased the old locks and canals in this vicinity and soon after acquired possession of the manu- facturing plants at Hooksett and Concord, thus having all the water power between Concord and Manchester with extensive lands adjacent. A stone dam was built at Manchester to replace the old wooden one. A city was laid out and building sites commenced to be sold in 1838. A site and mill privilege were sold to a company that erected the Stark mills. Soon followed machine shops, foundry and a plant for the manufacture of loco- motives. The growth of the city has been rapid. Two of the largest cotton mills in the world are here, and yet the value of boots and shoes made in Manchester is greater than that of its cotton products. It is the largest city in the State, and twenty- eight per cent. of all the manufactures of the State are reported from Manchester, which has thirty-one per cent. of the number of wage workers, numbering nearly twenty-five thousand persons. The value of its annual products is nearly $47,000,000.
The Merrimack river, in its fall of five hundred feet from Lake Winnepiseogee to the sea, is said to turn more spindles than any other river in the world. Nashua ranks next to Manchester in the manufacture of cotton goods. The Nashua Manufacturing Company was chartered in 1823, with three hun- dred shares of stock at $1,000 per share. It had permission to increase its capital to $1,000,000. Daniel Webster subscribed for sixty shares, but they were bought by a wealthy family of Boston. The leading men of the company were Daniel Abbott, Joseph Greeley and Moses Tyler. A canal was built, three miles long, forty feet wide and ten feet deep. The fall of water is thirty-six feet. The Jackson Manufacturing Com- pany was organized in 1828, with mills on the lower falls. These two companies have built extensive cotton mills. Two mills in 1828 ran 18,500 spindles and 540 looms. Nashua had at the last census (1909) 7,312 wage earners and the value of their products was $17,326,134. Here also are large factories for the manufacture of boots and shoes. Foundries and machine shops employ many workmen.
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In Dover the Cochecho Manufacturing Company did a large business in making cotton goods, and the American Woolen Company had extensive mills on Bellamy River falls. The latter business was begun by Alfred I. Sawyer, who came to Dover from Marlborough, Mass., in 1824, and established the Sawyer Woolen Mills. Dover has fifty manufacturers of various kinds employing over three thousand wage earners. Over six millions of capital are invested, and the annual pay roll amounts to one million, five hundred thousand dollars.
The Salmon Falls Manufacturing Company, in what is now Rollinsford, was incorporated in 1822 for the manufacture of cotton, woolen and other goods. It is still doing a large busi- ness, with over fifty thousand spindles.
Cotton mills are in' operation in Exeter, Suncook, Jaffrey, Newmarket and other towns. All such mills in New Hampshire consume 136,801,463 pounds of cotton annually, less than one per cent. of it being imported. The large number of cotton mills built in the South since the Civil War have not injured the manufacture of cotton fabrics in New England. Rather the industry never was so prosperous as now. Water power at some distance from seaport has very little advantage over steam power near a harbor. Foreign markets have opened to our manufac- tures. The heathen are now clothed and are coming to their right mind. In 1909 the total cost of material used in the cotton industry in New Hampshire was $19,123,850, and the value of the products was $33,601,830.
The Newmarket Manufacturing Company has been operating many years. It has six mills and turns 70,000 spindles, producing 300,000 yards of cloth per week. The company employs fifteen hundred operatives and the monthly pay roll is about forty thousand dollars.
The woolen mills of the State produce about twelve million dollars' worth of all-wool goods annually. The industry runs 193,000 spindles and over four thousand looms. More imported wool is used than domestic. The use of shoddy is decreasing, and also the manufacture of worsted goods.
The woolen mills at Milton employ one hundred and seventy- five operatives, producing annually about 400,000 yards of cloth and about 30,000 blankets. Laconia is the principal seat of the manufacture of hosiery, there being ten or a dozen firms that
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carry on that business. The place has forty-three manufacturing establishments in all and employs 2,250 workmen. Over $3,000,000 are here invested.
Keene has a great variety of industries, over sixty, none of them very large, yet 1,800 wage earners find employment.
Portsmouth has over $3,000,000 invested in thirty-six in- dustries and gives employment to a thousand wage earners. Here the manufacture of ale gives the city an unenviable distinc- tion in which no other place in the State shares. The proximity of the United States Navy Yard furnishes employment to many workmen of Portsmouth.
Berlin is the center of the pulp and paper industry. New Hampshire ranks eighth among the States in the manufacture of paper and wood pulp. Spruce is used almost exclusively, except balsam fir. This industry uses 349,997 cords of wood annually. Materials costing about $10,000,000 have about $4,000,- 000 added to their value in the process of manufacture. For newspapers alone the mills of New Hampshire grind out 120,- 000 tons of paper every year, and 14,000 tons more for book paper, and 50,000 tons for wrapping paper. Berlin has $13,000,- 000 invested in manufactures and the value of the annual products is about $6,000,000.
For many years Littleton carried on a large business in the making of scythes, axes and tools, and more recently in the manufacture of carriages and sleighs. The principal business, however, is the manufacture of gloves, and the product has been as high as 82,000 dozen of pairs in a year. Plymouth also has had an extensive glove industry. The Stereoscopic View Com- pany of Littleton has printed in a single year five million photo- graphs. It employs two hundred and seventy-five wage earners.
Concord is credited with one hundred and eleven manufac- turing establishments, employing 2,693 wage earners. The capital invested is $5,574,000 and the value of the products is $6,476,000. The chief industry is the quarrying and cutting of granite, of which Rattlesnake Hill produces a very white variety, easily worked, adapted to massive buildings or to sculpture, durable and beautiful. It has had a reputation throughout the nation for many years. The first building of importance erected from Concord granite was the old state prison, in 1812. The State House soon followed, built in 1816 from stone prepared by
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convicts in the prison. The quarry operated by Luther Roby and William Green was in the rear of the new prison and has been filled in. It was known as the Summit Ledge and was acquired in 1834. Mr. Roby also opened the quarry afterward operated by the Granite Railway Company, at the top of Rattle- snake Hill, not far from the village of West Concord. From the latter quarry were taken the massive pillars that adorn the front of the State House, the City Hall of Boston, the Charter Oak building in Hartford, Conn., the German American Savings Bank in New York, the Equitable and the Staats Zeitung building in New York.
Thomas Hollis of East Milton, Mass., grandfather of Senator Hollis, was at one time agent of the Granite Railway Company and later operated what was known as the Hollis quarry. The quarry is situated between the main road and the Granite Rail- way quarry. The Ether Monument in the public garden at Boston came from this quarry, Thomas Hollis being the con- tractor. The statue of the Good Samaritan, which surmounts the monument, is considered one of the finest pieces of granite statuary in the world, and was shipped in the rough from Con- cord to the home of Garret Barry in West Quincy, Mass., who spent three years on its sculpture.
The Fuller quarry, about four hundred yards south of the Granite Railway Company's quarry, and about the same distance . from the highway, was bought in 1882 by Sargent and Sullivan. This last named firm furnished the stone for the post office and court house in Concord and the post office and soldiers and sailors' monument in Manchester. To the south of the Fuller quarry about three hundred feet is the Blanchard quarry, operated by Mr. David Blanchard for a number of years, and which pro- duced a fine grade of granite. From this quarry was taken the stone for the Hannah Dustin monument on the island. A block of granite was sent to Lowell and the statue was chiseled there. The rest of the monument was cut in Mr. Blanchard's yard. The Donagan and Davis quarry lies close to the Blanchard quarry, and was operated by James A. Donagan and George H. Davis, who were largely engaged for years in both quarrying and cutting. Messrs. Runals, Davis and Sweat of Lowell, Mass., operated the quarries to the southwest of the Donagan and Davis quarry. The Masonic Building in Boston, corner of
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Tremont and Boylston streets, came from this quarry. To the south of this quarry and about two thousand feet from the State Prison is the quarry known as the New England Quarry, No. I. It was first brought into extensive operation by the Concord Granite Company, with Mr. E. C. Sargent of Quincy, Mass., as agent. The Custom House at Portland, Maine, the Suffolk Sav- ings Bank, the Massachusetts Historical Society Building, the Lawrence and Rialto buildings on Devonshire street, Boston, were furnished by Mr. E. C. Sargent from this quarry.
After the death of Mr. Sargent the property of the Concord Granite Company was purchased by Sargent and Sullivan, who a few years later transferred it and also the so called Fuller quarry to the New England Granite Works, of Hartford, Conn. Mr. James G. Batterson, president of the company, secured the contract for the cut stone work of the Congressional Library in Washington, D. C. This contract was probably the largest of its kind ever made in the United States, the amount being close to $1,300,000, and it is considered as fine a specimen of granite as a building material as can anywhere be seen. It required about six years to furnish the cut stone, and during that time the company averaged over three hundred men on its pay roll per month and expended in wages in Concord at least $1,000,000. It was shipped by rail to Washington at a cost of $3.60 per ton and required about twenty-two hundred cars to convey it. The granite in the exterior of this building, including the main entrance, but not the approaches, measures about 350,000 cubic feet. Mr. Batterson was a man of large business ability, who had traveled extensively in Europe and Egypt and became con- vinced that American granite was the best material for the con- struction of durable and characteristic buildings in this country. He was a just and liberal employer and did much for the granite industry in Concord. The building of the New Hampshire Historical Society, certainly the finest in the State and one of the handsomest and most costly for its size in the United States, and also the Christian Science Church in Concord, the gift of Mrs. Eddy, got their granite from New England Quarry, No. I. The sculptured group over the entrance to the building of the New Hampshire Historical Society is worthy of more than a passing notice ; it came from John Swenson's quarry.
Southeast of the New England Quarry, No. I, and about
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two thousand feet distant, in a right angle line from the main highway about half a mile, is the Anderson quarry, operated many years by Mr. Ola Anderson. The Soldiers' Memorial Arch in Concord came from this quarry.
The addition to the New Hampshire State House, erected during Governor Quinby's administration, is of Concord granite, furnished by the John Swenson Granite Company, which firm for a number of years has been the largest producer of Concord granite. This stone came from the Sheldon quarry so called. Mr. Swenson now owns this property and also the Hollis quarry heretofore mentioned.
For about a century soapstone of an excellent quality was quarried at Francestown. It was easily worked and was used for making stoves, floors, sinks, mantels, pencils, etc. Six thou- sand tons have been sold in a single year and the price has been as high as thirty-five dollars per ton. This quarry is not now operated, and it is said that the vein of soapstone is exhausted.
At North Conway are extensive quarries of reddish granite, closely resembling the famous Scotch granite. It is very hard and suited to massive buildings. Side by side in the same quarry with the red granite is found a vein of granite, which when polished has a greenish-gray color. The body of the New Hamp- shire State Library at Concord is of North Conway granite, with trimmings from Sheldon quarry, of Concord, and the polished pillars at the entrance are beautiful specimens of the granite of greenish hue, from North Conway.
At Milford, New Hampshire, an extensive granite business is carried on, chiefly in the monumental line. The large granite columns in the Treasury Building at Washington, which replaced the former brownstone columns, were cut in Milford.
At Fitzwilliam are a number of quarries of very white granite which is used extensively for monuments and tombs.
There is a beautiful pink granite quarried at Lebanon, not far from Dartmouth College. Some of it is used in the college buildings, and there is a considerable quantity of it found in Boston. It is owned by the Pigeon Hill Granite Company of Rockport, Mass.
The granite industry is peculiar to the Granite State, and the city of Concord unintentionally advertises it by its liberal use of granite in street curbings and fencing for front yards. Rough and cut granite may be seen where other cities might employ
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brick, concrete or nothing at all. If transportation were less ex- pensive, Concord granite would be found more plentifully out- side of the State. There are in all about one hundred establish- ments in New Hampshire that quarry and shape marble and stone. These employ twenty-five hundred workmen. The capital invested is $1,721,000, and the wages paid annually amount to $1,062,000.1
One of the foremost industries of Concord is that carried on by the Page Belting Company, inaugurated in 1871 by the brothers, George F. and Charles T. Page. The business has steadily grown till it now employs about two hundred workmen. It works up sixty thousand hides in a year and sends its products wherever in the civilized world belts are used. The capital is half a million dollars. To be compared with this is the I. B. Williams and Sons belt factory in Dover, which does two million dollars worth of business annually.
Other notable business enterprises of Concord are the silver factory, begun over sixty years ago by William B. Durgin in the manufacture of silver ware and which has grown to a large establishment, employing over two hundred artisans; and the Rumford Press, which does a lot of fine work in the printing of books, state documents, etc. It is the largest printing house in the State.
The manufacture of boots and shoes has been, in some years, the largest industry in the State. In 1909 it employed fifteen thousand workers. The capital invested was $12,700,000 and the value of the output was nearly $40,000,000. The centers of this industry have been Manchester, Nashua, Exeter, Dover, Ports- mouth, Farmington, and in numerous towns a factory has been built and operated irregularly, according to inducements offered by towns in the way of free rental and freedom from taxation
1 The information here given about Concord quarries has been taken with but little change from an article by Mr. Timothy P. Sullivan, of the former firm of Sargent and Sullivan, in the Stone Trade News of October 15, 1896, supplemented by later news obtained in personal conversations. Under his guidance the writer hereof spent an instructive afternoon in visiting the quarries of Rattlesnake Hill, Concord. Mr. Sullivan is a native of Ireland, came to New England in early youth, learned the trade of a stone-cutter, and has grown up with the business to be a contractor and inspector, having expert knowledge of works in stone, which he has obtained by wide reading and personal experience. He illustrates what America can do for Irishmen and what Irishmen can do for America.
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for a term of years. Such efforts to build up small places and rent empty houses have not succeeded very well. They lack permanence. There are nine establishments in the State, where leather goods are produced. These furnish work for three hun- dred persons.
Although there are but four establishments for the manu- facture of malt liquors, they employ a capital of $2,642,000, with only two hundred and seventy-two wage earners. They are said to add over a million dollars in value to the material used, but the temperance people say that instead they turn a blessing into a curse, bringing riches to a very few and poverty and woe to many.
There are twenty-nine creameries for the making of butter, cheese and condensed milk, notwithstanding extensive milk routes. spread out over the State and railroad trains gather up from the farms milk for the Boston markets. The value of the creamery products amount to $807,000, of which sum $98,000 is added in the process of manufacture.
Limited space forbids more than a condensed statement of the leading manufacturing industries of the State. It is seen that the cotton and woolen mills, and the boot and shoe factories employ the most men and money, yet the hundreds of small shops, that turn out carriages, clothing, boxes, brooms, and many useful articles, are worth full as much to the State as the big mills and factories. The small, portable saw-mills especially do a large business. The lumber and timber industries number five hundred and eighty-nine and employ over eight thousand work- men. The value of their products is over $15,000,000 annually.
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