USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 40
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Tradition says that the Romans introduced the manufacture of woolen goods into England. The only mechanism employed in Europe for weaving, for nearly eighteen hundred years of our era, was the distaff, the spinning-wheel and the hand loom. The Oriental world has not yet passed the Rubicon of modern invention. The steam engine, the spinning-jenny and the power loom have been the true moving powers of modern fleets and armies, and the chief support of agriculture. These inventions enable a boy or girl of fifteen years of age to do the work of ten hand spinners and weavers. The first steam engine con- structed for a cotton-mill was made by Mr. Watt in 1785. It was used in Papplewick in Nottinghamshire. Four years later, the use of the same power was first employed in Manchester. Now there are fifty thousand boilers doing the work of a million of men in that city. Dr. Cartwright's power loom was invented in 1787, but not used till 1801. How vast the progress of manufac- tures in this century, during the life-time of men now living !
Cotton was first mentioned in English history in 1641. Till 1773 no pure cotton goods were made. Prior to this date the warp was linen and the weft cotton. The invention of the spin- ning-jenny is ascribed to James Hargreaves, an illiterate but in- genious mechanic, in 1767. Sir Richard Arkwright took out a patent for spinning with rollers in 1769, involving the principles of his predecessor, with improvements. That patent was after- wards set aside. The subsequent improvements in the use of steam, by Watt, and the invention of the cotton-gin, by Whitney, in 1793, have multiplied cotton goods a thousand fold. In 1784, an American vessel with other lading brought eight bales of cotton into Liverpool, which were seized by the custom-house officer of that city as contraband, under the pretence that Ameri- can soil nowhere produced cotton. As late as 1791 only two million pounds were produced in the United States. In 1857 one million bales were imported into Liverpool from the United States.
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Until the year 1825 English laws forbade inventors and skilled mechanics to leave the realm. If they emigrated they were constrained to go by stealth and to carry nothing but their hands and brains to aid them in setting up manufactories in this country. Since that date the laws have been somewhat relaxed respecting inventors and their works. The first colonies in America were forbidden to engage in manufactures. They could not make a wool hat or a hob-nail. Ship-building was allowed ; and in 1741, New England had about one thousand sail engaged in fishing and trading, all of home construction. New Hampshire took a leading part in these transactions. The province abounded in valuable timbers, the white and red oak, the white and red pine, chestnut and other forest trees, which were wrought into masts, spars and keels for exportation. The largest vessels of war were built at Portsmouth as late as 1782. In 1791, twenty ships were built on the Piscataqua ; and of two hundred and seventy-seven vessels which sailed out of Ports- mouth harbor in that year, nearly seven eighths were of Amer- ican workmanship.
The first saw-mill propelled by water in New England was built by Portsmouth men in 1635, at Newichewannock, now Ber- wick. The first corn-mills were driven by wind; later in the history of the colonies, by water. In the year 1800, Exeter alone had ten corn-mills within its limits. New Ipswich has the honor of erecting the first cotton-mill in New Hampshire, near the beginning of this century. About the same date, four other towns in the state erected cotton factories. In 1826 four hund- red distinct buildings for the manufacture of cotton had been built in the United States, averaging seven hundred spindles each ; of these fifty belonged to New Hampshire, with about half that number of woolen factories. From that day to the present, the capital invested in the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods exceeds that of any other species of industry in the state ; and their products constitute more than one-half of the entire income of the state from manufactures. The total of all prod- ucts made by hands, tools and machinery in the state, is esti- mated at $71,038,249. Of this sum $39,834,000 are from cotton and woolen fabrics .*
The value of farm products, including betterments, is esti- mated at less than twenty-three millions of dollars, which is about one third part of the income from all the manufactures in the state, though the number of laborers in each department is nearly equal. Manufactures and mining employ forty-six thou- sand five hundred and fifty-three persons ; agriculture, forty-six thousand five hundred and seventy-three. About seventeen thou-
*These figures are taken from A. J. Fogg's Gazetteer of New Hampshire.
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sand are operatives in cotton and woolen mills. With about one third the number of workmen and one-half as much capital as the farmers, the factories yield nearly double the income of the land. The value of farm products to each person employed is about five hundred dollars ; the value of factory products to each operative exceeds twenty-three hundred dollars ; but the risks of the manufacturer are incomparably greater than those of the farmer.
At the beginning of this century itinerant mechanics were found in every town, who visited private families and made a temporary home with them while their services were needed. The carding, spinning and weaving were done in each home by those whom king Alfred called the "spindle side of the house." It was a good old Saxon custom to clothe the family in domes- tic fabrics. During the first third of this century, the citizens of New Hampshire were mostly farmers and mechanics with small means, little ready money and very few artificial wants. They were industrious, economical and contented ; and it may be doubted whether the population of to-day, with increased wealth and wants, living at three times the expense of their fathers, have at the same time secured greater rational enjoyments. "Godliness with contentment is great gain." The possession of these graces made our fathers rich in good works. Increase of wealth has not brought improved morals.
The highest crime known to the law has been committed twelve times in our state. The first execution for murder oc- curred in 1739,* more than a century after the first settlements were made. The most numerous crimes that now come before our courts relate to the violations of the rights of property and the marriage tie. When money was scarce and banks were few, when private men loaned and honest men hired capital for in- crease of business, the appropriation of the property of others by theft, fraud or defalcation was rare. But since the surplus funds of the people in national and savings banks have risen from a few thousands to forty millions of dollars, the crimes against property have greatly increased. When the population of the country was chiefly found in the rural districts, the mar- riage covenant was entered into for life and usually kept invio- late. A divorce was as rare as a comet. Now, nearly one tenth of all the marriages solemnized are broken by crime and sun- dered by divorce. The simplicity and purity of country life have been exchanged for the luxury and laxity of city life. The rail- roads have made city and country almost identical in opinions, fashions and morals. The markets and the expenses of living,
* It is now thought that Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny were innocent of the crime laid to their charge.
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except in rents, have been equalized. Manufactories have con- verted barren plains or rustic hamlets into populous cities. Fifty years ago, the sandy plain where Manchester now stands could hardly support half a dozen families. Now thirty thousand peo- ple live, thrive and grow rich on the same soil. A local market taxes the industry of surrounding towns to meet its demands. Travelers by thousands now daily enter or leave the city, where, in the days of the old stages, only a score rode in the public coach. Society has been revolutionized by railroads and fac- tories. The centres of population and business have been changed. While the expenses of living have greatly increased, the price of labor has been equally enhanced; so that now money is more plenty in every man's pocket, and the state is rapidly advancing in wealth and influence.
NOTE .- The towns in New Hampshire where the principal cotton factories exist are : Chesterfield, Claremont, Concord, Dover, Exeter, Hampton Falls, Holderness, Hooksett, Hudson, Jaffrey, Laconia, Manchester, Mason, Milford, Nashua, Nelson, New Ipswich, Newmarket, Pembroke, Peterborough, Pittsfield, Portsmouth, Salmon Falls, East Roches- ter, Great Falls, Upper Gilmanton and North Weare. Woolen factories have been built in Acworth, Ashuelot, Barnstead, Barrington, Bradford, Bristol, Campton, Claremont, Cor- nish, Dover, Dublin, Effingham, Enfield, Epping, Fisherville, Franklin, Gilford, Gilsum, Grafton, Henniker, Hillsborough, Hinsdale, Harrisville, Holderness, Hopkinton, Keene, Laconia, Lake Village, Littleton, Loudon, Manchester, Marlborough, Milford, Milton, New Hampton, Newport, Northfield, Pelhain, Peterborough, Rochester, Salem, Sanbornton Bridge, Somersworth, Stewartstown, Swanzey, Troy, Washington, Walpole, North Weare, Wilmot, Wilton, Windham and Wolfeborough.
CHAPTER CVIII.
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RAILROADS.
WRITTEN BY HON. J. W. PATTERSON.
A general desire prevailed at the close of the Revolutionary war to open and develop the rich territory stretching between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. But the experience of all time proved that this vast domain could not be peopled until some cheap outlet to the sea could be made for its prospective products. At that time the only artificial channels of com- merce, other than common roads, were canals. Hence, in obe- dience to this wide-spread impulse to move westward, the Erie, the Pennsylvania, the Chesapeake and Ohio, and the James river and Kanawha canals were projected. The only one of these ever completed is the Erie, and this was purely a state work. Congress was applied to for an appropriation of eight million
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dollars, but the complications of the government with England and the prospects of a war prevented its being made. The canal was begun in 1817, and opened to Oswego in 1828. The results were immediate, and have been grand beyond the antici- pation of the most enthusiastic. At the opening of the canal to Buffalo, in 1826, DeWitt Clinton, speaking in honor of the event, yielded to his fancy, and prophesied that in fifty years Buffalo, then an Indian trading town, and Chicago, a frontier post, might each contain a population of a hundred thousand. The prevision of Clinton even could not foresee the four hun- dred thousand people who now throng Chicago, and the teem- ing millions who have poured through the channels of trade into the great valley to develop its resources and supply the markets of the world.
At the end of the fiscal year 1866, this canal had paid into the treasury of the state every dollar of its original cost, with a surplus of $41,397,651. The entire value of the merchandise transported on the Erie and Champlain canals-the latter being constructed in part from the earnings of the Erie-up to 1872 amounted to $6,065,069,698.
The earlier development of the western and northwestern states was largely due to this magnificent work, for it was the only avenue for the transport of products to the sea-board until about the year 1850. I think it impossible for us to over-esti- mate the material and other results of this improvement. We are apt to forget, when our eyes are filled with the claptraps of the caucus, and our ears with the deceitful voices of the hustings, how much we owe to the far-sighted statesmanship of the early days of the republic. The ordinance of the 14th of July, 1787, which provided that the "navigable waters leading into the Mis- sissippi and the St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same shall be common highways and forever free," will yet be thought worthy to be engraved in enduring marble upon the proudest of our temples of industry.
But the commerce between the interior and the Atlantic states soon increased beyond the capabilities of these early channels of trade. The rapid development of the unparalleled resources of the West, for the last twenty years, has been due mainly to the railways which private capital, reinforced by government aid, has thrown forward into the unsettled public domain.
As early as 1630 railed tramways or railroads were introduced as an improvement upon the best highways. These at first con- sisted of a wooden trackway, laid upon an ordinary road to fa- cilitate the transport of heavy laden wheeled vehicles, and were used for the most part between the English mines and the depots from which their products were shipped. Wooden rails
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having been in use for one hundred and fifty years, it occurred to some one to lessen their friction by plating them with iron. These tram-plates or flat rails, made at first of cast but later of malleable iron, with a flange at one time on the inside and at another on the outside, were in use till 1789, when the edge-rail was substituted by Jessop and the flange transferred to the wheel.
The idea of employing the railroad for general purposes of traffic was first suggested about this time. Watt, while studying the properties and application of steam, had suggested the pos- sibility of constructing steam carriages, and in 1782 Oliver Evans of Philadelphia patented a steam wagon, the drawings and specifications of which were sent to England. In 1784 Watt patented a non-condensing locomotive carriage. In 1802 Richard Trevithick patented a high-pressure locomotive engine, but in attempting to use engines of the character first invented, it was found that their wheels would slip round without advan- cing. An effort was made to remedy this by a rack into which worked a toothed wheel attached to the engine, somewhat like the contrivance now used on the roads up the Rigi and Mount Washington. The friction was too great and the plan was abandoned. Improvements were made however by Robert Steph- enson and others, and in 1822 the first locomotive engine was substituted for horse power.
The first legislative act authorizing a public railroad was made by parliament in 1801. It granted to a corporation in Surry the right to build a tram-road nine miles long, but the first rail- road coach used for the transportation of passengers was on the road between Stockton and Darlington in 1825. This was worked by horse power. The following year a French engineer, M. Seguin, succeeded in substituting, to a limited extent, locomotive for horse power. At this time the theory was that trains would have to be moved by means of stationary engines placed at in- tervals along the track, which would move the cars from station to station by means of ropes. A deputation of the Liverpool and Manchester company, as late as 1828, reported in favor of stationary engines as a tractive power on their double track, then approaching completion. But George Stephenson prevailed on them to try his prize locomotive, "The Rocket," which on its first trip attained a speed of twenty-nine miles an hour. From this success Mr. Stephenson has been styled the "Father of the Locomotive System." One of his engines, the "Robert Fulton," was imported into the United States in 1831.
The first railway act in the United States was passed by the legislature of Pennsylvania, March 31, 1823. This authorized the construction of a road from Philadelphia to Columbia, but was repealed because the grantees failed to execute the plan. A
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second act was passed in the same state in 1826, incorporating the Columbia, Lancaster and Philadelphia Railroad. This road was completed at the expense of the commonwealth in 1834. It was eighty-one and a half miles in length, and a magnificent enterprise for that day, reflecting great honor upon the statesmen who assumed the responsibility of its construction.
The first railroad actually built in the United States was in Quincy, Mass., in 1826, to carry granite from the quarry to the tide-waters of the Neponset river. It was only three miles long, but, in coming years, the fact of its construction at that time will add to the renown of the birthplace of the Quincys, the Adamses and John Hancock. Two years later, on the fourth of July, 1828, Charles Carroll of Carrolton, then over ninety years of age, and the only survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, commenced the Baltimore and Ohio railroad by laying a corner-stone amid suitable and imposing ceremonies. On that occasion he said : "I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to my signing the Declar- ation of Independence, if even second to that."
When we reflect upon the changes which forty years of rail- road transportation have wrought upon our country and the world, it is not too much to say, that
"The sunset of life gave him mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before."
The same year the South Carolina or Charleston and Ham- burg Railroad was constructed, the first road in the world "built expressly for locomotive power, for general freight and passen- ger business." The first locomotive constructed in the United States was built for this road at the West Point foundry in 1830. Since then the decennial increase of railroad mileage in the United States has been constant and rapid. There were in 1827, 3 miles open ; 1831, 131 miles ; 1841, 3,877 miles ; 1851, 11,027 miles ; 1861, 31,769 miles ; 1871, 62,647 miles ; 1874, 71,500 miles. Of this increase New Hampshire has enjoyed its full proportion.
The relief of the Granite State, as seen from the old stage- coach creeping slowly up its hillsides or descending swiftly into its valleys, would seem to exclude railroads from its surface. But as we hear the pant and tramp of the iron steeds and wit- ness the flight of their ponderous cars through the towns and villages of our rugged state, our incredulity is humbled, and we are ready to believe that "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."
A thousand miles of railroad now bring the facilities of travel and of trade to almost every hamlet and farm within the bor-
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ders of a territory over which it was thought, at a time within the memory of many now living, to be both impossible and im- politic to stretch this net-work of internal commerce. Thirty-two different roads, owned and managed by as many corporate com- panies, have been constructed and equipped at a cost of more than thirty millions of dollars. The original stockholders of these roads have in some instances incurred heavy losses from their construction, but the state, and especially those living along their line, have gained from them profits and advantages that, on the whole, more than compensate for all losses.
Time saved to industry is money made, for it increases pro- duction and retrenches expense. A journey from the interior of our state to Boston in the olden time consumed three days. Now that city may be reached from our northern boundary in a single day, and from the middle and southern portions in a few hours. Thus markets have been opened and equalized, and all brought daily to our doors. The merchant and the laborer of the city may now dwell in the fresh and healthful country, and more than save, in rents and living, his cost of travel. Frequent exchanges have multiplied wants, industries and profits, and added to the general comfort and welfare of society.
The influence of railroads is realized when we consider how they have changed the centres of population and given to the cities and villages along their lines a political and pecuniary power above the country towns. Wealth, like water, gravitates to the falls, and helps to create the busy hum of spindles, looms and hammers, the symbols of public prosperity ; but if the fall lies beyond the reach of the railroad, its power is left to waste itself in noise and run to the sea unutilized.
These advantages are not limited, however, to an increase of material prosperity. New methods of transit exert an intellect- ual and moral influence upon the minds and hearts of men, and modify social life. They multiply public meetings and conven- tions, and facilitate and extend the intercourse of society,
" And catch the manners living as they rise."
Thought travels upon the rail, and art, science and literature are diffused. The products of the teeming brain are carried to the remotest hamlet. The best thinkers and orators speak to the country as often as to the city. Information is disseminated and mental activity stimulated. This diffusion of intelligence tends to level society and destroy individual prominence and intellectual dictatorship.
But this increase of railroads has been universal. The re- turns of 1872 showed that Great Britain had fifteen thousand eight hundred and fourteen miles of railways, while on the con- tinent of Europe they spread like an arterial system, sending the life-blood of business into every part.
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To us of this day, the adoption of steam as an agent of loco- motion seems one of the most natural, as it was one of the most pregnant, steps in a progressive civilization; yet, like all improve- ments, it entered into life through great struggles and the sense- less opposition of a chronic conservatism. In our own state, the "right of way " to railroads was resisted by men of influence with argument, ridicule, political power, and every other force at their command, until the spirit of the age forced them aside and gave control to more enlightened leaders. They predicted ruin to industry and the depopulation of the state as the inevitable result, and solemnly warned the people against the threatened violation of constitutional prerogatives and popular rights. But the inevitable came in spite of the oracles, and we pity their blindness.
Prof. E. D. Sanborn gave, a few years since, an instructive and eloquent account of the opposition made to the introduction of railways into England, which I take the liberty to quote :
"The first surveyors of the railroad from Liverpool to Manchester were mobbed by the owners of the soil, their instruments were broken and they were driven off by violence. The men who proposed the road were hated by the land-owners as much as if they had designed to convert their fields into camps for a standing army. Some years later, when a bill to incorpo- rate that road was before parliament, the engineer, Mr. George Stephenson, was examined by acute lawyers before the committee of parliament as if he had been a spy of France plotting an invasion of the country. In the lower house, Sir Isaac Coffin denounced the project as a most flagrant imposition. He would not consent to see the widow's premises invaded. He asked in the most dignified, senatorial manner : 'How would any person like to have a railroad under his parlor window? What, I should like to know,' said he, 'is to be done with all those who have advanced money in making and re- pairing turnpikes? What with those who may still wish to travel in their own or hired carriages, after the fashion of their forefathers? What is to become of coach-makers, harness-makers, and coachmen, inn-keepers, horse- breeders and horse-dealers? Is the house aware of the smoke and noise, the hiss and the whirl, which locomotive engines, passing at a rate of eight or ten miles an hour, occasion ? Neither the cattle plowing in the fields nor grazing in the meadows could behold them without dismay ! Iron would rise in price one hundred per cent., or, more probably, be exhausted altogether ! It would be the greatest nuisance, the most complete disturbance of quiet and comfort, in all parts of the kingdom, that the ingenuity of man could invent !' Such were the groans of conservatism. But the bill was obtained at an ex- pense of $135,000, and within one year after the road was built land all along the line was selling at almost fabulous prices ; and the cattle plowed and fed in quiet! The road was opened in 1830. The transit which used to be made in coaches in four hours was made by rail in half an hour, and the travel was tripled the first year. The annual saving to the public in money, to say nothing of time, was $1,250,000 a year. Lords Derby and Sefton, who succeeded in forcing the road from their lands, afterwards patronized a rival road on condition it should pass through their estates. Interest enlightens the blind."
The influence of this modern method of transportation upon the business and character of mankind is incalculable. There
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