History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 11

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 652

USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the city of Nashua, N.H. > Part 11

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HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

who resided in Amherst, stood where Kendrick & Tuttle's store now (1846) stands. Abbot and Fox's office was a dwelling house occupied by "uncle" John Lund, his brother and sisters. A dwelling house, three stories in front and two in rear, had just been erected by Mr. Fletcher, but was then unfinished. It stood on the north-east corner of Main and Franklin streets, opposite the Baptist meeting-house, and here upon a temporary platform the oration was delivered. The Amherst and Concord roads with Main street, and a road down the northern bank of the Nashua to the boating house and ferries were all the highways then existing.

At the Harbor the dwelling house of Gen. Noah Lovewell, now occupied by Hon. Jesse Bowers, with two other small houses on the south side of Salmon brook, were the only buildings. As the greater part of the inhabitants lived west and south of this, the meeting house was built on the little triangle in front of Silas Gibson's house. Here was the largest village in town, a tavern, store, shops and dwellings, and here resided the physician and lawyer, (Mr. Abbot.) But in September, 1803, the "Old Tontine, " the long, low building at the head of Main street, in Nashville, was built, and soon after occupied by Mr. Abbot, (who removed here Dec. 1, 1803 ;) Dr. Elias Maynard, physician ; Dea. James Patterson, bookbinder, and a Mr. Clements, saddler. There was no dam across the Nashua, and its waters flowed far down its natural channel over its rocky bed. The "pilgrims" who then settled here must have seen some light from the future breaking through the surrounding darkness, for there was not a building between Salmon brook and Nashua river, and a broad, unfenced, desolate, white-pine forest spread in every direction beyond.

In 1803 a postoffice was first established in town, and General Noah Lovewell appointed postmaster. Previously letters for this town were received from the postoffice at Tyngsborough .*

In 1804 a further impulse was given to the growth and business of the village by the completion and opening of the Middlesex canal. This opened a direct channel of communication with Boston, and rendered the place, as the head of navigation, one of considerable trade. Hitherto the principal markets of this region had been Haverhill and Newburyport.

From this period the growth of the settlement was gradual but constant. The whole plain, upon which the village stands, was covered with its native growth of pines, and was considered generally of but very little value. "Dunstable Plains" were often the subject of much merriment, and seemed to some the embodiment of the idea of poverty of soil. It is said that some wicked wag in our legislature · once undertook to disparage our soil, declaring that "it would not support one chipping squirrel to the acre;" but this, as well as the story that a grasshopper was once seen perched upon the top of a dry mullen stalk, with tears rolling down his cheeks looking in vain to discover one stalk of green grass," is a grieveous slander, and a device of the enemy.

The soil of our plains was, indeed, naturally sandy and barren and of little value for cultivation when other and more desirable locations for tillage were scattered all around. From this circum- stance we may believe the statement to be quite credible that the rise of Main street from the bridge over Nashua river, to the present (1843) place of Messrs. Kendrick & Tuttle's store in Nashville, was "the worst hill between Amherst and Boston." We must remember, however, that a great change has taken place in its appearance and situation. The present bridge is raised some twenty or twenty-five feet above the old one, the water under the present bridge being not the natural stream, but a pond

In 1648, "Others of the same town (Watertown) began also a plantation at Nashaway, some 15 miles N. W. from Sudbury.

In 1644, "Many of Watertown and other towns joined in the plantation of Nashaway, " &c .- Winthrop's Journal vol. ii., pages 152, 161.

In a note in the passage last quoted, the editor, Hon. James Savage, says :- "From our Col. Rec. ii., 57, I find ' the petition of Mr. Nathaniel Norcross, Robert Chide, Stephen Day, John Fisher and others for a plantation at Nashawake is granted, provided that there shall be no more land allotted to the town, or particular men, (notwithstanding their purchase of land of the Indians, ) than the General Court shall allow.' "

In the following entries by Winthrop, in 1648, the name appears to have been spelt as usual at present :

"This year a new way was found out to Connecticut, by Nashua, which avoided much of the hilly way."

"The magistrates being informed at a court of assistants that four or five Indians who lived upon the spoil of their neighbours, had murdered some Indians of Nipnett, who were subject to this government, and robbed their wigwam, sent twenty men to Nashua, to enquire the truth of the matter." Journal, vol. ii., page 325.

In the Appendix to the same volume, page 394, the editor gives the former name of Lancaster as Nashoway. *See history of the postoffice in Appendix.

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. HI.

occasioned by the dam below at Indian Head, and many feet in depth. While the bridge has been raised many feet and the road filled in accordingly, the slope of the hill on either side of the river has been cut down and graded, so that the ascent now, in either direction, is comparatively slight.

In 1812, the old meeting house, which stood in the little square in front of the Gibson tavern, and which had been standing there more than sixty years, had become too old and dilapidated to answer the purposes of its erection. A new and more costly house was built accordingly, nearly half a mile northerly of the old one. This is the one now called "the Old South," and was dedicated November 4, 1812, upon which occasion the sermon was preached by Rev. Humphrey Moore of Milford .*

November 3, 1813, Rev. Ebenezer P. Sperry was ordained as the colleague of Rev. Mr. Kidder. He remained in Dunstable until April, 1819, when he was dismissed, and has been Chaplain of the House of Correction, at South Boston. During his ministry, September 6, 1818, Rev. Mr. Kidder died, aged 77, on which occasion a discourse was delivered by Rev. H. Moore.t

About 1817 a dam was thrown across Nashua river a few rods above Main street ; a grist mill erected at one end of it by Dea. James Patterson, and a saw mill at the other by Willard Marshall. Some time after, another dam was built near the spot where the present dam of the Jackson Company stands and a mill erected. At this time the village had increased so much that it contained about a dozen or twenty houses, and being a central thoroughfare had become a place of considerable business. The population of the town was 1, 142.

In 1820 when the census was taken there were returned from Dunstable ;- one meeting-house, nine school districts and school houses, six taverns, five stores, three saw mills, three grist mills, one clothing mill, one carding machine, two bark mills, three tanneries.

Soon after 1820 public attention began to be turned towards manufactures. Many years previously Judge Tyng of Tyngsborough, in a conversation with George Sullivan, predicted that the. valley of the Merrimack would be a great manufacturing region, and he pointed out the locations at Lowell, at Nashua and at Amoskeag.#

It was considered a visionary idea, but what was then prophecy is now history. The erection of mills at Lowell awakened the minds of enterprising men and capitalists to the manufacturing advan- tages of other places. The leading citizens of the town seem to have been peculiarly far-sighted, public spirited and energetic, and the manufacturing capacities of Nashua river did not escape their notice.

The idea which first suggested itself was that of building mills at Mine falls; the water power was great and a saw mill had been erected there at a very early period, probably before 1700. It was not, however, for some time that the idea occurred to them of erecting the mills upon their present location and building up a village here by bringing the water from Mine falls by means of a canal. It was a great undertaking and of doubtful result, but a survey was made and its practicability ascertained.

The few individuals who had conceived the idea, formed an association and in 1822 and 1823 purchased the greater portion of the land in and around the village and up to the falls. In June, 1823, a charter was granted to Daniel Abbot, Moses Tyler, Joseph Greeley and others, by the name of the "Nashua Manufacturing Company," with a right to increase their capital to one million dollars. The capital stock was at first fixed by them at $300,000; and was divided into three hundred shares of $1,000 each. Of these Daniel Webster took sixty shares; Daniel Abbot thirty shares ; J., E. & A. Greeley thirty shares; Augustus Peabody seventy-five shares ; Benj. F. French thirty shares ; Foster & Kendrick thirty shares ; John Kendrick fifteen shares ; Moses Tyler thirty shares.

In 1824 a considerable portion of the stock was disposed of to capitalists and the works were commenced. The dam at Mine falls was built and the excavation of the canal began under the superintendence of Col. James F. Baldwin. This canal, which supplies the water for the factories of the Nashua Manufacturing Company, is about three miles in length, sixty feet wide and six feet deep,

*This sermon was printed.

+This discourse was also published, and appended to it is a short sketch of the Ecclesiastical history of the town, drawn up by Rev. Mr. Sperry.

#My authority for this statement is his grand-daughter, Mrs. Brinley.

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

and affords a head and fall of about thirty-three feet. Ira Gay, Esq., was also engaged as machinist, and Col. William Boardman as wheelwright and engineer, and the first factory was commenced. December 25, 1824, the machine shop was completed and went into operation. The works advanced. Mill No. I of the Nashua Corporation was erected and went into partial operation in December, 1825, and into full operation in 1826.

In December, 1824, a charter was obtained by the Nashua Manufacturing Company for the purpose of building "a canal with the necessary dams and locks" to connect the Nashua with the Merrimack. They were built in 1825, and opened for the transportation of goods in the spring of 1826. The lower dam across the Nashua was built at this time. The locks were of solid stone, twenty-four feet high ; each lift being ten feet wide and eighty-two feet long. They were built under the superin- tendence of Colonel Baldwin and cost $20,000. The canal dam cost a further sum of $10,000. This canal was of very great advantage to the rising village, which was now becoming the centre of business for the neighboring towns by affording such increased facilities for the transportation of goods and produce, and its beneficial effects were soon sensibly felt in the increase of trade and enterprise.

In May, 1825, a portion of the lower water privilege, now occupied by the Jackson company, was sold by the Nashua Manufacturing company to Charles C. Haven and others, who were incorporated by the name of the "Indian Head company," for the purpose of erecting woolen factories. Their works were commenced immediately and went into operation in 1826 under the agency of Mr. Haven.

In the fall of 1824 and spring of 1825 fifty new tenements or more had been erected and all was bustle and prosperity. In 1825 a new bridge was built over the Nashua river in Main street in consequence of the raising of the water by the dam at Indian Head. Lots of land were selling at the rate of "about $1,000 per acre," according to the report of the directors for that year.

In 1826 a charter was granted to several individuals by the name of the "Proprietors of Taylor's Falls bridge," for the purpose of building a bridge across the Merrimack. At this time the people crossed by a ferry, there being no bridge across the river between Lowell and Amoskeag. This bridge was completed and opened for public travel the same year. It is thirty-three rods in length and its total cost was about $12,000. It was no small undertaking in the then feeble state of the village and was deemed by many persons a hazardous investment, but the prosperity of the place required it and success has rewarded the effort.

In 1827 Mill No. 2 of the Nashua corporation was built and went into partial operation, and into full operation in 1828. Mill No. 3 was built in 1836. Mill No. I is one hundred and fifty-five feet long, forty-five feet wide and five stories high. It contains 6,784 spindles and two hundred and twenty looms, manufacturing No. 14 shirtings and drills. Mill No. 2 is one hundred and fifty-five feet long, forty-five feet wide and six stories high. It contains 12, 170 spindles and three hundred and fifteen looms, which manufacture No. 24 printing cloths and jeans. Mill No. 3 is one hundred and sixty feet long, fifty feet wide, and five stories high. It contains 6,400 spindles, and two hundred and five looms, and manufactures No. 14 sheetings. Mill No. 4 was built in 1844, and was put into operation in December of the same year. It is one hundred and ninety-eight feet long, fifty feet wide, and five stories high, and contains 6,720 spindles, and two hundred looms, manufacturing No. 12 sheetings. The whole number of spindles in the four mills is 32,074, looms nine handred and forty. Number of female operatives eight hundred and thirty-five. Number of males two hundred and twenty-five. These mills manufacture 11,500,000 yards of cloth per annum ; and use 8,oco bales of cotton, weighing 3,250,000 pounds, 150,000 pounds starch, 8,000 gallons sperm oil, $1250 worth leather, seven hundred cords of hard and pine wood, annually. There are forty-eight tenements for overseers and boarding houses, and two brick houses for the agent and clerk. Thomas W. Gillis, Esq., is the agent; J. A. Baldwin, clerk. The capital is $800,000; the number of shares 1600, at $500 each.

The savings bank deposits in 1845 were $44,000, by three hundred and sixty-four depositors, three-fourths of whom are females. No interest is allowed on any sum exceeding $500, and the privileges of the bank are limited to individuals in the employ of the company. The rate of interest is five per cent. On the first of June of every year interest is credited on all amounts and added to the principal, and interest computed on the total sum from that date,-thus giving to those who permit their savings to remain in the hands of the company for any length of time, the

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. II.

advantage of compound interest. The following table, arranged Oct. 13, 1845, shows the number of females employed in the Nashua Manufacturing company's mills and the proportion thereof who attend meeting are members of the Sabbath school, and are professors of religion :

Whole num ber girls Jumuployed.

Number who attend Meeting.

Attend Sabbath School.

Members of Churches.

No. 1 Mill,

21.1

19.1

116

No. 2 Mill,

216

206

131

No. 3 Mill,

192

167

No. 4 Mill,

170

151

Cloth Room, Total,

800

1 726

411

250

About 1828 the Indian Head company became embarrassed, and soon after the works stopped. The whole property was then disposed of to a new company, which was incorporated in 1830, by the name of the Jackson company. They took out the old machinery, and converted the establishment into a cotton manufactory. The capital stock of this company is $480,000. They have two mills, one hundred and fifty and one hundred and fifty-five feet in length, by forty-eight feet in width, and four stories high. These contain 11,588 spindles and three hundred and seventy-eight looms, and employ ninety males and three hundred and fifty females. The amount paid males per annum is $30,000, to females $60,000. They use 5,000 bales of cotton a year, averaging four hundred pounds each, from which they manufacture five and a half million yards of cloth of the following kinds : forty-six and thirty-seven inch sheetings, and thirty inch shirtings, all of No. 14 yarn. The value of wood per annum is $2,500; oil $3,700; starch $2,500; leather $1,000. The amount of deposits in the savings bank is $18,000, on which five per cent. compound interest is allowed. The depositing is confined to operatives, and no interest is allowed on any sum over $500. The number of depositors is one hundred and fifty. The agent of the company is Edmund Parker, Esq .; George F. Beck, clerk [1846].

From 1830 to 1837 the growth of the village was rapid and constant. The population of the village had nearly trebled in number. Trade and travel had increased proportionally. In the spring of 1835 the project was conceived of extending the Lowell railroad to Nashua. June 23, 1835, a charter for this purpose was granted by the legislature of New Hampshire; and by that of Massachusetts April 16, 1836. In 1836 the preparatory surveys were made and the location filed. Uriah A. Boyden, Esq., was engaged as engineer. In May, 1837, the work upon the road was commenced, and Oct. 8, 1838, the Nashua & Lowell railroad was first opened for the transportation of passengers as far as the great elms near Judge Edmund Parker's house, where a temporary depot was erected. December 23, 1838, the bridge over the Nashua, and the depot near Main street, were completed, and the cars for the first time came up to the present terminus. The length of the road is about fourteen and a half miles, exclusive of double tracks, and its total cost about $380,000, or about $25,000 per mile, including fixtures and apparatus.

June 27, 1835, the Concord railroad company was incorporated. This railroad was commenced in the spring of 1841, under the direction of William S. Whitwell, Esq., as engineer, and finished to Concord, September 1, 1842. Its length is thirty-four miles, 3048 feet. The net profits have been ten per cent. per annum from its commencement. The amount of capital is $800,000. The officers of the road are [1846] :

ADDISON GILMORE of Boston, president. ISAAC SPALDING of Nashua, treasurer. CHARLES H. PEASLEE of Concord, clerk.

June 19, 1835, the Nashua bank was incorporated, with a capital of $100,000, and went into operation soon after.

In 1835 the steamboat Herald was also built, and placed upon the Merrimack in the summer of 1836. It was intended to ply between Nashua and Lowell, but the shortness of the distance, the inconvenience of the landing places, and the necessity for the shifting of passengers and baggage, rendered the enterprise a failure.

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HISTORY OF N.ISHUA, N. II.

In April, 1836, the population had increased to 5,065, of which number 2, 105 were males and 2,960 females.

January 1, 1837, the township laid aside its ancient name of Dunstable, which it had worn from its infancy, through good and evil fortune a hundred and sixty years, under which it had witnessed two revolutions and formed a portion of a colony, a province and a sovereign state,-under which it had passed through many wars and grown up from obscurity and poverty; and adopted in order to distinguish it from its neighbor "t'other Dunstable," its present name, that of the river from which its prosperity is chiefly derived-Nashua.

In 1840, the First Christian society was organized under the pastoral care of Rev. Mr. Robinson. They had no meeting-house.

In 1845 a large machine shop built of brick, and slated, was erected by the Nashua company on the site of the old one. The main building is one hundred and fifty feet long, with an addition of one hundred and fifty-eight feet, used for a blacksmith shop, furnace, etc. The main building is occupied by shuttle and bobbin makers, locksmiths, gunsmiths, manufacturers of axes, hoes, ploughs, and by artisans in other branches. The whole number of workmen employed in the building is two hundred and eighteen. A portion of this building is occupied by the extensive establishment of Messrs. J. & E. Baldwin for the manufacture of shuttles and bobbins, which gives employment to a number of workmen.

The manufacturing business of the Nashua Lock company is also done here. This establishment, of which L. W. Noyes and David Baldwin are the proprietors, is employed in the manufacture of mortise locks and latches for dwelling-house doors, and rose wood and brass knobs for the handles of the same. They usually have in their employment about forty men, and manufactured during the last year $35,000 worth of goods. These manufactures embrace 56,617 locks and latches and 35,000 pairs of rose wood knobs.

Another portion of this shop is occupied by Mr. John H. Gage for building turning engines, machines for planing iron, engines for cutting gears, scroll chucks and all other tools requisite to fill a large machine shop for building cotton and other machinery, and for doing railroad work. Mr. Gage now employs sixty-four workmen and does business to the amount of about $40,coo per annum. "The Nashua Manufacturing and Mechanics' Association " was chartered January 2, 1829, with liberty to have a capital to the extent of $30,000. This company was organized under the charter August, 1845. The present capital is $10,000, with two hundred shares at $50 each. The contem- plation is to erect a brick building one hundred feet long, two stories high, with two wings, each one hundred and fifty feet long and forty feet wide, one story, with an attic. The work in this shop is to be conducted by means of a steam engine of fifty horse power and is intended to embrace all kinds of mechanical work similar to the Nashua company's shop. One wing of the building is now completed, and is occupied by Mr. Edwin Chase for the manufacture of doors, window blinds and sashes.

The officers of this association are :

THOMAS CHASE, president.

THOMAS CHASE, L. W. NOYES,

BARTLETT HOYT,

ISRAEL HUNT, JR.,

JOHN H. GAGE, directors. JOHN A. BALDWIN, treasurer. FRANCIS WINCH, clerk.

In the summer of 1845 the Iron Foundry of S. & C. Williams was erected. They manufacture, from pig iron, 4000 pounds of castings per day, and consume in the same time 1300 pounds Lehigh coal and six feet of wood. Their arrangements are such that they can melt nine or ten tons of iron at a melting, or eighteen tons in twelve hours. They now employ thirty men, and have room for twenty more. The amount of their business is not far from $40,000 a year.

In 1845 Mr. Alanson Crane commenced a cotton manufacturing establishment on Salmon brook at the Harbor. His mill is thirty by forty feet on the ground, two stories high, with an attic. When in full operation this mill will contain five hundred spindles, for making cotton yarn of various numbers and qualities. The yarn, when manufactured, is worked up into braids and cords of various descriptions ; also twine for weavers' harnesses, knitting cotton, etc. The number of operatives

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. II.

employed is twenty, four males and sixteen females. About $30,000 worth of goods are manufactured annually. A dychouse is connected with this establishment for dyeing braids, cords, yarn, etc. From a survey recently made it is estimated that there is sufficient water running in Salmon brook to operate 1500 spindles, and Mr. Crane contemplates erecting another mill with about 1000 spindles and looms for the manufacture of cotton shirtings, sheetings and drillings. [1846.]

At the annual meeting of the town of Nashua, March, 1842, it was voted to erect a town house. In 1842 the town of Nashua was divided, and a part of the territory, chiefly lying north of the Nashua river, received the name of Nashville. The following act of incorporation, passed by the legislature, June 23, 1842, defines the limits of the new town :

"Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives in general court convened,-That all that part of the town of Nashua, in the county of Hillsborough, lying westerly and northerly of a line commencing upon the Nashua river at the east side of Hollis, and running thence down said river to the bridge erected over said river by the Nashua and Lowell railroad company; thence from the southwest corner of said bridge eastwardly by said railroad to the Old Ferry road so called, thence by said last mentioned road to the Merrimack river, be and the same is severed from the town of Nashua, and made a body politic and corporate, by the name of Nashville."

The town was organized July 11, 1842.

What a contrast our villages now (1846) present to their condition but twenty-six years ago! Then there was one small religious society, without a minister; now there are ten, most of them in a flourishing condition, and enjoying the services of settled clergymen. Then there was one meeting- house; now there are seven others, built at an expense of more than $45,000. It is a singular fact that for more than 100 years not a settled minister died in town. Then the receipts of the postoffice were about $250 yearly and now they exceed $2,500. Then a single stage coach passed three times a week through the village. Now there are six daily lines, five tri-weekly lines, and two weeklies, besides extras and the railroad. Then two stores supplied the town and neighborhood. Now there are near a hundred, several of which are wholesale stores, with an aggregate trade of more than half a million dollars. Then a canal boat dragging its "slow length along," and occupying days in its passage, laid our goods at the mouth of the Nashua ; now by the magical power of steam they are brought to our doors almost in as many hours. The little village of less than fifty souls has increased one hundred and fifty fold. By the wondrous alchemy of skill and enterprise, out of the waters of the Nashua and the sands of this pine barren, from some half dozen dwellings, have been raised up within these twenty-six years these thronged and beautiful villages of near seven thousand people.

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History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 11

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company Number of Pages: 652

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 652