History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 77

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 77

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In 1835 L. W. Noyes bought Mr. Shepard's interest and the enterprise was pushed with energy. In 1853 Robert G. Livingstone of Boston became a partner, and salesrooms were opened in Boston. Sabine Traverse was superintendent for ten years. He was followed by Gilbert Hill for fifteen years. During this time the company employed some twenty-five men. In 1854 Mr. Baldwin died and was succeeded by J. W. Otterson, who became superintendent of the shop. Owing to lack of harmony in the management, to the withdrawal of funds by L. W. Noyes, and to the depression caused by the panic of 1857, it was thought best to reorganize the company, and in 1859, F. O. Monroe bought the entire interest for $33,000, giving his notes for the same.

The first experimental work was done in the shop of Shepard & Baldwin at the north end of the Jackson company's dam. The first shop was in the machine shop of the Nashua Manufacturing company on Water street. Later the company occupied a brick building on Water street near the foot of Washington street. In 1860 the plant on Spring street known as "the Lock Shop" was built and the works were very much enlarged, with a corresponding output.

In 1863 the company was incorporated; capital $60,000, and one hundred and fifty hands found employment, with a payroll of $6,000 per month. Mr. Monroe remained at the head of the business until 1872. For some years C. B. Hill of Nashua had been treasurer of the company and had charge of the salesrooms in Boston.

The big fire of Boston wiped its entire Boston stock out of existence. In 1872, after the fire, the control of the company passed into the hands of capitalists represented by H. G. Bixby. These parties recognized the fact that a valuable enterprise was slipping from the hands of the Nashua com- pany because of faulty tools and methods, and a gallant fight was made by them to regain supremacy in this line, but the fight was useless, the hold obtained by competitors was too strong, and it was found necessary for Nashua to surrender her own child to others, because others had nourished the child Nashua had neglected.

In 1853 Rollins, Gilman & Co., Josephus Baldwin being a partner, began work in the shop just vacated by J. H. Gage & Co. in the Nashua Manufacturing company's shop on Water street. Mr. Rollins came to Nashua from Manchester, where he had learned his trade, and had had charge of a machine shop owned by Josephus and Edwin Baldwin. In 1854 Gilman sold his interest to the company and the name of Geo. A. Rollins & Co. was assumed. In 1863 Geo. W. Davis of Milford bought Baldwin's interest in the business and removed to Nashua, and the firm took the name of Geo. W. Davis & Co.

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In 1865 a large lot of land on the line of the Worcester & Nashua railroad was purchased and the shop now occupied by the company was built. The work up to this time was largely gun machinery and heavy tools. In 1867 a patent was secured for a steam-engine, and attention was turned toward the building of steam-engines.

In 1879 the company dissolved and divided the property, including the lot, and the name of Geo. A. Rollins & Co. was again assumed. Jan. 23, 1892, the company was incorporated as the Rollins Engine company.

The modern steam-engine is largely a result of improvements made by Sickles & Curtis of Provi- dence, R. I. Grasping the ideas suggested by these improved engines, Mr. Rollins began at once to improve and modify the detail of their construction until he has been able to produce an engine ap- proaching perfection. The first engine of the improved design is now doing good service in the state prison at Concord. For careful and finished workmanship no shop in town excels this.

In 1879 Mr. Davis and Mr. Rollins divided the real estate and the machinery between them, Mr. Davis retaining the half located on Foundry street, where he continued the manufacture of tools, shafting, mill-fittings and general job work until his decease in the winter of 1897.

In the summer of 1863 R. T. Smith visited a farmer friend in Vermont. The farmer, with much pride, showed his mowing, and other labor-saving machines, with the remark that all he now lacked was a machine for shearing sheep. This chance remark was the germinal seed which resulted in the fine plant at the Harbor, known as the American Shearer Manufacturing company.

Mr. Smith, upon his return to Nashua, consulted J. K. Priest, an ingenious and skillful mechanic, and a series of experiments, with a view to produce a machine that would clip the hair or wool from animals, was entered upon.

The first move was to make a tool having a stationary and a rotating cutter. This device was soon finished and worked finely as a fixture in a lathe. The workmen in the shop asked how the animal was to be brought to the cutter, and when told that the cutter, revolving at great speed and driven by power was to be held in the hand of an operator and passed freely over the body of the animal, they raised a shout of derision, for such a thing had never been done. Within one year a machine had been completed with a cutter revolving fifteen hundred times a minute that could be worked in any position or upon any plane when held in the hand, as readily as the ordinary sheep shears, and a sheep had been shorn with this machine in two minutes.

The tool, as used, was a real advance in mechanical art. When shown at the Royal institute in London, "Engineering" said of it, "It is, for novelty and ingenuity, the gem of the exhibition." This device was the forerunner of the dental engine, boot and shoe burnishing machine, and others. The success of the machine was so marked that J. G. Blunt and William Earl became interested in the enterprise, and the American Shearer Manufacturing company was formed with equal owner- ship by the four partners, William Earl becoming business agent, and work was begun on fifty ma- chines. When these machines were finished, the unwelcome discovery was made that the machine would shear sheep only in a hot day and this threw a wet blanket on the enterprise until a trial was had on horses, where the machine proved, not only a success, but a triumph, and the fifty machines were but a drop in the bucket of demand. The next two years were busy and profitable ones to the company and should have been the foundation of great wealth. But vicious business methods were adopted, and the company was soon involved in a maze of law suits and costs that threatened its de- struction. The advent of the hand-clipping machine saved the company. We venture to tell this story as an object lesson. The company had sold five hundred machines, under contract to protect a certain territory for each machine, and were to receive a royalty for each horse clipped. Five hun- dred contracts, for which the company were responsible, were made with five hundred irresponsible men ; they soon found themselves in a bad box, and were saved by the advent of the hand machine.

During the days of its great prosperity the company had divided all of its profits, amounting, in one (the best) year to four hundred per cent on all the capital invested. This short-sighted policy was a costly mistake. If this profit had been invested in a shop of first class tools, the proprietors would have become rich men and this enterprise a matter of greater pride to the city and state. In 1875 this company became incorporated.

The hand-clipper had come to stay, and as a barber's clipper was coming into demand, the com- pany began to make hand machines. For six years the profits on the power machines were absorbed

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by losses on hand machines, and the company was just able to exist. In 1883 J. K. Priest bought the entire interest of the business except a few of Mr. Smith's shares, held by him so that he could act as president of the company and as a director.

The works were first on Water street and afterwards on Foundry street. In 1887 Mr. Priest built the fine shop at the Harbor, now occupied by the American Shearer Manufacturing company, and began to improve his machinery and methods, with good results.

In 1890 Dr. Fred Priest of Brooklyn, N. Y., became associated with his father and has, by his enterprise and devotion to business, helped bring the company to "the fore" as the largest and most prosperous manufactory of its class in the world. It has helped to drive foreign competition out of the market, and sells thousands of machines in Europe.

The company make hand and power clippers, horse clipping machines, power grooming machines, barber and toilet clippers, and have this last year put on the market the first grooming machine and the first aluminum clippers. They employ sixty hands, use one hundred horse steam power. The clipper business originated with this company.

The possibility of making machines for sewing, and matters pertaining to their manufacture, were of great interest in the comparatively early history of Nashua. While this was not the birthplace of the inventor of the sewing machine or of the invention, it was in this city that Elias Howe spent two years of struggle and privation, and it was at the Harbor that he at last perfected his machine and adapted it to work. While Howe invented a vital element in the sewing machine, the practical machines adapted to every day work were perfected by Singer, Grover & Baker, Wheeler & Wilson and others. Howe was not a practical man. In 1851 Thomas W. Gillis and a Mr. Taylor formed a company for making sewing machines, and began work in a small way on Water street, and in 1852 built the shop, at the Harbor, on Main street, now occupied by the Vale Mills Manufacturing com- pany. This company had no conception of the great demand that was to arise for sewing machines. Their plan was to build Howe's perfected machine, a small single loop machine known as the Dorcas, and also one for Nickols & Bliss of Boston. Their main dependence for business was the Howe machine. The enterprise was a failure. Taylor removed to New York city and later he had machines built on Water street under contract by J. K. Priest.

In 1856 J. & S. Chase came into a shop on Water street and built the Weed sewing machine and established a reputation for the same. Lack of capital prevented their pushing the business and it was removed to Hartford, Conn. The machines were made under contract for Whitney & Lyon of Boston. The firm passed through various changes as to partnership and was finally sold to the Weed Sewing Machine company in 1866.

In 1839 James Hartshorn removed his stove and tinware business from Milford to Nashua. In those days business was attended with difficulties; runners were not in the store daily, soliciting orders. Mr. Hartshorn purchased his stoves in Walpole, Mass., and was obliged to bring them to Nashua with his own team. At this time there was a small foundry at Amherst owned by the Wool- sons, who made a few stoves of cast iron and tin, which had at one time a limited sale. The idea of starting a stove foundry in Nashua appears to have originated with a brother of the Amherst Wool- sons, who lived in Claremont. He was a friend of Hartshorn, and strongly urged him to enter into the business, Hartshorn decided to try it, and took as a partner Winslow Ames of Mason, of the firm of Scripture & Ames. Mr. Ames brought to the firm sterling character, great business capacity and ability. He was one of "the giants that lived in those days."

The firm name was Hartshorn & Ames, and they began business as founders on Water street in 1851. Most, if not all, of the Amherst plant and help were removed to Nashua. It was a proud day for the new firm when the first stove of their make was set up, sold and delivered. The stove was put upon a wheelborrow; Deacon Hartshorn propelled the vehicle, while Mr. Ames kept its freight in place and preserved an equilibrium.

In 1851 the company opened warerooms on Union street in Boston and the business grew apace. In 1852 two young men were received into the firm, Timothy C. Whittemore and Mr. Blanchard. They remained with the company for a time but finally left because the terms of partnership forbade any member of the company from holding an interest in any outside business.

In 1855 they built a large foundry and storerooms on Howard street, the same being now known as the rolling mill, and employed some fifty men. They brought out new and improved designs in

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stoves and prospered greatly. It is the misfortune of this business that the bulk of its sales come but once in a year, and that in the fall. During the summer of 1857 their orders kept their works crowded to the full capacity. In October of that year the panic struck this city, bringing desolation worse than that of a cyclone. This company had $100,000 charged on their books and could not col- lect a dollar. With the best character, with exceptional facilities for business, they were driven to the wall and were obliged to close the business. They were killed by success. It may be of interest to note that all of these bills were collected and all indebtedness of the company was paid.

The firm of Flather & Company, composed of Joseph and William Flather, sustains a character for enterprise, good reliable workmanship, integrity and honorable dealing not second to any in our city. The product of their shop stands high in the American market, and large numbers of their lathes are found in England, France, Italy and Switzerland.

The brothers are of English birth and brought from their native land a knowledge of their busi- ness and a great degree of persistency and Yorkshire pluck. Joseph learned his trade in Bradford, England, his native place; he also worked at Norwich. He, with his father, came to America on a sailing vessel in 1856 and landed at Philadelphia. Failing to find work they made their way to Har- pers Ferry, where he had an uncle. Here he found work in the United States armory, where he remained several months. He afterwards spent a short time in Zanesville, Ohio, when he returned to Harpers Ferry. In 1859 he came to work for Chase & Co. in Nashua on sewing machines, and later for J. K. Priest. During the war he worked on guns at Binghampton and Yonkers, N. Y., Trenton, N. J., and at Bridgeport, Conn.

In 1865 Joseph and William invested their all in a plant for building and repairing oil machinery at Parkersburg, West Virginia, and lost all they had, and in 1867 came back to Nashua, and with their good name bought the machine shop of J. K. Priest on Water street. For seven years they made no progress; bad debts and general bad luck attended their efforts. In 1872 they removed to the watch factory and in 1873 built a shop on their present location which was burned in 1876. They rebuilt of brick. With this shop there came a season of prosperity: Gradually their business extended and additions were made to their shop and their tools, until their facilities for, and methods of manufacture are not surpassed. In 1890 they added a foundry to their plant. This company has confined itself strictly to the building of engine lathes, and to the idea of building the best possible lathe, they have devoted their skill and energy, with a result of which our city is justly proud.

The Flathers have given our city another excellent example. They have educated their sons to become skilled mechanics, giving them the best technical education. It is an English saying that "the king never dies;" this firm acts upon the principle that the business enterprise they have founded is never to die; all that is individual will pass away, but the business, as a business, is to remain. Their shops are located on the Boston & Maine railroad at the Junction, and they have their own side track connecting their shop with the Boston & Maine railroad. The company use steam, forty horse power.

The removal of the Nashua Watch company from the city, because of lack of funds to carry on its business, is a sore spot in our history. It was one of those great blunders which society will sometimes commit. The company was incorporated in June, 1859, with a capital of $60,000, with V. C. Gilman as president and L. W. Noyes as treasurer, and commenced business in 1860. The old Washington house, on Main street between Prospect and Bowers streets, was purchased and put in condition for a factory. A fine set of machines and tools were procured or built, all the exqusite dies and fine implements for making jewels, etc., were brought to perfection, and the best watch ever produced by machinery was perfected. This watch was called the "Nashua," and still bears that name on the list of the Waltham Watch company.

The company had been ambitious to place the best possible watch on the market. To do this they had absorbed all their capital, their assets were their fine plant and one thousand watches. The watches had not shown their good quality by actual service. At this juncture the War of the Rebellion broke out, and fine watches were at a discount. The one thousand watches were offered for $37,000, but could find no purchaser. (These same goods were afterwards sold by the purchasers for $112,000. )

Such was the condition of things when the war brought an enormous demand for cheap watches for soldiers' use; the world was to see for the first time, an army of soldiers carrying watches. This

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company had the tools, the dies, all that was required for making a good, serviceable watch at a nominal sum; the tide of fortune had turned in their favor, but alas, they had no available capital and were obliged to sell the plant and stock to the Waltham Watch company, and bow themselves from the stage.

The Co-operative Foundry originated with the Nashua Lock company and formed part of their works on Water street. When that company was sold to F. O. Monroe, in 1859, J. D. Otterson, in liquidation of certain claims upon the old company, received this plant and business with a contract to do the casting for the Lock company. He occupied the foundry on Water street. In 1866 the works were removed into the excellent buildings on Foundry street, and known as the Otterson foun- dry, and did a business of $60,000 a year.

Upon the death of Mr. Otterson in 1880, the business was undertaken by several parties with but small success. This poor success compelled some of the most enterprising of the workmen to asso- ciate and form a co-operative foundry company. They became incorporated in 1881 and built a wooden building on Harbor avenue for their works. Before the new shop was ready for use they were enabled to procure a lease of the Otterson foundry and at the expiration of the lease to purchase the property. The specialty of the company is, and always has been, small and fine castings, and the company take pride in both the quality and workmanship of its productions.

The success of this co-operative enterprise is a result of two important elements, the company was composed of working men, who knew little of business, and who, recognizing the fact, employed a good business man as agent and left him to conduct his department. The workmen also realized that they were working for themselves, that their faithfulness was to their own personal advantage and no shirk was harbored in the works for one moment. The continued success of this company shows that co-operation may be successful, and shows the conditions by which success is attainable.

In 1884 Mark Flather, a brother of Joseph and William Flather, began business and occupied part of the shop of the Rollins Engine company, for the building of planers. In this shop he laid the foundation for a good business, he enlarged his plant, multiplied the number and improved the designs of planers manufactured by himself, and, in 1893, built the fine two-story brick shop on Crown street. This shop has a floorage of 11,500 feet and is especially adapted to his class of work. Early in 1895 he put in a railway crane, which enables him to handle heavy machines, and parts of machines, with facility and ease. At the present time he employes twenty men. This company is incorporated. It uses a twenty-five horse power electric engine.

William Highton & Sons, manufacturers of registers, ventilators, etc., began business in 1877 on Sudbury street, Boston. The firm consisted of William Highton and his sons, James and Marshall. Previous to this Mr. Highton had made registers for Moses Pond & Co. from his (High- ton's) patents. The firm began business in a small way, finishing the goods in their shop and pro- curing the castings from the Nashua Lock company.

In 1878 James, the oldest son, died. In 1879 the business requiring larger quarters, it was removed to 55 Charlestown street. In 1887 Marshall died and the business was left on the shoulders of the now aged father. In this emergency Mr. Highton called into his service his son-in-law, Enoch Shenton, the present general manager of the business, and gave him the position in the firm formerly occupied by his son Marshall. The following July William Highton died, and by request in his will Mr. Shenton became manager of the works and agent for the heirs.

From the start the business had steadily increased in volume and extent until larger quarters and better facilities were imperatively called for. The attention of the company was called to Nashua as affording good, if not the best, facilities for manufacture in New England, and in 1889 the business located here. The lower story of the Nashua Lock company's building on Spring street was leased for two years, also store houses and japan rooms. The castings were made by the Co-operative Foun- dry company. Meantime a part of their goods were made in Boston.

To encourage the company to locate in Nashua, the city exempted their works from taxation for ten years and the Indian Head bank gave such aid as to enable them to establish their plant, and still keep their product, both as to quantity and quality, up to their former standard. Land was purchased on the corner of Pond and Otterson streets and a building forty by eighty feet, two stories, with addi- tion twenty-two by twenty-four for japanning, was erected. This building was equipped with all the

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latest improved machinery and appliances. In 1893 an addition of eighteen by twenty-four feet was made, also a plant for polishing and plating, and a department for a higher grade of finish.

Jan. 1, 1894, Enoch Shenton bought of the estate of William Highton the entire business with real estate, stock, tools, pattern and good will, and entered into partnership with A. Wilber Frost and continued the business under the firm name of William Highton & Sons, Mr. Shenton acting as gen- eral manager, and Mr. Frost as superintendent.

During 1894 many new designs were added, and an oven was placed for baking white japan and the different bronzes by steam heat, giving superior results. The company make one hundred and fifty-five sizes of registers and ventilators besides borders and wall frames, together with a variety of designs for each size. These goods receive all grades of finish from plain black and white to polished nickel and gilt. The trade is indebted to this company for many valuable improvements in this class of goods. A foundry forty-five by one hundred, a cupola building fifteen by twenty-four, and a safe storage room twenty-four by thirty are in process of erection.

The Nashua Steam Press and Boiler works, J. J. Crawford & Son, proprietors, was first located by Mr. Crawford on Foundry street in 1873. He occupied the shop now owned by G. W. Davis. In 1883 he removed to his present shop at the Nashua Junction, where he manufactures steam boilers, cylinders and tanks. His specialty is the hydraulic power press with hollow steam plates.

At the corner of Hollis street and Harbor avenue is situated the pleasant quarters of the Nashua Saddlery Hardware company, manufacturers of Tabor's improved saddle-tree, water hooks and gen- eral saddlery hardware.

The company was incorporated in 1889 with a capital of $50,000 ,and holds numerous and valua- ble patents. In 1894 the company purchased the saddlery part of the business of the Malleable Iron works of Rome, N. Y. J. A. Merriman, selling agent, and J. S. Perry, superintendent of the Rome works, came to Nashua with the plant. Both these gentlemen have had large experience in their several departments. Mr. Tabor resigned his place as superintendent in 1894.

The works run two electric engines, one of twenty-five horse power and one of fifteen horse power. Their patented devices which originated in Nashua are the saddle-tree and jocky plate. They use the word "Nashua" as a trade mark on their goods. They employ from forty to fifty hands, with a pay roll of $2,000 per month and with an output of $125,000.

In 1889 the promoter of the Nashua Textile Machine company, William White, Jr., was at work for Flather & Co. as a machinist. At the time he rented a small space in the machine shop of George H. Whitney, together with the use of tools, and employed a man to work over two old wool washing machines according to an idea he had in his mind. These machines were so far successful as to justify his leaving his job at Flather's and devoting himself to building wool washing machines. In May, 1890, he rented room and power of George W. Davis, and in August of 1890 he fitted up a room in Eaton's bobbin factory with a few tools. In this shop he built several washing machines, constantly making improvements.

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History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 77

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