USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the city of Nashua, N.H. > Part 79
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It is a matter of interest to note that the first shop in the country set apart for building doors, sash and blinds was a Nashua enterprise. The shop was located at the north end of the bridge on the west side of the street, and was without power. The proprietors were Samuel Shepard and David Baldwin. In this shop was set up and worked the first mortising machine ever used.
In 1834 the works were removed into a mill owned by the Jackson company, located at the north end of the dam, where power was applied to their machinery. Prior to this time all builders made
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their own doors, etc., in their own shops ; and when ready-made doors, sash and blinds, made in Nashua, were shown to the trade of Boston by Mr. Benjamin, the architect, all but one of the build- ers refused to use the goods.
In 1837 Mr. Shepard received a silver medal from the American institute of New York for a planing machine of his own invention. In 1841 Mr. Shepard filled an order from Russia for planing, tonguing, grooving, beveling or moulding, mortising and sash making machines.
In 1846 the door, sash and blind part of the business was sold to Howard & Combs, and the bal- ance to John D. Kimball. After purchasing Howard's share in the business, Combs sold to John and Samuel Crombie, who removed the business to the mill of John D. Kimball, which was burned in 1856.
The same business was carried on in the Nashua Manufacturing company's shop by B. F. Cad- well, who sold to S. N. Wilson and Josephus Baldwin. They employed twenty hands and were thought to be prosperous, but the company became embarrassed and finally Wilson clandestinely left. The machinery was sold to George White and Chester Bullard, who ran the shop for some three years when, in 1858, the door, sash and blind part of the business was sold to George S. Wilder, a con- tractor and builder, who sold to Nathan H. Foster in 1869. This was practically the end of the enterprise.
BOBBIN AND SHUTTLE WORKS.
Josephus and Edwin Baldwin began the manufacture of bobbins in a small way in connection with a cotton mill in New Ipswich.
Their father lived five miles south of Nashua on a farm, since known as the Highland farm, and had a small shop west of his house where he made boxes and used a wind mill supplemented by horse power. To this shop the brothers came in 1835 and made bobbins. Later on using a small steam engine. Such was the germ which grew into the fine plant on Water street, bearing the name of "The Bobbin Shop."
In 1836 this shop was burned and the works were removed to the machine shop of the Nashua Manufacturing company on Water street. In 1843 they were again burned out. The shop was re- built and the company secured a ten years' lease of it. In 1848 Edwin Baldwin died and Josephus Baldwin conducted the business alone.
To leave Josephus Baldwin out of a history of Nashua would be like leaving Hamlet out of the play which bears his name. His bobbin shops were extensive, his employees were numerous, the teams carting stock or finished goods were prominent on our streets. Was there a fire, his voice was first to give directions. He was a power for good in our city.
The panic of 1857 embarrassed him greatly, his name was on so many notes and was the backbone of so many enterprises. In 1862 Eaton & Ayer bought the business. In 1867 the works were removed into their own shops on Water street. The lumber for their works was largely prepared at their mills at East Haverhill. At first the goods were delivered by a hand cart. The business grew so as to employ one hundred and sixty hands with a payroll of from $5,000 to $6,000 monthly, and the works covered three acres. In 1885 Mr. Eaton retired from the company, and the firm was known as the Nashua Bobbin & Shuttle company. In 1891 the fine business was gobbled up by a trust.
In 1855 the Isaac Eaton company built their factory for making bobbins and shuttles on Charles street on the line of the Wilton railroad, where they continued business until 1891 when they became victims of a trust.
Roger Porter built a shop on Hollis street west, where for some years he manufactured an im- proved shuttle of his own invention.
In 1870 the firm now known as Gregg & Son was started by David and Daniel Gregg, who were engaged in the manufacture of doors, sash and blinds in Goffstown prior to 1870. At this time David Gregg fixed upon Nashua as the best shipping point in New Hampshire, and bought land below Crown hill at the Junction, and with his son, David A. Gregg, and W. W. Hoyt built the present main building of this establishment in 1871, under the firm name of Gregg, Hoyt & Co. In 1872 Mr. Hoyt retired and the business was carried on by David Gregg and David A. Gregg under the firm name of Gregg & Son. David Gregg died in 1880, when his son-in-law, George S. Neville,
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became a partner. In 1882 W. A. Gregg, son of David A. Gregg, became a partner in the firm. In 1883 Mr. Neville died and David A. Gregg and W. A. Gregg continued the business under the old firm name of Gregg & Son. For eleven years, a period of decided prosperity, the firm remained the same. In 1894 O. S. Hussey, son of the late Oliver P. Hussey, and L. G. Neville, son of the late George S. Neville, became partners in the company.
We have seen in a previous article that Nashua was the birth place of the manufacture of doors, sash and blinds, and that the business, for various reasons, had failed of success. This firm, either because of better facilities, of improved methods, or because the time had come when the trade was ready to patronize such an establishment, has made a great success of the business. They have con- stantly increased their plant, improved their machinery, and have neglected no means for improving both the quality and quantity of their product. This company gives a fine illustration of the advan- tage of a concentration of forces to one definite end.
The buildings are of brick, three-story and basement, one hundred and fifty feet by fifty feet, with engine house, dry houses, etc., outside. In 1886 a large store house with rooms for glazing, painting and marbleizing was added to the plant, and in 1891 the mill proper was extended by an addition of twenty-five feet on its south side.
The company in 1871 employed seventy-five hands, at present about one hundred and fifty. Five million feet of lumber are consumed annually, with a pay roll of $55,000 and an output of $250,000. The demand for goods has always been increasing. Prices have varied, being the best between 1880 and 1892. The price of lumber has slowly risen. The company makes doors, sash, blinds, window frames, mantels, balustrades and inner finish of all kinds. As good pine lumber becomes scarce, white wood and the various hard woods have, to a degree, taken its place, while large quantities of North Carolina pine and of cypress have been, and are increasingly used. In the manufacture of veneered doors, black walnut has given place to quartered oak, ash, cherry, birch, mahogany, maple and sycamore.
The company has been fortunate in the matter of fires, having suffered but twice from that cause and once from the flooding of their basement.
In 1825 we find the saw mill of Israel Hunt, Sr., at the Harbor and that of Willard Marshall at the north end of the old dam across the Nashua. After the building of the Jackson company's dam, a saw mill at its north end became an important factor in the lumber business. This mill was run by various parties, Roby & McQuesten, Pierce & McQuesten, Sargent & Cross, Cross & Tolles, and others." Many logs were brought to the river and floated to the mills. The pile of logs on the river bank, west of the bridge, and the boom extending down the river, is a memory of olden days. When the Jackson company's dam was rebuilt and the fishway was put in, this saw mill was done away with. Melendy Bros. built the mill on Quincy street and in 1878 sold to Cross & Tolles, who greatly enlarged and improved the property. J. D. Kimball had a saw mill on Franklin street which was burned in 1853.
At one time there was a saw mill on West Hollis street, and Hiland Holt ran a saw mill for some years on the line of the Acton railroad. It was burned in 1889. At the present time we have the plants of Cross & Tolles, the Proctor Brothers, and Roby & Swart. For many years Frederick Chase represented the lumber trade outside of the saw mills. His business was purchased and continued by F. D. Cook & Co. until it was merged in the F. D. Cook Lumber company.
The Nashua Till company originated with Edwin White, who invented the first alarm money drawer. His patent bears the date of 1859. White sold his interest to Lund & Co., and in 1871 Kendall & Wood became owners of the property, assuming the name of the Nashua Till company. In 1880 E. O. Wood became sole proprietor and has conducted the business since that time alone. His factory is on Quincy street in the buildings of Cross & Tolles. Mr. Wood has made many im- provements in money drawers and cash registers and has secured patents for the same.
The American Fan company was started in 1866. One day during the summer of that year R. T. Smith chanced to be in the counting room of the Nashua Card and Glazed Paper company, when Mr. Gilman asked him if he knew of any manufacturing enterprise that they could add to their business, saying that a new story could be built upon the ell of the factory. Mr. Smith spoke of the fact that all ladies' fans were imported and could be made in this country. Later the members of the card company induced Mr. Smith to take charge of such a shop.
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This was a great mistake. The business was new and must have its growth. The company had 10 stated capital. The management did not know how far they could safely go, and Mr. Smith did not have the right qualities to manage such a business. The goods made the first season paid a very large profit, and the business took a good start. For the second year a large importing house in New York undertook the sale of the goods, and placed so large an order as to necessitate greatly enlarging the plant. Material had to be procured which was new to the market, such as wood and cloth suitable for use, in large quantities. The orders were not placed until it was time to begin to deliver the goods, and the machinery had to be adapted to the requirements of the orders, with the result that goods could not be delivered in season, the shop had to run nights, and the company had to make discounts because of delays, so that the season's business was neither a success nor a failure.
In 1868 the company was incorporated and passed into the hands of a board of directors. The shop was burned in 1869. The enterprise was a failure, but it should have been a success. The machinery was finely adapted for the work and had been mostly perfected for a high grade of work. The folding machines wove fans of cheap grades better than any on the market of high grades, the riveting machine, the gang saws, the multiple die, the cloth pasting machine, the self-feeding presses, all new, were well adapted to their work. Such was the success of the first year that three companies started as competitors. The next year the company had planned to raise the grade of its work. A gang of circular saws had been perfected for making sawed sticks to displace those of veneer, and a machine for finishing the sticks after they were sawed was nearly completed, and a machine for sawing the fan sticks into form had been planned and could have been built at small cost. These would have raised the grade of fans from one dollar a dozen to that of six dollars and twelve dollars a dozen, and would have made a great success of the enterprise. As it was, if the market had not been flooded all at once with cheap Japanese fans, the business would have secured a good footing. These Japanese fans drove all other cheap goods from the market.
No longer ago than 1850 a traveler through the farming community of Hollis would have noticed beside the pleasant farm-houses small shops evidently built for use. These shops, in which the farmer and his sons worked during the winters and stormy weather, were used for the manufacture of kegs, kits, and firkins. These articles were sent to Boston, first by canal boat and later by rail. This business being to the Hollis farmer the same as the loom in the house was to the Scotch and to the English crofter. With the advent of the railway came the day of concentrated energy and the building up of large plants to take the place of numerous small ones.
Ira and Nathaniel H. Proctor, two young men of Hollis, saw the necessity of expanding their small shop and cramped conditions, and by hiring outside help, by purchasing wood lots for their lumber. They pushed the business as a business. They accomplished this end, which gradually increased until, in 1874, they removed their works to the William Merrill farm, south of the church, where they built shops, at the same time employed men in different parts of the town, and continually increased their business. In 1880 they established a branch in Wilton, where they did a good business for ten years, some of the time employing twenty men. Their business having outgrown their facilities in Hollis, in 1881 they purchased several acres of land in Nashua and built a large steam mill, cooper shops, and storehouses, and greatly enlarged their business. In 1892 a branch factory was located in Jersey City, N. J., to supply their large trade in New York city.
From time to time additions have been made to the mill, several large storehouses have been built, also twenty-one tenements have been erected for their workmen. Their business has steadily increased and improvements have been made until their plant covers an area of ten acres located on three side tracks of the Boston & Maine railroad.
At the present time their business facilities, located as they are in one of the best shipping points in the east, are not excelled by any manufactory of the kind in New England. In the spring of 1896 their plant on Hollis street was damaged by fire to the extent of about $12,000.
George O. Sanders' saw mill and box factory, located on the banks of the Merrimack, north of the Hudson bridge, were quite extensive, and a large business was done. Work upon the plant was begun in 1882. In 1889 the mills were destroyed by fire, and were rebuilt at once. The principal business was making wooden boxes, box shooks, sawing and dressing lumber and general lumber business. The works were again burned in 1890 and were not rebuilt.
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The White Mountain Freezer company, which manufactures ice cream freezers, is the largest establishment of the kind in the world. The company began business at Laconia in 1872, Thomas Sands being the proprietor and manager. The enterprise was a success from the start and greatly expanded its business until 1881, when its manufactory was burned.
Following the fire Mr. Sands cast about to find the best place in which to locate, where better railroad facilities could be obtained than at Laconia. After thoroughly canvassing the situation he decided upon Nashua. He accordingly purchased four acres of land between the tracks of the Worcester & Nashua and Nashua & Acton railroads, where he located his factories. The buildings include the main factory, which is two hundred by forty feet, storehouse two hundred by thirty-three feet, foundry and shop one hundred and fifty by fifty feet, store and boiler house, one hundred and seventy-five by twenty-six feet, with several buildings for drying, coopering, pattern making, etc.
Mr. Sands carried on the business until 1888 when a corporate company was formed and he disposed of his entire interest. The company is organized with a paid-up capital of $100,000.
Nearly every piece of machinery used in the business-and some of it is novel and intricate- was invented for, and the patents are owned by the company. The works are run by a Rollins engine of about one hundred and fifty horse power. The company takes all its material, except tin, in the raw, and from it manufactures the perfected article, and besides this does some special work in its foundry for other concerns, and also makes up orders for tubs and pails.
The company does its business on thorough business principles under L. F. Thurber, its efficient treasurer. The company employs two hundred and fifty hands with an annual business of $400,000. Its monthly pay-roll is $7.000.
The Porter Blanchard's Sons company, whose works are located on Merrimack street, was organized by Porter Blanchard in the year 1818. At that time Mr. Blanchard had a small work shop in Concord, at which place he made a few dozen churns a year. As his business grew he enlarged his factory and increased his force of employees, and took his sons into partnership. The business con- tinued to increase and other lines of dairy and creamery apparatus were manufactured. In 1890 the entire plant at Concord was destroyed by fire, and the living member of the firm, George A. Blanch- ard, upon looking into the matter of rebuilding, was invited by several Nashua gentlemen to locate in this city, which he finally decided to do. A stock company was formed in 1890 with a capital of $25,000. At the present time the company has about thirty men in its employ.
The Blanchard churn is a household word among the farmers, and the sales of this churn have reached 300,000. The Porter Blanchard's Sons company are daily making shipments, not only to every part of this country, but their goods are sent to every civilized portion of the globe, their busi- ness having increased over two hundred per cent in the past year. This concern has fitted up several creameries, and their specialties have in every case given perfect satisfaction. The following gentle- men are the company's officers : President, Thomas Sands; treasurer, L. F. Thurber ; secretary and manager, Fred A. Davis.
The firm of Roby & Swart was formed March 1, 1890, to do a general lumber business, both wholesale and retail. Their yard was located at the foot of Temple street. Their business grew rapidly, assuming large proportions and in 1892, when the Boston & Maine railroad company pur- chased their yard for the present location of their freight business, they bought the old Williams foundry property on Temple street, fitting it with sheds and office, making it one of the best equipped retail yards in New England. In the spring of the same year Roby & Swart purchased the Underhill Edge Tool company's plant, including the water power and the entire property located at Edgeville. They immediately changed it into a wood-working plant, equipped with a combined steam and water power of five hundred and fifty horse power and every facility for doing a large business. They gradually enlarged until from a small beginning they now employ one hundred men in their shop and are constantly increasing. They use from eight to ten million feet of lumber, and pay out in wages at the mill from $40,000 to $50,000 annually. In 1894 Roby & Swart consolidated their retail yard business with that of F. D. Cook & Co., forming a stock company under the corporate name of The F. D. Cook Lumber company, with capital stock paid in of $75,000.
In 1874 E. O. Fifield began work in Brinley & Jones' box shop in Tyngsboro, making a machine for forming interlocking corners for wooden boxes. He remained in this employ until 1881, when he began to make boxes for himself. He built a small shop, twenty by twenty-two, and employed one
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man. For power he used a five-inch cylinder engine. He soon associated Mr. Harris with him in the business, and upon the death of Mr. Harris he bought the entire interest and ran the business alone. In 1890 he removed his business to Nashua and built his shop on the corner of Fifield and Taylor streets. It is forty-two by eighty feet, and two-story, with a one-story wing, forty-two by forty. The engine house is outside. He uses a twenty-five horse power engine and employs fourteen hands. The business is making wooden boxes, having interlocking corners, or other general wood work such as may be called for.
In November, 1892, Charles A. Roby and William D. Swart organized the Nashua Building company, under the firm name of Roby & Swart, with Mr. Roby as president and Mr. Swart as treasurer, to do contracting and building, which company has been successful in a marked degree. This company employs from forty to fifty men most of the year, and pays out in wages $25,000 to $30,000 annually.
Asher Benjamin, a prominent architect, was identified for some years with the early days of Nashua, and through his pupil, Samuel Shepard, his influence extended for many years. His tastes were classic and were not especially adapted to the wants of a manufacturing town. The more notable example of his art and one of real excellence was the Olive street meeting-house. This house as seen from Main street, presented a fine Grecian front, crowned by a cupola of great beauty; with the hill as a base, it was a most effective bit of art. The cupola on the old First church, and also that on the City Hall, and the front of the Unitarian church, bear marks of his taste and skill.
The building trade has been carried on by numerous individuals and firms. Of late years the business has developed large firms and efficient methods. In 1853 one Clark had an office on the street as an architect. Since 1880 the rapid growth of our city has given opportunity for the display of skill and taste, such as had never obtained before.
The shoe manufacturing business of Nashua was established in 1874 by Crain, Leland & Moody. This firm moved from Manchester, and occupied the building owned by V. C. Gilman and which had been used as a watch factory and also as a hotel. As a hotel it was known as the Washington house. The firm of Crain, Leland & Moody manufactured about 1200 pairs of shoes daily, and the business amounted to about $300,000 annually. They employed about two hundred persons. The product consisted of men's, boys' women's and children's shoes of a cheap grade, and was sold to the jobbing trade of the south and west.
The first change in the firm was caused by the retirement of Mr. Leland and the admittance of Mr. Rising of Boston, and the firm name was changed to Crain, Moody & Rising. This occurred in 1876. In the autumn of 1878 Mr. Moody retired and the business was continued by Mr. Crain and Mr. Rising under the firm name of Crain, Rising & Co. During these changes the volume and char- acter of the business was changed but little. In the spring of 1879, Frank E. Anderson, George E. Anderson and F. W. Estabrook, all of whom had been connected, in responsible positions, with the firm previously mentioned, severed their connection with the business and formed a co-partnership under the firm name of Estabrook & Anderson Bros. They built a small factory, eighty by thirty-four, three and one-half stories high, on the land of the Worcester & Nashua railroad com- pany in the rear of the grain elevator of Seth D. Chandler, from whom they rented power to operate their plant. Their capital was very small, but they were encouraged and aided . by many of the best citizens of Nashua, among whom may be mentioned J. W. White, Seth D. Chandler, Cross & - Tolles, F. D. Cook & Co., Dr. E. B. Hammond and Mr. - Parkinson. The Second National bank followed their usual policy of aiding home industries and was of great assistance for many years. The business was a success from the OLD HOLLIS STREET SHOE SHOP. start. The first six months' business amounted to $70,000, the second to $80,000, and the third to $125,000, and during these eighteen months the capital of the firm was increased five-fold and it became independent of outside help. The business up to this time had been so successful that it was thought best to try to increase it and W. H. Moody of the original
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firm of Crain, Leland & Moody, was admitted as a partner, and the size of the factory was doubled. The firm name was changed to Moody, Estabrook & Andersons, and the business was conducted under that name until 1896 when it was changed to The Estabrook-Anderson company, Mr. Moody retiring.
In the meantime, during the summer of 1879, the business of the old firm of Crain, Rising & Co. was removed to Westboro, Mass., and the factory occupied by them was afterwards destroyed by fire. After Mr. Moody was admitted as a partner the business continued to be successful and to increase in volume, and in the fall of 1885 it was decided to abandon the old factory and build a new plant with all the modern improvements. The plant was, however, constructed on the mill principle and was the first shoe factory in the country to be so constructed. The building was erected on the north side
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