USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the city of Nashua, N.H. > Part 81
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In place of buying stone from other places, large quantities of finished stone are sent from Nashua to Pepperell, Clinton, Worcester, Framingham, and other places. Employment has been given to from twenty-five to forty men and from six to twenty horses. The amount of stone moved has been from 2,000 to 4,000 perch a year. In 1894 a side track was run from the Worcester & Nashua railway to the ledge, greatly increasing the value of the plant. The supply of stone is practically unlimited.
The business of making mittens, gloves, etc., was begun in 1872 by Mrs. J. P. Barber and was the beginning of the manufacture of such goods by machinery. From 1872 to 1882 the work was given out to families, and employment was given to about one hundred hands. In 1880 the knitting of silk mittens was commenced and goods placed upon the market. In 1882 a mill was erected. The business is mostly confined to knitting silk mittens and infants' underclothing. Thirty-five hands are now employed. The work is always upon contract, the contractor furnishing the stock. Power cannot be used in this work.
The climax heater, together with a hot and cold water supply system, is the invention of I. C. Richardson and is manufactured and placed in houses by C. B. Jackman. This hot water device has given great satisfaction and is the safest and most reliable method of hot and cold water supply in use. The first heater was placed in 1885.
In 1881 O. W. Reed hired his present shop on Mason street and began business for himself as a brass founder, where he has been prospered.
The first electric engine used in Nashua was upon a trolley car used for conveying finished goods from the cloth room to the press house by the Nashua Manufacturing company. This line was established in 1889 and has done efficient work ever since. The first electric engine was placed by the Nashua Light, Heat and Power company in the Gazette office in 1889. They have now thirty- four engines at work furnishing two hundred and seventy-five horse power. The time is not far dis- tant when all of our smaller shops will use the electric engine. Still further, the electric engine will enable many small enterprises to flourish that could not if dependent upon steam for power. The engine and the place it occupies is small. It is clean, is always ready for work or rest, as preferred, it can be placed in any room in any building, and is adapted to run a piano or a factory.
A prominent industry, and one which has proved to be of great value in the large manufacturing cities of New England, was introduced into this city in 1853, and known as the "Bee Hive Brand" roofing. The first structure of importance to be covered with this material was the large and fine block of stores and dwellings erected by the late Col. L. W. Noyes on Main street. Colonel Noyes, with his usual discernment, was the first in Nashua to adopt this improvement in the method of covering buildings, and showed his sagacity and foresight, as well as his confidence in the new material, by adopting it. His block had a roof surface of 13,419 square feet. His example was soon followed by others, until manufacturing corporations, mechanical works, and many persons interested in real estate adopted it. The earlier progress in the work was made by the New England Felt Roofing works, but they soon found it necessary in the increased demand, to delegate the business to others, and for many years C. T. Spalding of this city conducted the business here, until declining health compelled him to withdraw. His successor, A. K. Woodbury, who has since associated with himself H. A. Albee, has for some years been engaged in the practical work of applying this material. His reputation for thoroughness and probity has won for him recognition, not only in this city but elsewhere in the New England states.
Small enterprises have from time to time sprung up in Nashua, some of which have remained to this day, but many of them have passed away. Notable among such was the twine mill of Alonzo Crane, in the east mill at the Harbor, and the making of satinet in the same place. The pottery of Martin Crafts was located on the eastern side of Main street, north of the Acton railroad, and Crafts
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lived in the cottage now standing on that location. Crafts began his works in 1838 and continued the same some six years. He brought his clay from Boston by boat. Many of our citizens tell of the time when as boys they visited this shop and saw the workmen form the various articles on the wheel and then place them in the ovens for baking.
The pencil factory of Aaron Heywood was located on Water street, where lead pencils were made, and from which were sold pencils of so poor a grade that they could not be given away to-day. The method of making these goods was exceedingly primitive, and to one familiar with the present state of the art, it is a good illustration of the progress of these years. The business was removed to Massachusetts.
A clock factory was for a time a somewhat flourishing enterprise. L. W. Noyes was the proprietor. The names of Wyman, Rogers & Cox, clockmakers, are familiar to the old inhabitants The shop was located in the rear of long block, Main street. The clocks were fine timepieces and are second to none to-day. Many of them are to be found in this neighborhood, and their owners have valuable reminders of the past as well as superior timepieces. The works were made of brass. The wheels were cast and finished on lathes, the teeth were cut by a gear cutter. The shop had no power and the lathes were run by foot. Of course they could not compete with those who made their clocks with proper tools and power. This was one of Nashua's lost opportunities. The work began in 1832 and was discontinued in 1838.
James Ridgway and his son Charles T. Ridgway were jewelers and makers of silver bowed spectacles in Amherst. In his travels to and from Boston, for the sale of goods, the son saw the advantage of the rising village of Nashua, as an objective point for their business, and in 1834 they removed their shop to this place and occupied a store where Nutt's block now stands, known as Eayrs' block,-seventy-five dollars annual rent. Like the hand made clock, the hand made spectacles had to give place to machine made goods.
Early in the history of Nashua Thomas G. Banks made paper hangings in a small way in the basement of a building occupying a part of the ground covered by the present Goodrich block. Here he mixed his colors and prepared and stamped his paper. This enterprise was short lived because of cheap machine made and stamped papers. The shop was then used as a bowling alley, and Captain Banks put into the upper story a stock of paper hangings, making his store the headquarters for the police department, he being city marshal and police force all in one:
In 1846, before calling cards were in vogue, it was quite the thing for friends to exchange cards with the address and motto upon them. A pupil of Professor Crosby conceived the bright idea of ornamenting these cards, and Charles T. Gill, an enterprising book seller of that day, at once entered into the business, taking and disposing of all that could be produced by the young artists engaged in the enterprise. This business was carried on for several years and extended to the making of reward cards for school teachers' use.
No one would ever have thought that matter-of-fact Nashua, with its practical money making inhabitants would have a sentimental vein in its makeup, but such must have been the case for at one time there was a flourishing valentine manufactory in the city owned and managed by J. M. Fletcher. The business was started in 1850 and continued for ten years. It was located in Beasom hall. Mr. Fletcher gave it up to engage in the furniture business.
James W. Watts, a well known engraver, who was for many years associated with George W. Smith of Boston, at one time lived on Amherst street and there made the well known engravings of Lindseer's "Challenge " and "The Sanctuary." His pictures were copies of the larger English engravings.
In 1845 J. D. Nutter had a shop for making church organs in Nashua. He made the original organ in the Pearl street church and possibly others in our churches. The works were removed to Brookfield, Vermont. A factory for making melodeons was located on Water street in what was later known as Mullen's building and in 1853 was opened by B. F. Tobin and employed twelve men. In 1857 it was the property of T. and E. Sawyer, and gave employment to ten hands. The company made good instruments, but their capital and possibly their enterprise was too limited to meet the competition of large and rich concerns like Mason & Hamlin. The enterprise was given up just at the turning point in the melodeon business, when the form of the instrument known as the cabinet organ began to be
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popular. The time of this change was the beginning of great prosperity in the business and we may safely conclude that if the company had met this crisis in their affairs with courage, they would have established a successful business in Nashua.
When Col. Frank G. Noyes was a student at Williams he one day stepped into the little book- store just started in his father's new block to purchase a wallet. He wanted one very thin and light, such as was not to be found. Mr. Smith, the proprietor of the store, remarked that he should have to make him one, and, being in Boston a few days later, bought some extra fine turkey morocco, and made inquiries as to material used, etc., in making wallets. After his return he labored long and faithfully to build the desired wallet. The design was good, the material was of the best, the book was soft and light, but the workmanship was not such as would encourage the art. The book was not placed on exhibition. This experiment was so much of a success that when a friend, John Hunt- ington became disabled for hard work, Mr. Smith helped him to enter into the making of wallets, and for some ten years he and his wife made the best wallets ever sold in the market. At this same time Mr. Smith had several hands at work making portfolios, and when the Civil War began, he made and sold great quantities of these goods for the soldiers' use. When what was known as "fractional currency " began to come into use, Mr. Smith made what was known as a magic holder to carry it in. The demand for these goods was such that within a week fourteen hands were at work making them, and in three weeks the rush was over. Large box shops were setting their help to making them and they flooded the market. The profits to Mr. Smith for his ideas and three weeks' work was $500. As the premium on gold kept foreign made wallets away from the market, and as his help was organized for work, Mr. Smith began to make wallets for the trade and for some years he made this a branch of his business. After the war the Copp brothers were engaged in the business of making wallets in connection with their bookstore.
The brothers, Moses A. and Kendall F. Worcester were for some years extensively engaged in the compressed yeast business in what is known as the Greeley building. The business was removed to Worcester, Mass., in the seventies.
A. M. Smith and I. C. Richardson established a hoop-skirt manufacturing company in 1865. During the years when hoop skirts were in fashion this enterprise was quite successful. The factory was in the card shop on Pearson's avenue.
C. P. Danforth was for a time engaged quite extensively in the suspender manufacturing busi- ness. He began in 1865 and employed some thirty hands. L. E. Burbank also had a factory in Per- ham's block for making the same class of goods.
Rufus Fitzgerald has conducted the business of leather belting in Nashua since 1860. He first occupied the east end of the Jackson company's shop. In 1871 he located in his present quarters at the corner of Main and Park streets.
In 1852 John Mullen began weaving carpets in Merrimack where he did a good business. Owing to a quarrel with his landlord he removed to Nashua in 1859. He was first located in an attic in the bobbin factory, but finally purchased and moved into the vacated melodeon factory on the river bank back of the present Goodrich block and carried on the business until the building was destroyed by fire in 1874. In connection with his carpet works, John Mullen had a dye house on Water street. Edward Murgatroyd also had one on Front street which was for many years an institution for econo- mical Nashua, and it is continued to the present time by his successors.
The Nashua Butt and Hardware company was organized to build butt hinges under the patent of George Moore and two patents of R. T. Smith. In 1893 the business was sold to the Reading, Pa., Hardware company.
For many years John Ridge made files in a small way on Amherst street and in other shops. In 1892 John Ridge and John B. Grover began business under the name of the Nashua Rasp company at Edgeville. Mr. Grover soon bought the entire interest in the business, and in 1894 the works were closed.
L. E. Burbank has been engaged in the manufacture of overalls for many years. His shop is located on Merrimack street.
The first cigar factory in Nashua was started by O. P. Greenleaf, better known to the old citizen as "Dr. Olipod," in 1843, in a building known as Fuller's block, located where Merchants Exchange now stands. Mr. Greenleaf continued business in the same building until 1848. He afterwards
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went into the hotel business at Hillsborough Bridge. Jonas Kempton started the cigar business in Nashua at 112 Pearl street (old numbers) where Campbell's paint shop now is, in 1858, in connection with his confectionery business. Mr. Kempton ran it about two years and sold out to Chapman & Cram. They moved from 112 Pearl street to under the old Universalist church, where Wheeler's clothing store now is. They then removed to Tuttle building, with store on street and factory in basement. They continued the business about three years, and dissolved partnership, H. J. Chapman succeeding A. B. Cram, and continuing the business a short time.
Moses L. Truell started in 1864 on Palm street where he continued one year, and then moved to the corner of Elm and Pearl streets, over what is now A. J. Blood & Co.'s store. He moved from there to the old post office building on Pearson's avenue, where a partnership was formed with J. F. Dennahan. The business continued two years here, and was then moved to the ten-footers which stood where Ayer block now stands, and remained there until the ten-footers were torn down in 1891. In 1886 Mr. Dennahan died, Mr. Truell continuing the business alone. He moved to Greeley building April 1, 1891, where he remained about seven months, removing to 10 Factory street, where he is still located. Charles Holman started in the cigar business about 1869 in a block which he built where his dwelling house now stands, at the corner of Main and Eldridge streets. This block was burned in 1871 and Mr. Holman removed to 112 Pearl street, at the old place where Mr. Kempton started in 1858, where he continued the business until 1873. T. J. Dowd moved his business here from Manchester in 1888, and started in the store now occupied by Marden & Mygatt on Pearl street. He removed his factory to the old brick school house on Pearl street in 1891, and still continues at this location. C. M. Fairbanks started in 1890 at the junction of Merrimack and Manchester streets, and still continues at that location. W. E. Keeley started in business in 1893 in the Chase building on Elm street, and in a short time removed to Tessier block on Pearl street, where he remained a short time, removing to Tremont block, 75 Pearl street, where he is now located. During all this time there were several others who started in the business and continued for a short period, namely : C. A. Smith, Wm. Greenman, Andrew Conant, F. N. Mckean, Charles Bowers, Preston & Mckean, Loverin & Shurtleff, Nathan Marcus, Geo. Foquitt, F. P. Fellows, and J. N. Neman.
For many years after the settlement of Dunstable there were no carriages, and consequently no harnesses, but there must have been those who made harnesses and the ruder and coarser kinds of wheel vehicles before 1800. In 1825 there was a shop south of Salmon brook for making and repairing carts and heavy wagons. Various individuals have maintained similar shops during all the years of the history of Nashua, but no concern has risen to the dignity of a carriage manufactory. The making of harnesses has been a business of some importance, and different individuals have been identified with it. Notably Isaac Stiles, Marshall Farnsworth, Norman Fuller, Amasa Sanderson, and Woodward & Cory.
For a manufacturing city the question of water power was, at the time of the beginning of this place, a matter of vital importance. Coal was but little used and its transportation was a serious matter. The water power from Mine falls first stimulated interest in manufacturing only of the small- est and rudest kind. The dam at Mine falls is partly a natural obstruction of the water course and partly artificial. The first dam was engineered by Col. William Boardman. It has been improved and modified several times since his day. The distance of the mills from the dam necessitates many ingenious devices for communicating the state of the water at the dam. The original dam of the Jackson company was built by Colonel Boardman. The second by a man known as " Boston Jack." The third and last by Pollard Wilson in 1878. Prior to this time there was one between Front and Water streets west of the Main street bridge. From the early days of Dunstable there have been dams on Salmon brook. The first of these was built in 1679 and probably stood some twenty or thirty rods above the bridge. It was used for running a saw mill. The upper and lower Vale Mills dams were rebuilt in 1883 by Pollard Wilson. He also built the upper Pennichuck dam the same year.
At first the shops of Nashua were mainly to be found in the Nashua Manufacturing company's buildings on Water street. A few minor enterprises centered in the Jackson company's saw mill at the north end of its dam and others in the shop south of the brook at the Harbor. The big forge shops on Hollis street were looked upon as out of town. In 1852-3 a movement was made for better manufacturing facilities. Gage, Warner & Whitney built a fine plant on Hollis street, and Hartshorn & Ames on Howard street, to be followed later by other firms, until shops may be found occupying
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favorable localities all around the outskirts of the city upon our railroad lines. These shops are mainly, fine buildings, well adapted for permanency. The shoe manufacturers have shown commend- able enterprise in building and furnishing their several plants. Good substantial buildings with suit- able appointments indicate permanency, and have a real influence upon the prosperity of any enter- prise.
It is an interesting fact that the first stock of goods offered to the public of old Dunstable was drawn on a hand sled from Salem. The stock consisted of axes, knives, needles, fish hooks, a keg of nails, another of rum, a quantity of salt fish, and twenty pounds of powder. In 1821 there were five stores in Dunstable, all of them "country stores," carrying a small stock of the grosser sorts of all kinds of goods. The village was well located for trade. The central avenue from this state-the natural outlet for all "down east," towards the west, and of all the northwest towards the sea coast -passed through Dunstable, making it then, as now, the strategic point for southern New Hampshire. One of the five stores was kept by Mr. Boynton at the centre, on the site of the Godfrey barn, one by Samuel Foster on the west side of Abbot square, at the top of the hill, one by Moses Foster just north of the First church, one by J. E. & A. Greeley, south of the church, and one by the Hunts at the Harbor. At this time Dunstable in New Hampshire was at the head of good navigation on the river and the growing importance and prosperity of the New Hampshire and Vermont towns made
PENNICHUCK WATER WORKS' PUMPING STATION.
this a convenient center for a growing trade. Most of the trade came from distant towns, some of the customers coming a hundred miles or more with loaded teams of produce and returning with a barrel of molasses, a quantity of codfish, a few bushels of salt, a bolt of cotton cloth, a few general gro- ceries, and, quite possibly, a keg of the ardent. These were the more distant customers, but the farmers from all the neighboring towns for twenty miles around were sure to find their way to the stores on days when "it rained so hard that they could not work out of doors," bringing their wives and daughters to revel in the mysteries of dry goods and millinery and exchange lots of eggs, a crock of butter, etc., for the same. With the building of the mills came a host of small stores to- gether with a few pretentious dry goods stores. On the north side of Factory street "ten-footers" sprang up in a night and jostled each other in their crowding for room.
The advent of the Concord railroad in 1842 removed the Vermont and northern New Hampshire trade to Concord, giving the death blow to many of the general merchandise stores, and hastening the day when stores devoted to a single line of merchandise would prevail. The coming of Henry Norwell in 1857 marked the beginning of a new phase in trade; the modern "pay as you go" method, in which the capital is turned rapidly so that small profits now pay better than a large profit used to.
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We have seen that the Ridgways paid seventy-five dollars a year rent for a small store on the Nutt's block corner. In 1853 stores rented, on Factory street and on the west side of Main street, for from one hundred and fifty dollars to four hundred dollars per year. The rents in the new Union block on Factory street were four hundred dollars per year. In 1853 Noyes block was built and a rent of five hundred dollars per store was required.
No one can realize the change wrought in the habits of the people, in their ideas of expenditure, and consequently upon the condition and state of trade. The beginning of the Civil War found us provincial, it left us cosmopolitan; it broadened our outlook and developed our energy. Men who remember Sumter, Bull Run, Gettysburg, the surrender of Lee and the death of Lincoln, could not but expand, and this expansion of idea extended to manufacturing and trade. The war marked the beginning of a new era in Nashua. Such blocks as Beasom, Howard, Masonic, Odd Fellows, Ayer and Whiting show what progress has been made in these lines. These buildings are an indication of the advanced ideas of trade.
Perhaps we may safely say that no place in old Dunstable had such a charm for a certain class of its inhabitants as the hay market. Here horse jockeys congregated and gossip of the coarser kind was indulged in. This venerable institution consisted of a framed building covered by a peaked roof and boarded at its two ends, with open sides. Extending from beam to beam across the centre of this structure was a huge wooden shaft with bearings at its ends that engaged the beams. On this shaft, at one end, was secured a large wooden wheel. Over the rim of this wheel passed a rope, which engaged a roller turned by a crank placed below, within working distance of the ground. To the centre of this shaft was secured a chain and from the chain hung the huge iron beam of the steelyards. Beside this shaft was a platform on which the weights were kept and on which the operator stood. A load of hay or other commodity was driven so that its centre stood below the steelyards from which chains extended to the hubs of the wagon wheels and the load was lifted from the ground, by the revolution of the roller, by the crank, after which it was weighed.
As the help that came to work in our mills was largely female, who came from homes on the New Hampshire hillsides and bought not only for their own use, but for their friends at home, we should naturally expect the dry goods business to be prominent. The names of Isaac Spalding, W. D. Beasom, E. S. Goodnow, Reed & Slader, J. A. Wheat, M. W. Merrill, A. & F. F. Kimball, J. H. Blake and others stand prominent in the dry goods trade of the old times.
Merchants, before the crisis of 1857, bought goods on six months' and sold goods to "respectable people " on time, with the result that the capital of the jobber was in the hands of the retailers, and that of the retailer in the hands of the people, and when credit was discredited all business was at a standstill. Such was the state of affairs in 1857, when the credit system was entirely ruined by the panic. The war in 1861 upset all prices and all previous business methods, and trade became organized on new principles. This change in business methods demoralized all lines of trade. But few of the old traders could, or did, come into line, and so made way for new men. In 1857 Henry Norwell opened his store in Noyes block and soon convinced the public that he came to sell, not to store goods. In 1864 Norwell sold his business to William Taylor and Harry Norwell and became a member of the firm of Shepard, Norwell & Co. of Boston. Mr. Taylor proved himself a worthy successor of Mr. Norwell, and raised the standard of the business still higher. In 1869 Mr. Taylor sold to Crawford & Anderson and established the firm of Taylor & Kilpatrick in Cleveland, Ohio. Crawford & Anderson sold to W. B. Wakelin. Crawford established a large business in New York city, and Anderson in Toledo, Ohio. Norwell, Taylor, Crawford, and Anderson were Scotchmen trained to business, and left Nashua to form four great dry goods houses in four of our great cities. Fine, large and costly stores now give suitable rooms for large stocks of goods, such as those of Harry S. Norwell, Chamberlain, Patten & Co., and others.
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