USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > History of Providence County, Rhode Island > Part 3
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" Happily Mr. Slater's gaze continues anxiously turned toward Providence rather than toward Philadephia. Mr. Brown'sletter bears date ' Providence, 10th 12th month, 1789.' The young man promptly sets out for Rhode Island, and quickly appears in Pawtucket. A word or two on his first host.
" This was Mr. Sylvanus Brown, the father of Captain James S. Brown. He was a good representative of the energetic class of men that peopled this place a century ago. During the revolutionary contest he served for a time in the navy, and held the office of master- of-arms in the ship of Commodore Esek Hopkins. Soon after the re- turn of peace Mr. Brown was engaged by the governor of the eastern British provinces to go to Halifax, and superintend the erection of saw and grist mills in some of those provinces. Such was the fame of Rhode Island mechanics, that Mr. Brown was allowed to hire 50 from this neighborhood to rear the mills desired. And it casts a side light on the nature and extent of the iron business carried on here, to know that all the iron work required was made in Pawtucket. Mr. Brown was occupied in the Provinces nearly two years, and built seven saw mills and two grist mills. After his return he built Quaker lane, which had been laid out; and, as surveyor of highways, · extended it down to the Landing.
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
" Mr. Brown was accustomed to relate to his family the circum- stances of his introduction to Mr. Slater. In the latter part of 1789 Moses Brown came out to Pawtucket, accompanied by a young Eng- lishman 22 years of age. On approaching his Pawtucket namesake, Mr. Brown says, 'Sylvanus, I have brought to thee a young man who says he knows how to spin cotton. I want thee to keep him to-night, and talk with him, and see what he can do.' Mr. Sylvanus Brown ac- cepts the charge. On the next morning Moses Brown make his appearance early, in his usual style. He is borne in a carriage drawn by two horses, and driven by a colored driver. He quickly accosts his old acquaintance. 'Sylvanus, what does thee think? Does the young man seem to know anything about spinning cotton ?' Mr. Brown replies that he has talked with the young man, and that he speaks with great confidence, and really seems to understand about matters.
"But the parties quickly proceed to business. Mr. Slater is taken to see the machines, and is not captivated by their appearance. Let Moses Brown tell the story: 'When Samuel saw the old machines, he felt downhearted with disappointment, and shook his head, and said, These will not do; they are good for nothing in their present condition, nor can they be made to answer.' Probably there were others disappointed too. But is there not an alternative? Yes. Moses Brown doubtless quickly recalls the assurance which the young Englishman had given of his ability to make the needed ma- chinery, as well as good yarn. Since he is here by Pawtucket Falls, and no one can question the goodness of the water power, why not let him reproduce the series of machines termed the Arkwright pat- ents? Mr. Slater is ready for such an undertaking, but imposes cer- tain conditions. His trial machines must be constructed of wood; a skillful mechanic must therefore be furnished, who shall be put under bonds neither to steal the patterns, nor to reveal the nature of the works. 'Under my proposals,' says the confident young man, 'if I do not make as good yarn as they do in England, I will have nothing for my services, but will throw the whole of what I have at- tempted over the bridge.'
" But where can a more skillful wood-worker be found in Paw- tucket than the man at whose house Mr. Slater had been a guest? Mr. Sylvanus Brown is engaged to assist Mr. Slater in his undertaking. A contract is made by careful Moses Brown, to pay Mr. Slater a dollar a day for his labor while reproducing the coveted machines. It has already been mentioned that Mr. Sylvanus Brown had been occupied a short time before in constructing Quaker Lane. That lane was laid out a little more than a century ago by Stephen Hopkins, Richard Waterman and a David Wilkinson. Probably there had been an older lane running between that and the river, but the new lane supersedes it. The land over which it run was originally swampy,
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
and, for years afterward, after every storm and in the thaws of springtime, the road was a veritable slough of despond. The lane was so called from Benjamin Arnold, Oziel Wilkinson and Timothy Greene, members of the Society of Friends. It answers to what is now the beginning of East avenue. The shop wherein Mr. Slater began the manufacture of his machines was on the lane named, and, some years ago, was the salesroom of a baker. A few years since, as it was to be torn down, Captain Brown caused it to be taken apart, and the frame and other parts to be removed to his spacious lot on Main street. And it is his intention to have it re-erected in the yard of his extensive machine shop .*
"The greatest secrecy was maintained in all the operations. The front windows were shielded by shutters and the back windows cov- ered by blinds. Mr. Slater traced his lines on the wood with chalk, and Mr. Brown cut out the parts and fabricated the various portions of the machines. What power was needed was supplied by a wheel propelled by an aged negro of the name of Prime. He boasted a fuller name, or a brace of them-Samuel Primus, or Primus Jenks. Having once been a slave of some of the Jenkses, he bore that re- minder of his former relation to them. Samuel Primus, however, was not put under bonds, for he would have scorned to betray any secrets. Moses Brown watched the proceedings with eager interest, and reckoned it no hardship to come daily from Providence for that purpose. Mr. Slater and his helper labored industriously, and, in a few months, finished a water-frame of 24 spindles, two carding ma- chines, and the drawing and roping frames necessary to prepare for the spinning, and soon after added a frame of 48 spindles. The time for testing the machines at last comes, and everything works satisfactorily but the carder. Instead of the cotton's coming off in rolls it clings firmly to the cylinder. Mr. Slater tries every expedient that he can think of to remedy the difficulty, but fails. Hope, which had hitherto buoyed him up, gave place to chagrin. He recollects the confident assurances he had given, and his boastful words seemed to him but swaggering. One thought, indeed, gives poignancy to his feelings. It is bad enough to fail when one deemed himself on the eve of success, but he feared that he would be counted an impostor. Under the revulsion of feeling he almost resolves on flight. He tells Mr. Sylvanus Brown that such seems his only re- sort. But Mr. Brown gives him wiser counsel, and urges him to keep trying. The young man is still baffled, however, and announces his design to run away; Mr. Brown expostulates against such rashness, but determines on satisfying his own mind of the feasibility of the work. He fixes on his companion's countenance a searching gaze, and asks, 'Have you ever seen one of these carders work in your
*The subsequent death of Captain Brown prevented the accomplishment of his intention .- ED.
2
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
own country?' ' Yes,' was the unfaltering reply, and the young man's hand was brought down resolutely on his knee to add emphasis to the answer. 'Then it can be made to work here,' was his mentor's response. While the matter was in abeyance, however, Mr. Brown, whose house was also on Quaker lane, was compelled to wait a few minutes one day for his dinner. It happened that his wife had been using a pair of hand cards, which she laid down as her husband came in. Spontaneously he took them up, and discovered, as he examined them, that the teeth were bent somewhat differently from those on the carder at their shop, and the thought occurs to him that an alter- ation in the shape of the teeth may surmount the difficulty. After dinner he tries the experiment, and, to his joy and Mr. Slater's relief, the carder works.
"Success is attained. Arkwright's patents are reproduced in America, and Pawtucket is to be enriched by a new branch of in- dustry. Mr. Sylvanus Brown converts the parts of the machine which need greatest strength into iron. The forges of the Wilkinsons sup- ply what is requisite, and the perfected machines are set in operation in a small mill that stood, at the close of the last century, on the southwest abutment of the bridge which then spanned the Pawtucket. But that bridge was long since demolished to make room for a better structure, and the mill itself was swept away by the surges of the Blackstone in the memorable freshet of 1807. Work was begun in earnest with the new machines in the fall of 1790, or the winter fol- lowing. And to understand the comparative rudeness of some of the machines then employed, an extract from a letter of Mr. Smith Wilkinson, written years afterward, may be quoted: 'I was then in my tenth year, and went to work with Mr. Slater, and began attend- ing the breaker. The mode of laying the cotton was by band, taking up a handful and pulling it apart with both hands, shifting it all into the right hand to get the staple of the cotton straight, and fix the handful so as to hold it firm, and then applying it to the surface of the breaker, moving the hand horizontally across the card to and fro, until the cotton was fully prepared.'
" It is difficult at the present time, abounding as Pawtucket does with workshops and skillful artisans of every kind, to realize the obstacles that Mr. Slater was obliged to overcome in building even such rude machines. Drawings, models and patterns he lacked; from the circumstances whereby he was surrounded, he had but a single workman to counsel him, and he one who had never seen such ma- ·chines as he was aiming to reproduce; his sole dependence under God was therefore on the tenaciousness of his memory, his firm faith and a dogged will. One alleviation of his lot, however, there was. He boarded in the family of Oziel Wilkinson, and Mrs. Wilkinson, true to the instincts of the sect whereto she belonged, extended to the lonely stranger the sympathy he so much craved. Here, too, he
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
formed an acquaintance with the maiden who afterward became his wife, for, as is well known, he subsequently married a daughter of Mr. Wilkinson. But Mr. Slater plied his skill in the narrow quarters of the mill mentioned for nearly two years, and found, at the end of the period, that several thousand pounds of yarn had accumulated on the hands of himself and his partners in spite of their utmost efforts to sell it. A small quantity sufficed at that early time to glut the market. The prudence of Moses Brown took alarm quite quickly, in- deed, at the overstock, for, when 500 pounds had accumulated, he wrote to Mr. Slater, 'Thee must shut down thy gates, or thee will spin up all my farms into cotton yarn.'
" The success attained, however, was a matter of gratulation. That in spite of the jealous exclusiveness of the British government, cotton spinning by water power had been acclimated in America was reason for thankfulness. Pawtucket had won new fame, and is justified in claiming to be the parent of scores of flourishing towns and cities that have outstripped her in population."
" After the experiment of Mr. Slater had so far succeeded, a new mill was erected. It was the comparatively diminutive building on Mill street which now bears the name of the Old Slater Mill. In fact, the original edifice was much smaller than the present one. It was reared in 1793. And here came into play the inventive genius of Mr. Sylvanus Brown. He quickly realized that, if the business of spin- ning cotton was to be extended, facilities were needed for speeding the manufacture of the requisite machinery. As early as 1791, there- fore, he invented a slide lathe for turning rollers, spindles and like articles, and followed it with an invention for fluting and planing rollers. His lathe was the first invention for turning iron, and he subsequently used it, with certain alterations, for cutting wrought iron screws for presses to press sperm oil. And other screws still were made by the same instrument. But the inventions first named were of immense value in hastening the equipping of the new mill.
" During the year 1793 a slitting mill was built by Oziel Wilkin- son and a flouring mill by Thomas Arnold. It is alleged, indeed, that Pawtucket can claim that the first flouring mill in the State was erected within her borders.
" The success of Slater's undertaking stimulated others to rear mills of a like character. In 1799 the second cotton mill in this town was begun. It was erected by Mr. Oziel Wilkinson and his three sons-in-law-Samuel Slater, Timothy Greene and William Wilkinson. An advertisement from these parties, which has been preserved, has a kind of historic interest. It appeared in the United States Chronicle (a journal published in Providence), under date of July 30th, 1801. It is as follows:
"' SAMUEL SLATER & CO.
"' The subscribers having erected an extensive Manufactory for
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
spinning Cotton at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, near Pawtucket Falls, four miles from Providence, R. I., have entered into Co-Partnership under the above firm, for conducting the same, and now inform the Public that they are ready to supply any Quantity of Yarn, of almost every Number and Description, as Warp, Filling, 2 and 3 threaded Stocking Yarn, suitable for Weaving and Knitting, whitened or brown, Wholesale or Retail, at a short Notice. Their Yarn is at least equal, if not superior to any manufactured in America. Orders to any Amount can speedily be complied with, and shall be carefully attended to, by addressing to Samuel Slater & Co., North Providence, or William Wilkinson, Postmaster, Providence.
OZIEL WILKINSON, SAMUEL SLATER, TIMOTHY GREENE, WILLIAM WILKINSON.
"' N. Providence, July 15th, 1801.'
" Tradition represents that the impulse to the erection of the mill last mentioned sprung from dissatisfaction on the part of Mr. Slater with his former partners. He fancied-whether justly or not is idle to inquire-that they were ready to supplant him, now that they had, as they supposed, learned the business; and his sturdy father-in-law, as well as Mr. Slater himself, resented the injustice.
" One can easily imagine the alarm which the prospect of another rival brings to the proprietors of the old mill. An amusing incident illustrates the fact. The expression another rival has been wittingly used. The mill built in 1799 was not the second cotton mill reared in this neighborhood, for that was erected in what was long called Robin Hollow, in the town of Cumberland. It stood on the site of the present Cumberland Mills, which may almost be claimed as a Paw- tucket enterprise, since the buildings were reared mainly by Paw- tucket capital, and the larger part of the capital stock is still held in this town. The earlier mill, however, was erected by Elisha Water- man, and the story is told that, after it got under way, the workmen came one day to Pawtucket, and marched in procession by the old mill, every one wearing a bunch of cotton yarn on his hat.
"The name of Timothy Greene in the above quoted advertise- ment is a reminder that, at that period, he was an active business man in Pawtucket. His original business was the manufacture of shoes, but he enlarged it by engaging in tanning. He purchased a somewhat extensive piece of land between Quaker Lane and the river. He laid out a tan-yard along the banks of the river, where the mill of his grandsons now stands. To the south lay his famous meadow. In these later days the most the prognosticator of the weather dares do is to speak of probabilities; but three-quarters of a century ago the inhabitants of this place reckoned it a certainty that the mowing of Uncle Timothy's meadow would bring rain. No mat-
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
ter how severe might have been the drought, the mowing of that meadow was a signal for showers. The name by which he was called implies that he must have possessed a kindly nature. One of his workmen gives the following testimony as to his business: ‘We ground 200 cords of bark per year while I worked for Mr. Greene. We tanned 1,000 hides a year for him, and fulled 1,500 for others.' This was before the times, however, of forcing processes.
" Before the close of the last century David Wilkinson perfected one of the important inventions which gave him his renown. It was that of the slide lathe. He completed it in 1797, and obtained a patent for it in the following year. So slow was the extending of the machine business, however, that but little pecuniary profit flowed to the inventor. The original patent run out before it came into ex- tensive use, and Mr. Wilkinson was too busy with other enterprises, too intent on other inventions, to take the trouble to secure a re- newal. But fifty years after the original patent was granted, con- gress voted him $10,000 as a partial recompense 'for the benefits accruing to the public service from the use of the principle of the gauge and sliding lathe, of which he was the inventor, now in use in the workshops of the government, at the different national arsenals and armories.'
"As early as 1791 Oziel Wilkinson built a small air furnace, or reverberatory, for casting iron, in which were cast the first wing- gudgeons known in America, which were applied to Slater's old mill. And so wide-spread was the fame of Pawtucket for skillful iron- workers, that in 1794 Colonel Baldwin came hither from Boston after machinery for a canal then building, probably that to Lowell. At Wilkinson's establishment the patterns were made, and the wheels, racks, &c., were cast. At the same establishment the iron was cast for the draw for the Cambridge bridge about the same time. David Wilkinson, in conjunction with other parties here, had set up a fur- nace, and, by it, early in the present century, cannon were cast solid. They were subsequently bored out by water power. 'It was then the current conversation, that to Pawtucket belonged the credit of the first cannon cast solid in the world. They were bored by making the drill or bore stationary, and having the cannon revolve against the drill.'
"It is to this period of time that the remarks of Dr. Dwight, in his travels, in 1810, apply. 'There is probably no spot in New England,' he writes, 'of the same extent, in which the same quantity or variety of manufacturing business is carried on. In the year 1796, there were here three anchor forges, one tanning mill, one flouring mill, one slitting mill, three snuff mills, one oil mill, three fulling mills, and clothier's works, one cotton factory, two machines for cutting nails, one furnace for casting hollow ware,-all moved by water,-
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
one machine for cutting screws, moved by a horse, and several forges for smith's work.'
" Doctor Benedict made his first visit here in 1804. About 50 years after, he gave interesting reminiscences of the condition of the place at the earlier date. His account, drawn from a retentive memory, refreshed by notes that he had taken, and by conversation with old natives and residents, enables one to form a fair idea of the appear- ance of the place in the year 1801 or 1802.
"The only street on the eastern side of the river was the old road past the old Slack tavern, and out to what is now called North Bend. The southern border of that road run a little further to the south than now. Reaching its present extremity to the east, the main road ran toward Boston past the Dolly Sabin tavern, while there was a branch to the south, which is now known as South Bend. This street is of course what is now Main and Walcott streets. On the western side of the river, Main street from the bridge upward was several feet lower than at present, and at times was one of the muddiest holes in the place. Much of the street was a mere ravine, through which ran a brook from the meadow above. The water from this source is now greatly lessened, and runs beneath the surface. East avenue, from its junction with Main street, till lately for years called Pleasant street, was then, as has been already stated, called Quaker lane, and extended not much farther than where Pleasant street now begins. It was wretchedly miry in both spring and fall. What is now Mill street was but a narrow road up to Slater's mill, and ex- tended but a little way beyond. Nobody was sanguine enough to suppose that a public road would ever pass the stone chimney house, through the fields of Ichabod and Stephen Jenks, and over the high hill which then stood between Pawtucket and Central Falls. At that time, indeed, there were two houses in what is now the flourishing village of Central Falls. High street was not laid out at all beyond where the high school building now stands, and very imperfectly thus far. There was but one meeting house, a very diminutive edifice, which stood not far from where the goodly temple of the First Bap- tist church now stands. The only other public edifice was known as the Red school house, and stood not far from the meeting house. It was used for all public gatherings of a secular nature, and frequently for religious assemblies, when other denominations wished to hold a meeting while the Baptist meeting house was occupied.
" But how large was the population at that time? No census is extant; but the entire number of houses on the east side was 17, and on the west, about twice as many. Between 50 and 60 houses then afforded shelter to the dwellers on both sides of the river. But such figures may perhaps mislead; for it seems to have been common to crowd large households into small dwellings; and houses that afforded but scanty accommodations to a single family were sometimes made
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
to shelter two or three. The reader must therefore form his own es- timate of the number of inhabitants.
"Of the centres of industry more is known. The first Slater mill was running then, and the structure of Samuel Slater & Co. on the eastern margin of the river was in operation. The proportions of both those structures seemed doubtless huge. Hundreds had been in the habit of coming from all the country to gaze at the original mill, and wonder at its exploits. But what where its wondrous achieve- ments? It spun by water power coarse yarns to be woven by hand in the farm-houses of all the surrounding region. Power looms were a dream of the future. But the yarns thus spun brought high prices, and were for a good while in such demand, that it seemed almost im- possible to execute the orders that poured in for them. One circum- stance that swelled the demand was that the goods made on the hand looms in the country from these yarns, seemed far more durable than the old fabrics made from the refuse of flax, or the coarse India cotton.
" Besides the spinning of cotton, however, the bleaching business was carried on, but in a manner that would now be deemed quite primitive. The ground adjoining the old Slater mill to the north, where now stands the works of Messrs. Fairbrother, and many a building between Mill street and the Blackstone, was one great bleaching meadow. The fame of Mother Cole survives as the man- ager of the operations. Stakes were driven into the ground, and skeins of cotton were stretched from one to another, and the cloth was spread upon the grass. The matron named, with a small corps of assistants, sprinkled with watering pots the fabric thus exposed, and plied the drying sticks till the cloth and yarn assumed a whiter hue. A long storm, or a protracted period of dull or cloudy weather, seriously delayed the completion of the work, and taxed the patience of customers. Another bleaching meadow of like character existed afterward on the eastern side of the river, to the south of the bridge; and both of them were supplied with water brought down Main street by aqueducts of wooden logs. One of them started from the western side of the ascent of Park place, and the other from near the corner where Main street bends to the south just above the Benedict House. An outlet of one of these aqueducts was at the head of Water street. The water from these fountains was deemed preferable for bleaching purposes to that from the river. The well-known citizens of Pawtucket, whose bleachery at Moshassuck cannot be spoken of at length without trenching on the claims of Lincoln, would hardly fear the rivalry of Mother Cole, could she return to earth to resume in her old mode her former business.
" 'The forges, anchor shops, machine shops, foundries, oil mills, grist mills, and similar establishments, were all near the river, or along Sargent's Trench. The reader can fill up the outline of this
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