USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Woonsocket > History of Woonsocket > Part 13
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March 26, 1831, he began the manufacture of satinets at Woonsocket, in the mill which I have previously described.
Mr. Harris lived to enjoy the well-earned reputation of being the chief woolen manufacturer in the United States. He died November 24, 1872.
That Edward Harris was endowed with extraordinary gifts, his bitterest enemy was forced to admit, and the most superficial observer could not fail to perceive. His stalwart though stooping form, his keen eye, his full face, his large and well-developed head, his nervous and elastic step, his clear and ringing voice, revealed energy, determination, power ! But to his wonderful knowledge of human nature, his Napoleonic faculty of detecting at a glance the strong and the weak points of men, his eminent success is mainly due. By this gift he was enabled not only to secure the best talent to assist him in his various enterprises, but to extract
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from every one with whom he came in contaet, something which he might appropriate to useful ends. No one was too high or too low for Mr. Harris to converse with in the most familiar terms. Charles Sumner and Aleck the barber, Hor- ace Greeley and John the coachman, Abraham Lincoln and Michael the picker-tender-each and all contributed some- thing to his granary. The number of those who indulged in the dream that they were sharing his inmost thoughts, it is laughable to contemplate, for if ever a man kept his own counsels, that man was Edward Harris. The surprising thing is, that from the vast amount of "advice " which he received, he hardly ever failed to extract the wheat from the chaff.
To Edward Harris, Woonsocket owes an everlasting debt of gratitude. The impetus which he imparted to the growth and prosperity of the village will be felt for many genera- tions, and the Harris Institute block and Library will stand as a glorious monument to his generosity and public spirit.
CHAPTER IX.
THE HAMLET.
I REALLY intend to say much of the Hamlet when I get to it. But just at this present time I purpose to tell you a story, which you may skip if you choose, and perhaps by that means get to the Hamlet before I do.
On the 7th of October, 1823, a young Irishman arrived at Boston. No bells were rung or cannon fired to his honor when the ship upon which he stood approached the wharf : and so, unlike those in whose honor bells are rung and can- non fired, our hero was free to go wherever he pleased. He
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went in pursuit of something to do ; and being endowed with an iron constitution, an abundant stock of genuine Irish wit, and a very small amount of money, he was not long in finding what he sought. To the thousands of his fellow-countrymen thus gifted in mind, body and estate-to their wit, their muscle and their poverty-the development of our natural resources, and the consequent progress of our nation during the last fifty years, is mainly due.
Our friend worked at Boston but a short time. His occu- pation of hod-carrying and his fellow-laborers did not please him ; and so, early one morning, he packed his scanty ward- robe, paid his board bill, and started on foot for no particular point, only that it be away from Boston and its hod-carriers. Night overtook him at a farm-house, near "Crook's." The next day and night he passed in Woonsocket, and the day following, at four o'clock P. M., he arrived at Providence. Here he remained during the Winter without permanent employment. The following Spring, learning of a " wood- cutting " job in the vicinity of Attleborough, he started for that place.
On his way thither, between the village of Pawtucket and the toll-gate on the turnpike, he was overtaken by a man who had something to say to him which it was pleasant to hear. The stranger was a stout, thick-set man. His eye glis- tened with shrewdness and sagacity; his face, round, full and florid, revealed his appreciation of a good dinner, and his bearing was of one who seemed to know and feel his position. It was a meeting of two men widely separated from each other in social position, but closely connected in the bread-and-butter relationships-a meeting of the laborer and the capitalist-of Michael Reddy and General Carring- ton. A bargain was soon completed between these two persons, and Michael at once entered upon his duties, which at first were confined to the house and the store of the Gen- eral at Providence.
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About this time a stupendous work was in progress. The manager of the work was General Carrington, and the work itself was the erection or the excavation of the Blackstone Canal. Whether the real end and aim of this enterprise was to facilitate transportation between Providence and Worces- ter, or to develop the water-power of the Blackstone river, were questions in which Michael had not the remotest inter- est. It was sufficient to him that he had plenty of work to do and fair pay for it; and so, in the Summer of 1825, he began his labors at Providence, and dug his way through from the "shingle bridge" to Woonsocket, arriving in the Fall of 1826, where he has remained ever since.
The route of this maritime curiosity -the Blackstone Canal - through these parts was as follows : At a point near the planing works of Charles B. Aldrich, its waters emerged from the river, re-entering the parent stream a short distance above where Dr. Ballou's bridge is now situated. Just above the dam at the "Falls" it took a second departure, crossing Main street where Greene's block now stands. The present boundary-line between the Lippitt Woolen Company and the Woonsocket Company on Armory street, represents a line through the centre of the locks which were at this place. Proceeding now through the " meadows " in the rear of the Lippitt and Harris mills, it re-entered the river near where the railroad bridge is now located. At this point a tow-bridge was erected to the Smithfield side of the river, and the river was navigated to what is now called the Hamlet dam. Here the canal again diverged from the river, and entered it again a short distance above the Hamlet mills.
To narrate the scenes and incidents of a voyage over this expensive highway from Woonsocket to Albion, would be a tribute to dullness which I shall not venture to give. I have only to say, on the authority of a very respected friend, that it was " a day's journey."
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But if for the transportation of merchandise and passen- gers the Blackstone Canal was a gigantic failure, for the development and improvement of the water-power of the Blackstone river, it was a magnificent success. In April, 1846, the Massachusetts portion of the canal was sold to the Providence & Worcester Railroad for $22,500. By this operation the stockholders thereof realized their first and only dividend, which was one dollar per share. In Rhode Island the property reverted to the original holders of the estates through which it passed.
The Hamlet is an offspring of the Blackstone Canal. I have now the pleasure to recall one of whom all speak with the deepest respect-whose courtesy and kindness endeared him to every one who came within the circle of his acquaint- ance, whose taste and refinement are still visible in the works which he has left behind him, and whose habits of thought and study peculiarly unfitted him to be a successful manufacturer-I refer to Stephen H. Smith. This man, acting at first as the agent of General Carrington, purchased the following estates: January 27, 1825, of Seth Appleby, and on the same day of Smith Arnold; September 14, of Smith Arnold ; March 29, 1826, and again on December 8, of Joseph Wilkinson. Upon these estates the Hamlet works are located. Mr. Smith remained at the head of the concern until 1842. Edward Carrington died the following year. The next manager of the Hamlet mills and estate was Mr. George S. Wardwell. He continued in position until March, 1859. The benevolence and public spirit of this gentleman are still held in grateful remembrance.
In March, 1859, the Hamlet came into the possession of Isaac M. Bull, its present owner. In his younger days Mr. Bull was clerk in the store of his uncle (the late General Carrington), at Providence. In 1827, and while in his em- ploy, he went to China, where he remained the greater por-
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tion of the time until 1847. In his manner and address Mr. Bull is a gentleman of the old school. Under his intelligent supervision the mills have been eminently successful. The superintendent of the works is Hon. John A. Bennett. This man has been repeatedly chosen a member of our Town Council, and is now one of our representatives to the Gen- eral Assembly.
CHAPTER X.
HARD TIMES.
TO DESCRIBE a storm, when the ship in which we are is being lashed by the merciless waves and beaten by the howl- ing winds, is not a pleasant task. One naturally turns to more peaceful scenes, when all the sails are spread to the welcome breeze and the bosom of the sea is undisturbed. I shall therefore, gentle reader, make this chapter as brief as possible. For I have had enough of hard times. Haven't you ?
1. Up to 1815 the manufacturers had reaped a few golden harvests. Our war with the mother country had lessened the supply and increased the demand for their productions, and mills went up on every hand. But the same breeze that wafted to our shores the sweet tones of peace, brought to us also the products of foreign looms. Mills were elosed, busi- ness was suspended, and fortunes vanished more speedily than they had arisen. To deepen the gloom, New England was visited in September of this year by one of the most ter- rific storms that ever swept the coast. So terrible was the fury of the gale that the spray from the ocean was blown
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inland as far as Woonsocket. At this place, and even ten miles farther north, the salt drops of the sea were perceptible to the taste upon the grass and fruit. Forests were over- turned, highways blocked up with fallen trees, orchards stripped of their wealth and meadows converted into a waste.
The following year we were overtaken by a still greater calamity. There was a severe frost in every month in the year. Ice formed an inch in thickness even in the month of July. The corn, potato and grass crops were almost totally cut off. In those days of deficient transportation facilities, and when New England was dependent in a great measure upon its own productions, it must indeed have been " hard times." During two years comparatively nothing was done. At last, matters began to assume a more cheerful aspect. With the returning Spring the trees put forth their leaves, within the warm embrace of Summer the meadows became pregnant, and once again the empty store-houses of the farmer were replenished. At this time two men -then young, vigorous and full of hope-put their shoulders to the wheel ; and when Welcome Farnum and Dexter Ballou pushed, something moved! The mills began to start and the wheels of industry to revolve. It is a matter for regret that the former gentleman, in his early years, removed from this place ; for although fifty years have passed since he left the scenes of his first fond wooing of the smiles of fortune, the impetus which his labors gave to the growth and pros- perity of our village is still perceptibly felt.
2. From 1815 to 1829 the "factory system" was the burden of everybody's speech. The bar-room of the tavern, the rostrum of the orator, and the halls of legislation were full of it. But the fun of the thing was in the fact that there was no system whatever about it. Farmers, black- smiths, tanners-Tom, Dick and Harry-had tumbled head- long into it, apparently unconscious that system, skill and
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knowledge of the business were at all necessary to its successful and profitable development. There were mills, machinery, cotton and labor, which, if properly handled, would have produced handsome results. But the effluvia and the architecture of the mills were infernal, the arrange- ment of the machinery a matter of the smallest concern ; so much of the stock as did not fringe the margin of the river with a fleecy border, got into the goods, and the help who nominally worked hours enough, were in the mills when not out of them. But notwithstanding all this, the impending disaster would have been averted had the thought and energy of many of the manufacturers been devoted to the economical management rather than to the extension of their business. Up to the very morning of the cataclysm cotton fabries were made and sold at a fair profit. I derive this from the lips of a very intelligent gentleman who was engaged in manufacturing at the time, and from statistics which show cotton to have been 11c. and 13c. per pound, and goods 8c. and 9c. per yard-a handsome margin, even taking into account the mills and machinery of the times and the slip-shod manner of running them. The cause of the disaster is in a nut-shell-the returns from the " factory system " were too slow for many of the fast men who man- aged it.
While Samuel Slater was accumulating his snug little for- tune of a million of dollars in the prudent management of his business, Abraham & Isaac Wilkinson were spending the earnings of their mills, and all the money which they could borrow, in building factories and machine shops at Provi- dence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Valley Falls, and else- where, and in purchasing water privileges, wood-lots, farms, dwelling-houses and taverns, throughout the length and breadth of the Blackstone valley. A commercial crisis, therefore, occurred in 1829, the effects of which are felt even to this day. 22
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The events which followed the failure of the Wilkinsons form a dark picture in the history of Rhode Island. Hun- dreds of homes were sold by the Sheriff under executions, and one hundred and forty-nine poor men were imprisoned for debts which it was impossible for them to pay. The hard earnings of the poor laborer which he had deposited in the hands of his wealthy neighbor were swept away, and sorrow and suffering were carried into the cottage of the widow and the orphan.
Bnt condemn as we may the ambition of those who were the immediate canses of the catastrophe, we cannot call in question the honor and integrity of many who were thereby forced to the wall.
Among the Woonsocket sufferers of 1829 were-Samuel B. Harris, who owned the estates upon which the Harris Woolen Mills on Main street and the Harris Institute block now stand; Thomas A. Paine, Thomas Arnold and Marvel Shove, who owned the " Globe " estate ; Hosea Ballon, who run a mill on lands now owned by the Lippitt Woolen Com- pany ; Dan A. Daniels and Jonathan Russell.
Jonathan Russell is remembered to this day as an orator and a statesman. An oration of his, delivered at a Fourth of July celebration, was so remarkable as to call forth, at the time, a reply from the celebrated Tristam Burgess, and fifty years afterwards a reproduction in the Providence Journal. He was one of the Commissioners at the Treaty of Ghent. After the failure of his manufacturing enterprise he retired to his farm in Mendon, where he died in humble circum- stances.
There was one failure in 1829 which eventually resulted in much good to Woonsocket. It was that of Timothy Greene & Son, of Pawtucket. In consequence of this, the son, Samuel Greene, was permitted to make Woonsocket his home, where for forty years, as the head of a large cor-
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poration and a leader in moral, educational and religious matters, his many virtues were conspicuous.
Nearly all of those whom I have mentioned have passed away. But three still live, namely-Hosca Ballou, Dan A. Daniels and Thomas A. Paine ; and although far advanced in life, are hale and vigorous, and not likely to withstand the frowns of an ordinary man or the smiles of an extraordinary woman.
The last-named gentleman, a grandson of the grandson of John Arnold, is now eighty-two years of age. His form is erect, his intellect unimpaired and his physical powers un- decayed. He fills at present the office of U. S. Internal Revenue Assessor of this district, and is ranked as one of the most efficient and vigilant in the service. To him I am deeply indebted for much of the material of this work, and to him the town looks for its faithful performance, as he was chosen by the Town Council, in company with Dr. Ariel Ballon and Willis Cook, an Advisory Committee to correct inaccuracies into which I might have fallen. Upon the resig- nation of Dr. Ballou from the committee, he was clothed by the other member of the committee with full powers to cor- rect, revise, etc.
The tornado of 1829 was soon over. The "factory sys- tem " was healthy, and others were at hand to assume the responsibilities of those who had been swept overboard. In a short time mills began again to go up and spindles'to re- volve as before. But a time was fast approaching that was to try men's souls. It was not a panic caused altogether by ambitions speculators, but a real disaster which no human power could avert. It was a famine, and a famine at a time when the passions of men were inflamed by partizan zeal and imaginary wrongs.
In too many cases the manufacturers had lost sight of the human beings who operated their machines, and they too
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often mistook injustice and cruelty for order and discipline. I know of one who was in the habit of flogging the children in his employ out of sheer wantonness-at one time kicking a boy over a bobbin-box, simply because the child had re- moved it from his path in the alley. It is pleasant to record that this brute afterwards died in the poor-house. Many of the mill owners were of the loosest morals, and the factory- girl was fortunate who preserved her situation and her honor.
To add fuel to the flame of discontent, pamphlets were circulated by political demagogues among the laboring classes, charging the manufacturers not only with tyranny and injustiee, but with being moved by aristocratic ideas in their views of government.
The unwise clamorings of the manufacturer for " protec- tion " provoked an equally absurd demand from the help for " Free Trade "-absurd, because it was chiefly founded in hate and malice, and because, instead of being the logic of the statesman, it was employed as the firebrand of the dema- gogue. In the heat of the contest the main question was set aside. Men were Whigs or Democrats because one was in some way supposed to represent the upper, and the other the lower stratum of society. The brilliant accomplishments of Henry Clay and the stern integrity of Andrew Jackson were but secondary causes for the enthusiasm of their supporters. Both parties seemed to imagine that "hard times" and "good times " were creations of Government, and ignored the higher law of supply and demand. It is not strange, therefore, that the excitement attending elections in those days, even when the equilibrium of the supply and demand for breadstuffs and labor was undisturbed, ran high, and that
*From one of these I extract the following : "The memory of the founder of cotton factories should he held in contempt by the present generation, and execrated to the remotest ages of posterity. Since the introduction of cotton machinery from England, the manufacturers here hold a great part of the white population in chains."
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the manufacturer was regarded by the masses with the deep- est hate. Still, however, the spindles continued to revolve.
But when in 1837 the erops failed, and flour jumped from five to twelve dollars per barrel-when merchants and manufacturers suspended payment-when, in short, labor came down in the same ratio that breadstuffs went up, a new and unlooked-for element entered into the contest-one that has often dethroned kings and overturned empires. It was hunger ! It required but a word to convert a law-abiding people into madmen.
The blow of 1837 was not so severe in Rhode Island as that of 1829, but it was more wide-spread. It is remembered the country over as the " hard year." In Woonsocket the failures are hardly worth mentioning. But the feelings of the masses only waited an opportunity for expression. That opportunity soon came, and its expression was the "Dorr War."
Since 1837 there have been "hard times," but the un- natural animosity between the manufacturer and his help has been in a great measure allayed. Both the one and the other have learned that their interests are identical. No body of men would now stand by and cheer at the destruc- tion of their employer's mill, as they did when that of Wil- liam Harris, at Valley Falls, was being devoured by the flames, and no wise manufacturer now but that takes a deep and earnest interest in the happiness and welfare of those whom he employs. The "factory system " is fast becoming systematized.
CHAPTER XI.
TRANSPORTATION.
I HAVE now to connect the village with the outer world, and the pleasant task upon which I have employed my leisure moments for so long a time will be complete. With reluc- tance I enter upon this closing chapter. In reading over what I have written, I find that I have failed, utterly failed, in presenting the pictures of the past as they have appeared to me. I have given you but words. The actors in the olden times-their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations-I have been powerless to restore. O, that I had the skill to make you feel as I have felt, to see as I have seen! That I could have taken you into the dusty attics, where I have passed so many pleasant hours, and that together we might have looked, as it were, upon the tear-drops of those who have long been sleeping in the cold embrace of death ! There are yellow packages in those dusty attics-packages encircled with ribbons that are faded. They contain papers written in the bloom of youth and love and hope, and locks of hair that still are golden in the sunlight !
But I am digressing. The title of this chapter was " transportation," and I must tell you something about it.
In the most ancient times men and women performed their journeys on horseback. The old horse blocks have not yet entirely disappeared from the face of the earth, and may still be seen in the yards of antiquated mansions. When the chaise first made its appearance it was regarded as an in- novation, and looked upon by the envious much the same as
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is the landau in these times. But both the horses and the chaises could be enjoyed but by the favored few. The poor man who settled in these isolated regions, was practically shut out from his distant friends. There was no public mode of conveyance. The Post Office was many miles away. He who ventured upon a trip to New York was regarded as a hero. Previous to his departure, he was visited by the neighbors for miles around, and burdened with messages to loved ones on the way. Upon his return, his adventures were listened to with breathless curiosity, and repeated from house to house for many months.
At last, about the year 1815, an enterprising man, by the name of Abner Cooper, started a public conveyance from Providence to Worcester, via. Woonsocket. This was a one- horse vehicle, and made a weekly trip between these two places. It is pleasant to record that the first transportation agent in these parts was a poet. He thus made his an- nouncement to his patrons :
" Abner Cooper informs his friends That April next his quarter ends."
The one-horse concern of Abner supplied the transporta- tion requirements of these parts until regular mail coaches were placed upon the route.
These began to run about the year 1820, when two coaches were put on between Worcester and Providence- one going down the left bank of the river, and the other going down the right bank. They went down one day and returned the next. For the sake of convenience, I will call one the Cumberland route and the other the Smithfield route. As they started from the termini of the route on alternate days, and both coaches came to Woonsocket, we were thus placed in daily communication with Providence and Wor- cester. I will now give what I have been able to learn of
I. The Cumberland route. When this first started, one
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driver came as far as the Coverdale place, and another driver continued from this point to Providence, via. Woonsocket and Cumberland Hill. The driver from Worcester to "Cover- dale " was a man by the name of Wheeler. The driver from Coverdale to Providence was Aaron White. In 1826 the drivers went through from Worcester to Providence. The following are the names of the several drivers :
1. John Prouty 1826 4. Samuel Lawton .. .. . . . . .. 1837
2. Hall Bartlett 1831 5. Aaron, familiarly called
3. Beriah Curtis 1833 "Father" White .. .. ... 1839 who drove until the line was taken off. At the time of the closing up of the business, the coaches on both the Cumber- land and the Smithfield routes were owned by " Father" White and Mr. Beriah Curtis, before-mentioned.
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