USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Smithfield > History of the town of Smithfield [R.I.] from its organization, in 1730-1, to its division, in 1871 > Part 8
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But it is the cotton manufacture which has been the prominent one in Smithfield, as in the State. And although Samuel Slater began his important work in Pawtucket, he soon came to Smithfield, and here his name is perpetuated in that of one of the most delightful of New England vil- lages. His name is linked to the history of Smithfield, also, by his marriage with the daughter of one of the first and most enterprising mechanics of this town, which, in those early days, was famous for its shrewd, and capable and in- genious artisans.
To Samuel Slater belongs the honor of having introduced into this country, the manufacture, which, in its far extend- ing influence, is greatly the most valuable in the land, and which affects in one way or another every inhabitant of the country. After food, clothing is the first necessity of life ; and of all the materials provided by nature, cotton is the most extensively used, the world over. Samuel Slater wit- nessed the first crude experiments which were made in the endeavor to spin cotton by machinery. His name is associ- ated, and honorably associated with those of Strutt and Ark- wright. From the earliest ages cotton cloth has been manu- factured in the East, where the plant is indigenous, but the yarn was, and is, spun upon the distaff, and the loom em-
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ployed is simply a few sticks or reeds which the weaver carries in his hands, and puts it up in the shade of a tree, or at the side of his cottage, and moves from place to place, as fancy dictates or the heat compels. An overspreading branch, to which to fasten his balances, a hole in the ground to hold his legs and the lower part of the "geer," and his well trained muscles, supply the Indian with "privilege " and "power." With this rude material, the East Indian has for centuries produced fabrics, some of them so fine as to be properly designated in the poetic language of the Orient, " webs of woven wind," of such exquisite texture as scarcely to be discerned under a heavy dew. But what the manufacture was thousands of years ago, that it is to- day. When the inhabitants of the British Isles were clothed in skins, ere Cæsar had carried civilization and the sword thither, the Indian artisan produced a fabric which is yet equally a beauty and a wonder. But what he did then he does now, and nothing more. This superior product was the result of generations of training culminating with a few individuals in extraordinary skill. The great bulk of the cloth was of such quality as could easily be made by a great majority of the inhabitants, and such as the every-day wants of the population demanded. In the East there have been no improvements, no inventions, no building up of towns and opening up of new lands; the warp is still stretched on the ground, and the operative is still half naked and .wholly ignorant. The introduction of machinery into India has not proved successful. It has brought no profit to the English, and subjugated the laborer to slavery.
In the year 1769, Richard Arkwright (afterwards Sir Richard), obtained his patent for spinning with rollers, and associated with him in business a Mr. Need, and Mr. Strutt, the latter a man of great mechanical knowledge and the largest business capacity. This firm erected the same year a mill in Nottingham, worked by horse power, which 12
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was superseded in 1771, by one built in Cromford, to which motion was given by water. In 1783, Samuel Slater en- tered the establishment of Strutt and Arkwright, and con- tinued in their service for some eight years, having in the meantime not only become perfectly familiar with the whole routine of the business, but entirely capable, as it afterwards appeared, of constructing from memory the machinery re- quisite to spin the yarn. On the 15th day of September, 1789, Mr. Slater sailed from London for New York, where, after a passage of sixty-six days, he arrived, and whence he departed January, 1790, for Providence. On the 18th day of the same month, Moses Brown carried him to Pawtucket, and on the 20th day of December next following, he started three cards, drawing and roving, and seventy-two spindles, which were worked by an old fulling mill water wheel in a clothiers building, in which the business of Almy, Brown & Slater was continued for about twenty months, at the expiration of which time they had several thousand pounds of yarn on hand, notwithstanding every exertion was used to weave and sell it.
It is almost impossible to conceive the difficulties which surrounded and impeded the success of Slater. He was a stranger in a strange land; there was no person who had ever worked upon such machinery as he proposed to con- struct; there were no machine shops; few skilled workmen either in wood or iron, and no facilities for him in the ac- complishment of his designs; he had not even the roughest sketch of his machines; he had only a tenacious memory, a thorough knowledge of what was wanted, and an in- domitable will. Fortunately he found at once in Oziel Wilkinson, one, who like himself possessed a keen mind and a mechanical genius. They together made, or superin- tended the making, of the necessary tools to be used, and amid all the discouragements, and they were neither few nor small, which Mr. Slater encountered, he ever found in
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Mr. Wilkinson a friend and an adviser. Up to this time, no carding or spinning machinery had been successfully operated, and none at all by water. Tristam Burges, in Congress, paid this eloquent tribute to these men, to whom Rhode Island owes so much: " A circumstance worthy the attention of the whole nation, and worthy, also, of a fair page in her history, is the art and mystery of making cloth with machinery moved by water power. This was intro- duced into Rhode Island, and commenced in Pawtucket, four miles from Providence, about the same time that the American system was established, by the import law of July 4th, 1789. Samuel Slater, an English mechanic of the first order of mental ability, brought this invention to Paw- tucket. He could not bring out from England, models, draughts or specifications, the whole art was treasured in his own mind; that alone, which could not be rummaged and pillaged by any custom house regulation. He, on his arrival, addressed himself to Oziel Wilkinson & Sons. They were blacksmiths, whose hands were as skillful as their minds were intelligent and persevering. I have often thought Divine Providence directed Slater, and brought him to lay his projects before the Wilkinsons; because He had not fitted any other men in this country, with minds and abilities, either to see, and at once comprehend the immense benefit of it, or to understand and perform what must be understood and performed to bring this scheme into full and perfect operation." In a word, when Samuel Slater arrived in this country, all the machinery in use for the manufacture of cotton yarn for warps, was so imperfect as to preclude success, and there was a desire to import yarn from India, the American people being wholly indebted to and dependent upon Great Britain for cotton goods.
And here we must be permitted to interrupt our narra- tive by the relation of an anecdote which as completely dis- closes the character of Samuel Slater as it indubitably proves
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him to have been a man of the highest moral tone. After his frames were ready for operation, he prepared the cot- ton and started his cards; the cotton rolled on the top cards, instead of passing through the small cylinder. This was a great perplexity to him, and he was for several days in great agitation. Mrs. Oziel Wilkinson, in whose house he boarded, perceiving his distress, said to him: "Art thou sick, Sam- uel ?" To which he replied by explaining the obstacle he had met, and saying: "If I am frustrated in my carding machine, they will think me an impostor." It was not of his fame, but of his honor, he was thinking.
It is perhaps as well to observe just here that up to the year 1817 the operations of manufactories in this country were confined, save in one mill in Massachusetts, to spinning yarn only, which was put out in webs and wove by hand- loom weavers. Mules for spinning filling had not then been introduced. From 1791 to 1805 all, or nearly all, the cot- ton factories erected in this country were built under the direction of men who had acquired their knowledge of the necessary machinery while in Mr. Slater's employ. In 1799 Mr. Slater entered into company with Oziel Wilkinson, Timothy Greene and William Wilkinson, the two latter, as well as himself, having married daughters of Oziel Wilkin- son. They built the second mill on the east side of the Pawtucket river, the firm being Samuel Slater and Com- pany, Mr. Slater holding one half of the stock. The year 1829 was a disastrous one to the manufacturers of Rhode Island. Mr. Slater felt but withstood the shock. His own business was perfectly within control. It had always been managed with great prudence, and his estate was, for those days, a very large one. Owing to endorsements he had made for friends, and which he had to meet, he suffered a temporary embarrassment, but paid his own paper and his endorsements, and retained a property gained by honest industry and careful attention, and which was thereafter
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largely increased. Mr. Slater died at Webster, Massachu- setts, April 20th, 1835, aged 67.
It will be seen at once that the success of Samuel Slater was the result of a profound knowledge of his business; an unalterable determination; constant labor; and the most scrupulous integrity. From the commencement of his career to its close, his whole course was distinguished by diligence, sagacity and uprightness. His letters to his business cor- respondents display shrewdness, breadth of view and a straight forward manliness; those to his children, a very affectionate though not particularly demonstrative dispo- sition. Fortunate in his early opportunities, they were yet such as would neither have been appreciated nor improved by one less observing, less faithful or less persevering. Re- spected in life, his character loses nothing, to say the least, in comparison with the more modern ideas of the market place and the counting room. In a word; in his exactness of purpose ; his thoroughness in oversight; his unwearied exertion, and his perfect and unswerving regard for the fulfilment of every obligation he assumed, he may well be cited as a man whose example it would be both safe and honorable to follow. Those who attain any excellence, said Dr. Johnson, uttering a truth founded upon the experience of mankind, commonly spend life in one common pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms. He who spent a life in the pursuit of excellence, in that which of itself was most excellent, and spent it honestly and hon- orably, may well, by his influence, say :
" Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity.
O, that estates, degrees and offices, Were not derived corruptly! and that clear honor Were purchased by the merit of the wearer! How many then should cover, that stand bare! How many be commanded, that command! How much low peasantry would then be gleaned From the true seed of honor! and how much honor Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times, To be new varnish'd!"
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF SMITHFIELD.
In May, 1806, the village of Slatersville was begun. The natural location was beautiful in the extreme. The mills are situated in an amphitheatre, with the river on one side, and some acres of meadow on the other. On a plateau is the village, consisting of well built houses, many of them large and elegant. In the centre of the village is a common, well planted with trees, and fronting it the Congregational Church, a commodious and well proportioned building. The fall of water is 37 feet. 1,407,414 pounds of cotton are manufactured annually, by means of 26,824 spindles and 605 looms. Six hundred hands are employed, and the annual product is 5,799,541 yards of sheeting, shirting, flannel and print goods. The population is 1,200. The value of the yearly product is $600,000. The First National Bank, of Smithfield, is located here, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. The village library possesses one thous- and volumes -; no liquor is allowed to be sold in the place, and neatness and good order prevail. " If," said Tristam Burges, in Congress, "if manufacturing establishments are a benefit and a blessing to the Union, the name of Slater must ever be held in grateful remembrance by the American people."
FORESTDALE.
This thriving village is situated on the Branch river, about one mile below Slatersville. The first business engaged in here, of any importance, was that of the manufacture of scy- thes, by Newton Darling, about the year 1824. Mr. Darling had learned his trade of Col. Comstock Passmore, at Branch village. The water power cost Mr. Darling only one hun- dred dollars and the cost of sluice way, to be opened only when water ran over the dam. H. S. Mansfield afterwards joined Mr. Darling in the business. In 1839, Ansel Holman joined the firm. In 1841, Mr. Darling sold out his interest and the firm became Mansfield & Holman. It was afterwards
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Mansfield & Lamb, Estus Lamb having become a partner, and the firm owning the entire village. Prior to 1860 the annual product was 10,000 dozen of scythes; since, it has been about 8,000 dozen. During the war of the rebellion this firm furnished the government with thirty thousand sabres, officially declared to be equal to any manufactured in the country. In 1860, the firm erected a stone cotton mill, which is operated by the Forestdale Manufacturing Com- pany. The mill is 166x68 feet, three stories high; with an ell 65x45 feet, of the same height. The fall is 14 feet.
Horse power-water, 250; steam, 80. In the scythe works 150 tons of iron are annually used; 3 tons of steel, and 100 grindstones are employed. The Forestdale Company use annually 1,400 bales of cotton, run 15,000 spindles, and 300 looms, employing 250 hands. The gross product is 2,000,- 000 yards of cloth, valued at (1870) $300,000. The tene- ment houses, sixty-one in number, for both establishments, · are two stories in height; there are two excellent boarding houses, and the whole place is neat, orderly and attractive.
BRANCH VILLAGE.
This once considerable, but now unimportant place, is situ- ated on the Branch river, about one mile north of Union Village. In the year 1795, Elisha Bartlett came here from Glocester, and commenced the manufacture of scythes, which business he continued till his death, in 1804. Afterwards Col. Comstock Passmore purchased the place. A small cot- ton mill was erected here by William Buffum and sons, Otis Bartlett, Comstock Passmore, and perhaps some others. It is now standing. The mill was operated by Col. Passmore, who died about the year 1825. Otis Bartlett carried on the scythe making business thereafter. The mill has been run for the manufacture of cloth or warps, at different times, and by various parties until nearly the present time; David Dan- iels, David M. Daniels, Alfred Morse, Joseph Morse, and
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Emor Coe, having occupied it, but none of them with any permanent profit. The privilege is a good one, but the mill is very small, and it has followed the path of small mills. The privilege and land are now owned by the Blackstone Manufacturing Company.
WATERFORD.
Evans and Seagrave, and Earl P. Mason, operate one of the woolen mills at Waterford, formerly owned by Welcome Farnum. The fall of water is 10 feet; horse power-steam, 160; water, 300. Hands employed, 400 ; looms, 58 broad, 52 narrow; setts of machinery, 24; pounds of wool used annually, 1,000,000; tons of coal, 1,000; gallons of oil, 1,000. The product is 700,000 yards of fancy cassimeres.
F. M. BALLOU
also runs one of the Waterford mills, with 10 feet fall; 100 horse power, water; 160 hands; 50 narrow looms ; 10 setts of machinery, and producing yearly 300,000 yards of fancy cassimeres.
CHARLES B. ALDRICH,
contractor and builder, is located at Waterford. He uses 40 horse power, steam; employs 50 hands.
THE WOONSOCKET GAS COMPANY
consumes 2,300 tons of coal, and makes annually 11,131,000 feet of gas.
THE ENTERPRISE COMPANY.
This company was organized in 1870, and built a mill upon the estate known as " The Old Maid's Farm," between Woonsocket and Waterford. The business is that of making
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lastings, serges, &c., and produces, annually, 375,000 yards. The officers are :
President-John D. Nichols. Treasurer-Ruel P. Smith. Superintendent-S. N. Lougee.
GLOBE MILLS, WOONSOCKET.
In 1827, Thomas Arnold, Marble Shove and Thomas A. Paine purchased five or six acres of land, and one-fourth part of the flow of the Blackstone river, for which they paid ten thousand dollars. Two small brooks added something to the water power. There was a saw mill on the premises, but no other improvements. They built a cotton mill, a corn mill, "Globe " store, two dwelling houses and a barn. The cotton mill was 36x72 feet, three stories high and attic. Fall, 162 feet. Two thousand spindles, fifty looms. They made cloth and warps. In winter of 1829-30, they sold to Samuel Shove, by assignee. He built one dwelling house and machine shop. His assignee sold, in 1834, to Thomas Sprague & Sons, who held until about the year 1837, when Vaughan and E. H. Sprague came into possession. From them it passed into the hands of George C. Ballou, who also owns and runs a steam saw mill four stories high, in which is also machinery for planing, mortising and sash making, He has also laid the foundation for a new cotton mill to be 70x234 feet, with an ell 50x147 feet.
THE WOONSOCKET COMPANY,
Owning four fine mills, and originally what is now the vil- lage of Bernon, much of which it still retains, occupies a large and valuable privilege, and has done much for that village. In 1831, the late Samuel Greene came from Paw- tucket to this place, and up to within a few months of his decease had charge of the company's establishment.
13
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He was born in 1791, and his mother was daughter of Oziel Wilkinson. He possessed a decided taste for mechan- ics, and was, perhaps, more scientifically informed in the science of hydraulics than any other of our manufacturers. When Gilmore first came to Rhode Island for the purpose of constructing the power loom, Mr. Greene made his acquaint- ance, and obtained from him much valuable information. In 1820, he, with others, formed a company under the name of the " Pawtucket Worsted Company." To the late Hon. N. R. Knight, when he was chosen Senator of the United States from this State, the company presented a vest of their own manufacture, which he wore to Washington, and which attracted considerable attention as being the first specimen of worsted goods manufactured in the United States.
Mr. Greene represented his native town in the General Assembly from 1816 to 1821, inclusive. He was a consist- ent member of the Episcopal Church, and "St. James' Church," in Bernon, was aided by his counsels and his con- . tributions. The grounds of the Woonsocket Company's mills are large, beautifully kept and adorned with magnifi- cent trees.
The company employ in these mills 250 hands, run 288 looms and 13,000 spindles.
HAMLET.
Situated half a mile below Woonsocket, is one of the prettiest villages on the Blackstone river. Its first proprie- tors were Edward H. Carrington and Stephen H. Smith.
Edward H. Carrington was one of the best known and most highly accomplished merchants of Providence in his day.
Stephen H. Smith was a scion of good Rhode Island stock, being a descendant of John Smith, the miller, of the early Providence records.
In 1830, the land about the Hamlet was covered with a
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dense growth of wood; there was no road leading to Woon- socket. The mill originally contained only 7,000 spindles. It was erected by Spencer Mowry, Esq. The best carpen- ters were paid $20 per month and boarded. The mill passed into the hands of Edward Carrington, Jr., and George S. Wardwell. It is now owned by Isaac M. Bull, who has greatly enlarged it, and filled it with improved machinery. The main part is 212 feet long, by 40 in width, with an ad- dition 50x40 feet, and. the foundation is laid for another addition of the same size. It is run by three turbine wheels. The fall is 9.5 feet; power, 325. Hands employed, 200; looms, 300; spindles, 15,500. Pounds of cotton used annu- ally, 676,000; number of yards of cloth manufactured, 2,700,000.
MANVILLE.
This pleasant village is situated four miles south of Woon- socket, on the Blackstone river, and the Manville Company own, but do not occupy, the entire volume of the water. A history of this place will show very intelligibly the his- tory of manufacturing operations in this State, after the smaller streams were left for larger privileges, and even be- fore the latter had become generally profitable. In 1740, the land on which the village is now built, on both sides of the river, was owned by David Wilkinson, who, in that year, deeded it to Samuel Wilkinson, who, in 1747, redeeded it to David. In 1759, David Wilkinson deeded it to Benja- min Wing of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Wing conveyed it to Abner Bartlett, in 1802, in which deed the premises is for the first time referred to as a "water privilege," and mention is made of the bridge, by the name of the "Unity Bridge." In 1803, Bartlett sold to Luke Jillson, who con- veyed it, in 1805, to Samuel Hill, Jr., of Smithfield, and William Aldrich, of Cumberland. Samuel Hill, Jr., was known afterwards as Judge Hill. ,Hill and Aldrich deeded,
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in 1811, to Thomas Man, Stephen Clark, George Hill, David Hill, Jesse Brown, George Aldrich, Otis Capron, David Wilkinson, Alpheus Ammidon, Stephen Whipple, and Asa Bartlett, reserving an interest to themselves, and the gran- tees were styled the "Unity Manufacturing Company." Three years thereafter, in 1814, Aaron Man, father of Sam- uel F. Man, purchased the interest of Alpheus Ammidon, and allusion is made in the conveyance to the Unity Cotton factory, a grist mill, saw mill, and fulling mill. In 1821, the Unity Manufacturing Company sold to William Jenkins and Samuel F. Man, all their interest in the estate. In 1831, Jenkins and Man conveyed one-fourth part of the estate to Arlon Man, brother of Samuel F., the estate having been considerably enlarged by purchases of adjoining land, since the original purchase from Wilkinson ; September 28, 1854, the heirs of Samuel F. Man, and William and Anna Jenkins, conveyed the mill estate and lands to the Valley Falls Com- pany. In 1863, the Valley Falls Company deeded to the Manville Company, then composed of Tully D. Bowen, Henry Lippitt, William H. Reynolds, Charles H. Merriman, Samuel Chace, and Harvey Chace, and the name of the con- cern was changed to "Manville Company."
The proprietorship has changed somewhat since this pur- chase, but the name is unaltered. Tully D. Bowen has deceased, and others have sold out, but the great bulk of the interest remains in the same names as in 1863.
The Manville Company was incorporated May, 1863. The stockholders now in the estate are T. D. Benson, John H. Taft, Anthony & Hall, H. B. Benson, Harvey Chacc & Sons, R. Handy; Harvey Chace, President ; John A. Taft, Treasurer and Agent.
At an early day, a furnace was erected here, the iron ore of Cumberland, which is now shipped to Pennsylvania, hav- ing a recognized value with such men as the Wilkinsons and those connected in business with them. Here was cast hol-
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF SMITHFIELD.
low ware of the various kinds needed in domestic service. The saw mill, fulling and grist mills stood where the brick mill now stands. There is a tradition that one of the kettles from the furnace being left out in the rain was filled with water which froze solid, and that Israel Wilkinson after the next day's sun had melted the ice sufficiently to allow it to be turned out, worked off the upper surface spherically so as to form an ice globe. This, by fixing an iron hoop around its centre so as to control it, he made into an ice sun glass and concentrating the rays of the sun through it into a focus, melted some iron wire. Israel and David Wilkinson were relatives of Oziel Wilkinson, of Pawtucket, and in a very considerable degree partook of his love for, and skill in, mechanical pursuits. The late Joseph Wilkinson, of Smithfield, was a cousin of the David Wilkinson, of Paw- tucket, who invented the slide lathe. Joseph Wilkinson was a man of quick intellect and sound judgment. He would never engage in any manufacturing business, saying that where a difference of a quarter of a cent a yard in cloth would make or ruin a man, his capital should not be risked. He created the Hamlet meadows out of the original swamp, and arid sand. He also directed the reclamation of the land, afterwards the Manville meadows, and which Samuel F. Man, in his day took a great deal of pride in keeping up to the extreme point of fertility, which could only be done by care- ful irrigation.
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