USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 41
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The Bureau of Industrial Statisties of this State made an official investigation of the jewelry and silverware industries, and lines of business ineident thereto, in 1899. Under this inquiry the classifica- tion ineluded jewelry, silverware, jeweler's findings, refining, electro- plating, enameling, engraving and chasing, die-sinking and lapidaries. The investigation resulted in the most complete and aeeurate state- ment yet obtained of these industries. Returns were received from two hundred and forty-nine establishments, with an invested eapital in all lines of $10,655,227, with an annual produet valued at $19,445,- 327, disbursing in wages and salaries $4,612,889, and furnishing em- ployment to 8,767 persons.
The oldest firm now doing business in Providence is that of Palmer & Capron at 167 Dorranee street. John S. Palmer, the senior member and founder of the firm, was born in 1824 and began his trade with G. and S. Owen in 1840. After acquiring a knowledge of the business he went into partnership in 1845 with Christian C. Stave. The latter withdrew four years later, and Lucian P. Lamson became the junior partner. In 1852, upon Mr. Lamson's death, Charles S. Capron, a brother-in-law of Mr. Palmer, entered the firm, which has been known since that time as Palmer & Capron.
All grades of jewelry are made from the richest to the cheapest by the different firms. The most sueeessful Providence manufacturers are men who eame up from the beneh, men who understand the details of manufacture and are quick to note the ever-changing vagaries of the popular taste. There is less machinery and more brain-work required of workers in this industry than in the textile fae- tories, and they have on an average fewer employees than are required in the latter. Two or three of the larger jewelry establish- ments in the eity, however, each employ over two hundred persons.
Providence has the distinction of exeelling all other Ameriean eities in several lines of manufacture. Some of these have already been noted, and another is silverware. The Gorham Manufacturing Com- pany, of which Jabez Gorham was the founder, is the most extensive maker of silverware on the continent. In faet, it is probable that the products of this house nearly equal in value those of all other manu- facturers of silverware in the country. Jabez Gorham, the founder of the company, who was born in 1792 and died in 1869, learned his trade as a jeweler, and engaged at first in company with four others, about 1813, in the manufacture of jewelry at the corner of North Main and Steeple streets. In 1831 a journeyman silversmith from Boston by the name of H. L. Webster eame to Providence and in company with Mr. Gorham began the manufacture of silver spoons. Sinee then the
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VIEW OF "CHEAPSIDE," OR NORTH MAIN STREET, FROM MARKET SQUARE.
TAKEN FROM THE STEPS OF THE FRANKLIN HOUSE IN 1843. FROM AN OLD PAINTING BY GEORGE W. HARRIS, IN THE POSSESSION OF THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
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business has gradually grown to its present mammoth proportions. About a dozen years ago, the Steeple street establishment having been outgrown, the company removed to larger quarters in the Elinwood seetion of the eity. The equipment of the works is most complete, every meehanieal deviee being brought into use. More than twenty different trades are carried on in turning out the finished produet. A "eentury vase," which attraeted much attention at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876, made of solid silver, is five feet in length and over four in breadth, and weighs 2,000 ounees. Another speeimen of the Gorham produet was the Hiawatha barge, which was purchased by General Grant. A silver statue of Columbus, made for the Chieago World's Fair, has also attraeted wide attention. The establishment employs 1,500 persons, and its ordinary annual produet exeeeds two million dollars in value.
There were eight firms engaged in the production of silverware in 1900. They furnished employment to 1,549 persons, paid $978,198 in wages, and produced goods valued at $3,834,038. There was a great inerease in this business over 1890.
One of the largest of manufacturing industries, that of boots and shoes, for some reason has never met with mueh encouragement in Rhode Island. Small attempts have been made from time to time to start factories, but they have failed to realize the expectations of their projectors and have soon retired from business. At the present time (1901) there is not a single leather boot and shoe manufactory in the State, although there are many shoemakers who make footwear to order.
The manufacture of rubber goods has been carried on many years in the State. Boots and shoes and all kinds of rubber goods are made. The mills are eliefly located at Bristol, Providenee and Woonsocket, and inelude some of the largest rubber establishments in the United States. One of them employs 1,200 persons.
The production of rubber boots and shoes in the State in 1900 amounted to $8,034,417 in value and that of rubber and elastie goods to $2,518,268.
Butterine is made in large quantities in Providenee. In 1890 the eity's production was seeond only to that of Chieago, and it is sup- posed to hold the same relative position to-day. The production of butterine by the three Providenee establishments, in 1900, equaled $1,345,133 in value, a sum more than double that of the butterine faetories of the State in 1890.
The Rumford Chemieal Works in East Providence is a special man- ufaetory which has no competitor in the State: It was established in 1855 by George F. Wilson of Providenee and Professor E. N. Horsford of Harvard University for the purpose of manufacturing chemieals. The produets of the works, whieli are located in Rumford, East Provi-
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denee, comprise general and special chemieals, particularly prepara- tions of the phosphates suitable for food and medicine. Among their products most generally known are the Horsford and Rumford baking powders, Horsford's cream of tartar, Horsford's aeid phosphate, and phosa. Some of the preparations, particularly the aeid phosphate, are sold all over the world, and their accompanying cireulars have to be printed in several different languages. The establishment employs a large number of persons.
The brewing business has been carried on many years. Beer was made during the colonial period, but it was generally made by the housewives from malt, the manufacture of which was carried on in many of the towns. The oldest of the present breweries is the James Hanley Brewing Company on Jackson street, whose manufactory stands on the site of an old wooden one run by Holmes & Company about half a century ago. The brewing business was formerly quite an important one in Newport, and about the time of the Rebellion the ale brewed by W. Hill & Son of that eity had a large sale throughout the State. After changing hands several times it went out of business about 1883. There are four breweries now in Providenee, two just over the line in Cranston, and one in Pawtucket. They brew porter, lager beer and ale, and collectively do a large business. There were six malt liquor establishments in the State in 1900. They employed 296 persons, and manufactured $1,880,171 worth of ale, beer and porter.
Distilleries were an important industry in colonial days. Large quantities of West India molasses were imported. Considerable of it was turned into rum, and eargoes of the latter were taken to Afriea to be exchanged for slaves. The last distillery was located in the Fox Point seetion, at the corner of India and Traverse streets. Darius Sessions carried it on sixty or seventy years ago and for some years before the Rebellion it was run by John Dyer & Company, and the last owner was Asa Blanchard, who went out of business about 1874. No whiskey has ever been distilled in this State, the labors of Rhode Island distillers always having been confined to rum and gin.
A sugar refinery was started in Bristol in 1849 by Cornelius R. Dimond & Company. It did a fair business at first, but its sales fell off about the time of the beginning of the Rebellion, and the refinery was sold to Camp, Bronson & Sherry, a New York company, which did a large business for several years, at one time employing 225 workmen and turning out 350 barrels of refined sugar daily. Its prosperity did not last long, however, and it ehanged hands several times, and finally discontinued business about twenty-five years ago, its firm name then being "The Phenix Sugar Refinery." Sugar refining, or rather sugar making, was earried on in Providenee in the early days of the last eentury in an old building standing on the site of Lowe's
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(Keith's) Opera House. It fronted on Clemence street, which was then known as Sugar Lane. The sugar produced at this establishment was brown or muscovado, made from molasses. The last sugar house in Providence was on Gaspee street, about where the State Normal School now stands. It was called the "Park Sugar Refinery", and was managed by L. P. Mead. This establishment discontinued busi- ness about 1872. Mr. Mead, it seems, proposed to substitute a steam process, instead of the usual method of boiling. The fact that the establishment was a short-lived one would seem to indicate that his method was not found to be practicable.
Brass founding is one of the oldest of Rhode Island industries. It dates back in Providence to 1762, and is now carried on by several establishments in Providence, and also in Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Newport, Central Falls and at Pascoag, in the town of Burrillville.
Brick making was also a colonial industry, but the oldest existing brick-making establishment of the State was started in Barrington in 1846. All of the brick-making in that town is under one management.
Ship building, except of small steam and sailing vessels is not now carried on in this State. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company has obtained world-wide fame as the builders of fast sailing yachts. It has built several sloops which have successfully defended the American Cup against the best British boats, and it has constructed several of the government's fastest torpedo boats. This company began building yachts and sailboats at Bristol in 1863, and in 1873 commenced the construction of steam yachts.
The first mill in the country for the manufacture of cotton seed oil was established in Providence to develop a process invented by the late Lyman Klapp. It is known as the Union Oil Mill. The manufacture of menhaden oil and fish guano is an important industry in Ports- moutlı and Tiverton.
Davis's Pain Killer was almost an indispensable household panacea a generation ago, and in other countries as well as in our own. It was discovered by Perry Davis, who commenced making it in Providence more than a half century ago. Mr. Davis died in 1862 and the busi- ness was removed to New York several years ago.
In a report regarding the manufactures of Providence, prepared at the request of Alexander Hamilton, in 1790, glass works were men- tioned. John Brown owned a glass factory at India Point about that time, but the business was probably closed out soon after- wards, although no memoranda is obtainable of its fate. The Provi- dence Flint Glass Company was started about 1830. The Providence Journal of January 31, 1833, speaks of the concern as "an establish- ment which produces some of the best and most elegant ware in Amer- ica," and instances as "corroborative of this assertion, the beautiful 25-3
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lamps suspended in the hall of the City Hotel, and the general table- ware of the establishment."
It will be impossible in this chapter to describe in detail the myriad of separate industries large and small in this State. No other State is so extensively engaged in manufacture in proportion to its arca and population as is Rhode Island. Nearly everything needed in the household, in the shop, on shipboard and in outdoor labor is made within its borders. Besides the industries to which reference has already been made it has manufacturers of alarm tills, aluminum novelties, ammonia, are lamps, artificial icc, artificial work, art needle work, asbestos covering, athletic goods, automobiles, badges, baskets, blackboards and blackboard material, blacking, blank books, boiler and pipe covering, boiler punches, bologna sausages, macaroni, boots and shoes, brooms and brushes, burglar alarms, buttons, butter and cheese, cameras, candy and confectionery, cardboard, card clotlis, carriages of all kinds, cash registers, chemicals of all kinds, chewing gum, cider and cider vinegar, cigars, clocks, combs, corsets and hoop- skirts, cop tubes, cotton cans, curtains and curtain fixtures, cutlery and hardware, doors, sash and blinds, screen doors, drums, drain-pipe, dyc-stuffs, elastic stockings, electric devices of various kinds including novelties, elevators, emery wheels, fire escapes, flags and banners, fla- voring extracts, furnaces, furniture of all kinds, galvanized iron and copper cornices, gas fixtures, gas generators, gas governors, German silverware, gold and silver castings, haircloth, handkerchiefs, harnesses and saddles, hats and caps, horn goods, horse shocs, hose, hydrants, indelible and other inks, iron and wooden fencing, knce-caps, trusses, labels, latlies, lawn tennis goods, lawn vases, letter and newspaper files, lightning rods, lime, looking glasses, loon-pickers, lubricating oils, maps, mattresses, metallic figures, monuments, headstones and stat- uary, mustard, pickles and preserves, net, fish lines and seines, nickel castings, oil clothing, organs, paints, oils and varnishes, paper and wooden boxes, pen and pencil cases, ring travellers, rubber and leather belting, sails and awnings, shirts and collars, show cases, shell goods, shafting, shuttles, soap and candles, lard and tallow, surgical instru- ments, spring beds, tanks and vats, tiles, tin warc, tools of all kinds, top roll coverers, trunks and valises, tubing of all kinds, torpedoes and torpedo accessories, umbrellas and parasols, water, naphtha and elec- trie motors, washing powders, washing and wringing machines, wigs and hair work, wire work of various kinds, wooden ware of all kinds, yeast and novelties of every description.
Josiah B. Bowditch
The Poor, The Defective And the Criminal.
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CHAPTER V.
THE POOR, THE DEFECTIVE AND THE CRIMINAL.
The carly settlers of Rhode Island were very poor, how poor we shall better understand when we have considered their treatment of Roger Williams, their leading man and twiee their representative in the mother eountry. When, in 1650, he was urged to appear for them before the Committee on Plantations, they still owed him the sum of one hundred pounds voted him three years earlier in remuneration of his services in getting them a charter, though several attempts had been made to raise the money. The assembly now voted to pay what- ever was in arrears, and an additional one hundred pounds, if he would go a second time and advocate their interests. He consented, and immediately it was necessary for him to sell his trading house that his family might have the proceeds to live upon while he should be absent. After his return from this mission, he wrote his friend Gov. Winthrop an extended aeeount of his sojourn abroad, from which it appears that he taught the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Freneh, and Dutch languages as a means of support, at the same time acquiring an inti- mate acquaintanee with John Milton, the secretary of the eouneil of state, to whom he taught Dutch in exchange for instruetion in some other tongue. No more convincing proof of poverty in the colony could be given than that he should be compelled thus to earn his living while employed away from home at the publie business.
The ease of Dr. John Clark of Newport was to the same effeet. In 1664 an audit of his accounts showed that the sum of three hundred and forty-three pounds was due him for expenses ineurred while engaged with the eolony's business in England, one hundred pounds of which should have been paid him while he was in that country, and a gratuity of one hundred pounds which had been voted him as a reeognition of his distinguished services there rendered. To meet this elaim with other expenses just incurred, a tax of six hundred pounds was levied. No one hoped that such an amount in money might be eolleeted. All kinds of farmer's produce would be accepted, wheat valued at four shillings and six penee per bushel, peas at three and six pence per bushel, and pork at three pounds ten shillings per barrel. But the towns were impoverished. Warwick protested formal-
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ly her inability to pay the sum assessed her. A year elapsed before Portsmouth took any step in the matter, and she then requested of Dr. Clark that he would aeeept a greatly reduced sum. Providenee was equally backward. Other towns did no better. Years elapsed and the tax was still uncollected, remaining thus until it was at last en- foreed by the act of a subsequent assembly. That it was so with two such valuable publie servants as Mr. Williams and Dr. Clark, and that the former was never paid even his personal expenses, witnesses to the deep poverty of the colonists in those early days.
Where all were so poor it must needs be that some were poorer than the many and that a poorer one would from time to time beeome de- pendent upon his not much better off neighbors for the means of a bare subsistence. In such cases the claims of charity were not likely to be disregarded by those who themselves were at so short remove from abjeet want that but a slight mishap would be enough to east them upon the publie bounty. Cases of real need when these were brought to notice did not fail to receive due consideration. Sometimes the needy one would present his own ease to the town authorities, and sometimes this would be done for him by a friend or a neighbor. The following extract from a letter to the Town Council of Providenee, written by Roger Williams and dated November 11th, 1650, is in point. It reveals a tenderness and a sympathy with the suffering which has not always been recognized as characteristic of the great Puritan Comeouter and Social Reformer.
"I crave your consideration of yt lamentable object Mrs. Weston, my experience of ye distempers of persons elsewhere makes me confident yt (although not in all things yet) in a great measure she is a distract- ed woman. My request is yt you would be pleased to take what is left of hers into your own hand, and appoint some to order it for her supply, and it may be let some publike act of mercy to her necessities stand upon record amongst ye mereiful actes of a merciful town yt hath received many mercies from Heaven, and remembers yt we know not how soon our own wives may be widows and our children orphans, yea, and ourselves be deprived of all or most of our reason, before we goe from hence, except merey from ye God of mercies prevent it."
No record remains of the disposition of Mrs. Weston's case, but this may be easily inferred from action taken in another and similar case on the 25th of January, 1651, a little more than one year later, when it was "ordered that the Town Council shall order, dispose, and pro- vide for the subsistenee of Margaret Goodwin, as her necessity ealls for, and for that end shall take the said Margaret's goods into their hands or her husband's hands and make sale or dispose otherwise thereof for her necessity and return an account to the Towne." A few weeks later it was further "ordered that the six men formerly deputed to take care of Adam Goodwin's wife during the time of her
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distraction shall have power to sell part of her goods left to discharge such debts and charges as they have undertaken for, and to return the rest of her goods to the Towne." One month later the following was rendered as the result of an inquest as to the cause of Margaret Goodwin's decease, she having been found out of doors dead one morning after a stormy night: "The virdict of us-having made in- quiry by what witness they can know of or have touching the death of Margaret Goodwin; We find so near as we can judge that either the terribleness of the crack of thunder on the 2nd of the month, or the coldness of the night, being she was naked, did kill her." Whether she was killed by lightning or died of exposure the jury was unable to say.
At a town meeting held November 3rd, 1655, Roger Williams being moderator, it was "ordered yt since our neighbor Pike hath divers times applied himselfe with complaints to ye towne for helpe in this his sad condition of his wife's distraction, he shall repair to the Towne Treasurer, who is hereby authorized and required (as money come into his hand) to pay unto ye said Pike to ye sume of fifteen shillings ; and ye Towne promiseth upon his further want and complaint he shall be supplied though to ye value of ten pounds or more."
The following are specimen communications addressed to the town meeting on behalf of needy ones whom the Town Council might possi- bly overlook. The first is dated April 27th, 1682, and reads, "Where- as you cannot well be insensible of ye condition of our neighbor ye Widow Tabor, how yt she wanteth reliefe as to her maintenance by ye Towne: Therefore I doe adjudge it lawfull for ye Towne to supply her about four pounds of provisions yearly during her life : yr friend Dan Abbot." The other is dated Feb. 4th, 1679, and reads: "My request is yt some timely aid shall be taken for our olde neighbor John Jones for fire wood and some other necessaries for his Relefe: yr naber, William Hopkins." We need not question that Widow Taber and Neighbor Jones were given assistance as their needs demanded and the ability of the town permitted.
The case of Edward London was typical. When by reason of "imbercillity and decrippedness" it became necessary that he should have help, the town committed the matter to the council with power to "assess and levy a rate upon the inhabitants of the towne of Provi- dence for the Reliefe of ye said Poore (to witt) ye said Edward Lon- don, and to see and provide a place for his abode." The council entered into an agreement with one George Keech to take Edward London into his care and keeping, to find him meat, drink, washing, and lodging for the space of six months, and to receive for so doing the sum of fifty shillings ; with the understanding that if the poor man should "fall into some more than ordinary condition or with respect to sickness," he should be further considered and paid for the extra
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trouble, and that he should also "have what bennefitt he may receive by ye said London's Labor, in which he may comfortably doe." The required tax was levied, and Mr. London was boarded out as was then and for many years after the eustom in such cases in every town of the colony. We may hope that he fell into kind hands, and that his last days were peaceful. They were not many days. Something less than a year later Mr. Keech reported that his charge had "dyed on ye 2nd day of January 1694."
So far as appears London was without friends or relatives to whom he could look for help in age and misfortune. When there were sueh able and unwilling to help the disposition of the authorities was good to compel these to do their duty. The ease of John Dalie indieates their method of procedure. The eouneil met January 3rd, 1718, to take measures for his relief. He was an old man having grown ehil- dren, a son named Joseph and two daughters married respectively to John Rhodes and Maurice Brooek. Dalie was living in the house of Rhodes, which the other children were quite willing he should do without cost to themselves-not an uneommon state of affairs. Rhodes seems to have been willing to eare for his father-in-law, but he was determined that they should meet a portion of the expense thus in- eurred and to this end he brought the matter to the attention of the couneil. The eouneil ordered that the son Joseph pay twelve shillings and six penee, and the son-in-law Brooek eleven shillings and six penee to Rhodes for keeping the old man during the six weeks last past, and that thereafter he should receive five shillings per week until further action by the eouneil. A month later it was again ordered that five shillings per week be paid to Rhodes. It appearing that neither of these orders had been heeded, an adjourned meeting of the eouneil was ealled for Mareh 10th, and notiee was sent to each of Dalie's ehil- dren, each of whom failed to appear, and the above order was again reaffirmed. At a second adjourned meeting held April 28th, Joseph Dalie was ordered to give bonds in the sum of ten pounds for the pay- ment of all charges standing against him for the relief of his father. He gave the required bond, and did not make the stipulated payment. The eouneil being again in session on May 10th and Joseph Dailie mak- ing no appearanee, it was voted that a writ be taken out against him to seeure theobligation which he had taken upon himself two weeks earlier. It was also ordered that the father of such an unfilial son continue with his daughter Abigail (Mrs. Rhodes ) until some other order should be made by the eouneil. On the 9th of June Mauriee Brooek eame begore the eouneil and promised to take eare of his father-in-law and to "provide for him one whole yeare for the sum of six pounds ;" Joseph Dalie agreeing to pay three pounds and ten shillings of this sum to Broock, "and Joseph Dalie doth also promise to give his said father a new shirt." We may suppose that the old man remained at the house
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