USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Pawtucket > The lower Blackstone river valley; the story of Pawtucket, Central Falls, Lincoln, and Cumberland, Rhode Island; an historical narrative > Part 4
USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Central Falls > The lower Blackstone river valley; the story of Pawtucket, Central Falls, Lincoln, and Cumberland, Rhode Island; an historical narrative > Part 4
USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Lincoln > The lower Blackstone river valley; the story of Pawtucket, Central Falls, Lincoln, and Cumberland, Rhode Island; an historical narrative > Part 4
USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Cumberland > The lower Blackstone river valley; the story of Pawtucket, Central Falls, Lincoln, and Cumberland, Rhode Island; an historical narrative > Part 4
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PAWTUCKET ON THE EAST SIDE
Community activities for the people who resided on the east side of the "falls of water" centered at the site of the original settlement referred to as the "Ring of the Town" in Rehoboth. Here the church was located, the town meetings were held, and the school was maintained, in spite of the fact that the divided village at the falls was rapidly becoming united into a single community with common social and commercial interests. Going back a bit in our narrative it may be observed that the taxpayers on the Massachusetts side of the river bore the expense of both church and school in contrast with the arrangement on the west side where both religion and education were matters of individual concern. No revolutionary event occurred in the territory of Rehoboth, but her people con- tributed a generous share of support in the cause, and more than one hundred Rehoboth men served in the Continental armies at various times. According to one record, two companies of minute-men, of fifty each, were raised in 1775; saltpetre was manufactured at Seekonk Cove; a bounty of £20 was paid to each soldier from the town who enlisted in the army; and fortifications were erected on Hog Pen Point, now known as Fort Hill, East Providence, overlooking Providence harbor.
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THE WILKINSON FAMILY
Without any doubt the long weary years of the Revolu- tionary War retarded the growth of Pawtucket, but peace marked the beginning of a new era and encouraged many enterprising manufacturers to settle there and undertake the establishment and development of various types of business. One of those who delayed his activities in that particular locality until the end of all hostilities was Oziel Wilkinson, a successful blacksmith of Smithfield who was the father of five sons, all of whom followed the same trade. Encouraged by his customers in Providence and elsewhere, and attracted by the water power offered at Pawtucket, Mr. Wilkinson removed there with his family and promptly turned some of the unused power of the bountiful stream to profit for himself and his associates.
Mr. Wilkinson is said to have made cut nails at an early date, and is supposed to have antedated every manu- facturer of these useful articles in the world. It was probably in 1783 that he set up his shops at Pawtucket, and not long after that he erected an anchor forge where tools and other implements were made. In 1786 he pur- chased the machinery for making screw presses for oil works, paper mills and clothiers' shops, and he manufactured many of these thereafter. In addition Mr. Wilkinson turned out all sorts of ship chandlery; he manufactured shovels, spades, and scythes, and operated a rolling and slitting mill.
The shops of Oziel Wilkinson were schools for his sons and many ingenious and industrious young men in Paw- tucket, and he thereby prepared the way for the introduction and growth of another industry that was destined to rival even iron working in this birthplace of American enterprise. But, the story of this milestone goes back many years before Pawtucket's natural advantages and her skilled sons were known to the world.
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EARLY COTTON MANUFACTURING
It was not until shortly before the Christian Era that the use of cotton cloth was known in Rome, when it was intro- duced by Caesar and other military leaders for tent coverings and awnings. Previous to that, cotton had been used and cultivated in India and the East Indies. Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian, writing about five hundred years B. C., described the cotton tree and the manufacture of the product into fabric. Although this appears to be the earliest known historical mention, it is likely that other ancient races had long before known the use of cotton. However, it was not until the fifteenth century that cotton machinery was invented and perfected for practical opera- tion. Until the time of King Henry VIII, the distaff was the only cotton spinning instrument used in England, and the spinning wheel is said to have been invented in 1530, although some authorities claim that this device was originally brought from India, and then came into use supplying yarn for the hand-loom weavers.
The invention of the fly-shuttle, in 1733, gave such an impetus to domestic hand-loom weaving that the spinning wheels could not keep up with the demand for yarn. But then, the invention of the spinning-Jenny, a development of the spinning wheel principle, supplied the need for faster yarn production. The great inventor of cotton machinery was Richard Arkwright, born in Preston, England, in 1732, the year of George Washington's birth. Originally a barber and later a manufacturer of wigs and a dealer in hair, Arkwright finally turned his attention to mechanical pur- suits. By 1769, he had perfected a machine with rollers for spinning cotton, secured a patent on his creation and moved to Nottingham, a manufacturing center. There he obtained capital from men of wealth who perceived the merits of his invention; and, he immediately proceeded to
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SAMUEL SLATER Founder of Cotton Industry in America
One of the original Samuel Slater spinning frames. This frame is in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
m
Old Slater Mill, first successful cotton mill in America. View taken about 1870.
revamp the whole operation of manufacture in a small cotton mill which he started. The invention of roller spinning, as applied in the spinning frame by Arkwright, introduced an entirely new principle, and was destined to revolutionize the cotton industry wherever it was known.
The next event of importance in the manufacture of cotton was the invention, in 1779, of the mule, or mule Jenny, a combination of Arkwright's roller spinning frame and the original spinning-Jenny. Then came the power loom, invented in 1785 by the Rev. Edmund Cartwright. These and many other inventions and improvements stimulated the demand for cotton to a great extent in the civilized countries of the world. Until the close of the eighteenth century three fourths of all the cotton used in England came from the West Indies. But with the establishment of peace between England and the American Colonies, the reports of all these inventions and the rise of the cotton market induced planters in the southern sections of this country to attempt an extended cultivation of the cotton plant which had previously been grown there only on a small scale for domestic use. Cotton raising increased rapidly thereafter.
Cotton spinning machinery was not introduced into America for many years after Arkwright had obtained his first patent because England did everything during the Colonial period to discourage manufacturing on this side of the Atlantic. There were two objects in this policy; first, to keep the Colonists dependent upon the mother country, and second, to provide a ready market and profits for English manufacturers and merchants. Even after the Revolutionary War it was a serious offense to export machinery, tools, implements, etc., from England, and individuals were fined and imprisoned for attempts to thwart the law of the Kingdom. The influx of foreign goods into
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America after the war drove domestic products, in a measure, out of the market, discouraged many of the pioneer American manufacturers and threw them into bankruptcy. To overcome this unhealthy condition a knowledge of improved textile machinery was essential. From what source was this valuable knowledge procured, and where was it first revealed to grateful American industrialists?
SAMUEL SLATER
Samuel Slater was born in Belper, Derbyshire, England, June 6, 1768, and, at the age of fourteen, apprenticed himself to Jedediah Strutt of Milford, near Belper, to learn the trade of cotton spinning. This apprenticeship expired in 1789, and it was about this time that his attention was attracted to the lack of efficient machinery in America and to the bounties which were offered to inventors and manu- facturers. With his mind filled with figures and facts, but with no drawings or written information, descriptions or models of cotton spinning or carding machinery, he sailed from London and arrived in New York on November 18, 1789. And this youth of twenty-one brought the first accurate knowledge of the world's finest automatic machinery which his experience, skill and remarkable memory enabled him to reproduce in America and put into operation at a time when all other efforts had utterly failed.
He worked for a short time in New York and learned presently that a successful business promoter by the name of Moses Brown was anxious to introduce cotton spinning and the construction of textile machinery in Rhode Island. Samuel Slater wrote to Mr. Brown offering his services as "a manager of cotton spinning" and stated that he could build machinery and make as good yarn as could be turned out in England, but that he preferred to accomplish this
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with machinery of the Arkwright type. Moses Brown replied at once and offered the young Englishman all of the profits above the interest of the money and the wear and tear of the machinery, for period of six months, if he would perfect the machines which he already had and operate them successfully. Slater accepted and went to Pawtucket with Moses Brown, but when he saw the American made machines which had already been installed to spin cotton, Slater declared that they were useless, and that it would be necessary to alter them radically or construct new units.
After a few weeks of hopeless attempts to utilize the machinery in operation, Samuel Slater went to work on the construction of Arkwright type spinning frames, begin- ning the work behind closed doors in the shop of Sylvanus Brown who made the wood patterns under Slater's direction. When the patterns were completed David Wilkinson, son of Oziel Wilkinson, forged the iron work and turned the rollers and the spindles. Because of many delays, the creation of this skilled craftsman with a remark- able memory, was not in full operation until December 20, 1790, eleven months after his arrival in America. The new mill equipment then consisted of three cards, drawing and roving frames, and two spinning frames, one with twenty-four and the other with forty-eight spindles. The motive power was obtained from an old fulling mill water wheel that had the habit of freezing up when it was most needed in the early days of experimentation. In the original mill and with this pioneer American machinery Slater and his partners carried on the manufacture of cotton yarn for twenty months, and had produced so much yarn that local weavers could not consume it and no market could be found for several thousand pounds.
THE FIRST COTTON MILL IN AMERICA
When the business was demonstrated to be a success, it was decided to erect a factory building where all spinning and allied operations could be carried on under one roof. Accordingly, in 1793, a structure was built on the west bank of the river near the falls in Pawtucket; the first machinery was moved there, additional units were con- structed and production soon started. This famous old mill, the cradle of cotton manufacturing in America, stands today as a monument to Samuel Slater, his backers, business associates and employees who combined to revolu- tionize the cotton industry in this country. Once again the invisible horse-powers of the river that tumbled down over the rocks at the place called Pawtucket combined with the ingenuity of man to give this nation an industry that grew to unmatched importance throughout New England and elsewhere.
Samuel Slater became a leader in American industry and a person of distinction in the land of his adoption. He married Hannah Wilkinson, daughter of Oziel Wilkinson, and to her belongs the credit of founding the cotton thread industry in America. With the aid of her sister she twisted an excellent grade of 20-ply thread from Surinam cotton and was amazed to find and prove that it was even stronger than the linen thread then being used throughout America. Samuel Slater immediately started to manufacture this type thread, and gave Pawtucket additional fame as the birthplace of successful cotton manufacturing.
Samuel Slater died in Webster, Massachusetts, in April, 1835, ending a career that carried him to the heights of prominence in the industrial life of the nation. Around his pioneer spinning mill grew up a thriving center of textile manufacturing, and his ideas and methods spread elsewhere to lay the cornerstones of many successful enterprises.
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On every stream in southern New England mills were erected to house the machinery made practical through the inventive genius of Slater, and, in 1812, Rhode Island had thirty-three mills with eighty-six thousand spindles, while in nearby Massachusetts, sixty thousand spindles were whirling in twenty busy mills.
SOME OF THE FIRST COTTON MILLS
Five mills were on the west side of the Blackstone River near the falls, and eight more were across the stream in Massachusetts. The first mill on the east side, then Rehoboth, was built by Samuel Slater & Co., and it began operations in 1801; Slater sold out his interest nine years later and the firm became known as Wilkinson, Greene & Co. The original mill was a wooden structure, and was called, at first, the "New" mill, and later, the "White" mill. This was destroyed by fire and another structure, built of stone, was erected on the same site in 1824. It stood on the second lot on the east side of the river, north of the bridge. On the southeast abutment of the bridge stood the "Yellow" mill, originally erected and operated by the Cotton and Oil Manufacturing Co., and this com- pany also built, in 1813, the "Stone" mill, located on the east side of River Street near the bridge. Others were established on the east side of the Blackstone in the early days of the century, and they all played important parts in the founding of a great American industry.
On the west side, near the Slater mill, Oziel Wilkinson and his sons, in 1810, built a stone mill, still standing, and there engaged in cotton spinning, augmenting the number of spindles on that side of the stream to the point where the two river banks around the falls boasted of an equal number of spindles.
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CONTEMPORARY ARTISANS
Although to Samuel Slater belongs the chief credit for the introduction of cotton spinning into America, he had contemporaries who contributed greatly to the establish- ment of Pawtucket as a textile center. During the period when Slater was transmitting his visions of gears and cams into workable machinery, he had, at his elbow, two mechanics of unusual ability, both of whom had the distinction of collaborating in the invention of the slide lathe. Sylvanus Brown was one of these and it is believed that he, a wheelwright, by trade, made the patterns and the woodwork for the original Slater spinning frames. David Wilkinson, the other assistant, forged the iron work, super- vised the foundry operations, and turned the rollers and spindles. Through this valuable experience Wilkinson became the first special builder of cotton machinery in America. He set up a workshop in the basement of his father's stone mill, north of the bridge, and soon he started to supply machines and equipment for mills throughout New England and elsewhere. David Wilkinson had a part in the building of the much discussed steamboat that made a successful trip on the Seekonk, between Providence and Pawtucket, long before Robert Fulton produced his famous "Clermont," said to have been copied from the pioneer steamer that grew out of the dreams of David Wilkinson and Elisha Ormsbee. Throughout his business career Wilkinson was chiefly engaged in the manufacture of cotton machinery, but before his death, in 1852, he turned to constructing bridges and canals in the West.
Many other mechanics emerged into prominence early in the century, and among these was Larned Pitcher who started a machine shop on the west side of the river about 1813. Asa Arnold invented the differential motion for speeders and a machine for separating wool; Ira Gay
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invented a dresser and a speeder. James S. Brown, son of Sylvanus, succeeded Mr. Gay in the firm of Pitcher & Gay; and John Thorpe, a Pawtucket mechanic, invented a power loom in 1814.
While these and other mechanics were making such notable advances in industry the descendants of the pioneer Jenks were active in the community. The great freshet of 1807 had destroyed their shops near the falls but new structures soon replaced them. The forge was rebuilt by Eleazar Jenks and his sons, Stephen and Eleazar, Jr. Moses Jenks and others built the grist mill which was replaced by a flour mill in 1863. The two sons of Moses Jenks, Pardon and Jabez, erected a building for carding cotton and wool. Mule spindles were made and heavy forging done in the basement of the forge shop with a trip hammer. On the first floor, Stephen Jenks had a machine of his own invention for cutting large spikes, and later, he started a cotton picker, the first in the neighborhood. About 1813 a mill was built on the southwest abutment of the bridge by Pardon and Ebenezer Jenks and was operated as a spinning plant.
Thus we see that textile manufacturing secured a strong foothold at this period of Pawtucket's history, while, at the same time, metal and iron working continued as a potent element in the industrial life of the community. One made way for the other, and the water power near at hand con- tinued to assist in these and other fields of endeavor as the products of this industrial village brought fame to its leaders and willing workers. From the beginning to this important period, inventive genius had been bred into the lives of Pawtucket's sons, thereby paving the way for the later diversification of industry that became the chief characteristic of this outstanding New England community.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WATER POWER
Going back again to the importance of water power in the rise of Pawtucket we find that a dam was built at the falls, the construction work probably undertaken by the first settler, but it only extended about three fourths of the way across the river from the west side. The present lower dam was built about 1718, and this furnished power for the forges on the west side and for the saw and grist mills across the stream. On the east side was another partial dam, probably first used for the grist mill of the Smith's. These two primitive water controls were superseded by the lower dam, built of rocks from the falls. The upper dam was constructed about 1793, a short distance above Sargeant's Trench, and was designed to furnish power for the historic Slater mill. Sargeant's Trench was a canal dug in the year 1714 around the falls on the west side to accommodate the fish when they attempted to go up the Blackstone River. But, later, when it was discovered that the fish would not "run" up the trench, it was converted into a mill stream. Water from the river still courses through this ancient canal beneath the streets of the city.
Around the falls and the first dams and millstreams has grown a thriving city that has been far ahead of the times in methods of manufacture and in the anticipation of what the world would demand in countless fields of commerce. From the first hand-forged agricultural implements pro- duced by Jenks, the founder, Pawtucket's evolution has witnessed the successful production of a wide variety of manufactured articles, and this distinction adheres today in an age of machine production. Scythes, anchors, cannon, muskets, looms, lathes, bolts, nuts, spindles, thread, tennis racquets, and thousands of other products have been transformed from raw materials into finished form in mills and factories, upon and around the sites of
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Main Street Bridge and Falls during the Freshet of 1886
1
Railroad Accident at Boston Switch on the Providence & Worcester Road, August 12, 1853
Old Railroad Station, Broad Street, in 1872
ancient establishments that appeared in Pawtucket after the Revolutionary War and during the early part of the nineteenth century when Rhode Island entered upon its era of commercial and industrial progress. In all fields of textile manufacturing, yarn, cloth, thread; and in the cotton, worsted, silk and rayon branches of this many-sided industry, Pawtucket has marched forward as a leader, well out in front in originality and in technical efficiency.
THE COMING OF THE FIRST RAILROAD
The Boston and Providence Railroad came to what is now the eastern part of Pawtucket, in 1835, but though displacing stage coaches and early means of overland travel between Boston and Providence, was still somewhat distant from Pawtucket as it was then. In 1847 and 1848, the Providence and Worcester Railroad was completed and "in 1848, the Boston & Providence Railroad recognizing the advantage of the location and terminus of the Providence & Worcester Railroad in passing through Pawtucket and entering Providence built a connection which joined the latter road at Central Falls and used this branch thereafter as its main line." This connection passed over the bridge over the Blackstone River, known even now as the "Tin Bridge," so-called because the bridge, built of wood, was covered with tin to prevent destruction by fire. This bridge was in 1876 replaced by an iron structure. This great stride in transportation facilities gave an added impetus to business and encouraged many manufacturers to select this place for their enterprises. Horse cars likewise appeared on the streets of the busy village and soon horse- drawn cars were running from Central Falls through Pawtucket to Providence under a franchise granted by the Legislature in 1861.
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Then came the Civil War with the great exodus of patriots who left their homes to fight in the cause of the Union. Pawtucket prospered in those days because it was a well- equipped manufacturing center, the natural source for war supplies of a wide variety. This prosperity continued with the dawn of peace and more mills and factories were built to meet the demands for what Pawtucket had to offer. Workers from across the sea streamed into the place that looked so attractive to Joseph Jenks, Jr., two centuries before, and there they found employment and privileges far beyond their dreams when they turned their eyes from Europe to seek better fortune in a land of opportunity.
THE INDUSTRIAL RISE OF PAWTUCKET
The industrial rise of Pawtucket, on the east side of the river, set apart this portion of Rehoboth as a village radically different from the rest of the town which was largely agri- cultural. This led to the division of Rehoboth into two towns, that portion lying along the eastern shores of the Seekonk and Providence Rivers becoming Seekonk, Massa- chusetts, while the rest of the town remained under the old name. Increase of population through the operation of factories and shops at the falls, very soon after this division, created a diversity of interest between the residents of Pawtucket on the east side and the remainder of Seekonk, and so, on March 1, 1828, a second division was made, and the northwestern corner along the river and around the falls-the present east side of Pawtucket-was set off as Pawtucket, Massachusetts, while the remainder retained the name of Seekonk. When Massachusetts and Rhode Island settled their boundary disputes in 1862 the town of Pawtucket and the western portion of Seekonk lying along the shore of the river and of Narragansett Bay were trans- ferred to Rhode Island in exchange for the Rhode Island
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town of Fall River. Pawtucket on the east side began its career as a Rhode Island town on March 1, 1862, and its legal union with its near neighbor across the river, the village of Pawtucket in the Town of North Providence, R. I., occurred May 1, 1874.
On the west side of the river the village of Pawtucket remained the most populous place in North Providence until its union with the town of Pawtucket across the river. Thus the east side passed under three separate town jurisdictions and was transferred from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, while the west side was successively in Providence and North Providence before it was set off and the final union with Pawtucket on the east side took place. After 1874 population increased rapidly and town meetings became unwieldy, therefore considerable sentiment arose in favor of a city government. A movement, to that end, culmi- nated in the adoption by the electors April 1, 1885, of the act of incorporation which was passed March 27, 1885. The town officers continued in authority until the end of the year. The first city election was held in December, 1885, and the city government was organized January I, 1886, with Frederic Clark Sayles as its first Mayor.
WATER SUPPLY ESTABLISHED
In the middle 1870's, after the union of the two Paw- tuckets, sentiment developed for the establishment of some sort of a municipal water supply. At that time all water for drinking and household uses was obtained from wells in the yards and there were no sewers. After various systems had been discussed and considered, it was finally, in 1877, decided to utilize the water of the Abbott Run stream in Cumberland, which unites with the Blackstone River below the Broad Street bridge, at Valley Falls, and to construct a storage reservoir on Stump Hill in Lincoln,
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