Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 41: Manufacturing, 1918

Chapter 41: Manufacturing

FIRST NEEDS OF THE PIONEERS - BOOTS AND SHOES - IRON WORKS - COTTON AND WOOLEN GOODS PAPER AND WOOD PULP STRAW GOODS MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURES STATISTICAL TABLE FOR I915.

Among the first settlers of Norfolk County food and shelter were the prime necessities. The first manufacturing establishments were therefore saw and grist mills of the most primitive character, to provide lumber for building dwelling houses and breadstuff's for the table. These mills were always located on some stream and were run by water power. Tracts of land and water privileges were granted to individuals by several of the towns almost as soon as they were organized, on condition that the grantee would build a mill. The history of these early mills will be found in the chapters relating to the towns in which they were situated.

Boots And Shoes

Footwear was another article that the pioneers understood would be a necessity. To provide a supply of boots and shoes, Thomas Beard was brought over in the Mayflower, "to be maintained at the public charge (not exceeding ten pounds a year) and to be employed at such places as the govern, might designate." Mr. Beard was the first shoemaker in New England. He brought over with him a supply of leather, the freight charges on which was four pounds per ton. Within twenty years from the time he made his first pair of shoes in this country, Lynn was exporting shoes. From that time to the present, New England has been the great shoe manufacturing center of the United States.

Randolph and Braintree were the pioneer shoemaking towns of Norfolk County. About the beginning of the Nineteenth Century Samuel Hayden started in the manufacture of shoes in Braintree and Thomas French in Randolph. In those days the workmen took the work to their homes, each one making all parts of the boot or shoe upon which he was employed. The factory building did not come until some years later. Mr. French also established a tannery and made his own leather, or at least a considerable portion of it, while the Drinkwater tannery, on the Monatiquot River in Braintree, was the chief source of Mr. Hayden's supply. In 1880 there were twenty-six shoe manufacturers in Randolph alone, employing nearly eight hundred people. The finished product from the shoe factories of Braintree and Randolph was conveyed by wagon to Boston.

Weymouth was also an early shoe manufacturing town. Says Gilbert Nash : "As late as the beginning of the present century (1801) there were probably not more than three or four persons who manufactured this class of goods for other than the home market, and those gave employment to only a few apprentices, besides what they could do themselves. These goods were carried to Boston market either upon the backs of the manufacturers, who made the journey on foot, or else in saddle-bags upon horses. The beginnings of this trade were at Weymouth Landing, spreading thence to the north and south villages, reaching latest of all the east, which now surpasses all of the others in the magnitude of its business in this line. It was a whole generation before it became necessary to employ a 'baggage wagon,' the clumsy pioneer of the present express, and the buildings used in carrying on the manufacture would hardly suffice for offices at the present day, the goods being made wholly^at the homes of the workmen, nearly all of whom had little shops in or near their dwellings, the work being prepared and packed only at the factory. As late as 1840, it was a large factory that produced five hundred dollars' worth of goods in the week."

John Linfield started in the manufacture of shoes in Stoughton in 1816, in a building that occupied the site where the town hall was afterward built in 1880. Isaac Beals, the second in the industry in this town, began in 1821. Later he formed a partnership with Simeon Drake, who became prominent in the business after Mr. Beals retired. In 1880 there were fifteen shoe factories in the town, doing a business of over a million dollars annually.

A shoe factory was established in Medway about 1830, and five years later was employing about three hundred persons. John Mann began making boots and shoes in Walpole in 1836 and the following year he formed a partnership with Truman Clarke, under the firm name of Clarke & Mann, which did a thriving business for about twelve years, when Mr. Mann purchased his partner's interest. The great fire in Boston brought financial disaster and forced him to wind up his business.

In 1848 E. & W. Fairbanks began making shoes at Caryville, in the Town of Bellingham. In 1864 William Fairbanks became the sole proprietor and during the next ten years enlarged the factory until it employed about one hundred workmen. Upon his death in 1874 the business was sold to Houghton, Coolidge & Company of Boston, who conducted the plant until it was burned on July 25, 1874. Along in the '60s there were four boot and shoe factories in Bellingham, but they have either been discontinued or removed to more favorable locations.

A number of Medfield citizens organized a company for the manufacture of boots and shoes in 185 1, built a factory and began business. The quality of the goods turned out by this factory was excellent, but the venture proved to be unprofitable and after a few years the factory was closed.

According to the last Directory of Massachusetts Manufactures, issued by the Bureau of Statistics in 19 15, there were then nineteen shoe factories in Norfolk County, distributed as follows : Avon, Doherty Brothers Shoe Company; Braintree, D. B. Closson & Company. Slater & Morrill, Rice & Hutchins and the Williams-Kneeland Company; Holbrook, the Fiske Shoe and Leather Company ; Millis, Joseph M. Herman & Company ; Quincy, H. M. Hanson Shoe Company; Randolph, Richards & Brennan Company and the Royal Shoe Company; Stoughton, M. F. Kelley (Three K. Shoe Company) and Upham Brothers Company ; Weymouth, Alden, Walker & Wilde, Edwin Clapp & Son, George H.

Closely allied to the boot and shoe industry are the business of tanning and finishing leather and the furnishing of cut stock and findings, in both of which lines there are several establishments in the county. In Canton are the Canton Leather Company, the Crow Blacking Company and the Morse Brothers, the Crow Blacking Company having a capacity of from eight hundred to one thousand hides finished as patent leather daily. Two large plants - the Smith Plant and the Winslow Plant - are operated in Norwood by the Winslow Brothers & Smith Company. Walpole also has a large tanning and finishing plant, and in Weymouth the following firms manufacture and deal in cut stock and findings : George L. Bates, George H. Bicknell, Henry B. Chandler, Frank D. Daly, C. H. Kelly and William M. Staples. The George E. Belcher Last Company and the Stoughton Stamping Company, both of Stoughton, manufacture annually large quantities of lasts for the shoe factories.

Within recent years a number of concerns have been established for the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes, or rubber heels and soles for leather shoes. Among the factories of this kind in Norfolk County are : F. H. Appleton & Son, of Franklin; the Massachusetts Chemical Company, of Walpole; the Monatiquot Rubber Works, of Braintree ; the Plymouth Rubber Company and the Stoughton Rubber Company, of Stoughton.

Some time prior to 1643 John Winthrop, Jr., organized a company in London for the purpose of establishing an iron works in Massachusetts. He brought over stock and machinery valued at one thousand pounds and a number of workmen who understood the manufacture of iron from the ore. On January 19, 1643, tnis company received a grant of 3,000 acres of land and built the works on the Monatiquot River, in the easterly part of Braintree. The company was not successful in the undertaking and failed after about ten years.

John Hubbard of Boston rebuilt the dam about 1681 and put up a saw mill, iron works and forge near the site of the old iron works, but his dam interfered with the passage of the fish up the Monatiquot and one night a number of men destroyed the dam. Several lawsuits followed until the town purchased the water privilege, which settled the difficulty.

In the chapter on Sharon, mention is made of the little iron furnace of Ebenezer Mann, in the southern part of the town, and the manufacture of cannon from the iron ore about Massapoag Lake, at the time of the Revolution. In 1787 the Kinsley Iron and Machine Company built a factory in Canton and began the manufacture of steel by the German process. Large numbers of mill saws were turned out by this concern before the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. The manufacture of firearms was then commenced and during the Wrar of 1812 the United States Government contracted with this company for several thousand muskets. The original firm of Leonard & Kinsley was dissolved in 1821, when Adam Kinsley became the sole owner. He added a foundry in 1833 and in 1837, upon his death, he was succeeded by his sons, Lyman and Alfred Kinsley, who began the manufacture of car wheels in 1845. A rolling mill was added in 1853 and in 1855 the Kinsley Iron and Machine Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $200,000. At one time this company employed over two hundred men, but the inconvenience of location finally caused it to go into liquidation.

A bell foundry was opened at Canton in 1801 by Paul Revere & Son, who had previously been engaged in the same line of business in Boston. The company cast bells, cannon and all kinds of composition work of iron and copper. Paul Revere died in 1818 and his son, Joseph W. Revere, continued the business until 1828, when the Revere Copper Company was incorporated. The buildings once used by this company were purchased by the Plymouth Rubber Company in 1909 and a branch factory established.

George Holbrook established a bell foundry in Medway in 181 5 and carried on a successful business for years, his bells summoning people to worship in almost every state of the Union. After the death of the founder the business gradually declined and was finally abandoned entirely.

About 1813 the manufacture of cut nails was established in Medfield. The factory was on a little stream, a short distance below the old stone mill on the road to Dedham. The undertaking was not a success. Another nail mill was built on Mother Brook (in Dedham) in 1814, but it met with no better results than the one in Medfield, and the factory passed into the hands of Jabez Chickering, who converted it into a mill for combing worsted. In 1822 Oliver Ames and Elijah began the manufacture of shovels, nails and tacks in Braintree. The nail and tack department was conducted by Elijah Howard and his son Jason, with Apollos Randall as a partner, until about 1875, when Jason Howard, the only surviving partner, retired. The shovel department was a great success, the Ames shovels being in great demand all over the country on account of their superior quality.

In 1868 James T. Stevens and George D. Willis built a small factory on the corner of Tremont and Taylor streets in the Town of Braintree and began the manufacture of tacks and nails. About 1871 they moved to Weymouth, and still later to South Braintree. where the business was incorporated under the name of the Stevens & Willis Company. This company makes nails, spikes, cut steel and iron nails and wire nails.

The East W^eymouth Iron Company was incorporated in March, 1837, with a capital of $150,000, which was subsequently doubled. The works of this company were located at the foot of Whitman's Pond, on the Weymouth Back River and for several years did a prosperous business, employing at times about three hundred men. Along in the '80s it gave up everything except the manufacture of nails and finally quit business altogether.

In 1825 S. M. Fales was running a small foundry in the western part of Walpole. He sold it in that year to General Leach of Easton, who put in a blast furnace and manufactured all kinds of machinery for about twenty years, when he sold the plant to George & Thomas Campbell, who converted it into a paper mill. This plant is now in Norfolk.

Henry Plimpton began the manufacture of hoes in Walpole as early as 1813. Later he added other farm implements and steel springs to his products. After several changes in ownership, the property was sold in 1865 to the Linden Spring and Axle Company. Part of the mill was used by Stephen Pember as a shoddy factory until it burned down. Another factory for making farm implements was located at Rakeville, in the Town of Bellingham. It was established by J. O. Wilcox, who was succeeded by his son, D. E. Wilcox, and shipped its goods to all parts of New England. This factory was discontinued some years ago.

In 191 5 the establishments in Norfolk County working in iron, steel and other metals were as follows: Braintree - the Vanadium Metals Company, brass and bronze products; the repair shops of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company; the Dow Manufacturing Company, electrical machinery; the Stevens & Willis Company, already mentioned; M. A. Haskell & Company, sewing machines and attachments. Brookline - Holtzer-Cabot Electric Company; E. S. Ritchie & Sons, scientific instruments; J. Koch & Son, wirework, including wire rope and cable. Canton - Leslie Manufacturing Company, cutlery and tools: the Electric Goods Manufacturing Company. Foxboro - the American Coil Company, electrical supplies; Foxboro Foundry Company; Massachusetts Radiator Company ; Standard Gauge Manufacturing Company. Franklin - Clark- Machine and Foundry Company; Golding Manufacturing Company: Murdock & Geb Company. Medway - United Awl and Needle Company, cutlery and tools. Needham - Hopewell Railroad Supply Company. Norwood - American Brake Shoe and Foundry Company; J. E. Plimpton & Company. Quincy - Connors Manufacturing Company of Norfolk Downs, and Daniel J. Nyhan, brass and bronze goods ; David T. Drummond, Gustaf Wilbas, Pinel Tool Company and Vulcan Tool Company, cutlery and tools; S. H. Couch & Company of Norfolk Downs, electrical machinery and supplies; Boston Gear Works, M. A. Campbell, V. J. Emery, John F. Kemp, Pneumatic Scale Company and Wollaston Foundry Company, foundry and machine shop products. Sharon - H. A. Lothrop & Company, cutlery and tools. Stoughton - F. E. Benton, brass and bronze goods; George E. Belcher, foundry and machine shop; Stoughton Stamping Company. Walpole - L. F. Fales, foundry and machine shop ; William Mahoney, bed springs. Wellesley - American Mica Company, electrical machinery and supplies.

Cotton And Woolen Goods

It may not be generally known that the first cotton mill in Norfolk County - which was one of the earliest in the State of Massachusetts - was built in Canton in 1803, by James Beaumont, Lemuel Bailey and Abel Fisher. The first product turned out was wick yarn for candle makers, then warp and filling for sheeting, and a little later the first piece of cotton cloth ever woven by machinery in Massachusetts was turned out at this mill.

Two years after the Canton mill was projected, John Blackburn, Philo Sanford and others built a cotton mill in Medway for the manufacture of yarns. Mr. Blackburn was a practical manufacturer, having been previously associated with Samuel Slater of Rhode Island, who built the first cotton mill in the United States. The Medway mill began with S20 spindles in March, 1807. Later looms were added and the concern did a general cotton manufacturing business. On August 17, 1881, the old factory building was sold at auction for $1.50, to be removed from the premises within ten days, and a substantial brick building known as the "Sanford New Mill" was erected upon the site. It is now operated by the Med-

American Woolen Mills, Franklin Haywood Mill, Franklin

As early as 1812 Col. Timothy Mann was engaged in the manufacture of satinet, etc., in the Town of Walpole. He was succeeded in 1825 by his son-in-law, Truman Clarke, who added broadcloths, cassimeres, etc., to the line of goods and carried on a successful business for several years. Upon retiring from business he leased the factory to Whitehouse & Company, who went out of business a little later.

The Neponset Cotton Manufacturing Company of Canton was organized in 1824. The large stone mill was completed and equipped in 1825, but it soon afterward passed into the hands of Holbrook, Dexter and Hill, who converted it into a woolen factory. They failed in 1828 and the building stood idle for about two years, when it was sold to a new company - the Neponset Manufacturing Company - for about one-third of its original cost. It is now operated under the name of the Neponset Woolen Mills, under the management of Joseph Brooke.

About 1816 Robert Sugden, an Englishman, leased the old Thayer mill in Braintree and commenced the manufacture of woolen goods. He was succeeded by Alva Morrison in 183 1. Mr. Morrison afterward purchased the property and carried on a successful business until his death, when his sons continued it for a number of years.

When John Bowditch came to Braintree he established a fulling mill on the Monatiquot River. He married a daughter of John French and the mill remained in the hands of the Bowditch family for more than one hundred years. It was sold in 1796 and the new owners converted it into a grist mill. About 1823 it was purchased by a company which manufactured cotton gins for a few years, when the Boston Flax Company purchased the property. This company employed about six hundred people in the manufacture of twine and linen goods until about 1880, when the machinery was removed to Ludlow, Massachusetts, and the buildings since then have been occupied by the Jenkins Manufacturing Company, which makes shoe laces and other cotton small wares.

Simeon Presbrey began making cotton thread in Canton in 182 1. A little later he enlarged his mill and added the manufacture of twines. After several changes in proprietorship, the mill became the property of G. H. Mansfield & Company in July, 1866, under which name it is still running. A new factory building was erected a few years ago, and the firm now manufactures twines, violin strings, drum snares, etc. It is claimed that the finest silk fishing lines in the world are turned out by this company.

Cotton and woolen mills were established in Foxboro, Bellingham and some of the other towns of the county before the middle of the Nineteenth Century, but little of their history can now be learned. In 191 5, according to the report of the Bureau of Statistics, the manufactories of this class in Norfolk County were : Bellingham - Charles River Woolen Company and Taf t Woolen Company; Braintree - Jenkins Manufacturing Company; B'rookline - Jersey Cloth Mills ; Canton - Canton Manufacturing Company, Springdale Finishing Company. Draper Brothers Company, Knitted Padding Company, Neponset Woolen Mills and Springdale Fibre Company ; Dedham - Cochrane Manufacturing Company, which makes carpets and rugs, Hodges Finishing Company and Jacob Lorio ; Foxboro - Beaumont Brothers' shoddy mills ; Franklin - Franklin Rug

Company, Clark-Cutler-McDermott Company, Franklin Mills ( Unionville), Charles River Woolen Company, Mendon Woolen Mills, Norfolk Woolen Company, American Woolen Company, Franklin Yarn Company, H. T. Hayward and the Singleton Worsted Company ; Medway - Medway Manufacturing Company ; Millis - American Felt Company of Rockville ; Norfolk - American Felt Company of City Mills, City Mills Woolen Company and Norfolk Woolen Company; Norwood - The Holliston Mills, which make a specialty of dyeing and finishing textiles ; Plainville - Lewis P. Beaumont's shoddy mills ; Quincy - Eastern Rug Company ; Sharon - Seamans & Cobb Thread Mills ; Stoughton - Stoughton Mills; Walpole - J. & S. Allen, cordage and twines, and the S. Gray Company, dyers and finishers ; Wellesley - R. T. Sullivan & Company's shoddy mills ; W'eymouth - Waterproof Canvas Supply Company, awnings, tents and sails.

In the manufacture of hosiery and knit goods, Needham excels all the other towns of the county, having eleven establishments, in three of which the goods are produced by hand and are of superior quality. Knit goods are also produced in Canton, Dedham, Stoughton and Wellesley. The Springdale Finishing Company of Canton claims to be the largest manufacturers of khaki cloth in the United States, if not in the world.

Paper And Wood Pulp

On September 13, 1728, the General Court of Massachusetts passed an act "to encourage the manufacture of paper in New England," and a franchise was granted to Daniel Henchman, Gillam Phillips, Benjamin Faneuil, Thomas Hancock and Henry Dering, giving them a monoply of the business for ten years, provided that within fifteen months they made forty reams of brown paper and sixty reams of printing paper. The mill erected by the holders of this franchise was on the Neponset River in the Town of Milton, and was the first paper mill built in New England. The first paper was made under the direction of Henry Woodman, an experienced workman who had learned the trade in England.

John M. and Lyman Hollingsworth began the manufacture of paper in Braintree about 1832. It was at their mill that the process of making manila paper from old rope was discovered and the first paper of that kind ever made in the United States was produced at this mill. When the founders of this industry removed from the town the business was taken charge of by Ellis A. Hollingsworth and soon afterward the firm of Hollingsworth & Whitney was formed. In 1882 a stock company was organized and a new mill built, but it does not appear in the late reports of the Bureau of Statistics.

In 1835 Silas Smith and others formed the Neponset Paper Mill Company and purchased the plant of the Neponset Manufacturing Company in Walpole. Francis W. Bird became the possessor of this property in the fall of 1838. Mr. Bird took his son into partnership and operated not only the above mentioned mill, but also what was known as "Bird's Lower Mill," which had been built by his father, George Bird, in 1818. In 1882 the lower mill was sold to Hollingsworth & Vose, under which name it is still running. F. W. Bird & Son now operate paper and wood pulp plants in Norwood and Walpole ; J. F. Wall & Son

Holl1Xcsworth & Vose Paper Mills, East Walpole Offices And Mile Of E. W. Bird & Sox. East Walpole

Barber's Historical Collections, published in 1848, give a list of thirteen paper mills in Norfolk County, viz : two in Braintree, three in Dedham, six in Needham and two in Walpole. One of the mills in Dedham made a specialty of marble and fancy paper.

Straw Goods

The introduction of braided straw bonnets into the United States is due to the ingenuity of Miss Betsey Metcalf, daughter of Joel Metcalf of Wrentham. In 1798 Miss Metcalf was employed in the millinery store of Mrs. Naomi Whipple in Wrentham, where she saw her first straw bonnet, recently brought from New York. Together she and Mrs. Whipple unbraided a piece of the work and learned how it was made. Then they procured some straw, imitated the braiding, and made a bonnet. The demand for braided straw bonnets increased and they taught others to do the work, the straw braids being taken by the merchants in exchange for goods. Fisher & Day of Wrentham were the pioneers in the industry. They were soon followed by Asa and Davis Thayer of Franklin, and a little later Mason & Ellis of Medfield engaged in the business. Amariah Hall of Wrentham began the manufacture of straw bonnets about 1802 and quickly became the leading producer of this line of goods. He was familiarly known as ''Bonnet Hall," on account of his success.

In 1856 Walter Janes, who had commenced making straw bonnets about five years before, formed a partnership with Daniel D. Curtis and employed a number of women and girls at their factory in Medfield. On October 3, 1876, this factory was burned, but was immediately rebuilt and in 1877 Edwin V. Mitchell came into the firm. In 1901 the firm took the name of Edwin V. Mitchell & Company, under which it is still in operation, manufacturing a full line of straw hats for both men and women. E. V. Mitchell died in the spring of 1917.

In 19 1 5 there were three straw hat factories in Foxboro, operated by Caton Brothers, John Castillo & Company and Inman & Kimball. Caton Brothers also manufacture felt hats. E. A. Staples & Company represented the straw industry in Franklin, Edwin V. Mitchell & Company in Medfield, Hirsh & Guinzburg in Medway, and the Wrentham Hat Company in Wrentham.

Miscellaneous

The early manufacture of boots, shoes and other lines of small wares made necessary packing cases, and box factories were called into existence. One of the oldest establishments of this class is that of R. Loud & Company of Weymouth, which dates its beginning from 1850, when Mr. Loud converted his grist mill into a box factory. Five years later E. & C. Sherman began making boxes and carried on the business for several years, when they turned their attention exclusively to the manufacture of paper boxes. In 191 5 there were seven factories making wooden packing cases, to wit : A. B. Holden, Caryville ; Virgil S. Pond, Foxboro ; O. F. Metcalf & Sons, Franklin ; Medway Box Company ; Ralph O.

Brown, Sharon ; R. Loud & Sons, South Weymouth ; and William D. Smith, W'rentham. Plain and fancy paper boxes were then made by the Medway Box Company; Edward E. Dailey, Needham Heights; M. B. Gaff, Randolph; F. W. Bird & Son, East Walpole ; A. O. Crawford, Elon Sherman's Sons and Weymouth Paper Box Company, Weymouth.

About the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, Jonas Welch bought the grist mill of William Allen in Braintree and began the manufacture of chocolate. His goods proved to be the best in the market and Welch's chocolate became known all over the country. The chocolate industry in Norfolk County is now represented by the well known firm of Walter Baker & Company, whose headquarters are in Boston, but have a mill in the Town of Milton.

In April, 1804, Samuel Morrill was born in the Town of Salisbury. Upon arriving at his majority he removed to Norwood and started making printers' ink in a small wooden building with only one kettle and a limited process of making lamp-black. He had previously learned the trade of printer and knew the demand for ink of good quality. His two sons, George H. and Samuel S. Morrill, were taken into partnership and in 1869 the firm name was changed to George H. Morrill & Company. This firm is now known as the George H. Morrill Company and is one of the largest producers of printers' ink in the country.

In 1866 Alexander W. Robertson started a pottery at Chelsea, and about two years later his brother, Hugh C. Robertson, became his partner. In 1872 their father came from Scotland and joined them, the concern then taking the name of James Robertson & Sons. In 1896 a new pottery was built at Dedham and the old one was abandoned. The Dedham pottery took the grand prize at St. Louis in 1904 in art pottery. In 1912 the business was incorporated as the Dedham Pottery Company, with H. E. Weatherby, president, and W. A. Robertson, manager.

The Town of Plainville has four jewelry manufacturing establishments - Thompson & Remington, who do a reducing and refining business, Scofield, Melcher & Scofield, Whiting, Davis & Company, and the Plainville Stock Company.

The only two hammock factories in Massachusetts are located in Norfolk County : James Brayshaw of North Weymouth, and T. B. Thomas & Company of Quincy. Weymouth also boasts one of the three concerns manufacturing fireworks - Edmund S. Hunt & Sons Company. The Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy is one of the important manufacturing concerns of the county, the plant being greatly enlarged in 191 7.

When it is realized that there are over four hundred manufacturing plants in the county, it can be understood how impracticable it would be to attempt a full history of each one in a work of this nature. Some idea of the importance of the manufacturing industries of the county may be gained from the following table, which has been compiled from the 191 5 report of the State Bureau of Statistics, a few of the establishments not making returns of the amount of capital invested and the number of employees :