Macy-Colby House

ESSEX county, Massachusetts, is thickly dotted with active manufacturing centres, and each apparently devotes itself to special branches of productions. Among these should be classed Amesbury, widely known for the manufacture of carriages. The village is located in the extreme northern section of the county, on a branch of the Merrimack river, and on the Eastern railroad, now leased and operated by the Boston and Maine railroad. It is forty miles northeast from Boston, six miles northwest from Newburyport, and seven miles northeast from Haverhill. The country about Amesbury contains much fine scenery, and the views from the hills are delightful. The stream is navigable for vessels of three hundred tons, and in former years considerable attention was paid to mackerel fisheries off the coast. Among the prominent residents of the section was Joseph Bartlett, M. D., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who was born in 1738. He was Governor of New Hampshire from 1790 to 1793. Amesbury has a population of near three thousand five hundred. The following descriptive articles make mention of the leading industries of the place :

Passage source: Industries of Massachusettes : Historical and Descriptive Review of Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Salem, Beverly, Peabody, Danvers, Gloucester, Newburyport, and Amesbury, and Their Leading Manufacturers and Merchants, published 1886.

C. X. Dennett, Sole Manufacturer and Patentee of the Dennett Standing Extension Top Jump-Seat and Sleigh. - Founded in 1876, the carriage factory of Mr. C. N. Dennett has attained a high reputation for the superiority of its products, which embrace all kinds of light carriages - a specialty being made of the patent Dennett jump-seat carriages and sleighs the invention of Mr. C. N. Dennett. Mr. Dennett, who is a native of Massachusetts, and acquired a knowledge of his trade in Merrimack, has a well-equipped factory, employs a large force of hands, and controls the largest business in his line in Amesbury. He does not attempt to cope with competitors in the production of cheap goods, but makes it the principal object to produce only the best kind of work. Parties who do not want to keep but one carriage, and would like something that can be changed with perfect ease from a one to a twoseated carriage, will find the " Dennett" to be just the style they are looking for. When adjusted for one seat it makes a light, handsome canopy top sunshade, and by simply swinging the main seat back and turning out the inside seat, the carriage is changed at once to a two-seated carryall, with plenty of room for four persons. The room between the seats is easy and comfortable, the front seat being the same depth and width as the back seat - a feature not found in any other jump seat. Only the best materials are used in the manufacture of these seats, and the latter are protected by patents granted in 1876 and 1860. Mr. Dennett has also recently invented, and is now manufacturing, a new jump-seat buggy, for which a patent has been applied for, and which it is claimed is the best in the market. The manner of shifting the top back and forth is on a new and novel plan. The top can be shifted with one hand, in the easiest manner possible, standing on one side of the carriage. The front seat can be adjusted to same width as back seat, so that two large persons can ride side by side without being crowded for room. The manufactures of this house are shipped to all parts of the country and also abroad.

Passage source: Industries of Massachusettes : Historical and Descriptive Review of Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Salem, Beverly, Peabody, Danvers, Gloucester, Newburyport, and Amesbury, and Their Leading Manufacturers and Merchants, published 1886.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Amesbury City - 3,864 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.