Clinton Town (part 1 of 2)

Clinton Town

eion to Sandy Pond, varying in width from two and one-half to three rods wide. The people of Stow^ Marlborough, and even Sudbury, for many years had no mills more conveniently accessible than Prescott's, and the population of Lancaster, after the resettlement, grew most rapidly to the eastward of the Nashua. For all these patrons, the old mill-path was a roundabout road, and at a town-meeting in Lancaster, August 26, 1686, a proposition was entertained for another, the second town road laid out within Clinton lines. The petition was " for a way to Goodman Prescott's Corne-mill, to ly over the River at the Scar." Goodman Prescott " told the Town that if they would grant him about twenty acres of Land upon the Mill Brook lying above his own Land, for hisconvaniancy of preserveing water against a time of drought, he was willing the town should have a way to the mill threw his Land." A committee was appointed " to lay out a highway from the Scar to the mill, threw John Prescott's land," and he was recompensed by the grant desired, which is recorded as lying " on the Mill Brook, near to the South Meadow, bounded north and east by his own land, and south and southeast by common land."

In April, 1717, a town-meeting, upon petition of John Goas and Ihe report of a viewing committee, voted to change the location of the westerly end of this highway, so that it should " lye by the River, - Provided said way be kept four Rods wide from y' Scar bridge till it com to y" Hill from y"^ top of y' River bank, and after it amount said Hill to lye where it shall be most conveniant to y° Town, till it com to said Mill, said Goss to cleer said Rode when that Committy shall stake it out." April 24, 1733, John Goss conveyed to John Prescott eighty acres east of the Mill Brook, " a highway lying through s.iid Land from the bridge that is over the River, a little above the place called the Scarr." The mills had now many rivals, and the current of travel flowed in other directions. In May, 1742, the town voted to move the Scar bridge down the river "to the road that leads from Lieut. Sawyer's to Doctor Dunsmoor's'' - that is, to the crossing of the Nashua, now known as Carter's Mills bridge, where before this there was a fording-place only.

Few traces of the Scar road, though a noted public convenience for more than fifty years, can now be discerned. Close scrutiny reveals signs of the bridge abutments a few rods below the northern end of High Street, and of the raised roadway on the eastern bank of the river. Some time in the eighteenth century there were five or more dwellings located along this highway, of which two or three cellars on the part east of the Nashua are not yet obliterated ; and other similar relics of human habitation upon the west side have disappeared within the memory of the living.

But many years before the abandonment of this route by the Scar, another had probably come into use from the eastward. This, now known as Water

Street, was wholly in the land of the Prescotts and remained their private way until 1782, on April 1st of which year Lancaster accepted it as laid out two rods wide, "on condition that sd Town is not Burdened with the cost of a Bridge." No record is found to prove how long the bridge had then stood at this crossing of the Nashua, but mention is made of a "slab-bridge" in this vicinity about 1718, belongingto the second John Prescott. It was then, doubtless, like many of the bridges of that era, a narrow structure made of puncheons resting upon log abutments and trestles, and perhaps only passable for foot and horsemen. By the surveyors of Lancaster in 1795 the bridge is called " Prescott's," and noted as ninety-nine feet in length. It was not until December 4, 1815, that the town assumed the ownership of it and of the approaches to it from the county road to Boylston, although eight years earlier assistance was voted for its reconstruction. A tew years later it appears in the town records as the Harris bridge.

A by-path very early connected Prescott's Mills with the county highway leading to Washacum and westward. Widened and otherwise altered at various dates, this is yet in use and known as the Rigby road. This name does not appear attached to it in old records, but the brooklet which it crosses in Clinton was called Rigby's Brook before 1718. What connection the cross-road or the stream had with John Rigby, who was one of the pioneer settlers of Lancaster, or with his heirs, has not been discovered. No family of the name is mentioned in the town lists since 1700, but a very old house which stood upon this road in the early years of this century was commonly known as the Rigby place.

In the surprise and massacre by the Indians, September 22, 1697, and in the attack by the French and Indians of July 31, 1704, no loss of life or property at Prescott's Mills was reported, though this, it would seem, must have been one of the six fortified posts said to have been assailed. The men belonging to this garrison in 1704 were John Prescott, his two sons, John and Ebenezer, and John Keyes, the weaver, three of whom were married men with little families. By a report of an inspection of garrisons ordered by Governor Dudley, in November, 1711, we learn that there were at that time but three families at the Mills, including four males of military age, besides two soldiers billeted there - fifteen souls in all. This may be called the earliest census of Clinton. For half a century the householders in this neighborhood had numbered no more, and no less ; for half a century more the accessions hardly trebled this population. Along the roads leading westward, to Leominster, to Woonksechocksett, (now Sterling,) to Boylston, and to "Shrewsbury Leg," farms were cleared, humble dwellings arose, children were born, grew to manhood, migrated, and themselves set up roof-trees farther west ; but at Prescott's Mills all remained apparently as when the fathers fell asleep.

D.'fniel and Benjamin Allen, of Watertown, were among the very early settlers in Lancaster, but abandoned their lands when the Indian raids of 1675 and 1676 desolated the frontier towns, and never re-occupied them. About 1746, however, Ebenezer Allen, of Weston, a son of Daniel, came to Lancaster, acco)npanied by his son Ebenezer, and the two made their homes upon a tract of land containing one hundred and eighty acres, the northerly , portion of which is now in possession of Ethan Allen Currier. This had been the homestead of John Gosa, who bought the property of John Prescott and John Keyes in 1717. Upon the brook which runs through the farm Goss built a mill at the site of the existing dam, and his dwelling and farm buildings stood on the uplands near. -

The deed to John Allen, dated February, 1746, and that of John to Ebenezer, in 1751, speak of the roadway in use through the farm " from Prescott's Mills to a Fordway, where there was a Bridge called the Scar Bridge." The elder Allen sold his whole estate to Ebenezer, Jr., in 1756, including some lands bought on the west side of the mill-path where probably about that date the mansion was built, which was torn down in 1879, to make room for Mr. Currier's present residence. Ebenezer Allen, St., died in 1770, at the age of ninety-four, and Ebenezer, Jr., in 1812, aged eighty -eight years. The farm passed out of the Aliens' hands in 1811, and Moses Emerson became its owner shortly after. The bluff upon the east bank of the Nashua, so often mentioned in town records as the Scar, from the time of his purchase began to be called Emerson's Bank. Mr. Emerson dying in 1822, the estate was sold at auction by the guardian of his children, and in 1825, George Howard, fromPembroke, bought it. At that time no trace of the Goss Mill or the other buildings once standing in the vicinity of the brook remained, but a cart-path led up over the plain to Harris Hill, perhaps the last trace of the long-disused Scar Road.

Along the old county highway which leads from Bolton to Boylston, where it winds about among the rocky hills east of the Nashua in Clinton, a few farms were tilled many years before the Revolution. Here lived Lieutenant Thomas Tucker ; Thomas Wilder, the son of John, and his son Jonathan ; Simon Butler, and the late John Pollard. Philip Larkin and his soldier sons had homes to th« southeast from Clamshell Pond. Thomas Tucker acquired his lands through Capt. Thomas Wilder in 1716, and probably built his house li«re about the date of his marriage, in 1719. He transferretl his iarra to his son William in 1757. In 1788 James Fuller bought the southerly portion of the tract, and in 1798 the homestead came into possession of Charles Chace, from Bellingham, whose descendants have prominent place in the annals of Clinton. The Tucker family had then disappeared from Lancaster. Upon the other farms named, sons built near the fathers, and family names clung to the estates far into the present century. Now, however, but one lineal descendant of any of these old families - the venerable Frederick Wilder - dwells in this section of the town.

Chapter Viii

Tlie Itepohtllon - Tlie "Six Nations" - Immigratimi - The Conib-makers - Faitfiiand & Plunt - Comi»g of the liigdows - Tlie CUnton Company - TJie Lfincattter Quilt Company - The Bigelow Carpet Company - The Lanvof'ler Mith - Clintom-itie, Us Builders and its Enterprises.

When the rallying cry, " taxation without representation is tyranny," rang through the land, and patriots began the organization of rebellion, John Prescott, fourth of the name, was chosen one of the town's Committee of Correspondence and Safety. Like his grandfather, he seems to have been a radical republican in politics, and was especially active in the prosecution of those who sold tea, and all suspected of a leaning towards Toryism.

When the.Lexington alarm-courier summoned the yeomanry to arms on the morning of April 19, 1775, John Prescott, fifth of the name, led as captain one of the six companies from Lancaster which made a forced march to Cambridge. As his command of thirty-two men was mustered neither with Colonel Asa Whitcomb's regiment of militia nor Colonel John Whitcomb's regiment of minute-men, they were probably a mounted troop of volunteers. They served twelve days. Two of his sergeants, Elisha Allen and James Fuller, were residents within the bounds of Clinton ; Moses Sawyer was second-lieutenant in Captain Joseph White's militia company ; Ebenezer Allen, Jr., and Jotham Wilder were in Captain Andrew Haskell's company, which fought in the battle of Bunker Hill ; James Fuller and Jotham, Stephen, Titus and Reuben Wilder served for short terms later in the contest, most of them being at Saratoga. Several of the Prescott family did patriotic service for national independence, but at that date the Prescotts mostly lived upon ancestral lands in Chocksett or elsewhere than in the south part of Lancaster.

The region round about the boundary stone where the lines of Berlin, Boylston and Clinton meet, including sundry farms of each town, was, in the years following the Revolution, known as the "Six Nations," that name attaching to it because families representing half a dozen or more different nationalities were therein resident. The Wilders, Carters and others were English by descent; Andrew McWain, Scotch ; the sons and grandsons of Philip Larkin, Irish; the

Daniel and Frederick Albert, Dutch; and John Canouse was a Hessian, a deserter from the captive army of Burgeyne. Other names and nationalities are sometimes added to the list.

Clinton

Beyond the mills to the southward, towards Sandy Pond, for a long distance all the lands desirable for tillage or timber had fallen, by original proprietary division of commons or by inheritance, to the Prescotts and their kinsfolk, the Sawyers. The third John Prescott, in 1748, the year before his death, " for love and good-will," gave his grandchildren, Aaron, Moses, Joseph, Sarah and Tabitha Sawyer, about ninety-seven acres of land lying on both sides of a stated highway and of the brook "aboue the forge." These grantees were the children of John Prescott's only daughter Tabitha, wife of Joseph Sawyer. It has often been asserted that Aaron was the founder of Sawyer's mills in Boylston, but the credit of building the first saw and grist-mills in that locality probably belongs to his father, Joseph. Moses Sawyer was the first to reside upon the lands thus deeded to him and his brethren by their grandfather, and his son Moses was the second. Their houses yet remain upon what is now called Burditt Hill, and the latest has long outlived its hundredth year.

From the death of the fourth John Prescott, in 1791, began a subdivision of his landed estate into many lots, and its rapid alienation from the family. He had five sons and four daughters. To the two youngest, Joseph and Jabez, he deeded in 1786 the two mills, upon condition that each should deliver to him or his wife, annually so long as either should live, " five bushels of Indian corn, three of rye, three of wheat, and one thousand feet of boards." Within two years after the death of their father, the sons, with the exception of John, had parted with their patrimony and removed from Lancaster. Captain John, the fifth and last of his name in th.e town, clung to thirty or forty acres of land and the old homestead, where he died, childless, August 18, 1811, aged sixty-two, his wife, Mary (Ballard), surviving him.

In the closing years of the eighteenth century the people were weighed down by debt and taxation - legacies of the long years of the war for independence. Shays' Insurrection had been summarily quelled, for New England common sense recognized the fact that anarchy could afford no relief from the general distress. The yeomanry, however full their barns, held mortgaged lands and empty purses. Everywhere the sheriff was busy with executions, foreclosures and forced sales. The merchants and lawyers mercilessly devoured the debtors ; large estates were broken up and homes changed owners on every hand. Thus Prescott's. Mills and some of the lands around them in 1793 fell into the possession of John Sprague, the Lancaster lawyer and sheriff, and until his death, in 1800, they are sometimes mentioned in records as Sprague's Mills. Several heads of families during this decade fixed their habitations upon land in the vicinity bought for prices that now seem ludicrously small. They were : Jacob Stone, a noted framer of bridges and buildings, whose house, burnt many years ago, was west of Sandy Pond, a mile from any other dwelling, save one at a saw-mill on Mine Swamp Brook, owned by Jonathan Sampson, of Boylston ; Joseph Rice, a basket-maker from Boylston, who married a daughter of Moses Sawyer and lived near him; Nathaniel Lowe, Jr., from Leominster, who in 1795 bought of Moses Sawyer a farm lying between the mills and the river, which North High Street now bisects ; Lieut. Amos Allen, who bought lands of Jonathan Prescott in 1792 and built the first house on the west side of the highway between the mills and Ebenezer Allen's; Benjamin Gould, father of the poetess, Hannah Flagg Gould and the scholar, Benjamin Apthorp Gould, who began a dwelling probably about the same date, which he never found means to finish, on the spot where Deputy Sheriff Enoch K. Gibbs lives ; Coffin Chapin, Richard Sargent and his sons, and John Hunt, who lived at the summit of the hill on Water Street, about half-way between the mills and the bridge over the Nashua ; John Goss, who bought a farm upon the east of the river, near the Bolton and Berlin corner ; Elias Sawyer, who built on the river bank near his dam already mentioned. James Elder lived just outside Clinton bounds.

During the first ten years of this century accessions became more numerous, and among them were some whose descendants have been honorably identified with every phase of Clinton's material progress. Ezekiel Rice purchased the house and farm of Moses Sawyer, Jr., in 1802. John Lowe, a comb-maker of Leominster, in 1800 bought of John Fry fifty acres of land, and in 1804 another lot adjoining, which included the cellar of Benjamin Gould's house and a shop of Asahel Tower's on the brook. Here he built a few years later, and deeded a moiety of land and house to his father, Nathaniel. Nathan Burditt came from Leominster in 1808 and succeeded Mr. Rice in possession of the house built by Moses Sawyer, Jr. John Severy, a Revolutionary pensioner, came to reside on Mine Swamp Brook the same year, buying of Sampson his house, brick-yard and saw-mill. John Goldthwaite, the splint-broom maker, occupied a dilapidated building, the only one on the Rigby Road. Daniel Harris, a Revolutionary pensioner from Boylston, in 1804 and 1805 bought of John Hunt's numerous creditors his substantial house and large farm, which he in later times shared with his sons - Emory, Asahel and Sidney - who, by their industry, thrift and business ability, became leading men in the community.

Next to the saw and grist-mills, the first manufacturing industry to employ any considerable number of workmen was the making of horn-combs, introduced about the beginning of the present century from Leominster, where it had been a profitable employment from the days of the Revolution. John Lowe and Nathan Burditt were the earliest to ply this trade in the town, but they soon taught it to many

At first tlie comb-makers exercised their handicraft in diminutive shops or rooms in their own dwellings, and the women and children helped in the lighter parts of the work. The horns were sawn into proper lengths by hand, split, soaked, heated over charcoal, dipped into hot grease, pressed into required form between iron clamps by driven wedges, stiflFened by cold water, marked by a pattern for the teeth, which were sawn one by one. The combs were then smoothed, polished and tied in packages for sale. The earliest makers carried their own goods to market, and it is told of John Lowe that he often journeyed as far as Albany on horseback, with his whole stock in trade in his saddle-bags.

The use of water-power in the manufacture was not adopted until 1823. Through Lowe's land ran a little brook, which was finally utilized for combmaking by his son Henry, with whom was associated his cousin, Thomas Lowe. The stream had been dammed at least twenty years earlier, and a small shop thereon had been occupied by Asahel Tower for nail-cutting, and Arnold Rugg for wire-drawing. The Lowes were succeeded several years later by Henry Lewis, and he, in 183G, by Haskell McCollum, who built a second shop and greatly increased the business, having as a partner his brother-in-law, Anson Tjowe. E. K. Gibbs built a third shop about 1840.

The age was one when a man was fortunate whose personal peculiarity of form, feature, dress or habit, were not salient enough whereupon to hang some nickname - when many a worthy citizen walked among his fellow-men almost unknown by his baptismal name. The same fashion obtained respecting neighborhoods, every little section of the town gaining some quaint designation fancied to be descriptive of the district or its people. The region about these comb-shops on Rigby Brook became in popular parlance, Scrabble Hollow.

The water privilege on South Meadow Brook in the possession of George Howard was soon turned to use in the horn industry ; at first by lessees Lewis Pollard and Joel Sawtell, later by the owner, who was enterprising and prosperous. But the most extensive makers of horn goods were the sons of Daniel Harris, who learned the trade of Nathan Burditt. Asahel Harris at first conducted the business at his house east of the river, still standing. This dwelling he had bought from Samuel Dorrison, who built it upon a lot severed from the Pollard farm. Mr. Harris built later the brick house upon the height of the hill west of the Nashua, where he introduced horse-power and improved machinery in his work-shop. In 1831 Asahel and Sidney Harris built a dam and shop upon the liver just above the bridge, securing a fall of about six feet. Sidney Harris, in 1835, bought his brother's interest in the water-power and the house above, aud

In 1805 Samuel John Spraguesold the Prescott s.",w and grist-mill, with a house and land, to Benaiah Brigham, of Boston. Thomas W. Lyon soon after bought them of Brigham and acquired other estate in the neighborhood. In August, 1809, Lancaster was stirred with the news that two wealthy foreigners, residents of Boston, had bought the Prescott Mills and were about to erect a factory for the weaving of cotton cloth by power looms. Soon workmen began laying the foundation of the new structure, and the enterprising owners for twenty-five years thereafter were notable citizens of the town. The elder of the two, the capitalist of the firm and president of the corporation afterwards organized, was David Poignand, a dapper, urbane gentleman of French Huguenot descent, born in the island of Jersey. He wore a queue, and carried a gold-headed cane, was both a jeweller and a cabinet-maker by trade, and an exceptionally good workman. He also had made and lost a fortune in the hardware trade in Tremont Street Boston. His partner was his son-in-law, Samuel Plant, an Englishman who had been in America about twenty years as factor for a great cloth manufacturer of Leeds. Mr. Plant had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the manufacture of cotton in England, and secretly brought thence drawings of the machinery necessary for a mill, and perhaps some of the more important parts of certain machines. From these, with the aid of the ingenious machinist, Capt. Thomas W. Lyon, he was able to completely equip the factory and put it into running order. Under the methodical management of Mr. Plant, aided by the skill of the machinist, the difficulties which always attend a novel undertaking of such magnitude were soon overcome, and the success of the enterprise was assured. This factory was one of the earliest of its kind successfully run in America. The town granted the firm partial exemption from taxation temporarily. The embargo and war with England served all the purposes of a high protective tariff for the infant industry. Common cotton cloth which at the building of the factory cost about thirty cents a yard, before the close of hostilities commanded double that price.

A little above the factory, upon the same stream, stood a saw-mill built, probably before 1800, by Moses Sawyer, or his son Peter, but at that time owned by Joseph Rice. It commanded a fall of ten to twelve feet, but had a very limited reservoir. This mill was often, and necessarily, a grave source of inconvenience to Poignand & Plant by causing an intermittent flow of water to their wheel. Mr. Rice's land and water-rights were purchased in 1814, his log dam was replaced by one of stone somewhat higher, and a second factory was built a little below the saw-mill site, to which the looms were moved from the old mill.

The business had grown until it called for more capital than the firm possessed. February 12, 1821, David Poignand, Samuel Plant, Benjamin Rich, Isaac Bangs and Seth Knowles were incorporated with the title of the Lancaster Cotton Company, representing a capital of $100,000. Benjamin Pickman, Benjamin T. Pickman and Lewis Tappan also became stockholders in the company, and the two last named were in succession made treasurers. The old Prescott dam having been broken through by a freshet in 1826, was rebuilt and made one or two feet higher, giving a fall of twenty-nine feet. The square, brick mansion near the lower mill upon Main Street was also built by the company as a residence for the superintendent, Mr. Plant, twenty-five hundred dollars being appropriated for the purpose.

The treasurer was accustomed to drive up from Boston in his own chaise once a month to attend to his special duties, and it was usual for a four-horse team to be sent to the city once a fortnight with the sheetings manufactured. The wagon for its return trip was loaded with cotton bales and goods for the store which Mr. Plant established a short distance from the factory. For several years most of the teaming for the company was done by Nathan Burditt, Sr. In case of any repairs which required a new casting to be obtained, there was no foundry suitably equipped to furnish it nearer than South Boston.

August 28, 1880, while casually at the house of his friend, Johu G. Thurston, in South Lancaster, David Poignand died suddenly. In 1835 the company, finding their business unprofitable because of changes in the tariff" and the superannuated machinery, advertised their property for sale, described as follows: "one hundred and seventy-seven acres of land, one brick factory with nine hundred spindles, one wooden factory with thirty-two looms and other machinery; blacksmith shop, machine shop, eleven dwelling houses and other buildings." The mills with Buch laud and structures as were essential to their operation were finally sold at auction July 26, 1836; and bought by Nathaniel Band, Samuel C. Damon, John Hews and Edward A. Raymond, for $13,974. Their successors in 1837 leased the mills to the brothers Horatio N. and Erastus B. Bigelow, who came from Shirley, where the elder had been manager of a cotton-mill. Mr. Plant removed to Northhampton, and there died in 1847.

The Bigelows had selected this location preparatory to the organization of capital for the developing of some inventions of the younger brother. H. N. Bigelow occupied the Plant mansion, and from this time became a resident of the village and an indefatigable and wise promoter of its best interests, moral, social and material. March 8, 1838, the Clinton Company was duly incorporated with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, and the right to hold real estate to the amount of thirty thousand dollars. The incorporators whose names appeared in the legislative act were: John Wright, H. N. Bigelow and Israel Longley. The most notable inventions of Erastus B. Bigelow, at that date perfected, were two power looms: one for weaving figured quilts, the other for the weaving of coach-lace. The upper, then styled the yellow factory, was leased by the Clinton Company for the latter manufacture, and the brick factory was devoted to the making of quilts.

Before this time coach-lace had always been woven by hand looms, and any attempt to supplant human fingers in the complicated manipulation required was scouted at by the weavers as presumptuous. But the lace made by the ingenious mechanism invented by Mr. Bigelow in 1836 and patented in 1837 proved of a very superior quality, while the cost of weaving was reduced from twenty-two to three cents a yard. The manufacturers were rewarded with immediate and ample financial success, which continued for about ten years, when stage-coaches began everywhere to be superseded by the railway train, and coach-lace found no place in the new fashion of vehicles.

The company was fortunate in the time of entering upon its work as well as in the genius of its inventor and the ability of its management. The period was one of great and general prosperity. August 17, 1842, the real estate, hitherto leased, was bought of Samuel Damon, and extensive improvements were begun. In 184,'5 the capital of the company was increased to three hundred thousand, and in 1848 to half a million dollars. Meanwhile the working plant w.as re-enforced by the purchase of Sawyer's Mills, in Boylston, where the water-power was utilized for the making of yarn. Additions were annually made to the original buildings, and new ones were erected. When the demand for their special product began rapidly to decrease, machinery for the making of pantaloon checks, tweeds and cassimeres was gradually introduced.

A large machine shop was connected with the works which, under charge of Joseph B. Parker, turned out nearly all the machinery required in the factory. Horatio N. Bigelow was general manager from the outset, being, however, relieved for three years, 1849 to 1851, by C. W. Blanchard. About four hundred hands were engaged when all the looms were running ; twelve hundred yards of coach-lace and four thousand yards of pantaloon stutfs were finished per day.

Although the brick factory was bought in 1838 for the introduction of the Bigelow quilt looms, owing to financial difficulties the weaving of counterpanes did not begin until 1841. The successive transfers of the property are of interest, as giving the names of those who began the quilt manufacture and as showing the sudden rise in real estate values at that date. Rand & Damon, by purchase of their associates' shares, became sole owners of the cotton-mills in 1837, and in 1838, Rand, having acquired his partner's rights in the brick factory, sold it to E.G. Roberts, who the same day transferred it to W. R. Kelley for six thou- gatid dollars consideration. In September, 1839, it was deeded to Thomas Kendall, the price named being twenty-five thousand dollars. The property, with, of course, additions and improvements, next passed into possession of Hugh R. Kendall in 1842, the alleged consideration being thirty thousand dollars, and in 1845 it was sold to John Lamson for forty thousand dollars. October 1, 1851, Lamson disposed of the property to the Lancaster Quilt Company for one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.

The quilts that came from the new looms were from ten to thirteen quarters in width and of a high grade In quality, equal to those of foreign make for which the importers demanded six to ten dollars each. The Bigelow quilts were soon in the market at less than half those prices. In the quilt loom, as in all his inventions and improvements in weaving machinery, the design and mechanical construction of each machine were carefully perfected under Mr. Bigelow's own oversight, and not more with a view to the saving in cost of production than to attaining the highest standard of excellence in the fabric produced.

February 11, 1848, John Lamson, William P. Barnard, George Seaver and associates were incorporated by the name of the Lancaster Quilt Company, for the purpose of manufacturing petticoat robes, toilet covers, and the various descriptions of counterpanes, quilts and bed-covers, with an authorized capital of two hundred thousand dollars. Thirty-six looms and about one hundred hands were employed and the annual output was over seventy-five thousand quilts. Charles W. Worcester was the managing agent of the works.

The devices harmoniously combined in the coachlace loom were seen by the inventor to be equally applicable to the weaving of any pile fabric. With suitable enlargement and modification of parts the product would become Brussels carpet, or, by the addition of a cutting edge to the end of the pile wire, be given a velvet pile. The adaptation to the carpet loom of the chief novel feature of the lace loom - the automatic attachments to draw out, carry forward and reinsert the wires - was an easy problem for one who "thought in wheels and pinions." The carpet loom, as a conception in the inventor's brain, was soon complete in all its details. The machinists under Mr. Bigelow's eye shaped the conception in wood and metal, and at Lowell in 1845 Jacquard Brussels carpeting was woven upon the power loom. The invention was patented in England March 11, 1846, and in the great London Industrial Exhibition of 1851 specimens of Bigelow'.s carpeting were exhibited which won from a jury of experts the highest encomium. It was declared in their official report that the Bigelow fabrics were " better and more perfectly woven than any hand-woven goods that have come under notice of the jury."

The Bigelow brothers, the success of the new carpet loom thus made certain, bought a building at the south end of High Street, in which Oilman B. Parker's foundry and other mechanical industries had been carried on, raised it and built a brick basement beneath, thereby obtaining a room two hundred feet long by forty-two in width. In this they set up twenty-eight looms run by a thirty horse-power steamengine, and in the autumn of 1849 began the making of Brussels carpet by power. The requisite spinning was done at other mills. About one hundred hands were employed and five hundred yards of carpeting made daily. The day's labor of a skilled weaver on the hand loom rarely brought five yards, while the power loom, managed by a girl, readily produced four or five times as much and ensured superior finish. The works were under the management of H. N. Bigelow. H. P. Fairbanks became a partner with the Bigelow Brothers in 1850, and with added capital, larger and more substantial buildings, year by year crowded the little valley site.

A map of Lancaster, dated 1795, notes the existence of a "falls of about seven feet" in the river ai, the place where now stands the dam of the Lancaster Mills Company. At that time this great water-power was owned by Elias Sawyer, who built a dam across the stream and began a sawmill, which, from lack of means, he was never able to complete, although he sawed considerable lumber here. For a time he lived near by, but the property passed from his hands, and in 1810 was acquired by JamtsPitts, a millwright of Taunton, who came to reside upon and improve his purchase in December, 1815. The narrow, rock-walled valley, and the hills that hem it in, were densely covered with forest, and no public road led thither. A few acres of the bottom lands were soon cleared, and during 1816 Mr. Pitts erected upon the mud-sill of the old Sawyer Dam a new one, thirteen feet in height, and the same year completed a saw and sri-t-mill. Possessing some spinning machinery at a factory in West Bridgewater, he brought it to Lancaster, and began the manufacture of cotton yarn in 1820, gradually enlarging his buildings and increasing his production as success warranted. A small part of his power was leased in 1818 and for a few yeais later to Charles Chace & Sons, who built a small tannery near the mills. Comb-making was also carried on here at a later day, with power leased of Mr. Pitts.

James Pitts, Sr., died in January, 1835, and bis sons, James, Hiram W. and Seth G., continued the manufacture of satinet warps. The saw and gristmill was burned in 1836, but immediately rebuilt. November 12, 1838, the town accepted a highway laid out from the "red factory" of Poignand & Plant - which stood where the Bigelow Carpet Company's spinning department now is - to Pitts' Mills. This was the first public road to that locality, and marks the origin of Mechanic Street. In 1842 the Pitts Brothers sold their entire estate, including about eighty acres of land, to Erastus B. Bigelow, for ten thousand dollars.

February 5, 1844, E. B. Bigelow, Stephen Fairbanks, Henry Timmins and associates were incorporated as the Lancaster Mills Company, with a capital of five hundred tliousand dollars, and at once laid the foundations of the manufactory now famous as one of the largest gingham-mills in the world. It was at first proposed to begin with the manufacture of blue and white cotton checks only, but in view of the liberal pecuniary returns at that time rewarding manufacturing enterprise, and the deserved confidence of the capitalists in the inventive genius of the younger Bigelow, and the rare organizing ability of the elder, it was determined to build a gingham-mill of twenty thousand spindles. Up to this time ginghams had been chiefly made upon hand looms. The processes which this fabric passes through before it is ready for market are in number more than doable those required in the making of plain cloth, and hence the design of the machinery and buildings was correspondingly complex in character. To this novel problem E. B. Bigelow devoted his energy and marvellous constructive skill for more than two years, when his health gave way, under the intense strain of the mental toil and anxiety he had undergone, and he sought rest and found cure in foreign travel. He had, however, perfected all plans and contracts for the essentially new elements of the plant, and his brother, being thoroughly familiar with them, carried the works onward to completion, and put them into successful operation.

H. N. Bigelow continued in management of manufacture until 1849, when he was succeeded as agent by Franklin Forbes, under whose long and very able c >ntrol the company attained great financial success and an honorable name for the unvarying superiority of its products. The various purchases of real estate, - two hundred and thirteen acres in all, - and the construction of dam, mills and machinery ready for operation, cost about eight hundred thousand dollars, and the stock was divided into two thousand shares. Both buildings and machinery were of the highest excellence in design aud workmanship. The dam was built chiefly of stone quarried in the immediate neighborhood, and the town of Lancaster at the time of its construction joined the banks of the river just above with a wooden trestle bridge, and laid out a roadway from it to the county highway. .The water- ])ower was at first developed by three breast-wheels upon a single line of shafting, each twenty-six feet in diameter with fourteen buckets. These were supplemented by a Tufts' engine of two hundred and fifty horse-power. The mills were admirably lighted and ventilated, and neat, convenient tenements of wood were built near them, accommodating seventy families. About eight hundred operatives were required when the works were in complete running order, twothirds of whom were females. Girls earned about three dollars per week above their board. The head dyer, Angus Cameron, was reputed the most skilful of his craft in America. The weaving-room, containing six hundred looms, was the large-st in the United States, having a floor-area of one and one-third acres. Thirteen thousand yards of gingham were finished in a single day - the estimated annual product being four million yards - and the price, which had been sixteen or eighteen cents per yard, dropped at once to less than twelve. In 1849 the capital of the company was increased to one million two hundred thousand dollars.

The prosperity of the Clinton Company and the starting of the Lancaster Mills speedily worked great changes in their vicinity by the constantly-increasing demand for intelligent labor, and the consequent encouragement offered to skill and traffic. The growth of the village was very rapid, yet systematic and substantial. Streets were laid out according to a welldigested plan, reserving prominent sites for public buildings. In this and other work calling for the art of an engineer, the judgment and foresight of H. N. Bigelow were ably seconded by the taste and scientific attainments of the famous civil engineer John C. Hoadley, tlien resident in the Prescott house, at the corner of High and Water Streets. The town of Lancaster in 1848 accepted Church, Union, Chestnut, Walnut, High, Nelson and Prospect Streets as town roads, the expenditure for land and construction having been wholly defrayed by the villHgers. Hundreds of shade-trees were planted, of which the town is now justly proud. Stores and dwellings soon rose in every direction, and owners or lessees hastened to occupy them before the hammer and saw of the builders h.ad ceased work upon them.

The final location of the Worcester and Nashua Railroad through the town in 1846 gave new energy to enterprise, again to receive fresh impetus when the road was formally opened to Groton on July 24, 1848, and on November 5th of the same year to Worcester. Before this the travelling public were dependent upon Stiles' stage-coaches for conveyance to Worcester, and reached Boston by patronizing Mclntire and Day's coaches, which at .5.30 and 10 a.m. and 3.45 p.m. started for Shirley Village, there connecting with the Fitchburg Railway trains. A. J. Gibson's rival line also carried passengers to Souh Acton, where the same trains were met.

The Lancaster Couranf, a weekly newspaper, was established by Eliphas Ballard, Jr., and F. C. Messenger, in connection with a job printing-office located on the east side of High Street, in the building of C. W Field. Mr. Messenger was editor of the paper, the first number of which was published Saturday, July 4, 1846. In July, 1850, it was enlarged by the addition of one column to each page and its name changed to Saturday Courant.

The professions of medicine, law and engineering soon had gifted and public-spiriied representatives here, whose honorable careers adorn the town's an- nals and whose wisely-directed influence made its mark upon the town's institutions. Other wideawake young men coming hither to seek fortune and build themselves permanent homes, engaged in trade or plied various handicrafts, and by their worthy ambitions and energy gave a tone to the community notably superior to that which generally characterizes a new manufacturing town.

Postmaster Rand authorized the establishment of a branch of the Lancaster post-oflice at the store of Lorey F. Bancroft, which stood on the corner of High and Union Streets until removed for the building of Greeley's block in 1875. Regular postal privileges were petitioned for and obtained in July, 1846. H. N. Bigelow was the first postmaster commissioned, and located the office in the north end of the Kendall building, placing it in charge of George H. Kendall.

By popular usage the title of the corporation which had been most influential in creating this thriving village gradually became attached to it. It was called Clintonville ; and therefore the reason for the selection of its name by the company in 1838 obtains some historic interest. It must be said that the name Clinton was not adopted for any specially apt significance or with intent to honor any person or family, but simply because it satisfied the eye and ear better than other names that may have been proposed. It was doubtless chosen by Erastus B. Bigelow's desire, and was suggested to him by the Clinton Hotel of New York, which he had found a very comfortable resting-place in his business journeys to Washington.

The Bigelow Mechanics' Institute was founded in 1846. It was an association formed by several of the more intelligent citizens, who proposed to benefit themselves and the community by the support of courses of lectures upon scientific and literary subjects, the collection of a library, the establishing a reading-room and perhaps an industrial sch lol. A reading-room was opened to members and subscribers June 5, 1847, in the second story of the Kendall building, then on High Street,where the Clinton Bank block now stands. A fee of three dollars annually entitled any resident to its privileges. The book fund and expenses of lectures exceeding membership fees and sale of tickets were met by subscription. The introductory lecture was delivered in October, 1846, by Hon. James G. Carter. He was followed by John C. Hoadley, Dr. George M. Morse, Charles G. Stevens, Esq., Rev. Hubbard Winslow, and other educated gentlemen of the vicinity. In later years, through the instrumentality of the Institute, noted lecturers like Horace Greeley, Henry D. Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Josiah Quincy, Jr., etc., were brought to delight and instruct Clinton audiences. Regular monthly meetings of the members were held for conference and the discussion of questions relating to the mechanic arts and manufactures. The finances of the society were never quite commensurate with its ambitious aims, but in its six years' life it was an eSBcient public teacher and accumulated a valuable library of nearly seven hundred volumes.

The first tavern in Clintonville was kept by Horace Faulkner in the old Plant farm-house, which in later years served as a boarding-house for the Lancaster Quilt Company. In 1847 H. N. Bigelow built the hotel known as the Clinton House, Oliver Stone being the contractor for its construction. Horace Faulkner and his son-in-law, Jerome S. Burditt, opened it to the public in Christmas week of that year, and the " house-warming " was a notable occasion in the village. The hall was added in 1850, its completion being celebrated by an " opening ball " October 2d.

In the autumn of 1839 Ephraim Fuller's clothdressing and wool-carding works at Carter's Mills having been destroyed by fire, he purchased of George Howard his water-power on South Meadow Brook, and lands adjacent, where he erected a fulling-mill and carried on a thriving business for many years. His son, Andrew L. Fuller, soon became associated with him, and, as the times favored, fhachinery for the manufacture of every variety of woolen knittingyarn, satinets and fancy cassimeres was introduced. For a time the business employed thirty hands, and si.xty thousand yards of cloth were put upon the market yearly, the mill sometimes being operated by night as well as day.

In the winter of 1S46 Ephraim Fuller dammed Goodridge Brook where it crosses the h'ghway in Clinton and built a shop with a trip-hammer and forge conveniences in the basement. Here Luther Gaylord - who for several years had been engaged in the manufacture by hand of cast-steel tools for farm use - -made all kinds of hay and manure forks, garden rakes, hoes and agricultural implements of similar character, employing from six to ten men. His work was unrivaled in excellence. There being more than sufficient power for his limited needs, the upper story of the building was fitted with a line of shafting and leased to W. F. Conant, a builder of water-wheels, Isaac Taylor, sash and blind manufacturer, and others.

Shortly after the starting of the Bigelow carpetmill, Albert S. Carleton began the making of carpetbags of a superior quality, using Bigelow carpeting made in patterns expressly for his purpose. His work-rooms were in the brick building now the residence of Dr. Charles A. Brooks. The business later came into the hands of James S. Caldwell.

October 16, 1847, Oilman M. Palmer started an iron foundry on land now covered by the weaving dejjartment of the Bigelow Carpet Company, at the southerly end of High Street. In 1849 he transferred this property to the Bigelows, and built upon the site of the present foundry, near the railway station.

Deacon James Patterson introduced in 1848 the manufacture of belting and loom harnesses and the covering of rolls, over the carpenter-shop of Samuel

Belyea, the two occupying one end of Mr. Palmer's foundry. When the building was taken by the carpet company, Mr. Patterson built a shop in rear of his own residence, but sold his business in July, 1853, to George H. Foster, who was located near the railway.

Of any Massachusetts community it needs not to be told that the foundations of school and meetinghouse were among those earliest laid and most promptly built upon ; and that generous provision was always made for the intellectual, moral and religious culture of young and old, rich and poor alike. In 1849 there were already three churches in Clintonville, each with its settled clergyman and commodious house of worship. Though forming two districts in the Lanca-ter school system, the village, under laws of that day, was permitted to manage its schools according to special by-laws of its own, and its prudential committee printed elaborate annual reports. A more complete autonomy was soon acquired.

Chapter Tx

The fourth article of a warrant calling a townmeeting in Lancaster, Nov. 7, 1848, was, "To see if the Town will consent to a division thereof and allow that part called Clintonville to form a separate township, or act in any manner relating thereto." The subject was referred to a committee, with instructions to report at a future meeting. This committee included Elias M. Stilwell, James G. Carter, John H. Shaw and Jacob Fisher, of the old town ; Horatio N. Higelow, Ezra Sawyer, Sidney Harris, Chas. G.Stevens and Jotham T. Otterson, of Clintonville. A citizens' meeting was called in the latter village, Monday, October 29, 1849, to discuss the question of separation, dt which H. N. Bigelow was chairman and Dr. George M. Morse, secretary. Those present, with almost entire unanimity, declared in favor of petitioning for township rights, and a committee was chosen, consisting of Charles G. Stevens, Sidney Harris, Joseph B. Parker, Horatio N. Bigelow and Alanson Chace, "to carry forward to accomplish men t the views of the meeting, leaving the terms and the line of division to the judgment and discretion of the committee."

November 12, 1849, at a town-meeting, majority and minority reports were presented by the committee chosen the year before. They contained such obvious arguments, pro and con, as are usual in the debates preceding town division, and both were tabled, the tone of a brief discussion indicating that no compromise could be readily effected at that time. The citizens' committee of Clintonville, in obedience to their instructions, proceeded to prep.are a petition to the Legi-slature.

The majority report, favoring the division, had gone 80 far as to propose a straight line of separation, to begin "at the town bound between Lancaster and Sterling on the Redstone Road . . . and run (hence S. 75° 42' East to the easterly line of the town, striking the Bolton line at a point 2 same titles yet exist, but the engine companies were disbanded and re-organized as hose companies after the introduction of water for fire purposes, eacli liaving in charge six hundred fcPt of hose. A fourth company, formed in 1870, has care of a steam fireengine, one of Cole Brothers' manufacture, and twelve hundred feet of hose. The firemen have alwaj's received liberal support from the town, are supplied with every modern appliance for use in the extinguishment of fires, and provided with comfortable and attractively furnished halls, in the upper stnries of the neat structures in which the apparatus is stored. The Gamewell electric fire-alarm system was adopted in July, 1885.

May 15, 1851, Franklin Forbes, Albert 8. Carleton, Charles G. Stevens and associates obtained incorporation as the Clinton Savings Bank, and were authorized to hold real esiate not to exceed ten thousand dollars in value. H. N. Bigelow was elected the first president of the bank. In this office he was succeeded by Franklin Forbes. The first treasurer, Charles ly. Swan, is now president, and C. L. S. Hammond has been treasurer since 186'1. For several years deposits were received by the treasurer at the office of the Lancaster Mills and by the president at his office in the Bigelow Library building; later, by the treasurer at the office of the Bigelow Carpet Company. Since 1864 the business of the bank had been conducted in the rooms of the First National Bank. Its deposits now amount to 81,123,109, the number of depositors being about four thousand. The total deposits since organization have been over five million dollars, and the total number of accounts over fourteen thousand.

At the woolen-mill upon South Meadow Brook, Andrew L. Fuller succeeded his father, who retired from tlie business in 1850, just as their special manufactures of yarns and cloths began to be unremunerative. Mr. Fuller was a man of great business capacity and energy, shrewdly watchful of the market, and he gradually introduced new machinery for the production of goods for which there was a better demand. When fashion decreed that hoop-skirts should be an essential article of female apparel, he filled his workrooms with tape-looms and braiders for covering hoop-skirt wire, and soon developed a very successful business. In 1865 he more than doubled the capacity of his main building, added two hundred braiders to the two hundred and fifty he had previously run, and increased the number of his tape-looms to forty. Nearly one hundred hands were given employment. September 10, 1867, Mr. Fuller died, but the manufacture was continued by his partner, Everett W. Bigelow, until change in fickle fashion destroyed the sale for such goods, and bankruptcy followed in 1870. N. C. Munson, of Shirley,' under mortgagee rights, took possession of and sold the property to Boyce Brothers, of Boston, iu whose ownership the mills were when destroyed in 1876, as narrated hereafter. The industry has never been resumed. The waterpower is now in possession of George P. Taylor, who, in 1885, built a neat, one-story brick mill here, which was for a time leased to the Ridgvvay Stove and Furnace Company, but is now unoccupied.

In 1852 the Bigelow Library Association, a joint stock company, assumed the functions and received the assets of the Bigelow Merhanics' Institute. It began its career under far more favoring auspices than its predecessor, having, beside the capital rerived from its stock subscription, generous donations from various citizens, including the sura of one thousand dollars given by Erastus B. B'gelow. A substantial brick building was erected upon Union Street, giving ample accommodations for the use of the society and several rooms for rent. Here a choice libr«ry was gradually gathered, and the association became a prominent factor in the literary life of the town. When, in 1873, the town resolved to maintain a free public library, the association placed in its charge the four thousand four hundred volumes which it had accumulated. It then sold its remaining effects and real estate, and its twenty years' career of usefulness and beneficence closed.

A lot of about four acres in the heart of the village, bounded by Walnut, Chestnut, Church and Union Streets, was, in 1852, given to Clinton by H. N. Bigelow, with the stipulation that it should be laid out according to plans of J. C. Hoadley, that no permanent structure of any kind should ever be built upon it, and that it should be suitably embellished and cared for forever as a public square. The town accepted the gift April 5, 1852, and at once appropriated one thousand dollars for its improvement. This has now become a tree-shaded park, and is the most u-eful of Mr. Bigelow's many and wise benefactions to the town which he did so much to found, and was ever striving to improve and adorn.

Joseph B. Parker, who for twelve years had been superintendent of the Clinton Company's machineshop, built, in the summer of 1852, near the railway station, a shop fitted with steam-power and tools for the manufacture of machinery. Having associated with him Gilman M. Palmer, he began work here on the 1st of January, 1853. The firm of Parker & Palmer was dissolved October 31, 1857, and two years later A. C. Dakin was taken into partnership.

September 7, 1853, John T. Dame, E-q., received a commission as postmaster, and removed the office from the Kendall store to the Bigelow Library Association's building on Union Street. During the .'^ame year a nesv road from Clinton westward through Lancaster, now known as Sterling Street, was laid out by the county commissioners and constructed. October 19th of this year a noteworthy celebration of the surrender of CornwiiUis, the last in this part of the State, brought to Clinton fifteen hundred regular and irregular militia and an immense crowd of people. The time-worn comedy of the sham fight was manoeuvred to its historic issue on Burditt Hill, with more smoke and noi«e than the town has ever experienced before or since, and the traditions of former days were outshone in the farcical evolutions and grotesque accoutrements of the "Continentals."

March 8, 1854, H. N. Bigelow, Franklin Forbes and Henry Kellogg were constituted a corporation, with the title of the Clinton Gas Light Company, and authorized to hold real estate to the value of thirty thousand dollars, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Buildings had been erected the year before in rear of the carpet-mill. Mr. Forbes was elected president, and C. L. Swan, treasurer, of the company. Milton Jewett became superintendent, and yet holds that position. The Schuyler Electric Light Company began building works in town, March, 1886, and in July were authorized to furni.sh a few street lights. Their plant and privileges were soon after sold to the Gas Light Co. April 17, 1887, legislation was obtained authorizing the corporation to increase its capital to two hundred thousand dollars, and to hold real estate to the value of seventy-five thousand dollare. By the same act its corporate privileges were extended to include the town of Lancaster,

The little steel forge upon Goodridge Brook was lost to Clinton in 1852. Mr. Gaylord, being unable to find a near market for his products in competition goods of inferior grade, accepted inducements to remove to Naugatuck, Conn. The water privileges and buildings, owned by Ephraim Fuller, were for several years leased to various parties, chiefly for the manufacture of doors, sash and blinds. Christopher C. Stone then bought the mill and carried on that business here for three years. In 1859 Eben S. Fuller bought out Mr. Stone, and in 1867 supplemented the water-power with a steam-engine, when large additions were also made to the buildings. The establishment now embraces a saw-mill, which turns out about three hundred thousand feet of native lumber annually, planing and various other wood-working m.achines, a large shop for the manufacture of all kinds of wood-finish used by builders, and an extensive lumber and wood-yard. About twenty men are kept constantly employed in its various departments, and a small village has grown up about it.

The first loom to succe>sfully weave wire cloth was an invention of Erastus B. Bigelow's, and upon its success the Clinton Wire Cloth Company was founded in 1856. Charles H. Waters, of Groton, was chosen to assist H. N. Bigelow in superintending the erection of the original works, and in the summer of 1857 began manufacture. He was made general manager, and served as such with marked ability until March, 1879, when he became president of the company and Charles B. Bigelow manufacturing agent. Buildings of large area have from time to time been added to the first mill, located at the intersection of the railroads - notably in 1863, 1865, 1870, 1872, 1876, 1880 and 1887 - and now the works cover about six acres. The looms and other machinery have been often improved by new inventions or adaptations, mostly those of Mr. Waters, whereby numerous difficulties attendant upon the weaving of so stubborn a material as wire have gradually been in large measure overcome. At the death of Mr. Waters, March 13, 1883, James H. Beal became the president of the company, and Charles Swinscoe was made manager in 1885, when Mr. Bigelow was called upon to assume the duties of manufacturing agent for the Bigelow Carpet Company.

The capital of the Wire Cloth Company is four hundred thousand dollars, and it is claimed to be the largest manufactory of woven wire goods in the world, turning out fifty million square feet in a year. The mills are of brick, very substantial in construction, and possess attractive architectural features. The most prominent structure in the town, one that earliest engages the attention of every one when approaching it from any direction, is the tower used for the drying of painted wire cloth. It is one hundred and eightyfive feet in height, eighty by thirty-six feet in horizontal section, having room for twenty-five tons of cloth suspended in webs of about one hundred feet in length. The chief products of the works are : hexagonal netting of every width and variety, jiainted window-screen cloth, wire lathing, locomotive sparker cloth, malt-kilu flooring, sieve and bolting cloths, etc. An extensive galvanizing plant has been erected a short distance from the main works beside the Worcester and Nashua Railway, where a special process, peculiar to this company, is used for the protection of iron goods; the zinc being chemically united with the iron, instead of simply forming a mechanical coating upon it.

Sidney Harris, who began the making of horn combs by hand in a small way in 1823, continued the business until his death, November 21, 1861, when his shops on the Nashua supported from twenty-five to thirty workmen. His sales sometimes amounted to twenty thousand dollars a year. Mr. Harris was the youngest son of Daniel, and born in West Boylston. He was one of the most enterprising and thrifty citizens of Clinton, prominent in church and municipal affairs, and every way worthy of the public esteem in which he was ever held. He was among the earliest and mo.st outspoken advocates of the temperance cause. His sons, George S. and Edwin A., continued the fabrication of horn goods, retaining the partnership title of Sidney Harris & Sons, and greatly enlarged the shop'? in 1866. The elder did not long survive his father, and Edwin, by purchase of his brother's interest, became sole proprietor of the factory, and so remained until his death, in the spring of 1875. August 9th, of that year, a joint-slock company WHS organized to continue the bujines<, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars, called the S. Harris' Sons Manufacturing Company. Eliaha Brimhall,

Daniel B. Ingalls and Henry E. Starbird were by turns presidents of the company, which gave work to about eighty hands, and finished goods to the value of from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars per year, chiefly dressing and fancy-back combs. The enterprise won no financial success, and in November, 1881, the whole stock of the company, having much depreciated in value, was bought by Mrs. Edwin A. Harris, who has since managed the manufacture under the corporate title, giving work to fifty hands. The present production of the factory is about forty thousand dollai-s' worth of staple goods, chiefly toilet combs, yearly.

The original incorporators of the Lancaster Quilt Company were succeeded in May, 1859, by James Reed & Co., and the mill changed hands more than once thereafter, though the business was always conducted under the name of the first corporation. The firm of Jordan & Marsh finally controlled the property, and in 1869 started the Marseilles quilt manufacture as a specialty. A few months later the weaving of crochet counterpanes was begun, but the adventure not proving sufficiently profitable, the making of quilts was wholly abandoned in January, 1871, the looms were sold to the Bates Company, of Lewiston. Me., and machinery for weaving other styles of goods took their place. In the autumn of 1871 the works were closed.

William E. Frcst and Sidney T. Howard, forming a partnership under the title of the Clinton Yarn Company, purchased the factory for twelve thousand five hundred dollars March 28, 1873. They fitted it anew for the spinning of cotton, and began manufacture in April. The houses and remaining lands of the Quilt Company were sold at auction the following June for forty-three thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. The Clinton Yarn Company has employed from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five hands, aud used annually from seven hundred to one thousand bales of cotton ; selling products annually to the value of about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Both partners have deceased, and the mill is now run by John R. Frost as agent. Bleach and dye works are connected with the factory, and seven thousand spinning and thirty-five hundred twisting spindles are run. The power from the twenty-nine feet fall in the South Meadow Brook has been used until recently, assisted by a Wheelock steam-engine of one hundred and fifty horse-powder.

Chapter

did the spirit of patriotism - so fervent everywhere in Massachusetts - flame forth soonfr, or with more genuine fire, than in Clinton. In the Presidential election of 1860 four votes out of her every five were cast for Abraham Lincoln. As the plans of traitors gradually disclosed themselves and armed secession tore star after star from the flag, not four-fifths, but the whole community as one man declared for the maintenance of the Constitution at even the cost of civil war. In hall and street, mill, shop and home, the national peril was the dominant topic of thought aud speech. To the military organizations of the Commonwealth the people naturally looked for the call to action.

The second and third oflicers of the Ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Militia were Clinton citizens - Lieutenant-Colonel Gilman M. Palmer and Major Christopher C. Stone ; and of that regiment also was the Clinton Light Guard. This company, which dated its existence from May 12, 1853, was composed of some of the best manhood of Clinton and vicinity, and had been efficiently disciplined under the direction of its successive commanders : Captains Gilman M. Palmer, Andrew L. Fuller, Henry Butterfield and Christopher C. Stone. It was now led by Henry Bowman, who, in accordance with a vote of the company in February, 1861, signified to Governor Andrew its readiness for immediate service in defence of the national government. It was supposed that the Ninth Regiment might be sent to the front at once, and the stir of hurried preparation was seen on every hand.

In the annual town-meeting, March 4th, the sum of one thousand dollars was voted for the purpose of furnishing the Guards with a service uniform. Thus Clinton was the first town to anticipate by actual appropriation of money the expected call for State troops. Such expenditure of public funds being, however, beyond the authority delegated to towns, a special act of the Legislature was invoked and passed April 2d, sanctioning such action when ratified by twothirds of the members present and voting at a meeting legally called for the purpose. The company soon after paraded in new suits of gray.

Sunday, April 21st, there came a dispatch from the Governor calling upon the Light Guard to be ready to move at twenty-four hours' warning. Notices were read from the pulpits in the morning, and in the afternoon the vestry of the Baptist Church was thronged with earnest women workers, busily making flannel underclothing for the volunteers. At a townmeeting, the next day, generous provision was voted for the care and protection of soldiers' families in the absence of their natural guardians. But the anxiously expected summons was long delayed, and it was not until June 28th that the volunteers, preceded by the cornet band and an escort of citizens, marched to the railway, and amid the tearful farewells of near friends and the cheers of the multitude assembled, were borne away for Camp Scott, Worcester, to join the Fifteenth Massachusetts, to which regiment they' were assigned as the color company, C. Just four months later they had passed through the te:rible defeat of Ball's Bluff, and the captain, with thirteen other Clinton men, were prisoners at Richmond, five were wounded and two had lost their lives.

The Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was especially noted for ils proficiency in drill, its staying qualities in fight, and its exceptionally sanguinaiy battle record. The men of Company C sustained its colors, and bore at least their full share of the regiment's glory and bhiod sacrifice. The Clinton men serving in the regiment were seventy-four, all told, of whom, before the Rebellion succumbed, fourteen were slain in battle or died of wounds, three died of disease, and over thirty had received wounds not fatal. Their loss was quite severe at Antietani, September 17, 1862, when five received mortal injuries and twenty others were more or less seriously wounded. At Gettysburg, of the twentyfour in the battle line belonging to Company C, sixteen were hit by rebel missiles, of whom Clinton lost Lieutenant Buss and three others Ivilled and four wounded.

Next in numbers to those of the Fifteenth was the group of Clinton men in tlie Twenty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, thirty-seven in all, including a few recruits enlisted in 1862. These were nearly all German-born, worljmen at the Lancaster Mills, and mostly mustered in Company G. Four of these were killed in battle, five died during the war, and at least sixteen others were wounded. The regiment won an honorable record, serving in North Carolina during 1862 and 1863, and in Heckman's brigade of the Eighteenth Army Corps, chiefly in Virginia, during 1864.

In the Twenty-first Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry were twenty men claimed for Clinton's credit, tour of whom died of wounds received in battle. The regiment suffered severely at Chantilly, Antietam, and in the final advance upon Richmond. Its first experience was with General Burnside's expedition in North Carolina. Five of the Clinton volunteers re-enlisted after their first term had expired.

The three regiments above mentioned left for the front during 1861. Of those who enlisted for the town in 1862, the majority joined the Thirty-fourth, Thirty-sixth and Fifty-third regiments. In the first were sixteen soldiers accredited to Clinton. They performed garrison duty along the Potomac during 1862 and 1863, and had no serious engagement with the enemy. Their valor and endurance were, however, severely tested during 1864, in the nine battles and constant marching and countermarching of the Shenandoah campaign.

The Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry contained thirty residents of Clinton, one of whom, Henry Bowman, was its colonel. It was attached to the Ninth Army Corps, narrowly escaped participation in the bloody work at Antietam, and though present met with no loss at Fredericksburg. In 1863 it was transferred to the West, became greatly reduced in numbers (luring the campaign against Vicksburg by climatic disieases, and passed through the siege of Knoxville with Burnside. Its eventful experience closed in Virginia, whither it returned in 1864 to join in the final grand struggle for the possession of Richmond. But one of its Clinton members fell in battle ; three died in captivity and three of disease.

Twenty-eight Clinton men, with Lieutenant Josiah H. Vose, served in the Fifty-third Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and he, with two others, laid down their lives in battle. Although but a ninemonths organization, its stormy voyage by sea to New Orleans, its adventures along the Mississippi River, and its fiery ordeal of battle at Fort Bisland and in the assault and siege of Port Hudson, comprise a more notable experience than many threeyears' regiments could boast.

The numerous other enlistments to the credit of the town, mostly of a later date, were distributed among many organizations, the record of which can receive no particular mention here.

The action of the town-meetings already noticed was but an earnest of a generous policy pursued through the four years of war, and ever since, towards those who volunteered in their country's service.

The selectmen were given large discretionary powers for the purpose of aiding families dependent for support upon bread-winners who had become soldiers of the Union ; the maximum bounty was paid to citizens enlisting to fill the town's quota ; all soldiers were relieved from the payment of a poll-tax ; and after each successive call for troops Clinton was found registered as furnishing an excess above the number demanded. Private generosity never failed whenever exigencies arose. Large sums were obtained by voluntary subscription for the equipment of the enlisted; for forwarding material aid to the wounded and sick in hospitals ; for sending agents to the field after the great battles, and for other and constantly-recurring calls upon patriotic sympathy where money could avail. For help to families, known as " State aid," during the five years ending with 1865, the town expended $36,171.28; for other war purposes, $14,- 043.19. Nine thousand dollars raised by various private subscriptions were also disbursed in bounties to recruits and for kindred objects.

The buay afternoon of that April Sabbath in the crowded vestry taught the people much concerning woman's mission in war-time, and was suggestive of what could be effected under wise organization. Within a week thereafter an association was formed by patriotic women which, in connection with the parish sewing circles, sent to hospital and field thousands of useful articles of their own handiwork. After a year's experience, the aims of the society taking wider scope, a citizens' meeting was called at the Clinton House Hall, August 1, 1862, and the Soldiers' Aid Society then organized issued a general invitation calling upon all inhabitants of the town to join in the work for the welfare of ihe volunteers. The directors of the association were : Franklin Forbes, president; Gilbert Greene, treasurer ; Henry C. Greeley, secretary ; Mrs. J. F. Maynard, Mrs. Jared M. Heard, Mrs. Charles W. Field, Mrs. Charles G. Stevens. A room was furnished for the society's use in the Bigelow Library Association's building, and kept open during three hours each afternoon six days in the week, for work and the reception of articles contributed. The donations of material and labor made by the society to the patriot cause have been estimated at three thousand dollars in value. Its charitable ministrations did not end until long after the surrender at Appomattox.

The quota of Clinton under the various calls of the government amounted to three hundred and seventyone men for three years' service. Adjutant-General William Schouler credits it with an enlistment of four hundred and nineteen, being a surplus of fortyeight above demands. The enrollment lists of the town fail to account for so many, lacking nearly one hundred of that number after making due allowance for over thirty nine-months' enlistments, and adding the eighteen who paid commutation and twenty for veteran re-enlistments. It may be therefore inflerred, perhaps, that the unknown non-residents hired for the town or assigned to its quota by the State or natipnal authorities, were very numerous.

The population of the town at the outbreak of hostilities was thirty-eight hundred and fifty-nine. Its valuation was $1,690,692, and its debt $14,500. At the end of the war it had four thousand and twenty-one inhabitants, a valuation of $1,860,763 and a debt of $34,190.

The following alphabetical roster of residents who did military service for Clinton during the Rebellion is doubtless not free from errors or omissions, but it is the result of many revisions, and is the best now attainable. Names are followed by the records of service in the following order: the number of regiment, Massachusetts Infantry being understood ,^unles3 otherwise stated), the letter of the company, the age of the soldier when enlisted, date of muster in, experience of soldier.

Clintox Soldiers

by shell at Petersburg, and died July 26, '64 ; credited to Worcester. Bowman, Henry, 16th, C; 26; Aug. 1, '61 ; captain ; prisoner at Ball's

Mrs, Bigelow has long outlived her husband, residing in the home he built in Clinton. Of four children born to her, two died before his decease. Her SODS, Henry H. and Charles B. Bigelow, inherit their father's administrative talent, and succeeded him in due time as managing agents of the Bigelow Carpet Company.

The First National Bank of Clinton was chartered in April, 18(34, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars. Hon. Charles G. Stevens was chosen president, and C. L. S. Hammond, cashier, both of whom have been continued in office to the present day. The bank was at first located in a brick building on Union Street, but in 1881 and 1882 built the costly brick and marble block on the corner of High and Church Streets. It remained the only general banking institution in town until June 15, 1882, when the Lancaster National Bank transferred its office to rooms leased in Brimhall's Block, Hon. Henry C. Greeley being at the time president, and William H. McNeil cashier. In 1885 the latter secured control of a majority of the stock, elected certain friends of his directors, and placed himself in the presidency, probably in order the better to conceal from the stockholders irregularities in his methods of conducting the business of the bank. At the close of the year he fled to Canada, a defaulter, and the settlement of the bank's affiiirs was placed in the hand of John W. Corcoran, Esq., as receiver. Its creditors have been paid seventy per cent, of their claims, but final settlement has been delayed awaiting the termination of certain lawsuits. The Clinton Co-operative Bank was incorporated in 1887. Daniel B. Ingalls is president, C. A. Woodruff, treasurer, and Walter R. Dame, solicitor.

For over seven years all town-meetings were held in the vestry of the Congregational Church. From November, 1858, the hall connected with the Clinton House was used by the town on public occasions. The erection of a special building for town use was a subject often discussed, and from 1866 began to arouse warm debates in annual town-meetings, [n 1869 a committee was appointed to investigate available sites and consider plans. A location upon High Street was by many considered very desirable, and the lots now covered by Greeley's and the bank blocks were much talked of. That now occupied by the High School building was also advocated by many ; but the more suitable ground upon Walnut and School Streets was fortunately chosen, purchased for four thousand dollars, and thereon the foundations of the present capacious and imposing town-hall were laid, in July, 1871.

The design adopted by the town was that of Alexander R. Esty, a Boston architect. The edifice is of brick, relieved by a free use of Nova Scotia stone in pilasters, beltings and other constructive and ornamental details. On the first floor are various rooms for town ofBcers and Bigelow Hall, sixty feet wide by eighty feet in length. The public library-room is located at the rear of the hall, in a one-storied semi-circular apse of twenty-five feet radius, which has an entrance and vestibule of its own. The upper floor is occupied mainly by Clinton Hall, ninety-five feet by eighty, in which, including the gallery across the south end, about eighteen hundred persons can be seated. A large stage and retiring-rooms attached occupy the space at the rear of the hall. The interior finish of the whole building is of ash, and all the appointments for heating, lighting, etc., are of the best for their purposes.

The building was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies December 4, 1872, when addresses were given by Colonel T. W. Higginson and Hon. Charles G. Stevens. Franklin Forbes, as chairman of the building committee, made a brief speech in delivering the keys to the committee chosen by the town to have exclusive control and management of the building for three years, and George M. Morse, M.D., in response, gave a condensed history of the town from the time of Prescott's settlement on its soil. The building of this important structure added one hundred and ten thousand dollars to the town's indebtedness, bringing the total to one hundred and forty-six thousand. A funding scheme was adopted in October, 1871, which provided for the issuing of bonds to the amount of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, payable in twenty years from January 1, 1873, bearing six per cent, interest ; six thousand five hundred dollars of the principal to be paid annually. These bonds were mostly sold at par. They were exempt from town taxation, and were issued in denominations of one hundred and five hundred dollars.

The Bigelow Frwe Public Library was opened December 6, 1873, Andrew E. Ford being the first librarian. It began its life of usefulness with four thousand four hundred and eight books upon its shelves, which had been donated by the Bigelow Library Association. This nucleus has grown iu fourteen years to fourteen thousand one hundred and eighty-seven volumes, showing an average annual addition of about seven hundred volumes. The association's bequest was made conditional upon the yearly expenditure by the town of at least five hundred dollars for the purchase of books. The annual appropriation, from fifteen hundred dollars in 1874, has increased to twentythree hundred in 1888, besides the amount received from the dog tax and sale of catalogues, usually about six hundred dollars additional. The circulation from eleven thousand eight hundred and forty-two in 1874, has grown to thirty-five thousand seven hundred and twenty-two in 1886-87. The management of the library is vested in six trustees, whose term of service is three years, two being elected annually. Miss Charlotte L. Greene is librarian, succeeding her sister. Miss Fannie M. Greene, in 1886. A catalogue was printed in 1887.

An appropriate monument to the memory of the fifty-eight Clinton men who died in the Union service during the Civil War was erected in the summer of

1875, the dedicatory services taking place August 28th. It stands in the southwest corner of the town-hall enclosure, and consists of an architectural base of Concord granite eleven feet in height, surmounted by a bronze figure of an infantry volunteer standing at rest, copying a design by M. J. Powers. The exercises of its dedication were a procession with music, the formal transfer of the memorial to the town by Franklin Forbes for the committee of construction, and patriotic addresses by Hon. Charles G. Stevens, John T. Dame, Esq., and the Reverends V. M. Simmons and W. S. Burton. The cost of the monument was about four thousand dollars, of which sum eight hundred and forty dollars was collected by the women of Clinton in various ways for such a memorial, and the remainder was paid from the town treasury.

During the closing year of the Civil War there began for the Lancaster Mills, as for most manufacturers, a period of great prosperity, during which extensive improvements and additions of buildings and machinery were made year by year. In 1807 the dam was entirely rebuilt, with an extreme length of one hundred and seventy feet, securing a fall of twentyseven feet. At the same time the old breast-wheels were replaced by two turbines of three hundred and fifty horse-power each. In April, 1875, a branch of the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg, now a division of the Old Colony Railway was built to the mills, giving transportation facilities much needed. In 1877 Franklin Forbes, for twenty-eight years manager, died, and George W. Weeks, then superintendent, upon whom very many of Mr. Forbes' original duties had before this devolved, was appointed manufacturing agent.

During the administration of Mr. Weeks, the years 1880, 1881, 1887 and 1888 have been marked by very important extensions of the working plant, the capacity for production having been increased at least seventy-five per cent. The weaving-room, supposed to be the largest of the kind in the United States, if not in the world, has a floor area of one hundred and thirty-seven thousand feet, or three and one-seventh acres, affording space for twenty-eight hundred looms. The carding and spinning departments occupy two brick mills of huge dimensions, one three, the other four stories in height. The whole floor area of the works, including basements, etc., used for storage, and the Sawyer's Mills in Boylston, is about sixteen acres, twelve of which are devoted to manufacture. The company has also about two hundred tenements, nearly all of a class superior to those usually found in manufacturing towns, and three large boardinghouses, each accommodating one hundred persons. An unusually large proportion of the employes have dwellings of their own.

When the recently completed extension receives its machinery, the corporation will require the labor of nearly twenty-two hundred operatives, about equally divided between the two sexes, and its yearly product is expected to reach twenty-eight million yards of twenty-seven inch ginghams ; last year it was nearly twenty-five million yards. Three large steam-engines of Corliss pattern, developing fourteen hundred horse-power, are employed to aid the turbines, while six small engines are in constant use for various purposes. Among the army of workers are skilled mechanics of various crafts, and corps of chemists and designers perform important duties. But a single quality of goods is here made, a high grade of gingham everywhere known for its always reliable colors and exceptional durability. Although combinations of color are restricted to stripes and checks, already about two hundred thousand distinct patterns have been designed.

It will be noticed that the enormous increase of production over that of the earliest years of the corporation's life is far in excess of the numerical increase of looms and operatives. In every department new processes and improvements in mechanism have been introduced from time to time, and greater speed of movement attained, until the product per operative is two and four-tenths times what it was in 1850. The average wages have during the same period been increased eighty per cent., and this although the hours of labor per day are now two hours less than in 1850.

The present ofiicers of the company are : S. G. Snelling, president ; Harcourt Amory, treasurer ; George W. Weeks, agent; George P. Taylor, superintendent.

February 18, 1864, the corporation which gave name to the town ceased to exist, its charter being annulled by legislative enactment. The coach-lace looms had been sent to Philadelphia, it had the year before sold its real estate in Boylston, known as Sawyer's Mills, and certain of its looms for weaving checks, to the Lancaster Mills Company ; and its water-rights, factory buildings, tenant-houses and lands in Clinton to the Bigelow Carpet Company. The latter corporation had already made preparations to do its own wool-cleansing and spinning, - for which preliminary processes of its manufacture it had previously been dependent upon other parties, - and to the extensive plant required for these the grounds and buildings of the coach-lace mills were devoted. A large worstedmill was completed in 1866, and the dam was rebuilt and raised to control a flowage of two hundred and thirty-six acres, including Mossy and Sandy, two of the three great natural ponds of Clinton.

Upon the death of Horatio N. Bigelow, in 1865, his eldest son, Henry N. Bigelow, was made superintendent of the new department, and Charles L. Swan held the same position in the weaving-mill. In December, 1871, Mr. Bigelow became managing agent of the company. Under his supervision extensive additions were made in both departments during 1872. A new worsted-mill, three stories in height, two hundred feet long by sixty-five feet wide, was built in 1875, and great improvements were made in the machinery. Upon his retirement, March 26, 1881, he was succeeded in the management by his brother, Charles B. Bigelow. During 1885 the weaving department was very greatly enlarged, and in 1886 and 1887 an extension, two hundred feet in length, was added upon the west, reaching to School Street. In this have been placed newly-invented looms for the weaving of Ax minster carpeting.

The president of the company is James H. Beal, and C. F. Fairbanks is treasurer. The capital, which was two hundred thousand dollars at the incorporation of the company in 1854, has been increased to one million.

The number of looms is two hundred and forty, and when the works are run to their full capacity, twelve hundred persons are employed, whose pay amounts to fifteen hundred dollars each day, and the production is at the rate of one million eight hundred yards per year. About six million pounds of wool are used annually. The company is complete within itself, importing the grade of wool which it requires, and conducting all the operations of its fabrication, - cleansing, spinning, dyeing, weaving, - on its own premises. The floor space occupied amounts to ten and three-fourths acres. Its various buildings are of brick, and very attractive in appearance. The company also owns houses accommodating sixty-three families, and has three boarding-houses.

Three grades of carpeting are manufactured by the Bigelow Company, - Wilton, Axminsterand Brussels. The first power-loom, invented by E. B. Bigelow, thirty years ago won admiration, because with it a single girl wove as much Brussels carpeting in a given time as four men and four boys could do with four hand looms. The perfected loom of to-day has fourfold the capacity of the fiist Bigelow loom.

C. M. Bailey & Son, a few months after the destruction by fire of their property at Sterling in February, 1868, purchased the low-lying land between Sterling Street and the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railway in Clinton, and established thereon an extensive tannery with sixty-one vats, a large currier shop, engine and boiler-house, and other accessories of their business. The capacity of the yard was about twenty thousand hides, and required the attendance of forty men and boys. The junior member of the firm, George E. Bailey, died in 1873, when Bryant & King, by purchase, succeeded to the business. They at once enlarged the works to more than double iheir original capacity, employed about one hundred hands, and were apparently in full tide of prosperity when the breaking of the Mossy Pond reservoir dam in 1876 swept away their large stock of material, demolished their buildings and left them weighed down by too heavy discouragements for renewal of the enterprise. Two years later C. M. Bailey and William J. Stewart rebuilt some portions of the buildings, gave work to twenty-five or thirty men, and continued the tanning business until

Deacon Joseph B. Parker, the veteran machinist of Clinton, died September 1, 1874, at the age of seventy years. He was a native of Princeton, but came here from Providence, R. I., where he had a shop, to organize and manage the machine-'hop connected with the Clinton Company's works. His practical ability and judgment were of great value to E. B. Bigelow in the adjustment and construction of his inventions. He was a pillar of strength in the Congregational Church, a man of thorough independence and originality.

A joint stock company was formed to continue the business of which he was the founder and had been for nearly twenty-five years the manager, which took the title of the J. B. Parker Machine Company. The capital is forty-five thousand dollars, and the yearly manufacture is estimated as fifty thousand dollars in value. A. C. Dakin is president, C. C. Murdock, treasurer, and N. E. Stowell, foreman. From seventyfive to one hundred men are required when the machinery of the shops is fully employed. The special line of work done is the construction of carpetlooms, the Bancroft mule, the Clinton yarn-twister, and other mechanism for wool manufacturers. The buildings of the company are commodious, well equipped with power and tools, and conveniently located beside the tracks of the Worcester and Nashua Division of the Boston and Maine Railway.

Closely allied with and adjoining the machineshops are the new.and admirably appointed works of the Clinton Foundry Company, recently completed in place of the old foundry, built by Oilman N. Palmer, in 1849, which was crushed in during the great snow-storm of March 12, 1888. Major Christopher C. Stone, for many years associated with Colonel Palmer, bought the foundry in October, 1881, and, forming a partnership with the J. B. Parker Company, under the corporate title above named, became general manager of the business. Twenty-six men aie regularly employed here, chiefly upon machine and railroad work, casting daily from a three-ton cupola furnace. The value of castings sold annually is about thirty-six thousand dollars.

Colonel Gilman M. Palmer came to Clintonville from Dover, N. H., in 1847, but was born in Gardner, Maine, December 4, 1812. He was foreman of the first engine company, the first captain of the Clinton Light Guards, lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Militia, vice-president of the Savings Bank, and director of the First National Bank. He served the town as selectman for four years ; was one of the founders of the Unitarian Church, and a member of Trinity Masonic Lodge. He died May 27, 1885. By his will nearly fifteen thousand dollars were left in public bequests.

Upon Sterling Street, near the station of the railway, stand the neat brick workshops of the Gibbs Loom, Harness and Reed Company, which was incor- porated April 1, 1874, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. William H. Gibbs, the president of the company, became in 1865 associated with George H. Foster in the manufacture of belting, loom-harness and roll-covering, and later began making reeds - in which business they had been preceded by Robert Turner. In the autumn of 1868 the partnership was dissolved, and in a division of the assets Mr. Gibbs retained the loom-harness and reed manufacture, and Mr. Foster that of belting and roll-covering. Hearing of an improved heddle machine of English invention, Mr. Gibbs imported one, the first brought into the United States. A rapid increase of orders rewarded his enterprise, requiring more machinery and capital, and the formation of a company followed. It now has in operation thirteen heddle - or heald - machines, giving work to forty operatives, male and female. The ebonized loom-harness is a specialty for which the company have a patent, granted February 1, 1881. The reed manufacture was begun in November, 1884, and has met with such encouragement that but one reed maker in America now rivals this company in yearly production. This success has been attained by superior workmanship. Charles L. Swan is treasurer of the corporation.

About half-past three o'clock of Sunday, March 26, 1876, the people of Clinton and villages adjoining, were startled by loud and long-continued alarm signals from the steam gong of the wire-mill, giving wide warning of an unforeseen and grievous disaster, one that, because of the fortunate hourbf its happening, was not attended with loss of human life, but which forever ruined several useful industries, seriously interrupted others, and utterly destroyed three hundred thousand dollars' worth of capital, buildings, machinery and goods.

A snow-storm, quickly followed by copious rains, had filled the great reservoir of the Bigelow Carpet Company to overflowing. In the Mossy Pond portion of it the water stood higher than in the Clinton basin, the culvert under the Worcester and Nashua Railway, which joined them, proving insufficient to take away the unprecedented flow poured in by the South Meadow Brook. Before danger was suspected, the waters rose so high as to wash over or through an embankment at the northerly side of Mossy Pond, just above the sources of the little brook formerly known as Rigby's. This dam of earth was about forty feet long and ten feet in height, and the ground at either end of and beneath it was porous gravel and sand. The trickling overflow soon grew to a resistless torrent and tore this obstacle from its path, opening a broad gap between the hills down to the level of the marshy ground below.

About sixty rods away the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railway crosses the valley upon a gravel embankment nearly forty feet in height, which dammed the flood for a while, afTording time for the residents of houses upon the meadow below to escape.