Waltham City (part 5 of 5)

" This is, of course, owing partly to the healthfulness of the locality, partly to the absence of child labor in the factory, and partly to the excellent sanitary conditions in which the buildings are kept at every season of the year. It is, nevertheless, proof of the wonderful measure of welfare in the lives of the 2500 workers now under review. It would not be hard to mention factories in which the death rate runs as high as three or four per cent, per annum.''

It has always been the established policy of the company to make the most careful and generous provision for the comfort and health of its operatives, yet no provision can insure against the visits of epidemics which occasionally visit the various sections of the country (like " La Grippe," which occasioned a more general and serious disturbance than anything of like character within the history of the company).

To secure the advantages of mutual assistance in cases of need, the operatives in the year 18GG established the " Watch Factory Relief Association." Article 2 of its Constitution stated that " The object of this Association shall be to aid all members whose circumstances are such as to need relief in cases of sickness or injury while in the employ of the American Watch Company, or whose sickness or injury shall have been contracted while in the employ of said company. None but members shall receive aid except by concurrent action of the Relief Committee and the vote of the Association. Persons working a-s learners shall be exempt from dues the first four months of their services with the American Watch Company."

Other articles provided for choice of officers, among whom was " a Relief Committee, consisting of four gentlemen and three ladies, to whom all applications for relief must be made, and whose duty it shall be to see that timely assistance is rendered to all in need."

A feeling of independence, and a disinclination to accept charity in any form, without doubt deterred very many members from applying for aid when in sickness ; and quite possibly occasional payments to some who were not in actual need served in time to create a demand for a change in the method of relief; and, in 1881, the Association was re-organized on a strictly mutual basis; the assessment of dues was changed from quarterly to monthly intervals, and the amount of dues reduced to twenty-five cents, without distinction as to sex or position. The restrictions as to the holding of office were also abolished. The amount of money allowed to applicants for relief is fixed by the constitution at $4.00 per week, after the first week (for which no appropriation is allowed), and in no case is the benefit to cover a period exceeding ten weeks in any one year. It is further provided that, in case of death of a member, the sum of $50.00 shall be appropriated for funeral expenses.

that since its organization, in 1866, it has paid 103 such claims ; and that, up to the close of the year 1889, there had been paid out a total of nearly $45,000 in yearly amounts, varying from $945 in 1866, to $5814 in 1889.

Since the re-organization of the Association, in 1881, the condition of the treasury has allowed the omission of ten regular asse.ssments, and never in its history has a special assessment been required until 1889, that being occasioned by the prevalence of the epidemic, " La Grippe." The sympathy of the management of the Watch Company with the aims and objects of this Belief Association has been manifested by its annual contribution of $200 to its funds.

The years immediately following the close of the Civil War, while constituting a period of general business activity and apparent prosperity, were not without intervals of anxiety and depression in the watch-making industry. It has, however, seemed a very remarkable thing that at times, when business in general has been languishing, and many industries have been obliged to completely suspend operations, this factory has been almost uniformly kept busy. This is the more strange because it would be expected that in times of dullness and scarcity of money, watches would naturally be a drug in the market. But with the exception of a few months in the fall and winter of 1873-74, when financial disturbance was so nearly universal, this factory has been kept steadily at work. And it is probable that it may be truthfully said that few, if any, towns in our country suffered less during that period of business troubles, than did Waltham.

Such a measure of prosperity as was shared by this whole community was, without doubt, due almost entirely to the exertions and the sagacity of the watch factory management and its selling agents, and cannot but be a matter of the greatest gratification.

The steady increase in the volume of business made necessary a corresponding increase of capital. And on August 3, 1870, half a million dollars were added, - making a total of $1,250,000. But within three years even this amount was found insufficient; and on January 14, 1873, the capital was increased to $1,500,000.

With the desire to secure, if possible, a more complete identification of interest in the business on the part of the employes, and, at the same time, giving them the opportunity foraprofitableinvestmentof their accumulated savings, Mr. Robbins made a provision that the employes should be allowed to subscribe for a portion of the new issue of stock on terms much more favorable than could be obtained by other parties. This ojiportunity was embraced by many of the operatives, and while some of them subsequently disposed of their shares, many others are still securing their semi-annual returns. And if they arc desirous of disposing of their stock, they can do so at a large advance.

When the National Centennial Exhibition was determined upon this company entered heartily into the work of providing an exhibit which should be a fitting indication of the progress which America had made in this branch of industry. Besides exhibiting a very large number of finished watches, in various grades, and in cases of silver and gold, a workshop was fitted up with a number of the most interesting automatic machines which had then been added to the equipment of the factory. These machines were kept in practical operation by a corps of operatives, who were in constant attendance during the entire season of the Philadelphia exhibition.

This exhibit proved to be one of the most attractive in the whole fair, and was from morning till night surrounded by a dense crowd of eager and interested visitors. In addition to these objects of such interest to the curious, the company entered a number of watches of various grades, to be submitted to the most searching and exacting tests, to demonstrate their accuracy as to time-keeping qualities.

It is a matter for congratulation and pardonable pride, that, although in competition with the watches of the old and celebrated makers of the Old World, the watches entered by the American Watch Company secured the highest award for accuracy. As an indication of the wonderful precision which has been attained in time-keeping mechanism, it may be said that the three watches which gained the highest award showed a mean daily variation of only .23 of one second ; and an average difference of but .44 of one second between the first and eleventh weeks of the official tests.

The result of this competitive trial, together with the wonderfully attractive exhibition of watches, and the machines employed in their manufacture, was, as might naturally be expected, to bring into more extended and favorable notice the Waltham Company, and to create an increased demand for their goods. It moreover forced from the European watch-makers theunwillingacknowledgment that America had taken the lead, and that evidently the days of watch-making on the old plan were about numbered.

When Mr. Dennison severed his connection with this company, in 1861, the position of superintendent was assumed by Mr. Albert T. Bacon, who has been mentioned aa having early entered the service of the original company in Roxbury. At about the same time Mr. otratton was sent to London, to serve the company as its agent for the purchase of supplies. He remained there until 1878, when he retired from active life.

Mr. Bacon continued in the position of general superintendent until 1875, having as his assistant during the last two years Mr. Ambrose Webster, who was promoted to that position from his former one ol master mechanic.

1874, assigned to the position and duties of mechanical superintendent of the entire factory ; and held that office until the resignation of Mr. Bacon, when he was appointed general superintendent of the factory, with Mr. G. H. Shirley as his assistant.

Shortly after Mr. Robbins became identified with the factory the commercial and the manufacturing branches of the business were separated, and since that time the entire product of the factory has been marketed by the selling agents of the company, Messrs. Robbins & Appleton, who have evinced great business ability, in creating and maintaining, as well as supplying, an increasing demand for the Waltham watches.

This has been accomplished by the employment of a corps of trained salesmen, in their established offices in New York, Boston, Chicago and elsewhere ; and also by sending out " missionaries," whose duties are to visit the numerous watch- dealers, and ascertain their wants, listen to their suggestions or complaints, and rectify their mistakes.

Among those early employed in this capacity was Mr. Ezra C, Fitch, a young man who came from an apprentice's bench in the store of Bigelow & Kennard, of Boston. After being in the Boston office of Robbins & Appleton for a time, he was sent out " on the road,'' visiting various districts, principally in New England, He was subsequently transferred to the New York office ; and while connected with that office he traveled over nearly every section of the United States, becoming acquainted with nearly all the leading watch-dealers of the country. Later he devoted his entire time to the business of the New York office, remaining there for several years, acquiring an experience r-nd developing a business sagacity which naturally raised him to the head of the office, and later to a partnership in the firm of Robbins & Appleton.

During the latter part of Mr. Woerd's administration it had become evident that a change was demanded, it was decided to place Mr. Fitch in the general management of the factory ; and in March, 1883, he removed from New York City, and entered upon his new line of work and responsibility.

One great advantage obtained in this appointment was the fact that Mr. Fitch was able, by reason of his commercial experience and his extensive acquaintance with the trade, to appreciate their wants as they could not be felt by those whose entire experience had been in the direction of manufacturing.

and the office and duties of general superintendent were assumed by Mr. Fitch. He was also chosen to a place on the Board of Directors ; and in May, 188G, was elected president of the company, all of which positions he now occupies.

At the time this factory was started, and for many years thereafter, all watches were made in the form now designated as "key-winding," in which the main-spring was wound by means of a key, which was entirely separate from the watch, and which was liable to be mislaid or lost, and to use which required the opening of the watch-case, with the liability of the introduction of dust, to the injury of the delicate mechanism. After a time improved means for winding were adopted, in which the separate key was discarded, and the winding performed by means of an arbor extending through the case-pendant, upon the outer end of which was fastened a knob or " crown." By means of a lever, concealed within the case, or a " push piece " projecting through its side, the mechanism could be disconnected from the winding, and made to engage with other wheels, for the purpose of moving the hands. This form of construction is known as the " stem-winding " or " keyless " watch, and has to a great extent superseded the old form of winding.

Desiring to still further improve their watches, both in quality of workmanship and in mechanical devices, the company in 1882 secured the services of Mr. D. H. Church, of Chicago, who was known as a thorough watch-maker, and possessed of unusual skill and ingenuity. One of the first results of Mr, Church's endeavors was the production of a device for still further improving stem-winding watches, so as to do away with the " hand-setting lever," which involved the necessity of opening the case during the operation of setting the hands. This new form of construction was soon adopted, and became very popular, being technically known as the " pendant-set."

In giving the history of an eaterprise such as we have been considering, it would be of interest to dwell to some extent upon the careers of the individuals who have been prominent in its development ; but it has been the endeavor of the v/riler to subordinate individuals so far as possible, in the simple story of the origin, trials and growth of this world-renowned industry. And it remains in closing to make mention of a few things which are of interest, and may well become matters of permanent record.

In 1885, by an act of the Massachusetts Legislature, this company was authorized to increase its capital to $4,000,000 and also to change its corporate name by the insertion into it of the word " Waltham ;" and under that authority It has, since March of that year, existed under the name of the American Waltham Watch Company.

On that occasion Mr. Robbins made his thirtieth annual report as treasurer ; and its close gave a brief review of the thirty years' work. Among other interesting items he stated that up to February 1, 1879, 1,112,133 watch-movements h.ad been made; and at the close of the year 1888 the number liad reached 3,800,-496, showing that the production of the last ten years had been more than double that of the preceding twenty years ; also that the sales since he became treasurer had reached an aggregate of nearly $48,000,000.

While it is a matter for congratulation that this vast sum without question indicates a large total return to the stockholders, it is also no less a fact that the employees have shared in the prosperity of the business to an extent which, to say the least, is by no means common.

It has been a matter of no small pride witli the management that the scale of wages has been a liberal one. It is also a matter of almost universal comment with visitors to the factory, as they are shown through the various departments, or observe the 2800 operatives as they pass out at the close of work, to note their appearance of superior intelligence and refinement.

It would be difBcult to find another manufacturing concern the ranks of whose workmen have produced so many persons who have entered professional life, or adopted other forms of business as employers. Among the graduates from this factory there are several editors, lawyers, physicans, dentists and artists. Others have become merchants and manufacturers. Many are holding honorable positions in municipal affairs. One is mayor of the city, another is postmaster, and another a member of the State Legislature.

The high character and superior intelligence of the people who here find employment, together with the liberal wages paid, will, in a great measure, account for the absence of labor troubles, which have become so common in many industries. But much is also due to the governing desire on the part of the officers of the company to be just and fair in the consideration of all matters involving diflerences of opinion, and apparent conflict of interests.

The introduction of improved methods of work and the employment of labor-saving machines will without doubt occasion temporary individual hardships, but thoughtful men realize that such things are to be expected, and are in fact inevitable ; but will also realize that the permanent prosperity of the individual operatives is dependent upon the financial success of their employers.

The decay of the watch industry in England, consequent upon their loss of the American market, and the fact that large numbers of Walthara watches are sold abroad, has compelled the English to acknowledge that, in certain respects at least, the American system possesses a superiority. Several attempts have been made within the last few years to inaugurate the same general plan in some English establishments, but it is understood with only a partial degree of success.

Within recent months articles have been published in English horological journals, in which the attempt has been made to rob Mr. Dennison of the . credit of havingoriginated the sy.stem of interchangeability of parts, made possible by the employment of a .series of special machines. Nevertheless, the fact remains that such a scheme, if ever conceived in Europe, was never carried out, nor practically demon.strated until Mr. Dennison accomplished it. So that whatever of honor or credit such an accomplishment can claim is certainly due to Mr. Dennison and his co-workers in originating this factory.

A person unacquainted with the almost infinite details involved in the conduct of a complete and extensive watch factory, can have little appreciation of the difiiculties and perplexities which are continually arising. Nor can he comprehend the extremely wearing nature of the duties involved in the judicious management of such a business.

For these reasons it has often been felt that the safe and profitable limit of production could not be very greatly in excess of that already attained.

But the invention and use of improved machines continues to make possible an increase of product, without greatly complicating the details ; so that it is expected that within a few months at least two thousand movements per day will be produced.

The completion of watch No. 2,000,000 in January, 1883, was made the occasion of a slight celebration, which took the form of a banquet. It was given by the foremen of the various departments of the factory ; they having as invited guests, Mr. R. E. Robbins, the treasurer ; Mr. C. V. Woerd, the superintendent; Mr. G. H. Shirley, assistant superintendent, and representatives from the offices of the selling agents. The most interesting feature of the occasion was the address of Mr. Robbins, who, after expressing his pleasure at meeting his captains and lieutenants in that social way, gave a most interesting narrative of some of the early difiiculties and struggles of the Watch Company, some of which have been recorded in the foregoing pages. That occasion was so thoroughly enjoyed by all present that, as one result. The Watch Factory Foremen's Association was organized, holding regular meetings for the discussion of matters pertaining to the interests of the factory. Similar banquets have been held each succeeding year, the officers of the company, the selling agents, and the foremen successively being the hosts.

The present rate of production will, within a few months, bring the number of finished movements to a full 5,000,000, which event might well be the occasion of a celebration.

As in the natural world there seems to be a particular pest or enemy to the various forms of vegetation, so there has within a few years been developed to a marked degree an influence which has been the cause of very serious disturbance in the time rate of watches. The attempt to discover a remedy for this difficulty has engaged the time and taxed the ingenuity of the management of this company and some of its prominent assistants for many months, and the problem has been successfully solved by the discovery of certain alloys, which possess the properties of elasticity and sufficient expansion under the influence of heat, and also the non-magnetic property. So that watches are now made which can be safely exposed to strong magnetic influences without fear of injury.

The rapid introduction of electricity as an agent for the convenient transmission of power and for the production of artificial light will, without doubt, be the cause of injury to large numbers of watches of ordinary construction, and it is therefore felt that the ability to construct non-magnetic watches, which is alone possessed by this American company, is to be of increasing value.

Allusion has been made to the great amount of detail involved in the manufacture of watches, as conducted at this factory. The statement of a few facts will make this evident to the ordinary reader.

This company, at the present time (1890), is manufacturing watch-movements in five different sizes, and of each size several different grades are made. While the difl'erent grades of any one size may, and do, possess the same general appearance, yet in certain details there are radical differences, and in others there are required modifications in the operations which enter into their construction and finish.

An ordinary watch-movement is composed of upwards of one hundred and fifty distinct pieces, and a careful list of the distinct operations required to complete them all shows the number to be over three thousand seven hundred, or an average of twenty-five operations for each piece. Some of them are, of course, quite simple ; but others are complicated and involve the employment of special machines, many of which are, from their character, very expensive.

It will doubtless be evident that a business involving so much of detail, and demanding such a degree of accuracy in workmanship, can be successfully conducted only by the most careful attention to all the details of it; and that thorough system is indispensable.

To attain these ends, the work of the factory is divided into twenty-two departments, each under the direct care of a foreman, some of whom have one or more assistants. The departments are as follows:

Aside from the foregoing, who have specific duties, there is a corps of what may be called executive officers, whose duties and cares are more general, but not less exacting and wearing. The nature of their duties is suggested by the several titles, viz. :

In closing this imperfect, and somewhat fragmentary, sketch of the origin, trials and triumplis of this pioneer in the watch-making industry in America, it may be said, that while many other enterprises are much more easily conducted, and may yield returns to their stockholders far exceeding this, it may well be doubted if in the whole country, or indeed in the world, there can be found an enterprise more widely and favorably known, or one which has been able to promote such a general diffusion of sound prosperity, as has resulted, directly and indirectly, from the establishment and management of the manufacturing industry now conducted under the name of "The American Waltham Watch Company."

The Waltham Public Library was organized as a free public library iu 1865. At that time the Rumford Iiihtitute, an institution of long standing and great influence for good in the town, oflfered to give its large and well-selected library, on condition that it be made a free public library, and that its charge and support thereafter should be assumed by the town. The town accepted the proposition and the present Public Library was thus formed and organized. The management of the library was intrusted to a board of eight directors, four of whom were to be chosen in each year, and the funds for the maintenance of the library and the purchase of books were appropriated from the town treasury. Rooms for books, and a reading-room, were secured in the second story of the Waltham Bank Building. Miss Lorenza Haynes was appointed librarian, and thus the library, as one of the free public institutions of the town, started on its course of usefulness.

But the history of the library before it was taken under the fostering care of the town, is the most interesting feature of its existence. It shows the desire and successful efforts of a people to obtain information, and draw from the store of public knowledge that knowledge so essential to the welfare of a free and intelligent people. It al.so furnishes a shining example to the everlasting honor of the first cotton manufacturing establishment in America, of the care of the corporation for the moral and educational wellbeing of the operatives, and of the people residing in the locality of the manufactory. When the Boston Manufacturing Company established its mills in Waltham, among its early acts, besides the encouragement of the church and the school for those connected with the factories and their children, was the promotion of a library of useful and entertaining knowledge. Funds for that purpose were placed in the hands of Rev. Sewall Harding, the pastor of the church, who made the first purchases of books. This was in the year 1820. These books were loaned to the operatives at stated periods, and the library was called the Manufacturers' Library. When the Rumford Institute was organized in 182<>, besides providing for lectures and debates, it started a collection of books. This institution was substantially encouraged by the manufacturing company, and as a foundation for a permanent library, the Manufacturers' Library was transferred to the Institute. This was a nucleus of the large and well-selected library which was finally given to the town as a public library. From small beginnings, the gradual accretions of books, from gift and purchase, swelled the number and insured a permanent and valuable collection. The manufacturing company with continued liberality erected a building for the lectures of the Institute, and provided cases and facilities for keeping and delivering the books. The proceeds of rent were devoted to the purchase of new books. The class of books purchased and added were of a general character, adapted to the use of such a population, and of a high order, which shows the care in their selection. The library was open every Saturday evening, and the annual fee for its privileges was merely a nominal sum. To minors especial encouragement was given for availing themselves of the use of the library and attendance at its lectures. Thus the library in the sphere of its usefulness, and the additions to its shelves, grew with the growth of the town, and was an important element in the social, moral and intellectual life. The noble and broad-minded men who were the projectors of the factories showed that they were guided by higher motives than those which attached to mere business enterprises. When the library was transferred to the town, it comprised about three thousand well-chosen volumes.

Soon after its organization as a Public Library, the Social Library, of the First Parish Church, was given to it. This library had been establiched under the statutes passed for the encouragement of learning and knowledge in that way, and was connected with the church of the town, though the books were mostly of a general and secular character. In 1873 the library of the Farmers' Club, consisting of about two hundred and fifty volumes of agricultural works, was added to the library as a gift from the club.

As the extent of the library and the convenience of the people required better accommodations, in 1880, by the advice of the directors, the town authorized the removal to a new block erected by Charles A. Welch, at the corner of Charles and Moody Streets, where, upon the ground-floor, much better facilities were secured. The area was judiciously divided into reception, reading, reference alid alcove rooms, and the location has proved itself as well adapted to the purposes as any place not especially provided for such use in its original design. It is hoped that at some future time public or private munificence may provide a building devoted to its exclusive use as a Public Library. By the city charter the manfgement of the library is in charge of a board of six directors, two of whom are elected annually by the Board of Aldermen. The appropriations by both the town and city have always been liberal and have been granted with an adequate comprehension of the benefit of such an institution. By co-operation with the School Board the library is made greatly to aid the scholars of the public schools in their studies. Special attention has been given to reference books, and the room devoted to their use is one of its most interesting apartments. The librarians have been

Misa Lorenza Haynes, Mr. A. J. Lathrop and Miss Sumner Johnson, who at present holds that position. The number of books is about fifteen thousand.

Chapter Lii By Alexander Starbuck

Not many years after the settlement of Watertown advantage was taken of the water privileges within its borders for the establishment of such manufactures as the limited needs of the colonists required and would support. The earliest one of which we have any account as having been established within what are now the corporate limits of Waltham was a fulling-mill, erected at or near the site known as Kendall's Mill, on Beaver Brook. On the 30th of May, 1662, Timothy Hawkins sold to Thomas Agar, of Roxbury, fuller, three-quarters of an acre of land at this place, "' with all the accommodation of water, for the erecting and maintenance of a fulling-mill in said place, and on the river that passeth through the same ; also the right of way." Mr. Agar did not continue the business long at this place, for the record says that December 18, 1663, but little more than a year at best from the time he could have had his mill in operation, he sold the land, " with the fullingmill thereon erected, to Thomas Loveran, late of Dedham, Co. Essex, Old England, cloth- worker." Loveran seems to have continued in business here until 1669-70. January 3d of that year he sold the mill to Timothy Hawkins and Benjamin Garfield. Prior to 1690 - how long before does not appear - the mill wa.s used for grinding corn. In 1700 Samuel Stearns, a son-in-law of Timothy Hawkins, was the owner in whole or in part of the property.

It appears by a vote passed by the town of Watertown, at a meeting held January 5, 1679-80, that a grist-mill was in process of erection on Stony Brook, the town voting " that the new corn-mill now set up and to be finished at Stony Brook, be freed from rates for 20 years." In 1684 this mill was owned by John Bright and others. According to Bond: "These mills were probably owned some time by Lieutenant .John Brewer, and afterwards, for a long time, known as Bigelow's Mills." Bond also says: "The mills built on the three points just referred to " (that is, near the weir established at Watertown and the two localities mentioned in this article) " were the only ones in the town for the first seventy, probably the first hundred, years after its settlement." There was probably a mill also on the brook running east of Lexington Street, and crossing Beaver Street, a branch of Beaver Brook.

Probably the next mill which was erected in Waltham was the one known as the Boies Paper Mill, and was built and carried on by John Boies. Mr. Boies manufactured brown and white paper and his mill stood on land now occupied by the Boston Manufacturing Company. It was at that time a picturesque locality. The date of the erection of the mill is not definitely fixed, but it was probably between 1780 and 1790. The Massachusetts Magazine for April, 1793, published an engraving of the mill, showing the dwelling of Mr. Boies near by, and accompanied it with the following description ; " We have the pleasure to present our patrons with a south view of Mr. John Boyce's Paper Manufactory, combining a prospectus of his dwelling-house and outbuildings, together with a view of the meeting-house, (he seats of Messieurs Townsend and Pacy, and Charles River. Theeituation is acknowledged to be one of the most elegant and delightful in the township of Waltham, and has deservedly acquired the name of EDEN VALE. It is about ten miles from Boston, and one half mile from the Great Road on the Plains." Boies' estate in 1798 was valued at .-JloSO.

A similar mill was built by Governor Gore, near the site of the present Waltham Bleachery, prior to 1800. In 1802 Nathan Upham erected a small ivooden building on Stony Brook, near the Weston line and commenced the manufacture of coarse wrapping papers. Nathan, and Amos his brother, had served an apprenticeship with John Boies. They continued the business until 1820, when they disposed of the mill to .John M. Gibbs, who also continued the manufacture until 1835, when he sold the mill to John and Stephen Roberts. Stephen died in 1845, and John became sole owner. Eventually John's son William became a partner, and the business was carried on under the style of John Roberts and Son. .John Roberts died in 1871, and William still carries on the business, but the firm-name is unchanged. The goods produced are sheathing and asbestos papers principally, and large quantities are yearly produced. The old wooden mill was long ago replaced by a more commodious and substantial .stone structure, and the water-power of the brook was assisted by the steam engine.

In 1810 the Governor Gore mill was purchased by the Waltham Cotton and Woolen Company, which was organized that year. It is said that this company at one time employed about two hundred hands and its weekly products reached 10,000 yards. According to " M. U.'' in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections for 1815, the mill at that time run, in its cotton department 2000 spindles, and worked 300 pounds of cotton per day ; in the woolen department were run 380 spindles, four jennies and two jacks. Fourteen woolen looms were in operation and sixty pounds of wool used per day. A portion of the weaving was done outside the factory in the neighboring and even in some distant towns. It was unsuccessful, however, as a financial venture and nine years after its incorporation (in February, 1819), its property was sold to the Boston Manufacturing Company for $200,000.

The Boston Manufacturing Company was incorporated in February, 1813. Francis C. Lowell and Patrick I. Jackson purchased the mill and water privilege established by Mr. Boies and, joining with Nathan Appletou and others, organized the company and were incorporated by the Legislature with a capital of $400,000. Work was at once commenced on the buildings, and the mill nearest Moody Street was completed during the first year. While the building was in process of construction Mr. Lowell visited England to study the mechanism of weaving as practiced there and to obtain improved machinery, with the intention of providing fur the complete production of cotton-cloth by machinery.

The new mill built by the company was of brick, five stories high, ninety feet long and forty-five feet wide, and running 3000 spindles. The roof was of the double-pitch pattern. Within five years this portion of the mill has been remodeled to conform to the more modern portions. It was several months after Mr. Lowell's return from England before the new power loom was perfected. The first record of its work is on the books of the company under date of February 2, 1816, at which time the entry was made of " 1242 yards 4-4" or thirty-six inches wide cotton. There is no doubt that this entry records the date of the first manufacture of cotton-cloth in America where all the operations were performed under one roof. The goods mentioned were made in imitation of the cotton imported at that period from India.

The first product was at the rate of 4000 yards per week. Only one store in Boston, that of a Mrs. Bowers, on CornhlU, dealt in goods of this kind, and as home-made cotton-goods were not viewed with particular favor, the sales were not by any means encouraging. The experiment was tried of selling the product by auction. It proved successful ; about thirty cents a yard being realized, and the business of the company was firmly established.

In 1818 a new mill was erected, and the production thereby increased to 2.5,000 yards per week. Three widths were made : 30 inches, 37J inches and 54 inches ; the price being 30, 37i and 50 cents per yard,, respectively.

In 1833 the canal now in usk by the company was built. In 1836, by reason of drought, the water-supply failed, and a steam-engine was added to the mill equipment. In 1847 the old wooden dam was replaced by the present granite one. In 1852 a new mill, 200 feet long and 80 feet wide, was built for the manufacture of e.\tra-widc sheetings; and soon after the first wide sheetings made in America were woven in this mill. The number of spindles at that time was 40,000. In 1873 a new mill, 150x91 feet, was built ; in 1879 an addition of 117 feetwas built to this, and in 1882 another addition was made. In 1888 the remodeling of the old mill made the structures uniform; and at the present writing, another new mill, 100 feet long, 70 feet wide and four stories high, is being built between River Street and the Fitchburg Railroad and between Elm and Moody Streets. The number of spindles at present in use is 60,000, but the new mill will largely increase this number.

Soon after the Boston Manufacturing Company purchased the plant of the Waltham Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Companj' the old mill was demolished, and a new building commenced for the bleaching of the company's product and the manufacture of a better grade of cotton-cloth. The original intention was to utilize the bleachery simply for the bleaching, finishing and dyeing of the company's goods, but the field was gradually extended until its customers are found in every portion of the United States. The old methods, including the large wooden drying-sheds, were replaced in 1873-74 with more modern appliances and buildings, the present structures being built of brick. The present capacity of the works is a little over 100,000 yards of cloth per day.

In 1868 the Boston Manufacturing Company commenced the manufacture of hosiery, but the manufacture was, after several years' trial, abandoned, or rather superseded by that of underwear. The present production of undershirts and drawers is about 150,000 dozens per year. The industry was started at the bleachery, but the machinery was subse^quently removed to one of the company's new mill-buildings, near Moody Street.

The people of Waltham are much indebted to the pioneers of the Boston Manufacturing Company for many things. The corporation established, and for many years maintained at its own expense, schools. The Rumford Institute, which for many years was one of the educational institutions of Waltham, originated among its employees, and was carefully fostered by it until within comparatively few years. The library organized by the institute was the nucleus for the present Public Library. In various other ways has the company shown a lively interest in the welfare of Waltham.

In the year 1819 Patrick T. .Tackson and others commenced the manufacture of lulphuric acid in a building near the junction of Charles River with Beaver Brook. About six years after the business was removed to a large lot of land bounded at present by High, Newton, Pine and Hall Streets. Here for many years a very extensive manufacture of this acid was carried on by a corporation called the Newton Chemical Company, the land at the time of their incorporation being a portion of Newton. For many years this establishment was without a rival in its special business. The manufacture was abandoned in 1872, and the land is now nearly covered with dwelling-houses.

In 1835 Dr. Francis F. Field, a dentist, invented a process for the manufacture of crayons for the use of schools, tailors, carpenters, etc.

This was the beginning of a business which was for several years carried on by Mr. Zenas Parmenter and by Messrs. Parmenter, Powers & Powell in a little shop, near the corner of Lexington and Pond Streets. A fire destroyed their shop and their increasing business demanding more room, they removed to the upper part of a building on Felton Street owned by Davis and Farnum. The accommodations here did not long suffice, however, and about 1863 the old bedstead factory, the site of the present factory, was hired. At first only the upper portion of that building was used, but the then firm of Parmenter & Walker soon occupied the whole building and has since so enlarged it on the east, the west, the north, the south, and perpendicularly that not a semblance of the original structure is left. In 1881 Mr. Parmenter purchased Mr. Walker's interest, and in January, 1882, a company was formed and incorporated under the title of the Parmenter Crayon Company, with a paid-in capital of $45,000. From the insignificant beginning of fifty years ago, the business has reached colossal proportions. From two cases a week, which was formerly considered a good showing, the production has increased until now it has an average of from twenty to twenty-iive cases per day, with facilities for twice that amount. The goods are shipped to all parts of Europe, and to the more distant portions of the globe, including New Zealand and Japan.

In 1862 Messrs. Kidder and Adams, machinists in the employ of the American Watch Company, believing that there was an opening for the manufacture of watch repairer's tools, left the employ of that company and commenced the manufacture of lathes for the trade. Their enterprise did not prove sufficiently remunerative, and their business eventually passed into the hands of Mr. John Stark, who has since continued it.

In 1872 Messrs. John E. Whitcomb and George F. Ballou, then in the employ of the American Watch Co., left the service of that company, and commenced the manufacture of watch-makers' lathes. They made what has ever since been known as the " Whitcomb " lathe, embodying in it the distinctive features which the experience of the watch company had found to produce the best results. In 1874 Mr. Ballou retired from the co-partnership, and in 1876, Mr. Ambrose Webster, who had resigned his position as assistant superintendent of the American Watch Company, joined with Mr. Whitcomb in the association known as the American Watch Tool Company.

The demand for lathes and tools made by these companies extends throughout the civilized world. The American Watch Tool Company has furnished a very considerable portion of the equipment of several watch-factories in this country and in Europe.

In 1883, Mr. Charles Vanderwoerd, after a connection of twenty years with the American Watch Company, resigned his position of general superintendent, and purchased the plant of some machinists who had recently commenced the manufacture of watchmakers' tools. A company was organized under the name of the Waltham Watch Tool Company, for the purpose of making watch tools and machinery. After making considerable machinery for watch-factories, the attention of the company was turned to the manufacture of watches on its own account. A tract of land on Charles Street was purchased from the town, and a brick building, 100x25 feet, and three stories high was erected. The original plans contemplate a structure with a central tower about forty feet frontage with a wing each side, the part now built being only a wing. The entire frontage of the completed building will be 240 feet.

In the rear of the factory is a two-story wooden building which is used as a carpenter's shop and gilding-room. In June, 1885, the present name of the corporation, " The United States Watch Company," was adopted in place of the former one, as expressing more clearly the business of the company.

The company is meeting with encouraging success in the sale of its watches and ii? considering the completion of its building according to the original designs.

In 1844 Mr. R. P. Davis established an iron foundry in a building near the Moody Street crossing of the Fitchburg Railroad. The business subsequently passed into the hands of Frederick J. Davis, who, in 1860, erected a much larger building for it between Felton Street and the railroad. Soon after the establishment of the business in its new location Mr. John R. Farnum acquired an interest in it, and the business was carried on under the name of Davis & Farnum. The firm-name was changed in 1876 to the Davis & Farnum Manufacturing Company, by which name it is now known. The excellence of the work turned out by Davis & Farnum soon so crowded them with orders that their establishment on Felton Street was entirely inadequate to meet their increasing business and the tract of land near the Bleach ery, now occupied by them, was purchased and the buildings erected in 1870. The foundry building is 250 feet long and 125 feet wide, with three cupolas, having a combined melting capacity of thirty-five tons per day, running what is termed a three-bour heat. There are also a pattern shop about 100 feet square and a sheetiron shop 100 feet by 50 feet, besides an' oflSce build- ing and tenement-houses. About 150 persons are employed by the company during its busy season. The specialty of the company and the branch of business in which it has won its chief distinction is the equipment of gas plants with every detail in machinery and apparatus. Its operations in this line have extended not only through New England, but through the West and South and into the British Provinces.

In 1880 Mr. Henry Kichardson, whose service as a machinist in the employ of the American Watch Tool Co. had led him to study the subject, began to experiment in the manufacture of a fine grade of emery wheels, with the design to produce a wheel better adapted to the fine work of watch and watchmachine makers than any at that time made. He was successful and the following year associated with him Mr. Henry Shuman, also a machinist. A portion of the brick building, now wholly occupied by the firm, was leased and the business vigorously pushed. The business was originally conducted under the name of The Richardson Emery- Wheel Co., subsequently being changed in style to The Waltham Emery-Wheel Co., its present title. In 1883 Mr. Harlan P. Hyde became associated with the firm as treasurer and general manager. Mr. Hyde's previous experience of nearly twenty years in the business made him a valuable accession. Mr. Shuman retired from the firm about six years ago. The business has steadily increased, new buildings have been erected to meet increasing demands, and instead of Messrs. Richardson and Shuman being able to supply the trade the labor of fifty employees is taxed to the utmost to that end. Even the buildings used are found inadequate and the company has purchased an extensive tract of land near the Central Massachusetts Railroad, where a large brick building, 250 feet long by 40 feet wide, especially adapted to the work is being erected. A considerable portion of this building will be two stories high. Commodious olBces will be arranged and separate buildings for engine and boiler-rooms will be built.

The Waltham Gas-Light Company was incorporated in 1853. At the meeting for organization in January, 1851, Horatio Adams, R. P. Davie, I. R. Scott, R. S. Warren and Horatio Moore were chosen directors, and Thomas Page clerk and treasurer. Horatio Adams was elected president. The authorized capital was $150,000, although only .$35,000 worth of stock was at first issued, the works being constructed for less than the paid-in capital. In October 1854, gas was first supplied to customers, the price being $4 per 1000 cubic feet. In 1855 the production was 3,000,000 cubic feet. The present production is about 25,000,000 cubic feet. The paid-in capital has been greatly increased until it reaches now $140,000. In 1886 an electric plant was added to the equipment, and on the 24th of December of that year the electric light was first used for street and store illumination in this city. In 1890 a contract was made to supply power to the Newton Street Railroad, and as the electric plant in use by the company had been outgrown, and there was a considerable demand foi power for industrial pursuits, new buildings were erected, a new engine and boiler added and the equipment in every way largely increased.

In 1889, the Judson L. Thompson Manufacturing Company of Syracuse, N. Y., having outgrown its facilities for manufacture in that city, and being desirous of locating nearer the market for its goods, which consisted of metal buckles for rubber footwear and small hardware decided to locate in Waltham, a tract of land at Roberts Crossing being placed at the company's disposal by the owner, William Roberts, Esq. A brick building 400 feet by 75 feet has been erected, and the business of the company has been removed to this city.

Three shoe factories flourished in Waltham betweeji the years 1855 and 1860 - one owned by Bills & Jones, located on Bacon Street, another owned by C. S. Gay, near the corner of Bacon and Pond Streets, and a third owned by B. F. Clough, and situated back of Prospect Street. The one owned by Bills & Jones employed just previous to the War of the Rebellion about 100 hands, that of Mr. Clough employed 60 persons in 1857, and the other about twenty-five. The business was long ago abandoned and the buildings remodeled into dwellings.

An industry which originated in Waltham, and which, while it did not in the brief years it was located here materially affect this municipality, has produced most important results in the commercial world, is the refining of kerosene oil. There seems to be no reasonable doubt but the first successful experiments in this country, if not in the world, through which kerosene oil became a cheap and popular illuminant, were conducted in an iron building known for years as the " Tar " factory, erected on the north bank of the Charles River, just east of Peterson's icehouses. The building was constructed in 1852 or 1853 and was built for the purpose of utilizing gas tar, the waste of gas-houses. The early products were coaltar benzole, naphtha, dead oils and pitches. Quoting from a letter written by Joshua Merrill, Esq., president of the Downer Kerosene Oil Company, " From the distillates were derived a variety of products such as coup oil, used in combination with fatty oils and castor oil. Another product, benzole, was used in making gas by passing air through it in a machine invented by Drake. It was a success and was largely used until the more volatile petroleum naphthas superceded it. Picric acid was another product made from phenic acid, a product of the coal-tar distillation. The dead oils were sold mostly to a Mr. Hiram Hyde, who erected a plant near the factory for preserving wood by creosoting, the dead oils containing large percentages of creosote. It was not until about 1865 that Luther Atwood and William Atwood made kerosene at these works. They used a product obtained in Canada, probably the outflow of the petroleum wells, which were, up to this date, unknown to exist, but they had, in some former time, flowed out oil through the surface of the ground and it had evaporated, leaving a kind of pitch. This was a true petroleum product and the Atwoods at once discovered its utility for oil-making. The oil made from the Canada petroleum surface pitch was the first burning oil made in this country. James Young, of Glasgow, Scotland, had made a product from coal distilled in retorts as early as 1850. Young's oil was very poor, disgusting in odor and of poor quality, while Atwood's was white in color, sweet in smell and of excellent burning qualities. I consider Luther Atwood the ^ father of the burning oil industry from coal and petroleum, and to Waltham belongs the honor of having had him for a citizen from 1852 to 1856, and the plant from which the great industry subsequently developed."

The building now occupied in its greatly enlarged form by the Parmenter Crayon Company was used by Stratton Brothers for awhile for the manufacture of furniture. The extent of the business carried on by them in its most prosperous time may be judged from the fact that in 1857 they employed thirty men, making on an average 6260 bedsteads, 62-t arm-chairs, 3756 what-nots, 2496 tables, and 2600 ottomans a year. In 1859, however, little trace of the business was left.

An organ-factory was established in 1890 by E. W. Lane. The business is, however, as yet in its infancy. Other small industries might be mentioned, but the amount of capital invested and number of hands employed make the industries important only in the

Biographical Jonathan Brown Bright.'

Mr. Bright's volume, " The Brights of Suflblk, England," printed for private distribution in 1858, but accessible to genealogical inquiries, closes with Henry Bright, Jr., who came to New England in 1630, and settled in Watertown, Mass. Henry Bright, Jr., married Anne Goldstone, who came from Suffolk, England, in 1634. Through her he inherited the homestead of her parents, in Watertown, east of and adjoining the estate of the late John P. Gushing, and opposite that of the late Alvan Adams. Here Henry Bright, Jr., lived and died.

His son, the first Nathaniel Bright, of Watertown, married Mary Coolidge, of the same town ; and their son, the second Nathaniel Bright, married Ann Bow- man, all of Watertown. The homestead of the second Nathaniel Bright was about three-fourths of a mile west of the Goldstone place, and still remains in the hands of his descendants. The old house upon it, taken down in 1877, was said to have been built before 1700.

The third Nathaniel Bright, son of the second, married Sybil Stone, of Sudbury, Mass., a descendant of Gregory Stone. Their son, John Bright, of Waltham, married Elizabeth Brown, of Watertown, daughter of Captain Jonathan Brown. This John Bright settled, in 1776, in Waltham, where he lived until his death, in his eighty-seventh year, in 1840. His ten children, of whom Jonathan Brown Bright was the youngest, were born in the house which stood nearly where that stands in which the latter died, on the main highway into Waltham, on the eastern bank of Beaver Brook, the estate being divided by Grove Street.

Elizabeth Brown, the mother of Jonathan B. Bright, was a daughter of Jonathan Brown, of Watertown (captain in the army at Lake George, 1758), and Esther Mason, of Watertown, a descendant of Hugh Mason. Captain Jonathan Brown was a son of Jonathan Brown, of Watertown, and Elizabeth Simons, of Lexington. This Jonathan was son of Captain Abraham Brown, of Watertown, and Mary Hyde, of Newton. Captain Abraham Brown dropped the final e, which his father, Jonathan Browne, and his grandfather, Abraham Browne, had carried. Abraham

The old Brown estate, an original grant to the first Abraham, now reduced in size, is still owned by descendants of the name. The main body of the house was built by Captain Abraham Brown, but a part is still more ancient. It stands on the road from Watertown village to Waltham, a little to the east of the estate once owned by Governor Gore, afterwards by Theodore Lyman.

The items given above may be recapitulated in the following table, giving the pedigree of Jonathan B. Bright on both the father's and the mother's side.

John Bright, the father of Jonathan Brown Bright, was a farmer and a tanner. Only two of the descendants of Henry Bright, Jr., are known to have received a college education - Henry, Harvard 1770, and Nathaniel Francis, Harvard, 1866. But they have been and are, almost without exception, men of good

- sense, with a taste for reading, and of practical, sound judgment. Jlr. John Bright's large family made industry an essential virtue among his children ; and his strictly religious character made him a strict disciplinaHan to enforce it. At the age of four Jonathan B. was sent to the district school ; and during the next ten years was taught to read, to write and to cipher, working at home during the long vacations. At fourteen he was sent for one quarter to Westford Academy, after which he took lessons for a short time of the Rev. Samuel Ripley, so long pastor of the First Parish, Waltham ; but, having no desire for a collegiate education, he resumed labor on the farm and in the tan-yard.

In 1816 he attended, one term only, Framingham Academy. The next year, having no more taste for tanning or farming than for study, he went, with an older brother, to New Orleans by sea, thence up the river to St. Louis, and became his brother's clerk in a store. Here he remained until of age, with the exception of one season in a branch store at Franklin, on the Missouri. As soon as he was of age he began a retail business for himself in St. Stephens, Alabama ; but the next year moved to Selma. During the following year, 1823, of the seven men of Northern birth in that town, four died of fever; and the other three, including Mr. Bright, suffered severely with the same disease. This decided him to quit the South. In 1824, finding no vessel at Mobile for Boston, he went to New York and sought employment. Making an engagement with Blackstock, Merle & Co., cotton brokers, he paid first a brief visit, after seven years' absence, to his home ; then returning, spent twenty-five years in New York, first as clerk, afterwards as partner ; the firm changed to Merle & Bright, and then to Merle, Bright & Co.

In 1849 he returned to the homestead on Beaver Brook, then occupied by his maiden sister Mary, with whom also an unmarried brother John resided. Mr. Bright built here a larger house a few feet east of the old one ; and he and his only child, with the brother and sister, constituted the family. Thirty-two years' absence had not diminished his attachment to the old place and to the companions of his childhood. They passed away before him, but the thirty years of quiet enjoyment which followed his retirement to the place of-his birth were made much happier by the prolongation of the sister's life nearly to the close of his own.

In 1827 Mr. Bright married Miss Mary Huguenin Garbrance ; but his happiness with her was interrupted by her early death in 1830. Her only child, a daughter, came with her father to Waltham in 1849, and in 18G1 married her cousin, William EUery Bright.

The thirty years, from 1849 to 1879, in which Mr. Bright lived free from active business cares, were by no means years of idleness. With the exception of a journey in 1859 to Nassau, Havana, New Orleans and

St. Louis, and a shorter one in 1860 to BuflFalo and Quebec, the occupation of all those years was found in his native town, doing private kindnesses and fostering public improvements. I remember that one of the earliest impressions I received of him was from the chairman of the board of assessors, who told me that he had just had a peculiar experience : Mr. Bright had come in, after the town had been assessed, and said, " You have not made my tax large enough ; add so many thousand dollars to my personal properly.'' It revealed the character of the man ; it was both his integrity and his public spirit that made him thus voluntarily assume a larger proportion of the public expenses.

In 1856 he was put on a town committee to select ground for a new cemetery ; drew up the report, which was accepted, and named all the avenues in the new grounds, Mt. Feake, after ancient Waltham families - :i token of the strong interest which he then took in the matter of genealogy.

He furnished a good deal of valuable local history and antiquarian lore to the Waltham Sentinel and the Waltham Free Press, during the years 1856-63. He was an active promoter and leader of the Union League of the town during the Civil War ; and before that in the organization of a Farmers' Club, which is still in active operation. But the wire-|)ulling necessary to success in carrying on matters dcpgndeut on popular votes was so distasteful to a man of his pure, simple and manly integrity, that, after 1858, he resolutely declined to serve on any committee in town affairs.

In 1848, just before retiring from business in New York, Mr. Bright accidentally heard that Dr. Henry Bond, of Philadelphia, had a genealogy of the Bright family. Mr. Bright had a great interest in that matter, although up to that time he had had no leisure to examine it. He immediately wrote to Dr. Bond, and the correspondence was kept up until the latter gentleman's death. Dr. Bond proved to have descended, in one line, from Henry Bright, Jr., and was also remotely connected with Mr. J. B. Bright by the marriage of his grandfather to Mr. Bright's aunt. Dr. Bond visited Mr. Bright at Waltham and spent some weeks there, while both were much engaged in collecting genealogical material. Mr. Bright afterward employed Mr. H. G. Somerby to make researches in England ; and in 1858 printed his valuable records of " The Brights of Suffolk, England."

Since that volume was printed Jlr. Bright has collected material which would fill three more volumes of the same size, relating to the family on this side the Atlantic, and to other families of the same name.'

1 Mr. Bright was admitted a resident member of the New England IJisturic Genealogical Society Deo. 11, 1850, and made himself a life member March 20, 18G3. He interested himself much in the society, and was a frequent donor to its library. In 1870 he gave five hundred dollars to the Building Fund, for purchasing and fitting for the uses of the society the building which it now occupies.

The descendants of Henry Bright, Jr., have been mostly farmers and mechanics, occasionally shopkeepers, none holding other than town or parish offices; but none dishonoring the name. The number bearing the name is small, not exceeding, to the year 1850, one hundred and fifty ; but the descendants in the female line have been more numerous.

By a will dated December 15, 1860, Mr. Bright bequeathed to Harvard College fifty thousand dollars, the iucome of which should be equally divided between the purchase of books for the college library and the support of scholarships to which Brights, lineally and legitimately descended from Henry Bright, Jr., shall have priority of claim. "I have selected Harvard College," he says, " the most ancient and venerated seat of learning in my native State, to be the custodian of this legacy, as an expression of my appreciation of its liberal yet conservative character; trusting that its government will always respect the sincere convictions of the recipients of the income thereof." His daughter was made sole executrix, and by a codicil her husband was added as co-executor. They paid over the full legacy a year in advance of the time allowed by law; so that the college entered at once upon the enjoyment of the income.

Mr. Bright's phrase " liberal yet conservative character," which he applies to the college, might well be employed in describing himself. With an energy of character which in le.ss than thirty years lifted him from the humblest commercial beginning to a competence that could afford such a legacy, he combined a genuine shrinking modesty which obscured his worth from careless eyes. His energy led him to join in aiding liberalizing movements; his modesty held him in I'eserve and allowed his cool, sound judgment to keep him in a more conservative position. His independence was maintained by this happy self-restraint, which would allow him to run into neither extreme of standing by old errors nor of rushing into new ones.

Early in life Mr. Bright adopted views of the Christian religion in substantial agreement with those of Dr. Channing, and he never saw reason to modify them in any essential degree. His warmest virtues were kept, as it were, cool and in the background by this wise and modest caution. Hegavetime^ labor and money to many good causes, public and private ; and he gave with a kindly, cheerful spirit ; yet so unostentatiously and so wisely that men's attention was more taken up with the results of the action, than with the action itself In private, personal kindnesses he exercised a great delicacy ; so that, in some cases, the recipient of a needed help received regular periodical donations of a fixed sum, and endeavored for some time in vain to know from whom, or through what channel, they came ; in other cases the recipient thought of the gifts as tokens of ftiendship, rather than any pecuniary aid.