Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

390 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
They ran twelve engines and employed one hundred gh'ls, besides many
men and boys. Lathrop & Willard had just before this built a four-
engine paper-mill, " 10 miles above this place." N. P. Ames began
the marmfacture of cutlery at Chicopee, with nine hands, in 1829.
The Ames Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1834, witli a
capital of $30,000.
Mr. Blanchard's steam-carriage was exliibited in these streets in
November, 1826, and created the greatest excitement. A bevel-
geared wheel, running parallel with tlie carriage wheels, was attached
to the hind axle-tree. Pinion wheels plied into the cogs of this wheel,
and tlie engine attached had a two-inch cylinder, the boiler holding
three gallons. The carriage weighed half a ton.
Many business changes liad taken place on the street. Horace
Lee, who came from Westfield, was running a chair-factory in a brick
building on the east side of North Main street, and had a rival in
Moses Y. Beacli, \\\\o ran the Springfield cabinet warehouse, now
Wright's cigar-slioj) ; William W. Wildman's Springfield comb
factory was opposite the Springfield hotel ; Whitfield Chapin kept a
lumber-yard at the east end of the bridge over tlie Connecticut, which
passed, in 1826, to Isaac Hiniieston ; Joseph Bangs had a forge on
Mill river ; Benjamin Belcher presided over the Springfield furnace ;
Dennis Cook ran a copper and sheet-iron manufactory, and so did
Philip Wilcox, the two men having originally been in business
together (Cook & Wilcox) in front of the Springfield brewer}^
(Church of the Unity) ; George Colton sold lime, hewn stone, and
lumber; Isaiah Call kept stoves (near the bank) ; John Hooker, Jr.,
was manager of the Springfield brewery ; William Childs & Co.. who
were known to store liquors in the cellar of the present Congregational
church, owned the Sixteen Acres distillery, and Reynolds & Morris
were managers of the Hampden brewery. Major Ingersoll was
their clerk. The marble yard of S. D. & W. Sturges was one door
west of the bank. The Springfield Fire Insurance Company, George
Bliss, Jr., secretary, was doing a good business.