History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

tick we know not, but the Natick Observer made
its appearance April 5, 1856, and went through
at least six volumes. The Natk-k Times, Vol. I.
No. 1, is dated October 28, 1864, and lasted cer-
tainly five years. T/ie Natick Bulletin, a wideawake
weekly, reached its tenth anniversary Novem-
ber, 1879; while its vigorous competitor, T/ie
Natick Citizen, came into being in December, 1877.
Both are able papers.
Various kinds of manufactures liave engaged the
industry of our people. The dam at South Natick
gives a fall of nine feet. On the canal formerly
stood Curtis^ paper-mill, now owned and operated
by the Boston Flax Leatlier Company. They con-
trol the entire water-power, and their land was the
planting-ground of the first settler.s. They em-
ploy fourteen men, Mr. J. B. Sewall being their
efficient superintendent. The little island midway
the dam Mrs. Stowe makes the young men's studyplace
in her Oldlown Folks. The grist-mill hums
its well-accented song. Years agone a paper-mill
and a plaster-mill were in one building here ; indeed,
the spot has been a mill-site over a century. Brickmaking
was successfully pursued many years on the
west shore of Lake Cochituate. A hat establish-
ment, now extinct, did a good business. A long
three-story building near the railroad shows where
one of tlie enterprising citizens has made his for-
tune, and given work to many in tlie extensive base-
ball factory of Harwood and Sons.
But the largest business here, as in other towns
of Eastern Massachusetts, has been shoemaking.
The original manufacturer, Mr. Asa Felch, died in
April, 1S7S. He first made sale shoes in 1827.
Later his brother Isaac became a partner, and those
of the family name still follow the business. The
thriving suburb of Felchville thus got its name
and growth. Mr. Felch manufactured brogans,
since Natick's staple production; his workshop
was a room in his house. He took apprentices,
whom he instructed. William Bent, founder of
the house of W. and J. i\I. Bent, of Cochituate,
served with him. Mr. Asa Felcli is said for years
to have kept no books, remembering all his affairs.
Mr. William Coolidge, Albert Leighton, and
Edward Walcott,. in the West Part, and George
C. Whitney, Mr. Kimball, and David M. Whitney,
at the Centre, were in the shoemaking trade before
or by 1830.
The shoes were made by hand, one or two per-
sons doing the whole. The lapstone, hammer, and
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bench are as out of place now as our grandsire's
flintlock muskets, or grandmother's swinging
cranes in the great fireplace. On Saturdays a
one-liorse wagon took the week's work to Boston,
bringing home new stock. Mr. Kimball kept the
only store at the Centre, on the present Common
facing tlie yellow church. His shoe-shop was up-
stairs. Biglow's History names several handicrafts
pursued,, but has not a word about shoemaking,
soon to be the making of Natick.
In 1830 there were two post-offices, — at Soutli
Natick and on the Worcester Turnpike. Three
roads intersected Natick,— the Worcester Turnpike,
in tlie north part, the Central Turnpike, and the
Hartford Koad, through Soutli Natick. The
following account carries us back to tlie day when
our fathers travelled : "On
the Worcester Turnpike,
great southern mail each way daily. Several
other mail and accommodation stages are frequently
On the Central Turnpike, Boston and
Telegrapli line of stage coaches every day
but Sunday, up one daVj down the next. On the
Old Hartford Road, Boston, Mendon, and Uxbridge
daily line of coaches, and continues on to Hartford
three days in the week, and back the other three."
On each of the three Iiighways stood the old-time
tavern, its hanging sign swinging aloft, oftering
refreshment to man and beast.
For the next twenty years the shoe-business
greatly increased. Its originators here enlarged
their operations ; left rooms at home or small sheds
for the commodious shops ; instead of a few ap-
prentices, they sought workmen by tens and twen-
ties; and new firms sprang up. Natick leaped
tlie slow grovrth of a farming town to quick
increase. Stores, houses, and inhabitants doubled.
Until 1830 the population had added from forty to
every decade. The increase from 1820 to
1830 was five per cent; from 1830 to 1840, forty-
four per cent; between 1840 and 1850 the popula-
tion more than doubled, and nearly doubled again
during the Tiext ten years. As labor-saving ma-
chines were used in shoemaking, the several oper-
ations were subdivided among cutters, bottomers,
dressers, and stitchers.
1831 two enterprising dealers took their
goods by water to New York. So hard was the
voyage, it was feared that they were lost ; but they
arrived and prospered.
When the railroad was opened in 1835 the Centre
outgrew other parts of the town, and was known as
awl, the knee-clamps for stitching, and the low Natick, the older village being called South Natick.