History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

200 HISTORY OF MIDBLESEX COUNTY.
In December, 1833, a young man of Farming-
ton, N. H., walked thence to Natick. On arriving,
Henry Wilson engaged with a manufacturer, giving
five months' labor to learn the business. In a few
weeks he bought back his time and began for him-
self. He once started to make fifty pairs of shoes
without sleeping, and almost succeeded. In 1836
he visited Washington for his health. As an opera-
tive Mr. Wilson was industrious, alert, economical,
and temperate. Men worked then twelve or fifteen
hours a day. From doing a journeyman's work
he became in 1838 an employer, doing business ten
years. In 1847 he employed one hundred and nine
persons, who made over two thousand cases of shoes.
Henry Wilson.
Hi; resumed business for a year and a lialf, till liis
election as United States Senator in 1855. As a
manufacturer he was lionest and fair-dealing, sym-
pathizing with the workmen, for lie Iiimself had
worked as one. But his aiiibilinii was in anotlier
direction than business and wcallli.
Edward Walcott was a personal friend of Mr.
Wilson. He is largely identified witli Ihc business
growth of Natick. He was a inannfart urcr a( first,
but afterwards became in(( rcsteil in nal ("^lalc, lie
built the Walcott Block, and al his deal h was iniicl,
missed. A fully etiuipped sho(--f'actory runs almost
as much machinery as a cotton-mill. In the beginning
all tlie operations were hand-work, but now
each part has its ingenious machine, and some six
or eight of these clattering inventions do the work.
Once a pair of shoes signified three hours' labor.
The first shop at South Natick began in 1840.
Four large shops at one time were busy hives ; but
two were burned, and business fell off. Many
make shoes in little shops, getting stock from the
large dealers. Mr. Pfeiffer has recently built a
fine workshop.
A series of interesting articles in The Citizen, on
the history of Natick's principal business, preserve
many valuable facts.
The Harrison political campaign brought Henry
Wilson into his sphere of life-work. An acceptable
platform speaker, he won notice as " the Natick
Cobbler." Occasional defeats when nominated
for office only led at last to higher promotion.
He was state representative in 1S41, state senator
in 1844, major, colonel, brigadier-general in the
state militia, delegate to the National Convention
in 1848, from which he and Charles Allen with-
drew, and an unsuccessful Free-Soil nominee for
governor. But his meridian was not yet reached.
In 1855 lie became a senator in Congress, the
colleague and comrade of Charles Sumner. Both
were stajich patriots, who did splendid service in
the nation's critical hour. Mr. Wilson attained the
vice-presidency on General Grant's second nomi-
nation, and was the third Massachusetts man to
fill that chair.
Upon the north side of the Common stands the
Soldier's :\ronmiu'iit, dedicated .luly 4, 1868. We'
read eii^lity-niiie uanu's of our townsmen who died
in the war. Natick sent some three hundred men.
Many went in the 13th regiment. Company H, and
in the 39th regiment, Company I. This monument
is flanked in front and rear by four brass twelvepounders.
Standing between two churches, and
near a school-house with five hundred pupils, it is
a memorial to old and young of patriotism and sac-
rifice. General Wadsworth Post 63, G. A. R., is
in a flourishing condition.
Before us lies a printed sheet, entitled, " Psalm
C, — to be sung at the Tea Party given in the
Town-Hall at Natick, Oct. 28, 1846, for the pur-
pose of raising means to purchase a copy of Eliot's
Indian Bible, to be preserved in the Archives of
the Town."
A note reads : " N. B. Th(> Psalm in the Natick
dialect is copied from ^Ir. Eliot's translation of the
Psalm, bound up with his Indian Bible. Tiic
English translation of the same Psalm is from the
I