History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

406 HISToil r OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
of his continuous energy and persevt-runce it grew
with remarkable rapidity to an industry of great
magnitude and importance. In the hist days of
Mr. Wakefield the number of his employees ex-
ceeded one thousand, and the monthly pay-roll
$25,000. He erected numerous buildings, and
introduced new and powerful machinery, and at
last, by patient ingenuity and experiment, suc-
ceeded in utilizing every portion of the raw im-
ported cane. Just before the death of Mr.
Wakefield, in 1873, he caused to be organized the
Wakefield Rattan Company, to which corporation
he transferred the whole of his vast rattan business
and property, and of which he became the president
and principal stockholder.
Tiie afl'airs of the corporation have since been
prosperously managed by its officers.
Tiie present rattan-works, on Water Street,
in Wakefield, include one brick machine-shop,
158x60 feet, of four stories, eight large work-
shops and store-houses, and a number of smaller
buildings, and occupy about four acres of ground.
The works turn out, in great variety, productions
of beauty, elegance, and utility, including cane for
chair-seats, mats and matting, rugs and carpets,
tables, baskets, chairs, car-seats, cradles, cribs,
tete-;i-tetes, sofas, baby-carriages, flower-stands,
window-shades, brooms, brushes, table-mats, wall-
SCreens, fire-screens, wall-pockets, slipper-holders,
clothes-beaters, wood-holders, etc.
Tlie Smith and Anthony Stove Company, the
sufccssoi^i i)f the Boston and Maine Foundry Com-
pany, liiicly (ii'^aiiized on a new and strong founda-
tion, h;is extrusive buildings and ample appliances,
admirably situated for business and markets, by
the side of the Boston and Maine Railroad. The
company employs many men, and manufactures
stoves, ranges, and all sorts of hollow iron-ware.
The manufacture of boots and shoes has for
two centuries been an important branch of industry
in tlie town. As early as 1777 the town assigned
Jonas Eaton " the privilege of wood and herbage
on a tract of land, on condition that he remained
in town, and followed the trade of a shoemaker."
The honorable handicraft is still largely exercised
in factories and shops numerously scattered through
tlie town.
The Wakefield Slmttle and \ee,lle ( 'nmpanv, of
reeent eslaldislunrnl in Wakeheld, carries oil all
extensive business in tlie maniiraetnre and sale of
sewing-machine needles, siiuttles, bobbins, and
everv varietv of sewinir-machine attaclnnents.
Richardson's sherry-wine bitters, first prepared
about seventy years ago by the late Dr. Nathan
Richardson, are still manufactured in the town
by his highly esteemed and public-spirited grand-
son. Dr. Solon 0. Richardson, the second of that
name.
The Citizens' Gaslight Company, organized as a
corporation in 1860, supplies from its extensive
works, on Railroad Street, the towns of Wakefield,
Stoneham, and Reading with illuminating gas.
Many thousand tons of ice are annually cut on
Lake Quannapowitt, stored, and exported by the
Boston Ice Company.
The manufacture of McKay sewing-machine
needles, awls of all descriptions, and shoe-tools in
endless variety, is carried on by James F. Woodward
and Son at their factory on Albion Street.
Messrs. J. and W. H. Atwell still prosecute
their long-established and successful business of
razor-strop makers.
The bakery of Hosea L. Day has obtained a
wide and high reputation for the quality of its
crackers and bread.
The banking institutions of Wakefield are the
National Bank of South Reading, with a capital
stock of ^100,000, the South Reading Mechanic
and Agricultural Institution, an old-fashioned
savings-bank with a capital stock of §10,000, and
the Wakefield Savings Bank, of more recent origin.
The fire protection of tlie town is represented by
the Yale Engine Company, so named for the late
Burrage Yale, Esq., Ciiemical Engine Company,
Washington Hook-and- Ladder Company, C. Wakefield
Engine Company, and tiie Fountain Engine
Company, with machines and appliances.
Many descendants from the families of this old
town have become eminent in the nation and in
the Avorld, among whom may be mentioned as
familiar names to this generation, Hon. George
Bancroft, historian of the United States ; the late
General John A. Dix, ex-govcrnor of New York
Hon. George S. Boutwell, ex-governor and ex-
senator of Massachusetts ; and the late Rev. Theo-
dore Parker.
Wakefield is ten miles distant from the business
centre of Boston, and includes the outlying villages
of Montrose on tiie east, Woodvillc on the southeast,
and Greenwood on the south, and is bounded
northwesterly by Reading, northerly by Lynnficld;
easterly by Lynnfield and Saugus, soutiierly by
Melrose, and southwesterly by Stoneham.
;