History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

conscripted. Fifty-three men were killed in battle
or died from disease contracted in tlie service. Tlie
entire amount of money rai.sed by the town for
military purposes was S9-t,89:J.29, of whicli
§i2,318.29, being for state aid, was reimbursed
by the commonwealth, leaving the sum expended
by the town $5:J,57J-.
The population of tiie town, according to the
census of 1875, was 9,967. Its territory is nearly
the same in area as when incorporated. In 1S4'9
a portion of Newton, forming what is now called
tlie South Side, of about five hundred acres in
area, was set oti' to "Waltham, and in 1859 four
hundred and twenty-nine acres of Waltham's terri-
tory were taken to help form the new township of
Belmont. Water was first let on from the waterworks
in 1873.
Of the military history it is difficult to keep
track. Of those companies mentioned in the
town records it is quite impossible to learn of the
dates of their begiiuiing or end. Tiie Waltham
Artillery Company was transferred from Watertown
in ISJ'l, and after a few years of service was
changed into an infantry company. For some
time prior to 1861 its existence was merely nomi-
nal, and in that year tiie accoutrements were taken
by the state. The Waltham Dragoons were or-
ganized in 1853, and in 1861 formed a part of the
;id Battalion, First ilassachusetts Cavalry, most of
tlie members serving during the Rebellion. In
1874 the present infantry company was organized.
Although some attention is paid to agriculture
in the suburbs of the town, Waltham is pre-
eminently a manufacturing community, and proba-
bly at least three fourths of the population derive
support directly from the manufactories. The
earliest mill of which we have any account was one
erected at or near the site known as Kendall's
Mill, on Beaver Brook, and was formerly used for
fulling cloth. On the 3()th of May, 1662, Timo-
thy 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
the said place, and on the river that passeth
through the same ; also the right of way." December
18, 1663, Agar sold this land "with the
fulling-mill thereon erected to Thomas Loveran,
late of Dediiam, Co. Essex, Old England, cloth-
worker." January 3, 1669 - 70, Loveran sold to
Timothy Hawkins and Benjamin Garfield. Some
WALTRAM. 431
mill, and in 1700 the mills in whole or in part belonged
to Samuel Stearns, a son-in-law of Hawkins.
There was also a corn-mill on Stony Brook,
built about the year 1684, and owned by John
Bright and others, and about 1714 there was prob-
ably a mill on the brook passing just east of Lex-
ington Street, and across Beaver Street, a brancli
of Beaver Brook. At the time of the incorpora-
tion of the Boston Manufacturing Company a
paper-mill, known as Boies' paper-mill, was stand-
ing on the land afterwards bought by that corporation,
and was used for the manufacture of brown
and white paper. A similar mill, built by Gov-
ernor Gore prior to 1800, at what is now called
the Bleachery, was sold to the Waltham Cotton
and Woollen Company in 1810. In 1810 a company
was formed for the manufacture of cloth.
Land was purchased, and a mill for the manufac-
turing of cotton cloth was built and in operation
in the same year. In ISH the jiroprietors were
incorporated under tlie name of the Waltham Cot-
ton and Woollen Manufacturing Company. In
1815, according to " M. U.," in the Masmchu-
setls Historical Socieffs Collections for that year,
the cotton-mill contained 2,000 spindles, and
worked 300 pounds of cotton per day; in the
woollen mill were run 380 spindles, four jennies,
and two jacks, and, with the 14 looms in operation,
60 pounds of wool were used per day. A
probable average of 10,000 yards of cloth, made
under the direction of the factory, was attained, a
portion of the weaving being done in neighboring
and some in 'distant towns. The Boston Manufac-
turing Company was incorporated in 1813, and in
1814 had built and put in operation a mill of
brick, five stories high, ninety feet long and forty-
five feet wide, running 3,000 spindles, and doing
the weaving by a " loom of peculiar construction
run by water." This is claimed to have been the
first mill in the country where all the operations
were performed under one roof. The character of
the work performed at the lower mill has very
much changed, it having passed into the control of
the Boston Company, and being used now almost
exclusively as a bleachery and dyeing establish-
ment. The manufacture of hosiery was introduced
here in 1868, but was afterwards removed to the
upper mill, to a building erected more particularly
for it. At the upper mill cotton cloth manufacture
is still the principal business. The number of
hands employed in both factories is about 1,200,
time prior to 1690 the mill was used as a corn- the present capital $800,000, the number of spin-