History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

above the old one, and another was built by John
Boies where the Waltham factories liave since been
built. Since the ojjening of the century a number
have been erected, absorbing a large amount of
capital, and giving employment to numerous fami-
lies.
In 1778 the dam at Bemis' Station, where the
Etna Mills now are, about one mile above the old
mill, was built by David Bemis and Dr. Enos
Sumner. Bemis owned two thirds of a paper-mill
on the Newton side, built in 1779, and before 1790
also carried on a grist-mill and snuff-mill on the
Watertown side, — the first mill at that point.
His son Seth became sole proprietor about 1796,
and in 1803 began to spin cotton by machinery,
a business that proved exceedingly profitable.
Cotton sail-duck, for which a twisting-machine of
forty-eight spindles was constructed, was first made
here in 1809. In 1816 the introduction of the
power-loom and other improvements reduced the
price of duck one half. Afterwards, in connection
with his son, Seth, Jr., and until he gave up busi-
ness in 18-"36, he made mis the leading factory in
the country for grinding and preparing dyestuffs.
Having in 18^1 become sole owner of the water-
power, Mr. Bemis built the present stone rolling
dam in front of the old one. The Bemis Manufac-
turing Company, incorporated in 18:i7, transferred
its property and rights in 1860 to the Etna Mill
Company, which enlarged the works, and which
manufactures woollen fabrics by both water and
steam power. Between 1790 and 1796 Bemis
constructed a bridge over the river, which in 1807
was swept away by a freshet. A foot-bridge,
built soon after, was also swept away in 1818.
The present bridge was built not long after.
In September, 1635, John Masters was licensed
by the court to keep an ordinary. June 6, 1637,
George Munnings w"as fined 20*. for selhng beer,
and keeping a house of entertainment without a
license. Captain Richard Beers was licensed in
165-1, and Captain Abiier Crafts in 177:?. South
of tlie bridge, on the east side of the way, is an old
building of the Revolutionary era kept as a tavern
from 1761. to 1770 by Nathaniel Coolidge, and
afterwards by his widow. It was in 1770 known
as the " sign of Mr. Wilkes near Nonantum
Bridge," and was the appointed rendezvous for the
Committee of Safety in May, 1775. Here Wash-
ington tarried while on his way to Cambridge to
take command of the army, in order to pay his
WATERTOWN. 457
he lodged while making his presidential tour in
1789. Opposite the entrance to California Street,
near by, is the old John Cook house, where Henry
Knox, afterwards General Knox, resided for a while
in 1775. In one of its chambers Paul Revere en-
graved and printed the colony notes issued by the
Provincial Congress.
The Spring Hotel, built of brick in 1824 by a
son of Dr. Spring, was partly burned in the great
fire of 1841. On its site Caleb Church kept an
ordinary from 1686 to 1711. His successor was
Thomas Learned, licensed in 1712. Mary, his
widow, and his sons, Abijah and Bezaleel, kept it
successively until 1771.
Early in 1816 Captain Talcott, an officer of the
army, selected the site for the United States Arse-
nal at Watertown, on the margin of the Charles
River, where the first landing of white men in that
town had been made, the state ceding to the United
States the jurisdiction of an area not to exceed
sixty acres. To the original purchase of forty
acres subsequent additions were made, the last of
which, September 25, 1867, of forty-four acres,
brought its total area up to one hundred acres.
An encampment of about fifty friendly Indians,
of the Stockbridge tri'be, nestled here during
the investment of Boston by the patriot army, in
1775-70.
The buildings, completed in 1820 under the
superintendence of Captain Talcott, were two maga-
zines of stone, erected several hundred feet from
the other buildings, which are of brick, upon the
four sides of a parallelogram, wliich faces the four
cardinal points, the spaces between being filled by
a wall fifteen feet in height. There have since
been constructed a number of other buildings,
some of them made necessary by the exigencies of
the great civil war, rendering it an arsenal of construction
as well as of deposit. These include two
large timber store-houses, a carriage and machine
shop, and a smith's shop ; also a laboratory, gas-
works, brass and iron foundry, and new quarters
for the commanding officer, built in 1865.
During the War of the Rebellion Captain, after-
wards Brevet Brigadier-General, T. J. Rodman, the
inventor of the famous Rodman gun, was in command,
the working force at tliat time being up-
wards of one thousand persons, including men,
women, boys, and girls. The operations were
confined principally to the manufacture of wood-
en field-carriages, iron carriages for heavy sea-
respects to Congress, then in session, and here too coast guns, artillery implements and equipments,