History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

In 1813 Mr. John Goulding invented "a very
curious loom for weaving boot-straps, moved en-
tirely by water." Mr. Goulding, who resided in
Worcester, gave the following account of his labors
in this vicinity :
—
"I settled there in the year 1813, had a factory
built for me by Fletcher and Whiting, on Concord
River; hired it for eight years at $200 a year;
carried on the business of spinning cotton yarn in
a small way, as all our manufacturing was done at
that time ; spun about twenty pounds of yarn per
day ; also had a carding-machine for carding custom
wool for spinning by hand, making what was
called homespun cloth ; carried on a machine-shop,
making cotton and wool machinery ; made looms
for weaving suspender webbing and boot webbing,
and a tape loom to weave thirty-six pieces at one
and the same time.
" The place was very thinly settled at that time,
ney, — just over into Tewksbury ;
William Warner, and Tavern House belonging to
the canal, and I think one other, were all the houses
that could be seen there at that time. I occupied
the building I hired of Fletcher and Whiting
for some four years, when Mr. Thomas Hurd pur-
chased it, and used it for making satinet. I built
a small mill on the canal property, and took water
from the canal, and made machinery there ;
helped
fit up Kurd's mill. I moved from there just before
the Canal Company sold out to the present owners,
who came in possession and established Lowell.
Mr. Tyler built a grist-mill just below me on the
canal."
From the close of the Revolutionary War to
1812, England had enjoyed an almost uninter-
rupted monopoly in supplying the United States
with manufactured goods. The War of 1812 put a
stop to her trade with us ; and the attention of capi-
talists was directed to supplying these goods for
home consumption. Mills were erected in various
localities, wherever a suificient water-power could
be obtained for the purpose. Congress passed a law,
approved July 1, " adding one hundred per centum
to the permanent duties then levied upon imports,
with an additional ten per cent on goods imported
in foreign vessels," the effect of which was to en-
hance the price of everything. It is curious to
look back to those days when families carded, spun,
and wove the cloth they wore. The autobiography
of a mill overseer, Daniel Knapp, throws a little
light on home-life in New England. "We had grasp him. The captain, concentrating his whole
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cotton brought to our honse by the bale, to pick to
pieces and get out the seeds and dirt. The children
had to pick so many pounds as a stint. We had
a whipping-machine made four square ; and about
three feet from the floor was a bed-cord run across
from knob to knob, near together, on which we put
a parcel of cotton, and with two whip-sticks we
lightened it up and got out the dirt, and made it
ready for the card." In families the hand-card and
the one-thread spinning-wheel were in use. " There
was no chemical process of bleaching in the country
at this date. My mother put loops in the selvage
on both sides, and stayed the cloth down on the
green grass with sticks, so the wind should not
blow it about. When she had a quarter of an acre
spread out she would take her watering-pot and
sprinkle the whole ; and as soon as she got through
the lot, the first was ready for another sprinkling.
The bright sun drying up the water did the
— say Mr. Fletcher, Joseph Tyler, and Philip Ged- bleaching."
Major Fletcher, In 1813 Captain Phineas Whiting and Colonel
Josiah Fletcher erected a building sixty feet long,
fifty feet wide, and forty feet high, for a cotton
manufactory, at an expense of 82,500, on Concord
River, about three hundred rods from its mouth.
This occupied the present site of the Middlesex
Mills ;
and in 1818 it was sold to Thomas Hurd of
Charlestown. Hurd fitted it up for the manufac-
ture of woollen goods, and employed twenty persons.
The product from sixteen looms amounted
to about one hundred and twenty yards of satinet
per day. The whole process of carding, spinning,
weaving, and dyeing the cloth was completed in
this mill. Bishop says : " Hurd erected a brick
edifice, and converted both into a woollen factory,
which ran fifty power looms, and was burned in
1826. It was rebuilt on a larger scale, and sold
in 1828 to the Middlesex Company."
In 1816 two new mills were built. Luke Bow-
ers and son built a saw and grist-mill just below
the bridge, at Pawtucket Falls. Nathan Tyler
built a grist-mill on the canal near Concord River.
It is said that Captain John Ford had a saw-mill
at the mouth of Concord River. Captain Ford was
a tall, stout, rugged man. Tradition says the In-
dians held a grudge against him. One of them,
with the intent to kill the captain, was skulking
round the mill. Captain Ford was busy moving a
log with his grippers, when he caught sight of the
Indian near some logs. He kept on with his work
until the Indian approached him and stood up to