History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

58 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
David in Boston, who had known the trouble he
had experienced, he said to him, ' I think I shall
get over tlie difficult3' about the rollers ; I intend
to try soapstoue,' — meaning for a mould to cast
them in. His brother replied, 'Well, I should
think soapstone would made a very good roller.'
Mr. Moody made no reply, but took the hint, and
made his rollers of soapstone, and they are in gen-
eral use."
They had one loom in operation, and it threw
off the cotton cloth so fast, that they were fearful
the production would exceed the demand. Mr.
Lowell thought the goods would not sell ; they
called on Mrs. Bowers, who kept the only shop in
Boston where domestic goods were sold, and she
said everybody praised the goods, and no objection
was made to the price ; but still she made
no sale. Mr. Appleton had previously formed a
copartnership with Benjamin C. Ward, for the
ing to take twenty-five cents per yard for the
goods, they were put into an auction-room, and
brought "something over thirty cents." This was
the commencement of the practice of consigning
goods to a house to sell on commission.
The whole economy of a cotton-mill was regu-
lated by Mr. Lowell; the different processes fol-
lowed each other with the regularity of a clock.
His studies led him to a systematic division of
labor, and the difficulties he had to encounter
taught him that, if he would succeed in his undertaking,
he must adopt the strictest economy. He
had seen manufacturing establishments in the Old
World, and the glitter of wealth growing out of
their operations ; but this did not hide from his
view the miserable condition of tlie operatives.
Believing that such a state of things did not legiti-
mately belong to manufacturing establishments, he
conceived of a community where neatness and com-
fort, pleasant residences and happy homes, churches
and seliiHjl-li(iiises, good, wholesome food and
decent clothing, were all to be found. In the es-
tablisliment at Waltham he endeavored to give
" a local habitation and a name " to his conception.
Mr. Lowell died September 2, 1817, at the early
age of forty-two, " beloved and respected by all
who knew him."
Stimulated by the success of the business at
Waltliam, and sanguine that the time would come
when the United States could comjjele wi(li Great
Britain in the manufacture of cotton goods, Pat-
rick T. Jackson, who succeeded ilr. Lowell in the
management at Waltham in 1820, began to look
round for a locality where the business might be
extended as soon as the capabilities of Charles
River should be exhausted.
Li 1820-21, as has been stated, Patrick T. Jack-,
son and his associate, Hon. Nathan Appleton, were
looking for a water-power in order to extend the
manufacturing business. They had been enabled,
by the association of capital and their improved
machinery, to withstand the financial pressure that
crushed so many cotton and woollen manufac-
turers in New England after the war, and looked
forward to an improved state of things. Mr.
Lowell, as early as 1816, had not favored a very
higli rate of duty on foreign goods ; he believed
that the improvements in machinery and economy
in management operated as a protection. In 1819
purpose of importing British goods. He told the price of domestic cottons had fallen almost one
Mr. Lowell to send the next parcel to the store of third from 1816; yet the Boston Manufacturing
B. C. Ward & Co. Although Mr. Lowell was will- Company were enabled to make a dividend of five
per cent in 1820, a time of unusual depression.
Mr. Appleton says : " At the suggestion of !Mr.
Charles H. Atherton of Amherst, N. H., we met
him at a fall of the Souhegan River, a few miles
from its entrance into the Merrimack ; but the fall
was insufficient for our purpose. This was in
September, 1821. In returning, we passed the
Na.shua River without being aware of the existence
of the fall, which has since been made the source
of so much power by the Nashua Company. We
only saw a small grist-mill standing near the road,
in the meadow, with a dam of some six or seven
feet. Soon after our return I was at Waltham
one day, when I was informed that Mr. Moody had
lately been at Salisbury, when Mr. Ezra Worthen,
his former partner, said to him, ' I hear Messrs.
Jackson and Appleton are looking out for a waterpower;
why don't they buy up the Pawtucket
Canal? That would give them the whole power
of the Merrimack, with a fall of over tliirty feet.'
On tlie strength of this, Mr. Moody had returned
to Waltham by that route, and was .satisfied of tlie
extent of the power which might be thus obtained."
We have a record of the first visit of Paul
Moody to the Pawtucket Falls, written in 1843,
by the venerable rector of St. Anne's Church,
Rev. Theodore Edson, related to him by one of tlie
party, Mrs. Susan (Moody) Dana. " An arrangement
was made for Mr. and Mrs. Worthen to take
a chaise and accompany Mr. and Mrs. Jloody to