History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield ...

ANNALS OF LYNN — 1
879. 83
character of some of our streets, leads to the remark that the
great change in the mode of manufacturhig shoes has been the
principal cause of this, at least so far as relates to buildings
erected for business purposes. It is quite within the recollection
of our middle-aged people— as the writer had occasion to remark
in the little book giving an account of the proceedings on our two
hundred and fiftieth anniversary — that shoes were made by hand,
not by machinery. The shoes were cut in the manufacturer's shop,
which was generally a small wooden structure, and thence taken
by the workman to his own premises, made up, and returned.
A great many, however, were carried by express-drivers to country
towns, to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and there
made up, by workmen whose regular occupation was, perhaps,
farming, but who resorted to the shoemaker's seat in winter
and other unoccupied times. The work of some of these unskilled
operators was very poor and occasioned much complaint
and annoyance
;
but still a great deal of work went out of town,
and a great deal of money went to pay for it. But the introduction
of machinery wrought a great change. Large factories,
often of brick, began to supplant the small cutting shops, and
the little work shops of the journeymen began to disappear.
The new factories were built in a thorough and substantial
manner, as the ponderous machinery required ; some were tastily
ornamented, and remain really fine specimens of architecture.
To the factory it was now necessary that the workman should
go to perform his labor. The work of making a shoe was divided
among several, each having his particular part to do ; and the
labor of all became so interlinked, that each depended much on
the skill and promptness of the others for his own success.
Rules were necessarily established for the guidance of all ; regular
hours of labor, especially, being required ; and efforts were
made to place the whole business on a permanent basis. And
so the business continues, every day developing fresh enero"ies
and evidences of thrift. New factories are constantly risino-, and
though there is some abridgment of the old-time freedom of the
workman as he whistled over his work in his rude little shop,
he yet gains by the comfort, order, and sometimes forced industry
of the factory.
The number of deaths in Lynn, during the year, was 680,
which, taking the increase of population into view, was about
the usual rate of past years. The most fatal disease was consumption,
by which 120 died. The next most fatal was diphtheria,
by which 65 died. Consumption was the most fatal among
adults, diphtheria among children. In 1876 there were 121
deaths by diphtheria.
The number of marriages during the year was 429. And the
number of births, 717.