Class _/L^:^_- G(pight)^'^_ COPVRICKT DEPOSIT. -\\ i^FA^r^-, A ,\^^y,,.^r^, VH^VlS^e^^E-^^ -u ';^ ivB"- ?,=-i: / Si. ^* ^tit^^. L--#- L^ y ^ -. __JP-'~] —•ii"- ..-»»*.■■ NEW BEDFORD MASSACHUSETTS ITS HISTORY, INDUSTRIES, INSTITUTIONS, AND ATTRACTIONS X. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF TRADE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION THOMAS W. COOK, Chairman CHARLES S. KELLEY, Treasurer ANDREW SNOW, JR., Secretary GEORGE R. STETSON LEMUEL LeB. HOLMES Writers — ZEPH. W. PEASE, GEORGE A. HOUGH Editor— WILLIAM L. SAYEK PRINTERS Mekciky Publishing Company, 112 and 114 Union Stkkkt 1889 Copyrighted, January, 1889, by the New Bedford Board of Trade. PREFACE. At a special meeting of the New Bedford Board of Trade, held Oct. 17, 1887, the following motion, made by Thomas W. Cook, was adopted : That a committee of three be appointed by the chair for the purpose of collating facts, figures, statistics, and general information in relation to the city of New Bedford as being a desirable and advantageous place for permanent I'esidence, summer resort, the establishment of business, and any and all other knowledge the pro- mulgation of which would prove beneficial to the growth, prosperity, and general welfare of the city; the same to be published in an illustrated form and distributed throughout the country, as the wisdom of the committee may determine ; and that such sums of monej' be appropriated from time to time to defray the expenses of the committee as they, together with the Board of Directors, ma}- consider neces- sary ; and that the expenses of such action be taken from the industrial exposition surplus, if there be any surplus. In obedience to that resolution, this book has been prepared. Be3'ond the mere shred of historical reminiscence which forms the opening chapter, and a few incidental allusions in the succeeding pages, no attempt has been made to dwell on the past of New Bed- ford. The aim has been to exhibit New Bedford as it is, that her people may be incited to greater efforts to realize her possibilities. The grateful thanks of the committee, the writers, and the editor are due to the many who have cheerfully assisted in the preparation of these pages. While the task has been long and sometimes perplexing, it has brought to those to whom it was en- trusted many pleasant experiences. And now the book is committed to the people of New Bedford, for whose sake it was prepared, with the hope that it roa}- accom- plish some part, at least, of the benefit which has been h5ped from it. NEW BEDFORD BOARD OF TRADE. Organized March 5. 1884. ROOMS NO. 33 NORTH WATER STREET. PRESIDENT. ISAAC B. TOMPKINS, JR. VICE PRESIDENTS. .JONATHAN BOURNE, SAMUEL C. HART, WILLIAM J. ROTCH, CHARLES S. KELLEY, FRANCIS HATHAWAY, ABBOTT P. SMITH, FREDERICK SWIFT, JIREH SWIFT. DIRECTORS. WILLIAM A. ROBINSON, WILLIAM LEWIS, WILLIAM R. WING, THOMAS B. TRIPP, GEORGE R. STETSON, EDWARD S. BROWN, JAMES DELANO, JOHN W. MACOMBER, GEORGE S. HOMER, WARREN E. CHASE, WILLIAM N. CHURCH, EDWIN DEWS, WALTER CLIFFORD, STEPHEN A. BROAVNELL, SAVORY C. HATHAWAY, WILLIAM G. WOOD, WILLIAM D. HOWLAND, LEMUEL LeB. HOLMES, CHARLES S. ASHLEY. SECRETARY. AUGUSTUS A. WOOD. TREASURER. GEORGE R. PHILLIPS. COMMITTEES. Finances — Thomas B. Tripp, Edward S. Brown. Membership — Charles S. Kelley, Charles S. Ashley, Edwin Dews, Stephen A. Brownell. Quotations — James Delano, Warken E. Chase, Savory C. Hathaway, William Lewis. Shipping Interests— WvLt.ixu R. WiNG, William Lewis, William N. Church. Manufacturing Interests— Wuaaku D. Rowland, George R. Stetson. Bules -'LvMUY.h LeB. Holmes, Walter Cliffokd, William G. Wood. Miscellaneoiis Business— Gkorge S. Homer, William A. Robinson, John W. Macomber. Boom — Isaac B. Tompkins, Jr., George R. Phillips, Augustus A.Wood. MEMBERS. Fraucis T. Akin, George N. Alden, Robert Allan, Edward H. Allen, Fretlerick S. Allen, Gilbert Allen, Benjamin Anthony, Edmund Anthony, Jr., Charles S. Ashley, Frank C. Bancroft, Charles E. Barney, Edwin L. Barney, George F. Bartlett, HenrV Bartlett, Robert W. Bartlett, William H. Bartlett, William M. Bates, M^illiam Baylies, J. Arthur Beauvais, Rodolphus Beetle, Robert G. Bennett, John Bertram, William II. Besse, George S. Bliss, Charles F. Borden, Jonathan Bourne, Standish Bourne, Charles H. Briggs, Geoi'ge E. Briggs, Charles O. Brightman, Edward S. Brown, Oliver F. Brown, Alfred M. Brownell, Benjamin F. Brownell, Elnatlian C. Brownell, George L. Brownell, Holder M. Brownell, J. Augustus Brownell, Stephen A. Brownell, Josepli H. Burgess, William M. Butler, Byron F. Card, Charles A. Case, Edward T. Chapman, Abram Chase, Warren E. Chase, William N. Church, Charles W. Cliflford, Walter Clifford, Charles W. Coggeshall, Robert C. P. Coggeshall, Charles E. Cook, Samuel H. Cook, Thomas W. Cook, David A. Corey, Frank Cory, Henry U. Crapo, William W. Crapo, Charles S. Cummings, Patrick Cunningham, Charles F. Cushing, John K. Cushing, Harry Damon, Benjamin Dawson, Horatio G. Dean, Charles H. L. Delano, George Delano, James Delano, Henry C. Denison, JohnH. Denison, Edwin Dews, .John H. J. Doane, James Duddy, John Duff, Abram T. Eddy, George M. Eddy, John H. Ennis, David B. Folger, Lot H. Gibbs, Frank H. Gifford, Frederick N. Gifford, Thomas J. Gifford, Alex. M. Gooilspeed, William Gordon, Jr., Charles A. Gray, Edmund Grinned, Lawrence Grinnell, Samuel C. Hart, Edward P. Haskell, Jr., Edward S. Haskell, John Hastings, George C. Hatch, Moses E. Hatch, Benjamin P. Hathaway, Francis Hathaway, Henry C. Hathaway, Horatio Hathaway^ Savory C. Hathaway, Norman P. Hayes, Charles E. Heiidrickson, Thomas Hersom, Edward E. Hitch, Joshua C. Hitch, Henry A. Holcomb, Munroe Holcomb, Charles H. Holden, Albert W. Holmes, Lemuel LeB. Holmes, George S. Homer, Frederick A. Homer, Frederick H. Hooper, Thomas D. Hooper, Henry Howland, Horace G. Howland, Paul Howland, Jr., Weston Howland, WiUiam D. Howland, Cyrus D. Hunt, Samuel C. Hunt, Henry S. Hutchinson, Samuel Ivers, Charles S. Kelley, David B. Kempton, Chiirles Kern, George P. Kingman, George M. Kingman, George O. Knowles, John P. Knowles, 2d, Thomas H. Knowles, Hosea M. Knowlton, William Kuhn, James W. Lawrence, James M. Lawton, Jr., Eilgar R. Lewis, William Lewis, Stephen C. Lowe, Clarence Lowell, Augustus E. Lucas, Parkman M. Lund, John McCullough, John W. Macomber, Pardon A. Macomber, Edward D. Mandell, William H Mathews, Samuel E. Miller, Eben C. Milliken, Lewis E. Milliken, Charles H. Morton, Henry C. W. Mosher, James H. Murkland, Timothy .1. Murpliv, Ezekiel H. Noble, John N. Norris, Obed C. Nye, John O'Neil, Samuel Osborn, Jr., Samuel S. Paine, Charles S. Paisler, Ephraim C. Palmer, Charles L.Parker, David L. Parker, Stephen D. Peirce, Arthur K. Perrv, George R. Phillips, Andrew G. Pierce, Charles W. Plummer, Andrew C. Pollard, Charles R. Price, Charles S. Randall, El)en P. Ravmond, Rol)ert F. Ravmond, William A. Read, Benjamin F. H. Reed, Samuel P. Richmond, •Joseph W. Ro))ertson, Anthony Rolnnson, Williani A. Robinson, Edmund Rodman, Morgan Rotch, William J. Rotch, Samuel H. Rus.sell, William A. Russell, William Samlers, Gardner T. Sanford, William L. Sayer, Humphrey W. Seaburv, Charles F. Shaw, Charles R. Sherman, Joseph S. Sisson, Ori-ick Smallev, Abbott P. Smith, Harry A. Smith, Andrew Snow, .Jr., Loum Snow, Rufus A. Soule, Frederick A. Sowle, Frederick L. Sowle, James C. Stafford, James E. Stanton, Eliot D. Stetson, George R. Stetson, William F. Sturtevant, Daniel J. Sullivan, Frederick Swift, Jireh Swift, John F. Swift, Moses C. Swift, Antone L. Sylvia, George S. Taber, Robert B. Taber, Robert W. Taber, William C. Taber, Jr., William G. Taber, Henry W. Taylor, Lemuel T. Terry, John T. Tillinghast, Joseph Tillinghast, Theoilore F. Tillinghast, William A. Tillinghast, Robert G. Tobey, Isaac B. Tompkins, Jr., Charles M. Tripp, Henry W. Tripp, Thomas A. Tripp, Thomas B. Tripp, Edward T. Tucker, George F. Tucker, Hiram Van Cainpen, Weston C. Vaughan, Benjamin H. VV^^ite, Lettice R. Washburn, Williani H. Washburn, William Watkins, William N. Weeden, John Welch, Arthur C. Wheaton, Edward B. Whiting, Edmonil L. Wilde, E.lward T. Wilson, George WiLson, -John VVing, John Wing, Jiist'iih Wing, William R. Wing, Augustus A. Wood, Edmund Wood, George R. Wood, Thomas F. Wood, William G. Wood, Antone L. Zoeggele. PAST PRESIDENTS. FREDERICK SWIFT, 1S84 to 1886. JIREH SWIFT, 1886 to 1888. CONTENTS. Preface 5 Organization of the Board of Trade 6 CHAPTER I. Pages of History 9 CHAPTER n. The Whale-fishery 25 CHAPTER HI. Seeing the Sights 55 CHAPTER IV. Industrial and Financial 133 CHAPTER V. A Diversity of Subjects 301 ADVERTISEMENTS. W€ h -di=;JL:=:..;r::=,rr:;r=:s III MAYOR- 1 875-1876 NEW BEDFORD. CHAPTER I. PAGES OF HISTORY. AY 31, 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, with a small party of EngHshmen, sailed from the little island of Cutty- hunk to the main land borderino- on the "stately sound" which he called "Gosnold's Hope," but to which has persistently clung the less poetic ap- pellation of a later date, "Buzzards Bay." It has usually been taken for granted that the discoverers sailed up the Acushnet river, and landed on the shore where the city of New Bedford is now located. Of this there may be some doubt, for the narrative of one of the party indicates that the harbors found by Gosnold and his companions were two which are west of the Acushnet river. However this may be, it is certain that they were not far from this locality, and the descrip- tions given by the English explorers may apply as well to the appearance of our own harbor in those days. It is said by an early historian that "the stately groves, flowering meadows and running- brooks afforded delightful entertainment to the adventurers," and one of the visitors, writing of the visit, says that Gosnold was met by a company of the natives, "men, women and children, who with all lO NEW BED FOR I). courteous kindness entertained him, giving him skins of wild beasts, tobacco, turtles, hemp, artificial strings coloured, and such like 'things as thev had about them." We may be sure that Gosnold traded with the aborigines, for it is stated by the same authority that when the ship returned on the homeward voyage to England, she was laden with furs and other productions of the country, among which is particularly mentioned sassafras root, then held in great esteem in England as a medicine. It was the original intention that the expedition, which sailed from Falmouth, England, on the 26th of March, 1602, should proceed to Virginia and there found a colonv. But the voyagers chanced upon an island which is easily identified as Cuttyhunk, one of a small group on the southern coast of Massachusetts, where they determined to settle. That they were tickle, and not adapted to pioneering, is shown by their building a rude fort or house, but abandoning the enterprise when it was yet in its infancy. On the 17th of June in the year in which they reached America the\ sailed on their return to England. It has often been asserted that Gosnold and his unstable followers were not the first European visitors to our shores. With some rea- sonable confidence, the claim is made that they were anticipated six centuries by the adventurous Northmen, who were roving dwellers on the New England coast for eight years, and of whom, but little doubt remains that they often visited the shores of Buzzards Bay and its vicinity. The records are meagre, but they are believed to be trustworthy and to warrant the conclusion that the coastwise explora- tions ot the Northmen, although seemingly unproductive of lasting or valuable results, were thorough. Of all the deductions from these records, it is impossible to speak so confidentl}^ Differing widely as they do, some of them must be imaginary, and all are undoubtedly to a great extent fanciful. Yet we do not greatly stretch the imag- ination if we conjecture that the bold northern sailors navigated the waters of the Acushnet and explored the forests on its shores. Twenty years after the arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth, the dwellers in that colony began to look with covetous eyes on the pleasant land which had delighted Gosnold and his companions. The general court of March, 1639, passed an order that the pur- chasers or "old-com,ers" should make choice of two or three plantations for themselves and their heirs by the December court. The selections were duly made, and one of them, known as ''the o 12 NEW BEDFORD. second place," included the locality which is now the city of New Bedford. But not until 1652 was the right acquired by purchase from the Indians. On the 29th of November, 1652, a conveyance was made by Wasamequin, an Indian chief, and Wamsutta, his son, of the territory now included in the city of New Bedford and the neighboring towns of Fairhaven, Acushnet, Dartmouth, and West- port. For this large tract of land, the consideration was as follows : ''Thirty yards of cloth, eight moose-skins, fifteen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pair of breeches, eight blankets, two kettles, one cloak, £2 in wampan, eight pair stockings, eight pair of shoes, one iron pot, and ten shillings in another commoditie." It has been supposed that this other "commoditie'" meant rum and tobacco. On the con- trary, it is urged that the purchasers of this land were not afraid to say rum when thev meant rum, and that the consideration is as likely to have been something else as liquor. But this aside, the buyers of the territorN' secured a very fair bargain for their outlay. Wamsutta and his father Wasamequin, or Massasoit, the name by which he is better known, agreed to remove all the Indians from the tract in a year. This was beyond their power, and the Indians remained in partial possession for many years. Settlers had found their way to the territory before the purchase. If tradition can be relied upon, Ralph Russell, his son John, and Anthony Slocum were the first white men to set up homes in this vicinity. They are said to have come from Taunton in 1650, and to have established an iron forge at Russell's Mills, in what is now the town of Dartmouth. Neither of them was an original proprietor, but on the 9th of March, 1664, John Russell purchased the thirt}'- fourth part or share of Capt. Miles Standish. John Cooke, who came to Acushnet at about the time the Russells came to Russell's Mills, was an original proprietor, and he was a son of Francis Cooke, a Mayflower Pilgrim. He and John Russell were the leading men in the new town of Dartmouth, arid for the first twenty years of its existence were its only representatives in the Old Colony court at Plymouth. It is evident, from a study of the records, that many of the pioneer settlers in this region came here for the same reason that the Pilgrims came to Plymouth. Many of them w^ere Friends or Bap- tists, who found life in the Plymouth colony hard to bear because they were not of its dominant religious faith. John Cooke, before PAGES OF HISTORY. 13 alluded to, was a Baptist preacher, and was highly honored by his townsmen, holding various offices of trust for many years. But the •general court saw fit to fine him ten shillings "for breaking the Sab- bath by unnecessary travelling thereon." It has been surmised, and not unreasonably, that he was travelling to fulfill an appointment to preach. The founders of Plymouth colon}" made one step toward the reali- zation of perfect religious liberty. The founders of the town of Dartmouth made another, which was not less important. We can do no better in this connection than to quote the admirable statement made by Hon. William W. Crapo in his oration at the Dartmouth centennial, Sept. 14th, 1864. He said : "I have said our fathers were Puritans. They were more than that — ^they were the Protestants of the Puritan?. I'hey were in sympathy witli the established gov- ernment at Plymouth in every tiling except the one matter of compulsory taxation for religious purposes. Fully believing in freedom of conscience, the}'^ had early conceived a strong aversion to the arbitrary imposition of taxes by the civil power for the support of a ministry with which they were not in unison and over which they had no control. The early records of the town, imperfect and fragmentary as they are, in connection with the histoi'y of the colony, plainly tell us how earnestly and even bitterly this controversy was waged, and for how many years it was the source of discord and of persecution. The Plymouth colony court annually appor- tioned to the town a tax for the support of ministers, in addition to the province tax, but the Baptists and Quakers of Dartmouth were inflexible in their resistance to it, and while the province rates were faitlifully met, those for the maintenance of ministers were refused. It also troubled our good nilers at Plymouth that our fathers were so negligent in providing stated preaching according to the established Puritan faith." The authorities at Plymouth were disposed to force the refrac- tory Baptists and Qiiakers into compliance. In 1674, the court passed an order in which it took into "serious consideration the tremendous dispensation of God towards the people of Dartmouth in sufl:ering the barbarous heathen to spoil and destroy most of their habitations," expressing the fear that the carelessness to obtain and attend unto the ministry of the word of God "may have been a provocation of God thus to chastise their contempt of his gospel, which we earnestly desire the people of that place may seriously consider of, lay to heart and be humbled for, with a solicitous en- deavor after a reformation thereof, b}- a vigorous putting forth to obtain an able, faithful dispenser of the word of God amongst them, and to encourage him therein ; the neglect whereof this court, as they must and, God willing, they will not jiermit for the future." 14 NEW BKDFORD. This did not frighten the people of Dartmouth, whose ideas of religions duty were quite as inflexible as those of the members of the Plymouth court. They would worship God, but they would do it in their own way, and they would contribute not a penny to the sup- port of a ministry of which they did not fully approve. The struggle between the town and the court lasted over fifty 3-ears, but the town yielded never a grain. It reached a culmination in 1724. In 1722, the assembly of Massachusetts passed an act to raise one hundred pounds in the town of Dartmouth, and seventy-two pounds eleven shillings in the adjoining town of Tiverton (then a part of Massachusetts) for the support of ministers whose selection was subject to the approval of the general court. The two towns were the only ones in the province that had not received any Presbyterian ministers, and the action of the ceneral court was to force them into line with the rest. It was provided that the sum assessed should be included in the province tax, and afterwards be drawn out of the treasur}'. The people of Dartmouth had a town meeting on the 26th of November, 1722, and ^'oted not to pay the money, but to raise seven hundred pounds to protect the selectmen from the conse- quences of the refusal and to defray the expenses of an appeal to the king. Only five taxpayers protested against this appropriation, which was a large one for those days, and it is worthy of note, as showing the earnestness of the people, that it was met by the tax of that year, and not left to posterity to pay, on the ground that future generations would reap the benefit and must therefore foot the bills. The selectmen refused to assess the tax which had been ordered by the assembly. They were imprisoned in Bristol jail for eighteen months, but the appeal to the king resulted in their release and the order that the obnoxious taxes be remitted. Thus ended a struggle for religious liberty the importance of which can hardly be over- estimated. On both sides it was waged by patriotic and conscien- tious men, but it must ever be occasion for honest pride to the dwellers in Dartmouth and her daughter municipalities that the pioneers within her borders stood firmly and successfully for the principle of complete independence of the Christian church from the domination or guidance of the state. King Philip's war was the occasion of much distress to the inhab- itants of this region. This is not the place to enter into an extended account of that last struggle of the Indians of southeastern New ^^^^4^ PAGES OF HISTORY 17 England to retain possession of their hunting grounds. While it lasted, it was bitter and relentless. It extended over a considerable part of eastern Massachusetts, but it is recorded that no other por- tion of the territory was so devastated as that on which New Bedford stands. One historian of the time wrote that Dartmouth's " distresses required succour, great part of the town being laid desolate and many of the inhabitants killed ; the most of Plymouth forces were ordered thither." Tradition says that the dwelling of every white person within the limits of the town was destroyed. However, after the death of Philip and the dispersion of his followers, the town appears to have quickly recovered. After the close of King Philip's war, the settlers b}- the Appone- gansett turned their attention to the shores of the Acushnet. Some time prior to 1711, Joseph Russell, son of the John Russell who established the iron Ibr^e at Russell's Mills, came here and resided at what is now the corner of County and South streets. Joseph Russell, Jr., who was born at the garrison in Apponegansett in the troublous times of Indian warfare, also came to live near his father. The third Joseph in the line was probably born within the limits of the present city, and to him is generally credited the honor of being its founder. He was a man of enterprise and of far-seeing business ability. He established the whale-fishery at this port, and he built the first sperm oil factory located here. He also was an importer of foreign goods, and carried on a flourishing and extensive business, for those days, until it was ruined by the Revolutionary War. The village remained an agricultural community for many years. Two or three sloops, indeed, fitted for the whale-fishery, and there was a "try-house" near the shore. Yet the site of the present city was covered by a forest, and the farm houses were at some dis- tance from the river. Not until almost fifty years had passed from the time when the first Joseph Russell located here were any signs apparent of the future commercial and industrial life of the town. In 1760, John Loudon, a caulker, came here from Pembroke and established himself as a shipbuilder. Then came Benjamin Taber, a boatbuilder and blockmaker ; John Alden, a house carpenter; Barzillai Myrick, a ship carpenter; Elnathan Sampson, a black- smith ; and Gideon Mosher, a mechanic, but of what trade it is not stated. These men, and others like them, were the pioneers of New Bedford's industries, and we have abundant reason to believe that they NEW BEDFORD. worked wisely and well. Not one of them was rich, even when judged by the limited standards of their day, but they had stout hearts and willing hands and so achieved a measurable share of success. In 1765, Joseph Rotch came to the village from Nantucket. He had selected the harbor as well adapted to the prosecution of the whale-fishery, and having means and enterprise he embarked in business with vigor, reaping much success. His settlement here gave to the place a great impetus, ensuring its growth and pros- perity. Up to this time the village had no name of its own. That part of Dartmouth which afterwards became New Bedford was then known as the Acushena territory. But it had now become of suf- ficient importance to make a distinctive name a necessity. Ac- cordingly, upon a public occasion, Joseph Rotch suggested, and the suggesdon was adopted, that the name should be "Bedford," in honor of Joseph Russell, who bore the lamily name of the Duke of Bedford. This, it must be remembered, was in the "Old Colony days," wiien New England was under the rule of the king, and the compliment was probably then much more apparent than it is now. Prosperit}' came to the thrift}- and industrious village. Its population grew and its enterprises flourished. The whaling fleet increased, and Bedford seemed fairly launched on a fortunate career. The war of the Revolution destro3'ed every pleasing anticipation in which the people had indulged. For the time, the whaling industry was ruined, while the young merchants saw not only their pro- spective gains cut oft', but their present prosperity vanish. Some of the inhabitants engaged in privateering, but as most of the" business men w^ere Qiiakers they could not conscientiously do this. The peaceful non-resistants, however, shared in the punishment inflicted upon the place by a large force from the British army. The harbor had become a noted rendezvous for privateers, which brought here their prizes and unloaded their cargoes. In retaliation, Maj.-Gen. Grey, under orders from Sir Henry Clinton, made a raid on the village on the 5th and 6th of September, 1778, destroying property to the value of £96,980, and inflicting a crushing blow on the settle- ment. The story has been well and exhaustively told elsewhere, and only the briefest summary of it need be given here. On the afternoon of September 5th, the British frigate Carysfort and several PAGES OF HISTORY. ^9 transports appeared in the bay, with-between four thousand and five thousand troops. These were landed at Clark's Cove, to avo.d pass- ing a fort which guarded the mouth of Acushnet river. The troops marched up Ure County road to the village, where they burned thirtv-four vessels, ten dwelling houses, and about twenty-five other buildings, including a rope walk and a distillery. While the troops were marching up the County road, they fired upon and killed Abraham Russell, Thomas Cook, and Diah Traft-ord. Th,s was the first blood shed in this neighborhood in the Revolution. The Bnt.sh soldiery marched to the head of the river, through what ,s now Acushnet, and down on the Fairhaven side, re-embarkmg on then- vessels at Sconticut Neck. !,,„,.„ When peace came, the people went bravely a work to .e- build their shattered fortunes. How well they succeeded is told m other chapters of this volume. After the war was over, the village rapidly grew, and in a lew vears it was ready to set up for itself as an independent "";"'=■?"'•>•■ in 1787, it was severed from the old township of Dartmomh, and to. the firs, time became New Bedford. The prefix '' New was adopted to distinguish the town from another Bedford, in another art'of the State.' The division of the old town of Dartmouth ^. strenuously opposed, not only by all the inhabitants of that part of the town which would still remain as Dartmouth, but by many who lived in the territory of Bedford. Some of these latter remon- strants, in a paper which is still on file among the archives of the iTcreLv of 'state of Massachusetts, assert that '^ey "have bee particula'rlv happy in contemplating the idea ot our union with and coniunction to a town of superior consequence, holding lank and place among the principal and most respectable towns in this Com n nwealth.' This is one of the reasons they assign 'or opposing the division, while the other is that "at a time of general distie. when the burdens of taxation are heavy upon us, we «PP-hend '^ the additional expense of a representative and a «hok -';' ^ officers, a grammar school master and the apparatus of public bui dings wm be more than ten times sufficient to outweigh everj advantageous consideration." But such arguments as the e were seen to I of litde weight in the face of the e-dent nee s ity fo a division, and on the 23d of February, 1787. die bill ■neorpo'-ating teZ'n of New Bedford became a law. The new town included. 20 NEW BEDFORD. beside the New Bedford of the present day, what is now Fairhaven and Acushnet. The territory of the two huter towns was set oiY in 1812, the division being the result of irreconcilable political views between the dwellers on the opposite sides of the Acushnet river. Many years after, Fairhaven was divided, and the town of Acushnet was carved from its north end. At intervals slight changes have been made in the town and city lines, but they remain today substan- tially as first drawn. In 1847. New Bedford was incorporated as a cit} . The conduct of its affairs was entrusted to a city council, consisting of a ma3'or and six aldermen, and a common council of four members from each of the six wards. A school committee of three members from each ward was also instituted, with a board of overseers of the poor and other necessar}' officials. In substance, the government of the cit}- now remains as at first, though there have been some changes in detail. The list of mayors and the years in which they served the city is as follows : 1847-;")!, Abraham H. Howland. 1852, AVilliam J. Kotch. 1853-54, Rodney French. 1855-56, George Howland, .Jr. 1857-58,* George H. Diinliar. 18.59, WMllard Nye. 1860-Gl, and to Sept. 29, 18G2, Isaac C. Taber. 1862, from Sept. 29; 1863-65, George Howland, .Jr. 1866-67, .John H. Perry. 1868-69, Andrew G. Pierce. 1870-72, George B. Richmond. 1873, George H. Dunbar. 1874, George B. Richmond. 1875-76, Abraham H. Howland, .Ii'. 1877, Alanson Borden. 1878, George B. Richmond. 1879-80, William 'J\ Soule. 1881-84, George Wilson. 188.5-88, Morgan Rotch. The growth of the population of New Bedford is exhibited in the following table, compiled from the census reports. It gives also the population of the towns which have been cut oft^ from it. Year. New Bedford. Fairliaveii. Acuslinot. 1790 3,313 1800 4,361 1810 5,651 1820 3,947 2,733 1830 7.592 3,034 1840 12,087 3,951 1850 16,443 4,304 1855 20,389 . . . . • .... 4,693 1860 22,300 3,118 1,387 1865 20,8.53 2,-547 1,251 1870 21,320 • • . 2,626 1,132 1875 25,895 2,768 1,059 1880 26,845 2,875 1,105 1885 33,393 2,880 1,071 *Tlie municipal year was cliaiigeil in 18.57, ami Mayor Puiil)ar's first, term was only nine niontliH :^m\ PAGES OF HISTORY. 23 The following tabular statement, compiled from the records of the assessors of taxes, shows the progress of New Bedford in wealth since 1850. The first column gives the number of poll taxes as- sessed in each of the years indicated. The other columns explain themselves. Year. Polls. Real Estate. Personal Estate. Total Valuation. 18.50 .... 3,627 §18,632,600 185.5 .... 4,325 25,597,100 1860 .... 5,317 .... #9,157,200 .... #13,955,700 .... 23,112,900 1865 .... 4,578 .... 8,161,800 .... 12,171,800 .... 20,333,600 1870 .... 5,251 .... 8,774,500 .... 14,221,514 .... 22,996,014 1875 .... 6,226 .... 11,946,600 .... 14,428,674 . . . 26,375,274 1880 .... 7.028 .... 13,1.38,400 .... 13,137,519 .... 26,275,919 1885 .... 8,349 .... 16,293,800 .... 15,104,090 .... 31,.397,890 1888 .... 9,424 .... 18,023,700 .... 15,430,647 .... 33,454,347 This brief sketch of the history of New Bedford may fittingly close with a reference to the record of New Bedford in the Civil War. In few cities in the countr\' was a deeper interest felt in the conflict, and scarcelv one did more in proportion to its means and its popula- tion to uphold the cause of the Union. New Bedford men were among the first to respond to the call tbr troops, and New Bedford soldiers and sailors faithfully helped fight the battles of freedom until the war had ended. When the first call was made, the City Guards, then included in the Third Regiment, responded at once, leaving NewBedtbrd on the morning of April 16, 1861, two days after Major Anderson had evacuated Fort Sumter. These men were ordered into service for only three months, but most of them afterwards re-enlisted and served through the war. When the subsequent calls were made, other companies were organized, and including these, the men who enlisted in regiments mainly recruited in other parts of the State, and men who enlisted in the navy. New Bedford furnished about thirty-two hundred men for the war, which was a surplus of eleven hundred and ten men over the demands made upon her. It gave one hundred and twenty officers to the military service, and it furnished many officers to the na\y. Its city government appro- priated and expended on account of the war, $177,000. This was exclusive of money expended for aid to families of volunteers, and afterwards refunded by the Commonwealth, amounting to $125,495.85. This is a remarkable showing lor a city as small as New Bed- ford was then, and whose chief industry received a tremendous blow 24 NEW BEDFORD. from the war. But we think it was not so remarkable as the work of the women of New Bedford in their appropriate way in aid of the war for the Union. Two days after the tirst men left New Bedford for southern battlefields, the women of the city had a meeting and organized for the work. How well they succeeded is shown by the record of their contributions for the relief and comfort of the soldiers. The Ladies' Soldiers' Relief Society gave upwards of $20,000 in money ; in cotton cloth and flannel, $4000 ; and in hospital stores, $6000. The Society for the Comfort and Rehef of our Soldiers in Hospitals gave an immense amount of clothing and hospital stores, aggregating man}' thousand dollars in value. CHAPTER II THE WHALE-FISHERY. HE history of the New England whale- fishery is so interwoven with the his- tory of New Bedford during the last century," said Hon. William W. Crapo, in an oration delivered at the municipal celebration of the centen- nial of national independence, "that they cannot be separated ; and no record of the growth and business of our town and city can be complete without it. Our wealth, our population, and our progress have been the fruits of this industry ; and our position and fame among the cities of the v/orld is due to its successful prosecution." The thriving manufacturing cit^^ of New Bedford of 1888 is the outgrowth of a settlement of fishermen, — fishermen on a large scale, — who drew to them the mechanics and traders needed to sup- ply their wants and formed the nucleus of the city of today. New Bedford's wealth was brought from the depths of the ocean by her sons, who braved ever}' danger, accepted every hazard, and fear- lessly entered unknown regions in pursuit of their prey. Gathered from the ocean, at her own peril. New Bedford's wealth impoverished no other's treasury, and for the distinction of being the wealthiest city of her size in the Union she owes no debt save to her own sons. The Whaling City today, as one hundred years ago, is the home of the great industry. First at the flood tide, she is still first at the ebb- ing. The discover}^ of petroleum with the advent of earth oils was a 26 NEW BEDFORD. severe blow to the whale-fishery. With keen foresight the old New Bedford whalemen pierced the future's veil, discerning the inevitable decline of the whale-fishery. Fresh fields were sought for invest- ment, and the capital for mills, factories, and founderies was at once forthcoming. The old whaling port w'as transformed into a bustling work-shop and her future was assured. Yet today the whaling is h\ no means the least important of her industries, lor in it she leads the world, as she will while a whale remains in the deep. The change was but a manifestation of the enterprise and progress which characterize the New Bedford whale--fishermen. This whale-fishery, in the prosecution of which New Bedford surpassed all the world and so greatly and rapidly increased her wealth, is of very ancient origin, dating back to the days of Alexander the Great. The Dutch were engaged in the pursuit and Northmen sought the great fish before the voyages of Columbus. In the New World the whale-fishery is contemporar}- with the settlement of New York and the New England colonies. It was first established along the shores of Long Island as early as 1640. Some thirty years after, came the first w^haling expedition from Nantucket, which was under- taken by some of the original purchasers of the island. A whale came into the harbor and continued there three daj's. The curiosity of the villagers was excited, and, determined to prevent his escape, they invented and wrought a harpoon with which they attacked and killed the monster. This encouraged them to make whaling a per- manent business, as whales were numerous about the shores, and the pursuit was soon extensively carried on in small boats. In 1672 the islanders, eager lor further knowledge, sent to the main land for whalers from Cape Cod and Easthampton, L. I., to instruct them in the art. By 17 15 the people of Nantucket were pursuing the whales upon the ocean in small sloops and schooners, making brief voyages, bringing home the blubber and trying out the oil on the shore. This was in the primitive days of whaling. In the vicinit}' of New^ Bedford whaling probably commenced about 1760. To Joseph Russell, the founder of the city, is attributed the honor of being the pioneer of the whale-fishery, he having been engaged in the business as early as 1755. His calling demanded the use of boats, consequently the earliest settlers of the town were industrious and enterprising mechanics and the earliest settlement was of an industrial more than an agricultural character. In 1765, THE WHALE-FISHERY. 29 Joseph Rotch, of Nantucket, an enterprising merchant of experience and knowledge, selected New Bedford harbor as eligible and advan- tageous for the prosecution of the whale-fishery and brought to the village an acquisition of capital which had been needed to stimulate the industry. Mr. Rotch purchased land, built ships and sent them out. New Bedford brains designed the vessels and planned their voyages. New Bedford hands built them and then manned them on the sea. Thus were born many allied industries on the land, and refineries and candle factories, with other important branches of business, were established. In the year of Mr. Rotch's arrival four sloops, from 40 to 60 tons burden, were engaged in the business. These small ves- sels usually sailed in pairs and so long as they kept company the blubber of the captured whales was divided equally among them. The voyages were gradually extended and, in the ten years follow- ing, the whaling fleet was increased from two or three small vessels to fifty of larger size. In 1774 New Bedford sent vessels to the Falkland Islands, and it was the enterprise and daring of those whalemen that inspired Edmund Burke's eloquent tribute to the industry in the House of Commons. The War of the Revolution checked the growth of the industry and almost stamped out the busi- ness. Joseph Russell lost most of his property and the same may be said of all whose interests were on the sea. Mr. Rotch left the town and remained away during the war. Long before this, New Bedford had outstripped all competitors in the industry and her ships were scattered throughout the world in every navigable w^ater. "It is a remarkable coincidence," commented Hon. W. W. Crapo in his centennial address, "that the war which had been pre- cipitated in the destruction of tea thrown overboard from the Dart- mouth, a ship owned by Francis Rotch of the village of Bedford, should have associated with its close the advent in English waters of the ship Bedford as the first vessel floating the American flag in any British port." The Bedford sailed from New Bedford harbor before the war. Many difficulties were found after the war in replacing the ves- sels which had been burned by the British or fallen into disuse and decay. The English government placed a heavy alien duty on oil with the object of forcing the industry to her own harbors. For a time Britain was successful in this, but the persistency and persua- siveness of New Bedford's citizens obtained the privilege of sending 30 NEW BEDFORD. oil to ports of other countries free of duty. The work of developing the industry earl}^ in the nineteenth century was slow and difficult, with the many hazards encountered on the sea and the opposition of foreign powers on the land. No marked improvement was manifest until after the close of the war of 1812. During that war ships were captured and destroyed or used as transports by the British. After its termination the whale-fisher}^ as prosecuted «- in New Bedford advanced with great rapidity and sue- ^ cess. The city continued to lead all other ports in the whaling interests. From the year 1820 until the year 1857 the city's prosperity and accumulation of wealth were uninterrupted. The whaling industry reached its highest point in capital, in vessels, and in tonnage in 1857. Its fleet of 329 ships and THE WHALE-FISHERY. 3I whaling outfits was worth more than twelve millions of dollars and required more than ten thousand seamen. The largest importations ot oil and bone were in 185 1 and 1853. The quantities of each with the prices realized from their sale were as follows : 1851. 99,591 barrels sperm oil, at .$1.27^ per gallon ;^.3,991,980.75 ;}28,483 barrels wliale oil, at .4.-)i per gallon 4,682,114.56 3,960,.100 pounds bone, at .34^ per pound 1, 368,442.-50 .$10,042,.537.81 1853- 10.'5,()77 barrels sperm oil, at $1.24 i| per gallon .$4,0.50,539.56 260,114 barrels whale oil, at .58i per gallon 4,762,524.77 5,652,300 pounds bone, at .34^ per pound 1,950,043.50 $10,763,107.83 The depredations of rebel cruisers at the opening of the Civil War carried dismay into our whaling fleets as early as 1862, but the great loss occurred in June, 1865, when the Shenandoah entered into Behring strait and captured and burned twenty-five ships, most of them of large size, and bonded four others for the purpose of furnish- ing transportation. Fiftv whaling vessels were captured by the rebel cruisers, of which forty -six with outfits and cargoes were burned. Of this number twenty-eight sailed from and were owned in New Bedlbrd. The loss of ships and outfits belonging here exceeded one million of dollars, and of oil and bone on board, $400,000. Many ships were sold during the war or were transferred to the merchant service. Some in the Pacific ocean were put under the Hawaiian flag. Of those sold forty w^ere purchased hy the United States and formed the larger portion of the two famous stone fleets which in 1861 were sunk off" the harbors of Charleston and Savannah to prevent the entrance of blockade runners and the ingress and egress of privateers. Of these vessels the greater number were New Bedford whalers. In September, 187 1, thirty -three ships were abandoned in the Arctic ocean hopelessly crushed in the ice. Twelve hundred men were hemmed in by the ice and escaped only alter a perilous journey ot seventy miles. Of the thirty-three vessels crushed or abandoned, twenty-two belonged in New Bedford and were valued without the oil and bone on board at $1,090,000. In 1S76 twelve ships were aban- 32 NEW BEDFORD. doned in the Arctic. Fifty lives were lost and $660,000 worth of property was destroyed. The latest momentous disaster to befall the whaling industry was on the third of August, 1888, when five vessels were lost in a terrific gale oft' Point Barrow^ in the Arctic ocean. Three of these vessels were ow^ned in New Bedford — the ship Young Phoenix and barks Mary & Susan and Fleetwino; — and the loss sustained by the New Bedford owners was about $60,000. These whalers were anchored between Cape Smith and Point Barrow, waiting for the ice to break up. All the vessels in the fleet suffered by the storm and were succored by the U. S. R. M. steamers Thetis and Bear, which carried the shipwrecked whalemen to San Francisco. Scarcely a season goes by without some similar disaster, and the whole life of an Arctic whaleman is crowded with danger and sufi'ering. From natural causes the whale-fishery began to decline before some of these disasters occurred, and the shipping has never been replaced except by the building of an occasional vessel ; but the capital that could again have sent out great fleets on the sea to replace those fired by the pirate's torch or whose timbers are entombed in Arctic ice and snow contributed to the varied industries of the city. The average price of sperm oil for the year 1887 was 66 cents, of whale oil 32 cents, and of bone $3.12. The reader will glean from this the truth, that the value of the catch in late years depends largely on the bone secured, which is by far the most important feat- ure of many whalers' cargoes. It is within the remembrance of many an old whaleman when this bone, now so precious, w^as dumped over the ship's side as waste or only saved by the sailors for "scrim- shaw work," as they termed their employment in idle hours on ship- board in making curious knick-knacks for friends on shore. When first saved, the bone had a market value of only a few cents a pound. In 1823 it was worth about 12 cents. From that it jumped to 25, then 30 and 40, as its value became more apparent, and when the demand increased the price rapidly rose to about the present figures. While substitutes were found tor the other products of the whale-fishery, inventive genius in vain has strived to supply an article that wnll fill the place of the whalebone. Russian horn, celluloid, — artificial and natural substances alike have been tried, but none will answer the purpose. The discovery of petroleum was timely, for the increasing THE WHALE-FISHERY. 35 demands of the New and the Old World could never have been sup- plied by whale oil, but it is reserved for the future to find that substi- tute which can fill the place of the bone which now advances in price with its ever-growing consumption. A rough estimate shows the capital today invested in the whale- fisher}' in the world to be not far from two and a quarter millions dol- lars. Of this New Bedford alone has an interest of a million and three-quarters — seven-ninths of the industry being managed in New Bedford. Despite its decline, it is an undisputed fact that the whale-fishery of our city, as now carried on, has a larger interest than the whal- ing of the whole outside world together. The statistics given herewith will show the reader something of the magnitude of New Bedford's present whaling interests. Vessels Employed in the Whale-fishery January i, 1888. Ships and Barks. Brigs. Scliooners. Tons. New Bedford, 62 2 10 18,911 Edgartowii, 2 1 1 012 ProviDcetown, -....-...I 8 881 Boston, - ] 2 290 New London, - - 3 491 Stoniugtou, - - 2 180 San Francisco, 19 1 1 6,480 Totalfor January 1, 1888, . 83 27 27,851 Importations Of sperm oil, whale oil, and whalebone into the United States in 1887 : Barrels Sperm. Barrels Whale. Pomuls Boue. New Bedford, 13,505 2,503 15,370 Boston, 1,366 - Provincetown, 486 44 490 New London - 1,120 6,049 New York, 2,576 (534 1,408 San Francisco, 880 29,870 561,694 Total, 18,873 34,171 585,011 In studying this table the reader must bear in mind that the great New Bedford Arctic fleet has its rendezvous at San Francisco, and 36 NEW BEDFORD. that the New Bedford whalemen bring into that port an immense amount of oil and bone, which swells the figures of the importations of San Francisco given above. The magnitude, however, of the busi- ness of New Bedford is shown b}' the fact that the total value of oils and whalebone imported into New Bedford for the past half century was $141,290,177. The following table compiled by B. F. H. Reed shows the average prices of whale catchings for half a centur}^ and the value of oil and whalebone received at New Bedford : Date. S]ieriii oil per j,'-al. Wlialc oil iier .ual. M'liak'boiiu ]wv ikiuihI. \';iluc ol ratcli. 1835 $.84 ,$.30 $.24 1S36 88 44 . . < 25 1837 82 33 22 18.38 85 32 19 !Si2.4!»(),0,-.] 1839 1.04 34 19 2,385,337 1840 1.01 31 19 2,.344,142 1841 94 32 20 2,2(i4.1.30 1842 73 .34 23 2,337,-545 1843 G3 34 35 1,793,350 1844 90 36 40 3,104,695 1845 88 33 34 2,707,117 1846 88 34 34 2,182,403 1847 1.00 36 . . .• 31 3,383,-562 1848 1.00 33 25 2,913,483 1849 1.09 40 32 • . . 2,765,460 18.50 1.21 49 34 3,279,695 18,51 1.27 45 34 4,812,395 18,52 1.24 08 51 2,853,862 1853 1.25 58 34 2,733,015 1854 1.49 ,59 39 5,924,.362 1855 1.77 71 45 5,283,120 1856 1.62 79 58 5,.364,700 18,57 1.28 73 97 6,178,728 18,58 1.21 .54 92 4,605,523 18,59 1.36 48 77 5,831,564 I860 1.41 49 79 4,216,696 1861 1.31 45 70 3,384,463 1862 1.27 .51 85 2,695,167 1863 1.11 60 1.00 2,708,912 1864 96 63 90 2,370,644 1865 1.45 93 1.02 2,870,838 1866 1.82 88 95 3,137,088 1867 1.70 54 85 2,874,602 1868 1.39 68 73 4,756,040 1869 1.38 77 90 ...... . 3,168,140 1870 1.20 .59 77 2,981,012 1871- ...... 1.18 54 82 2,547,071 1872 1.32 60 1.27 1,893,235 THE WIIAL]<:-I-ISin:RN-. 37 l>;itc. S|K'ini oil jier gal. Wluilc oil iier gal. Wlialeljoiie per iiduikI. \'aluc of catcli. i87;j $i.;n .1^.54 a.ij.s .Si,s;w,ii2 lS7t 1.44 5,-) '.)!) 1,9,'50,5;^4 1875 1.41 .-)7 1.12 2,3S2,45G 1S7('. 1.25 54 l.!)0 1,717,:K^ 1877 1.07 55 2.:!(; 1,450,08.'? 1878 90 4;{ 2.42 1,780,585 1879 84 39 2.:^4 1,7.'?5,190 1880 99 51 2.00 2.014,088 1881 88 48 l.d.'i 1,053,108 1882 1.00 ,53 1.71 1.395,455 1883 97 54 2.87 1,048,266 1884 85 .5(; 3.55 1,084,986 1885 82 45 2.08 1,429,554 1880 74 33 2.73 1,042,-530 1887 00 32 3.12 1,642,794 The statistics for the term of suspension of specie payments dur- ing and after the war Mr. Reed based upon gold values. The following shows the number of whaling vessels belonging to New Bedford and their tonnage for the past fifty years, with the exception of two or three years not easily obtainable : Date Sypt. 1 Oct. 1 .T;iii. 1 .lull. 1 .liiii. 1 .l:in. 1 Jan. 1 .(an. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Jan. 1 Vessel!^. Tonuagc. 1839 177 56,118 1841 201. 63,6.59 1844 219 09,703 1845 23y 70,784 1846 2.54 86,633 1847 254 82,701 1848 248 80,946 1849 2.50 81,075 18.50 238 77,138 1851 249 81,442 1852 282 94,642 18.53 311 104,005 107,512 18.54 1855 1856 318 314 105,4.59 320 107,702 329 111,364 1857 18.58 324 110,207 1859 316 107,931 800 301 103,564 1 1861 1802 1863 291 98,760 200 86,971 220 73,061 1864 197 64,815 1805 175 58,042 ]8C6 164 50,403 38 NEW BEDFORD. j)jjte Vessels. Tonnage. Jan. 1, 1867 181 •^;^>744 Jan. 1, 18GS 182 52,652 Jan. 1, 1869 179 50,810 Jan. 1, 1S70 176 50,675 Jan. 1, 1871 175 50,100 Jan. 1, 1872 144 40,286 Jaa. 1, 1873 130 36,725 Jan. 1, 1874 113 32,594 Jan. 1, 1875 107 29,541 Jan. 1. 1876 116 31,691 Jan. 1, 1877 118 30,465 Jan. 1, 1878 130 33,444 Jan. 1. 1879 132 33,368 Jan. l' 1880 125 31,899 Jan. 1, 1881 123 31,376 Jan. 1, 1882 Ill 28,186 Jan. 1, 1883 106 27.140 Jan. 1, 1884 93 22,877 Jan. 1, 1885 85 21,728 Jan. 1, 1886 . . . • 77 19,913 Jan. 1, 1887 77 19,667 Jan. 1, 1888 74 18,911 The increase in 1846 was caused by the demand for vessels for the bowhead fishery, then just discovered in the Okhotsk and Kam- chatka seas and the Arctic ocean. In 1850 the CaHfornia emigration had an effect in the opposite direction. One of the most important features of the whaling industry of today is the steam whaling. The steam whaler is an outgrowth of the necessities of Arctic whaling. It was soon found of the first importance to enter and leave the frozen seas with the greatest expe- dition. To a brainy seaman of New Bedford the idea of the appli- cation of steam at once suggested itself. He saw at a glance its possibilities — a quicker excursion to the Arctic, a longer stay with diminished danger of being nipped in the ice, and a greath' increased facility in pursuing the chase for the monster of the deep. With the characteristic enterprise and keenness of the hardy New Englander, he at once put his idea into practice. With ready money a steamer was built which revolutionized the methods of whaling, increased the catch, and was at once followed by others, until now the fleet of steam whalers is of prime importance in the industry. A description of one of these vessels will suffice for all. The William Lewis, the latest addition to the fleet of steam whalers, w'as built at Bath, Maine, TOE WHALE-FISHERY. 39 in the summer of il and has left New Bed- ford for the Sandwich Islands, whence she will sail for the Arctic ocean in 1889. This vessel, which is bark rigged, is in some re- spects one of the finest of steam whalers. Of 460 tons gross tonnage, she is 145 feet long, with 30 feet breadth of beam, and the depth of her hold is i6i- feet. She is built entirely of live oak and white oak, copper and iron fastened. Her plank- ing is of white oak, and she IS sheathed with tuo mch hickory to piotect her hull from GROUP OF OLD WHALERS. BARK ROSSEAU 40 NEW BEDFORD. the ice. Her stem is protected by heavy composition plates. To prevent her from being crushed if pinched by the ice, she has three sets of pointers forward and two aft. She is provided with a Provi- dence steam windhiss which is worked by steam power and is a very powerful labor-saving piece of mechanism. The vessel has a 4^ com- pound engine, of 22 inches diameter of high pressure cylinder, 38 inches diameter of low pressure cylinder, and 26 inch stroke, fitted with independent adjustable cut-off valve. The shaft makes 100 rev- olutions per minute. The main cabin is unusually large, finished in ash with black walnut trimmings. A mahogany dining table occu- pies the centre of the floor. It has an extension at the forward end. IllilllllilillllJllillliiilllllliliilliillllliiilllllilllllilllllliliiliiil^ SEAMEN'S BETHEL AND MARINERS' HOME. On the port side are three staterooms and a water closet, the last named leading from a passage on deck just forward of the wheel house. On the starboard side out of the main cabin are two large rooms, — the chief engineer's room and pantry, the latter being well supplied witli lockers and drawers. Just forward of the engineer's room, in the passage-wa}' to the main deck, are two state rooms, fin- ished for other officers. The cabin is heated by steam. Al"t of the main cabin is the captain's cabin, in ash, with the same trimmings as the main cabin, and supplied with furniture of the most attractive THE WHALE-FISHERY. 4I patterns. The chairs and sofa are upholstered in brown plush and a Brussels carpet is on the floor. Adjoining this room on the star- board side is the captain's state room, furnished in a stNJe in keeping with other furniture on the ship. The steerage on the port side forward of the cabin is fitted with eight berths and is heated by steam, while the forecastle, which is very large and contains twenty-two berths, is also heated by steam. The vessel has a large poop deck, on the forward part of which is a platform surroimded bv a rail. This place is used as a lookout, and has communication with the engine room. Forward of the cabin is the engine, and just forward of the engine is the boiler. The cook's galley is aft of the mainmast and forward of the boiler. The wheel-house is aft and the steering gear is the Edison patent. On deck are two " try-pots," each capable of holding two hundred gallons, in which the blubber is tried out after being cut up. Between decks are large iron tanks, each hold- ing one hundred barrels of oil. These tanks are to receive oil from the cooler and from them it is run through pipes into the lower hold to fill the casks. This description of one of the finest steam whalers ever built will give the reader as good an idea as words can present of this class of vessels, their protection against the ice of the north, and the comfort afforded their crews. She bears the name of the pioneer of steam whaling, a man to whose energy and enterprise the industry is greatly indebted. For those who have not lived in a seaboard town it would be hard to imagine the cosmopolitan aspect of the whaling port of New Bed- ford in the great days of whaling. For those whose fortunes were cast alono- the coast the animated scenes at a wharf where a whaler is fitting are in striking contrast to the humdrum though busy life on their own piers attending the loading and unloading of merchant vessels. Representatives of every nation on the face of the world contribute to a whaler's crew. The typical Yankee's nasal twang, the Frenchman's jargon, the Irishman's brogue, the South Sea Islander's guttural tones, the Spaniard's oaths, mingled with the strange speech of the Portuguese, the Swede, the Norwegian, the German, the Italian, the Malay, and the Chinese, — every tongue is heard in a surprisingly weird medley. Coal black "Bravas'* from the Cape Verd islands jostle against the Americanized African negro and intermingle with a motley group of sailors voluntarily exiled from their homes in Pico, San Miguel, Fayal, Flores, Corvo, and other islands of the Azores. 42 NEW BEDFORD. In curious contrast to these men of swarthy complexion are the light haired men of northern Europe. Here indeed is a congress of nations. Such an ethnological study with the living subjects for man}' years presented itself daily to the stranger in New Bedford. The great Arctic fleet now has its rendezvous at San Francisco, where the ships are fltted out, and in the middle of February a host of the New Bedford ship masters and seamen make a hurried trip across the continent to join their vessels, returning to their homes early in November at the conclusion of their voyages into the frozen north. x\t New Bedford all the ships but the Arctic fleet are now fitted out, the work giving employment and business to mechanics and tradesmen of every description. In the past, many whalers were built here, and no better constructed craft ever sailed the seas. They were built on honor, and integrity and conscientiousness went in with every bolt and timber. But with the decline of whaling, the ship yards were one alter another abandoned, and a large part of the population of New Bedford can now scarcely remember the spectacle of a launching. Some of the fleet, in the days when a great demand for ships existed, were purchased from the merchant service and transformed into whalers. For voyages in southern waters the vessels do not need the stout armor that surrounds those that are destined to push through frozen waters. When the blacksmith, the cooper, the ship carpenter, the caulker, the sailmaker, the painter, and the rigger have finished their labors the vessel is in readiness for her outfit. In years past the first step was to fill her ground tier with salt water, partly as ballast. In those days the whalers had three tiers. At this time, however, the greater number have but two and only fresh water is taken aboard. First comes some five hundred barrels of water, then fifty barrels of salt provision, fifty or sixty barrels of flour in bread, and twenty barrels filled with uncooked flour. A thousand gallons of molasses, four hundred pounds of coffee and the same amount of sugar follow. Household stores of almost every kind are represented, and the fur- nishings embrace a wonderful variety of articles. An estimate of the fittings in 1858, when sixty-five ships sailed from New Bedford, showed an expenditure of almost two million dollars, and included flour, meal, beef, pork, salt, molasses, rice, beans, dried apples, sugar, butter, cheese, ham, codfish, coffee, tea, raisins, corn, potatoes, onions, vinegar, sperm candles, fresh water, oak and pine wood, staves, head- THE WHALE-FISHERY. 45 ino-, iron hoops, rivets, sheathing copper and N'ellovv metal, sheath nails, coppering nails, tar, cordage, boat-boards, pine boards, flags, bricks, lime, canvas, cotton twine, cotton cloth, tobacco, white lead, linseed oil, paint, liquors, gun powder, and clothing. These were only the principal articles. The catalogue in detail is astounding for its minuticc, showing that the whaleman pays tribute to almost every trade. Shipping a crew is not the least important task of the owner ot a whaleship. In the average ship, from twenty-four to thirty men are required. These must be selected with care, for upon their skill, enterprise, and endurance the success of the voyage depends. When the owner has provided a good ship and has furnished her with every appliance for her work, he must still trust the success of the voyage to the men who are selected to conduct it. Ordinarily, the crew includes : The master, usually a man of long experience and tried ability, w^ho has served in many subordinate positions under skilled captains : the mates, three or four in number, daring, alert seamen, with the ambition to show themselves w^orthy the command of a vessel ; the boat steerers, brawny sons of the sea, with quick eye and ready decision in emergencies ; the steward and cook, men of great importance on shipboard ; a cooper, whose duties are mdi- cated by his title, and who is often an adept at many trades ; and the sailors, who are usually graded as seamen, ordinary seamen, and green hands. Among these latter may often be found smart, active young men from the country, destined in years to come to be masters of shTps, because they are built of the timber found in the masterly sailor. The way to the cabin is often long and difficult, and the seekers for distinction in the whaling service experience the same dis- couragements and disappointments that come to the ambidous in all other pursuits. The introducdon of the steam whaler has added to the officers of the vessel the engineer, and to the crew the firemen. When the ship is ready for sea, she is towed out of the harbor by a stuffy little tug and is soon, with all sail set, oflf on her voyage. The first night out all hands are called at\ to tell oft' the watches and select boats' crews. The regulations to be observed on shipboard are read and the master gives general instrucdons to be obeyed during the voyage. On the first calm day the boats are lowered, and the green hands are taught their places and the handling of their oars. Many ^6 NEW BEDFORD. a poor boy has had a dreaded attack of seasickness or the equally dreaded malady, homesickness, but a considerate New Bedford cap- tain practices forbearance and the stricken ones are excused from dut}- aloft and are soon in a condition to resume their work. The sailors are divided into boats' crews of six. When whales are sighted frequenlh' all the boats are lowered at once. Six men remain aboard as ship keepers, while their comrades in the several boats lessen the chance of the escape of their prey. When the leviathan is neared the boatsteerer throws the irons and at once changes positions with the boatheader, who is generally the master of the ship or one of the officers, and whose duty it is to strike the whale with the lance. The officer does this, going forward as the boat draws to the whale's side. The great monster spouts blood, the sign of the throes of death, and often this ends the chase, nothing remaining but to tow the whale to the ship for the processes of cutting in and boiling out. But frequently the pursuit does not end in this way, for the whale sometimes assumes the role of pursuer and enacts it with wonderful effect. Then is seen the most exciting and dangerous part of the whaleman's life. The monsters of the deep are endowed with enor- mous strength which, when wounded or infuriated, they use with terrible effect. Scores of thrilling stories are told by ever\^ old whaleman. A typical one is that of Capt. Mallory of the bark Osceola, who relates an instance in which one of his boats struck a large sperm whale. Soon after another boat fastened to him and was stove. Then trom the first boat a bomb lance was fired into him. This boat was at once stove by the whale, the bottom being knocked completely out. The ship picked up the swimming crews and was then steered for the whale. On seeing his new antagonist he rushed at her, striking her on the bow, knocking oft' the cutwater with his head, and tearing the copper and sheathing from her bow with his jaw. The ship was again run for him. and as she ranged alongside two bomb and two whale lances were fired into the whale. A boat was then lowered and two more bomb lances were discharged into him without effect. By this time it was night, and the boat was called aboard. The ship was kept near the whale, which could be occasion- ally heard fighting the fragments of boats and oars. "Thus through the night," continues the narrator of this episode, " he held his ground, although he had two lines (600 fathoms) towing on to the harpoons, five bombs exploded in him, and other wounds from lances." The THE WHALE-FISHERY. 49 next morning the attack was renewed with bomb lances and thirtv- one were fired into him before he was killed. No limit to these exciting stories has ever vet been lound. The readers ot" this book will be more interested in them than in the statistical tables of the catchings and valuations, important as thev are. Here is the narrative of an experience which is tvpical of hundreds of others. The captain of the bark Parker Cook of Prov- incetown many years ago lowered two boats for a bull sperm whale. The nearest boat met him head on, and, when abreast of the hump, the boatsteerer put two irons into him. Before the boat could be brought head on, the whale jumped half out of water and capsized the craft, the line fouling the boatsteerer's leg, almost severing it from the body. Manifesting wonderful nerve and great presence of mind, the sailor cut the line. The other boat picked up the upset crew and returned to the bark. But the whale was not satisfied with this. He ran for the bark with all the force at his command, strikino- the vessel a tremendous blow, prostrating the men on deck and bury- ing in his head the cutwater and stem up to the planking. A second time he struck the vessel, but with much less force. Meanwhile the captain had made ready his bomb lance and lowered another boat. Three times, within eight yards of him, the captain fired the lance into his body, and eventually made him spout blood, though with every piercing of the lance he rushed open-mouthed at the boat, requiring the utmost skill and courage to avoid him. One hundred and three barrels of oil was the reward of the captors, who were obliged to put into Fayal lor medical aid for the boatsteerer, and to repair their damaged vessel. Two ships at least have been destroyed by the attacks of whales. One of these was the Essex of Nantucket, and the other the Ann Alexander of New^ Bedford. In botii these cases, the ship was struck by an infuriated whale and so injured that she soon sank. The crews were obliged to take to the boats, and suffered terribly. In fact, very few of the crew of the Essex survived. In one instance it is recorded that a whale was killed only after a chase of nine miles in which it carried ofi' one boat, which w as demolished, and nearly six miles of line. Another captain tells an experience in which a whale was killed only after nine hours' fighting. Three boats were stove, a number ol irons and bombs were lost, several oars were broken, and, to crown 50 NEW BEDFORD. all, the whale sunk in forty fathoms of water, carrying a large quan- tity of line with him. When the whale is dead it is taken in tow to the ship's side. The cutting operations are then begun. The great pieces of blubber are hauled over the main hatch and minced into fine pieces called horse pieces and the boiling begins. Water is pumped into caboose pens or jogs along the deck to prevent the woodwork catching fire Irom the try works. The casks containing the provisions, tow lines, or sails have been emptied and are cleansed and swabbed clean. The hot oil is then forced in and the casks are lashed to the rail on the ship's side to cool before being stowed below. Various modifica- tions of this process are, however, practiced in different vessels. When a whale is cut at night one watch boils until midnight while the other watch is below, and from that time until six in the morning the second watch takes hold. The oil once below and the weather good the whalemen are again on the outlook for their prey. From twelve hundred to two thousand barrels is a good vo^-age for right whalemen. Preparing the casks for the oil, it is readily seen, gives employment to the cooper with the shocks w^hich are stowed snugl}' away below on the outward trip. ••I should like," says Capt. Davis, author of The Nimrod of the Sea, himself a veteran whaleman, in speaking of the right whale, "to convey to the reader some idea of the dimensions of the creature from which the bone is taken. To do so is only possible by entering into the details of the various parts, with their sizes, and by com- parison with objects familiar to the mind. The blubber, or blanket, of such a whale would carpet a room twenty-two yards long and nine yards wide, averaging half a yard in thickness. * * * gg^ ^p q^ saw-log two feet in diameter and twenty feet in length for the ridge pole of the room we pi'opose to build ; then raise it in the air fifteen feet, and support it with pieces of timber seventeen feet long, spread, say, nine feet. This will make a room nine feet wide at the bottom, two feet wide at the peak, and twenty feet long, and will convey an idea of the upper jaw, the saw-log and slanting supports representing the bone. * * * These w^alls of bone are clasped by the white blubbery lips, which at the bottom are four feet thick, tapering to a blunt edge, where they fit into a rebate sunk in the upper jaw. The throat is four feet thick, and is mainly blubber, interpenetrated b}^ fibrous, muscular flesh. The lips and throat of a two-hundred-and- THE WHALE-FISHERY. 53 fifty-barrel whale should yield sixty barrels of oil, and, with the sup- porting jaw-bones, will weigh as much as twenty-five oxen of one thousand pounds each. Attached to the throat by a broad base is the enormous tongue, the size of which can be better conceived by the fact that twenty-five barrels of oil have been taken from one. Such a tongue v/ould equal in weight ten oxen. * * * TY^q tail of such a whale is about twenty-five feet broad and six feet deep, and is considerably more forked than that of the spermaceti. The point of juncture with the body is about four feet in diameter, the vertebra about fifteen inches ; the remainder of the small being packed with rope-like tendons from the size of a finger to that of a man's leg. The great rounded joint at the base of the skull gleams like an ivory sphere, nearly as large round as a carriage wheel. Through the greatest blood-vessels, more than a foot in diameter, surges, at each pulsation of a heart as large as a hogshead, a torrent of barrels of blood heated to one hundred and four degrees. The respiratory canal is over twelve inches in diameter, through which the rush of air is as noisy as the exhaust-pipe of a thousand-horse power steam engine ; and when the fatal wound is given, torrents of clotted blood are spattered into the air over the nauseated hunters. In conclusion, the right whale has an eye scarcely larger than a cow's, and an ear that would scarcely admit a knitting-needle." Of the whaleships many have paid the purchaser the vessel's original cost, the expense of her outfitting, and something additional in one voyage. Many voyages are recorded in which the value of the catchings ranged from $65,000 to $100,000. Occasionally one has gone beyond this high figure. On the other hand, there have been voyages in which scarcely a whale has been seen. A sperm whaler's voyage is often extended three or four years. In that time the ship visits the Pacific and Indian oceans. New Zealand, the Society and Feejee islands, and the coast of Peru. The vessels leave in December, Januar3^ and February. Occasionally they make what is called a mixed voyage, seeking both sperm and right whales, taking each in its season. If whales are taken on the outward trip the catch is often shipped home from the Western Islands or the first port touched. A vvhaleship is like a farm. Something to be done is always the rule. There is no room on board for drones ; every hand must be a worker. While not pursuing a whale one watch — the division of 54 NEW BEDFORD. officers and crew which manages the vessel — is always busy on deck for four hours at a time. The remainder of the crew are then below reading or sleeping or repairing clothes or doing such work as the}^ choose for themselves. Saturday is wash day, and Sunday, if no whale is in sight, all work is suspended ; but at the signal "There she blows !" everything is bustle and the Sunday quiet must be set aside for the business of the voyage. The Seamen's Bethel and Mariners' Home, illustrated on page 40 of this book, is, to those who see it daily, a constant reminder of what New Bedford owes to the whale-fishery. These are under the man- agement of the New Bedford Port Society for the Moral Improve- ment of Seamen, an organization which was formed in 1830, and which was the direct result of concern for the moral and religious welfare of the thousands of seamen who were brought to New Bedford by the demands of the whaling industry. Under the care of faithful chaplains, the Bethel has done a work the influence of which has reached to every corner of the world, and the Mariners' Home has proven a welcome resting place to many a wear}^ sailor. The whaling industr\^ has also its newspaper organ, the Whale- men's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript, which was founded by Henry Lindse}^ in 1843, and which has since been published weeklv. It is now conducted by E. P. Raymond, who has managed it since 1861, and has owned it since 1873. No other paper like it can be found in the world, and few commercial journals can boast of includ- ing so widely separated regions in their circulation. CHAPTER III. SEEING THE SIGHTS. NE of our oldest residents received the other da}^ a letter of inquiry which interested him more than such a letter might have been expected to. He is a typical New Bedford citizen, who received the foundation of his knowledge in our public schools. At an early age he commenced a life on the ocean wave and later he became the successful master of a whaling vessel. When he was no longer of use in the long boat, having acquired a competency he retired from active business and invested his fortune in home industries, from which he receives an ample income. The old gentleman feels that he is indebted to his city in many ways and he regards it as a duty and a pleasure to do whatever he can for the promotion of its interests. The letter was as follow^s : My Dear Sir :— I write to ask your advice witli relation to a summer home. Sev- eral of my family have heen ill with a malarious difliculty aud are yet delicate. The resulatiou summer resort won't do at all. I am looking for a quiet but interestms l)lace, with pretty natural attractions, boating facilities, and pleasant drives. Above all, the place must ])e healthy. If you know of any place combining such advan- tages, will you kindly communicate with me? A day or two before, the old gentleman had received a note trom the son of a friend of his youth, who had been engaged in manufac- turing in England for many years, and who desired to engage m a similar line of manufacturing in this country. This gentleman 56 NEW BEDFORD. had sought advice with relation to an eligible place to locate and had returned to this country to decide upon a situation. Immediately on receipt of the above letter, the old gentleman sat down and wrote to each of his friends, inviting them to run down to New Bedford for a da}'. The invitations were accepted and two days later, on the arrival of the New York train, both gentlemen appeared and were cordially received by their host. At the breakfast table the latter disclosed the reason of his invi- tation. "Before the day is over," he said, "I hope to convince you, my dear sir, that there is no more delightful place in which to spend a summer this side of Paradise than in New Bedford, and you, sir, that this city offers unrivalled facilities for manufacturing pur- poses. Two unqualified statements, you see, but statements which I am confident you will admit at my dinner table. This morning I propose to take you for a stroll and this afternoon we will devote to driving. If you have finished your coffee, let us take our hats and go. "I dare say you will often find me inclined to lapse into ancient history, gentlemen," said the host, as the party emerged on the street ; "I have lived to see this place undergo many wonderful changes and I am apt to grow reminiscent as I wander along. When I grow tire- some don't hesitate to interrupt me, but I wish to thoroughly inform you about my city before you leave it. "You may have observed that New Bedford is built on a hill- side. As our centennial orator expressed it, it 'lies between green pastures on the one hand and the still waters of the river on the other.' To give you the facts in a practical form, the city is situated on the west side of the Acushnet river, which makes up, in a northerly direc- tion, into the land near the western extremity of Buzzards bay, on the south shore of Massachusetts. At present we have a population of 38,000 to 40,000 people, and we are growing rapidly. We rank first as a whaling city, as ever^'body knows, and third in the point of cotton manufacturing among the cities of the United States, having sur- passed Lawrence, Manchester, Lewiston, and other places. We have about one hundred and twenty miles of streets, forty or fifty miles of which are macadamized or paved. The city is about ten and two-thirds miles long from the tip of Clark's point on the south to Freetown on the north, and its average width is two miles. The area of the city is about twenty and one-quarter square miles. Finally, SEEING THE SIGHTS. 57 New Bedford is, I believe, the wealthiest city in the United States in proportion to its population. So much for a few cold facts to start with. "And now, gen- tlemen, we are on Water street, over- flowinjx, to all old cit- izens, such as I am, with the most inter- esting reminiscences. This is the corner of Union and Watei streets, 'Four Corners,' as it was called in mv boyhood. William A. Wall, an artist whose genius has illuminated some prominent pages in local history, painted a view of the 'Four Cor- ners in 1812,' which is regarded as accurate in detail and truthful in the portraits of several leading actors of those times. Among the 58 NEW BEDFORD. incidental features of this painting is a picture of William Rotch, senior, 'Friend Rotch,' as he was called, in one of the old-fashioned square-topped chaises of the period. "Almost every old building on this street is interesting to me and I shall show you houses which were here previous to the Revolution. This was one of the first streets of the old town. When I was a boy it was the principal business street. But innovations have come. 'Westward the star of empire takes its way,' and business has taken the same direction. Fifty years ago all the dry goods, boot and shoe, and tailor shops, the book, hardware, and drug stores were on this street and the lower part of Union street. "But while these innovations have come to the dealers in mer- chandise, there are two classes that have remained. The financiers and the lawyers have never deserted the street. Nearly all of our banks and insurance offices are located here. Three generations of our wealthy men have been daily frequenters of the street. Within these precincts are the old law oflices, where notables of the bar in bygone years have received their maiden fees. From these offices have gone torth five judges to dignify their high stations, two of whom have been chief justices, two members of Congress, of whom city and state are proud, two attorney-generals, and a governor of the Com- monwealth. Their students have read Blackstone in these old rooms and, when their seniors have been called to appear before the final bar, have taken possession, while the legal world has gone on as before. The faded and weather-worn collection of ancient signs over dilapidated stairways and beneath chamber windows have, while they w^ere permitted to remain, been suggestive of rich memories to the elderly citizens who paused to peruse them. Among those who have been called to serve in distinguished positions are John Henry Clifford, who was governor of the State in 1853 and also attorney-general for several years. During his term in the latter office he conducted the memorable trial of Prof. John W. Webster for the murder of Dr. George Parkman. Subsequently he declined appointment as minis- ter to Russia and Turkey. George Marston served as attorney- general for several years, and Thomas D. Eliot and William W. Crapo served long terms in Congress. The above, with the exception ot Mr. Crapo, are now dead." "What is that building of brick and brown stone w^iich is so prominent and so handsome?" asked one of the strangers, at this point. SEEING THE SIGHTS. 6l "I'm glad 30U interrupted me, sir, for I should certainly have wearied you. That is the new building of the National Bank of Commerce, one of the prosperous banks of this city. This mag- nificent edifice occupies the site of the old Bedford Commercial bank, which, I remember, was a quaint old structure of brick and stone, the windows of which were fortified with heavy shutters. A heavy block tackle was used for hoisting up a heavy wooden trap door, and a still heavier one beneath opened to the steps that led to the subterranean vaults where the specie was kept. This iron door was fastened by a long tongue-bolt, running lengthwise with the door, and drawn by a secret process in another part of the building. I can see the old cashier now, in his pepper and salt suit, his knee- pants, and knee buckles. Heigh-ho ! "At the foot of William street you see the handsome granite front building, with eight heav}' pillars, occupied on the lower floor by the Merchants and Mechanics national banks. "The Board of Trade rooms are on this street," said the old gentleman, "and we will look in for a moment. They are not pre- tentious, as you may see, but they have been and are the centre of many influences which have been of much benefit to the city. The Board was organized on the 5th of March, 1884, as the outcome of a feeling which had existed for several years that such an organi- zation was needed in New Bedford. At first, it did not include the representatives of many interests beside that of whaling. Though its benefits were best in this branch of our industries, it soon became apparent that the Board was not exerting the influence it ought upon the newer enterprises of the city. Accordingly, in 1886, a number of the younger business men took hold of the organization, and it has since been an active factor in promoting the growth and pros- perity of New Bedford. Its more than two hundred and fifty mem- bers represent every industry and business in the city, and their combined efforts and influence have been productive of many valua- ble results. Conspicuous among the enterprises of the Board was its first industrial fair, held in the autumn of 1887. It was an experi- ment, and a doubtful one. But it was a revelation to our own people of the extent and variety of our home manufactures. Thousands of persons visited it, and went away with a higher opinion of their city than ever they had before. It is asserted by men who are familiar with the facts that to the influence of this fair is due the 62 NEW BEDFORD. establishment of at least one more cotton manufacturing enterprise.* The Board has also interested itself in securing better postal facilities, and in many ways has been watchful for the welfare of the city. Its rooms are attractive, without being over fine, and afford a pleasant resort for the members. "Walkino; south to the corner of Water and School streets, we see an old-fashioned square house on a high embankment. The house was built for William Hathawa}' in 1772 and it is not improb- able that old knocker has often resounded through the house in Revo- lutionary times as some of Mr. Hathaway's neighbors came to tell him of important news of the War for Independence. The house is now known as the Gideon Rowland house. "And this old house reminds me that Gideon Rowland was a member of one of the most celebrated of whaling firms, I. Rowland, Jr., & Co. He married a daughter of the head of the firm in 1798, at about which time the firm was organized. Thomas Mandell was admitted a partner in 1819. Gideon had two daughters, Sylvia Ann and Abigail. The former died in 1865, leaving a property of about $2,000,000. Among her bequests were $100,000 towards the intro- duction of water into the city, a similar sum for educational and literary purposes, and another large bequest for the benefit of aged w'omen of the city. Abigail married Edward Mott Robinson, and their daughter, Retty Rowland Robinson, married Edward Green, of New York. She is now reputed to be the wealthiest woman in America. Gideon Rowland died in 1847, and within the memory of most people now living the firm consisted of Messrs. Mandell and Robinson and Miss Rowland. Miss Robinson was the heir to $5,000,000 tVom her father and $1,000,000 from her aunt. "•The high towers which are seen on many of the old buildings *The fair of 1888, in progress while this book was passing through tlie press, was even more successful than that of 1887. It was held in the Adelphi rink, a large building on the corner of Countj^ and Mill streets, commencing on the 1st of October and continuing four weeks. The representation of the industries of the city was very complete, some of the more promiiieiit being cotton manufacturing, shoe making, glass working, and the manufacture of silver plated ware. Other industries showed their finished products. The rink did not afford sufHcient space for the exhibitors who desired places, and the managers were forced to build a large annex in Mill street, while an adjoining ward room was also utilized. While the fair was in pro- gress it was visited by fifty thousand persons, including hundreds from other places. It is hoped that the industrial fair will hereafter beheld at regular intervals. RESIDENCE OF CHARLES S. KELLEY. SEEING THE SIGHTS. 6S in the vicinity mark the shops formerly kept by the outfitters. Men were constantly watching in these towers, in the palmy days of whal- ing, for incoming whaleships, and immediately one was sighted the outfitters would start in their boat to meet the ship. Then they would run alongside, swarm over the rail, and solicit customers. As most of the whalemen in those days had good sums of money coming to them on the settlement of the voyage and as they spent it with all the freedom for which Jack is proverbial, there was alwavs a sharp rivalr}' among these agents. ''Going still farther south we reach the Portuguese quarter of the town. At the windows are dusky women with red bandannas wound fantastically about their heads, and the stores in this section are kept by Portuguese. Some of the older of the inhabitants found their way here on whaleships but many of them have come here from the Western Islands by the packet lines, the barkentine Moses B. Tower making tour regular trips yearly between this city and the islands. If we were to walk half a mile farther south, we should come to the Potomska and Acushnet cotton mills. The only house for religious worship on this street is the South Mission Chapel, which has done an excellent work among the sailors in the past and is doing equally excellent work in a rather different line now." ''I should like to have a look at the wharves," said one of the visitors. \ "So you shall," said their guide. "The principal wharves are twenty-five in number and they front upon one of the most beautiful harbors in the world. The pretty and pertinently named town of Fairhaven lies opposite. A draw-bridge, about four thousand feet in length, connects the city and town, and the cars of the Union Street Railway Company cross it at intervals of twentv minutes. Let us walk down Middle street and over the bridge a little wav, that I mav let 3^ou have what to me is a most charming view. The first bridge, I may say, was constructed in 1798 but was washed away in 1807. It was rebuilt, but was again destroyed in the September gale of 1815. A new bridge was constructed some four years later, but it was ruined in the great September gale of 1869. The present bridge was built soon after. Notice these fishing stands at frequent inter- vals. The}' are appreciated by the boys of all ages." So the men crossed the bridge a distance and, turning, one could not help remarking : 66 NEW BEDFORD. "'What a beautiful picture !" "I thought you would be struck with it," said the old resident, complacently. "At the extreme north is the Grinnell mill. The group of six mills of stone and brick next south are the Wamsuttas, the most celebrated cotton mills in the world. Below the bridge are the immense coal pockets of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company, and still further south we see the works of the Pair- point Manufacturing Company, the Mount Washington Glass Works, and the Potomska and Acushnet mills. The large number of elm trees add much to the beauty of the city. No city excels New Bed- ford in the matter of shade trees." "The harbor is as charming as the Bay of Naples !" exclaimed the gentleman in search of a summer home. ''The river takes its rise near the Middleboro ponds," said the historian, "flows down by the village of Acushnet and increases in breadth until it empties into the bay. There are several pretty islands. That you see with the lighthouse is Palmer's Island, picturesque with craggy rocks and scrubby cedars. The little island near Fairhaven is Crow island. A rope walk formerly connected it with the main land on the Fairhaven side. The bridge crosses Pope's and Fish islands. The former retains some of its primeval cedars. Upon the latter are wharves, oil factories, and workshops. United States reve- nue schoolship S. P. Chase lies alongside the dock here during the winter months. This little bark is the training school for the cadets, who receive appointments as third lieutenants in the revenue service on their graduation. "Between this island and the New Bedford side is the draw- bridge. North of the bridge, on the Fairhaven side, is the rocky bluff called the Isle of Marsh, which, however, is only insulated at high water. At the north, the spires of the pleasant little village of Acush- net can be seen, while Fort Phoenix, the old fortress which surmounts a high rock on the Fairhaven side, is one of the most picturesque spots on the coast. The harbor is a favorite rendezvous for yachts during the summer, and the New York club and other great fleets visit us almost annually, when on their cruises. The treatment which they receive from the home club, whose handsome club house stands on Pope's island, and the citizens as well, has made the city famous among the bold Corinthians for its hospitality." "What is the depth of the channel of the river?" inquired the SEEING THE SIGHTS. 69 business man of the trio, who looked at the picture from a practical point of view. ''Vessels drawing eighteen feet of water can enter the harbor at mean low water and it is now proposed to excavate a channel two hundred feet wide of greater depth. New Bedford, by the way, is a port of entr}', and the amount of revenue collected during the last fiscal year was $29,023.28. We have a regular line of fine passen- ger boats running to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and also steamer lines to New York and Nonquitt, the latter a new summer resort on the west side of Buzzards bay which is rapidly coming into prominence. "Under some button wood trees on the New Bedford shore, near this bridge, the first ship built in the town was launched in 1767 She was owned by Francis Rotch and her name was the Dartmouth. Her first voyage was made to London with a cargo of oil. This vessel was subsequently famous as being one of the ships which carried into Boston harbor the tea which was thrown overboard. Among the earlier ships built was the Rebecca, owned by Joseph Russell & Sons, which was launched in the spring of 1785. This ship was built by George Claghorn, who afterwards built the frigate Consti- tution. The timber of which she was built was cut in the south- west part of the town. She measured 175 67-95 tons, which, we are told, was at that time considered so large that people came from Taunton and other surrounding towns to see ' the big ship.' A figurehead of a woman was carved for her, but the Friends society remonstrated against so vain and useless an ornament and she went to sea without it. A mock funeral was held over it by a few gay young men, one or more of them sons of Joseph Russell, and it was buried in the sand upon the shore. The command of so large a ship was deemed a great responsibility at this time. James Hayden was finally selected as captain. She was the first American whaleship that doubled Cape Horn, but she made a disastrous end. In the autumn of 1798 she sailed from Liverpool for New York and was never heard from afterwards. Central wharf, built by Joseph Russell, is the site of the original headquarters of the whale-fishery. The story of whaling in those days borders on romance, and men of iron nerve and energy were required to man these small and poorly-fitted vessels. "A good many fine vessels were built here in days gone by, and 70 NEW BEDFORD. I think it was Mark Twain who makes one of his characters, an old salt, compliment them something in this wise. If you heave down one of those 'down east' vessels, he said, you can throw a dog through the seams, but take a New Bedford ship and you can 'heave her down and hold her there, and she'll never shed a tear.' "Now, the scene at the wharves recalls Walt Whitman's lines; 'Ou sluoo;ish, lonesome, muddy waters, anchored near the shore, An old, dismasted, gi'ay, and batter'd ship, disabled, done, and broken, After free voyages to all the seas of earth, hauled up at last and hawser'd tight, Lies rusting, mouldering." "But the old dismantled hulks of whalers lying alongside the docks are very dear in the eyes of their owners, having brought fortunes from the broad fields of the ocean, after much toil and manifold perils. And, as has been said, it has been a creation of wealth by the skill of the merchant and the hardy daring of the sailor, and not a mere exchange of the wealth. Few parallels can be found in this or any country of such successful enterprise. The oldest vessels in the world today are the Rousseau and True Love ; the former now lies at the wharf at the foot of North street. Her history is very interesting. She was built for Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, by Nicholas Vandusen, and was launched from the yard of the Vandusens, near Shakamaxon street, on the Delaware, in 1801. She is 95 feet long, 28 feet broad, and 18 feet deep, and registers 305 tons. Her rig was that of a full rigged ship and at the time of her building she was considered a fair sized vessel for those times. After doing service for Mr. Girard for several 3^ears, her rig was changed and she was regarded as one of the fastest barks sailing from Philadelphia. About a year after the death of Girard, in the latter part of 1831, she was purchased by the late George Howland, of this city, who was extensively engaged in the whale-fishery in the earl}' part of this century. When the Rousseau arrived at this port she had open bulwarks forward of the mainmast, carrying on either side a spare spar, which lay in stout iron crutches and which afforded the only protection from the waves forward of that mast. Abaft the mainmast the deck was raised a few inches. She was immediately fitted for whaling, bulwarks being put in for- ward, and when she sailed on her maiden whaling voyage was in command of Capt. Walter Hillman, of Martha's Vineyard, and, SEEING THE SIGHTS. 73 it may be added, the voyage was a good one. Later a new deck was laid and it was made flush. She was a well built ship, con- structed of live oak top entire, with white oak bottom, and when her bottom was replanked some ten years ago, her floor timbers were as firmly on her keel as .when built. After the death of George Howland, the vessel was continued in the whaling business by his sons, George and Matthew Rowland. She made numerous good voyages and about seven years ago she was sold to her present owners, Aikin & Swift. She arrived in port from her last voyage April 8, 1886, with thirteen hundred and sixty barrels of sperm and one hundred and eighty barrels of whale oil. Philadelphians are discussing the feasibility of purchasing the old vessel and fitting her as a schoolship for wayward youth as a memorial to the great mer- chant, banker, and philanthropist. "But our fleet is leaving us. One by one tiiev weigh anchor and sail out on the great deep, doubling Cape Horn and making San Francisco their home port. Through the Golden Gate they pass on hazardous voyages to the Arctic, enticed by the alluring chances of great earnings in short periods. Let us hope 'That bright success may on their valor wait, And rich reward attend ujion tlieir to!].* "Union street, through which I will take you as we walk home for lunch, was originally a cart path, leading from the shore to the house of Joseph Russell, the founder of the city, which stood near the present residence of the late Mrs. Charles W. Morgan, on County street. The Russell house, now about one hundred and fi)rty years old, is still in good preservation. It has been moved from its original site and is a tenement house on Emerson street, near Kemp- ton. The Mansion House is the old residence of William Rotch, much enlarged, however. The old yellow house at the northeast corner of Union and Bethel streets was the old residence of Isaac Howland, Jr. I can remember when the Eagle Hotel occupied the site of the laroe brick buildino- known as Ricketson Block, on the southwest corner of Union and Fourth streets, and dwelling houses occupied the lots on which are situated the Eddy and Masonic build- ings, — both fine, large brick structures having stores on the first floor. The Grand Opera House, on this street, was remodelled from the old Grace church. The interior of the Opera House is planned SEEING THE SIGHTS. /^ and decorated after the style of the Boston Museum, and is one of the largest and handsomest theatres in New England. It seats over twelve hundred persons. "Purchase street is now the main business thoroughfare and here most of the dry goods houses are located. Sixty years ago there was not a single dry goods store on Purchase street between Union and Middle streets. On the east side of the street were dwell- ings, and north of these was a garden extending to William street. A church occupied the land on which Liberty Hall is situated. In 1845 William Bradford, who has since placed his name among the noted artists of the world, conducted a dry goods store at No. 16. The Parker House, the leading hotel of the city, is situated on the east side of this street, between Elm and Middle streets. It is of wood and was at one ti-me the residence of John Avery Parker. It was retitted and enlarged for a hotel in 1841, and has since ranked as a first class hostelry. The other leading hotels of the city, by the way, the Mansion and Bancroft, are both excellent houses. The buildings on this street are not pretentious, for the most part, but there are several large and handsome blocks, among them the Cummings, Liberty Hall, and Wing buildings." Lunch over, the gentlemen entered the carriage for a drive about town. The visitors were strongly impressed with the cleanliness ot the streets, with the superb elm shade trees, the sidewalks of stone, and the tastefulness and richness of many of the public buildings. Among those which were particularly admired were the Unitarian church on Union street, built of native granite, which is, one of the finest specimens of architecture in the city. It was built during the years 1836-38, and the original cost, including land, was $40,000. The North Congregational church on Purchase street was built at about the same time. It is of native granite also, with a frontage ot sixty-eight feet and a depth of ninety feet. It is of the Gothic order of architecture, with square tower and battlements. The City hall, on the square included within Pleasant, Sixth, William, and Market streets, is built of native granite and is a handsome and substantial building. It was built in the year 1838-39, at a cost of $60,000, inclusive of land. Seth H. Ingalls, an old resident, who was the builder of the Unitarian church and custom house, also erected this building. It is surrounded by a handsome park. A fountain plays in front of the hall, and under the old elms seats have been placed. SEEING THE SIGHTS. 77 The basement of the hall was used for many years as a market. Now a number of the city offices are located here. On the second floor is a beautiful hall in which public meetings are held. Over the stage is a fine large copy by William A. Wall of Stuart's portrait of Washington. In the third story are the meeting rooms of the board of aldermen, common council, and school committee. The custom house building, at the corner of William and Second streets, is a most sightly public edifice of granite. It is after the Doric style of architecture and was built at a cost of $31,740, inclu- sive of land. On the first floor is the post office, and the offices of the customs department occupy the second. The receipts of this post office are larger than in most cities of the size of New Bedford. The government has purchased land on William street, from Second street through to Acushnet avenue, and Congress has made an appropriation for a new public building for the customs and post otfice, work upon which will soon be commenced. Opposite the lot designed for this new building is the edifice of the New Bedford Safe Deposit and Trust Companv, whicii has one of the handsomest bank- ing rooms in the citv- The city library building, on William street, opposite City Hall, is a beautiful edifice of brick with granite underpinning and steps and freestone ornaments. It was the first free public library estab- lished under municipal sanction. The edifice was erected in 1856-57 and its cost was about $40,000. It outgrew^ its original quarters and an addition on the north nearly as large as the main building has only lately been constructed. "But a few years after the incorporation of the city," said the old resident, resuming his reminiscences, "the want of books and the inability of most of the inhabitants to procure them, led to a com- bination of effort for that purpose and several such combinations were formed. Amontr the earliest to oro-anize such a scheme were the proprietors of Dobson's Encyclopedia, which, for the. unlearned and isolated people of these times, formed quite a library in itself. The well worn volumes, which are now in the Free Public Library, bear testimony to the thoroughness with which its pages were read and consulted. "But the desire for books outgrew the set of encyclopedias, and the Library Society and Social Library followed. Then the three societies were united under the name of the New Bedtord Social 78 NEW BEDFORD. Library. For nearly a half century this collection of books was the principal source whence was supplied the desire of the people for knowledge and intellectual recreation, and it was a feature in mould- ing the characters of the young men and women of that day. "May 24, 185 1, an act was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, authorizing cities and towns to establish and main- tain public libraries. Forty-five days after the passage of the enabling act, Warren Ladd, who was at that time a member of the common council, introduced an order to consider the expediency of adopting the measure. The order passed the popular brancli \*>Cn?;^jj the purchase of a large tract of land in the southwest part of the city were com- menced, but inas- much as the owners were widely scat- tered over the globe, they were in progress nearly a year and a half before the mat- ter was first broached to the public. At length the title to about one hundred INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. i6k fifty acres of land, including the old Crapo and Ashley farms and a part of the real estate of the Cornelius Howland estate, was secured. This land is favorably situated for manufacturing and for the houses of the help. A part of the property is finely wooded, extending from the northwest corner of Clark's cove and skirtino- the salt marsh to County street. The idea of the purchase of so large a tract of land was that the company might profit from the cer- tain advance in the value of real es- tate in the vicinity of the mill. The territory has been laid out in accord- ance with modern ideas. It will be intersected by streets fifty and sixty feet wide, and breathing places, which may one day be fitted as parks, are provided for in the plans. When the land was finally se- cured, the plans for the first mill having been perfected, the contracts tor building and machiner}' were at A HOWLAND MILL COTTAGE. oucc issucd and the company organ- ized with a capital of $350,000 and the following officers : President — William J. Rotch. Treasurer — William D. Howland. Clerk — Charles W. Plummer. Directors — William J. Rotch, Horatio Hathaway, Thomas B. Tripp, Charles W. Clifford, Morgan Rotch, William J. Rotch, and Charles W. Plummer. The corporation is named for William D. Howland, who so suc- cessfully managed the New Bedford Manufacturing Company, and its title is the Howland Manufacturing Company. The mill is two hundred seventeen by one hundred leet in area and four stories in height, with a two-story picker house, sixty-two by one hundred feet, and an engine and boiler house ninet3'-nine by forty feet. Work was commenced May i , 1888, and the main building was completed August i, a period of seven weeks only having been required for the brickwork. The mill started with twelve thousand nine hundred fifty-two mule spindles, twelve thousand two hundred eighty-eight frame spindles, and six thousand one hundred forty-four twister spindles. About one hundred fifty hands are employed. 1 66 NEW BEDFORD. The company is building forty cottages for its operatives, and the dwellings are models. They are designed for single families and are of attractive and varied architecture. They are intended to provide comfortable, pretty, substantial, and convenient homes, adapted to the manner of life of the best class of cotton mill operatives. The City Manufacturing Company, which commenced in Decem- ber, 1888, the manufacture of fine medium cotton yarns in chains, skeins, and warps, and on spools and beams, was incorporated iVpril 23, 1888, with a capital stock of $250,000 and the following officers : President — Otis N. Pierce. Clerk and treasurer — Benjamin Wilcox. Directors — Otis N. Pierce, Thomas B. Wilcox, Cyrenius W. Haskins, Thomas H. Knowles, Edward Kilburn, J. P. Knowles, Jr., and Rufus A. Soule, of New Bedford, S. A. Jenks, Qf Pawtucket, William, H. Parker, of Lowell, and Charles Tucker, of Dartmouth. The mill is located at the foot of Grinnell street and is of brick, one hundred twelve by two hundred six feet in area and three stories high. It is provided with twenty thousand four hundred eighty spin- dles and seven thousand twister spindles, and will employ, when in full operation, one hundred fifty hands. The experience of the manage- ment assures a successful enterprise. The cotton manufacturing enterprises of this city, as they now exist, may be grouped in a tabular statement as follows : Capital. Wamsutta, $3,000,000 Potomska, 1.200,000 Acushnet, 1,000,000 Grinnell, 800.000 New Bedford Manufacturing Company, 500,000 City Manufacturing Company, .... 250,000 Rowland, ." 350,000 No. of Mills. Spindles. Employes . . 6 . . 203,000 . . 2600 . . 2 . . 106,328 . . 1100 . . 2 . . 100,000 . . 1000 . 08,000 . . 800 . . 2 . . 37,056 . . 300 . 20,480 . . l.oO . 25,240 . . 1.50 15 560,104 6100 $7,100,000 On the 22d of December, 1888, after the foregoing pages had been completed, the Hathaway Manufacturing Company was organ- ized for the manufacture of cotton cloths, with a capital of $400,000 and the following officers : President — Horatio Hathaway. Clerk and treasurer — Joseph F. Knowles. Directors — Horatio Hathawa3s Jonathan Bourne, Sidney W. Knowles, Francis Hathaway, William W. Crapo, of New Bedford, Thomas E. Brayton, of Fall River, and Joseph F. Knowles, of New Bedford. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 169 A mill of thirty thousand spindles, to employ about four hun- dred fift}- hands, will be erected east of Water street and south of the Acushnet mills. Two other important manu- facturinu^ enterprises, somewhat akin to the cotton industry, may properh' be mentioned in this con- nection. The New Bedford Cordage " Company was established in 1842 b\' Joseph Ricketson, William J. Rotcli, and Benjamin S. Rotch, and in January, tour years later. it was incorporated by a special charter from the Commonwealth, with a capital of $60,000. This -z. amount was increased in 1849 ^^^ ^ $75 ,000. The officers at the time ^ were Joseph Ricketson, president, g William J. Rotch, clerk and treas- § [ urer, and Joseph Ricketson, g William J. Rotch, Benjamin S. § Rotch, and Leander A. Plummer, £ directors. In March, 1857, 5 William T. Rotch was chosen h o president and Leander A. Plum- ^ mer treasurer and clerk. The for- mer continues in that capacity, but on the death of Mr. Plummer, in September, 18S4, Isaac W. Ben- jamin became treasurer. John W. Macomber is general manajjer of the enterprise. The industry has been very profitable and the product is many times laro-er than when the com- pany was organized. It makes a specialty of the manufacture of patent cordage employed in boring artesian wells. JNo superior arti- 170 NEW BEDFORD. cle is made in the world, and the cordage rigging used on the Puritan and other fast racing yachts is made here. The buildings, nine in number, cover an area of four acres, located within the square bounded by Court, Park, Ash, and Kempton streets, and about two hundred fifty hands are employed. The machinery is operated by a superior steam engine of five hundred horse power and the company has adopted all the latest improvements which give promise of perfecting the product. The Oneko mill is situated tit the head of Purchase street and ladies' all wool dress goods, broadcloths, tricots, cheviots, and fancies are manufactured here. The corporation was organized in 1882, with a capital of $210,000 and the mill was started the following year. The main building is one stor};^ high, with a monitor roof, and four hundred by one hundred fifty feet in area, while the picker and dye house is two hundred thirty by fifty-two feet in area. The mill is provided with five thousand spindles, sixty-three broad looms ninety-five and one hundred ten inches in width, and twelve sets of cards. The machinery is operated" by a two hundred fifty-two horse power Harris-Corliss engine, with three six-foot boilers, made by Cunningham, of Boston. Between seven hundred thousand and eight hundred thousand pounds of wool are worked annualh', and the cloth is made here and colored in the wool and piece. The annual product is about eight hundred thousand yards of cloth, and one hundred sixty-five hands are employed. The officers of the corporation are as follows ; President — Loum Snow, Jr. Treasurer — Robert Snow. Directors — Edward D. Mandell, Charles W. Plummer, Frederick S. Allen, Charles W. Clifford. George S. Homer, Thomas H. Knowles, and Loum Snow, Jr. •t/-vy V ■i;'fZ' INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 173 THE MANUFACTURE OF OIL. To mention New Bedford without devoting some space to her oil manufactories would be to neglect the genius of the lamp, and too much credit cannot be given this industry for the present position of this city. William A. Wall's interesting picture of "The Origin of the Whale- tishery," which now hangs in the parlors of the home of the late Mrs. Charles W. Morgan, contains an illustration of the first oil factory in New Bedford. It consisted merely of a trypot under an old shed by the shore. Near by stands a man pouring oil from a long handled dipper into a wooden -hooped barrel. Another is handling over the blubber, while a third is coopering a barrel. The latter is engaged in conversation with an Indian who is seated upon a broken mast. On the shore, keeled over on her side, is one of the small sloops emplo3'ed in whaling at that time, and the river lies outstretched in the background. Seated upon the frame of a grindstone, and giving directions to a colored servant who holds his horse, is seen in his broad brimmed hat and Qiiaker coat, the founder of New Bedford and the father of her whale-lishery, Joseph Russell. The blubber taken by the little vessels, on their return from the vovages, which were of but a few weeks' duration, was brought as near the shore in the vessels as possible, w^hen the butts containing the blubber were drawn to Mr. Russell's tryhouse by ox teams. This was as early as 1765. Previous to the Revolution a candlehouse was built by Mr. Rus- sell, and Capt. Chafee, who had been engaged in manufacturing spermaceti in Lisbon, was employed by Mr. Russell at a salary of $500 per annum. This building stood near the corner of Centre and Front streets and was burned by the British. Fifty years after, or thereabouts, a number of factories were in operation. Among the first of these factories was that of Samuel Rodman. The building occupied by him is now standing on Water street, at the corner of Rodman street. It was built of stone and covered with plaster, and is at present unoccupied. Then there was the factory of Humphrey Hathaway, on the north side of School street, west of Fourth, and Uh. ."'I'" INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 1 75 west of this stood the factory of Isaac Ilowland, Jr. From the best information obtainable, the old "marsh candle-works" were built by William Rotch & Sons, but this may not be a fact. These works occupied the site on which the gas works now stand, and the business here was subsequently conducted by Francis Rotch and Charles W. Morgan. At each of these factories sperm oil and candles were man- ufactured and whale oil was refine-d. Then John James Rowland built candle works at the corner of Second and Middle streets, the building now occupied as a soap factory, and soon after James Henry Rowland, a son of the above- named gentleman, and George Russey established the factory at the Smoking Rocks. William W. Swain built a factory on the north side of Middle street and the vat house of this building is now occu- pied as a storehouse by Charles S. Paisler & Co. Andrew Robeson built a factory on Ray street which subsequently came into the pos- session of Edward Mott Robinson. George Rowland had a factory on Rowland's wharf and William T. Russell engaged in the manufac- ture at 86 Third street. Charles W. Morgan carried on oil works at 82 South Water street, and one of the older factories was at 96 First street, having been established by David Coffin. There was also a factory on Fish Island. Samuel Leonard was at one time the largest oil refiner in the country. He established the factory on the north side of Leonard street, east of Water, and he bought and sold oil in very large quantities. Some time in the 50's Samuel Leonard & Son erected the stone building on Acushnet avenue, now the carriage factory of George L. Brownell, occupying all that part of the present structure which is of stone. Nehemiah Leonard also operated a factory near that of Samuel, very successfully. At a later date Sanford & Row- land, the latter, Sydney Rowland, being a grandson of John Avery Parker, took the oil refinery of William W. Swain. While he owned it, it was burned, making a great fire for those days. It was rebuilt and was subsequently taken by Milliken Bros., of Boston, and then passed into the hands of Eben Milliken, of this city. George T. Baker established the factory on South street, which subsequently passed into the hands of Oliver and George O. Crocker and then to Charles H. Leonard. The business here is now carried on by George Delano's sons, who succeeded their father. Mr. Baker afterwards built the factory at the corner of Water and Madison streets, now occu- 176 NEW BEDFORD. pied by William A. Robinson & Co. Cornelius Grinnell built a factory on First street, at the northwest corner of South, and Joseph Ricketson built a factory at the northwest corner of Grinnell and First streets. The two latter were subsequently burned. The Hastings CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE, built the factory at the foot of Grinnell street, which is still in opera- tion, and S. Thomas & Co. established the factory on Prospect street, now occupied by Homer Bros., about the year 1855. The above history is perhaps not absolutely accurate and no attempt has been made to give a list of the firms which succeeded INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. I77 the founders of the various works. Such a list would include mem- bers of nearly all of our oldest representative families. The decline of the oil factories here dates from the advent of petroleum, but the discovery was not felt to any extent until after the war. When the war broke out the prices of sperm oil and bone advanced very materially and our merchants made large profits, pro- portionate to the risks, and as the owners of ships were subsequently reimbursed for tl\e destruction of their vessels, our oil merchants and manufacturers were greatly enriched. About the year 1857 Abraham H. Howland purchased the Joseph Ricketson works and commenced experimenting in the distil- lation of oil from coal. A company was formed consisting of Abraham H. Howland, William C. Taber, Joseph C. Delano, William P. Howland, John Hicks, Weston Howland, Henry T. Wood, and B. Franklin Howland, which established and successfully operated a coal oil factory. Weston Howland, the present collector of the port, claims, and so far as the writer knows the claim is not disputed, that he was the first person to successfully refine petroleum oil. There is no doubt but Mr. Howland was the first to place refined petroleum on the mar- ket and the story of this discovery, which effected a revolution in the oil business of the world, is very interesting. In i860 Mr. Howland was the secretary of the New Bedford Coal Oil Company. While in New York on business, he was told at the office of Josiah Mac}' & Sons, the New York agents for his companv, that Schieffelin Bros., the well-known chemists, wished to see him. At the office of the latter he met their leading chemist, who introduced the subject of petroleum. Petroleum had not yet been refined. It had been known for years and formerly had been collected by the Indians, who had taken it from the Alleghany river and Oil creek by spreading blankets upon the water, and wringing them when saturated. It was called Seneca oil and was used as a medicine. Atthattime there were a few wells in Pennsylvania and Schieffelin Bros, had about two thousand barrels of the oil on hand. Mr. How- land consented to make an attempt at refining the oil and a barrel was shipped to him. Then Mr. Howland commenced his experi- ments. He procured a large kettle from his kitchen and fashioned a crude condenser, and after a few trials his attempts at distillation 178 NEW BEDFORD. were successful. But the oil procured was thick and muddy, with a vile odor, and had yet to be refined. Mr. Rowland accordingly filled a milkpan with the oil and experimented with alkalies and water, but the result was a foggy mixture of oil and water. Mr. Rowland was discouraged and, placing the pan in his barn, left it. When he returned he looked at his oil and found the problem solved. Mr. Rowland had left the door of his barn ajar and as the sun wore around its beams had reached the oil, and the process was completed. That evening Mr. Rowland filled three clean lamps, one with coal oil manufactured at the works of the New Bedford Oil Company, another with Downer's coal oil, and a third with petroleum. Then he lighted the lamps and called in his brother William to judge which was the best. The latter at once selected the petroleum lamp as giving the largest and brightest flame, with the least smoke. Mr. Rowland was convinced that petroleum was a success and that coal oil could not compete with it. Re at once purchased the oil works at Fish Island, procured stills and commenced the manu- facture of petroleum for the market. Re purchased fifteen hundred barrels of oil of Schieftelin Bros, at twenty-five cents a gallon and sold the refined oil for seventy-five cents as rapidlv as it could be manufactured. One day Mr. Rowland learned that the Downers had purchased all the oil in the market and had commenced the manufacture of the oil. Mr. Rowland sent an agent to the oil wells in November, i860, who contracted for the entire product. In the Januar}- following the works were destroyed by an explosion and two men were killed. The machinery was covered with sails that it might not be copied and the following day rebuilding commenced. A great deal of oil was sent to California. It was purchased at the refinery by William P. Rowland, shipped across the isthmus and over the mountains on jackasses and sold readily at $2 a gallon. The oil was shipped in tin cans, and the making of them became quite an important industry here at one time. Most of the cans were made by Stephen A. Tripp and Wood & Brightman. Subsequently the Seneca Oil Works were built at Willis Point and two small refineries were built in Fairhaven. Mr. Rowland was the last to abandon the manufacture in this vicinity. Re retired tVom the oil business eight or ten years ago. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. l8l Near!}' all of the sperm oil taken is refined here, and in round numbers fifteen thousand barrels of sperm, twelve thousand barrels of whale, and eight thousand barrels of fish oil are refined in New Bedford annually. The factoiy of George Delano's Sons, on South street, is the largest grease oil refinery in the world. The buildings cover nearly two acres of land and in the busy season forty-five men are employed. The individual members of the firm are Stephen C. L. and James Delano, who succeeded the firm at the head of which was their father, m 1884. George Delano entered the employ of Charles H. Leonard in 1855, and took the business January i, 1869. The New York office of the firm is at 140 Front street, in a building which the various firms that have operated the works have occupied since 1850. The company manufactures sperm, whale, sea elephant, fish, and cotton seed oils, patent and paraffine wax candles, spermaceti, whale and fish oil pressings, and sperm and whale oil soap. All crude oils are worked out to definite results at the factor}' and the product is shipped to every part of the world. As this is a representative factory, it will not be out of place to tell briefly of the processes to which the oils are subjected. The crude oils as they are landed in casks from our whaleships are a thick, dirty brown in color. The quality is determined by the appearance and by tasting, and the buyers become very expert in their judgment. The products of sperm oil are the winter sperm, which is the first running from the crude oil after it has granulated, the spring sperm, the summer sperm, the taut pressed, which leaves the unrefined sperm, and finally spermaceti, with a melt test of one hundred fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. The sperm oil is not sold in its natural color, however, but is half bleached by a process which leaves sperm oil soap as a product. The product of the whale and other heavy oils, such as sea ele- phant, fish, and cotton seed, are the winter, spring, and summer pressings, which leave stearine. This latter product has the con- sistency of tallow. Soaps are made from all of these oils in the bleaching process. The sperm oil is largely used for oiling machinery, although it is usually compounded with cheaper oils before it can be used for this I02 NEW BEDFORD. purpose. It was formerly used for burning in lighthouses, and up to i860 the works held a contract to supply the entire lighthouse system of the United States. The whale oil is used for illuminating pur- poses. A vast quantity is consumed in engine headlights, being com- bined with the hydro-carbon oils. Considerable fish oil is used for burning in mines. Large quantities of the soap are shipped to Cali- fornia, Florida, and other fruit growing sections, where it is employed in washing orange and other trees to protect them from the ravages of insects, and acts as a fertilizer. The stearine is used in large quantities by the mills, where it is used as sizing for yarns, and much of it is exported for smearing sheep before shearing the wool. It is also used in making the better grades of soap, as filling for leather, and in oleomargarine to some extent. When the sperm oil is brought from the wharves to the works, it is turned into deck tanks, with a capacity of six hundred gallons each, and from here it is pumped into the bleaching tanks. There are three of these, the largest having a capacity of five thousand gal- lons, and two others with a capacity of thirty-one hundred gallons each. Within these tanks are coils of steam pipes and the oil is boiled with a soda lye. The sediment which precipitates to the bottom is drawn oft' and manufactured into soap. The oil is then drawn off* and placed in barrels. These barrels of oil are then placed in the pits and are put under ice. The "pits" are, in reality, a huge ice chest, with a capacity for holding one thou- sand barrels. As much as thirty tons of ice are often used in a single day, and the barrels remain here for about ten days, until the oil freezes. The product, after the pressings, is the virgin winter oil, which runs limpid at a temperature ranging as low as twenty-eight degrees below zero. In the coldest weather the oil is sometimes placed out of doors where the cold atmosphere effects the same results as if the oil were placed in the pits. After the first pressing, the sperm is again placed in hempen bags and in the spring it is subjected to another pressing. The product is the spring oil. In the summer, when the sperm has become dryer 3'et, it is again subjected to hydraulic pressure, and the result is a thin oil known as the summer oil. After the oil has been removed by repeated pressings, the sperm is boiled with an alkaline lye, washed with water and moulded into blocks, which are in appearance as white and lustrous as alabaster. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 185 On splitting these blocks, crystallized surfaces appear, resembling pure quartz. From these blocks the candles are moulded. The wicks are adjusted by hand, and the candles are the best in use. Coloring mat- ter is introduced, in so small a quantity, however, as not to destroy their beautiful transparency. Gamboge gives them a yellow tint, car- mine a red, and Prussian blue is used to produce the blue color. Very many paraffine wax candles are made at this factory, but the paraffine wax, being a hydro-carbon product, is purchased. The can- dles made here range in size from those so small that it requires twelve to a pound, to single candles two pounds in weight. Between five hundred thousand and six hundred thousand pounds of spermaceti and paralHne wax are made into candles every year. The candles are made in machines and are cooled b}- water. Most of the parafline wax candles are made in the winter, owing to the length of time required for them to cool in the summer. The whale, fish, and other heavy oil processes are somewhat different. After the oil comes from the pits it is run through flannel strainers. The toots which remain are then subjected to repeated pressings and require bleaching by the alkaline process before they are marketable. The stearine from whale oil is very white and hand- some. That trom the menhaden oil is darker. x\ll of the oil is finally sun bleached, and under the glass roofs there are eight tanks with a capacity of fifteen hundred gallons each, seven tanks with a capacity of twelve hundred gallons each, and three tanks with a capacity of eighteen hundred gallons each. The fish oil is refined by a patent process at these works and is rendered very white and handsome, although, of course, it is more gummy than the sperm. A cooper shop is connected with the establishment, and the works are provided with every modern improvement in the way of pumps, presses, and other machinery. The reputation of the works is the best. No gallon of oil ever went out of the works which was not strictlx* pure and the firm points with pride to the fact that its oldest customers, in sending in their orders, never trouble themselves to specify that the oil shall be v'pure," knowing that no adulterated oils are ever sent out tVom this establish- ment. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 187 About three years ago the firm of Swan & Fmch, No. 151 Maiden Lane, New York, leased the extensive oil works of Hastings & Co., at the foot of Grinnell street, having an area of five and one-half acres. This firm is the largest manufacturer of fish oil in the country and the refinery here is used for this purpose. About a dozen men are employed and Frank Corey is the local manager. The firm also has factories at Brooklyn and New York city, and has facil- ities here for refining whale and sperm oil. William A. Robinson & Co. are among the largest refiners of sperm and whale oil in the country. This firm was established in Rhode Island in 1829, transferring its business to this city in 1853, when a factory was occupied on the site of the present passenger station of the Old Colony railroad. In 1863 the firm moved to the factory it now occupies, No. 50 South Water street. The main build- ing is two stories high, with a frontage of forty feet on Water street. It is connected with smaller buildings of brick and stone, extending through lo Front street, a distance of two hundred tbrty feet. There are large siieds for storing oil on Walnut street, south of the factory buildings. The buildings are lighted by gas and heated by steam, and employment is given to fifteen or twenty hands. The manufac- ture and sale of sperm and whale oils and their products is the prin- cipal business in this city, although the firm deals largely in other oils. The Providence house handles potato, wheat, and corn starch, lard, olive, paraffine, and kerosene oils. The oil and candle manufactory of George S. Homer was estab- lished about the year 1850, and in 1857 the firm of S. Thomas & Co. was formed. Ten years later Mr. Homer succeeded to the business, as surviving partner. The buildings, with sheds, occupy an area of one and one-half acres and are located on Front, South, and Pros- pect streets. The factory comprises two main buildings, one hundred twenty-five by forty-five and seventy-five by forty -five feet, respect- ively, containing pits, vats, cisterns, kettles, strainers, and hydraulic presses. There is a boiler house with a boiler of fifty horse power, a cooperage for repairing casks and barrels, with a room above for moulding candles and preparing the spermaceti of commerce. Sev- enteen hands are employed and the reputation of the factory ranks with the best. In the year 1888 there were manufactured on the premises five thousand barrels of crude sperm oil, seven thousand barrels of crude whale oil, and a quantity of blackfish, menhaden, and other oils. NEW BEDFORD. William F. Nye is the largest manufacturer of sewing machine and watch and clock oils in the world. His factories are on Fish island and are surrounded on three sides by wharves. Mr. Nye com- menced the manufacture of lubricating oils in 1844, at Fairhaven, on a small scale, and afterwards carried on the business at the foot of Walnut street in this city. In 1877 he purchased the large stone factory on Fish Island and has since erected several large buildings. The old factory is of stone, three stories high, and about ninety by fortv feet in area. Subsequently a factory of wood and stone, three stories high and fifty-five by sixty feet in area, was built, and a two story building of stone, about fifty by fifty leet in area. About one hundred fifty thousand gallons of sewing machine, watch, and clock oils are disposed of annually and in addition to the oil shipped in bulk, over two million one hundred fifty thousand bottles of various sizes are filled and sold each year. The processes are simple, but the best of stock and the greatest care and honesty were necessary to earn the reputation which Mr. Nye holds. Wherever sewing machines, watches, or clocks are made Mr. Nye's oils are known. He supplies large quantities to the Waltham, Elgin, and other celebrated companies in this countr}' and Switzerland, and the famous cathedral clock at Strasburg is lubricated with oil made at this factory. Sewing machine oil is a mixture of sperm oil and bone-filtered petroleum. It is landed on Mr. Nye's wharves in barrels and is placed in wells. From here it passes into standpipes, where it is agitated and thoroughly mixed by air blasts. In this process the lighter gases pass awav. There are three of these standpipes, each having a capacity of one hundred fifty barrels. After agitation the oil becomes white and is left sixty days to settle. Then a Worthing- ton duplex steam pump forces the oil into distributing tanks in the attic. A filler, patented by Joseph K. Nye, a son of the proprietor, is used here and with it a gross of bottles can be filled in one minute. The bottling rooms are very complete. After washing, the bottles are placed in a drving room where the mercury stands at two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. In addition to the fillers, a corking machine, invented by Mr. Nye, is used. The watch, chronometer, and clock oil is composed of porpoise jaw and blackfish head oil. Several years ago an unparalleled school of blackfish appeared on the coast of Massachusetts and twenty-two 190 NEW BEDFORD. hundred of these monster fish were driven into inlets and bayous, where the receding tide left them an easy prey. The entire catch was secured by Mr. N3'e, ensuring a supply of oil which will last many years. The process of refining these oils for watches and clocks requires about two years. Recently Mr. Nye has established a refinery at St. Albans, Vt., and the oil passes through the processes with the temperature thirty- five degrees below zero. By this means the oil is freed from all impurities that corrode and blacken the pivots of a watch and it is perfectly unaffected by heat or cold. It is much whiter than oil re- fined in these latitudes. The oil is strained through strainers of cotton flannel and is then placed in tubes, where it stands for about eighteen months. These tubes, or tanks, are kept in a fire proof vault, and fine watch and clock oil to the value of ten thousand dollars is stored here, in forty tanks, each with a capacity of about fifty-five gallons. Although less than half a drop of oil is used on a single watch, some watch manufacturers order this valuable lubricator by the barrel. Large quantities of the oil are also used on type writing machines. When the writer called at Mr. Nye's factory, he had stored on one floor one hundred tons of empty bottles, constituting four or five months' supply, and twelve thousand empty boxes. The factory is well arranged, being supplied with hoisting engines and steam elevators. There is also apparatus for refining heavy oils and Mr. Nye does something in this line, besides doing a jobbing business in all lubricating oils. Mr. Nye has recently commenced the manufacture of an oleo- tannatine compound, which is a leather preserver and a softener and cleaner for harnesses. He also makes shoe dressings and edge blacking. About twenty-two hands are employed at the factory. The Ezra Kelley famous chronometer, watch, and clock oils are manufactured at Mount Pleasant. These oils are used in the watch and clock factories of the world and the sales now aggregate six hundred gross per year. About three hundred fifty gallons of crude stock are required for a year's supply. Mr. Kelley is now in the ninety- first year of his age and has manufactured his celebrated oils for the past sixty-two years. He was the first to apply fish oils for the lubri- cation of clock machinery. Mr. Kelley was born in Dennis, Mass., iii^^ • l^W ^'IrV -/v^ ■ h .i' i,)fV4.v.> ; George F. Kingman, 1876; Stephen G. Driscol, 1876 to 1881 ; Lewis S. Judd, 1877 to 1886; Samuel C. Hart, 1878; Thomas H. Knowles, 1878: Gilbert Allen, 1879; Abraham H. Howland, Jr., 1879 ^^ 1887 ; Francis B. Greene, 1880; William N. Church, 1882; George S. Homer, 1887: James Delano, 1888. The officers, as they now stand, are as follows : President — Jonathan Bourne. Cashier — Henry C. W. Mosher. Directors — Jonathan Bourne, Andrew Hicks, George F. Bartlett, William R. Wing, George F. Kingman, William N. Church, Thomas H. Knowles, Samuel C. Hart, Gilbert Allen, Francis B. Greene, James Delano, and George S. Homer. The Mechanics National Bank occupies handsome quarters in the same building. This was originally a state bank and was incor- porated October 3, 1831, under the name of "The President, Direct- ors, and Company of the Mechanics Bank in New Bedford." In March, 1849, ^^^ legislature was petitioned for a renewal of the origi- nal charter, which would expire October i, 185 1. b}' limitation. The bank did not cease business as a state bank until March 31, 1865, although the bank was reorganized as a national bank, June 3, 1864. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 24I The original capital was $200,000. which was increased to $400,000 April 12, 1854, ^"^ ^^ $600,000, the present capital of the Mechanics National Bank, in June. 1857. The present surplus is $225,000. The original board of directors comprised William R. Rodman, Thomas Mandell, George T. Baker, Joseph R. Shiverick. John Per- kins, Edmund Gardner, Pardon Tillinghast, Andrew Robeson, and Dudley Davenport. Following are given the names of all who have served the bank as directors, with the years in which their service began and ended: William R. Rodman, 1831 to 1851 ; Thomas Mandell, 1831 to 1870; George T. Baker, 1831 to 1843 ; Joseph R. Shiverick, 1831 to i860; John Perkins, 1831 to 1849: Edmund Gardner, 1831 to 1872; Pardon Tillinghast, 1831 to 1872; Andrew Robeson, 1831 to 1848; Dudley Davenport, 1831 to 1848: James H. Collins, 1843 to 1861 ; William Cummings, 1848 to 1849; Jonathan Rowland, 1848 to 1849; John R. Thornton, 1849; Jireh Swift, Jr., 1849; Edmund Taber, 1849 to 1861 ; Henry Taber, 1851 to 1852; WllHam Watkins. 1852 to t88o : Loum Snow, i860 to 1872 ; William W. Crapo, 1861 ; Thomas Wilcox, 1861 ; Sylvanus Thomas, 1866 to 1867 ; Aijdrew G. Pierce, 1867 ; Edward D. Mandell, 187 1 ; Horatio Hathaway, 1872 ; Henry F. Thomas, 1872 to 1880 : Loum Snow, Jr., 1876 ; E. Williams Hervey, 1883 : Edward Kilburn, 1883 ; Henry C. Denison, 1887. William R. Rodman was the first president. He held the office for twenty years, resigning in October, 1851. Thomas Mandell suc- ceeded him, being elected president October 11, 185 1, and holding the office until his death, February 13, 1870. William W. Crapo was chosen president June i, 1870, and still retains that position. Joseph Congdon was the first cashier and he held the posidon until October 7, 1857. a period of twenty-six years, when he resigned on account of ill health. E. Williams Hervey succeeded Mr. Cong- don as cashier, being elected October 7, 1857. He held the position until August 9, 1882, when he also resigned on account ot ill health, after having been for twenty-nine years in the service of the bank, and cashier for a period of nearly twenty-five years. James W. Her- vey succeeded him and is the present cashier. Lemuel T. Terry is the assistant cashier, and the present officers of the bank are as follows : 242 NEW BEDFORD. President — William W. Crapo. Vice president — Andrew G. Pierce. Cashier — James W. Hervey. Directors — William W. Crapo, Andrew G. Pierce, John R. Thornton, Jireh Swift, Thomas Wilcox, Edward D. Mandell, Horatio Hathaway, E. Williams Hervey, Loum Snow, Jr., Edward Kilburn, and Henry C. Denison. The Citizens National Bank, 36 North Water street, was incorpo- rated May 17, 1875, with the following board of directors : J. Arthur Beauvais, John P. Knowles, William J. Kilburn, Joseph H. Cornell, Lewis S. Judd, and John F. Tucker. Mr. Beauvais, who was at that time engaged in a successful private banking enterprise, transferred his business to the new bank and was elected president, a position which he still holds. The bank was organized with a capital of $250,000, which was subsequently increased to $500,000, and this latter amount is now supplemented by a surplus of $52,500. Thomas B. Fuller was the first cashier, and on his death in 1886, Edward S. Brown was elected to the position. George M. Kingman is teller. Its directors, with the years of their service, have been as follows : J. Arthur Beauvais, 1875 '■> John P. Knowles, 1875 ; William J. Kil- burn, 1875 5 Charles Tucker, 1875 ; Joseph H. Cornell, 1875 ^o 1884; Lewis S. Judd, 1875 to 1876; John F. Tucker, 1875 to 1886; Henry T. Wood, 1876 to 1883 ; George Marston, 1880 to 1883 ; Fred S. Potter, 1881 ; Oliver P. Brightman, 1884; Wendell H. Cobb, 1884 to 1888; Thomas B. Fuller, 1885 to 1886; David B. Kempton, 1886; Cyrenius W. Haskins, 1887. The present officers are as follows : President — J. Arthur Beauvais. Cashier — Edward S. Brown. Directors — J. Arthur Beauvais, John P. Knowles, William J. Kilburn, Charles Tucker, Fred S. Potter, Oliver P. Brightman, David B. Kempton, Cyrenius W. Haskins, Hosea M. Knowlton, and Benja- min Wilcox. Recently the national banks orgranized an association known as the New Bedford Clearing House, with James W. Hervey as presi- dent and Edward S. Brown, secretary. All clearings are made at the National Bank of Commerce, under the management of James H. Tallman. The national banks have each several hundred small sates within their vaults for the gratuitous use of their depositors. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. . 245 The New Bedford Institution for Savings enjoys the distinction of having the largest aggregate of deposits of any savings bank in New England, outside of Boston, with one exception. It occupies the neat and convenient building at the northeast corner of William and Second streets. The institution was incorporated in 1825, by the following gentle- men : William Rotch, Jr., Gilbert Russell, Cornelius Grinnell, NEW BEDFORD INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS. Andrew Robeson, Haydon Coggeshall, Benjamin Rodman, John Avery Parker, Eli Haskell, Richard Williams, George Howland, Joseph Bourne, Abraham Shearman, Jr., William W. Swain, Thomas Rotch, Thomas A. Greene, Charles W. Morgan, Samuel Rodman, Tr., John B. Smith, William C. Nye, Thomas S. Swain, William H. Allen, Lemuel Williams, Jr., John Howland, Jr., Charles H. Warren, William P. Grinnell, Joseph Ricketson, Charles Grinnell, Nathan 246 NEW BEDFORD. Bates, John Coggeshall, Jr., James Howland, 2d, and Gideon How- land. Every one of these men is now dead. The first officers were as follows : President — William Rotch, Jr. Treasurer — Abraham Shearman, Jr. Secretary — John B. Smith. Trustees — William Rotch, Jr.. Gilbert Russell, Cornelius Grin- nell, Haydon Coggeshall, John A. Parker, Eli Haskell, Joseph Bourne, Abraham Shearman, Jr., Thomas Rotch, Thomas A. Green, Charles W. Morgan, Samuel Rodman, Jr., William C. Nye, Thomas S. Swain, John Howland, Jr., William P. Grinnell, Nathaniel Bates, John Coggeshall, Jr., and Gideon Howland. Following is a list of officers from 1825 until the present time : Presidents — William Rotch, Jr., Abraham Barker, Thomas Mandell, Pardon Tillinghast, William C. Taber, and William Watkins. Secretaries — John B. Smith, Abraham Shearman, Jr., Thomas A. Green, Joseph Ricketson, George Howland, Jr., James B. Congdon, Charles R. Tucker, William C. Taber, Edmund Taber, Henry T. Wood, and William G. Wood. Treasurers — Abraham Shearman, Jr., William C. Taber, George W. Baker, William C. Taber (treasurer, ^;-<9 /rw;. ) , Reuben Nye, William C. Coffin, and Charles H. Peirce. The present officers are as follows : President — William Watkins. Vice presidents — William J. Rotch, Edward D. Mandell. Treasurer — Charles H. Peirce. Clerk — William G. Wood. Auditors — Benjamin Irish, Robert B. Gifford. Auditor of depositors' accounts — Benjamin Irish. Trustees — Benjamin T. Ricketson, John R. Thornton, George A. Bourne, WilliamJ. Rotch, William Watkins, Edward D. Mandell, Gilbert Allen, Andrew G. Pierce, Charles H. Giffi3rd, Asa C. Peirce, William G. Wood, William C. Taber, Jr., Joshua C. Hitch, Abram T. Eddy, Horatio Hathaway, Edward S. Taber, Thomas M. Hart, Charles W. CliffiDrd, Isaac W. Benjamin, Francis Hathaway, William A. Robinson, Charles W. Plummer, Isaac B. Tompkins, Jr., George D. Watkins, William D. Howland, Jonathan Handy, Morgan Rotch, Lemuel T. Terry, Edmund Wood, Charles P. Rugg, Walter Clifford, Gideon Allen, Jr., Edward T. Pierce. The first deposit, fifty dollars, was made by Rhoda E. Wood, of Fairhaven, August 15, 1825. The amount of deposits, January 5, INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 247 1889, was $10,683,053.13; guaranty fund, $360,000; undivided earnings, $119,390.51. The number of accounts was 20,626. The New Bedford Five Cents Savings Bank was incorporated May 5, 1855, ^"<^ ^ts banking rooms are now at No. 71 Purchase street, at the corner of Mechanics hme. The original incorporators were : Thomas B. White, WilHam H. Taylor, Lemuel Kollock, Ivory H. Bartlett, Alexander H. Seabury, Charles Almy, Henry H. Crapo, George Rowland, Jr., and Asa R. Nye. Of these, George Howland, Jr., is the only survivor. The first officers were as follows : President — George Howland, Jr. Vice presidents — Henry H. Crapo, Alexander H. SeabUry. Treasurer — John P. Barker. Secretary — Charles Aim}-. Trustees — George Howland, Jr., Henry H. Crapo, Alexander H. Seabury, John P. Barker. Charles Almy, Thomas B. White, Ivorv H. Bartlett, Nehemiah Leonard, x\ndrew Robeson, Edward W. Howland, Moses Howe, Joshua Richmond, George F. Baker, Dennis Wood, Charles Hitch, James Durfee, Lemuel Kollock, Asa R. Nye, Edward D. Mandell, William P. Howland, Alden G. Ellis, J. Arthur Beauvais, Moses G. Thomas, Samuel Ivers, Simpson Hart, Abner J. Phipps, William H. Taylor, James Tav'lor, William R. Rodman, Horatio Leonard, and John Wood. The officers of the organization to the present time have been : President — George How-land, Jr. Secretaries — Charles Almy, James Taylor. Vice presidents — Alexander H. Seabury, Dennis Wood, Fred- erick S. Allen, Lemuel Kollock, and Walter Clifford. Treasurers — John P. Barker, from May, 1855, to October, 1855 ; James C. Ricketson, from October, 1855, to April 6, 1861 : Barton Ricketson, Jr., from April, 1861, undl the present time. The present officers are : President — George Howland, Jr. Vice presidents — Frederick S. Allen. Walter Clifford. Treasurer — Barton Ricketson. Jr. Clerk — James Taylor. Trustees — George"' Howland, Jr., Frederick S. Allen, Edward B. Whiting, William Baylies, Samuel Ivers, Thomas Wilcox. Will- iam G. Taber, John P. Knowles, 2d, E. Williams Hervey, Warren Ladd, James Taylor, Henrv J. Taylor, William J. Kilburn, Edwin Dews, Fredericks. Potter, "William R. Wing, James P. Macomber. 248 NEW BEDFORD. J. Augustus Brownell, Loum Snow, Frederick S. Gifford, Thomas H. Knowles, Henry C. Denison, Samuel H. Cook, Samuel C. Hart, Otis N. Pierce, C. B. H, Fessenden, George N. Alden, Benjamin T. Cummings, Oliver F. Brown, Edward H. Allen, George F. King- man, Parkman M. Lund, John F. Swift, Horace Wood, Frederick H. Hooper, Walter Clifford, George H. H. Allen, J. Arthur Beau- vais, Sidney W. Knowles, Gilbert D. Kingman. The first deposit, $25, was made by Horace W. Barker, May 26, 1855. The deposits in December, 1888, had reached $4,156,669.86; earnings, $39,218.92 ; reserve fund, $100,320.13 ; surplus fund, $38,765.99. The number of accounts open was 15,835. Money goes on interest the second Wednesday of January, April, ]u\y, and October. Dividends are payable on the second Wednesday of April and October. The New Bedford Safe Deposit and Trust Company was incor- porated by the legislature of 1887, with a capital stock of $100,000, and authority to increase to $500,000. Business was commenced in June, 1888. In November of the same year the stockholders voted to increase the capital stock to $200,000. At that date the number of depositors was one hundred eighty-two and the deposits amounted to $150,000. The banking rooms are on the northeast corner of William street and Acushnet avenue and the quarters are sumptuous and ele- gant in every respect. It provides' means for the safe deposit of any valuable article, it may be appointed trustee under any will or instru- ment creating a trust for the care and management of property, under the same circumstances, in the same manner, and subject to the same control by the court having jurisdiction of the same, as in the case of a legally qualified person. The company acts as agent for any corporation, city, or town in issuing certificates of stock, bonds, or other evidences of indebtedness, and for the payment of dividends and interest thereon. It also acts as agent in collecting and disbursing the income on any property which may be placed in its charge. In addition to the various departments of activity which have been enumerated, the company also does a general banking business, pre- cisely like that of a national bank, exxept that it issues no bank notes. Deposits of money are received payable by check on presentation, and interest is allowed on daily balances and credited monthly. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 249 Special rates of interest are allowed on lime deposits. Notes are discounted and collections niade the same as at any bank. The distinctive feature of this institution is its tine vault, which was built by the Hall Safe and Lock Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. It contains four hundred eighty-nine small safes of various sizes, ranging from two and one-half by four and three-quarters inches to twenty by twenty-four inches. They are uniformly twenty-three inches deep. There are also storage rooms for pictures, silver ware, and jewelry. The directors of the institution are Charles E. Hendrickson, William D. Howland, Abbott P. Smith, Benjamin F. Brownell. Savory C. Hathaway, Lot B. Bates, Stephen A. Brownell, Standish Bourne, Frederic Taber, John W. Macomber, Lemuel LeBaron Holmes, and George C. Hatch. The officers are as follows : President — Charles E. Hendrickson. Vice presidents — William D. Howland, Abbott P. Smith. Cashier — Edmund W. Bourne. Secretary — Edward T. Tucker. Executive committee — William D. Howland, John \\ . Macom- ber, Lemuel LeBaron Holmes, Standish Bourne, Abbott P. Smith. The New Bedford Cooperative Bank, or loan association, was organized July 8, 1881, chartered three days later, and commenced business August 19. On- the first night $374 ^vas paid in. The membership has increased from forty or fifty to six hundred eight and the total amount paid in has been $i90,479-45- The authorized cap- ital is $1 ,000,000. Over twelve hundred books have been issued and five hundred three loans have been placed in sums ranging from twenty dollars to five thousand dollars. The bank has paid an average profit of 6.V per cent. There are now one hundred torty- three real estate loans, aggregating in amount $167,148.90, and the value of the first series of shares is now $111 .02 . The by-laws have been amended from time to time so that shares in the first hve series may be withdrawn without loss of profits. The present officers are as follows : President — Isaac W. Benjamin. Vice president — George R. Stetson. Secretary — Charles R. Price. Treasurer — Gideon B. Wright. 250 NEW BEDFORD. Directors — Benjamin Anthony, Oliver P. Brightman, Jasper W. Brale}', Jethro C. Brock, John L. Gibbs, Henry Howard, Samuel Jones, Samuel S. Paine, Rufus A. Soule, John A. Bates, Benjamin F. Brownell, Charles S. Paisler, David W. Holmes, Andrew R. Palmer, Stephen A. Brownell. Auditors — Isaac B. Tompkins, Jr., Frederic Taber, Daniel W. Cory. i\ttorney — Hosea M. Knowlton. METAL WORKERS. The metal workintr industries of the citv are varied and inter- esting, while some of them are exceptional in their character. The New Bedford Copper Company was one of the first, as it is one of our representative, branches of industrial enterprise. The company was incorporated in i860 with a paid up capital of $250,000 and it manufactures copper and yellow metal sheathing, copper roll- ers for calico printers, yellow metal bolts, and cut nails, braziers", dimension, and bolt copper, etc. The works are situated on the east side of North Front street and the main rolling mill is two hundred fifty by one hundred feet. There is also a building one hundred seventy-five by sixty teet for mixing metals and refining copper, and office, store rooms, carpenter and blacksmith shops, and a brick yard, covering an area of three hundred by twentv-five feet. The front- age of the property is three hundred feet and it extends easterl}'' to the river, a distance of about three hundred fifty feet. It is proposed to fill in to the channel, a distance of about one hundred fifty feet farther. The mill is equipped with an engine of three hundred horse power, one boiler twenty-six feet long and seven feet in diameter, and eight smaller boilers placed over the reheating turnaces. Lake Superior copper is used exclusively in the manufacture of sheet copper and print rollers, and only the best materials are employed in the manufacture of all goods. This copper is regarded as the best produced in tiie w^orld, and it reaches the factory in cakes weighing about two hundred pounds each. Yellow metal is a mix- ture of sixty parts copper and forty parts zinc spelter and in its man- ufacture five melting and nine refining furnaces are used. There are huge rollers of tremendous strength, through which the metal is rolled, and the print rollers are turned in lathes, built expressly for the INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 253 purpose. There are only two manufactories in the country where print rollers are manufactured and the works in this city take the lead in this industry. The company makes a specialty of Muntz yellow metal bolts for piston rods for marine engines, and has lately gone into the manufacture of solder irons, with most satisfactory results. The number of hands employed is about one hundred, and the officers of the company are as follows : President — Gilbert Allen. Treasurer and general manager — William H. Mathews. Directors — Gilbert Allen, William J. Rotch, Edward D. Man- dell, Charles W. Cliftbrd, George R. Phillips, Humphrey W. Seabury, and Frederick S. Allen. To the Morse Twist Drill & Machine Company belongs the unusual distinction of having founded an entirely new industry. It was in 1861 that Samuel A. Morse conceived the idea of the manu- facture of his famous drill, and he started an experimental shop at East Bridgewater. The old tashioned drill pierced a piece of iron about as one would bore a bit of pine with the point of a pen knife. Twist drills for boring metals had been occasionally made by tiling or milling spiral channels around a piece ot steel wire, or more com- monly by twisting a flattened piece of steel, but the cutting lip of such drills was generally on a concave line and the outer point was quite likely to break. Mr. Morse employed a milling tool which produced a straight lip, which cut its way through metal like an auger, doing better work, with less expenditure of power. The liability to injury was also less. Mr. Morse had so far perfected his idea in 1863 as to secure a patent in that 3^ear. As he was unable to secure sufficient capital in East Bridgewater to meet the orders for his drills, in June of 1864, having interested capital in this city, he moved here and a shop thirty by sixty feet in area, two stories high, was constructed tor his occu- pancy. The company of stockholders organized with Nathan Chase as president. Mr. Chase had been a successful merchant, and was then considered, as now, a shrewd business man. He worked devotedly in the interest of the company, and without his correct management at the inception, it is doubtful whether the undertaking would have been so complete a success. The board of directors elected twenty-tour years ago still supervises the enterprise. The original members were 254 NEW BEDFORD. Thomas M. Stetson, Gilbert Allen, Frederick S. Allen, Nathan Chase, and Andrew G. Pierce. Mr. Chase continued as president and manager for three years, and Mr. Pierce occupied the former position for a short period. In 1868 Mr. Chase retired and Edward S. Taber was chosen president and treasurer and added to the board of directors. The original capital was $30,000. This was subse- quently increased to$6o,ooo, again to $90,000, and in 1871 to$i5o,ooo. In the latter year the company absorbed the Standard Tool Company, of Newark, N. J., after a year or two of patent litigation. The large success of the corporation commenced about the years 1872 and 1873. The artisans of the country had been educated to the use of their tools, and a large foreign as well as home trade had been built up, regular agencies being maintained in London and Paris. This was due to the superiority of the manufacture. All of the tools made here were manufactured upon a uniform and absolutely accurate system of gauges. Every variety of drill, even when as fine as a sewdng machine needle, was, and is, made exactly alike, differing not the breadth of the finest hair in any of its dimensions. New buildings were added. About the year 1876, the capital was made $600,000. The original wooden shop was removed and a handsome and substantial brick structure was erected in its place. The buildings of the corporation now^ occupy the larger part of the square bounded by Bedford, Fourth, Wing, and Fifth streets. The main factory on Fourth street is nearly four hundred feet long and three stories high. This is backed by a blacksmith shop, hardening and tempering, annealing, stock, and store rooms. The area of the entire floor space is over sixty-eight thousand square feet. The corporation employs about two hundred lift}' operatives and the annual product aggregates about $400,000 in value. About two hundred fifty tons of steel stock are annually consumed. The tools of the company are used throughout the world and are now considered indispensable in all modern metal working shops. The original catalogue, a card about two and one-half by three inches in size, modestl}^ mentioned the entire product, but it has now grown to a book of thirty pages. To the manufacture of drills has been added the making of chucks, which hold such tools as a drill, and connect them with the spindle of a lathe ; reamers, which are used for enlarging drill holes and making a "true" bore, that is, making its calibre precisely the 256 NEW BEDFORD. same in every part ; taps, which are tools used in cutting the thread of nuts ; milling cutters, dies, drill grinding machinery, and, in fact, all the tools required in machine making establishments. The superintendent of the factory is George R. Stetson. The operatives employed by the company are largely men who were born in this city and educated in the public schools. They are well paid and constitute an exceptionally intelligent and effective body of workmen. The corporation is remarkable for keeping its men in its employ a long time. There are now employed in the factory men who were hired at the start, while a large proportion of the workmen have had terms of service exceeding ten years. Although the works of the American Tack Company are located in Fairhaven, yet it is essentially a New Bedford industry, being owned almost entirely, and controlled, by residents of this city. The company was organized April 3, 1867, with J. A. Beauvais, of this city, as treasurer, and Charles E. Brigham, who was president, Lewis Rice, and L. L. Tower, of Boston, Oliver P. Brightman, of New Bed- ford, and George F. Tripp, of Fairhaven, as directors. The company succeeded to the property and trade of the American Nail Machine Company, a corporation organized in Boston three years previously. The corporation had bought the patent rights of an automatic feeding nail machine, intending to build machines for sale, and also to operate them in making cut nails. But the west was at that time just enter- ing largely into the manufacture of cut nails, and as it could obtain coal and iron at cheaper prices than they could be procured in the east, it was evident that the eastern manufacturers could not successfully compete in this industry. It was therefore decided to engage in the manufacture of tacks and small nails, which would not require the outlay for a rolling mill and for which the plate could be obtained as cheaply in the east as in the west. The company bought the Rodman property at Fairhaven, and its machinery was moved from Boston in 1865, under the supervision of Cyrus D. Hunt, the present superintendent of the works. In 1866 the works went into operation, and in May of the following year, the American Nail Machine Company sold its property to the new cor- poration, the American Tack Company. The latter company also bought the business, trade, and good will of Jude Field, of New York, w^ho had succeeded Arby Field, who started in business in New^ York in 1824. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 257 This purchase made the American Tack Company the successor of one of the oldest tack manufacturers in this country, and secured to it a good export trade, which had been built up by the Fields. In 1870 the company bought of M. G. Williams, of Raynham, the inventor and original manufacturer of chisel-pointed boat nails, his machinery and trade, and in 1875 ^^^ company purchased the machin- ery and business of M. M. Rhodes & Sons, of Taunton, manufac- turers of lining and saddle nails and tufting buttons. Finally, in 1880, the machinery and business of the Star Tack Company, of New York, was purchased and removed to Fairhaven. The company employs one hundred twenty hands, operating one hundred forty tack and nail machines, and consumes from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred tons of metal per year, making more than four thousand kinds and varieties of tacks and nails, and producing goods each year to the value of two hundred thousand dollars. Within two years, soft steel has supplanted iron in the manufac- ture of tacks and nails. This metal, being stit^er and stouter than iron, is destined to supersede it entirely. To work it, however, heavier and stouter machinery is required, and the company has renewed its plant in this respect to enable it to profit by the change and supply its customers with the best of goods. The capital stock of the company was originally $50,000, but has been increased to $125,000. The board of directors at present consists of J. Arthur Beauvais, Oliver P. Brightman, Loum Snow, Jr., and E. W. Hervey, of New Bedford, and Cyrus D. Hunt, of Fairhaven. J. Arthur Beauvais is the president. The business of Bowker & Tripp, machinists and manufacturers of steam engines, shafting, and their appurtenances, was established in the brick block at the corner of North and North Water streets, in 1874, the firm at that time being composed of Edward E. Bowker and Robert R. Sherman. In 1878, Mr. Sherman retired, and Frank S. Tripp took his place. They are the patentees and sole manu- facturers of the Matchless steam and fire regulator, and Matchless double action damper, also of the single diagonal and the oval diagonal dampers for all kinds of flues and chimneys. Over one thousand are now in use. This firm also manufactures Mitchell's adjustable socket wrench, speed lathes, and machine screws tor special work, and does repairing of all kinds. They are manutac- turers' agents for restarting injectors, engine and speed indicators, 258 NEW BEDFORD. steam and pressure gauges, pop safety valves, chime whistles, asbestos valves, plug cocks, return traps, and a full line of the most approved steam appliances. The works are supplied throughout with the best machinery, tools, and appliances, propelled by a thirty horse power steam engine, and a large force of skilled workmen is constantly employed. The members of the firm, Messrs. Edward E. Bowker and Frank S. Tripp, are both practical machinists of large experience. The Acushnet Iron Company, Augustus Swift, agent, estab- lished the foundr}-, pattern and machine shop in the rear of Bowker & Tripp's building, about eight years ago. Twelve men are em- ployed. The New Bedford Boiler & Machine Company was established by H. A. Holcomb and Joseph S. Lewis in 1874. "^he buildings at 24 Front street cover an area of a quarter of an acre and from twenty to fifty men are employed. The works are supplied with a thirty-five horse power steam engine and the firm manufactures boil- ers of every size and description, including stationary, portable, marine, and locomotive boilers, also machinery of all kinds. The firm has made the boilers used in several of our largest mills and makes a specialty of a patented steam heating apparatus, which is in successful operation in many of our public buildings and finest private residences. Babbitt & Wood, 32 Commercial street, are the successors to the business of the Union Boiler Company. They manufacture boilers of all kinds and a patent steam heater, and are also engaged in steam fitting and the mill supply business. The firm employs from ten to thirty men, and first engaged in business in 1880, at 27 Front street. Their business proved so successful that the present building occupied by them was erected. The New Bedford Iron Foundry, located at the corner of Water and Coffin streets, was founded by F. & I. C. Taber & Co., who were then located at the corner of Fourth and Bedford streets. The firm of Taber & Grinnell succeeded to the business in 1847 and in 1859 Joseph G. Grinnell became the sole proprietor. Edmund Grin- nell, who now conducts the business, assumed control in 1873. The capacity of the works is twenty tons of castings per day, and ninety men are employed. The works make a specialty of light and heavy machinery and building castings. Among other work the past year, INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 261 two columns weighing ten tons each have been cast for the Hemmen- way building, School street, Boston, and building casts for the Lon- don Manufacturing Company, Ludlow, Mass., the Pacific mills, Lawrence, Hargrave, Sagamore, Border City, and King Philip mills, Fall River, Suffolk county court house, Boston, Walter Hastings Hall and Mutual Fire Insurance Company's buildings, Davoll Rubber Company, and Billings Brothers' bleachery. Providence, and many other buildings. The Strange Forged Drill Company has been organized for the purpose of manufacturing twist drills under the patents of John F. Strange, who has already manufactured them to some extent. The officers of the company are as follows : President — Edwin Dews. Clerk and treasurer — Henry M. Knowles. Directors — Thomas M. Hart, Moses C. Swift, William M. Bates, Joseph C. Knowles, Jolin P. Knowles, Jr., Edwin Dews, Henry M. Knowles. The firm of Luscomb & Corey, comprising Frederick W. Lus- comb and David A. Corey, is engaged in the manufacture of special machinery at No. 13 Rodman street and now employs seven hands. Business was commenced in October, 1885. The firm is interested, with George D. Brown and James F. Hammond, in the Mechanics Manufacturing Company, which manufactures novelties, prominent among which is the "Electric" patent pruner, and a shawl strap and bundle carrier. Giflbrd's brass foundr\', on Front street, was founded in i860 and is now managed by Capt. James E. Stanton. A two-story building, fifty by sixty feet in area, is occupied, equipped with modern mechani- cal appliances and machinery operated by steam. The concern man- ufactures to order all kinds of work in brass and copper, and is also engaged in the plumbing business. Ten men are employed. Gardner & Southwick (Reuben M. Gardner and Arnold W. Southwick) succeeded to the business of Andrew Craigie in 1872. They are engaged in brass moulding and founding and carrying on the business of coppersmiths at No. 58 Middle street. Five men are employed. The New Bedford Machine Shop is located in the foundry build- ing at the corner of Coffin and South Water streets. Ten men are employed and a general jobbing business is done. Jonathan Bourne has been the owner of the shop since 1864. 262 NEW BEDFORD. SHOE MANUFACTURERS. Hathaway, Soule & Harrington, whose large factory is on North Second street, at the corner of North street, are the largest manu- facturers of men's, boys', and youths' fine shoes in New England selling direct to the retail trade. They manufacture hand sewed, Goodyear welt, and machine sewed goods, making a specialty of Goodyear welt, and claim in this line to lead all competitors. They have branch factories at Middleboro and Campello, where they man- ufacture medium grades of shoes. Their business has gradually increased and in 1888 their sales exceeded eight hundred thousand dollars. Like many of our most important industries the business was started in a very small way. Savory C. Hathaway began manu- facturing shoes in Jul}', 1865, on Hillman street, with two employes. Three months later Rufus A. Soule became a partner and the firm was known as Hathaway & Soule. In December, 1865, they moved to the brick building on Pleasant street, corner of Mechanics lane. At first the firm occupied one floor only, but soon leased the entire building and finally a wooden addition at the north was built and occupied. Then the industry outgrew this building and in 1874 '^ four story brick building, thirty-two by one hundred feet in area, was erected by the firm at the corner of North Second and North streets. In 1876, Herbert A. Harrington was admitted into partnership and the firm name became Hathaway, Soule & Harrington. They have from time to time added to their factor\- until their present floor surface exceeds twenty-five thousand square feet. The firm now employs in the New Bedford factory two hundred eighty hands and it is one of the best equipped factories in the country. Their product is one hundred seventy-five thousand pairs annually. The capacity of tiie Middleboro and Campello factories is two hundred fifty thousand pairs. The firm employs twelve travelling salesmen and has customers in nearly every city and town in the United States and Canada. It has salesrooms and oflices at No. 280 Devonshire street. Boston, and at No. 128 Duane street, New York city. The firm is very proud of the class of workmen it employs and many men have gone out from this factory to accept positions of high responsibility in shoe manufactories elsewhere. INDUSTRIAI. AND FINANCIAL. 263 The firm of Tinkham, Reed & Gifford, boot and shoe manufac- turers, occupies the three story brick block numbered 19 and 21 North Second street. Fifty hands are employed in this factory. The pres- ent partnership of Elisha B. Tinkham, Gustavus L. Reed, and Jesse Giftbrd was formed fourteen years ago. The members of the firm all followed the shoemaker's trade in New Bedford and their practi- cal experience thus gained, coupled with their businesslike and pro- gressive management of their factor3% have given their manufactures an enviable name. Ladies', misses', and children's shoes are made. The firm turns out the McKay sewed shoe and has lately introduced the Goodyear, being one of the first factories in New England to introduce the Goodyear welt machine for ladies' shoes. The propri- etors are thoroughly up to the times. Their goods bear the best of reputations for wear and fit and are alwavs in demand. Conse- quently the hands employed are busy nearly all the year round and the factory is never shut down but for a very short period. The firm caters altogether to the retail trade, dealing directly with its customers at the office and salesroom, 107 Duane street, New York city. It ships seventy-five thousand dollars' worth of goods annually. C. F. Watkins manufactures men's shoes at 92 Pleasant street, where he commenced business in 1878. He employs from eight to twelve men and manufactures about sixty pairs a week. Schuler Bros, manufacture men's shoes for their own trade and the general market, at 76 Purchase street, and have engaged in the business for six years. They employ eleven men and manufacture between seventy-five and one hundred fifty pairs a week. WOOD WORKERS. The business of Greene & Wood dates back to the town's earlier history, having been originated by Samuel Leonard in the year 1835. He started in the lumber business at that time at the bend of Clark's cove, near the present bath houses of the street railway company, and for many years all the timber was brought up into the cove and rafted ashore. After a few years he built the present Leonard's wharf, on the water front, and the business was removed there, and there it has since remained. At about this time, Samuel Leonard's son, 264 NEW BEDFORD. Henry T. Leonard, took the business, forming a partnership with. Augustus A. Greene, a prominent young carpenter who had come here from Providence to build the houses now occupied by Mrs. Abraham H. Howland and Mrs. Joseph C. Delano, and the homestead of the late Joseph Grinnell. Under the firm style of Leonard & Greene the business was continued until 1848, when Henry T. Wood bought out Henry T. Leonard, and the style of the firm became Greene & Wood. Under this name it has remained for over forty years, and in one location has carried on the business with success. Mr. Greene retired in 1872 and Henry T. Wood died in 1883. The present firm consists of William G. Wood, who entered it in 1861, and George R. Wood and Edmund Wood, who were admitted soon after the death of their father, in 18S3. The firm now owns and occu- pies seven and one-half acres of land on the water front, including a wharf, and the entire area is utilized in their business. They intend to have on hand constantly a complete assortment of building lumber, and this necessitates the carrying of a very large stock and sufficient room to sort it and pile it conveniently for customers. This concern is the only one in the city dealing in southern pitch pine timber, plank, and boards. This the firm lands on its wharf direct from the south in vessels. Several large storage buildings contain the finished lumber and hard woods. With a progressive spirit, the firm has extended its business to meet the changing character of the trade. Its planing and wood working mill has been tripled in size during the last three years by the introduction of new machinery' to meet the growth of the busi- ness. This mill was burned a few months ago and almost wholh'^ destroyed, but a greater has arisen from its ashes, and, with the newest machinery and best appliances for fine and accurate work, is now nearly completed. It occupies an area of one hundred twenty by one hundred thirty-eight feet, two stories high, and is admirabl}' adapted for handling lumber rapidly and economically. The dry kiln is a separate building forty by eighty feet, two stories high. Here the Sturtevant hot blast dr3'ing process is employed, with a separate engine. Both these new buildings are well protected against another fire by Grinnell automatic sprinklers and other appliances used by our cotton mills. In this mill all kinds of planing, sawing, and turn- ing are done, some very heavy machines being employed. In addition to the manufacture of mouldings for house finish, a large INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 265 business is done in the highest grade of hard wood picture frame work. The firm employs about forty -five men. One of the innovations is a separate portable rig for dressing the heavy hard pine beams and plank used in constructing cotton mills, and for two successive years the firm has had this in operation in other cities. It is the custom to set it up close to the rising walls of the new cotton mill and build a temporary building over it. Last year the firm decided to engage in a wholly new industry. It bought out the New Bedford Spool and Bobbin Company and removed the plant to its own mill. This became the nucleus of an enterprise which will probably be an extensive one. The original plant has been already quadrupled in its scope and capacity. And, although seriously retarded by the fire, it is now well under way filling orders, not only for New Bedford but for other cities. The firm is now fitted to manufacture all kinds of spools and bobbins, etc., used in cotton and woolen mills, cordage works, and similar factories. The two upper stories of the large three story stone building, corner of Coflin and South Water streets, are occupied by Charles F. Borden, pattern and model maker, general wood worker, and manufacturer of water wheels. The business was established as early as 1863, by Nathan S. Ellis and Matthias Hathaway, in a room thirty feet square, in the building now occupied by Mr. Borden. The firm manufactured water wheels exclusively. In 1870 Calvin Bonney took the place of Mr. Hathaway in the firm, and, on the death of Mr. Bonney, about four years after- wards, Nelson Collins became associated with Mr. Ellis. Next, E. R. Bowie bought Mr. Ellis' interest and in turn sold out to Mr. Borden, and in 1880 the firm of Collins & Borden was organized. In 1884 Mr. Borden became sole proprietor. Two floors, one hun- TiiiiiSlii''' 266 NEW BEDFORD. dred by fifty feet in area, and an ell, thirty by thirty feet in area, are occupied, and fourteen men are employed. The most skillful mechanics are hired and samples of the wood finishing turned out by the firm may be seen in the upper drug store of C. H. Church, in the rooms of the Safe Deposit and Trust Company, and in the reading room of the Free Pub- lic Library. Wooden mantels in hard and soft wood are manufactured to order, and carving, planing, jig sawing, and turning are also done. A specialty is made of the manufacture of Tremont turbine water wheels, which are simple in construction and are built upon true hydraulic principles, utilizing all the water, thus rendering them particularly desirable for saw mills, box factories, grist mills, or any situation where the stream is small. Gearing, shafting, and pulleys are also furnished at short Mr. Borden has recently to his enterprise stair building in all its branches. Possibly most people do not know that stair building has of late years become a dis- tinct art, enlisting the brains and hands of the most skilled de- signers and workmen. Some recent stair cases are marvels of beauty and ingenuity, forming notable feat- ures of the buildings in which they are placed. Mr. Borden builds them in every pattern, of many varieties of w^ood, and at every possible grade of cost, from the designs of others or from designs of his own. He also manufactures and keeps in stock fancy and INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 267 plain newels, square and turned, and balusters and rails. Or, he will make them to order of special patterns. Furniture is also made to order, and cabinets, brackets, easels, and picture frames are manufactured and kept in stock to some extent. Mantels, of which Mr. Borden makes a specialty, and of which he has designed several handsome patterns, are kept in stock. Frederick A. Sowle, who is now the largest manufacturer of house finishings in this section, commenced business in a small way in 1873, at the southwest corner of William and Bethel streets. At this time he made refrigerators and sold doors and windows. Soon afterwards he moved to more ample quarters on Middle street, where he commenced the manufacture of window frames and house finishings, having the machine work done at the different mills. After a year, however, his business had increased to such an extent that new quarters were again necessary, and he bought the old barn on the Gammons property on Elm street, raised it up and fitted a factory with steam power and the most improved machinery. Two years later, to keep pace with a thriving and still increasing business, he built a large addition, carrying the factory out to the street. At this time about twenty men were employed. In 1884 the mill was entirely destroyed by fire. As Mr. Sowle watched the flames, he remarked, "Well, the old man isn't dead yet," and he verified the statement made on that occasion. A four story brick structure, fifty by one hundred feet in area, and supplied with ample steam power, has replaced the wooden mill, and thirty men are now employed. Mr. Sowle now manufactures and deals in doors, blinds, sashes, window and door frames, mouldings, brackets, stair rails, newel posts, and balusters, and gives especial attention to get- ting out inside and outside house finish. Turning and scroll sawing is done and western lumber and hard woods are sold. Mr. Sowle is the largest dealer in window and plate glass in this part of the state and he recently furnished the plate glass for the Wing build- ing, the largest plates in the city, which were especially imported for Mr. Sowle. Mr. Sowle ships goods as far as Florida, Virginia, and New York, and his market comprises this city, the Vineyard, Cape, and surrounding towns. For three years, Mr. Sowle's two sons were engaged with him and he then conducted the hardware and lumber business in addition to his factory. The former business he has sold to Pierce & Sowle, the latter Frederick L. Sowle, being 268 NEW BEDFORD. Mr. Sovvle's eldest son, and Nathaniel P. Sowle now conducts the lumber business on City wharf. William H. Washburn manufactures window and door frames, cutters, rakes, mouldings, house trimming and finishing, balus- ters, brackets, newels, and shutters, and gives particular attention to planing, turning, scroll and circular sawing, pattern making, and all kinds of jobbing. He also deals extensively in pine and hard wood lumber. The business was established in 1875 by Messrs. Perry & Washburn, and the present proprietor assumed the sole control in January, 1883. The factory is at Nos. 213, 215, and 217 North Water street, is two stories high and forty by one hundred fifty feet in area. It is equipped with special wood working machinery and operated by a seventy-five horse power engine. Twenty-one men are regularly employed. William A. Tillinghast succeeded the firm of Tillinghast & Terry in the general lumber and planing business, about a year ago. The mill is located at No. 172 North Water street and there is a wharf connected with the property. In addition to the lumber yard here, Mr. Tillinghast also maintains a yard on Fish island. David J. Russell carries on the business of cabinet making at No. II Rodman street. His best work is remarkable for fine work- manship and for the beauty of the wood carving. Blinds and window and door frames are also manufactured to some extent, and particular attention is given to planing, scroll saw- ing, and jobbing, by Mosher & Brownell, A. W. Alien & Son, Stur- tevant & Sherman, and Brightman & Washburn. CARRIAGE MANUFACTURERS. A prominent industry is the manufacture of fine carriages, and although a number of concerns are engaged in the business, only the highest grade work is done. The largest factory is that of George L. Brownell, on Cannon street. A specialty is made here of the manufacture of fine hearses, coaches, and undertakers' wagons, but light carriages of every kind are also made at the factory. At the age of seventeen, Mr. Brownell, who was a Westport boy, o 270 NEW BEDFORD. was apprenticed to Ayres R. Marsh, in New Bedford, to learn the trade of carriage making. After four years Mr. Brownell bought the business of his employer, and in 1846 an increasing business led him to make extensive additions to his shop. In 1853 he built a new shop on Third street. At about this time he commenced the manufacture of hearses, and in 1863 further accommodations were required and he bought the stone building at the corner of Acushnet avenue and Can- non streets, formerly occupied by Samuel Leonard & Sons. This building was refitted and occupied by him on the 12th of November. A public dedication was arranged by Mr. Brownell's friends and about fifteen hundred people were present. This building was a two and a half story structure of stone, one hundred by sixty feet in area. A growing business has rendered additional buildings necessary. First an addition w^as built extend- ing from the main structure a distance of one hundred thirty feet on Cannon street. It is two stories high and thirty feet wide. Then a second wing w^as built and two large buildings were erected in the yard, the entire buildings covering an area of seventeen thousand one hundred sixty feet, and finally a warehouse was built on Acushnet avenue, sevent3^-five by forty feet in area and three stories high. The factory is now one of the largest in the country and gives employment to between fifty and one hundred men. Giles G. Barker is the super- intendent of the factory. The firm of Brownell, Ashley & Co. comprises J. Augustus Brownell and Joshua B. Ashley, and they manufacture fine grades of carriages of all varieties, excepting coaches. The business was started nearly seventy years ago by Joseph Brownell, the father of J. Augustus Brownell, in a building at the northeast corner of Fourth and Spring streets. About sixty years ago he moved his business to the two story stone building forty by one hundred feet in area, on the southeast corner of the same street, and about thirty-eight years ago the present proprietors were admitted to the firm. In 1854 '^ reposi- tory one hundred by fifty feet in area, and four stories high, was built on Fourth street, next south of the building on the corner. This building was occupied by H. G. O. Cole as a carriage manufactory for a few years, when Brownell, Ashley & Co. took possession, Mr. Cole moving to the factory on Acushnet avenue, then Third street, in the building vacated by George L. Brownell. The number of men employed is twenty-seven. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 273 At the carriage manufactory of Clarence Lowell twenty-four men are employed, and fine light carriages are made. Mr. Lowell commenced manufacturing carriages on Middle street in 1874 ^"^ in 1880 moved into the factory formerly occupied by IL G. O. Cole, and previous to him by George L. Brovvnell, on Acushnet avenue, which he now occupies. This building covers an area nearlv ninetv- six by ninety-five feet and in a few months Mr. Lowell proposes to tear down the present factory and erect on the site a four storv brick building with basement which he will fit as a model carriage manu- factory. Between thirty and forty men will be employed in the new factory. The carriage making business of James R. Forbes & Co. was started in the spring of 1863, when Henry H. Forbes and Ilenrv C. Sears bought the Elm street Methodist church at the corner of Elm street and Acushnet avenue, where the present firm is located, and commenced the manufacture of carriages. Mr. Forbes bought out Mr. Sears' share in the business after seven or eight years, and con- ducted it alone until 1874, when he was succeeded by Charles H. Forbes, who carried on the business until 1879, when it passed into the hands of James R. Forbes & Co. The firm builds every description of carriage, from a sulky to a coupe, and twenty men are employed. The patronage is almost entirely local. THE MANUFACTURE OF FERTILIZERS. The works of the Clark's Cove Guano Company are advanta- geousl}' and picturesquely situated on the west side of Clark's cove, and the property is extensive and valuable. The works are easily accessible. Vessels drawing sixteen feet of water can be handled at the docks and the dock room is ample to load or discharge two large vessels and several small vessels at the same time. The machinery includes three tubular boilers of about ninety horse power each, a Brown engine of one hundred seventy- five horse power, two large crushers for phosphate rock, mixers, and three hoisting engines. The works and docks are lighted by elec- tricity, furnished with a twenty light Ball machine, run by a Porter engine of twenty horse power. The buildings of the factory, outside INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 275 of the houses, cover about one hundred thousand square feet. The sales of guano for the past three years have averaged over twenty- five thousand tons. The Bay State fertilizer, which leads all others used in this sec- tion, is a combination of phosphate rock, large quantities of animal bone and fish treated with acid, muriate and sulphate of potash, nitrate of soda, and kainit. These articles are seen piled in huge heaps upon the floors of the extensive storehouses. There are two varieties of the phosphate rock, one of which is known as "marsh rock." It is light in color and is dredged from the beds of South Carolina rivers. The other variety is drab in color and is found just under the soil on the river banks. The entire manufacture takes place in a four story building, in which all the machinery is located. On the first floor the rock is crushed, and there are five runs of mill stones which grind it to a powder. Forty or fifty tons of rock can be ground here in a day and the mill stones will stand but about four months of constant use. This rock is then carried in its pulverized condition to the fourth story by an elevator, constructed on the principle of a chain bucket pump. Here the rock and fish are placed in the mixers. The fish have previous!}' been boiled and pressed at the porgie factories, and the article which is used in the pulverizer is ground to a powder. The composition is treated with sulphuric acid and worked over in tanks by plows. Sometimes dried meat and blood from the western abattoirs are used instead of fish. From here, the mixture passes to the floor below, where it is placed in mixers with the other articles mentioned. It is then screened and the solid portion passes into a disintegrator where it is ground over and again passed through the mixing machine. Some of the ingredients are subjected to a drying process before mixing, and for this purpose an apartment has been constructed b}- which air is heated and dried, then cooled by passing through condensers, and, finally, when the temperature is reduced to seventy or eighty degrees, they are forced through the drying chamber by rapidly revolving fans. Finally, after leaving the mixer, the fertil- izer passes to the floor below, the second, where it is piled in a huge heap and a chemical process ensues. While this is in progress the interior of the heap becomes very hot. The fertilizer then passes to the ground floor, where it cools, when it is ready for shipment. As has been stated, this is the method of manutacturing the 276 NEW BEDFORD. grade most popular in this vicinity. The fertilizer manufactured for the cotton growing states is made after a different formula. The elements are not required in so concentrated a form, and tartar pum- ice, the residuum in the manufacture of cream of tartar, is employed as an absorbent. Bone black, which is ground bone treated with acid, and other special fertilizers are also made. The fertilizer which goes a long distance is usually transported in bulk, but it is bagged on the premises for the local market. When the works were started the sulphuric acid used in the man- ufacture was brought to the works from New York in schooners pro- vided with lead-lined iron tanks. The rapid growth of the business compelled the company, in 1883, to establish an acid works in con- nection with the plant and two years later the capacity of the acid works was increased by large additions, so that now between ninety and one hundred tons of sixty-six acid can be manufactured weekly. The acid chambers are lined with sheet lead, while lead pans cover the floor area. Iron pyrites is burned in ovens and nitrate of soda is decomposed with sulphuric acid in a vat. The sulphurous fumes and the nitrous gas meet in a large pipe and pass into a tank in the towers in the acid chamber. This tank is filled with quartz and percolating through the silica is sulphuric acid. The quartz divides the gases, which absorb from the sulphuric acid flowing through it, and are cooled by it. The sulphuric acid gas is then conducted through pipes which connect the four condensing rooms. The liquid acid forms on the sides and flows into the pans, from which it is drawn. The wharf extends about two hundred fifty feet into the cove and there are brows running northerly and southerly, affording berths for a number of vessels at a time. There are tramways twenty-eight feet high, provided with cars into which cargoes are unloaded and thence carried to the various storage buildings. There are scales at convenient points and shutes extend from the tramway and lead into the building. Several hoisting engines are used in unloading vessels. The help is comfortably quartered in a three story boarding house and six cottages located on the premises. The corporation was chartered in 1881, with a capital stock of $100,000, and its product was first placed on the market in 1882. The paid up capital is now $800,000, the orignal sum having been augmented on several occasions as the business has developed. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 277 The present officers of the company are as follows : President — Charles W. Plummer. Manager and treasurer — Vinal F. Hatch. Directors — Edward D. Mandell, Charles W. Clifford, William W. Crapo, William J. Rotch, Samuel Ivers, Charles W. Plummer, Edmund Grinnell. Superintendent — Browning Swift. Clerk of corporation — Samuel H. Cook. Chemist — C. C. Reed. General travelling agent — Silas P. Richmond. The company has offices in New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Portland. The raw material used is analyzed in a laboratory on the prem- ises, as is the product of the factory. A proof of the fertilizing per- centages is thus constantly obtained before the shipment of any portion compounded is authorized. The value of a fertilizer de- pends on three elements,— the ammonia, the phosphoric acid, and the phosphate which it contains. In these respects analysis proves the fertilizers made here equal to any in the market. The company also carries on factories at Atlanta, Americus, and Social Circle, all in the state of Georgia. These each have a capacity for making ten thousand tons of fertihzer yearly. In connection with the factories at Americus and Social Circle are cotton seed oil mills, using five thousand tons each of cotton seed annually. THE INSURANCE BUSINESS. Joseph S. Tillinghast was the pioneer insurance agent in New Bedford, and the agency which he founded is still vigorous and enter- prisincr. Mr. Tillinghast began business as an insurance agent on the loth of October, 1835, in an office on Union street, a short d.stance east of Second. Here, and in the stone building on North Water street recendy occupied by the Peirce & Bushnell Manutactunng Company, he remained until about twenty-five years ago, when he removed to the building at the southeast corner of Water and Hamil- ton streets, where his successors, Messrs. Tillinghast & Alden,yet Mr. Tillinghast died on the 26th of January, 1876. His e remam. 278 NEW BEDFORD. son, Joseph Tillinghast, was immediately appointed agent of the companies represented by the agency, and on the ist of the following February formed a partnership with George N. Alden, who had been a clerk in the office since 1865. The agency now, as it always has, represents fire companies exclusively. At the time of its founder's death, he represented twenty-six leading companies. During his long career as an agent he had received in premiums one million dollars and had paid out in losses seven hundred thirteen thousand dollars. He had seen the failure or retirement from business of thirty- eight companies, for which he had received premiums of four hundred fifty thousand dollars and paid losses of three hundred twenty-five thousand dollars. The present firm of Tillinghast & Alden now represents twenty-six companies, all of which are among the foremost fire insurance companies of the world. The Bristol County Mutual Fire Insurance Company has its headquarters in the office of Messrs. Tillinghast & Alden, Mr. Alden being its secretary. It was organized in Taunton, being chartered February 29, 1829, and was removed to this city September 14, 1839, Joseph S. Tillinghast then being appointed its secretary. At his death George N. Alden was chosen secretary. The company is strictly a mutual company, insuring only the best class of risks, and has a highly honorable and successful career. On the 31st of Decem- ber, 1887, the date of the last annual report available, it had in force twentv-one hundred ninety-two policies, on property insured at $3,777,056. The losses for the preceding year amounted to only $1752.79. No assessment has been called since January, 1879. The present officers are : President — Jonathan Bourne. Directors — Jonathan Bourne, Joseph W. Cornell, Oliver P. Brightman, George F. Kingman, Isaac H. Coe, James Taylor, Thomas H. Knowles. Secretary and treasurer — George N. Alden. Samuel H. Cook, who has a particularly handsome office in the building of the National Bank of Commerce, has grown up in the marine insurance business. He entered the office of the Mutual Marine Insurance Company, in January, 1859, ^^ ^ clerk. On the expiration of that company's charter in 1861, it retired from business, and in 1863, the Ocean Mutual Insurance Company was organized to succeed it. Mr. Cook was appointed secretary of the Ocean com- INDUSTRIAI. AND FINANCIAL. 279 pany soon after its organization, to succeed William H. Taylor, who was made its president and filled the position until its affairs were closed. The great disaster to the whaleships of the Arctic fleet in the fall of 1871 crippled all the New Bedford companies, and as a result the Ocean Mutual, the Union Mutual, the Pacific Mutual, and the Commercial Mutual were all obliged to leave the field. Beside winding up the affairs of his own company, Mr. Cook performed a like service for the Commercial company. When the disaster came to the local marine insurance companies, Mr. Cook had already made arrangements with insurers in other cities and was prepared to meet the wants of the whaling interest. He at once established a marine insurance agency, to which, at the request of many of his patrons, he soon added fire and life insurance, and has since carried on an extensive business in all three branches. Mr. Cook represents fifteen leading American and foreign companies. He acts also as an adjuster of insurance, and is frequently called upon to render service in the capacity of an insurance expert. The firm of Lawrence Grinnell & Co., located at 60 North Water street, was established many years ago by the senior partner. Richard W. Grinnell was a member of the firm for a time, but he retired on the first of April, 1882, when Joshua C. Hitch succeeded him. Messrs. Grinnell and Hitch now conduct the business. This firm represents eighteen companies, embracing fire, marine, life, plate glass, and steam boiler insurance, and among those on its list are the largest fire insurance company and the largest life insurance company in the world. Especial attention is given to marine insur- ance, in the placing of which both members of the firm have had long experience. Hiram Van Campen established his agency in 1852, and it is now located at No. 15 North Water street. He represents eighteen companies, most of them being fire companies, but transacts some life and accident business. Thomas M. James established his fire insurance agency in 1865. He is located at No. 40 North Water street, and represents five com- panies. Ivory S. Cornish has a fire and life insurance business at the corner of William street and Second street, and Jonathan W. Ellis is a fire insurance a , Weeden, George S. Homer, and Edward b. Bioun. The latest invention of Mr. Weeden promises to become the n.ost populr' t\s a steam locomotive with a track. The latter .s laid m sections and the locomotive runs for a half hour. Over fifty hands are employed. MISCELLANEOUS ENTERPRISES. The Triumph Heat and Light Company was «':g^^"-'^^ ^^P^;;]; 1 1 Me April ii, 1888, for the manufacture ot gas and vapor land, Me., n.p\u n, i-<->^ • • . xr x -.r, Fvrhanfe street, stoves. The office of the corporation .s at No. .9 ^'^'■'\"-? ' , , u ■ o. ,^f the romoanv is transacted at the omce Portland, but the business ot the company 294 NEW BEDFORD. of the treasurer, No. 44 North Water street, in this city. The factory is located here also, in Swift & Allen's block, Front street. The stock consists of fifty thousand shares of the par value of ten dollars each. The company manufactures various forms of burners for pro- ducing heat from illuminating gas, water gas, natural gas, and the vapor of gasoline. It also makes an improved form of vaporizer for the production of gasoline vapor, and among its productions is a combination piece of furniture in the form of an antique clock, con- taining a stove, with other combinations. Gas burners for use in the fire pot of any ordinary cook stove, the grate and lining being removed, are also made here. The heaters produce intense heat with a small consumption of fuel and are practically odorless while in operation. All the articles manufactured by the compan}^ are the inventions of Robert B. Carsley, of this city. The officers of the company are as follows : President — Edmund Rodman. Vice president — James H. Murkland. Secretary and treasurer — James L. Gillingham. Directors — Edmund Rodman, James H. Murkland, Oliver P. Brightman, Joshua B. Winslow, Pardon Cornell, Frank C. Smith, Robert B. Carsley. Superintendent — George D. Brown. The latest addition to our diversified industries is the manufact- ure of pianos, under the patents of Hiram B. Nickerson, of this city, in the third story of Parker's block, on Middle street. The piano diflfers from others in having one-half the strings run through the back of the plate, and the remainder through the front, with a differ- ential screw for a tuning pin, thus equalizing the strain and improving the tone. By means of the tuning device it is claimed that an upright piano will hold its tune ten times longer than by any device now in use. The invention at once secured the approval of expert pianists and tuners and the endorsement of a committee of the Board of Trade of this city, among others. In June, 1888, the Nickerson Piano Company was organized under the laws of the state of Maine, with $100,000 capital and the following officers : President — William Lewis. Clerk — George H. Nichols. Assistant clerk — Charles H. Holden. Treasurer — Frank R. Hadley. INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. ^95 Directors-Wendell H. Cobb, Hiram B. Nickerson, James C. Slafford, and William Lewis. The manufacture was commenced in September. At present the cases and actions are bought at manufactories, and the N cker.on " t put in here. The pianos are high P-;d mstruments ret , - Z at from five hundred dollars to six hundred dolla.s but ,t Ihe "^"O , streets, and prussiate of potash street, between Chancery and t'ailc stieeis, c ^ and cyanide of potassium are — f^;^;:7fj;;;" ^. ^^,,,,,, and of a The works make the latter product in largei amou higlJr grade than ar>,v other ^--^-^^ ^r^^i; .r:^re3 competition being in the .mported ''''^^''^V ,J''" '"' ".'^,\he corner of in I manufacture of Prussian '""-^^''t; s^.he business was William and Sixth streets, and about the year l«40 purchased by Henry V. Davis and Pj-'-Pj^.t^^ever: v "ago, Davis became the sole proprietor, and on hisdeath.^eve y the heirs continued the business. About twenty .hands ^"^"TlTe'p'rrsiate is used in dyeing and calico printmg but of late ,ears but'little of this product has >'-^;:', ^ J'^, : fat the largely employed m electroplat.n,. ^^ e a e t ^.^^^ ^^ works and the cyanide is formed by bu, ning no '^'""'ThorasTtenham . Brother ma.mfacture sbu->n ^ >».^e scale in the three story block erected l^--;-^ ^/^r ^ ', ^.^^ei on Acushnet avenue. The senior '--''^' ;"^' ^V^,^.,,, building, the manufacture in --'^-^^^rarT^e va^dle took his brother on Water street, in 1868. A few \ ta. s ^^^_ ^^ Edward into the firm and removed his facto to he Cummings building, where they --""'='' ""\\'^i'' The firm ™oved into the new building bu, t by them for th . has seven patents under which it '-""f- "-;'"' ^V indication son employs two hundred h.uids. P'-.;P»''y.S^ '^;,^,f, ,„t ,„e first of the development of the business ,t may be s.at d year Mr. Denham manufactured eight bundled shuts, hundred shirts are frequentl>- made ,n a day. 296 NEW BEDFORD. foot of Hillman street. No flour has been manufactured here for five or six years because of the superior facilities at the west, but corn and feed are ground at both mills, and the firm does a large business in cereal products. The business was established and the south mill built in 1857 by Joseph B. Warner and John H. Denison, under the firm name of Warner & Denison. This partnership continued until 1865, when Henry C. Denison was admitted and the firm name became Warner, Denison & Co. About the year 1868 Mr. Warner withdrew and the firm name was changed to J. H. Denison & Co. In 1877 George Wilson was admitted into the business and the north mill was purchased. Mr. Wilson remained in the firm three years and on his withdrawal the firm name became Denison Bros., and so it remains. Twenty-seven men are employed. The business of Coffin Bros., paper box manufacturers, was established about thirty-five years ago by Frederick Coffin, the senior member of the firm. He continued to conduct the business with his brother, Charles H. Coffin, until 1883, when his nephews, Walter H. and Arthur S. Coffin were admitted to partnership. The three story building, No. 38 Middle street, is occupied as a factory and about fifteen hands are employed. Pasteboard boxes of all sizes and styles are manufactured and a specialty is made of the Coffin folding paper box. The New Bedford Hydraulic Motor Company manufactures water motors at No. 13 Rodman street, and a large number is now in use. The invention of this motor consists in an impact water- wheel wherein is provided a novel adjustable and removable supply- ing contrivance, a novel indicator, and a novel guarded air-vent. The speed of the motor can be regulated and indicated to an almost infinitesimal degree by hand or speed governor. Fred. S. Giffbrd is the manager of the company. Job Wade, currier, occupies the three story brick building No. 17 Hamilton street. He finishes leather and his specialties are the manufacture of carriage trimming leather in colors and welting and inner soles for shoes made on the Goodyear machine. In addition to the factory on Hamilton street Mr. Wade occupies a floor in a building on Commercial street. Twelve men are employed. The New Bedford Reed Company is located at No. 189 North Water street, and the firm consists of Manuel D., John D., and Joseph D. Martin. It manufactures weaving reeds for cotton, woolen, and INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 297 silk mills and does a thrifty business. The company has been located here for about three vears. Henr}^ C. Fowler, manufacturer of loom harnesses for silk and cotton mills, is located in the second story of the building on Parker's wharf, at the foot of Middle street. He has been in business in this city for two years and employs twelve hands. J. H. Lawrence, top roll and clearer coverer, has a factory on the lower floor of this building. He employs ten hands and does work for all the cotton mills in the city. The bomb gun and lance has taken the place of the harpoon in whaling. Shoulder, darting, and swivel guns are manufactured by William Lewis, under the Cunningham patent, Eben Pierce, 12 William street, Daniel Kelleher, 19 North First street, and Selmar Eggers, 10 William street. An interesting circumstance in con- nection with the subject ma}' be related. A short time ago a blue whale was taken oft' Finmark, on the coast of Norway, in which was found a lance of Mr. Pierce's patent, made after a pattern manufac- tured by him twenty years ago. George H. Freeman manufactures writing and copying inks at No. 17 Centre street. He has been engaged in this business for about a dozen years and his inks are considered as good as an}' made. There are now scarcely as many sail makers in the city as there were sail lofts in the palmy days of whaling, not over twenty men be- ing regularly employed in the branch of industry which was once so important here. The firms now engaged in sail making are Thomas M. Hart & Co. (Thomas M. Hart, James C. Briggs, and Oliver W. Cobb), whose loft is on Commercial street, Edward E. Hitch, who carries on the business at Merrill's wharf. Job Almy, whose loft is on Middle street, and Chapman & Shurtleff\ corner of Union and Front streets. This statement is true of other kindred industries, such as rig- ging, pump and block, and mast and spar making. The most prominent riggers now engaged in the business are Peter Black, Abram Allen, and John L. Olstein. The pump and block makers are Charles W. Coggeshall, Walter D. Swan, Thomas W. Swift, Phineas White, and Edward S. Taber, and the prominent mast and spar makers are Rodolphus Beetle and Johnson & Howland. Prominent among the marble workers are Frederick E. Allen, 20 North Second street, Theodore W. Cole, 20 William street, the 298 NEW BEDFORD. New Bedford Monumental Marble Works, 25 Fourth street, and A. Moore & Co., Pope's Island. The leading manufacturers of roofing and concrete pavers are Perkins & Chase, John Bertram & Co., and Lloyd Bros. Among the leading building contractors are Brownell & Murk- land, who have an office in room 8 of Liberty Hall building and who make a specialty of mill construction ; Samuel C. Hunt, at 41 William street, the builder of the Harrington school house ; John N. Morris, at 73 Grinnell street, who has erected many handsome dwellings; George E. Briggs, at 54 Dartmouth street, who is a thorough and careful workman; and Charles O. Brightman, at 82 Mill street, whose work includes some of the best buildings in the city. Thomas J. Giftbrd & Co. make Park's steam heater, an appliance which has won much favor for heating both residences and public buildings. The factory is at 367 Acushnet avenue, and plumbing, steam fitting, and gas fitting, are extensively carried on. Thomas B. Tripp, whose office is at 325 County street, is a lead- ing real estate agent. He has had long experience, and few men are so well posted with regard to the value of landed property in this city or the adjoining towns as he. F. A. F. Adams is also a real estate agent with an office at No. 48 North Water street. Connected with both the newspaper establishments — the Stand- ard and Mercury — are large and well equipped job printing offices. The job printing business is also conducted by Paul Howland, Jr., in the Robeson building on William street. F. W. Francis is a manufacturer of fine cigars at 23 Commer- cial street. He has also an office and retail store at 148 Union street. Charles S. Paisler, at 160 North Water street, is a wholesale and retail dealer in masons' building materials, and does a large and increasing business. CD f>* c; f ;. s» '. '* H I'.*, o V; o \ • s Tl > 7 ■< !^':. h- CHAPTER V. A DIVERSITY OF SUBJECTS. LL that has been said of New Bedford, of its his- tory, its attractions, its industries, its social, religious, and benevolent activ- ities, fails to exhaust the theme. The sons and daughters of this pleasant and happy city on the shore of the placid / I ^^\ Mc Acushnet, wherever they may be scat- L J \\ jn " j ^ \ ^^ tered throughout the world, will with 1,JI^^3^ one voice testify that no word in her J\fll im praise is too glowing, and that the __ picture of her charms is not half the Wis reality. But the bounds of this vol- ume are nearly reached, and all that can now be added must be limited to the plain statement of plain facts, for which no appropriate place has been found in the preceding pages. In this chapter, there- fore, are gathered various scraps of information, not closely related, but all having some important bearing on the interests or the condi- tion of New Bedford. The financial standing of the municipality is indicated by the following tabular statement of the city debt : „, , ^ , „ 1140,000.00 Water bonds, 7s, 320 000.00 Water bonds, 6s, • ^^^ Water bonds, 5s, 120,000.00 IT ri' I' 10000.00 Bridge bonds, 6s, ^,^ Sewer bonds, 4s, ^^^ Sewer bonds, 34s, . ^ 223,000.00 Improvement bonds, 6s, i-nnnnn Improvement bonds, 4s, l-^OOO-OO Improvement bonds, 3ibs, l4U,uuu.uu Bonds outstanding $1,208,000.00 302 NEW BEDFORD. The trust funds are as follows : Sylvia Ann Howland bequest $100,000.00 George O. Crocker bequest, 10,000.00 Library funds other than above, 4,100.00 Cemetery funds for eare of lots, 7,064.93 Jonathan Bourne school fund, 1,000.00 $122,164.93 $1,330,164.93 Temporary debt, 125,000.00 Total debt, $l,4o5,164.93 Deduct from the last sum named: Balance of cash, January 7, 1889, $32,196.88 Amounts due fi-om state, 7,230.00 Taxes collectable, 19,700.00 Sewer taxes due, 7,347.39 Sinking funds, 52,897.77 119,372.04 Net debt January 7, 1889, $1,335,792.89 The regular municipal appropriation bill of i888 was as follows : Appropriations, special of 1887, $50,000.00 Cemeteries 1,500.00 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, chapter 252 (soldiers' aid), 3,500.00 Discount for prompt payment of taxes, 10,000.00 Fire department, 30,500.00 Free public library, 5,400.00 Highways and streets, 77,000.00 Incidentals, 15,710.00 Lighting the streets, 27,000.00 New Bedford and Fairhaven bridge, 1,000.00 New Bedford water works, 12,000.00 Police department, 46,000.00 Poor department, 33,000.00 Public debt, 114,611.00 Public schools, incidentals, 22,000.00 Public schools, pay of teachers, 75,000.00 Public schools, repairs of buildings, 3,000.00 Repairs of city property, 5,000.00 Salaries, 13,990.00 Sewers, general account, 1,000.00 Sinking funds 17,200.00 Truant school, 2,000.00 $566,411.00 Less bonds issued, 50,000.00 $516,411.00 The special appropriations of i888 were : Cemeteries, $2,500.00 City stable and lot, 11,580.44 BRISTOL COUNTY COURT HOUSE, COUNTY STREET. 304 NEW BEDFORD. Engine house and lot, Durfee street, $1,400.00 Fire department, 4,700.00 Harrinjrton school house and lot, 38,264.56 Highway department, 5,500.00 Incidentals, 550.00 New Bedford and Fairhaven Bridge, 500.00 Police department, 8,900.00 Public schools, 10,000.00 Repairs of city property, 3,455.00 Sewers, construction and repairs, 55,173.20 $142,523.20 Add general appropriations, 516,411.00 Total, $658,934.20 The tax assessments of 1888 were levied as follows : State tax, $40,522.50 County tax, 41,274.10 Cit}- appropriations, 486,411.00 Overlay, 19,364.30 $587,571.90 The rate of taxation was $17 on $1000. Reference has already been made to some of the churches. Following is a complete list, with the location and the names of the pastors : ' Advent. First. Foster street, corner of Kempton. William A. Burch, pastor. Baptist. First. William street, west of Sixth. J. C. Hideu, D. D., pastor. North. Corner of Merrimac and County streets. Henry C. Graves, D. D., pastor. Salem. Sixth street, north of Union. Andrew Chamberlain, pastor. Second. Middle street, west of Sixth. Randolph Hope, pastor. Catholic. St. Hyaciuthe. Rivet street, west of County. In charge of Joseph A. Peyan, of the Church of the Sacred Heart. St. James. This society has no church building, but services are held in the parochial school house, corner of Acushnet avenue and Wing street. James F. Clai'k, pastor. St. John the Baptist. Fifth street, corner of Wing. A. G. Neves, pastor. St. Lawrence. Countj^ street, corner of Hillman. Hugh J. Smythe, pastor. Sacred Heart. Ashland street, corner of Robeson. Joseph A. Peyan, pastor. Christian. First. Purchase street, corner of Middle. William T. Brown, pastor. Bonney street, corner of Sherman. Isaac H. Coe, pastor. Middle street, head of Sixth. John McCalman, pastor. Spruce street, corner of Smith. H. M. Eaton, pastor. Congregational. Acushnet village. S. C. Bushnell, pastor. North. Purchase street, corner of Elm. Albert H. Heath, D. D., pastor. The pastor has resigned, and will leave the church in March, 1889. Trinitarian. Fourth street, corner of School. Matthew C. Julieu, pastor. Episcopal. Grace. County street, corner of School. George A. Strong, rector. St. James. County, corner of Linden. Charles E. Barnes, rector. A DIVERSITY OF SUBJECTS. 3O5 Olivet. Fourth street, corner of Rivet. Alfred Evan Johnson, rector. Friends. Spring street, west of Sixth. Fifth street, north of Russell. This house is rarely used. Methodist. Allen street, corner of County. Edward Williams, pastor. Bethel (African). Kempton street. J. Wesley Skerrett, pastor. County street, corner of Elin. Angelo Canoll, pastor. Fourth street, between Madison and Walnut. Albert P. Palmer, pastor. Pleasant street, corner of Sycamore. Matthias S. Kaufman, pastor. Primitive. High street. J. L. T.eith, pastor. Zlon (African). Ehn street, west of County. J. Francis Robinson, pastor. Missions. City Mission chapel. South AVater street. T. R. Dennison, missionary. Cannonville. Services held by various clergymen. Seamen's Bethel. Bethel street, between Union and William. Edward Williams is chaplain-elect. Presbyterian. Has no church building. James Mitchell, pastor. Unitarian (First Congregational). Union street, corner of Eightli. William J. Potter, pastor. Universalist. William street, east of Eighth. George T. Flanders, D. D., pastor. Few cities surpass New Bedford in the number and variety of social, musical, and literary organizations. Some of these have already been mentioned. Among others which are prominent are the New Bedford Lyceum, an institution which has in the past been active in providing lectures and concerts for the public, but which for the present is doing little. The New Bedford Choral Association, organized in 1869, has had an honorable history, and has done much for music in New Bedford. The Rheinberger Club of singers, a newer organization, has much promise for the future. The German Sang- erbund is also in a prosperous condition. With brass bands and orchestras the city is fully supplied, and some of these organizations are exceptionally good. Of secret fraternal societies a great number has been formed. Following is a complete list, with places of meeting. In the list a few are included which do not come strictly under this classification : Masonic. Star in the East Lodge, F. & A. M. Masonic hall. Union street. Eureka Lodge, F. & A. M. Masonic hall. Union street. Union Lodge, No. 7, F. & A. M. (colored). Hall in Eddy building. Union street. Adoiiiram Roval Arch rhapter. ]Masonic hall, Union street. St. Mark's Chapter, No. 5, H. R. A. M. (colored). Hall in Eddy building. Union street. Sutton Commanderv, K. T. Masonic hall, Union street. Thomas Dalton Commandery, No. 7, K. T. (colored). Hall in Eddy building, Union street. J. W^ Hood Chapter, Order of Eastern Star (colored). Hall in Eddy building. Union street. Odd Fki.i.ows. Acusbnet Lodge, No. 41, L O. O. F. Odd Fellows' hall, corner of Purchase and William streets. County Street Methodist Church. First Baptist Church. First Congregational (Unitarian) Church. Trinitarian Church. Middle Street Christian Church. A DIVERSITY OF SUBJECTS. 307 Vesta Lodge, No. 166, I. O. O. F. Waverly building, Fourth street. Petomska Lodge, No. 1518, G. U. O. of O. F. (colored). Hall opposite post office, on Second street. Loyal Alpha Lodge, No. 6463, I. O. O. F., M. U. China hall, Purchase street. Annawan Encampment, Xo. 8, I. O. O. F. Odd Fellows' hall, corner of Purchase and \\'illiam streets. Grand Canton New l?edford. No. 15, P. M., I. O. O. F. Odd Fellows* hall, corner of Purchase and William streets. Stella Lodge, No. 46, D. of R. Waverly building, Fourth street. Household of Ruth, No. 282 (colored). Hall opposite post office, on Second street. The Odd Fellows' Beneficial Association of Southern Massachusetts has its head- quarters in this city. The headquarters for the Fifth regiment, Patriarchs Militant, I. O. O. F.. of which Lieut. Col. C. H. Holden, of New Bedford, is comyiander, is in this ciry. Cambridge Patriarchie, No. 15, G. U. O. of O. F., New Bedford division (colored). Hall opposite post office, on Second street. Grand Army Republic. William Logan Rodman Post, No. 1. G. A. R. hall. Purchase street. R. A. Pierce Post, No. 190. Knights of Honor hall, Union street. R. G. Shaw Post, No. 146 (colored). Neptune hall, corner Market and Pleasant streets. Red Men. Potomska Stamm, No. 182 (German), Independent Order of Ked Men. Germania house. North Second street. New England Encampment, Xo. 19 (German), Independent Order of Ked Meu. Germania house, Xorth Second street. Sippican Tribe, No. 77, Improved Order of Red Men. Knights of Pythias hall. Purchase street. Knights of Honor. Xew Bedford Lodge. Xo. 067. Knights of Honor hall. Union street. Protection Lodge, Xo. 3144. Temperance hall, Hicks building, Purchase street. KNIGHT.S OF PVTHIAS. Union Lodge, Xo. 7, K. of P. Knights of Pythias hall. Wing building, Purchase street. Carson Division, Xo. 10, U. R. K. of P. Knights of Pytliias hall. Wing building. Purchase street. Good Fellows. Prudential Assembly, No. 118, R. S. G. F. Knights of Honor hall, I'nion street. Order of the Iron Hall. Local Branch, No. 195. China hall. Purchase street. Local Branch, No. 207 (German). China hail, Purdiase street. Temple of Honor. Pilgrim Temple, No. 33. Temperance hall. Hick* building. Purchase street. Pilgrim Council, Xo. 7. Hicks building. Purchase street. Good Templars. Orient Lodge, Xo. 173, L O. G. T. China hall. Purchase street. Liberty Lodge, No. 48, L O. G. T. Temperance hall, Hicks building. Purchase street. Sons of Temperance. Acusbnet Division, Xo. 87. Temperance ball. Hicks build- ing. Purchase street. New Bedford Order of Protection. Bay State Lodge, Xo. 59. Knights of Honor hall, Union street. Sons of St. George. Gordon Lodge, No. 172. China hall. Purchase street. 3o8 NEW BEDFORD. Ancient Order of Foresters. Court Royal Oak, No. 6448. Spiuners' hall, cor- ner of TJiiion and VVnter streets. Ancient Order of Hibernians. Division No. 7. Neptune hall, corner of Pleasant and Market streets. British American Association. Branch No, 5. China Hall, Purchase street. Order of Elks. New Bedford Lodge, No. 73, B. P. O. Elks. Elks' hall, corner Union and Fourth streets. PROPOSED ODD FELLOWS' BUILDING. Union Veteran Legion. Encampment No. 10. G. A. K. hall, Purchase street. Sons of Veterans. John A. Havves Camp, No. 35, Division of Massachusetts. G. A. R. hall. Purchase street. Woman's Relief Corps. William Logan Rodman Woman's Relief Corps, No. 53. G. A. R. hall. Purchase street. A DIVERSITY OF SUBJECTS. S^P LOYAL Knights and Ladies. Court Themis. Knights of Honor hall, Union street. Knights and Ladies of Honor. Sterling Lodge, No. 1222. Temperance hall, Hicks building, Purchase street. Legion of Honor. New Bedford Council, No. 816, A. L. of H. Temperance hall. Hicks building. Purchase street. United Endowment Associates. Pioneer Lodge, No. 16. Knights of Honor hall. Union street. ^ ,, „ v. Order of United Friends. Washington Council, No. 121. Chma hall, Purchase United Order of Pilgrim Fathers. British Colony, No. 29. Chiua hall, Pur- ROYAL ARCANUM. Omega CouDcil, No. 683. Knights of Honor hall Union street Labor Organizations. Local Branch, No. 17, American Flint Glass Workers Union. Neptune hall, corner of Market and Pleasant streets. Glass Cutters' Union. Ward room on Sherman street. New Bedford Branch of the New England Lasters' Union. Neptune hall, corner of Pleasant and Market streets. Edge Makers' Union. Homes of members. Level Union, No. 409, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Chma hall, Spinners' Union. Spinners' hall, corner of Union and Water streets. MISCELLANEOUS SOCIETIES. New Bedford Printers' Benefit Assocmtion. Bancroft house, Union street. Provision Clerks' Association. Y. M. C A. rooms, William street. St. Lawrence Catholic Temperance Society. Neptune hall, corner of Market and Pleasant streets. „ ,. ^ *. Socialist Club. Edgerton hall, corner of Linden =^"^\P"'-«hase streets Parnell Branch, Irish National League. Neptune hall, corner of Maiket and Pleas New Be^ord Literary Association. Neptune hall, corner of Market and Pleasant streets 1 New Bedford Society for Medical Improvement. At the homes of -^-^'^'"^^ Ladies- Independent Association (auxiliary to R. A. Pierce Post, 190). Masonic N^^^Si^'^^^e^S'Beneficial Association. Central engine house, Purchase BlTcake, and Cracker Bakers' Beneficial Association. China hall, Purchase L'Un^on Ouvriere (French). Over Edgerton's hall, Purchase street. Club of French Naturalization. Wamsutta hall. Purchase street. ?esko Slo "nky Podporujici Spolek, No. 85 (Bohemian). Bohemian hall, Bowditch Youn^Mcn-s Total Abstinence & Beneficial Society. No. 137 Union street Ro ^f Sharon Beneficial society (colored). Salem ^^^'^^^^^^^f^l^^^f^^^^^^^^^ Young Mens Protestant Temperance and Benevolent Society. Hall ovei Boston <;tnrp Purchase street. , ^ . Firemen's Mutual Aid Society. Central engine house. Purchase street. Natural History Associates. High School Alumni. 3IO NEW BEDFORD. The Wamsutta Club, a flourishing social organization of gentle- men, occupies pleasant rooms in the Masonic buildingonthe north side of Union street, west of Purchase. Nearly opposite, in Ricketson block, is the attractive home of the Dartmouth Club, composed chiefly of young business men. The South End Athletic Club has rooms on Union street. This club combines the social with the physi- cal in its scheme of operation. The Plymouth Club has headquarters in Music Hall. The "Chronometer Club" is the name applied to a group of retired whaling captains, who daily gather at rooms in the Robeson building, where they mingle with stories of the deep ani- NEW BEDFORD YACHT CLUB HOUSE. mated discussions of current topics. But their number is decreasing now The state militia is now represented by the City Guards, which is known officially as Co. E of the First Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry. This company has a long and honorable history, and at this day is in a state of unexceptional efficiency. Its captain is William Sanders and its ffrst and second lieutenants are Richard H. Morgan and Arthur E. Perry. The French Zouaves is a company composed of young French residents, and is not connected with the state militia. Its captain is Dr. L. Z. Normandin. A military company of pupils of the High school has been in existence for several years under the title of The High School Cadets. The company is now commanded by John Holt. The course of instruction for the boys in the school now includes the military drill. A DIVERSITY OF SUBJECTS. 3 II The South Bristol Farmers' Chib has its winter meetings in this city, though its members include residents of all the adjoining towns. Its membership is large and active, and it has done a good work for agriculture in the southern part of Bristol county. Its annual fairs are second only to those of the Board of Trade. Hon. A. Franklyn Rowland is the president. Eleven schooners, thirty-two sloops, one steamer, and one yawl are now enrolled in the New Bedford Yacht Club. Its attractive liouse on the south side of the New Bedford and Fairhaven bridge is a favorite resort for the members and their friends during the summer. The waters of the river and bay are peculiarly adapted to the pleas- ures of yachting, and it is not surprising that the club is a vigorous organization. Its officers are : Commodore — Richard H. Morgan. Vice commodore — Edgar B. Hammond. Rear commodore — Nathaniel Hathaway. Secretary — John W. Nickerson, Jr. Treasurer — E. Stanley Wills. Measurer — Henry F. Hammond. Directors — James A. Barnes, Horace Wood, John C. Rhodes, Benjamin H. Anthony, Albert W. Holmes, Richard S. Taber, William N. Church, Jr., George M. Crapo, George W. Parker, Edward M. Whitney, Lewis S. Richardson. The city has the telegraphic service of the Western Union Tele- graph Company, with an office at the southeast corner of Water and Centre streets ; of the Postal Cable Telegraph Company, with an office at No. 4 North Second street ; and of the Mutual Union Tele- graph Company, with an office at the northwest corner of William and North Second streets. The Southern Massachusetts Telephone Company, which con- trols the telephone system of this section of the state, has its head- quarters in New Bedford. Its president is Charles W. Clifford, its treasurer, Samuel Ivers, and its manager, Moses E. Hatch. In New Bedford about seven hundred fifty telephones are in use. Express facilities are furnished by Hatch & Company's line, which was established in 1840 by Col. A. D. Hatch and is one of the oldest express companies in the country ; and by Allen's New York & Boston express. The former is now running in connection with the New York and Boston Despatch Express Company, and it is the only company that forwards express matter on passenger 312 NEW BEDFORD. trains. The New England Despatch Company also has an office ; William H. Thing is manager. The Union Street Railway Company, which controls all the street railway track in the city, is the result of a consolidation of two rival corporations. Its tracks reach every section of the city, and its cars make frequent trips in every direction. Lines run to Fairhaven and to Acushnet village, and in the summer cars are run to Woodlawn grove, located on Clark's point. The capital stock of the corpora- tion is $260,000, and the officers are : President — Samuel C. Hart. Treasurer — Andrew G. Pierce. Clerk — Charles H. Giflbrd. Directors — The above and Jonathan Bourne, William W. Crapo, Weston Rowland, J. Arthur Beauvais, Charles E. Cook, Abbott P. Smith. The New Bedford post office does a larger business than is usual in places of the size of New Bedford. Its receipts for the vear 1888 were $42,296.86. During that period the letter carriers handled 4,693,664 pieces of mail matter. The money order transactions amounted to $190,224.74. The working force of the office includes the postmaster, assistant postmaster, nine clerks, sixteen letter car- riers, and two substitute letter carriers. Albert H. W. Carpenter is the present postmaster. In spite of the decline of whaling, the port of New Bedford is still the scene of great activity, and it is true that the tonnage of ves- sels arriving and departing in a year far exceeds that of the palmiest days of the whaling industry. Records kept at the custom house show that during the year 1888 the number of arrivals at this port was as follows : Ships I Barks 13 Brigs 2 Schooners 809 Sloops 29 Barges 210 Steamers 708 1772 The total tonnage of these vessels was 564,363 tons. The list does not include yachts or fishermen. The largest item in the coastwise business at present is the coal trade, which has been re- ferred to in another part of this volume. A DIVERSITY OF SUBJECTS. 313 New Bedford now has in the foreign trade one ship, of 822.19 tons, three barks, aggregating 2795.79 tons, and two schooners, together measuring 360.65 tons. Her coasting fleet is divided as follows : Number. Tonnage. Steamers 10 2925.11 Schooner.?, 40 7048.82 Sloops, 13 143.28 There are also fifteen fishing schooners, aggregating 363.28 tons, and twenty-two fishing sloops, whose united tonnage is 210.17 tons. As a last word about the growth of New Bedford, it may be said that good judges anticipate an increase of five thousand in the popu- lation in the next two years, as a result of the new manufacturing enterprises that are now assured. The approaches to New Bedford are by both land and water, railroad and steamboat lines uniting to render transportation to and from her limits pleasing and effective. The railway service is entirely by the Old Colony railroad system ; but so numerous are the routes, so thorough the establishment, and so complete the provision, that it would really seem that no possible, or practicable, avenue of approach has been overlooked or ignored. Passengers from New York, Boston, Providence, and the vast regions of country that must make these centres their gateways in visiting localities in southeastern Massachu- setts, find railroad lines arranged with direct reference to New Bed- ford as a terminal point; while the summer resorts of New England — the White mountains, the Maine seashore and inland. Mount De- sert and Campobello, the eastern shores of Massachusetts, Plymouth and the Old Colony, Newport and its surroundings, etc — have each a special service in connection with this city, designed to meet the demands of her interests, and which ministers directly to the business, economic, and domestic departments of her existence. The water service of the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Company is in the way of connecting the city intimately with Woods Holl, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, and in the summer time furnishing the most delightful excursions, that are at the same time transportation agencies, along the southern Massa- chusetts shores, over the waters most attractive and interesting in her neighborhood, and among scenes and to points that have become famous throughout the length and breadth of the land. The com- A DIVERSITY OF SUBJECTS. 315 pany has four fine boats constantly in service during the summer, and the facilities for making excursions from New Bedford are excellent. This city has also direct water communication with New York, a freighting steamer of the Old Colony Steamboat Company (New Bedford line) plying constantly between the two ports via Long Island sound, thus securing first class freight transportation at the lowest rates and by shortest route, and facilities that she may call peculiarly her own, since they are established and maintained to minister to her wants alone. By railroad one may reach or leave New Bedford by three separate and distinct routes, all branches or feeders of the Old Colony system, as outlined in the sentences pre- ceding this. The Fall River branch connects this city with Fall River, a short piece of road (fourteen miles) running through West- port and Dartmouth villages, and of great utility, both as a passen- ger and freighting line. Besides, connection is had with Fall River over the branch running from that city via Myricks ; and connecting with direct line between New Bedford and Taunton. The steam- boat trains of the Fall River line from Boston run via Taunton and Weir Junction to Fall River, and the Northern division of the Old Colony system, that connects the same with Framingham, Lowell, Fitchburg, and the White mountain region, forms junction with the system south of Boston, also at Taunton ; and being continued there- from via Myricks to the seacoast, finds terminus in New Bedford. Approaching the city by rail from the eastward, a branch leaves the Cape Cod division of the Old Colony system at Tremont, and passing through Marion and Mattapoisett has a terminus in Fair- haven, opposite New Bedford ; and from the Fairhaven station the communication is of the shortest, by bridge and street cars, or the ordinary methods of city transportation. The Northern division of the Old Colony railroad, practically a continuation of the line which, leaving New Bedford as a starting point, passes via Taunton to South Framingham, Lowell, etc., crosses the Boston & Providence railroad at Mansfield. An available route for Boston passengers to and from New Bedford is via Mansfield and the Boston & Providence tracks to the station of that railroad in Boston. Passengers for New York via the Fall River line may avail themselves of either of the three routes to Fall River indicated above, according to their desires as to time of arrival in Fall River ; and the same may be said of travel to 1i;il1iini Designer ^^'^ Engraver, 45 WILLIAM STREET, NEW BEDFORD, -« * MASS. pmna /IV '6^1 ?ne ® n lofpaVeGl poUer^, §aIeoslaF^, ©Pg^cf^ oF ,Ji;ar2c^e?, ^u^ pddp^^^ ©apd^^ i^bhcF, gjll, Bote, iipeylap aod |t:ahem<^r2t |a£\dio^^, EoVelope^, che., or^ liauGi op mad^ to opdep. cippie'i^ pea^oRafel^ lov/. gp'eejal pahe^ to Jofebep^. 45-%|iIliam |L, lew gjedfor^cB], )!( |ta^^. u to q: I z < CO -I z a o > HI CO CM a c6 o lO 00 (M NEW BEDFORD MASSACHUSETTS Leading Industrial and Financial ENTERPRISES NEW BEDFORD. THK Merchants National Bank, of new bedford, 56 North Watkr Strket. united states depository. Incorporated, 1825. Capital Stock, - - - $1,000,000 Surplus Fund, - - - $500,000 PRESIDENT, JONATHAN BOURNE. CASHIER, H. C. W. MOSHER. DIRECTORS, Jonathan Bourne, Andrew Hicks, George F. Bartlett, William R. Wing, George F. Kingman, Samuel C. Hart, Thomas H. Knowles, Gilbert Allen, Francis B. Greene, William N. Church, George S. Homer, James Delano. Discount Days, TPuesdays and Kridays. Bank Hours, 9 to 1. LEADING ENTERPRISES. iii THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK, NEW BEDFORD, MASS. (Formerly Marine Bank.) Capital, . - . - 11,000,000 Surplus, - - . - $200,000 DIRECTORS, LEM'L kollock, edw. s. taber, ABRAM T. EDDY, WM. BAYLIES, W. P. WINSOR, EDW. T. PIERCE, WM. WATKINS, HUMPHREY W. SEABURY, T. M. STETSON, SAVORY C. HATHAWAY, MATTHEW LUCE. WM. WATKINS, President. W. P. WINSOR, Cashier. GEO. B. HATHAWAY, Teller. WM. A. MACKIE, Book-keeper. FRANK B. CHASE, Discouni Clerk. CHAS. T. SMITH, Collection Clerk. W. S. HUNT, Messenger. IV NEW BEDFORD. THE Mechanics National Bank Reorganized in 1864 from the Mechanics Bank. Incorporated in 1831. Capital Stock, - - - $600,000 Surplus, - - - - $225,000 PRESIDENT, WM. W. CRAPO, VICE PRESIDENT, ANDREW G. PIERCE. CASHIER, JAMES W. HERVEY. ASST CASHIER, LEMUEL T. TERRY. DIRECTORS, WM. W. C;RAP0, HORATIO HATHAWAY, ANDREW G. PIERCE, LOUM SNOW, JOHN R. THORNTON, EDWARD D. MANDELL, JIREII SWIFT, E. WILLIAMS HERVEY, THOMAS WILCOX, EDWARD KILBURN, HENRY C. DENISON. Discount Days, Wednesdays and Saturdays. BANK HOURS, 9 a. m. to 1 p. m. LOCATION, No. 62 NORTH WATER STREET, FOOT OF WILLIAM. LEADING ENTERPRISES. NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE, OF NEW BEDFORD. No. 37 North Water Street. -CJlSriTED STATES OEFOSITOK.Y. Incorporated in 1803. Reorganized in 1864. Capital, = = $1,000,000 OKFICKRS. PRESIDENT, FRANCIS HATHAWAY. VICE PRESIDENT, W. C. N. SWIFT. CASHIER, JAMES H. TALLMAN. DIRECTORS, FRANCIS HATHAWAY, OLIVER PRESCOTT, WM. C. N. SWIFT, CHARLES W. PLUMMER, HENRY TABER, WALTER CLIFFORD, WM. J. ROrCH, MORGAN ROTCH, CHARLES W. CLIFFORD, OTIS N. PIERCE, WM. A. ROBINSON, JOSEPH F. KNOWLES, FREDERICK SWIFT, WILLIAM D. ROWLAND, MANLY U. ADAMS. Discount Days, Mondays and Thursdays, Bank: Hoors, from 9 a. m. to 1 p. rn. VI NEW BEDFORD. H No, 38 North Water Street, CAPITAL, 1500,000. SURPLUS AND PROFITS, |150,000. Transacts a general Banking Business and solicits the accounts of Banks, Corporations, and Individuals. Fire and Burglar Proof Vault with Safe Deposit Boxes for the use of customers. Executes orders for Investment Securities. Coupons and Dividends collected without charge. DIRECTORS, J. A. BEAUVAIS, FRED. S. POTTEK, JOHN P. KNOWLES, OLIVER P. BRIGHTMAN, VVM. J. KILBURN, DAVID B. KEMPTON, CHARLES TUCKER, CYRENIUS W. HASKINS. J. A. BEAUVAIS, President. E. S. BROWN, Cashier. Sankord & KeLIvKY, Bankers, Brokers, and Stock Auctioneers, 47 North Water Street, New Bedford, Mass, Members Boston Stock Exchange. INVESTMENT SECURITIES A SPECIALTY. Sole agents for New Bedford ami vicinity, for tlie 8ale of tlie Lombard Investment Company's First Mortgage Guaranteed Loans. Tliis company is tlie Oldest, Strongest, and most Relialile doing Western Loan business in the United States. Thirty million dollars of loans sold, more than one halt of which has become due and been promptly paid. Guaranty about $3,000,000. Private wire connecting our office with New York and Boston. Auction sale of Stocks and Bonds Saturdays, at 10.45 a. m. ESTABLISHED 1829. W. A. ROBINSON & CO., m^ mad Whrnlm Oil, SPERM CANDLES, OIL SOAP, ETC. Also, Commission Merchants and Dealers in Lard, Red, Paraffine, and Coal Oils ; Potato, Wheat,, and Corn Starch ; Cotton Goods, &c. No. lo SOUTH WATER ST., PROVIDENCE, R. I. AND No. 144 SOUTH WATER ST., NEW BEDP^ORD, MASS. LEADING ENTERPRISES. Vll TtieNewBedlofd Sate Deposit (STfust Co. 61 WILLIAM STREET, COR. ACUSHNET AVENUE. FIDELITY. ^ J»^ SECURITY. President, Charles E. Hendrickson, Cashier, Ednmnd W. Bourne. Directors, Charles E. Hendrickson, William D. Howlaml, Abbott P. Smith, Benjamin F. Brownell, Savory C.Hatliawav, Lot B. Bates, Stephen A. Brownell, Standish Bovirne, Frederic Taber, John W. Macomber, Lemuel LeB. Holmes, George C. Hatch. Paid up Capital, $100,000. Authorized Capital, $500,000. TRANSACTS A GENERAL BANKING BUSINESS SAME AS ANY NATIONAL BANK. NOTES DISCOUNTED. COLLECTIONS MADE ON ^^ ALL AVAILABLE POINTS. COMMENCED BUSINESS JUNE 28, 1888. OPEN SATURDAY EVENINGS FROM 7.30 TO 9 O'CLOCK. BANKING DEPARTMENT. Money received on deposit subject to check on presentation. Exchange on New England, New York, the West, and California. Interest allowed on daily lialance.s without limit and credited monthly. Invites the accounts, great or small, of Banks, Hankers, Corporations, Municipalities, Town Treasurers, Manufacturers, Firms, Individuals and tliose acting in any official or trust capaci- ty, and will be pleased to meet or correspond with any who may contemplate making changes or opening new accounts. Legally authorized to receive and hold money or property in trust or on de- posit from executors, administrators, assignees, guardians, etc. Dl.SCOLINT DAYS MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, AND FRIDAYS AT 9 A. M. Apartment exclusively for Ladies, also a pulilic room for Gentlemen. Banking Hours 1) a. m". to 2 p. M. and 4 to 5 P. M. .<)®-Saturdays, 9 a. M. to 2 p. m. and 7.30 to 9 P. M. SAFE BIND SAFE FIND SAFE DEPOSIT DEPARTMENT. SAFE BIND SAFE FIND CHARLES M. HUSSEY, MANAGER. The vaults of this company are positively lire, burglar, and mob proof and guarded night and day. In the vaults are individual safe deposit boxes for rent to parties wishing absolute security for their valuables. Price $10 to flOO ]ier annum, according to size. Less time at less rates. These boxes re- quire the master-key and the preseni'e of the Manager of the safe deposit apartment as well as the renter to open. One cannot witliDut the other. Patrons may remove and replace their boxes as often as desired during business liours. Separate "coupon" rooms for ladies and gentlemen, which are strictly private and free and provided with desks, writing- materials, etc., etc. Storage department for furs, silver ware, laces, papers, books and all kinds of valualjles at very low rates. A cordial and general invitation extended to either sex to call during business hours and examine our safe and rooms. Business hours 9 A. M. to 2 p. »i. ami 4 to .5 P. M. Saturdays 9 a. M. to 2 p. M.and 7.30 to UP. M. We particularly call the attention of families who during tlie summer months are closing their houses and leaving the city to our admirable facilities for the safe custody of plate antl other valua- bles in our impregnable lire, burglar, and mob proof vaults. Charges low. A SOLID INVESTIMENX. Exclusive agency for Southern .Massachusetts for tlie sale of the 6% DEBENTURE BONDS and 7% GUARANTEED FARM LOANS of the Union Investment Co., Kansas City, Mo. I'aid up capital .■:!l,(H((),(H»(l, mostly Eastern stock holders. These bonds are secured l)y 1st liens of real es/dte (it 2 I -'J times their ainounf deposited with American Loan & Trust Co., Boston! The Farm Loans are secured in the same manner. Issued and for sale in sums of .$100 and upwards, at par and accrued interest. Coupons cashed ./Vee by us. VVe have personally and carefully examined these properties and manner of negotiating and con- fidently believe them to be A SAFE AND PROFITABLE INVESTMENT. Vlll NEW BEDFORD. i TILUNGHASTahdALDEN I- Successors to the late Joseph S. Tillinghast. 50 .J^ J=w «§ ^ # ^ 1 i S Business respectfully solicited and policies issued at this office 171 the following named companies for which we are the duly authorized agents: ^tna Ins. Co., Hartford Connecticut Fire Ins. Co., Hartford Spring^ficld Fire & Marine Ins. Co., Springfield Fire Association, Pliiladelpliia Continental Ins. Co., New York Niagara Fire Ins. Co., New York Williamsburg City Fire Ins. Co., New York Equitaljle Fire & Marine Ins. Co., Providence No. British and Mercantile Ins. Co., Loudon Phcenix Assurance Co., London Imperial Fire Ins. Co., London Fitchlnirg Mutual Fire Ins. Co., Fitcliburg Hartford Fire Ins. Co., Hartford Meriden Fire Ins. Co., Meriden Ins. Co. of North America, Philadelphia Home Ins. Co., New York German American Fire Ins. Co., New York Hanover Fire Ins. Co., New York American Ins. Co., Newark Merchants Ins. Co., Providence Guardian Assurance Co., London Queen Ins. Co., Liverpool City of London Fire Ins. Co. , London Dorchester Mutual Fire Ins. Co., Boston LEADING ENTERPRISES. IX LAWRENCE GRINNELL. JOSHUA C. HITCH. LAWRENCE GRINNELL & CO., FIRE AND MARINE, LIFE, AND PLATE GLASS INSURANCE, 60 North Water St, foot of William, OVEE MECHANICS NATIONAL BANK. NEW BEDFORD. Agents for the following named first class companies : Liverpool und London and Globe Insur- British America Assurance Co. Of Toronto ance Co. Of Liverijool Prescott Insurance Co. Boston American Fire Insurance Co. New York Hamburg-Bremen Fire Insurance Co. Bremen Royal Insurance Co. Liverpool Northern Assurance Co. London Providence Washington Ins. Co. Providence Spi'ing Garden Philaelphia Commercial Union Assurance Co. Loudon North American Boston Merchants Insurance Co. Newark Mutual Life Insurance Co. New York Traders Insurance Co. Chicago Lloyds' Plate Glass Insurance Co. New York A. M. BROWNELL. J. H. MURKLAND. Brownell & Murkland, Conlfactofs, Buiifs, i Cfanite Dealefs, -4SM1LL AND HEAVY BUILDING A SPECIALTY,**- Curbing, Cellar, & Dimension Stone. OFFICE, Liberty HIa.il Bu.iid.ing, K-oom. 8, New Bedford, Mass. NEW BEDFORD. SAMUEL H. COOK, Marine & Fire Insurance AGENT AND BROKKR, No. 37 North Water Street (in National Bank of Commerce Building), NEW BEORORD, N4ASS. WHALING EISKS AND THEIR CATOHINGS A SPECIALTY AT THIS AGENCY. The following first class Fire Insurance Companies are represented, viz : Ilingham Mutual Fire Insurance Co., Hingbani. The laberty Insurance Co. New York Loudon Assurance Corporation, London, Eng. Phicnix Insurance Co. Hartford London & Lancashire Insurance Co. London National Fire Insurance Co. Hartford Norwich Union Fire Iiisin-ance Society, England Pha'uix Insurance Co. Brooklyn, N. Y. New Hampshire Fire Ins. Co. Manchester, N.H. Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Co. Philadelphia Westchester Fire Insurance Co. New York American Fire Insurance Co. Philadelphia Commerce Insurance Co. Alljany, N. Y. The Metropolitan Plate Glass Insurance Co. of New York. NOTARY PUBLIC. JUSTICE OF THE PEACE. . Insurance Scrip Bought and Sold. NEW BEDFORD BOILER AND MACHINE CO., JOSEPH S. LEY;IS. henry a. HOLCOMB, Treas. MANUFACTURERS OF BOILERS^ Machinery OF EVERY DESCRIPTION. Repmincf of all kinds promptly attended to. WASTE, MACHINE BOLTS, LAG SCREWS, BOLT ENDS, AND RUBBER STEAM PACKING CONSTANTLY ON HAND. Steam Heating and Fittings. 24 KRONX STREET, New Bedford, Mass. LEADING ENTERPRISES. XI ESTABLISHED 1847. Charles Taber & Co, New Bedford, Mass. Salesroom, 28 Bond St., New York. MANUFACTURERS OF Artotype Engravings, Photographs, Picture Frames, Mouldings, Art Novelties. Xll NEW BEDFORD. NEW BEDFORD COPPER CO. MANUFACTURERS OF Yellow Metal and Copper SHEATHING, BRAZIERS', DIMENSION, AND BOLT COPPER. Copper Rollers for Callco Printers. yellow metal bolts and cut nails, etc. New Bedford, Mass. GILBERT ALLEN, Pres't. WM. H. MATHEWS, Treas. XIV NEW BEDFORD. CHARLES F. BORDEN, Pattern and Model Maker. ALSO, MANUFACTIJRKR OF THK TREMONT-TURBINE WATER WHEEL Wliicli lor clieapnesfi, ihiral)ilit.\ . and power, we kn(i\\ ol' no \\ heel that equals. Gearing, Shafting, Iron & Wood Pulleys. House and Cottao-e Trim- mings. Store Fronts, Coun- ters, and Wall Cases. Bank Counters and Desks Carving^, Pianino; liaSaw- ing, and Turning in all its branches. Wooden Mantels a spec- ialty in soft or hard Wood. Also, Book Cases, Side Boards, Wash Stands, and Furniture of all kinds. Stair Builders' Supplies ; Newells, Balusters, and Rails on hand and made to order. Plans for the above specialties fui-nished at short notice. Estimates given and satisfaction friiaranteed In every case. STONE BUILDING, SECOND FLOOR, Cor. of So. Water and Coffin Sts., new Bedford, mass. LEADING ENTERPRISES. XV GREENE & WOOD, DEALERS IN ALL KINDS OF LUMBER, SPRUCE, HEMLOCK, FLAE, S^o. Tn large variety. Also an assortment of YELLOW PINE TIM- "^ BER, PLANK, STEPPING, AND FLOORING. We carrv a good stock of HARD WOOD LUMBER for inside finish, and with our new improved Hot Blast Dry Kiln, we can furnish the choicest Kiln Dried Moulding and Flooring. OUR PLANING MILL Recendv destroyed by fire, has been entirely rebuilt and very much enlarged, and with New Machinery w^e are prepared to do all varieties ot PLANING, MOULDING, SAWING, AND TURNING. SPOOLS AND BOBBINS. GREENE & WOOD are again prepared to make all kinds of SPOOLS AND BOBBINS for cotton and woolen mills and rope works. A new mill and the very latest improved machinery afford the best facilities for good work and prompt delivery. XVI NEW BEDFORD. "^rfe** Xj. .^. LITTXjEIFIEXjID SIANUFACTURER OF I^ine Silver Plated F'EF'F'ER, SUGAR SIFTER TOPS, Factory, Tallman's Block, 134 Union Street pine .^ilYer Plated NON-DRIF" Syrup Jug Tops, Bitter Tubes, NOVELTIES, &c. - NEW BEDFORD. MASS. LEADING ENTERPRISES. XVll PAIRPOINT MFG. CO. E. D. MANDELL, Pres T. T. A. TRIPP, Aqt. and Treas. FINE OLD i im PUTL For sale by Leading Jewellers throughout the country. Re=plating and Repairing EXECUTED BY SKILLED MECHANICS. 4i^pactory, Prospect gtreet, - jleW Bedford, ]VIass/i^ WAREROOMS : At Factory. 20 Maiden Lane, New York. 90 AND 92 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, III. 220 Luther Street, San Francisco, Cal. Sydney, Australia. XVlll NEW BEDFORD. SMITH BROS. A. E. SMITH. H. A. SMITH. Fine Decorated Glassware =®i^^s^^ ^-:::5b;E: -^^'y-j/i't'^Ki'- Shades of every Description, Vases in Great Variety, Plaques, Tiles, Salts, Mustards, Muffineers, Lamp Goods, &c. Works and Show Rooms, 28 and 30 William St, NEW BEDFORD, MASS. LEADING ENTERPRISES. XIX Dknison Bros., FLOUR! CmmilM FLOUR, MiUNCS, CORN, Oats, Fine M, Mi Etc, ALSO NO. 100 SOUTH WATER ST., AND FOOT OF HILLMAN STREET, HS"b'''SL. »EW BEDFORD, MASS. THOMAS M. HART. JAMES C. BRIGG8. OLIVER W. COBB. Sail IMakers and iShip OIi.uiiANI>. PARDON ( OIJXELL. OT.IVER P. liRIGHTMAN. FRANK C SMITH. ROBERT B. C.VRSLEY. 2C CD O The Gas Stoves inamitacUnefl by Mic Coiiipaiiy for Cooking aii.l Heating are Miperior 1(1 all others. The Inirncrs when used in tlio fire pot of anv stove or lanjf*' iiroiluro heat e<|ual in anioiuit to that ohtained from the use of coal. Tlieir use prochices no smoke, dust ashes or dirt. The carrying of wodl or eoal an>een examineiT anil tvsted by experts and |.ronoiniced b\ theni as superior to all others now in usie. XXXll LEADING ENTERPRISES. New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard & Nankoket STEAMBOAT CO- ******* *** T X \ y T" '\/' T T TV 7 T~> ***** ***** ********** J J Jr\. J. I y 1 J__/ J. i X 1 -/ t ********** From June to October, Four Trips Daily and Ex- cursion Tickets sold. Baggage checked through to all points. STEAIVIERS: Nantucket, Martha^s Vineyard, River Queen, Monohansett, Island Home, Which are Staunch, Seaworthy Boats, running between New Bedford, Woods Holl, Martha's Vineyard, Vineyard Haven, Oak Bdukfs, Cottage City, Edgartown, Katama, AND Nantucket. LEAVE BOSTON ivom Old Colony Depots, corner South and Kneeland Streets and Pai'k Square. LEAVE NEW YORK l)y Fall Kiver Line, Pier 28 !North Kiver, foot of Murray Street. E. T. PIERCE, Agent. LEADING ENTERPRISES. XXXlll SAMUEL C. HART. FRANCIS T. AKIN. HART & AKIN, Wholesale and Retail dealers in every variety of For Fainily Use and Stetun Purjyoses. Bituminous Coal for SmitJis' Use. All Kinds of Wood, Kindling, and Charcoal. In any quantity, by Car Load, Ton, or Bale. ALSO AGENTS FOB THE Best KERTII.IZERS in the MarUet. House, Ship, Sign, and Ornamental Painters, AND DEALERS IN PAINTS, OILS, VARNISHES. AND NAVAL STORES. ? The best Luhricatiny Oils made for Machinery and Cylinders a Specialty. OFFICES, 168 to 180 South Water St. and 9 North Water St. NEW BEDFORD, MASS. XXXIV NEW BEDFORD. NEW BEDFORD GAS LIGHT CO., OFFICE, 73 William Street. GAS WORKS, WATER STREET. ELECTRIC STATION, SCHOOL STREET. The Gas Co. is now fully equipped to supply Gas and Electricity for every requirement of ILLUMINATION, HEAT, AND POWER ^ BY ■? GAS FIXTURES, GAS STOVES, ARC LIGHTS, INCANDESCENT LIGHTS, ELECTRIC MOTORS, GAS ENGINES. Contracts made at the best possible rates. For terms apply at the office. CHAS. S. PAISLER, leO ISTortH TxT'a.t^x Stx^^t, 1<^