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Browsing named entities in a specific section of HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855. (ed. Charles Brooks). Search the whole document.

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1830 AD (search for this): chapter 11
en carried on by Messrs. Andrew Hall, Benjamin Hall, John Bishop, Nathaniel Hall, Fitch Tufts, Joseph Swan, Hall and Manning, and Joseph Hall. It is now prosecuted only by Mr. Daniel Lawrence. It was never a profitable branch of trade; and, till 1830, it ruined many persons who entered it. Since the temperance reformation, it has yielded great profits to the few who pursue it. The business demanded a larger investment of capital than any other manufacturing interest within the town. Agents were employed to purchase molasses in the West Indies; and schooners of the largest tonnage were often seen unlading at wharves on the borders of which the distilleries stood. Soon after 1830, all the distilleries but one were discontinued, and three of the buildings were demolished. In 1849, the efforts of temperance societies had so far influenced public opinion and the general habits as to diminish the use of rum to an extent almost fatal to the manufacturers of it. But about that time c
April 1st, 1845 AD (search for this): chapter 11
ng April 1, 1837, sixty vessels were built in this town, which employed two hundred thirty-nine workmen, and of which the measurement was twenty-four thousand one hundred and ninety-five tons, and the value one million one hundred and twelve thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars. All those constructed in the county, except eleven, were built here. The value of these sixty was about one-sixth of all the shipping built in the Commonwealth during the same period. In the year preceding April 1, 1845, twenty-four ships were launched here, which employed two hundred and fifty men, whose tonnage was nine thousand six hundred and sixty, and whose value was half a million of dollars. In that year, one-quarter of the ship-builders in the Commonwealth were employed in this town, and built nearly one-quarter of the ships constructed in the State, one-third of the tonnage, and one-half the value of the whole. From this result, so creditable to our town, it appears that a given number of wo
1834 AD (search for this): chapter 11
ined, and every rule most scrupulously complied with. There was a severe exactness in each particular, that helped greatly in securing the final success. Mr. Francis produced a cracker which was considered as more tasteful and healthy than any heretofore invented. Every year increased his reputation, and widened his business; and, as early as 1805, Medford crackers were known through the country, and frequently sent to foreign lands. The writer of this was walking in a street of London in 1834, and saw, at a shop-window, the following sign: Medford crackers. This bread deserved all the fame it acquired; for never had there been any so good, and we think there is now none better. It required great labor; and all the work was done by hand. Each cracker was nearly double the size of those now made; and the dough was kneaded, rolled, weighed, pricked, marked, and tossed into the oven, by hand. Now all these are done by machinery. The labor of making a barrel of flour into crackers
April 2nd, 1798 AD (search for this): chapter 11
e law, three pounds. In this act, the right of each inhabitant to fish is recognized and secured. If persons from other towns should either stop or catch fish in this river, they shall each be fined three pounds for every such offence; and the committee shall have power to arrest them, and sell their seines, dragnets, marsh-nets, baskets, or any other implements used by them. This act to be in use five years, and no longer. Immediately on the passage of this act, the town proceeded, April 2, 1798, to a new step, indicated in the following vote: Voted that the town will let out their fishing-grounds to the highest bidder the present year. While this vote was based upon the original right of the town to the fisheries within its borders, some minor questions arose, which led the inhabitants, at the same meeting, to choose a committee to inquire into the rights of the town to the fishing-grounds. The result was, that, Jan. 21, 1803, the town voted that a petition be presented to th
1819 AD (search for this): chapter 11
ate of first dividend), to fourteen hundred and fifty-five dollars and twenty-five cents on each share; making the whole cost of the canal eleven hundred and sixty-four thousand two hundred dollars. There have been paid in dividends, from the year 1819 to the present year (1843), five hundred and four dollars on each share (averaging $20.16 per annum); an interest on the cost of about one and thirty-nine one-hundredths of one per cent per annum. From the year 1819 to the time the Lowell Railroa1819 to the time the Lowell Railroad went into operation, the receipts regularly increased, so that the dividends arose from ten to thirty dollars per share; and no doubt, in a few years, without competition, they would have given a handsome interest on the original cost. The year that road went into full operation, the receipts of the canal were reduced one-third: when the Nashua and Lowell Road went into operation, they were reduced another third. Those of the last year and the present will not be sufficient to cover the expe
1820 AD (search for this): chapter 11
March 1, 1824: Voted that the selectmen be appointed a committee to dispose of the privilege of taking shad and alewives within the limits of said town the ensuing season. In 1855, Joseph L. Wheeler bought the upper reach, from Marble Brook to the Pond, for $27.50 per annum; and James Rogers bought the lower reach, from Marble Brook to the eastern border of the town, for $122.50 per annum. The annual sales have lately been less than $200. The shad and alewives were abundant till 1815 or 1820, when they began gradually to withhold their visits. A writer says, that, about the year 1800, it was common to take fifteen hundred shad annually at Little River (near Fresh Pond); but that, in 1852, there was not one taken; and that, proportionally, a similar statement might be made concerning alewives. Nothing can frighten alewives; but the shad is an exceedingly shy and timid fish. Its disappearance from our river is therefore attributed to the terrific noises made by railroad cars,
May 30th, 1698 AD (search for this): chapter 11
t parish, carried by the water of Marble Brook. The banks, race, canal, and cellar are yet traceable. This was used for grinding grain and sawing timber. It was on land now owned by Mr. Dudley Hall. The remains of another water-mill are still visible on land now owned by Mr. W. A. Russell, near the north-west border of the town. It was carried by the water of Whitmore Brook. This mill must have been among the earnest in Medford. The first action of the town respecting mills was May 30, 1698, and the record reads thus: Put to vote, whether the inhabitants of Medford will petition the General Court for liberty to build a gristmill on the river, near and above Mistick Bridge. Voted in the affirmative. This was not successful; nor was the following,--Nov. 26, 1700: Whether the town will petition the General Court for liberty to build a corn-mill in their town, at Gravelly Bank, near Mistick Bridge. This was voted in the affirmative. When the circular stone windmill, now st
1824 AD (search for this): chapter 11
sq., the chief agent, afterwards sold the establishment to Mr. Stowell for $4,000, through whom it came into possession of its present owner, Robert Bacon, Esq. He has built three factories and two dwelling-houses, which have been burned; three in 1840, the last in 1843. Since writing the above, we are called to record another destructive fire at Baconville of the factories there. They were burned Sunday evening, April 8, 1855. Mr. Bacon brought his machinery from Boston to Medford in 1824, and manufactured hat-bodies, feltings, &c., employing eighteen or twenty men. Once only he counted; and in that year he formed 83,000 hat-bodies. This work was done by the use of Silas Mason's patent, and T. F. Mayhew's improved machine. He also planked many thousands yearly; which operation was by the use of Macomber's patent, and his own improvement. He also blowed the hair from fur, by the use of Arnold Buffom's patent blowing-machine. This process was truly ingenious. It was accompl
1844 AD (search for this): chapter 11
fifteen hundred shad annually at Little River (near Fresh Pond); but that, in 1852, there was not one taken; and that, proportionally, a similar statement might be made concerning alewives. Nothing can frighten alewives; but the shad is an exceedingly shy and timid fish. Its disappearance from our river is therefore attributed to the terrific noises made by railroad cars, as they cross the Mystic at Charlestown. The largest number of alewives taken by one draught from Mystic River was in 1844; and they counted some few more than fifty-eight thousand! We once saw taken, by one draught from this river, shad sufficient to fill six horse-carts. In Mystic River the bass have wholly disappeared; though there are those living who remember to have seen them plenty, and some of them weighing more than thirty pounds. In 1776, a negro, named Prince, was at work on the bank of the river, opposite the shallow where the ford was, a few rods above the bridge, when he saw an enormous bass sw
1843 AD (search for this): chapter 11
e into possession of its present owner, Robert Bacon, Esq. He has built three factories and two dwelling-houses, which have been burned; three in 1840, the last in 1843. Since writing the above, we are called to record another destructive fire at Baconville of the factories there. They were burned Sunday evening, April 8, 185gs to our records. I find the following statistics in an Historical Sketch of the Middlesex Canal, gathered by their faithful agent, Caleb Eddy, Esq., and dated 1843:-- In the month of May, 1793, a number of gentlemen associated for opening a canal from the waters of the Merrimac, by Concord River, or in some other way, th the whole cost of the canal eleven hundred and sixty-four thousand two hundred dollars. There have been paid in dividends, from the year 1819 to the present year (1843), five hundred and four dollars on each share (averaging $20.16 per annum); an interest on the cost of about one and thirty-nine one-hundredths of one per cent per
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