16 overshot ct factory

Located in the sought after Overshot community, this brick colonial sits on a premium 3+ acre lot at the end of the cul-de-sac. Situated in the heart of Jacksonville, this home is located just minutes to shopping, restaurants, parks, golf courses, trails, and schools. Recent upgrades includes a new Kitchen with shaker style cabinetry, tile backsplash, Quartz countertop, stainless appliances, and large Pantry . Eat-in Kitchen also includes a breakfast bar for extra seating. Family Room off the kitchen has a Propane gas brick fireplace, upgraded flooring, and vaulted ceilings with skylights. Living Room has hardwood floors, brick wood-burning fireplaces, crown, and chair molding. Separate Dining room has hardwood floors and is open to Living room and Kitchen. Main level also has an Office, Powder Room, and Mudroom with Laundry and built-ins. Primary Bedroom has a walk-in closet and own full bath which was newly renovated with stone & tile shower. There are 3 other bedrooms upstairs with closet organizers and ceiling fans and an additional full bath. Basement remodeled and updated to include new carpet, lighting, and built-in storage with large family/play room, exercise room, and second Office. Coming off the main level Family Room, there is a Composite Deck that leads to a Stone Patio. Lot has a large flat yard with trees backing the property and a Playground set. There is an invisible fence installed that will convey. Solar Panels are owned not leased and provide a huge energy savings for the new Buyer. This is a chance to own a home in Overshot in a well cared for and upgraded home.

Waterwheel Factory shares it"s knowledge about waterwheels and displays the inherent beauty of a moving waterwheel. Explore; water wheels in history; waterwheel calculations; waterwheels for energy, and gristmill restorations. Explore the many ways you can enjoy having your own waterwheel for landscape decoration or any project you may have in mind.Sit back, relax, and enjoy the many exciting photo’s and options we offer.

(This introductory overview to waterwheels is the first of a three-part series. The second installment [Issue No.17] will be about undershot and no-head wheels, and the third installment [Issue No. 18] will deal with overshot wheels. — Editor)

Reaction, uses the moving water to create a pressure differential like an airplane wing. These are correctly called “turbine’s.” A propeller is the most common example of the type.

They have many advantages, but most of the advantages benefit professional or large-scale users. While very efficient and compact they require more “tending” than a non-professional may be able to provide. While they can be automated sufficiently to allow unattended operation, these controls are very costly and really can’t be justified for a non-professional power plant.

For this reason I recommendimpulse type water wheels. These function by transferring the momentum of the moving water to the machine. The energy transfer is similar to one billiard ball transferring its energy to another. Because of this, impulse wheels have a very high efficiency, and more importantly, have a constant efficiency over varying stream conditions.

On a small, variable stream (a typical home/farm stream) an impulse wheel can produce more than twice the kilowatt hours of a reaction wheel. Impulse wheels are available in several types, each designed for a specific type of stream.

A FITZ C-Rotor and the Scheider Lift Translator are autonomous generators, containing the wheel, generator, and regulator in a single unit. You just place one in a stream and connect the power cable to a load. Both designs are quite cost-effective as a personal power source.

Overshot wheels are the kind people associate with Currier & Ives engravings. While many were made of wood, after 1840 most were made of metal. For small streams and heads up to 25 feet, these are still the best choice for a home/farm user. The old FITZ I-X-L designed in 1862 was tested at the University of Wisconsin in 1913. It proved to be 93% efficient.

Crossflow turbines are incorrectly called a turbine since they work on the impulse principal. They can best be described as undershot wheels in a can. They are useful for small to large flows and heads from 10 feet to 100 feet. They are close tolerance devices so we wouldn’t recommend this design to an amateur builder unless you have some machining experience. A Pelton wheel is a high head variant of the crossflow, best used with heads of 50 feet or higher.

Basically, the problem you have to solve with site selection is this: How can I make the most kilowatt hours per year with the least expenditure of time and money.

Surprisingly, wheel horsepower and efficiency are not the most important factors. This is because stream flows vary over the year. The best choice is the wheel that delivers 50% or more of the theoretical power of the stream. In other words, the total annual production should be at least HALF of the production you would get if the wheel ran at full power all year long.

When selecting a generator type, decide if you want AC or DC power. Will you co-generate with the electric company or go it alone? If your power plant is 25 kilowatts or larger, a self regulated AC system is the best. If it is smaller, or you want to supplement with wind power or photovoltaics, DC is the simplest to use. If you are co-generating, a simple AC induction system will work for any size power plant. This is the absolute least cost arrangement. Here is where the self-regulating characteristics of impulse wheels really pay off.

Impulse wheels turn slowly. This was one reason reaction turbines were invented. Today gearing is very reliable so it is no longer necessary to direct drive a generator. This also allows use of more efficient 4-pole (1800 rpm) generators. Any industrial enclosed drive will work. Do not use auto transmissions. They were never intended for continuous duty. The bearings and casing are too light unless you are making 10 kilowatts or less.

On the other hand, don’t under-estimate what one person looking to change their piece of the world can do. Before I bought the FITZ Waterwheel company, I had been through some hard times. Now 6 years later, I operate 1250 kilowatts of generators commercially, providing clean, environmentally safe power to over 1000 homes. I hope you have as much fun and satisfaction with your waterwheel, whatever the size.

As you travel around New England you may come across a town with a ville in the name. In the Hartford area we are familiar with Collinsville, Hazardville and Tariffville. A ville was often the area of town where there was water to power factories or mills.

In Granby there were areas like Pegville, Goodrichville and Mechanicsville. Sometimes these sections were named after the owner of the business (Collins, Goodrich) or a product like pegs for shoes or a hazardous material like gunpowder.

In the early 19th century, Granby was utilizing almost every body of water in town for its manufacturing industry. Salmon Brook in West Granby, the East Branch of Salmon Brook in Mechanicsville and on the Farmington River in Turkey Hills in a little area known as

In 1829 Whitfield Cowles, the former pastor of the Congregational Church, built a new factory just east of the Spoonville Bridge and about 200 feet north of the Farmington River. It was a wood building standing two stories high with a basement, 25 windows, two large doors, and two small doors.

Cowles dammed up a small stream that ran into the river beside the new factory to power an overshot waterwheel. Here he manufactured wire and cards used to convert raw wool into a product that would allow the wool to be spun or used as batting.

By 1832, the Cowles & Sons business was at its peak and the company even built a large boardinghouse west of the factory to accommodate its many employees.  In 1836, after Whitfield and his son Madison passed away, the remaining brother Gilbert transferred the business to his youngest brother William B. Cowles.

William was an innovator and around 1840 he converted the business to one that manufactured flatware made of German silver. German or Nickel silver, as it was sometimes called, was an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc.  It was prepared by melting the copper and nickel together in a crucible and adding, piece by piece, the previously heated zinc.  In 1843 Cowles was joined by James Isaacson, an experienced plater and Asa Rogers, a well known silversmith from Hartford.

Soon they were silver-plating  German silver flatware using a new galvanic process involving batteries. Electroplating, the process of coating a base metal such as copper with a thin sheet of silver, made silver-plated flatware available to a mass market.  The new process gave the look of sterling without the expense. This technique produced a brilliant finish, since it was a coat of pure silver.

In 1846 the Cowles Manufacturing Company had grown with 16 women and 98 men working in the factory, most of them not from Turkey Hills.  They produced plated teaspoons and tablespoons; dessert, mustard, and salt spoons; sugar scoops and tongs; cream, gravy and soup ladles and also spectacles. They made bifocals, an invention of Benjamin Franklin’s and even sunglasses which sold for from 20 to 30 cents each.

RMD96J1R–Mule-powered sugar mill with vertical rollers (top). Sugar mill with vertical rollers powered by overshot waterwheel (bottom) West Indies. Copperplate engraving, London, 1764.

RMPPEK4E–The overshot waterwheel on the Maiermuehle in Teisendorf. Since 1769 the mill is owned by the Muehlbach family - in the 8th generation - the oldest machine dates back to 1920. The mill has existed at least since the Middle Ages - the waterwheel was used in 1930 (it was already 50 years old and Comes from the Franconian region). The arms are made of oak, the wheel itself is made of iron - a 1 centimeter thick layer protects it against rust. Fine flour is obtained from the grain after 20 grinding processes.

RMHTMK4N–Mule-powered sugar mill with vertical rollers (top). Sugar mill with vertical rollers powered by overshot waterwheel (bottom) West Indies. Copperplate engraving, London, 1764

RMTX1CYY–The overshot waterwheel and Water Wall at Coldstream Mill in North Ayrshire near Beith, circa 1999.; 11 February 2007 (original upload date); Transferred from en.pedia to Commons.; Rosser1954 at English pedia;

RMTXGY73–Reversible hoist for raising leather buckets from mine shaft powered by overshot waterwheel. Man in hut at O opens and shuts water races to stop and start double row of buckets From Agricola "De re metallica" 1556 Woodcut Basle

RM2DJ3DWW–An Overshot Mill, James Ward, 1769–1859, British, between 1802 and 1807, Oil on panel, Support (PTG): 10 7/8 x 13 1/8 inches (27.6 x 33.3 cm), costume, cottage, genre subject, ladder, landscape, man, peasants, straw, stream, washing, water mill, waterwheel, woman, workers

RMHEK71X–This is the 40-foot overshot waterwheel Oct. 27, 2010 at Mill Springs Mill, which is a historical gristmill from the 1800s that is preserved and administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District. The mill is located off Kentucky Highway 90 between Burnside and Monticello on the banks of scenic Lake Cumberland in Mill Springs, Ky. (USACE photo by Lee Roberts) Public get historic treat at Corps gristmill 338173

RM2A5YMD2–Reversible hoist for raising leather buckets from mine shaft powered by overshot waterwheel. Man in hut at O opens and shuts water races to stop and start double row of buckets. From Agricola "De re metallica" Basle 1556. Woodcut.

RMD98MMR–Landscape with Village Fete" (detail). Oil on canvas. Centre right is a forge or furnace powered by an overshot waterwheel. Lucas van Valckenhorgh (1530-1597) Flemish painter. Rocks Industry Leat

RM2EAERHM–Inside Lurgashall Water Mill, showing the mechanism working. Overshot waterwheel powers two pairs of mill stones, a sack hoist and a grain sifter, or

RFPYH2JC–STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA, AUGUST 16, 2018: Information board for the historic overshot waterwheel of the Nieuwe Molen (mill) in Stellenbosch in the

RMD969NG–Reversible hoist for raising leather buckets from mine shaft powered by overshot waterwheel. Man in hut at O opens and shuts water races to stop and start double row of buckets. From Agricola "De re metallica" Basle 1556. Woodcut.

RF2CB7RX0–Overshot water wheel at historic Oblazy Water Mill at Kvacianka river, Kvacany Valley (Kvačianska dolina), Liptov area, Zilina Region, Slovakia

RFPYFT3P–STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA, AUGUST 16, 2018: The historic overshot waterwheel of the Nieuwe Molen (mill) in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape Province.

RF2CB7RT6–Overshot water wheel at historic Oblazy Water Mill at Kvacianka river, Kvacany Valley (Kvačianska dolina), Liptov area, Zilina Region, Slovakia

RMP6HBP0–Overshot and undershot waterwheels, 19th century, including examples designed by John Smeaton and Peter Nouaille. Copperplate engraving by W. Lowry after an Illustration by J. Farey from Abraham Rees" "Cyclopedia or Universal Dictionary," London, 1817.

RMTDHWBY–OVERSHOT, METAL WATERWHEEL THAT DROVE COFFEE HUSKER - Hacienda Cafetalera Santa Clara, Coffee Mill, KM 19, PR Route 372, Hacienda La Juanita, Yauco Municipio, PR; Cary, Brian, transmitter; Boucher, Jack E, photographer

RFRKJHJG–STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA, AUGUST 16, 2018: The historic overshot waterwheel of the Nieuwe Molen (mill) in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape Province.

RMRFFTMN–An Overshot Mill. Date/Period: Between 1802 and 1807. Painting. Oil on panel. Height: 276 mm (10.86 in); Width: 333 mm (13.11 in). Author: James Ward.

Picture this area some 200 years ago. At the turn of the 18th century, factories were unknown. The town of Dover (population ca. 2000) was a trading port with an active riverfront, an agricultural center with dozens of family-owned farms, and a mercantile hub whose shopkeepers dealt in East and West India imported goods.

The "Fish and Potatoe Club", whose members included fellow businessmen William Hale, Andrew Peirce, Joseph Smith, John Wheeler, Robert Rogers, Jeremiah Stickney, Moses Clements, Walter Cooper, Stephen Patten Jr., and Isaac Wendell, met regularly at Dame Lydia Tebbetts’ tavern on Silver Street. With Williams and Wendell as principals and the other eight as investors, the Dover Cotton Factory was incorporated on December 15, 1812 with $50,000 in capital stock. The company’s first organizational meeting took place on January 19, 1813.

There were several advantageous physical conditions in Dover that made the goal of manufacturing cloth seem attainable. The town had water power, humidity in the atmosphere, pure water in the streams for bleaching, millsites in close proximity to the sea, an ample population, and a good transportation system in place. W&W (as Williams and Wendell came to be known) initially sought to purchase land at the First Falls of the Cochecho River (near the present Central Ave. bridge) but owner Daniel Waldron would not sell.

So on April 25, 1814 the Dover Cotton Factory purchased five acres on the north side of the river at Kimballs’ Falls, about 2 miles upriver (3 miles by road) from downtown (near the present-day Liberty Mutual complex). There they built a 3-story wooden building, 100’ X 32’ with a 20’ X 30’ ell and a log dam (called Horn Dam) to control the water flow. Completed in 1815, the small factory commenced manufacturing cotton yarn under the watchful eye of Capt. Moses Paul (John Williams’ nephew) as superintendent. By 1816, with machinery scurrilously imported from England, the Upper Factory began producing cotton cloth. Girls were hired to tend the looms and men were hired as overseers. There were about 175 4’ X 3’ looms in each room of the factory and each girl tended two of them. Working conditions were monotonous but not strenuous and pay was good. About $2.00 a week (minus $1.25 for room and board) for the girls and $3.00-$4.00 a week for the men (minus $1.75). Workdays were long, usually 14 hours per day, six days a week, beginning with the factory bell wake-up at 4:30AM. Breakfast followed at 5AM and work began by 5:30. After a half-hour break for lunch, work sometimes continued until 6:30PM (depending on the time of year and the amount of available light). Supper was at 7PM.

The new factory at Kimball’s Falls generated a great deal of curiosity and speculation, not only in Dover, but all over northern New England. Soon after manufacturing began, the owners had to whitewash the windows of the factory to keep industrial spies from other communities from peering in and stealing trade secrets of the mechanized cloth-making process!

Their success was unparalleled in the region and soon the Dover Cotton Factory employed almost 300 people. Homes and boarding houses were built at the factory site and in 1819, W&W bought 93 more acres of land from William Kimball and construction began on more homes and stores and a schoolhouse (cost $275) for the 30 or so young children residing there. The thriving community that evolved there was named Williamsville in honor of their benevolent founder, the patriarchal John Williams.

Also in 1819, Daniel Waldron went bankrupt, and the land that W&W originally coveted at the First Falls (downtown Dover) suddenly became available. The factory was making a profit, investors were happy, workers were content, and expansion seemed like a good thing. So Williams and Wendell purchased 131 additional acres in downtown Dover. However, local investors had been squeezed dry raising that initial $50,000 investment in DCF stock certificates. W&W had to look elsewhere for money to build additional factories. So from 1819—1822, John Williams and Isaac Wendell traveled often to Boston, ostensibly as iron merchants (they had been manufacturing some nails in the basement of the factory), but their real purpose was to court wealthy Boston investors for their company. They were enormously successful, but unfortunately naive in not realizing the inherent dangers of losing local control of their operations. A Boston man named William Payne became president of the Dover Cotton Factory and it was to him that the bank conveyed the Waldron property on April 23, 1821.

With elaborate Masonic ceremonies, W&W laid the cornerstone for a new mill #2 at the downtown falls on July 4, 1821. They first moved their nail manufactory here to Waldron’s old sawmill and increased their capital stock to $500,000 (10 times their original amount). Almost immediately, they began construction of a second cotton mill. The Upper Factory mill continued to produce cotton cloth, but as operations grew at the First Falls, employees were moved from Williamsville into town. By 1828, most of the homes at the upper village had been physically moved into downtown Dover and Williamsville began to fade away. The first mill was used sparingly until 1848 and it was torn down ca. 1849 to make way for the path of the Cochecho Railroad.A Bright Future Looms:

In 1820, the population of Dover was 2870; by 1830 it had almost doubled to 5449. During this decade, the most tumultuous in Dover’s history, huge brick factories changed the downtown skyline and forever altered the economic, social, and religious climate of the town.

Williams & Wendell’s manufacturing operations grew astronomically and more and more factory space was needed. Machining technology improved and more technical and mass-production processes were introduced. More builders, masons, brickmakers, craftsmen and tradesmen were needed to make the economy keep rolling. More shops offering more varied goods and services were demanded by the ever-burgeoning populace, and more people demanded more diversity in their lives, ranging from religious expression to popular entertainment.

In 1822, the Dover Cotton Factory built its first downtown mill, called Mill #2, and modeled after the style of a mill in Waltham, Massachusetts. It was near the current fish ladder at the Central Avenue bridge and was 4 stories in height, 155’ X 43’. It had a wooden platform where gundalows could come up river and unload iron for the nail factory or cotton bales for cloth manufacturing. In its first year, 700 tons of nails were produced at Mill #2 and business was good for about the next four years. Then competition in Fall River made the nail business unprofitable and the company halted nail production in 1828.

Mill #3, the same size as #2 but one story higher, quickly followed in 1823. During that year, the Dover Cotton Factory reorganized in June, renaming itself the Dover Manufacturing Company and attracting more Boston cash to raise its capital to $1 million. Isaac Wendell left the company at that time to pursue a venture with his brothers, a factory in Somersworth called the Great Falls Manufacturing Company. (This factory failed in 1826 and by 1828, Wendell had moved to Pennsylvania.)

John Williams was still in charge of the Dover operations and there are many detailed letters from Williams to company treasurer William Shimmin of Boston describing the complicated progress of building the new factories. About #3 Williams writes, "the building is undoubtedly amply adequate to sustain all the necessary machinery." He assures Shimmin that the rumors he’s heard are "wholly without foundation," …"circulated by an enemy’s camp, collected from some…crooked eyed mechanics." During the middle of the 1820s, construction workers were laying some 60,000 bricks per day to build the mills, with most of the bricks coming from dozens of local brickyards along the Bellamy River.

Mill #4, built in 1825, was an enormous 6-story structure which ran parallel to the river for 167 feet then turned the corner and continued along Washington Street for another 110 feet. It was remarkably unique because an L-shaped mill this massive, coupled with the company’s unique use of skylights in lieu of clerestory windows, had never been attempted in America before. Mill #5 was constructed the same year, adding to the Washington Street complex with an additional 145’ X 45’ structure. Mill #6 completed the mill quadrangle with the erection of a 185’ X 45’ building along Central Avenue. The mill’s offices and vaults were housed on the first floor of #6 while the second floor contained a leather-belting factory.

The cotton factory’s largest concern at this time was workers. There simply weren’t enough people (girls, mostly) in Dover to run all the looms and spindles that the company was installing. Advertisements were placed in area newspapers, calling for "50 smart, capable girls, 12-25 years of age, to whom constant employ and good encouragement will be given." The company recruited farm girls from all over New Hampshire and southern Maine to come and work for good wages at the Dover factories. The factory provided boarding houses for the girls to live in (the 1830 Dover Directory lists 112 boarding house operators, mostly widows) and strict rules of conduct that assured the girls’ families that they would be well taken care of, both physically and morally.

There was a 10PM curfew, no card playing or gambling, no intemperate drinking, no profane or improper language, and each girl had to join a church of her choice. At work, girls were required to give two weeks notice if leaving the job and had to contribute two cents a week to a sick fund (John Williams’ early idea of health insurance!). There was no unnecessary talking allowed in the factory and no "halloo"ing out open windows. Girls had to be punctual and throw no waste in the river. There was no reading on the job and strict rules on fire were observed. On average, girls stayed two to four years, leaving usually to get married.

Factory work was considered a very respectable job, the first profession in which a woman could achieve some degree of financial independence. Workers were attracted by the mills’ advantages, not driven there by force of circumstances. Mill work had a great degree of sociability with new friends in a dormitory atmosphere, an opportunity for further education, an honorable way to earn a dowry, and a dignified way to be self-supporting. That’s not to say that conditions were not hazardous. The hours were long and head and eye injuries from flying shuttles were frequent. Light was insufficient and the machinery noise was deafening. And as mill windows were kept closed to promote humidity, stuffy lint-filled air heightened the likelihood of respiratory diseases and lung infections. Still, when girls when home to their farms on vacations, as likely as not they brought friends back with them to join the working class in the cotton mills.

During the mid-1820s, John Williams, as directed by his Boston stockholders, secured the water rights to Nippo Lake and Ayers Pond in Barrington and Bow Lake in Strafford. With control of these bodies of water, their dams, and their flowrate into the Cochecho River, the mill owners could control the amount of water at the First Falls. But fearing that the price for land and water rights around these ponds would skyrocket if the sellers knew it was the Dover Manufacturing Company who was the buyer, the real estate was all purchased by single individuals working as agents for the company. It’s said that the former landowners felt swindled when they found out who had really bought their land and water.

In 1826, convinced that the Dover Manufacturing Company’s next venture should be calico printing, John Williams traveled to England and visited Sir Robert Peel’s factories in Manchester. Williams persuaded five English printers and engravers to immigrate to America to work in his factories. He also purchased and shipped needed machinery to begin the printing process. Englishman Thomas Hough became foreman of block printing and his colleague James Duxbury was general superintendent. Duxbury’s three sons rounded out the group: Caleb was foreman of dyeing and bleaching, Charles headed the color mixing department, and John was chief engraver.

Printing operations were set up in the west end of Mill #5 in the spring of 1827 with 16 machines printing 70,000 yards each week. At this time, the Print Works also owned a large herd of cows on Milk Street. For in order to print rich-textured, clear colors on the cloth, the cylinder-printed fabrics had to be run through a "dung bath" that "set" the colors and produced the desired rich hues and bright shades on the printed material. Over 30,000 bushels of cow manure were needed annually for the "bath"! The milk from the cows was incidental and was sold cheaply or even given away to factory employees.

John Williams was also a member of the New Hampshire Legislature at this time and he sponsored a bill, in 1827, to incorporate a separate company, the Cocheco Manufacturing Company. This act passed on June 27, 1827 and the new company’s owners were the same Boston men who owned part of the Dover Manufacturing Company. Perhaps Williams thought that the printery operations would fall under this new company as they were different from the cloth manufacturing business, but at any rate, he did not question the decision and gladly sponsored the law to incorporate Cocheco (which is actually a misspelling of Cochecho, the correct spelling. When the new company was registered in Concord, a clerk in the Secretary of State’s office wrote it incorrectly and thus, it officially had to be known as the "Cocheco" Manufacturing Company.)

The two companies co-existed for two years. In 1828, William Shimmin offered to buy ¼ of all the shares held by stockholders in the Dover Manufacturing Company (many of whom were still local) at par value, and pay in notes of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company. That year the annual meeting was changed from Dover to Boston and many local stockholders could not make the trip. As the Cocheco Company siphoned more money and more assets from the Dover Manufacturing Company, the latter’s stock became worthless. The DMC went bankrupt and David Sears of Boston (and partner in the Cocheco Manufacturing Company) bought it at auction in 1829 for $1.00 over debts. John Williams conveyed the property to Cocheco on December 2, 1829. He was then fired, for reasons that he "engaged in too much outside speculation and purchase of Down East land and water power." A new agent, James Curtis (of course, from Boston), was appointed to take his place.

Williams leased the old Upper Factory in 1831, calling it the Belknap Manufacturing Company, but he eventually went bankrupt in 1837. In 1842, Williams moved to Boston and died there on July 17, 1843. His obituary noted that he was "a close student of the University of Experience."

New agent James Curtis was a harsh taskmaster, caring little for the well-being of the girls but definitely concerned about bottom line profit. Because currency was scarce, the company opened a factory store at Franklin Square. Workers were paid in scrip which could be redeemed for goods at the company store. Abuses of this system were common as prices were often higher than in regular stores, accounts were falsified, and wage payments could be delayed indefinitely. Hourly pay rates were then lowered from 58 cents a day to 53 cents, while quotas for each worker were raised and loom speeds were increased. Any talking was forbidden, a 12 ½ cent lateness fee was imposed, and joining a "combination" or union was cause for dismissal.

On December 30, 1828 about half of the 800 mill girls walked out of the factory in a "turn-out". They paraded around the mill quadrangle with banners, signs, martial music, artillery, and speeches protesting the harsh working conditions. The Dover Enquirer called the turn-out "one of the most disgusting scenes ever witnessed" and claimed the girls walked out over "some imaginary grievance." Although the job action was unsuccessful and the girls returned to work three days later, no better off than before, this turn-out is very important historically for this was the first strike by women in the United States and it happened here in Dover. There was another turn-out against James Curtis in 1834, also unsuccessful, but Curtis did resign in that year. Dover, in fact, was one of the chief places in New England for "turn-outs" because of the boarding house system where the inflammatory spirit spread through the houses like wildfire. But their strikes were hap- hazard, unorganized affairs: more picturesque demonstrations than effective vehicles for change.

Curtis’s replacement was good news for the company and the workers. Moses Paul, who had been superintendent at the first Williamsville factory, was appointed as the new Agent. Moses Paul was a local boy and his management style was more like that of his uncle, the ousted John Williams. Captain Paul stayed in this job for the next thirty years and the Cocheco Manufacturing Company prospered, staying solvent and productive even through the nationwide Panic of 1837.

In 1840, the mills began to switch from woodfires to coal. From their inception in 1815, only wood had been used in the factories and most of the north side of Third Street served as the huge company woodyard. When the B&M Railroad reached Dover in 1842, the woodyard was abandoned and coal began arriving on trains as well as in schooners. Large coal pockets along the Landing’s riverbanks and near the railroad station were developed. The overshot waterwheels which supplied power to the looms were replaced, by 1850, with turbines. Huge boilers were placed in the west end of #5 mill when the printery department moved to new quarters. A new belfry was built atop #5 to house the new factory bell. (The old one was much smaller and hung in #2.) Also during the 1840s and 50s, most of the machinery in Mills 2—5 was refurbished, repaired, or replaced. Part of old #2 was converted to a machine repair shop and much of the work was done in-house by talented machinists.

The calico printing operations of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company were growing steadily as well. The new technology of cylinder printing was replacing the handcraft of block printing and by adding the new machinery for this innovation, the printery outgrew its location in Mill #5. During the period from 1842-44, the company built a huge new complex in what is now Henry Law Park to house the modern printery called the Cocheco Print Works. Unlike the cloth manufacturing departments where girls comprised 2/3 of the employees, the Print Works employed 400 men and only 40 women due to the physical nature of the work moving the enormous cylinders.

By mid-century, the boarding house system was gradually disappearing, as was the dignity of mill employment. The first wave of immigrants, the Irish, began to arrive in Dover in the late 1840s, and the farm girls who had been attracted to factory work ceased to come anymore. They abandoned the jobs to workers whom they thought had a lower standard of living and who would accept lower wages. As a result, the character of the workers, the complexion of the population, and the standing of the mills in the community all radically changed. Mill owners speeded up machinery once again and added to the number of machines each worker tended. Cheapness was the sole criterion and labor became only a tool, no longer a partner, in the enterprise. Employers were glad of a new source of labor which came when the old was running out. Necessity had forced them to earn the town’s respect in the 1820s in order to attract required workers, but now they were relieved of that moral burden when a new cheaper class of labor which had no standing in the community and no prejudice against mill work arrived in America. During the 1840s through the 1860s, wages rose only 2% yet production per worker was up by 26%. By 1860, 75% of all cotton cloth was produced in New England.The Best of Times, the Worst of Times:

Zimri Wallingford became Agent of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company in 1860 and served for the next 26 years. His successor, John Holland, ran the company from 1886 to 1895. Wallingford and Holland presided over the greatest period of production and expansion in the mills’ history.

During Wallingford’s tenure, the company built a New #1 mill at the bend in the Cochecho River known as "The Beach." The so-called Clarostat mill, (named for the last company to occupy it fully), is now known as One Washington Center and houses many small companies. The new 5-story mill was started in 1876 and completed in 1878, 400’ X 74’ with a 165’ X 74’ wing. In the early 1880s, the exteriors of the mill buildings in the quadrangle were extensively renovated. The pitched rooflines with skylights were changed to flat roofs, adding more space on the top stories of each mill. Skylights were no longer needed as the mills were now using electric light.

A new #2 was constructed on the site of the old nail factory, several older buildings in the quadrangle were razed, and in 1881, a new #3 opened with a bridge across the river to a new picker building on Main Street. The number of looms increased to 2800 and the number of spindles from 57,000 to ca. 140,000. Employees numbered 1200. A boiler house, 182’ X 65’ and containing 26 boilers, was built at the corner of Washington and Main Streets and two immense chimneys were constructed nearby.

Furthermore, mills #2, #3, and #4 were joined to form one continuous building 732’ long and 74’ wide. This physical connection between the various departments added much to the efficiency of manufacturing operations.

Zimri Wallingford also oversaw operations at the Cocheco Print Works, but the real work there was under the direction of Superintendents John Bracewell (till 1880) and later, Washington Anderton. If business was steady and stable at the cloth manufacturing facilities, it was simply booming at the Print Works. Cocheco Prints became known worldwide for their fine quality and originality of design. The Print Works developed over 10,000 different pattern designs (many of which can be seen today at the Museum of American Textile History in Lowell, MA). The company was known for their ability to "fake" materials: they still worked only with the cotton calico produced across the street but their expertise in fabrication invented imitation wool, imitation seersucker, and satine, a shiny cloth created by heat pressure. The Print Works had machines capable of laying down 12 glorious colors onto a single piece of cloth.

In 1886, when John Holland took over as Agent of the company, the Cocheco name was at the height of its fame. The Print Works was producing over 65 million yards of printed cottons annually and shipping them around the world. The company had over 30 acres of manufacturing space in downtown Dover. The organization boasted that, "In years to come, the company will be gratefully remembered as one which, in the day of their active privilege, labored with that degree of intelligence which lifted not only themselves, but scores of others to place and fame and comfortable circumstances in life, and provided employment and homes for thousands more."

In 1887, a serious fire destroyed several of the Print Works buildings but under Holland’s direction, the company turned the disaster into an opportunity, renovating interiors, adding new color plating tools, and actually expanding their product lines. By now, the boiler house was using 20,000 tons of coal each year in 45 boilers.

Charles H. Fish became Company Agent in 1895 and work in both Cocheco divisions continued stable until about the turn of the century. Southern cotton mills were providing stiff competition for all the New England factories. They could produce cloth much cheaper as they did not have the transportation costs that the northern mills had. The cotton was grown in the South; why not manufacture fabrics at the source and avoid hauling the bales hundreds of miles northward? It became harder and harder to keep longtime clients and contracts when prices were being drastically undercut by the southern factories.

In 1903, the company ventured into another manufacturing operation, the production of velvet. By subtly threatening to built the velvet mill elsewhere in the seacoast, Agent Fish was able to persuade the City of Dover to deed 350’ of river frontage at the east side of the City Farm (near the present day covered walking bridge) for free. Fish also convinced city fathers to exempt the velvet mill (including the land, the machinery, and all raw materials) from all city property taxes for the next ten years. The mill was built the next year, with the company promise to hire "skilled, ‘better class’ employees and to provide a large amount of work for more ordinary laborers" as well. Not much is known about production at the velvet mill as the business never really got a chance to get established.

There followed two terrible calamities at the Cocheco mills that seemingly sealed the fate of the Dover factories. In 1906, another severe fire struck the Print Works and, due to tightened financial circumstances at the time, the facility was unable to recover. Then in 1907, a devastating blaze destroyed New Mill #1. It was January 26 and the temperature was –26 degrees below zero. Three people were killed in the blaze and the entire interior of the building was gutted. The next day, only the ice-covered brick walls were left. The company rebuilt the mill the next year and Mill #1 reopened for business in 1908, but once again the financial repercussions were dire.

In 1909, Pacific Mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts bought the company for $75 a share and the factories became known as the Cocheco Division of Pacific Mills. H. Arthur Newton was appointed as agent. The printery operations were moved to Lawrence in 1913 and the velvet mill and all of the Print Works buildings in Dover’s Henry Law Park were torn down by 1915. Production in the cloth manufacturing mills along Main, Washington, and Central diminished each year. By this time, the majority of the workers (49%) were French-Canadian. The Irish contingent had dropped to just 13% and Greek immigrants made up 10% of the factory population. Another 20% simply listed themselves as American. Eleven other nationalities comprised the remaining 8%. There was a brief upturn during World War I when the company made fabric for military uniforms and blankets (producing 35 million yards of cloth in 1916…far less than the 65 million that were produced annually during the 1880s). Business declined further after the war’s end.

The Depression during the 1930s hurt the company even more and all operations at the Cocheco Division of the Pacific Mils ceased in 1937. In 1940, the city of Dover bought the mills at auction for $54,000. They were the sole bidder for the property. The City leased portions of the buildings to smaller companies during the 40s and 50s and eventually sold portions of the factories to Eastern Air Devices, Miller Shoe, and Clarostat. The buildings fell into serious disrepair and the Cocheco Mils were an eyesore in the city during the 60s and 70s. In 1984, the whole complex was purchased by two men, Tim Pearson and Joseph Sawtelle, who together formed the Dover Mills Partnership. The exteriors of the factories were chemically washed and the interior walls were sandblasted to remove numerous coats of paint and expose the lovely brick walls once more. Attractive new office space was created on several floors of the mills. 895 windows were replaced, new attractive new entrances were constructed, copper flashing was added at the rooflines, and an outdoor courtyard, suitable for concert performances, was built in front of Mill #2 on Central Avenue. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company was the first major tenant. Smaller companies including MBNA, Xylan, Business Express, PC Connection,have also leased space. At New Mill #1 (Clarostat a.k.a. One Washington Center) was also renovated and is  now occupied by numerous small businesses.

The history of Dover is one of sacrifice and struggle, but of victory.The great fires which have struck the city have not dampened the enthusiasm of the citizens. Always from the ruins better buildings came into being.

How prophetic and how true! We cannot imagine traveling down Central Avenue and not seeing those colossal brick structures on our left side. The mills created Dover and they should stand forever as its symbol of history, purpose and expectation.

Overshot: The earliest coverlets were woven using an overshot weave. There is a ground cloth of plain weave linen or cotton with a supplementary pattern weft, usually of dyed wool, added to create a geometric pattern based on simple combinations of blocks. The weaver creates the pattern by raising and lowering the pattern weft with treadles to create vibrant, reversible geometric patterns. Overshot coverlets could be woven domestically by men or women on simple four-shaft looms, and the craft persists to this day.

Summer-and-Winter: This structure is a type of overshot with strict rules about supplementary pattern weft float distances. The weft yarns float over no more than two warp yarns. This creates a denser fabric with a tighter weave. Summer-and-Winter is so named because one side of the coverlet features more wool than the other, thus giving the coverlet a summer side and a winter side. This structure may be an American invention. Its origins are somewhat mysterious, but it seems to have evolved out of a British weaving tradition.

Twill:Twill along with plain and satin weave is one of the three simple weave structures. Twill is created by repetition of a regular ratio of warp and weft floats, usually 1:2, 1:3, or 2:4. Twill weave is identifiable by the diagonal orientation of the weave structure. This diagonal can be reversed and combined to create herringbone and diamond effects in the weave.

Beiderwand: Weavers in Northern Germany and Southern Denmark first used this structure in the seventeenth century to weave bed curtains and textiles for clothing. Beiderwand is an integrated structure, and the design alternates sections of warp-faced and weft-faced plain weave. Beiderwand coverlets can be either true Beiderwand or the more common tied-Beiderwand. This structure is identifiable by the ribbed appearance of the textile created by the addition of a supplementary binding warp.

Figured and Fancy: Although not a structure in its own right, Figured and Fancy coverlets can be identified by the appearance of curvilinear designs and woven inscriptions. Weavers could use a variety of technologies and structures to create them including, the cylinder loom, Jacquard mechanism, or weft-loop patterning. Figured and Fancy coverlets were the preferred style throughout much of the nineteenth century. Their manufacture was an important economic and industrial engine in rural America.

Multi-harness/Star and Diamond: This group of coverlets is characterized not by the structure but by the intricacy of patterning. Usually executed in overshot, Beiderwand, or geometric double cloth, these coverlets were made almost all made in Eastern Pennsylvania by professional weavers on looms with between twelve and twenty-six shafts.

America’s earliest coverlets were woven in New England, usually in overshot patterns and by women working collectively to produce textiles for their own homes and for sale locally. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s book, Age of Homespun examines this pre-Revolutionary economy in which women shared labor, raw materials, and textile equipment to supplement family incomes. As the nineteenth century approached and textile mills emerged first in New England, new groups of European immigrant weavers would arrive in New England before moving westward to cheaper available land and spread industrialization to America’s rural interior.

The coverlets from New York and New Jersey are among the earliest Figured and Fancy coverlets. NMAH possesses the earliest Figured and Fancy coverlet (dated 1817), made on Long Island by an unknown weaver. These coverlets are associated primarily with Scottish and Scots-Irish immigrant weavers who were recruited from Britain to provide a skilled workforce for America’s earliest woolen textile mills, and then established their own businesses. New York and New Jersey coverlets are primarily blue and white, double cloth and feature refined Neoclassical and Victorian motifs. Long Island and the Finger Lakes region of New York as well as Bergen County, New Jersey were major centers of coverlet production.

German immigrant weavers influenced the coverlets of Pennsylvania, Virginia (including West Virginia) and Maryland. Tied-Beiderwand was the structure preferred by most weavers. Horizontal color-banding, German folk motifs like the Distelfinken (thistle finch), and eight-point star and sunbursts are common. Pennsylvania and Mid-Atlantic coverlets tend to favor the inscribed cornerblock complete with weaver’s name, location, date, and customer. There were many regionalized woolen mills and factories throughout Pennsylvania. Most successful of these were Philip Schum and Sons in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Chatham’s Run Factory, owned by John Rich and better known today as Woolrich Woolen Mills.

Coverlet weavers were among some of the earliest European settler in the Northwest Territories. After helping to clear the land and establish agriculture, these weavers focused their attentions on establishing mills and weaving operations with local supplies, for local markets. This economic pattern helped introduce the American interior to an industrial economy. It also allowed the weaver to free himself and his family from traditional, less-favorable urban factory life. New land in Ohio and Indiana enticed weavers from the New York and Mid-Atlantic traditions to settle in the Northwest Territories. As a result, coverlets from this region hybridized, blending the fondness for color found in Pennsylvania coverlets with the refinement of design and Scottish influence of the New York coverlets.

Southern coverlets almost always tended to be woven in overshot patterns. Traditional hand-weaving also survived longest in the South. Southern Appalachian women were still weaving overshot coverlets at the turn of the twentieth century. These women and their coverlets helped in inspire a wave of Settlement Schools and mail-order cottage industries throughout the Southern Appalachian region, inspiring and contributing to Colonial Revival design and the Handicraft Revival. Before the Civil War, enslaved labor was often used in the production of Southern coverlets, both to grow and process the raw materials, and to transform those materials into a finished product.

Because so many coverlets have been passed down as family heirlooms, retaining documentation on their maker or users, they provide a visual catalog of America’s path toward and response to industrialization. Coverlet weavers have sometimes been categorized as artisan weavers fighting to keep a traditional craft alive. New research, however, is showing that many of these weavers were on the forefront of industry in rural America. Many coverlet weavers began their American odyssey as immigrants, recruited from European textile factories—along with their families—to help establish industrial mills in America. Families saved their money, bought cheaper land in America’s rural interior and took their mechanical skills and ideas about industrial organization into the American heartland. Once there, these weavers found options. They could operate as weaver-farmers, own a small workshop, partner with a local carding mill, or open their own small, regional factories. They were quick to embrace new weaving technologies, including power looms, and frequently advertised in local newspapers. Coverlet weavers created small pockets of residentiary industry that relied on a steady flow of European-trained immigrants. These small factories remained successful until after the Civil War when the railroads made mass-produced, industrial goods more readily available nationwide.

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The Catlin brothers shared some of the responsibilities with other partners when it came to running the manufacturing businesses. Brewster, the same individual who had a hand in the oil mill along the Winooski River also worked with one of the Catlin’s in the satinet factory. Carding machines were used in the factory to straighten and untangle the fibers of wool before yarn could be spun.1 There was a newspaper article from 1838 that describes a satinet factory 100 feet by 50 feet. This description matches the one in Johnson’s survey which is represented in the map at the top of the page. This article in the Burlington Free Press states that there was at that time 40 looms in the factory and a brick boarding house for the workers.2 Looking at Johnson’s survey in University of Vermont’s Special Collections one can see that there was a brick house close to the factory, right across of what is now Mill Street, which is also seen on the map above. The mill, which was built in 1814, used carding machines to produce “merino wool”. The Vermont Centinel at that time proclaimed that the quality of the wool produced at the satinet factory was “such (that) has never before been in operation in this state”.3

Alfred and Dan Day are the ones who operated the paper mill along the Winooski River. They had experience working in paper mills before, for a time they worked in the Milton mill as “journeyman”.1 Later they started this paper mill with one of the Catlin brothers. The mill first opened in April of 1814 and stopped operations in 1832, followed by the building burning down in 1838.2 Two years after the mill closed, Alfred Day died when he fell from a wagon and fractured his skill.3

Traditionally, manufacturing paper did take some skill, especially if it was handmade.4 It was commonly produced using fibers obtained from cotton, wood, hemp, jute, or flax seed. The process started with a vat filled with water, were the material would be literally beaten to a pulp. Many mills in the beginning would only have in their possession one vat, but some had more.5 In the case of the mill along the Winooski River, they had one vat, one engine, and two presses, which were operated by six men and four women.6 The next step was to collect the pulp in molds; this process would involve the individual to dip the mold into the vat. The mold would be rectangular and had wire mesh covering the inside. This would allow the excess water to drain out leaving only the pulp. Heavy pressure was then put onto the mold to draw out most of the water that was left. Then the mold would be removed, reveling the sheet of paper. The sheet would then be hung up to dry in a room that was well ventilated.7

Paper manufacturing in the United States took a while to develop. The first papermaking mill was in Philadelphia in 1690 by William Bradford and William Rittenhouse. Later, early mills could be found in places like Alstead, New Hampshire and Bellows Falls, Vermont.8 Although Rittenhouse’s mill was started in the 17th century, it wasn’t until the 1820s that the United States Senate started using American made paper. The first one to supply the Senate was Simeon and Asa Butler of Sufield, Connecticut.9 This information is to show how dependent America was on foreign paper. Even though a lot of paper at that time was supplied from overseas mills, there was still a small demand for American paper. In the late 18th century printers in Albany and Troy were dependent on paper mills located in Hartford, Connecticut and even Burlington, Vermont.10 The mill that was owned by Day and Catlin shipped their product not only to the local community, but New York City, as well.11

1. John Bidwell, American Paper Mills 1690 – 1832, A Directory of the Paper Trade With Notes on Products, Watermarks, Distribution Methods, and Manufacturing Techniques (Dartmouth, 2013), 259.

In the same vicinity as Catlin’s grist mill, which can be seen on the map at the top of the page, was an oil mill. The exact relationship between these two buildings isn’t clear and a lot of this comes from the fact that no pictorial evidence has been found. Most of the information involving this mill has been found through newspapers and secondary sources. The oil mill came shortly after Moses Catlin and his wife acquired the land around the Winooski River. Catlin secured a license for a patented oil mill in 1818.1 He worked with a partner, and newspapers referred to the owners as Catlin and Brewster.2 Together they would give cash in exchange for flax seed.3 In 1846 the Winooski Mill Company, which would later be the company that would build the Chace Mill, started their operations in the now abandoned oil mill. It is unclear when Catlin and Brewster went out of business or moved their operations somewhere else. A description of the Winooski Mill Company in 1850, in the book Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods might give a hint to the Catlin and Brewster oil mill. It states that the Winooski Mill Company’s factory was a stone three-story structure with a 34 by 84 foot wooden building that was already on the site.4 Looking at this information the wooden building that was mentioned could be the size of Catlin and Brewster’s original oil mill. The Winooski Mill Company, which will be mentioned later in more detail had to move their operations because of a fire that destroyed the oil mill in 1852.5

The saw mill by the Winooski River seemed to be operated by Moses Catlin, and was powered by one water wheel. Most likely there was a lower level that housed the gears to power the saw much like in the grist mill. The book, Early American Mills by Martha Zimiles and Murray Zimiles says that saw mills were usually gabled structures, and opened on at least two sides. This was to allow an easy sawing operation. The logs would go in one way and out the adjacent side.1 This couldn’t happen in the case of Catlin’s saw mill considering that it had buildings and the river blocking three sides. The fact that the elevation that faced the courtyard was 64 feet long could give an explanation as to how the logs were moved into the building. The length probably allowed them to have one large entry, which was on the one side of the building. Another large entry would most likely be on the other side of the courtyard facing side to allow the lumber to be easily taken away. An 1820 census of manufacturing in the Burlington area shows that the saw mill was in operation fairly early. The census also reveals that the mill included a total of five saws that cut white pine logs, with the help of five male workers.2 The saw mill met its demise during a fire in 1838 that was started in the block factory.

It is impressive how much Burlington, Vermont and the Catlin brothers were connected to New York City. The influence that Guy Catlin had in the great city of New York was visible in his investment of what was known as the Winooski Patent Block Manufacturing Company. This short-lived factory was only in operation for two years. The fact that it was even surveyed by John Johnson is remarkable. (John Johnson"s original surveys can be found in the University of Vermont Special Collections.) The three-story factory with additional buildings situated around it and a chimney placed away from the main structure, was one of a kind in the United States. Along with the size of the building, John Johnson"s survey also states that it was primarily made out of wood and had a steam boiler in the basement. The Winooski Patent Block Manufacturing Company was originally formed on November 10, 1835 and its directors included George marsh, Guy Catlin, John Catlin, Uriah Bliss, and Peter Stuyvesant.1 The newly formed company took control of a New York company that use to be known as Livingston’s Patent Block Making Machinery. The Burlington factory used patented machines built by a man named Thomas Blanchard. The block factory in Burlington manufactured tackle blocks five to nine inches, plank blocks seven to 16 inches, and deadeyes. After manufacturing they would be shipped to New York City, where there was a store on 84 South Street.2 The factory moved to Burlington to take advantage of Vermont’s plentiful supply of wood, but a lot probably had to do with the fact that Catlin already had a lot of connections in the Burlington and Winooski area.3

Ship blocks have been around for a long time; they are an important tool in sailing. Before the 19th century these devises that could come in many shapes and sizes were made by hand, with only a small amount of work done by machines. This all changed thanks to England, and its royal navy. A factory in Portsmouth England is credited as being the first to create a production line designed to make ship blocks for the Royal Navy. They at one time had the ability to create over 200 different block designs. The blocks would be made from a solid piece of wood with pulleys inside that rotate and openings to allow ropes to pass through them.4 At that time, the Portsmouth factory was the only one that incorporated an entire production line from start to finish. Other manufacturing facilities, even in the United States incorporated some machines to make the process simpler. Alexandria Virginia had some machines for boring the holes and incorporated circular saws to help their manufacturing in 1796.

The concept of creating an assembly line to produce ship blocks wasn’t new even though it was innovative for America. What made the block factory in Burlington special and unique was because of the use of Thomas Blanchard’s block making machines. Since the Winooski Patent Block Company had the rights to Blanchard’s designs they were the only one in the country at that time who were using these machines. Blanchard had to have known about the factory in Portsmouth but his patented machines were not copies of what the British were using.5 August 1st to the 30-first was when Blanchard filed for the patent for nine ship block manufacturing equipment.6 It seems as though these machines could be used individually to assist someone that couldn’t afford all the patented designs, but that was probably not the intention. Since the machines don’t seem to overlap in the manufacturing process and because they were filed for patenting around the same time, Carolyn Cooper points out in the book, Shaping Invention, Thomas Blanchard’s Machinery and Patent Management in Nineteenth Century America that Blanchard must have intended for his inventions to be used as one assembly line. His machines were used to make all the parts of a ship block, the shell, pins, and other iron elements. 7

When the factory was built, it had to be very intriguing to the local community of Burlington and Winooski. It wasn’t long until the newspapers started talking about it. After it was constructed in 1836, a Burlington Free Press writer wrote that the factory was “filled with a series of the most ingenious machinery for the manufactor of ships blocks, deadeyes, besides newly invented machines for sawing out and finishing barrel staves”. The factory ran thanks to an 80 horsepower waterwheel; Portsmouth could only get up to 30. This marvel of engineering, which sat in a $7,000 dollar structure, was probably going to take over the ship block industry in America. This would have been the United States equivalent of the Portsmouth’s factory.8 Shortly after the factories construction, advertisements started appearing in the newspapers, proclaiming that ash timber was wanted at the factory. The wood couldn’t include any knots, shakes, or heartwood. They were looking for boards 7 inches by 1.5 to 1 5/8 inches, all the way to 14 inches by 2 3/8 to 2 5/ 8 inches. Also they sought white ash logs 22 inches in diameter and 14 feet long.9

This complex only lasted two years. A fire was started in the block factory in December of 1