From an Historical Address by Henry B. Russell, July, 1935 at Blandford Bicentennial Celebration.
From the first the pioneers wrested much profit from wood and brick was made early. Sawmills covered the hillside. A creamery, wheelwrights, tailor shops, a starch factory and hand corn mills followed. David Campbell built the first grist mill in 1745.
The rapid and unfailing brooks of Blandford, particularly of North Blandford, early provided means of water power after the crude fashion of old saw and grist mills, and towards the beginning of the town's second century other and larger industries developed and long persisted in a changing industrial area.
Owing to the depression following the War of 1812, the early effort of Amos Collins and others to manufacture woolen goods was abandoned. In 1825 however, Freegrace Norton took over the mill added to it and operated with good success. According to one authority this mill in 1837 manufactured 13,000 yards of cloth valued at $10,000. In 1838 Edwin Ely became associated with the enterprise and the firm of Norton and Ely was prominently identified with this and other industries for several years.
Tanning began early, Robert Huston, a first settler, and the Lloyds were early in the business. Lyman, a son of James Lloyd, moved to Albany where he had the distinction of making the first gold mounted harness in America. It was sent to the London Fair of 1851 and sold to Prince Albert. The Queen sent him some medals.
The sons of John Watson, who early established a business on what is still known as Tannery Hill, became builders of the industries of North Blandford. By 1853 the tanning business had so grown in importance as to have an annual product valued at $38,000. Others in the business were Norton & Ely, Robinson & Brigham, Alfred Peckham, David Bates, Foot & Kyle. Daniel Fay manufactured bedsteads; Joseph Kitman made butter prints, rolling pins, etc. Gibbs Brothers and D.C. Healy both turned out wooden bowls. Lyman Gibbs had a paper mill. At one time in the decade before the Civil War the teams of Norton & Ely and Gibbs Brothers carted to the railroad at Chester Factories lumber, leather, and other products to an amount of no less than 500 tons annually.
The preeminence gained by Massachusetts many years ago in the shoe and leather business is traced back to the small town tanneries and cordwainers of a century or more ago. Blandford gained special prominence because of the home cheese industry that required large herds of cows, while oxen were the chief motor power in farming. Farmers produced the hides, tanners tanned them, and cordwainers shod the people-an example of that self-sufficiency in which Blandford was nurtured and developed. Such self- sufficiency has been the making of America.
The close relation of cheese, cattle, tanneries, and shoemaking is partly revealed in relics of pages of an old account book from 1835-1848 of an unidentified Blandford shoemaker. Sometimes farmers took their ox or cow skins or their calf skins to the tanneries to sell or to get the leather to take to the shoemaker. Merchants exchanged wares for boots and apparently sometimes doctors got their pay in hides, tanned or untanned. The standard cordwainer price for a pair of thick boots was $1.50. That also was the cost of a cord of wood; so accounts often show that Bland- ford citizens traded a cord of wood for a pair of boots.
The list of patrons of this unidentified shoemaker (perhaps Halsey Bowers) reads like a social register of the town. It included the merchants, the doctor, the lawyer and the minister as well as the farmers, and prices were the same to all. A year before Orrin Sage moved to Ware he paid 50 cents for soling and heeling a pair of calf skin shoes and twenty cents for cap- ping a pair of boots. Shoes for Dr. Wright's family were paid for partly in cash and partly in calf skins.
The Reverend Mr. Hinsdale was a good patron of this shoemaker as appears from these entries in the 1840s: Soling a pair of boots for Harriet-30 cents; soling a pair of boots for William-38 cents; making a pair of calf skin shoes for William-$1.75; making a pair of high calf skin shoes for James-$2.25; and mending a pair of shoes for James-8 cents.
In various barters for shoes - butter was reckoned at 17 cents, veal 3-4 cents, beef 32 cents, pork 7 cents a pound, and apples at 33 cents a bushel.
William C. Higgins moved his basket factory from Ringville to North Bland- ford about 1850 and conducted a successful business for forty years.
Addison and Charles Waite operated most successfully a card board factory from 1846-1911.
The rapid and unfailing brooks of Blandford, particularly of North Blandford, early provided means of water power after the crude fashion of old saw and grist mills, and towards the beginning of the town's second century other and larger industries developed and long persisted in a changing industrial area.
Owing to the depression following the War of 1812, the early effort of Amos Collins and others to manufacture woolen goods was abandoned. In 1825 however, Freegrace Norton took over the mill added to it and operated with good success. According to one authority this mill in 1837 manufactured 13,000 yards of cloth valued at $10,000. In 1838 Edwin Ely became associated with the enterprise and the firm of Norton and Ely was prominently identified with this and other industries for several years.
Tanning began early, Robert Huston, a first settler, and the Lloyds were early in the business. Lyman, a son of James Lloyd, moved to Albany where he had the distinction of making the first gold mounted harness in America. It was sent to the London Fair of 1851 and sold to Prince Albert. The Queen sent him some medals.
The sons of John Watson, who early established a business on what is still known as Tannery Hill, became builders of the industries of North Blandford. By 1853 the tanning business had so grown in importance as to have an annual product valued at $38,000. Others in the business were Norton & Ely, Robinson & Brigham, Alfred Peckham, David Bates, Foot & Kyle. Daniel Fay manufactured bedsteads; Joseph Kitman made butter prints, rolling pins, etc. Gibbs Brothers and D.C. Healy both turned out wooden bowls. Lyman Gibbs had a paper mill. At one time in the decade before the Civil War the teams of Norton & Ely and Gibbs Brothers carted to the railroad at Chester Factories lumber, leather, and other products to an amount of no less than 500 tons annually.
The preeminence gained by Massachusetts many years ago in the shoe and leather business is traced back to the small town tanneries and cordwainers of a century or more ago. Blandford gained special prominence because of the home cheese industry that required large herds of cows, while oxen were the chief motor power in farming. Farmers produced the hides, tanners tanned them, and cordwainers shod the people-an example of that self-sufficiency in which Blandford was nurtured and developed. Such self- sufficiency has been the making of America.
The close relation of cheese, cattle, tanneries, and shoemaking is partly revealed in relics of pages of an old account book from 1835-1848 of an unidentified Blandford shoemaker. Sometimes farmers took their ox or cow skins or their calf skins to the tanneries to sell or to get the leather to take to the shoemaker. Merchants exchanged wares for boots and apparently sometimes doctors got their pay in hides, tanned or untanned. The standard cordwainer price for a pair of thick boots was $1.50. That also was the cost of a cord of wood; so accounts often show that Bland- ford citizens traded a cord of wood for a pair of boots.
The list of patrons of this unidentified shoemaker (perhaps Halsey Bowers) reads like a social register of the town. It included the merchants, the doctor, the lawyer and the minister as well as the farmers, and prices were the same to all. A year before Orrin Sage moved to Ware he paid 50 cents for soling and heeling a pair of calf skin shoes and twenty cents for cap- ping a pair of boots. Shoes for Dr. Wright's family were paid for partly in cash and partly in calf skins.
The Reverend Mr. Hinsdale was a good patron of this shoemaker as appears from these entries in the 1840s: Soling a pair of boots for Harriet-30 cents; soling a pair of boots for William-38 cents; making a pair of calf skin shoes for William-$1.75; making a pair of high calf skin shoes for James-$2.25; and mending a pair of shoes for James-8 cents.
In various barters for shoes - butter was reckoned at 17 cents, veal 3-4 cents, beef 32 cents, pork 7 cents a pound, and apples at 33 cents a bushel.
William C. Higgins moved his basket factory from Ringville to North Bland- ford about 1850 and conducted a successful business for forty years.
Addison and Charles Waite operated most successfully a card board factory from 1846-1911.