TS IC-NRLF SB IDS 133 HMB THE OF PC PTC l intents o/^ PEPPEI^LL MANUFACTURING CO GIFT OF THE ROMANCE OF PEPPERELL /T BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HOW A ^* GREAT INDUSTRY DEVEL- OPED AT BIDDEFORD TOGETHER WITH ILLUSTRATIONS SHOWING HOW PEPPERELL WIDE SHEETINGS AND PILLOW TUBINGS ARE MADE PUBLISHED BY THE PEPPERELL MANUFACTURING Co. BIDDEFORD MAINE COPYRIGHT 1921 BY THE PEPPERELL MANUFACTURING CO. BIDDEFORD, MAINE U'rittrn, desired, and Printed by direction of Walton Advertising and Printing Co. Boston, Mass. fir fa FOREWORD It gives us pleasure to present to you "The Romance of Pepper- ell," which we hope will be of interest to you and your family. Romance is always interesting whether it deals with individuals or things. Inasmuch as there is much of romance in the history of the Pepperell Mills, the management believes that this history, embodied in an attractive form, will prove worthy of perusal by those already familiar with Pepperell Sheeting and will not be uninteresting to those to whom Pepperell products are little known. An effort has here been made to sketch briefly how the industry came to be and, by means of illustrations, to show some of the mar- velous mechanical processes that are used in the production of Pep- perell Sheeting. The romance begins far back in Colonial times when fearless and independent men and women were settling New England, taming a primeval wilderness and meeting the attacks of enemies, both savage and civilized. It tells you about the interesting courtship of Sir William Pepperrell, what he did for early New England, and how he captured the great French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia. It narrates how he started the early industries on the Saco River at Biddeford, Maine, where now are located the mills of the Pepper- ell Manufacturing Company, pictures the quaint and crude ways in which our great grandmothers spun and wove, and shows by its modern illustrations the present methods which have taken the place of the primitive ways of the past. \Ve feel sure after you have read this that you will have a more intimate acquaintance with the great mills of the Pepperell Manu- facturing Company and perhaps will want to know more of the products which to-day are made by them. In addition to sheeting they manufacture many other varieties of cotton goods, all ob- tainable under the Pepperell trade-mark and ticket. The annual output of their looms, placed end to end, is sufficiently great to go nearly one and one-half times around the earth at the equator. Pepperell products are known to every retailer in the United States. The Company wishes to thank the following for their assistance in the preparation of this volume: Mr. G. D. Harrison, Mr. Burton H. Winslow, Mr. Thomas L. Evans, Judge George Addison Emery, Mr. John Haley, Mr. Frank C. Deering, Mrs. Miriam Mitchell. We are also indebted to "The Story of Textiles" for data relating to the early methods of spinning and weaving, and to the Draper Company for permission to use their cut. r?> 456506 <,>->. . , , ^ ','.;>:<, , v. The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL BOUT the Pepperell Mills lingers the glamour of romance. Its very site was once owned by that "mighty man of Kittery," Sir William Pepperrell, whose valiant conquest of the strong fortress of Louisburg forms a most thrilling chapter in our Colonial history. At one time a large piece of the land in the neighborhood of Biddeford was owned by Sir William. Across the river, a short distance away, was located the garrison house which he and his business associates built to protect his mills from the Indians. To Kittery Point, not far from here, Sir William, who was as redoubtable a lover as he was a conqueror, took his young bride whom he had wooed and won from many suitors in Boston town. Few places are so rich in fact and tradition as Biddeford, the town upon the Saco* River, where now loom so impressively the ex- tensive buildings of the Pepperell Mills. Here where their brick walls glow red in the sunlight, once stood the old stone fort built by the colonists during the troublesome times of the Indian wars. On "Factory Island," known for years as "Indian Island," were the dwelling places of the Indian sagamores of Colonial days, and here and there in the town and in its neighborhood are places of historical interest recalling thrilling incidents of the French and English warfare. Is it not fitting, therefore, that any story of the extensive sheet- ing industry on the Saco, which sends its millions of yards of finished products to every nook and corner of the world, should begin with the romantic story of Sir William Pepperrell whose name has been given to the mills? And is it not quite as appropriate that the *Pronounced "Sawco" - The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL compiler should linger for a while over the historic events of Colonial history, in which Biddeford and Sir William Pepperrell have filled so important a place? Till "MIGHTY MAN OF KITTERY" AND MAID MARY Whether he \\ere battering at the mighty fortress of Louisburg, or besieging the mysterious heart of a woman, the line of attack pursued by that "mighty man of Kittery," Sir William Pepperrell, was much the same. His methods were characterized by infinite caution, sound judgment, strong resolution and due regard to ail. So it happened that, when on one of his trips to Boston to attend to matters pertaining to the great mercantile firm of Pepperrell and Son, young William met the fascinating Mary Hirst, grand- daughter of Judge Sewall of the Supreme Court, he decided after due consideration that she should become Lady Pepperrell. Not only was she a member of a distinguished Boston family, but she possessed those practical, domestic virtues which would admirably fit her to preside over his household. He took no chances of winning his suit solely on the merits of his engaging personality and polished manners, of which he could not have been wholly unconscious, nor upon the fact that he was heir to a vast fortune; but he presented the young lady with gold rings, a large hoop for her skirt and numerous other gifts of considerable value, designed to impress upon her the extent and sincerity of his affection. It was not to be wondered at that a girl as charming as Miss Mary should have had other suitors. She frequently visited at me of the Rev. Samuel Moody of York, whose wife, a Hirst her marriage, was Mary's aunt. It is recorded that the "inpletely bewildered by the attractions of the lady. Certainly he looked with no favorable eye upon the Between Mary and W 7 illiam, but he was helpless interfere. In a remarkably short space of time, due possibly the gold rings and the hoop, young William succeeded in winning ttle lady's affections; and on the sixteenth of March, 1723, .en he was twenty-seven years of age, he led her to the altar! om all accounts William Pepperrell was greatly to be con- gratulated, for his young wife received much praise for her "natural and acquired powers, for brilliant wit and sweetness of temper" are told that she proved a most excellent wife, "but was a very *oman with small intellect." The description referring to her mf- \\fr-t c.r>i.- -U- i -o^j I^LI^H iciciinitr LU I 1 Udl< rather un Just, and is wholly unsubstantiated 'Is. The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL It is said that at the time of her marriage her father wrote her a letter containing much valuable advice for young married ladies. In this letter she is charged never to work one moment after sunset on Saturday evening and never to lay aside her knitting without its being in the middle of the needle; always to rise with the sun, to pass an hour every day with her housekeeper; to visit every depart- ment from garret to cellar, to attend to the brewing of her beer, the baking of her bread, and to instruct every member of her house- hold in their religious duties. If she adhered strictly to these rules, it is hardly to be wondered at that she had little time to exercise her intellect. It is safe to say that Lady Pepperrell never regretted her choice of husband, for Sir William Pepperrell stands out as one of the most distinguished men of pre-Revolutionary days, and any woman might well be proud to bear his name. Not only did his native colony bestow upon him the greatest gift within its power, that of President of the Council, but he received from the British Govern- ment the highest honors conferred upon a colonist before the Revolution, for he was made a baronet, and a colonel in the British regular army and was promoted by successive grades to the rank of lieutenant-general in that army. His rise to fame and prosperity is all the more remarkable when one considers the humble beginning of the Pepperrell family in this country. The father of Sir William had come to America from \Vales, when he was twenty-two years of age. He arrived at the Isle of Shoals without a shilling in his pocket. At first he engaged in the occupation of fishing, which in time led to the boat-building industry. The latter pursuit took him frequently to Kittery Point, Maine, where he met John Bray, the pioneer ship builder at Kittery, and incidentally his pretty young daughter, Margery, who was at that time sixteen years of age. Now Mr. Bray was much interested in the young man, but not to the extent of giving him his daughter for a wife, for young Pepperrell had not been slow in making known his aspirations along that line. After the lapse of a few years, how- ever, when Margery had reached a more suitable age, and Pepperrell had given evidence of his remarkable ability, the father readily consented to their marriage. He bestowed upon the young couple his blessing also a large tract of land adjoining his own farm at Kittery Point. On this land was erected the famous old Pepperrell mansion where Sir William, sixth of the eight children of the elder William Pepperrell, was born on the twenty-seventh of June, 1696. Those were stirring times, for King William's War was raging, and on every side were being enacted scenes of horror and tragedy. Danger lurked in the very air. Held close in his mother's arms, the The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL boy must frequently have heard the grown people discuss with bated breath the Indian massacres and outrages which occurred during those troublesome times. At Rye, then known as Sandy Beach, only a few miles away, twenty-one people were killed or taken captive during one raid, and later four were captured, fourteen killed and the entire village burned. A neighbor and intimate friend of the Pepperrell family, Major Charles Frost, was waylaid and shot w r hile returning from church. Mrs. Ursula Cutts, a dear friend of Mrs. Pepperrell, was tomahawked and scalped with a number of others while she was waiting for the Waldron family to arrive for the dinner she had just prepared, which was ready and waiting upon the table. No one knew where the blow would fall next. For three years after Sir William was born the w r ar continued to rage, then after an interval of four years was renewed and lasted until 1713, so that thirteen out of the first seventeen years of his life were spent amid the perils and dangers of Indian warfare. It was not strange that there should be awakened in his boyish heart a longing for daring deeds of heroism. It would seem that from his very cradle he was being prepared for that brilliant exploit the capture of Louisburg. With what thrills of delight he would watch the military drills of his father's company, when he was a boy, and listen to the thundering of the cannon at the fort and at Great Island! When he was but sixteen he bore arms in patrol duty and in keeping watch and ward. Like most of the young men of that time, Sir William's early education consisted of little more than an elementary training in "reading, writing and 'rithmetic." His father, however, secured for him an instructor who taught him surveying and navigation, two very important branches of knowledge for a colonist and ship owner. Constant activity in the open air, voyages on the sea and exploration in the Maine w r oods where he had many an encounter with hostile Indians developed in him a superb physical strength and endurance. Gradually the Pepperrells extended their business activities until they possessed the largest mercantile firm in he new world and had amassed a princely fortune. Their warehouses were filled \vith fish from the Banks o. Newfoundland; with sugar and molasses from the West Indies; hemp, iron, linen and silk from Great Britain; and with naval stores from the Carolinas. They had over a hundred vessels engaged in fishing and in foreign trade, and the name and pennant of the firm were to be seen in London and Bristol, in Havana and at Charleston, in Wilmington and Boston. Part of their rapidly increasing fortune was invested in large tracts of land in Maine, which afforded lumber for their ship-building enter- prise, one of the chief sources of their wealth. When Andrew, Sir The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL William's only brother, died, the firm name was changed from William Pepperrell & Son to William Pepperrells. Young William made a valuable partner in the enterprise and did much toward extending its sphere of business. When he was n his early twenties he estab- lished a branch of the house in Boston. While conducting this end of the firm's activities, he formed many intimate acquaintances with public men in Boston, was introduced into the best society and acquired those courtly manners and the pleasing address for which he became so distinguished. It was only to be expected that a man of his personality and ability should take a prominent part in the affairs of the colony. He was but twenty-one when he was commissioned captain of a company of infantry, and not long after was promoted to the rank of major and lieutenant-colonel. At the age of thirty he was chosen representative from Kittery to the Massachusetts Legislature, and during the same year was made a colonel, which placed him in command of all the militia of Maine. The following year he was appointed a member of the Massachusetts Council by Governor Belcher. In 1730 the Governor appointed him Chief Justice of the C<>urt of Common Pleas for Maine, an office which he held until his death. Undaunted by his lack of education for such a position, Pepperrell immediately sent to London for a law library. It is said of him by his eulogist, Rev. Dr. Stevens, that: "being intrusted with the execution of the laws, he distributed justice with equity and impartiality. And though he was not insensible of the necessity of discountenancing vice by proper punishments, yet the humanity of his temper disposed him to make all those allowances which might be alleged in extenuation of the fault." 'IHl CONQUEST OF LOUISBURG In the very midst of his public and private activities, when he was heavily pressed by the cares and anxieties attending his numer- as well as the management of the great mercantile firm which he had fallen heir upon the death of his father, Colonel Pepperell was called upon to lay aside his cash book and ledger and :imand of the Colonial forces in the expedition against Louis- The American Colonies had been watching with much interest iety the progress of the war between England and Spain- the tortunes of battle seemed to be favoring the English i- apprehension became general that Spain would seek, and doubt- am, an alliance with France, and that the Colonies would into the conflict. Nor was the fear unfounded! In 17^ lOf Shirley received dispatches from England, stating that The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL in all probability war would soon be declared. In October of that year he informed Colonel Pepperrell of the state of affairs and instructed him to prepare the frontier for war immediately. The Colonel at once sent orders to this effect to his officers, adding to his letters of instruction the following message: "I hope that He who gave us our breath will give us the courage and prudence to behave ourselves like true-born Englishmen." In March of the following year war was declared by the French, and hostilities immediately commenced in Nova Scotia. On the island of Cape Breton, which with the island of Newfoundland guarded the entrance to the St. Lawrence, the French had erected the mighty citadel of Louisburg, named for King Louis, the Magnifi- cent. Five millions of dollars had been expended and twenty-five years consumed in the construction of the city and fort. A solid stone rampart, two and a half miles in circumference, surrounded the citadel. At the fortress were one hundred and one cannon, seventy-six swivels and six mortars. The capacious harbor which afforded a safe anchorage for the French men-of-war, a place of refuge for their merchantmen and fishing vessels and a convenient gathering place for their privateers, was defended by an island battery of thirty-two "twenty-two pounders" and a royal battery of fifty cannon on the shore, with a moat and bastion so perfect that it is said, "They thought two hundred men could defend it against a thousand." The garrison of sixteen hundred men was a constant menace to the Colonies. The fort itself was a depot for the war supplies of all the French armies in Canada. Clearly Louis- burg must be captured, but how? At its winter session, the Legisla- ture of the New England Colonies discussed plans of action. That no suspicion of these plans should reach the French, the Legislature had been laid under a strict oath of secrecy during their deliberations. One of its members, however a pious old deacon was overheard at his private devotions invoking God's blessing upon the enter- prise, and so the affair leaked out. After considerable opposition, and much discussion, the expedition was finally decided upon, and once the decision was made, the people became enthusiastic in its support. Now remained the difficult task of securing a commander for the expedition. A long period of peace had brought about a dearth of officers experienced in difficult military manoeuvres; but there was one man whose training in the border wars with the Indians, and whose remarkable ability for making a success of any venture, however difficult or foreign to his experience, had won the confidence of the people as had no other in the entire colony, and that was Colonel William Pepperrell. He was unanimously chosen for the The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL position, and was officially appointed by Governor Shirley. Would he accept? At first he was reluctant. His beloved wife was ill, and his business in an unsettled state. The success of the venture was exceedingly doubtful. With his characteristic caution, he care- fully considered the matter. The famous preacher, George White- field, who was on one of his missionary expeditions through New Knulaiul, was at that time a guest at the Colonel's home; and when consulted by Pepperrell in regard to the affair, he said: "I do not think the scheme very promising; if you take the appointment the M of all the world will be upon you; if you do not succeed, the widows and orphans of the slain will reproach you. If you do Micceed, many will regard you with envy, and endeavor to eclipse your glory. You ought, therefore, if you go at all, to go with a single eye, and you will find your strength proportioned to your neces Convinced at last that his country depended upon him in this hour of need, Pepperrell laid aside his other interests and responded to its call. Within two months he had recruited and equipped a force sufficient to undertake the expedition. He also contributed freely from his own purse to the funds which had to be raised to finance the affair. ( )n the twenty-fourth of March, the Massachusetts troops set >ail. It was a bright, breezy day. In the hearts of the people who thronged to the dock to see the men off, were mingled hope and fear. Colonel Pepperrell, in his scarlet uniform, with a Bible in his pocket, i farewell to the group of officials and friends who had accom- panied him to the ship, and went to join his men. It was a motley throng, the men being clad in garments of many hues. They came from nearly every walk of life. "The officers," Hawthorne tells re grave deacons, justices of the peace and similar digni- taries." There were sons of rich farmers, mechanics, fishermen, merchants and carpenters, "husbands weary of their wives, and bachelors disconsolate for want of them." Above them in the breeze fluttered their flag with its motto, "Nil Desperandum, Christo urnished by the Rev. George Whitefield, giving to the expedition the semblance of a crusade. They arrived at Canso, the gathering place for the Colonial troops, on the first of April. Commodore Warren, with the West India fleet, arrived shortly to take charge of the naval end of the t was a tremendous task which confronted these untrained dial troops, but with a skill and foresight which distinguished Dne of the greatest of Colonial generals, Colonel Pepperrell Fully directed the operations. Regardless of raging surf de, the troops landed immediately upon their arrival, 12 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL made their way through thickets and bogs, and on sledges which they had constructed they dragged their cannon through morasses knee-deep in mud. Under Pepperrell's leadership they learned to co-operate and were able to conduct their attack against the trained French troops entrenched behind the strong fortifications, with comparatively small loss of life. Forty-nine days after their arrival at Louisburg, that mighty fortress capitulated. It was a great day for the provincial army, which marched into the fortress through the south-west gate and paraded before the French troops who were drawn up in front of the barracks to receive them. What a curious sight the men of the Colonial army must have presented as they marched in triumph through Louisburg! Hawthorne tells us of one man who had gone to war equipped with two plain shirts and one ruffled one. The last he had saved for the day of victory, and he made a ludicrous figure as he marched along in his rough brown suit and blue yarn stockings, with the huge frills sticking forth from his bosom. The news of the fall of Louisburg was received with rejoicing in England as well as the Colonies. At Boston and Salem, in New York and Philadelphia, bells were rung, bonfires lighted and cannon fired. Air. Harding referred in the House of Commons to the victory as "an everlasting monument to the zeal, courage and perseverance of the troops of New England," and Voltaire, in his history of the Reign of Louis the Fifteenth, ranks the capture of this strong fortress, by husbandmen, among the great events of the period. Colonel Pepperrell was made a baronet and was given a high commission in the British regular army. In 1749 he visited England and was received with marked distinction. He took no glory to himself for the success of this great enterprise, but ascribed it all to the prayers of the people. He had sacrificed not only his business interests by devoting over a year to this military service, for he remained in command at Louisburg some time after its surrender, but he permanently injured his health by exposure to the cold and dampness of the low marsh ground in front of Louisburg where he contracted rheumatism which later caused his death. After his marriage to Mary Hirst, Pepperrell took up his resi- dence in the family mansion at Kittery. A large part of each year, however, was spent by the family in Boston, where the Colonel was occupied with his business affairs and his activities as President of the Council for the Colony of Massachusetts, and other public duties, while Lady Pepperrell devoted herself to her home cares and the education of the children. Keenly aware of the importance of learning, Colonel Pepperrell determined that his children should have the best educational advantages which Boston afforded. They 13 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL had four children, two of whom died in infancy. Upon the others, Elizabeth and Andrew, were centered all the affection and hopes of their devoted parents. Elizabeth, the only daughter of a distin- guished merchant, with her winning personality and rare accomplish- ments was a popular belle in Boston society circles, and figured prominently in the activities of the younger social set. Many were, the admirers who flocked about her and staked their happiness for ijrlc smile. It was Nathaniel Sparhawk, son of a clergyman in tol, Rhode Island, who finally succeeded in winning her affec- N- INMTATIOX TO SIR WILLIAM PEPPERRELL IX ' i ' s- young couple were united in S P' endid ROMANCE of PEPPERELL Great preparations were made for the wedding of Sir William's only daughter. The following letter, ordering a portion of her trous- seau, was sent by Sir William to his agent in London. "Piscataqua in New Eng. "Oct. I4th, 1741. "FRANCIS WILLIS, ESQ.: "Sir, Your favor of the i6th May and 26th June last I rec. by Capt. Prince, for which am much obliged to you. Enclosed you have a receipt for 46 p'ds of gold weighing 20 ounces which will be delivered to you, 1 hope, by Capt. Robert Noble of ye ship America which please to rec. and credit to my acc't w r ith, and send me by ye lirst opportunity, for this place or Boston, silk to make a woman a full suite of clothes, the ground to be white paduroy & flowered with all sorts of colors suitable for a young woman. Another of white watered tabby and gold lace for trimming of it 12 yds. of green paduroy 13 yds. of lace for a woman's head dress 2 inches wide as can be bought for 135 per yd. a handsome fan with leather mounting, as good as can be bought about 2Os. 2 pair silk shoes and clogs a size bigger than ye shoes. "Your servant to command, "WM. PEPPERRELL." The difficulty of securing textiles at this early period is apparent from the above letter. All of the luxuries and most of the neccessi- ties possessed by the colonists of Sir William's time had to be im- ported from abroad, for only the coarsest of home-spun materials were made in this country. ANDREW PEPPERRELL'S UNFORTUNATE ROMANCE Andrew, only son and heir of the Pepperrell name and fortune, was the idol of his parents. When only nineteen he graduated from Harvard with distinguished honors. Of a kind and affectionate disposition, and with the polished manners and courtly bearing so characteristic of his father, he was a great favorite among a wide circle of acquaintances. The news of his engagement to Hannah, daughter of General Samuel Waldo, the devoted friend of Sir William, was received with much rejoicing by both families, and caused no little excitement among the fashionable set in Boston. Part of the fortune bestowed by Sir William upon his son went toward the erection of a beautiful house at Kittery, which was made ready for the bride. The day of the wedding was set when Andrew became seriously ill, and the affair had to be postponed. After his recovery, the day was again set at various times, but was postponed by Andrew upon one pretext or another. Finally, after the lapse of about two years, the date was again announced, the invitations extended and everything in readiness for the ceremony, when Miss Hannah received a letter from Andrew asking for another postponement of a few days. It is possible that his illness which was followed by severe losses of property at sea had ROMANCE of PEPPERELL caused a state of despondency which accounted for Andrew's strange actions. Hannah made no reply to the note asking for another postponement, but when the day arrived which Andrew had named nore convenient for him, and the wedding guests were assembled and the minister about to perform the ceremony, Hannah turned to Andrew and informed him "that all was at an end between them,, for he certainly could have no true affection for one whom he had so constantly mortified." The affair was enough to make Boston Vty hold its breath, but not its tongue, especially when in less than six weeks, Hannah was led to the altar by Thomas Fluker, lire, secretary of the province. Both families were greatly disturbed by the unpleasant denouement of the affair. General \Valdo wrote to Sir William from London: "1 was i: really chagrined at the news of my daughter's changing her mind and dismissing your son after the visit you mention, which I was apprised of by her, and concluded that the affair would have had the issue I had long ex- <d and desired, and that the ship which brought the unwelcome news of a .it ion. \\ould have given me the most agreeable advice of its consumma- tion; but I find she was jealous that Mr. Pepperrell had not the love and friend- ship for her that was necessary to make her happy. This I understand from her letter to me, and that the last promise made when your son was in Boston disregarded by him in not returning at the period he had fixed. This disap- pointment to a close union with your family, which above all things I desired, had given me great uneasiness, and the addition thereto will be greater if I should find ihc fault lie on my daughter; but be that as it ma}-, I should be very to have it break friendship between us, or any of the several branches of our families; those of yours I assure you I wish as well as to my own, and I shall, if ever in my power, convince them of it. "S. W." SIR WILLIAM'S BEREAVEMENT This unfortunate ending to the proposed marriage of his son .-real disappointment to Sir William, but an even greater was to come to him, for that idolized son in whom all his and ambitions were centered was to be taken from him. On wemieth of February, 1751, Andrew attended a social gathering Kmouth one of the gayest of the merry group of young e returned home late that night, and the next day de- loped a fever brought on by the exposure to the cold while crossing jcataqua. This soon developed into typhoid. The best mmmoned but the young man grew steadily worse. was a man of strong religious principles and a firm in prayer besought the clergy in neighboring parishes to Wm and h,s family in praying for the son's recovery, "ing pathetic appeal was sent by Sir William and his al messenger to the ministers in Boston: 16 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL "DEAR CHRISTIAN FRIENDS: "The great and holy, just and good God is come out against us in his holy anger. O, may it be fatherly anger! He is bringing our sins to remembrance, and seems to be slaying our only son. O pray! pray! pray! for us, that the Lord would keep us from dishonoring his great name in our distress and anguish of soul; that He would support us under, and carry us through, what he shall, in his sovereign pleasure, bring upon us, and if it be his blessed will, that our child may yet be spared to us, and sanctified and made a blessing. Pity us, O our friends, and cry mightily to God for us! "\\'e art- your distressed friends, "WILLIAM PEPPERRELL, "MARY PEPPERRELL. "P. S. Dear cousin Gerrish, let our case be known to Christian friends along the road, and carry this letter as soon as you get to town, to each one of the ministers to whom it is addressed." Through the long night hours the grief-stricken parents watched over their son, but Divine Providence had not willed that he should be spared, and on March first, ten days after he became ill, Andrew was taken from them, in the twenty-sixth year of his life. It was a severe blow to the parents, and one which almost staggered the heart-broken father. Fame and prosperity had been his. From the uneducated son of a poor fisherman, he had risen to a position of wealth and importance in the colony. His commanding of the untrained Colonial forces in the siege against Louisburg and the almost miraculous success of the expedition, had made his name famous on both sides of the Atlantic, and England had bestowed upon him many honors. In his splendid mansion, which was the gathering place for prominent and distinguished visitors, were hung costly paintings and mirrors. His sideboards were loaded with silver and his cellars filled with choice wines. Beautiful deer roamed in his park. But all of these he counted as nothing in comparison to the son of whose future he had dreamed since Andrew was a tiny babe. Now his fondest hopes were blasted, and the object of his greatest ambition was gone forever! He felt that his own life was drawing to a close yet he did not retire from public activities, but continued to serve wherever he was needed up to the time of his death. He rendered much valuable assistance in conducting important negotiations with the Indians of Maine at various times. In 1754 he received orders to raise a regiment of foot for service in the royal army, and while in New York on military business the following year he was commissioned a major-general in the British regular army. He did not serve in the field at that time, owing to jealousy on the part of Governor Shirley, but he took an active part in raising troops for the war which England was then waging with the French, and was given command of the forces which guarded the frontiers of Maine and New Hampshire. On the sixth of July, 1759, just as victory was The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL about to crown the efforts of the British forces, Death summoned the old veteran from the field of action, and, laying aside his earthly cares, he went forth to join the beloved son whom he had lost^eight n before. On the day when the "mighty man of Kittery" was Jaid to rest, drooping flairs hung at half mast on both sides of the I'iscataijua. \\hile from the neighboring churches came the sound of tilling bells, mingled \\ith the salutes of the minute guns from the batterie>, and the mournful rumbling of muffled drums. ( )ver one hundred and sixty years have passed since the death ,-f Sir William, but the name of the old baronet still lingers in the valley of the Saco, as well as in other beauty spots of New England. The service which he rendered his country in her hour of need entitles him to an honored place in the pages of her history. Yet it is not onl\ at military leader that Sir William is remembered. He lived at a time when men of ability were called upon to play many and varied parts, and he gave whole-heartedly of his splendid talents uherever they were needed. It is said that the one controlling pur- of his life was duty. As Chief Justice of the Court of Common I'k-as for Maine, he had an important part in the legal affairs of the colony. In a period when the majority of the colonists were chiefly concerned with their struggle for existence, Sir William stood for the higher things of life. His home was a center of culture and refinement, and he himself became a patron of letters, and the benefactor of American institutions of learning. He was also a suc- cessful business man and colonizer. No other American, with the exception of certain royal patentees, possessed such vast estates as those belonging to the Pepperrell family. With that remarkable energy and power which were so characteristic of him, he succeeded in subduing the wilderness, and in transforming the great trees of forest into ships, by means of which commercial relations were .blished between America and other parts of the world. In ^pite of his marked success in these various lines, it is said that pros- pent) never made him arrogant, or marred the simplicity of his nature. It is singularly fitting that the great cotton mills on the banks the Sao, River at Biddeford, Maine, should bear the name of this man who. over two hundred years ago, saw the untold possi- this section, and, with his father, bought tracts of land banks of the river, including the present site of the Pepperell :ie time Sir William claimed that he could travel from Kittery, Maine, to Saco, a distance of about thirty miles, and not leave his ' P<; l'> 1716 he purchased a large part of the present extending from the sea several miles along the 18 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL Saco River. The land was bought from Samuel Walker and Rebecca Goodwin, successors of Benjamin Blackman, who had purchased it from the original proprietors, Gibbons and Bonython. Saco and Biddeford, lying on opposite sides of the river, were originally one town. In 1762, shortly after Sir William's death, they were separated and the part lying on the east side of the river was called Pepperrellboro, in honor of the baronet. This name was retained until 1805, when the old name of Saco was substituted. Along the eastern banks of the river, Sir William erected his lumber mills, and at Biddeford Pool, where the waters of the Saco empty into the ocean, he and his father carried on their ship-building industry. In 1757, on the petition of Sir William and others, the General Court granted permission to the people of Saco to hold a lottery, the proceeds of which were to go toward the building of a bridge over the Saco River, and Pepperrell was placed at the head of the commissioners who had charge of the affair. This bridge, the first which ever spanned the waters of the Saco, crossed the branch of the river on the east side of Indian Island, now known as Factory Island. It was a momentous day for these people when this bridge was ready for use, and the method which was used in obtaining it, apparently, did not detract from their enjoyment of it. Sir William spent considerable time in looking after these vast estates, especially after his return from England where he went after the conquest of Louisburg. While in Saco he frequently visited at the home of Rev. Mr. Morrill. Whenever he was there on Sunday he always attended services in the little church, and it is said that he never failed to drop a guinea on the collection plate. His coming was quite an event in the little town, where the people gazed in awe and admiration upon his manly figure, clad in the embroidered waistcoat and scarlet coat of that period. All loved the courtly old gentleman with his stern, strong face and kindly but resolute eye. IN THE DAYS OF THE RED MEN Others before and since Sir William's time have found the Saco Val- ley a pleasant place. It was especially beloved by the Sokokis Indians, who once roamed through the dense forests in search of game or the healing herbs, for which their tribe was noted. Here they erected their rude wigwams, and at night the sound of the waters as they dashed over the rocks, lulled them into peaceful slumber. Gathered about the blazing camp fire the old men of the tribe would tell the young warriors the mysterious legends of this section. 19 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL <*>% *.- <- BIRD'S KVK VIEW OF BIDDEFORD AND SACO IN 1875 Among these was the legend of "the lost maiden" that beauti- ful daughter of an Indian family living near the head waters of the Saco. None could compare with this maiden in beauty or virtue. as skilled, also, in all of the arts known to her people. Surely so marvelous a maiden must have a mate who was worthy of her! But in vain her parents sought for such a one. He was not to be found! Suddenly the maiden disappeared. No trace could be found of her dainty, moccasined foot in forest or glade, and where once her silvery laughter sounded, now mournful silence reigned. At last some hunters, roaming far into the mountain fastnesses in M-arch of game, saw the maiden standing on the banks of a quiet stream, and by her side a marvelous youth whose hair, like her own, fell down to his waist. At the approach of the hunters the two fled into the forest and disappeared. When the parents were told of :K-V knew that her companion was one of the pure spirits of ilu- mountain, and from that time on they considered him as their BOO, calling upon him whenever game was scarce, and never did they call in vain. Such was one of the legends of these simple children of nature \\lin lived and loved, and built their humble dwellings along the 20 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL banks of the Saco in those far-away days before the coming of the white men. On Indian Island resided generation after generation of their sagamores. It was with a great sorrow and heart ache that they turned their faces away from these loved scenes, forced to retreat farther and farther to the westward by the relentless en- croachments of the white men. THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN In 1605 an English exploring vessel, commanded by Captain George Weymouth, was cruising along the coast of Maine, and finally put into the harbor at the mouth of the Penobscot River. The Captain and his men visited the Indians living in this section and succeeded in luring five of their chief men on board. These they held captive and took back with them to England, where they were seen by the explorer, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who became much interested in them and took them into his family. They were with him three years, during which time they learned to speak the English language, and told him a great deal about the coast of Maine with its "goodly rivers, stately islands and safe harbors." It was not strange that Gorges should become interested in this wonderful new world, which was pictured to him with all the glamour and beauty and mystery which the red man is capable of expressing. He was not long in interesting others in the scheme of planting colonies in America, and the organization which they formed for this purpose was called the Plymouth Company. From King James I they obtained a grant of all the land from the Hudson River to Cape Breton, including all islands within one hundred miles of the coast. When the rights of the Company were transferred to forty noblemen, Sir Ferdinando Gorges was granted the portion now included in Maine, so that he became the first individual land owner of that State. Numerous explorers were sent out by the Plymouth Company, but practically all brought back unfavorable reports of the pros- pects in the new world, declaring that the coast was unfit for civilized settlement. Gorges, however, refused to be discouraged. In 1616 he sent out a crew of thirty-two men, "hired at great cost," to spend the winter on these shores and test the severity of the climate. Sixteen of the crew were left at Monhegan to fish, probably to offset the cost of equipping for the voyage. The remaining sixteen, under the direction of Captain Richard Vines, arrived at the mouth of the Saco River in September, 1616, several years before the settlement of Massachusetts by the Puritans. It was a magnificent sight which greeted them. The country, wrapped in its myriad-hued mantle 21 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL of autumn, was never more beautiful, and at night the great round harvest moon, reflected on the rippling surface of the water, gave the final touch of magic and mystery to the scene. The men spent the autumn exploring the coast, and bartering with the Indians. The red men of that section were suffering from a terrible disease which was laying waste their numbers. This was looked upon by the colonists as a special dispensation of Providence in their favor, for they felt that God was making "way for his people by removing the heathen and planting them in the land." Though the white people mingled freely with the Indians and accepted their hospitality, often spending the night in their wigwams, they did not suffer from the contagion. It soon became apparent that they should begin to erect their winter quarters and prepare for the coming of cold weather, which, according to numerous signs, promised to be exceedingly severe. The corn husks lay thick and close about the ears; the beach and walnut burs were unusually thick, while the foxes and squirrels were wrapped in thick, warm coats, and the wild geese were early in flying south. Would it be possible for these Englishmen to spend the winter on this stern New England coast, or would they like the Sagadahock colonists and others, find this section of America unfit for civilized habitation, and the experiment upon which Gorges had set his heart, end in failure? Time alone would tell! After exploring all points along the shores of Saco Bay, the men finally selected a spot in lower Biddeford, on the west side of the Pool, and there erected a log cabin, the first habitation of civilized man ever built within the limits of the present cities of Saco and Biddeford. The cabin was built securely and thatched with the long grass gathered from the marshes, while a wide fireplace and a chimney were built of the stones picked up on the beach, and the floor carpeted with the fragrant boughs of the hemlock. They were snug, comfortable quarters and though the winter was extremely cold, the men did not experience any great discomfort. In the spring they returned home with favorable reports of the country. Gorges' experiment had proved a success! The place where these colonists passed the winter of 1616-17 received the name of Winter Harbor, and the neighborhood is still visited by those who love to view these historic old landmarks and live again in imagination those early days which marked the beginning of this great nation. Gratified by the result of this experiment, Gorges and others were active during the next seven years in transporting colonists to these shores, and numerous settlements were established in the vicinity of Saco Bay. Here they erected their rude log cabins and engaged in the few occupations which the country permitted. These 23 th* ROMANCE of PEPPERELL VINES were chiefly fishing and trading. A few tried farming, and one, Thomas Rogers, made such a success of it that his farm was desig- nated on the early maps as "Roger's Garden." He settled here in io}X, and the trees which he planted lived for over a century, and became the "old orchard" from which that popular summer resort received its name. The first importation of cattle into the State of Maine was in i, when a cargo of hogs, goats, sheep and cows was brought in the settlement, and added materially to its prosperity. Horses were not introduced until many years later. Traveling between the various settlements was by boat or along the Indian trails through the woods. The food of these early settlers was principally venison and fish. Their corn was crushed in wooden mortars, and The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL their garments made of rude home-spun material or the skins of wild beasts. It was a rude, primitive life, but it produced a sturdy race of people. Each year added new numbers to the little groups of settlers, until Saco Bay became an important point in the new world. TROUBLE WITH THE INDIANS For over fifty years these settlers lived in peace with the Indians, and carried on a profitable trade with them. In 1675, however, there occurred an event which precipitated a long series of bloody wars. The young wife of Squando, a noted chief of the Sokoki tribe, was crossing the river in her canoe one day. She had with her her babe, the first-born son of the great chieftain. Some sailors from an English vessel anchored in the river, saw her and desiring to find out if Indian children could swim by instinct like wild animals, they upset the canoe. The babe sank, and the terrified mother dove after it and brought it to shore, but it died not long after, and the heart-broken father determined to seek revenge. The western Indians, under Philip, had laid their plans to wipe out all the white settlers on the coast, and Squando decided to lend them his assistance. The settlement at Saco Falls, where the great mills now stand, was doomed to receive the first blow. It was a peaceful Saturday morning on the eighteenth of September, 1675. The gay laughter of happy children, playing about the door of the log cabin, mingled with the humming of the spinning wheel, came from within as the busy mother worked at her morning task. Oc- casionally were heard the sounds of the woodman's axe, or the sharp report of some hunter's gun. Suddenly the scene changed! An Indian whom Captain John Bonython had once befriended con- veyed to the Captain the information that strange Indians were lurking in the vicinity, and there was danger of an attack. Immediately the alarm was spread and the panic stricken in- habitants left their unfinished tasks and fled to the garrison house of Major Phillips on the west side of the river. Scarcely had they reached its shelter than Captain Bonython's house which stood on the Saco side of the river, burst into flames. The attack had commenced! House after house was fired, the cattle slain, and finally the garrison was attacked. The first onslaught was repulsed by the settlers. Shortly afterwards, Major Phillips went to an upper window to watch the movements of the red men. He was seen by a lurking Indian who shot at him, wounding him in the shoulder. Believing that he had been killed, the enemy rallied for a second 25 the ROMANCE of PEPPERELL attack, and were again repulsed. Six of them were killed, and a number \\ounded, including their leader. The Indians next set fire to the mills, thinking the men would come mil to defend their property, but they made a mistake! Attack aft CM- attack was made upon the garrison, the firing continuing through the night. Suddenly the Indians had an inspiration! They secured a cart which had been used at the mills, loaded it with" bitch bark and other inflammable material, set it on fire and attempted to run it against the house and toss the flaming brands on to the roof with long poles. The cart upset, exposing the entire party to the tire from the garrison. Fifteen were killed and wounded, and the others withdrew, discouraged. Within the garrison house the weary little band of settlers breathed a prayer of thanksgiving. The siege had lasted for eighteen hours. Major Phillips and two others had been wounded. When the sun once more rose over the little Saco settlement, it revealed a mass of smoking ruins. Only the river, dashing noisily along its rocky channel, reminded one of the peaceful scene of the day before. Major Phillips appealed to the colonists at Winter Harbor for help, as the ammunition was nearly exhausted and the little group - t tiers in great distress, but none could be spared to assist him. So the people from the Saco settlement left their ruined homes and went to Winter Harbor where they joined forces with those colonists in preparing for the reign of terror which followed. This war lasted about three years, and the scattered settlements along the coast from New Hampshire to the Kennebec suffered rely. It had burst upon them with such fury that they had little time for preparation. Garrison houses were destroyed before t hey were entirely built, and many settlers killed or captured. Every- one went armed. Even the women kept a loaded musket beside them when they were busy about their household tasks. At church, armed men sat at the end of the seats that they might protect the women. It is said that the congregation actually watched while the minis- ter prayed. After an interval of about ten years, King William's War broke out, in inxs, but the Saco settlement did not suffer during this uprising as it had in King Philip's War. An interesting incident occurred at this time, a memorial of which is still preserved by a prominent family in the city of Saco. A party of Indians who had on a marauding expedition in Kittery and Berwick, suddenly appeared at the Saco settlement. They descended upon the home Captain Humphrey Sea, ..man where Mrs. Scamman was alone ith her hve children. Her little ten year old son had just started ith a mug of beer for the father who was mowing in a nearby 26 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL meadow. The little fellow saw the Indians and rushed back to tell his mother, setting the mug of beer down on the dresser. There was no time to escape. The house was surrounded almost instantly and the mother and children taken captive. They demanded that Mrs. Scamman tell where her husband was, but she refused. At length the chief promised that all their lives would be spared if she would reveal his whereabouts. For a moment she hesitated. Could she rely on his promise? She looked at the terrified children clutch- ing at her skirts, and yielded. The Captain was also taken, and the Indians, fearing an attack, hastened away with their captives. They were taken along the forest trails to Canada, stopping at Peckwogett, now Fryeburg, which was once the capital of the Sokoki tribe. They suffered many hardships and cruelties, and finally the council decreed that they should be slain, but the chief remained faithful to his promise. They continued on their journey to Canada, where the captives were disposed of among the French and scattered through different parts of the province. The following year a treaty was signed with the Indians, and the entire family returned in safety to their home. Their favorite cat was waiting for them on the door- step, and inside, on the dresser, the mug of beer was still resting where the boy had placed it over a year before, when he had run to his mother with the dread news. A picture of the mug is shown on page seventy-two. This mug has been preserved and handed down from generation to generation, and is now in possession of Mrs. W. E. Elmer, one of the descendants of Captain Humphrey Scamman. THE OLD STONE FORT The stone fort, often referred to as the "Old Stone Fort," stood on the west side of the river where some of the mills of the Pepperell Manufacturing Company are now located. It was built in 1693 by Captain Hill and Major Francis Hooke, under the direction of Major Converse, a famous old Indian fighter. The Indians were never able to subdue the forces kept there under the command of Captain George Turfrey and Lieutenant Pendelton Fletcher, but they lurked about in the vicinity, watching their chance to kill or capture any who might venture forth from the shelter of those massive stone walls. It is said that fourteen persons lost their lives or were captured in this way. FORT MARY Troops were quartered at the stone fort until 1708 when they were removed to the new fort which had been built at Winter Harbor. This fortification, named Fort Mary, was under the command of 27 ROMANCE of PEPPERELL Captain John Hill during the greater part of King William's War, and was the scene of many thrilling and romantic adventures. The story is told of how a young woman named Mary Dyer, living at Biddeford Pool, was startled one day while the men were out fishing by seeing some Indians coming down the beach toward her house. With her two small children, one in her arms and the other clinging t> her skirts, she hastened to the "Gut" where a boat w^as lying. Placing her children in the bottom of it, she pushed it off and swiftly rowed across the water toward Fort Mary. Having reached the land she secured her boat and started up the cliff. A bullet from the pun of one of the Indians struck the ground beside her. Calmly she stooped down and marked the place with a stick before continu- ing on her way to the fort, which she finally reached in safety. Her home was plundered, but her quick and heroic action had saved her life and that of her little ones. After the Indians withdrew, she went out and dug up the bullet which had been aimed at her. This was kept in the family for three generations. During the time that Captain Hill was stationed at Fort Mary, William Peppcrrell, father of Sir William, was engaged in ship building in that vicinity. The following letter was sent to Captain Hill by Peppcrrell the year that young William was born. "Kittery Point, Nov. 12, 1696. .tin Hill. "Sir: With much trouble 1 have gotten men and sent for the sloop, and desire you to dispatch them with all speed, for, if all things be ready, they may be mod t<> leave in two days as well as in seven years. If you and' the carpenter think it convenient, and the ground has not too much descent, I think it may be safer and better to bend her sails before you launch her, so as to leave immediate- But I shall leave it to your management, and desire you to hasten them ind night; for, sir, it will be dangerous tarrying there o'n account of hostile the vicinity, and it would be very expensive to keep the men on pay. >u a barrel of rum, and there is a cask of wine to launch with. So with J oursclf and lady, hoping they are all in good health, as I am at promt, who arc your humble servant at command, "WILLIAM PEPPERRELL." '.veil in those remote and troublesome times, a launching was mcwhat of an event, if we may judge by the "appurtenances" idcd by Peppcrrell for the occasion. From all accounts brandy rum was an essential part of every celebration from a launching r house raisin^ to a marriage or a death. OLD LANDMARKS There are numerous historic old landmarks about Saco and the atmosphere of other days still lingers. On the road to Biddeford Pool stands the old Haley 28 "the ROMANCE of PEPPERELL house where many generations of that family have been born. They came to this place from the Isle of Shoals, and took a prominent part in the early affairs of the settlement. John Haley, one of the prominent citizens of the town today, is a direct descendant of this old family, and he proudly calls one's attention to the fact that nearly all of the Haleys have lived to a ripe old age. In fact the only two of the first five generations who died before they were well into their nineties, were both victims of the Indians. One who was an officer TABLET MARKING SITE OF FORT at the old stone fort was killed when he left the fort to get some wood. Another Haley had long been on friendly terms with the Indians, and though repeatedly urged by his friends, had refused to follow their example and go to the garrison house. One night he was aroused by a loud rapping at the door. He opened it and two Indians walked in. He hospitably built a fire for them, but it soon became apparent that they were bent on mischief and he ordered them out. They grabbed the fire brands, and threw them about the room, endeavor- ing to set the house on fire. Mr. Haley seized his musket and drove them into the woods, while his brave wife beat out the flames. After that Mr. Haley joined the garrison, but he had aroused the enmity of the Indians who were determined to have their revenge, and he had many narrow escapes. One evening his cow did not come home, 29 ROMANCE of PEPPERELL and hearing the tinkling of her bell, apparently not very far off, Mr. Haley started out in search of her. The sound of the bell kept receding into the depths of the woods. His family waited for him anxiously for some time. Suddenly the report of a musket was heard and an armed squad immediately set off in the direction of the sound to find out what had happened. In the woods they found the cow which had been slain, and farther on the body of Mr. Haley, which had been cut into small pieces. He had at last fallen victim to the Indian- with whom he had lived on friendly terms for so many years. The old Haley house is a typical one of that period in which it built. It is constructed of strong timbers, some of which are fifteen inches in diameter, and was built to withstand the strain of Indian warfare. JORDAN'S GARRISON On a little inlet of Biddeford Pool there has stood probably since 1717 an old structure known as Jordan's Garrison. It is possible that it dates back even earlier, but it is known to have been inhabited at that time by Captain Samuel Jordan. It was originally erected as a garrison house and was surrounded by a high palisade of stone and timber, at the corners of which were lookouts, commanding a view each way. The house was securely built and afforded protection not only to his own family but to the neighboring colonists who took shelter within its walls when danger threatened. Captain Jordan kept a general merchandise store and carried on a fairly prosperous business. As a boy he had been taken captive by the Indians and had lived among them for a number of years. The knowledge which he gained of their language, customs and methods of warfare admirably fitted him for the perils and hardships which he and the colonists at Winter Harbor were forced to experience during the years of strife with the Indians. It is said that once when he was working in his field he was attacked by a band of natives. He had his gun with him but no surplus ammunition, and unwilling to use his only shot, he calmly aimed his gun at them and walked backwards until he reached the garrison. At another time he stole upon a party of Indians who were joyously cutting up a calf which they had stolen from his herd. As they carved out huge slices of flesh, he heard them say, " So will we cut Jordan." It was hardly be wondered at that he lost his patience and sent a charge of whizzing through the group. One of the Indians was lied, and the others tied, leaving their muskets behind At the time of the Revolution this old building was the residence Captain James P. Hill, one of the committee of safety, and many 30 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL MONUMENT AT THE SITE OF FORT MARY distinguished persons gathered within its walls to confer on various matters of importance during that period. The snows of many a New England winter have fallen upon this venerable mansion of memories, but it still survives, recalling to the minds of those who know its history these stirring scenes of the past when it was the center of numerous activities in this old settlement. COLONEL THOMAS CLTTS High up on the hill of Indian Island, or Factory Island, which lies midway between Saco and Biddeford, is a stately old colonial dwelling known as Colonel Cults' mansion. It is occupied at ihe presenl lime by Mr. Ernesl L. Morrill, agent of the Pepperell Manu- facturing Company. Its original owner, Colonel Thomas Culls, The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL COLONEL CUTTS' HOUSE AT BIDDEFORD was the son of Major Richard Cutts of Kittery, who served under Sir William Pepperrell at the siege of Louisburg. As a young man, Thomas Cutts had held the position of clerk to Sir William. In 1758, when he was twenty-two years of age, he came to Saco with just one hundred dollars, borrowed of his father, in his pocket. It was quite characteristic of him that he should pay back this sum at his first opportunity. Thomas Cutts was not slow to appreciate the advantages of Indian Island which for some time was called Cutts' Island in his honor. As soon as he was able he purchased a small tract of land on this island for ninety dollars, and built a small house, part of which was used for a store. This humble structure may still be seen, stand- ing at the foot of the island where it presents a striking contrast to the splendid mansion on the hill above. His business prospered and in time he owned the entire island, having purchased half of it from the heirs of Sir William Pepperrell in 1775, and smaller portions from other owners. He was soon obliged to enlarge his quarters, and in addition to his other business he engaged in ship building and navigation. From his mansion high up on the island he could see his ships starting out on their voyages to all parts of the world, and returning laden with the products of other lands. He owned lumber and grist mills, and with Josiah Calef, Esq., built the first nail factory for the manufacture of cut nails in the State of Maine. In those days the Saco River was alive with salmon, 33 flu ROMANCE of PEPPERELL nd the ttorv is told of a most unusual strike declared by the opera- ves of he Saco nail factory who, weary of havmg this fish served , o them at the boarding house seven days in the week refused o work unless they could have a change of fare Finally a com- promise was agreed upon whereby it was understood that they should lot have salmon but three days a week. Not only was Colonel Cutts one of the most prominent merchants in Maine, but he was one of Saco's most distinguished citizens. HKST HOUSE AM) STORE BUILT BY COLONEL THOMAS CUTTS He was appointed first major of the third regiment by the Council of Massachusetts in 1776. and two years later was made colonel of the same regiment. He held many public offices in Saco and, with his associates, organized the SacoBank and served as its first president. Colonel Cutts owned many farms and large tracts of land in various parts of Maine. Some of the horses, oxen and other stock on his farms were let at halves, and the story is told of how a farmer's wife one day brought him two little kittens which she explained were one-half of the increase of farm stock. In his own prosperity he did not forget the needs of others. \\ hen he put down a barrel of pork or beef for himself he prepared another for the poor. 34 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL THE OLD HALEY HOUSE Residence of the Haley family, from which the owner, John Haley, was lured by a cow-bell into an Indian ambuscade, where he was killed. The Colonel's children received the best education which that period afforded. The sons were sent to Andover Academy and one also went to Harvard, while the girls were educated in Boston. Mrs. Cutts is described as "a tall, well proportioned lady, with a strong face but not handsome." From all accounts she was a model wife in every way. That their children loved and respected their parents may be seen from the following letter written by one of the daughters: "Honrd Papa & Mama, "1 imbrace this favorable opportunity of acquainting you I am perfectly well & very happily situated. "Give me leave to assure my dear Papa & Mama it shall be my constant study to make improvements sufficient to compensate for all the trouble & ex- penses I am sensible I put you both to. I shall be extremely obliged to my dear Mama to be so kind as to send me a skirt & some stockings, anything from Mama will be gratefully received from her loving daughter. "I have nothing more to add but to request my love to brothers and sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Druitt desires their most respectful compliments to you both. "Believe me to be with the greatest respect & esteem, "Your ever dutiful and obedient daughter "MARY CUTTS. "Newburyport, "Novr 9, 1779." PART [II At this point in the story let us pause and glance over the story of cotton which fills such an essential role in the manufacture of Pepperell sheeting. Cotton is the youngest in the family of products used in the making of textiles, and in the days of Lady Pepperrell 35 si I! W c g3 ^ H -& < g f PH The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL MAIN STOREHOUSE, CAPACITY 35,000 BALES Cotton in bales taken from cars that bring it from the South. It is roughly mixed and blown through tubes into Picker Rooms. and Mistress Cutts, cotton was almost unknown, most fabrics being made of either wool, flax, or silk, though in the far East cotton has been in use almost since the beginning of history. COLUMBUS DISCOVERED COTTON IN AMERICA The first mention of cotton in America occurs in the journal of Christopher Columbus, who, under date of October 12, 1492, de- scribes the natives of Watling Island, where he first landed, bringing among other things, skeins of cotton thread out to his ship. "Afterwards when we were in the ship's boats," he continues under the same date, "they came swimming toward us, and brought us parrots and balls of cotton thread and spears, and many other things which they exchanged with us for other things which we gave them, such as strings of beads and little bells." Under date of October 13, 1492, he says the natives were ready to trade for everything down to bits of broken crockery and glass. "I saw one give sixteen skeins of cotton for three of ceotis of Portu- 37 the ROMANCE of PEPPERELL A PORTION OF THE STOREHOUSE Sin-wine i he opened bales before the cotton is placed in the hoppers of the Machines which break it up and distribute it onto a moving endless belt. t'ul, equal to one blanca of Spain, the skeins being as much as an arroba of cotton thread. I shall keep it and shall allow no one to lake it, preserving it all for your Royal Highnesses, for it may be obtained in abundance. It is grown on this island, though the short time did not admit of my ascertaining this for a certainty." He subsequently found trees of cotton of sufficient fine quality to be woven into good cloth. He also saw handkerchiefs of fine cloth very symmetrically woven and worked in colors. Under date of October 16, he speaks of seeing, on the Island of Fernandina, cotton cloth made into mantles. Speaking again under date of October 16 of cotton, Columbus says of the natives, "Their beds and bags for holding things are like nets made of cotton." Here Columbus says they "saw married women wearing breeches made of cotton, but the girls do not, except some who have reached eighteen." This is especially interesting because it shows that very early the American natives, particularly those of the South, not only raised cotton, but wove it into fabrics and garments of various kinds. Balls of native cotton spun on distaffs by natives of Guiana, South America, and similar to those spoken of by Columbus, are to be , seen in the museum at Georgetown, Demerara. 38 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL OPPOSITE VIEW OF THE OPENING MACHINES IN STOREHOUSE Showing endless belt in the foreground. This transmits the cotton to a series of huge pneumatic tubes which blow it to the several Picker Rooms of the mill. COLONIAL USE OF COTTON AS A GARDEN FLOWER So far as is known, the first mention of cotton growing in the United States proper is by de Vaca, who found it in 1536 in what is now the States of Louisiana and Texas. The English colonists sowed the first cotton-seed in Virginia in 1607. In 1620 a pamphlet, called the "Declaration of the State of Virginia," stated that cotton wool was to be had there in abundance, and in 1621 cotton is quoted at eightpence a pound. Many travellers mention the cultivation of cotton in America during the seventeenth century and early half of the eighteenth century. One of the first large cargoes of cotton for the colonies was brought to Salem by the ship "Desire" in 1638. The "Trial" was the first vessel to unload a cargo of cotton at Boston. It is mentioned in Virginia in 1649, in South Carolina in 1664, 1682, 1702, 1731, and 1741, and in Georgia in 1735, 1738, and 1749. 39 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL VIKVV OF A MILL STREET the tulu-s through which the cotton is blown from the storehouse to the various picker rooms 1 1 was regarded, however, as a garden plant rather than for domestic use in most localities except parts of South Carolina and (icorgia, and it was not until after the Revolution that its cultiva- tion began on a large, systematic scale in the South. Apparently, cotton was used more extensively in the South than it was in New England during the early colonial days. In a letter written by Jefferson in 1786, there is found the fol- lowing paragraph: "The four southernmost States make a great deal of cotton. Their poor [are almost entirely clothed with it in winter and summer. In winter they wear shirts of it and outer clothing of cotton and wool mixed. In summer their shirts are linen, but the outer clothing cotton. The dress of the women is almost entirely of cotton, manufactured by themselves, except the richer class, and even many of these wear a great deal of home-spun cotton. It is as well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe.'' There were two causes which militated against Southern cotton LTowing during this country's connection with England. The first was the discouragement by England of the establishment of any industry in this country that would compete with the English cotton industry; and, secondly, there were no means of cleaning the Ameri- can cotton from the seed even after it was grown, so that it was only when the Revolution cut off trade with England that the Southern 40 "The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL cotton growers, stimulated by the home demands, set about growing cotton systematically. The raw cotton was purchased by the colonists in small quantities and used at first for stuffing bedquilts and petticoats and other simi- lar purposes. The seeds were removed by hand, one by one. Some- times the cotton was carded on the wool-cards and spun into yarn which was used as warp for the old-fashioned fabric known as linsey- woolsey, and also for rag carpets. Occasionally one thread of cotton and one of wool were made into a yarn which was used for knitting stockings. Its possibilities in the manufacture of cloth were un- dreamed of, and it was so difficult to clean that the demand for it was very small. Even Lady Pepperrell, who, as the wife of one of the most prosperous merchants of colonial times, was accustomed to seeing business done on a large scale, would have been unable to conceive of an industry as vast as that of the Pepperell Manufac- turing Company which now occupies the land once, owned by her husband on the banks of the Saco. It would be interesting to speculate upon her emotions, could she visit even one of the storehouses of this Company today and watch the loads of baled cotton from the South as they are taken from the cars and stored in the immense brick building, six stories high, which stands beside the railroad track. To one who was ac- customed to seeing only a few pounds of cotton at a time, the sight of this building where as many as 35,000 bales, each weighing about 500 pounds, can be stored, would be decidedly bewildering. And if she could step into a room at one end of the building and watch the cotton as it is pulled apart in hoppers of the openers, and is then drawn into the mouth of a large tube through which it is blown all the way to the mills, some of which are fully a quarter of a mile away, she would doubtless declare that the whole thing was the result of black magic. INVENTION OF THE COTTON GIN In the early days the separation of the cotton from the seed and boll was slow and tedious, owing to the work being done by the hand labor of the large slave population of the South. It was largely the work of colored women, who separated the seed and cleaned the cotton from the boll with their finger-nails, and it took a negro a day to pick a pound of cotton from the boll and separate it from the entangled seed. All that could be produced in the year 1792 was 138,324 pounds. The invention of the cotton gin, perfected in April, 1793, by Eli Whitney, a graduate of Yale, revolutionized the industry, and Tht ROMANCE of PEPPERELL cabled a negro to clean five thousand pounds of cotton a day, orch greatly increasing the supply of American cotton. Indeed S a few years of the invention of the gin the products had " L from the one hundred thousand and odd pounds to many Sons of pounds of cotton a year, and had simulated the cotton Uwtry so greatly that the production of cotton goods led all FIRST PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE ton arriving from storehouse tubes, being automatically dropped into hoppers of Opener Pickers. others. As a boy, young Whitney had given evidence of his re- markable inventive genius, for he was constantly experimenting along various lines. Once while his father was at church the boy took his watch to pieces and then successfully put the different parts back again. After his graduation from Yale he decided to study law: and, to secure the necessary means, he became a tutor in the family of General Nathaniel Greene, near Savannah, Georgia. One Jay some gentlemen who were visiting at this home commented upon the slow process which was required to remove ' the cotton seed from the boll. Mrs. Greene suggested that they get her young 42 ROMANCE of PEPPERELL PICKER ROOM When four rolls of cotton (known as "laps") have been delivered from the Opener Picker they are simultaneously fed into the Intermediate Picker. Four rolls are then taken from the Intermediate Picker and fed into the Finisher Picker. The product of the Finisher Picker is then fed into a Carding machine. The purpose of the Picker machines is to clean the cotton, which they accomplish by means of fans and beaters and also to form it into a roll of uniform thickness. friend, Mr. Whitney, to invent some means of doing the work more swiftly, declaring that he could make anything. At this time Whit- ney had never seen cotton or cotton seed, but he hunted up some the next day and immediately set to work upon his invention, which was completed in April, 1793. Cotton could now be used to a far greater extent than ever before, but it took James Hargreaves' invention of the spinning-jenny and Cartwright's power looms to place cotton manufacturing upon a firm industrial basis. After undergoing the process of ginning, cotton was shipped to the locality where it was to be spun. But even then it usually retained a great deal of leaf and other foreign matter enmeshed in its fibre. This was removed by the process of "Willowing" which was so called because the cotton spread on a light hammock of cords, called the bowstring, was beaten with willow switches. The process dated back to prehistoric times. Cotton for fine spinning was care- 43 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL fully washed, and was always soaked with water and dried so that t lie fibres would cling together. FIRST STEPS IN Till-: INVENTION OF COTTON-MAKING MACHINERY Hurd's History of Middlesex County quotes Daniel Knapp as riving this account of the way cotton was cleaned: "In the spring of 1814 my parents were young laboring people, with five small children, the oldest not over eleven years old. We had the cotton brought to our house by the bale to pick to pieces and get out the seeds and dirt. We children had to pick so many pounds per day as a stint. We had a whipping machine made four feet square, and about three feet from the floor was a bedcord running across from knob to knob near together, on which we put a parcel of cotton, and with two whip sticks we tightened it up and got out the dirt and made it ready for the card." The carding process which followed, and which in turn was followed by the spinning, consisted of combing the cotton between two surfaces of wire bristles. USE OF 'rill- DISTAFF AND SPINDLE The use of the distaff and spindle was the first step in the inven- tion of textile machinery, and began at so very remote a time it is impossible to fix it. Earliest records on stone, brick, and papyrus, of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, picture the use of the rock, or distaff, and the spindle, and Solomon, Homer, and Herodotus frequently allude to it. The distaff is said to have been introduced into England by Anthony Bonvoise, an Italian, during the twentieth year of the reign of Henry VIII, and then began the making of Devonshire kerseys and Coxal cloths. The spindle, as it has been from time immemorial, was a round stick of wood about a foot long, which tapered at each end. A ring of stone or clay, or sometimes potato, girded the upper part of it to ^ivc it steadiness and momentum when it revolved. At the extreme upper end there was a notch, or slit, into which the yarn was caught. The distaff, or rock, was a longer, stouter stick, around one end of which, in a loose ball, the material to be spun was wound. The spinner either fixed the other end of the rock in her girdle or carried it under her left arm, so that the coil of material was in a convenient position to draw out to form the yarn. The end of the yarn, after being prepared, was inserted in the notch, and the spinner 44 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL DISTAFF SPINNING From a print of an old sketch reproduced in "The Story of Textiles. : set the spindle in motion by quickly rolling it with the right hand against the right leg, and thus throwing it out, spinning in the air. Meanwhile the spinner drew from the rock with the left hand an additional supply of fibre, which was formed by the right hand into a uniform and equal strand. After the yarn was sufficiently twisted, it was released from the notch and wound around the lower part of the spindle, and again fixed in the notch at the point insufficiently twisted. Thus the rotating, twisting, and drawing operations went on until the spindle was full. In this way, spinning was practised in prehistoric and ancient times. And in the self-same way it is today done in some remote sections of Scotland. Yarns of greatest fineness and strength are still spun in this way. The first improvement in this method of spinning was the con- struction of the hand wheel, in which the spindle, mounted in a frame, was fixed horizontally, and rotated by a band passing around a large wheel set in the framework. Such a wheel has been used from pre- historic times in the East, but was not introduced into Europe until about the fourteenth century. 45 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL SPINNING WHEEL INVENTED IN 1533 The earliest manuscript that mentions the spinning wheel was written in the fourteenth century, and is in the British Museum. This wheel was evidently one at which a woman stood, for that which came into general use is said to have been invented in 1533 by a cili/.rn of Brunswick, and was the first wheel at which a woman could sit. Other improvements enabling one to spin with a treadle move- ment, and thus allowing the spinner to work with both hands free, were added at later dates that cannot be fixed. Thus came into use the spinning wheel as our forbears used it in the homespun in- dustries of New England and as it is still used in the isolated rural districts of Ireland, Scotland, and Europe. From a print of an old sketch, reproduced in "The Story of Textiles" H\M> CARDING, ROVING, AND SPINNING BY THE HAND WHEEL Figure i shows the hand cards with wire teeth and wooden backs. The cotton after hemg : combed between them, was scraped off in rolls about twelve inches long ree-quarters of an inch in diameter. These rolls, known as cardings, were raun <.ut into rovmga on the hand wheel shown in Figure 2 The card nes arc lyns t e knee of the rove, in Figure 2 . The roving were taken to Figure L spun mto welt. On the sp.ndle of Figure 3 the weft was finallv prepared be weaver. In roving, the cardings were drawn out at an angle of forty toforty- I t 7'"^ ^ 'T^' In Splnnin *' the ro S s were *" t a right angle. The hand wheel was one of the first mechanical appli- ances used in woolen manufacture. 46 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL LAP FROM FINISHER PICKER ENTERING REVOLVING FLAT CARD Mere the fine teeth of the card clothing gather any dirt or leaf that may have gone ^ through the picker. The cotton comes from the cards in the form of a rope-like "sliver" and is automatically coiled into cylindrical cans which are carried to the nearby Drawing Frames. It was not long before every woman in England spun, and terms of the industry had become a part of the language. Thus spear side and distaff side of the house became the legal terms respectively for the male and female lines of inheritance. Spinster was and is still the English term for unmarried women. January 7 was jocu- larly called St. Distaff's Day, or Rock Day, and signified the re- sumption of spinning after the rest of the Christmas holidays. It was not until Arkwright's invention of the water frame just before our War of Independence that much warp yarn strong enough to stand the weaving process was spun from cotton fibre. Before this warps had been made, either of wool or flax. Accordingly in Lady PepperrelPs time it is not probable that much cotton was spun. There was, however, a great deal of interest taken in the spin- ning of wool and linen. 47 I'hc ROMANCE of PEPPERELL SONCi OK THK SPINNING WHEEL \<.\v the song of the spinning wheel is silenced. Never again will its music he heard in the villages and hamlets of New England. In its place, as though the echo had been caught and magnified many fold, one hears the whirring of millions of spindles in the great mills of America's "spindle cities. 1 ' Vet in countless homes throughout the country one may still see, dust-shrouded and half forgotten in some obscure attic corner, the old-fashioned spinning wheel of other days. Its work is finished; but like a mute messenger from the past, it brings to mind those picturesque days of long ago, when the light of the blazing logs in the huge colonial fireplace fell with a cheerful glow upon the bare, rough-hewn walls and floor, and lingered lovingly upon the quaint figure of the young girl standing beside a large spin- ning wheel. Across the bench which forms the lower part of the wheel lie rolls of white wool which she has spent many hours in preparing. The fleeces had to be opened up and cleaned of all the sticks, burs and other dirt which they contained. Then had come the disagree- able process of greasing it with "melted swine's grease," about three pounds of which had to be thoroughly worked into ten pounds of the wool. After this she had patiently carded out the fibers on crude hand cards which consisted of rectangular pieces of board with han- dles. Over each board had been fastened a piece of stout leather set with bent wire teeth. Taking one of these cards in her left hand and resting it on her knee, she had drawn a tuft of wool across its spiked surface several times, until the soft fibers had caught upon the wire teeth. Then she had taken the second card, which had to be warmed, and drawn it across the first until the fibers were all brushed parallel. Finally, with a deft movement, she had carded the wool into the small, fleecy rolls which arc lying across the lower part of the wheel, ready for spinning. She makes a fascinating picture as she moves gracefully back and forth, drawing and winding the. yarn. In her right hand she holds .-. wooden peg, about nine inches long and perhaps an inch in diameter. This was called a "driver" or "wheel-peg" and was used to turn the wheel. With her left hand the spinner picks up one of the long slender rolls of wool and deftly winds the end of the fibers on the point of the spindle. Giving a gentle motion to the wheel with the wooden peg, she takes hold of the roll at the right distance from the spindle to allow for a "drawing." The low humming of the wheel rises to a musical whirring; the spinner steps swiftly back- ward, holding the yarn as it is twisted by the swiftly revolving spin- 48 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL DRAWING FRAMES Six coiled "slivers" taken from six cans and passed through four pair of steel rolls, which on account of their relative speed attenuate the six "slivers" into one. This is then coiled into a can at the front of the Drawing Frame. dies, and then, moving forward, allows it to wind up, either on the spindle itself or upon a spool or "broach" placed at the end of the spindle and revolving with it. This motion is repeated over and over. One can fancy the girl's lover standing near, admiring her graceful movements and watching almost hopelessly for an opportune moment to steal a kiss! When the broach, which is often only a corn cob or a roll of husks, was filled, the yarn was reeled off into skeins. This was done in various ways. Sometimes the belt was removed from the wheel, and wooden pegs placed in certain holes in the spokes. The end of the yarn was tied to one of these and the wheel turned until it was wound into a hank, two yards in circumference. Skilful workers could sometimes spin six skeins of yarn a day. It is estimated that the walking back and forth required to do this amounted to over twenty miles. When a firm, closely twisted thread was desired for the weaving of a stiff cloth, the woolen yarn was spun twice, the tirsi spinning being referred to as the roving. One spinning, however, was suffi- cient for ordinary knitting yarn. The maidens and housewives of those days prided themselves on their ability to spin fine yarn. In her book entitled, "Home Lite in Colonial Days," Alice Morse Earle tells of a certain Mistress Mary 49 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL Prigge who spun a pound of wool into fifty hanks of eighty-four thousand yards, nearly forty-eight miles in all. During the girlhood of Lady PcppcrrcU, the belles of Boston took part in a big spinning- bee on the Common. Schools were established and everything \\a^ dune to promote the art. TYPICAL CARD ROOM ROVING FRAMES ("Intermediates") The process of combining two or more strands into one is known as "doubling." The process of attenuating the strands is known as "drawing." Practically all the machinery from the Pickers up to and including the Spinning Frames either double or draw the strands and some do both. A PKN PIC'IVRK OF COLONIAL SPINNING It took weeks and sometimes months before the fleece from the backs of the sheep could be transformed into the coarse home-spun garments worn by the majority of the people in those days. The story is told, however, of a Massachusetts woman and her daughters who, during the War of the Revolution, sheared one black and one white sheep, carded out a grey wool, spun and wove it into cloth and vut and madr a MJ'I! of clothes for a buy to wear to the war, all in 50 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL one day and night! It would be difficult to break such a record as that, even with the modern machinery of today. During the rush of the busy day and in the quiet of the evening by the flickering light of the fire, the work went on. There were few idle moments for the members of those old colonial households. From the white-haired grandmother who, in spite of her dimming eyesight, was able to card out the rolls of wool for the spinning wheel, to the little girl who sat at a small wheel filling the bobbins with yarn ready for the loom all were busy. It was the skilful fingers of the father who fashioned the wool-cards, piercing the leather back with an awl and setting in and clenching, one by one, the bent wire teeth which he had cut from a long length of wire. INTERMEDIATES IN ANOTHER CARD ROOM The Roving Machinery follows the Drawing Frames. By the time the strands of cotton have reached these machines they have become so attenuated that unlc a twist be inserted in them they would easily break apart. The Roving Machine (Slubber, Intermediate, and Fly Frame) therefore insert a slight amount of tw as well as fulfilling their other functions. When the strands pass through the Spinning Frame, however, the strands are given their final twist and in that way arc- made strong enough to be woven into cloth. Si ROMANCE of PEPPERELL EARLY INVENTIONS Not until ^1784 was there invented a machine which would cut and bend thirty-six thousand of those wire teeth an hour The women and children could then purchase them by the box also bundles of the leather strips which had been pierced by another machine. It was then a comparatively easy matter for them to set the teeth themselves as they sat about the fireplace in the evening, or gathered in the afternoon at the home of some neighbor for a friendly chat; for even the few social affairs "of these pioneers were closely allied to the stern tasks which confronted them in their struggle for existence. ANOTHER SPINNING ROOM One by one the magic hand of invention removed these tiresome tasks from the weary shoulders of the colonial housewives. In the latter part of the eighteenth century Amos \\hittemore invented a machine which in a short space of time could turn out a fully made card. Finally, carding engines were invented in England the forerunners of those marvelous machines now used in the mills of the Pepperell Manufacturing Company, which draw in the soft rolls of cotton lap, or batting, and carry them under a succession ot revolving flats. The fine wire teeth brush off a thin film of the 53 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL cotton, which emerges from the machine in a delicate white misty veil. When the carding machines were installed in the mills of the United States, the hand cards were gradually abandoned, and people sent their wool to the mills to be carded, even when it was spun and woven at home. It was not an uncommon thing in those days to see a young farmer's girl riding along the country lanes, from the mill, with a home-spun sheet filled with wool towering up behind her. THE BEGINNING OF COTTON MILLS In 1789 there arrived in New York the man who has universally been called "the father of the American cotton industry." This was Samuel Slater, who put into successful operation in this country the system of cotton machines perfected by Richard Ark- wright, the Englishman who in 1769 had erected at Nottingham the first practical cotton mills in the world. While Slater was running his mill at Pawtucket, he boarded with a family by the name of Wilkin- son. It was Hannah, the daughter of this family and later Slater's wife, who conceived the idea of taking some fine Surinam cotton yarn which Slater had spun and twisting it on her own spinning wheel for sewing thread, in place of the linen twisted yarn. This led in 1793 to the manufacture of the first cotton thread in America. A REMINISCENCE OF BIDDEFORD Mrs. Miriam Mitchell, one of Biddeford's very old ladies, being now over ninety years of age, who lives within a few miles of the Pepperell Mills, tells of how her mother used to get the unginned cotton from the South, pick it out of the boll, card it with hand cards and spin it on the old spinning wheel, warp it onto the looms, weave it and dye it, and make it into dresses for herself the whole process done by hand! She says that one day during the war of 1812 her mother, who was then a child of twelve, was weaving some cloth on the loom, when a British vessel which had come into Biddeford Pool to destroy the shipping of Captain Thomas Cutts, fired some cannon balls over the town. Many of the inhabitants ran and hid themselves, but her mother, fearing that, if she left the nearly completed cloth on the loom, the British would destroy it, continued with her work until it was finished and then ran and hid it in the pasture. THE OLD HAND LOOM Hand weaving, now an almost forgotten art in Nr\v England, was practised quite extensively in the r..|.>nial days. The uld- 55 7 14 1 1 1111 li.ii fiii IITllllll * r 11 i 1 1 1 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL A WEAVER AT AN OLD FASHIONED HAND L(X)M a photograph owned by the Draper Company showing the primitive construction of the hand loom. fashioned loom consisted of a frame of four square wooden about seven feet high, placed about as far apart as the posts of the old-time four-post bedstead. Across the back of the loom stretched the yarn-beam, about which the parallel warp-threads were wound and stretched to the cloth beam at the front of the loom. MORE OF THE OLD HAM) LOOM A rather romantic accessory to the loom was the curious little contrivance known as the "swift"; a revolving, cylindrical frame upon which the skein of yarn was placed preparatory to winding it off on the bobbins for the shuttles or the spools for the warp. Lovers often made presents of beautifully carved swifts to the young ladies of their choice. Such a gift must have served as an inspiration to the weary worker during the slow process of weaving. The threads of the warp had to be placed in regular order upon the warp beam and set in the loom. Then came the "drawing in," where the end of each warp-thread was drawn with a warping needle in regular order through the eye of the harness, or "heddle," which consisted of a 57 WARPER BEAMS AT BACK OF SLASHERS Warper beams being unwound behind Slashers. The yarn passes through a trough of boiling starch, is then dried on huge steam-filled cylinders, and is finally wound on the Loom Beam at the front. FRONT VIEW OF SLASHER IN DRESSING ROOM Showing Loom Beam with yarn being wound onto it. The ROMANCE of 1'KITKRKU, row of twines or wires stretched vertically between two horizontal bars which were about a foot apart, the upper being suspended by a pulley at the top of the loom and the lower fastened to the foot- treadle. The eye through which the warp-thread was drawn was in the center of each length of twine or wire. The warp was next drawn through the "sley," or reed, which was composed of short. thin strips of cane or metal set between two parallel bars of wood. The reed was placed in a groove along the lower edge of a heavy batten which, supported by two side bars, swung back and forth from an axle at the top of the loom, and as it swung, the reed forced every newly woven thread of the weft into place with the sharp blow which made the thwacking sound always associated with weaving at these hand looms. PROCESS OF HAND WEAVING The actual process of weaving was threefold. By the action of our foot-treadle, one harness, or "heddle," which held every alternate warp-thread was lowered beneath the level of the rest of the warp, forming an opening through which the weaver threw the shuttle con- taining the weft, or filler, thread from one side of the loom to the other. The third step was the crowding of this thread into place by the batten. Another foot-treadle forced down the other warp- threads, which were drawn through a second set of harnesses, and the shuttle was thrown back; and so the process went on until yards of this durable home-spun fabric had been produced. During the summer of 1775 there was heard throughout the length and breadth of New England the busy humming of the spin- ning wheel and the "thwack-thwack" of the hand looms, as the patriotic women of the colonies hastened to prepare thirteen thousand warm coats for Washington's army, which was jeeringly referred to by the English as the " Home-spuns." OLD-TIME BLEACHINC; AND DYEING The materials which were not dyed were generally bleached by a slow and tedious process. In the old method of bleaching practised in England probably as early as the sixteenth century, sour milk and cow's dung were first used. The linen was then steeped in waste lye; and for a week boiling hot potash lye was poured over it, after which it was taken out and washed and then put into wooden vats of buttermilk, where it was allowed to remain under pressure for five or six days. Finally it was spread on the grass and left there for several months, care being taken to keep it wet. This latter part 59 WEB DRAWERS AT WORK Loom Beam containing starched yarn placed on a rack, high enough to be easily reached. Each end of yarn is drawn by hand through Eyes in the Loom Harnesses. The number of Harnesses determines the pattern or twill on the surface of the cloth. Then the threads are further drawn through slits in a narrow Rccd which keeps them separated during the weaving process. The tool used by the operative in this Web Drawing process is a thin steel hook. 60 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL \V.\RP TYING MACHINES A modern method to avoid the necessity of "drawing in" every warp. It can only be used where the same style of cloth is continued, and consists of tying each thread of a new warp to the corresponding thread of the old one just running out. The warps are then ready to go to the looms in Weave Room. of the process was called crofting, while the steeping in the lyes was known as bucking. It often required from six to eight months to complete the process, during which time linen was apt to be stolen. This led to an enactment by George II which made such an act a serious offense, punishable by death. Gradually various improvements were made in the process of bleaching. Dr. Francis Home of Edinburgh discovered the value of sulphuric acid as a substitute for sour milk in the souring process, which could then be accomplished in a few hours where it had formerly taken days and weeks. The value of chlorine as a bleaching agent was discovered in 1774 by C. W. Sheele, the Swedish chemist. The discovery was due to his accidently noticing that the cork of the bottle which contained his chlorine had been bleached by the action of the chemical. Im- pressed by its great possibilities, the eminent French chemist, Claude Louis Berthollet, applied chlorine to the bleaching of fab- 61 O _C . _ O <" C olllf SW| J IM C co _c ^ aj ^'c^S ~ o^3 ^ u^-J OS ^ bfc -M _Q C C t! Cj 3 <U j= G J= 73 % C-g oj ROMANCE oj PEPPERELL SHEARING ROOM Cloth from looms is scxvn together at ends of Cuts, and is then run through machines which simply brush and clean off loose threads or other dirt. Tiicn it pocs to the folders. rics, with great success. He showed his experiment to James Wall, the English inventor, in 1 786, and the latter commenced to use chlorine on the bleach-field of his father-in-law, near Glasgow. Later it was discovered that, by the use of eau de Javel, much of the injurious and unpleasant odor arising from the use of the chlorine was removed. PERFECTING THE Oil) PROCESSES And so the process was constantly being perfected. Today the bales of cotton cloth from the Pepperell Mills are sent to the Lcwistmi Bleachery and Dye Works in which the Pcppcrcll Manufacturing Company is the largest stockholder. Here the various cut; arr sewn together on a circular sewing machine and by a series of are pulled in a long rope-like strand through porcelain-lined "pot eyes" in the ceiling or wall, to the various rooms where the bleaching process is carried on. From lime machine to kier, on through "log- washers " and sulphuric acid baths to the bleaching powder solution, it is reeled and is finally washed in pure spring water, starched, ironed and folded into neat pieces of snowy-white sheeting bearing the familiar label of the Pcppcrcll Manufacturing Company. 63 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL LEW1STON BLKACHERY AND DYE WORKS, LEWISTON, MAINE The largest owner of the stock of this Bleachery is the Pepperell Mfg. Co. AMERICAN EFFORT TO SECURE ENGLISH MACHINES The Revolutionary War, bringing with it the suspension of trade with England, from whence had come most of the cloth used by the colonies, had started American looms weaving on their own ac- count, and the industry was soon well under way. When the war was over, movements were started to promote American industries, but these were hampered by the fact that England had taken precautions to prevent the knowledge of the labor-saving machines, which turned out fabrics for her, from being spread abroad. Very little was known about them here. There was not an Arkwright machine in this country, although Har- greaves' jennies and carding machines had been smuggled in. Con- tinued attempts were made by Americans to secure either designs or copies of the English machines, even by underhand methods. Tench Coxe, of Philadelphia, sent an English mechanic, then living in Philadelphia, to England to construct brass models of the Arkwright machines, and to ship them to Paris, where the American minister would reship them to America. But his scheme was dis- covered, the models seized and the mechanic was bonded not to leave England for three years. This effort was repeated at another time, but the models were seized in transit. In some instances English machines were taken apart, boxed separately, labelled Glass or Agricultural Implements and reshipped to America. Card Clothing, in one case, was mounted on handles, and called "Cards fnr Cattle"; while the spindles were called "Teeth for Horserakes." 64 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL SITE OF OLD GARRISON HOUSE The building shown here, part of which is occupied by the York National Bank of Saco, is the site of the Old Garrison House. The garrison house was built by Sir William Pepperrell and his associates to protect their mills on the banks of the Saco from the Indians. In 1790 Samuel Slater constructed Arkwright machines in Pawtucket. Soon after 1800 the textile industry in America was an established fact. EARLY INDUSTRIES AT SACO AND B1DDEFORD Down through the years when Colonial spinning and weaving were in use and the early textile inventions were being made, the voice of the Saco's turbulent waters as they tumbled in precipitous glee over rocks and boulders, sent forth its challenge to men of brain and brawn, and many answered. As early as 1650, Roger Spencer, a prominent business man of the town, had a saw-mill in Biddeford. All traces of these early industries have vanished. On the site now occupied by the York National Bank of Saco, were found not lonjr ago the remains of an old garrison house erected by Sir William Pepperrell and two business associates for the protection of their mills. Both garrison and mills have long since crumbled in ruins. The humble industrial plants of those early settlers have given place to great modern manufactories. Where the "old stone fort" once stood on the banks of the Saco in Biddeford, are now located some of the mills of the Pepperell Manufacturing Company. This immense plant now extends over more than ten acres in the business centre of Biddeford, which is a thriving little city with 65 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL a population of 10,000, a large percentage of which are foreign born. The mills were built near the falls on the Saco River, where the water from the upper level could be conducted through flumes or canals constructed for the purpose, and passing through water- wheels, would cause them to revolve continually, thus furnishing FOLDERS IN CLOTH ROOM Cloth from shearers is folded in yard folds. It is then carefully inspected fold In- fold in order to find any possible defects. The inspectors are seen looking DMT the cuts on long tables. power at much less cost than that produced from steam power gen- erated by the burning of coal. Steam power is also used to supple- ment the water power, and the steam is needed to heat the mills in winter, and for some special processes in making the cloth. Nearly one hundred years ago an Amesbury man named Rufus Nichols, lured by the call of the Saco, came to this section and built a shop for the manufacture of cotton mill machinery. Eleven years later, in 1838, he sold out to the newly organized Saco Water Power Company which then owned the mill privileges. Thomur^ Quimby, a civil engineer, was elected clerk of this company in 1841 and held the office for many years. 67 - U . Tjc o O H3 "o s a,-* 'fi The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL The company soon opened a shop on the Biddeford side of the river for the manufacture of cotton mill machinery, and made Rufus Nichols its agent. The advantage of having a nearby market for this machinery soon became apparent. With this idea in view the Saco Water Power Company built the Laconia Company, making Rufus Nichols the agent of this also. The first Laconia mill, a small brick building, was erected in 1845. A small number of textile workers, most of whom were Yankee girls, were employed here. In the list of regulations issued by the Laconia Company for their employees in the early days, was the following: " It is expected that all persons in the employment of the Company will be regular in their attendance upon public worship on the Sabbath." Such a ruling would be difficult to find in a list of instructions for the employees of any industry at the present time! Encouraged by the success of the Laconia mill, the Saco Water Power Company was led to build the larger Pepperell Manufacturing Company which later absorbed the Laconia Company. This move was made, however, during a business depression, and the mill remained idle for two years. In 1850, William Dwight of Boston bought the Pepperell Mills and organized the company, becoming its first treasurer, in Boston, and the venture now proved a great success. In the early days of the company only Yankees were employed. Girls came from all parts of Maine and New Hampshire. Fred Greene, an old resident, of Biddeford, who went to work in the Pep- perell in 1858, and was for many years overseer in the weave room, tells of the long boarding house blocks where these girls lived, like one big family. They went to the mill early in the morning and worked all day, returning to their tasks after supper. They received small wages but were happy and contented. In the summer they generally returned to their homes, so that the mills were compelled to partially shut down during this period. The coming of the French Canadian people to work in the mills was a great boon to the industry, for they are considered by mill officials to be most ideal cotton mill workers. For thirty years the majority of the employees were of this nationality and even today a large percentage are French. The mills of the Pepperell Manu- facturing Company now give employment to nearly four thousand operatives of many nationalities, including French, Armenians, Albanians, Greeks, Poles and others from Southern Europe. It is not unusual to see entire families represented in the various rooms. From 1899 the date of the consolidation of the Laconia Manu- facturing Company and Pepperell Manufacturing Company under 69 Till-. orADRANCLK OF THE PEPPERELL DIVISION SHOWING SOME OF THE EMPLOYEES FIRST AID TO THE INJURED ROOM AT THE PEPPERELL MILL The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL the name of the Pepperell Manufacturing Company to January i, 1915, a period of about sixteen years, there were manufactured at these mills, 1,030,604,502 yards or 585,570 miles of cloth, enough to circumnavigate the earth twenty-three and a half times. Thirty- four percent of the cloth produced during this period was drill's, which are especially popular in China. Allowing ek'ht jrarda to J person, enough of this material was manufactured to clothe 44, 1 7 1, 629 Chinese with one suit each, or 2,766,726^ Chinese a year. In a report to the Department of Commerce, 1916, on "Cotton Goods in China," Ralph M. Odell, commercial agent for the I'nited States Government, says, "The 'Dragon' chop (or trade mark) of the Pepperell Mills commands the highest price because of its good quality and the fact that it has been in the market for many j and is a well-known chop." "The 'Beaver/ one of the most common chops seen on the Chinese market, was taken from the original 'Beaver' chop of the Pepperell Mills. The brand on the outside fold below the chop usually consists of seven lines of lettering. This is not due to a coincidence but to the fact that the Chinese demand it because the jeans which have been on the market longest and are most widely sold are branded in this manner. Other jeans in the market, however, have live, six or eight lines of lettering." So it is that, although there is no registration or protection of trade marks in China, the Chinese merchant has learned to count the number of lines under this particular brand, for it is a pretty safe guess that no other manufacturer will have the exact number of lines used on the goods which he has come to recognize as standing for superiority and reliability. Not only in China, but in far-away India are the Pepperell prod- ucts found. In another report, " Cotton Goods in British India, 191 S," Ralph M. Odell says: "The grey drills supplied by the United States consist almost entirely of the well-known Pepperell brand, manu- factured by a mill in Maine, and they have been sold in India for many years. In the opinion of some of the prominent importers in India, it is one of the largest selling brands of cotton goods in the world, and is considered a staple article in the piece-goods trade of India. The natives buy it partly because they are familiar with the brand, but mainly because its high quality has been maintained over a long period of years." Why does the intelligent American housewife who understands the texture of goods, pick out the Pepperell products when she is selecting her sheets and pillow cases? Because the sheeting, sin pillow cases and tubings which bear the Pepperell label, and which are sold under that label alone, are so made that for the cost they The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL are the most serviceable and best appearing of any on the market. Owing to the superior grade of cotton used and to the number of threads woven to the square inch, Pepperell goods are most flexible, stand up best under the wear of hard laundering, and yet are light and easy to wash. They keep their whiteness. In every respect IVpperell products meet the desires of the fastidious housekeeper. They are appropriate in houses of taste and refinement, where a well-made bed with snow-white sheets and pillow cases is as essential as a correctly set table with its fine linen and silver; and yet they stand up and give perfect satisfaction under the exacting require- ments of hospital, sleeping car and hotel uses. Pepperell has been a standard family sheeting for over two generations. Its low cost, ai tractive appearance, and great wearing qualities make it the great- est bargain of them all. Thus is the name of Sir William Pepperrell carried into all parts nl the world into countries where the old baronet was never heard of. But just as the very name of Colonel Pepperrell inspired the colonists with courage and hope during those troublesome years of war and anxiety, so does the Pepperell brand of cotton goods carry with it a guarantee of reliability and satisfaction today. The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL MADE-UP SIZES OF PEPPEREI ,L BLEACHED GOODS PILLOW CASES BOLSTER CASES SHEETS C'KIH SHEETS 42 x 36 42 x 63^ 50 x 90 42 x <q x 38^ x 671/2 ^-1 x 90 x68 x 4o>_; X 72 .x '/V , x 73 45 x 36 x 7 (> ' a X 91 y x 77 x8i X IDS 4 - xf> 4 x40>^ 45 x 6 3 y 2 63 x 90 X oS 5 x 36 x 67 X x 94 1 A x 73 x 38^ X 7 2 x 99 X77 x 40^2 x 76^2 X IOS ^ o x 73 54x36 x 381/2 x 81 sox 63^ 7 2 x 90 *94^ ^ X77 x 73 x 40 ' \ x6 7 '. X99 x 77 X 7 2 x 108 X 7(1' .' X 11] x Si 8 1 x 90 54 x 63^ X94 1 .' x 6 7 3 / 2 x99 X 7 2 X IOS x 76*^" x 113 x8i 90 x 90 x 94/ / 2 X99 X IOS x 1 1 3 PEPPERELL WIDE SIIEET1NCS come in I IK- following widths: UNBLEACHED BLEACHED PEPPERELL BLEACHED TI-BIN<; comes in the following widths 42" 9/8 42" 45" 5/4 45" 48" 50" 5" '6/4 54" 6/4 54" 60" 7/4 63" 8/4 72" 8/4 72" 9/4 81" 9/4 81" 10/4 90" 10/4 90" 1 1/4 99" 1 1/4 99" 12/4 108" 4 o 42 inch 73 The ROMANCE of PEPPERELL SHEETINGS F.vrjy pirce of IVppt'rrll Wide Sheetings and Pepperell Tubings, without excep- tion, carries this ticket. Do not accept substitutes. Wholesale Distributors BLISS FABYAN & CO. BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO U. S. A. 74 The ROMANCE of ?PJE&KRKl.L . VW ~W--T !N ".:_"".;" ; SHEETINGS This represents in miniature the Pepperell Sheetings as you will see them in the store. Wholesale Distributors BLISS FABYAN & CO. BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO U. S. A. of PEPPERELL TRADE MARK REGISTERED PEPPERELL MILLS BIDDEFORD MANUFACTURED IN UNITED STATES OF AM ERICA me reppereii standard IJnll snowing the repperell Dragon trade mark, which is as well known in India and China as it is in the United States. It represents the Standard of Excellence of all Cotton Goods exported from the United States to these countries. The Sun never sets on Pepperell Products. Wholesale Distributors BLISS FABYAN & CO. BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO U. S. A. 76 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY", BERKELEY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Books not returned ou time are subject to a fine of 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in demand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of loan period. MAR 101923 RECTD LD HAY 2 0*64 -6PM 20w-l,"22 4GG50B UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY