Beverly Community History

First Cotton Mill in America

As America moved to become its own nation following the Revolution, there was a deep seated realization among New England's leadership that industry must be established to create economic as well as political independence from Great Britain. Within a decade of signing the Treaty of Paris in 1783, cotton mills based on new technology had been established at Pawtucket, Philadelphia, and Beverly. Beverly's "Cotton Manufactory" was the first, however, and set the standards for others to follow.

In 1787, the Cabot brothers-John, Andrew, and George-took the lead in forming a corporation, joined by friends Moses Brown, Israel Thorndike, and Joshua Fisher, as well as relatives Henry Higginson and Deborah Higginson Cabot. At this same time, two young Englishmen, Thomas Somers and James Leonard, were trying to interest American investors in textile machinery which they had studied in England-gaining a small grant from the Massachusetts legislature in March of 1787 to finance building an archetype. Apparently George Cabot made the initial contacts and convinced them to come to Beverly. Work progressed rapidly, so that the Salem Mercury could report in April, 1788 that the machinery, consisting of a spinning jenny, a carding machine, warping machine, and other tools, was complete. The final investment phase came in the fall of 1788 with the construction of a factory building in North Beverly-a fairly rural location that was away from the center of town and yet accessible to the work force.
This showplace of new American industry drew a Presidential visit in the fall of 1789 while George Washington was making his grand New England tour. The Salem Mercury reported:
He was shown, in the lower story, a jenny of eighty-four spindles upon which some of the manufacturers were spinning warp; and three or four others were spinning weft; and about a dozen looms upon which they were weaving cotton denim, thicksett, corduroys, velveret, etc. In the middle story were seen a roping jenny of forty-two spindles and a machine on which a person usually doubles and twists in a day a cotton warp of fifty yards. In the upper story were exhibited the business of carding, warping, and cutting; and in a contiguous building that of dressing on the stove.
Washington made perceptive notes for his diary, commenting that "In short, the whole seemed perfect, and the cotton stuffs which they turn out, excellent of their kind."

Washington's visit, though, signaled two serious problems for the growth of the Manufactory. First, the investment costs were substantial and virtually guaranteed that no profit could be made for several years, and so, government subsidy headed the agenda of the incorporators. In applying for a charter of incorporation, in 1788, they made specific requests for financial relief and protection from competition. It is interesting to note that the local citizens, always concerned about their own taxes, passed a resolution at the October, 1788 town meeting which read: "That their Representatives oppose all bills that shall be brought for granting to proprietors of the Cotton Manufactory that has been lately set up in this Town and bounty or privilege in which this Town is to pay or bare a larger proportion thereof than the other Towns in the Commonwealth." The legislature granted land to the beverly businessmen and later provided for a lottery of 700 tickets to offset costs. Governor Hancock lamented in 1792, though, "The Cotton Manufactory at Beverly has received aid from the Government, but it is to be feared that it will not fully answer the public expectation." The fear of the President, then, was part of a larger lobbying effort to get government help.

The second problem which Washington's visit highlighted was the rapidly changing technology soon left Beverly in its wake. Competition was fierce between the new companies-so much so that competitors were kept out of the Beverly factory if possible. Moses Brown of Providence, the driving force behind Slater's Mill in Pawtucket, commented to friends in Worchester:
. . . but on our journey, I was at the furnace where the beaverly plate was cast and saw the pattern and conversed with the clerk and obtained his leave to borrow the pattern . . . As to cutting knives, which is found very difficult to temper, and is considered by the beaverlyWorkmen as a great Secret, having accidentally fallen in with the maker of theirs should you stand in need I will inform you where you may have them made by their Workmen. They refused letting me see their Knives or the operation of cutting tho' simple as it is.

Not only did competitors steal technology, but they also pirated workers away. In his letters to the Worchester manufacturers, the Providence man writes: "The beaverly people appeared highly offended at your taking the Woman from them, and say they will not again employ her if she returns." This intense competition left the pioneering Beverly cotton mill struggling from the very outset. Based primarily on horse power as opposed to water power, the mill gave way to the next wave of construction, first, at Slater's Mill, then at the famous mills of Waltham, Lawrence, and Lowell. By 1813, the Beverly Cotton Manufactory had ceased operations and the original building burned in 1828. Tradition states that parts of the North Shore Baptists Church building were constructed of bricks from the ruins.

Was Beverly the first? The case is pretty sound. Slater's Mill, a major historic site now, regularly claimed that position until recent years when their promotional efforts changed, calling themselves the "first successful mill" . . . a pretty vague claim. Moses Brown of Providence labeled Beverly's manufactory "the first and the largest" in 1791. Robert Lovett, a business historian, concluded, "Beverly . . . was the earliest to manufacture cloth, at private expense, by means of power driven machines." This community then, played a pivotal role in the development of American industry.

Taken from "Made In Beverly-A History of Beverly Industry", by Daniel J. Hoisington. A publication of the Beverly Historic District Commission. 1989.

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