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| 1899 Locomobile, Locomobile Company of America Currier-Caneron & Co., second company body built |
Amesbury Carriage on display in the foyer of the Amesbury Medical Center, courtesy of Ken Terry |
To have a less cluttered page, all the Scenic Photographs are now on Photo Gallery
| An overview of Amesbury |
| The Indians
had for centuries planted corn at the meadows, hunted in the forests, and fished in the
waters of Powwaus and Merrimac Rivers. They had a large encampment on the meadows near the
river. Their get-togethers of the tribes were called Powows and a few years later, the
river was named Powow. They left behind a lot of artifacts which can be seen at the
Bartlett Museum. Amesbury was settled in 1655 as a part of Salisbury, but was separated
from Salisbury in 1666 and incorporated as the town of Amesbury in 1668. It remained as a
town until 1996 when it became a city. To satisify the citizens who did not want to become
a city, it was given the name "The Town of Amesbury". In 1741, when the boundries between Massachuettes and New Hampshire were adjusted, Newton became a part of New Hampshire. Within Amesbury's territorial boundries were three sections, Amesbury Proper, South Amesbury, and West Amesbury. At one time, South Amesbury wanted to separate from Amesbury, but the state legislature would not approve. In 1876, South Amesbury and West Amesbury became Merrimac. The Powow River which starts in Danville, N.H. and runs through the center of Amesbury and until 1886 divided Amesbury from West Salisbury. That year, Amesbury annexed West Salisbury. Thus, all of the mills were now in Amesbury and that is how it is today. When all of this was completed, Amesbury lost one third of its territory.
Salisbury was settled in 1638, and two years later, families started settling along the east bank of the Powow River. In 1640, the first street at the new settlement was named Mill Street and a sawmill was built at the falls in 1641. A grist mill was built a year later and with two mills, the new settlement was beginning to be quite popular. Several families had been granted huge lots of land on both sides of the river. That year, plans were made to lay out a road to Pantucket which is now Haverhill. Large sections of land were divided on boths sides of the river. With the new sawmill, staves were being made for shipment to the Indies to use in trade for needed goods. Because oak trees were so plentiful, stave making became the first major industry. They were made only on the common and were hauled to Newbury for shipping. Yellow pine trees were used to make pitch. One of the first laws to be enacted was that no tree could be cut without permission. There was a vast amount of fish in the Powow river and soon it would become another major industry. The settlers understood the importance of fishing and they enacted laws that would limit the amount that could be caught. It was decided to put a settlement on the west bank of the river and in 1642 ten families were ordered to move to the the new site. They had no choice, but this order was ignored and no one moved and there was another meeting in 1643 reafirming the first order. All of these demands were ignored. John Haddon may have moved across the river in 1644, but the first person on record to have moved to the west bank was John Hoyt in 1647. By 1654, only eighteen families had moved and these families petitioned the courts to separate the towns by using the Powow River as the dividing line. Permission was granted in 1655 and the west bank settlement was referred to as "The New Town".
In 1656, Thomas Macy and Richard Currier were granted permission to build a sawmill. They were able to supply staves for barrel making and lumber for houses and vessels. Fishing and ship building became major industries along the Powow and Merrimac rivers. Recent findings have given creditibilty that more ships were built in Amesbury than Newburyport or Salisbury. Thomas Macy was one of the first settlers in Salisbury and one of the first to cross over the Powow River into New Town. He built his house in 1652, sold it to the Colby Family in 1654, where it still stands. He was in partnership with Richard Currier in building the first sawmill and it was built on the common. He was a well educated person and was the first clerk for the New Town Committee. In 1659, he befriended three Quakers who wanted shelter from a fierce rainstorm. They were there for forty-five minutes and left. They never spoke to each other. When word got back to his church about what he had done, he was brought before the general court and given a fine. It was against the law for anyone to befriend a Quaker. He pleaded with the court that he was destitute and could not pay the fine. The towns people turned against him and sometime in 1659, he left for Nantucket with his family in a rowboat in fear for his life. In Nantucket, he was one of the negotiaters to purchase Nantucket Island from the Indians. Susanna Martin was convicted and put to death for witchcraft in 1692. The trial was in Salem and lasted for two months. The town's people concocted such outrageous lies about her that she was found guilty. Can one imagine such hate for a person that he would travel on horseback from Amesbury to Salem to convict an innocent person to death? When word got to Cotton Mather and the governor's wife what was happening, they put a stop to the trials. Only three were convicted, but one hundred fifty were in prison waiting to be tried and two hundred more accused. The first person accused of witchcraft was a Salisbury resident in 1652, but his case was dismissed because the jury and trial lawyers were in disagreement with each other. We will never know if the accusers every regreted their actions.There are numerous stories that have been written in our history books about our struggles and courage during the Revolutionary War. There is one story which has never been written and it tells about the moral spirit and courage of Amesbury. On July 10th, 1775, Adjuntant General Horatio Gates signed an order stating that no negroes, vagabonds, strollers, or a deserter from the ministerial service shall be allowed to serve. Captain John Currier, Officer in Charge of the Amesbury Regiment, resented the order not to enlist negroes. Therefore, he enlisted two slaves who were given permission by their owners to join. They were Sepio Gray and Robert Negro. He was not going to bring his regiment if these two men could not serve. He was given permission and by his action, these two were the first blacks to serve in the Revolutionary Army. Permission was granted by the town committee in 1792 to build a bridge across the Merrimac to Newburyport. This became a part of the now famous Chain Bridge, the first in the country, and is still a major road and attraction. A very active ferry service had been a major way of transporting people across the river. In 1789, George Washington rode one of these ferries from Newburyport to Amesbury. On his way across the river, he spotted a ship with a flag higher than the American flag. He gave an order to have the captain of the ship to raise the American flag to the top and no flag shall ever be higher than ours. Lowell Boat Shop has been continuously making the famous sail surf dories for over two-hundred years. Men wearing tri-corner hats and powdered pony-tails to men with Boston Red Sox caps have been sailing them. As the river flowed through Amesbury, it had a ninty-foot drop providing enough power to run saw mills, gristmills, and textile mills. From the town's beginning, industries sprung up all along the rivers. A hat factory was one of them. It later became the Merrimac Hat Factory, the largest makers of hats in the country. The first stage coach line from Amesbury to the Eastern Railroad line in Newburyport was put into service in 1846. Workers from all over were flocking to Amesbury. It was the center of industry. If one business failed, there were two others to take its place. From 1653, shipyards along the Powow and Merrimac Rivers were continually being built and they were one of the major industries
The Continental Congress first Frigate ship, The Alliance, was built in Amesbury in 1777 and it was captained by Capt. Pierre Landais, a former officer of the French Navy who had come to the New World hoping to become a naval counterpart of Lafayette. His first mission was to carry General Lafayette and Patrick Henry to Paris. Benjamin Franklin, our ambassador to the French Court, had summoned for help in persuading France to join with us. When it left Amesbury, it was the "John Hancock". When France agreed to join in an alliance with us, Franklin renamed it the "Alliance". Captain John Paul Jones later relieved Captain Landis from command and took over the Alliance. He relieved the captain for deliberately firing on his ship, the Bonhomme Richard, in a battle with two English ships and causing so much damage that Jones had to abandon it. Captain John Paul Jones captained the Alliance until 1780. That year, it became the Flagship for Captain John Barry, the "Father of the American Navy". He proclaimed it to be the best frigate in the navy. With this great ship, Captain Barry captured or sunk more English vessels than any other naval officer. It fired the last shots of the Navy in the war. It was the only regular commissioned ship afloat at the end of the war in 1783. While sailing out of Proidence, R.I. on a mission to deliver a load of tobacco to Cuba, it struck a rock and was damaged so badly that the Navy deemed it to be too expensive to repair and it was sold to a merchant company and was used until 1789 when it was rendered to be unfit. It was docked at Petty Island where it rotted away. In 1901, a dredging crew found some of its hull. Alliance Park was named for the area where it was built.
In 1790, twenty-four year old Jacob Perkins, born in Newburyport, invented a nail making machine that could make a nail with a head. The machine was patented in 1795 and he set up a nail factory above the Powow River falls. He could make thousands of nails a day that were much cheaper. His nail factory was the first in the country. It was heavily damaged by fire in 1805. It was rebuilt and was in business until 1818. The building was sold in 1824 to a woolen company. He was perhaps one of the greatest inventors of all times. 1852 was Amesbury's year of infamy. Young boys from the age of
ten were working in the mills. They worked from five in the morning until seven that
night. They were given a fifteen-minute morning break, a fifteen-minute afternoon break,
and a half-hour noon break. They were only allowed to leave the building at noontime, but
hardly anyone ever left the building. The new owner of a woolen mill decided that the
workers could not leave the building. The next noontime, one hundred boys protested this
order and walked out. The new owner instantly fired them. The next day, the rest of the
workers went on strike. Both Amesbury's and Salisbury's town committees signed a letter in
favor of the strikers. The new owner would not relent and he hired fifty men to carry out
his orders. What had once been an amicable relationship between the mill owners and the
towns people was never the same. This was the beginning of the labor movement in America. The Carriage Manufacturing Era 1800 - 1913 In 1800, Michael Emery and William Little built the first carriage at a factory in West Amesbury. By mid-century, Amesbury had numerous carriage factories, but only the upper class could afford them. In 1853, Jacob Huntington, a painter by trade, decided to make carriages that common people could purchase. His carriages were the first to be built on an assembly line basis. Every employee had a certain job to do and a part to make. This was a radical idea and many of his contemporaries said it could not work. He started his business above another factory, but in a very short time, he purchased a building and his carriages were the top sellers. By 1865, there were twenty-three carriage factories and twelve thousand carriages had been built. Huntington may have been the father of the carriage trade, but James Hume, who bought the Huntington factory in 1857, carried the trade to its greatest height. His factory produced the most innovations to the standard carriage and soon Amesbury carriages became the preferred ones throughout the country and were being shipped to other countries. They had a name for quality and affordability. It is claimed that more patents were obtained by Amesbury carriage mechanics for different appliances in rendering ease and convenience to riding vehicles than in any other carriage section of the country. These patents not only include various changes by which a two seat vehicle can be transformed almost instantly into a stylish single seat, but to patent wheels and springs. In fact, much of the machinery by which the manufacturer had been able to enlarge and carry forward his business, and its improvement, were the inventions of the mechanics. The Fitchburg Sentinel covered the Great Fire of 1888 over a two day period:
On George Washington's birthday in 1894, there was a three-day exhibition of ten thousand carriages with all the makers showing their finest examples. There was train and trolley service for anyone who wished to come. This was one of the largest exhibition of carriages ever. Even today, annual car sales are held on George Washington's birthday. Amesbury born, Ralph Clarkson, 1861-1942, made the first drawings of carriages in Amesbury in 1878. He was educated at the Amesbury High School and his artistic ability was recognized very early. In his school days, he was called upon to decorate the blackboards on special occasions. From his childhood, he wanted to become an artist and his first work was as a designer and draftsman. He studied at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in the early 1880s under Frederic Crowninshield before moving to Paris to study under the renown Lefebvre. He eventually went to Chicago in 1896 and became an instructor and governing member of the Art Institute. One of his students was Texas's best known artist, Olin Herman Travis. He was also a leading member of the arts and crafts movement. In 1900, he was the president of the Chicago Art Commission and Chicago Art League. In 1898, he was a founding member of the Eagle's Nest Colony in Oregon, Ill. The Colony acted as a summer retreat for a variety of well known artists. The lease on the property lasted as long as one of the original founding members was alive. In 1942, the Colony ended upon his death. He is currently represented in the collections of the National Academy, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. He also exhibited his paintings in the 1915 Pan-American Exposition in San Francisco. He was known for portrait, town-landscape, figure, and mural paintings. He excelled in all mediums
William Ellis Carriage Company, in January 1889, began to manufacture electric trolley cars. For several years he was very successful and employed eighty first class mechanics. In 1895 the plant was destroyed by fire and was never rebuilt. The Briggs Carriage Company started a year after Ellis, but the trolley car business closed in 1905. The business closed because it could not compete with much larger factories that began producing trolleys at a cheaper price. Ellis's and Briggs's cars were sold all over New England and as far west as St. Louis, Mo. and as far north to Montreal, Canada. Even though the trolley busisness was shut down, Briggs continued with his lucrative autobody building for Stanley and Locomobile until 1923 when both companies ceased building automobiles. According to an article in Autobody Magazine, Briggs Carriage Co.’s owner, Richard E. Briggs has retired and is disposing of his plant and equipment. After 47 years of carriage, streetcar and motor-body building will take a trip around the world. (In 1880, the electric engine was first introduced by Siemens AG at the International Electricity Exhibition in Paris, France. The first electric street car was built in Richmond, Va. in 1887. Two years later, they were being built Amesbury. By then, there was only about a hundred miles of track in the country. All records of the two companies building electric trolley cars were hand written and none are known to exist. Two Briggs cars are still in existence, but no Ellis trollies are known to exist.)
The charter of incorporation was granted on May 9th of that year, and was almost immediately turned over to the firm of Edward P. Shaw and Edward B. Ferguson, two of New England’s outstanding traction promoters. Capital stock was issued and sold, the necessary franchises and locations were acquired, and within a short time construction began. Land was purchased on East Main St., Merrimac, and a carbarn and office building, both of wood, erected there. For a power station, the H. & A. remodeled an old factory building which was already equipped with boilers. Several of the Black Rocks & Salisbury Beach Street Railway’s newer horsecars were electrified and in addition, the H. & A. purchased new rolling stock from the Ellis Car Company and the Shaw controlled Newburyport Car CO. The fist electric car over the Haverhill & Amesbury Street Railway ran from the Merrimac carhouse to Amesbury on Sept. 24, 1892. On Oct. 11 the line was completed to Monument Square, Haverhill, and in the evening of that day, officials of the town and invited guests rode from Haverhill to Amesbury. Regular service between Haverhill and Amesbury commenced on Oct 13th, and it is said that during the day, merchants of Haverhill paid the round trip fare of any Amesbury or Merrimac resident who came on the H. & A. to Haverhill to do his or her shopping! Late in 1897, Promoter Wallace D. Lovell, the owner of the Hampton Beach Casino and Canobie Lake Park, announced plans to build a line from Hampton Village through Hampton Falls to Smithtown Square in Seabrook and the Massachusetts boundary and on through Salisbury Plains to the town of Amesbury. This was to join his Exeter to Hampton Beach Line at Hampton. He chose Amesbury because it was a busy industrial city with thousands of workers. His business depended on workers who didn't have the money to go to the northern resorts, but had the means to vacation at his local resorts. The railroad company began operation with five open and five closed 10-bench cars, all built by the Briggs Carriage Company. Amesbury was the hub for all of the trolley lines that went to Hampton Beach. This included the towns of Haverhill and Newburyport. At the beginning, the trolleys carried thousand of riders each summer. There was no winter service. Eventually, the enthusiasm began to wain and the company began to lose money. The Exeter, Hampton, and Amesbury Railroad continued in business under several different ownerships until 1927 when for lack of riders and being heavy in debt, it went into receivership and the assests were sold to pay off debts. For sixteen years, Amesbury was the Trolley Car builders for the Northeastern section of the United States. Their cars were considered the best. Eventually, they could not compete with cheaper made cars. The Automobile Body Manfacturing Era, 1898 -1932 Shortly after the turn of the century, an increasing number of automobiles were seen on the streets and the carriage makers realized that carriages would slowly fade away, but some carriage makers continued in business until 1913. The factories that switched to making automobile bodies produced most of the bodies in the automobile industry.In April of 1898, Currier, Cameron & Co. became the first Amesbury carriage builder to build an automotive body. The Stanley Motor Carriage Co. of Newton, Massachusetts, commissioned them to construct ten bodies for its new steam-operated automobile. As was their practice at the time, Currier & Cameron constructed the coachwork and subcontracted the painting and trimming to the Shields Carriage Co. Stanley was pleased with the firm’s work and Currier, Cameron, and Shields Carriage Co. employee produced fifteen runabouts per week through 1900. That year, Locomobile Auto Company, also makers of steam powered autos, hired the company to make twenty bodies per week. Work for Stanley and Locomobile accounted for sixty percent of the firm’s business which by that time occupied two three-story buildings in the old Colchester Mill which was located at the corner of Elm and Cedar Streets. They also made bodies for Briscoe, Maxwell, Mobile Steamer, Orient Buckboard, Pope Robinson, and Stevens-Duryea. The company continued making bodies for Stanley and Locomobile until 1923 when both companies shut down. Biddle and Smart was the largest builders of bodies. They were the makers for Hudson Motor Co. and Thomas Motor Company which built the Thomas Flyer that won the Great World Road Race of 1908. As early as July 1914, the company produced a series of limousines and coupes for Hudson Motor Car Company which looked very similar to the Simplex closed cars of the year earlier. This proved to be a fruitful association and by 1923 they had become an exclusive supplier to Hudson, building five and seven-passenger sedan bodies and the occasional In the mid-1920s customers also included Rolls-Royce, Lincoln, Peerless, Marmon, Mercer, White, Chalmers, Speedwell and Haynes. Production jumped to over 12.000 bodies in 1923. The plant expansion continued and that year they took over Currier Cameron & Co. and their large "Colchester Mill" on Elm Street. In 1925 buildings from Hollander & Morrill Body Co., Witham Body Co., and T.W. Lane Company were added. The added capacity permitted acceptance of a small order from the Rolls-Royce Springfield plant. In September 1926, the Bryant Body Co. was taken over to obtain a building on Cedar Street. This brought the total space to nearly a half million square feet in twenty-one buildings in six different sections of town. The company's production peaked in March, 1926. 400 bodies a day were produced in three eight-hourshifts by 4,736 employees. When Hudson built is own factory in Detroit, it was not a good sign for Biddle and Smart. By the end of 1926, all steel Hudson sedan bodies were coming from the new factory and by 1928 Biddle & Smart production had dropped by sixty per cent. They made Hudson bodies until 1931, the year that Hudson ceased buying from them. After completing the contract with Hudson for 1930 model bodies in the summer of that year, the Amesbury concern was advised that, beginning in 1931, it would no longer be the outside source for Hudson bodies. The company tried for a brief period to market aluminum boats, but within months the company was out of business. While they were in business, they made bodies for more companies than any other manufacturer, including Fisher Body.
Walker Carriage Co. produced bodies for a number of automakers; Abbott-Detroit, Buick, Holmes, Jordan, Lexington, Packard, Paige, Reo, Studebaker, White and Winton, but they were closely associated with the H.H. Franklin Mfg. Co. of Syracuse, New York. From 1910 through 1932, Walker produced bodies for the air-cooled Franklin, and for most of those years Franklin Motor Co. was Walker’s largest customer and Walker was Franklin's principal supplier of coachwork. Walker was the last Amesbury factory to make automobile bodies. The company ceased making them in 1932. Walker was the largest user of aluminum in the world. They slowly faded away and all assets were sold in 1936. Among the body building companies that developed in Amesbury shortly after the introduction of metal covered bodies in 1910 was the Clark Carriage Co. Their first motor car bodies were built of aluminum for the Buick Motor Car Co. They continued to do work for this company during the entire career in the automobile business, specializing in the Buick touring car. In 1913 seven to ten bodies per week were finished. A large brick factory at the corner of Oakland and Chestnut Street housed the establishment where in 1916 one hundred and twenty-five men were employed. The Walker Body Co. bought out the Clark Carriage Co. in 1920.Hollander and Morrill Co. made bodies for several makers, but in 1913 they started making bodies for Detroit Cadillac based in New York. Detroit Cadillac, the maker of taxicabs, became their biggest customer and the company was very prosperous until 1922. From that year, they went down hill and out of business in 1925. When Currier, Cameron & Co. became overwhelmed with orders from Locomobile, they turned to Leitch Carriage Co. for bodies in the white, unpainted, to help meet the order, and Leitch eventually became part of the official Locomobile body program. Leitch also produced bodies for several taxicab copanies in Boston and New York.. As business increased the firm relocated from their rented quarters in the old Electric Light plant on Oakland Street to larger quarters on Cedar Street adjacent to Brigg’s railcar manufacturing facility. Leitch’s catalogue and letters to perspective buyers claimed to be the largest body maker in Amesbury and to have forty-five workers, but those claims were untrue because he only made five bodies a week. Leitch’s Cedar St. plant was severely damaged by a 1913 fire that destroyed most of their stock of dried lumber and the firm mosy likely ceased operations at that time. Only one Leitch-built automobile body is known to exist, a dark blue touring car that was built for a 1913 Locomobile. The carriage business of Samuel R. Bailey which during the early 1900s was the largest of its kind in the East, began to manufacture auto bodies and automobiles in 1903. The Bailey Electric Victoria Phaeton was the best known product. Bailey did not allow small mill machinery in his factory after it was invented, until it became necessary to do so in order to handle large automobile orders. Their Victoria body was rather simple in construction, requiring less time to complete than did other bodies of the period, but the construction of their own electric-powered chassis was a very toilsome task. During the firm's interest in the auto business of the town, they employed thirty experienced body-makers. The business was located on two floors in Babcock's No.5 plant on Chestnut Street. S.R. Bailey built the electric car and produced them until 1915. When he stopped making cars, he switched to making body parts. His company was the only one to build a complete automobile in Amesbury.Thomas Edison tried for five years to make a battery that was suitable for electric cars. He finally gave up. One of the first business organizations in the east to engage in the manufacture of aluminum auto bodies was formed in Amesbury in 1907. It was called the Amesbury Metal Body Co., and was composed of James H. Walker, John Foster, Fred England and J. Albert Davis, all of whom were once members of various body concerns of the town, but because of the invention of metal covered bodies, severed their relations and founded one of the most prosperous of all local metal shops. Their establishment was, like many others, located in Babcock’s No.5 plant on Chestnut Street where they employed some forty metal workers. Because of their building metal fenders and engine heads for various auto chassis they completed only eight finished motor car bodies per week. During their six year’s stay in Amesbury before going to Detroit in 1913, more than one-half of their work was for the Stevens-Duryea Motor Co. but they also built bodies for the Studebaker, Packard, and Alco automobiles. This firm was the second in the country to press-out metal engine hoods and door panels but very little of this work was done in Amesbury.Gray and Davis, of Amesbury, the largest maker of carriage lanterns in the US, quickly used these lanterns for automobiles. They moved to Boston in 1913. The cost of transporting bodies from Amesbury to Detroit was the leading factor for the demise of the Amesbury body makers. Except Pontiac, Amesbury factories made bodies for each of the companies that made up General Motors. In 1917, General Motors bought Fisher Body which was making bodies in Detroit. Until then, Fisher Body was also making bodies for other automobile companies. With this purchase, they became the sole manfacturer for General Motors. General Motors had also purchased the Fleetwood company that supplied bodies for the high-end trade. Fleetwood began making bodies for Cadillac. By this time, Fisher Body was the largest maker of automobile bodies. It is commonly reported that the depression ended the building of bodies in Amesbury, but by the time of the depression, body making was for all practicable purposes finished. Lozier Automobile Co, founded by Abraham Lozier, Plattsburg, NY, was the maker of the finest and the most expensive early cars produced in the United States. The 1910 model line featured cars priced between $4,600 and $7,750. The same year, a Cadillac could be had for about $1,600 and a Packard for $3,200. The average annual salary in America that year was approximately $750. They were in business from 1900-1915. Charles Franklin Pettingell established a machine shop in 1873 that specialized in building precision milling and wheel-wright machinery for the carriage industry. An early product of the firm was the C.F. Pettingell Rim and Felloe Rounding Machine which was used to manufacture carriage wheels.Pettingell’s shop was destroyed by the 1888 Amesbury Fire, but he rebuilt and continued to introduce new machinery. By the late 1890s C.F. Pettingell manufactured over 30 different machines, all earmarked for the carriage building industry. Products included tenoners, tilting arbor bevel saws (table saws) and irregular template dressers for wooden working plus friction cutters and rolling formers for sheet metal fabrication and their ever-popular rim and felloe rounding machines. In 1905, C.F. Pettingell retired and A.G. Bela purchased the firm reorganizing it as the Pettingell Machine Co. The firm’s most popular product was the Pettingell Automatic Hammer. Body panels that required several days of hand hammering could be finished in less than an hour using the labor saving device which was designed specifically for the automotive body business. The firm’s largest customer was the Fisher Body Corp. who used over 500 Pettingell power hammers in their factories. During the teens, twenties and thirties their specialized equipment could be found in every firm in the country that dealt with either manufacturing or repairing composite automobile bodies.At the beginning of the automobile industry, all bodies were made with ash or oak frames and then aluminum was applied over the frames, thus the name composite bodies. All early manufactured car bodies were manufactured this way. By 1930, all metal bodies were in production except Fisher Body which used the composite bodies until 1937. Amesbury has the unique distinction of being the first and only maker city in the country in which a rattan ( wicker) automobile body was ever manufactured. The company was Amesbury Rattan and Reed Co.By the way, those little bumper cars, or the original name "Dodg'em", that you see and your children drive at all the amusement parks were first manufactured in Amesbury in 1919 by Carlton Witham of Merrimac. In the 1960's two major interstate highways, I-495 and I-95, merged at Amesbury. People began discovering Amesbury for its potential and affordability. When industrial parks were created and businesses were sought to locate in the area, the city once again was on the upswing. Within the last ten years, the downtown area has been revifified. One-way streets and traffic circles for easier driving, vintage style lamp posts, flower basket hangers, and store windows with flower boxes. Where there once was a hap-hazard market square has now over-sized vintage brick tree lined sidewalks. Trees were planted on every street. Store fronts have been redone. Investors have bought the old mill buildings and have renovated them into offices, condominiums, and studios for artisans. The old railroad station has been redone to its former self. A river walk is now under construction from the downtown area to the Merrimac River for nature walks and studies. A Hat Museum with the largest collections of hats in the world and a Railroad Museum are located on Water Street. Located nearby will be the Carriage Museum when the building is finally renovated. The Bartlett Muesum, once an 1840 school house on Main Street, houses one of the best collections in the East for Indian artifacts. There are scheduled nature studies in the nearby Amesbury Forest for groups throughout the summer months. When out of town business saw what was happening in Amesbury, they started moving in and where upscale restaurants were once non-existent are now the norm. Two more are now planning to open very shortly, but one can still find some great home cooked meals at several restaurants in town. To make it happen, it took the city government, business organizations, and the citizens working together. It took Amesbury a long time to find this out, but it was worth it.
Amesbury has had many famous sons and daughters and many famous visitors who have been immortalized in history books. Pictured here are just three of them. Sometime in the late 19th century, Kimball Pond was named Lake Attitash, its original Indian name. The first bank notes in the US were printed at Amesbury. When the people of Salisbury expelled these families to the other side of the Powow River, little did they know what they gave up. The eighteen families who dared to cross the river were the foundation of what Amesbury is today. Their descendants overcame every obstacle known to man, including slaughter by Indians, families wiped out by diseases, a tornado, in 1773, that damaged or destroyed over two hundred structures, fire after fire that burned down large sections of businesses, and intolerance to worship as one desired. When Indians attacked, they repelled; when diseases killed, they buried their dead, grieved, prayed to God, and went on; when the tornado struck, they went through the rubble salvaging what they could and built stronger structures; when fires destroyed, they hauled away the ashes and built brick buildings; and they persevered intolerance until they overcame. They had a caring heart. When the great fire of 1811 that destroyed the Newburyport waterfront and homes, Amesbury residents were the first ones there with food and clothing for the needy. They took in the homeless and shared with them with what little they had. They gave them comfort and love. They adapted to changing times with the most and the best. They built the best ships, carriages, trolley cars, and automobile bodies. This city was world renowned. These statements are not hype. They are factual as recorded in historical records. This is a "Can Do" city. Every city of every state has had events that no one is proud of, but it is how people have dealt with these issues to become a better city that counts. Should we deny or forget that they happened? That would accomplish nothing. As long as we remember, we can say, "never again!" Amesbury is no exception, but all in all, it is an exceptional place and anyone can proudly say, " I am from Amesbury." The Powow River starts at the Powwow Pond in Danville N.H. and is named the Powwow River, but when it enters Massachuetts, it becomes the Powow River. The Merrimac River is Merrimack River in New Hampshire. The ore for the ironworks came from the bed of the Powow River. Who would think that this tranquil little stream that meanders through the meadows and woods, in and out of two states, would suddenly have a ninty-foot drop with such force that it could supply enough energy to modernize industries and transportation? Which city is older, Newburyport or Amesbury? If you guessed Amesbury, you are correct. Amesbury is one hundred years older than Newburyport. Please take a few minutes to view a terrific slide show of rare images of Ellis carriages, street cars, and related memoriabilia. For the best Early American Automobiles website on the internet with over seven hundred photos, visit my Early American Automobiles Most of The History of Amesbury was taken from the sources on the Links Page. Shop Amesbury
Web pages were designed and photographs were taken by Royal Feltner To email me, type this address on your email system. "elroyal@comcast.net".
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A Moment to Relax
