Royal Feltner welcomes you to his We have a Can Do Spirit If you want to know what this little city has accomplished in its storied past and what it is today, you have come to the right place. There has never been a city like it in this country! This is not an idle statement. It is a proven fact. This research and web site is my gift to the city and it has been three years in the making.
Special Events Special Notice From May 16-20, a special carnival at the grounds of Sparhawk School off Main Street will be held to raise funds for the Annual Amesbury Days in July. This is a well organized event by the Amesbury Days committee that will feature many events orientated for the entire family. For complete details, please click on Amesbury Days Street cars and
street car railroads in Amesbury and Newburyport
Vicinity
S. R. Bailey & Co.'s Carriage and Automobile History with pictures of all of his automobiles1892 and 1914 Full Bird's Eye Views of Amesbury and maps of
West and South Amesbury Chronological Order of Principal events that happened in Amesbury from
1631-1900
Lest one forgets! B & M Train Depot As you scroll down you will find other links that give a detailed history of each subject. You will be amazed as to what you will find. This web site was developed as a tribute to people who made this city that was the heart of vehicle manufacturing, including ships, carriages, trolley cars, automobiles and related factories, boats, and even hats in this country. It was designed for the residents to get an accurate account of its developement from an eighteen-family settlement in 1654 to what it has accomplishmed to date; to give tourist an idea of our history and sites to explore; to induce business to locate here: and families a desire to move to our little city. No other city in America can come close to what this city has done. All information is factual and well researched and may be copied.
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 1654 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.
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 that has never been written and it tells about the moral spirit and courage of Amesbury. On July 10th, 1775, Adjutant General Horatio Gates signed an order stating that no negros, 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. In 1792, permission was granted by the town committee to build a bridge across the Merrimac River 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 ninety-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.
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. It burned down in 1874. He was perhaps one of the greatest inventors of all times. 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.
The year that Providence Bank opened its original bank where Boyle's Drug Store was located. 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. Fourteen year old George Edwin McNeill, who had been working at the mill for four years was one of the boys, decided to spend the rest of his life fighting for labor rights. He is commonly known as "father of the eight-hour work day". His idea was to work through the court system and when The Knights of Labor was formed in 1869, they used his ideas almost in its entirety. He joined the Knights in 1883 and became its treasurer. The Knights did not believe in strikes, but in 1886 a large part of the organization went on strike for the eight-hour day. There was so much violence that workers all over the country joined the new labor organization known as the AFL headed by Samuel Gompers. McNeill was one of them and he and Gompers worked together to build the AFL. He died in 1906. Never mind the modern day politicians, he is the true hero of the American workers. The Carriage Manufacturing Era 1800 -
1913
In 1800, Michael Emery and William Little built the first carriage at a factory in West Amesbury. They were continuously being built by at least 26 different companies until 1903. Thje cariage workers were ome of the highest paid workers in the country and were considered the best in the business. Representives from othe makers throughout the east would visit Amsbury toentice them to work for them. They found no takers. But this all changed in the fall of 1902 when union leaders came and started enlisting members and convinced them to go on strike. This strike lasted for ninety days and when they were convinced that the carriages makers would not give in, the strike ended. The organizers left town,. In the meantime, several of the smaller companies shut down and Walker Carriage Co. moved to Merrimac. Briggs Carriage Co. stopped making railway cars.On George Washington's birthday in 1894, there was a three-day exibition 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.
More and more streets and roads were being built and the Boston and Maine Railroad Company had a terminal in town. In 1872, Salisbury Mills made a dam on the Powow River above the town. It was built to control flood waters and to form a lake for recreational purposes. It was named Lake Gardner. By doing this, the owners figured that the value of real estate would be greatly increased. New churches of all faiths were being erected. Without warning, Salisbury Mills shut down in 1876. Hundreds of workers were suddenly without jobs and a great depression set in. If work could be found, it was for less than living wages. This continued until 1878 when the mills were sold and the new owner hired hundreds of workers to refurbish the old buildings.The Trolley Car Era 1889 - 1906 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 1903. The 1903 carriage makers'strike was devasting to body makers and 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.
Early in 1892, several Amesbury and Haverhill businessmen, including Charles Goss, L. J. Marston and W. G. Ellis, president of the Ellis Car Company of Amesbury, organized the Haverhill & Amesbury Street Railway Co. for the purpose of building an electric railway from Haverhill, through the thriving town of Merrimac, to Amesbury, a distance of approximately 11 miles. 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 shoppingThe Automobile Body Manufacturing Era, 1895 -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. The 1895 Duryea automobile was the first American automobile put in production. The body was made by Currier, Cameron Carriage Co. This was the beginning of body building industry in Amesbury and from 1895 to 1932, Amesbury had 29 body builders making them the largest city in the world producing bodies. Currier, Cameron & Co. made bodies for more automobile companies than any other company in the world.
1915 Amesbury Special Chevrolet
Biddle and Smart No. 2 Factory
Copied from 1912 Industrial Magazine AS AMESBURY SEES ITSELF The one great fear of the town is that the automobile business will go west, the sam« as the carriage business did, but there is nothing being done to stop it if it should. The cheapness of labor and materials in the west gradually undermined the eastern firms, and now most of the carriages built are made in the middle West. Fortunately we had the auto to take the carriage's place, but the West has been making strenuous efforts to land the making of these. As autos are sold at a price that demands the best of labor, the auto body building still stays in the East, however. As they couldn't land these industries that way, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Indianapolis, etc., have organized Booster clubs, with anywhere from forty to one hundred thousand dollars for an emergency fund, urging them to locate in their cities, showing them the advantages, particularly in freight and express rates, and even offering to build factories for them if they should move. The moving of the Atwood Castle Co. from here is a result of such a campaign, and of late very tempting offers have been held out to Gray & Davis, Amesbury Metal Body Co., Hasset & Hodge, and Biddle, Smart & Co. In fact, practically every firm in town has received offers to remove to one of these places. We can't have a club with a fund of that amount, but if we could even have an association without any funds that would try and get new industries here and also to keep what we've got, it would certainly be a move in the right direction.—Amesbury Exchange.. Detailed information on all the cars made in Amesbury can be seen on the Automobile Made in Massachuesetts page. At the same time, there were other industries that were recognized as being the best in their trades. One of these was the Atlantic Boat Company. Atlantic Boat Company There is no mention of this company in the town library archives or any city directory. The information below is what was found by researching digitized boating magazines on the internet. It was first mentioned as an exibit at the 1905 Boston Automobile and Boat Show as found in the 1905 Automobile and Cycle Trade Magazine. It was also listed in the 1915 edition of Manufacturers Magazine. It was always a standout at the shows and it sales included the Life Saving Service and other federal government agencies. It was recognized worldwide as one of the best.
The Atlantic Co. Amesbury, Ma.
Frank M. Hoyt ground his first bag of peanuts into peanut butter in 1902 in a hand mill, During his visit to the World's Fair in Buffalo NY, he decided to name his brand "Buffalo" His first year's sale was a thousand dollars. He moved into the wholesale business and branched out into several varieties of peanuts and candy. By 1923, he was selling his brand of products throughout North Amnerica and eight other foreign countries. His containers are highly sought after and command premium prices.
In 1878, Merrimac Hat Factory was given permission to build a new factory on the Merrimac River at Bailey's stream. 
Merrimac Hat Factory1878-1952 The largest manufacturers of hats in the world Gray and Davis and Atwood Mfg. Co of Amesbury, were the largest makers of carriage lanterns in the US, quickly used these lanterns for automobiles. Their display of lamps at the top automobile shows drew attention to their quality of workmanship. Their lamps were on over one-half of all automobiles buiilt. Some sources have been published that Gray and Davis moved to Boston in 1910. They built a showroom in Boston at this time. This was a common practice in the industry to have show rooms in larger cities and separate from the factory. Atwood, established in 1872 and the largest maker of carriage lamps in the world. According to this notice published in the 1909 Platers Magazine "The Atwood-Castlc Company has succeeded the Atwood Manufacturing Company, of Amesbury, Mass., manufacturers of automobile lamps. The change is one in name and the business remains the same. W. I. Atwood is president and treasurer, F. E. Castle, vice-president, and I. H. Atwood, secretary and general manager." it became Atwood Castle in 1909.
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. These advertisements appeared in 1917 May and June issues of the Hub Magazine
All previous research states Bela Body Company moved to Framingham, MA in 1916. Their factory there was made to assemble bodies. Individual parts were made in Amesbury and shipped to their Framingham factory for assembling. In 1917, he sold this factory to Henry King of Framingham who had made a fortune in shoe manfacturing. There were several factors that caused the demise of the automobile body building industry in Amesbury. Chief amongst these were the panic of 1907, First World War, 1913 and 1922 recessions, and the Great Depression of 1929. In each instance, the smaller automobile companies could not survive and they each declared bankruptcy or were swallowed by the major manufacturers. As each one disappeared, the affects were devastating to Amesbury. By 1925 only Biddle and Smart and Walker were still in business but hundreds of their workers were unemployed. Their only customers were Hudson and Franklin. Hudson built a body factory in Detroit, MI in 1929 and informed Biddle and Smart that their services were no longer needed. Franklin ceased buying from Walker in 1932. So ended the body building in Amesbury. With the closing of this industry, thousands of workers were now unemployed. 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, 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. Let's not forget America's greatest cartoonist, Al Capp
During the depression, when I was growing up in the coal mining hills of Kentucky, my brothers and I read every comic book that we could get about Lil Abner and Fearless Fosdick. They are cherished memories. 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 Massachusetts, 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 Shop Amesbury Web pages were designed and photographs were taken by Royal Feltner To email me at. "elroyal@comcast.net".
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