The Fitchburg Sentinel covered the Great Fire of 1888 over a two day period:

"Swept by Flames 

"Haverhill, Mass., April 6. – The little town of Amesbury, eleven miles northeast of here, the largest carriage manufactory in the world and home of the poet, Whittier, suffered terrible loss by fire last night, which has nearly wiped out the entire business portion and telegraph office. The fire broke out at 4 o’clock in the afternoon in the large factory of the Babcock Carriage Company and as the town is near the coast the heavy northeast wind prevailing swept the flames before it with irresistible force. There has for years been a squabble between the adjoining towns of Amesbury and Salisbury over the subject of annexation, and as a result both towns have neglected their municipal equipments awaiting the consolidation, and so there was no adequate fire department. Before aid was received the flames jumped from the burning Babcock Works to the post office, and twenty minutes later it, along with the telegraph office, was in flames. Word had to be sent by train to Haverhill, Lawrence and Newburyport asking for aid, which did not arrive on the scene till long after dark. By that time eight factories, aggregating over a million capital, were in flames, along with some twenty dwellings, and innumerable other stores and building were gutted.

"A cold rain prevailed at the time, which undoubtedly saved the entire place. Some hundred families are homeless. The day being a fast day was a legal holiday, so there was no work going on, and the sacred character of the day was sadly broken up.
 
"Amesbury, Mass., April 7 - Over a score of buildings were eaten away by the fire of Thursday night, as most of the carriage factories included several structures. The losses are roughly as follows: F.W. Babcock & Co., $200,000; A.N. Parry, $50,000; J.H. Clarke & Co., $50,000,  Hume Carriage Co., $50,000; C.N. Dennett, $75,000; M.M. Dennett, $40,000; Lambert Hollander, $20,000; N.H. Folger, $75,000; J.F. Chesley and Fannie Brown $2,000; Frank Sands and Mrs. Sands $3,000; Wingate Morse, $1,500; James Hume, houses $1,000; John Hume & Son, $5,000. The insurance is about $850,000 and the fire is believed to have been of incendiary origin."

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.

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 of Amesbury, Mass. 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 town of the country in which a rattan ( wicker) automobile body was ever manufactured.

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.

1912 Hudson Model 33 Coupe, body by Biddle and Smart

1910 Buick, Body by Clark Carriage Company

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.

Josiah Bartlett Physician-Statesman 1729-1795

George Edwin McNeill Boy Laborer-Author-Labor Activist 1837-1906

John Greenleaf Whittier Poet-Editor-Abolishnists 1807-1897

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.