Holyoke High School - Annual Yearbook (Holyoke, MA)

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was ample means of transportation and the river no longer the easiest route of travel. A man familiar with the dams and mills in the New England area, George C. Ewing, is given credit for the vision that created Hol- yoke. He was a salesman and traveling repre- sentative of the Fairbanks Scales Company of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and realized that here was potential power the world had never seen. Ewingenvisioned the construction of a dam to harness the river and compel it to give up its power to the service of man. He obtained the support of a small group of Boston merchants and financiers. Outstand- ing among these men were George Lyman, Edmund Dwight, William Appleton, Samuel Cabot, and Ignatius Sargent. Ewing made arrangements for the purchase of more than eleven hundred acres of land adjacent to the falls. He was forced to pay exorbitant prices for the land because word of the project had been circulated. The stock- holders at the first meeting voted to take the name of the Hadley Falls Company and to authorize a subscribed capital of two and one- half million dollars. In the summer of 1847, the land was sur- veyed. The minimum flowage of the river was approximately 7,000 cubic feet, A thirty foot I4 dam could be a reality and such a dam would impound enough water to give industrial power for a city of 200,000 people. Construction was begun late in 1847. A 'cfearful riot was the climax of a ten-day strike that occurred early in January of 1848 among the construction workers. Mr. Ander- son, and Mr. Farnham, the constable, were wounded in the brawl. The riot took place when several of the strikers, protesting a wage cut, returned to work and were mobbed by their fellow workers. It was found necessary to call upon the militia, and twenty-five re- doubtable artillerymen from Northampton promptly answered the summons, and came down at midnight with arms and ammunition, but there was no further disturbance. Completed on November 19, 1848, by the Hadley Falls Company, the wooden dam gave way several hours after the gates had been closed. A series of three telegrams sent from Holyoke to the company office in Boston de-- scribed the entire affair very graphically. The first, sent about ten in the morning, said, HGates closed and dam begins to fill, the sec- ond, Dam leaking badlyf' and the third sent at three thirty that afternoon, Dam gone to hell by way of Willimansettf' Immediate steps were taken for the erection

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firm in New England. It is interesting to note that a fishway built in the dam had been quite successful. The falls had been a favorite fishing spot of the Indians and shad and salmon were being caught there at that time, however, by the time the dam was completed, the salmon had become somewhat scarce. By this time there were several mills in- cluding three paper mills and two woolen mills using the power from the river, but all of these were on the east side of the river in Canal Village CSouth Hadley Fallsb. During these years a swing ferry was the sole means of transportation between Canal Village and 'flrelandf' The ferry, invented by a Mr. Robinson, was located a short distance below the old South Hadley bridge where the river suddenly narrows to form a neck of water. Because of this natural formation, the current is considerably stronger there and has equal force from one bank to the other. Therefore, the river at this crossing could not be navigated by any ferry-boat which used as its propelling power any thing other than the current of the stream itself. A wooden pole of some sixty or seventy feet in height was sunk in the mid- dle of the stream, and a pier of stone was placed on the upper side of it to form a break- water against ice. A connecting wire stretched from the pole to the ferry. The boat was placed diagonally against the current and the force of the water sent it to the opposite side in a circular or swinging passageg hence the name given, swing ferry. In 1872, the ferry was swept away by a roaring flood. In 1831 the original Hadley Falls Company was formed and the following year Ireland Parish had a cotton mill which was an in- corporated concern with a capital of 350,000, but not financed by local capital. The stock- holders were largely from Enfield. The mill contained 11-,000 spindles and was powered by the wing dam, guiding the water into a canal above the mill. This mill was an extremely prosperous con- cern, and the manager, Edward Smith, saw his original investment increase five-fold. The Connecticut River Railroad Company was chartered in March, 1845, and was com- pleted in December of that year, running from Springfield to Northampton, crossing the river at Willimansett and passing through Ireland Parish. The road was extended to Vermont in 1848 and connected in Springfield with roads to Boston and New Haven. The South Hadley Canal then became useless and the river boating declined in importance since there I3

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of another dam upon a very different and much stronger pattern, and the work began in April, 1849. When thisdam was being constructed by the Hadley Falls Company, two coffer-dams were built, one on each side of the river extending 200 feet from the bank into the stream. The construction of the main dam was then begun in sections, there were five sections in this dam. As the timber went up, the entire foundation, ninety feet in length, was packed solidly with stone to a height of ten perpendicular feet. The planking on the upper portion of the dam was eighteen inches in thickness of solid timber, all tree-nailed, spiked, and strongly bound together. At twenty-two minutes of one on October 22, 1849, half of the gates were closed, and a few minutes later, the rest were closed and the river ceased its flow until the water finally fell in a broad sheet over its crest. This new dam was intended to be tempo- rary, but it gave excellent service until 1894 when a modern masonry dam was started. During the twelve years that the Hadley Falls Company flourished, over two miles of canals were built. Included are the 3,000 feet of the First Level Canal as far as Dwight Street, 7,000 feet of the Second Level Canal from its southerly end around. to a point near the Valley Paper Company, and 3,600 feet of the Third Level Canal to a point near the Frank- lin Paper Company. This was approximately one-half of the canal system as it exists today. In 1849 a movement started to separate Ireland Parish from West Springfield and at a town meeting in 1849, th people of Ire- land decided to appeal to the legislature. As a result, the town of Holyoke was incorporated on March 14, 1850. The population at that time numbered 3,713. Between 1848 and 1850 the Hadley Falls Company had established a water supply for the city. A reservoir and main and service pipes were laid through the settled sections of the city. The company built two mills on the up- per level canal with blocks of boarding houses sufficient for their employees. Business and professional men were at- tracted to the new city and in the summer of 1850 there were thirteen persons and cor- porations each paying taxes on at least ten thousand dollars. Also in 1850 the first water wheel run by water from the dam was set in motion and the first operations started in the number one mill of the Hadley Falls Company. ln 1853 the Hampden Mills were incorpor- ated and during that year the Hadley Falls Company built them a cotton mill. The Hadley Falls Card and Wire Works and Parsons Paper I5