Mother Brook is a stream that flows from the Charles River in Dedham, Massachusetts, to the Neponset River in the Hyde Park section of Boston, Massachusetts.[2] Mother Brook was also known variously as East Brook and Mill Creek in earlier times.[5][6] Digging the brook made Boston and some surrounding communities an island, accessible only by crossing over water,[7][8][9] making Mother Brook "Massachusetts' Panama Canal."[10]
Dug by English settlers in 1639 to power a grist mill, it is the oldest such canal in North America.[6][11][12][13][a] Mother Brook was important to Dedham as its only source of water power for mills, from 1639 into the early 20th century.[20] For 300 years, it was "the industrial heart" of Dedham.[29]
Today, Mother Brook is part of a flood-control system that diverts water from the Charles River to the Neponset River. The brook's flow is under the control of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and is used for flood control on the Charles.[30] There are three remaining dams on the stream, plus a movable floodgate that controls flow from the Charles into Mother Brook.
The brook has given its name to the modern-day Mother Brook Community Group,[30][31][32][b] the Mother Brook Arts and Community Center,[34] Riverside Theatre Works,[35] and the erstwhile Mother Brook Club[36] and Mother Brook Coalition.[37]
Early history
Origins
Dedham, Massachusetts was first settled in 1635 and incorporated in 1636. The settlers needed a mill for grinding corn, as hand mills required significant effort.[38][9][39] Windmills had been attempted, but the wind was too unreliable, and the North End, where a windmill was moved in 1632, was too far away.[9] In 1633, the first water-powered grist mill was established in Dorchester along the Neponset River at a dam erected just above the tidal basin.[9][c]
By the late 1630s, the closest watermill was in Watertown, 17 miles away by boat.[39][38] Small amounts of grain could also be milled into flour using labor-intensive handmills.[40][d] Neither transporting the grain to distant mills nor producing small amounts in a handmill were attractive options, and so the colonists looked into creating their own mill.[40]
Abraham Shaw, who—like many other Dedhamites—came from Watertown, arrived in Dedham in 1637.[20][14] He was granted 60 acres (24ha) of land on the condition that he erect a watermill, which he intended to build on the Charles River near the present-day Needham Street bridge.[20][9][41][42][29][e] Every man in the town was required to help bring the large millstone to Dedham from Watertown.[20][9][41][42][40][f] Shaw died in 1638 before he could complete his mill, however, and his heirs were not interested in building the mill.[14][12][9][41][29]
Although the initial settlement was adjacent to the Charles, the river in that vicinity was slow-moving, with little elevation change to provide power for a water wheel. A small stream, then called East Brook, ran nearby—about 100 rods (1,600 feet; 500 metres) from present-day Washington Street behind Brookdale Cemetery—and emptied into the Neponset River.[44][12][45] In the spring, the Charles would occasionally flood into a swamp at Purchase Meadow between its banks and East Brook.[46][38][29]
East Brook had an elevation change of more than 40 feet over its 3.5-mile course from near the early Dedham settlement to the Neponset River, which was sufficient to drive a watermill.[9][47] However, it had a low water flow, making it inadequate for mill operations on its own.[9][29] The drop in the first mile alone is 45ft (14m).[48]
Creation of Mother Brook
A year after Shaw's death, the town was still without a mill.[20] A committee was formed, and "an audacious plan" was devised to divert some of the plentiful water from the placid Charles River into the steep but scarce East Brook.[9][20][6][41][29] On March 25, 1639, the town ordered a 4,000-foot ditch to be dug at public expense.[5][20][9][41][12][29][g] A tax was levied on the settlers to fund the project.[9] The settlers may have been influenced by the draining of the Fens in The Wash, a region in England near many of their hometowns.[41][49]
The town was so confident in the project that work began before a new miller had been found to replace Shaw.[9] There is no record of who dug the ditch or how long the task took.[20][6][29][h] The available labor force would have been limited to the 30 men who headed households in the town at the time, along with various servants and male relatives.[51][41] Tools likely included iron spades, axes, and shovels,[52] and oxen may also have been employed.[49] Excavated earth, clay, rocks, and other materials were transported overland to build a dam and form a mill pond.[49] A sill was also constructed to regulate the flow of water from the Charles River into Mother Brook.[49]
While the exact completion date is unknown, water was flowing through the ditch by July 14, 1641.[50][6][45][41][29] Originally referred to as "the Ditch," it has been known as Mother Brook since at least 1678.[9][52] There is no record of any celebration marking its completion.[41][29] At a meeting on July 14, 1641, Jonathan Fairbanks, Francis Chickering, and John Dwight were tasked with laying out a cartway from the village to the mill.[53]
The creation of Mother Brook took place alongside other foundational efforts required to establish a town in the wilderness: felling trees, building homes, planting crops, clearing fields, and more.[41][49] Its construction has been described as "an inspiring expression of profound communal purpose."[54]
The first mill
A stone from 1886 marking the location of the first mill built on Mother Brook
The town offered an incentive of 60 acres of land to anyone who would construct and maintain a corn mill, provided that the mill was operational by "the first of the 10th month" [i.e., December].[20][9][12][29][i]
In 1641, John Elderkin, a recent arrival from Lynn, built the first corn mill on a dam across East Brook, near the present-day Condon Park and the intersection of Bussey Street and Colburn Street.[20][55][12][56] In return, he received three acres of land along the brook.[52][6] Elderkin, a highly sought-after builder, left Dedham in 1642, only months after opening the mill.[52][57][j] He sold all of his land to Nathaniel Whiting.[52]
This mill is considered the first public utility in the United States.[2] Settlers could grind their corn at the site in exchange for a tithe, which helped support its maintenance.[2] The town relinquished rights to the brook in 1682,[58] and placed a commemorative marker on the site in 1886.[59]
Also in 1642, Elderkin sold half of his interest in the mill to Whiting, and the other half to John Allin, Nathan Aldis, and John Dwight.[9][60][6][57][38][k] The four partners operated the mill in what was described as a "rather stormy partnership" until 1649, when Whiting became the sole owner.[57][60][9] The town criticized Whiting for the "insufficient performance" of the mill under his management.[61][9] In 1652, Whiting sold his mill and town rights to John Dwight, Francis Chickering, Joshua Fisher, and John Morse for £250, but bought them back the following year.[60]
Whiting and his wife, Hannah, had 14 children.[62] Five generations of Whiting descendants operated the mill from 1641 until its sale in 1823.[38][50][62] The family retained ownership of other land along Mother Brook until the 1830s.[62]
Conflict with a second mill
Whiting took sole possession of the mill in 1649—the same year the town began discussing the construction of a second mill.[62] In January 1653, the town offered land to Robert Crossman to build a mill on the Charles River where Shaw had originally planned.[61] Crossman declined, but Whiting, displeased by the prospect of competition, offered to sell his mill back to the town for £250.[61]
For 15 years, there were "many complaints being made by several inhabitants of much damage by deficient grinding of corn at the present mill."[62] As Whiting’s performance failed to improve, the town authorized Daniel Pond and Ezra Morse in 1664 to construct a new grist mill upstream, at the present-day intersection of Maverick and High Streets. The agreement required the mill to be operational by June 24, 1665.[60][63][64][9][62] It was completed in 1666, with Morse as the sole proprietor.[65] The new mill was located closer to the town center than Whiting's.[62]
Whiting was incensed by the competition for both water and customers.[9] One historian wrote that he "made something of a crusade of opposition" to the new mill.[64][62] Town records indicate that considerable time was spent attempting to mediate the dispute.[60][62][l] After a meeting with the Selectmen, both parties agreed not to interfere with one another’s business.[68][69] Two years later, Morse was instructed not to restrict the water flow to such an extent that it impaired milling at Whiting’s site.[60][70][9]
The town resolved that "in time of drought or want of water, the water shall in no such time be raised so high by the occasion of the new mill, that the water be thereby hindered of its free course or passage out of the Charles River to the mill." At the same time, Whiting was prohibited from raising water levels in his pond so high as to cause backwater damage to Morse's mill.[9] He was also told to repair leaks in his own dam before filing further complaints.[60][70][9]
Disputes between the two mills continued for more than 40 years, culminating in a lawsuit. In 1678, the Town Meeting voted to stop entertaining Whiting’s complaints.[71][69] Even after Whiting’s death in 1682, his heirs attempted to sue but were unsuccessful.[69]
By 1699, the town had grown weary of the conflict. Morse’s dam was dismantled, and he was compensated with 40 acres of land near the Neponset River at Tiot.[72][69][9] The idea appears to have been Morse’s.[68] He established a new mill at the Tiot site—now in Norwood, Massachusetts—adjacent to a sawmill built in 1664 by Joshua Fisher and Eleazer Lusher.[9][73][m]
In the early 18th century, Joseph Lewis, Whiting’s son-in-law, constructed a leather mill at the former Morse dam site.[76][9][6][69][n]
New mills at the third privilege
The next mill on the brook was constructed in 1682 near present-day Saw Mill Lane.[72] Although the privilege had originally been requested by Jonathan Fairbanks and James Draper, it was ultimately granted to Draper and Nathaniel Whiting instead—likely to avoid further conflict with Whiting.[78][69][72][9][o] The resulting fulling mill—the first textile mill in Dedham—did not require a dam, and its downstream location did not pose a threat to Whiting’s upstream operations.[69][9]
Whiting died on January 15, 1682, the same day the selectmen granted him the privilege.[69][80][81] The town added a provision that if it later chose to erect a corn mill on the brook, it could do so—unless Draper and Whiting did so themselves, at their own expense.[82][69] Timothy Whiting, Nathaniel’s son, later signed the agreement with Draper and his son.[69] This mill, like the one upstream, remained in the hands of Whiting’s descendants for 180 years.[72][9]
A grist mill and sawmill were later built on the site and powered by the same waterwheel.[83] Timothy Whiting constructed the sawmill in 1699, though the construction date of the grist mill was not recorded.[83] When one of the mills burned in 1700, the town loaned Whiting £20 to rebuild.[76][68]
Industrialization of Mother Brook
Old gears on Mother BrookThe fourth privilege with the stone mill in the background
Expanding industries
Over time, dams and mills were built at five locations along the brook, known as "privileges,"[p] in Dedham and what is now the Readville neighborhood of Hyde Park, which was originally part of Dedham.[6][84] The first three privileges were granted in the 17th century to support agricultural needs in the local farming community.[84]
By 1799, the brook powered two grist mills capable of running "in the driest season of the year," along with two sawmills, a wire mill, and several paper mills—another was then under construction.[85] The fourth and fifth privileges, granted in the 18th and 19th centuries, were designated for manufacturing.[84] By the mid-19th century, all five privileges supported large industrial textile mills.[84]
Mother Brook provided water power at various times to a wide range of industrial operations. These included the manufacture of cotton, wool, paper, wire, carpets, and leather. The mills also processed corn, fulled cloth, stamped coins, sawed lumber, and produced nails and woven cloth.[38] The use of dams for these operations impacted downstream residents who relied on the water for agriculture, livestock, or other needs.[84]
The opening of the first cotton-spinning factory in 1808 marked a turning point that would shape the brook’s future for the next 125 years.[86] By the time of the Civil War, three cotton mills operated along Mother Brook—most increasingly owned by men from outside Dedham.[86]
Rise of industrialization
When Dedham became the seat of Norfolk County in 1793, an influx of educated and professional men brought new ideas, energy, and capital to the town.[87] However, Dedham had limited infrastructure to take advantage of these resources.[79] Like much of the Commonwealth, its roads were poorly maintained, making it difficult to transport raw materials in and finished goods out.[79] High Street, which linked the village to the mills, was not constructed until 1806.[79]
Since Dedham’s founding in 1636, farming had been the dominant way of life.[88] While land and resources were initially plentiful, they began to diminish by the early 19th century.[88] By 1814, it was said that "some of the most respectable and enterprising young men of Dedham" worked in the mills—a shift in the town’s economic and social fabric.[88] Operating a mill was even described as "a patriotic act that supported the independence of the new nation."[89] By the 1820s, cotton mills had become a permanent fixture along the brook.[90]
By the 1830s, the mills had been in use for two centuries.[83] Initially built with simple construction methods, they had become "exceedingly dilapidated relics that attracted the attention of local artists."[83] These artists saw them as "picturesque artifacts of a simpler and more peaceful past," contrasting with the modern mills that emitted smoke and discharged pollutants into the water.[83]
The arrival of the Dedham Branch railroad in 1842, and its nearby Stone Haven station, allowed coal to be easily transported to the mills.[91] This powered steam engines in several facilities.[91] These engines likely supplemented water power when supply was insufficient and may eventually have replaced it altogether. The brook may also have been used to cool the steam machinery.
In 1886, it was estimated that between $2,000,000 and $5,000,000 worth of manufacturing property existed along the banks of Mother Brook and the Neponset River out to Boston Harbor.[8]
Working conditions
Working under harsh conditions, many laborers who came to Dedham stayed only briefly before moving on.[92] Large families—often from unproductive farms—were recruited to work in the mills.[93] These "family mills" employed both adults and children, and many workers arrived destitute.[93] They had few rights or alternatives and were described as "entirely subject to the control of management."[94] If the mills closed temporarily or an employee was injured, workers could lose not just their wages but also the company-provided housing.[95]
Mill employees—called "operators" because they operated machines—typically worked six days a week, starting at first light.[96] Shifts averaged 13 hours in the summer and 11 hours in the winter.[97] Later, they worked 12–14 hours Monday through Friday, with half-days on Saturdays and Sundays off.[98] A bell summoned them to work each morning and signaled the end of the day; if workers weren’t inside before the bell rang, the gates were locked and they lost a day’s pay.[99] They received two 30-minute breaks—one in the morning and one at midday—to eat.[99]
The mills were deafeningly loud, filled with clattering machines, and the work was monotonous yet required constant vigilance to keep yarn from breaking.[100] Rooms were stuffy, windows were rarely opened, and the air was thick with lint.[101] Because little daylight entered through the windows, small whale oil lamps were mounted on pegs beside the carding and spinning machines.[101]
In the early 1800s, workers had only two holidays: the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, in addition to militia training days.[102] When Irish Catholics began arriving, they refused to work on Christmas.[102] At first, Protestants filled in for the menial and dirty tasks—such as cleaning the privies—typically performed by Catholic employees. By around 1860, however, Christmas became a general holiday.[103]
Overseers wielded significant power.[98] Workers could be fired for sitting, talking, or reading on the job.[98] During a period when mill work appealed to educated young women, a waiting list often existed to fill vacancies.[98]
By the mid to late 19th century, working conditions in the mills—typical of the era—were often described as "dehumanizing."[104] Many employees were poorly educated immigrants who did not speak English and had few alternatives. They endured 12–14 hour days in hot, noisy rooms.[104] When profits declined, mill owners tried to extract more labor: machines were sped up, and more were added in a process known as "speed up and stretch out."[104]
These conditions had a disproportionate effect on women.[105] While men worked as overseers, mechanics, or in mobile support roles, women were typically confined to operating machines and had little autonomy.[105]
Wages were among the few cost variables owners could control. The Merchant Woolen Company, which owned all the mills along Mother Brook, reduced wages in 1872, 1873, 1874, 1876 (by 7–15%), 1878, 1885, and 1893.[106] In 1878, workers reported it was difficult to support a family on $280 per year.[106][q]
Female labor
Women, who had fewer employment opportunities, were paid less than men.[107] At the Dedham Woolen Mills, they earned $0.60 per day compared to $0.90 for men.[98]
As textile production expanded, young women were no longer needed at home to weave their own cloth.[107] Many held mill jobs for only a few years before marrying, and during layoffs they could return to live with their families.[107]
Mill work offered a degree of independence to women raised on isolated farms.[107] They could live with other young women, earn their own wages, and choose whether to spend their income on themselves or support their families.[107] Most heard about mill jobs by word of mouth and came to work with friends who had arrived before them.[107]
To recruit educated women from respectable families, mill owners emphasized that conditions in New England were different from the harsh environments faced by British factory workers.[108] Boarding houses for female workers were supervised by a married couple or a matron, and subject to a "strict system of moral police."[107] Some offered opportunities for cultural enrichment, including book clubs, lectures, recitals, and group outings—though it is unclear to what extent such amenities existed along Mother Brook.[109]
Room and board costs were deducted directly from pay and sent to the boarding houses, incentivizing matrons to reduce provisions.[98] Strict house rules were enforced, including curfews. A single bed was often shared by two or three women, and there was little to no privacy.[98] Church attendance on Sundays was mandatory.[98]
After the adoption of the steam engine, which allowed factories to be built away from rivers, new mills began to proliferate.[110] The increase in competition led owners to reduce boarding house amenities and allowed working conditions to deteriorate.[111] By the mid-1840s, mill life was no longer attractive to American women from middle-class families, who began to leave the workforce.[110] Immigrants gradually replaced them.[110]
By the 1850s, women considered themselves fortunate to earn $2.50 per week.[112] There was no fixed payday; instead, they collected money as needed from their account in the mill’s counting room.[112] Meals were small and of poor quality, often the same every day.[112] One day a week, dinner consisted solely of bread and milk.[112] As chairs and rugs were considered luxuries, workers sat on benches.[112]
Child labor
The vast majority of mill employees were children younger than 16.[101] Newspaper advertisements specifically sought families with multiple children—or even children on their own—to work in the mills.[101] Because the machines were simple to operate, one adult could oversee the work of many children.[101]
When Josiah Quincy III visited a similar mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, he observed "a dull dejection in the countenances of all" the children and believed they should instead have access to "air, space, and sports."[95]
In 1836, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted a law requiring every child under the age of 15 to attend school for at least three of the preceding 12 months before becoming eligible for mill work.[113] A separate law passed in 1842 limited children under 12 to working no more than 10 hours a day.[90]
In Dedham’s Mill Village, students were attending school for eight weeks annually by 1807 or 1808.[90] By the 1860s, the summer session had expanded to 20 weeks. However, when large numbers of children began entering the workforce, the neighborhood school was closed.[90]
The East Dedham Strike
The labor movement in the United States began to gain traction in the 1870s.[114] In May 1874, the Great and General Court of Massachusetts passed a law limiting women and children to 10-hour workdays in mills.[114] However, the law lacked enforcement mechanisms and was widely ignored.[114]
At the Merchant's Woolen Mills, which then owned all the mills along Mother Brook, employees were required to work 65.5 hours per week—12.5 hours Monday through Friday and 10 hours on Saturdays.[114] Workers were not compensated for the two 30-minute meal breaks each day.[114]
In September 1874, wages were reduced by 10 percent.[114] In October, hours were briefly reduced to 10 per day to comply with the law.[114] A slowdown in orders led to layoffs of about 400 of the 700 employees.[114] For those who remained, hours returned to 65.5 per week, in violation of the statute.[114]
On March 2, 1875, workers gathered at Mechanics Hall to decide on a response.[114] The meeting, led by German immigrant and mill hand Andrew Reichell, included over a third of the remaining employees.[114] They voted to submit a letter stating they would not work more than 10 hours per day or 60 hours per week.[114] If management refused, they pledged to strike for at least a month.[114] They also "unanimously voted that no violence be offered to any persons who take their places at the mill."[114]
Royal O. Storrs replied that women could leave after working 60 hours, but he could not guarantee their positions would remain available.[115] Men were required to sign contracts agreeing to the full 65.5-hour schedule.[116] On March 3, the workers walked out in protest.[116] The mills were shut down.[116]
The following day, employees reiterated that their primary concern was not wages, but hours.[116] "We want time to educate ourselves and our children," they stated, "and value that more highly than the pittance we should receive."[116] They also expressed distrust toward Storrs, fearing he would "oppress us still further" if they relented.[116]
A delegation of strikers met with mill owner Charles L. Harding, who promised not to fire women who left after 60 hours.[117] He claimed the business could not remain profitable unless men worked 65.5 hours.[117] As the strike continued, the town's sympathy leaned toward the workers.[118]
A mass meeting at Memorial Hall drew over 1,000 people.[117] E.M. Chamberlain of the National Labor Reform Commission spoke in favor of legally mandating a 10-hour workday for men and an 8-hour day for women and children.[117] He called for mill owners who failed to comply to be prosecuted.[118] John Orvis urged Dedham’s striking workers to join those in Fall River.[119][r] Charles McLean also addressed the crowd.[119] Orvis, McLean, and Chamberlain accompanied the strike’s president, Patrick Hogan, to the podium.[117]
Newspapers across the region—some as far away as New York City and Philadelphia—offered mixed coverage.[120] Some expressed sympathy for the workers, while others sided with management.[120]
By March 17, most of the strikers had returned to work, unable to financially sustain the walkout.[119] Their demand for a 60-hour workweek was unsuccessful.[119] However, they began organizing in support of a statewide law mandating a 10-hour day for all factory workers.[119] Such a law was enacted in 1880.[119]
First Privilege
Dedham Worsted Company
The Dedham Worsted Company was incorporated principally by William Phillips and Jabez Chickering in 1822.[76][121] After Chickering sold his carding factory at the fourth privilege, he moved to the first privilege to begin a factory spinning worsted.[122] Almost all worsted at this time was imported from England.[121] This was one of the first worsted factories in the United States, and possibly the only one of its kind.[121] The industry would not grow in the United States until the 1830s.[123]
The factory included a "new through built three story brick Factory... a new wooden store, and block of two Dwelling-houses."[123] The company initially prospered,[123] but it collapsed just two years later when Chickering was discovered to have stolen money and run off to Michigan.[124]
The Dedham Woolen Mills were established in 1824 by Benjamin Bussey, who acquired land, machinery, and water rights from the defunct Dedham Worsted Company and combined them with his Norfolk Cotton Company holdings.[125] In doing so, he created Mother Brook’s first successful woolen mill and its first fully integrated textile operation, where carding, spinning, weaving, fulling, and dyeing took place under one roof.[126] The mill also became one of the first producers of broadcloth in the region.[127]
To increase water power, Bussey lowered the dam at the second privilege and expanded the brick mill building.[128] The facility eventually became the most sophisticated on Mother Brook, powered by water wheels and peat-fired steam engines.[127] By 1832, the mill had $40,000 worth of cast iron machinery, processed 375,000 pounds of wool, and employed 262 workers.[127] A fire damaged the dye house in 1827.[98]
Labor at the mills initially relied on children, but newer, heavier machines required stronger operators.[107] As a result, Bussey hired unmarried Yankee women aged 15 to 25.[107] In 1827, about 60 women worked at the mill, earning $0.60 per day compared to $0.90 paid to men.[129]
In September 1827, President John Quincy Adams toured the mills and noted that profits were modest, with Bussey pursuing the venture for "patriotic motives."[130] The mills were also notable for their wide market reach, selling cloth across the country and to the frontier through A.A. Lawrence & Co., one of Massachusetts' most significant textile agents.[127]
Maverick Woolen Mills
Following Bussey's 1842 death, his woolen mill was sold in November 1843 to John Wiley Edmands, one of the partners in the company that served as the mill's selling agent, Amos & Abbot Lawrence.[131] The land was purchased for $30,000 while the machinery, the stock, and materials were sold for more than $45,000.[131] In 1850, he sold half of the company to Gardner Colby.[131] Edmands retained Thomas Barrows as the day-to-day supervisor of the mill.[131] William H. Mann was the bookkeeper.[s] For the first two years, the overseer was Daniel Pond and then, in 1868, Royal O. Storrs took over.[133][t]
The partners continued to expand the physical plant and the types of fabric the mills could produce.[134] They added "fancy cassimeres" woven in multiple colors, prints on their satinets, and doeskin.[131] They constructed the brick building today standing next to Condon Park at 202 Bussey St.[135][u] A smokestack towered high above the mill.[91]
Fires
The Maverick Woolen Mill suffered two fires, one in 1854 and one in 1859.[91] The 1854 fire destroyed a storehouse, a press room, and an office.[91] The later fire caused $75,000 in damage.[91] It burned down two wooden structures that housed the spinning and carding departments and a dye house.[91] It also destroyed a four boiler engine that produced 40 horsepower along with the gas element.[91] The Dedham Gas Company was located next door to the mill.[91]
Merchant's Woolen Company
Ownership and staff
In 1863, Colby and Edmands took in new partners, including Charles L. Harding,[v] to form the Merchant Woolen Company.[137] By this point, the owners of the mills were no longer local men, but outside investors.[54]
Harding, along with Gardner Roberts Colby, Gardner Colby's son, were the selling agents for the mill.[137] They had an office in New York.[137] Another was in Boston, run by Edgar Harding, Charles's son.[137][w] The Hardings gradually increased the share of the business they owned.[137] When the younger Colby died, they became the sole owners.[137] Charles then became the president and Edgar was the treasurer.[137]
The weaving operation at the mill was overseen by George Hewitt.[139][x] When the New York Times wrote about them in 1887, it described the company as "one of the largest [industrial operations] in the state" with nearly 500 employees.[141] At peak production, there would be more than 1,000 employees.[142]
When President Grover Cleveland reduced tariffs on raw wool and finished products, the market was flooded with imports.[142] Not only were they cheaper.[142] They were also lighter, making them more popular with consumers.[142]
For years the mill struggled, operating for long stretches with a greatly reduced workforce or shut down completely.[143] The mill was the largest employer in the town, and shutdowns caused hardships for many.[142] Many left Dedham in search of work elsewhere.[144]
Charles Harding died in 1893 and Edgar Harding became the sole owner.[145] He put the mill up for sale within 18 months of his father's death.[145] It was purchased by Edward D. Thayer, a wealthy mill owner from Worcester.[145] Thayer also leased the Norfolk Mill.[145] He rehired Parker Colburn Kirk as the agent.[145] Kirk, who lived on Mt. Vernon Street, had previously worked as the superintendent of the Merchant Mill from 1875 to 1883 and was very popular in the community.[145]
When Thayer unexpectedly died in 1907, the mill closed.[146]
Facilities
Merchant Woolen Company greatly expanded the mills on the first and second privileges.[136] They built a four story, steam powered complex on what is today Condon Park.[136] It had six buildings all connected by a number of passageways.[136] There were also several external buildings housing the engine room, die house, coal house, box shop, wagon sheds, and storerooms.[147] It had a bell that could be heard throughout the neighborhood and dominated the skyline.[148] The complex stood for 75 years.[148]
In the new facility, the entire process of spinning wool into fabric was self-contained and scaled up to increase production.[136] The new company also expanded their offerings of fabrics with the new factory.[149]
The new company purchased the Maverick Woolen Mills and, by 1872, all of the other mills and all of the water power on Mother Brook.[137] By the 1870s, the Merchant's Woolen Company had monopolized all of the water in Mother Brook.[150] In 1870, they were the largest taxpayer in Dedham.[151]
Strikes
While the 1875 strike was the biggest strike the mill faced, it was not the only one. When wages were cut just before Christmas 1884, just a few weeks after the mill was reopened, and then cut again early in the new year, a dozen employees walked off the job; they were replaced with others.[144] After Thayer purchased the mill, in January 1875, he required weavers to run two looms instead of one.[146] They struck for higher wages, with 190 walking off the job.[146]
Accidents and deaths
In December 1881, a card of cotton caught fire when a piece of flying waste wafted into a lighted gas jet.[152] The Dedham Fire Department was not called out as male employees used fire buckets to extinguish the flames, which spread to other cards, costing about $800 in damages.[152]
Accidents in which employees got caught in machinery and were either disfigured or died were common.[153] In 1870, Charles Lips died when "one side of his head was crushed out of all semblance to humanity and his body was shockingly mangled."[152] He got caught in a machine and pulled through a space that was 8" by 24".[152] The 32-year-old Prussian immigrant additionally had his feet ripped off of his legs.[153]
The next year, a 15-year-old boy, Charles Cerlack, lost his arm after it was crushed in gearing after his jacket was caught in it.[153] His father, who was poor, asked the factory owners for some aid for his disabled son but was refused.[153] In 1873, John Hennesy broke both arms when his hands were caught in a drum and dragged in.[153] Annie Conlon suffered a puncture wound when a shuttle shot out of a loom and the sharp steel point embedded itself in her leg.[153]
Two Italian dye works employees, Atta Massanosse and Frank Bepelagus, beat an overseer with an iron bar in 1909.[154]
Hodges Finishing Company
The Hodges Finishing Company purchased the mill at the first privilege from the Merchants' Woolen Company in 1909.[155] The company was run by a variety of members of the Hodges family, including William H. as president, Walter E. as vice president, Frederick H. as secretary, and Frank B. as treasurer.[155] Frank and Frederick both lived in East Dedham.[155]
The company, which finished textiles produced elsewhere, employed around 300 people in 1921.[155] Competition from other companies reduced this to about 150 employees the following year.[155] The company shut down by the end of the decade.[155] The company officially dissolved in 1938.[155]
Condon Park
The mill, which was "anything but modern," was torn down in July 1938, with the walls knocked into the foundation.[156] It has stood empty for many years by the time it was destroyed.[157]
It consisted of at least 13 buildings, all connected to the others, most of which were four or five stories tall.[156] There were also a variety of other outbuildings used for storage and fuel.[156] Only Factory Building 2, which later became 202 Bussey St, remained as of 2024.[156] There were efforts to save the mill's weathervane, which had sentimental value to the neighborhood, but it disappeared with the rubble.[156]
When East Dedham Square was revitalized in the 1960s, Condon Park moved to the site from its location at the corner of Bussey Street and Saw Mill Lane.
First privilege chronological chart
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2025)
The first privilege was located next to present-day Condon Park, at the corner of Bussey St and Colburn St.
After closing, the Hodges' factory sat empty for 20 years.[92] The walls of the Hodge's factory were knocked into the foundation, and Condon Park was constructed over it.[171][92]As of 2020[update], Mill #2 at 202 Bussey St is all that remains of the complex.[92] It housed the carpentry shop on the first floor and spinning frames on the upper levels.[92]
Incorporated in 1807, the Norfolk Cotton Manufactory established a spinning mill at the second privilege of Mother Brook, replacing a leather mill on what is now Maverick Street.[76][172][86] The company was founded by 30 local investors—primarily professionals and tradesmen from Dedham’s First Parish—who promoted domestic textile manufacturing as a patriotic alternative to foreign imports.[173][76] Their incorporation petition emphasized national economic independence and was granted along with a $120,000 capital investment and exemption from taxation.[173]
The mill complex grew to include a three-story spinning factory, housing for workers, and auxiliary structures for dyeing, bleaching, and weaving.[173] Raw cotton shipped from the South was partly processed in private homes—primarily by children—before being returned to the mill for spinning.[174][151] Products were sold directly at the site and through external selling agents, and the company later expanded its offerings to include satinet.[175]
The manufactory thrived initially, benefiting from high demand and favorable trade conditions under the Embargo Act of 1807.[176] However, the War of 1812 disrupted cotton supply chains, and the business struggled under inexperienced leadership.[177] After the war, the influx of higher-quality and cheaper imported textiles contributed to the company’s collapse.[177] In 1819, industrialist Benjamin Bussey acquired the mill and its assets for $12,500—significantly below its previous valuation.[178][76]
The manufactory also figured prominently in early 19th-century water rights disputes. Downstream mill owners alleged insufficient flow from the second privilege, prompting an agreement in 1811 that fixed the permitted water level, still marked today on the brook’s banks.[179]
20th and 21st centuries
In 1909, William B. Pratt purchased the land at the corner of High and Maverick Streets at the second privilege.[180] There he set up an experimental chemistry lab.[180]
The Dedham Finishing Company became the new owners in 1917.[180] The substantially rebuilt the building, and expanded it over a pier that extended over the Brook.[180] There the died, starched, and finished textiles that were produced elsewhere.[180] They went bankrupt in 1932.[180]
Three years later, the Boston Envelope Company purchased and again expanded the site.[180] Children swimming in Mill Pond would come temporarily tinted from the dyes the company would dump into the water.[180] Among the products made there were ration books and draft board notices during World War II.[180] It also built a beloved pocket park on the other side of Maverick Street with well tended gardens.[180]
After the Boston Envelope Company closed in 1984, it was purchased by AliMed, a medical devices company.[180] AliMed owned the land as of 2024.[180]
Second privilege chronoglical chart
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2025)
The second privilege was located at present-day Maverick Street.
Could produce 800,000 envelopes a day when it opened.[183] The company owned and maintained a park on the other side of Maverick Street, at the corner of High.[181] Mill Pond, which sits downstream from the factory, would become colored when the factory dumped dye into the water.[92]
There were several mills on the site. The first was for fulling, which by the mid-1800s was partially used for cabinet making and possibly hat making.[77] Later were added a grist mill and, around 1700, a saw mill.[184]
Whiting died on the day the selectmen granted him the rights to erect a mill on the site.[80] Whiting's descendants owned the mill for over 180 years.
Third and fourth privileges under common ownership. By this time, there was little left of the former mills except the raceways and a few wheels left standing in the water.
The fourth mill privilege, located at present-day Stone Mill Drive just downstream from the third, was established in 1787 by Aaron Whiting, Joseph Whiting Jr., and Paul Moses.[9][158][79][ae] The property had originally been part of the 1682 grant that created the third privilege, but at some point the land rights reverted to the town.[79] Just two days after acquiring the land and water rights for £6, the partners sold or leased a quarter share to Captain Joshua Witherle for £25, earning a profit of more than 1,500%.[79][af]
A second mill was soon constructed and linked to the same water wheel as the first, producing wire for the young nation’s developing textile industry.[158][151] After the first mill burned in 1809, it was rebuilt with a new foundation and raceway.[158]
Throughout the 19th century, the fourth privilege hosted a wide variety of industries, including the production of copper cents, paper, cotton, wool, carpets, and handkerchiefs.[85][9] The site often supported multiple mills, some of which failed within months. Ownership of the buildings, businesses, and water rights changed hands frequently, eventually shifting from local to outside investors.[85]
The 1835 stone mill built by the Norfolk Manufacturing Company still stands and was converted into a condominium complex in 1986–87.[6]
Copper cents
In 1787, the Great and General Court of Massachusetts authorized the creation of a state currency.[79] Captain Joshua Witherle was appointed Master of the Mint and constructed a mint house behind his Boston residence.[79] To support the effort, he also built a rolling mill at the fourth privilege of Mother Brook.[79] There, he melted copper—much of it repurposed from Revolutionary War-era cannons and mortars—and cast it into ingots.[79] The ingots were transported to Dedham, where they were rolled into plates, then returned to Boston to be struck and stamped into one-cent coins.[79]
Although Witherle assured the Commonwealth in May 1787 that he was "ready... immediately to proceed," no coins had been produced by January 1788.[191] When summoned by the Governor's Council, he cited difficulties in sourcing appropriate materials and training workers for what was then a novel industry in Massachusetts.[191]
Barrow's Mill
During the American Civil War, mills across the North lost access to Southern cotton due to a Confederate embargo and a Union Navy blockade.[192] In response, many quickly transitioned to wool production to meet federal demand for uniforms, blankets, and other military supplies.[192]
Thomas Barrows, who had previously made his fortune in woolen manufacturing along Mother Brook, came out of retirement to purchase the former Norfolk Cotton Manufacturing Company’s mill at the fourth privilege.[193] Idle since the war began, the facility—once popularly known as Taft's Mill—became known as Barrow’s Mill.[193]
Barrows expanded the original 1835 building with a new wing built at a right angle and constructed of matching Dedham Granite.[193] He also installed a Corliss steam engine and outfitted the mill to handle wool instead of cotton.[194]
By 1868, the mill produced only woolen cassimere.[195] Following the war, however, demand for wool dropped amid economic depression and market oversupply.[195] Barrows ultimately sold the mill to the Merchants Woolen Company, which was already operating across the other privileges along Mother Brook.[195]
Storrs & Company
In 1875, Royal O. Storrs, previously the overseer of the Merchants Woolen Mill, purchased the facility along with 13 acres of land, tenements, storehouses, and water rights to the fourth privilege.[196] He paid Charles and Edgar Harding $60,000 and renamed the enterprise Storrs & Company.[196] The mill produced beaver cloth and cassimere, with Patrick O. Kirk appointed as overseer of the Bussey Street facility at the first privilege.[197]
In 1882, Storrs was found to have falsified financial records and accumulated $437,500 in debt.[198][199][200] He declared bankruptcy before a standing-room-only audience at the Norfolk County Courthouse.[198] A sheriff was appointed to oversee operations until the remaining inventory was exhausted.[198]
Storrs later settled out of court, and by March 1883, the Merchants Woolen Company—now operating under the name Norfolk Mills—had regained ownership of the property.[198]
Cochrane Mill
The Cochrane Manufacturing Company, owned by J. Eugene Cochrane of Malden, purchased the stone mill in 1897.[201] The company produced and dyed carpets, lace curtains, and handkerchiefs.[202]
Over the next six years, the facilities were expanded and modernized. In addition to constructing new brick and wooden buildings, the company added a granite extension to the original mill using locally quarried Dedham Granite.[201] The use of the more costly stone suggests the building was already regarded as a local landmark.[201]
The company also raised the dam by eight feet to increase water power, and it unified the third and fourth privileges.[201]
On April 4, 1911, a fire broke out and destroyed the original 1835 gambrel roof and the 1863 mansard roof on the wing.[201] At the time, 25 women were inside the mill on their lunch break, including one napping on the third floor; all escaped unharmed.[203] Within 30 minutes, the main building was engulfed in flames, and sparks ignited the roofs of nearby structures.[204]
The mill was quickly rebuilt, though with flat roofs and without its original bell cupola.[203] It later closed during the Great Depression.[203]
United Waste Company
In 1937, the United Waste Company, owned by Benjamin Segal, purchased the mill.[203] The facility was adapted to reprocess wool and mixed fibers into padding and shoddy—a practice described as "the lowest end of textile manufacturing," reflecting the overall decline of the industry in New England by that time.[203] A second major fire occurred at the mill on May 2, 1984.[203]
Condominiums
Two years after the 1984 fire, the building was purchased by the Bergmeyer Development Company.[203] The company rebuilt the gambrel roof and restored the bell tower cupola, though the mansard roof was not replaced.[205] While the interior was converted into condominiums, the exterior was designed to resemble its 18th-century appearance.[203]
Fourth privilege chronological chart
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2025)
The fourth privilege's first mill was located at present day Stone Mill Drive. There were multiple mills at this location over the years, sometimes with multiple mills operating simultaneously.[206][ag]
The partnership between Mann and Poor only lasted six months.[88] Poor ran the mill alone until 1801 when it was auctioned off in a sheriff's sale, presumably for defaulting on the lease.[88]
Bird had been quietly buying up land along Mother Brook. In 1819, he bought all of the waterpower, buildings, and land at the fourth privilege for $8,000.[88] For a time, he leased one building there to Jabez Chickering for a carding mill.[88]
Taft was an experienced cotton manufacturer from Uxbridge, Massachusetts.[207] He consolidated several properties at the site in the 1820s using investors from Boston and gave control to his brother, Ezra W. Taft, a Dedham resident.[207] By 1827, between 200 and 300 workers produced 50 to 60 bolts of cloth each week.[207] The machines ran 14 hours a day.[207] Used the machinery of the Norfolk Cotton Factory at the first privilege.
In 1835, the stone mill which now stands upon the site was erected using Dedham Granite[207] and was supplied with new machinery for the manufacture of cotton goods.[210] The original building stood three stories high and measured 100' long by 40' wide.[207] It had a gable roof with a clerestory monitor that brought light into the attic.[207] The stone bell tower was capped with columns supporting a domed cupola.[207] The Corporation prospered under Mr Taft's management.[210] By the middle of the century it was producing 650,000 yards of cotton a year.[207]Ezra W. Taft continued to be the agent and manager of the corporation for about 30 years.[210] An unused building nearby was used by Edward Holmes and Thomas Dunbar beginning in 1846 for their wheelwright business using steam power.[211] Taft's paper mill burned on July 17, 1846.[212]
Bird already owned the first mill at the fourth privilege
Fifth privilege
Dedham Manufacturing Company
In 1814, a fifth privilege was granted in what was then Dedham, now part of the Readville neighborhood in Hyde Park, at the corner of Knight and River Streets.[213][209][ao] That year, James Read and several partners opened the Dedham Cotton Manufacturing Company, constructing a wooden, three-story spinning mill.[224]
The company was incorporated by President David S. Greenough, Samuel Dexter, William Gray, Aaron Davis, Charles Davis, John Grew, and John Guild.[225] These men were primarily outside investors rather than local entrepreneurs, and their combined investment of $500,000 was exceptionally large for the time.[226]
The 36-by-170-foot mill was oriented perpendicular to the brook and featured a bell in its street-facing gable to mark the workday’s beginning and end.[226] A dam and race powered the mill wheel, which carded and spun cotton delivered by people who picked, whipped, and wove it at home.[226]
The company’s manager was James Richardson of Dedham, one of the original incorporators.[178] Its first superintendent was Frederick A. Taft,[226][ap] later succeeded by his brother, Ezra Taft.[228]
After initial struggles, the company eventually prospered.[225] In 1817, it installed the first power loom on Mother Brook, and in 1833, it was upgraded to produce finer print fabrics.[227] By 1827, the mill employed 70 people and produced 6,000 yards of cloth weekly.[227] In 1832, it employed 45 people, used 75,000 pounds of cotton annually, and had machinery valued at $10,000.[127] Its textiles were sold throughout New England, though women workers earned $0.45 per day, roughly one-third less than men.[129]
In 1840, shareholders received a 10% semiannual dividend.[229] By 1847, Read, who was both treasurer and the company’s largest shareholder, had bought out the other investors.[227] Through his firm, Read and Chadwick, he served as a selling agent for the company and five other cotton mills.[227]
The company closed in 1861 when soaring cotton prices, driven by the Civil War, made production unprofitable.[227] In 1877, it was purchased by industrialists Robert and Benjamin Knight.[230]
The mill was expected to be closed and leveled.[ar]
The main building of the plant is of brick, measuring 331 feet long by 59 feet wide on average.[234] The sale included several other parcels and buildings, including tenements and a superintendent's house.[232][as]
As Dedham industrialized and increasingly relied on water power from Mother Brook, other communities along the Charles River developed similar dependencies. To boost flow into the brook, mill owners periodically widened and deepened the channel, drawing more water from the Charles River.[209] This led to frequent disputes with downstream mill owners who relied on the Charles, as well as with landowners along both the Charles and Neponset Rivers. Agricultural lands were flooded or eroded, and some farmers objected to manufacturers receiving tax exemptions, which had been granted by the Commonwealth to promote industry.[213][235]
As early as 1767, mill owners in Newton and Watertown petitioned authorities to curb the diversion.[213] A sill was installed to regulate how much water could be drawn into the brook.[213] By 1797, mill owners in Needham, Roxbury (now West Roxbury), and Newton had asked the legislature to restore the Charles River to its original flow.[236] In 1809, they formed a trade association to assert their rights, arguing that the diversion violated public trust principles and reduced their available water.[237][238]
In response, Dedham’s mill owners asserted that the Charles was often too shallow and blamed reduced flow on upstream dams.[236] Their allies included Neponset River mill owners, who benefited from the increased flow caused by the diversion.[236] That same year, a special act of the Great and General Court incorporated the Mother Brook Mill-Owners Association on September 1, 1809.[237][238][239][240][200]
Both sides appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which in March 1809 appointed three Commissioners of Sewers to evaluate the situation.[at] Because the original sill had been lost, a new system was adopted.[237] The court ruled that one-quarter of the Charles River's flow could be diverted into Mother Brook,[9] but Dedham's mill owners obtained a stay of the decision.[9]
The commission’s report was not filed for 12 years. When it finally appeared, Mother Brook’s proprietors objected, and the findings were set aside.[241][242][236] In 1825, the court determined the report was outdated and incomplete.[241] After renewed negotiations from 1829 to 1831, a final settlement was reached on December 3, 1831.[243][236][9][6] It allocated one-third of the river's flow to Mother Brook and left two-thirds in the Charles for downstream users.[161][236][6][38] This agreement, reaffirmed in 1955,[59] ended decades of legal disputes and remained in effect as of 2017.[244][236][9]
The long-running conflict sparked sharp commentary. In 1895, one observer described the diversion as “the most audacious attempt of robbery ever recorded in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” accusing Dedham of trying to “actually steal the river Charles.”[245] In 1915, it was estimated that one-third of the Charles River's flow passed through the brook; by 1938, the estimate was one-half.[5][246] In 1993, an average of 51 million gallons per day entered the brook from the Charles, with the volume adjustable based on downstream water conditions.[247]
Life along Mother Brook
In the 1800s, as the region and country became more prosperous, mills began to be used for the first time to produce goods not used solely by Dedhamites and those in the immediate area.[76][92] They were so profitable that by the 1820s, landowning farmers were worried about losing control of town politics.[9][au] The growth of the industrial part of the town was so great that it was said that the factories, dye houses, dwellings, and other buildings associated with the operation of just one privilege "of themselves constitute a little village."[151][249]
Mill Village
Initially, the mills that sprouted up along Mother Brook only employed two or three people each and were largely run seasonally.[187] The grist mills would be busiest in the autumn after the harvest, and the sawmills in the winter and spring when leafless trees could be cut down and transported by sled over snow.[187]
The development of industry spurred the production of housing in the area for the mill workers, and churches, shops, and other businesses followed.[6] For over 100 years, what is today known as East Dedham was one of the most productive and populous areas of town.[150] Maps from the middle of the 19th century show a thickly settled area with a commercial center, homes, stores, and churches.[150]
In 1799, there were three inns, several "elegant mansion-homes," and a number of other houses "very decent in appearance."[85] The population of this Mill Village was growing, and the people, about 10 of whom had "the advantage of a learned education," were described as "industrious, affable, and charitable."[85]
The East Dedham Firehouse was built in 1855 to protect the area.[6] In 1837, Benjamin Bussey underwrote part of the cost of a library above Boyden's Store, which was also the mill store.[98] It was known as the Bussey Social and Circulating Library and was only open to paying members.[98] It failed after a few years for lack of support.[98]
During times of peak production, Merchant's Woolen Company employed about 1,000 people, almost all of whom were immigrants.[150]
In the mid 1800s, a small traveling circus would come to town once a year.[250] It was popular with those who worked in the mills, "surpassing in its manifold attractions even Independence day," but the mill owners and town officials worried that it took too much money out of the town.[112]
Boarding houses and tenements
Every mill on Mother Brook built homes in the area that they rented to employees.[251][151] As the mills became larger and employed more people, more boarding houses were constructed.[135] Much of the workforce housing constructed was concentrated in the areas around Maverick Street and Colburn Street.[252] In 1829, the ten men who lived in one such boarding house paid $1.50 per week, and the 15 "girls" each paid $1.25.[207][128] In total, by the mid-1800s, there were 33,000 acres of land in East Dedham that were owned by the mills.[135]
The Maverick Woolen Company also owned six houses near where Gould Street intersects with Curve Street, and additional tenements on Bussey and Milton Streets.[135]
In 1870, the Merchant's Woolen Company owned many residences, including two houses on High Street, five on Maverick, ten on Curve, and two "long houses" on Bussey Street.[151][252] Several of the homes built during this time to house workers still exist as of 2020.[207][253] They include what is today 235 and 241 Colburn Street, two "long houses" that were constructed before Colburn Street was laid out and when much of East Dedham was still "open country."[135]
Many of the rental houses were owned by private individuals.[252]George Hewitt owned the house at 24-26 Chauncey Street.[252] The duplex had 13 people living in less than 2,000 square feet.[140]
Maverick-Colburn area
By 1876, Merchant's Woolen Company owned all of the land in the triangle made up by Maverick, Colburn, and Curve Streets.[140] Only a few lots west of Maverick Street or north of Curve Street were owned by private individuals.[140]
In the 1880s census, most of the residents of this area were of Irish birth and were employees in the mills.[140] One resident, Timothy O'Calligan, was a second generation American, an overseer in the mill, and a neighbor to most of the employees he oversaw.[140]
High Street
Benjamin Bussey built a number of boarding houses, including what is today 303-305-307 High Street,[av] 315 High Street, and 59 Maverick Street.[207] The two buildings on High Street were originally connected by an ell, which remained at least until 1910.[207][254] They first appear on insurance maps in 1855.[135] These were later purchased by the Maverick Woolen Company, which also owned a number of other homes in the neighborhood.[252]
Milton Street
The houses located at 73-75 Milton Street and 81-83 Milton Street were built by Isaac Whiting on land that had been in his family since the early 17th century.[253] The homes at 99, 101, 111, and 115 were owned by the Merchants' Woolen Company and rented to employees.[140]
Bussey Street
Two tenements were constructed on Bussey St, just north of Mill Lane, by the Maverick Woolen Company.[135][aw] Unlike the detached and semi-detached buildings that were constructed earlier, these were block-style dormitories in which six to eight girls would share a single room.[135] They may also have housed families of immigrants who were recruited by the mills to come to the United States to work in the mills.[135] To pay for the costs of their passage, both parents and children would work in the mills.[135]
Immigrants
The mills began to attract immigrants from Europe and Canada who came to America seeking employment and a better life.[150][92] In 1827, it was clear that the industrialization of the waterway was going to attract new workers to the mills.[54] The Irish came beginning with the Great Famine in the 1840s, and the Germans followed in the 1850s.[92] Italians and other immigrants began arriving in large numbers at the end of the century.[92]
Entire families of immigrants would be recruited from abroad by the mill owner's agents to come and work along Mother Brook.[135] Many of these immigrants were Catholic, and attended St. Mary's Church, which was fundraising to build a new building. The mills shut down frequently and for months at a time, putting many out of work and hindering the Church's efforts to fundraise for a new building.[255]
After the Civil War, the immigrants fleeing poverty and violence in Europe were mostly unskilled famers, unlike the first immigrants who worked in the mills who tended to be experienced mechanics who had technical skills.[230] As they had few resources and opportunities, there was little they could do to oppose the difficult working conditions they faced in the mills.[230]
20th century and the decline of industry
A rainbow over Mother Brook as seen from Saw Mill Lane in Dedham, MA
In 1900,[14] and even 1915, after "275 years of constant usefulness," the brook made up "the source of the principal business of the town [of Dedham]."[20] Though the mills remained open into the 20th century, they were not immune from the larger economic forces at play. In the late 1800s, they began "losing ground in the national economic picture, inexorably sliding into an increasingly marginal sort of operation, and finally succumbing entirely to the slump which followed the First World War."[256] Beginning in the 1910s and 1920s, they began to close as the textile industry was in decline,[9] and by 1986 the cotton mills and brick factories that once lined the brook were "long gone."[257][6]
In the 1960s, the pond at the fifth privilege had been drained, and the landowner wanted to build a strip mall on the site.[9] The Department of Conservation and Recreation purchased the land instead.[9] They cleaned up a junkyard, dredged out silt and fill, rebuilt the dam, and published a plan to promote boating, hiking, and other outdoor activities on the site.[9] It also spoke about building a bathhouse, assuming the water quality improved.[9] When the Dedham Mall was built in the 1960s, part of the brook was piped underground.[6]
The sill placed at the mouth has since been replaced with a mechanical floodgate that can be raised or lowered depending on water levels in the Charles.[9] There is a small brick building on the site with the floodgate controls.[9] It was proposed in 1978 to use the three remaining dams on the brook to generate hydroelectric power.[258] In 2009, the Dedham Selectmen proposed designating the brook as a historic waterway to better qualify for grants.[259]
Pollution
During the early 1900s, the state Board of Health began enforcing pollution regulations that prevented additional manufacturing enterprises from setting up along the brook, having "resolutely set its decision against the pollution of this stream."[10][165] One plant was required to install an expensive filtration system to clean its liquid waste before dumping it in the waterway.[165]
In 1910, the water being pumped by the Town of Hyde Park at Mother Brook was deemed unsafe for use without first boiling,[260] and in 1911 that town applied to be hooked up to the metropolitan water system.[261] By 1944, the Neponset was said to be "loaded with putrefaction."[10]
When marshlands were reclaimed in the 1960s,[262] it was partially for the purposes of flood control.[263] One of those reclaimed areas was where the Dedham Mall now stands, very near the headwaters of the brook. The runoff from that 150-acre (61ha) development, however, flowed into the brook and then the Neponset, which could not handle the extra water during heavy rains.[264]
By the mid-20th century, "after over 300 years of industrial use, the Mother Brook was intensely polluted." Gasoline, PCBs, and even raw sewage had been dumped into the brook over the years.[9] An oil spill of 1,300 gallons was discovered near Milton Street in 1975,[265][266][9] and gasoline was discovered bubbling into the brook in 1990.[267] L. E. Mason Co. was fined $250,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency for dumping trichloroethylene into the brook from 1986 to 1994.[268] The company was also known to dump zinc, fats, oils, and greases into the waterway.[268]
During the 1990s, a science teacher at Dedham High School and her chemistry students ran water quality tests on the brook.[269][270] She found that water quality is good, though fecal coliform counts allow only partial body contact.[270] While great progress has been made, in 2017, Mother Brook remained one of the most polluted tributaries to the Neponset River.[9] Unlike most waterways in the Neponset watershed, Mother Brook is less polluted during heavy rains than during drier times, due to the abundance of clean Charles River water flowing into it.[9]
The Brook is monitored by the Neponset River Watershed Association and, as of 2024, is clean enough to swim in.[271]
Cleanups and maintenance
After centuries of industrialization and dumping, Mother Brook became quite polluted.[30] Cleanups have been organized by a number of groups in recent decades.[30][272]
The Metropolitan District Commission dredged and straightened the path of the Brook from the Charles River to Moverick Street following the 1955 flood.[157] This channeling was part of a larger scale effort to reduce floods on the Charles and Neponset Rivers.[273] As part of the project, marshland along the banks were turned into buildable lots.[274]
Later that decade, in 1958, several of the dams along the Brook were rebuilt.[274] Further changes to the Brook came in the 1960s and 1970s when more flood improvement work took place downstream from Maverick Street.[274] Care of all of the damns are the responsibility of the Department of Conservation and Recreation except for the Colburn Street dam at the first privilege, which is still owned by the Town of Dedham.[274] The Commonwealth has also taken ownership of most of the riverbanks from the Town as well.[274]
In 2007, the Brook was redirected under Hyde Park Avenue by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to clean up the PCBs that had previously been dumped into the water.[275] That cleanup led to a federal lawsuit over who would pay for the cost of the remediation.[275] Ten years later, in 2017, the Department of Conservation and Recreation unveiled plans to remove several trees and overgrown vegetation close to the diversion point at the Charles River in order to stabilize and protect the dam controlling the flow of water from the river into the brook.[276]
Modern day
In 1961, an incinerator was opened at the site of the old bathhouse.[277] It was eventually converted into a trash transfer station, but was shut down in 2019.[277] After closing, the Town's Department of Public Works used it for storage and, in 2024, a survey was taken of Town residents of what they wanted to see in a future use of the site.[277] In March 2025, it was announced that the smokestack and building would be demolished in May.[278]
At the 2015 Fall Annual Town Meeting, the town established the Mother Brook 375th Anniversary Committee. Serving on it were Dan Hart, Nicole Keane, Brian Keaney, Vicky L. Krukeberg, Charlie Krueger, Gerri Roberts, and Jean Ford Webb.[6]
National Register of Historic Places
In the 2010s, the Mother Brook Community Group, the East Dedham neighborhood association, began a campaign to get Mother Brook listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[45][171][279][280] The results of the first phase of the effort, an architectural study of the Brook and adjoining areas, were completed by Heritage Consultants and presented in January 2020.[45][171][279][280] The consultants discovered over 70 buildings, areas, and structures still standing that relate in some way to the history of the mills.[45] They include:
202 Bussey St., which was originally built circa 1855 as the Merchant Woolen Company's Factory Mill Number 2.[45] It originally housed a carpenter's shop with spinning machines on the upper floors.[45]
Two private homes on Maverick and High Streets that were built as boarding houses for workers of the Maverick Woolen companies circa 1825.[45] Room and board at these establishments cost $1.50 a week for men and $1.25 for women in 1829, when there were ten men and 15 women living there.[45]
Brookdale Cemetery, which was built to accommodate a swelling population that moved to town to work in the mills.[45]
The consultants' research was submitted to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, which will determine whether Mother Brook qualifies for the National Register listing.[45] An historical district consisting of the mill pond along Colburn Street and 12 nearby properties was created as the Mother Brook Lower Mill Pond Historic District on March 12, 2025.[281] It is being submitted to the National Park Service for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.[281]
Accidents and floods
Floods
In February 1886, waters flooded their banks and put the dams, especially the one at Merchant's Mill, in danger of breaching.[282][283][157] There were fears that a dam in Dover would give way, and the resulting rush of water would destroy the Dedham dam.[8] Prior to this, Merchant's Mill was considered impregnable.[8] It was one of the greatest floods Dedham Center had ever seen.[283]
Streets in the Manor section of Dedham had water two to three feet deep when the brook flooded in March 1936.[284][157] Rain and melting snow caused the Charles and Mother Brook to flood their banks in 1948, putting some parts of Dedham underwater.[285]
Ice chunks at two of the dams caused flooding in 1955.[286][157] Firefighters sprayed high-pressure water at the ice jam off Milton Street, and a crane scooped out debris from the dam and broke the ice at Maverick Street.[286] The water level dropped two feet that day as a result.[286]
Later that year, during the worst floods in New England's history, 150 people in Hyde Park had to evacuate their homes after floodwaters from Mother Brook and the Neponset River collapsed preventative embankments.[287] Mayor John Hynes led an inspection party to survey the damage.[288] Roads, including the V.F.W. Parkway, were flooded in Dedham.[289] That fall, the state approved $2 million for flood control in Mother Brook and the Neponset.[290][291][292] Another $2 million was approved by the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1960.[293]
A team of 120 men descended on Hyde Park at the junction of the Neponset and Mother Brook with 1,200 sandbags to prevent flooding in March 1958.[294] The water was already threatening homes and roads in January of that year.[295] At least "a couple hundred" residents along the Charles, Neponset, and Mother Brook had to be evacuated when those rivers flooded in 1968.[296][157] The worst area in town was along Bussey St., along the brook.[296]
1938 flood
In July 1938, while much of the Charles and Neponset Rivers were flooding their banks and causing $3,000,000 in damage,[297] the area around Mother Brook was unharmed in the early days of the surge.[246] Eventually, Mother Brook also flooded.[157] Dams along the brook controlled the heavy flow of water,[298] which was said to be 15,000 [299] It was close to the level of the 1936 flood but six inches below the flood of 1920.[299]
Scores of homes in low-lying areas eventually had their basements flooded,[299] and the wooden bridge at Maverick Street was threatened.[300] Sandbags, an oil truck, and granite slabs were placed on the bridge to keep it from washing away.[301] The Boston Envelope Company, located next to the bridge, had its first floor flooded.[301]
Three young men who tried to canoe down the Charles during the 1938 flood were overturned in a whirlpool and were swept down the swollen Mother Brook.[297] They were saved after an East Street rescuer ran 500 yards and tossed them a garden hose.[302]
Drownings and rescues
Over the years, there have been a number of accidents on the brook, including some resulting in drownings.[ax] In December 1905, a 12-year-old boy named James Harnett drowned while skating across ice only half an inch thick on Mill Pond.[316] His brother William, 17, rushed to save him, but both ended up in the water.[316] The older brother was saved by a human chain of other skaters, while the younger boy's body was recovered by police an hour later.[316]
An 8-year-old boy fell through the ice and was underwater for 20 minutes in 1980.[317] A passing motorist[317] and three others[318] dove into the brook but were not able to locate him.[317] A WHDH radio traffic helicopter broke the ice with its pontoons, allowing Boston firefighters to spot and recover David Tundidor's body.[317] He was in a medically induced coma,[319] but died four days later.[318]
Others have been more fortunate and were able to be rescued.[ay] After sneaking out of the house in July 1899, 13-year-old William Dennen dove off a bridge near his house on Emmett Ave to save the life of 7-year-old Mary Bouchard, who had fallen in.[326] John F. McGraw, a 33-year-old Scottish immigrant, attempted suicide by drowning in the brook in 1916.[327] After going over a dam and landing in shallow water, the father of three climbed onto shore and was taken to the psychiatric hospital for evaluation.[327] Paul Flanagan, 23, survived for 3.5 hours in the water after his car plunged into the brook in February 1983.[328] He was brought to Norwood Hospital with hypothermia and was later released.[328]
Two boys claimed to have found a human leg in the brook in 1937,[329] but police could not find either the leg or the body.[330]
Other events
In April 1878, a "balky horse" sent six people into the brook, but none were injured.[331] A similar incident occurred in 1837 when a thirsty horse brought himself, the teamster driving him, and the load of paper he was carrying from the mills in Dedham to Braintree into the brook.[332]
Moments after leaving Dedham Square for Forest Hills in 1911, a streetcar jumped the track on Washington Street and dangled 35 passengers over the brook.[333] Only two minor injuries were reported.[333] A cat was saved from a flooded culvert in 1938 by a team of neighborhood boys after the Dedham Fire Department was unable to do so.[334] A 13-year-old boy, William Sullivan, was kneeling on a raft in 1956 behind Brookdale Cemetery when his friend accidentally shot him in the leg with a .32 caliber gun.[335]
Bridges
Today, after diverting from the Charles, Mother Brook immediately runs under a bridge on Providence Highway. When it was constructed, a tablet was erected on the bridge commemorating the brook.[336] Shortly thereafter, it runs under a culvert at the Dedham Mall before appearing again at the transfer station and running to the Washington Street Bridge. It then crosses under Maverick Street, Bussey Street, and Saw Mill Lane, sites of three old mills. Within the Mother Brook Condominium complex, just downstream from Centennial Dam, the brook runs under a small bridge that connects North Stone Mill Drive and South Stone Mill Drive. After entering Hyde Park, it runs under bridges at River Street and Reservation Road before merging with the Neponset.
Various improvements to the bridges have been proposed and carried out over the years by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Town of Dedham, the City of Boston, and private interests.[az]
Recreation
A heron flies over Mother Brook in Hyde Park.Mother Brook as it appeared in 1893
For many years, Mother Brook was a popular boating, bathing, and ice skating destination.[20][355][9][6] According to one contemporary, in the winters of the 1870s and 1880s the "youth then gathered on the ice [to ice skate] must have numbered in the hundreds."[6]
Swimming
A public bathhouse was constructed in 1898 at a cost of $700 on what is today Incinerator Road at the Dedham Mall.[356][277][157][ba] The bathhouse had hot and cold showers in the locker rooms.[157]
The Brook would be dredged in this area occasionally to create better swimming conditions, and the Town maintained the beach area.[277] In the 1930s, more than 1,000 people would use it in a single day, and men commuting home from work would sometimes stop for a swim.[157]
While Dedham had a Commissioner of Mother Brook,[299] during the early 20th century, the Planning Board was responsible for the recreation aspects of the brook, appointing a special police officer and life-saver,[277][357] and running swimming and diving competitions.[358] The Red Cross taught lifesaving lessons.[157]
In 1907, afternoons on Tuesdays and Fridays were set aside for women's use.[355] Girls 16 and under were allowed in free, while those older were charged 5 cents.[355] The youngest member of the Parks Commission, J. Vincent Reilly, taught crowds of more than 200 how to swim.[355]
The bathhouse burned down in 1923,[359] and a proposal in 1924 to rebuild it was expected to receive an unfavorable recommendation from the Warrant Committee.[360] A new one was constructed in 1925.[277]
By the 1940s, games and swim meets were held at the bathhouse at the end of the summer.[277][157] The swimming competitions drew crowds of 800.[361] The bathhouse closed at the end of the summer of 1952 out of concerns that the water was too polluted.[277][157] Attendance had been lagging, and there was considerable valdalism.[157]
The swimming area at present-day Mill Pond Park was considered a perk of working at the Boston Envelope Company in 1936.[183]
Boating and fishing
A canoeist in 1893 wrote of his trip down the brook that upon entering from the Charles, he:
bid adieu to the flat marshlands and broad views of the farther river, for the little brook carries us through varied scenery—now by a barnyard with its lowing cattle, ducks splashing and dibbing in the water, and a dilapidated old carryall backed into the stream, left to wash itself, and then into the cool woodlands, where we can almost touch the banks on either hand. And the green alder bushes arch over our heads, forming a cool and shady tunnel.
The water is so shallow that we see plainly the brilliantly colored pebbles on the bottom and daintily hued little fish darting hither and thither. It is a busy, brawling stream and hurries on to join the Neponset, industriously turning the numerous mills on the way.[362]
In at least the 1930s[363] and 1940s,[364] the state Division of Fish and Game stocked the brook with trout for fishing. The banks were lined with fishermen during parts of 1941.[365]
Open space and parks
Future Supreme Court justice Louis D. Brandeis wrote to William Beltran De Las Casas, the Chairman of the Metropolitan Park Commission, in 1905, asking him to consider including the brook in the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston.[366] He said, "unique in the metropolitan district. It is quite like the Maine woods."[366] He added that if it was added, though it is separated from the rest of the parks, "the future interests of our metropolitan park system would in my opinion be greatly subserved."[366] De Las Casas agreed with Brandeis, but the mill owners in the area threatened to sue to prevent the action, and the costs of taking it by eminent domain were high.[366]
In 1915, it was said that well-kept gardens could be seen along both sides of the length of the brook.[19][20]
In 1968, the Metropolitan Park Commission applied for an "Open Spaces Grant" from the federal government, during which time part of the area near the headwaters was being drained to build the Dedham Mall.[366] The Boston Natural Areas Fund conserved a lot along the brook in 1980 as "green relief from massed buildings and pavement."[367] The City of Boston built a new park on Reservation Road in 1999, shoring up the banks of the brook while they worked.[368] The project on the six-acre site included a skateboard park, a landscaped nature area along the brook, and a cleanup of contaminants.[369][370]
Today along the banks of the brook are walking trails, a picnic area, a canoe launch,[30] Condon Park, a handicapped accessible playground, and more. The Mother Brook Community Group won a grant from Dedham Savings to turn the old Town Beach at the intersection of Bussey and Colburn Street into a passive park with an observation deck, benches, landscaping, and a stone path. Mill Pond Park opened on July 12, 2014.[371][372] The Community Group has also opened more areas of the Brook back up to fishing, and the catches are safe to eat in moderate amounts.[30]
Notes
↑ This canal has been described as the first man-made canal in the United States since at least the 1840s.[14][1][2][5][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] Remains of much older canals dug by the Hohokam people have been uncovered in Arizona, although these are irrigation canals, not power or hydraulic canals like Mother Brook.[27][28]
↑ The Mother Brook Community Group was founded in 2008.[33]
↑ As of 2025[update], this site is where the Adams Street bridge crosses the river.[9]
↑ The site was discovered in the 1840s when excavations on the site uncovered the remnants of a millrace.[29]
↑ Another condition of the grant was that if Shaw ever sold the mill, the town would have the right of first refusal to purchase it back from him.[43]
↑ "Ordered yt a Ditch shalbe made at a comon charge thrugh purchashed medowe unto ye East brooke yt may bother be a ptieon fence in ye same; as also may serve for a course unto a water mille; yt it shall be found fitting to set a mille upon ye sayd brooke by ye judgement of a workman for yt purpose."[20][9][6]
↑ Before the adaptation of the Gregorian calendar in the United States, the year did not begin in January.
↑ He went on to build mills, meetinghouses, and wharves around New England.[52]
↑ Allin was the minister, Aldis the deacon, and Dwight was Whiting's father-in-law.[61]
↑ The third paragraph of the Town Covenant stated: "That if at any time differences shall rise between parties of our said town, that then such party or parties shall presently refer all such differences unto some one, two or three others of our said society to be fully accorded and determined without any further delay, if it possibly may be."[66][67]
↑ Neiswander lists his first name as John.[69] Lewis owned land on Mother Brook as early as 1680,[77] and his house was located at the third privilege, next to the grist mill.[77]
↑ The land granted to them initially extended to present-day Saw Mill Lane, but it later reverted to the town.[79]
↑ A privilege would be called a "permit" in modern parlance.[84]
↑ Pond was from a Rhode Island family with many Dedham connections.[133] He was hired in 1863 at a salary of $10,000 a year.[133]
↑ The building was erected sometime before 1855.[135]
↑ Charles Harding was also the selling agent for the Arlington Mills and the vice president of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers.[136]
↑ Edgar Harding was a director of North National Bank of Boston, director of Whitman Mills, president of the Manomet Mills. He was also a director of the Rutland Railroad. He was the agent of Arlington Mills, the Eddystone Print Works, and the Southern Cotton Yarn Mills. He had a winter home in Boston, and a summer home in Woods Hole.[138]
↑ It closed before 1976 as Hanson refers to it as "the old Boston Envelope Company Building."[64]
↑ "The third privilege owned by the Whiting heirs was purchased under an assignment of William Whiting to Messrs Colburn & Endicott by Messrs Edmunds & Colby in 1863 at which time the Merchants Woolen Company was formed."[185]
↑ Witherle, a Boston resident, was the principal partner in a coppersmith company.[79] He died in 1806, and his son later sold the business.[190]
↑ The mill at the fourth privilege, under the ownership of Bussey and with his agent, George H. Kuhn, was among the first to install water-powered broad looms.[207] The looms enabled raw wool to enter the mills, be spun into thread, and then weaved into finished fabric, all under a single roof.[207]
↑ Bird moved from Maine to Dorchester, and then Dedham in 1804. He was an experienced paper manufacturer.[88]
↑ Wells was from Dorchester and leased the buildings.[88]
↑ Guild also was an officer of the Dedham Historical Society and the treasurer of the Dedham Institution for Savings.[190] He was the fifth of 10 children and descended from one of the original settlers of Dedham.[209] For many years he was the manager of the Norfolk Manufacturing Company's mill on Mother Brook[209]
↑ Barrows had an estate on High Street that was torn down in 1959 to make room for St. Mary's parking lot.[216][217]
↑ Frederick was Royal's son.[199] Royal built a house on High Street, where the athletic field next to the Dedham Pool stands today.[199] Royal was originally from Connecticut and moved to Dedham in 1868.[199] First he leased the Merchant's Woolen Mill, and then he bought it.[199] He was a member of the School Committee, a Library Trustee, and the Selectmen.[199] In 1882 he declared bankruptcy and sold the mill.[199] He died May 25, 1888; he was 73 years old.[199]
↑ The general contractor was the Kaplan Corp., the landscape architects was Weinmayr Associates, and the financing was provided by the Mutual Bank.[15]
↑ Readville, known as early as 1655 as the Low Plain and later as Dedham Low Plain,[9] was settled the same year the privilege was granted,[223] when the Dedham Manufacturing Company built a mill there. James Read, one of the original proprietors, became the neighborhood’s namesake when it officially became Readville on October 8, 1847.[9][209]
↑ A company of men composed of Tully D. Bowen, Earle P. Mason, Henry Waterman, John A. Taft, Stephen Harris, Cyrus Harris, Joseph Woods, John A. Adams, and Benjamin Sibley.[189]
↑ It was, in fact, closed sometime prior to 1927, as were many others, in a "textile depression."[233]
↑ The equipment in the main building included an automatic opener, five lapper machines, 108 cards, 7 drawing frames, 29 fly frames, 77 spinning frames, 5 pairs of mules, 15 spooling frames, and warper frames, a slasher, 508 plain looms, cloth room equipment, a waste picker house unit, machine shop equipment, etc. In addition, there was a quantity of cotton machinery that was never a part of this plant and was encased and marked for shipment to Japan, including openers, cards, ring spinning frames, mules, winders, reels, and bobbins.[234]
↑ Elijah Brigham, Jonas Kendall, and Loammi Baldwin were appointed in October 1809.[237]
↑ There were two competing power structures for the farmers, the "influx of lawyers, politicians, and people on county business," after Dedham was named the shiretown in 1793,[248] and those who owned and worked in the mills.[9]
↑ Deaths include Michael Ansbro in 1892,[303] John J. Carroll in 1948,[304] Timothy Neville in 1967,[305] and James Colburn.[306] Many were children, including 8-year-old William Hickey in 1899,[307] 14-year-old James Cox in 1969,[308] 2-year-old Fritz Wende in 1927,[309] a 6-year-old boy in 1946,[310] 14-year-old Daniel Linehan in 1951,[311] 2-and-a-half-year-old James Cunningham in 1959,[312] and 13-year-old William Molineaux in 1972.[313] Several children died after winter ice broke, plunging them into the cold water. These include an 8-year-old boy in 1895,[314] and a 7-year-old boy in 1929.[315]
↑ Those who were rescued include Katie Murray, a 20-year-old, in August 1875,[320] and a six-year-old boy who was rescued after falling in August 1878 by Arthur Bacon, "a young man who has previously acted in a like noble manner."[321] Also saved were 11-year-old Thomas Mahoney in 1919,[322] 14-year-old Maud Conant in 1925,[323] and a 12-year-old boy floating on a bale of cotton waste in 1953.[324] In 2009, a man was rescued by the Dedham Fire Department after his homemade boat went over the dam that separates the Charles from the brook.[325]
↑ Tager, Jack; Herman, Jennifer L. (December 1, 2008). Massachusetts Encyclopedia (2008–2009ed.). North American Book Dist LLC. p.201. ISBN9781878592651. Dedham is watered by Charles River on its western border, by Neponset River on the east, and by Mother Brook (a canal or artificial river of about three miles in length passing from the Charles to the Neponset); this was the first canal made in the United States, completed within ten years after the first settlement of Boston.
↑ Shurcliff, Arthur A.; Shurcliff, Sidney N. (1947). Town of Dedham, Massachusetts Master Plan Survey and Report (Report). Town of Dedham Planning Board.
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