It is creditably narrated that about the year 1780 a deserter from the Continental Army, Bedford by name, settled in the ancient town of Attleboro and established there a small shop for the manufacture of jewelry, and that this is the chance-sown seed out of which has grown one of the largest and most successful of New England's industries.
To-day Attleboro jewelry goes to all parts of the world. Within a week one of her many enterprising firms, the D. F. Briggs Company, has shipped a case of twenty dozen bracelets to deck the dusky arms of the beauties of Singapore. India, Arabia, Africa, China, Japan, and the islands of the sea are all open and well-known markets to the dainty product of this vigorous Massachusetts town.
With still greater pride may her citizens point to the fact that this splendid industrial victory has been achieved in strict accordance with the best American ideals. Whereever the Attleboro banner floats, and it is well to the front on all the great "battlefields of business," it is a symbol of the triumph of the great American idea of open competition. No trust-control or secrettrade agreements mar the business-methods of these great factories. In fact it is difficult to imagine a more wholesome condition than that which prevails.
The "help" is well paid, contented, intelligent. The Trade Union idea has gained no foothold. The majority of the factory owners live in the town, and many of them have risen from the bench to the control and ownership of great factories where the stranger is amazed to see acres of floor-space devoted to the construction of all kinds of metallic and jewelled ornament. Everywhere is the clink of gold, and the gems of Golconda are handled by the shovelful.
One Attleboro bank supplies more than a million dollars of Uncle Sam's gold coin to these factories to be melted down. Bargold is also used, but most of the factories prefer to use coin-gold – a not insignificant item for the calculations of the United States Mint.
About the first question that one is inclined to ask in regard to an industrial community is not, "Who are its millionaires?" but "What is the condition of its toilers?"
The Attleboro jewelry trade and its allied industries employ more than six thousand operatives, about half of them young women. Many of the latter come from the neighboring towns and cities. Eleven carloads of young women go back and forth from the city of Taunton daily. These girls are well paid and self-respecting. The moral tone of the manufacturing community is remarkably clean and wholesome. The working-day is ten hours. The wages paid average higher than those of textile mills, and Attleboro in consequence gets first choice.
Of the working-people resident in Attleboro, a large proportion own their homes. Native Americans are still in the majority, although there are many Germans, and latterly large numbers of Swedes, and they are working their way to the front.
There, for example, is the Frank Mossberg factory – Swedish throughout, and none the less intensely American. This great establishment is one of the few in Attleboro,not engaged directly in the jewelry business. Beginning with the manufacture of special machinery for the jewelry-makers, Mr. Mossberg has developed a general business for the manufacture of high-grade special machinery, bicycle sundries, etc., whose product is widely and favorably known. Practical machinists, it is part of their work to take the ideas of inventors and reduce them to practical form.
A typical and remarkable instance of the rise of a man by sheer ability and force of character from the work-bench to the ownership of a great factory is that of the present head of the S. O. Bigney Company.
Mr. S. O. Bigney, of Attleboro, is one of the largest manufacturing jewellers in the United States. When a young man he started out single-handed and alone to make his way in the industrial world, and by his forceful character and determination we find him to-day employing a large force of men and women, and the owner of one of the largest, if not the largest, jewelry-plants in the United States. During all these years he has never experienced a strike or suffered from any other trouble with his employees. The average wages of the young women in his employ are $2 a day, and of the men over $3 a day. He lives the strenuous life and believes in justice and fair play, for which he stands ready to issue a challenge at any time. This is the motto which appears on his business cards: "Eternal hustle coupled with honesty and integrity is the just price of success."
Notwithstanding his busy life in connection with his industry, he has given much time to political matters. He was elected to the Governor's council from the second district by a very flattering vote. He served in that body one year, and declined a renomination on account of the pressing demands of his business.
He has been to Washington many times in the interests of our New England industries. He was elected a delegate to the National Convention which nominated Theodore Roosevelt, of whom he is a great admirer. His friends throughout the State insist that he shall be one of the four delegates-at-large to attend the next National Convention.
A lineal descendant of Merle d'Aubigne (corrupted to Bigney), the good old Huguenot stock of his paternal side and the sturdy Scotch ancestry of his mother have combined to produce a type of man who is essentially a builder and leader.
Among the industries arising out of the jewelry manufacture is that of designing and die-making, and prominent among those who are engaged in this work is the firm of Sworbel and Heath, who made the design and the dies for the first coinage of Cuba, and whose ideas are stamped on many of the most artistic products of the jeweller's art. One is tempted to dwell too long on these interesting bits of industrial history, for each of these factories has its own story of strenuous effort and victorious achievement, its failures, losses, and notable successes.
For it is by no means true that when the visitor has seen one of these factories he has seen all. Particularly the stranger in Attleboro should inquire for the great factory of the D. F. Briggs Company, for years a well-known name throughout the jewwelry trade of the world. The business is now owned by C. H. and W. C. Tappen, who have also purchased the very valuable right to use the D. F. Briggs name. The export trade of this firm is exceedingly large. Making a specialty of chains, bracelets, and rings, they send them in fabulous quantities to even" corner of the globe. In addition to its bar-gold, silver, and other metals, the factory melts down an average of $1,500 of coin-gold daily. This coin-gold is largely used for its convenience of form for certain manufacturing puqsoses, and the ease and exactness with which the value in use may be instantly computed. It is one of the fine things about the business that it has this tendency, because of the material employed, to develop minute accuracy and honesty. And it is this reliability of Attleboro jewelry and jewellers – the fact that it is always just what it claims to be – that has given to such firms as the D. F. Briggs Company their world-wide market.
Another firm which has passed the quarter-century mark is the R. B. Macdonald Company, who are the makers of many popular specialties, the most widely known of which is the "Little Beatrice" locket, a dainty little ornament that finds its own way straight to the feminine heart. This firm also does an extensive business in sterling silver novelties, brooches, and scarf-pins. Situated on County Street, with commodious quarters in a fine new factory building, they bid fair to fulfil another quarter century of successful history.
The discovery and development of a popular specialty is the dream of the manufacturing jeweller, and those who have accomplished it are, with ordinary business ability, sure of success. Thus the Mason Howard & Company firm, also a County' Street establishment, have invented and made a place in the market for the "Velvet Bracelet," a very successful novelty. The firm is not among the old business houses of Attleboro, having been established in 1898, but their interesting line of novelties has made a place for them well to the front.
As one reviews this story of business enterprise and feels the keen atmosphere of trade, the question arises as to Attleboro's part in the greater problems of State and nation. Is this pursuit of commercial supremacy so engrossing as to leave no room for patriotism, for altruistic devotion to the public interest?
The question is one that foreigners are prone to answer in the affirmative, not only for Attleboro, but for all America, and it is one of the deepest interest to all Americans.
Attleboro's answer is clear and clean-cut. It is an old town, well past its second century, and has seen all the great movements of American history – and in them all its own part has been both unusually large and highly honorable. In the days of the minutemen Attleboro was able to organize two companies of these devoted soldiers, and many a quota of staunch supporters of the Colonial cause besides. Veteran manufacturers like Mr. C. O. Sweet, of the C. O. Sweet & Son Company, long with the Bigney factory, and now at the head of a flourishing establishment, have seen the shops emptied of hands at Lincoln's stirring call in the days of the great war for the Union.
Nor has interest in letters and the learned professions languished through the press of trade. Attleboro has furnished college presidents to Yale University, Rhode Island, Union and Columbia Colleges, and has sent forth men distinguished in the pulpit, at the bar, and in the sciences. Samuel Robinson, the distinguished geologist, Benjamin West, the mathematician, Dr. Naphtali Daggett, president of Yale College, Hon. David Daggett, chief justice of Connecticut, Rev. James Maxcy, president of Columbia College, and Nathan Smith, of the Harvard Medical College, are a few of her distinguished sons.
Another common mistake is to identify Attleboro with the cheap jewelry trade. It is true that the Attleboro factories turn out great quantities of low-priced jewelry, but of excellent quality. They also manufacture the very highest grades in many lines.
Such concerns as the W. E. Richards &: Company firm are devoted exclusively to the manufacture of solid gold jewelry. A young concern, entering on their ninth year, they are already well known throughout the country. Mr. Raymond M. Horton, one of Attleboro's own young men, is at the head of the business, which employs fifty skilled workers in gold, and uses the most advanced mechanical appliances.
Our visit to Attleboro must also include a call on the C. A. Marsh & Company's interesting establishment. Here system and organization are carried to the very highest degree of perfection. Nothing is too minute to escape attention, and each detail is an object of careful study. The secrets of success may be learned by clear object-lessons, as one is conducted from office to factory, and from bench to bench, of this justly respected firm.
Between Attleboro and North Attleboro there is a good-natured and keen rivalry that is well in keeping with the spirit of competition that pervades the Attleboro atmosphere.
North Attleboro, four miles distant from Attleboro, is, historically, the older community of the two by half a century, and was for many years the leading centre. Many of the largest and finest jewelry factories are located in North Atdeboro. Some of these are models of factory construction, and with their acres of well-ordered and even artistic buildings are a source of continued amazement to the visitor; for it seems as though there were no end of them, and all devoted to the manufacture of tiny trinkets. Among the young and vigorous concerns of North Attleboro is the Mainteint Brothers and Elliot Company, occupying quarters in a fine, new brick factory building and looked upon by their neighbors as one of the most active and enterprising of the North Attleboro concerns.
Then there is the great Draper factory, known as the ''Estate of O. M. Draper Company," manufacturers of the world-celebrated O. M. Draper chains. These chains are the result of nearly fifty years of careful specialization, and they have stood the test of time. None but the most high-priced, skilled labor is employed. No process known to the chain-maker for hardening the gold is overlooked. Finish is one of the points strongly insisted on, and half a century of honorable business dealing has given to this firm the confidence of the trade. With a reputation for square dealing and honest values, this splendid monument to business capacity and integrity is a just source of pride to the citizens not only of Attleboro but of all New England. Founded by Mr. O. M. Draper, the pioneer vest-chain manufacturer of Attleboro, its history has been one of steady growth on solid merit.
In this sketch of Attleboro's industrial growth we have made no attempt to cover the field in detail. It will be sufficient for our purpose if we have mentioned that which is most typical – and if we have left an impression of wholesome conditions, prosperity justly achieved, contented craftsmen, and business leaders of integrity and the true American spirit, we will have told our story.
Attleboro is a bright spot in the industrial life of New England to-day, and her achievements, hardly paralleled, may well be a source of pride to every New Englander and every true American.
Source: The New England Magazine - Volume 37 - 1908
Trev.
