History Packet No. 11

Multi Era 4-6: 1828 to 1898

Edward Carrington Thayer

Edward Thayer was a Cheshire County industrialist and a local philanthropist.

He was born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, on 10 May 1828 to Joseph and Chloe (Taft) Thayer. His father was a successful farmer and attorney who went into mill management. Edward had at least five siblings, three sisters and one brother, with more than one of the siblings dying at a young age. His formal schooling was completed in Uxbridge, Lancaster, and Lanesboro, Massachusetts. At age 17, Edward started his mill career as a clerk in a woolen mill in Blackstone, Massachusetts that was located near his hometown of Uxbridge. Over time, Edward would assist his father in the management of textile mills in the area of Uxbridge and work on the family farm. As late as 1870, Edward was still living at home.

Edward had an opportunity to lease a woolen mill in Ashuelot in 1871, a flourishing manufacturing village in Winchester, New Hampshire. The mill had been started by the Turner family, who were Winchester's pioneers in the manufacture of satinet and woolen goods. In 1862, the firm was reorganized as Ball, Pratt & Turner, making cotton-warp, woold (material strengthened by having threads wound around the main strands), shoddy filling (recycled wool obtained by tearing apart unfelted cloth rags and knit goods), and beavers. Beaver is a soft woolen cloth with a thick nap, made to resemble beaver fur. The term also is used to describe men's hats made from this material, which formerly were made of real beaver fur.

Soon after his arrival in Ashuelot, Edward became a director of the Winchester National Bank in 1872. The following year Edward became a partner in the Ball, Pratt & Turner mill when Mr. Ball sold his interest in the firm, becoming Thayer, Pratt and Turner manufacturing material for cloaks and overcoats. At age 43, Edward married Julia Beatrice Ball in 1873 who was a music teacher. She was the daughter of David and Fannie (Capron) Ball, two families that were entwined in the textile industry of Winchester. Edward and Julia would make their home on Main Street in Keene, in the house that once held the fashionable ladies' seminary run by Miss Catherine Fiske and now serving as the residence for the Keene State College president. Edward probably traveled to his Winchester and his work at the mill via the train.

In 1876 Edward became the President of the Winchester National Bank, elected to succeed former Governor William Haile, who died that year. Edward served in this position for 22 years, until his own death. He also served as a director of the Citizens Savings Bank in Keene and President of the Cheshire Provident Institution for Savings in Keene. Edward furthered his public service to his community by serving as a Ward 5 City Councilor in 1876 and 1877 and as Ward 5 Alderman in 1878. By 1880, Julia's older brother Delos and sister Jane were living with the couple in their large home in Keene.

With his business partners, Messrs. Pratt, and Turner, along with Captain Ansel Dickinson and Delos Ball (Edward's brother in law) they obtained a second mill by buying the property of the Ashuelot Company, and incorporating it in 1878 as the Ashuelot Manufacturing Company. Edward served as its Treasurer, with Alanson Turner its President. After running it five years as a private company, they turned it into a stock corporation. They manufactured Union and Moscow beavers in a facility that had "About 250 hands [that] operated the 12 sets of woolen cards" in a three stories high building 200 feet long and several outbuildings.

By 1886, Edward had purchased Mr. Pratt's shares in the business, with the name of the company changing to Thayer & Turner's Woolen Mills in Lower Ashuelot. The capacity of the original mill with its "four sets of woolen cards," requiring the employment of about 75 people. The mill complex included the main building that was about 100 feet in length and three stories high, a picker house (a working area for rag sorting, grading, and where old and used woolen cloth was picked apart for recycling), a dye house, and a storeroom. The firm also was described as having "good boardinghouse and tenements" for its employees. Edward later bought out Alanson Turner's shares in the business, continuing the mill successfully on his own. He was said to be both "honorable and forward-looking."

Edward was interested in many local business enterprises. He was associated with the Cheshire Railroad, serving as both a Director and as its Vice President. He also was a director of the Norwich & Worcester Railroad and held stock in the Fitchburg, the Providence & Worcester, and the Boston, Concord, & Montreal Railroad Companies.

Through prudent management of his business activities, Edward amassed a large fortune, a large portion of which he distributed to what he considered worthy purposes, both during his lifetime and through his will. His philanthropy benefited the starting of Elliot Community Hospital in 1892 and the Invalid's Home, New Hampshire's first elder-care facility. He also assisted in the building of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) on West Street in Keene in 1893.

Also in 1893, Edward gave the City of Uxbridge, Massachusetts a building in his parents' honor to be a new home for the town library. He purchased land on North Main Street for $4,000, spent $28,000 for design and construction, and bought $1,500 of furnishings from the Paine Furniture Company in Boston, whose founders once lived in Uxbridge. This $33,500 investment, named The Thayer Memorial Building, still serves as the home of the Uxbridge Free Public Library. The town also received a fund for the purchase of books.

In 1897, Edward offered to build and present to the city of Worcester, Massachusetts a home for the City Hospital nurses at a cost of not less than $35,000. The cost of the building finished and furnished exceeded $50,000. The City Council and Hospital Trustees "gave hearty expression to Mr. Thayer of their appreciative sense of his timely and generous gift." Miss Margaret C. Chapin, a niece of Mr. Thayer, also made generous contributions toward furnishing the new home. The building also served as the City Hospital Training School for Nurses. Edward dedicated this project to the memory of his sisters, Sarah Thayer Chapin and Louisa Thayer Chapin, who were successively the wives of the late Judge Chapin, Mayor of Worcester in 1849, '50, and '70.

He repeated his generosity when he proposed the following to Keene's Mayor and City Council on 31 May 1898:

At its next regular meeting on 6 June, the Council resolved to accept Edward's proposal in full. He began to carry out his plans but died the next month. His widow, Julia, and his niece, Margaret, saw through the remodeling of the building. The Keene Public Library was moved from the north end of City Hall where the police station now stands to the former Henry Colony mansion, the dedication taking place 28 February 1899. Julia and Margaret added a donation of $5,000 with which to purchase books.

Edward died at age 70 on 4 July 1898 in Keene. He is acknowledged by Civil War General Simon Goodell Griffin as one of Keene's "movers and shakers." In the closing pages of A History of the Town of Keene, Griffin salutes about 40 people for having made a big difference in the community, crediting Edward's generosity and foresight for establishing "yet another important public amenity", the library. Edward's portrait hangs in the Keene Public Library.

Bibliography

Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1897. New York, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1897.

Baldwin, Thomas Williams. Vital Records of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. Boston, Massachusetts: Wright and Potter Printing, 1916.

Bishop, J. Leander; A.M., M.D. A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860, Volume III. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Edward Young & Co., 1868, pg. 546.

Child, Hamilton. Gazetteer of Cheshire County, N.H., 1736-1885. Syracuse, New York: H. Child, 1885.

Griffin, Simon Goodell. A History of the Town of Keene: From 1732, When the Township Was Granted By Massachusetts, To 1874, When It Became A City. Keene, New Hampshire: Sentinel Printing Company, 1904.

Harmuth, Louis. Dictionary of Textiles. New York, New York: Fairchild Publishing Company, 1915.

"History of Winchester, N.H." History of Cheshire and Sullivan Counties, New Hampshire. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1886.

Keene, City of. "Agreement Between Edward C. Thayer and the City of Keene Re: Keene Public Library."

Keene, City of. "Thayer Was Library Benefactor." Keene Public Library Dedication and Celebration. Keene, New Hampshire, 12 June 1999, pg. 4.

Matatics, Terrence. "The Origins of Keene's Public Library." The Keene Sentinel, 20 April 2003.

Proper, David K. "Cheshire County, N.H., History." The Keene Sentinel, 10 May 1967.

Rice, Franklin Pierce; Editor. Worcester of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Eight: Fifty Years a City. Worcester, Massachusetts: F. S. Blanchard & Company, 1899, pg. 251.

Sharkey, Mrs. Bernard F. Reflections at a Milestone. Uxbridge Massachusetts: Published by Author, 1994.

United States Censuses for 1850, 1860, 1880, 1900.

"Uxbridge Free Public Library." Uxbridge, Massachusetts: City of Uxbridge.

Compiled by HSCC volunteer Vicki E. D. Flanders of Keene, 2008.