Rise of the North Billerica Woolen Mills

Two woolen mills at the falls of the Concord River made North Billerica the town's industrial village: the Faulkner mill on the east bank, begun by Francis Faulkner in 1811, and the Talbot mill on the west bank, built by Charles P. and Thomas Talbot in 1857. Both drew their water from the dam and mill pond that the Middlesex Canal had kept as its summit supply, and both grew out of the canal company's old mill property after the railroad ruined the canal. By 1883 the two employed some 270 hands and paid out about $9,500 a month in wages, and between 1880 and 1884 both were reorganized as corporations, the Faulkner Manufacturing Company and The Talbot Mills, which ran them into the twentieth century (see Faulkner Mills and Talbot Mills).

The water privilege went back to the town's grant of October 4, 1708 to Christopher Osgood Jr. of Andover of the neck of land on the west side of the river "with the stream at the falls," on condition that he keep a grist mill there. Joseph Ruggles, a clothier, ran a fulling mill on the east bank from 1747 under a secondary right to the water, and in 1794 and 1799 the Middlesex Canal bought both the Richardson mills on the west bank and Timothy Sprague's fulling mill on the east. On April 10, 1811 Francis Faulkner came from Acton and began making woolen goods in the canal company's fulling mill; Hazen called it "the second enterprise of this class in New England," after Abraham Marland's at Andover in 1810. Faulkner was a tenant for fourteen years. On May 4, 1825 he bought the fulling mill lot and the lands about it from the canal proprietors for $2,500, with water from the creek to the fulling mill only while the pond stood within "three-quarters of an inch" of the top of the dam, "under a penalty of one dollar for every half-hour" the gates were left open, and by September of that year his brick factory was standing.

The business passed to his sons as Francis Faulkner and Son and, after his death on February 12, 1843, to James R. Faulkner and his brother Charles as J. R. Faulkner and Company. In 1880 Charles Faulkner conveyed the 29.55-acre property, with its machinery, to the new Faulkner Manufacturing Company, and the three-story brick mill that still stands on Faulkner Street dates from that rebuilding. Hazen found it in 1883 with eight sets of cards and seventy-two hands, a monthly payroll of about $2,500, and the founder's grandson Richard Faulkner as agent.

Charles P. Talbot came to Billerica in December 1839 and was soon joined by his brother Thomas Talbot. They began by grinding dyewoods in a building hired from the canal company, bought Nathaniel Stearns's saw mill on the east bank in 1844, used it until it burned in 1853, and in 1849 started chemical works that by 1883 made five tons of oil of vitriol a day. In 1851 they bought the canal company's "prior and larger rights," with its dam, water power and mill buildings on the west bank, for $20,000; in 1857 they settled the division of the water with the Faulkners, who were left a fixed right of 57.3 cubic feet a second, and built their woolen mill. It began with eight sets of cards; six more were added in 1870 and six in 1880, and by 1883 "two hundred hands are now employed, and the monthly pay-roll is $7000." The mill made flannels and other woolens and did well on army cloth during the Civil War.

The mills' claims on the river were tested and confirmed. In 1859 the towns of Wayland, Sudbury, Concord, Bedford and Carlisle and the meadow owners above petitioned the legislature, charging that the North Billerica dam had been raised and was flooding their meadows. After hearings in 1860 and a season of measurements at thirty-four stations along the river in 1861, the commissioners reported that "the dam at North Billerica is not the only nor the chief cause of the wet state of the meadows above," and the dam stayed. On March 7, 1864 the town voted to release the Talbots from the old obligation in the Osgood grant to keep a grist mill at the falls, judging, as Hazen wrote, that "the use of the water power in their extensive manufacturing would be a greater public benefit than the grist-mill."

Around the mills the Talbots and Faulkners built a company village. The Talbots put up rows of double houses for their workers on Wilson Street, Lowell Street and Old Elm Street in the 1860s and 1870s (see Talbot Mills Housing), sold the railroad the land for the North Billerica Railroad Depot in 1866, and in 1880 opened a library and reading room for the workers in a wing of the mill. Thomas Talbot gave the village its Baptist meeting house, dedicated in 1871; he had been Billerica's representative in 1851, and he became Lieutenant Governor in 1872 and Governor of Massachusetts in 1878. The town's population, which had hardly grown since 1800, rose from 1,776 in 1860 to 2,000 in 1880 and 2,380 in 1890.

Charles P. Talbot died in 1884, and on October 15, 1884 Thomas Talbot and Frank P. Putnam, guardian of the younger heirs, conveyed the mills, water rights and mill village to the new corporation, The Talbot Mills, with Governor Talbot's son-in-law Frederic S. Clark as treasurer and general manager. Under the corporation the Talbot mill reached twenty sets of cards and 178 looms by 1890 and, in the 1920s, twenty sets and 228 looms with 450 workers, one of the largest single-mill woolen companies in the country; the company laid out Talbot Avenue in 1894, built more double houses in 1899 to 1902, sewered the village in 1902 and sold the town the site of the Talbot School. The Faulkner Manufacturing Company sold its plant in 1914 to Daniel W. Farnsworth, whose North Billerica Company ran it from 1915. The later history of the mills is told under Closing of the Talbot Mills and Closing of the Faulkner Mills.

People

• Francis Faulkner: Came from Acton on April 10, 1811 and began woolen manufacture in the canal company's fulling mill; bought the mill lot and water right in 1825.
• James R. Faulkner: Son and partner of Francis Faulkner, head of J. R. Faulkner and Co. after 1843 until his death in 1877.
• William E. Faulkner: Son of Francis Faulkner, clothier at the Canal Mills in the 1830s.
• Luther W. Faulkner: Son of Francis Faulkner who received part of his father's share of the mill from the executors in the 1840s.
• Charles P. Talbot: Came to Billerica in 1839, began the dyewood business, and with his brother bought the canal water rights in 1851 and built the woolen mill in 1857.
• Thomas Talbot: Partner in C. P. Talbot and Co., builder of the Talbot mill and village, and in 1884 one of the grantors to The Talbot Mills corporation; Governor of Massachusetts 1878-1879.
• Frederic S. Clark: Son-in-law of Thomas Talbot who became treasurer and general manager of The Talbot Mills on its incorporation in 1884 and later its president.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 279: Osgood grant of Oct. 4, 1708; canal company's purchase from Richardson 1794; sale to C. P. and Thomas Talbot 1851 for $20,000; town's release of the grist-mill condition March 7, 1864.
2. Hazen, History of Billerica, p. 280: meadow owners' petition of 1859, hearings of 1860, 1861 observations, finding on the North Billerica dam; Francis Faulkner's start in 1811 and his water privilege.
3. Hazen, History of Billerica, p. 281: Faulkner gate penalty; J. R. Faulkner and Co., 8 sets of cards, 72 hands; Talbots' dyewood mill, 1857 woolen mill, 200 hands, $7000 payroll; chemical works 1849.
4. Wikipedia, 'Billerica Mills Historic District': Talbots' 1851 purchase from the canal company, 1857 water agreement with Faulkner, five-year partnership with the Belvidere Company of Lowell, mill housing.
5. National Register nomination, Billerica Mills Historic District (1983): Talbot and Faulkner mill complexes, village growth, Talbot Avenue 1894, duplexes 1899-1902, Talbot School 1902, incorporation under F. S. Clark.
6. Buildings of New England, 'Talbot Mills // 1857': flannels and woolen goods, later military drab; manufacturing doubled 1880; 450 workers at the 1920s peak, many in company housing.
7. Cornell University Library, North Billerica Company/Faulkner Mills Collection: Faulkner business founded 1811, run by the Faulkner family until 1914, then sold to Daniel Farnsworth and reorganized.