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Thomas Barrows (mill owner)

Thomas Barrows (August 6, 1795 – May 7, 1880) was a business and civic leader from Dedham, Massachusetts.

Thomas Barrows

Personal life

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Barrows was born August 6, 1795[1] in Middleboro, Massachusetts.[2][3][4] He rose from a humble childhood to become the wealthiest mill owner in Dedham.[5][2][4]

With his wife, Elizabeth (née Bosworth),[a] he had two sons and two daughters, including Thomas,[1][b] Sarah,[c] and Elizabeth.[d] Barrows had a grand estate on High Street that was torn down in 1959 to make room for St. Mary's parking lot.[6][3][7][4]

He died May 7, 1880, and is buried at the Old Village Cemetery.[1] Barrows Street in Dedham, where he held some property, is named for him.[4]

Career

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In 1812, he left the family farm to work at a Middleboro cotton mill.[2][3][4] Two years later he worked at a different mill in Wrentham, Massachusetts.[2] He later returned to Middleboro to become the superintendent of a mill and remained there for five years.[2]

He then took a position in Halifax, Massachusetts until 1825, at which point he was hired by Benjamin Bussey and George H. Kuhn to work at their mill on Mother Brook making broadcloths.[2][8][9][3] He worked at several mills on Mother Brook.[4]

Barrows retired in 1864 when the mill was sold.[2] He soon after purchased another mill on Mother Brook.[2][3][4][e] He made large additions to the mill, including a three-story ell.[3][10][4][2][11] He also improved the machinery, including replacing the water wheels with turbines and adding a steam engine.[3][12][2] With the additions, he transformed it into a woolen mill.[3]

He sold the mill in 1872, during a downturn in the woolen industry.[2][3]

Barrows was also the president of the Dedham Institution for Savings.[4]

Civic life

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Brookdale Cemetery

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Main article: Brookdale Cemetery

Seeing a need for greater cemetery space, Dedham's Annual Town Meeting of 1876 established a committee to look into establishing a new cemetery.[13] The committee, composed of the selectmen and Eratus Worthington, Eliphalet Stone,[f] Royal O. Storrs, Winslow Warren, Edwin Whiting, and Alfred Hewins, was charged with determining how large the cemetery should be, locating land for it, and all other matters.[13]

Town Meeting accepted the committee's recommendation on October 20, 1877, and appropriated $8,150 to purchase 39 acres from Barrows and Thomas Motley with additional land from Walter E. White[17] for a total of 40 acres.[18][4] Several of those involved in the creation of Brookdale Cemetery were the agents and superintendents of the mills along Mother Brook.[19]

The Town of Dedham purchashed another portion of his estate in 1976 to develop the O'Neil Drive housing complex for senior citizens, and then another 2 acres from St. Mary's in 2009.[4] The other half of the St. Mary's parking lot was sold and developed into private homes in 2011.[4]

Dedham's Bicentennial

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During the bicentennial celebrations in Dedham in 1836, Barrows served as a vice president of the dinner held for 600 people.[20]

Notes

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  1. ^ Elizabeth died on August 6, 1860, aged 67 years, 6 months, 20 days.[1] She was from Halifax, Massachusetts.[2]
  2. ^ Thomas died October 29, 1803, aged 38 years, 7 months, 22 days in a railroad accident.[4][1]
  3. ^ Sarah was the wife of C.H. Miller of Jamaica Plain.[2]
  4. ^ Elizabeth was the wife of Eliphalet Stone.[2][2][4]
  5. ^ Hurd and Parr differ on when Barrows purchashed the Mill. Hurd says it was shortly after the mill was sold in 1864. Parr says it was in 1863.
  6. ^ Stone was married to Elizabeth Barrows, the daughter of Thomas Barrows.[14][15][16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Devlin, Jane. "EPITAPHS FROM THE FIRST PARISH". Retrieved September 22, 2023. Extracted from The Record of the Town Meetings and Abstract of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts 1887-1896 Don Gleason Hill, Town Clerk 1896 pages 275 - 297
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Hurd 1884, p. 93.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Neiswander, Judy (May 8, 2020). "Tales from Mother Brook: Part 4 – The Industrial Age". Dedham Museum and Archive.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Parr, James L. (November 2, 2024). "Dedham's Stone Secrets Part 2". Dedham Tales. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  5. ^ Tritsch 1986, p. 15.
  6. ^ Tritsch 1986, p. 35.
  7. ^ a b Parr, James L. (19 March 2011). "Dedham, 1895". Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  8. ^ Dedham Historical Society 2001, p. 39.
  9. ^ Worthington 1900, p. 11.
  10. ^ a b "Norfolk Manufacturing Company Cotton Mill, 90 Milton Street, Dedham, Norfolk County, MA". Library of Congress. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  11. ^ Worthington 1900, p. 12.
  12. ^ a b Yudis, Anthony J. (January 31, 1987). "Neglected Mill at Dedham Brook Revived as Condos". The Boston Globe. p. 35. ProQuest 294394528. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  13. ^ a b Smith 1936, p. 147.
  14. ^ a b Bosworth Genealogy: A History of the Descendants of Edward Bosworth who Arrived in America in the Year 1634; with an Appendix Containing Other Lines of American Bosworths. 1936. p. 1805.
  15. ^ a b "The Soldiers' Friend Gone". The Boston Globe. February 6, 1886. p. 8. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  16. ^ Hurd 1884, p. 108.
  17. ^ Smith 1936, pp. 147–148.
  18. ^ a b Upham, E.C. (June 25, 1904). "The Cemeteries of Dedham". The Dedham Transcript. p. 1.
  19. ^ a b "Phase One of Mother Brook Corridor Study completed". The Dedham Times. Vol. 28, no. 8. February 21, 2020. p. 10.
  20. ^ Haven 1837, p. 73.
  21. ^ "The Dedham Historical Society & Museum's "Trivia Time"". The Dedham Times. Vol. 29, no. 41. October 15, 2021. p. 18.


Works cited

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