Amesbury’s Early Industrial History: Still Under Construction
By Ron Klodenski
ACM Industrial Survey Team Member
Possible location, based on old deeds examined by Steve Klomps, of the first water-powered mill built on the Powow River in Amesbury by William Osgood in 1641. The site is a short distance below the rear wall of the Main Street building housing Ben’s Uniforms. Recent research, however, raises questions the accuracy of the 1641 date and whether Osgood built a sawmill or a mill for grinding grain to make flour. (Map adapted from Mapquest.)
As the story has been told for generations, Amesbury’s industrial history began with a sawmill on the Powow River falls in 1641. This historical “fact” has been passed along for 120 years through published scholarly research papers, popular publications and local lore. Even Wikipedia.org repeats the often-told history Amesbury’s first water-powered mill, a sawmill built by William Osgood on the Powow River in what is now downtown:
On April 21 [1641] another meeting granted to William Osgood 50 acres of "upland" and 10 of "meadow" along the Pow-wow provided he build the town's first sawmill. It utilized a water wheel driven by the Pow-wow. The mill produced lumber for local use, but also pipe-staves for export.
Who would think to question the Osgood sawmill’s prominent place in the Amesbury timeline? After all, the source is the “bible” of Amesbury’s past, History of Amesbury, written by Joseph Merrill in 1880. Merrill writes quite authoritatively about the event:
Detailed drawing of a sawmill published in an 1795 handbook for mill construction. A vertical straight sawblade moved up and down powered by a water wheel, sawing a log moving lenghthwise on a carriage. A sawmill built by Osgood on Amesbury’s Powow River probably had a similar configuration. Click to enlarge. (From “The Young Mill-Wright and Miller’s Guide” by Oliver Evans.)
April 21st. [1641] A general town meeting was held and William Osgood was granted "50 acres of upland" and "10 acres of meadow" "on condition yat he build a mill yat may be sufficient for ye use of ye towne before ye 10th of ye 7th month next ensuing." This "upland" lay along down the Powow river to the "Landing." The town agreed that no other mill should be built so long as his did the required work. It was a saw mill and the price of sawing was fixed at "3 s. 6 d. pr hundred." The mill was built and performed service for the town for many years before others were built in addition.
It was, in all probability, the first mill ever built on the Powow river.
Merrill’s vision of the first Powow mill was about to be presented yet again for “The Early Industries of Amesbury,” an Amesbury Carriage Museum program planned for October. This program, explained ACM Executive Director John Mayer, will help to develop an understanding of the life of the early European settlers who developed the area along the Powow. Digging into this history, he says, adds some detail and clarity that we can build upon. It’s also very interesting to imagine encountering an undeveloped waterfall and beginning to build your water powered mill where nothing like that had ever existed. For sure – this was a demanding and creative moment for these early industrialists, and it set the direction for the industrial development that followed.
Drawing of a water-powered grist (grain) mill published in 1588. Such drawings may have guided millwrights (mill builders) in the early days of Amesbury’s industrialization. (From “Le Diverse et Artificiose Machine” by Agostino Ramelli.)
But there was one small hitch in preparing the materials for the program. In researching his talk about early grain mills, ACM volunteer Larry Pearl came upon an article written by W. H. B. Currier in 1888, only eight years after Merrill’s History was published. Currier’s article says the first mill on the Powow, Osgood’s 1641 mill, was not a sawmill as Merrill had stated. It was a grain (“grist”) mill:
On the 21st of the Second Month [of 1641] William Osgood was granted sixty acres of land on condition that he should build a grist-mill.
The team preparing for the October program discussed the discrepancy between the sources, and they quickly concluded that Currier had made an error. Merrill’s sawmill version has been widely referenced and generally accepted by most who have studied it. But another ACM volunteer, Steve Klomps, wasn’t quite satisfied. He decided to look further into the conflicting accounts of Merrill and Currier. Steve is a local historian and an Amesbury Carriage Museum industrial survey team member. He has also spent many hours scrutinizing early town records and other historical documents.
Steve soon reported back about what he’d found, and it was disappointing to those who like certainty in their history. After studying several old deeds and town records (probably the same ones Merrill and Currier had studied 140 years ago), he could find no definitive evidence to prove either Merrill or Currier right. Instead, he found vague and conflicting documents that might support at least three different conclusions about Osgood’s mill on the Powow:
Section of a 1693 deed related to William Osgood’s property on the Powow River. Much historical research requires reading and interpreting old handwritten documents like this one. Click to enlarge. (Gift of Ken Aspeslagh.)
Merrill was right. Osgood built a sawmill on the Powow River falls in 1641.
Currier was right. Osgood built a grain mill on the Powow River falls in 1641.
Merrill and Currier were both mistaken. Osgood did not build a mill on the Powow in 1641, although he did build a sawmill there in 1650, and he had a gristmill there by 1658.
It’s perplexing, to be sure. But Steve says this is the nature of historical research.
Examining Merrill’s Conclusion: Sawmill Built in 1641
The Salisbury town records clearly state that William Osgood was granted 60 acres of land in 1641 on the condition that he build and maintain a mill for the benefit of the town. (Salisbury at that time extended along the north bank of the Merrimack River from the Atlantic Ocean to Haverhill. Amesbury did not yet exist as a separate town.)
Att a general meeting of the freemen it was ordered yt William Osgood shall have fiftie acres of upland & tenn acres of meddow [meadow] on condition yt he shall built a mill yt may be sufficient for ye use of ye town before ye 10th of ye 7th month next ensuing & also the towne for their part promiseth yt they will nott att any time suffer any mill to be erected & sett up to ye Prejudice of ye sayd [said] mill so long as ye sayd mill be sufficiently maneteined [maintained] for ye supply of all ye towne... (Salisbury town records, 21st of 2nd month, 1641.)
Note, however, that this record of the town meeting does not specify the type of mill Osgood was to build. It sets only a time limit for building the mill (five months) and prohibits other mills that would “prejudice” operation of Osgood’s mill by competing with it.
Despite no mention of a sawmill in this record, one reason for Merrill to conclude it was a sawmill was the setting of prices for sawn boards at a town meeting some time before Osgood’s grant was made. The town leaders, Merrill may have reasoned, set a price for lumber in anticipation of Osgood’s soon-to-be approved sawmill.
Steve does point out some weakness in drawing a conclusion from a decision to set the price of sawn boards. The same meeting also set prices for several other items, including carpenters’ work, mowers’ work and clapboards made by splitting logs with wedges. Furthermore, sawn lumber was available even without sawmills in those days using manual saws, so the price set could apply to manually sawn boards. Thus, lumber prices were not necessarily set in anticipation of Osgood’s sawmill startup.
But there’s more than the setting of lumber prices to support Merrill’s sawmill theory. Just one year after Osgood’s grant, Abraham Morrell and Henrie Sayward received a grant of sixty acres to build a grain mill on the Powow River falls. (Steve says earlier town records lead to the conclusion that this land and mill must have been on the same side of the Powow where Osgood’s later 1650 sawmill was built.) Since the 1642 grant requires Morrell and Sayward “to grind all ye [grain] which ye town shall need” and Osgood’s 1641 grant clearly prohibited anyone from competing with him, it would seem that Osgood’s mill could not have been a grain mill.
Examining Currier’s Conclusion: Grist Mill Built in 1641
Most of the arguments supporting W. H. B. Currier’s conclusion that the 1641 Powow River mill was a grist mill can be summarized easily: it is unlikely it was a sawmill, so it would have been a grain mill.
One item supporting Currier’s theory is a second grant made to Osgood in 1650, this time specifically for a sawmill. It seems odd that Osgood would be given privileges for another sawmill on the Powow falls only nine years after the first grant – and in a location where his sawmill already existed. But if Osgood’s 1641 mill had been grinding grain instead of sawing lumber, granting Osgood sawmill privileges in 1650 would make sense.
A Third Possibility: No Mill on the Powow in 1641
The record of the 1641 grant to Osgood is vague and leaves us unable to determine the mill’s location with any certainty. And to date, Steve has been unable to find any other original records showing a mill in existence on the Powow in 1641 or a sawmill being there before 1650. This means it’s possible that Osgood built his 1641 mill in a location other than the Powow, possibly on Little River near today’s Salisbury center.
There’s at least one more possible scenario: Osgood intended to build a grain mill on the Powow in 1641 but failed to meet the five-month construction deadline set by the grant. This freed the town to grant the same privilege to Morrell and Sayward for their grain mill the following year.
Where This Leaves Us: Sawmill, Grain Mill or Neither
Today, it seems we are left with only a topic for future debate among historians. Was Osgood’s first mill on the Powow a sawmill, as Merrill concluded? Or was it a grist mill, as Currier stated? Or was there no mill built on the Powow in 1641? It’s an open question calling for more research and analysis by professional historians or curious amateurs in the local community.
Maybe we shouldn’t expect an answer soon. Steve says, “Every time I read through the records I come up with something new – usually raising more questions than answers.”
If you’re interested in learning more about this era of Amesbury’s history, join us on October 17 for “The Early Industries of Amesbury.” Registration information is coming soon.
Bibliography
Boeckler, Georg Andreas. Theatrum machinarum novum. Germany: sumptibus Pauli Principis, Technempolaei Noribergici, 1662.
Evans, Oliver, and Thomas Ellicott. The Young Mill-Wright & Miller's Guide: In Five Parts--Embellished with Twenty Five Plates. Philadelphia: The author, 1795.
Hurd, David Hamilton (Editor). History of Essex County, Massachusetts. Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1888. “Salisbury” by W. H. B. Currier.
Klomps, Steve. Personal collection, notes and copies of historical documents.
Merrill, Joseph. History of Amesbury including the First Seventeen Years of Salisbury, to the Separation in 1654; and Merrimac from its Incorporation in 1876. Haverhill, Mass.: Press of Franklin P. Stiles, 1880.
Ramelli, Agostino. Le diverse et artificiose machine. Paris: 1588.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Steve Klomps for providing materials, interpretation, guidance, and editing help in compiling this article. Thanks also to John Mayer for editorial assistance and help with selecting illustrations.