I added the PDF to my docs click link to open and view. If you have difficulty just send me your email.
Read Article Part 1 Article Fire Amesbury 1888
Part 2 Article Fire Amesbury 1888
Reports from the Automobile Trade Directory:
IN SPITE of FIRE, Amesbury shipped 1,122 carriages during the first half of the month of April. This does not look much like decrease of business.
THE HUME CARRIAGE Co., Amesbury, Mass., are preparing to erect a new building of brick, 117 ft. long and 60 ft. wide, with an L too ft. long and 45 ft. wide, four stories high.
PLENTY LEFT TO FILL ORDERS—F. D. Parry, of Amesbury, Mass., writes (April 17th): “It is not generally known that I lost 60 carriages in the great fire, worth about $10,000; but I wish it understood that l have plenty left to fill all orders, as my factory was not burned. I was fairly insured.”
COMPLIMENTARY DINNER.—On Saturday evening. April 14th, Messrs. Drummond, Taylor & Co., of Amesbury, gave a complimentary dinner to their employés, in token of appreciation of the effective services of the latter in saving their great carriage works from destruction during the late fire. The speaking which followed the dinner is reported as having been particularly appropriate and stirring.
ONLY SCORCHED.–Messrs. Drummond, Taylor & Co., carriage builders, of Amesbury, Mass., write us (April 9th) that, although they were pretty well scorched during the late fire, they had not a building injured internally, and are in as good a position as ever to fill orders. We sincerely trust that they and our other Amesbury friends will receive their full share of spring orders, and promptly too.
JOHN H. CLARK & Co., Amesbury, Mass., have bought the lot formerly occupied by N. H. Folger and a part of that occupied by A. N. Parry Co., and will erect at once a building 120 ft. long by Go ft. wide three stories high, making it as nearly fire-proof as possible. They will restore the building, the walls of which are standing. They propose having one of the best equipped carriage factories in the country.
REAL-ESTATE TRANSFERS have been numerous in Amesbury since the fire. F. A. Babcock & Co. have purchased the disputed territory near their old shop, of James Hume. John H. Clark & Co. have purchased of James Hume the land upon which N. H. Folger's factory stood, and will build thereon. A. N. Parry & Co. have disposed of their lot to Lambert Hollander, who gives notice that he will rebuild at once.
AFTER THE FIRE.—The work of reconstruction at Amesbury was begun at once. The Hume Carriage Co. erected a temporary office, and had it completed and occupied on Monday morning. F. A. Babcock & Co. moved the office of Locke & Jewell on their ground, and occupied it Monday morning. Early on Monday George F. Pike began to rebuild the partiallyburned storehouse of the Hume Carriage Co., and the firm continued work during the following week. The first building on the hill was erected by Mr. Hume, and, after twenty years, the first to go up after the fire, was built by the same man. Emmons Babb also commenced the erection of a temporary blacksmithshop, 140 feet long, for F. A. Babcock & Co.
NOT BURNED.—Three carriage factories, those of Drummond, Taylor & Co., Osgood Morrill and Walton & Colquhoun, are all that are left of the once flourishing colony on Carriage Hill in Amesbury. But in the town are the following firms: Biddle, Smart & Co., Folger & Drummond, C. W. Long & Co., S. Rowell & Son, G. W. Marden, W. G. Ellis & Sons, Charles Rowell & Son, Geo. W. Osgood, Briggs Carriage Co., E. S. Feltch & Co., B. F. Lewis, Chesley, Shiels & Co., Rowell & Neal, A. P. Boardman, F. D. Parry, Locke & Jewell, J. F. Esten & Son, Seth Clark, T. W. Lane, M. T. Bird, John Carr. S. R. Bailey & Co. make sleighs: and, in carriage-parts, the following firms do business: Currier, Cameron & Co., carriages in the wood and iron; Francis & Smith, bodies; D J. Marston, wheels; Wells & Spofford, bodies; and Biddle, Smart & Co., bodies and gears.
New York Extends Sympathy to Amesbury: The following communication speaks for itself: “Syracuse, N.Y., April 9th, 1888. At a meeting of the Carriage Builders' Association of the State of New-York, held this day, at Syracuse, N. Y., the undersigned were named as a committee to draft resolutions extending the sympathy of this Association o the carriage builders of Amesbury, Mass., who recently suffered so severely by fire. ... We therefore submit the following, a copy of which has been mailed to each of the houses burned out. Whereas: A number of our fellow carriage-builders in Amesbury have severely suffered from fire, and, appreciating the magnitude of the loss to them, and the difficulties, delays, expense and labor to which they will be subjected before their losses can be repaired, be it Resolved: That the sympathy of the Carriage Builders' Association of the State of New-York is due and hereby tendered to the firms suffering from the effects of the Amesbury fire; and that each member pledges himself as an individual, and as a member of this Association, to do everything in his power to assist the sufferers in every possible manner to overcome the difficulties so suddenly thrust upon them. (Signed): W. C. Bradley and K. A. Hughson, Committee.”
Carriage Industry Remembered
Coach Built
