“My grandfather got here from an excellent Irish household,” says Dan Kane. “His father immigrated to the USA from Leitrim, a border county in Eire. His mom got here from County Clare. They had been the second wave of Irish – the group after the Potato Famine.”
Dan’s great-grandparents settled in Lowell, MA within the mid- to late-1870s. A rising and bustling industrial mill city, Lowell is now acknowledged because the seat of the American Industrial Revolution.
The city founders located their textile mills alongside the Merrimack River in 1820 with a view to benefit from the “upstream Pawtucket Falls, the place over the course of 1 mile, the river plunged 32 ft.
“In 1822, employees started setting up an influence canal system that grew to become one of many largest of its variety on the planet – comprising 5.6 miles. Quickly after finishing the canals and first mill buildings in 1823, Lowell was the nation’s main producer of textiles and employed the most important variety of manufacturing unit employees in America.” (Lowell Nationwide Historic Park web site; all hyperlinks under).
The town included in 1826.
The story of Lowell has been well-documented: the rise and fall of the textile mills and the poor working circumstances; the town’s progress, decline, and rebirth; and its individuals, from the Yankee “mill ladies” and waves of immigrant employees to industrialists, retailers, and well-known residents that embrace Jack Kerouac and Bette Davis.
In the present day, you possibly can go to the rehabbed Boott Cotton Mill advanced, a part of the Nationwide Park Service, and see and listen to the previous looms working. You possibly can take a ship journey on the Pawtucket canal and find out how the locks labored – mechanisms used to lift and decrease boats on stretches of the canal the place the water ranges had been completely different.
For a historical past buff like me, it’s straightforward to change into swept up within the huge quantity data out there. I spent hours in my library’s historic archives, and on-line.
Dan Kane is a historical past buff, too. Born and raised in Lowell, MA, he now owns the final working farm in Plaistow, NH had been we each dwell. He was the inspiration for my write up in regards to the USPS as a result of he’s constructing a tavern – the farm being the location of the “final tavern” on the border of MA and NH for the Boston to Harmony stagecoach route.
He usually drives by whereas I’m out strolling my canine Rocky and typically will cease for a fast chat; it was throughout certainly one of these conversations, after I talked about my 250 Years of Manufacturing Historical past focus, that he mentioned, “My grandfather laid the cobblestones on Center Avenue in Lowell.”
What?! My story antenna instantly twanged, so I requested for an interview.
“Agency, stern, and Irish”
Born Might 17, 1893, to Patrick Kane (1864 – 1937) and Annie Flood Kane (1874 – 1944) Michael Henry Kane was the third of seven youngsters. A machinist by commerce, his father Patrick was a resident of Lowell for greater than half a century. Annie was recognized for her common church attendance. Each had been broadly recognized within the South Finish part of Lowell, the place they resided at 49 Chapel Avenue.
Particulars about Michael Kane’s life are few, however from data my librarian discovered on Ancestry.com, he had two separate draft playing cards for WWI and WWII; Dan says he wasn’t drafted.
His funeral discover acknowledged he and his spouse Margaret (Mullaney) had been members of St. Michael’s Church (based 1883) in Lowell, and that he was a 50-year member of St. Michael’s Holy Identify Society.
In accordance with Dan (and confirmed by his obituary), Michael Kane labored as a stonemason for the Metropolis of Lowell his total life. This meant he was a talented and in-demand laborer; his job would have entailed constructing or repairing something product of stone within the metropolis – from bridges, archways, walkways, and roadways to industrial and authorities buildings.
Stonemasonry is an honorable custom that goes again centuries in Europe – particularly the UK and Eire. It was a typical occupation ca. 1900 and was thought-about a part of the constructing trades.
A household story involves life
The story in regards to the Center Avenue cobblestones got here from Dan’s father: “My father mentioned he would take Granddad his lunch whereas he was chopping and laying stones for Center Avenue,” Dan says. “It was a kind of tales you hear rising up.”
In accordance with a Fb submit by the Lowell Historic Board, “Center Avenue was initially developed within the 1830s and 1840s as a residential avenue. The road was quickly redeveloped with 4 and 5 story industrial and light-industrial buildings within the Eighteen Eighties and Nineties.”
I did a ton of analysis for this piece, and couldn’t discover something in regards to the Center Avenue cobblestones or who put them in. Nor did the Lowell Historic Society have any data.
“That is sensible,” mentioned Dan. “Repairing the road wouldn’t have been information.” He’s proper, after all; right here in New England the asphalt roads get fairly chewed up from winter freeze and thaws, snow plows, salt, and frost heaves. Crews are at all times fixing pot holes or repairing sections of roads.
At any fee, Center Avenue is a part of downtown Lowell’s historic district that additionally contains Merrimack Avenue, which runs parallel to Center Avenue. The cobblestones had been in place within the early 1900s, as evidenced by this 1908 picture, courtesy of the Misplaced New England weblog. It reveals Merrimack Avenue with its trolley tracks and cobblestones.
Whereas doing analysis, I discovered of the Nice Flood of 1936 – which noticed 14 days of rain! – and resulted in 26 ft of water submerging Lowell and a number of other New England cities alongside the Merrimack River in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
“My mom’s household lived close to the banks of the Merrimack and the water got here as much as their second story home windows,” says Dan.
Presumably, Center Avenue and different streets in Lowell wanted restore submit flood. “If my dad was taking Granddad lunch every day, and strolling to downtown Lowell from the place the household lived, he would have been round 10 years previous, so ca. 1940,” says Dan.
I requested why Lowell changed the stones somewhat than protecting them in asphalt. “Asphalt wasn’t broadly used pre-WWII,” says Dan. “Streets in Lowell had been slowly repaved with it after the struggle. In addition they wished to protect a couple of of the older cobblestone streets.”
In the present day, Merrimack Avenue is a busy interchange within the downtown, paved with asphalt. The electrical trolleys had been taken out of service in 1935 – however you possibly can nonetheless see them on the Lowell Trolley Museum.
Cobblestones crafted by hand
I’ve been to Lowell’s historic district many occasions over time, and have walked and pushed the cobblestone streets. They’re exhausting to stroll on, so if you happen to’re sporting heels or good footwear with slick soles, you need to watch out.
Earlier than doing this write up, I drove to Lowell on a quiet Sunday morning and easily stood in the midst of the road to check the craftsmanship. I ran my palms over the stones and admired how they match collectively completely. Michael Kane’s work is superb.
Chopping stone, and getting every one to suit precisely, was an actual ability, as you possibly can see from the picture.
“Stonemasons,” says Dan, “took tough reduce stones and, utilizing their craft, altered every one to get it to slot in place. My grandfather in all probability labored on a crew, and he needed to work quick.”
The stones needed to lie flat to make the highway as easy as doable to stop harm to automobiles and the products they transported.
Dan added, “In the event you had walked down Center and brought a left on the finish, you’d have ended up at one of many mills the place my grandparents labored. My mom’s mom labored at one of many hosiery mills her total life – in order that they at all times had socks.”
(As an apart, the story comes full circle: Dan and his spouse, Theresa, had a hospice enterprise on Center Avenue from 2005 – 2012.)
After I requested what he remembered most about his grandfather, Dan mentioned, “Sitting in his straightforward chair and smiling. He was in his late 60s, early 70s; he had lung most cancers as a result of he was a smoker. He would give every of us 1 / 4 once we visited, which was each weekend for Sunday dinner.
“He was additionally fairly artful. The home he and my grandmother owned had good stairs my grandfather had made. I bear in mind pondering they had been fairly cool.”
Michael Henry Kane died on October 12, 1967 throughout sport 7 of the Purple Sox and St. Louis Cardinals World Sequence. He was survived by his spouse, two sons, two daughters, and 16 grandchildren.
Put up-script
Michael Kane lived an peculiar life: He labored exhausting, married, and raised a household. He attended church and adopted the Purple Sox.
But his story is extraordinary as nicely as a result of it’s a part of the a lot bigger American manufacturing story. He lived by a number of wars, the Nice Despair, and extreme climate occasions. He survived varied illness outbreaks.
And, whereas he watched the Lowell textile mills shut and the native jobs go away for the southern U.S., he additionally skilled the post-WWII industrial increase in America.
Whereas Dan thought-about his anecdote to me about his grandfather an “off the cuff” comment, I see it as a narrative that needed to be advised earlier than it’s misplaced.
Within the midst of technological and societal change, Michael Kane stands as a testomony to the greatness of American trade, ingenuity, and delight in a single’s work.
Thanks, Dan, for sharing his story. I’m honored to function it on my weblog.
Shout-out to some librarians
An enormous thanks to the librarians on the Plaistow Public Library, Jen O’Connor, Raven Gregg, and Pam Shaw.
Jen O’Connor, Programming & Publicity, researched the encompassing native libraries to see who had a subscription to Newspaper Archives (obituaries).
Raven Gregg, Technical Companies, additionally manages the historic room, which she opened for me in order that I had entry to quite a few books about Lowell.
Kelli Lennon, Head of Circulation, who offered an inventory of older newspapers pre-1893.
And, an enormous THANK YOU to Jennifer Browning, Reference Librarian for the Lowell Public Library. She despatched over Michael Kane’s obituary and funeral discover.
Hyperlinks
Nationwide Park Service, Boott Cotton Mills Musuem
Lowell Nationwide Historic Park, Water in the Mills
Discover a Grave, Patrick Kane (1864 – 1937)
Seashore Trolley Museum, History of Streetcars in Lowell, MA
Lowell Historic Board, Facebook post about Middle Street
Heritage Discovery Middle, Common Occupations in 1900
Misplaced New England Weblog, Merrimack Street, Lowell MA
UMASS Lowell, “The Great Flood in Lowell – 1936”
Full Disclosure
I’m not paid nor requested to jot down about merchandise or the businesses that make them. All hyperlinks on this piece are FREE — that means, they’re not sponsored or paid for.
My mission is to maintain manufacturing jobs stateside and this weblog is my means of giving again. We prefer to assume a “small” alternative, corresponding to buying one thing made within the US by American employees, received’t make a distinction. It does.
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