Frye Village Fridays: The origins the Hardy Brush (pt2)
Frye Village was the small industrial district that William Wood transformed into Shawsheen Village
The Hardy family, founders, owners, and operators of Andover’s Hardy Brush Company, were originally from Raymond, Maine. Before they settled in Andover, the family lived in Fall River, Massachusetts, and St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. In this article, we trace the family’s journey on their way to Andover.
Our story begins with Charles Augustus Hardy.
November 26, 1926, the Andover Townsman ran a short article on the Hardy Brush company.
Shortly after the Civil War, Mr. Charles A. Hardy started the manufacture of mill machinery brushes in Fall River, and since that time the name, Hardy, has been associated with the manufacture of the finest brushes which are sold in the American market today.
Charles A. Hardy (1841-1913) was born and raised in Raymond, Maine a small town on the banks of Sebago Lake, west of Yarmouth Maine.
1850s
According to the 1850 US Census for Raymond, Maine Charles A. Hardy came from a large family: parents Samuel (blacksmith) and Sarah, and children, ages 18 to 2: Henry, Sarah, Adolphus, James, Charles, Daniel, Emma, and Ella.
1860s
The 1860 US Census for Naples, Maine listed parents Samuel (blacksmith) and Sarah, and children: James (farmer), Charles (brush maker), Sidney, Emma, Ella, and Maria. Next door, the Census listed oldest son Henry Hardy (shoemaker) and Hannah L.
Significant to our story, Charles at age 19 was listed as “brush maker.”
Charles Hardy served during the Civil War. In 1861, he enlisted in the 13th District of Columbia Volunteers. “For faithful service at the front he was made a corporal, a rank he held at the time of his discharge at the close of the war.” (Charles A. Hardy obituary, Andover Townsman, December 26, 1913)
Marrying the boss’ daughter?
After the war, in 1866, Charles Hardy returned home to marry Elizabeth “Lizzie” Cole Withington.
According to the 1850 US Census, Lizzie was born 1848 to Charles and Ursula Withington of Portland, Maine. In the census record, we also learn that Lizzie’s father Charles C. Withington’s occupation was “brushmaker.”
Ten years later, the 1860 US Census listed the Withington family in Buckfield, Maine, occupation brush maker. What isn’t recorded in the census is that he was the factory owner.
C. Withington & Sons, brush manufacturers, was founded in Buckfield, Maine, in 1855. It is entirely possible that Charles A. Hardy, listed as a brushmaker in 1860, worked for C. Withington & Sons. If true, then Charles did indeed marry the boss’ daughter.
1870s
The 1870 US Census listed Charles and Lizzie living in Auburn, Maine with their two-year-old daughter May Viola and boarder Henry Hardy, who was likely Charles’ older brother. Again, Charles’ occupation was brush maker.
Four years later, in 1874, Charles was established in Fall River, Massachusetts as partner in the Fall River Brush Works with Ellis Thayer. Their offices were at 22 2nd Street in Fall River.
Thayer Ellis retired from the business in January 1875, leaving Charles in charge of the company. Charles continued to run the Fall River Brush Company.
Running a company while raising two young children didn’t keep this energetic couple from fully participating in Fall River’s social life.
Charles and Lizzie were both members of the Fall River Temperance Reform Club, where Charles served as treasurer.
Lizzie Hardy was a volunteer temperance worker known for her excellent reading voice. July 10, 1876, the Fall River Evening News reported that Mrs. Hardy was away from town on a professional tour.
Mrs. Charles A. Hardy, of this city, who has won considerable distinction as a public reader, is now absent in Maine on a professional tour, and is meeting with encouraging success. She is a lady of promising talent and wide-awake energy, qualities that lie at the foundation of success.
I haven’t found evidence that would confirm the nature of Lizzie Hardy’s professional tour. Given her reputation as a temperance speaker, however, it’s possible that she spoke at temperance events. Temperance meetings and camps were popular summer-time gatherings where the talented Mrs. Hardy might have inspired audiences with her readings.
Lizzie Hardy was also a popular speaker back home in Fall River, Mass.
She remained a presence in Fall River even after she left the city in 1878 to move to St. John, New Brunswick, Canada.
1880s St. John, New Brunswick, Canada
In 1878, Charles was recruited by Thomas Stockwell Simms to work with him as foreman of his brush manufacturing plant in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada.
When the family appeared in St. John in the 1881 Canadian Census, daughter May Viola was 12 years old and son Frank Herbert was 10. We know from the above article that Lizzie Hardy continued her temperance work in St. John.
The TS Simms brush company
Thomas Stockwell Sims and Charles Hardy were born four years apart in Raymond, Maine. It’s possible that the two men got their start in the same brush manufacturing plant, perhaps C. Withington & Sons of Buckfield, Maine.
Both men served during the Civil War. Sims, using his $600 discharge payment, became a partner in a broom mill in Portland, Maine. In his roll as salesman, Sims traveled frequently to St. John, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. On his travels to St. John, he connected with partners in a brush manufactory, who felt their plant was not being well run. They convinced Sims to relocate to St. John and go into partnership with them.
Sims changed his name to “Simms” because he believed the double “m” looked better in the company name. And in October 1872, Murphy, Simms, & Company was formed.
Murphy & Simms was a successful business described in a biography of Thomas Stockwell Simms as an “extensive steam manufactory that employed over 50 people and sold its products throughout Canada.”
TS Simms is still in operation today, still run by the Simms family.
In 1885, Simms asked his colleague and plant foreman Charles Hardy to join the company as a partner. Three years later, Charles amicably dissolved his partnership with TS Simms and started his own manufacturing plant to produce brushes: industrial, textile, paint, varnish and household.
In 1890, the family relocated to Andover, Mass.
In 1890, shortly before leaving St. John for Andover, Charles and Lizzie’s daughter May married Frederick Leopold “Lee” Rayworth.
May and Lee had one child, Florence Cassidy Rayworth. Over the years, the Andover Townsman reported May and her husband’s visits with her parents in Andover. In her later years, Lizzie moved to New Brunswick to be with her daughter.
1890s
In 1891, Charles Hardy purchased the the Phelps stone house at 183 Lowell Street for $1,800. There’s some evidence that Charles Hardy had connections with the extensive Hardy family in Andover, but more research needs to be done into the Hardy family genealogy to find out if there is a tie.
And so in 1891, the Hardy family, founders of the Hardy Brush Company of West Parish and Frye Village, came to Andover.
Next week, we’ll follow Charles and Lizzie Hardy and pick up the story of their son Frank Herbert Hardy, who was 19 years old when the family moved to Andover.
Sources
Ancestry.com
US Census records from 1850, 1860, 1870, 1890, 1900, 1910
Canadian Census records from 1881, 1911
US and Canadian marriage records
St. Matthews Lodge, Andover, records
Andover and Lawrence street directories
Newspapers.com
Boston Globe
Daily Whig & Courier, Bangor, Maine
Fall River Daily Evening News
Other sources
Library of Congress maps
Andover Townsman (via Memorial Hall Library)
Andover Civil War Index, compiled by Joan Patrakis
Andover Soldiers (Memorial Hall Library)
Canadian Biographies (www.biographi.ca)
Maine Biographies (Google books)
St. John Daily Sun, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada