Reflecting on Brunswick’s thriving industrial past…

Today, Brunswick is more of a retail and residential community. However, our town was once a bustling hub of enterprise where nearly anything one might need was manufactured. From clothing to clocks, bricks to banks, and mills to manufactories, Brunswick was a busy little town.

Today, Brunswick is filled with stores, gas stations, small shops and restaurants of all kinds. But in the 19th century, mills, factories, foundries and assorted mechanic shops dotted the landscape.

Logs brought down the Androscoggin River fed the appetite of many local sawmills, providing cut lumber for local building and international trade. In-town brickyards and a lime quarry provided a majority of masonry needs.

Even Bowdoin College’s Massachusetts Hall was built with bricks from the Gatchell’s Mills brickyard, near “Mair Brook.” By 1857, Brunswick saw over 700,000 bricks turned out.

There was a carpet-making factory set up on Bow Street by Robert Pender, who “commenced the manufacture of ingrain carpeting.” Brunswick even had “a paper staining factory” where wallpaper was churned out to finish off the inside of buildings and homes.

Cotton and woolen factories, and a yarn maker provided dress and clothing materials in a time when women — not stores — clothed their families.

Pails, boxes, tools, soap, matchsticks and even a suspender maker provided products and jobs right in the heart of town. Iron foundries, fed by “disabled cannon,” forged tools, machinery, ploughs and even cannon-shot for use in the War of 1812.

From a linseed oil maker, to a salt works, a flour mill, corn mill and even a mustard manufacturer, Brunswick was an industrious and self-reliant town. Wagon and carriage makers, jewelers, a clock and watch maker, and a “Pine Spring Ginger Ale” company once existed in Brunswick.

Brunswick, Bath, Harpswell and Topsham also had numerous gunsmiths, hat makers, rope makers, auctioneers, butchers, bakers, barbers, book binders, boot shops, and furniture and cabinet makers.

In time, more stores opened and began selling what was not made in Brunswick. Imported items such as glass, tinware, coffee, tea, tobacco, sugar, dyes and other assorted supplies, added to a shoppers’ delight.

Brunswick and Bath were also communities bursting with lawyers, ministers, doctors, dentists, bankers and insurance brokers, who stood alongside tanners, ditch-diggers, potters, painters, casket makers, farmers, fisherman, stable hands, shipwrights and factory workers.

In 1805, “a common laborer … received seventy-five cents for a day’s work.” “A seamstress or dressmaker received twenty-five cents a day.” A pound of butter or cheese cost 20 cents, sugar was just a little more, and an ax set you back $2, while a shovel sold for about $1.

When the War of 1812 began, one of the largest-selling items in Brunswick was intoxicating liquor. There were about 10 stores that sold liquor, when rum, brandy or gin cost about $1.50 a gallon. In that year, 8,593 gallons of liquor were sold to an approximate population of less than 3,000, and the surplus was sold abroad.

By 1836, “seven [or more] stages arrived or departed daily” and there were numerous hotels, boarding houses, inns, public houses and taverns to meet travelers’ needs. And, most of these lodging establishments provided full-service stables, boarding their guests’ horses.

In Topsham, pulp mills, brickyards and a match factory were also present in the 19th century, as well as a feldspar mill, marble works, a nail factory, a pitchfork manufactory, a shingle maker and a tobacco factory on Winter Street. Yet, the only bank in Topsham, chartered in 1834, was the Androscoggin Bank.

At Bath, chandlery stores, foundries, “a photographic gallery,” drug stores, cigar makers, haberdashers, ferries, a Custom’s House and much more filled the city. And the building of schooners and clipper ships earned Bath a legendary reputation, which continues today.

In Harpswell, “cutting cord wood” for shipment to Boston only added to the prosperity of farming and fishing. “Cod, hake, haddock and cusk” were caught and taken to Portland, where it was all packaged and sold as Portland herring.

On Stanwood Street in Brunswick, a “ferrule manufactory” made steel and brass compression sleeves, right where the building still exists today. And Brunswick’s textile industry lasted well into the 20th century at the Cabot Mill.

Over time, as both Brunswick and America changed, manufacturing slowly began to vanish. Yet, once upon a time, Brunswick, and our surrounding towns, were busy little places where nearly anything anyone could want or need was locally manufactured and sold the world over.

Today, these busy and independent enterprises still exist within the long memory of our local Stories from Maine.