ASAHEL SOUTHWORTH

(1814-1880)

Asahel Southworth - Constant (1), Nathaniel (2), Edward (3), Constant (4), Jedediah (5), Consider (6), Asahel (7) - was born in Stoughton, July 17, 1814 ; he was the youngest child of his parents, and received the education imparted at the common schools of those days. One of the features of his attending winter schools was to start with a fire-brand in the morning and go to the school-house, a distance of a mile, and with this brand kindle the fire. He, like all his father's family, was early taught the value and necessity of labor. When he was twenty years old (1835) he, with his brother Jedediah, hired the mill of his father, which in 1837 they bought; built (a new dam on the site of the present one. The same year they added fourteen feet to the length of the factory and constructed a water-wheel. Their business increased until their water-supply was unable to furnish them with sufficient power. So in August, 1847, they moved to the mill in Canton, since occupied by the Net and Twine Company, where they manufactured for two years. Mr. Jedediah Southworth suddenly dying, Asahel, who while doing business in Canton had suffered extreme ill health from neuralgia, sold all the machinery of the business except that for making cords, with which he returned to Stoughton. In the spring of 1858 a set of woolen machinery was put into the factory by Mr. Southworth and B. L. Morrison, they commencing business under the name of Morrison & Southworth. When this partnership was formed, it was a condition that when Consider Southworth, Asahel's son, should become of age, and understand the business, he should take his father's place. This partnership continued until 1861. Feb. 1, 1861, from some unknown cause, the dam gave way, leaving a hole forty feet wide and fourteen feet deep, and shortly after this firm was dissolved. In the spring of 1861 the dam was rebuilt, a new and larger water-wheel put in, and fifteen feet added to the width of the mill, in which business was resumed by Asahel and Consider Southworth under the firm-name of A. Southworth & Son. The product of the new mill was about seventy-five pounds of yarn per day. In 1866 a brick stack was built, a boiler and engine put in, and the factory enlarged. The building is now two stories in height, with French roof, and thirty-nine by fifty-four feet on the ground; the basement and floors affording about eight thousand five hundred feet of floor surface. In 1868, the old machinery was sold, and new of the most approved kind substituted. In 1867, printed or chinchilla yarns came into use, and the new machinery that is necessary to make this kind of goods was added. In 1872, when chinchilla yarn was most demanded, they manufactured over one hundred and thirty thousand pounds. In 1875, Mr. Asahel Southworth retired from the business. He was thrice married, first, to Harriot, daughter of Ebenezer and Mary (Wild) Kinsley, of Easton; she was born Nov. 27, 1813; died Oct. 9, 1853. Their children were Consider, Mary H. (died young), Mary E. (Mrs. J. D. Taber, of Quincy), and Harriot E. (Mrs. W. K. Blake, of Stoughton). Mr. Southworth married, second, Mrs. Sarah D. Fellows, nee Howe, of Rockport; they had one child, Elmer Kinsley; third, to Mrs. Lydia Swift. Mr. Southworth devoted himself to business, refusing office, only accepting those of school committee and road surveyor. He was a successful and prosperous man. He was energetic, of nervous temperament, active, and cautious, social, yet unassuming, and fond of home. His moral qualities placed him in accord with the highest society, and he was universally esteemed. With the exception of his two years' residence in Canton, he lived all his life on the home-stead of his father, in Stoughton. He was a member of the Universalist Society and of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows. He was the first to build an ice-house and start the ice business in Stoughton. His death occurred Sept. 26, 1880.

Source: D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men. (Philadelphia, Pa., J. W. Lewis & Co., 1884), pg. 419.