Hezekiah CONANT
Biography

"CONANT, Hezekiah, may justly be said to be the leading manufacturer of Pawtucket. By his energy, foresight and ability the great thread mills, so long known by his name, were originated and developed, until to-day they form the largest industrial establishment not only in Pawtucket but in Rhode Island. The Conant family is descended from a John Conant who lived in Devonshire, England, during the time of the Reformation. He was the grandfather of Roger Conant, who was the founder of Salem, Mass., in 1626, and the first governor of the colony until the arrival of John Endicott late in 1628. Roger Conant came to America about July, 1623, it is supposed in the ship Anne, the third vessel to arrive at Plymouth. He is said to have been 'a pious, sober and prudent gentleman'. His descendants have been substantial, honest, hard-working people, of a modest retiring disposition. As pioneers, merchants, manufacturers, and occasionally as clergymen or physicians, they have filled their placed in life without ostentation, and but few of them have been lawyers or public men. He received his education at Nichols Academy in his native town, attending it in winter, usually, and working on his father's farm in summer. When seventeen years old he went to Worcester and learned to be a printer in the office of the Worcester County Gazette, an anti-slavery weekly newspaper. At the end of two years the firm, Estey & Evans, failed, and he then worked for a year in the printing office of the National Aegis. The printing trade evidently did not suit him, for he then went to work in a machine shop, where he remained two years. At the end of that time, having meanwhile saved some money, he took a year's course at Nichols Academy. Returning to work in the machine shop, he spent his evenings in learning mechancal drawing and studying mechanical engineering. As a result he became a very expert mechanic, and developed great ability as a mechanical engineer and inventor. His education had in this manner been obtained in a very practical school, but at the expense of much toil and hardship on his part.

From this time on he may be said to have been a professional mechanical expert and inventor. He invented, about 1852, a pair of 'lasting pinchers' for the use of shoemakers, obtained a patent, but made no money out of the article. He then worked in Boston and Worcester in various machine shops, and from the latter place went to Hartford, where he soon was engaged at Colt's firearm manufactory. While in Hartford he made drawings for Christian Sharp, the inventor of the Sharp rifle, and assisted him in constructing machines for making projectiles. In 1856 he invented and patented an improvement on the Sharp rifle, known as the 'gas check', which was considered so important that the United States and British governments immediately ordered its application to all arms manufactured for them by the Sharp Rifle Co. The same year he constructed a machine for Samuel Slater & Sons of Webster, Mass., for sewing the selvage on doeskins. No patent was secured on this contrivance, but it was very successful, and has been in use ever since.

About this time Mr. Conant first turned his attention to the improvement of machinery used in the thread manufacture. He constructed a machine for dressing sewing thread and invented an automatic machine for winding spool cotton, for which he secured a patent. The Willimantic Linen Co., after an inspection of the latter machine, purchased one-half the patent right, and engaged Mr. Conant, Feb. 1, 1859, as a mechanical expert, on a three years' contract. He remained with this company nine years, renewing his three years' contract twice, and his salary for the last three years was double what it was the first three. During the first three years he invented the 'ticketing machine' which cuts out labels, gums them, and applies them simultaneously to each end of the thread spools at the rate of one hundred per minute. In 1864 he visited Europe in the interest of his employers and inspected many of the large thread establishments in the old world, among them the great works of J. & P. Coats and of the Messrs. Clark in Paisley, Scotland. From 1865 to 1868, the last three years of his nine years' service, he was superintendent of the works of the Willimantic Linen Co. During his connection with this concern the company had more than doubled its capital and production.

In 1868 Mr. Conant resigned his position with the Willimantic Linen Co., and removed to Pawtucket, where he organized the Conant Thread Co., with an authorized capital of $100,000, and became the treasurer of the corporation and the manager of the works. The first factory, a wooden building 100 feet long, 40 feet wide, and two stories in height, was immediately erected, and put in operation. May, 1896, Mr. Conant again went to Europe and effected a combination with J. & P. Coats of Paisley, Scotland, the leading manufacturers of thread in the world, by which that firm became a partner in the Providence enterprise. Mr. Conant returned in June, and with the large capital thus at his disposal proceeded to enlarge the plant in order to manufacture the Coats' thread. The work of erecting new buildings was at once begun. Mill No. 2, 300 by 70 feet, and four stories in height was finished April, 1870; the beachery was completed in 1871; a large spinning mill, three stories high, was started in 1873 and was known as No. 3; Mill No. 4, equipped with twisting and spinning machinery, was erected in 1876; a dye-house was built in 1877; and in 1881, Mill No. 5, which is about as large as Nos. 3 and 4 together, was erected. Previous to 1873 the yarn was imported from Scotland. A great deal of the machinery put into these mills was of English manufacture, but Mr. Conant's inventions were used in some of the departments. To begin with, a great many of the operatives were brought from Scotland and were skilled workers who had been trained in the factories at Paisley.

During all this period of development Mr. Conant has continued to be treasurer and manager, and the splendid organization of the great establishment is due to his executive ability and his genius for mechanical arrangement. The mammoth concern now employs over 2000 persons and 'without doubt is the best arranged, best equipped, and best organized establishment of its kind in the world'. Until 1893 the establishment was operated under the name of the Conant Thread Co., but since then has been conducted as one of the branches of J. & P. Coats (Limited), but Mr. Conant still continues as executive head of the great enterprise. The works now cover about forty acres of land and the capital invested is more than $4,000,000. Good wages have always been paid to the operatives, who in general have consequently been of a higher average in intelligence and character than the population of the majority of factory towns. Many of the employees own their own homes. The section of Pawtucket where these factories are located has been transformed from a wilderness of brush and woods into a place of homes, schools, and churches.

The caring for, directing and managing such an immence enterprise as the great thread works proved, would have been sufficient to absorb the entire energy of most men. Mr. Conant did devote most of his attention to the industry, but he did not allow it to entirely exclude other interests. He is president of the Pawtucket Institution for Savings; president and director of the Pacific National Bank; vice-president of the Pawtucket Safe Deposit Co.; and a director in the First National and the Slater National banks of Pawtucket. In the welfare of his native town of Dudley, Mass., he has manifested great interest. Here, with his family, he spends his summers. At his expense the old and dilapidated buildings of the Nichols Academy were resuscitated, new school edifices and dormitories erected, an astronomical observatory built and equipped, and a fine library and reading-room provided.

One of the most noteworthy acts of Mr. Conant's life was the erection at his own cost of a handsome church edifice to replace the old Congregational church at Dudley, which was destroyed by fire, June 3, 1890. The only conditions coupled with this gift was that the donor might have the right to put in a memorial window to perpetuate the memory of his family and ancestors, and that he and his heirs would have a right to one pew free of tax. The corner stone of the edifice was laid Oct. 16, 1890, the bell was consecrated Sept. 29, 1891, and the church was dedicated Dec. 17, 1891. The edifice is built of brick, with underpinning and basement of granite and trimmings of sandstone. It is in the Romanesque style of architecture, seventy feet in length by forty-four feet in width, and has a bell tower in the centre of the front facade, sixteen feet square and seventy-eight feet high. The church is now known as the Conant Memorial. The memorial window put in by Mr. Conant represents the celebrated historical event in the life of his ancestor, Roger Conant, when he acted as peacemaker between Capt. Miles Standish and Capt. Hewes, who with their followers were about to come to blows about a fishing stage at Cape Ann. This scene is certainly appropriate for a 'temple of peace on earth, good will to men.'

As an inventor Mr. Conant is endowed with pre-eminent mental power, and his success in developing the great mills is largely due to his qualifications in that line. Still, in the popular mind, because of the fact that he has outwardly figured chiefly as a man of affairs, his title to be considered a great inventor has not been adequately recognized. In many ways outside of his business has he manifested this talent. The clock on the Memorial church at Dudley has a number of very ingenious improvements made by Mr. Conant. In 1886 he presented to the Pawtucket Business Men's Association a remarkable clock of his own invention. It has three dials, one showing solar and another sidereal time, and the third shows the progress of the sun, moon and the earth throughout the year.

Mr. Conant has been married three times. His first wife was Sarah Williams, daughter of Col. Morris and Elizabeth (Eaton) Learned, to whom he was married Oct. 4, 1853. She died July 17, 1855. Nov. 1859, he was married to a sister of his first wife, Harriet Knight Learned, who died July 6, 1864. Dec. 5, 1865, he was married to Mary Eaton, daughter of Dr. Samuel P. and Harriet (Eaton) Knight. There was no issue except by the second marriage, and the children were a son and a daughter: Samuel Morris, b. Dec. 9, 1861, married in Lincoln, June 1, 1887, to Nelly Buell Ferguson, and is now the president of the Adam Sutcliffe Co., printers and lithographers; Edith Adina, b. Sept. 19, 1863, was married Feb. 4, 1885, to George M. Thorton, at present treasurer of the Union Wadding Co."

"Illustrated History of Pawtucket, Central Falls and Vicinity" by Henry R. Caufield, 1897
"Biographies of Prominent Citizens" pp. 274 - 276



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