Better Off by the Clock? A Factory Village Debates, 1860

The Hollis Falls Lyceum, March 1860

1On a March evening in 1860, the lyceum of Hollis Falls, a made-up Connecticut factory village, meets in the schoolhouse. Lyceums were clubs where townspeople heard lectures and held debates. Tonight’s resolution: “The changes of the last forty years have made life better for the working people of this town.” The moderator, Mr. Elihu Barnes, reads the fact card aloud.

2Lydia Fenn, a teacher, speaks for the resolution. “Look at the clock on that wall. In 1820 a clock was a luxury. Then clockmakers such as Eli Terry, working not far from here, used water-powered machines to cut parts so alike that they fit any clock of the same model. Clocks that once took a craftsman weeks now come out of factories by the thousands, and a plain shelf clock sells for a few dollars. Nearly every kitchen in this village has one. Factory cloth, iron stoves and store-bought shoes have come into our homes the same way.”

3Thaddeus Rowe, a foreman at the clock factory, adds, “See how we move. When I was a boy, the trip to New York City took two days by stagecoach and boat. Since the railroad reached our village in 1849, it takes about five hours. Our clocks ride the train to the city, and farmers near us ship milk and butter to city buyers. The telegraph at the depot brings news and prices the same day.”

4Silas Brandt speaks against. “I once made clocks with my own hands, start to finish, and I set my own hours. Now I tend one machine that cuts one kind of wheel, eleven hours a day, and a bell tells me when to eat. A man who knew a whole trade has become a hand who knows one task, and the owner keeps the profit from his skill.”

5Bridget Doyle, who came from Ireland in 1850, closes for her side. “I work at the cotton mill down the river, and my brothers work there too, though they are only twelve and ten. When the panic of 1857 came, the mill shut for three months, and we had no wages and no garden to fall back on. Last month the shoemakers of Lynn, Massachusetts, walked out by the thousands after their pay was cut. If life is so much better, why are working people striking?”

6Before the vote, Mr. Barnes reminds the hall that the cotton in Mrs. Doyle’s mill was grown in the South by enslaved people, whose forced labor was also part of these changes. “They are working people too,” he says, “and no vote in this hall will count them.”