Vita Francis Cabot Lowell Brief life of an American entrepreneur: 1775-1817 by dan yaeger

ew individuals have influenced eco- tion from important friends such as former nomic history as did Francis Cabot U.S. Secretary of State Timothy Picker- FLowell, A.B. 1793. Born as American ing, A.B. 1763, Lowell enjoyed access to colonists struggled for political indepen- the highest levels of British society. dence, he helped lay the groundwork for Connections also gained him entry the new country’s economic indepen- to the flourishing textile mills of dence with his idea for an integrated Lancashire, where water-powered textile mill. That concept eventually looms rolled out miles of cloth transformed the United States into and created fabulous wealth for a world trading power and put into their owners. A keen observer, he play forces of technological innova- toured the factories and realized tion that continue today. that his fortune and future lay with Lowell’s father, John, A.B. 1760, cotton manufacturing. Another was a successful lawyer, politician, merchant with whom he and colleague of John Adams, who rendezvoused during his sabbatical re- named him chief judge of the First Cir- called that Lowell visited the mills “for cuit Court of Appeals. His mother, Su- the purpose of obtaining all possible sannah, was the daughter of Salem ship- information on the subject, with a ping magnate Francis Cabot. Both families view to introduction of the improved shaped the boy’s name and career. Entering manufacture in the United States.” Harvard at 14, he distinguished himself in One obstacle to his incipient plan, mathematics, but as a senior lit a bonfire in however, was Britain’s tight control the Yard, an uncharacteristic episode of mis- of its advanced textile industry. chief. For this he was “rusticated” for several To protect trade secrets, the months and tutored in math and morals be- technologies were not for sale, fore being allowed to return to Cambridge. and British textile workers He graduated with highest honors. were prohibited from leaving Surely to the chagrin of his father, he the country. Lowell’s admis- exhibited a “bland unconcern” with poli- sion through the factory gates is tics, and pursued instead a Cabot-like testimony to the caliber of his ref- career as an international merchant. Sign- erences and his standing as a trader, not ing on as supercargo of an uncle’s ship, he yet a competing manufacturer. quickly learned the trading business. Soon He left Britain in 1812 on the eve of war and sailed away he set up his own account at Boston’s Long with his head evidently buzzing with ideas. Immediately Wharf and amassed a substantial fortune in upon his return to Boston, he set to work on a scheme that the Federal-era trade of textiles, crops, and foreign currency. On many in the conservative Lowell clan considered “visionary and the side, he acquired significant chunks of Boston wharf property, dangerous.” Nevertheless, he raised the unheard-of amount of several residences, and tracts of Maine wilderness. $400,000 from family and friends through the novel idea of sell- But by 1810 hostilities between France and Great Britain threat- ing shares in his enterprise, which became known as the Boston ened his prosperity. With gunships patrolling the Atlantic, in- Manufacturing Company. He purchased a dam and property on ternational shipping became an impossibly risky livelihood. The the in the country town of Waltham, 10 miles from stresses took their toll. Lowell was described as a “high-strung, Boston, then built a four-story brick mill with a handsome cupola delicate [man], prone to overwork and periods of nervous exhaus- and Paul Revere bell. tion.” His remedy was to settle accounts and embark on a two-year Most important, he hired the skilled engineer trip to Britain, to regain his health and contemplate his prospects. who, with Lowell making the complex calculations, created the Carrying high-value Spanish doubloons and letters of introduc- country’s earliest operable power loom and linked it to other

30 Septmeber - October 2010 The undated silhouette at left is the only known himself barely enjoyed the fruit of his triumph. A portrait of Lowell. The image above, by Elijah frenetic pace coupled with his “delicate nature” Smith (circa 1825), shows the textile mill opened by Lowell’s Boston Manufacturing Company; the proved a tragic combination. He died at 42, just firm’s seal (circa 1814) emphasizes its power loom. three years after the birth of his industrial vision. Despite his frail constitution, Lowell pos- previously mechanized weaving processes to es- sessed a combination of ability, ambition, wealth, tablish the first fully integrated mill in the world. connections, and risk-taking that would come to Cotton entered as a bale and exited as a bolt, a revolu- define later generations of American entrepreneurs. tionary idea that made the “Waltham system of manufacture” Like Edison, Ford, and Gates, Lowell not only created products, emulated across the globe and the basis for modern industry. he created a market where none existed. In this he established “From the first starting of the first power loom,” reported one of much more than a textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts. He the investors, “there was no hesitation or doubt about the success helped inaugurate a culture of innovation that has driven the of this manufacture.” By 1815, cloth flew out of the factory as fast as world economy ever since. the company could make it, fulfilling the high demand for Ameri- can textiles after war stemmed the flow of imported goods. The Dan Yaeger, M.T.S. ’83, the former executive director of the Charles River operation soon returned 20 percent annual dividends to its lucky Museum of Industry and Innovation, in Waltham, Massachusetts, is execu- backers, who talked excitedly about creating great industrial cit- tive director of the Museum Association. He is at work on a ies throughout New England on the Waltham model. But Lowell biography of Francis Cabot Lowell.

Detail of Boston Manufacturing Company Waltham Mills courtesy of Gore Place Society, Waltham, Massachusetts; silhouette and seal from the collection of the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation