Nathan Peabody Ames

Background

Nathan Peabody Ames was born on September 1, 1803 at Chelmsford, Massachussets, United States. He was the eldest son of Nathan Peabody Ames and Phoebe (Tyler) Ames.

Education

Ames early displayed the mechanical skill which was to make him famous in later years, and which was probably inherited from his father, who manufactured edged tools and cutlery at Chelmsford and was reported to have been the first to use water-power at that place. The elder craftsman gave his sons a thorough mechanical grounding in his shop.

Career

In 1829, when his health was failing, Nathan Peabody Ames Sr. turned over the cutlery business in Chelmsford to the management of Nathan, Jr. , whose brother James Tyler Ames was associated with him. A curious chance occasioned their removal in the same year to Chicopee Falls, near Springfield, Massachussets. The elder brother on a stage-coach journey formed a chance but lifelong friendship with Edmund Dwight, who owned a mill at Chicopee Falls and who offered the Ames brothers space in his mill if they would transfer their business thither. They accepted this generous offer, and occupied a portion of the Dwight mill, for which the owner would take no rent, for about four years; success came immediately, and in 1834 the Ames Manufacturing Company was organized, with a capital of $30, 000. A factory was constructed a mile farther down the Chicopee River, at "the Lower Privilege, " where Dwight also built extensive mills, around which grew up a new community called Cabotville (now Chicopee).

For a half-century after its organization the Ames Company was a leader in the manufacturing development of western Massachusetts. Although many kinds of metal goods were produced, the concern in its early days specialized in cutlery and tools. The Ames Company operated the first sword factory in the United States; it received contracts for sabers from the government as early as 1830. Both of the brothers were themselves skilled mechanics, representing the highest type of Yankee ingenuity and integrity, and the products of the Ames factory were widely known for their quality and beauty. So famous were they that one English concern was known to have copied their models and stolen their trademark with the hope of obtaining some of their American business.

Not content with cutlery and tools, the Ames Company in 1836 began the founding of brass cannon and later the manufacture of leather belting, military accoutrements, bells, and turbine water-wheels. With the development of textile manufacturing in New England the concern devoted much attention to the production of every type of cotton-machinery.

In 1840 he went to Europe with a commission for the United States Ordnance Department to inspect and study arsenals and gun factories. While there he contracted a cold, which, aggravated by poisoning from an amalgam paste, inserted in his teeth by a London dentist, brought on serious illness, several years of intense suffering, and an early death at the age of forty-three.

Achievements

• Ames was one of the founders and the head of the Ames Manufacturing Company, a major provider of side arms, swords, light artillery, and heavy ordnance for the Union in the Civil War. He also invented numerous mechanical improvements, such as the rotary bell-clapper and gave in 1834 half his fortune to aid in building the Third Congregational Church of Chicopee.

Religion

Ames was always greatly interested in the church, and was an active member of the Congregational denomination until his death.

Personality

Ames was slightly above the average in height, slim in stature, with dark hair and deep-set brown eyes. His expression of openness and honesty won him immediate respect and confidence.

Connections

Ames married Mary C. Bailey of Newburyport, but left no children.

Father:

Nathan Peabody Ames

Mother:

Phoebe (Tyler) Ames

Spouse:

Mary C. Bailey

Brother:

James Tyler Ames

References

• The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts: A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War
• Our County and Its People: A History of Hampden County, Massachusetts (Classic Reprint)