Jarvesville

By Kaethe Maquire

Who worked at the Boston and Sandwich Glass Factory when it opened in 1825?

The answer is anyone who could. In fact, it was a huge economic boon for our tiny agricultural town. In 1820, Cape Cod was an economically depressed area. An embargo on shipping during the War of 1812 caused a financial downfall. But the opening of the new glassworks by its founder, Deming Jarves, became a huge benefit to Sandwich.

Many of the surnames of those who worked at our factory can still be found in Sandwich today. Some descendants still live in the area, Jarvesville, where the factory was located. The original homes of this time period, many built by Deming Jarves for his workers, still stand.

As the factory grew, so did Jarvesville. It looks vastly different today than it did then. There were all manner of shops to fulfill the needs of the growing population. Deming Jarves also built the Mount Hope Cemetery on the County Road, now called Route 6A. I have read that the dead associated with the factory were buried for free, whereas others in town were charged $6.00 for a burial spot.

An archival image shows Jarves Street with Boston & Sandwich Glass Factory in the background and a tenement house on the right. Courtesy of the Sandwich Historical Society.

The Sandwich Historical Commission created a house plaque program. They research the history of many of these old Jarvesville houses and then have a plaque made to hang on the house reflecting the first owner’s family name and the date. If you drive or take a walk, you’ll be able to see them affixed to many of these historical homes. Unfortunately, the plaques only reflect the name of the male owner and not the spouse, as well. [Note: The Sandwich Historical Commission now includes spouses on historic home markers as appropriate. Click here for more information on the Commission's historic marker program.]

Jarves recruited glass workers from Europe. Some of them, who were Irish, came to live and work in our town’s glass factory, and were originally employed in the South Boston glass factories that were owned by Jarves. As is still true, the Irish were considered to be fine glass workers.

There was no thought or need of a Catholic church in Sandwich until these workers, many of whom were Catholic, arrived. The number of Catholics slowly increased as more arrived from the Boston area and from Europe to work in our factory. By 1830, there were seventy parishioners. A plot of land was purchased to build a small church. (To learn more about the founding of the Catholic church in Sandwich, refer to my article located on the FOSTA website here.)

Among the first dwellings built for the workers were tenement-type housing, commonly called "the blocks." Two of these tenements still exist, one on Church Street and one on State Street. Many of the nearby homes were built a bit later in the 1830s and 1840s. These are lovely homes, beautifully maintained. It has become a prized area for a home. Jarvesville is now a historic district recognized on the a National Register of Historic Places and, of course, it is also part of the Old Kings Highway Regional Historic District.

I have read that when a worker finished his shift, he would walk to the house of his glassworks neighbor and knock on the bedroom window to wake him for the next shift. The glass works operated 24 hours a day.

As the factory thrived and more workers settled in town, the need for more housing was apparent. Deming Jarves and William Fessenden purchased the former Nathan Nye Farm in the 1830s to meet this need. Thus, housing was extended toward Main Street, including Summer, Liberty and Pleasant streets. This original layout of Jarvesville was separated in 1848 with the construction of the railroad and again in 1930 when Route 6A was built.

Eventually, the factory upon which many townspeople had come to depend for their livelihoods faltered. A series of unfortunate troubles occurred.

Many Sandwich men left to fight in the Civil War, sometimes called correctly the War of Rebellion, leaving only 100 to work in the factory. The Great Fire of 1872 destroyed the Boston office of the Boston and Sandwich Glass works and its showroom and warehouse. Their insurance company failed thus providing little compensation. And in-fighting between the principals and a worker strike in 1887 all lead eventually to the closing of the Boston & Sandwich Company in 1888.

Many factory families that had lived in Jarves housing for free were now evicted and left town to find employment elsewhere. By 1900 the population in Sandwich had fallen to 1,900 – a huge drop from the early days of the factory when the population increased to an all-time high of 4,479.

There were various attempts to keep glassmaking production in Sandwich after the closing of the Boston & Sandwich Glass Factory. The Sandwich Cooperative Glass Company opened in 1888 but closed in two years. By 1920 it was all over and, gradually over the years, the glass factory buildings were torn down.

However, our glass manufacturing history has been well preserved. The Sandwich Historical Society was formed by Ella Ellis Holway in 1907, which eventually became the holding company for the Sandwich Glass Museum. Many of the elegant pieces made by the factory workers of the Boston and Sandwich Glass factory are housed in the Glass Museum.

How fortunate are we to be able to travel back in time—200 years, actually!—to walk through Jarvesville and see the homes of our glass factory workers and to visit the Sandwich Glass Museum to see the extraordinary glass they made. After all, in the 1948 book by author Harriet Buxton Barbour we are called “Sandwich, The Town That Glass Built.”

Kaethe Maguire is a member of the Friends of the Sandwich Town Archives, a dedicated, all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to supporting and promoting the archives’ collections and the rich, diverse history of the town of Sandwich.