Amory Maynard founder of Maynard Massachusetts

Amory Maynard (1804–1890) was a textile manufacturer who was the namesake of

Maynard, Massachusetts Maynard is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 22 miles west of Boston, in the MetroWest and Greater Boston region of Massachusetts and borders Acton, Concord, Stow and Sudbury. The town's population ...

Early life

Amory Maynard was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts in 1804 to Isaac and Lydia Howe Maynard. The Maynards were descendants of a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

, John Maynard, who came to Massachusetts from England in 1635. At age fourteen, Amory Maynard left school to work in his family's farm and saw mill at Fort Meadow Pond. At age sixteen, Maynard took over management of the family saw mill when his father died. Maynard also started a large construction business. In 1826 Maynard married Mary P. Priest. They had three sons: Lorenzo, William and Harlan.

Creation of Assabet Woolen Mill and Town of Maynard

Maynard's first mill was forced to close when the City of Boston acquired Fort Meadow Pond for the City's water supply. With the money he received from the buy-out, Amory Maynard partnered with William Knight to buy land and water rights for the

Assabet River The Assabet River is a small, long river located about west of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed October 3, 2011 The Assabet rises ...

in Sudbury and Stow. They founded the

Assabet Woolen Mill The Assabet Woolen Mill was originally a textile factory complex founded by Amory Maynard in 1847 near the Assabet River in the northern part of what was then Sudbury, Massachusetts. The area became the Town of Maynard in 1871.William H. Gutte ...

in 1846, producing carpets and later wool used in military uniforms during the American Civil War. Expansion of the mill combined with hiring of people to work in it led to a population increase in what was known as Assabet Village. In 1871 the people of the area petitioned the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the right to become a town. The Town of Maynard - named after Amory - came into being on April 19, 1871.

Later life

Amory was actively involved in running the mill business until 1885 (age 81), when he suffered a stroke. Lorenzo, his oldest son, took over managing the mill, William participated, but later moved away, and Harlan had died young. In addition to the mill, Amory was central to making sure the railroad came to Maynard and to the construction of the first church, on land he and Knight donated. He and Lorenzo operated a construction company that built many of the boarding houses and homes in town. Amory died in 1890 and was buried in a mausoleum at the Glenwood Cemetery. His son Lorenzo continued in management of the mill for several years, but left after it became bankrupt in 1898. The mill reopened the next year as part of the American Woolen Company.William H. Gutteridge,
A Brief History of the Town of Maynard, Massachusetts
1921 - Maynard (Mass.) The Maynard Crypt in Glenwood Cemetery Maynard Mass..jpg, The Maynard Crypt in Glenwood Cemetery in Maynard, Massachusetts Mill Pond, Maynard MA.jpg,

(now called Mill & Main) on mill pond in Maynard, Massachusetts Amory Maynard mill owner and founder of Maynard, Massachusetts, UA.jpg, Amory Maynard lithograph

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynard, Amory American manufacturing businesspeople People from Maynard, Massachusetts People from Marlborough, Massachusetts 1804 births 1890 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople