Merchants, Factory Owners, Middle and Upper Class Workers

The Salem Lead Company (left) and the Bengal Bagging Company (right), between the North River and Bridge Street. Depicted on the 1874 "Atlas of the City of Salem, Massachusetts." Advertisements in the back of the 1874 Atlas of Salem described the lead products - "white lead, dry or ground in oil...lead pipe...sheet lead, all weights...dimension lead rolled to order." The Bengal Bagging Company manufactured bags out of jute fiber that were used to contain cotton bales. The jute fiber was imported from the Bengal region of India and Bangladesh.

There was a robust class of merchants (N=103) in Salem - the people who invested in ships, their crews and cargoes. The merchants likely included persons in the early stages of investment in partial ship cargoes, but also included a few dozen well established, extraordinarily wealthy merchants who owned numerous ships and had their own ships built. The merchants were amongst the wealthy, powerful elite of Salem. Other members of the upper class in Salem include bank executives (N=8), judges (N=2), counselers (lawyers, N=16), engineers (N=6), insurance company presidents (N=3), physicians (N=9), dentists (N=2), the City Treasurer, the District Attorney, and the Superintendent of Hearses (George Bowditch).

By 1837, Salem was fairly industrialized for a small New England city. Manufacturers included about five shoe manufacturers, a furniture warehouse, an India Rubber company, a mill right (mill operator), a chair manufactory, the Newmarket Co., an oil and candle factory and the Peabody Oil Works The Salem Lead Company employed at least fourteen workers. The Salem Laboratory appears to have been a fairly large-sized operation. It employed at least two chemists and eleven laboratory workers. Two people identified themselves as Acid Factory workers, which might have been workers at the laboratory, although this is unclear.

The Salem Laboratory, in North Salem, depicted on the 1851 McIntyre map of Salem, Massachusetts.

This is a section from the 1874 "Atlas of the City of Salem, Massachusetts." which depicts the Salem Laboratory Company, in North Salem along the North River. The complex of buildings had expanded compared to the 1851 map.