Nehemiah Dodge

(1774-1856)

Nehemiah Dodge (1774-1856), jeweler and manufacturer, moved with his uncle (or perhaps much older half-brother) Seril Dodge from Connecticut to Providence in 1784. The Dodges are credited with developing the process of depositing a thin layer of gold or silver on copper or other base metals. Only the well-to-do could afford jewelry made of pure silver and gold, but the Dodges were able to design and make jewelry that could be sold to a wider audience.

Seril returned to Connecticut in 1796, but Nehemiah stayed on in Providence. He opened a shop on Main Street, and he advertised his business in 1798 as selling "gold necklaces, knobs and twists, gold rings, miniature cases, and fine jewelry."

Nehemiah lived at 65 Benefit Street, a few blocks from his shop. (The house is no longer there; a different house was moved to that location some years ago.) Across the street, at 56 Benefit, lived the Gorham family.

Jabez and Caty Gorham had eight children--their fifth child, born in 1792, was called Jabez Gorham like his father, grandfather, and great-great-grandfather before him. When young Jabez was 10 years old, his father died. This must have created financial pressure on the family, and at 14 Jabez was indentured as an apprentice to his neighbor, Nehemiah Dodge, to learn jewelry making. As successful as Dodge has been, it was his apprentice, Jabez Gorham, who would transform Providence into the jewelry-making capital of the world.

Catherine Beyer Hurst, Writer and Community Historian

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Nehemiah Dodge (1774-1856)

Jewelry and silver design have been an important part of the Rhode Island arts scene for hundreds of years. Most are familiar with Cranston-based Alex and Ani, and many of us are also knowledgeable about the big 20th century brands in Rhode Island—Gorham, Coro, and Speidel among them.

But to fully tell the story of jewelry design and manufacture in Providence, we need to go back to 1784 when Seril Dodge, and his much younger nephew or half-brother Nehemiah Dodge moved from Connecticut to Providence. The Dodges are credited with developing the process of depositing a thin layer of gold or silver on copper or other base metals. Only the well-to-do could afford jewelry made of pure silver and gold, but the Dodges were able to design and make jewelry that could be sold to a wider audience.

Seril built two houses on Thomas Street in Providence in the late 1780s and early 1790s; both are still standing and now part of the Providence Art Club. He returned to Connecticut in 1796, but Nehemiah stayed on in Providence. He opened a shop on Main Street, and he advertised his business in 1798 as selling "gold necklaces, knobs and twists, gold rings, miniature cases, and fine jewelry."

Nehemiah lived at 65 Benefit Street, a few blocks from his shop. (The house is no longer there; a different house was moved to that location some years ago.) Across the street, at 56 Benefit, lived the Gorham family.

Nehemiah Dodge: Full Bio

Jabez and Caty Gorham had eight children--their fifth child, born in 1792, was called Jabez Gorham like his father, grandfather, and great-great-grandfather before him. When young Jabez was 10 years old, his father died. This must have created financial pressure on the family, and at 14 Jabez was indentured as an apprentice to his neighbor, Nehemiah Dodge, to learn jewelry making.

Nehemiah Dodge (1774-1856)

Jewelry and silver design have been an important part of the Rhode Island arts scene for hundreds of years. Most are familiar with Cranston-based Alex and Ani, and many of us are also knowledgeable about the big 20th century brands in Rhode Island—Gorham, Coro, and Speidel among them.

But to fully tell the story of jewelry design and manufacture in Providence, we need to go back to 1784 when Seril Dodge, and his much younger nephew or half-brother Nehemiah Dodge moved from Connecticut to Providence. The Dodges are credited with developing the process of depositing a thin layer of gold or silver on copper or other base metals. Only the well-to-do could afford jewelry made of pure silver and gold, but the Dodges were able to design and make jewelry that could be sold to a wider audience.

Seril built two houses on Thomas Street in Providence in the late 1780s and early 1790s; both are still standing and now part of the Providence Art Club. He returned to Connecticut in 1796, but Nehemiah stayed on in Providence. He opened a shop on Main Street, and he advertised his business in 1798 as selling "gold necklaces, knobs and twists, gold rings, miniature cases, and fine jewelry."

Nehemiah lived at 65 Benefit Street, a few blocks from his shop. (The house is no longer there; a different house was moved to that location some years ago.) Across the street, at 56 Benefit, lived the Gorham family.

In 1813, when Jabez completed the seven years of his apprenticeship, he opened a partnership with four other young men to make jewelry. Their firm was located in a building that no longer exists--the location is a parking lot at the corner of North Main and Steeple Streets. But the building must have looked much like the 1793 building that sits at the other end of Steeple Street (#3).

The firm prospered for a few years, but hit a snag in 1818 and the partnership dissolved. However, Jabez Gorham stayed in business at the same location, operating under the name Jabez Gorham, Jeweler.

In the 1820s, with his business expanding, Jabez moved across the street to #12 Steeple. He was one of the first to manufacture what was called "French Filigree" jewelry, competing successfully with imported goods. He also designed a special kind of gold chain, which became known as "The Gorham Chain." He sold goods from his shop on Steeple Street, and through peddlers--the manufacturer's reps of the day. He also traveled throughout New England and New York on sales trips himself.

In 1831, Jabez took on Henry Webster (a Boston silversmith) and the new Gorham & Webster operation started making coin silver spoons. These spoons had begun to replace pewter spoons in households throughout the eastern U.S. The spoons were very thin in order to keep costs down and make them affordable.

Gorham and Webster had generated a lot of business since its formation in 1831 and by late 1840/early 1841 the 49-year-old Jabez Gorham was comfortably well-off and ready to take an early retirement. The firm was split into two--a silver company and a jewelry company. Jabez's former partner, Henry Webster, acquired the silver half under the name H.L. Webster & Co., and the jewelry business was taken over by the partnership of Church & Metcalf.

But the retirement was short-lived. Later in 1841 Henry Webster was made a Boston offer he couldn't refuse, and he wanted to sell his Providence business. Jabez agreed to buy it back only if his son would go into business with him.

John Gorham was the third child of Jabez and Amey Gorham, and his mother had died shortly after his birth. He was not quite 21 when he agreed to go into business with his father. He did not know much about the silver business, but he was ready to take on the challenge, and it turned out that he was eminently suited to it.

J. Gorham & Son prospered during the 1840s, and by 1847 they had outgrown their space at 12 Steeple St. Power when needed was provided by a horse-driven shaft in the basement; when they wanted extra horsepower on the first floor, they called through a speaking tube to the basement: "Get up, Dick!" They needed a steam engine but the building wasn't big enough to support it.

So John suggested they buy the lot next door, and build a four-story brick building, equipped with a 50-horsepower steam engine, to house manufacturing.

By 1848, Jabez had become nervous about the debt burden they were undertaking for the expansion, and so John (at the age of 28) bought him out, and became sole owner of the company, and Jabez retired for the second time.

The new building was completed in 1849, and by 1850 John was running a company with 14 employees that had nearly tripled its sales (to $30,000) since 1841.

But John did not want to rest on his laurels--he had a plan for expanding the company and four strategies for achieving his expansion goals. These strategies would seem obvious today, but in 1850 they were revolutionary:

Make all kinds of silver wares, not just spoons
Make only the best wares in the latest fashions
Mechanize operations
Hire a dedicated sales force and support it with a vigorous marketing campaign

John knew that further mechanization was the key to growth, and in 1852 he spent three months in England with several objectives: visit shops and museums for pattern and product ideas, hire skilled workers, and, most importantly, persuade Scottish engineer James Nasmyth to design and build the first steam drop press.

The new machine was delivered across the pond to Providence in 1853. With it, they were able to produce flatware with patterns on the handles. Previous handles had been very plain since it was just not economically feasible to add pattern. They introduced three new patterns in 1855.

In 1856, Nehemiah Dodge died—he’d lived to see the company started by his apprentice grow and prosper beyond all expectations!

By 1859, Gorham had grown to 200 employees and almost $400,000 in sales. Shortly thereafter, Gorham expanded its product line once again when it started making small bronzes. Gorham's first bronze casters came from France (just as they'd hired skilled silver workers from England).

Gorham continued to grow rapidly in the period during and after the Civil War. Their silver lines expanded in the post-Civil War period; during this time Gorham became the dominant U.S. manufacturer of solid silver flatware. They would go on to produce silver in 313 different patterns!

In 1870, a young man named Edward Holbrook, just 21 years old, joined the company as a salesman, and was very successful at it. By 1878, Holbrook was the highest-paid man in the company, and he borrowed additional money from the company to start buying Gorham shares.

Meanwhile, while Holbrook's career was on the rise, John Gorham's star was falling.

His father, Jabez, had died in 1869, and John had become involved in business operations outside of Gorham in about 1870. He spent a significant amount of his personal capital and his time on those businesses, which appeared to have failed (probably due to the Panic of 1873). By the end of 1875, he had lost all his shares in the company, and had to declare personal bankruptcy. He was relieved of his duties with the company and dropped from the board in 1878.

This action appears to have hurt him deeply; in a letter to the stockholders dated February 13, 1878, he wrote:

I am conscious during the whole period of 36 years that I have been connected with this business . . . I have hesitated at no personal sacrifice whereby I felt the property of the business could be advanced. . . . I feel that the course pursued by the present action of the company to be an injustice to me, unwarranted in consideration of the years of service given. . . . leaving me at this period of a life's work with nothing to show of its results.

John Gorham died in 1898, but the company he and his father had founded and nourished would continue to write a huge success story, achieving its golden age of design and production in the first decades of the 20th century.

Catherine Beyer Hurst, MBA, Writer and Community Historian

Creative Capital

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Nehemiah Dodge

(1774-1856)

Seril returned to Connecticut in 1796, but Nehemiah stayed on in Providence. He opened a shop on Main Street, and he advertised his business in 1798 as selling "gold necklaces, knobs and twists, gold rings, miniature cases, and fine jewelry."

Nehemiah lived at 65 Benefit Street, a few blocks from his shop. (The house is no longer there; a different house was moved to that location some years ago.) Across the street, at 56 Benefit, lived the Gorham family.

​

Catherine Beyer Hurst, Writer and Community Historian

​

Gallery

Nehemiah Dodge (1774-1856)

Jewelry and silver design have been an important part of the Rhode Island arts scene for hundreds of years. Most are familiar with Cranston-based Alex and Ani, and many of us are also knowledgeable about the big 20th century brands in Rhode Island—Gorham, Coro, and Speidel among them.

Nehemiah lived at 65 Benefit Street, a few blocks from his shop. (The house is no longer there; a different house was moved to that location some years ago.) Across the street, at 56 Benefit, lived the Gorham family.

Nehemiah Dodge (1774-1856)

Jewelry and silver design have been an important part of the Rhode Island arts scene for hundreds of years. Most are familiar with Cranston-based Alex and Ani, and many of us are also knowledgeable about the big 20th century brands in Rhode Island—Gorham, Coro, and Speidel among them.

Nehemiah lived at 65 Benefit Street, a few blocks from his shop. (The house is no longer there; a different house was moved to that location some years ago.) Across the street, at 56 Benefit, lived the Gorham family.

The firm prospered for a few years, but hit a snag in 1818 and the partnership dissolved. However, Jabez Gorham stayed in business at the same location, operating under the name Jabez Gorham, Jeweler.

But the retirement was short-lived. Later in 1841 Henry Webster was made a Boston offer he couldn't refuse, and he wanted to sell his Providence business. Jabez agreed to buy it back only if his son would go into business with him.

So John suggested they buy the lot next door, and build a four-story brick building, equipped with a 50-horsepower steam engine, to house manufacturing.

By 1848, Jabez had become nervous about the debt burden they were undertaking for the expansion, and so John (at the age of 28) bought him out, and became sole owner of the company, and Jabez retired for the second time.

The new building was completed in 1849, and by 1850 John was running a company with 14 employees that had nearly tripled its sales (to $30,000) since 1841.

But John did not want to rest on his laurels--he had a plan for expanding the company and four strategies for achieving his expansion goals. These strategies would seem obvious today, but in 1850 they were revolutionary:

Make all kinds of silver wares, not just spoons

Make only the best wares in the latest fashions

Mechanize operations

Hire a dedicated sales force and support it with a vigorous marketing campaign

The new machine was delivered across the pond to Providence in 1853. With it, they were able to produce flatware with patterns on the handles. Previous handles had been very plain since it was just not economically feasible to add pattern. They introduced three new patterns in 1855.

In 1856, Nehemiah Dodge died—he’d lived to see the company started by his apprentice grow and prosper beyond all expectations!

By 1859, Gorham had grown to 200 employees and almost $400,000 in sales. Shortly thereafter, Gorham expanded its product line once again when it started making small bronzes. Gorham's first bronze casters came from France (just as they'd hired skilled silver workers from England).

Gorham continued to grow rapidly in the period during and after the Civil War. Their silver lines expanded in the post-Civil War period; during this time Gorham became the dominant U.S. manufacturer of solid silver flatware. They would go on to produce silver in 313 different patterns!

In 1870, a young man named Edward Holbrook, just 21 years old, joined the company as a salesman, and was very successful at it. By 1878, Holbrook was the highest-paid man in the company, and he borrowed additional money from the company to start buying Gorham shares.

Meanwhile, while Holbrook's career was on the rise, John Gorham's star was falling.

This action appears to have hurt him deeply; in a letter to the stockholders dated February 13, 1878, he wrote:

John Gorham died in 1898, but the company he and his father had founded and nourished would continue to write a huge success story, achieving its golden age of design and production in the first decades of the 20th century.

​

Catherine Beyer Hurst, MBA, Writer and Community Historian

​

Creative Capital