As the Indians settled here under the guidance and leadership of John Eliot they developed new skills and the need for mills such as the English used. The first mill was a sawmill on Sawmill Pond built to cut the wood for the meetinghouse. Carpentry to build the meetinghouse was learned with the aid of an Englishman.

The next development was a grist Mill built by Sawin at the request of the Indians. This was erected in 1720 on the brook which is now part of Broadmoor. Grist mills were later built in other parts of town, one on Oak Street on Natick Brook, one on Willow Street run by the water which flowed down Walnut Hill on the west side and thence to Lake Cochituate, and one at the dam in South Natick. At South Natick other mills sprang up which serviced the farming community. There was a grist mill, a wheelwright, and a blacksmith with a trip-hammer. Later the first nail cutter in the country was installed here.

In Natick center one of the first manufacturers of note was Ruel Morse. With water power from Pegan Brook where the Railroad Station now stands, a blacksmith's trip hammer was used to work heavy forms of iron. Mr. Morse made plows. Mrs. Morse painted and numbered them.

The shoe business which started about 1830, developed by 1835 into a "putting-out" or cottage type industry. These shoes were all made by hand. The pieces were hand cut and then farmed out to the cordwainers who finished them in their "ten footers", the small shops which stood behind many houses in the town. The Henry Wilson shoe shop on West Central Street is probably the only example standing today. Runners dropped off piece-work each day and picked up the finished product for shipment to Boston. Howe's Express collected shoes from the factories and delivered them to the trains, ships, and wholesale houses in Boston.

The railroad came through Natick in 1835 and it stimulated business and industry. The commercial and industrial area became more centralized. Other businesses that serviced the shoe industry developed. There was a tannery at the west end of Summer Street on Pegan Brook near Lake Cochituate. The Natick Box and Board Company supplied the boxes for shipping. Originally cut by hand, Charles Coombs, the owner, developed what was probably the first box cutting machine.

There were "Pan-Cake" shops. This was a branch of the shoe industry that made sheets from leather shavings pasted together with flour paste which were cut into lifts and heels. Formerly these were made of leather, but this substitute greatly reduced the cost of shoes. One shop was operated by D. J. Dineen and another by William Cobb.

Much later the New England Pressed Steel Company established in 1914 on Washington Avenue made steel toe-caps and the metal insert for shanks.

Large wagons were needed to ship these shoes and boots and many of these were made in the shop of J. D. Macewen. This company manufactured and painted carriages, sleighs, and wagons. The first 200 bodies for the Stanley Steamer were painted in this shop. Another business that sprang up was the manufacture of the wooden boxes or cases which held twelve to forty pairs of boxed shoes per case. These were made by O. Woods & Company and William Bruce and Son.

In South Natick about 1839 the present canal was dug to provide water power for the new Flax Leather Board Manufacturing Company. Raw material was brought to be made into pulp and was then shipped to Newton Lower Falls to be made into paper. This mill burned in 1885. In 1918 The Indian Spinning Mills bought the property and the water rights and manufactured woolen yarns. In 1929 the mill was acquired by the Auto Sickle Company to produce a hand powered lawn mower especially for lawns with high weeds.

In 1858 the sewing machine was invented and this greatly facilitated the manufacture of shoes. By 1860 the work was becoming mechanized even though they were still finished with small wooden pegs. But now instead of hand cutting, the pieces were cut by machine and finished in the "Ten-footers". The shoes made in Natick were primarily heavy work shoes with only one or two companies adding lighter dress shoes to their line. Natick was famous for its "brogan". The business flourished and peaked by 1880, when Natick, with twenty-three operating factories, was third in the nation in the quantity of shoes produced. By 1928 the demand had diminished by half and by 1971 the Winchell Shoe factory, on Cochituate Street, the last of over forty companies in Natick closed its doors. The most famous of our Natick shoe manufacturers was Henry Wilson who went into politics and became Vice-President under Ulysses S. Grant.

Natick was the birthplace of figure eight stitching for baseballs. The wound core for a more resilient ball was developed by John W. Walcott and combined with the figure eight stitching devised by Col. William A. Cutler. It was manufactured by the firm of H. Harwood & Sons in their factory built in 1858. The best balls were covered with horsehide, a less expensive quality with sheepskin. A special tannery was built by Harwood east of Sawin Street at "Tannery Pond". The pond became such a blight that the tannery was discontinued. The balls were wound in the factory and stitched by women in their homes. These "League Balls" were sold nation-wide and in Canada. The business continued through three generations.

In 1874 Natick had a fire which demolished the central business district. A fire department had been established in 1844, but the fire was so far advanced that it could not be stopped. Businesses found temporary locations while the downtown was rebuilt. There had always been masons working in the town, but it was the Underwood Brothers who rebuilt all of the new buildings with the exception of the Congregational Church and the Walcott Block. Bricks for the new buildings came largely from a brick yard near the old Badger Farm on Speen Street on the west side of Lake Cochituate.

The manufacture of clothing, which originally took place in the home shifted to factories as sewing machines became more available. Mr. I. M. Fellows and Mr. Nathan Bond took an agency for the sale of sewing machines. They provided ready-cut suits that women sewed at home to pay for their machines. This employment for women lasted for years until clothing factories became more common. William Edwards owned the shirt factory on South Avenue and Randall Brothers manufactured cotton underwear and dresses. Hats were another thriving business. Mr. Gilbert Fay's shop made felt hats and a great many women were employed to put in sweat bands and the ribbons around the crown. Mr. Newell Cooper manufactured woolen shirts of all types. He employed from thirty to fifty people for many years.

Natick has had several food companies. Most notable is the Whipple Company established in 1899 by Harrison L. Whipple. Most famous for its "Grandmother's Mincemeat" it was started in the back room of Mr. Whipple's grocery store on North Main Street from a recipe of his grandmother, Mrs. Thomas Tuttle. Produced for a while on North Avenue in the old baby carriage factory it later moved to its present location on North Main Street. To this day they carry on an extensive business in jams, jellies, marmalades, and mincemeat. Another food manufacturer was Aubrey Foster who made Peanut Butter on Summer Street in downtown Natick. About 1920 Dr. Ewald G. Baum, Leonard Morse Hospital's first surgeon was the inventor and manufacturer of the patented "Kap Seal" for milk bottles. This twist-on cap covered the lip of the bottle to keep it sanitary. The plant was located at the corner of Adam Street and South Avenue.

Bostonia Beverages established about 1922 on Mill Street was bought in 1938 by Thomas Hoyt . Originally Pepsi Cola and Sweppes soft drinks were bottled at this plant. Pepsi is now bottled off-site, but the company fleet of trucks distribute to vending machines and retail stores throughout the County.

Two vehicles were manufactured in Natick. The Goodnow electric car which was produced in a machine shop on North Main Street, and the Northway Motor Company whose plant was at the old Walker Grove now the site of the Massachusetts State National Guard Depot on Speen Street. Built in 1918 the Northway plant produced trucks until becoming bankrupt and closing in 1925.

The Black Diamond Saw Company located on North Avenue was organized in 1904 by the Amblers for the purpose of manufacturing band saws, meat saws, metal cutting band saws, band knives, filing and setting machines and brazing machines. Even today their products are shipped all over the world.

The Depression of the 1930's brought a decline in manufacturing in the Town. Since World War II there has been a shift to commercial development and retail merchandising centers to service a growing population.