It was a rare view directly into the past for those in attendance at Monday night’s Wareham Historical Society presentation on the history the Tremont Nail Factory.

Resident Mac Phinney, decked out in 1800’s iron worker garb, gave his presentation with the aid of a journal kept by Edward Bartholomew, who was a foreman at Tremont Nail.

The journal gives a first person account of what it was like to run a nail factory in the late 19th century and early 20th century, as well as what life was like in Wareham at the time.

“Tremont Nail was big business all over the country and the world,” Phinney said.

Phinney came into possession of the journal three years ago after a friend, Holly Turner, saved the journal from a junk bin at the Historical Society July 4 antique fair three years ago.

The journal detailed a number of things, such as the fire at the building in 1896 that burned for a week, the factory shutdown for two months in 1887 in an attempt to break up unions, and a bicycle path created in 1899.

The journal also detailed how electricity first made its way to Wareham in 1885 when Tremont Nail paid $600 for 10 electric lights.