Index
The Woolen Industry of Pittsfield
by Peter Lee Gulick, August 1969
A
accidents, 89, 14, 3334
American Woolen Company
acquisition by Textron, 78
advertisements by, 63
future assessed, 74-75
Linn Woolen Mill purchased by, 58
Pioneer Mill modernization proposed, 76-78
Pioneer Mill purchased by, 54
Pioneer Mill sold to Pittsfield Development Association,78
Riverside Mill purchased, 58
and tariffs, 48
Waverly Mill purchased, 57
American Woolen Mills. See American Woolen Company
B
benefits, 74
black listing. See workers
"British" sector, 7
See also "Little Scotland"
"bum weavers," 36
C
Carded Woolen Manufacturers Association, 46, 49-50
celebrations, 9, 26, 41
company housing. See housing
Conant, R. A., 8
cost of living
1800's, late, 7
1900s, early, 38
depression years, 68-69
post World War II, 73
credit, 29
D
Davis, William, 5
Dobson, Davis and Company, 5
See also Pioneer Mill; Robert Dobson and Company
Dobson, Gordon, 6
Dobson, Robert, 45
Dobson Company. See Robert Dobson and Company
drinking to excess, 22
E
Edwards Company, 78-79
electric power in woolen mills, 51
employment in woolen mills, 80-81
F
fire, 73
fire protection
Maple Grove Fire Company, 15
Pioneer Mill, 11, 44
floods, 13, 45, 63-64
H
Hathorn, Going, 5
Hersey, Preston, 8, 9
Hersey and Delano Machine Shop, 34
Hodgkins Mill, 72
Hodgkins Mill (rayon), 72
housing
Pioneer Mill, 67, 12, 38-39
sale of, 67-68
Waverly Mill, 18, 20-21, 60
housing, company supplied
See also "Little Scotland"
housing, Pittsfield, 21-22, 27, 79
I
immigrants, 6, 32
Industrial Committee. See Pittsfield Development Association
K
Kennebec Purchase, 3
Kiwanis Club of Pittsfield, 75, 76
L
labor. See workers
law suit, 45-46
Linn Woolen Mill (Hartland), 57-58
"Little Scotland,", 7, 12, 14, 32, 64
M
M. C. Foster and Son, 20
Maine Central Institute (MCI), 3
Maine Development Commission, 76
Maine Woolen Manufacturers Association, 13, 29, 46
Maple Grove Fire Company, 15
Maple Grove Mill, 9, 11, 15, 30-31
construction, 89
described, 10
production, 9, 31
sale to Fred Smith and partners (later Smith TextileCompany), 35
See also Riverside Mill
McGilvery and Cummings. See McGilvery Mill
McGilvery Mill (shoddy mill, former Bryant Saw Mill), 51-52, 63, 64, 65
See also Milliken Mill
Milliken Mill, 65, 68, 70
mills
Bryant Saw Mill (converted to shoddy mill), 51-52
Conners's saw mill, 4
consolidation under American Woolen, 56-57
Dobson, Davis Company, 56
grain, 3
grist, 14
number of, 80, 81-82
woolen (See Maple Grove; McGilvery; Milliken; Pioneer; Riverside; Sebasticook)
production, 61-62, 80, 82-83
wage adjustment, 58-59
"Model Mills of America," 5
N
NRA (National Recovery Act), 68
O
Old Yarn Mill, 69-70
P
paternalism, 38, 40
pay. See wages
Pecker Farm, 20
Pioneer Mill
closed, 75
electric generating plant, 70
employment, 37, 66, 71, 75
engine room, 12
expanded, 56, 14, 42-45, 69, 70-71
fire protection, 11, 44
housing, 67, 12, 38-39
products, 12-13
sale to American Woolen Company, 54, 57
torn down, 79
Pioneer Mill (Dobson, Davis and Co.), 5, 8
Pitts, William, 3
Pittsfield, town of, 34
bridges, 14, 18
dams, 4, 15, 18
population, 4
tax base, 67
tax exemption opposed by, 29
Pittsfield Development Association
created, 76
Edwards Company plant constructed, 78
Pioneer Mill purchased by, 78
Pittsfield Hand Knitting Company, 73
See also Pittsfield Woolen Yarns Co., Inc.
Pittsfield Industries, 74
Pittsfield Woolen Yarns Co., Inc., 73
Plymouth Gore, 3
Pooler, H. A., 8
production, 31, 32, 71
protests and strikes, 13, 29-30
R
reorganized as Smith Textile Company, 52-53
replacement plant, 76, 77, 78-79
Riverside Mill
employment, 37-38
Riverside Mill (formerly Maple Grove Mill), 42
expansion, 37
sale to American Woolen Company, 58
production increase, 35-36
Robert Dobson and Company
officers of, 28
See also Pioneer Mill; Waverly Mill
Robert Dobson Company. See Robert Dobson and Company
S
sale to Pittsfield Industries, 74
saw mills, 3
"Scotland." See "Little Scotland"
Scottish immigration, 32
Scottish mill workers, 67
Sebasticook Mill, 66, 70
See also Riverside Mill
Sebasticook River, 3
barges, 26
dams, 4, 15, 18
shingle mill, 3
shoddy mill, 51
shoddy mill (McGilvery), 51-52, 63
shutdowns, 28, 34, 35, 59, 68
Smith Textile Company (former Riverside Mill), 52-53, 58
social events. See celebrations
sources of, 9, 13
steam plant, 12, 42 45
steam power, 10
stock subscriptions, 8, 15 18, 19
stock subscriptions for, 15 18
strike, 29-30
strike breaking, 69
strikes, 29, 50-51, 61
subscriptons, 8
support of war, 59-60
T
tariffs, 4650, 50, 86, 86 95, 95, 96-101, 97, 100, 102-104, 104
taxes
abatements, 34-35, 37
exemptions, 29
relief from, 66
taxable evaluation, 4
tenements. See housing
Textron, 77, 78-79
U
unionism, 36, 73
W
W. C. T. U. (Women's Christian Temperance Union), 22
wage reductions at Waverly Mill, 29
Wages
benefits, 60
wages, 29, 68, 73-74
under American Woolen, 59
benefits, 60, 73
Dobson, Davis Co. (1873), 5
for women, 12.
also paternalism
Walker, Dennison, 6, 8
Warsaw, 3
wartime production, 56-57
Waverly Mill
closing of, 65
construction of, 18-21, 22-23, 27
description, 23-26
sale of, 70, 71-72
Waverly Woolen Company, 29, 30, 40, 45 46.
See also Waverly Mill
women, as mill employees, 12, 52, 71
wool, scoured, 87, 102, 104
woolen goods, production of, 12, 46-48, 64
wool tariff. See tariffs
workers
dismissal and blacklisting, 13
hours, 7
See also wages; women
worsted mills, 49
worsted tops, 86-87, 102
Glossary (terms in italics are defined in separate entries):
card web: the carding cylinder output wool untangled and combed into a thin sheet.
roving: card web output in woolen manufacture, mechanically divided and loosely twisted into long narrow strands.
card sliver: card web output in worsted manufacture, a single bundled rope of fibers.
gilling: combing process in worsted manufacture that removes short fibers from the card sliver.
noils: short fibers that the gilling process removes.
top: long fibers remaining in an untwisted, roped sliver after the gilling process.
Schedule K: the portion of the tariff regulation that sets the rates applied to various classes of fibers.
Compensating duty: given an internal tax on wool, an equal tax should be put on
imported woolens known as the compensating duty. (Otherwise the importer would be given an
advantage, and would undersell the domestic producer.) The wool and woolens tariff act of
1867, which incorporated the compensating duty, remained in operation without essential
changes (except for the years 1894-97) until 1913. The kind of wool most largely used in the
United States in 1867 lost about two-thirds of its weight in scouring; the same was the
case with the wool which was then expected to be imported. Further allowance was made for some
wastage of the fibre in the manufacturing process. Thus the compensating duty on woolens was
fixed on the supposition that four pounds of wool would be needed to make one pound of cloth.
At the outset of this legislation, carding was the only process for producing wool cloth.
Woolen yarns
- made from shorter wool fibers of 1 to 3 inches
- crinkled, fuzzy texture
- almost always single yarns
- thicker and more loosely twisted than worsted yarns
- used to make fall and winter clothing such as flannels and tweeds
Worsted yarns
- made from longer wool fibers of 3 to 6 inches
- combed to lie parallel to each other, smooth texture
- usually multiple ply yarns
- finer and more tightly twisted than woolen yarns
- used to make warm weather clothing such as gabardines and tropicals
[Index and Glossary compiled from the original document by Tom Brown of the Pittsfield Historical Society in 2005.]
Entire website and contents ©Pittsfield Historical Society 2001-2012.
Website design by Snakeroot DataGraphics
In the interest of Pittsfield.
File name: PitWoolIndex.html
Version: Wednesday 23 December, 2009
|