The Woolen Industry of the Midwest

University of Kentucky UKnowledge United States History History 1970 The Woolen Industry of the Midwest Norman L. Crockett University of Oklahoma Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Crockett, Norman L., "The Woolen Industry of the Midwest" (1970). United States History. 57. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/57 THE WOOLEN INDUSTRY OF THE MIDWEST This page intentionally left blank NORMAN L. CROCKETT THE WOOLEN INDUSTRY OF THE MIDWEST The University Press of Kentucky Title page illustration courtesy the Bettmann Archive, Inc. Standaxd Book Number: 8131-5186-1 Library of Congress Catalog Caxd Number: 75-I I 1505 Copyright © 1970 by The University Press of Kentucky A statewide cooperative scholaxly publishing agency serving Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky State College, Morehead State University, Murray State University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506 For my wife De This page intentionally left blank Contents PREFACE pageix Chapter I THE EASTERN BACKGROUND page3 Chapter II WOOL MANUFACTURERS ENTER THE MIDDLE WEST page 18 Chapter III THE MARKETING OF WOOL IN THE MIDDLE WEST page35 Chapter IV QUESTS FOR WOOL AND WORKERS page 54 Chapter V PRODUCTION AND SALES IN THE LOCAL AND REGIONAL MARKET page 73 Chapter VI THE IMPINGEMENTS OF A NATIONALIZING MARKET page g6 Chapter VII THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL page III BIBLIOGRAPHY page I32 INDEX page I43 This page intentionally left blank Preface The contribution of small companies to America's economic development is easily forgotten in this age of business con glomerates. As late as 1954, firms employing fewer than one hundred workers constituted over go percent of all businesses in the United States. Such companies supplied only one-fifth of the nation's total manufacturing output, but even the most enthusiastic proponent of large-scale enterprise recognizes that without them the economy would have ceased to function. Also, historians have neglected the significant role of small manufac turing in the settlement and growth of the American West. Perhaps because of their preoccupation with the study of west ern agriculture and mining, and the short duration of their existence in any one region, scholars have neglected such pio neer manufacturing enterprises as barrel factories, breweries, brick yards, paper plants, rope walks, wagon works, and woolen mills. Following the arrival of merchants along with a few custom order artisans, businessmen entered newly developing areas to construct small manufacturing and processing plants aimed at providing frequently needed goods and services to residents within a few miles of each factory. Since the output flowing from this type of production was normally low in value relative to its bulk, residentiary manufacturers, as they are called, lo cated businesses close to markets. High freight charges on com modities shipped into the region, coupled with a close proximity to raw products and markets, offered pioneer manufacturers important locational advantages over potential competitors out- ix The Woolen Industry side the area. Such firms could realize a profit by providing goods suited to the particular needs of rural and small-town consumers and priced within their capacity to pay. Specializa tion began with residentiary manufacturing as well as factory production for delivery to final demand. Therefore, these com panies constituted an intermediate step in the transition from a self-sufficient agrarian region to modem industrialization. All areas of the United States experienced the residentiary phase of manufacturing during their formative period when population was scattered and internal transportation was primi tive. Thus, for purposes of studying this type of enterprise, the selection of a specific region and the exact delineation of its geographic or political boundaries is relatively unimportant. However, as I have defined it, the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin con stitute the Middle West. Although woolen mills comprised only one of a number of residentiary industries which arose to serve midwesterners, there were, in 1870, 881 of them in the region. My study ranges from their organization and location in the early 186os to their struggle for survival once the Midwest gained relatively inexpensive intra- and interregional transpor tation after 1goo. An analysis of changes in the midwestern economy during this period has been necessary because pioneer woolen mills were primarily market-oriented and, therefore, very susceptible to any forces which affected that market. I am grateful to Professors Lewis Atherton and Harold Wood man of the University of Missouri for their guidance. I owe a special debt to Mrs. Manfred Weber, Shawnee Mission, Kansas, for permitting me to examine her private collection of material on the Watkins Mill. To F. Harwood Orbison, president, Apple ton Mills, Appleton, Wisconsin, and Robert W. Klemer, pres ident, Faribault Woolen Mill, Faribault, Minnesota, go my special thanks for their willingness to open company records to me, for clarifying many ideas, and answering questions on the manufacture of woolen textiles. Portions of chapters three and four previously appeared in Agricultural History as an arti- X Preface de on the marketing of wool in the nineteenth century, and are used here with the kind permission of the editors. As the Harvard-Newcomen Fellow in Business and Economic History during 1967-Ig68, I benefited greatly from the op portunity to present and discuss my research at meetings of the Business History Group. Professors Ralph Hidy and Arthur H. Cole read portions of the manuscript and gave freely of their time, while James Baughman, Arthur M. Johnson, and Fritz Redlich constantly raised questions and suggested numerous methods for clarification and improvement. Finally, to my wife, Delores Sanders Crockett, typist, mother of four, and constructive critic of poorly written history, a mere thank you hardly seems adequate. Her continued encouragement and support throughout the preparation of this study made it not only much easier, but in large part possible. An Earhart Fellowship in Economic and Business History from the Relm Foundation, Ann Arbor, Michigan, funds made available to me as the Harvard-Newcomen Fellow, and research grants from the University of Missouri at Rolla helped to fi nance this study. This page intentionally left blank THE WOOLEN INDUSTRY OF THE MIDWEST This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER I The Eastern Background Between the first American colonization and the Civil War the manufacture of woolen textiles along the Atlantic Coast shifted largely from home to mill, from handtools to machines, from a function of self-contained living to commercial enter prise. To bring about that transformation millions of men and women, working singly and collectively, generated a capacity to buy finished goods while, at the same time, a few others applied an accumulated knowledge about wool, men, and machines to change the methods of woolen production. In other words, the American people, through cultural borrowing and their own ingenuity, effected fundamental alterations in both supply and demand markets that characterized the woolen textile industry in 186s. Colonial America looked to the merchants' ships of the Atlan tic Community to supply manufactured goods and to transport raw materials to the world market. Despite the availability of European manfactures, many Americans were either isolated or could not afford to purchase them and quickly turned to household manufacturing. Most colonial homes produced a myriad of products, but woolen textiles comprised one of the most universal commodities of domestic production. Flocks of sheep kept by many northern farmers provided the necessary wool for spinning and weaving when inclement weather prohib ited outdoor work.1 Whether in colonial times or later, production of woolen cloth involved eight basic functions. Raw wool was sorted, washed, dyed, carded, spun into yarn, and woven into cloth which was then fulled and finished. Aside from weaving, carding and 3 The Woolen Industry fulling constituted the most laborious and monotonous tasks faced by household woolen manufacturers. The carder, quite often one of the family children, repeatedly combed small lots of wool between two brushes studded with wire teeth until the fleece formed a soft, extended rope, or roving, ready for the spinning wheel. Since woven cloth fresh from the loom was stiff and uneven in texture, a fulling process became necessary. Fulling required soaking the material in warm soapy water while beating it with heavy wooden mallets in order to soften the fabric and make it more pliable.2 Several American colonies proposed inducements to encour age both woolgrowing and manufacturing. Between 166o and 1682, Connecticut and Massachusetts attempted to regulate cloth quality, while Virginia and Maryland extended tobacco bounties for domestically produced woolens. Maryland,

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