Lowell (Ma.) talk with Irene Simoneau, Franco-American historian and authority on the role of women in the mills. Professor Roger Paradis of Fort Kent (Me). talks about Franco-American folklore and music.
Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Depot, 318 Jackson Avenue, Willimantic, Connecticut, on April 7, 1975 for the Ethnic Heritage Project by Andrea Levy.
Based in Ware, Massachusetts, a nationally known family business that made high-grade woolen flannels. Includes employee recruitment documents, labor contracts, labor accounts, wage payment books, contracts and insurance material about the property, buildings, machinery, and stock, business correspondence, bills and receipts, company cash books, and lists of sales and orders. Also contains personal records of finances and activities of Charles Stevens and the Gilbert family, production records, department expenses, stock inventories, forms, advertisements from various companies, and notices posted in the factories and tenements concerning company rules and regulations. Charles A. Stevens was George H. Gilbert's original partner.
In 1841, George H. Gilbert and Charles A. Stevens formed a partnership to manufacture broadcloth and cloakings in Ware, Massachusetts. The partners acquired a mill building on the Ware River and expanded in 1846-1847 erecting several new factory buildings and a number of tenements to house the growing population of workers. The records have been arranged into seven series, as follows: Legal and Property, 1844-1879, 1 box, Executive, 1848-1882, 15 boxes, Financial, 1848-1929, 2 boxes and 17 volumes, Sales, 1842-1909, 5 boxes and 1 volume, Labor, 1851-1931, 1 box and 53 volumes, Production, 1846-1930, 1 box and 54 volumes, and Miscellany, 1848-1920, 1 box and 1 volume.
Correspondence, biographical material, writings, scrapbooks, subject files, newsclippings; pamphlets, manuals, and other printed materials; and memorabilia related to Belanger's union and election activities, and his work with various government agencies and commissions. Scrapbooks comprise the bulk of the collection and include correspondence, news clippings, photographs, postcards, and various memorabilia. Correspondents include: the U.S. Conciliation Service of the U.S. Department of Labor; the National War Labor Board; the War Manpower Commission of the Office for Emergency Management; the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts; the Council for Constitutional Reform in Massachusetts, Inc.; and The White House.
Born 1920, the only child of French Canadian immigrants. Left school at age 15 to work. Spent 27 years at Pepperell Mill, then 17 years in shoe shop. Got her GED in 1989. From the Collection: This collection is the work of two separate classes taught by Anne William, Professor of Economics at Bates College: First Year Seminar FYS 187 during the winter term of 1996, and Economics s37 during the short-term session in the spring of 1998. Together, the two projects comprise 45 interviews with 50 individuals
Born 1917 and grew up in northern Maine. Moved to Lewiston with family in 1932. Was in Civilian Conservation Corps for two years. Worked in textile mill, then in other local businesses. Served in World War II. From the Collection: This collection is the work of two separate classes taught by Anne William, Professor of Economics at Bates College: First Year Seminar FYS 187 during the winter term of 1996, and Economics s37 during the short-term session in the spring of 1998. Together, the two projects comprise 45 interviews with 50 individuals
Born 1917 in Lewiston. Parents moved a lot, she completed 5th grade. She returned here in 1933 and began a 37-year career at the Hill Mill. Married in 1937. From the Collection: This collection is the work of two separate classes taught by Anne William, Professor of Economics at Bates College: First Year Seminar FYS 187 during the winter term of 1996, and Economics s37 during the short-term session in the spring of 1998. Together, the two projects comprise 45 interviews with 50 individuals
Born 1907, one of 5 children. Completed 8th grade at Frye School. Her mother, a widow, worked in the mill. She worked in a confectionery shop for 8 years, then at Styles Loading Co. for 32 years. Married in 1933. From the Collection: This collection is the work of two separate classes taught by Anne William, Professor of Economics at Bates College: First Year Seminar FYS 187 during the winter term of 1996, and Economics s37 during the short-term session in the spring of 1998. Together, the two projects comprise 45 interviews with 50 individuals
Born 1912. Worked in lumber industry in Van Buren during much of Depression. Moved to Lewiston and worked at American Bobbin and other jobs in Lewiston. From the Collection: This collection is the work of two separate classes taught by Anne William, Professor of Economics at Bates College: First Year Seminar FYS 187 during the winter term of 1996, and Economics s37 during the short-term session in the spring of 1998. Together, the two projects comprise 45 interviews with 50 individuals
Born 1916 in Canada, one of 14 children, and had 8 years of school there. Family moved to Lewiston when she was 17. Worked in the mill until she married in 1936. From the Collection: This collection is the work of two separate classes taught by Anne William, Professor of Economics at Bates College: First Year Seminar FYS 187 during the winter term of 1996, and Economics s37 during the short-term session in the spring of 1998. Together, the two projects comprise 45 interviews with 50 individuals
Advertisement for Harmony Mills found in the 1883 Troy City Directory. This ad was placed in the Troy City Directory by Harmony Mills, the largest employer in nearby Cohoes. Of particular note is the fact that there were twice as many women working in the mills as there were men. Many of these were French-Canadian (or, by then, Franco-American) in origin.
Among the businesses that flourished in Whitehall, thanks in large part to the presence of the Champlain Canal and the availability of "cheap labor" from Quebec, was the Champlain Silk Company. The Champlain Silk Mills located in Whitehall in 1874 and produced silk ribbon and fabric until the 1940s. The mill closed in the 1950s, and a fire in 1966 destroyed its buildings. However, one of the remnants of the once vibrant industry is the smoke stack featured in these photos. The railway crossing in one of the photos dates to 1909.
Photograph of millworkers posing in front of a building. The hats people are wearing in the photograph suggest a mix of Franco-American and Irish-American workers together.
Carrie Anne Connally's photograph of collar makers probably shows Standard Manufacturing Co. (750 2nd Ave, between 120th and 121st St. in Lansingburgh, Troy) at its heyday in the 1920s. Matt Apple's Franco-American maternal great-grandmother worked here together with his maternal Irish-American great-grandmother, his paternal Dutch/German-American great-grandmother, and their Jewish-American and Eastern European-American neighbors - probably right around when the second generation's children intermarried between formerly separate ethnic groups (or maybe even because they all worked together, the matchmaking began...)
Photograph of Belting System in the Mill from a publication entitled: "The Science of Modern Cotton Spinning.̤" Volume 1. by Evan Leigh sometime after 1871
