Tribal Textile Mills Limited History of Textile Industry

CHAPTER # 1

Textile Industry History

A site devoted to the history of mills and
companies
Under Development - July 2009- check back
periodically

The Development of a Textile Industry

English inventors in the 18th century began to automate cottage industry processes
including carding, spinning and weaving. James Hargreaves developed the
Spinning Jenny, a device which replaced eight hand spinners in one operation.
Richard Arkwright assembled these processes and started the first factory
on the Derwent River in Cromford, England in 1771.

Spinning Jenny
Image: Engels Museum
Wuppertal, Germany
Source: Wikipedia
"spinning jenny"

Following the American Revolution, several founding fathers felt manufacturing should
remain in England. Alexander Hamilton felt otherwise and wanted to establish a model
mill village in Paterson, New jersey. His ideas were ahead of their time. The "National
Manufactory" went out of business in 1796.
Samuel Slater of Rhode Island visited several mills owned by Arkwright and associates,
memorized the essential features and returned to the US. In 1792, he opened a yarn
spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the first successful automated yarn spinning in
the US. In 1814, James Cabot Lowell of Boston built a factory in Waltham, up the
Charles River from Boston. Later, the Boston Associates built an entire mill town on the
Merrimack River, and later named it "Lowell" in memory of James Cabot Lowell.

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 Tribal Textile Mills Limited History of Textile Industry

Early Industry
Locations -
Image: National
Park
Service

Boston Manufacturing Co. logo

in 1918
Image: Textile Brands and
Trademarks

1793 - Eli Whitney and Hogden Holmes developed a simplified method of removing the
cotton lint from the seed. Whitney’s, and especially Holmes' saw tooth gin,
revolutionized the cotton industry by dramatically
increasing the productivity of cotton ginning. Gins

Left: Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin

Image: US Patent Office
Right: Drawing of Holmes' gin
Image: www.Pratthistory.com

In the early 1800s, cotton was raised in the southern United States and exported to mills
in England and the north. Leaders such as William Gregg of South Carolina advocated a
home-based textile industry for the south but the time was not right. Northern mills
resisted to growth of mills outside New England. Textile machinery was built in New
England, New Jersey and imported from Europe.

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 Tribal Textile Mills Limited History of Textile Industry

William Gregg
Early Advocate of a Southern Textile Industry.
Image: Hampstead, NC Chamber of Commer

After the Civil War, the south slowly replaced slaves with free workers. The industry
remained largely in the north until after the 1880s. Leaders such as Edwin Michael Holt
and family of Alamance County, North Carolina built mills in large numbers throughout
the south as the 19th century closed. Cotton mills in New England began to decline in
importance.

Merchants contracted for goods through agents. The Cone family moved from Baltimore
to Greensboro and brokered sales. The Belk family bought goods from Cone to sell in
the dry goods stores. Merchants such as Marshall Fields of Chicago bought goods from
mills through intermediaries. Later, in order to better control supply, the Cones and the
Fields built mills of their own, e.g., Cone Mills and Fieldcrest Mills. Machinery was
imported from the north and from Europe.

World War I and the naval blockage imposed by England on German shipping, and the
use of U-boats by Germany to harass English vessels brought the realization that the
United States must be independent of England and Germany for machinery and dyestuffs.
New companies emerged to satisfy the war effort and remained strong for several
decades following the war. World War II once again emphasized the need for
self-sufficiency. Following the war, however, imported machinery and dyes, especially
from Germany and Switzerland, once again supplemented and eventually replaced
domestic supply. American textile companies thrived with the use of imported
machinery and dyestuffs.

In the 1990s, a new world order began to replace the Made in the USA ideas. Buying
from the lowest cost producer drove many textile manufacturers out of the production
side and into imports. Manufacturing
companies changed to marketing companies.

Source: Dunwell, Steve, The Run of the Mill. Boston: David R. Godine – Publisher,
1978.
An excellent discussion with many illustrations of early technology and mill
development.

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