Utica's Textile Mills vs. Stove, Furnaces & Boiler Makers
From early on, Utica had a front row seat in America's Industrial Revelution thanks to the Erie Canal...
Early forges in Utica produced iron plows, other farming equipment, nails, etc. Soon after, Utica's history of making Stoves, Furnaces and Boilers began and coincided alongside the American Industrial Revolution.
While most locals (and many around the country) recognize the Boilermaker Road Race, they don't know the story behind the race's name. Also, the Erie Canal is world renowned, however current-day visitors would be hard pressed to learn of its impact on Utica or our rich boiler-making industry. While Utica's large mill buildings have helped kept some of our textile past alive, not so for our furnaces and boiler-makers.
As the eighteenth century came to a close most all homes were candlelit. Floors were bare wood and walls unadorned. Cooking and keeping warm was done at the fireplace. People owned few changes of clothing as most all were made by hand, usually scarce and fairly expensive. Factories were popped up at the close of the eighteenth century and their workers began to produce goods- the early rise of American Consumerism was underway!
To develop the Utica story, we're looking into the setting, the City Maps, population growth, the infrastructure, homes and industries as the city grew...
Timeline
1773 - First settlement of Utica.3
1792 - Bridge across the Mohawk River is constructed, at a ford near Old Fort Schuyler between First and Second streets.5
1796 - There are 35 houses in Utica.9
1797 - The second bridge across the Mohawk River is in Utica, built at foot of Genesee Street.5
1798 - Utica established as a village, there are 50 houses with over 200 people.4, 9
1800 - Genesee Road improved as Seneca Road, "the road to Buffalo". Genesee Street was originally the Indian trail to the Seneca country to the west. The trail from Old Fort Schuyler and the old Mohawk River ford passed over present Park Avenue and met the Genesee trail at present Oneida Square. 7
1807 - Manufacture of woolen cloth begun at Frankfort.1
1808 - Cotton (white goods) manufacturing begins (in the Utica City District) at New York Mills. The first cotton mill in the State of New York was established in Oneida County.This was the beginning of the great textile industry of the present Utica city district.
According to the best evidence the earliest cotton mill was located at the site of what is now the lower mill of the New York Mills near the canal in Yorkville, Dr. Seth Capron having established the "infant industry" there in the year 1808. He soon thereafter found an associate in the person of Benjamin S. Walcott and the two began spinning cotton yarn in 1809. With some change in the personnel of this organization the mill operations on March 10, 1810, were incorporated as the Oneida Manufacturing Society. In 1812 the power loom for weaving cotton was introduced into the county and the development of the industry thereafter was but a matter of course. On January 13, 1813, the Whitestown Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Society was organized, Benjamin S. Walcott, Jr., being the directing head, his mill taking over the plant of a grist mill that had been built there in 1796. In 1824 Walcott, acting for Benjamin Marshall of New York, erected a five-story mill at the point now known as New York Mills and began the manufacture of sheeting, this operation giving an impetus to the industry which ever since has been gathering momentum. In 1840 the name "New York Mills" was adopted for this location and enterprise. In 1856 Samuel Campbell, an experienced cotton mill man from Scotland, arrived on the scene and took a hand in operations, which thereafter for some time were carried on under the name of Walcott & Campbell, and the concern was developed on a real going basis. In 1884 this mill was incorporated under the name of the New York Mills Company, with a capital stock of one million dollars, and operations were extended in accordance. Since then many large fortunes have been made out of the cotton mill industry in and about Utica and the products of Utica mills have gone into all lands.1
1810 — Another growing development along this line was that initiated on March 30, 1810, with the organization of the New Hartford Manufacturing Society and the mill operations under that style were carried on until in 1870 when the New Hartford Cotton Manufacturing Company was organized to take over and extend these operations. The great Utica Cotton Manufacturing Company had its beginning with the organization and incorporation on April 5, 1814, of the Capron Cotton Manufacturing Company, which carried on for many years at Capron in the town of New Hartford and which under the present direction of the Utica Cotton Manufacturing Company maintains mills both at Capron and at Utica. It was in 1848 that the Utica Steam Cotton Mills had their start. This was the first effort made to apply steam to the manufacture of cotton hereabout, water power having held its own even after the beginning of the development of steam power operations in other industries. Steam mills had been found to be successful at other points and a committee of leading citizens of Utica, including Theodore S. Sexton, Silas D. Childs, Alfred Munson, Charles A. Mann, Edmund A. Graham, Andrew S. Pond and Horatio Seymour, took the matter up for investigation with a view to establishing the cotton milling industry at Utica on an entirely new and more profitable and productive basis. On the basis of the report made by this committee a company was organized, new mills were erected and the cotton milling industry in Utica was revolutionized. It only need be said that fortunes ultimately were made by those who were fortunate enough to hold stock in that enterprise. Along in the late '70s and through the '80s the cotton industry in this section grew by "leaps and bounds," and many companies were organized to carry on business along that line, with the result that Utica has come to be known as a greater producer of knit goods and cotton fabrics than any other city in the world, with an annual output of product that certainly would have staggered the imagination of the founders of the business here more than a century ago.1
1817 — Erie Canal construction was begun. On October 22, 1819, the first boat "Chief Engineer" made the initial trip between Rome and Utica, when a great celebration was held.7
1820 — Seth Peckham establishes what becomes J. S. & M. Peckham. As one of Utica's pioneer manufacturers of plows and other iron tools, that went on to make patented palor stoves.
1822 — Ephraim Hart foundry started at Utica, becomes the Hart and Crouse heater works.1
1825 - Opening of the Erie, from Buffalo to Albany, greatly stimulated the town.7 On June 10th The Marquis de Lafayette visits to Utica, newspaper reports every step of the Revolutionary War hero’s brief stay here.12
1831/1832 - Philo Curtis establishes a business that is later incorporated in 1891 as Utica Steam Engine & Boiler Works.
1832 - On February 13, 1832, Utica was chartered a city.7
1835 - Utica population is 10,183.9
1836 — Manufacture of ready-made clothing begun at Utica. The Chenango Canal is opened northward from Chenango River headwaters of the Susquehanna, through the Oriskany Creek Valley to Utica, forming a valley outlet for coal from Pennsylvania.1
1836 — 1839 In 1836 the Utica & Schenectady Railroad was built, and the Utica & Syracuse Railroad, in 1839, thus completing the Mohawk Division of the New York Central Railroad — its first division. The West Shore Railroad, built in 1883, now forms part of the Mohawk Division of the New York Central, making it the only six-track railroad in the world.6
1837 - Chester Dexter was the proprietor of Utica's Eagle Foundry, also know as Eagle Furnace.
1840 - Utica Mechanic's Association supports popular lectures, and the Apprentices Library. Within the city are...
2 commercial and 3 commission houses in foreign trade, capital $58,000;
188 retail stores, capital $1,678,595;
3 lumber yards, capital $41,000;
5 furnaces, capital $50,000;
value of machinery manufactured $166,555;
6 tanneries, capital $103,000;
2 breweries,
1 flouring mill,
2 grist mills,
2 saw mills,
1 paper factory,
6 printing offices,
6 weekly newspapers,
61 brick and stone and 30 wooden [the principal] houses, cost $253,000.
Capital in manufacture, $496,130,
10 academies,
670 students,
36 schools,
981 scholars.9
1842 — Russel Wheeler & Son, established. Stove and furnace manufacture begun at Utica.1
1844 — Russel Wheeler and Joel C. Bailey formed a partnership and their company was called Bailey, Wheeler & Company.
1845 - Utica has 14,000 people and thirteen large and many small industries, with an annual manufactured output of $236,811.9 Also in 1845, Samuel F.B. Morse's Magnetic Telegraph Company was formed. The company was financially backed by Uticans Theodore Faxton and John Butterfield, and a telegraph lines from New York City to Buffalo was built. By 1850 12,000 miles of wire were laid. 12, 13
1847 — Manufacture of woolens begun at Utica.1 The Utica Steam and Mohawk Valley Cotton Mill establishes first of five mills, the 5th in 1905.11 Also, The Carton Furnace Company established as well.
1848 — Manufacture of cotton cloth (white goods) begun at Utica; now (1914) largest center of this industry in New York State and the chief textile center of the United States.1
1851— The firm T. W. Chatfield & Sons established by T. W. Chatfield.
1852 — Iron works started at Utica 1 as founder Chauncey Palmer established the Phoenix Iron Works.
1854 — Utica & Black River Railroad was opened from Utica to Boonville, subsequently extended to Carthage. Later become New York Central line. 6
1861 — Steam gauges made at Utica.1 From 1861 to 1865, the Civil War impacted the city and nation.
1863 — Manufacture of knit goods begun at Utica.1
1866 — The Utica, Chenango & Susquehanna Valley Railroad Company was organized by Lewis Lawrence and other Utica capitalists. The object was to build a line of railroads southerly from Utica, into the Chenango Valley. This road was completed in 1870, and was leased to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company. The line is the principal coal road supplying the Utica district.6
1868 — Cap manufacture at Utica.1
1878 — The Chenango Canal is abandoned.7
1882 — The Skenandoa Cotton Company is incorporated. The enterprise was started with a capital of $200,000 and with a mill two stories high, 275 by 100 feet, erected for the purpose. The equipment consisted of about 10,000 spindles and other necessary machinery for the manufacture of fine hosiery yarns for the use of manufacturers of knit goods. So successful did the venture prove that in 1888 the capital stock was increased to $300,000 and another two story mill, equal in size to the first, erected. In 1892 the capital was again increased to $600,000 and a third mill, three stories high, 350 by 100, added, thus giving the company a plant of nearly 55,000 spindles and a productive capacity five times as large as the original.8
1886 — Worsted [wool] manufacture begun at Utica.1 The Utica Belt Line Company was organized to merge all the street railroads of Utica into one system. Electricity was substituted for horse power and the city lines were extended and developed.6 The Utica Steam Engine and Boiler Works files as a domestic business corporation in the State of New York on Thursday, April 9.14
1887 — W. J. Owens establishes the Sayre, Owens & Company.
1905 — The Barge Canal construction was begun and completed from Waterford to Utica in 1916 and opened in 1918.7
1912 - 4,950 employes were engaged in the white goods manufacturing industry at Utica, according to figures of the New York State Department of Labor. This is part of 17,000 persons employed in the knit goods industry in the Mohawk Valley, wit factories in nineteen valley towns; Utica, Amsterdam, Cohoes and Little Falls, the principal points of production in the order named. Further tabulated at; 5,650 employes at work, distributed as follows: Utica, 2,750; New York Mills, 1,800; Cohoes, 600; Capron, 250; New Hartford, 150; Little Falls, 100. Utica is the center of this industry for New York State.
Metal manufactures and iron founding employed several thousand people in the Mohawk Valley in 1912, in many widely varying industries, including the making of metal beds and heating apparatus, at Utica, Whitesboro and Rome.
Clothing, millinery, etc., manufactures, in 1912, employed over 1,700 persons in six Mohawk valley counties. 1,600 of whom were operatives in Utica industries of this character. Silk manufactures and silk throwing and winding employe over 1,500 persons in the six Mohawk Valley counties.1
1913 — - The influence of Utica and the surrounding area was so great that Sen. Elihu Root of New York referred to it as “the great manufacturing region of the upper Mohawk” during a speech in Washington.10
1914 — The Mohawk Valley is now the center of American knit goods manufacture.1 Also from 1914 to 1918, World War I dominated news columns.12
1918 — The "new" Erie Canal, or the “Barge Canal Improvement” officially opened. Route run 340 miles from Troy (on the Hudson River) to Tonawanda and Buffalo on the Niagara River. It includes the construction of the Utica Harbor.12
1919 — Utica had 370 factories, with 18,564 workers; 40,419 primary horse power; capital of $67,255,000; annual value manufactured product of $77,746,000 (1920 U. S. Census Report).7
1920 — According to the census, Utica was proportionately the fastest growing city in New York State.7 Prohibition began on January 16, as the Amendment 18 to the U.S. Constitution went into effect.12
1921 — Heater and furnace factory started at Whitesboro, Utica Heater Company removed from Utica.1
1923 — Radiator factory opened at Utica.1
1924 — Utica has mills that operate approximately 400,000 spindles; industries that convert 150,000 bales of cotton into yarns and fabrics annually; foundries that use over 100,000 tons of iron each year. Utica is the center of an industrial district producing a great variety and amount of manufactures, which are constantly increasing. The textile industry is Utica's greatest manufacturing line and Utica is the chief textile manufacturing center in the United States.7
1925 — Population is estimated at 110,000, with 135,000 in the Utica metropolitan district, within a radius of ten miles of the Utica City Hall.7
1929 — In October the stock market crashed, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.12
1931 — The father of the knitting business in this country was Egbert Egberts. While living in Albany in 1831, he became interested in the making of knit goods. Here he made his primary experiments in the construction of a knitting frame to be operated by power. Timothy Bailey, a practical mechanic, became associated with Egberts in this work of experimentation. Bailey built a wooden frame, which, when turned by hand, accomplished, in a small way, what Egberts desired. A knitting machine had already been invented. One was bought in Philadelphia by Bailey and brought to Albany, and his contrivance was applied, so as to produce knit goods by turning a crank. In 1832 Egberts and Bailey removed to Cohoes. The new machine was arranged to run by water power. Soon eight of these machines were constructed by Timothy Bailey and set in motion. The next step was to commence carding and spinning, thus preparing their own yarn. In this way the foundation was laid for the extensive knit goods business, which is an industry of the greatest importance in the Mohawk Valley, and in the United States as well. For some time the new invention was kept a secret. The doors were fastened by spring locks. Even General George S. Bradford, who ran the mill by contract, was compelled to make an agreement that he would not enter the knitting room. Timothy Bailey, and a foreman who worked with him, were the only ones who understood the machines.1
1939 — War again dominates the news- from September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland to start World War II, to mid-August 1945 when Japan surrendered.12
2 - History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925 Chapter 108: The City of Cohoes
3 - Chapter 51: The Mohawk Valley from 1760 to 1774
4 - Chapter 80: History of the Mohawk Valley from 1784 to 1825
5 - History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925 Chapter 83: Mohawk River Bridges
7 - History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925 Chapter 130: The City of Utica
8 - Oneida County, NY Biographies, Wager, Daniel. Our County and Its People, Part II: Biography
9 - The Old Mohawk-Turnpike Book: Utica, Part II
12 - Utica Observer-Dispatch: Making history
14 - Corporate Filings for Utica Steam Engine and Boiler Works
In addition to textile mills, Utica also had many Utica-based Stove, Furnace & Boiler-making Companies. Utica's history of boiler and furnace manufacturing offers a great opportunity for a Better Wynn Hospital Neighborhood.