The Lyman Mills. The Lyman Mills corporation was organized in 1854, but two of the mills were erected an in operation previous to that date, having been erected and operated by the Hadley Falls Company. The first stone in the foundation of the walls of Mill No. 1 was laid Sept. 5, 1848, and Oct. 12, 1848, the first brick was laid. The 24th day of May, 1849, the first stone was laid of the foundation of the "picker-house," and June 7, 1849, the first shovel of earth was removed in the excavation of Mill No. 2. The first stone was laid in Mill No. 2, Aug. 17, 1849, and the first brick July 9, 1849. July 25, 1849, the first piece of machinery (a speeder) was placed in Mill No. 1, and March 30, 1850, the first water-wheel was set in motion in No. 1, and the first manufacturing was done on April 23, 1850. April 15, 1872, the excavating for No. 3 was begun, and in 1873, the mill was in full operation. The three mills are of the same size "on the ground." The dimensions are 268 by 68 feet, inside the walls. Mills Nos. 1 and 2 are five stories high, with roof-rooms, and No. 3 is four stories high, with flat roof. The picker building is four stories, 62 by 180 feet; the buildings on Front Street, containing the office of the company, the cloth-room, belt- and roll-shop, storehouses, etc., have a total length of 426 feet and a width of 36 feet. The repair-shop was built in the spring of 1860, and is 250 by 34 feet, one story high. There are three brick buildings in the rear of the mills,—the boiler-house, waste-house, pipe-shop, blacksmith-shop, paint-shop, dry-house, etc.,—two of them being about 48 by 28 feet each, and one 90 by 28. A slight idea of the area of these mills can be obtained by the statement of the fact that there are more than 8 1/2 acres of flooring in the factories and the appurtenant buildings. The corporation also own several large brick "blocks," containing 205 tenements. These tenements are kept in good repair and excellently managed. The brick-work of Mills No. 1 and 2 was laid by Capt. Charles McClellan, of Chicopee, and twenty-seven years have proved the reliability of the work. The product of No. 1 Mill is principally of standard sheetings, flannels, and drills. The standard sheetings are made of four grades, marked respectively A, B, C, and E, 30 to 45 inches in width. Flannels are made of three grades, 30 to 33 inches in width; drillings of one grade, a 44-inch "twill;" "R-cloth." 50 inches wide and used in making oil-suits and rubber clothing; and "T-shirting," 36 inches wide. Mills No. 2 and 3 are as one mill in manufacturing, the carding and spinning being done in No. 2, and the spooling, dressing, and weaving in No. 3. These mills manufacture varieties of lawns, cambries, silesias, and organdies. The lawns and organdies are 32 ½inches wide; the cambrics are of three grades, from 34 ½ to 39 inches wide; satteens of three grades, 36 inches wide; "Y" and "Q," very fine sheeting, 39 inches wide; "bucks" or toweling; "K-cloth" of two grades, 30 and 26 inches wide. The cotton used in the mills is of the qualities known as "low middling," "middling," and "good middling." For the cloth woven in No. 1 the "low middlings" and "middlings" are bought while for the finer work of the other mills the best of cotton that can be found, except the costly "Sea Island," is purchased, the delicate threads of the fine fabrics requiring a staple of length, strength, and body. The cotton from No. 1 comes from Vicksburg and Memphis, and for Nos. 2 and 3 the "Peeler" cotton grown mostly in Texas, is purchased in Galveston. The power is furnished by the water of the Connecticut River, turning eight water-wheels of the Boyden patent, having together 1433 horse-power, and using 21 1/2 mill powers. There are 1556 looms in the mills,—viz., 628 in No. 1, and 928 in No. 3. The looms are principally the Chicopee, Holyoke and Whitin loom. The Holyoke loom was invented in Portsmouth, N.H, The drawings and patterns were brought to Holyoke by Jones S. Davis, and the looms were constructed under his direction and supervision, and have been called the Holyoke loom. The total number of spindles in these mills is 74,888,—No.1 Mill containing 23,552, and No. 2 and 3, 51,336. The machinery of No. 1 picker-room consists of 3 willows or "openers," 3 Kitson compound-pickers, 3 Kitson second-pickers, 4 Lowell and 2 Whitin second-pickers. No. 2 picker-room has 2 English pickers and 3 Whitin pickers, and 1 of Van Winkle's openers. The carding department of No. 1 has 144 "breakers," 192 "finishers," and 30 waste-cards. No. 2 has 108 breakers and 108 finishers, making a total number of cards 582. The spinning in No. 1 mill is entirely what is known as "ring-spinning, and the spindles are of the Lowell, Sawyer, and Rabbeth pattern. The spinning in No. 2 is done by 10,560 ring-spindles," and the balance by 30 Mason "mules" and 12 English mules made by Taylor Lang & Co. The dressing is done in No. 1 by 3 "slashers," 1 of the Harrison manufacture and 2 of Howard and Bullough's. The operative number upward of 1200. These are employed as follows: Mill No. 1. Nos. 2 & 3. Carding.......... 111 111 Spinning.......... 111 153 Dressing.......... 65 90 Weaving.......... 190 305 477 657 Total in three mills............... 1134 Repair-shop, etc. ............... 18 Yard-hands, etc. ................ 30 Cloth-room........................ 20 Total   1202 Of this number, 402 are males and 800 are females. The present officials of the company are: President, Thomas Parsons; Treasurer, S.L. Bush; Agent, Q.W. Lovering; Superintendent, Theop. Parsons; Clerk and Cashier, C.D. Colson. The first agent of the mill was Mr. Wm. Melcher, who was succeeded in 1853 by Mr. J.S. Davis, who remained until 1871. Mr. Q.W. Lovering, the present agent, has been connected with the corporation for nearly twenty-four years, and has been agent for nearly seven years. The annual product of the mills is as follows: No. 1 Mill, 198,000 pieces, 2,686,000 pounds, measuring 7,900,000 yards; No. 2 Mill, 122,000,000 pieces, 886,000 pounds, measuring 6,000,000 yards. This is the most extensive manufacturing corporation in the city, and has a capital of $1,470,000. (The above is condensed from an article written by William S. Loomis, editor and proprietor of the Holyoke Transcript.) | Previous Page | Contents | Next Page | | HolyokeMass.com Blog | HolyokeMass History | Hampden County | | Western Mass History & Genealogy | © Laurel O'Donnell 1997 - 2012, all rights reserved This is an adaptation of the original publication This document may be downloaded for personal non-commercial use only and cannot be reproduced or distributed without permission.