Newmarket Manufacturing Company Records, 1727-1942

Title:

Newmarket Manufacturing Company Records, 1727-1942

Creator:

Newmarket Manufacturing Company

Accession / Call Number:

2016.112

Object ID:

2016.112

Date:

1727-1942

Physical Description:

4.59 linear feet, 11 boxes, 12 oversized folders

Scope and Content:

The Newmarket Manufacturing Company records date from 1727 through 1942, and document the operations of a textile factory in Newmarket, NH. The majority of records date after 1900. Records prior to 1900 mostly document land and legal transactions for securing rights to water and land along the Lamprey River. There are also a few spreadsheets with productivity statistics, comparative wages with similar manufacturers, and account book pages. Twentieth century records include a wide variety of items related to the operations of the company as well as some personal items of one of the company agents. Financial records between 1900 and 1930 are mostly about tax payments to the several towns in which the company owned real estate. Information about labor includes a few spreadsheets about productivity and union activities especially in 1919 and 1922 but lacks for a strike in 1929. Workers by name appear rarely in the records, but here are lists of people who had earned enough to be required to pay income tax (1917, 1920-1928), evening school attendance records for 1919 and 1921 (required for workers under 16 years), wage garnishment documents (to a grocery store), and a couple of memoranda or notes about specific people. There are also a few records that indicate services provided to workers: a 1925 summary by the company nurse about cases she had treated, and inventories of "day nursery" equipment. Materials containing named workers are described in detail below. In addition to land records, twentieth century legal files also include contracts and leases for machinery, goods, and services (telephones, fuel, etc.). These files overlap slightly with those filed with machinery and both topics should be consulted. The legal files about machinery contain leases and purchase contracts, while the machine files have advertisements, specifications, and small blueprints. Large drawings are in a separate blueprint series. Inspection reports start in the late nineteenth century and increase after World War I. Manufacturing facilities were inspected by a variety of entities (boiler insurance companies, fire insurance companies, state boards of health, and others. The reports of these inspections (and reports of fires that occurred in the mills) offer the most detailed picture of what the work environment might have been like. They talk about where and how raw materials were stored, distance between looms, and the extent and causes of fires. They are the only documentation of strikes and the closing of the factory because the inspectors noted which buildings were shut and whether there was danger of violence that would harm buildings or machines. The physical plant was large and consisted of four granite and one brick multi-storied buildings, in addition to several other structures in the town of Newmarket. There are blueprints and drawings, which detail some of the buildings. There is a complete set of blueprints for "Mill No. 5" built in 1909. There are also a few blueprints of a hotel and proposed worker housing. Many of the blueprints are of machines. Approximately 20 years of personal bills, dated 1920 through 1942, of Walter B. Gallant (1889-1973), the company "agent" or manager were somehow swept up and included by whoever rescued these records. Bills are for many of Gallant's expenditures like automobile work, cigars, and his son's tuition. He moved from New Hampshire to Lowell and continued to manage at least part of the mill from his new location. The collection does not include photographs, corporate minutes, list of directors, or annual reports. There is very little information about the company's interactions with the town beyond some early deeds of land to churches, a few mentions of paying the electricity bill for the library, and blueprints of a hotel and proposed worker housing. Documentation of the demise of the Newmarket Manufacturing Company at its New Hampshire location are also missing.

Subjects:

Blueprints , Deeds , Engineering drawings , Textile industry , Textile factories , Textile workers , Water-power

Locations:

Lamprey River, NH
Lowell, MA
Newmarket, NH

People:

Gallant, Walter B. , 1889-1973

Organizations:

Newmarket Manufacturing Company
United Textile Workers of America

Credit Line:

New Hampshire Historical Society purchase.

Restrictions:

Available for research.

Level Description:

Collection