George H. Gilbert Co. Records, 1842-1931

The collection is open for research.

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Historical Note

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 partnership, known as Gilbert and Stevens, dissolved in 1851, with each of the partners taking one of the business products. The newly formed George H. Gilbert Company continued the making of high-grade woolen flannels, for which it developed a national reputation. The company exhibited goods at the London Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851 and at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 among others. The firm, however, remained a family business. In 1850, Lewis N. Gilbert joined his uncle's firm, establishing himself as a prominent Ware resident and eventually a member of the State Senate in 1877-1878. J.H. Gilbert, the son of George, joined the company in the 1870's. He eventually rose to be president of the company and stayed until the company closed in 1930. In addition, J.H. Grenville Gilbert helped found the Young Men's Library Association of Ware, and was also president of the Ware Savings Bank.

In 1860, the Gilbert Co. expanded into neighboring Worcester County, acquiring a mill and building tenements in what came to be known as Gilbertville in the Southwest corner of Hardwick. By the turn of the century, the Gilbert Company employed more than 1,000 people in its two factory complexes.

From the beginning, the Gilbert Company operated under the family (or Slater) system common to rural textile mills. Entire families were recruited for mill employment and kin networks continued to serve as an informal method of labor recruitment into the twentieth century, even as the ethnicity of the workforce shifted from Irish to French-Canadian (1870) to Polish (1900's).

The company began to experience financial problems in the 1920's, a full five years before the Great Depression. Woolen manufacturers in the region began to slowly lose business to Southern competitors. A series of wage reductions and three-day schedules for employees could not revive the company as the continued slump of the wholesale woolen market finally caused the company to close its Ware plant in 1929. Shortly thereafter, the company closed its Gilbertville complex, bringing to an end almost 90 years of continuous operation.

The George H. Gilbert Company records were originally acquired by the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts from the custody of the Smith Council of Industrial Studies. In 1984, the records were transferred to the Springfield Public Library from which they were sent to the University of Massachusetts in 1986.

Hardwick was among the five Western Massachusetts towns abolished in 1938 to allow the Swift River Valley to be flooded, thereby creating the Quabbin Reservoir to provide Boston with water.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

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.

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into seven series:

• Series 1. Legal and Property, 1844-1879
• Series 2. Executive, 1848-1882
• Series 3. Financial, 1848-1929
• Series 4. Sales, 1842-1909
• Series 5. Labor, 1851-1931
• Series 6. Production, 1846-1930
• Series 7. Miscellany, 1848-1920

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Series 1. Legal and Property 1844-1879

Includes contracts with masons, carpenters, painters, and suppliers of materials for the construction of mill buildings and tenements, principally in Ware (1844-1847) and in Gilbertville (1860-1861). Among the local contractors used were Edward Estey, Lorenzo Fairbanks, Anthony Collins, Eaton & Davis, Thomas Bixley, and Samuel Sprague. Two folders on employee matters document recruitment, labor contracts (particularly for supervisors and skilled hands), and the legal problems of employees. One folder of insurance material contains sketches of property and buildings and surveys of the values of property, machinery and stock. Also contained in this series is a folder of correspondence between Charles Stevens and Artemus Lee concerning the proposed route of the Boston and Maine Railroad through Ware and Hardwick (1851), documents concerning the purchase of the mill in Gilbertville (1860), a legal opinion on damage caused by a dam on the Ware River, and the purchase rights to use a patented machine (1866).

Series 2. Executive 1849-1882

Routine business correspondence of the company from 1849 to 1882. Among the topics are sales, shipments, orders, insurance, employment opportunities, and purchases of machinery, supplies, and wool. Among companies for which there is considerable correspondence are Davis and Farber (North Andover), the Rodney Hunt Co. (Orange), Renfrew Manufacturing Co. (Adams), and Litchfield and Co. (Southbridge). Also there is considerable correspondence with commission agents, including Farnham, Gilbert and Co.; Faulkner, Kimball and Co.; and the Troy Wool Depot.

Series 3. Financial 1848-1929

Includes early bills and receipts, company cash books (1854-1859, 1882-1900), petty cash books, an early receipt book, two volumes of wool purchases (1849-1851), and ledgers from the first and last decades of the George H. Gilbert Co.

Series 4. Sales 1842-1909

Lists of sales of flannels and cassimeres from the Gilbert and Stevens partnership (1842-1853), orders (1862-1863 and 1904-1909), and sketches of sales by Farnham, Gilbert, & Co. (1866-1877), the commission agents used by the Gilbert Co.

Series 5. Labor 1851-1931

Four volumes of early labor accounts (1851-1863, 1872-1884) documenting monthly and weekly wages in the various departments, thirty-four volumes of weavers' accounts spanning 1874 to 1928, scattered volumes of accounts for labor in the "burling" and "drawing-in" departments, five volumes of wage payment books (1908-1911), one box of miscellaneous labor accounts for transportation with Barney Snow and repair work, and one volume of paymaster notices, which detail the names and rates of pay for new employees (1918-1930).

Series 6. Production 1846-1930

Time books spanning 1885 to 1930, production cost calculations (1889-1905), working estimates of expenses (1889-1905), three volumes of production order samples (with the cloth stapled into the volume), one box of department expenses (1917-1930) and stock inventories (1846-1850), nine volumes of weave-room production records (1879-1895), and three volumes of yarn prices (1904-1909).

Series 7. Miscellany 1848-1920

Includes advertisements and by-laws from various companies, exhibit forms and correspondence, and some material concerning the personal finances and activities of Charles Stevens and the Gilbert family. Also included is a stationery sample book which, in addition to samples of letterhead and forms used by the company, contains notices posted in the factory and tenements concerning company rules and regulations.

Series 1. Legal and Property 1844-1879

Series 2. Executive 1849-1882

Series 3. Financial 1848-1929

Series 4. Sales 1842-1909

Series 5. Labor 1851-1931

Series 6. Production 1846-1930

Series 7. Miscellany 1848-1920