Graphing History: the Rise and Fall of Amesbury Textile-Making

by
John Mayer, ACM Executive Director
and
Ron Klodenski, Industrial Survey Team Member

Winslow Homer’s portrait of a young woman changing bobbins (spools of thread or yarn used in making fabric) in a textile mill like those in Amesbury. Courtesy of Lowell National Historical Park.

Where many of us see only a jumble of numbers and statistics, Mike Harrold often sees important details. Mixing Amesbury history with historical data may not sound appealing to some, but Mike manages to use this information to develop an interesting story. One of the most prolific volunteers on the Industrial Survey Team at the Amesbury Carriage Museum, he finds his stories hidden in census data, statistics, and insurance maps. For an example, look at one of his recent projects, The Rise of Textile Mills Along Amesbury’s Powow River, posted on the Amesbury Carriage Museum website with many of his other reports. This essay is an introduction to Mike’s study.

A weave room in Amesbury’s Mill 4 (Water Street) about 1904. Courtesy of Amesbury Public Library, Local History Collection.

Because Amesbury is so famous for carriage building, many are still unaware that the brick mill buildings that give downtown Amesbury such rich character were built by manufacturers of wool and cotton fabric (textiles). This is the same industry that built the larger cities of Lowell, Lawrence and Manchester (N.H). When the textile industry eventually left Amesbury in 1912, many of these impressive brick structures were repurposed to make the carriages and automobile bodies for which Amesbury became known.

Amesbury’s upper millyard on an 1885 Sanborn insurance map. Buildings were drawn to scale with building use and number of floors indicated, allowing the square footage used for textile manufacturing to be calculated. (Click image to enlarge.)

But exactly when and to what degree the textile industry dominated Amesbury’s economy wasn’t clear. Mike wondered, “What was the size and scale of textile operations? How and when did the industry grow or begin to decline?” To find out, Mike began a study of Amesbury maps spanning the town’s industrial years (1825 to 1930). The maps included outlines of every building. And using those outlines, he calculated the total space occupied by textile companies from year to year. Next, he developed a graph showing the amount of space used over time. Mike’s thesis is that the space used would roughly indicate the health or strength of the industry.

Simplified version of a graph showing floor space devoted to textile manufacturing in Amesbury’s millyard from 1800 to 1920. See “The Rise of Textile Mills Along Amesbury’s Powow River” by Mike Harrold for the original with more detail.

Mike’s graph shows how textile-making activity steadily increased from 1810 to 1873 as more and more mills were constructed in Amesbury’s downtown. The graph even shows interruptions for recessions, or panics, as they were sometimes called. The peak occupancy years were between 1870 and 1880. This period came right after the Civil War, the boom-years when Amesbury mills churned out fabric used by distant workshops for making Union military uniforms. That maximum occupancy – the peak shown on his graph – was an incredible 520,000 square feet devoted solely to textile making. (For perspective – this amount of space is equal to more than 10 mills of the size of Amesbury Industrial Supply on High Street – build in 1826 and the oldest textile mill standing in Amesbury.)

During those peak years there was a final phase of construction. In 1871, both Mill 17 (Water Street, today’s home of Brewery Sylvaticus) and Mill 9 (Market Square, now occupied by Amesbury Chamber of Commerce and Market Square Bakehouse) were built as boiler houses to produce steam as a new source of power. But then the downturn began. Recessions and worsening business conditions caused a decline in textile manufacturing, and wool fabric manufacturing ended completely in 1887. Then, the only textiles being made in Amesbury were printed cotton fabrics. And that business ended in 1912, marking the end of over a hundred years of textile-manufacturing in Amesbury. Luckily for the town and those looking for employment, the automobile body-building industry was starting to ramp up and many of the unused textile mills found new purposes.

Mike Harrold leading an ACM-sponsored walking tour of Amesbury industrial-era sites.

The study of floor space occupied by textile manufacturers in the Amesbury millyards offers more than the just the numbers themselves. Mike added notes showing major events such as the Civil War, construction of various mill buildings and recessions that might have affected textile-manufacturing activity. You’ll also find a map indicating mill locations, a page showing how Powow River water powered mill machinery, and many details about the companies involved. Overall, the report paints a fairly complete picture of how outside factors interacted with the local economy to affect Amesbury businesses and residents. This information is invaluable for others working on Amesbury history and sheds light on events that would not normally be considered.

View the complete report here.

Also, when you get the chance, join Mike on one of the walking tours he often leads for ACM. You’ll be amazed by the history and the numbers -- and by one person with a knack for analyzing, retaining and explaining them all.