Chittenden County VT Archives History - Businesses .....Industries Of Winooski 1891
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INDUSTRIES AND WEALTH OF WINOOSKI.

WINOOSKI is a manufacturing village in the town of Colchester, located about
three and one half miles from the city of Burlington, to which it is connected
by a street railway. The town of Colchester was one of the New Hampshire Grants,
and was chartered June 7, 1763, to Edward Burling and sixty-six others, in
seventy shares, as a six miles square township, 23,040 acres. There is, however,
but 20,000 acres aside from the waters of Mallet's Bay. There were ten grantees
in the charter by the name of Burling. and as this town and Burlington were
chartered the same day it is supposed by some mixing up of clerks or papers that
Burlington received the name that should have been given to Colchester. The
village of Winooski, which has several manufacturing establishments and is quite
a lively place, is situated in the southern part of the town and is separated
from Burlington by the Winooski River; and it is thirty-six miles up this stream
to the capital of the state. Winooski has three churches-the Congregational,
Episcopal and Methodist; a savings bank and a dozen or more manufactories. It is
supplied with abundance of water power and has long been noted for the
excellence of its products. This village possesses all the elements of
accessibility, health, educational facilities, and social and religious
advantages in the highest degree. It has many points of interest for the
business man, the manufacturer, the capitalist, the traveler and the historian.
Its retail stores have kept pace with its manufacturing, and all classes of
trade have been conducted with an energy and tact that has made this village one
of the greatest distributing points for this section. The retail trade covers a
large extent of territory, thickly settled and wealthy, and hundreds of people
residing beyond what would naturally be regarded as the trade radius of the
village, come to Winooski to obtain their supplies. From her favorable location,
her advantageous surroundings, her commercial facilities, her business
opportunities, her extensive manufactures, her solidity, and the intelligence,
wealth, culture and moral advancement of her people, this village presents
advantages that make it a desirable place of residence as well as an
advantageous point for business of all kinds.

   BURLINGTON WOOLEN COMPANY, Colchester Mills, F. C. Kennedy, Agent.—The
leading manufacturing industry of Winooski, and an important factor in the
commercial activity of the state, is that of the Burlington Woolen Company, who
enjoy a reputation and a trade national in extent and eminently creditable in
character as extensive manufacturers of choice and medium beavers, fine kerseys,
eskimo and regulation police cloths, in finest indigo colors; broadcloths,
doeskins and diagonals; specialties in fine indigo blue police and uniform
cloths; blue flannels and choice fancy suitings, and ladies' dress goods, all in
finest stock and choice colors; also, as proprietors of the Colchester Mills,
where they manufacture fine and medium merino yarns, made by latest approved
English system; also, combed yarns, for sale on the cop or skeins. The
foundation of what is now recognized as little less than a colossal industry was
laid in 1835, under the name of the Burlington Mill Company, and large mills
were erected at that time. In 1853 the firm of Harding Brothers succeeded to the
control, and in 1862 the Burlington Woolen Company was formed and received its
charter. The mills have been materially enlarged and improved under the present
management, and is complete in every detail, with all the trade appliances that
inventive ingenuity and mechanical skill have devised for facilitating
perfection and dispatch in the manufacture of those specialties for which these
mills have earned such a high reputation throughout the country. The woolen mill
is a splendid six-story brick structure, 330 feet long, with a capacity for
twenty-five sets of 48-inch cards, and which consume / 1,200,000 pounds of wool
per year. The leading specialties of this mill are fabrics for fine uniform
cloth, fine kerseys, cassimeres, ladies' dress goods and fine billiard cloths.
Employment is given to 436 hands, and the annual receipts from this branch of
the company's business average $750,000. In 1880 the Colchester Mills were
built, consisting of a substantial brick building, three stories high and 99 x
235 feet in dimensions, [equipped with machinery which is not only of the best
class, but in many respects superior to that used by contemporaneous concerns,
and having the capacity for operating 16,000 spindles of If inches gauge, and of
consuming annually 5,000 bales of cotton of 500 pounds each. The specialties of
these mills are yarns for underwear and hosiery, the finest combed cotton and
finest combed wool or merino yarns being produced, and steady employment is
given to 275 hands. The fabrics and yarns manufactured by this company are
standard the world over. No better goods are produced anywhere. The utmost skill
and care are exercised in all methods of manufacture to improve the quality and
enhance the value of the output in every conceivable way. As a result, the
highest degree of perfection is attained, which serves to stamp the manager as a
manufacturer of sound judgment, business sagacity and unusual executive ability.
These qualifications the agent and manager, Hon. F. C. Kennedy, is recognized as
possessing in the highest degree, and with such advantages and benefits as
naturally result from experienced management and a keen appreciation of the
public want, this company offers extraordinary inducements to the trade, as
regards both superiority of goods, liberality of terms and prices, and prompt
and perfect fulfillment of all orders. Its fine uniform cloths are extensively
used by railroad corporations, municipalities, palace car lines and military
organizations; while its yarns are widely preferred by knitters in all parts of
the country, owing to their superiority of quality and uniform excellence. This
company are also the owners and proprietors of the Burlington Flouring Mill,
which has a capacity of four run of stone and one double set of rolls. The
specialty of this department is feed, and a large wholesale and retail trade is
enjoyed in both feed and flour, the semi-annual receipts of this mill averaging
$35,000. This company also own and operate the Winooski Aqueduct Company, whose
works supply Winooski village with water, affording power also for these mills,
and recognized as one of the finest water powers in the state. The officers of
the Burlington Woolen Company are Joseph Sawyer, president; Thos. F. Patterson,
treasurer; F. C. Kennedy, secretary and manager. The president, Mr. Sawyer, is a
native and well-known citizen of Boston, where he has been engaged in mercantile
business for years, serving also as bank director and as trustee of numerous
estates. The treasurer, Mr. Patterson, was born in New York, and is prominent as
a trustee of various institutions in that city and state. Hon. F. C. Kennedy,
the moving spirit of this great industry, was born in Chittenden County, Vt.,
and became connected with this house in 1856, as book-keeper for Harding
Brothers. He is now, and has been for many years, the secretary and agent of the
company, and the manager of all its various branches of business. During the
thirty-four years that he has been connected with this business, he has handled
over seven millions of dollars without the loss of a dollar. He has also served
as a member of the House of Representatives and of the Senate of Vermont,
treasurer of the Winooski Savings Bank and president of the Burlington Electric
Light Company; and was the prime mover in the introduction of electric lights
and telephones into Burlington. He is still in the active prime of life, a
resident of the city of Burlington, and too well known and highly esteemed in
commercial, financial and social circles to need any personal eulogy at our hands.

   E. H. LANE, Manufacturer of Organ Stop Stems, Spools, Cork Caps, Checkers,
Etc.—Mr. E. H. Lane is a manufacturer of organ stop stems, spools, cork caps,
checkers, and all kinds of small turned goods. The business was originally
established in 1886, by Mr. J. L. Frary, who was succeeded by the present
proprietor in 1889. The works are thoroughly spacious in size, possessing all
the requisite machinery for executing the work in hand, operated by water power,
and furnishes steady employment to a dozen or more skilled hands. In all
departments of the business the aim of the proprietor has been to produce the
highest excellence of workmanship, beauty of design and elegance of finish. Mr.
Lane may be justly regarded as one of the most reliable and important factors in
the industrial growth and prosperity of Winooski. He is prompt, systematic and
responsible in the fulfilment of all orders and commissions, and his house will
be found one with which it is always pleasant and profitable to deal. Mr. Lane
is a native Vermonter, a resident of the city of Burlington, and an expert and
accomplished master of his trade, who has won success in his special field of
labor by honestly deserving it.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

INDUSTRIES AND WEALTH OF THE PRINCIPAL POINTS IN VERMONT,
BEING
BURLINGTON, WINOOSKI, RUTLAND, WEST RUTLAND, BRANDON, FAIR HAVEN, POULTNEY,
CASTLETON, ST. ALBANS, SWANTON, ENOSBURG FALLS, BRATTLEBORO, BELLOWS FALLS,
MONTPELIER, BARRE, WATERBURY, ST. JOHNSBURY, LYNDONVILLE, LYNDON, HARDWICK,
BENNINGTON, SPRINGFIELD, WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERGENNES, MIDDLEBURY, NORTHFIELD
AND MORRISVILLE.

1891.

PUBLISHED BY
AMERICAN PUBLISHING AND ENGRAVING CO.,
(ELEVATORS.)
Nos. 149 AND 151 CHURCH STREET, NEW YORK.


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