2023 Valley Talks #1: Worldly Rhode Island
Today was the first presentation of the 2023 Valley Talks series hosted by Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS). Called Worldly Rhode Island, the talk was presented via Zoom by RIHS Executive Director C. Morgan Grefe, who holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University. Grefe described the changes in the Rhode Island population from the Gilded Age to the present day. She also highlighted important figures in Rhode Island political and manufacturing history, along with mill production in the mid 19th through the early 20th century, especially during World War I. Below are key points from the talk.
Famous Figures
Among the earliest discussed figures was George Corliss, a Providence, RI resident who invented and patented a type of steam engine. Corliss won first prize for his design at the 1867 World’s Fair in Paris, France. He later won the Rumford Prize, named for fellow New England inventor Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford of Bavaria.
United States Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (R-RI) started his career in a grocery story but became a trolley company and newspaper owner, along with a career politician. Senator Aldrich was a known union buster and passed laws to support his investment in sugar. His daughter, Abigail (a good name), married the son of John D. Rockefeller, a fellow Gilded Age tycoon.
Population Changes
Throughout the 20th century, an increase in the Rhode Island population changed the lines between urban and rural areas. At the beginning of the century in 1900, Providence was the 20th largest city in the United States and held a third of the state’s population. A hundred years before, in 1800, Providence was the 9th largest city, comparable to Dallas, TX today. One demographic that has not changed is the percentage of foreign-born residents in Providence: a third of the population both today and in the Gilded Age. “Native born” residents complained bitterly about their new neighbors. An article in Providence Magazine declared, “Foreign invasions… the native Americans [Yankees]... surrendered… to Portuguese, Jews, and Armenians with little regret… undesirable buildings have changed the character of their neighborhoods.”
Factories Before WWI
At the beginning of the Gilded Age, the Rhode Island economy relied heavily on textile manufacturing. However, the little state could not compete with the enormous factory complexes in Massachusetts found in cities like Lawrence, Lowell, and Boston. However, Rhode Island had a major advantage in jewelry production and other metal work. In 1880, the state controlled 25% of the jewelry industry, with 200 firms and 7,000 employees. While mill owners complained about “prejudice against machine-cut [metal] files” held by the public, businesses like Nicholson File Company were successful until the mid-20th century, with brands that exist to this day.
Another example of this success is Brown & Sharpe. The company was founded by David Brown and his son Joseph Brown in 1833. After the elder Brown retired, the younger Brown formed a partnership with inventor Lucian Sharpe in 1853. The precision machinery company produced an Automatic Linear Dividing Engine in the 1850s that still works today. A later employee, Oscar Beale, invented an automatic screw machine and gauges guaranteed to be accurate to one ten-thousandth of an inch. These remarkable tools were produced in a 66,000 square feet that cost $300,000 to build in 1872. A foundry expansion built in 1880 was about 90 yards long and 20 yards wide, or an additional 16,200 square feet. By 1913, the complex had 967,000 square feet of building and covered 28 acres. Inside the factory, workers had eleven hour days, working from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for six days a week. The machines ran on a belt and loop system, similar to one that can be seen inside Wilkinson Mill at the Old Slater Mill National Historic Landmark in Pawtucket, RI.
Triple Deckers & Immigration
By the 1910s, Rhode Island cities experienced what “Native born” residents called “The Triple Decker Menace”. Immigrants to the United States lived in three-story tenement buildings with a different family on each floor. In 1916, census worker John Elder cased triple decker area in Providence and found over 1,800 open cesspools, cellar water closets, and outhouses. Rather than providing resources to improve sanitary conditions, New England cities banned triple deckers, with Providence passing its ban in 1923.
In addition to a ban on communal housing, the cities and factory owners differentiated between “English Speaking” workers (Americans, British Canadians, English, Irish, and Scots) and “Non-English Speaking” workers (Italians, Jews, Russians, French Canadians, Swedes, Norwegians), even referring to these groups of people as different races. Also at this time, no Asians, African-Americans, or Latinos were employed by these factories. In attempt to Americanize the workers and promote loyalty to the company, Brown & Sharpe funded classes in American civics and the English language, along with helping workers apply for citizenship. The company also funded baseball teams, with local heros like hall of famer Nap LaJoie making it into the big leagues. These teams allowed workers to expand their community beyond their ethnic group and church affiliation, which ultimately aided in unionization.
Factories During WWI
The start of WWI had the same effect on the American economy and the COVID-19 lockdowns. Rampant inflation and price gouging caused the “Providence Macaroni Riots of 1914”, called so because of the Italian immigrants who participated. Despite this unrest, Brown & Sharpe continued to be a major employer. The company initially made some poor business decisions, attempting to sell equipment to Germany during the war, only for the equipment to be seized by English troops. Since America was neutral at that point in the war, the governments of England, France, and Russia still sent orders to Brown & Sharpe despite this initial disloyalty. The company created a special war production department to supply these customers.
In September 2015, with the workers pressured to fulfil orders and receiving offers of employment from factories in Connecticut, 2,000 employees went on strike. The company immediately hired another 2,000 workers to replace them. Despite these efforts, by 1916, the company had a year-long backlog due to slow delivery times, high steel prices, worker strikes, and other major supply chain issues. New laws passed during this time to give workers more rights, including the right to an eight-hour day and the right to organize or form a union.
Desperate to fill orders, the company hired women for the first time in 1918. Supervisors were astonished to find these workers had fewer workplace accidents or manufacturing errors than the men. The male co-workers credited themselves for the unblemished records, claiming they gave their female counterparts exceptional training. While I have no doubt the men did their best when teaching the new employees, I imagine the women had an advantage of smaller, nimbler fingers when working on the machines, in addition to being more meticulous and risk-averse.
Foreign Investors
In 1889, Governor Royal C. Taft appointed Aram J. Pothier, a French-Canadian Rhode Islander from Woonsocket, as the representative to the Paris Exposition, a decision that would radically change business in Woonsocket and aid Pothier in his political career. Pothier travelled to France and Belgium to find mill investors for Rhode Island factories. At the time, the firm of B.B. Knight & Robert Knight owned Clinton Mill, which had 22,000 spindles, 512 looms, and 360 operator, along with Lippitt Mill, named for its original owners.
Soon, mills were built in droves, and Pothier became mayor of Woonsocket, and then governor of Rhode Island. The Global Mill, owned by the Ballou family, distant relatives on my father’s side, became the largest textile producer with over 1,700 workers. Philmont Worsted was built by Joseph Guerin of Belgium. Jules Desurmont Mill was built by French and Belgian investors in 1909. Woonsocket Machine & Press had 1,000 employees by 1911. Other mills from this time period included further construction of Conant Thread Mill, named for distant relatives on my mother’s side; Lafayette Worsted Mill, now demolished; and Barnai Worsted Mill, whose unique name comes from the surnames of the original investors William Barnett and William Naismith, and which stands today as the home of the Museum of Work & Culture. These mills with French-speaking owners allowed French-Canadian culture to flourish in Woonsocket.
Q&A
The audience asked many great questions, allowing Grefe to expand on topics covered during the talk. She explained how ethnic groups fundraised to construct their own churches, which they built near their homes. Rhode Island cities were small enough and walkable enough that transportation systems such as trolleys and subways were never developed. Additionally, most mill owners did not build subsidized housing. The cities were not company towns, so the mill did not often control the stores. Workers could move from factory to factory. Instead, triple-decker houses were built "on spec" by architects like Benjamin Rakatansky. He figured out how to create modular homes at different price points, from bare bones models to ornate buildings, which allowed multigenerational immigrant families to live together.
Unfortunately, these communities did not last. Yankee women invented home inspection to gatekeep the child rearing and culinary practices of their immigrant neighbors. They asked their politically powerful husbands to pass laws banning tenements, blaming these spaces for the spread of Spanish flu. After WWI, manufacturing began moving to the South. Rising taxes, cost of land, and wages made manufacturing more expensive. The textile industry had a long relationship with the South because of cotton, and the Black labor force in the South could be employed in factories at lower rates their their White counterparts. Some factory buildings have been repurposed. Nicholson File Company is now an art studio, while Geneva Mills is luxury apartments. Many have been demolitioned during the construction of highways.