Fall Rivers' Industries

proximately $25,500,000, and factories repre -
senting an investment of nearly twice that
sum, with 3,300,000 spindles and 83,00 0
looms, giving employment to 32,500 hands ,
producing more than 1,500 miles of clot h
every working day, as well as a larg e
amount of yarns, thread, quilts and variou s
other cotton products .
The principal facts in regard to each of
the larger corporations, as well as some tha t
have suspended or been merged in others ,
appear below :
The Fall River Iron Works, now an im -
mense cotton manufacturing plant, givin g
employment to 4,500 hands, has been intimately
associated with the progress of th e
city .and has played an important part i n
its development. It had its inception i n
1821 in a small shipbuilding business carried
on near the site of the Metacomet mill,
by Bradford Durfee, a shipwright, and Richard
Borden, the owner of a grist mill nearby .
The need of iron work for the vessels and
also the demand for spikes, bars, rods an d
other iron articles for constructive purpose s
suggested the starting of shops for their
manufacture, and a company was forme d
by Richard Borden, Bradford Durfee, Holde r
Borden, David Anthony, William Valentine ,
Joseph Butler and Abram and Isaac Wilkinson,
the last four of Providence . The original
capital was $24,000, but this was soo n
after reduced by the withdrawal of th e
Wilkinsons to $18,000 .
The first shops were on the land now occupied
by the Iron Works No . 6, formerly
the Metacomet mill, and produced hoop iro n
for the New Bedford oil trade. Nail an d
rolling mills were also erected and enlarge d
from time to time, as the business rapidly
developed. By 1876 the company was employing
600 hands. It had meantim e
branched out into other lines, and had bee n
transferred to the present location of th e
main mills of the company. It had been th e
principal promoter of the Anawan mill i n
1825, the Providence line of steamboats commencing
with the Hancock in 1827, followe d
by the King Philip in 1832, Bradford Durfe e
in 1845, Richard Borden in 1874, Canonicu s
and Metacomet ; the Fall River Line to Ne w
York in 1847, the gas works and the rail -
road to Myricks, about the same time, an d
the Metacomet mill .
The company had been incorporated i n
1825, with a capital of $200,000, increased i n
1845 to $960,000, though not a dollar ha d
been paid in except for the original invest-
HISTORY OF FALL RIVER
ment of $18,000. No dividends in cash wer e
paid until 1850, but between that time an d
1880 the stockholders received $3,073,000 ,
besides stock in the Fall River Manufactory ,
the Troy Cotton & Woolen Co., the America n
Print Works and the Bay State Steamboat
Co . In 1880 it was thought advisable to di -
vide the property and form new corporations,
the Metacomet mill, with $288,00 0
capital, the Fall River Machine Co ., $96,000 ;
Fall River Gas Works Co ., $288,000, an d
Fall River Steamboat Co ., $192,000. For
each share in the old companies three wer e
given in the Metacomet, three in Gas Co . ,
one in the Machine Co., and two in th e
Steamboat Co. This left the old compan y
a large amount of real estate and valuabl e
wharf property, with buildings . Richar d
Borden was clerk, treasurer and agent fro m
1828 to 1874, when he was succeeded b y
Philip D. Borden, and one year later by Robert
C. Brown .
Soon after the division of the propert y
the manufacture of iron was discontinue d
on account of underselling by plants near
the mines, and M . C. D. Borden, who ha d
become the sole owner of the America n
Printing Co. in 1886, shortly after that tim e
also purchased the Iron Works Co., whic h
had a valuable water front adjoining th e
print works. He razed the old buildings ,
and in 1889 began the construction of a
vast cotton manufacturing plant to suppl y
cloth for printing. The first mill was, lik e
those subsequently erected, of brick, an d
was 386x120 feet, four stories in height ,
with a towering chimney 359 feet above th e
ground, the highest in the United States a t
the time. A second mill was built in 1892 ,
three stories high, 575x120, and the following
year No . 3, four stories, 309x142, No. 4 ,
372½2 x165½ , was erected in 1895, and it s
starting on Oct. 17 was made the occasion
of a notable dinner of New York and Fal l
River men on the steamer Priscilla, at which
Mr. Borden announced a gift of $100,000 to
the charities of the city . No. 5 mill wa s
built in 1902, and is 165x372 feet, with a n
ell 30x40. Since 1900 the property has bee n
further increased by the purchase of th e
Fall River Machine Co., on which larg e
storehouses were erected, and the Meta -
comet and Anawan mills. The former wa s
enlarged and improved as No . 6 mill, an d
the old Anawan, which had been idle fo r
some years and used as a storehouse, wa s
torn down to make way for No . 7 mill, 142 x
310, three stories in height at the south end