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| ==The later village of Whitinsville== | ==The later village of Whitinsville== | ||
| The village of south ], quickly came to be known as ], named after Colonel Paul C. Whitin, and his family. | The village of south ], quickly came to be known as ], named after Colonel Paul C. Whitin, and his family. As the ] grew, so did the village of ]. | ||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 18:03, 23 June 2008
Col. Paul C. Whitin , (1767-1831) was a pioneering industrialist who in 1831 established Whitin Machine Works at Northbridge, Massachusetts, which would become the largest maker of specialty textile machinery in the world.
Paul C. Whitin was born in 1767 in the South Northbridge section of Uxbridge, Massachusetts in Worcester County (which became the seperate town of Northbridge when Paul was five years of age, in 1772). He began his career as an apprentice in Colonel James Fletcher's forge in South Northbridge. He would marry Fletcher's daughter, Elizabeth (Betsey) Fletcher in 1793 and they would have six children, including five sons. Whitin and his sons would become very influential in the development of the Whitin Machine Works as well as the textile industry in the Northbridge, Massachusetts area during the 19th Century, establishing or acquiring several mills throughout the Blackstone Valley area, including ones at Uxbridge, Linwood, Riverdale and Rockdale.
Pioneer of Industry
In 1809, Paul Whitin and his father-in-law James Fletcher and others from Northbridge and Leicester, established the Northbridge Cotton Manufacturing Company. This wood-framed spinning mill, two and one-half stories high had 200 spindles and was only the third cotton mill in the Blackstone Valley at the time.
In 1815, Paul Whitin became a partner with Colonel Fletcher, Betsey's father, and his two brother-in-laws, Samuel and Ezra Fletcher, under the firm name of Whitin and Fletcher. Then they built a second mill with 300 spindles on the opposite side of the Mumford River. Paul Whitin then bought out the Fletcher shares in 1826 and formed a new partnership with his two sons, Paul Jr. and John Crane Whitin. The new company was called Paul Whitin and Sons. Also in 1826, a new brick mill was constructed, having 2000 spindles, which still stands today at Whitinsville, having been recently restored. The 1826 brick mill is perhaps the oldest surviving, unaltered mill remaining in Massachusetts. Later on, Paul Whitin's two other younger sons, Charles P. and James F. later also entered into the family-run business.
Paul C. Whitin would die in 1831. Years later, with the cotton business on a solid basis and escalating in 1845, Betsey Whitin and her sons built a new, stone textile factory, largely of granite known as the Whitinsville Cotton Mill, which gave the family business 7,500 more spindles. This is now called the restored Cotton Mill Apartments, in Whitinsville.
Whitin Machine Works
In 1831, Paul C. Whitin's third son John Crane Whitin designed and had patented a new cotton picker machine that outperformed others in the previous mills. This was indeed to be first of other successive inventions that would establish the Whitin Machine Works as a great textile machinery plant.
The later village of Whitinsville
The village of south Northbridge, quickly came to be known as Whitinsville, named after Colonel Paul C. Whitin, and his family. As the Whitin Machine Works grew, so did the village of Whitinsville.