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Revision as of 17:50, 23 June 2008 by Marcbela (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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.
Paul C Whitin and his descendants, built numerous mills along the Mumford River and Blackstone River and dominated civic life in the area for over 150 years. Paul C. Whitin, who was a local blacksmith, and James Fletcher started a "shop" together in south Northbridge, Massachusetts. In 1826 they started a separate company together, on the Mumford River at Northbridge. Eventually the Whitin Machine Works, the Whitin Family and its related industries begun by these two men, dominated the upper Blackstone Valley. Paul's sons, Paul Jr, John Whitin, and James Whitin, joined him in the enterprise. The Whitin Machine Works became the largest manufacturer of textile machinery in the world. The "Shop" as it was called was prominent in the specialty of manufacturing machinery for the cotton mills of the textile industry. The Slater Mills, at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Slatersville, Rhode Island, the Mills of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Uxbridge, Grafton, Massachusetts, and Millbury, Massachusetts, all contributed to make the Blackstone River and its tributaries, America's "hardest working River". The Blackstone Valley is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in America as a result of Samuel Slater's first cotton mill at Pawtucket. The Blackstone Valley is the oldest industrialized region in the United States.
The later village of Whitinsville
The village of south Northbridge, quickly came to be known as Whitinsville, named after Colonel Whitin, and his family.
See also
Notes
- Whitin Geneology by Don Gosselin
- Navin, Thomas (1969). The Whitin Machine Works since 1831: A textile machinery company in an industrial village; Harvard studies in business history. Russel and Russel.
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