(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

label levels:

This is a stereopticon photographic view of the John Russell Cutlery Company which was located in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. John Russell started his cutlery manufacturing business in Greenfield, Massachusetts, about 1834 at the "Green River Works" along the Green River. He moved his business in 1870 to the newly-planned industrial city, Turners Falls, Massachusetts. Alvah Crocker helped to found the Turners Falls Company who conceived of and a planned an industrial village to rival Lowell and Lawrence in eastern Massachusetts. When John Russell moved his cutlery manufactory to Turners Falls, he was the town's largest employer. Of the 1,166 people who worked in factories in Turners in 1880, 600 (51%) were employed by the Russell Cutlery. Cutlery, paper and cotton textiles formed the primary economic basis of the town. Russell employed a mix of native- and foreign-born workers. Men and women from Ireland, Germany, and Eastern European countries worked in the cutlery making over 150 kinds of pocket knives among other types of cutlery.

top of page