PICTURESQUE HAMPSHIRE. 85
ture of palm leaf hats, in Enfield. A gentleman in Boston went to Cuba for his
health in 1830. He was absent about three years and while on the island noticed
that the men and women wore hats of palm leaf, which grows abundantly there.
He said to himself that if the hats could be made there the Yankee could make
them and of a superior quality. He brought some palm leaf home, and after his arrival
in Boston went to see a friend by the name of Holbrook, a wholesale dry goods
merchant there, to interest him. Mr. Holbrook named me as a man who might like
to take hold of the work, and the next time I passed by his store he called
me in. I remained with the friend (I forget the name) for about two hours, when I was
satisfied that a large business might be made out of it. We agreed that when
my man came for my goods I would order him to call for a few hundred palm leaf,
and I took the simple hat with me to Enfield. After arriving home I set my wits
to work to find some girl to make the undertaking. I finally concluded to go
to a poor widow woman who lived about two miles from the village, and who had grown-up daughters. They were only too willing to attempt the work of making the hats, and as soon as
the palm leaf arrived I took about one hundred leaves to the house, together
with a machine which Ambrose Packard made for me at his gunshop, to split the
leaf to suitable size. After the girls had finished the first hat they brought
it to the store and I found it far superior to the sample, and from that small beginning arose one of the greatest industries of the age."
THE SILK INTEREST.
As already intimated, the silk business is the largest and most important
manufacturing interest in the county, and the leading house in this line is
the
Belding Brothers & Company.
From the small beginnings of the experiments in silk worm culture at Florence
have grown the great silk companies of our time, and towering above them all,
in importance, is the great firm of Belding Bros. & Co., with mills at Northampton,
Montreal, Can., San Francisco, Rockville, Conn, and Belding, Mich. These mills
employ over 1800 hands, distributed as follows: At Northampton, 550; Rockville,
500; Montreal, 400; San Francisco. 250; Belding, 150. The principal product
is machine silk, sewing silk, knitting and embroidery silks, but at the Northampton
mill one hundred and seventy-five looms are employed in weaving silk fabrics, such
as sleeve linings, and all silk coat linings, for tailors' use. Here there are
also in operation twenty-five hosiery machines, now making one hundred and seventy-five
dozen of silk hose a week. The total product of all the mills during the year
1889 was valued at $5,000,000. Over 2000 pounds of raw silk are consumed in
the five mills, and some idea of the value of the raw material item may be inferred
from the fact that it costs from four to six dollars a pound.
Our purpose in this review is to speak with special reference to the company's
interests in Hampshire county and Northampton, where are manufactured the goods
we have already described. Mention of the general enterprise of such an important
concern and and illustrations of all their mills are naturally concomitant to
such an article, and will be found following. The engraving of the Northampton
mill, given herewith, is a very accurate one, made from a wash drawing furnished
by Artist Clifton Johnson of Hockanum, and photographed by Kurtz of New York.
This branch of the Beldings' interests, which is under the management of
E. F. Crooks and the superintendence of H. C. Hallett, has become the most important
of the company's works. The buildings comprise two four-story and one one-story brick
structure, all of large dimensions. They are located near the Connecticut river
railroad and the New Haven & Northampton road, and are equipped with the
best mechanical appliances, including one hundred and seventy-five looms and
twenty thousand spindles, the driving
CAPTIONS:
THE BELDING BROS.
M. M. Belding, New York; PRES. AND TREAS.
A. N. Belding, Rockville, CT; SEC. AND ASS'T TREAS.
D. W. Belding, Cincinnati, O. VICE-PRESIDENT.
EDGAR F. CROOKS, Manager of Northampton Mill.
THE BELDINGS' MILL AT NORTHAMPTON.
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