Slater Manufacturing Company

Business records, 1868-1918

Size: 14.5 ft.

Catalog number: MSS 6 sg 30

Processed by: Harold E. Kemble, B.M.Z., October 1977

©Rhode Island Historical Society

Manuscripts Division

William P. Sayles was one of a number of prominent Rhode Island businessmen (including Scott W. Mowry; Earl P. Mason; William S. Slater; John F. Slater; Fales, Jenks & Son; Lewis Fairbrother; and Stephen Waterman) who founded the Slater Cotton Company in Pawtucket in November 1868. At the outset, Sayles was not particularly prominent in the company's affairs, owning only 300 our of 4,000 shares outstanding and holding no company office. By January 1881, however, did William F. Sayles own a majority of the company's stock, which remained widely distributed throughout the 19th century (the number of stockholders rose from thirty-three in 1873 to eighty-two in 1892).

The Slater Cotton Company manufactured cotton goods in the grey state, which it either sold directly to commission merchants or contracted to be finished at nearby bleacheries or dye works. It also manufactured large quantities of cotton yarn which it sold, for the most part, to other cotton mills. By 1900, its product line included "Pride of the West" muslins, twills, sateens, nainsooks, and fancy lenos, as well as fine cotton yarns. The plant consisted of the Main Street Pawtucket factory of the American File Company, acquired in 1868, and a large brick mill on Church Street, erected in 1872.

Upon the death of William F. Sayles his shares in the Slater Cotton Company and the company's presidency passed to his son, Frank A. Sayles. In the decade that followed, Frank A. Sayles gradually took over a controlling interest in the concern. By April 1900, he owned 725 out of 1,600 shares of preferred stock outstanding; by February 1903, he had added to this 1,283 of the firms 2,000 shares of common stock; while at a stockholder's meeting of May 1907, he represented 2,030 of 2,896 shares present.

The Slater Cotton Company apparently fared poorly in the first decade of the 20th century. By October 1908, it had fallen so deeply in debt that it was reorganized as a new corporation, the Slater Manufacturing Company. At this time, its functions were broadened to include manufacturing of silk cloth. This move failed to halt the company's downward slide, which led to the liquidation of its manufacturing activities in 1915. In February 1915, its silk department was sold to the Hamlet Textile Company's Pawtucket department (another Sayles holding), and in October 1915, its cotton yard department was sold to form the Slater Yarn Company (also called Sayles). For the next few years, the Slater Manufacturing Company existed solely as a real estate holding company, renting space in its Pawtucket plant to the Hamlet Textile Company. December 1918 saw the final closing of the Slater Manufacturing Company's books.

Bayles, Richard M., History of Providence County, Rhode Island, W.W. Preston & Co., New

Bibliographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Rhode Island, National Biographical

Hall, Joseph D., Jr., Biographical History of the Manufacturers and Business Men of Rhode

Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscript Collections, Inventories of MSS 6, Sayles Finishing

The company's organizational records present a detailed picture of changes in its ownership, as well as of its reorganization as the Slater Manufacturing Company in 1908. The collection is strongest in its operation records, with almost complete runs of Journals, Ledgers, and Cash Books between 1868 and 1918. Its sales records provide some indication of its changing product lines, as it struggled to survive. Unfortunately, the collection contains almost none of the company's employment and production records.