|
3. Provenance 5. Inventory 6. Subjects |
Joslin Manufacturing Company Records Cotton goods factory, of Scituate and Providence, R.I. Records, 1826-1925. Bulk, 1892-1925. Size: 3.75 ft. Catalog number: MSS 141 Processed by: Cindy Bendroth, April 1991 Expanded by Rick Stattler, May 2001 ©Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division |
Historical note:
William E. Joslin (1842-1912) began manufacturing shoe and corset laces at the Rockland Mill in Scituate, R.I. in 1865. He gradually purchased other mills in Scituate and Providence, and incorporated as the Joslin Manufacturing Company in May 1892. The business was consolidated in 1899. In 1901 the company owned 2800 braiders, and their own spinning plant. Dyeing took place in the Richmond and Clayville Mills. Finishing was done at the Merino mills. The company had 650 employees in 1901. At that time there were four mills in operation in the town of Scituate: Rockland Mill, Clayville Mills, Ponaganset Mill, and Richmond Mills. In addition, the company owned one mill in Providence: Merino Mills in the Olneyville neighborhood. The Dyerville Mills in Providence were added in 1903. By 1905, the company billed itself as "the largest and most complete shoe-lace manufactory in the world."
William E. Joslin was also president and stockholder of four related companies. The William E. Joslin Company on Daboll Street in Providence was sold off at an early point, and later became known as Elmwood Mills. The Joslin Himalaya Company, near Merino Mills in Providence, manufactured cotton yarns and braid until it was bought out by Joslin Manufacturing in 1918. The Clayville Manufacturing Company in Scituate manufactured flexible gas tubing from at least 1902 to 1908. Finally, the Scituate Light and Power Company was founded in 1909 to sell the excess electricity generated from the turbines at Clayville Mill. The company provided electricity for much of the towns of Scituate, Foster, Glocester and Burrillville.
William E. Joslin brought his son William H. Joslin (1875-1933) into the business, and by 1909 the son was handling the bulk of company management. Joslin Manufacturing Company was broken up in 1925.
Bibliography:
"Official Souvenir of the Exposition of the New England Association of Arts and Crafts," 1902
Providence Board of Trade Journal, October 1902, 380-381; February 1903, 76; January 1905, 39; January 1909, 25.
Wessler, Edith S. The Jocelyn-Joslin-Joslyn-Josselyn Family, 239. Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle Co., 1961.
Scope and content:
The Joslin Manufacturing Company records include miscellaneous corporate records, and some records from the individual mills, mostly from 1892 to 1925. The records include the boxing department payroll (for piecework done primarily by women); two folders on various aspects of the Scituate Light and Power Company; yarn accounts from various mills, 1907-1912; stock accounts; deeds and agreements; World War I government contract information; writs ordering Joslin to attach the wages of employees who had been sued for debts; insurance records; and a variety of other papers. There are also a few scattered correspondence files.
Provenance:
The bulk of these records were donated by Walter E. and Ruth Joslin in 1991. In 1996, Tom Beardsley donated approximately thirty letters received by the company from 1908 to 1909. A 1923 letter from the company to the Hon. Byron J. Hall was transferred from Graphics in January, 2001. There was no accession information with the transfer. One additional box of records was donated by Gilbreth Brown in May of 2001.
Inventory:
Box 1
Box shop piece work, January 1917 - December 1919 (10 folders)
Box 2
Scituate Light and Power, 1920s (2 folders)
Bank accounts, July 1923 - Dec. 1924 (9 folders)
Insurance
Box 3
Sketch of William Joslin and the Joslin Mfg. Co., for Lamb’s Cotton Industry directory
Price lists, 1901, 1905
Correspondence folders:
1906
1908-1909, mostly circulars re cotton sales.
1919
1923
1924
Box 4 (volumes)
Yarn received at Dye House from Dyerville Mill, 1911-1912
Dressing reports for Rockland and Merino Mill, 1913-1915
Dyehouse records, 1910-1911
Order book, undated
Clayville Mfg. Co. yarn accounts, 1907
Clayville Mfg. inventory, January 1907
Stock accounts, Joslin Mfg. Co.,
April 1919
July 1919
October 1919
January 1920
April 1920
July 1920
October 1920
January 1921
April 1921
July 1921
October 1921
Jan 1922
April 1922
July 1922
October 1922
January 1923
Ponaganset Mill yarn account, 1912
Merino Mill yarn account, 1910-1912
Biography (?) in Swedish
Box 5 (2001 accession):
Box 5, folder 1. Agreements and contracts - Coal, oil and cotton suppliers, 1911-1925
Box 5, folder 2. Agreements and contracts - Fire suppression, 1892-1912
Box 5, folder 3. Agreements and contracts - Physical plant, 1892-1913
Box 5, folder 4. Agreements and settlements with laborers, 1907-1913
Box 5, folder 5. Analysis of tipping metal, 1909
Box 5, folder 6. Correspondence, 1892-1925
Box 5, folder 7. Deeds - Merino Manufacturing Company and Samuel Hedley, 1885-1898
Box 5, folder 8. Deeds - Rockland Mills and Ponaganset Mills, 1826-1894
Box 5, folder 9. Deeds and leases, miscellaneous, 1852-1923
Box 5, folder 10. Financial - Accounts sent to R.G. Dun for collection, 1908 (with 1925 contract)
Box 5, folder 11. Financial - Checkbooks, 1907-1914 (19 volumes)
Box 5, folder 12. Financial - Clayville Mfg. Co. - Invoice book of stove tubing sold, 1906-1908
Box 5, folder 13. Financial - Clayville Mfg. Co. - Petty cash, 1901-1906; financial rep'ts, 1902-1908
Box 5, folder 14. Financial - Financial statements, 1914, 1915, 1925
Box 5, folder 15. Financial - Inventories, Richmond Mill, 1889-1899
Box 5, folder 16. Financial - Liberty Loan accounts, 1917-1919
Box 5, folder 17. Financial - Promissory note stubs, 1898-1899
Box 5, folder 18. Financial - Miscellaneous
Box 5, folder 19. Industrial statistics reports, 1896-1898, 1913
Box 5, folder 20. Insurance - Credit, 1897-1898
Box 5, folder 21. Insurance - Disability insurance (William H. Joslin personal policy), 1919-1924
Box 5, folder 22. Insurance - Fire insurance policies, 1893-1923
Box 5, folder 23. Interstate Paper Box Association - Price list, 1900
Box 5, folder 24. Joslin Himalaya Company - By-laws, deeds, draft minutes, etc., 1894-1918
Box 5, folder 24a. Machinery list - Truman Beckwith, n.d.
Box 5, folder 25. Matson Lace Tipping Machine Co. / Boston Spiral Tagging Co. patent, 1912-1924
Box 5, folder 26. New England Mechanical Arts expo, Crescent Park, R.I. - Agreement, 1902
Box 5, folder 26a. Plan diagram for pulleys in mill drawn by Mr. Hall, n.d.
Box 5, folder 27. Ponaganset Reservoir Co. - Assessment, 1903; and agreement, 1925
Box 5, folder 28. Property - Memoranda, etc., 1893-1918
Box 5, folder 29. Property - Valuation of Merino and Dyerville mills, 1921
Box 5, folder 30. Property - Water privilege analysis, 1909, 1914
Box 5, folder 31. Scituate Light & Power / Scituate Reservoir releases, 1917-1925
Box 5, folder 32. Shoelace manufacturers combination, 1910-1911
Box 5, folder 33. Stockholder agreements - Clayville Manufacturing Co., 1906
Box 5, folder 34. Stockholder agreements and extracts from minutes, 1899-1923
Box 5, folder 35. World War One - Contract information
Box 5, folder 36. World War One - Contract bonds
Box 5, folder 37. World War One - Priority applications
Box 5, folder 38. World War One - Questionnaires
Box 5, folder 39. Writs, 1915
Box 5, folder 40. Writs, 1916
Box 5, folder 41. Writs, 1917
Subjects:
* Clayville Manufacturing Company (Scituate, R.I.)
Clayville Mill (Scituate, R.I.)
Dyerville Mill (Providence, R.I.)
* Electric utilities.
* Gas tubing.
Joslin, William E., 1842-1912.
* Joslin Himalaya Company.
Merino Mill (Providence, R.I.)
Ponaganset Mill (Scituate, R.I.)
Ponaganset Reservoir Company.
Richmond Mill (Scituate, R.I.)
Rockland Mill (Scituate, R.I.)
* Scituate (R.I. : Town) - Commerce.
Scituate Light and Power (Scituate, R.I.)
* Shoe lace industry - Rhode Island - Scituate.
Textile industry - Rhode Island.
End of finding aid - return to top
RIHS1822