|
3. Provenance 5. Inventory 6. Subjects |
Textile mill, Carolina, R.I. Records, 1855-1865 Size: 1.5 linear foot Catalog number: MSS 483 sg 23 Processed by: Rick Stattler and Steve Dalpe, March 1999 ©Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division |
Historical note:
The Carolina Mills Company was a textile mill complex located on the Pawcatuck River in the village of Carolina, on the border of the towns of Charlestown and Richmond in southwestern Rhode Island. A mill had been located on the site since the early nineteenth century, and was purchased by Rowland G. Hazard (1801-1888) in 1843. He named both the mill and the village that grew up around it after his wife, Caroline. The factory buildings were located in Richmond, but some of the tenements were on the Charlestown side.
The mill initially produced cotton materials, and in 1862 was switched over to wool production. The mill complex was leased to the T.R. Hyde & Co. in 1863; the firm was a partnership of Thomas R. Hyde and Rowland Hazard II (1829-1898). The partnership was dissolved in January of 1868 due to Hyde's bankruptcy, and the mill was sold in 1869 to Franklin Metcalf, Ellison Tinkham and Orrin Cole. Rowland Hazard II continued to lease the mill from the new owners through at least 1877. Tinkham and Metcalf retained ownership of Carolina Mills through their deaths in 1908.
Bibliography:
Tootell, Lucy Rawlings, ed. Driftways into the Past (Westerly, R.I.: Richmond Historical Society, 1977), 49-53.
Obituary of Franklin Metcalf, Providence Journal, January 29, 1908
Scope and content:
This collection consists mostly of account books from 1855 through 1863. Most of the records end together in 1863, when the Hazards leased out the mill. There is also one "help ledger" from the T.R. Hyde & Co., the lessees. The collection includes general accounts, labor accounts with employees, and a "Farmer's Ledger" which seems to be individual accounts with the company store.
Rowland G. Hazard apparently did not keep separate correspondence files for each of his businesses. Some correspondence relating to the Carolina Mills can be found interspersed through the records of the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company (sg36), and also in the correspondence files of his personal papers (sg5). See also the correspondence files of Rowland Hazard II (sg6) for the 1860s and 1870s.
Provenance:
These papers were donated by the Hazard family as part of the Hazard Family Papers in 1985. They had been deposited in 1975. Some business correspondence files relating to the Carolina Mills can be found at Harvard University’s Baker Library. Later papers of the Carolina Mills, dating from 1872 to 1935, are in the Special Collections of the University of Rhode Island Library. The American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Mass., has a textile sample book and a detailed 1875 insurance description of the mill.
Processing note:
This collection is part of the Hazard Family Papers, which were processed with support from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, the Beinecke Foundation, and the extended Hazard Family.
The physical condition of this collection is very poor; it was surveyed by a conservator in 1979, but no action was taken. In March of 1994, the volumes were disbound from their moldy covers, which were discarded. In 1996, some of the more moldy loose papers were copied onto archival paper, and the originals discarded.
Inventory:
Box 1, folder 1. Farmer's ledger B, 1859-1863.
Box 1, folder 2. Help ledger A, 1860-1863.
Box 1, folder 3. (removed from Help Ledger A) Pay lists, undated (copies)
Box 1, folder 4. Help ledger, 1863-1865 (T.R. Hyde & Co.)
Box 1, folder 5. Journal A, 1855-1863.
Box 1, folder 6. (removed from Journal A) Store and help accounts, 1863 and undated.
Box 1, folder 7. Ledger A, 1855-1863.
Box 1, folder 8. (removed from Ledger A) Account balances, 1863-1864.
Box 1, folder 9. (removed from Ledger A) Trial balance, 1863
(removed from Ledger A) Balance sheets, April 1861, April 1862
(removed from Ledger A) Loose accounts
(removed from Ledger A) Inventory, April 1862
Box 1, folder 10. (removed from Ledger A) Loose accounts, undated (copies)
Box 2, folder 1. Loose accounts with Asa Fairbanks, 1844-1849
Box 2, folder 2. Loose accounts, 1856-1859
Box 2, folder 3. Loose accounts, 1868
Box 2, folder 4. Loose accounts, 1869
Box 2, folder 5. Loose accounts, 1876-1878
Box 2, folder 6. Mill building plans and construction accounts, 1841-1844
Box 2, folder 7. Order account book, 1850; sales account book, 1850
Box 2, folder 8. Sample cloth swatches (found in Peace Dale Manufacturing Co. Records)
Box 2, folder 9. T.R. Hyde & Co. dissolution of partnership, 1868
Box 2, folder 10. Waste books, 1843-1847, 1844-1854
Subjects:
Hazard, Rowland II (1829-1898)
Hazard, Rowland G. (1801-1888)
Hyde, T.R. & Co.
Richmond, R.I. - Commerce
Textile industry - Rhode Island - Richmond
End of finding aid - return to top
RIHS1822