The George W. Prentiss Company was one of the longest continuous manufacturing concerns in Holyoke.
George Prentiss was born on October 10, 1829, and lived his first 16 years in Claremont, New Hampshire. He worked on a farm and attended local schools. His high school years were interrupted by employment at grocery stores in New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He returned to Claremont for additional high school education. At 21, he returned to New Bedford to work in a grocery store for two years.
Receiving a good recommendation from his former employer, he started work for H. S. Washburn & Co, a wire manufacturing concern, in Worcester, Massachusetts. The company erected a wire mill in Boston, and Mr. Prentiss became the assistant to the superintendent.
In 1857, he moved to Holyoke and, with Joshua Gray as a partner, opened his own wire-making business. By mutual consent, the Gray & Prentiss Company partnership was dissolved in March 1858, and Mr. Prentiss became the sole proprietor. The mill was located near the Parsons Paper Company's finishing building. In its early years, the company produced 100 tons of iron wire per year. The company had eight employees.
In 1862, the Holyoke Water Power Company built a 50' x 40' addition onto one of its buildings to accommodate Prentiss Wire.
Chickering & Sons, a noted Boston piano manufacturer, purchased iron wire for piano strings from 1863 through the 1920s. Steel wire was later added.
The company held several patents, including a continuous method for tinning wire, the tempering and annealing of carbon steel wire, and a partnership with the inventor of the first wire stitching machine for bookbinding.
In 1869, the George W. Prentiss plant was built on Dwight Street, between the first and second level canals, adjacent and west of the Whiting Paper Mill No. 2. The mill was equipped with new machinery.
In 1871, Marden W. Prentiss joined the firm as a partner with his uncle, George W. Prentiss.
Between 1887 and 1907, several additions and another floor were added to the mill building. This was to expand storage, office, and manufacturing space.
In 1909, more space for production was needed to meet demand. The Prentiss Wire Company purchased the Willard property on Dwight and Front Street. The property measured 80' on Dwight Street and 470' on Front Street. Mr. Prentiss sold the northerly portion to Charles B. Sampson, as shown on the 1911 Richard's Atlas below. This parcel ran along Front Street and measured 80' x 250'.
Prentiss Wire was left with the remaining 80' x 220' parcel, which housed several businesses. In 1910, the American Bridge Company built an iron walking bridge over the first-level canal connecting the Prentiss mills.
Initially, existing businesses were allowed to stay, including several single-story storefronts on Dwight Street. In 1909, the mill was built with significant additions constructed in 1911 and 1916.
In 1912, a Danish inventor developed and demonstrated the telegraphone, which used Prentiss wire.
George W. Prentiss died on April 2, 1915 at his home at 1399 Northampton Street. His son, William A. Prentiss, became corporate President in 1915, a position he held into the 1950s. The company was producing 5 to 10 tons of wiring daily.
A major strike impacted the mill in 1916. At the time, the mill employed 250. The prolonged strike led some employees to seek employment in the Worcester area. It was during this year that the mill expanded to Dwight Street after tenants were removed.
In 1918, Prentiss Wire purchased the property at the corner of Jackson and Commercial Street from G. Haarman & Co., which vacated to build an expanded factory.
In 1926, Holyoke Company Inc., formerly known as the Holyoke Covered Wire Company, moved from the Prentiss Wire Company building, freeing 11,000 square feet of space.
By 1939, export business to Poland, France, Spain, Switzerland, and South America had dried up.
The company acquired the Charles B. Sampson parcel along Front Street in 1940, which it had sold to that company in 1909. This would provide additional storage for the present and offer the potential for future expansion.
In 1942, Prentiss Wire expanded on both sides of the canal. The contract was awarded to Bathelt Construction. In the past, wiring was coated with tin. However, due to the tin shortage, a new technique of galvanizing wire with zinc was developed, and one of the two new buildings would perform that operation.
George W. Prentiss & Company was sold to H. K. Porter Co. Inc. in September 1956, a year short of a century within the Prentiss family. Three generations had been actively involved in the daily operations. The new concern was from Pittsburgh and New York City. George W. Prentice II was the president of the corporation at the time of the sale.
H. K. Porter accelerated the modernization of the factory and significantly expanded its product lines over the years.
Some of the advancements and new product lines between 1956 and 1961 included:
Stitching wire for legal documents.
Terminal wire assisting in television production.
Spiral wire for notebooks, calendars, and brochures.
Tea bag staples.
Bright red coil wire to indicate when a wire spool was about to become empty.
Stitching for magazines, including Life Magazine.
Eighteen new high-speed machines at $210,000.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican; publication dates and pages are shown.
Price & Lee City Directories, Holyoke, Massachusetts, Holyoke Public Library.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Secretary of State's Office, Corporations Division
Registry of Deeds, Hampden County, Springfield, Massachusetts
Online MapGeo, Assessors' Office, City of Holyoke, Massachusetts
History of Massachusetts Industries, Chapter XXVII-Holyoke, Orra L. Stone, 1930
MACRIS: Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System Search Results - MACRIS
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