The stories of those entrepreneurs who arrived in Holyoke to avail themselves of inexpensive water power, a readily available labor force, and lower costs in plant and machinery continue to astound. This is the story of the Crocker family and the Crocker Manufacturing Company, their first investment in papermaking in Holyoke.
Samuel Somerbie Crocker's papermaking roots trace back to his father, Deacon Samuel Crocker, who began working in 1796 for Nichols & Kendall, the first papermaking concern in Leominster, MA. It was there that Deacon S. Crocker learned the papermaking process. In 1831, Deacon S. Crocker moved to Fitchburg, MA, to work with his son, Alvah Crocker, in paper manufacturing.
Samuel S. Crocker was born in Leominster on October 30, 1813. He began working in a paper mill at age 10 to help support his family. 6 years later, he went to work in his brother Alvah's mill, built in West Fitchburg. In 1853, Samuel S. Crocker moved to Lawrence to build that city's first paper mill. 12 years later, he moved back to Fitchburg and built the Crocker Woolen Mill.
In 1869, he partnered with his son, Daniel Crocker, and organized the Crocker Manufacturing Company in Holyoke. The business was incorporated in early 1870. Samuel Crocker was the President and Daniel Crocker the Treasurer.
William E. Syms was the plant superintendent, and George E. Dudley was its paymaster. Both were corporate directors. They would later form their own paper mill, the Syms & Dudley Paper Company, as detailed in an earlier blog entry. Other corporate directors of the new Crocker concern included Daniel H. Newton and John C. Newton. William Whiting was one of the initial shareholders.
The Crocker Manufacturing Company purchased the Hampden Paper Company's real estate and machinery on March 31, 1871. The mill was rebuilt in the summer and fall of 1870 by the Newton Brothers after a disastrous fire destroyed the Hampden Paper Company factory on March 27, 1870. The factory would later be called the Crocker No. 1 Mill, as another plant acquisition was forthcoming in 1878.
Hampden Paper Company had reopened and had been running in the new building since January 1, 1871. After the purchase, Crocker Mfg. Co. started its operations on May 1, 1871. Production included manufacturing paper for collars, books, and newspapers, but collars were predominant.
By September 1871, the company employed 40 workers, was on a 24-hour schedule, and produced 3 tons of collar paper, more than any other factory in the country. The company utilized 3 mill powers, 10 engines, and a 76-inch Fourdrinier machine.
The markets for the collars were located in New York and Boston, as well as in some southern and western cities.
The company received a patent for its color paper used for horse-car and train tickets in 1876.
Owing to its success, the Crocker Mfg. Co. embarked on a plant expansion in 1877. A 92-foot by 42-foot stockhouse was constructed along a 35-foot by 24-foot addition to the main building. A new calendar capable of producing 4 to 5 tons of various goods daily was installed. A new elevator was installed in the stockhouse, and more powerful machinery was installed to increase production. In the following year, the growing company added a 104-foot-long building.
On February 11, 1878, Crocker Mfg. Co. purchased the real estate, machinery, and 6 tenement buildings of the Albion Paper Co. Albion was moving to land adjacent to its former mill and expected to begin production April 1, 1878, once the new facility was equipped. The new addition to Crocker Mfg. was designated as Crocker No. 2 Mill.
Also in 1878, the company was one of the 19 bidders to produce a unique paper for United States notes and national bank notes. The Whiting Paper Company was one of the other bidders.
The number of workers employed by Crocker Mfg. Co. rose to 100 in 1880. The company invested $8,000 purchasing 400 acres of land and Olcott Falls water privileges, 2 miles south of Hanover, N.H. One half the land was in N. H. and the other half in Vermont. The company indicated that it planned to build a dam, a canal, and a factory on the site. Crocker Mfg. did not follow through and sold the property in mid-1882 to Wilder & Co. of Boston.
The company continued to update the Holyoke mill with the latest productive machinery. A fire occurred in June 1883, and the company set about a plan to add fireproofing throughout areas of the mill. Tin was fastened to walls in areas susceptible to the spread of fire. The company also saw this as an opportune time to further modernize its machinery and equipment.
In 1885, the company received a trademark for its matrix paper. In September of that year, the company introduced a new line of paper, called Crocker's American Matrix Paper.
In the next chapter, we will follow the events that led the company to the end of the 19th century.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican; Boston (Massachusetts) Evening Transcript; Recorder (Greenfield, Massachusetts); Fitchburg (Massachusetts) Sentinel; Boston (Massachusetts) Globe; publication dates and pages are shown.
Ancestry.com (paid subscription): Genealogy Records and Price & Lee, Holyoke, Massachusetts, City Directories
The Story of Holyoke, Wyatt Harper, 1973
Registry of Deeds, Hampden County, Springfield, Massachusetts
Map of the City of Holyoke, Loomis and Kirtland Publishers, 1874
Massachusetts Cultural Research Information System (MACRIS), Boston, Massachusetts
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