Bernat Mill
Encyclopedia
The Bernat Mill, also known as Capron Mill, and later "Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company", was a yarn mill in Uxbridge, Massachusetts
, USA
, that was destroyed by fire on July 21, 2007.
This mill complex at Uxbridge had been a hub of manufacturing for Bernat, once based in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
. The town of Uxbridge was the site of Bernat's main manufacturing unit in the later 20th century. This was the third largest yarn mill in the U.S. The Bernat mill and the town of Uxbridge have a role in U.S. history, and the history of the American Textile manufacturing
.
"Bernat" is a trademark of an existing company (Bernat.com) which manufactures yarn
products.
, on the Mumford River
at Uxbridge Center. The first power loom
s for woolens were introduced at the Capron Mills. These were made in a machine shop at Cumberland, Rhode Island
. These were reportedly the first power looms ever made for woolens in the USA. The first manufacture of "satinet
" was at this mill. Uxbridge became famous for its Cashmere wool
. The period of the Capron Mill, and later as the Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company was famous for manufacture of clothing and the manufacture of military uniforms for the United States.
. The Time Magazine article interviewed the CEO of Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company, Harold Walter
. This company had been started by Edward Bachman of New York City, and Harold Walters's father-in-law, Charles Arthur Root, of Uxbridge. This site was the hub of seven plants throughout the U.S., employing 6000 plus workers, and some of its wool synthetic blends dominated the women's fashion industry in the early 1950s.
The first woolen mill in the Blackstone Valley
was built in Uxbridge in 1810(3rd in US), and by 1953, the Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company was on the verge of a merger with the debt laden American Woolen Company to become the largest US woolen manufacturer. The Town of Uxbridge had become synonymous with woolen
manufacturing
, "blended fabrics", complete vertical integration
of textiles to clothing
, and textile industry
efficiency innovations, when production peaked in the early 1950s.
Research into textiles at Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company produced a range of blended fabrics, including the "wool-nylon serge" used for army uniforms. The original U.S Air Force Uniform produced at the factory was dubbed and patented "Uxbridge Blue" or "Uxbridge 1683", after blue dye color selected at Bachman Uxbridge. This dye was used in the manufacture of uniforms from 1947.
"In January 1948 President Truman approved authorization of the proposed new blue Air Force uniform and a week after that Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg officially circulated word that funding had been approved by the congressional appropriations committee. The new uniform, incorprating a shade of blue fabric (patented as 'Uxbridge Blue' and based on "Uxbridge 1683 Blue, cable shade 84", developed at the former Bachman-Uxbridge Worsted Company) would be available for distribution by September 1950".
“Shortly thereafter, on Mar 29 1954, Time magazine reported; "American Woolen Co. will ask its stockholders to approve a merger with Bachmann Uxbridge Worsted Corp. As a combined operation, troubled American Woolen (1953 sales, $73,494,160; net loss, $9,476,981) and Bachmann Uxbridge (1953 sales, $52,609,000; profit, $272,000) would be by far the biggest woolen manufacturer in the country. Textron, Inc., which wants American Woolen to merge with it, and claims to own almost 4% of American Woolen's stock, plans to fight the merger," see TIME CLOCK - TIME”
The merger of American Woolen and Bachman Uxbridge was however blocked by Textron
, which emerged in the 1960s as a Providence, RI based conglomerate. This was Bachman Uxbridge’s last bid to be the largest woolen company in America. By 1964 the assets of Bachman Uxbridge were sold to Bernat Yarn of Jamaica Plain, MA
American Civil War
uniforms, World War I
Khaki overcoats, and World War II
U.S. Army uniforms have all been manufactured in this mill. Latch hook yarn kits were developed by Bernat, here circa 1968 and the name of the mill changes to the Bernat Mill, then the third largest U.S. yarn mill.
was viewed as a regional model. The 10 alarm Uxbridge Mill fire, made National and local news for nearly a week. Senator John Kerry
introduced loans
from his committee in the U.S. Senate to support the business owners impacted by the fire. Governor Deval Patrick
left the National Governors' Conference in Michigan
to return to Uxbridge to be present for the immediate recovery. The Uxbridge Mill fire was the state's first major disaster of his new administration. Governor Patrick invoked immediate state and federal aide to victims and businesses of the Uxbridge mill fire. Hurricane Katrina
funds were applied to the relief efforts. The fire marshall's report concluded that there was unpermitted welding occurring in a mill business, the sprinkler was not operable, and that both contributed to the fire. Mill owners planned to rebuild.
Due to the current economy, plans to rebuild are currently on hold. This article has been updated to reflect what is known as of November 2009.
Uxbridge, Massachusetts
Uxbridge is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It was first settled in 1662, incorporated in 1727 at Suffolk County, and named for the Earl of Uxbridge. Uxbridge is south-southeast of Worcester, north-northwest of Providence, and southwest of Boston. It is part of...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, that was destroyed by fire on July 21, 2007.
This mill complex at Uxbridge had been a hub of manufacturing for Bernat, once based in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Jamaica Plain is a historic neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded by Boston Puritans seeking farm land to the south, it was originally part of the city of Roxbury...
. The town of Uxbridge was the site of Bernat's main manufacturing unit in the later 20th century. This was the third largest yarn mill in the U.S. The Bernat mill and the town of Uxbridge have a role in U.S. history, and the history of the American Textile manufacturing
Textile manufacturing
Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based in the conversion of three types of fibre into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. These are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. Cotton remains the most important natural fibre, so is treated in depth...
.
"Bernat" is a trademark of an existing company (Bernat.com) which manufactures yarn
Yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
products.
History
The original mill, the "Capron Mill", was built in 1820, by John Capron, the father of Colonel John CapronJohn Capron
John Willard Capron was an American military officer in the infantry, state legislator, and textile manufacturer.-Early life, family:...
, on the Mumford River
Mumford River
The Mumford River is an river in south-central Massachusetts. It is a tributary of the Blackstone River.The river rises from its headwaters in Sutton and Douglas at Manchaug Pond and flows east in a meandering path through a series of ponds , and joins the Blackstone River in Uxbridge.The river...
at Uxbridge Center. The first power loom
Power loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...
s for woolens were introduced at the Capron Mills. These were made in a machine shop at Cumberland, Rhode Island
Cumberland, Rhode Island
Cumberland is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, incorporated in 1746. The population was 33,506 at the 2010 census.-History:...
. These were reportedly the first power looms ever made for woolens in the USA. The first manufacture of "satinet
Satinet
Satinet is a finely woven fabric with a finish resembling satin but made partly or wholly from cotton or synthetic fiber. The process was developed in Mesopotamia, 5000BC. The fibers may be natural as with cotton, woolens or cashmere wool, or synthetic. The process of manufacturing satinets in the...
" was at this mill. Uxbridge became famous for its Cashmere wool
Cashmere wool
Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from Cashmere and other types of goats. The word cashmere derives from an old spelling of Kashmir. Cashmere is fine in texture, and strong, light, and soft. Garments made from it provide excellent...
. The period of the Capron Mill, and later as the Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company was famous for manufacture of clothing and the manufacture of military uniforms for the United States.
The Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company
The mill was featured in the August 24, 1953 edition of Time Magazine, in an article entitled, "The Pride of Uxbridge" as the site of the Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company, which was then one of the most successful textile mills in New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. The Time Magazine article interviewed the CEO of Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company, Harold Walter
Harold Walter
Harold J. Walter, born in Colorado 1901, died in 1962 in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, was an American textile manufacturer.-Early life and education:...
. This company had been started by Edward Bachman of New York City, and Harold Walters's father-in-law, Charles Arthur Root, of Uxbridge. This site was the hub of seven plants throughout the U.S., employing 6000 plus workers, and some of its wool synthetic blends dominated the women's fashion industry in the early 1950s.
The first woolen mill in the Blackstone Valley
Blackstone Valley
The Blackstone Valley or Blackstone River Valley is a region of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It was a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution...
was built in Uxbridge in 1810(3rd in US), and by 1953, the Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company was on the verge of a merger with the debt laden American Woolen Company to become the largest US woolen manufacturer. The Town of Uxbridge had become synonymous with woolen
Woolen
Woolen or woollen is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn...
manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
, "blended fabrics", complete vertical integration
Vertical integration
In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or service, and the products combine to...
of textiles to clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
, and textile industry
Textile industry
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the production of yarn, and cloth and the subsequent design or manufacture of clothing and their distribution. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry....
efficiency innovations, when production peaked in the early 1950s.
Research into textiles at Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company produced a range of blended fabrics, including the "wool-nylon serge" used for army uniforms. The original U.S Air Force Uniform produced at the factory was dubbed and patented "Uxbridge Blue" or "Uxbridge 1683", after blue dye color selected at Bachman Uxbridge. This dye was used in the manufacture of uniforms from 1947.
"In January 1948 President Truman approved authorization of the proposed new blue Air Force uniform and a week after that Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg officially circulated word that funding had been approved by the congressional appropriations committee. The new uniform, incorprating a shade of blue fabric (patented as 'Uxbridge Blue' and based on "Uxbridge 1683 Blue, cable shade 84", developed at the former Bachman-Uxbridge Worsted Company) would be available for distribution by September 1950".
“Shortly thereafter, on Mar 29 1954, Time magazine reported; "American Woolen Co. will ask its stockholders to approve a merger with Bachmann Uxbridge Worsted Corp. As a combined operation, troubled American Woolen (1953 sales, $73,494,160; net loss, $9,476,981) and Bachmann Uxbridge (1953 sales, $52,609,000; profit, $272,000) would be by far the biggest woolen manufacturer in the country. Textron, Inc., which wants American Woolen to merge with it, and claims to own almost 4% of American Woolen's stock, plans to fight the merger," see TIME CLOCK - TIME”
The merger of American Woolen and Bachman Uxbridge was however blocked by Textron
Textron
Textron is a conglomerate that includes Bell Helicopter, E-Z-GO, Cessna Aircraft Company, and Greenlee, among others. It was founded by Royal Little in 1923 as the Special Yarns Company, and is headquartered at the Textron Tower in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.With total revenues of...
, which emerged in the 1960s as a Providence, RI based conglomerate. This was Bachman Uxbridge’s last bid to be the largest woolen company in America. By 1964 the assets of Bachman Uxbridge were sold to Bernat Yarn of Jamaica Plain, MA
American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
uniforms, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Khaki overcoats, and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
U.S. Army uniforms have all been manufactured in this mill. Latch hook yarn kits were developed by Bernat, here circa 1968 and the name of the mill changes to the Bernat Mill, then the third largest U.S. yarn mill.
2007 fire
Early, on the Saturday morning of July 21, 2007, a fire erupted at the historic mill, devastating the complex on Mendon and Depot Street. 600 firefighters, from 66 communities, battled the blaze, but the complex was nearly totally destroyed.It took three days to extinguish the flames fully. At the time of the fire, the 400000 square feet (37,161.2 m²) structure, had ceased operating as a mill and had been converted into space containing 65 small businesses. The business losses following the fire were estimated in the millions of dollars and between 300-500 people lost their jobs.http://user.pix.epodunk.com/MA/bjhickson_5140.jpg Bernat mill was totally gutted out and has stayed that way for about 3 years now.
Fire aftermath
The two-state incident command, disaster responseDisaster response
Disaster response is a phase of the disaster management cycle. Its preceding cycles aim to reduce the need for a disaster response, or to avoid it altogether.The level of disaster response depends on a number of factors and particular situation awareness...
was viewed as a regional model. The 10 alarm Uxbridge Mill fire, made National and local news for nearly a week. Senator John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
introduced loans
Small Business Administration
The Small Business Administration is a United States government agency that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and strengthen the nation's economy by enabling the establishment and viability of small businesses...
from his committee in the U.S. Senate to support the business owners impacted by the fire. Governor Deval Patrick
Deval Patrick
Deval Laurdine Patrick is the 71st and current Governor of Massachusetts. A member of the Democratic Party, Patrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney General under President Bill Clinton...
left the National Governors' Conference in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
to return to Uxbridge to be present for the immediate recovery. The Uxbridge Mill fire was the state's first major disaster of his new administration. Governor Patrick invoked immediate state and federal aide to victims and businesses of the Uxbridge mill fire. Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
funds were applied to the relief efforts. The fire marshall's report concluded that there was unpermitted welding occurring in a mill business, the sprinkler was not operable, and that both contributed to the fire. Mill owners planned to rebuild.
Due to the current economy, plans to rebuild are currently on hold. This article has been updated to reflect what is known as of November 2009.
External links
- Late 2007 Uxbridge Mill fire press release
- Bernat Mill Fire Photo
- Bernat Mill fire video (requires FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
)