French-Canadian women were especially likely to work in the mills since the Canadians tended to immigrate in families. Some girls began work by the time they were 7 years old. Mothers worked as parishes established day care for the youngest children. The workday extended from 5:00 AM and continued with short breaks until 7:30 PM.

Wamsutta continued to expand and added a seventh mill in 1893. Percale, introduced in the late 1890s, was very popular for bed sheeting. In 1894 the Draper-Northrup automatic loom was introduced. This was one of the most important technical development of the late 1900s. Bobbins were automatically exchanged – the loom continued to weave. By 1900, New Bedford, a name once synonymous with whaling, was now "the" name in fine cotton goods. The city was second in size only to Fall River and Lowell in the entire textile industry. Seventeen new mills were incorporated between 1900 and 1910. Everything textile was booming. Capital invested, employees hired, and earnings, all hit new highs. Competition from the South was growing but was of no real concern – yet. Immigrants poured into the mills. By 1905, less than 20 percent of the population was native to New England. The largest group was the Portuguese, with Cape Verde Islanders, Azoreans, French-Canadians and many different Europeans. The Jewish rabbi came from Poland.

The Nashawena Mills was incorporated in June 1909 – William Whitman, President. The first building was located on Bellevue Avenue, north of Manomet Mills. It claimed to be the largest weave shed in the world with 500,000 square feet of space. The WWI business caused a shift from fine goods to coarse goods thereby placing them in direct competition from the South. Tire fabrics, which formerly used fine yarns, now required coarse yarns for the balloon type tire. The mills failed to modernize and this would do them in. In 1928, 40 per cent of the looms were over 20 years old. The industry reached a peak in terms of workers employed in 1924.

That year was also the end of whaling. The last ship sailed on August 15 and never returned. It was shipwrecked almost in sight of the harbor while returning home. How prophetic. Whaling was gone and never returned; and textiles started to follow. Poor management with nepotism rampant, poor accounting procedures and thick-headedness led the city down the drain.

In 1925, Nashawena purchased and enlarged Manomet No. 3 and converted that mill to weaving. Nashawena, with 5835 looms, was the largest in New England.

Business in the form of sales, slowed in the mid-twenties, but the owners kept producing goods for market. The Strike of 1928.

Inventory swelled. Accustomed to very comfortable living and high salaries, a group of the mill owners decided to voluntarily cut production by 20 per cent but other mill owners would not cut production. Overproduction continued. The group decided that the workers should take a pay cut of 10 per cent starting the Monday after Easter Sunday. (Georgianna)

The Depression of the 1930s was the last blow. Two-thirds of the remaining mills closed during this decade. New Bedford was in dire straits. Employment of factory workers in 1940 was the lowest since 1907 with the exception of 1932. Of the 40 mills founded since 1846, only 13 survived as World War II began. The fact that most mills were antiquated and poorly stocked with skilled workers meant that business went south, literally and figuratively.

Young, productive labor migrated. (Wolfbein) A total of 21,000 jobs were lost between 1919 and 1937. The surviving mills as the 1940s began were: Wamsutta, Hathaway Manufacturing, Columbia Spinning Co., Soule, Gosnold, Kilborn, Nonquitt, New Bedford Cotton, Quissett, Fiske (tire fabrics), Firestone Tire, Kendall, and Naushawena. Many of the older, famous mills were gone: Potomska, Acushnet, New Bedford Manufacturing, Grinnell, and City. Beacon moved to Swannanoa, North Carolina. In 1952, Nashawena was liquidated. (Boss p182)

M. Lowenstein and Sons purchased the controlling interest of Wamsutta Mills on August 19, 1954. At the time, Wamsutta was running at near full capacity. Business slowed, as costs in the South were much lower. Late in 1958, Wamsutta closed in New Bedford and moved south. The decline of the cotton textile industry in New Bedford between 1925 and 1955 was astonishing. Population dropped from 130,000 in 1924 to 105,000 in 1955.

Immigration stopped and exodus began. It was estimated that 50% of the French-Canadian families left during the first three years. Generally, the English, Irish and Portuguese remained. (Boss 184)

Sources:

Image: courtesy Spinner Publications, New Bedford, MA

Boss, Judith A., and Joseph D. Thomas. 1983. New Bedford: A Pictorial History New Bedford, MA: New Bedford Five Cents Savings Bank.

Georgiana, Daniel with Roberta Hazen Aaronson. 1993. The Strike of ‘28 New Bedford, MA: Spinner Publications, Inc.

Wolfbein, S. L.1944. Decline of a Cotton Mill City: A Study of New Bedford. New York: Columbia University Press.