Connecticut Water Trails Association
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Connecticut Water Trails Association |
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Connecticut Water Trails Program History Of Connecticut's Water Trails History of Mills In Connecticut
Willimantic Mills
In the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, mill machines were belt-driven. Until the 1870s, the chief
source of power was waterpower. Beginning in the 1870s, it was a
combination of waterpower and steam produced by coal-fueled steam boilers.
Waterpower was generated in the mills’ wheelhouses, normally located
either beneath the mills or in els jutting towards the rivers. Steam was
produced in boiler rooms, also usually located near the rivers. From the
wheelhouses and boiler rooms, the power was transferred to vertical drive
shafts the connected to horizontal drive shafts on the ceilings of each
production room. Large leather belts transferred power from the drive
shafts to the machines.
Holland Silk Manufacturing Company
The Holland Silk Manufacturing Company is one of the important industries - of Willimantic. In 1865, two brothers, James H. and Goodrich Holland, came here from Mansfield and commenced building a factory. They were already engaged in the manufacture of silk in Mansfield. They erected. in Willimantic a building one hundred by forty-two feet, on the northeast corner of Church and Valley streets. This building was opened for business January 25th, 1866. They employed at that time from fifty to sixty hands, and produced 250 pounds of silk per week.
Old Spool Shop - Wilimantic Linen Company
Colonel William L. Jillson and Captain
John H. Capen early associated themselves as partners in business, under
the firm name of Jillson & Capen, for manufacturing cotton-making
machinery. They carried on the business to a large extent, giving
employment to a large number of mechanics, and thus adding to the
prosperity of the village. In 1845, having purchased at some previous time
the premises and water rights where the first cotton mill in Willimantic
was built, they, in connection with Austin Dunham, formed the Wells
Company, and named this location Wellsville, which was considered an
improvement on the former cognomen of" Sodom," by which it had been known
for a long time. A three-story mill and a number of dwellings were
completed and in use early in the season of 1846.
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