History of Salt Lake City, Part 88

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194

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-Mr. Wm. Jennings' and also that of Golding & Raleigh-and thus was renewed the home manufactory of leather. He now left the police service, and attended altogether to the manufacturing business, and from that time Philip Pugsley has been one of the foremost in nearly all of our home manufacturing enterprises.

William Jennings and John R. Winder, in partnership, started in the leather business in 1855. Their place of business at that time was adjoining the property where the Walker House now stands, and behind Mr. Jennings' old residence. They associated with their tannery the harness and boot and shoe branches and also a butcher shop. Just before the " move south," they built the Octagon House on the corner where the Eagle Emporium now stands, and continued busi- ness there for awhile in partnership. After the move Brigham Young, Feramorz Little and John R. Winder started a tannery on Canyon Creek, John R. Winder being the practical partner of the firm and manager of the business. Brigham Young also established a shoe shop on his own premises, inside the wall near his family school house. This shoe shop will be well remembered. He employed about a dozen hands in this shop and they made boots and shoes for his family and numerous employees. He also had a butcher's shop, saddle and harness maker's, carpenter's, large blacksmith's shop, which is still alive and busy under an - other management, a lumber yard and a store well supplied with States' goods. Undoubtedly Brigham Young was, in those days, the largest employer of laborers, mechanics, business managers and clerks in the Territory, and all his establish- ments were for his own people and employees, and not for trade with the public. Hiram B. Clawson was his general business manager ; George W. Thatcher, of railroad fame, as superintendent of the Utah Northern, was his commissary, and the present apostle, George Teasdale, commenced his life in Utah as the President's store-keeper. In fine Brigham Young was the great patron and promoter of home manufactures and home industries, and he took a special pride in the employment of numerous hands. In one of his sermons, delivered about a quarter of a cen- tury ago, he made this characteristic utterance : " I have grown rich by feeding and employing the poor." He scarcely ever turned an applicant for labor away unemployed. In some department he made room for the applicant or else he created a place for him. He also employed female hands, such as shoe binders. His hands were better paid in kind and with larger wages than any others in Salt Lake City, or indeed 'in the Territory. Hundreds of our citizens have ob- tained their lots, their houses and their supplies for years in the employment of President Young. He also, through his agents, brought on a vast amount of ma- chinery to engage in and to encourage home manufactures and home enterprises in general. On this head Horace S. Eldredge speaking of his mission to the States in the spring of 1863, says :

" Having been called upon to go again to New York to superintend the emi- gration, I left by overland stage in company with F. Little and L. S. Hills-the two latter to remain at Florence on the frontiers to attend to the outfitting, and I proceeded to New York to attend to forwarding the immigrants from that point to Florence. Having some means of my own, I invested between $8,000 and $10,000 in machinery for a cotton factory, which was got up under contract by Messrs. Danforth & Co., of Patterson, New Jersey, with the understanding that

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President Brigham Young would hive the sime freighted to Salt Lake City and erect buildings for them.

".While in New York, I was induced to purchase some small lots of staple gouds which I considered would meet a ready sale on their arrival. I therefore invested a few thousand dollars, and on arriving home found that my friend Hooper had been doing the same as a similar adventure. On comparing invoices we found we had a very fair assortment, and including what I had in store of my original stock, would justify us in opening a retail store which would give us employment during the approaching winter.

" Having a very fair line of staple goods, we had a successful trade and realized fair returns for our investment. In the meantime, W. H. Hooper had invested between twelve and fifteen thousand dollars in woolen machinery for the sake of encouraging home manufacture, and President Brigham Young proposed purchasing our interests in the cotton and woolen machinery and to pay us in freighting merchandise from the Missouri River the coming season. This arrange- ment was entered into, and in the spring of 1864, we proceeded to New York and other Eastern cities and purchased our goods, amounting to over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars first cost, the freight on the same amounting to over eighty thousand dollars."

Nathaniel V. Jones and James W. Cummings in the early days were also en- gaged in the leather trade. Their tannery was in the Fifteenth Ward. It was started by the merchant Hockaday, the partner of the mail contractor Magraw, who figured prominently in bringing on the Utah war. Howard, the dis- tiller, and HI. E. Bowring, saddle and harness maker, were very extensively en- gaged in the leather trade under the firm name of Howard & Bowring. Howard's tannery was the original Mulliner tannery. They soon, however, divided partner- ship, but each continued largely in the business. They were located near to- gether on the Main Street, occupying the quarter in which the leather business started, but Bowring purchased the tannery of Jones & Cummings in the Fifteenth Ward, while Howard continued in the Mulliner establishment, the various branches of his business being conducted by his son-in-law, Isaac Brockbank. They man- ufactured quite a quantity of boots and shoes, and carried on a busy saddler's shop. But undoubtedly William Jennings was the greatest of the Salt Lake home minu-

facturers. His large tannery near the Court House was the most conspicuous manufacturing establishment in the city. President Young had a woolen factory in Sugar House Ward. This factory is now owned and run by Jennings & Sons. But the Provo Woolen Mills have, up to present date, made the broadest mark in the cloth line, and the company established a house in Salt Lake City for the sale of its goods. It was at first under the charge of Eliza R. Snow, with her lady as- sistants ; but it was afterwards placed under the management of John C. Cutler, a young man of energy and much business capacity, who, with his brothers, brought the concern to a decided success, to the great help of the Provo Woolen Mills. It being thus closely related to the home manufacturing trade of our city a pas- sage of its history may be properly quoted from the author's "History of Provo."

It was a leading policy with the men who founded the colonies of Utah to es- tablish those branches of home manufactures most needed in the settlement of a

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new country ; but the progress of our home manufactures in the early period was necessarily very slow.

For nearly a quarter of a century supplies had to be hauled a thousand miles or further in wagons; and it was, therefore, almost impossible to transmit the machinery requisite for the construction of the factories requiring heavy metal ap- purtenances. We had to content ourselves with the simplest forms of machines, and consequently the home made goods hardly bore comparison with the imported. Clothing, boots, shoes, and other goods made here were homely indeed. The advent of the transcontinental railroad made it possible to procure engines, ma- chinery, etc., with which to furnish work shops. Yet, when the railroad laid at our doors all manner of clothing and other luxuries of civilization at low prices, the very desire to support home manufacturers was decreased rather than increased. But the Provo woolen factory, which was started soon after the com- pletion of the railroad, restored confidence to our home manufacturing industries. Indeed, it will be marked in the history of this Territory that it was the Provo Woolen Mills that brought Utah manufactures from a primitive condition to a commercial status, placing our home made fabrics on the market side by side with imported goods, competing with them in quality and price, which was necessary to be done before home manufactures could possibly become a decided success.

Next to the Provo Woolen Mills came the Salt Lake Shoe Factory of Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution, which, like the Woolen Mills, employs num- erous hands, and is conducted upon the modern manufacturing system. The Provo Factory, being the most conspicuous industrial building in our Territory, turning out fine fabrics which were fully equal to the imported, was un - doubtedly an example to the capitalists of Z. C. M. I. of what could be done in a sister branch of manufactures, while the success of the Provo Woolen Factory and the Salt Lake Shoe Factory has induced Z C. M. I. to handle their goods in preference to the imported, and that, too, upon a sound commercial basis, rather than as a mere patron of favored establishments of home industries. Thus con- sidered, the Provo Woolen Mills will stand as the first monument in the manufac- ing history of our Territory.

June Ist, 1869, a company, known as the Timpanogos Manufacturing Com- pany was organized with a capital of $1,000,000, in 10.000 shares of $100 each. The mill site was bought of the Hon. John Taylor, and, as soon as the company had matured its preliminary business, the ground was broken. The following is a note from the diary of Secretary L. John Nuttall :

" Saturday, May 28, 1870. The southeast corner stone of the Provo Co-op- erative Woolen Factory was laid at half-past nine o'clock A. M. by President A. O. Smoot. Upon the stone being laid, President Smoot offered prayer, after which Bishops E. F. Sheets, Myron Tanner, and Andrew H. Scott, and Elder. Thomas Allman made appropriate remarks.

" President Smoot prophesied that this corner stone shall remain steadfast and sure."

The " Provo Woolen Factory " was established very much after the same pattern and with the same spirit as that of Z. C. M. I. itself; the one represent- ing the mercantile institutions of Zion, the other her manufacturing institutions.

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The erection of the buildings was under the management of Mayor A. O. Smoot, and were finished in the spring of 1872. From the breaking of the ground the work progressed with vigor, and skilled workmen came from all parts of the Territory to assist in building a factory which was designed for the employment of hundreds of hands and to carn for the Territory millions of dollars by home in- dustries. The buildings were erected at a cost of $155,000 ; and the men, as a rule, who did the work and furnished the material, took stock for their labor. Associated with President Smoot in the construction of these works was Bishop A. H. Scott, who rendered most efficient service.

For the purchase of suitable machinery, President Young advanced over $70,000 in cash, and F. X. Loughery of Philadelphia was engaged to put the ma- chinery in place and start it.

In 1872 The Timpanogos Manufacturing Company was incorporated, with the following officers :

Brigham Young, president ; A. O. Smoot, vice-president ; Myron 'Tanner, Wm. Bringhurst, O. Simons, Jos. S. Tanner, A. H. Scott, directors ; H. A. Dixon, secretary , L. J. Nuttall, treasurer.

In October, 1872, the cards and mules started, and yarn was spun and mar- keted ; but it was not till June Ist, 1873, that cloth was manufactured. Secretary Nuttall notes in his diary : " Oct. 4th, the first wool was carded at the Provo Woolen Factory to-day."

Owing to some defect in the constitution, the Timpanogos Company was dis- solved on the 13th of October, 1873, and on the 15th of the same month the Provo Manafacturing Company was incorporated with a capital of $500,000 in 5,000 shares of $roo each. Officers remained the same as before, excepting that Myron Tanner was appointed superintendent in the place of A. O. Smoot. The reason of this reorganization is thus explained : When the Timpanogos company was organized, there was no Territorial statute authorizing the organization of co- operative institutions, but in 1870 the Legislature of Utah passed a general incor- poration act, under which this company was reorganized, with the name of the Provo Manufacturing Company.

The stock was issued and bonds given to the stockholders to the amount of $200,000, insuring them ten per cent. per annum. As the bonds were held by the stockholders, and it being of little benefit to the institution, it was deemed advisable, in the year 1878, to recall them-nineteen twentieths being considered sufficient to accomplish the retirement of the bonds. At the present writing the bonds are all retired. This is an evidence of the interest which the stock- holders have taken in this branch of Utah manufacturing industries, when they were willing to sacrifice a certainty-as these bonds drew ten per cent. an- nually-and take their chances upon dividends that might accrue from the stock. It is something unprecedented in the history of any business corporation.

For some time after the cloth was put upon the market the Provo goods did not meet the encouragement deserved. They were excellent in quality so far as durability was concerned, but lacked the finish of the imported article. This, to- gether with the prejudice manifested against home manufacturers generally, for a time retarded the progress of the factory ; but with the improved facilities of to-

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day, and its operatives brought to first class proficiency, the Provo fabrics will now compete with the same class of imported goods.

Myron Tanner was the first superintendent of the manufacturing department, with efficient foremen. Under his superintendence the first cloth was made and put upon the market. He served to the general satisfaction of the company till the fall of 1874, at which time he was succeeded by Mr. James Dunn, under whose efficient management and under the direction of the board of directors, the Provo Factory has reached a first class working status and achieved a reasonable success generally. The Factory was run under the able management of Mr. Dunn until May, 1884, when he resigned for the purpose of going into business for himself.

By the action of the board of directors Mr. Reed Smoot was appointed to succeed Mr. Dunn as superintendent, Mr. Smoot having been more or less familiar with the inside working of the Factory from the time that F. X. Loughery was foreman.

In the year 1876 the Factory commenced to buy wool and also to ship it east. The wool business has been reasonably successful.

When the company entered into this wool trade it involved the necessity of borrowing from twenty to fifty thousand dollars, for which loan the Deseret Na- tional Bank required President A. O. Smoot, who has been the financial backbone of the institution from the beginning, to give his personal security.

In 1877, the company established an agency in Salt Lake City, with John C. Cutler as agent of the commission house.

In 1881, a retail store for the sale of merchandise and woolen fabrics was started in Provo, under the management of the superintendent of the Factory.

The dimensions of the main building are 145 x 65 feet. It is a four-story rock building, with a half mansard roof, covered with tin roofing. It has a pro- jecting stairway, surmounted by a tower 30 feet above the roof. The upper story is used for the storing and preparing of the wool for the cards. On the floor be- low there are eight sets of cards and one hand mule of 240 spindles, two reels and two spoolers. The next floor below is the spinning room, containing four self-acting mules, of 720 spindles each. The ground floor contains 19 broad looms and 38 narrow looms, 2 wrappers and dressers, I shawl fringer, I quilling frame and I beamer, and a machine for a double and twist stocking yarn of 62 spindles. The finishing house is built of adobe, 70 x 30 feet, two and a half stories high. On the first floor are three washers, three frillers, two large screw presses, two gigs, one cloth ineasure, and one hard waste picker.

The factory is run by water power, with two Leffel turbine wheels, one 36 and the other 44 inches, The factory has a rotary pump, which is in operation.

Immediately south of the main building is situated a two-and-a-half story adobe building, 33 X 134 feet. The upper room is used for the receiving and as- sorting of wool, and the lower story for an office, salesroom, carpenter shop and drying room. Attached to this building, on the east side, is a one-story frame house, 30 x 60 feet, which is used for the dye-house and wool-scouring.

Connected with the Factory was quite a large flouring mill, but it was burned down in the spring of 1879, involving a loss of $10,000.

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'The Factory employs on an average from 125 to 150 operatives, who were mostly trained in the large manufactories of England and Scotland.

The company finds a market for their goods in every town and village of Utah, besides exporting some into Montana, Idaho and Colorado. Among its complete variety of goods, it manufactures about three thousand pairs of blankets per year, which will compete with the same class of goods manufactured either east or west. The amount of goods manufactured per annum is about $150,000 J. C. Cutler, as agent, sold from $100,000 to $120,000 per annum. The wool purchases amount to about one million pounds, out of which the Factory manu- factures between three and four hundred thousand pounds. The company has done a great deal of wholesale trade.

We return to the boot and shoe trade as culminating in the factory started by Z. C. M. I., under the management of that practical and able manufacturer, W'm. H. Rowe.

These already given of the causes of the slow progress of manufactures in Utah, combined with a lack of capital, are a few reasons why manufacturing has languished in Utah ; but a new era seems now to have dawned upon us. Political and domestic economy requires the people of the Territory to seriously contem- plate the fact that it is financially suicidal to continue importing nearly everything required for use or consumption. No argument is needed to sustain this state- ment, every person of ordinary intelligence being able readily to comprehend it. We are pleased to note, however, indications that ere long there will be many branches of mannfacture established throughout the Territory, providing employ- ment to the hundreds of skilled artisans who are gathered here, and to the thou- sands of young people who are rapidly growing up and anxiously seeking for opportunities to acquire a knowledge of useful trades. Already there are a few branches assuming substantial proportions, one of the most noticeable being the Shoe Factory of Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution. This factory is the outgrowth of many efforts which had been made to establish a permanent business in manufacturing boots and shoes, extending back fifteen years or more. It was apparent to shoemakers and practical men generally, that a business of that char- acter ought to be successful ; people cannot conveniently go barefoot, and as the roads in the west are exceedingly rough, and the avocations of its citizens labor. ious, the number of pairs of boots and shoes required by them exceeds the aver- age of other countries ; therefore, they reasoned, if any branch of manufacture could be made to pay in Utah the boot and shoe trade was the most likely to succeed.

But the results of their trials generally terminated unsatisfactorily. Leather was seldom allowed to remain long enough in the vats to get thoroughly tanned, and then it was hurried so quickly through the process of currying, finishing and making into shoes, that when worn it frequently proved to be lacking in many essential qualities. The term " valley-tan " soon became, and is now, rather a derogatory expression, applied indiscriminately to any rough home-made article, including whisky. In addition to the frequently poor quality of leather they had to contend with, master shoemakers had to pay high prices for the manufacture of boots and shoes, the goods having to be made in the old fashioned manner,

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on the lap, compelling them to charge much higher prices than those for which imported articles could be purchased. Latterly, after some machinery was intro- duced for the effort of competing with prices of imported goods, there were the difficulties to encounter of not having experienced men to manipulate the ma- chinery, or to organize and operate factories on modern methods. It was not until Mr. W. H. Rowe, the efficient manager of Z. C. M. I. Shoe Factory, took hold of the business that any thoroughly satisfactory head way was made in the wholesale manufacture of boots and shoes to compete with the imported ; although great credit is due to the employees of the Workingmen's Co-operative Association for having, in 1876, by instigation of Mr. D. M. McAllister, voluntarily initiated a revolution in rates of wages, which demonstrated a possibility of manufacturing for wholesale trade. The association alluded to was organized, in March, 1874, by about twenty-five shoe makers, assisted by a few friends, who made a heroic attempt to create employment for themselves and others; but, unfortunately their capital was too small for the purpose, and, although they were sustained by the public, it became evident, after two years' struggle, that they were fighting against fate. At this juncture of affairs, Mr. D. M. McAllister was appointed superintendent, and he succeeded in keeping the business alive for another year, saving it from bankruptcy.

In March, 1877, Mr. Wm. H. Rowe purchased the business of the Working- men's Co-op., and at once proceeded to lay the foundation of what is to-day the largest manufacturing enterprise in Utah. In addition to the fact that Mr. Rowe must hereafter be recognized as a pioneer amongst the successful manufacturers in this Territory, his natural ability, and the substantial character of the work he has done for the benefit of the laboring classes and for the community, demands that he should receive more than a passing notice, and we therefore insert a short biographical sketch of his life.

Mr. Wm. H. Rowe was born at Portsmouth, England, February 14th, 1841. At the early age of eleven years he commenced to learn the shoe trade, working, under the instruction of his father, at bottoming childs' shoes, ladies' welts, and pumps, continuing on those classes of work until he was fifteen years of age. He afterwards spent two years at cutting uppers, in an army custom-work firm at Portsea. From the latter place he went to London and obtained a position as foreman in the cutting department of an exporting shoe factory, that of Messrs. A. & W. Flauto, Leadenhall St .; remaining there three years. He next became associated with M. & S. Solomon & Co. of Tuillerie St., Hackney Road, London, and he continued with them eleven years, until he emigrated to Utah. When he commenced business with Messrs. Solomon they had but three cutters at work. The senior members of the firm being unacquainted with the routine of factory work, the management of the hands, therefore, rested entirely upon Mr. Rowe, whose assiduity and energy was the principal means of increasing the business, until, just previous to his retirement, they had thirty-eight cutters employed, and manufactured a daily average of fifteen hundred pairs of fine shoes and slippers. In this labor he was principally assisted by his wife, who had charge of a large num- ber of young women, employed at fitting and machining the uppers, Mrs. Rowe being herself an experienced and exceedingly expert machinist.

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The thoroughly practical experience obtained by Mr. Rowe, as shown in the foregoing outline, gives the key to the reasons why it was possible for him to suc- ceed where others had not, and also indicates plainly to all intending manufac- turers that the first step taken by them should be to secure fore.nen who have been similarly trained in their respective trades.

Mr. Rowe arrived in Salt Lake City with his family in the summer of 1873, and soon thereafter accepted a position in the shoe and leather department of Z. C. M. I. His unmistakable practical business qualities were quickly observed, and he was in a short time advanced to the leading position in that department. Possessing an unusually agreeable and genial disposition, he excelled as a sales- man, and the branch of business in his charge speedily grew into the largest of that line in this city or Territory. He occupied this position for nearly four years, but he was not entirely in his element ; his education and desire were in the di- rection of manufacturing, and when the opportunity offered, as before stated, he purchased the business of the Workingmen's Co-op., retained all the hands em- ployed therein, and with characteristic energy, applied himself to the establish- ment of a model shoe factory, and exclusive boot and shoe trade. Mr. Rowe at once brought into action his thorough knowledge of manufacturing, and adopted the English method of bottoming, using solid iron lasts and brass clinching screws, a mode of fastening admirably adapted to the requirements and the peo- ple in this Territory. The result was success. Business grew rapidly, and the number of hands had to be continually increased.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 88

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194