Manufacturing on the Kennebec had its start in 1834 with the incorporation and capitalization of the Kennebec Dam Company (completed in 1837). The company was given the authority to build a dam, locks, and canals, for the purpose of establishing manufacturing on the river. A succession of mills followed, beginning with the Kennebec Company cotton mill, which opened in 1846. Three mills came after that: A. W. Sprague Manufacturing Company in 1869, Edwards Manufacturing in 1882, and finally the Edwards Division of Bates Manufacturing in 1945. Within half a century after Bates took over, the building was destroyed by fire, and the site leveled. This turn of the century postcard shows the massive mill complex on the site where textile manufacturing took place in Augusta for nearly a century and a half. The first mill opened in 1846 and the last company did not close its doors until the later part of the 20th century. This particular view is of Edwards Manufacturing, the company that manufactured here most successfully and for the longest period of time. The buildings are gone, and today the site is being turned into a city park.

Of the major manufacturing enterprises in Maine, cotton was king in the nineteenth century, as it was for all of New England. In Augusta specifically, cotton manufacturing vied with publishing and shoe manufacturing for top economic stature. While labor statistics specifically for the Augusta cotton mills are not available, a look at statewide data gives us an understanding of women’s roles in this industry. It is clear that women were the backbone of the cotton industry in Maine and if statewide trends held, this was also true for Augusta. In this 20th century photograph, an unidentified woman is seen operating a mechanical loom. Women were primary in the textile workforce in New England.

Employment rates and wages (statewide) for cotton goods workers for select years (1886, 1900, 1905) show that women were the majority of workers in this industry, but their wages were considerably less. Cotton manufacturing was a complex enterprise, with many steps, and thus many different job titles and responsibilities. In the 1887 Bureau of Labor Statistics Report, there were twenty-eight jobs noted for the cotton industry. They are listed here with the average wage earned per day:



While women were not excluded from the higher paying jobs, they were generally relegated to the lower paying ones, while men primarily held higher paying positions, as seen in the following chart.

In 1903, there were three unions in the Augusta cotton mill: mule spinners, weavers, and loom fixers. Historically, unions were not strong in Maine, but in 1906 there were thirteen recognized unions (for all industries) in Augusta, with nearly 500 members. In 1906, there were three unions in the cotton mill: mule spinners, loom fixers, and ring spinner. Lizzie Cyr was a member of the Ring Spinner’s Union, and served as the primary contact person, as well as secretary for the Augusta group. Dues were $.50 and 92 members belonged. Many women spent their working lives in the mills; among them were Ellen Sirois and Philamon Dumont, both of whom worked fifty years in cotton manufacturing.

In 1940, Edwards Manufacturing employed 1,325 workers, and the weekly payroll was half a million dollars. By the late twentieth century, there was no cotton manufacturing in Augusta.



Site #38.1 Sources:

	Augusta, Maine Sesquicentennial. Special reprint of Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, Sesquicentennial Edition, Wednesday, July 30, 1947.
	Maine. Reports of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine, Annual Reports for 1887, 1903, 1906.
	Sleeper, Frank H. Images of America: Augusta. Dover, NH: Arcadia Publ., c1995.