RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

Sayles Finishing Plants (Saylesville, Philipsdale, and Valley Falls, Rhode Island and Ashleville, North Carolina) Business Records (MSS 6 Sg 2)

Rhode Island Historical Society

121 Hope Street
Providence, RI 02906
Tel: 401-273-8107
Fax: 401-751-7930
email: reference@rihs.org

Collection Overview

Title: Sayles Finishing Plants (Saylesville, Philipsdale, and Valley Falls, Rhode Island and Ashleville, North Carolina) Business Records
Date range: 1906-1971
Creator: Sayles Finishing Plants, 1906-1971
Extent: 55 linear feet
Abstract: In the first two decades of the 20th century, there occurred a gradual consolidation of the various finishing plants owned by Frank A. Sayles. To the original bleacheries at Saylesville were joined administratively the various branches of the Glenlyon Dye and Print Works and the National Tracing Cloth Company. The first indication of this trend came in 1906, when the records start referring to the Sayles Bleacheries as Plant A - implying the existence of a larger organization of which it formed a part. In the decade that followed, the various finishing units were increasingly linked by central departments - e.g. the Central Purchasing Department, the Efficiency Department, the Rate-Fixing Department, the Superintendent's Office - that came to coordinate more and more of their activities. This process was formalized in March 1917, when Frank A. Sayles set up Sayles Finishing Plants as an unincorporated trust that owned and operated the various finishing subdivisions.
Language of materials: English.
Repository: Rhode Island Historical Society
Collection number: MSS 6 Sg 2