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Buttons, Buttons,
Everywhere......
by Michael Gelinas, Board member- Longmeadow
Historical Society-
May 2006
In 1836 a Springfield Armory employee named
Cyrus Newell moved from Walnut St. in
Springfield to Longmeadow and began to farm. He
came with his wife, the former Celina Sessions,
and four sons- Samuel, Nelson, Horace, and
Charles, ages 14, 12, 10, and 8. Moving from an
urban setting at that time to a rural farm one
was a reversal of what was becoming the
norm–from rural farm to urban factory.
The story of the Newell family is an excellent
example, however, of the quickening
transformation of the economy of the pre-Civil
War Northeast. Part of the great changes was the
leaving home by the young men from many farm
families. Samuel left at age 16. He worked for a
year in a store in Wilbraham; he then clerked
for various merchants in Hartford, CT. until he
was 21. He then worked for a textile
manufacturer in Naugatuck CT, part of a booming
industrial area. Three years later he went to
New York City and worked as a salesman for the
India rubber goods store of Ames & Newell. His
younger brother, Nelson who also was linked to
Naugatuck had his own manufacturing company.
Nelson sold his interests, and he and his
brother moved back to Longmeadow in 1848, They
brought with them knowledge of the new economy
that was evolving, as well as investment
capital. They associated themselves with Dimond
Chandler in his cloth button manufacturing
business. Chandler had six employees creating
cloth buttons for a primarily regional market.
But when the Newell brothers came back the pace
of mechanization of the textile and clothes
making industries was accelerating, creating a
growing demand for buttons. The Newells, as part
of Dimond Chandler & Co., expanded the business
to just under 30 employees. Most of the
employees were young women, of marrying age;
their prospects of marriage were diminished
because the number of men of equivalent ages was
declining as they left home for opportunities
“out West”. Almost all of the girls lived
together in a boarding house where they could be
supervised. This was the “Lowell” model that had
been employed at the huge mills in Eastern
Massachusetts; this was done in part to convince
the parents of these young women that they would
be safe away from home while earning their own
livings and building a dowry to make it easier
to find a mate.
By 1860 the Newell Brothers had bought out
Chandler, and were preparing a move to
Springfield. The Civil War accelerated this
move. In Springfield they could find the
experienced labor force to operate more advanced
lathes. They built a three-story factory (100
ft. x 30 ft.) at a site that is now the corner
of Howard St. and Columbus Ave. The factory had
access to water power and transportation
facilities for access to a wider market. Besides
their own capital, they worked with Daniel
Colton, whose family had been Longmeadow
residents, for more capital for the expanding
business. After a few years, an office building
had been erected, and then another factory
building, this one four stories high. As well as
a full line of cloth-covered buttons and ivory
(made from an ivory nut imported by the ton from
Central America), the brothers also controlled
the Dickinson Hard Rubber Co., which
manufactured hard rubber buttons. By 1880 the
Newell Brothers Manufacturing Co. had over 500
employees. In 1902 Nelson C. Newell (Samuel had
died in 1878 with no male heirs), along with his
three sons, created the United Button Co.–a
consolidation of their company with the
Williston & Knight Co. of Easthampton and the
Boston Button Co. The new United Button company
now controlled 85% of the covered button output
and 40% of the ivory button output of the
country.
Samuel and Nelson also played a role in the
development of the famous McKnight neighborhood
in Springfield. They had their houses completed
in 1872 (testimony to the prosperity of Civil
War era Springfield). Nelson’s was at 57 Bowdoin
St., and Samuel’s at 69 Bowdoin. A third
brother, Horace, who had spent his early adult
years in Naugatuck as a teacher, returned during
the Civil War and eventually became foreman of
the carding (cloth preparation) and shipping
departments. He, too, built in the McKnight
area, at 59 Buckingham St.
From a few buttons on Chandler Lane to many many
buttons in Springfield, this has been one
example of the American economy in the 19th
century: from small shop to large factory, from
living in a farm village to moving to greater
chances of “getting ahead”, from local trading
areas to national markets; and a new merchant
and manufacturing class who lived in the cities
and helped create dynamic infrastructures and
public institutions. |
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