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Clark, Cutler & McDermott at the corner of West Central and Fisher St, pictured in 1934. This is the current site of Factory Square.
For more than a century, four generations of the McDermott family ran Clark, Cutler & McDermott (CCMcD) in the gritty and unglamorous non-woven (e.g. felt) textile industry. From the company’s first products back in 1911, horse blankets, to 2016, when sudden business reversals led the company to seek bankruptcy protection, and when its products had become part of a global supply chain in the automotive industry, the company was innovative and feisty. It survived and prospered despite global competition, the high cost of doing business in Massachusetts, and changing markets. The story of CCMcD will be the topic of slide show and interactive conversation at the Franklin Historical Museum on Sunday, led by Historical Commission Chair Alan Earls. If you or someone you know worked there, bring your stories!
CCMcD was all about Franklin. In the decades before the state and federal government began to play a more active role in creating and maintaining a social safety net, there was CCMcD. The company was old school in many ways, particularly in how it made a priority of thinking about its employees and the town, creating incomes and security for generations and helping to launch many families toward better things. They even supported a local baseball team, the Clarmacs....
Like the other members of his family Tom McDermott (who passed away in 2019) looked at the bottom line but also saw his employees and his town as part of his purview. So, for example, someone with less than perfect work habits might be kept on the payroll even when it didn’t make sense because Tom and the McDermotts knew there were children that might suffer if a parent couldn’t bring home a pay check.
Sometimes, when there was an illness or death in the family, an envelope might arrive unbidden from the McDermotts helping to ease a difficult moment.
Tom’s wife of many years, Sandra, predeceased him by little more than a year, and a son, also named Thomas, died early in the new century.
Other members of the McDermott clan still call Franklin home but, unfortunately, the town they helped support and nurture through two world wars and a depression and into the 21st century has changed. Scarcely anyone, except “old timers” know that the rambling industrial building along Route 140 was once the Rock of Gibraltar for Franklin, keeping the town going through good times and bad.
Come on Sunday and join us as we try to re-imagine the glory days of a famous Franklin business, the home to the dreams of generations of Franklinites.
The museum is located at 80 West Central Street. Bring memories and curiosity. The doors open at 1, presentation begins at 1:15 and the event is free.
