Franklin is a Shoddy Town (Hometown History #4)

Above, City Mills, now in Norfolk, formerly part of Franklin and a center for shoddy.

Yes, it’s true, Franklin IS a shoddy town. No, not cheap and of poor quality – that’s a derivative meaning. In fact, shoddy is a low cost of a type of cloth, the manufacturing of which has a long history locally.

According to Mortimer Blake’s1879 history of the Town of Franklin, “the first shoddy-picker, and probably the first in the country, was started in 1849 at Unionville [the village in Franklin roughly from the Stop & Shop to the Bellingham line] by Messrs. J. G. & J.P. Ray.” Yes, those Rays, the ones whose descendants donated, the library, a school, a fire station, and more to the town. Shoddy was the start of some big businesses!

According to Wikipedia, Shoddy is recycled or remanufactured wool, traditionally made from loosely woven materials and invented by Benjamin Law in England in 1813. The shoddy industry was centered in West Yorkshire, and concentrated on the recovery of wool from rags.

And on those points, another source, the Worcester Society of Antiquity, agrees. But they differ as to Franklin’s eminence, writing as follows in the 19th century:

The Commercial Bulletin some years ago made researches into the history of shoddy manufacture in this country. It credits Reuben Daniels of Woodstock, Vt., as the first man to make shoddy in the United States. The Daniels machine for shoddy was invented in 1840. In 1846 A.G. Dewey of Queechy [sic] Vt., succeeded to the business, and was of the opinion that from that time until the Rays commenced operations at Franklin, Mass., in 1848, he was the possessor of the entire shoddy business of America...In the latter part of the fifties [1850s], several mills were manufacturing and using shoddy. Its production increased rapidly during war [the Civil War].

It was that war that really put shoddy on the map, clothing soldiers, workers, the enslaved, and the newly freed people of the north and the south – and probably acquiring its association with cheapness and mass production.

The Ray family had originally come to town in 1839 and was initially involved with cotton products. The next generation of Rays diversified into cassimere, felts, and satinets, among other things, but they and other local entrepreneurs continued to make shoddy. How they got into the business, is unrecorded, but Franklin became a center for shoddy production for many years.

For instance, the 1909 "Davison’s Textile Blue Book" – an industry directory – list multiple Franklin firms involved with shoddy including Charles River Woolen Co., H.T. Hayward President, Charles L. Staples, Buyer, Agent, and Superintendent with capital equipment listed as “32 Cards, 10 Pickers, 1 Garnett, 2 Boilers” with a workforce of 35. George R. Whiting is listed as another shoddy manufacturer, though it seems the physical plant for that firm may have been in a neighboring town.

The local expertise in shoddy also gave rise to companies making the machines to produce shoddy. An ad in the 1903 America’s Textile Reporter extols the virtues of the Clark Machinery and Foundry Company of Franklin and their “Clark Improved Shoddy Picker,” featuring the new “Geb Feed.”

While not used often for clothing, shoddy is still manufactured today, generally from recycled fibers.

Hanna Rose Shell, a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder recently completed a book all about the material, "Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags," published by the University of Chicago Press.