The Woolen Industry of the Midwest (review)

BOOK REVIEWS79 Each of these books is enhanced by illustrations, maps, bibliographies, and indexes. Ellis' work contains an extensive bibliography, but less than one half of the references appear in footnotes. Also, his index is superficial—i.e., names on pages 23, 182 are not listed. In Murray's work a modem map of the Powder River region showing fort sites, trails, and campaign routes would have been helpful. Whatever their shortcomings , these volumes are attractively designed and packaged and will invite further research into western military history. Harwood P. Hinton University of Arizona The Woolen Industry of the Midwest. By Norman L. Crockett. (Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, 1970. Pp. x, 149. $7.25.) In this small volume Norman Crockett examines a neglected field of American economic history—the rise and decline of small local manufactures . He is concerned with the woolen industry from the 1860's to the early 1900's in eight states: the five states of the Old Northwest and Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. He has mastered the intricacies not only of the wool manufacture but also of wool and the wool trade, and has presented the results of his extensive investigations in a clear and readable style. Although he has drawn on a wide range of printed materials, his study is particularly enriched and strengthened by the use of numerous manuscripts in seven historical societies and libraries ( ranging from the Jackson County, Missouri, Historical Society to the Baker Library at Harvard ) and in private hands. Since the manuscripts largely determine the case histories and illustrations introduced, we learn more about individual mills in Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota than in the other states. There is no reason to believe, however, that conditions differed greatly in the states for which few or no illustrative materials are presented. Census statistics tell part of the story. In 1870 there were 881 woolen mills in the area under study, in 1900 there were 183, and in 1920 only seventy. The mills came into existence as a result of conditions in a region predominantly rural and still a long way from eastern centers of capital, population and industry. Farmers and the dwellers in small towns needed the cloth and the custom services that a woolen mill could provide. Thousands of farmers in the eight states kept some sheep and were thus in a position to supply raw materials to the small factories either directly or indirectly through wool dealers. A local woolen mill had for the time being a competitive advantage over the large eastern mills because of high transportation costs. For a generation or more the Midwest mills served their communities well; life in the region for large numbers of people was easier and more comfortable because of their existence. The conditions that produced them and made them an important part of the regional economy were not, however, destined 80CIVIL WAR HISTORY to endure. With improved transportation and lower rates eastern goods entered in increasing quantities. Consumers now eagerly turned from the cloth produced by the local mills to the ready-to-wear clothing of eastern manufacture. The sheep industry declined in these states also as vast grazing lands to the westward entered into production. No longer did a small mill in Minnesota have a competitive advantage over the giants of Lawrence and other eastern mill centers. One by one the local mills shut down, the victims, as the author says, "to the very economic progress they had helped to create." Some mills fought back and some won. It is pleasant to know that human enterprise and judgment could still make a difference. The Faribault Woolen Mills of Faribault, Minnesota, first sought to survive by turning from fabrics to pants and shirts. When this move failed to produce the desired results, the company entered successfully into the manufacture of quality blankets. The Appleton Mills in Wisconsin saw and profited from a regional opportunity: the manufacture of woolen felts for paper mills. The Flint Woolen Mill in Michigan, on the other hand, overlooked an opportunity, and died. It succeeded in staving off the fatal day for a time by converting to the manufacture of carriage cloth, but by 1909 it...