The Press., 1910-01-12
Rsninisesnees of WillinssOn, co.n., by Native
 of the Town.-NO. 8.

Of the Tow1.-NO. 8.
 The "reminiscences already given were from my memories of my very early life. Very little, if any of them. cover period later than 1888 or g. In this closing paper I shall take a much larger range.
 We used to read in the old school books that tall oaks from little aoorns grow, and I realize the truth of that as I review the seventy years' growth of the thread industry in this country, from the small beginning in Wilmington in 1S4O to what is to- day one of the great industries of the country in the American Thread com pany.
 Elisha Johnson, the principal or. ganizer of the WillinRton Thread com- pany, was, in about 1850. one of the organizers of the Willimantic Linen company for the manufacture of linen. That not being a success, in 1857 1t was changed to the manufacture of spool cotton, and through the in. fluence of Mir Johnson the Willington Thread company was merged in the WillimAntic Linen company In 1861 small branch from the Williman- tic Linen company withdrew and formed the Merrick Brothers 6 Co. of Mansfield Center. MT. Johnson was man that very much disliked to play second fiddle in anything that he attempted, but with the Linen com. pany, if he remained. he would have I to do SO, and rather than do that he withdrew and cast in his lot with the Merrick Brothers at Mansfield
 In 1865 the Merritk Brothers & Oo., having outRrown the mill at Mansfield, decided to build a large mill at Holyoke, Mass, and remove their works there as soon as a mill could be built, which was oomple ted in the summer of 1867. and the Merrick Thread company was organ. ized with MT. Johnson as president and Timothy Merrick as treasurer, which positions they each held till their deatls. They both lived long enough to be fully assured of the sue cess of the company, but not to see 1t merged into the American Thread company, neither do I believe that either of them would have favored the merging. This has been intro duced as a sort of side show and 1 will now resume my story.
 Up to about 1886 spool cotton, or cotton thread on spools, was almost entirely unknown in this country Everything in the line of sewing thread, either cotton silk or linen, was in the skein and fairly conven- ient, as all sewing was with needle and the skein was of the length to make right length for the needle.
 Sewing machines were far in the future. It was near that time that a small concern in a small town in New Hampshire first started in the manufacture of what is known as spool cotton, the winding of cotton thread on spools. At the first it was, I believe, unbleaohed and undressed and of the coarser numbers, as the long fiber Sea Island and Egyptian cotton used in the manufacture of fine thread was almost unknown
 Following the election of Martin Van Buren as the democratic president in the fall of 1886 came the financial panic of 1887, and history tells us that the last four years of Jackson s administration had been noted for it's speculation and over expansion, and that during Van Buren's administra- ton the depreciation in values was very rapid.
 recall a couplet that our neighbor, Uncle Nicholas Whitford, used to re. peat during the fall of 184O, the campaign of Old Tipecanoe :-
 "The times have got bad and want
 curin',
 And I'll tell you what we'll do, We'll turn out Martin Van Bureu
 And put in Old TippeCanoe.
 may not give the exact date of the organization of the Wilmington Thread company, but remem bering as do the depression in business of the time, venture to place it as 184O or Al, and even then it seems to me that it would have required a good deal of courage to have started an entirely new business following such a finan- oial crisis. The men who organized the Wilmington Thread company were men of courage.
 The principal organizers of the company were Elisha Johnson, at that time the warden of the Connecticut state prison at Wethersfield, Origen Hall of Willimantic and Otis Dimock of WilliDgton, at that time, I think, the manager, if not the owner, If the fulling and cloth dressing mill that became part of the new thread mill
 only recall three families that lived in the vicinity of the mill, Otis Dimock, Solomon Noble aud Walter Newcome. Mr. Noble for several years occupied the cld one. story house near highway between MT Dimock's new house and the mill boarding house. Down near the bridge across the brook was the home of Walter Newcome Near one-fourth of mile south at the branch of the road was the home of Royal New come. At the east and south of Royal Newoome's were several other families that I need not mention here.
 The three men were right in the prime of life Mir Johnson was we'll established in his position as warden of the prison. Mir. Hall was an ex pert cotton spinner of some ears ex-