The CLARK
THREAD COMPANY
1866-1949
Probably no other branch of American industry has attained
to greater supremacy than the manufacture of spool cotton. Thread-making
in the United States dates from the close of the last century (1700's), when the
first efforts were made in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The thread works
are among the largest manufacturing establishments of the country, the largest
of which are at Newark, and known by the above name.
The Clark Thread
Company was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey State
Legislature on March 9, 1865, under the name of the Passaic Thread
Company, naming
George A. Clark,
Alexander Clark,
William Clark,
and Thomas Barber
as incorporators, with a capital stock of
$750,000.00, with power to increase to $1 Million Dollars, to be divided into
shares of $100.00 each.
To George A. Clark, a native of Paisley, Scotland is
justly ascribed the chief credit of having founded the great industrial
institution in question. He came of a family trained in similar pursuits,
his ancestors having established a factory at Paisley nearly seventy years ago
(1812). It still exists, and rivals its New World offspring -- for such
the Newark factory may properly be termed -- in the vastness of its dimensions
and products. Into the enterprise Mr. Clark infused his remarkable energy,
and it was an established success from the very first. Unfortunately the
chief founder did not live to witness the full fruition of his plans, and the
perfection to which the works were destined to be brought under the zeal,
energy, and skill of those who continued where he suddenly left off.
Mr. Clark started in a rented building on
Fulton Street, Newark, and by 1866, he had completed a huge new plant located on
several acres in the 8th Ward of Newark, fronting the Passaic River. By
1870, more than one thousand men and women worked for the Clark Thread
Company. Later when the company opened additional buildings in East
Newark, Kearny, and Harrison, it hired thousands more. The
smokestack of the Clark O.N.T. (Our New Thread) mills was for many years the
tallest in America.
Upon George A. Clark's death in 1873, his brother William Clark took control of the company. During this period the Clark Thread
Company's
employees organized a fully trained and equipped fire-hose company; a Relief
Society which paid out nearly $12,000.00 to members in 1876; a successful boat
club; and an eighteen piece instrumental band.
Mr. William Clark doubled the size of the existing mills by erecting a spooling factory which measured 160 feet by 82 feet and was four
stories
high. On the eastern bank of the Passaic River he purchased a ten
acre tract of land and erected additional factories. Now buildings have been erected on both sides of the Passaic River.
William Clark
remained as president of this company until his death in 1902 when his nephew, William Campbell
Clark, took control.
William Campbell Clark, also a native of Paisley, Scotland continued to run the company according to the fine examples set by his uncles until
his
death in 1912. William Campbell Clark's brother, Kenneth, then took over control of the operations of the company.
The Clark Thread Company of Newark, NJ located at the river-front of
Passaic and Clark Streets ceased operations in Newark and was acquired by the
Coats Thread Company in 1949.
Thanks to
Michelle Groel for her Generous Contribution
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Sources
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© Ken Forbes 1999
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