The Sayles Bleacheries were the foundation for all the subsequent manufacturing activities of the Sayles family. The profits from this highly successful operation fueled the acquisition of the scores of companies whose records now make up the Sayles Collection. Thus the Sayles Bleacheries were in every sense the “parent” organization of the Sayles empire.
The Sayles Bleacheries originated when William F. Sayles, in December 1847, bought at auction the plant of the Pimbly Print Works, lying along the Moshassuck River in the town of Lincoln, Rhode Island. Twenty-three years old at the time, Sayles was the son of Clark Sayles, a “prominent Pawcatuck merchant,” and had worked for several years in a commercial house before making this purchase. With “little capital” Sayles began operations in the handful of wooden buildings that Joseph Pimbly had erected on the site. In the spring of 1848, Sayles converted the plant from a print works to a bleachery. Under the various styles of “Moshassuck Bleachery,” “W. F. Sayles,” and “Sayles’ Bleachery,” Sayles slowly expanded the output of the facility - from one ton of cloth per day in 1848 to four tons daily by 1854. Throughout this early period, Sayles limited his operation to bleaching cotton sheetings and shirtings of not more than 45 inches in width. In June 1854, a fire destroyed all the original wooden buildings of the bleachery (re: fire, see Thomas Allen Jenckes' legal file titled: W. F. Sayles / Moshassuck Bleachery, Metropolitan Insurance Co.). Within ninety days, Sayles had replaced them with a substantial brick structure with a capacity of bleaching six tons of cloth per day. Increasing demand for his product led Sayles, as early as 1855, to put up the first of numerous additions to this building, in a process that has resulted in the present sprawling complex in Saylesville.
In 1853, Sayles took on his younger brother, Frederic C. Sayles, as an apprentice in the bleachery. After ten years’ apprenticeship he accepted his brother as full partner. Thereafter, until William’s death in 1894, the bleaching of cloth was conducted under the style of “W. F. and F. C. Sayles.” After weathering the depression in cotton manufacturing caused by the Civil War, the brothers responded to booming conditions in the post-war period with a further expansion of their operations. By August 1868, they had put the finishing touches on the “New Bleachery” or “Lower Bleachery,” which they erected on land adjoining the original complex. This structure greatly increased their capabilities, allowing them to bleach, for the first time, such classes of cotton goods as wide sheetings and fancy lawns and nainsooks. The addition of the tenter machines, a few years later, also brought them into the “white goods” field, which grew to become an important branch of their business. By 1879, the daily output of the bleacheries at Saylesville had grown to forty tons, or 325,000 yards of fine shirtings and sheetings, and 20,000 yards of lawns. With a further increase in their capacity, over the next decade, to fifty tons a day, William and Frederick Sayles were able to boast that they operated the largest bleachery in the world.
The death of William F. Sayles in May 1894 brought an end to the partnership of “W. F. and F. C. Sayles.” William’s share in the bleacheries passed on to his son, Frank A. Sayles. For the next two years, ownership of the business was split between Frank and his uncle Frederick, with Frank running the “Upper Bleachery” and Frederick the “Lower Bleachery.” In 1896, Frank bought out his uncle’s holdings in Saylesville. Thereafter, he operated both bleacheries in the styles of “F. A. Sayles” and “Sayles Bleacheries.” In the decade after 1906, however, the bleacheries ceased to function as separate units, as their operations were increasingly merged into the larger entity of Sayles Finishing Plants.
Throughout his tenure as sole proprietor of the bleacheries, Frank A. Sayles was ably assisted by his superintendent, Charles O. Read. Having joined the company as a bookkeeper in 1863, Read gradually came to manage more and more aspects of the business, until he was appointed over-all superintendent upon William F. Sayles’ death in 1894. It was Read who provided the essential element of continuity as Frank A. Sayles consolidated his control over the bleacheries.
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Researchers are advised that express written permission to reproduce, quote, or otherwise publish any portion or extract from this collection must be obtained from the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Sayles Bleacheries records, MSS 6 SG 1, Rhode Island Historical Society.
The records of the Sayles Bleacheries are grouped according to the three major changes in their ownership, with Series A containing items labeled “William F. Sayles,” Series B items labeled “W. F. and F. C. Sayles,” and Series C those labeled “Frank A. Sayles.” Unfortunately, there is only a rough correspondence between company names printed on the records and the actual dates at which name changes occurred. For example, although William F. Sayles was the sole proprietor of the bleacheries for only the years 1847-1863, the Journals and Ledgers continue to bear his name, alone, into the 1890s (ignoring the fact that the firm’s name was changed to W. F. and F. C. Sayles when Frederick became a partner in 1863). It was not until 1868 that a series of Journals and Ledgers appeared bearing the name “W. F. and F. C. Sayles,” but these probably were limited to the “Lower Bleachery,” built in that year. Such discrepancies suggest that the user should check through all three Series in searching out the bleachery records for a particular year.
The records of the Sayles Bleacheries are very unevenly represented in this collection. They are strongest in the area of formal business records, with almost complete runs of Journals, Ledgers, and Cash Books for the years 1847-1906. The correspondence files are spotty: for outgoing correspondence, there is a strong run of letter volumes for the 1850s, 1890s, and 1900s; for incoming correspondence, there are strong holdings only for the years 1877-1881 and 1896-1904. The collection is weak in the areas of employment records, engineering records, and financial records.
The records are arranged in three series:
This collection was a gift of Sayles Finishing Plants on 25 December 1971 (plus two boxes, gift of George and Dolores Nazare).