It may be hard to imagine, but in 1912 Greenfield had some of the highest-paid workers in the industrialized world.
In partnership with the Smithsonian’s “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” exhibit at the Great Falls Discovery Center, James Terapane, president of the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage gave a presentation about the industrial history of Franklin County outside of Montague. In his talk, Terapane explained the rise of Franklin County’s industrial economy and its collapse.
“The industrial dynamo took off here,” Terapane explained to the at-capacity room in the museum on a recent Saturday afternoon.
In the 1700s, the area consisted of small-scale water-powered mills. Across the valley farmers had small plants for grinding flour, but nothing very large. These original settlers were forbidden by the United Kingdom to do their own metalwork. Instead, they were forced to purchase everything from England.
As soon as the colonists won the Revolutionary War, the founders of the country wanted to start making their own arms. In this quest for weapons, they turned to Greenfield and its five waterways filled with potential for power to start producing.
“The arms industry in Greenfield helps win the War of 1812,” Terapane said.
From the early weapon factories came other opportunities for production. Using capital from southern slavery, John Russell starts a cutlery factory in 1834. “This is the democratization of technology,” Terapane said. This factory took off and copycat factories sprang up across the area.
In the 1840s and ’50s, Franklin County made 40% of the cutlery in the United States. 720,000 utility knives were made in those decades. Most settlers moving west could be found with an engraved “Greenfield” on their blades, cementing the influence the town had far beyond its borders.
In the 1850s, there were hundreds of small mills all using the Connecticut River and Deerfield River tributaries as power for their industries. Terapane explained that Conway had so many mills along its rivers, it “rivaled Greenfield for the county seat.”
By the 1860s, mills were converted into six-story industrial plants using modern turbines. Skilled immigrants came streaming into Franklin County to work in the factories. Industrialists thought the area would become the new New York City. Terapane said the urban street system in Turners Falls with numerical and lettered streets is a representation of the idea of what people thought this area would grow to be.
Then, Terapane explained, the Tap and Die factory in Greenfield further increased the city’s influence on the rest of the world. The factory standardized precision threading on nuts and bolts, revolutionizing how machines were built.
In a matter of decades, the industry that existed in Franklin County grew so large that 30% of Greenfield residents worked in factories. As people from Greenfield enlisted to fight in World War I, they were turned down, with the federal government citing the factories and their workers in Franklin County as necessary to win the war.
“The analogy of this area today is the Silicon Valley,” Terapane said.
The factories were so powerful that the area was far less hurt by the Great Depression than other cities across America. Terapane explained that dismantling of the factories began in the 1980s due to “policy and globalization.”
Terapane concluded his talk by saying that while post-industrial cities across the country are now in shambles due to the loss of industry, Greenfield has not faced complete ruin due to the ingenuity and innovation of its people.
“People are still pioneering here,” Terapane said. “We’ve always been able to have a renaissance.”
Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or
blevavi@recorder.com.