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(VERMONT WOOLEN MILL). ?��OKeemo Mills Blotter No. 1. 1851 & 2?��. Accounts,1852-54. 225 pp. Narrow folio. Contemp. calf backed boards, spine broken & worn, some water damage to pages but no loss of legibility. Ink, some slight fading. (Ludlow, Vt: 1851-52). $850.00

 

      Ludlow is a small village in central Vermont where several woolen mills were built along the Black River in the early nineteenth century. The longest lasting of them is a prominent landmark in the center of the village now adapted to a new use. This account book is for the ?��OKeemo Mills?�� obviously named after nearby Okemo Mountain. A boarding house is a major feature in these accounts and included are many names of workers and the amounts they were paid to work in the mills. For example, in 1853 Esther M. Thornton was paid $20.85  to weave 1251 yards of cloth. Parker M. Haven paid $7.71 in 1853 to board for five weeks. Other activities and expenses of the woolen mill included carding, spinning and weaving, dyeing and finishing. Apparently some of the workers were taken on as apprentices since one was paid $3 ?��in boon for learning to spin?��.

      George S. Coffin?��s name is frequently in the accounts. He was of the Putney Woolen Co. and ?��did a very considerable business in the manufacture of mixed flannels. The factory is 80 feet long by 32 wide, and 4 stories high. Adjoining this is a weaving-room 100 feet long, by 25 feet wide. A very commodious boarding-house belongs to the company.?�� Pages 72-73 have an extensive list of ?��personal property to manufg- transferring the following..?�� (?) which contains items such as a tool chest, grindstone, screw drivers, shoe knives, needles, baskets, hand saws and ?��20 solar hanging lamps?��- the total of which was $2500. It is unclear how the personal property becomes merchandise. Payments are also made to the local grist mill and sawmill. Lengthy and detailed accounts deserving of further study into the town?��s early history to establish to whom they may have belonged.