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Born in England in 1824, William Skinner was a tradesman who, at 19, immigrated to the United States. Skinner turned his skill and resourcefulness into a tremendous success. He first went to work in Northampton and eventually opened the Unquomonk Silk Mills in nearby Haydenville. Skinner would have remained there had a flood not destroyed his business. He built a new mill along the canals in Holyoke, one of Americas first planned industrial cities, and moved his family home, Wistariahurst, to the city by dismantling it piece by piece. Residing in Holyoke for eight decades, the Skinner family contributed greatly to the community. Holyoke: The Skinner Family and Wistariahurst contains a rich legacy of photographs, letters, journals, and oral histories that provide an amazing view into life at Wistariahurst and the adventures of the family and their servants.
Holyoke is home to some of the most amazing and courageous individuals. In 1658, European pioneer John Riley, along with other early planters, was instrumental in establishing a community in the West Springfield area called Ireland Parish, which eventually became known as Holyoke. This tenacious man led the way for many other trailblazers, including George Ewing, who envisioned utilizing hydropower to operate factories and inspired town engineers to design one of the first planned cities in the United States. In 1898, the progressive Elizabeth Towne encouraged Holyoke residents and an international audience with her New Thought movement that advocated a healthy lifestyle. Another outstanding citizen, Timothy Alben, judiciously leads the Massachusetts State Police, while Holyoke's Henry Jennings honorably served his country in the armed forces, as a commander of the Holyoke War Memorial Building, and on the Holyoke City Council. Barbara Bernard has astutely kept residents informed about current events for the last 70 years. Legendary Locals of Holyoke chronicles the community's finest men and women who survived and prospered through harsh circumstances and against all odds.
Kilborne presents this account of 19th-century millionaire William Skinner, a leading founder of the American silk industry. He lost everything in a devastating flood, but had an inspiring comeback to the top of the business world.
Among the enduring stereotypes of early American history has been the colonial Goodwife, perpetually spinning, sewing, darning, and quilting, answering all of her family's textile needs. But the Goodwife of popular historical imagination obscures as much as she reveals; the icon appears to explain early American women's labor history, while at the same time allowing it to go unexplained. Tensions of class and gender recede, and the largest artisanal trade open to early American women is obscured in the guise of domesticity. In this book, Marla R. Miller illuminates the significance of women's work in the clothing trades of the early Republic. Drawing on diaries, reminiscences, letters, ledgers, and material culture, she explores the contours of working women's lives in rural New England, offering a nuanced view of their varied ranks and roles - skilled and unskilled, black and white, artisanal and laboring - as producers and consumers, clients and crafts-women, employers and employees
Lake Sammamish, a freshwater lake located east of Seattle, Washington is nestled among the cities of Issaquah, Bellevue, Redmond, and Sammamish. The shores of the lake have been home to many, from the Sammamish Native Americans, to the current population. In the nineteenth century, timber companies realized the potential for development along Lake Sammamish, and logging operations thrived for years. Boating on Lake Sammamish was a necessity for transport of logs to mills and later was a favorite pastime for those who loved the water. Water skiing became popular on the lake in the 1950s. Resort life boomed in the 1920s on Lake Sammamish, and by the 1930s, nine resorts crowded the lake, five on the northwest shore alone. Today, though most traces of milling have disappeared, Lake Sammamish still provides recreation opportunities for tens of thousands of people a year. The resort landscapes have changed, but children and adults alike still enjoy the lake waters by boating, swimming, and fishing.
Here in Massachusetts, as we look to the future and approach the twenty-first century, there is an unmistakable longing to make connections with our past. At the grass-roots level this longing manifests itself in the private restoration of many lovely and historic homes. Another sign is the growth of local historical societies and small museums. The Holyoke Museum at the public library and the Wistariahurst Museum are two nationally recognized organizations that are bringing the history of Holyoke to the forefront. Holyoke draws from the priceless photograph collections of these two archives, as well as from the photo treasures of the Holyoke Water Power Company and other important public and private sources. The images take readers from the late 1800s, when Holyoke was known as the Paper City, to the 1960s, when the downtown was the place to go shopping. Readers are delivered to a time when the author remembers taking the bus downtown to go to the Strand, the Victory, Dorothy Dodds, and Steigers.