Griswoldville, Ma.

Quote:
I reckon, though it was probably written in at a later date.

Quote:
In 1830 in what is now Griswoldville the remarkable Joseph Griswold began the manufacture of doors, sashes and blinds, using the available water power. Soon after, he built a cotton mill, and then another much larger, and then expanded into The Griswold Manufacturing Co., which in 1846 established a New York office. During the Civil War, when cotton was hard to get, Griswold sent one of his sons south following Grant's army to Memphis to purchase cotton. Short of labor, he sent a man to Canada to recruit French Canadian workers, then built them homes and a Catholic church. For the rest of his life he was the most prominent man in town, the largest employer, and donor of the elegant, neo-classical stone library which still serves the town.

In 1932, the Griswold Mfg. Co. became Kendall Mills, which at one point employed some 500 men and women, most of them Colrain residents. In 1986, Kendall sold most of their businesses here, which were sold, in turn, successively until today Barnhardt Manufacturing bleaches cotton, employing about 50. It is the only manufacturer in Colrain.

Quote:
Samuel Griswold, founder of Griswoldville and cotton producer, turned his factory over to the production of pistols and ammunition at the outbreak of the Civil War