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Holyoke Collection, 1794 - Present1794 – Present Day [bulk: 1870-1950] 200 boxes (234 linear ft.)Collection number: MS 201ABSTRACTThe Holyoke Collection reflects the diverse history of this immigrant,industrial city. While the collection has only a small amount ofpersonal papers, there is much that documents the city’s rich ethniccommunities, their social lives as well as their work lives. The recordsof numerous clubs and businesses as well as hundreds of photographstell the story of the city and its people, especially from the 1870sthrough the 1950s. From the Rand family account book of 1794 to theSt. Patrick’s Day Parade Souvenir books, the history of the city of Holyoke and its people is welldocumented by this collection.Terms of Access and Use: The collection is open for research.HISTORICAL SKETCHHolyoke was founded on 19th century water power technology, and populatedby immigrants from its beginnings in 1847. Before Europeans arrived, NativeAmericans depended on the river. The river served for centuries as a naturaland generally peaceful boundary between Algonquin peoples on the east sideand Iroquois tribes, such as Mohawks, to the west. The Iroquois nation hadexpanded to the north from the southern Appalachians, home of the Iroquoisrelated Cherokee Indians.Colonial explorers travelled up the river into this area from Hartford,Connecticut in 1640, soon after English Puritans founded Boston. ElizurHolyoke and Roland Thomas led surveys of Springfield's boundaries, whichthen extended to Hadley and Northampton on both sides of the river. Thefirst European settlers were fur traders and planters. The fertile valleyexported corn and lumber. Violence erupted in the valley in1675 betweencolonists and Native peoples.Settlers established a small farming village in 1660 on the Connecticut River's west bank whereHolyoke now sits. The area, first called Ireland Parish after its original Irish settler John Riley, wasoriginally an offshoot of Springfield. Here the river drops almost sixty feet in elevation. By 1783 localpeople used the power of these "Hadley Falls" to run a sawmill and gristmill. During the 1790s a rampwith winches and a canal carried river boats around the falls. Investors from Boston recognized thehuge potential for water power in the Hadley Falls. They chose the site for the greatest planned textilemanufacturing center in New England, and in 1847 they devised the plan. They had already amassedriches in cloth and trade, and had built Lowell and Lawrence into the first major industrial citiesoutside Boston. In 1847 these men bought 1,100 acres of land from local families. Then they took overownership of the Hadley Falls Company, the first cotton mill built in Ireland Parish. The first of thefifty-four planned cotton mills was built. Construction began on a dam across the river and a system ofwater power canals drawing water from behind the dam. In 1850 Ireland Parish was renamed Holyoke.In 1859 the Holyoke Water Power Company bought out the Hadley Falls Company and carrieddevelopment forward. Holyoke became famous for high-quality paper, woolens, thread, silk, cotton,and industrial machinery. These successful industries needed. The city's population rose from 4,600 in1855 to 35,600 in 1890, as industrial growth peaked and laborers came from Ireland, Canada,Germany, Poland and elsewhere.

HOLYOKE COLLECTION FINDING AIDHolyoke's water power canal system, the largest in New England, carried water from the river to drivethe turbines in the mills. From 1847 to 1893 workers dug the 4.5 mile canal system using picks andshovels! In order to power the mills, a dam across the Connecticut River was needed to force waterinto the city's system of canals. The first attempt to dam the river began in 1847. Construction took ayear. The 1000-foot-long timber structure broke and washed downriver as soon as it was completed.The telegraph to the Boston Investors read: "Your old dam has gone to hell by way of Willimansett." In1849 five hundred laborers completed a second and stronger wooden dam, which held. The presentstone dam was built in the 1890s, replacing the older wooden dam, and began service in 1900. Over athousand feet long and thirty feet high, it is filled with cemented stone rubble and faced with graniteblocks from Vinal Haven, Maine and local quarries. The stone dam has had major repairs once, afterthe flood in 1936, which sent 14 feet of water over its top. Otherwise the dam has functionedunchanged since its construction.Holyoke's fame as "paper city" arose in the 1880s when it became the world's largest producer of finewriting papers. In 1899, 16 mills formed the American Writing Paper Company, a price-controllingtrust, or coalition. Parsons Paper Company was the first established paper mill in 1853 and was the lastmill in Holyoke to manufacture paper, closing in 2004. The mills ran 24 hours, 7 days a week, with twoshifts. Hand labor was done by women while men ran the machinery. Eagle Lodge, the nationalpapermaker's union, was founded in Holyoke in 1884 to address grievances about wages and hours.There are still several "paper converting" companies manipulating paper that is made elsewhere.Lyman Mills, named for a Boston investor, opened in 1854, made quality cotton fabrics, and employed1500 people at its peak in the 1890s. It closed in 1927 as textile industries moved south. The SkinnerSilk Mills, in operation from 1874 to 1963, produced silk thread, bridal satin and silk and nylon forparachutes used in World War II. Germania Mills opened in 1865 to make heavy woolens forovercoats and suits. Their reputation was built on fashionable woolens, but innovations in home andauto heating swayed fashions to lighter suits and coats. The mill closed in the 1960s. Farr Alpaca usedllama wool to develop Holyoke's largest textile company. In 1910 its 4,000 employees producedmohair and cashmere cloth. The company's security rested on its manufacture of quality alpaca woollinings and its adaptation to changing fashions, but it finally closed in the 1930s. Holyoke mills excelledin the manufacturing of high-quality spool thread for sewing. The Hadley Company produced the firstAmerican thread during the 1860s that was good enough to challenge English products. The MerrickThread Company achieved such success that other American companies during the 1880s attemptedto undersell them by forming a "thread trust," or combination of companies large enough to influenceprices.In 1920 the city of Holyoke contained: 17,557 workers earning 12 million/year; Railroad freighttonnage second only to Boston; 10 banks worth 32 million; Turbines producing 30,000 horsepower;the lowest electric rates in New England. In a single day, Holyoke .produced: 2 million envelopes, 150miles of cloth, 500 tons writing paper, and 100,000 miles of threadBusiness, labor organizations and civic groups played an important role in the lives of the city'sresidents, creating the backbone for Holyoke's economic and social growth. Residents enjoyed sportsand recreation, despite 6 day work weeks and 12 hour shifts. Volleyball was invented in Holyoke in1895. Several local men founded professional baseball clubs. Many churches, schools and mills hadteams. Bicycle racing was a popular pastime. Valley Arena, known for its boxing and big band music,was a popular night spot during the 1940s and 1950s. Mountain Park, a few miles out of town, offeredfamily entertainment until it closed in 1988. Its classic Merry-Go-Round now has a downtown home atHeritage Park.Irish immigration, starting with the Irish famine in 1847, continued in large numbers for severaldecades. Because 1847 marked the initial construction of the dam and city, the labor force in Holyokewas largely made up of Irish immigrants from the start. The Irish managed to secure many of the moreWistariahurst 238 Cabot Street, Holyoke, MA 01040 413-322-5660 www.wistariahurst.orgPage - 2 of 45O:\WISTARIAHURST\ARCHIVES\COLLECTIONS\ FindingAids\Holyoke Collection Finding Aids\ Holyoke Collection Finding Aid Updated 12-01-2017.doc

HOLYOKE COLLECTION FINDING AIDskilled and lucrative positions in the paper mills. They advanced into positions of control in politics andthe fire and police departments. 1859: French-Canadians were first recruited to fill labor shortages,triggering immigration that peaked between 1875 and 1900. French-Canadians, arriving later than theIrish, filled the ranks of lower-paid textile workers. Many Irish young people heeded parental adviceand chose lives outside Holyoke's factories in the 1950s. French-Canadians filled the openings, enjoyingsome upward mobility near the end of the industrial era. Immigrants from England, Scotland andGermany were drawn to the mills in Holyoke. 1890: Holyoke had a population of 36,600, with 48%foreign-born. 1917: The population rose to 62,210, and by the 1900s Russians, Jews and Italians werecoming to the city. Many Polish immigrants earned enough money in the mills to buy farmland in thevalley. African-Americans moved to the city during World War I. 1960: Puerto Rican families beganmoving to Holyoke in the mid-1950s, beginning the most recent influx of new residents. Some earlymigrants stayed after working seasonal agricultural jobs. Farm jobs were fast disappearing, along withfactory work. Available housing attracted families displaced by urban renewal in Springfield in the1960s. Today Latinos compose one half of Holyoke's population and three quarters of the publicschool student body.SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTIONDocuments related to the activities of the Holyoke Street Railroad (1855-1954) and its subsidiary, theMt. Tom Railroad, form an important part of this collection. Of particular significance are the recordspertaining to the development and maintenance of Mountain Park, one of several “trolley-caramusement parks” built adjacent to American cities just before and after the start of the twentiethcentury. Within the assorted family papers, the papers of local author Alma Honey are yet anotherrich source as are the Rand family papers. While the records of more than thirty clubs can be foundwithin the Holyoke Collection, the records of the Holyoke Music Club (1899-1984) and the ValleyPlayers (1890-1964) are especially extensive.The Collection has been arranged in the following 21 series:SERIES 1. BUSINESS & INDUSTRYSubseries A Companies A-ZSubseries B BankingSubseries C Paper ManufacturingSubseries D Textile ManufacturingSubseries E Labor UnionsSERIES 2 CEMETERIESSERIES 3 CHURCHESSERIES 4 CITY OF HOLYOKE OFFICIAL RECORDSSubseries A Annual ReportsSubseries B Fire & Police DeptSubseries C City Departments A-ZSubseries D Boards and CommissionsSubseries E City Hall BuildingSubseries F Public School DeptSERIES 5 CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS SEE ALSO SPORTS AND RECREATIONSubseries A Clubs and Organizations A – ZSubseries B Holyoke Music ClubSubseries C Junior League of HolyokeSubseries D KulturamaSubseries E St. Patricks ParadeSubseries F The Valley PlayersWistariahurst 238 Cabot Street, Holyoke, MA 01040 413-322-5660 www.wistariahurst.orgPage - 3 of 45O:\WISTARIAHURST\ARCHIVES\COLLECTIONS\ FindingAids\Holyoke Collection Finding Aids\ Holyoke Collection Finding Aid Updated 12-01-2017.doc