Gilford Hosiery Company Records

Collection

Identifier: 6666

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Scope and Contents

This collection contains executive records; purchasing records, which consist of numerous orders from machinery and textile manufacturers; and sales records. The executive records (1869-1887) include correspondence on a wide range of topics including patents and the company store, and inventories 1884-1887. Purchasing records (1870-1885) are divided into four sub-series: invoices of machinery suppliers, invoices of textile suppliers, general invoices, and paid bills of the E. B. Beaman company (for a period of time in the 1870s, Gilford Hosiery apparently assumed payment of E. B. Beaman's bills). Gilford Hosiery used several large commission houses to sell its hosiery, notably Townsend and Yale, and Whittemore, Cabot and Co., and its successor, J. B. Smith, as well as other smaller firms. Sales records (1874-1886) include correspondence, memorandums, accounts current, orders, sketches, and statements of sales. Also included in this collection are personal papers of John Carroll Moulton and family (1872-1911), primarily legal documents, bank drafts and notes, business and tax receipts, and one folder of incoming personal correspondence.

Dates

1869-1911

Creator

Gilford Hosiery Company (creator, Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Biographical / Historical

The Gilford Hosiery Company of Lake Village, New Hampshire, was incorporated in 1864 and manufactured hosiery and other knit goods. In 1868, John Carroll Moulton (1810-1894) became sole owner of the mill; a prominent citizen of Laconia, New Hampshire, Moulton was also the president and founder of the Laconia National Bank, the postmaster of Laconia for many years, and an active politician. In 1885, the mill provided employment to a primarily female workforce, and had an annual product as high as $125,000. The 1888 Dockham's Textile Manufacture and Dry Goods Trade & Directories listed John C. Moulton as treasurer and agent; Townsend & Yale, of Boston and New York, as selling agent; and listed the company has having 90 knitting machines and four set cards. However, the 1890 Dockham's listed the mill as "not running, 1889." There is no further mention of the company in the trade directories. John C. Moulton died in 1894 at the age of 84.

Extent

8 cubic feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Custodial History

American Textile History Museum Collection, gift of the New Hampshire Historical Society.

Processing Information

The ATHM # references the accession number given to collections by the American Textile History Museum (ATHM). These numbers have been kept and tracked for researchers looking for former citations. For images, these numbers will also be the digital object identifier if the item was scanned by the ATHM. The ATHM accession number for this collection was 1992.56.1.

This collection has not yet been reprocessed.