Jamestown's Great Industry

Jamestown, New York is an unassuming little city in the heart of Chautauqua County. It is a city you likely never think about unless you're a local. However, if you peel back the layers of time, Jamestown's fascinating history becomes apparent. This small community of less than 50,000 once had one of the most vibrant economies in New York. Surrounded by hardwood forests and conveniently located near major markets in the Ohio River Valley and Pittsburgh, Jamestown developed into a center of furniture manufacturing. This industry sustained Jamestown for much of the 19th century and drew thousands of skilled Swedish woodworkers to the city. However, in  1873 textile manufacturing, specifically the production of worsted goods, took the city by storm, bringing with it a new group of immigrants and making several local residents extremely wealthy.

Textile manufacturing came to Jamestown largely under the influence of one man, William Broadhead. Broadhead was an English immigrant who came to Jamestown in 1843 and operated a locally successful manufacturing company with his father in-law. In 1873 Broadhead took a trip back to England to visit his hometown. In the thirty years since his departure from the Bradford area, the local economy had been transformed by the mechanization of textile production. Previously, textiles had been a cottage industry and garments had been produced by women as a means of providing extra money for their families. The invention and widespread use of mechanical looms changed this and textile companies were organized throughout the area to purchase raw wool and transform it into dressed cloth. These new companies provided employment to hundreds of people and turned out a far greater volume of cloth than the older hand weaving methods.

Broadhead saw this and recognized the economic opportunity of bringing English manufacturing methods to his adoptive hometown. So, while in England Broadhead started to purchase weaving machinery and hired experienced men to operate his proposed factory. Broadhead returned to Jamestown late in 1873 and soon after the Jamestown Worsted Mill opened and started to produce dressed goods. Within two years Broadhead had sold his claim in the Jamestown Worsted Mill and opened his own company, the Broadhead Worsted Mills. This new firm had 500 looms and by the 1880s it was consuming 400,000 pounds of raw wool annually, forcing the company to start sourcing wool from Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia. This wool came to Jamestown by way of the Erie Railroad whose tracks went past the Broadhead mill.

Painting of the Empire Worsted Mill

Facade of the Empire Worsted Mill