Ellen Sullivan Wilber, my third great grandmother, known as Nellie was widowed at age 28. She was two months pregnant with her fifth child when her husband Joseph passed away in 1886. She was left to raise one year old Ellen, Mary Catheren at age two, four year Dennis and William age six. She went to work in the Bay State Iron Works company sewing hats to support her children for the next seven years. She would marry again in 1892.
The following information is from "Recollecting Nemasket" writing about the history of the town of Middleboro and Lakeville.
"At
the start of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the Bay State Straw
Works, located in Middleboro, Massachusetts, was producing half a million hats and bonnets annually, or over 1,300 a
day. To produce these goods, the plant employed nearly two hundred and seventy
operatives, divided equally between men and young women, as well as some 1,200
women and girls as outworkers “who are engaged sewing hats and bonnets at their
homes,” the company’s braid cart delivering straw to these women and collecting
straw braid in return.
"One
of the few comments upon nineteenth century female labor history in
Middleborough concerns the lot of women in the Bay State Straw Works, the firm
which was located on Courtland Street and was once the world’s largest
manufacturer of straw hats and bonnets. Of their work there, it was written of
the firm’s female operatives: 'The work was easy and pleasant; the girls’
tongues flew as fast as their fingers, and they said of their work. It is just
like going to a party.’
"There
are reasons to doubt, however, the characterization that work in
Middleborough’s straw industry for women always was either “easy” or “pleasant”
as some have maintained.
"The
Bay State Straw Works employed 150 females and 8 men. Like other
industries, straw manufacturing preferred the use of female help wherever
possible, largely due to the wage differential between men and women, as well
as the presumed greater docility of female workers, though this latter view
carried little import at this stage in Middleborough as labor remained
disorganized and would remain so for some time. Men, however, were engaged by
the straw works for the physically more demanding tasks at the manufactory,
working as bleachers, dyers, blockers, printers, packers, teamsters,
machinists, carpenters and firemen, among other occupations, and as the firm’s
business increased, so too did the number of men on the payroll to support
these functions.
"The
treatment of its female operatives would be a frequent source of potential
conflict for the Bay State Straw Works, as it frequently was for other
employers. In February, 1876, female employees’ wages were docked twenty-five
percent, prompting sympathy from at least one journalist who opined that the
reduction was 'a heavy cut when they didn’t get too much before.' In December,
1885, shortly before Christmas, wages of sewing machine girls were similarly
docked.
"Nonetheless, women of talent were
recognized by the firm and promoted to positions of authority as overseers and
forewomen, supervising other women in areas such as the trimming department.
“While characterization of employment during the latter half of the nineteenth century for women in the local straw industry as “a party” is highly suspect, unquestionable was the role of these women, many whose names have long been forgotten, in helping build and sustain one of Middleborough’s historically most important industries."
Nellie Sullivan Wilber Thompson
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