Zachariah Allen: Valley Visionary

Little villages or hamlets, which often appear to spring up as if by magic in the bosom of some forest, around the waterfall which serves to turn the mill wheel
 - Zachariah Allen, The Practical Tourist, 1835

One of the Valley’s most creative mill village designers was Zachariah Allen. To Allen, a mill village was not merely an investment, but an opportunity to experiment with his many theories, including those of community development.  During his time there was a spirited debate between those who supported the growth of manufacturing, and those who defended America’s traditional agrarian ways and did not want to see the replication of industrial slums on this side of the Atlantic.

Allen did not believe that industrialization necessarily had to lead to squalid conditions, or to the creation of an oppressed working class.  His solution to this conflict was the development of small mill villages “sprinkled among the glens and meadows of solitary watercourses.”  In these hamlets, the mill owners would be duty bound to promote the social welfare of their workers, who in turn would be happily dedicated to their tasks and to the company’s growing profits.

Unlike most social theorist, Zachariah Allen had the opportunity to put his ideal to a practical test.  At Georgiaville, Allen added neoclassical flairs to his expanded mill and new boarding houses.  Shade trees were planted along Georgiaville’s streets, and a new chapel and school were built.  He built a park for his workers along the millpond and even today Georgiaville pond is a popular recreation.

The Georgiaville Mill ceased textile manufacturing in the 1930s, and in recent decades the surrounding countryside has become suburbanized, but the core of Georgiaville maintains many of the elements that Zachariah Allen built.  One massive change is that the Georgiaville mill has now been converted into condominiums, an innovation that Zachariah Allen surely would have appreciated.

The Blackstone Valley and the War of 1812

Beginning in 1807, a series of embargoes were placed on trade by the U.S. government.  For much of the country, this resulted in economic hardship as the foreign market for goods dried up.  However, in the Blackstone Valley and much of the rest of New England, this resulted in an economic boom.  Prior to the embargoes, local mills spun thread which was then sent to England to be made into cloth.  This cloth was then shipped back to the US to be sold as yard goods.  When the embargo prevented this trade, small cotton finishing mills began cropping up all along the Blackstone River.  Moses Brown, the financial backer behind Samuel Slater's first endeavors in Pawtucket, wrote in an 1810 letter that ""our people have 'cotton mill fever' as it is called....   Every place is almost occupied with cotton mills...”  Some historians have compared this era to the high-tech boom of the 1980's.  Just as anyone with a computer could start a "dot com" company in the 80's, anyone with a little capital and some land on the river could open a cotton factory in the early 19th century in the Blackstone Valley.

The boom went bust when the embargoes were lifted after the War of 1812 was over.  Nonetheless, the build up of the textile industry in the US, and most especially in the Blackstone Valley, left a permanent impact on the industrial history of the nation.

A new exhibit and public programs are planned for this year as we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.  Watch for details.