Millville Manufacturing Company

Incorporated in New Jersey in 1865; operated a cotton mill, bleachery and dye works in Millville, Cumberland County, and a cotton mill in Mays Landing, Atlantic County.

The Millville Manufacturing Company was a medium-sized cotton textile producer that operated in Millville, New Jersey.

The Millville Manufacturing Company was incorporated under the laws of New Jersey on March 10, 1865. It functioned as a shell company until February 8, 1872, when it purchased the cotton mill established by Richard D. Wood (1799-1869), a Philadelphia merchant and capitalist. Wood, who already controlled the water power and a foundry at the site, constructed the first section of the mill in 1852-54. The mill was initially devoted to spinning and weaving, but in 1863-64 Wood constructed the Menantico Bleach & Dye Works on an adjacent site.

Richard D. Wood's son, George (1842-1926), arrived in Millville in 1864 to assume management of his father's interests there. In April 1867 the Woods secured the incorporation of the Mays Landing Water Power Company and constructed a second cotton mill at that point. The combined works were managed from Philadelphia by the partnership of Richard D. Wood and Philip C. Garrett, trading as Wood & Garrett. Before Wood's death in 1869 this firm was reconstituted as R.D. Wood & Sons. It was reconstituted again around 1894 as Wood, Kremer & Company with Herman P. Kremer and Philip H. Strubing as partners; in 1896 as Kremer & Strubing; and in 1912 as George Wood, Sons & Company. This company gradually evolved into the exclusive sales agent for the Millville and Mays Landing factories.

The company continued to expand until the Depression. With the revival of business during World War II the firm employed about 1,000 persons. Its primary products were Red Star Birdseye Diapers and Batfast colors. By the 1940s, the firm was also producing Crown Spun, a cotton/rayon weave.

Following World War II, the company fell victim to the southward migration of the U.S. textile industry. In 1945 Millville purchased the Howard-Arthur Mills of Fall River, Mass., and in 1949 it purchased the Wake Manufacturing Company of Fuquay Springs, North Carolina. The Mays Landing mill was closed in 1949. Millville purchased the Selma Mills in North Carolina from the Interchemical Corporation of Ohio in 1952. The Howard-Arthur Mills were sold in 1956.

Millville Manufacturing continued to suffer from southern competition during the late 1950s, and the advent of disposable diapers destroyed the market for one of its principal products. Spinning and weaving were discontinued at Millville in 1958, and finishing ceased in 1963. After that the mills stood idle. In 1968 the Millville Manufacturing Company was merged with Wawa Dairy Farms, which had been started by George Wood as a hobby but was now the main family business. The consolidated company was renamed Wawa, Inc., in 1974.