Sayles Bleacheries

The Sayles Bleacheries were the foundation for all the subsequent manufacturing activities of the Sayles family. The profits from this highly successful operation fueled the acquisition of the scores of companies whose records now make up the Sayles Collection. Thus the Sayles Bleacheries were in every sense the “parent” organization of the Sayles empire.

The Sayles Bleacheries originated when William F. Sayles, in December 1847, bought at auction the plant of the Pimbly Print Works, lying along the Moshassuck River in the town of Lincoln, Rhode Island. Twenty-three years old at the time, Sayles was the son of Clark Sayles, a “prominent Pawcatuck merchant,” and had worked for several years in a commercial house before making this purchase. With “little capital” Sayles began operations in the handful of wooden buildings that Joseph Pimbly had erected on the site. In the spring of 1848, Sayles converted the plant from a print works to a bleachery. Under the various styles of “Moshassuck Bleachery,” “W. F. Sayles,” and “Sayles’ Bleachery,” Sayles slowly expanded the output of the facility - from one ton of cloth per day in 1848 to four tons daily by 1854. Throughout this early period, Sayles limited his operation to bleaching cotton sheetings and shirtings of not more than 45 inches in width. In June 1854, a fire destroyed all the original wooden buildings of the bleachery (re: fire, see Thomas Allen Jenckes' legal file titled: W. F. Sayles / Moshassuck Bleachery, Metropolitan Insurance Co.). Within ninety days, Sayles had replaced them with a substantial brick structure with a capacity of bleaching six tons of cloth per day. Increasing demand for his product led Sayles, as early as 1855, to put up the first of numerous additions to this building, in a process that has resulted in the present sprawling complex in Saylesville.

In 1853, Sayles took on his younger brother, Frederic C. Sayles, as an apprentice in the bleachery. After ten years’ apprenticeship he accepted his brother as full partner. Thereafter, until William’s death in 1894, the bleaching of cloth was conducted under the style of “W. F. and F. C. Sayles.” After weathering the depression in cotton manufacturing caused by the Civil War, the brothers responded to booming conditions in the post-war period with a further expansion of their operations. By August 1868, they had put the finishing touches on the “New Bleachery” or “Lower Bleachery,” which they erected on land adjoining the original complex. This structure greatly increased their capabilities, allowing them to bleach, for the first time, such classes of cotton goods as wide sheetings and fancy lawns and nainsooks. The addition of the tenter machines, a few years later, also brought them into the “white goods” field, which grew to become an important branch of their business. By 1879, the daily output of the bleacheries at Saylesville had grown to forty tons, or 325,000 yards of fine shirtings and sheetings, and 20,000 yards of lawns. With a further increase in their capacity, over the next decade, to fifty tons a day, William and Frederick Sayles were able to boast that they operated the largest bleachery in the world.

The death of William F. Sayles in May 1894 brought an end to the partnership of “W. F. and F. C. Sayles.” William’s share in the bleacheries passed on to his son, Frank A. Sayles. For the next two years, ownership of the business was split between Frank and his uncle Frederick, with Frank running the “Upper Bleachery” and Frederick the “Lower Bleachery.” In 1896, Frank bought out his uncle’s holdings in Saylesville. Thereafter, he operated both bleacheries in the styles of “F. A. Sayles” and “Sayles Bleacheries.” In the decade after 1906, however, the bleacheries ceased to function as separate units, as their operations were increasingly merged into the larger entity of Sayles Finishing Plants.

Throughout his tenure as sole proprietor of the bleacheries, Frank A. Sayles was ably assisted by his superintendent, Charles O. Read. Having joined the company as a bookkeeper in 1863, Read gradually came to manage more and more aspects of the business, until he was appointed over-all superintendent upon William F. Sayles’ death in 1894. It was Read who provided the essential element of continuity as Frank A. Sayles consolidated his control over the bleacheries.