Woonsocket Industrialists

The industrial story of Woonsocket begins with the visionary industrialists and community leaders who saw potential on the banks of the Blackstone River. Prominent among these nineteenth-century businessmen was Edward Harris, a Rhode Islander who owned several successful woolen textile mills in the Market Square area (near the present location of the Museum). Harris’ legacy is largely now visible through his philanthropic efforts, which continue to shape the Woonsocket landscape. 

A believer in investing in the community, Harris made large donations to the city, including the land for the original Woonsocket High School and Oak Hill Cemetery. In 1856, he developed what is known as the “Harris Block” on Main Street, which boasted Rhode Island’s first free public library as well as a large meeting hall.Today, these spaces serve as part of Woonsocket’s city hall. Harris was also an avid abolitionist, and was the first candidate to run for Rhode Island governor on the anti-slavery Liberty Party ticket. 

Political leaders also shaped Woonsocket’s industrial destiny, including Aram Pothier, a celebrated member of the French-Canadian community. Pothier was born in Québec to a shoemaker, and immigrated to Woonsocket in 1872. He began his career as a grocery store clerk, but quickly took a post at the Woonsocket Institution for Savings, and ultimately became the bank’s president. Pothier was elected as the third-ever mayor of Woonsocket from 1894-95 (mayoral terms were one year at the time) and was the first French Canadian to fill the office. He was also the first French-Canadian governor of Rhode Island (first elected 1908), and would ultimately be elected seven times. (The gubernatorial terms were one year until 1912). 

A major part of Pothier’s platform was encouraging Woonsocket’s industrial economic growth, as he envisioned Woonsocket as the “queen city of the Blackstone Valley.” To achieve this goal, Pothier sought out foreign capital investment, particularly from Northern France and Belgium. He courted investors by emphasizing Woonsocket’s abundance of French-speaking skilled labor.

Pothier’s efforts were successful, forever shaping the economic and cultural trajectory of Woonsocket. The mill owners he courted and brought to the city allowed French to continue as a major spoken language in the factories well into the twentieth century. Among these European industrialists was Belgian Joseph Guerin. While Guerin did not have much capital to invest in Woonsocket, he had considerable experience as a worker and foreman, and would eventually turn a small woolen mill into the city’s largest woolen enterprise. Another investor was Frenchman Charles Tiberghien, who set up the French Worsted Company in Woonsocket in 1906 in order to circumvent tariffs on French worsted (or medium-weight yarn) in the American market. 

However, through the course of their operations, the mills encountered resistance from labor activists, and owners expressed differing opinions on how to deal with it. On one side, Joseph Guerin and Guerin Mills decided to abide by the national labor laws such as the National Labor Relations Act and the National Industrial Recovery Act, which permitted union organizing - an important factor in the later success of Woonsocket’s Independent Textile Union. On the other side, Charles Tiberghien and other French mill owners adhered to traditional social hierarchies and refused to negotiate with workers. Moreover, they believed that as Frenchmen they were not obligated to follow US laws permitting workers the right to organize into unions.

The following portraits hang on the wall:

Samuel Slater, Aram Pothier, Charles Tiberghien, Joseph Guerin and Edward Harris.

This flag, consisting of 48 stars and 13 stripes was first adopted by the US government in 1912 after the addition of New Mexico and Arizona. It remained official for 47 years until 1960 when the current 50 star flag was adopted with the additions of Alaska and Hawaii. This flag symbolizes a period of transition. It flew during the Great Depression, World War II and the Korean War. It was also present during a time when industrial workers moved away from a fight for La Survivance and towards the fight for workers’ rights. This emphasis on unions as community organizations paved the way for Americanization. Unions helped workers by offering English language classes and citizenship classes. Workers needed to be US citizens in order to vote. English became the language spoken at work, whether you were French, Italian, Ukrainian or Polish. Ethnic traditions were kept at home but gradually, the younger generations lost their mother tongue and traditions started to be felt (mostly) only around the holidays.