Henry Hale Stevens Millstone
Dudley, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Marker Inscription
MILLSTONE OF HENRY HALE STEVENS FOUNDER OF STEVENS LINEN WORKS
The Story
In 1846 Henry Hale Stevens founded a linen manufactory along the French River in Dudley, Massachusetts, building it into one of the few enduring producers of fine linen and toweling in nineteenth-century America. Stevens Linen Works drew on the region's abundant water power and a growing workforce to weave goods at a time when linen was overwhelmingly imported from Europe. This weathered millstone, set out as a memorial, is a tangible relic of that early industrial enterprise and of the man who put a small New England mill town on the manufacturing map.
Why it matters
It marks a rare American success in a textile trade long dominated by imports, part of the broader story of how New England's rivers powered the nation's industrial rise.
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Related people
- · Henry Hale Stevens
Related events
- · Founding of Stevens Linen Works
Themes & tags
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