Botany Mills was a Passaic, New Jersey based manufacturer of textiles, [1] which was organized in 1887. [2] It merged with Continental Textile Co., Ltd., in January 1927. Botany Mills continued to have a controlling interest in both Botany Worsted Mills and Garfield Worsted Mills. [1] The company was a key target of the 1926 Passaic Textile Strike, which lasted almost a year. The business is significant for having survived the Great Depression while continuing to be a leader in its field in the decades afterward.
Passaic is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 69,781, maintaining its status as the 15th largest municipality in New Jersey with an increase of 1,920 residents (+2.8%) from the 2000 Census population of 67,861, which had in turn increased by 9,820 (+16.9%) from the 58,041 counted in the 1990 Census. Passaic is the tenth most densely populated municipality in the entire United States with 22,000+ people per square mile.
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late-1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how intensely the world's economy can decline.
Botany Mills' stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange reached a low for 1929 in late September, a month prior to the 1929 Stock Market Crash. [3] The company's net loss of $2,768,904 for 1929, exceeded the 1928 deficit which totaled $1,461,783. [4]
The New York Stock Exchange is an American stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$30.1 trillion as of February 2018. The average daily trading value was approximately US$169 billion in 2013. The NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of 21 rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007. The main building and the 11 Wall Street building were designated National Historic Landmarks in 1978.
In June 1932 Botany Mills formed an independent bondholders protective committee which called for immediate deposits of bonds. The firm had descended into receivership after defaulting on the payment of interest on its bonds on April 1, 1932. [5] The Empire Trust Company served as depositary for the committee. [6]
In October 1948 Botany Mills announced that it would absorb higher raw material and labor costs without raising prices on goods. They maintained prices on wool shirts and pants as well as on their swimming trunk line. However their gabardine boxer shorts increased in price from $6.95 to $7.50 retail. [7]
Gabardine is a tough, tightly woven fabric used to make suits, overcoats, trousers, uniforms, windbreakers and other garments.
In August 1954, Daroff and Sons, a Philadelphia clothing manufacturer which had produced worsteds for Botany under contract for several years, purchased a controlling interest in Botany Mills. [8]
Philadelphia, sometimes known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2017 census-estimated population of 1,580,863. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.
In late 1955, Botany left the textile business and transferred its Passaic plant to an affiliate company, Clarence Worsted. Botany transitioned into real estate, product licensing and cosmetics. [9]
In finance, a bond is an instrument of indebtedness of the bond issuer to the holders. The most common types of bonds include municipal bonds and corporate bonds.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Stock Market Crash of 1929 or the Great Crash, is a major stock market crash that occurred in late October 1929. It started on October 24 and continued until October 29, 1929, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed.
In finance, Black Monday refers to Monday, October 19, 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed. The crash began in Hong Kong and spread west to Europe, hitting the United States after other markets had already sustained significant declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell exactly 508 points to 1,738.74 (22.61%). In Australia and New Zealand, the 1987 crash is also referred to as "Black Tuesday" because of the time zone difference.
Broad Street is a narrow street located in the Financial District in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It stretches from South Street to Wall Street.
Richard Whitney was an American financier, president of the New York Stock Exchange from 1930 to 1935. He was later convicted of embezzlement and imprisoned.
Pendleton Woolen Mills is an American textile manufacturing company in Pendleton, Oregon, United States. It is known for its blankets and woolen clothing.
Pacific Brands Underwear Group, known under its core brand Bonds, was an Australian manufacturer and now a importer of men's, women's and children's underwear and clothing, and a subsidiary of Pacific Brands. The head office is located at 115 Cotham Rd in Kew, Melbourne.
Hanes and Hanes Her Way are brands of clothing currently owned by the HanesBrands.
Botany 500 is a brand of menswear and suits that was originally part of a firm based in New York City. The name lives on today as a licensed property by several foreign clothing manufacturers.
The Bernat Mill, also known as Capron Mill, and later Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company, was a yarn mill in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, USA, that was for the most part destroyed by fire on July 21, 2007.
The Segal Lock and Hardware Company of Manhattan, New York, was a leading manufacturer of hardware merchandise and razor blades in the 1920s and 1930s. Established in Connecticut and Manhattan, the firm relocated to Brooklyn, New York, in the mid-1920s. The Segal Safety Razor Corporation was a subsidiary of the Segal Lock and Hardware Company. The business was at first known as the Burglar-Proof Lock Company.
Holeproof Hosiery was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin textile firm that was founded in 1901. The business was built primarily through earnings which were left to aggregate in the company. Its advertising expenses exceeded $500,000 after 1901, making it a brand name recognized worldwide. The business produced men's and women's hosiery, underwear, lingerie, and men's pajamas. From 1916 - 1925 Holeproof Hosiery sales increased from $2,037,000 to $9,220,000. Net sales totaled $24,435,342 in 1954.
Legnam Corporation operated 132 general merchandise stores in 38 of the United States prior to becoming insolvent in June 1932. It sold ladies' apparel. Owing to the financial crisis during the Great Depression, the chain store, formerly known as Mangel's, became unable to pay its debts. The company maintained offices at 1115 Broadway and 226 Main Street in Paterson, New Jersey.
The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from 1894 until September 16, 1998. Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, symbol KNN, began in March 1923. The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney whose father ran a general store in rural Candor, New York. The father became indebted and George vowed to repay his indebtedness. In 1894, at the age of 28, he had saved enough to purchase a Lester retail outlet in Waverly, New York. Kinney succeeded by selling affordably priced shoes to working Americans.
Weber & Heilbroner was a Lower Manhattan men's clothing company of the 20th century. In August 1909 the clothier leased office space in the Seymour Building, 503 Fifth Avenue. The corporation is noteworthy because of its importance to New York City consumers over a number of decades. As of 1937 the retailer was a wholly owned subsidiary of Allendale Corporation.
Edgar Lawrence Smith was an economist, investment manager and author of the influential book Common Stocks as Long Term Investments, which promoted the then-surprising idea that stocks excel bonds in long-term yield.
The 1926 Passaic textile strike was a work stoppage by over 15,000 woolen mill workers in and around Passaic, New Jersey, over wage issues in several factories in the vicinity. Conducted in its initial phase by a "United Front Committee" organized by the Trade Union Educational League of the Workers (Communist) Party, the strike began on January 25, 1926, and officially ended only on March 1, 1927, when the final mill being picketed signed a contract with the striking workers. It was the first Communist-led work stoppage in the United States. The event was memorialized by a seven reel silent movie intended to generate sympathy and funds for the striking workers.
The Dundee Canal was an industrial canal in Clifton and Passaic in Passaic County, New Jersey. It was built between 1858 and 1861 and ran parallel to the Passaic River. It supplied hydropower and water for manufacturing. There was interest by some members of the business community to modify the canal to support navigational uses, but the canal was never used for that purpose.
Ellen "Nellie" Dawson Kanki, best known as Ellen Dawson, was a Scottish-American political activist and trade union organizer in the textile industry. Dawson is best remembered as an active participant in three of the greatest textile strikes of the 1920s; the 1926 Passaic textile strike, the 1928 New Bedford textile strike, and the 1929 Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, North Carolina. An activist in the Communist Party USA during the 1920s, Dawson was the first woman ever elected to a leadership position in an American textile union.
The Continental Bank and Trust Company of New York was a financial institution based in New York City, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 as the German-American Bank, which became the Continental Bank of New York. Originally in the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway, the bank was later headquartered at 50 Wall Street, 25 Broad Street, and starting in 1932 the Continental Bank Building It became known as the “brokers bank” for its collaboration with Wall Street brokers and investment banking interests. The institution was renamed the Continental Bank and Trust Company of New York around 1929, at which point it was involved in extending its business with acquisitions of commercial banking and fiduciary operations. Acquired banks included the Fidelity Trust Company in 1929, International Trust Company and Straus National Bank and Trust Company in 1931, and Industrial National Bank later that year. In 1947, the bank earned $804,000 in net profits. As of December 31, 1947, Continental had total resources of $202,000,000, and deposits of $188,000,000. It merged with the Chemical Bank and Trust Company in 1948.