Thomas Lister Kay | |
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| Born | 1837 or 1838 [a] Yorkshire, England |
| Died | April 27, 1900 Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| Known for | Founding the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill |
| Children | 10, including Thomas B. Kay |
| Relatives | C. P. Bishop (son-in-law) |
Thomas Lister Kay (born 1837 or 1838; died 1900) was an English-born textile worker and businessman who founded the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill in Salem, Oregon.
Thomas Lister Kay was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1837 or 1838. [a] Kay immigrated to the United States in 1857, working in several textile mills on the East Coast before moving to Oregon in 1863 to begin a job as a loom boss at a mill in Brownsville. [1]
After the Brownsville mill burned in 1865, Kay found work at a variety of different mills in Oregon, but returned to Brownsville after the mill was rebuilt in 1875. He continued working there until the mill was dissolved in 1888. [1]
Kay left the Brownsville mill as a co-owner, with a personal fortune of $55,000. Kay was interested in starting his own company and began exploring the possibility of opening a mill in Salem, Oregon. [4] After securing $20,000 in backing from the citizens of Salem, the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill Company was incorporated in 1889. [5]
Kay died at St. Vincent Hospital in Portland, Oregon, on April 27, 1900. [6] According to The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography : "At the time of his death Kay was recognized as the foremost woolen manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest." [7]
Kay married Ann Slingsby in 1857, shortly before he left for the United States. [8] The couple had ten children, five of whom died before their parents. The couple's surviving children included Thomas B. Kay, who took over the family business after his father's death; and Martha Ann "Fannie" Kay, who would go on to found Pendleton Woolen Mills with her husband, C. P. Bishop, and three sons. [1] [9]