Alvin F. Oickle > Quotes

“Mills typically had many windows, all of them large, in order to capture as much daylight as possible, and the Pemberton, when constructed six years before, was considered a model of efficiency. Its windows were unusually large for that purpose. But ten hours of daylight were not enough. The mill’s workday went on for twelve hours, until seven o’clock in the evening. By 4:30 p.m. on January 10, men assigned to lighting lamps were making their rounds.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“When the final count was made, months later, the casualties from that horrid night at the Pemberton Mill exceeded four hundred.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“Determining which man was responsible for failed work at the Pemberton Mill, therefore, would be dependent first upon precisely pinpointing the area at fault.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“Was the Pemberton Mill safe as constructed? Francis concluded: “I think there should have been another row of columns in the mill.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“The jurors found that “the direct cause of the fall of this mill was the weakness and insufficiency of the cast-iron shoring. That the thinness of the brick walls and their manner of construction…were additional causes, and aided in the general demolition of the building.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“Paydays came only twelve times a year in mill towns.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“In the end, the average person’s opinion was as good as any expert’s opinion. There were no further inquiries, no criminal court actions. The men involved in creating and managing the Pemberton Mill went about their lives. Lowell, Bigelow, Putnam, Howe, Nevins—none was punished for any actions they had taken, or had failed to take. Compared with the families who were burdened with the finality of death, the decision-makers had been simply inconvenienced.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“Among visitors March 2 were a presidential candidate touring New Hampshire, and his son, Robert Todd Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln wrote his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, “We came down to Lawrence—the place of the Pemberton Mill tragedy—where we remained four hours awaiting the train back to Exeter.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“The Pemberton Manufacturing Company was out of business by mid-March, 1860. The ruins had been removed and an empty foundation stood where the Pemberton’s main mill had been running two months earlier. Co-owner George Howe sold off undamaged cotton stock and partner David Nevins found buyers for the undamaged finished products.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“In sixty seconds or less, all six stories of the main building lay in ruins.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“With controlling interest his, Nevins ordered construction of a new mill. Within a year, the new Pemberton—resting on the solid original foundation—was up and running. It is still standing in the early years of the twenty-first century—its five floors above the old cellar held there firmly with columns made of thick wood. Captain Bigelow probably knew about the new mill’s construction and surely would have applauded the decision to abandon cast iron and use wood. Nevins’s new Pemberton in 1861 had 859 operatives, of whom 650 were female, working at 307 looms and 25,000 spindles. Four of the mill’s managerial team remained male: Henry S. Shaw as treasurer, Nevins and his Boston company as selling agent, John E. Chase as agent and Frederick E. Clarke as paymaster. And a woman had advanced to management level. “Miss E.L. Cleason” was listed as cashier.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“The worst mine fire in United States history, in 1909 in Cherry, Illinois, moved the country closer to worker’s compensation laws. Karen Tintori has documented the Cherry Mine catastrophe, in which 259 men and boys perished. Tintori cites Maryland legislation of 1902 “to protect injured workers” and adds, “but the concept of a comprehensive worker’s compensation act did not take firm hold until Cherry.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“The names of only four men appeared in the body of the findings: Albert Fuller and John Woods of the Eagle Iron Foundry, Charles Bigelow of the Essex Company and J. Pickering Putnam of the Pemberton. The owners, past and present, as well as Coolidge, were exonerated passively by the absence of their names.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill

“The jury found the cast iron pintles “were entirely insufficient for the purpose assigned them” and concluded that even “if the pillars in every respect had been properly cast, [they] were insufficient, and the structure consequently unsafe.”
― Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill