Globe Woolen Mill, Utica, NY- c1905

Textile industry's rise and fall shaped the fabric of Oneida County. In 1845, Oneida County's textile industry was a shambles. It could not compete with New England's steam-powered looms that wove faster and produced superior goods than the looms run by hand and water power.

But the county was not growing as fast as other areas on the Erie Canal or the railroads. Utica, in particular, was limited in its ability to manufacture goods because the Mohawk River did not flow fast enough to turn the machines and wheels of industry. For the first time since Oneida County was formed on March 15, 1798, some communities were losing population. Between 1840 and 1845, for example, Utica's population dropped from 12,000 to 10,000.

Olympia Knitting Mill, New Hartford, NY

Something had to be done, so on an April morning in 1845, three men ... selected at a mass meeting of county residents ... headed for New England for a close look at looms and other machines powered by steam. Attorney Edward Graham, merchant Spencer Kellogg and industrialist Andrew Pond returned with a plan to get Oneida County's stagnant economy moving again.

Coal could be used to produce steam, they said, and the county had a large supply readily available via the recently completed Chenango Canal that connected the county with the coal fields of Pennsylvania. Money was needed, too ... capital to be raised locally to start companies and build mills designed to use steam power.

Within a year, a fund-raising drive ... headed by wealthy local entrepreneurs like Alfred Munson and Theodore Faxton ... raised enough money to build companies such as the Globe Woolen Mills, the Utica Steam Cotton Mills and the Utica Steam Woolen Mills.

Camden Knitting Co., Camden, NY

True, the region had textile mills for years. The first cotton mill in the state was erected in 1809 in Yorkville led by industrialists like Seth Capron. A mill in New York Mills was started by Benjamin Walcott in 1812, and there were mills in Clinton, Clayville and Sauquoit at the same time. But not until the late 1840s when the steam-powered looms came to town did the textile era begin in Oneida County.

For the remainder of the 19th century, dozens of mills were built and prospered in places like Oriskany Falls, Camden, Kirkland, Sangerfield, New Hartford, New York Mills and Whitesboro.The textile industry reached its peak in 1918 during World War I when nearly 22,000 in the region worked at producing knit goods for companies like Oneita Knitting and Avalon Knitwear.

The giant of the industry, though, was the Utica Knitting Co. It was founded in 1872 by Quentin McAdam and in 20 years made Utica the knit goods capital of the world. Besides its several mills in Utica, it had plants throughout the region in places like Oriskany Falls, Clayville and Sherburne.

Julliard Mill #2, New York Mills, New York

After World War I, though, the textile industry was poised on the brink of a sharp decline. Owners were tempted to head south where labor was cheaper and cotton fields closer. The popular view of the economic decline of the Utica-Rome area is that it was caused by the flight of textiles to the South and that it happened all of a sudden after World War II. This is a vastly over­simplified view. The peak of the 19th-century industrial expansion was reached about 1910. After that, there began a long decline that was postponed by World War I orders, hidden from view by the national prosperity in the l920s, by the depression of the 1930s and postponed again by World War II demands.

Thus, to the general population, the collapse after World War II seemed sudden. But industry leaders knew all along that local industry was sick. The reasons for the decline were many: customers turning from cotton and wool goods to silk and nylon; factories and machinery growing old and inefficient and poor management. The textile industry dominated the county's economy for decades and when its mills left town, there were not many major, non-textile industries to absorb jobs lost.

By the mid-1950s, most of the textile mills in Oneida County were gone. Other industries ... like Savage Arms and Griffiss Air Force Base ... began layoffs within weeks of the end of the war. The “loom-to-gloom” era had begun. But it did not last long.

Diversity was the key to the region's future economic success. Leaders throughout the county had begun laying the groundwork for an industrial recovery by forming industrial development corporations. They were prepared to provide land and underwrite other costs for new businesses interested in building in the county. And those companies came: Chicago Pneumatic Tool in 1948, Bendix in 1951, General Electric in 1953 (although it had had a small operation in Utica during the war) and Sperry-Rand's UNIVAC in 1957. Businesses already in the county began to grow: Mohawk Airlines, Utica Drop Forge and Tool, Special Metals, etc. Griffiss Air Force Base became a major employer with nearly 10,000 military and civilian workers. The ‘50s era was appropriately labeled “loom-to-boom.”

Good labor-management relations always played an important role in past economic recoveries in Oneida County. When textile mills moved out and manufacturing and electronic firms moved in — the new companies usually cited the region's history of excellent relations between local unions and companies as one of the main reasons they had decided to relocate in the Oneida County area.