QUILT HISTORY STORIES
ELGIN, ILLINOIS
BECKET, MASSACHUSETTS
Berkshire and Becket Silk Story
Book 3
Susan Wildemuth, Atkinson, IL
History of Berkshire and Becket Silk Company
Becket, Massachusetts and Elgin, Illinois
Samuel K. Smith moved from Connecticut to Berkshire County Massachusetts sometime in the late 1870s. The 1880 census states he was living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in Berkshire County and his occupation was silk manufacturer, but he would eventually relocate his family to what is now Becket, Massachusetts. (16) About 1885 he opened up his first silk mill in Becket, Massachusetts manufacturing silk thread for sewing, embroidering, and crocheting. (17)
First Silk Mill - Built 1885
Owned by Samuel K. Smith
Courtesy of Berkshire Historical Society
Berkshire and Becket Silk Company
Becket, Massachusetts
Second Mill – Built 1890
Courtesy of Berkshire Historical Society
“In the 1890s he disposed of his interest in this first mill and built what was described as a ‘handsome new brick mill’ astride the Yokum Brook just south of the center of Becket Village.” (18) His new silk mill would become known as the Berkshire and Becket Silk Company and he had a reputation in the thread trade for producing the finest quality of silk threads. According to R. Waite, Joslyn’s 1920s book Elgin Past and Present, a portion of Samuel Smith’s thread was “annually sent to Gloversville, New York, for use in the manufacture of gloves.” (19)
Samuel Smith’s company thrived in Becket, utilizing a work force of 80 employees, “many of them young women who came in from the surrounding towns.” (20) The 1910 Census shares that three of Samuel’s children worked at the mill. His daughter Ruth was the bookkeeper, and two of his sons, Howard F. and Roy W. held various positions at the mill until some time in the mid 1910s when Roy W. Smith would take his father’s place as head of the company. (21) The firm would remain in the family until around 1924-1925 when Berkshire and Becket Silk Company came under the ownership of Collingbourne Mills, Inc. (22)
Berkshire and Becket Silk Company
Acquisition by Collingbourne Mills, Inc.
About 1924 – 1925 Collingbourne seized the opportunity to add pure silk thread to his product line by purchasing one of the oldest manufacturers of pure silk thread in the United States, the Berkshire and Becket Silk Company located in Becket, Massachusetts. (23)
Retaining the name Berkshire and Becket Silk Company after the buyout, the mill remained in production at its present location in Massachusetts under manager A.E. Palmer. (24) A December 29, 1926 Elgin, Illinois, Courier-News article stated “A considerable addition has also been made to the mill of the Collingbourne Mills, Inc. located at Becket, Massachusetts - a building has been erected there to house the main offices, shipping department, and stock rooms of the Becket plant. The Becket plant is given over entirely to the manufacture of pure silk threads and under the management of A.E. Palmer has doubled its output during the past years.” (25) After the Collingbourne takeover, one hundred employees were employed at the Massachusetts mill with an output of approximately 60,000 spools a day. (26)
The Berkshire and Becket Silk Company would thrive under the ownership of Albert Collingbourne until the disastrous flood of 1927. Albert Collingbourne’s son Richard explains it this way, “The Berkshire and Becket purchase did not work out too well. My mother told me the Massachusetts plant was destroyed by floodwaters in 1927. None of the heavy equipment could be found or recovered and there was no insurance.” (27)
“Plans were made to restore operations in the relatively undamaged warehouse of the mill, but they were cut short when only a week after the flood, the warehouse was burned to the ground. The silk industry was never revived in that location, and all that remained for the passing visitor to see after the flood and subsequent fire was a portion of foundation of the mill, overgrown with shrubbery, along the edge of Route 8 near the village of Becket.” (28)
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