Benjamin Jencks
By: Geoff F., Albert S., Billy K.
What was the Springfield Manufacturing Company?
How long did the Springfield Manufacturing Company exist?
What was first made in the Springfield Manufacturing Company?
One of Ludlow's first mills
A History of Ludlow, 1974
Our group studied Benjamin Jencks, or Jenks, the mill owner who first came to Ludlow in 1812. Jencks was looking for a place to build a textile mill and chose the Wallamanumps Falls region on the Chicopee River. He and some other businessmen formed the Springfield Manufacturing Company in 1814. According to a Congressional Report given on January 27, 1824, the company made woolen cloth, cotton, and yarn and was one of the most successful businesses in Massachusetts. More buildings were added as the company expanded. In 1820 the population of Ludlow was 1,246 people and about 300 of them worked in the mills.
The Springfield Manufacturing Company was a great success and they owned two stone mills, a gristmill, a gun shop, five barns, a corn barn, two warehouses, and 266 acres of land. They also owned 17 houses for the workers of the Springfield Manufacturing Company. By 1840, the Springfield Manufacturing Company was also working with the United States Government making gun barrels, many of which went to the Springfield Armory. A new mill was built for the guns and this lasted until 1846. In 1848 the Springfield Manufacturing Company went bankrupt and many people lost their jobs and homes. After the Springfield Manufacturing Company went bankrupt and lost the mills, other people later rented the mills. Eventually, Charles Hubbard bought the mills and it became the Ludlow Manufacturing Company.
We also looked at two notices in local newspapers about the Springfield Manufacturing Company. One advertised an opening at the Springfield Manufacturing Company. The Clothiers notice was published on August 10, 1819 in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the Hampden Patriot. This notice was advertising their business and was also a job opening in one of the gristmills. The other notice was calling in debts owed to the Springfield Manufacturing Company and was published on December 4, 1821 in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the Hampden Patriot and Liberal Recorder. These notices both ended with Benjamin Jencks’s name as “Agent” for the Springfield Manufacturing Company. These showed that Benjamin Jencks was definitely in the Ludlow area in the early 1800’s.
1819 advertisment for work in the Jencks mills Hampden Patriot |
1821 business notice Hampden Patriot and Liberal Recorder |