Title: New York and De Pere Flax Company Records
Inclusive Dates: 1864-1867

Creator:

• New York and De Pere Flax Company

Call Number: Green Bay Mss 3

Quantity: 1.2 c.f. (4 volumes)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library / Green Bay Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Cashbook, journal, daybook, and ledger covering financial transactions of a short-lived De Pere, Wis., firm, which was promoted primarily by Joseph G. Lawton and engaged in the maufacture of linen articles at De Pere.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-gb0003

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The New York & De Pere Flax Company was among the industrial ventures promoted and/or founded at De Pere, Wisconsin by Joseph G. Lawton (1822-1896). By the 1860s, Lawton owned the major water power rights at the dam in De Pere and adjacent lands on both sides of the Fox River. In 1864 following his Civil War service, he went east to raise capital with which he attempted the establishment of iron manufacture (the New York & De Pere Iron Company) and linen manufacture. In addition to the factory of the New York & De Pere Flax Company, a blast furnace, a planing mill, and a stave mill were erected on his lands and utilized his water rights. The end of the Civil War brought unfavorable changes in the demand for and prices of raw flax and finished linen, and the Flax Company failed in 1867. In February 1869 the factory building was acquired by other operators, W. H. Nye & Company who intended to convert it to the manufacture of woolen goods, but a fire in October ruined the structure.

Note

Biographical data on Lawton and piecemeal references to his industrial promotions and mills and factories are found in published Brown County histories and biographical volumes, and in the Green Bay Advocate and Green Bay Gazette for the 1860s. De Pere newspapers of later periods contain references to his later career.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from the Wisconsin Historical Society's Archives' local government records holdings of Brown County records, 1964.

Processing Information

Processed by Jack T. Ericson, April 1, 1964.

Volume   1	Cashbook, 1865-1867
Volume   2	Daybook, 1865-1867
Volume   3	Journal, 1865-1867
Volume   4	Ledger, 1865-1867