Woolen Mills Finale & Round-up Tease

Despite the bleak outlook, textile production at Pendleton was not over. In February 16, 1909, ownership of the Pendleton Woolen Mills changed hands. New owners, from a prominent family with a history of successful textile businesses, Clarence and Roy Bishop “eagerly accepted the challenge of the management of the new company” (Lomax 274) The Bishops felt that the mill needed substantial physical and mechanical improvements before the business could resume. Working alongside a construction crew, the Bishops oversaw the building of a new three-story cement facility on land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad Company’s tracks. By September 1, 1909 construction was complete (274).

            The Bishops intended to continue the Pendleton production of Indian blankets and robes. The brothers employed Joe Rounsley, of the Philadelphia Textile school, to develop designs for the company’s Indian blankets. Rounsley’s product was “pure art, conceived by…living with the Indians” (276).

            In 1912 the Bishops procured the recently foreclosed Wahougal Mill in Washougal Washington (277). This purchased marked the beginning of a series of expansion moves the Bishops would coordinate. The expansions were used as a way to diversify product lines. During WWI Washougal produced army blankets while the Pendleton mill continued to produce Indian products (277) After the war, Pendleton began to develop virgin wool products and market them under the Pendleton blue and gold brand (279). By the late 1940’s Pendleton Woolen Mills  Inc. came to include facilities as far away as Nebraska (300).  Today Pendleton Woolen Mills is still operated by the Bishop family, and consists of seven facilities and 75 stores. The mill located in Pendleton Oregon continues to be the site of all Pendleton Indian blanket production (“About Pendleton”).

I'm hoping to find information regarding the ecological impact of the Indian blanket production that goes on at Pendleton. I am concerned that the intense colors of the blankets may mean that significant pollution from dyes is part of the process. So far I have found very little information. What I do know is that Pendleton has taken a public position advocating sustainability. Of course in this political and social climate this is a smart market move, but it is still significant. 

My next research endeavour is the Pendleton Round-up. So far I have a lot of fantastic vintage pictures depicting the Round-up's history, stay tuned for the visual feast.

Image of Pendleton Round-Up Blanket

Lomax, Alfred F. 1974. Later Woolen Mills in Oregon, First Edition, Binfords & Mort,Portland, 301.

 

Pendleton Woolen Mills and Woody Guthrie

As promised here's part two of the Pendleton Woolen Mills Saga:

In the late 1890’s the pro-business East Oregonian newspaper ran an editorial extolling the virtues of suits made from wool that was raised, spun, and woven in Umatilla county. Although this promotion likely helped business at the young Pendleton Woolen Mills, manager and stockholder Theron E. Fell’s plan was not to focus on the production of suiting materials but rather to focus attention on selling blankets and Indian robes to the nearby Umatilla reservation (261) The total Indian population of the United States at the dawn of Pendleton Woolen Mills was approximately 263,000 people. Populations in the Northwest were approximately 4000 in Oregon, 10,000 in Washington and 12,500 in California (261).

 

Shortly after the opening of the scouring plant, then scouring plant manager Theron E. Fell had “talked hopefully of a woolen mill” (257).  By mid-July 1898 Pendleton Woolen Mills was legally incorporated and plans for the mill were made public. However, raising money for the venture was slow. Lomax states that “Money-raising was always a difficult task…but especially at this time when the country was just emerging from the panic conditions of the early 1890’s” (258). Despite delays caused by the economic slump the Pendleton Woolen Mills began operation on September 7, 1896 (260).

 

“The company took particular pains to weave the correct designs and color demanded by the Indians…Robes with colors acceptable to the Crows in the north were unacceptable to the Navajos in the southwest. To meet this diversified demand and to assure accuracy in manufacture, a factory representative visited the various reservations” (261). Such attention to detail paid off, and Pendleton blankets sold well on the reservations. One store in Yakima, Washington placed an order for 1000 blankets in March 1897 and estimated that an additional 1500 would be sold that year (262).

 

Pendleton products also sold well off the reservation. Robes in school colors were popular at colleges and universities, steamer rugs sold well in the east. But Pendleton remained primarily focused on the production of Indian blankets and robes. They worked to capitalize on the idea of the “romantic western Indian” to sell these products off the reservation. Early advertisements explicitly announced the connection between the Pendleton Mills and the Umatilla reservation pointing out that Pendleton robes are to Indians what a “Paris hat is to a Chicago girl on Easter morning” (264). In 1902 further investments were made in advertising. A number of well-known Indians were photographed wearing Pendleton robes, and these images along with a variety of images depicting Pendleton’s being used indoors and out were reproduced. An eight page booklet showing suggested uses for Pendleton robes was also produced from these images (268)

 

Despite initial success, the first woolen mill at Pendleton did not last long. Using a number of primary source documents including legal proceedings, newspaper articles, and property leases Lomax infers that the Pendleton Mill went idle around 1907 (271). His sources seem to indicate that both economic problems in the region and legal problems at the mill played a role in the company’s collapse.

Photo:. Umatilla County: A Backward Glance. Compiled by theUmatilla Historical Society. Published by E. O. Master Printers, Pendleton. 1980.

Lomax, Alfred L. Later Woolen Mills in Oregon. Portland:Binfod and Morts, 1974.

As an aside to all this Pendleton talk, I had the privilege of watching a 1950 film called "Columbia" which was put out by the Boneville Power Administration. It was one giant ode to dam building as a force for colonization and weapons manufacture. It was totally disturbing and would have been funny had it been fiction. The entire musical score was Woody Guthrie...

Pendleton Oregon, a Wooly Idea

As I'm sure I've probably mentioned ten times or more in the course of this blog the due date for my paper in Columbia Basin History and Ecology class is fast approaching. For my topic I had weeks ago decided on Pendleton, Oregon. This choice was not completely random, but might as well have been since I was only passingly familiar with Pendleton due to their line of Indian blankets and robes. Since beginning my research I've learned a great deal about the town, and I'm glad I picked it as my topic because the story of Pendleton is bizarre and fantastic.  In light of my new deep love for Pendleton's history I intend to post a series of blogs about my findings. I hope you'll all find them as interesting as I do.

Since wool was my source of inspiration it seems only appropriate that Pendleton's woolen mills be the topic of my first Pendleton Blog string. 

In Pendleton there are historically two facilities which are involved in the production of wool. One is the Pendleton Wool-Scouring and Packing Co. and the other is Pendleton Woolen Mills.  The county of Umatilla, of which Pendleton is the seat, was a major wool producer in the late 1800's. In December 1893 “the Pendleton Wool-Scouring and Packing Company was incorporated with capital stock of $12,000 in $50 shares” (Lomax 245). The first $6000 in preferred stocks sold quickly but sales lagged and the committee worked hard to solicit support from woolgrowers and townspeople. Editorials ran in the East Oregonian such as this by CS Jackson “Now it is your duty and to your interest Mr. Woolgrower, Mr. Business Man, Mr. Property Owner…to take one or more shares in the enterprise!” (246)

In 1894, right around the time that the mill was beginning operations, optimism was high (optimism in those days seems on paper at least to have always run high). Board Director E.Y. Judd  stated “I expect to see Pendleton the most important wool market in Oregon” (247). Indeed Mr. Judd was correct, in 1894 daily scouring capacity was 15,000 pounds on the day shift and warehouse capacity could hold 1 to 1.5 million lbs of wool (249). By late 1894 “Pendleton was…established as an important primary wool market. Buyers from flourishing Willamette Valley mills came regularly to Pendleton” (250). 

The Pendleton Woolen Mills began around 1895 and were originally deeply invested in producing and marketing "Indian Robes".  

to be continued... 

Tune in next time for The Pendleton Woolen Mills "the emporium of Indian fashion".

Picture 1: Pendleton Scouring Plant circa 1900. Umatilla County: A Backward Glance. Compiled by the Umatilla Historical Society. Published by E. O. Master Printers, Pendleton. 1980.

Lomax, Alfred L. Later Woolen Mills in Oregon. Portland:Binford and Morts, 1974.

Picture 2: Mill Creek Trading

Oh Eight Oh Eight Oh Eight

In an effort to get even briefly back on track I went to the Valley Library (which incidentally has a webcam, something that I found totally amusing) today and spent some time, more than I had intended, in the archives and maps room. I was looking for historical geologic or hydrological maps of Pendleton, but found only a few State Water Resources maps from the 60's and 70's which depicted the Umatilla drainage basin. I had been hoping to find some maps that pre-dated the McKay Dam, but no success. I did however find some cool digital archive photos of the Pendleton Round-Up.  I also found a large number of news articles about the town dating back to 1878. I must admit that my microfilm skills were a bit rusty, but I figured it all out well enough. Despite all this research I feel that this paper is no closer to completion than it was when the day began. Hopefully after next week I'll be able to make quick work of it.

In the spirit of getting on track I could not ignore the thesis so I looked around the many delightful library databases and found an essay published in Philosophy and Literature which seems promising; Joseph Carroll's "The Ecology of Victorian Fiction". Although I most certainly don't conceive of Wharton as a Victorian writer I felt like this essay might bring up some interesting ideas which I could debate with in my paper.  The first 10-11 pages of this work are dedicated to establishing the author's position in relationship to what he sees as the dominant ecocritical mode. 

Although Carroll's writing seems intensely biased and polarized I think he does raise some interesting ideas. His primary argument is "that ecology cannot by itself generate a theory of literature or serve as the basis for a theory of literature, but...that responsiveness to the sense of place is an elemental component of the evolved human psyche and that it thus can and should be integrated into a Darwinian literary theory" (296).  While I am not overly enthusiastic about using Darwin as the basis of my literary inquiries I was very interested in his presentation of E. O. Wilson's concept of biophilia.  Regardless of whether or not this can be used in my thesis, the concept of affinity with nature as adaptive and evolutionary is thought provoking. I still have another 10 pages to go with this piece before I can make any real assessment. 

Current Leisure Reading: Galway Kinnell Imperfect Thirst

Topography and Thesis

I started reading another Wharton novel today, Hudson River Bracketed.  Published in 1929 it is claimed by some scholars that Wharton considered this work to be one of her best novels.  I am only about 90 pages into it, but there are already several points of interest concerning water issues.  I am not sure if this novel will end up in my thesis as a case study, but it is certainly evidence that water issues were important to Wharton since some of the same issues she was considering in 1913 appear many years later.

Aside from Wharton this day was mostly spent playing with the dogs and catching up on some Columbia Basin Ecology. This week the lessons revolve around industrial disturbances, depressing, but interesting. This class, although it is a great deal of work, and not particularly related to my thesis, has been quite inspiring. I've decided to work on developing a collection of geology/ecology-inspired poems. The tentative title is "Belated Odes to Harlan Bretz". 

Another Apex

Well, in spite of all of the other more pressing things I need to get done over the next few days I decided to spend the last five hours finishing my eighth Wharton novel. Although I can see why so many critics think it is "her most sentimental" I am not sure that I completely agree. While there is a romantic happy ending that verges on sappy there are elements in the language that complicate the "sentimental" reading. For example, the last glimpse of the moon, the last line of the novel, is: "a few drops were already falling, the moon, labouring upward, swam into a space of sky, cast her troubled glory on them, and was again hidden". How this should be read is perplexing. 

For my thesis purposes this text might work nicely. It is another novel where water is a significant presence. Ironically it also has characters who hail from Apex City, which is the fictional birthplace of the Spragg fortune in The Custom of the Country. The presence of water in this text however is not strictly as a commodity but is valued more for its aesthetic beauty and emotional associations. I am not sure if this is something I want to really get into, although it is a fact that people in the business of managing natural resources now take aesthetic value very seriously in their planning. 

I suppose now I need to consider what to read next. The search is on.

In the meantime I have to revamp my Eco-Historical Reconstruction proposal for my Columbia Basin class. This is most trying since I feel as though resources are limited and instruction sorely lacking. Oh well. That is due by tomorrow night. I also have  six page paper that is due on Monday. Fortunately six pages is not all that daunting, and I have a good plan for what to write. The real wrench in the works is the fact that I have every intention of spending this weekend in Bastendorff  with Bird and confirming our handfasting vows at the ocean's edge. I suppose that means I should be writing and not blogging. 

Conflation, Conflagration, and Connections

In working on the thesis I bent my mind to Beverly Gordon's article "Women's Domestic Body". Dr. Gordon's article examined the conflation of women's bodies with their homes, and discussed the ways in which the home became an extension of the woman. Of course all of this sounds ok except for the underlying dehumanization of women as property that this system of metaphor seeks to naturalize. Gordon elaborates upon this and looks to the etiquette and advice literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to make her point. A good read though not as relevant to my thesis as I might have liked. I amused Bird by reading sections of the text aloud to her. 

Between a trip to Blockbuster and my thesis readings Bird and I watched a lecture on fire regimes in the Columbia River Basin. The speaker, Mr. Boone Kauffman was highly amusing to watch and listen too due to his late 1990's gen x looks and southern accent. The lecture was in some ways depressing since the altered fire regimes of the west have contributed to a number of unhealthy forest conditions which will likely only sort themselves out by extreme destruction and regeneration over centuries if they are not actively restored via human interventions (which of course also come with substantial risk since we are pretty good at screwing up nature even when we think we're doing the right thing). 

Lastly, and somewhat self indulgently (as if this entire enterprise isn't at least 80-90% self-indulgent) I'd like to point out that some links on this page will now appear green. Green links will lead the intrepid traveler to photos I've personally taken...so if one is so inclined follow the links.