Fall River Manufactory

The company was established with $40,000 in capital in March 1813 by David Anthony, Dexter Wheeler, Abraham Bowen, and several associates.

[1] In the same month of March 1813, the Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory was also founded at the high end of the falls along the Quequechan, about 1/4 mile to the east.

By the 1820s, the successful operation of these two pioneering cotton mills would lead to the establishment of several others along a short stretch of the Quequechan River.

David Anthony, a native of the nearby town of Somerset had gained experience in the cotton textile industry while working for Samuel Slater in Pawtucket.

In April 1812, Anthony worked for a short time in the cotton mill of his cousin Dexter Wheeler, across the river in Rehoboth, Massachusetts (now part of Pawtucket).

Dexter Wheeler was an experienced machine builder, who had established a small horse-powered yarn mill at Rehoboth in 1807.

The Fall River and Troy mills had barely begun operation when the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814, ending the War of 1812.

During the period that followed, many of the recently established textile mills in New England struggled or failed due to a sharp drop in demand and prices for their goods, brought on by resumed shipments of cheaper products from Great Britain.

Nevertheless, the industrious Yankee owners of the Fall River Manufactory persevered, and sought to improve their business with new technologies.