A Family Company

A Family Company. . , Not Just Workers, But Family , For as long as this was a family business, workers at Bancroft Mills were treated as members of the family. Long before workers had any rights, Joseph Bancroft and his sons provided decent wages and benefits not found in other companies. Because of these benefits, employees stayed with Bancroft Mills, many of them for generations., The Quaker Ideal of Philanthropy , Joseph Bancroft, a devout Quaker, treated the workers at Bancroft Mills with kindness, based on his Quaker principles. His company offered them good housing at low rents, provided a boarding house, emergency hospital, dentistry and eye exams, and a safety department. There was a school on the mill site and later a memorial chapel. Workers enjoyed dressing rooms with hot showers and drinking fountains. Fresh milk and ice cream were delivered daily. A retirement plan, health and accident insurance, and a savings plan were available. The company's management discouraged unionization. This seemed to work while the Bancrofts ran the company because of the fair treatment the workers received., Creating a Family Atmosphere , In addition to all the benefits they provided their workers, the Bancrofts tried to create a sense of family. They made an effort to know the workers by name and to treat them with respect. They encouraged athletics and team sports for men and women of all ages, and held an annual picnic. Workers' children attended school at the plant, grew up together, worked together, and married and raised families of their own at Bancroft Mills. The employees held social events and donated goods and time to local charities. The mill was a place where many found work at a good wage, and a place to have a home and family., [Captions:] , Right: The homes were well-built, with heat, electricity, and plumbing. They were clustered together in neat neighborhoods, mostly located between the Brandywine River and Delaware Avenue. There were paved roads, lawns and flower gardens, and playgrounds and recreation fields., Below: Many of these children, who worked in the Rockford spinning room in the 1890's, were the children of mill workers., Right: The mill's cafeteria staff turned out to feed more than a thousand people at the Bancroft and Sons annual picnic at Lenape Park, 1925., Top: Bancroft Mill workers, shown here in the 1880's, were encouraged to think of themselves as part of a community., Above: Illustration for an article in the Bancroft Athletic Association Bulletin, which offered cash rewards to employees who made the most valuable suggestions to improve the safety and efficiency of the mill., Right: The office staff was in good humor at the annual picnic, in 1917., Left: The dining room at Rockford Hall, the employees' boarding house run by Bancroft and Sons.