Rise of the Harmony Company

Rise of the Harmony Company. . , The Harmony Mills Company was a leader in America's industrial revolution. It was incorporated in 1836 by Peter Harmony and 21 others. In 1837, the Harmony Manufacturing Company began to construct a large cotton factory, a four-story brick building, and 3 two-story brick tenements on Harmony Street for the housing of its employees. The original entrance to the Harmony Mill faced the enlarged Erie Canal. The tenements and the original mill entrance can be seen from where you are now. The mill began operation with 5,000 spindles, growing to 7,000 within 13 years., Despite its promising start, the Harmony Manufacturing enterprise's assets were sold in 1850, purchased by Garner and Wild, who also operated mills in Rochester, Newburgh, Wappinger's Falls and Reading, PA., The company was incorporated in 1853 and the new firm expanded the original mill to a capacity of 30,000 spindles and a labor force of 750 operators. The new company, under the management of Robert Johnston, would be transformed into the single largest American producer of cotton fabrics for printed calicos and fine cotton muslins, spun and woven from raw cotton right in the mills. Cohoes had become a leader in the Industrial Revolution. By 1900, the company's complex of mills in Cohoes produced 1,600,000 yards of cotton cloth a week., [ Top Illustration: ] View of the Harmony Mills complex, late 19th century. The buildings labeled "13" are the Harmony Mills factories. Mill #1 is the building to the right of the smokestack near the bridge crossing the Erie Canal. The lock visible on the canal is Lock 16., [ Middle Left Photo:] View of the Harmony Mills complex in the late 1860s. The Erie Canal is in the foreground, and Mill #3, among the largest and most technologically advanced cotton mills in its day, extends across much of the image. Mill #1 is on the right side of the picture., A Canal Town Transformed , In 1837, work was begun to enlarge and realign the course of the Erie Canal which, in Cohoes, had been completed in 1842. By 1847, due to this improvement in transportation, a variety of factories had opened up in Cohoes, manufacturing cotton, cotton and worsted apparel, axes, bedsteads and tools; [there were] also grist and saw mills, paper and paint mills, an iron foundry and machine shops., [ Bottom Illustration: ] Panoramic postcard view from Prospect Hill. The enlarged Erie Canal is in the foreground, with Lock 15 near the center of the image, and Lock 16 on the far left. Harmony Mill #1 is directly behind Lock 16, with Mill #2 to the right. The Cohoes Falls can be seen in the upper left side of the image. The bridge between Cohoes and Waterford is near the center of the upper half of the image.