Stanley Woolen Mill

Stanley Woolen Will
Stanley Woolen Mill in 2013
Location within Massachusetts
General information
Architectural style	Industrial
Location	Uxbridge, Massachusetts
Country	United States
Coordinates	42°4′48″N 71°37′15″W / 42.08000°N 71.62083°W / 42.08000; -71.62083
Elevation	70 m (230 ft)
Construction started	1852
Owner	Stanley Woolen Company
Design and construction
Architect	Unknown

Stanley Woolen Mill is the common historic name applied to a defunct company based in southeastern Massachusetts and to the company's buildings which stand at the southern entrance to the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park. The mill is an important footnote in the history of the textile industry in America. Stanley Woolen Mill is the centerpiece of the Central Woolen Mills District which is part of the National Historic Register.

Stanley Woolen Mill is located in the center of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor at Uxbridge, a heritage corridor of national significance for America's earliest industrialization. The main factory building represents the last of a line of wooden textile mills built for mechanized manufacturing in Massachusetts and in the US. This mill helped to pioneer satinet, cashmeres, and utilized power looms, (first developed for woolens in the U.S. by John Capron from Uxbridge). Stanley Woolen had a long history of manufacturing military uniforms from the time of the American Civil War through the World Wars and including for the allied armies of Europe in World War I. "Beginning as Stanley Woolen Mills, the firm survived two depressions, weathering the changing times and the changing demands in the world of textiles. Over the years, the Stanley Woolen Company mills sold to such manufacturers as Evan Picone, Perry Ellis, Brooks Brothers and Hager". It is reported that Stanley Woolen Mill was the first US mill to completely manufacture woolen garments, mainly men's wear for the domestic market. Another tradition of this mill's long history was the blending of wool and cottons as fabrics in the manufacture of clothing.

The American Taft family first settled in what later became Uxbridge in the 17th Century. A descendant, Luke Taft became one of the earliest industrial pioneers here.)Luke Taft was the son in law of Daniel Day, and married his daughter Nancy. In 1809, Daniel Day had started the first woolen mill in Uxbridge and the Blackstone River Valley, one of the first woolen mills in the US(third), a little bit downstream. The Wheelocks, (descended from the Rev. Ralph Wheelock, the pioneer of American public education), also settled in Uxbridge, in the 18th Century. Lt. Simeon Wheelock, a Revolutionary War soldier, fought and died in Shays' Rebellion. His son Jerry, became one of the earliest textile pioneers in Uxbridge, and worked with Luke Taft. Luke and Nancy (Day) Taft had a son, Moses, who born in January 1812. Jerry Wheelock's daughter, Sylvia A Wheelock, then married Moses Taft in 1834.Luke Taft established a mill at the site in 1833, and Moses Taft, (Luke's son and Daniel Day's grandson) established what later became the larger Stanley Mill in 1852. Uxbridge was an early industrial center that played key roles in the early textile industry in America, pioneering satinets, cashmeres, blended fabrics, and power looms for woolens. Stanley Woolen Mill later would become a legacy of both the Taft and Wheelock families, continuing woolen and textile innovations of Uxbridge, begun by Jerry, Luke and their contemporaries. Stanley Woolen Mill became the first mill to offer complete vertical integration from raw materials to clothing. Stanley Woolen Mill, was a continuously operating family business, from 1833 at the present site, and from 1809, with its connections to Daniel Day.