Wednesday, November 15, 2023 – HOW ONE TOWN WAS THE KNITTED UNDERWEAR CAPITAL

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15,  2023

ISSUE  #1125

 NEW YORK ALMANACK

Balbriggans, Long-Johns and Union Suits: New York Underwear Makers

November 10, 2023 by Guest Contributor 

Waterpower was the top priority in the development and location of the abundant textile mills in New York State.  In places like Utica or Cohoes, the Mohawk River; in Troy, the Hudson River; and in Waterford, the King Canal (built about 1828 by John Fuller King), provided plenty of rushing water.

The humidity in New York was sufficient for spinning and access to seaports was convenient via the Erie and Champlain Canals and the Hudson River. There was an abundant supply of immigrant labor.

In 1855, Clark Tompkins, from Troy, patented the first fully mechanized knitting machine.

In many ways, this invention foretold the industrial future for the Hudson and Mohawk River Valleys. By 1890, Mohawk Valley had become the number one knit-goods manufacturing center in the country.

New York knit-good manufacturers primarily produced underwear. Two-thirds of all underwear produced in the United States in the late 19th century was made in New York, and of that, a large percentage came from the Mohawk and Hudson Valleys.

In 1909, The Knit Underwear Industry reported that New York State produced 33.5% of all knit goods in the United States.

With the opening of the King Canal in 1830, Waterford successfully harnessed the power available from the Mohawk River.  The King Canal neighborhood became heavily industrialized, with more than half of the community’s underwear manufacturing concerns located there.

In 1910, about 1,700 people worked in the twelve knitting mills making underwear in Waterford. The community’s total population at the time was about 6,130. There were four other knitting mill operations that did not produce underwear; they employed about 220 workers. One-third of Waterford’s population worked in the industry.

From that time into the 1950s, underwear was Waterford’s largest export item.

Two Waterford manufacturers had pressing questions for the underwear-buying public: “Have you been bothered recently by dangerous underwear fads?” and “Do you need to purchase underwear in a larger size because it shrinks?”

The Kavanaugh Knitting Mill, established by Luke Kavanaugh, was the largest factory, with about 600 employees. Their business was built on the following belief:

“Men who demand cool, comfortable garments and who appreciate good health avoid dangerous underwear fads usually wear the famous Kavanaugh Balbriggan. The comfortable underwear. Just loose enough to avoid the pinch, just light and soft enough for cool comfort, just weight enough to protect against sudden cool breezes.”

Balbriggan was noted textile community  just north of Dublin, Ireland.  Balbriggans, were “Long-Johns.” Queen Victoria and the Czarina of Russia were known to wear Balbriggans.

The Kavanaugh Balbriggan advertisement featuring the above pledge also included caricatures of the Theodore Roosevelt‘s Rough Riders. Luke Kavanaugh’s son was a personal friend of Roosevelt; his brother Frederick was a close friend of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody.  The Kavanaugh Mill is said to have provided the underwear for the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War. One wonders if Buffalo Bill wasn’t a customer as well.

In 1891, the same year the Kavanaugh Mill opened, John Wheeler Ford established a large textile mill on the Hudson River to the north of the village. The facilities were later purchased by the Robert Reis Company, whose main products were tee shirts and men’s and ladies’ undergarments. Their advertising made the following claim:

“Reis’ Union Suits, we’ll put you wise; you needn’t buy them oversize.  The size mark on Reis’ Lavender Label means precisely what it says.  All athletic underwear shrinks when first laundered.  Instead of pretending that it doesn’t.  Reis, frankly, allows for shrinkage. So you needn’t buy a 42 when your size is 38 or a 38 when your size is 34.  It’s sized right in the first place.  Reis, you see, doesn’t skimp on material.  Yet, for all the roominess of a Reis, they are tailored to fit.  It doesn’t flop around you like a sail or wrap you up like a bug.  They fit, and of course, they don’t chafe.  They are made for a man, not a wax figure.”

Reis’ Mill lasted the longest of the community’s textile mills, until 1979.  Their main office was in the Empire State Building, but the bulk of their manufacturing was conducted in Waterford.  During First and Second World Wars, about 300 workers there delivered on contracts to supply underwear to the United States Army.

During the first half of the 20th century, the Harmony Mills in Cohoes and the Ford and Kavanaugh Mills in Waterford all had military contracts that impacted their ability to produce, distribute, and sell civilian supplies.  The others were quick to fill the void.

By the mid-1950s however, they were mostly gone. Of the twelve mills that produced underwear in Waterford, several had majestic brick buildings.  Their buildings are now all gone, with the exception of the Laughlin Textile Mill, which is vacant. It was the headquarters for Ursula of Switzerland. The company’s founder Ursula Garreau-Rickenbacher passed away in 2021. That marked the closing of the textile industry in Waterford.

Kavanaugh’s advertisement made mention of “Dangerous Underwear Fads” and the Utica Brand underwear company asked, “tired of underwear fads?”

Among the fads found in newspapers where those for underwear that didn’t need ironing; material fads of fine rayon mesh, nalmook, velvet, silk, and crepe; a black underwear fad during the Great Depression, to cut down on washing; and colored and lightweight underwear.

As far as dangerous? Lightweight underwear was sometimes blamed for hospital admissions. Wearing silk underwear was used successfully as grounds for divorce. Later, underwear made of highly flammable materials was to blame for many burning deaths when their wearers got too close to open flames that were prevalent in households before regulations against open flames were enacted in the later part of the 20th century.

WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

AN IMAGE PROPOSED IN THE EARLY 1990’S BY A DEVELOPER,
WHO DID NOT HAVE THE RIGHTS TO USE THE MARRIOTT NAME
AND WAS SPECULATING THAT THIS IS JUST WHAT WE WANTED ON 
THE SOUTH END OF THE ISLAND.  HIS NAME WAS STEVE JUMEL AND
HIS FAMILY WAS THE OWNERS OF “RAZY EDDIE” STORES.  THE LESS
SAID THE BETTER!!
NINA LUBLIN AND GLORIA HERMAN GOT THIS RIGH

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CREDITS

NEW YORK ALMANACK

Russ VanDervoort is the Waterford Town Historian, leader of the Waterford Canal and Towpath Society and a Trustee of the Saratoga County History Center. John Warren contributed to this essay.

Illustrations, from above: Waterford’s Kavanaugh Knitting Mill advertising card; a Tompkins Upright Circular Knitting Machine (1891); and a Utica Knitting Company underwear advertisement.

JUDITH BERDY

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

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