BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — The Rockingham Library will host historian David Deacon at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 28 for a presentation on “Lumbering, Organized Labor, and Decline of the Bellows Falls Paper Mills (1898 – 1927).”
Deacon’s talk will begin with the consolidation of the Fall Mountain Mill into the International Paper Company, which marked a period of decline. By 1900, workers, increasingly dissatisfied with conditions, organized into unions, first the Brotherhood of Paper Makers, and later the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers and the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers. This led to a series of strikes in 1907,1908, and 1910. Finally, in 1921, an industry-wide attempt was made to break the unions for good. In the process, the Fall Mountain Mill was closed, and the power was converted to hydroelectric power.
Deacon’s talk will be based not only on local newspapers, but also on union correspondence and publications.
Deacon moved to Bellows Falls in 1980 and graduated from Bellows Falls Union High School in 1981. He went on to Marlboro College and then to the University of North Carolina for a master’s degree in folklore. His concentration in American history was at Syracuse University where he earned a master’s and a doctorate. His dissertation was on the paper industry in the Northeast, including Franklin, New Hampshire, Turners Falls, Massachusetts, and Bellows Falls.
Today, Deacon is an adjunct professor of history at SUNY Oswego and at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to rockinghamlibrary.org, call (802) 463-4270, email [email protected], or stop by the library at 65 Westminster St., Bellows Falls.
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