05/20/2026
From the Cooney Archives: This Day in the History of Little Falls…” On May 21, 1872, Amos King came to Little Falls when he purchased the Saxony Mill, and for four years made woolen cloth, then made the facility a knitting mill when his son, Charles, joined him, as later did Homer P. Snyder. The mill was bought in 1901 by Carl J. Lundstrom for his bookcase factory.”
~Seth Matteson Richmond and the History of the Saxony Mil~
Water Lots No.18, 19, 20, and 21
An old brick mill once stood on the south side of East Mill Street, on the site now occupied by the parking lot just east of George’s Lumber Yard. This long standing industrial landmark changed hands many times over the years and was known for most of its existence as the Saxony Mill.
On April 11, 1836, Arphaxed Loomis — a local attorney and early land developer — acquired 19 of the 22 water lots of the original Ellice Estate along Mill Street being offered for sale for the sum of $50,000. by Richard Ray Ward, whose family was recognized for establishing the Prime, Ward, and King Bank of New York City, one of the largest and most powerful banking investment firms in New York prior to the Civil War. These land acquisitions laid the groundwork for the industrial development that would soon reshape Little Falls from a pioneer village into the knit goods center of the Mohawk Valley, which included the Saxony Mill nearly a decade later.
On April 1, 1854, the firm Trumbull & Finch acquired Water Lots No.18, 19, 20, and 21 on Mill Street from Loomis for $2,300. The mill they established employed 110 millhands and was a brick four story structure measuring 75 feet by 45 feet, and was used for the manufacturing of woolen yarns, cloth, and ingrain carpets. Among the company’s main shareholders were Earl Trumbull, Joseph French, Washington Van Dresen, J. N. Lake, and Dexter Aldridge.
The Mill Street Raceway
The Saxony Mill, like many of the early industries at Little Falls, relied on water power drawn from the Mill Street Raceway. In the mid‑1830s, Loomis hired a contractor named Erhardt to construct a raceway capable of supplying reliable water power to the growing number of industrial sites along what is now known as West and East Mill Streets. To build it, workers blasted through solid gneiss rock that formed the canal bed of the old Western Inland Lock Navigation Canal — which flowed over the original path of the portage route of the early 1700s —on the north side of West and East Mill Streets. The resulting channel measured thirty two feet wide and twenty-one feet deep at its highest point.
As a historical side note, Little Falls Diamonds were found during the blasting of the bed of the old Western Inland Lock Navigation Canal. For those of you who are interested in learning more about Little Falls Diamonds, please go to the Little Falls Historical Society’s virtual exhibit “The Little Falls Diamond Collection,” which can be viewed at https://littlefallshistoricalsociety.org/.../little.../ — or better yet — plan a trip to the museum and enjoy a free tour of the in-house Little Falls Diamond Collection Exhibit.
The raceway was regulated by a bulkhead located at the western end of West Mill Street near the Horseshoe Dam. From there, water flowed eastward before emptying back into the Mohawk River at the eastern end of East Mill Street, near the present-day Twin Rivers Paper Mill. The property owners of the water lots were required to pay a proportionate share of the cost of repairs and maintenance for the raceway, dam, and bulkhead.
The fall of the raceway at the Saxony Mill was at a height of nearly nineteen feet. The mill harnessed water power through a pair of stone wheels—one 27 inches and the other 18 inches in diameter. Together, they delivered roughly 30 horsepower to keep the factory’s machinery in operation.
The Richmond Brothers
Seth M. Richmond was the son of Isaac and Salona Perry Richmond, born on May 17, 1818, in Augusta, Oneida County, New York. His family was considerably wealthy, and Seth started his career by clerking for a merchant by the name of John J. Knox, whose shop was known as the Knoxboro. He came to Little Falls in 1837, at the age of nineteen, as a traveling salesman for the Knoxboro and was so impressed with the thriving village, located on both the Erie Canal and the Utica and Schenectady Railroad, that he decided to relocate here.
At twenty years of age, Seth became a merchant in his own right and formed the S.M. & A. Richmond Grocery with his brother Alvin on the towpath of the Erie Canal. Their business quickly prospered, enabling the brothers to expand into several other local ventures. One of these was a lumber yard, which they operated from 1842 through to 1860.
The Richmond brothers were also pioneers in local energy, being the first in Little Falls to import coal in 1849, as up until that time, the local residents relied solely on wood and charcoal. By 1853, the brothers had established the Richmond Anthracite Coal Company on East Mill Street, selling roughly 12,000 tons of coal annually. Remnants of their original coal bins still stand below the railroad tracks near the entrance of the Twin Rivers Paper Mill.
Seth, a Republican, served four consecutive terms as president of the village of Little Falls from 1858 to 1861. On February 18, 1861, the train carrying President‑elect Abraham Lincoln and his family stopped at the Little Falls railroad station on its way to Washington for the inauguration. As the band played “Hail Columbia,” Seth, in his role as village president, formally welcomed Lincoln, who then addressed the cheering crowd.
Four years later, on April 26, 1865, Lincoln’s funeral train made a brief stop in Little Falls. Seth’s wife, Ursula Fitch Osborne Richmond, served on the welcoming committee that placed a wreath of white flowers on Lincoln’s black mahogany coffin.
Seth also served as Herkimer County Sheriff from 1860 through 1862. He and his wife, Ursula—whom he had married in Little Falls on April 13, 1840—collected and sent sanitary supplies to Union troops during the Civil War. The Richmond's raised two daughters: Kate Fessenden, born February 21, 1849, who later married Walter Whitman of the Rockton Mill; and Sarah Braman, born April 2, 1853, who became the wife of Charles King, son of Amos King. Seth went on to serve in the New York State Assembly in 1866.
In 1868, Seth’s close friend General James Garfield—who would later become the 20th U.S. President —visited Little Falls. During his stay, Garfield fell ill and spent several days recuperating at the Richmond home as the village had no hospital at that time. The Richmond residence at 548 East John Street had originally been built in 1832 by David Rogers, a manufacturer of augers whose shop stood on the corner lot across from today’s City Hall, now the site of the Verizon Telephone Company. After Rogers’ death, his widow sold the property to Seth on May 1, 1854, for $3,200.
As a historical side note, Dr. Edgar Douglas, of Saxenville, Massachusetts, established Little Falls’ earliest hospital several years before the city organized its first public institution in 1893. Douglas settled in Little Falls in 1871 and after completing his medical degree at Dartmouth in 1889, he returned to Little Falls and purchased the former Charles Benedict property at 547 Garden Street, a site once devoted to wagon manufacturing. He transformed the main building to suit his needs, creating both his private medical office and a modest four bed hospital in the structure’s east end. Douglas also served the City of Little Falls as mayor from 1904 though 1905.
Seth helped organize the First National Bank in 1879, and also served as its first president. This bank was last known as the Berkshire Bank on the corner of West Main and South Ann Streets.
Early Ownership of the Saxony Mill
On July 23, 1847, the Saxony Mill was sold for $14,400 to a stock company organized by Martin W. Priest. Priest, a paper manufacturer, and brother of Zenas C. Priest of New York Central Railroad fame, also operated a canal side store and owned a fleet of canal boats that transported goods between Little Falls and New York City. After acquiring the mill, Priest launched his new cloth manufacturing enterprise with a capital investment of $50,000.
The Reddy Foundry Connection
Prior to acquiring the Saxony Mill, Priest owned a paper mill on Mohawk Street on Loomis Island, then known as the Pardee Mill. The mill had been built in 1828 by William J. Pardee and was acquired by Priest in 1832. This mill was damaged by fire in 1839, and the Richmond brothers acquired the mill in 1842 and rebuilt it of wood, which burned for a second time in 1853, which was then rebuilt that same year of brick. The Richmond brothers sold the mill to the firm of Butcher, Lamb, and Senior in 1862, who used the structure as a shoddy mill. After passing through several more hands, the mill was acquired by Michael Reddy and became known as the Reddy Foundry.
As a historical side note, the City of Little Falls is very fortunate to have works of the Reddy Foundry as part of its local history that are present today, such as the ornamental wrought iron fencing that adorns the Ashley House-Chapman-Moser Funeral Home, the Loomis-Burrell-Fisher House, the Benton House-W.C.A., and the Bramer-Smith House-Little Falls Public Library. The original wrought iron gate to the Zoller Mansion can be viewed at the Little Falls Historical Society Museum, where it is displayed in the Zaida Zoller—Women’s Suffrage Exhibit. Michael Lonis has graciously loaned the LFHSM the Zoller gate from his personal collection of Little Falls artifacts.
The Stitt & Story Era
On November 17, 1852, Seth B. Stitt of Philadelphia and his partner Albert G. Story purchased the Saxony Mill for $15,000 (B62/P458) to manufacture flannel cloth.
As a historical side note, A.G. Story worked at the Herkimer County Bank — now the Little Falls Historical Society's Old Stone Bank Museum — for over sixty years, serving as president for the last twenty years of his life. Story was working at his desk as usual on November 1, 1893, when just as the noon whistle blew, he slumped in his chair gasping for air. He was gently laid on a cot by past bank president William Milligan, however, he passed before medical help could arrive. It was later discovered that Albert G. Story had suffered a massive stroke. If you ever feel a ghostly presence while visiting the museum, it may well be Story still at his desk, hard at work.
In 1853, the same year that the Richmond brothers established the Anthracite Coal Company at Little Falls, Stitt and Story used the readily available coal to operate a plant at the rear of the Saxony Mill, producing naphtha gas through a procedure known as coal gasification. Their initial goal was to illuminate their mills—the Saxony and the Elboeuf Mill. The Elboeuf was built in 1842, managed then by the Little Falls Woolen Manufacturing Company, and now known as the Little Falls Antique Center at 25 West Mill Street. The Great Mill Street Fire of 1858 damaged this mill, which was rebuilt in the early 1860s.
During that time, Stitt also owned the Mohawk Mill, which was built in 1839, and is where he held the position of superintendent for 30 years; is now known as the Stone Mill, the oldest surviving building in Canal Place. The Saxony and Mohawk mills jointly produced blue woolen cloth for uniforms worn by Union soldiers during the Mexican War in the late 1840s and the Civil War in the mid-1860s. During that time, many little boys of the village wore miniature soldier suits made from defective cloth.
In 1853, Stitt and Story also secured exclusive rights to lay gas piping throughout Little Falls and to sell gas to the residents of the village.
Workers and Industrial Growth at the Woolen Mill
In 1856, Titus Sheard, at age 15, had newly arrived at Little Falls from Yorkshire, England, and began work as a spinner at the Saxony Mill. He later became a major industrialist and politician, founding the Eagle Mills on West Main Street in 1879. He was the originator of Balmoral Stocking Yarn to the American market. Sheard later served in the New York State Assembly in 1878, 1879, and 1884, and in the State Senate during 1890 and 1891.
In 1857, Charles Bailey, at age 27 and as a new immigrant from England, became a weaver at the Saxony Mill. By 1868, he had had left the mill and together with his brother in law Jeremiah Mitchell, established a shoddy mill on Elizabeth Street dedicated to recycling wool fabrics. They helped organize the Little Falls Knitting Company in 1872, and by 1881 Bailey was its president. The mill was later acquired by J.J. Gilbert, who formed the Gilbert Knitting Company by restructuring his holdings including the Asteronga Mill and the starch factory on Seeley Island. The Gilbert Mill remains standing on Elizabeth Street today.
On April 30, 1857, Eben Britton Waite, a bank teller, partnered with the Richmond brothers to build a paper mill at the east end of East Mill Street. It operated successfully until March 13, 1889, when it was sold to the Little Falls Paper Company for $20,000 (B136/P97). This company, once owned by the Burrows family, is now known as Twin Rivers Paper Company.
In 1869, the Richmond brothers and others formed the Little Falls Gas & Light Company at the Saxony Mill with a capital of $25,000, charging residents $3.50 per 1,000 feet of gas. That same year, Stitt and Story sold a small portion of Lot No. 21 to the newly formed company for $500.
In 1886, Homer P. Snyder, age 23, came from nearby Amsterdam to fill the position of superintendent of the Saxony Knitting Mill. He later partnered with Michael Fisher to manufacture knitting machines and eventually bicycles during the 1890s bicycle boom.
According to the Cooney Archives: In the History of Little Falls …” On May 21, 1872, Amos King of Catskill, New York, arrived in Little Falls and purchased the Saxony Woolen Mill. He and his son Charles manufactured woolen cloth until 1876, when a fire severely damaged the mill, leading to the removal of the upper two stories. It was then rebuilt as a knitting mill producing undergarments and renamed the Saxony Knitting Mill.”
The 1886 Knights of Labor Lockout
On October 18, 1886, six Little Falls knitting mills—including the Saxony—participated in a major lockout against workers affiliated with the Knights of Labor organization, which heavily influenced the early labor movement at Little Falls. The proprietors of the mills at Little Falls, all members of the National Knit Goods Manufacturers Association, declared a lockout on mill workers who were members of the Knights of Labor Union.
Employment numbers of the mills involved in the lockout included:
• Anchor Mill: 185 mill workers
• Astoronga Mill: 120 mill workers
• Eagle Mills: 350 mill workers
• Little Falls Knitting Mill: 375 mill workers
• Rockton Mill: 175 mill workers
• Saxony Mill: 200 mill workers
The association was battling against having a union-organized work force. The Knights of Labor, whose membership included unskilled workers, women, and African Americans, aimed to establish an eight-hour workday.
Rare 1886 Knights of Labor minute books and membership records detailing this local lockout were authenticated and donated to the Little Falls Historical Society by the New York Labor History Association in June of 2025.
This early organized labor activity helped lay the foundation for the influential 1912 Textile Strike.
Little Falls Becomes a City
A motion to adopt city status passed in 1894, and the Village of Little Falls was officially chartered as the City of Little Falls in 1895. Charles King, then serving as the last village president, became the first mayor of the newly formed city. Peter A Conye, James D. Clark, James B. Donovan, Horace Buchanan, Squire Bailey, John Crowley, Sr., James T. Leigh, and George D. Waterman were serving terms as village trustees; the classification was recreated as Little Falls Alderman, thereby forming the first Little Falls Common Council of the newly established city. Their terms expired on May 28, 1895 during the city’s first held elections under the new charter.
In 1889, a new structure known as the Tighe Building was constructed on Loomis Street to serve as headquarters for the Charles King Hose No. 6 Company. This fire company was established in honor of Charles King.
In 1890, Seth Richmond acquired the Saxony Mill for a bid of $20,000 at a land auction held in Watertown, New York, as Amos King was gravely ill and in debt. Richmond and his son-in-law Charles King, who had married Sarah Braman Richmond, continued producing high end wool underwear, employing about 200 mill workers.
After Amos King’s death in early 1891, Richmond and King gifted $9,000 in company shares to their employees—equivalent to $329,000 today. Each worker received $45, the modern equivalent of $1,625, which exceeded what most of the employees earned in an entire month.
According to the Cooney Archives: This day in the History of Little Falls …”On April 23, 1892, John Chester resigned after 31 years as boss spinner and was presented with a gold headed ebony cane engraved “J.C.” “
The Final Years of the Saxony Mill
On April 17, 1895, Ursula F. O. Richmond, the wife of Seth Matteson Richmond, died. Seth passed away ten days later at the age of 76. Near the time of his death, he was heavily in debt, having borrowed $35,000 from the First National Bank and an additional $13,000 from family members in an effort to save the Saxony Mill. His enduring legacy rests on the fact that, after his company failed and went through bankruptcy proceedings, he repaid every cent owed to his employees and creditors—despite having no legal obligation to do so.
In 1897, the Saxony Knitting Mill was incorporated with Charles King as director and a capital of $135,000.
In early 1898, women working as finishers and seamers at the mill were notified of a wage cut of $0.01 per dozen, reducing their daily pay by $0.35–$0.50—a significant hardship when the average weekly wage for a 60 hour week was about $10. For context, in 1890:
• Milk cost $0.26 per gallon
• Eggs cost $0.20 per dozen
• Bread cost $0.05 per loaf
According to the Cooney Archives: This Day in the History of Little Falls ...” On June 24, 1898, it was reported that the Saxony Mill produced high quality underwear, but a recession forced Charles King to close the mills, and creditors placed the business into receivership.”
In 1900, Ursula Richmond King, granddaughter of Seth M. Richmond, married Edward Lewis Copen Wright at the Presbyterian Church here in Little Falls, where Charles was the Director for the Young Men's Christian Association, which was known as the YMCA for a good many years, and is known today as the Youth & Family Center.
Charles and his family left Little Falls in 1903. His wife, Sarah, died in Boston in 1909, and Charles himself passed away there in 1926.
In 1901, Carl Johan Lundstrom acquired the Saxony Mill to manufacture barrister bookcases, known globally as the Lundstrom Bookcase. From that point forward, the building continued to be known as the Saxony Mill.
*Digitizing of Historical Photos by Gail & Mike Potter, From the Cooney Archives: This Day in the History of Little Falls ... by Louis W. Baum, Jr, and article written by Darlene Smith.
🏦The Little Falls Historical Society’s Old Bank Building Museum is open for the summer season on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, as well as on select Fridays from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. and Saturdays from 9:00 AM until noon. If you would like to schedule a tour on off hours, please contact either Louis Baum @ 315-867-3527, Mary Ann Terzi @ 315-823-1502, or Jeffery Gressler @ 315-823-2799 to schedule an appointment.
