Somersville Manufacturing Company Records

The records consist of administrative and financial files and volumes, marketing material, photographs and scrapbooks, and correspondence and other materials associated with the Somersville Manufacturing Company and the company's founders and owners, the Keeney family of Somersville, Connecticut.

Series I: Administrative Records (1903-1964), consists of Subseries A: General Business receipts and correspondence (1903-1945) and Subseries B: company reports, publications, correspondence and files (1911-1964).

The materials in Subseries A were originally stored in cardboard business boxes that were numbered consecutively, which generally correspondenced by year. These documents were removed from the business boxes and reboxed in the general order by the original number, which is recorded in the scope and contents note for each new box. These records show the day-to-day workings of the company and account for all general correspondence and other business conducted by the company with other businesses or business persons. The scope and contents notes for each box notes only those topics and companies for which there were a considerable amount of material, or were particularly noteworthy. Subseries B consists of other general company records that were not part of the cardboard boxed set.

The materials in Subseries B include correspondence, memorandum and publications of organizations that associated with the Somersville Manufacturing Company, including the American Wool Council, the National Federation of Independent Business, and Woolens and Worsteds of America, Inc. Also included is correspondence with selling agents O'Donnell & Ellis of New York, the Clothing Supply Office of the U.S. Naval Supply Activities, life insurance policies for the company's presidents and other officials, and documents relating to legal matters involving the company. This subseries includes memorandum concerning a sit-down strike (1937) and other labor matters including a report of two men seen throwing full bobbins of yarn out the window of the mill, into the Scantic River, to see how they long it would take for the bobbins to unspool. Also included are financial reports from the company's certified public accountants (1938, 1949-1960).

Subseries C includes textual items, mostly correspondence, receipts, lists, and other administrative documents, from the desk of George E. Keeney, company president from 1901-1923.

Series II: Financial Volumes (undated, 1867-1969), consist of payroll records (1867-1930) listing wages for workers, and other financial volumes including day books, ledgers, cash books, and journals. This series also includes volumes detailing the basic production of the mills, including weave room records, finishing reports and receiving books.

Series III: Marketing (undated, 1947-1956), consist of news clippings, publications, advertisements and other documents the Somersville Manufacturing Company and J. J. O'Donnell & Co., their advertising firm, used to advertising its wool fabric to potential customers.

Series IV: Photographs and Scrapbooks (undated, 1926-1954, 1993), consist of graphic and other materials of the company mill, the town of Somersville, Connecticut, and members of the Keeney family.

Series V: Keeney Family (1888, 1935, 1939-1945), consists of correspondence, much of it as copies on carbon paper, from and to members of the Keeney family, particularly from Robert Leland Keeney, Sr. (Leland), written in the 1930s and 1940s, particuluarly during the World War II period. There is also extensive business correspondence written by Leland. This series also includes the transcript of a diary written in 1888 by Eudora Denison Keeney (1855-1918, wife of Lafayette).