Mill owner
Maverick Woolen Mills
Following Benjamin Bussey's 1842 death, his woolen mill on Mother Brook was sold in November 1843 to Edmands, who was then one of the partners in the company that served as the mill's selling agent, Amos & Abbot Lawrence.[1] The land was purchased for $30,000 while the machinery, the stock, and materials were sold for more than $45,000.[1] In 1850, he sold half of the company, which he renamed Maverick Woolen Mill, to Gardner Colby.[1]
Merchants Woolen Company
In 1863, Colby and Edmands took in new partners, including Charles L. Harding, to form the Merchant Woolen Company.[2] The new company purchased the Maverick Woolen Mills and eventually all of the other mills on Mother Brook.[2] By the 1870s, the Merchant's Woolen Company had monopolized all of the water in Mother Brook.[3] In 1870, they were the largest taxpayer in Dedham, Massachusetts and, when the New York Times wrote about them in 1887, it described the company as "one of the largest [industrial operations] in the state."[5]
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