On The Eagle’s Wings: Textiles, Trenton, and a First Taste of the Industrial Revolution

Abstract

This paper relates the rise, fluctuating fortunes and eventual fall of the Eagle Factory, Trenton's first major textile manufacturing enterprise, located on the Assunpink Creek in the heart of New Jersey's capital city. Established in 1814 at the dawn of the American Industrial Revolution and controlled throughout by the Walns, a prominent Quaker merchant family of Philadelphia, the Eagle Factory began by producing yarns and hand-woven goods. Following the introduction of power looms in the 1820s the factory shifted into the mass production of a variety of machine-made fabrics, including plaids, checks, muslin, gingham, ticking and a number of more distinctive cloths. However, this strictly family-run enterprise was never entirely successful, falling victim to broader global economic forces and regional competition, as well as several floods and fires. The plant closed altogether following a devastating fire in 1845. In tracing the checkered history of the Eagle Factory, liberal use is made of the letter book of Lewis Waln and the Waln family papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, as well as insurance records, newspaper advertisements and land records.