Send an E-Postcard of:
"History of Massachusetts Industries Their Inception, Growth and Success" Vol. I

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

This company-by-company description of Franklin County's industrial base, published in 1930, came at the end of an economic boom from statistics collected before the Great Depression of the 1930s would sweep many of these industries away. This chapter on the industries of Franklin County was completed just as the United States entered one of its bleakest economic times, the Great Depression of 1929-1940. This economic disaster shattered the economy of many rural areas as companies closed or drastically cut back production. This portrait though, gives a good sense of how Franklin County's thriving industrial base looked in the late 1920s. The industrial economy revived once the United States entered World War II. In the postwar years, one by one the country's major manufacturing industries consolidated production, shipped jobs to low-wage countries, or closed their doors altogether as cheaper manufactured goods came from overseas. By the turn of the 21st century, the de-industrialization of America was well underway as the economy shifted to service and information-based industries.

top of page