Felting Mills01
Waupaca Record
THE FELTING MILLS COMMENCE WORK
An Average of Fifty People Regularly Employed
Raw Material Comes
from
The Waupaca Felting Mills opened their factory on Monday morning after being partially closed for the past two months for needed repairs. A small force of men have been employed during that time and the works would have opened earlier but for a delay in the arrival of stock caused by the recent heavy storms.
A visit to this little industry is well worth while. About fifty hands are employed on an average and more in the busiest season, and of this number five are boys, fourteen girls and the rest men.
The process of manufacture is very interesting from the picking and carding of the wool to the finished product ready for shipment to the dyers and blockers. The hat body when completed here is a round, beautiful snowy white, flat or cone shaped thing that little resembles the various fashionable creations which adorn the heads of the cities swelldom. Each hat passes thru the hands of many people and is handled fully thirty times before it is ready for shipment.
The management, however, is making plans to build an addition to their plant and put in a dye department, which will give them a larger market for their output.
Messrs.
W.A. Proctor of Milwaukee and J.G. Proctor of LaCrosse, under the firm name of
Proctor Bros., came to this city about two years ago and purchased the old
Woolen Mills near the city from J.W. Evans, who for many years had made a
superior grade of woolen goods. They
made extensive repairs, rebuilt the flumes, and remodeled the interior, built a
brick engine room and installed an amount of expensive machinery, which with
the cost of operation to date amounts to $30,000. The nearest works of a similar kind are in
W.A. Proctor returned a short time ago from an extended trip thru the east where he negotiated the sale of the entire output.