Merrow Industrial Serger and Table

Merrow Industrial Serger and Table

Industrial serger overlock sewing machine and table, manufactured by the Merrow Company. "Made by the Merrow Machine Co., Hartford, Conn., USA. Style A-3DW-3. Serial No. 69005." Merrow began manufacturing its "A" line in 1932, and moved to Wethersfield, CT, in 1972. Although based today in Fall River, Massachusetts, the Merrow Sewing Machine Company, which manufactures industrial sewing and crochet machines, got its start in Mansfield, Connecticut. In the early 19th Century, Joseph Merrow established a gunpowder mill in Mansfield, CT. An explosion destroyed the mill in 1837. He then decided to build a knitting factory on the same site in what is now the village of Merrow, using water power from the Willimantic River. The knitting mill opened in 1838. Two years later in 1840, Merrow added a machine shop to build machinery for his factory. At first Merrow used native wool, which he sorted, scoured and dyed, picked, carded, and spun into yarn and knitted into hosiery. Merrow delivered the stockings throughout New England using two-horse wagons. Following the gold rush of 1849, he sent shipments of goods by sail to San Francisco. During the Civil War, the company did an enormous business making woolen stockings for the Union Army. In 1877 the Merrow Company patented the first crochet machine. To accommodate its steady growth, in 1892 the company relocated to Hartford, Connecticut. It continued to grow. In 1964 it opened a subsidiary, Franklin Industries, in Georgia, and in 1972 acquired the Arrow Tool Company in Wethersfield, Connecticut. The company moved to Newington, Connecticut, in 1982, and to Wareham, Massachusetts, in 2004 and Fall River, MA in 2010. See https://millmuseum.org/sewing-revolution/.