Silk Tag Stringing in the 1860’s
Round Robin, Vol. 23, 1929. Dennison Mfg. Company, Framingham
It was only in 1915 that the silk tag stringing work was brought to Framingham. The following bits from a letter of J. A. Boyce, who had charge of this work during the twenty odd years that it was done at West Falmouth, reveals some of the changes which tag stringing has undergone:
“As the writer remembers it – sometime between the years of 1855 and ’60 – Mrs. Mathilda Swift came to West Falmouth to visit her husband’s family. She brought with her small cardboard jewelers’ tags to be strung with solferino and green silk strings. These tags she placed with near-by families to be strung. The work was done for her brother, E.W. Dennison, who was then manufacturing the tags.
The silk came in skeins and on spools and was wound by the stringer over pieces of heavy cardboard of various sizes, according to length of string required. The silk was wound on a hundred times over the card, cut with shears, twisted and knotted ready for stringing.
My mother, Annie R. Boyce, strung these tags with others, and when Mrs. Swift returned to the city the stringing was left in her care. For a year or more all work was done in Mrs. Swift’s name. Mr. Dennison, being pleased with the good work done, decided to have the stringing continued here – my mother to have full charge. Soon after this the cotton strung tags were introduced – tied with pink and green cord. Wooden hand winders were provided by the Dennison Co. to which we attached wooden cards of different sizes for various lengths of strings. Twenty or twenty-five turns of the wheel wound one hundred strings on a card, the strings cut with shears, knotted and put in paper bags, mostly six thousand in a bag.
For several years all tag work was done in the house in which my mother lived. As the work increased it was moved to a small building on the premises. Up to 1872, all tags and boxes were brought twelve miles on the stagecoach from what was then known as Monument, the nearest railroad station. In 1872 the ‘Woods Hole Branch’ was finished and then all freight and express came by rail direct to West Falmouth.
About this time a two-story building was erected and joined to the smaller building before mentioned. Several years later the whole building, known as the ‘tag shop,’ was moved to a lot near the station where my father had built a house.
With still increasing business, sub-agencies were started in various parts of Falmouth, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Fairhaven, Brockton, Buzzard’s Bay, West Brewster, and Pocassett.
At first the strung tags were returned to the [Dennison] Company in bulk, but soon were largely boxed, wrapped and labeled in our shop before they were returned – first to Roxbury and later to Framingham.
Besides the stringing and boxing, we eyeletted a good many tags at the shop. Also had machines furnished by the Company for spangling* parchment tags, which were used on rings, etc. These machines were placed in various homes in town where the spangling was done.
At one time we made crepe paper sample cards. The largest number of tags strung in any one month, I think, was eleven million. The average month’s work was about five million. [Department 16 turns out about three million a day.]
On September 11, 1923, the building familiarly known as the ‘tag shop’ was burned, thus removing an old landmark.”
*Spangles are small four-pronged metal caps which were fastened to the ends of small parchment tags. Labor Bulletin, Issues 97-104. Massachusetts. Dept. of Labor and Industries. Division of Statistics, 1914