26 Dexter-Russell
e John Russell Manufacturing Company's direct contribution to the Civil War
itself was relatively minimal. e company supplied cutlery for approximately 84
mess kits for the Greenfield Company of the Massachusetts 10th Regiment; it
also provided 2,400 dozen surgical knives for the Army Hospital Corps under a
government contract.
Fire continued to be an ever-present danger. In June 1865, the
company suffered a loss when a fire destroyed machinery and
$600 worth of ivory and wood in the carving shop, also causing an
interruption in the work schedule. Smaller blazes took place in the
next few years, but the company experienced major losses in the
summer of 1868. In July that year, fire broke out on a pier at the East
River where six boxes of cutlery destined for New York were stored;
the entire supply was destroyed. ree weeks later, four of Russell's
shops were consumed by flames, resulting in a $10,000 loss.
STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITY
e Russell Company was saved from extinction again when another wealthy
benefactor stepped in and offered a solution to both the space dilemma and cash
flow issues in 1866. Colonel Alvah Crocker, a railroader and entrepreneur, and
Wendall Davis formed the Turners Falls Company and promised to finance the
Russell Company and also offered four acres of land at no cost and water rights at $5
annually at a site in nearby Turners Falls. Incorporated under the name John Russell
Manufacturing Company, the business accepted the offer and construction on the
new facility began in 1868; two years later the building was completed. Although
John Russell had been semi-retired, he emerged to oversee the layout and design of
the new cutlery factory.
The factory and the canal, Turners Falls
