American Textile Colossus: The Story of Fall River, Massachusetts,
its Cotton Manufacturing Industry, and its People
by Jay J. Lambert (2020)
American Textile Colossus is a sweeping saga of Fall River’s old cotton textile industry – the mills, the managerial hierarchy, the workforce and the events and issues that shaped their lives. Documenting the cotton textile industry from the local perspective of Fall River, it is an unpretentious effort to understand the city’s role in the industrialization of America.
The cotton textile industry is as much a part of the author as it is of Fall River: Jay grew up in the shadow of the former Wampanoag and Flint Mills and is the direct descendant of English and French-Canadian ancestors who immigrated to Fall River to find employment in the city’s textile mills.
A must-read for anyone interested in Fall River history or the rise – and inevitable fall – of the city’s premier industry.
Softcover: 700 pages, illustrated, fully indexed
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society Press (2020)
Language: English
ISBN number-13: 978-0964124820
Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties &
A Businessman’s Reminiscences of Fifty Years
by Thomas Richmond Burrell
(Discourses in History Series, Number 2) (2019)
Based on two papers delivered to the members of the FRHS in 1933 and 1936, the anecdotal musings Burrell recorded in Main Street and Reminiscences – witty and sometimes poignant – brilliantly document the stories of “those persons who carried on business on Main Street and the central section of the city” of Fall River, and tell “of men … with whom [the author] came into contact at the beginning” of his lengthy business career, one that spanned a remarkable seventy-five years.
A must-read for anyone intersted in Fall River History — Fascinating!
Softcover: 166 pages, illustrated, fully indexed
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society Press (2019)
Language: English
ISBN number-13: 978-0964124806
Granite, Grit, and Grace: An Exploration of the
Fascinating Side Streets of Fall River’s History
by William A. Moniz (2017)
Granite, Grit, and Grace: An Exploration of the Fascinating Side Streets of Fall River’s History as a title is perfectly apropos for the articles contained in this volume: they are as solid as the city’s native bedrock; as resolute as the multicultural people who made up the fabric that is Fall River; and they are quintessentially graceful, in the genuine form once seen in the careworn faces of the shop girl, or waitress, or the immigrant laborer, or anonymous pedestrians going about their business on a busy Main Street. These stories are stoic, and proud, and enduring, much like the city itself.
Bill Moniz possesses the rare ability to write just as he speaks, in a conversational tone and seemingly effortlessly; the voice of this Fall River boy, born and bred, is present in every one of these articles. He knows Fall River because he has lived it. Having been immersed in various aspects of city life since birth, Bill’s saturation in local culture is reflected in a writing style peppered with various high and low notes—sometimes sweet, and sometimes pungent—that satiates the reader with the flavor of Fall River.
Softcover: 517 pages, illustrated, fully indexed
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society Press (2017)
Language: English
ISBN number-13: 978-0964124868
Anti-Slavery Days in Fall River and the Underground Railroad
by Edward Stowe Adams
(Discourses in History Series, Number 1) (2017)
Edward Stowe Adams (1856-1948) was a lifelong resident of Fall River, Massachusetts. His father, Robert Adams (1816-1900), was the founder of Adams Bookstore, and was closely identified with the civic, political, and humanitarian affairs of Fall River. He and his wife, née Lydia Ann Stowe (1823-1904), were staunch abolitionists, with Adams being an active “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. Mrs. Adams, one of the first professionally trained teachers in the United States, was an advocate for women’s rights, assisting working women in various capacities. Having been brought up in an enlightened household, it is no surprise that Edward’s strong moral convictions and civic and social responsibilities are ever present throughout Anti-Slavery Days in Fall River and the Operation of the Underground Railroad.
Adams’ exploration of the anti-slavery movement in Fall River and the workings of the Underground Railroad is perceptive and informative. Drawing extensively from published and unpublished works and the personal papers of noted Fall River abolitionists, the author provides a seldom-seen look at the fight against slavery, with an insider’s perspective and sentiment. Adams’ Anti-Slavery Days in Fall River provides an intelligent and informative look at a tumultuous era in the history of the United States, but, more specifically, Fall River, Massachusetts.
Softcover: 164 pages, illustrated, fully indexed
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society Press (2017)
Language: English
ISBN number-13: 978-0964124851
Women at Work: an Oral History of Working Class Women
in Fall River, Massachusetts, 1920-1970
Edited by Dennis A. Binette, Michael Martins, and Joyce B. Rodrigues
Women at Work documents the lives of a group of working-class women in the city of Fall River during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Their stories provide a first-hand account of labor issues and everyday life during a tumultuous era in the city’s history. It was a time of change, hardship, and recovery, when the city and its residents faced the decline, and ultimate collapse, of the textile industry; the early depression years of the late 1920s; the Great Depression years of the 1930s; and the rise of the female-dominated manufacturing and needle-trade industries.
The women profiled in this volume are of Azorean Portuguese, English, French-Canadian, Lebanese, and Polish descent. The progeny of immigrant ancestors who were drawn to the “Spindle City” by the promise of work and betterment, they are interwoven through marriage to form the warp and weft of the fabric that is the city of Fall River. The oral histories of Women at Work tell a Fall River story unique to the time, events, and culture of a city determined to reestablish itself.
Softcover: 416 pages, illustrated, fully indexed
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society Press (2017)
Language: English
ISBN number-13: 978-0964124844
Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River
Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette, Published by the Fall River Historical Society, 2011.
A groundbreaking work, Parallel Lives presents the life of Lizzie A. Borden against the backdrop of the city of Fall River, Massachusetts. In researching this volume, the authors were permitted unprecedented access to myriad resources pertaining to Lizzie A. Borden that had lain sequestered in private collections, world-wide, for decades. Drawing on this important, previously unpublished treasure-trove of material, including rare personal correspondence, photographs, diaries, and the reminiscences of some of her closest friends and associates, Parallel Lives is a breakthrough as a dual history of Fall River and a biography of its most infamous citizen.
Hardcover: 1138 pages, 524 black-and-white and color illustrations, fully indexed
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society, 1st edition (November 2011)
Language: English
ISBN number-13: 978-0-9641248-1-3
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Lizzie A. Borden: The Knowlton Papers 1892 – 1893
Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette, Editors
A watershed collection of primary source documents, the first ever to appear in print on the Borden case, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Lizzie A. Borden is a compilation of letters and documents from the personal files of Prosecuting Attorney Hosea Morrill Knowlton (1847-1902). Knowlton was a prominent New Bedford, Massachusetts, lawyer and District Attorney for the Southern District of the Commonwealth; in that capacity, he led the prosecution in the case against Lizzie A. Borden.
The existence of the documents included in this volume was unknown publically until the collection was donated to the Fall River Historical Society in 1989, by Knowlton’s grandson, Frank Warren Knowlton, Jr. (1912 – 2002). This important collection was preserved by that family for two generations, and offers an intriguing look into the prosecution of Lizzie A. Borden.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Lizzie A. Borden was published in a limited run of just over 1,000 copies. This much-sought-after volume is currently out-of-print and commands a premium on the secondary market.
Hardcover: 554 pages, 31 black and white illustrations, fully indexed
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society, First edition (October 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0-9641248-3-1
