Person:Austin Dunham (2)

Austin Dunham was a wool merchant and was born in the brick farmhouse on the grounds of the Mansfield State Training School and Hospital, which is now closed. It was on the north side of the Middle Turnpike (U.S. Rt 44) in Mansfield.

In 1845 he joined with Colonel William Lawrence Jillson and J. H. Capen to form the Welles Company, and built a three story mill and accompanying housing at Willimantic falls in Windham, CT. Soon known as the Willimantic Linen Company in 1854, he built this firm from a small factory to a company with $2,000,000 in capital and a work force of 1,500 people.

In 1873 he organized the firm of Austin Dunham & Sons, wool importers, and operated the Tunxis Mill on the Farmington River at Poquonock in the town of Windsor, CT. Sometimes known as the "Dunham Mills," it was the first worsted mill in the United States and was said to have been the first American firm to send buyers to Australia. He was one of the first directors of the First National Bank of Hartford and one of the organizers and first vice president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company. He was described by Beatrice Slimmon, his granddaughter, as being so knowledgeable about wool and its qualities that he could identify its type and source simply by its feel alone.

References

• Dimock, Susan W. and Susan Whitney, Records of Mansfield, Connecticut, 1703-1850 (New York, NY 1898)
• Dunham, Ethel Collins, Samuel G. and Alice Collins Dunham, their descendants and antecedents (Washington, DC 1955)
• Dunham, Isaac Watson, Deacon John Dunham of Plymouth 1589-1669, and his descendants (Hartford, CT 1907)
• Messier, Betty Brook and Janet Sutherland Aronson, The Roots of Coventry, Connecticut (Coventry, CT 1987)

Links

• Mansfield Historical Society
• Windham Historical Society
• Connecticut Historical Society
• Windham Textile and History Museum, 411 Main Street, Willimantic, CT

Locator

Cedar Hill Cemetery

1. ↑ Mansfield Records
   p. 444.
2. ↑ Root Family
   p. 196.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Cedar Hill Cemetery
   Section 2.
4.   Dunham Genealogy
   p. 38, # 505.