The Woonsocket Machine & Press Company was incorporated in 1884 with the merging of two established businesses: Woonsocket Machine Company and Woonsocket Press Company.
Woonsocket Machine Company began in 1828 with a partnership between brothers Willis & Lyman Cook and Willing Vose. Together they established a foundry and machine shop under the name Willis Cook & Company. The company produced textile machinery on Main Street, but their business was destroyed by fire in 1835. Willis & Lyman reestablished the business further down Main Street under the name Woonsocket Furnace Company, which they sold to Simeon Cook in 1868. He renamed the firm the Woonsocket Machine Company.
The Woonsocket Press Company was established in 1865 by George Miller as a manufacturer of rotary cloth presses. In 1879, Miller moved his company to a larger factory in the Farimount district, which became the home to the merged Woonsocket Machine & Press.
By 1889, the newly formed company had 200 employees and was the largest manufacturer of fly frames in the country.
<i>Images courtesy of the Woonsocket Historical Society</i>
Images courtesy of the Woonsocket Historical Society
