“Our Reporter Is Just Come From The Ruins”: Reporting Practices and the 1860 Pemberton Mill Disaster

Abstract

The largest industrial disaster ever to have occurred on American soil at the time, the gruesome January 10, 1860, collapse of the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, provides an opportunity to study early breaking news reporting in the nineteenth century narrative and illustrated press. Using newspapers at the local, regional, and national level, the study examines reporting strategies, story structures, and the journalistic standards undergirding this content. This research finds that by 1860 newspapers had adopted a scope of reporting strategies and editorial practices that fulfilled complex, evolving roles for the press. It also reveals that, despite the scope and sensational nature of the calamity, the story quickly transitioned from news, to myth, to forgotten in national memory.

Notes

1 “The Lawrence Catastrophe,” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 12, 1860.

2 Alvin F. Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2008), 48, 50.

3 Clarisse Anne Poirier, Pemberton Mills, 1852-1938: A Case Study of the Industrial and Labor History of Lawrence, Massachusetts (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1978). See also Clarisse A. Poirier, “Aftermath of a Disaster: The Collapse of the Pemberton Mill,” in Labor in Massachusetts: Selected Essays, ed. Kenneth Fones-Wolfe and Martin Kaufman (Westfield, MA: Institute for Massachusetts Studies, 1990).

4 Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence.

5 Joshua B. Freeman, Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World (New York: W. W. Norton, 2018), 76-77, 79; Patricia Reeve, “Disaster, Meaning Making, and Reform in Antebellum Massachusetts,” in Working Disasters: The Politics of Recognition and Response, ed. Eric Tucker (Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing Co., 2006), 139-180; Michael E. Woods, “The Other Lawrence Massacre: Sectional Politics and the 1860 Pemberton Mill Disaster,” Muster (blog), Journal of the Civil War Era (September 26, 2018); William Moran, The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), 100-106.

6 Jamie L. Bronstein, Caught in the Machinery: Workplace Accidents and Injured Workers in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008), 44–45, 66–68.

7 Search terms included place names Pemberton, Pemberton Mill, and Lawrence, and event descriptors such as collapse, disaster, catastrophe, and related words and phrases.

8 Two key sources for Harper’s and Frank Leslie’s were the collaborative HathiTrust Digital Library and The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, a partnership of the Indiana State Museum and the Allen County Public Library.

9 The authors wish to thank Lindsey L. Gazlay and Jomar Acosta of Lawrence Public Library for their assistance.

10 Paulette D. Kilmer, “New York Times Accident Stories: Sensational Coverage Warns of Consequences,” in Sensationalism: Murder, Mayhem, Mudslinging, Scandals, and Disasters in 19^th-Century Reporting, ed. David B. Sachsman and David W. Bulla (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2013), 259; Alan A. Siegel, Disaster! Stories of Destruction and Death in Nineteenth-Century New Jersey (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2014), 200-201; Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence, 93, 100, 108. Michael Barton’s study of nineteenth century disaster reporting reveals that disasters stories were popular fodder in newspapers. Reporters used highly emotional language that struck a chord with readers. Michael Barton, “Journalistic Gore: Disaster Reporting and Emotional Discourse in the New York Times, 1852-1956,” in An Emotional History of the United States, ed. Peter N. Stearns and Jan Lewis (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 158-159.

11 Reeve, “Disaster, Meaning Making, and Reform in Antebellum Massachusetts,” 139.

12 Freeman, Behemoth, 45-58; H. M. Gitelman, “The Waltham System and the Coming of the Irish,” Labor History 8, no. 3 (1967): 229-230.

13 Herald of the Times, and Rhode Islander (Newport, RI), March 25, 1847.

14 The promotional slogan was used by the city into the twentieth century. See “Chat and Comment,” Fall River (MA) Evening News, February 25, 1913. See also Robert Forrant, “City of Possibilities: Lawrence on the Merrimack,” MassBenchmarks: A Journal of the Massachusetts Economy (2013) 15:1, 14.

15 Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jenifer Frank, Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery (New York: Ballantine Books, 2005), 25-26; Moran, The Belles of New England, 6-7.

16 Jonathan Prude, “The Social System of Early New England Textile Mills: A Case Study, 1812-1840,” in The New England Working Class and the New Labor History, ed. Herbert G. Gutman and Donald H. Bell (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 90.

17 Walter Licht, Industrializing America: The Nineteenth Century (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 38.

18 Hazel Dicken-Garcia, Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth-Century America (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 40-41.

19 Mary M. Cronin, “Redefining Woman’s Sphere: New England’s Antebellum Female Textile Operatives’ Magazines and the Response to the ‘Cult of True Womanhood,’” Journalism History 25, no. 1 (1999): 13-25. For more on the literary, cultural, and social experience of the female operatives, see Lowell Historical Society, Lowell: The Mill City (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005) and Thomas Dublin, Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).

20 Janet Greenlees, Female Labour Power: Women Workers’ Influence on Business Practices in the British and American Cotton Industries, 1780–1860 (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2007), 163-166; Frances H. Early, “A Reappraisal of the New England Labour-Reform Movements of the 1840s: The Lowell Female Labor Reform Association and the New England Workingmen’s Association,” Histoire Sociale-Social History 13, no. 25 (1980): 35.

21 Freeman, Behemoth, 73-74.

22 Bruce Laurie, Artisans into Workers: Labor in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: The Noonday Press, 1989), 122; Mary H. Blewett, Men, Women, and Work: Class, Gender, and Protest in the New England Shoe Industry, 1780-1910 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 106.

23 Reeve, “Disaster, Meaning Making, and Reform in Antebellum Massachusetts,” 141, 143; An Authentic History of the Lawrence Calamity (Boston: John J. Dyer and Co., 1860), 61.

24 An Authentic History of the Lawrence Calamity. The inquest testimony is found on pages 57-96. “Who Are the Real Murderers of the Lawrence Factory Operatives?” The Penny Press (Cincinnati, OH), January 17, 1860.

25 Dicken-Garcia, Journalistic Standards, 42, 82-83, 84.

26 Harold D. Lasswell, “The Structure and Function of Communication in Society” in The Communication of Ideas, ed. Lyman Bryson (New York: Institute for Religious and Social Studies, 1948); Dicken-Garcia, Journalistic Standards, 41-42.

27 Reprinted in “Awful Calamity at Lawrence, Mass,” Boston Evening Transcript, January 11, 1860.

28 In studying the life cycle and conventions of breaking-news disaster reporting in the nineteenth century, Katrina J. Quinn finds that early reporting after a disaster is often characterized by dispatch structures retained in print; a transition from summary content to more detailed, sensationalized reportage; and an effort on the part of reporters to convey multisensory details that construct a fuller understanding of the event for readers. Katrina J. Quinn, “The Life Cycle and Conventions of Nineteenth-Century Breaking News: Disaster Reporting of the 1875 Virginia City Fire,” American Journalism 35, no. 3 (2018): 298-314.

29 “Awful Calamity at Lawrence, Mass,” Boston Evening Transcript, January 11, 1860; “Appalling Calamity in Lawrence!” Boston Post, January 11, 1860.

30 “News of the Day,” New-York Times, January 11, 1860; “Horrible Calamity,” New-York Times, January 11, 1860.

31 “Horrible Accident,” New-York Tribune, January 11, 1860.

32 “Awful Calamity at Lawrence, Mass.,” Boston Evening Transcript, January 11, 1860.

33 “Awful Calamity,” Boston Evening Transcript.

34 “Distressing Calamity: Fall of the Pemberton Mills Building, at Lawrence, Mass.,” The Daily Exchange, (Baltimore, MD), January 12, 1860; “Great Disaster at Pemberton,” Penny Press (Columbus, OH), January 12, 1860.

35 “Schreckliches Unglück in Lawrence, Mass. Sinsturz der Pemberton Mills.” Der Lecha Caunty Patriot (Allentaun, PA), January 18, 1860.

36 For more on the evolution of news forms and the dynamic transformation of the visual structure of newspapers during the nineteenth century, see Kevin G. Barnhurst and John Nerone, The Form of News: A History (New York: The Guilford Press, 2001), esp. 75-81.

37 The first transcontinental telegraph was completed in 1861. “Overland Telegraph Company,” Daily Alta California (San Francisco), April 14, 1861. On mail distribution in the West, see Mary M. Cronin, “‘Give Us the War News!’ News Gathering, Distribution, and Audiences,” in The Western Press in the Crucible of the American Civil War, ed. Mary M. Cronin and Debra Reddin van Tuyll (New York: Peter Lang, 2021).

38 “The Lawrence Calamity. Seven Hundred Persons Buried—Two Hundred Killed,” Los Angeles Star, February 4, 1860.

39 As an example, see “Arrival of the Overland Mail—Terrible Catastrophe—200 Lives Lost and Others Shockingly Mangled …” Butte (MT) Democrat, February 11, 1860.

40 As an example, see “A Horrible Tragedy!” Neosho Valley Register (Burlington, KS), January 24, 1860. The story was attributed to dispatches received by the Leavenworth (KS) Times.

41 "Appalling Calamity in Lawrence," Boston Post, January 11, 1860.

42 “From Our Lawrence Correspondent,” New-York Times, January 14, 1860.

43 “The Lawrence Massacre,” Boston Post, January 12, 1860.

44 “Great Calamity at Lawrence – Fall of the Pemberton Mills – Destructive Conflagration… Full particulars up to one o-clock to-day,” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 14, 1860.

45 “Terrible Calamity! Crash of Pemberton Mills, Lawrence. Several Hundred Buried in the Ruins!! Destructive Conflagration. Loss of from 200 to 400 lives!!!” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 11, 1860.

46 “Terrible Catastrophe, [illegible], Fall of the Pemberton Mill,” Lawrence Courier, January 14, 1860. Emphasis added.

47 “Terrible Calamity at Lawrence,” Haverhill (MA) Gazette, January 13, 1860.

48 “Great Calamity at Lawrence,” Andover (MA) Advertiser, January 14, 1860.

49 “Terrible Catastrophe, [illegible], Fall of the Pemberton Mill,” Lawrence (MA) Courier, January 14, 1860.

50 “The Lawrence Calamity,” New-York Times, January 12, 1860.

51 “The Lawrence Calamity,” New-York Times.

52 “The Lawrence Catastrophe,” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 12, 1860.

53 From Boston Herald, reprinted in New York Daily Herald, January 12, 1860.

54 From the Boston Transcript of January 11, reprinted in New York Daily Herald, January 12, 1860.

55 “The Lawrence Catastrophe,” New York Daily Herald, January 12, 1860.

56 “From Our Lawrence Correspondent,” New-York Times, January 14, 1860.

57 “Fall of the Pemberton Mill,” Haverhill (MA) Gazette, January 20, 1860.

58 “Fall of the Pemberton Mill,” Haverhill (MA) Gazette.

59 Harper’s Weekly, January 21, 1860.

60 “The Late Fearful Catastrophe at Lawrence,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (New York, NY), January 21, 1860.

61 “The Frightful Calamity at Lawrence. Destruction of the Pemberton Mills by Falling and by Fire. The Inquest, Incidents, &c.,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (New York, NY), January 28, 1860, 129.

62 “The Lawrence Catastrophe,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (New York, NY), February 4, 1860, 146.

63 In typographical format, these lists of Pemberton victims presaged lists of Civil War soldiers—often working-class immigrants themselves—who would be killed or wounded in the impending conflict. See Katrina J. Quinn, “‘Covering Our Boys’: Introducing the Heroic Soldier in the Civil War Press” in The Civil War Soldier and the Press, eds. Katrina J. Quinn and David B. Sachsman (New York: Routledge, 2023).

64 “The Lawrence Catastrophe,” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 12, 1860.

65 “The Lawrence Catastrophe,” New York Daily Herald.

66 See for example, “Most Horrible Calamity … Heart-Rending Details,” The Daily Intelligencer (Wheeling, WV), January 12, 1860.

67 Examples of this vignette, which appeared in local papers as early as January 12, can be found in “The Lawrence Calamity. Full and Interesting Particulars,” Glasgow Weekly Times (Glasgow, MO), January 19, 1860; in “Pemberton Mill Disaster: Full and dreadful particulars,” The Opelousas Courier (Opelousas, LA), February 4, 1860; and many others.

68 See for example, “Incidents of the Lawrence Tragedy,” Holmes County Republican (Millersburg, OH), January 19, 1860. The story is attributed to a correspondent of the Boston Journal.

69 “The Lawrence Catastrophe,” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier.

70 Though his work focuses on contemporary reporting, Jack Lule argues that the news media is saturated with archetypal tales and figures, including those of the victim and hero. See Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism (New York: The Guilford Press, 2001).

71 “Great Calamity at Lawrence – Fall of the Pemberton Mills – Destructive Conflagration… Full particulars up to one o-clock to-day.” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 14, 1860.

72 “Newspaper Accounts,” New-York Times, January 13, 1860.

73 “From Our Lawrence Correspondent,” New-York Times, January 14, 1860.

74 “Horrible Catastrophe,” Lawrence (MA) Courier, January 19, 1860.

75 “Terrible Catastrophe, [illegible], Fall of the Pemberton Mill,” Lawrence (MA) Courier, January 14, 1860.

76 Reeve, “Disaster, Meaning Making, and Reform in Antebellum Massachusetts,” 140; Robert F. Dalzell, Jr., Enterprising Elite: The Boston Associates and the World They Made (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), 34-35; Gitelman, “The Waltham System and the Coming of the Irish,” 232.

77 “The Frightful Massacre at Lawrence—Insecurity of Modern Architecture,” New York Daily Herald, January 12, 1860.

78 “Who Are the Real Murderers of the Lawrence Factory Operatives?” Penny Press (Cincinnati, OH), January 17, 1860.

79 “The Lawrence Calamity,” New-York Times.

80 As an example, see “The Lawrence Catastrophe,” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 12, 1860, and “Affairs at Albany,” New-York Times, January 14, 1860.

81 “The Cause of the Late Accident—Parallel Case in England,” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 14, 1860.

82 “The Lawrence Massacre,” Boston Post, January 16, 1860; “The Coroner’s Inquest,” New York Herald, January 13, 1860; “The Inquest,” Lawrence (MA) Courier, January 19, 1860; “The Calamity in Lawrence,” Boston Post, January 24, 1860. Even the weekly Andover (MA) Advertiser published excerpts of testimony from the inquest, including testimony on the strength of the beams and columns given by Thomas S. Winn and testimony on how the fire was started from John Crawford. “The Lawrence Calamity,” Andover (MA) Advertiser, January 21, 1860.

83 The New-York Times also reprinted the coroner’s verdict word-for-word, just as it had done so for the inquest testimony. “The Lawrence Disaster; Verdict of the Coroner’s Jury,” New-York Times, February 4, 1860.

84 See McCombs’ and Shaw’s original study of Agenda-Setting Theory for its functions and concepts: Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw, “The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media,” Public Opinion Quarterly 36, no. 2 (1972): 176-187.

85 “Newspaper Accounts,” New-York Times, January 13, 1860.

86 “The Frightful Massacre at Lawrence—Insecurity of Modern Architecture,” New York Daily Herald.

87 “The Lesson of the Lawrence Massacre,” New York Herald. January 13, 1860.

88 “The Slaughter at Lawrence,” Harper’s Weekly, January 21, 1860, 34.

89 “Brick and Mortar Murders,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, January 21, 1860. On the Troy, NY railroad depot collapse, see “Fall of the Troy Union Railroad Depot,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, January 14, 1860. The same issue also included a story of a collision on the Macon and Savannah Railroad and a fatal tenement house fire on Beekman Street in New York.

90 “Brick and Mortar Murders,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.

91 Oickle, Disaster in Lawrence, 100-103.

92 “Whose Fault?” Harper’s Weekly, February 4, 1860.

93 “Terrible Explosion at the Hat Factory, Brooklyn,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (New York), February 11, 1860, 172.

94 “The Lawrence Calamity,” New-York Times, January 13, 1860; “More Alleged Unsafe Buildings,” New-York Times, January 14, 1860.

95 “Alleged Insecurity of the New Arsenal,” New-York Times, January 16, 1860.

96 “The Morning’s News,” Fall River (MA) Daily Evening News, January 23, 1860.

97 “Dangerous Condition of Another Lawrence Factory,” New-York Times, January 16, 1860.

98 Patricia Reeve states, “the press captivated readers throughout the nation with dramatic accounts of the disaster’s horrors, the victims’ injuries and emotionalism, and the gritty realities of working-class life and labor” from January through March, but the current research shows that coverage was inconsistent. Reeve, “Disaster, Meaning Making, and Reform in Antebellum America,” 140.

99 “The Lawrence Calamity,” Andover (MA) Advertiser, January 21, 1860.

100 “Aid for Lawrence,” Haverhill (MA) Gazette, January 27, 1860; no headline, Haverhill (MA) Gazette, February 3, 1860.

101 “The Insurance on the Pemberton Mills,” Andover (MA) Advertiser, February 4, 1860. The story was a reprint from the Boston Journal; No headline, Boston Post, February 7, 1860. A one sentence notice in the Boston Post issue of July 3, 1860, stated that the insurance company had paid out a claim of $93,374 to the Pemberton Mill’s owners. “Dry Leaves of Monday’s Gathering,” Boston Post, July 3, 1860.

102 “A Few Facts Respecting the Calamity at Lawrence!” Orleans Independent Standard (Irasburgh, VT), March 15, 1861.

103 For some examples, see: Mary Burns, buried in the collapse, who passed away in 1889, whose father and brothers had also been working at the time. Pittsburg (PA) Dispatch, July 13, 1889. Mrs. Mary Stevens, who was residing in Maine, “a relic of the Pemberton Mill disaster,” Somerset Reporter (Skowhegan, ME), February 29, 1888.

104 The fire killed dozens of young textile workers, trapped in the upper floors of a factory which the escape ladders did not reach. “Terrible Catastrophe in Fall River,” Connecticut Western News (Salisbury, CT), September 25, 1874. Additional coverage can be found in the Andrew County (MO) Republican of October 2, 1874, and the Northern Ohio Journal (Painesville, OH), September 26, 1874.

105 “The Brooklyn Calamity,” Baltimore County (Towson) Union, December 16, 1876.

106 Brooklyn (NY) Union, January 19, 1870.

107 West-Jersey Pioneer (Bridgeton, NJ), November 22, 1872.

108 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, “The Tenth of January,” Atlantic Monthly 21, no. 125 (March 1868): 346-362.

109 Susan Coultrap-McQuin, Doing Literary Business: American Women Writers in the Nineteenth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), 172-173. McQuin, calling this a “love story” set in the context of the disaster, notes this story is an early example of Phelps’s concern with social issues, and points out that the author “conducted extensive research on the accident by interviewing workers, engineers, newspapermen, and others for information.” McQuin states the story was praised in letters by John Greenleaf Whittier and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

110 Daily Kennebec (ME) Journal, October 12, 1886.

111 Philadelphia’s Penn Publishing Company’s “Books and Plays.” Adam Matthew Collection at Bailey Library: “The Fall of Pemberton Mill,” by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, “One of the most pathetic, dramatic, and generally effective recitations in print.” Listed in https://www-tradecatalogues-amdigital-co-uk.proxy-sru.klnpa.org/Documents/Images/HML_08062131/0

112 “Flour Mill Explosions,” Reprinted in Weekly Oskaloosa (IA) Herald, May 30, 1878.

113 The 1886 Pemberton fire was reported as far away as Hawaii. “Ten Firemen Killed,” Daily Honolulu Press, April 24, 1886. Even rural western communities printed news of the firemens’ deaths. For one example, see “Ten Firemen Killed,” Daily Tombstone (AZ) Epitaph, April 11, 1886. For an example of the tornado coverage: “Remarkable Storm,” Wheeling (WV) Daily Intelligencer, July 28, 1890.

114 For example, see: “Questions and Answers,” Indianapolis (IN) Journal, January 23, 1898; San Francisco (CA) Call, March 24, 1896.

115 The press continued to cover local and domestic issues quite liberally throughout the war. See Jennifer E. Moore, “From Sea to Shining Sea: Domestic and International News from the plains to the Ocean” in Mary M. Cronin and Debra Reddin van Tuyll, The Western Press in the Crucible of the American Civil War (New York: Peter Lang, 2021) and Katrina J. Quinn, “Worthy of the City and Age in which We Live: Roles and Functions of the Midwestern Civil War Press” in Debra Reddin van Tuyll and Mary M. Cronin, The Midwestern Press in the Crucible of the American Civil War (New York: Peter Lang, 2022).

116 “The Cause of the Late Accident—Parallel Case in England,” Lowell (MA) Daily Journal and Courier, January 14, 1860.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katrina Jesick Quinn

Katrina Jesick Quinn is chair of the Strategic Communication and Media Department at Slippery Rock University. A Hazel Dicken-Garcia Distinguished Scholar of Journalism History, Quinn has published on topics such as nineteenth-century political reporting, media narrative, the Civil War press, and journalism of the American frontier. She is an editor of Adventure Journalism: Essays on Reporting from the Arctic to the Orient (McFarland Publishers, 2021), recognized in 2022 as “Best Edited Collection in Popular and American Culture” by the Popular Culture Association.

Mary M. Cronin

Mary M. Cronin (Lamonica) is a professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at New Mexico State University. A former reporter and news editor, Cronin's research interests include nineteenth-century press performance, coverage of the US Civil War, women’s portrayals, and the history of photography.