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When Alpena dressed America’s women

Fame, fortune, violence marked rise and fall of Alpena Garment Co.

News File Photos This photo from the Sept. 27, 1939 edition of The News shows employees of the Alpena Garment Co. picketing outside the factory.

ALPEN — By the late 1920s and into the 1930s, you could find Alpena-manufactured dresses in Montgomery Ward catalogs and department stores across America, such as J.L. Hudson, Marshall Fields, Kaufmanns in the Midwest, Gimbels, Macy’s on the east coast, Rich in the South and Robinsons in the West, and even Weichmann in Saginaw.

That history goes back much earlier, to 1920, when the co-owners of the Detroit Apron Co. looked north for production opportunity. According to “The Michigan Jewish History,” they brought the apparel manufacturing talents of Morris Schmelzer from New York City as vice president and general manager of the newly established Alpena Garment Co.

The original manufacturing site was on Chisholm Street at 6th Avenue, in a two-story, 100,000-square-foot complex. In years to come, the plant expanded to cover 5th, 6th, and 7th avenues, almost to the riverfront.

The footprint of that building lies near where the current Alpena Public Safety complex sits.

In subsequent years, the Garment Co. opened additional cutting and sewing operations in Rogers City, Onaway, and Cheboygan. In 1936, the Garment Co. employed 1,200 women and 100 men producing garments on 820 sewing and related machines.

It was difficult to not know someone in town who was employed there. It was not unusual to have multiple family members and relatives employed at the Garment Co.

The company was viewed as the largest female employer in the region, followed by a bean-drying and -sorting plant which primarily employed women.

According to accounts from several historic publications, the company was known as the world’s largest manufacturer of popular-priced women’s dresses.

The company opened branch sales offices in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Paris.

At a high point, the company annually produced 7 million dresses, during the Great Depression.

At one time, the Garment Co. general manager, Schmelzer, was seen as a Democratic nominee for Alpena’s mayor. He declined, instead focusing on the company until returning to New York in 1936.

An employee strike occurred in 1930 and then again in 1939. The later-year strike involved the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. The National Labor Relations Board got involved and the strike lasted for 16 weeks. Workers primarily sought a closed shop and better wages.

Violence occurred and non-union labor crossed the mostly women-organized picket lines. Baseball bats, hat pins, umbrellas and bricks were tossed or utilized on the picket-crossers.

The governor brought in the National Guard and the Michigan State Police to keep the peace.

A contract was agreed upon and signed in January 1940.

Sadly, it was too late. Competition garnered Alpena Garment Co. business. The workers’ victory was short-lived, and the company closed in July 1940.

After the main plant and branches closed, some of the personnel and management founded Fraser Corp., which made tents for the U.S. Army and is later believed to have manufactured carpets for cars and trucks.

In 1940, when Alpena Central High School was leveled by a fire, part of the temporary classrooms were established in the former Garment Co. plant.

The Besser Museum of Northeastern Michigan offers an exhibit on the Alpena Garment Co. It displays articles of clothing, photographs, and news articles.

As a footnote, according to a 2012 article in Atlantic Magazine on American spending habits, in 1900, a typical household spent nearly 15 percent of expenses on apparel. By 1950, it was down to 12 percent and, by the early part of this century, well less than 5 percent.

Since the 1990s, the majority of America’s apparel has been produced overseas.

Brasie is a former Alpena resident and a retired health care CEO. He writes historic feature articles.

Early 20th Century Alpena products reaching the nation

In addition to lumber, agricultural products, and Great Lakes fish, Alpena provided the following throughout the United States, and, in some instances, globally:

∫ Besser Manufacturing Co.: cement block machines*

∫ Portland Cement (Lafarge): cement*

∫ Fletcher Paper Co.: begin paper production 1899/1900

∫ Alpena Motor Car Co.: Alpena Flyer automobile 1910 to 1913**

∫ Universal Utilities: electric washing machines, founded 1920/1921

∫ Huron Industries: metal casting plant founded 1920/1921

∫ Alpena Garment Co.: 1920 to 1940

*Business still in operation

** Acquired by Besser Manufacturing in 1914. September 1917 at Michigan State Fair introduces tractor built at former Alpena Flyer plant

Source: “The Town That Wouldn’t Die”, Robert Haltiner

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