By Rafe Calder
A company that says “since 1856” is making a claim about 1856. It is not necessarily making a claim about the place you are standing in. Stanfield’s, the Nova Scotia maker of wool underwear, is a clean example. It has more than one founding date, and each is correct for something.
The company’s own account
Stanfield’s “About Us” page, a producer’s own site, gives this sequence. Charles E. Stanfield emigrated to Canada in 1855. In 1856 he and his brother-in-law, Samuel E. Dawson, founded the Tryon Woolen Mills in Tryon, Prince Edward Island. In 1866 he sold his interest to Dawson and moved to Nova Scotia. In 1870 he founded the Truro Woolen Mills on Brunswick Street in Truro, which the page says is believed to have been Canada’s first factory of its kind. In 1882 the factory moved to Logan Street on the south bank of the Salmon River.
In 1896, the page says, Charles sold the business to his sons John and Frank, who focused on knitted goods and renamed it the Truro Knitting Mills Limited. In 1897 the Klondike Gold Rush created demand for the company’s “Unshrinkable” underwear, which John and Frank had made with what the page calls the “Shrink-proof Process”. The business incorporated as Stanfield’s Limited in 1906.
The page uses the phrases “since 1856” and a count of years in Truro. The company’s own timeline puts Truro manufacturing at 1870. The 1856 date belongs to the Prince Edward Island mill. Our reading: the headline number counts the company, and the town number would have to start later. The page does not explain this.
A magazine and Wikipedia
Atlantic Business Magazine tells a closely matching story. It gives 1856 for the Tryon mill, about 1866 for the move to Nova Scotia, 1870 for Truro Woolen Mills, 1896 for the sons, and 1897 for the shrink-proof woollen underwear and the Klondike demand. It says that in 1882 Charles renamed the mill Stanfield Mill and moved it to Logan Street near the Salmon River, and that the factory still stands there. It says most products are still made at the Truro factory.
Wikipedia’s article on Stanfield’s differs on one date. It says the company traces its history to 1856 and that Stanfield’s Limited was established in 1906, which matches the others. It says the shrink-proof underwear was developed in 1898, not 1897. It places the Truro Woollen Mills at 1870 and describes the “current textile mill” as established in 1882. The company page has the factory moving to Logan Street in 1882. The magazine has Charles renaming it Stanfield Mill and moving it in the same year, while the company page dates that renaming to the 1870s, after his return to Truro. A separate Wikipedia article on Truro says the Truro Woolen Mills opened in 1870 and later became Stanfield’s, without giving a date for the change.
The company page and the magazine also differ in small ways. The company page adds a purchase in 1872 of a carding mill in St. Croix, Nova Scotia, renamed the Ste. Croix Wool Factory, which Charles later sold before returning to Truro. The magazine does not mention it. We show both and rank neither.
What the garments were
The company page says the Klondike prospectors and miners could find no substitute for warm, heavy, woolly underwear.
The company page then lists the range as it widened. During the First World War it made wool blankets, knitting yarn and cloth. In the early 1920s a peroxide bleaching process replaced the sulphur process. In the late 1920s it added cotton combinations and rayon women’s undergarments. The undershirt and brief arrived in the 1930s, two-piece winter underwear in the 1940s, and thermal underwear in the 1950s.
Dates in order
- 1856 (company, magazine, Wikipedia): Tryon Woollen Mills, Prince Edward Island.
- 1870 (all three): Truro Woolen Mills on Brunswick Street.
- 1882 (company, magazine): the Logan Street mill by the Salmon River.
- 1896 (company, magazine): the sons take over; Truro Knitting Mills Limited.
- 1897 (company and magazine): Unshrinkable underwear.
- 1906 (all three): Stanfield’s Limited.
What kind of sources these are
A producer’s own history page, a regional business magazine, and two Wikipedia articles. None is an archive. We read no patent and no census.
Questions a buyer would ask
Does “since 1856” mean made in Truro since 1856? On the company’s own page, no: Truro dates from 1870.
Is everything still made there? The company page says most products will be made in Canada “when possible”. The magazine says most are still made at the Truro factory. Neither lists which.
What we left out
Family members who entered politics, advertising campaigns, charity appeals, headcount and any financial figure. Garment fibres, sizing and care, because none of our sources states them.
Quick answers
When was Stanfield’s founded? The company says 1856, in Tryon, Prince Edward Island. According to its page, the Truro mill dates from 1870, and the limited company was incorporated in 1906.
Where is Stanfield’s made? A regional business magazine says most products are still made at the Truro, Nova Scotia factory. The company says it makes most products in Canada “when possible”.
What made Stanfield’s name? According to the company page, demand for its “Unshrinkable” underwear during the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush, made with a shrink-proof process developed by John and Frank Stanfield.
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