The Industrialist Man's Later Years
In 1854, Ives and Dunham came together once again to develop the Willimantic Linen Company, another successful enterprise, originally centered on the production of linen goods, which later transitioned to cotton. A once local Willimantic historian, Thomas R. Beardsley, reflects upon the impact of Mr. Dunham’s company in Willimantic Industry and Community: The Rise and Decline of a Connecticut Textile City: “By 1861, Dunham, apart from his growing interest in the Willimantic Linen Company, was employing 44 hands and producing 352,000 yards of cotton warp. In 1870, Dunham employed 60 men, 30 women, and 20 children under 16 years of age. They produced almost $200,000 worth of yarns and warp each year in a mill powered by two water wheels and one 250 hp steam engine” (p. 18).
Unfortunately, it was not long after the rise of Dunham Manufacturing Company and the steady progression of the Willimantic Linen Company that Austin Dunham fell ill and eventually succumbed to what his Hartford Daily Courant obituary declared “a disease which in time declared itself to be of the heart” (Hartford Daily Courant 1877, pg. 2). Austin Dunham passed away at the age of seventy-two in his home, and was laid to rest at the site of Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford. His story came full circle, now forever a part of the very place that one could argue “built” him— both as a person and man of industry.
The business foundation he laid with the Willimantic Linen Company enabled his son, Austin Cornelius Dunham to continue the work. One of the ways that Austin Dunham’s legacy was honored in Willimantic was during the February 1878 opening of the Dunham Hall Library, owned by the American Thread Company. Not only was the library named after him, but in 1880, Parisian artist Charles Noel Flagg was hired to paint a portrait of Austin Dunham, which was later hung in the center of the library, honoring one of the city’s premiere industrial figures.
As one of the early Connecticut industrialists, Austin Dunham left an indelible mark on the state. His success in Willimantic and founding of the Dunham Manufacturing and the Willimantic Linen Company made him into a household name within Willimantic’s history. Moreover, according to his Hartford Daily Courant obituary, his greatest accomplishment did not necessarily come from all of the wealth and prestige he earned, but from his ability to be kind: “He was always an optimist, and in the darkest days of the war or the most discouraging political campaigns, it was always cheering to talk with him, and catch the contagion of his hopeful nature. What a large space he had filled in the affairs of the city!” (Hartford Daily Courant 1877, pg. 2).