Hockanum Mills and American Mills Records

The American Mills Company was organized in the Rockville section of Vernon, CT by Phineas Talcott and Nelson Kingsbury in 1847. The firm manufactured high-quality woolen textiles, such as cassimeres, and occupied a massive six-story stone and wood mill formerly located east of the present plant. At the time of its establishment, the American Mills Company numbered among several other prominent Rockville textile producers, such as the Springville Manufacturing Company on West Main Street, however, it was one of the first operations to benefit from non-local investment. The company also drew a large number of its employees from a large immigrant population, which helped Rockville develop into a bustling industrial center as the textile mills expanded rapidly in the post-Civil War period. The American Mills Company continued to operate and expand its Rockville plant into the early-20th century.

In 1918, the firm and mill complex were sold to the Hockanum Mill Company, a holding company formed in 1906 that operated three other textile mills in Rockville at the time of the acquisition. The Hockanum Mill Company retained the American Mills Company's name, management, and some 200 employees, among them being the firm's 95-year old president George Talcott. Significant additions to the American Mills Company plant were completed in 1932, however, the Hockanum Mill Company and its 1,200 Rockville employees were in turn acquired by the North Andover, MA-based textile conglomerate, M.T. Stevens & Sons Company just two years later. In addition to its Rockville holdings, the M.T. Stevens & Sons Company also operated textile mills in Andover, North Andover, Lowell, and Haverhill, MA; and Peacedale, RI. Like many of these plants, the American Mills Company suffered from declining demand for woolens as synthetic fabrics became more popular during the late 1940s. The M.T. Stevens & Sons Company closed all of its Rockville mills in 1951 and the former American Mills Company plant subsequently fell vacant until the late 1950s.

In 1958, the mill was acquired by the Rockville-based Anocoil Corporation, a manufacturer of thermal and ultraviolet lithographic plates used by the printing industry. The original American Mills Company mill was destroyed by a massive fire in 1960 but the Anocoil Corporation continues to occupy the remainder of the facility. The Anocoil Corporation ranks as one of the largest producers of analog and digital offset printing plates in North America.