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Pins, Patterns, and J.C. Penney: An Ogden Cottage Industry Goes Global
Pins, Patterns, and J.C. Penney: An Ogden Cottage Industry Goes Global
By AUDREY M. GODFREY
On February 21, 1928, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued to Ada Quinn of Ogden, Utah, a patent for a simple apron design. It -was the first of twelve patents granted to Quinn, who founded the Kathleen Quinn Garment Company in Ogden in 1926.1 The story of the growth and success of this company, which began in her kitchen, reveals that a woman of determination, talent, and business acumen could compete, prior to and during the depression, with the wholesale clothing factories of America. Who was this talented woman -who became so successful in business? A look at a photograph taken in the early years of her marriage shows an attractive, roundfaced, docile-appearing, proper woman; in a later picture that appeared on a flyer circulated when she ran for governor of Utah, the same pleasant, mild-mannered person looks out at the viewer. At this time she wore her long gray hair in a bun on the back of her head. But her looks -were deceptive. Her long, modest dresses and her serviceable shoes did not reflect the bright apparel she produced. And her daughter-in-law, Ethel Low, said that Quinn "blew her top" frequently. She was determined, ambitious, and blunt, and she expressed herself freely and emphatically. A nephew, Richard Shaw, remembered Quinn and her three sisters, Gwendolyn, Ivy, and Mabel, as independent women -who were feminists. 2
Ada Quinn, who was born December 13, 1878, joked that life for her began at age forty-six.3 Yet she was proud of the years and heritage that preceded her venture into manufacturing. She was born in Peterson, Utah, to early Mormon pioneers Joshua and Hannah Martha Green Williams. Quinn graduated from public schools and completed credentials for teaching at the University of Utah. She taught school in Morgan and Ogden City, where she met her husband, who was also a teacher. They married in 1902 and produced four children: Horace Alvord, born in 1903; Kathleen in 1905; and twins Robert and Ralph in 1914. Ralph died shortly after birth, and several miscarriages had occurred between the births of Kathleen and the twins.
Ada's husband, Edward Nelson Quinn, had graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa. After their marriage, the couple moved to Washington, DO, for several years. When they moved back to Utah, Edward worked for the government, proofing homesteads in six western states. Although Edward and Ada did not share the same religious faith—he was Catholic and she Mormon—the couple -was compatible in other ways. Ed-ward was the sounding board for Ada's business ideas; he provided her with excellent advice and supported her in all aspects of her life. 4
In 1926, established in Ogden and with her children needing less constant care, Quinn decided to begin a business in her home. She claimed that she started with "five dollars, an idea, one family sewing machine and her will to work." 5 Although Utah and the nation had just been through a short depression in the early 1920s and some businesses were still trying to recoup, Quinn chose the right product for the times for her cottage industry. Aprons were almost indispensable to the American housewife. "Clothing represented a sizable investment of disposable income, so it was important to protect it from unnecessary wear or hazard."6 The humble apron allowed a woman to go about her work with a layer of material protecting the larger dress investment. Aprons also required only a small outlay of capital for material and could be sewn up quickly, allowing for greater output in production. Although women, especially rural women, had traditionally made their own clothing, the idea of purchasing garments readymade was gaining popularity in the 1920s.
Quinn used her five dollars to purchase a few yards of gingham and some thread. She made four different lots of aprons before she sold any. Particular even from the first, she picked apart much of her sewing several times before becoming satisfied with the result. She then sent her young son to downtown Ogden to a large store with the aprons and was thrilled when the manager agreed to buy them and ordered eleven dozen more. But it took a lot of convincing to get other retailers interested in selling her apparel. On her first marketing trip to stores in Salt Lake City, she recalled, she walked back and forth in front of the Broadway Company, one of the largest women's apparel stores in the city, without entering, because she dreaded facing the executives who would examine her wares. Finally, she forced herself to go in—and was promptly turned down. Later on, however, this store became one of her best customers. 7 In the first six months, using nothing but the family sewing machine, Quinn sold $5,000 worth of goods. She gave much of the credit for her success to Gus Wright of Ogden, -who encouraged her and purchased the first lot of aprons.
During the depression years of the 1930s an eager workforce enabled Quinn to expand as her orders increased. She carefully chose her employees and became especially close to them. She showed an inclination toward helping women in need by hiring widows at a time when work for them -was difficult to find. Concerned for their welfare, she also hired unwed mothers and helped them get a start toward self-sufficiency. In fact, she wanted to "put into effect the theory that real social -welfare work comes through helping others to help themselves."8 In turn, her workers remained loyal and hardworking as her business grew. By 1934 several of the women who had sewed for her at the beginning of her venture still remained with her. They had become expert seamstresses.
Realizing that more expertise would help her succeed, Quinn learned the art of buying materials. She rightly judged that bright, easy-to-care-for calicos, with a little trim to dress them up, -would become good sellers. "I always loved color," she said, and she gave much thought to the right color effect.9 She also found that keeping her credit good allowed her to buy material from jobbers in large quantities, which saved her money. She bought her wares in eastern markets because local companies could not handle her large orders or provide the variety of patterns and colors she needed. Her prompt payment for these orders kept her credit so impeccable that salesmen began coming to her to display their samples.10
Quinn cut down her overhead and supplied family members -with jobs and income by using relatives in various capacities in the business. She and Edward worked together on obtaining patents for her patterns and establishing business policies, and she often sought his advice in matters relating to the business. She employed her daughter, Kathleen, after whom the company was named, to design dresses and aprons, sell the apparel, manage the office, and help train employees. When the family decided to open a sales office in New York City, Kathleen managed it, earning a salary and a commission on her sales.11 Quinn's sons, Robert and Horace, also helped in the business. As boys they worked for small wages doing janitorial work and making deliveries. Later, they worked in other capacities as their careers permitted; Robert became a partner when the business was incorporated.
Quinn sent her sister Gwendolyn Shaw, with large suitcases of apron samples, to Washington, DC, and New York City on a two-week selling trip. 12 Shaw also tried her hand at design. Her son David worked as a bookkeeper and kept track of the piecework of Quinn's employees, as did Ethel Low for a time. The payment of $99.60 by another sister (Mabel Barron) is listed as an asset in the company incorporation papers. It is unclear what this payment -was for, but it shows some kind of involvement with the company. 13
As Quinn's success increased, some of the larger manufacturing companies tried to force her out of business. An early competitor was John Scowcroft & Sons Company, -which was founded in Ogden in 1880 as a bakery and candy store but had diversified into manufacturing and wholesaling other items, including clothing. These companies put pressure on her to such a degree that her friends advised her to sell out. However, realizing that her competitors "were trying to copy and put [her] out" and "were only men in a woman's game," she instead expanded the business and sought a larger market. Her philosophy that brains were better than money and that one should "keep plugging" along saw her through these early attempts to scare her out of the industry. 14
Indeed, Quinn's business prospered. Local J. C. Penney stores bought her aprons, as did Penney's first store in Wyoming. On a trip to the East she met Mr. Penney, and he subsequently chose the Kathleen Quinn Company as his exclusive supplier of aprons. Quinn often had lunch with him on business trips to New York City. She met Penney's managers all over the country as she checked on orders to see if they had arrived on time and if they were satisfactory to the company. The excellent craftsmanship of her needle-workers and Quinn's attention to details such as careful pressing, packing, and delivery of orders impressed Mr. Penney and others who ordered from her. 15
Early on, she diversified and began producing children's clothing and women's dresses in addition to her aprons. 16 J. C. Penney also sold these items. One of the popular items Penney purchased from Quinn was called the Hoover dress. In 1937 she had received a patent for a wraparound garment that could be used as an apron over a dress or as a dress itself. In 1945 she patented a similar garment that she named the Hoover dress. The patent shows a wraparound dress that could easily be put on or taken off and that could also be worn as a "slip-over garment to protect underneath dresses." 17 When asked why her dresses were so popular, Quinn answered, "I believe that first of all it is the fine quality and exquisite workmanship. Some of my women are real experts, then too, color combinations are absolutely essential." 18
One of Quinn's first apron designs—and a creative coup—had resulted from the small space she had to work in. With little room for cutting tables, she sought to create a pattern she could cut on her limited table space. She thus designed an apron that did not need to be cut into different sizes but that would fit any woman. Quinn recognized that even in such a utilitarian garment as an apron, fit was important. Her apron featured a back panel that "dropped from the shoulders a sufficient length to permit adjustment of the apron to wearers of various sizes." A "plurality of string holes" at the lower end of the panel also allowed for physical differences in the bodies of various wearers.19 This design became a mainstay of her business and was copied by home sewers.
But she had many other apron designs. Some had high -waists, -while some were half aprons. Some had V-neck or half-moon-shaped yokes. Along with the bright-colored prints, she used contrasting bias tape trim, lace, eyelet, appliqued designs, buttons, laced bibs, pockets, ruffles, scallops, and different -ways of securing the tie strings. She was not content to design aprons merely for serviceable purposes; she also made them feminine and pretty. Perhaps she remembered her own days as a busy homemaker when a little beauty would have made tasks easier to bear.
Quinn protected her design by going through a sometimes several-year-long process of having them patented with the United States Patent Office. 20 It took a great deal of talent to compute measurements and transfer them to paper visually and then describe them clearly. Quinn had taken a design class in college, and this, along with her innate abilities, led to her success in drafting patterns. 21 A look at her first two patents shows that she learned description skills from the submission process itself. These first applications only briefly describe the aprons she wished to patent. However, the third application is much more detailed, showing her acquired understanding of the need to be specific in each detail.
Quinn soon outgrew her kitchen workroom and moved into a renovated four-room shack in her back yard. Later, she built a large brick factory next to the family home, which was at 335 28th Street in Ogden. Looking out for her workers, she provided good lighting and ventilation for them. Richard Shaw recalls visiting the building as a small boy and seeing a long room with cloth stacked about, but he was the most impressed with the motorized cutters. 22 Ethel Low offers a verbal floor plan for the plant. She says that a walkway went from the street past the house on the west to the 20 Claudia B. Kidwell, Cutting a Fashionable Fit (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979), factory. The east half of the large room had offices in the front and sewing machines "all the way down." Across the back on the south side were restrooms, and up the center were huge shelves of material and supplies. On the -west side in the back was the cutting room. There, on large tables, lay layers of fabric two inches thick -with patterns on top, -waiting to be cut by the huge machine remembered by Shaw. In the front on the -west side -was the shipping area. 23
In 1940 Quinn moved all the sewing machines to a second factory in the upper story of a building on the northwest corner of 23rd Street and Washington Boulevard. This location also provided the workers with a large workroom with excellent lighting and amenities such as a restroom, cloakroom, and lunchroom. The old building was used for designing, patternmaking, cutting, pressing, shipping, and storage. In the production center at the new factory, workers sewing on hundreds of machines turned out orders as large as 10,000 dozen aprons. At times, the factory ran all night to keep up with orders, and Quinn began telling retailers they would have to wait their turns to receive their shipments. The company now filled orders for stores on every continent except Asia as well as in every state in the nation. 24
Because of this growth, the business employed about 185 people and had a monthly payroll of $10,000. Skilled workers earned as much as $4.00 per day, and no employee earned daily wages less than $2.40. In the midst of the depression Quinn chose union -workers and paid union wages, borrowing money to do so. She trained her employees in their professions and indicated in 1940 that she had spent $740 in a recent month for that instruction. Her 1940 grand opening ad indicated that "All Quinn Products are original styles designed in Ogden." The "home owned, home operated industry" certainly looked successful. 25
In 1940, Quinn formed a corporation for her company, the "Kathleen Quinn Garment Company." The name honored her daughter for her "valuable assistance in the progress of the company." 26 Incorporation articles limited capital stock to $100,000, to be divided into 10,000 shares valued at $10 each. Named as incorporators were Ada Quinn, Robert N. Quinn, Edward N. Quinn, Hazel Barrett, and LeRoy B. Young. A picture in the grand opening ad indicates that Barrett was head of the office force. Young was Quinn's attorney and had prepared the articles of incorporation. 27
That same year, Quinn decided to run for governor of Utah on the Independent ticket in order to get her thoughts on government intervention in the garment industry before the public. Her literature condemned the strictures that persons could not be apprenticed in the industry without the consent of the federal government, and she declared that in 1938 only 129 such certificates had been issued for the whole nation, a situation that prevented factories from employing learners. Because of this and other regulations, she said, four garment factories in Utah had closed in the previous year. 28
According to Ethel Low, Quinn realized she had little chance of winning the election, so she did not campaign statewide. She had flyers made up and distributed to voters, and she bought time on local radio stations to air her beliefs. She considered such efforts sufficient to publicize her strong views about government control of the "needle industry" and to let voters know what she thought good government should be. With so little exposure, and as a female candidate, it is no surprise that Quinn trailed far behind both Herbert B. Maw, the Democrat who won the election, and Republican Don B. Colton. 29
A few months before the death of her husband, which occurred in May 1942, a new challenge came to Quinn, a religiously devoted Mormon. Throughout her life she had participated in the women's auxiliary of her church—the Relief Society—and attended weekly worship services. Such dedication, along with her long years of experience in clothing production, brought a request from her church leaders to serve on a clothing manufacture subcommittee of the General Welfare Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Charged with helping members become self-sufficient in producing their own clothing, the committee -was also to investigate the possibility of fabricating cloth and to coordinate all sewing and clothing production in the various church units. 30
Because Quinn valued the idea of individuals helping themselves, she must have enjoyed seeing the fruits of the committee's labors in promoting clothing production. In 1943 Relief Society women of the church made nearly a quarter of a million articles and donated almost three-quarters of a million hours in that production. These articles were sent to the church bishop's storehouses for distribution to needy families. Also, as part of the -war effort, many quilts, clothing, and other necessities produced by the women of the church were sent to war-torn countries. 31 More than 32,000 women participated in the program each month, and the articles they produced were of "high quality and value." 32
However, in 1944, when fabric production in the nation was deployed toward items needed in the defense industry, the women's output slowed. A note in the Relief Society Magazine advised women that, as material became available, local units should continue to work toward completing their clothing assignments, but the General Committee would no longer provide material. Women were also told that if units could obtain fabric at wholesale prices it would be proper to buy it, but they should, in turn, advise the General Committee of those purchases so it would not over-purchase later on. "If it is necessary to go into the retail markets and pay retail prices and take from the shelves of local merchants materials that are needed to meet the general needs of the local community, such purchases should not be made," the directive stated. One can almost see Quinn penning that advice. 33
With the progression of World War II, Quinn found it increasingly difficult to obtain the material she needed for her factory and to meet the higher shipping costs of getting the cloth to Utah. As business declined, her son Horace suggested that the company begin sewing items needed for national defense. For a time, the company thus tried producing munitions bags and other items for the government. But when Quinn saw the enormous outlay of funds needed to carry out this work, and when she correctly realized that women's work wear -was changing from dresses and aprons to pants, she decided to close down in 1945. She sold the power machines to a factory in San Francisco and the 23rd Street building to an automobile business, and at the 28th Street plant she held a sale on case-lot fabrics, thread, and trim. 34
Unfortunately, Quinn's sudden death soon thereafter ended her illustrious and successful career in the summer of 1945. Shortly before her death, she had had a wisdom tooth pulled. The infection from the diseased tooth entered the bloodstream; pneumonia resulted in her death on August 23. An article in the Ogden Standard-Examiner summed up her accomplishments.
Ada Quinn was a remarkable woman -with great business sense, drive, and leadership. It is ironic to think that her company survived the depression, which caused many businesses to fail, only to be laid low by a war that energized similar endeavors, and it is doubly ironic that a war that brought women out of the home into the factories took her employees from the workroom and sent them home. One wonders why she did not turn to the production of the sportswear that was supplanting her aprons and dresses. Perhaps her energy was failing her as she reached her mid-sixties, and she may have felt she had attained the goals she set when she began. In addition, her long-supportive husband no longer stood at her side, and she missed his support. Nevertheless, it is important that we remember her as a capable leader in LDS church -welfare work, as an outspoken gubernatorial candidate, and as a successful businesswoman who developed her company from a small beginning to a worldwide endeavor.
NOTES
Audrey Godfrey, a historian living in Logan, is on the board of editors of Utah Historical Quarterly and Mormon Historical Studies.
1 U.S.Patent number D0074520, on file in the U.S.Patent andTrademark Office,Washington, D.C.
2 Ethel Larsen Quinn Low, interview with author, March 4, 1999, Providence, Utah, and telephone interview,July 12, 1999 Richard and Marian Shaw, interview with author, Logan, Utah, July 2, 1999 Gwendolyn became a librarian Ivy, whom Shaw called a"firecracker," was a writer and poet, and Mabel also founded a garment factory, in Lodi,California; later,she became superintendent of schools in Lodi. There were three brothers also Arthur worked for the railroad Frank died at birth, and Roland established a fireworks factory in Idaho Falls.In 1933 an explosion killed him, a daughter, and a niece.
3 Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 18,1940
4 Low,telephone interview,July 12, 1999
5 Cora Carver Ritchie, "From an Ogden Kitchen to Fifth Avenue," Relief Society Magazine 21 (April 1934):452
6 "A Survey of the Life of Cache Valley Women in 1890," typescript, in Special Collections, Merrill Library,Utah State University, Logan, Utah
7 Ogden Standard Examiner, February 18, 1940
8 Low interview,March 4, 1999;Ritchie,"From an Ogden Kitchen," 452
9 Ritchie,"From an Ogden Kitchen,"453.
10 Ibid., 452
11 The New York office was a large sample room located in the Herald Square Building at 1350 Broadway. Here, retailers could view displays of each of Quinn's designs and place their orders.
12 Quinn paid Shaw's wages and expenses for the trip,so this may have been an effort by Quinn to help her sister's family financially during the depression Shaw worked as a librarian during the school year but had no income during the summer, and Mr Shaw's wages were low,reflecting the economic conditions of the time.
13 Shaw interview,July 2, 1999; "Articles of Incorporation of Kathleen Quinn Garment Company," September 9, 1940,Utah State Archives
14 Ritchie, 452; Ogden Standard Examiner, February 18, 1940
15 Low interview, March 4, 1999
16 The 1931 Polk Directory for Ogden says that the company produced "Ladies, Girls and Childrens House Dresses,Aprons, Smocks."
17 U.S Patent numbers 2,091,084 and 2,373,415, on file in the U.S Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, D.C. I recall my mother and other women in my community, North Ogden, wearing such dresses made of cheerful cotton prints in the 1940s
18 Ritchie,"From an Ogden Kitchen," 453
19 Explanatory notes accompanying Quinn's application for a patent on May 28, 1930 It was assigned patent number 1,830,290 by the United States Patent andTrademark Office
20 Claudia B Kidwell, Cutting a Fashionable Fit (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979), 21 Pattern patents forapparel have been around since the1800s Prior to 1841,dressmakers employed their own drafting systems In 1841 the patent office issued apatent forthe first dress cutting system to Aaron A Tender of Philadelphia By 1884 McCall offered several patterns for women's apparel intheir fall and winter catalogs Patents were good forseventeen years, and during thetime that Quinn heldher patents, someone who wanted touse her patterns would have had to pay about $5,000 Patent lawyersin the East handled such transactions.
21 Low,telephone interview,July 12, 1999.
22 Richard and Marian Shaw, interview with author,July 7,1999, Logan, Utah; Ethel Quinn Larsen Low,telephone interview,July 7,1999.
23 Low,telephone interview,July 7, 1999
24 Ogden Standard Examiner, February 18,1940 Ritchie,"From an Ogden Kitchen," 452
25 Ogden Standard Examiner, February 18,1940
26 Ibid.
27 Articles of Incorporation. In the 1940 Polk Directory Mrs. Hazel (Halvor G.) Barrett is listed as secretary of the company Ogden Standard Examiner, February 18, 1940
28 Undated campaign flyers, Utah State Historical Society archives,Salt Lake City
29 Maw received 52.1 percent of the votes with 128,519; Colton had 47.7 percent with 117,713; and Ada had 0.2 with 580 votes
30 "Welfare Plan Forms New Clothing Unit," Improvement Era 45 (April 1942):242
31 See"Annual Report—1943," Relief Society Magazine 31 (July 1944),370-72.See alsoJoyce B. Peaden, "Donated Quilts Warmed War-torn Europe," in Quiltmaking in America: Beyond the Myths, Laurel Horton, ed (Nashville:Rutledge Hill Press, 1994), 105-111
32 Marion G. Romney, "The Relief Society in Church Welfare," Relief Society Magazine 32 (March 1945): 134
33 "Materials for the 1945Welfare Clothing Budget," Relief Society Magazine 32 (March 1945):161
34 Low interview, March 4, 1999.
35 Ogden Standard Examiner, August 23, 1945.
