geographies, across cultures and i happen to think that is a good thing that can help us have different kinds of conversations. >> i would like you all to -- thank my guests. .. >> he settled here in rhode island, worked his way up, first

doing so-called low-level kinds of crime but eventually became the crime boss of new england with his headquarters on federal hill in providence, rhode island. >> sometimes people think mob guys are -- that's not true at all. they have people are incredibly intelligent. they pull some scams for example, on wall street that would make bernie madoff look like a piker. but, of course, they had a traditional kind of so-called organized crime which were shaking young people, extortion. of course, they viewed as just protecting your business from other guys who might try to shake you down. of course, murder-for-hire, et cetera. the repertoire grew and grew as a result of their trying to protect their way of doing things. >> more from rhode island state capital as the booktv, american history tv, and c-span's local content vehicles look behind the scenes at the history and literary life of

providence today at noon eastern on c-span2's booktv. >> you don't always find many newspaper editors in any era embracing investigative reporting. the point we've seen over the years, it's not just economics. it's the discomfort that investigative reporting often causes in the newsroom. because its trouble. it's about more than the economics. if you're going to ruffle the feathers of someone powerful, that gets those people running into coupling to the publisher. their stories are legion over years about those kind of things happen. we were fortunate all through the '70s and almost all our career to work for people who were really strong and upright in that area. and let the chips fall where they may. >> pulitzer prize-winning team of donald barlett and james steele will take your calls, e-mails and tweets this weekend on in depth.

prepared depth. prepared to begin their collaborative work in the '70s are the co-authors of the books, their latest, "the betrayal of the american dream." watch live sunday at noon eastern on booktv on c-span2. >> sarah kilborne recounts the career of her great-great-grandfather, william skinner, a textile manufacture in the mid-19th century. the author recalls skinner's emigration from london and his career ascendancy from a worker in a silk mill to the owner of his own factory, the mill village, skinnerville. in 1847 a dam burst near skinnerville and destroyed the town and forced william skinner to rebuild. this is about an hour. >> thank you, bill. and thank you for your support of "american phoenix." and thank you all for coming out tonight. and thank you c-span and booktv for being here. it's a real honor. and i'm thrilled to be able to

share with you "american phoenix: the remarkable story of william skinner, a man who turned disaster into destiny." so one question that every writer gets when people find out that you're writing a book, whether you are at a cocktail party, in the supermarket or on the street is, so, what's your book about? that's a fair question, and a good one, and often extremely challenging to answer. because you've spent thousands of hours writing thousands of words. you have a ton of information in your head. and you are writing one story but that one story includes many other stories. suddenly got to figure out how to condense all this information from all the stores into 15-second soundbite. i've got it down to three. well, seven actually if you include "american phoenix" is about, and one of the things

that helped me get there was someone asked me, so, if your book were made into a movie, how would you pitch it? and i answered, the titanic meets rocky. "american phoenix" is about an essence disaster and survival. it's about disaster of epic proportions that involve a lot of water, and engineering failure, failure of design a killed a lot of people. and it's about survival, the triumph of the human spirit, the will to overcome extreme adversity. the ability to get back up when you have been knocked down again and again. my book explores the challenge of having to rebuild your life after losing everything in an unexpected catastrophe. and it explores the discovery that sometimes our worst nightmare can turn into our greatest opportunity.

it's particularly poignant for me to be here in vermont talking about "american phoenix," a year after the devastation caused by irene. because so many vermonters can relate to what william skinner went through 130 odd years ago, having to rebuild their lives, and lives that have now been in ruins. and also now, given hurricane sandy, those down in new jersey and staten island, queens and brooklyn can also, unfortunately, relate to this challenge. what do you do? now, whether we come to this storyline with that kind of connection or not, we've all had disasters in our experience. we've all had those unexpected moments where something happens, and suddenly our life isn't the same as it was a moment before. everything has changed. we have to figure out how do we

survive. these moments of crisis test us. they test our instincts, our loyalties, our faith in ourselves, our creativity. they test our emotions, and they certainly test our courage. on may 16, 1874, a reservoir dam gave way in western massachusetts. it unleashed an inland tidal wave that was at times 20 to 40 feet high, and 300 feet wide. it roared down a 40-mile valley and swept through the villages of williamsburgh, skinnerville, hayden bill, lead, florence. to give you a sense of the power of that water is to appreciate the amount of time it took to pass through portions of the valley. in the lower portion of the valley, the land level that into

a level playing. the water took about an hour and a half to flow through and flood the town of northampton and, indeed, into the connecticut river. in the upper reaches of the valley where the land is steeper, that water, those 600 million gallons of water, went through the villages in about 15 minutes each. it resulted in the worst industrial disaster in american history at the time to over $1 million worth of property damage was sustained. almost 800 people were left homeless, and 139 people were killed. my book is about the only village that was and rebuild, skinnerville, and the man at the center of the village, william skinner. and what his story a part is the success he achieved after this disaster. skinnerville suffered the worst destruction of all. it was considered to have been

obliterated from the face of the earth. there wasn't a brick left in skinnerville. his house, very nearly the only one left standing, and he lost more financially than any other individual. in those 15 minutes he lost the equivalent of $35 million. he was ruined. but because he was willing to make choices that no one else was willing to make he was able to come back. the other manufacturers in the valley who lost their property try to rebuild, but were unable to do so successfully. for a number, they had to sell to businesses or go out of town. and local historian said just three years later, men of abundant means who seem to withstand the first shock of disaster proved to be more embarrassed than what was expected. but skinner, by himself, went on to rebuild his company, and as a

sole proprietor he carried it on, and he turned it into one of the most successful silk companies in our nation's history. when he died in 1900 to his silk that was considered the largest in the country. he was the top of the healthiest silk trade in the world, and he was a multimillionaire. the significance is that that success would have never been possible had he not lost everything and had to figure out how to survive taking choices he wouldn't have other wise been forced to make skinner not only survived disaster, but he turned it into his greatest success. this is a map of the town of williamsburgh in 1873. and it shows -- this is the reservoir. >> caller

[inaudible] >> this is an image of the dam after it had given way. it was an earthen dam, had a core wall of masonry, and this was all that was left of it. this is a graphic depiction showing the water surging past skinner's house during the floods, and they said that the house survived because it's five chimneys rooted to the ground and it was made of boards and not brick. a house is so large that it acted like a dam in the midst of the surge, ma with the water surging around the front and back in, crushing both of them, shattering windows, completely flooding the interior of the first floor. the back parlor floor collapsed under the weight of all the water, and all the contents fell

into the cellar below. as one reporter put it, potatoes indiana's, pictures, books and bacon became mixed in the flooded cellar. this house, skinner moved with him when he relocated after the flood. it was taken apart piece by piece and transported on 25 railroad cars to the city of holyoke where he rebuilt. it is now a museum on the national register of historic places and you can go and visit it and walk around in it. this is an image of what was left of skinnerville after the disaster. it's hard to imagine what it was like before. it was a thriving factory village filled with houses, trees, stone walls, farmland and, of course, skinners silk mill. this right here is the foundation of -- that was all

that was left of the mill and it extended far to the left of this photograph. this is skinner's house. this is an image that is the image on the cover of the book, my book i should say. and there was no image of course of skinner's mill because it was gone so we had to choose one that represented the disaster. this is all that was left of the neighboring brass factory that was six or feet long, or the length of almost two football fields. more devastation from the village of skinnerville. and here is a house that was lived in by the bartlett family in skinnerville, and many of the children in the bartlett family worked for skinner. one of the superintendents was henry bartlett and was working for him at the time of the

flood. and the bartlett family lived in this house through the summer in exactly this condition because they had nowhere else to go. now, when skinner died in 1902, his sons took over the company. and they were brilliant. joe was a scientist, and he took over production at the mill and ran the mill's lab, inventing all kinds of fabrics that involved silk. and will handled all the marketing and silk. they carried on their fathers is to help of innovation and pioneering in the manufacturing industry. skinner's is one of the first companies to branch out into consumer advertising. this is an ad from good housekeeping, and i believe it's from 1907. here is an ad from 1931 featuring joan crawford, and

skinner's silks and satins were favored of hollywood costume designers in the '20s and '30s. it was part of will's doing. he wooed hollywood. designers loved skinner's fabric because they were not only beautiful and had extraordinary draping qualities, but they were durable. they could withstand the wear and tear of a costume on set. the men at the top of the advertisement is a. j., the head costume designer of mgm. one of the most famous costume designers of the period and he was such a supporter of skinner's silk and satin, he helped advertise the product. i should also add that the whole advertising campaign that betty davis and other stars like that, the idea behind it was of course if you dress in skinner's silks and sons, you too can be a and satins, you too can be a

star. here is an ad featuring the famous skinner's bridal satin. here's another ad from the mid 1940s of "glamour" magazine in 1945. now when returning soldiers came home from the war, they were getting married in droves, and their brides made skinner a household name in the united states so many brides married in skinner's bridal satin. now, the company survived until 1961. it was 113 years after skinner founded it in 1848. and the extraordinary impact the company had throughout its existence was such that reader's digest actually includes william skinner in the middle of the 20 century on a list of some of the most influential englishmen to land on american soil. and reader's digest at that time

had the largest readership and the country, second only to the bible. i mentioned earlier that one of the questions that writers are asked is, so what's your book about? shortly thereafter they will ask, how did you find your story? and how i came upon this story had to do with my family. william skinner was my great-great-grandfather. here is an image of him around the age of 30. he just lost his first wife, nancy. he is a widower in this photograph with his two young daughters. he also just opened his silk mill in the area that would become known as skinnerville. i find this photograph haunting. the intensity in his eyes just burn, just sears you. he is so driven, so ambitious. and yet tenderly touching his daughters.

this is a photograph of his first wife, nancy warner, and she died shortly after the birth of her second daughter. skinner married a can to a woman named sarah elizabeth. she's the woman after whom i am named. my full name is sarah skinner kilbourne. and one would think with william skinner being my great-great-grandfather, i am named after his second wife, who was his wife for the rest of his life. and my grandfather was the last president of the company, that i would've grown up hearing about william skinner, the founder, and his story during the mill and the flood. i did not. that story seemed to have gotten lost in the legacy of the company. the company became so big it overshadowed its founder at the end. but i did -- well, i should also

add that there were only two things that he knew about william skinner, and it shows how vague and oppression i had of him. one was that i just, just barely knew that he was in which. and the other is that i could only remember, only knew of one expression that he had, which was very austere. remember, you are william skinner's descendents. do good in the world. that's all i knew of him. but i did grow up hearing about another member of the family, and she is the one who ultimately led me to her family's story. this is his second youngest daughter. and i was fascinated with her as a child as -- and as adults or choose a very famous philanthropist in france after world war i. and what she did was she legally adopted an entire village from the french government in the north east of france with a legal binding document.

and should rebuild it after the war. the french were going to abandon this village. they considered is so hopelessly bombed by the germans, and belle came in, she took it on, and it exists this day because of her. and she was this larger-than-life figures. she called the president of france ray ray. she had a nickname for everyone. she had thundering bass. she wore these fabulous hats. while she wasn't exactly pretty she was very handsome, had this extraordinary commanding presence. and i wondered, as i began to look into her life, what would compel this woman in her 50s leading a very comfortable life to become so passionately involved in resurrecting a devastated village. well, rewind when she was eight years old, the village into wish she had been born, skinnerville,

was destroyed in the flood and never rebuilt. so i begin to research the flood as an inroad into belle trendiest story. but as i begin to learn more about the flood, suddenly william skinner who had until that point been unknown to me began to come alive because he was so alive in the historical record. he was such a central figure in the disaster that the papers followed his every move, and as i'm reading the papers suddenly i am following his every move. and i knew how his story ended. he became a success. but as i learned about the extraordinary loss he suffered and what it took to get over that and to come back from that, i became incredibly impressive what he had been able to achieve. his story is one of resiliency. never give up. obstacles are opportunities. for every problem there is a creative solution. you just have to find it.

don't believe in luck. there is no such thing. you have to make your own luck. you have to work hard for what you want. don't believe in failure. believe in yourself. these are all things that skinner believed. now, he learned his resiliency as a kid. he was born in london in 1824, into islam of such poverty it was considered without parallel in the kingdom. he was born into a community of silk workers that have been making silk for generations. weaving and dyeing it. but they were so poor and malnourished that they were called a stunted, puny race. and advocate for their welfare said that it is not that if you start, but that so many are on the verge of starvation. it is not that some suffer, but that so few escape. skinner did escape and came over to this country at the age of 20. and he had nothing of any material worth with him. he was too poor.

but he had one thing that no one in america had at that time, and it was an extremely valuable, and tangible quality. or knowledge i should say, and that was a knowledge of how to die self. there was no silk industry in this country at that time. no one knew how to die, did not a manufacture, didn't know how to make the machinery, didn't have the tools for the machinery. everything was trial and error to try to create a silk industry. it was the a building of our domestic industry. it was our industrial revolution. how do we get in on this trade collects there was so much money to be made in silk, and it's hard for us to appreciate today what it meant to our culture back then. but before the age of synthetic fabric, before the age of designers, fabric was fashioned, and silk was the ultimate in style. it represented prestige, prosperity, success. so america wanted its own silk

industry. skinner used to say there's not an irish servant girl who comes over to his this country whose ambition is not to wear a silk dress. everyone wanted silk. skinner came to this country with the knowledge that americans didn't have and he became a pioneer in the american industry. he helped establish it. he became a founding member of the silk association and he parlayed that into opportunity after opportunity. to the point where he had his own silk mill. and it was so prosperous that and anti-village had grown up around it called skinnerville. this poor kid from east london had literally put his name on the american map. now, in order to write my book, i had to re-create skinnerville because it disappeared after the flood.

and here again is a map of skinnerville from 1873. i do need to go back. i'm not quite sure how to do that. well okay, we can leave this here. so i had to re-create skinnerville. how do you do that? well, lots of research, lots of hours in archives looking through deeds, looking through probate documents, looking through vital statistics and tax records and since this document. i should own stock in ancestry.com. i spent so much money and time on that website. and with all this i was able to put together what this community consisted of, who lived in white -- white house and where, how me children today have, who had just moved to town at the time of the flood, who was pregnant at the time of the flood? who had given birth just today

before the time of the flood. but there is only so far you can go on your own. so one day i received a phone call from a museum that is down -- now skinners home that is a museum. and they told me that a collection of letters had just been donated by a descendent of some sisters who had worked for skinner in his mill in skinnerville. and these letters opened up what it was like to live in the village. what it was like to work for skinner, what he was like as an employer. what it was like to be a milk girls in the middle of the 19th century living in a small factory village far away from home. and one thing that you may not realize is that at this time millwork was very respectable for a young woman. if you're ambitious and motivated you could make a lot of money, you wouldn't lose any

pounds of respectability. it did not affect your character at all, and it, and it was a way to have a sense of independence and make your own money. the sisters were the littlefield sisters from upstate new york near troy, and the first sisters to come was 20 at the time, she came in 1866. she had been visiting some cousins who lived in the town north of williamsburgh, and they told her skinner was looking for newarkers. she applied, got the job, and became an expert food. what that meant was she worked in the finishing department so she would take the silk thread that just came from the house and wind on the actual schools that would go to the market. it was a job that required a tremendous guilt because you couldn't damage the silk whatsoever. this was the silk that was going to be sold. she was fantastic at it.

and another sister called her named francis, and this is what often happened. wonder what code to work in the mill, she would say apply for a job. come join me. so within this mill community you had a number of siblings working together but it was a very much of a family environment. the third sister to come work for skinner was alan littlefield. now, after the flood she also worked with skinner helping to set which is so. she moved to holyoke when he moved to a holyoke and work in the mill and ultimately married his bookkeeper. now, after the flood, the valleys of loss was going to be,

or could be potentially, someone else's gain. so after the disaster happened, the valley was a very popular spot for investors and capitalists. offers came from all over come as far away as omaha, nebraska, to the net manufactures have given everything, giving them incentive to relocate to other areas. one of the most vocal voices in this choir was out of holyoke, massachusetts. holyoke was ingeniously designed to specifically designed for industry. it was hoped to be even greater than the urban mill center of lowell and lawrence. holyoke was considered to be the greatest potential mill power in new england. that dam on the connecticut river on the right hand side, right here, this is the crest of

a 60-foot fall in the river and capable of generating 30,000-horsepower. an average mill used 100-horsepower. that is capable of generating power for 300 mils. the cotton lords that created holyoke. the cotton lords that created holyoke on the model, devised a three-tiered canal system so that unfortunately it doesn't show on this map what the canals -- the first canal comes like this. so the connecticut river was able to be used over three times. now, holyoke made offers to the manufactures in the valley. and skinner is the only one who accepted the offer and moved. and he's the only one who survived. >> skinner knew he needed two things to be able to make a go of it again. he needed money and he needed

water power. and skinnerville, he was going to have to rely on steam if he rebuilt there, because the reservoir which have supplemented the mill river during the dry season was not going to be rebuilt. so going forward during those dry seasons when the river ran low, skinner was going to have to supplement his mail with steam. it was very expensive for a man in the amount of debt he was in it was too expensive for him at this time. he was also went after rebuilt the entire infrastructure of the village, all houses for his workers, everything there. and he needed a lot of water power for his operation. to die silkiness a lot of water, and he of course did not want to convert to steam, needed the power to power his machinery. holyoke could often consist of water power, 365 days a year. without a reservoir hanging over his head that could possibly break away.

and holyoke also offered him money. but better than that. what they did was they said we will give you the property along the canal for $6000 for free, for five years. you don't have to pay any rent. we will build you a new mill. you don't have to put any down. -- a penny down. you just start paying interest payment at the first of the year for five years. at the end of those five years you can buy back the mill at its original cost and you can buy back the lot at the original cost. so skinner was literally able to get going again without having to put anything down. the city also said we will give you an acre of land for free up on which to build a home. skinner of course moved his old home and relocated to holyoke, but again, property he didn't have to pay for. if he had stayed in skinnerville he would've had to spare the

burden of absolutely every single expense that he was going to incur. this is the first mill that skinner had in skinnerville. incredibly, it went up six months to the day of the flood. >> in holyoke? >> this is in holyoke, yes. and ultimately skinner's mill turned into that. this was the largest silk mill under one roof in the world. in 1874, success of this scope was impossible to imagine. as was what it would take to achieve it. in 1874, skinner thought he was at the head of his game.

he felt at the head this game. he was 49, he had a wife and seven children, he had a village of about 200 people. this village had grown up around his silk mill that was named after him called skinnerville. he was at the head of the american silk trade at the time. he was bullish on the future, and he believed that silk in this country would become big business, which it did, but in 1874 he was thinking how can i expand my business today? how can i make it better today? skinner just to say what's the biggest room in the world? the room for improvement. and in 1874, he was looking to improve his business. he was bullish on the future. he was looking ahead. what could he accomplish, what did he make of this mill in skinnerville? how could he become even better than he was? so with that i when i read you an excerpt of the book and then i will take questions. now i apology in advance, i

won't be able to read and look up at you all because i now need glasses, and i tend to slip him a knows if i looked up and down. so i'm going to have to keep my nose in my book as i read. >> chapter one, on the evening of may 13, 1874, a tall, robust englishman walked through the door of the monaco's restaurant in new york city. he was neatly dressed in a black suit with satin trim, bowtie, and embroidered waistcoat, the latter stretched impressively over his well fed girth. while and a 10 it. while an attendant took his overcoat, he was greeted in the foyer by a host of familiar faces and several hands reaching out to shake his. an american custom to which he was by this time a custom.

in that genteel environment, however, his cockney accent soon rang out like a clarion call at dawn, and one would've been hard-pressed to find even a well-trained staffer who didn't raise a brow at the brashness of the town. everything about william skinner stood out. even his head. since he didn't like cats and chose not to wear them, despite their currency on the street. inside the restaurant, which was housed in the old grinnell mansion on fifth avenue and 14th street, skinner joint about 70 gentlemen who were filing upstairs to a private banquet room. they hailed from a great many places but they had one thing in common. silk. here were the leading manufacturers of the american silk industry, along with several congressmen, some local politicians, and even a japanese dignitary. skinner wasn't the only englishman among them, that at 49 he was one of the oldest, and he had been specifically asked to give a toast this evening

that would reflect on the past and on of the pioneers, like himself, who i turned american made silk into an enviable addition to the marketplace. skinner hadn't wanted to be part of the lineup. he'd wanted to sit back and relax without the thought of having a speech to make. but at least one of his colleagues have successfully talked him into it. if having grown up poor and uneducated, skinner quietly harbored a sense of social inferiority. few could match his knowledge of the silk industry or his astonishing success therein. further, he had a flair for the dramatic, and for all his instinctive hesitation to get up before a group of people, he possessed a natural ability to hold an audience's attention. this, along with the fact that he tended to keep things short, made him a popular speaker. nor would he let his tears down tonight. as skinner climbed the carpeted stairs toward the appointed dining room, chatting with friends and colleagues, at least part of his speech was already

written out and tucked away in one of his pockets. anyone who read the papers or new anything at all at new york life knew that to lunch, died or said that delmonico's was the crowning ambition of those who aspire to notoriety. a presence in this establishment, the most luxurious restaurant that had ever existed in new york, suggested a repeatable success, socially and financially. banqueting here conveyed to the press and to the public that this group of ambitious silk mint had arrived. their tireless determined and often brilliant endeavors have firmly established a silk industry in the united states and at long last a national organization devoted to their cause. tonight these men were celebrating the second anniversary of the silk association of america and the exhilarating truth that the american silk industry is indeed a power in the land.

their private kind of them have been festooned with flags representing all the great silk producing nations of the world, with the u.s. flag and the flag of the empire of japan joint and symbolic solidarity at one end. banners from every state in the union were hanging throughout the room as well, reminding each manufacturer that he was indeed part of the union, an industry of thousands of which he was a vital member. at the center of it offloaded a sea of colorful balloons above tables glistening with silver and crystal. each balloon had been painstakingly tied with silk thread to the stem of a champagne glass, and labeled with an industry trademarked advertising the breadth of american silk manufactures. over here was corticelli, over there, kentucky, and another direction was unquomonk, the name of skinner's own mill. laid on with a toast underway, the blues serve yet another purpose. that very seeing what appeared to rise up as the men raised

their glasses in unison, elevating the occasion still further. in keeping with the celebration, the menus have been printed on american silk, in purple, blue and green with white french. like miniature silk scarves, they were soft to the touch and elegant to the eye, is that in fabric casting off a rich luster under the glow of the chandeliers. on the front the list of exquisite build-a-bear, devised by new york's most famous chef, charles ranhofer, but with everything written in french, as on any given night at the restaurant, all this of course was quite unintelligible to many of the gentlemen present in the backs o of the menus thank fully featured more familiar english, since this was where the evening stokes were listed. down toward the middle was skinner's speech. our pioneers, cherishing the recollections of the past, we emulate their example. by the time he stood up to present, a great deal of reminiscing would have already taken place, but his words, the

organizers hope, would put a flourishing cap on the topic. this dinner, after all, was nothing if not a jubilant reminder to all the men gathered that they were not only benefactors of the past but for -- but progenitors of the future. they too were making history. two days later, skinner was a north bound a train heading at the connecticut shoreline on his way home to massachusetts. according to his regular schedule, he visited the city nearly every month. it was on the last possible train of the day which left the grand central depot at 3 p.m. and put them on target to reach skinnerville at nine of 5. there was no dining cart in the train. that immunity was yet very rare and there would be no stops along the way. unlike his glorious past of two nights before, this evening's

dinner would most likely be packed in a box or brown bag, just a few perfunctory rituals were traveling businessman. as the train sped along past the white church spires of various new england greens, the afternoon sun began falling toward the west and the temperature began dropping as well. the hill towns of western massachusetts, of which skinnerville was one, were known for their long winters. in the year 1874 had been no exception. it had snowed for days at the end of april, with heavy storms paralyzing the countryside, and there was still snow on the ground in patches. but for the moment in the car, skinner was miles of lingering in the winter weather. outside the sky was clear. the tracks are clear and he was rapidly winding down one of the most rewarding business trips he had ever had. skinner had just been hailed as a pioneer in his field. his speech had been so successful it was highlighted in the papers. and his industry was considered

by some to be one of the most exciting in america. furthermore, his store downtown was filled with activity. he just hired a new salesman, a strapping young man named fred warner, to help get ready to expand his business again. skinner wanted to branch out into the manufacture of a thread used to make ribbons which were increasingly the rage. skinner already have the requisite machinery on hand and apparently erected in addition to his mill department and had even hired a local architect to design no fewer than eight new tenements to accommodate the new employees he expected a higher. as much as business may have preoccupied his thoughts though, he had something else on his mind this friday, may 15, 1874. his 18th wedding anniversary was this very day. and hidden, protected in his suit was surely a velvet lined box from his favorite jeweler, louis tiffany, was something precious for his wife, lizzy.

skinner, one of his granddaughters noted, loved giving things. on a similar occasion when he been able to be home on the day of his anniversary, he returned with a diamond scarf in carefully selected and beautifully wrapped for the woman whom he called, my darling. skin or blood on his wife more than anyone. every bit as intelligent as her husband, lizzie was in any conventional sense much better educated having attended both elementary and 40 school, and having herself worked as a teacher for many years. there seemed nothing that this capable woman couldn't do from laying linoleum to explaining mathematics. following the birth of their fourth child, she even helped handle affairs at the mill while skinner was away at england and later she helped run of the mill's boarding house. like many rural housewives she was intimately involved in her husband's business. but what set her apart was the fact that she was the wife of a rich manufacturer. there is no economic reason for

her to be absorbing these kinds of responsibilities. she simply took them on, utilizing her amazing genius for organization and develop and. more than a wife to skinner, lizzie was a partner. skinner's first wife had died young, leaving him a way to work with two very small girls but lizzie had raised the girls as their own and given birth to eight more as well. of these 10 children, seven were still living, and adding to skinner's sense of the -- sense of a congressman, all were thriving. two girls had grown into smart educated young women under their stepmother's tutelage. nelly had graduated from a boarding school in connecticut where she studied french with none other than the prime minister of france. nina had gone a step further entering college with both of her parents resounding blessing. she was attending vassar in the

keeps the new york. new york. lazy self is, well, 17, was about to close out his high school years at a seminary in your bound east hampton massachusetts. graduation was just a few weeks ago. that is, if he could make it without being expelled. he was charming, handsome, and much to his parents dismay, completely ambivalent about his education. even so, skinner hoped he would go on to your mac next year. also enrolled in boarding school was libbey, 14, who was attending a school in new haven, connecticut, at her school year had just ended and she was back home again. joe, 11 and belle, eight, were each eager for summer break. getting ready for the summer games, joe bought a baseball bat the previous weekend, and that their youngest, katherine, only six months old, had recently made her first appearance in public with the world delighted in her just as much as she in it. skinner's plane -- train pulled

into new haven surely before 6:00. departing passengers gathered their hats and bags and filed past them out of the car. replaced by a throng of new faces coming aboard. each one looking for an available seat preferably by the window if he or she wished to read by the light of the day. a couple hours later the train pulled in the northampton. he transferred to a little one car special hold about 18 to locomotive that took in the last leg of his journey of the branch railroad of the mill river valley. the train passed the villages of florence, leeds and haydenville. the last glow of gas lines that lined the streets and then at last, skinnerville came into view. they were some of lights on across the river as well as several windows softly in the house down by the road. the mill was but a large shadow

in the distance, nearly indistinguishable from the general darkness. the school and general store were no more than ink spots because it was pitch black outside, owing to a new moon. even in the dark, skinner's own home, a three-story mansion set back from the rest with tall french windows stretching from front to back was quite identifiable with several of its many rooms lit up in preparation for his arrival. through the area came the sound of his bell tolling 9:00. at this moment trying to did know who would still be up when he walked into door. the baby usually went to bed at 7:30 and the younger children around 8:30 p.m. but there was always a possibility that belle and joe might try to keep your eyes open to welcome potholder and since libya just returned home from school they would be a good chance she might have some callers this evening or she might have settled into a rather checkered in the parlor with mother, a very expert player, with nelly around the fire. as the train slowed in its approach of the northern end of

skinnerville, one of skinner's employees, john perhaps, await him on the him on a platform him on the platform. the diva was about a quarter-mile from the the house along a dark unlit road. when skinner stepped down from the car and into the cold night air, he would have found both driver and host already for the short jog home. the trip and this they were almost over. the anniversaries he find them, and a new year in the life of his marriage, his family and his work was about to begin on the morrow. he was 49 years old, and the fabric of his existence had never been stronger. as he walked up the steps to his front door, there in the middle of skinnerville, with the river flowing reliably behind him, the mill addressed across the will, the houses of his neighbors and employees all around, and a reunion with his wife and children just seconds ahead, there wasn't one clue, nor any sign, that the very next morning nearly everything in this world would be swept away.

thank you. [applause] >> so we have time for a few questions. and i'm going to ask if you could step up to the microphone. i know. i've had to be up here at a microphone. you can do it, too. >> what was the source of the raw material for his silk works? >> yes. the source for his mill was raw silk that came from china. >> in thread form? >> no. it was raw silk. and it came from china and ultimately he began to also trade with japan and import from japan. the raw silk was what he imported, and he converted it to thread and then wove that into

fabric. >> what does raw silk look like? >> well, here is a silk worm cocoon, and you can come back and shake it. the moth worm is still inside of it. and the manufacturing of silk is a very complicated and extraordinary process. and this one cocoon is wound with one strand of silk that is about half a mile long. but it's so fine, barely perceptible, and is nowhere near in any shape to be used as thread. so what happens is, in a nutshell, if you think of a pyramid and you think of a whole bunch of silk cocoons at the bottom. they are bound together into another layer, and then those are wound together and those are

wound together, and ultimately you get to one. you have one thread that is made of various silk filaments. so the raw silk is silk that has been unwound from the cocoon, and then joined together to a level, sort of part way up the pyramid, and it arrived in the states in bundles that were called books, actually, even though there was no literature involved, and there were big stacks of this raw material. >> did they ship textile as well or just finished thread? >> did skinner? yes, absolutely. so he began manufacturing silk thread in skinnerville, and then in holyoke he began to weave the thread into fabric. and that again was one of the proponents that enabled him to proceed. because when he rebuilt his mill he didn't just rebuild it to house the operation that he had been, he rebuilt, he built it, he built the mill of his dream.

he built it so there was room to expand, to expand his business. >> did a william skinner had any relationship with samuel wilson who was the founder of williston seminary, whose mill stretched from northampton to older, which was the largest import of people in that part of the connecticut river valley from the mid-19th century to later on? he helped establish mount holyoke. he was -- he said amherst college from distinction committee is also a major supporter of massachusetts act, which any decades later became massachusetts day, now known as the university of massachusetts. >> that's an interesting question, and i'm so thrilled you know so much about the valley. skinner did not work with samuel wilson.

wilson was an extraordinary capitalist in the mill valley and help support many industries therein. at one point i believe he was a partner with the hayden so started the hayden glass company of which you saw a portion of your earlier and which is on the cover of my book. like he did not do business with william skinner, no. thank you. >> sera, at skinnerville, what survives? hasn't been any kind of serious or amateur archaeological search for evidence of the mill? i mean, what can you find if you go to the site today? >> that's a great question, bill. if you go to skinnerville today, you will find a stretch of highway and you will find a few houses along the side of it. some of which are or were wrecked at the time of the flood that were refashioned into homes.

and you will find a very tranquil, unassuming river flowing alongside of it which is the mill river. there's been no archaeological dig that i know of. if you want to find the area where skinner's house was, there's a utility, what do they call utility -- >> substation? >> substation or something like that, yes. and back, the locals say, is where his house was. locals in areas to refer to the area as skinnerville, but it is no longer on the map. you used to, for years, be able to go to the mill river and find bricks in riverbank and all kinds of things that have been washed away. over the past 130 years, most of the debris that was lodged in the banks has been taken by scavengers. but years ago that is how i learned about the flood. i went to the river and i found

a silver spoon and various bits of pottery and china >> secondly, in holyoke itself, the mill at its greatest extent, or any of those buildings standing? how are they being used? >> another great question. skinner's milk is no longer standing. it was set on fire by arson in the early 1980s in holyoke was experiencing a rash of arson. and i met a gentleman elite who told me that when that mill burned to the ground, it was so intense that the water in the canals boiled. it is now a park i believe where the mill was. that are now remaining mill buildings of skinner's mill. the only building that remains that is connected to him is a house that he salvaged that is now a museum. and in that museum there's an extranet archive, and you can go

and see all kinds of illustrations, advertisements, you know, photographs and you know you have a paper record of the company and what it involved. but you don't have the physical record of it anymore. but there is some regeneration in the city of holyoke, trying to figure how to use these abandoned mill buildings, how to turn them around, yes, and how to make them a destination. >> any other questions? yes. >> could you just tell us briefly on the date of this flood what was it like for the skinner family? what did they do? go to the second floor? >> yes, you will find out if you read the book. but i will answer it. it was a rainy day. and the first sound of on the came into the village was from a dairy farmer who came into the

village shouting the reservoir has given way, the reservoir has given way. run to the hills, run to build to a woman who worked in skinner's mill, she was an orphan, she worked on the top floor. she ran to the top and she began ringing the bell. the skinner found was that breakfast. is no was already up and running for a good while, but he didn't have to be there. so he was at breakfast. he opened the mill. it on back home. actually no, that day he slept in. actually from the trip before he had overslept that morning. when the mill bell began to ring, his first thought was there was a fire at the mill. why else would the bell be ringing? he leapt up, darted outside and looked north and he saw a huge mass of blackness to the north. and heard the shot of the dairy farmer money by saying the reservoir has given way. and skinner ran down the street. at the time operatives are

already beginning to pour out of mill and he started shouting out at them, run to the hills, run to the hills, run to the hills. once the mill was evacuate and the last one to lay the mill was the orphan had rung the bell, he ran back up to his house, flew through the first floor of the house, shattered house, shutter sound, run to the hills, run to the hills. get out the back, get out the back. grab the baby, run. they all ran to the real code and escaped in seconds. when skinner turned around he said the entire, the water had swept in and to him it was like standing on the deck of a ship in the middle of a violent sto storm. >> thank you, sarah. >> thank you. [applause] >> for more information visit the author's website, sarahkilborne.com. >> it's quite true that of people's history, it is a r