Misc Threads: Dandy

Dexter/Collingbourne/Virginia Snow:
Label and Catalog Pictures in Photo Gallery
All brands listed separately
Grandma Dexter is a familiar name to sewers, needleworkers and quilters with its sewing products inclduing bias tape.
Thanks to Shirley McElderry who provided this chronology:

1798 – Dexter Yarn Co. established in Pawtucket RI; mill built in 1813; by 1820 producing knitting
cotton, later cotton threads and yarns.
1907 – Western Thread Co. founded in Elgin IL, a yarn and thread dyer for general mills.
1912 – A. B. Collingbourne joined company. Artzilk artificial embroider and crochet thread
introduced.
1915 – Western Thread published Encyclopedia of Art Needlwork by Virginia Snow.
1918 – Name changed to Collingbourne Mills. Began manufacturing cotton thread. Logo was ABC in a diamond for Americ’as Best Cottons and A.B. Collingbourne.
1924 – Collingbourne Mills purchased Berkshire & Becket [1885]of Becket MA, silk product
manufacturers. This line plus stamped embroidery patterns offered.
1926 – Modern needlework plant built and operated as Virginia Snow Studios. Collingbourne reputed to be largest independent manufacturer of spool, embroidery and chrochet threads in USA.
1927 – Collingbourne purchase Dexter Yarn Co.
1937 – Collingbourne sold to rudy Petzeit and name changed to Dexter Thread Mills.
1938 – Dexter Mills went bankrupt and into receiversip.
1946 – Dexter acquired by Fink and Fried, resellersr of nylon parachute thread; Lustra Nylon thread and Dexter’s remaining sewing lines now offered.
1949 – With introduction of catalog to sell thread and needlwork supplies, a more consumer oriented name was needed. Looking at a world map, one of the owner’s eyes happen to fall on Leeward Islands, thus business was called Leewards.
1969 – General Mills purchased Leeward as part of its leisure-time division.
1985 – Unprofitable catalog division closed in 1984. Company sold to Munford Inc of Atlanta.
1987 August – Dillard Munford, the founder and chief executive officer of Munford, Inc., suggested to Munford, Inc.’s board of directors that it sell Munford, Inc. At that time, Munford, Inc., a public company, operated Lee Ward’s Creative Crafts, which had evolved to an arts and crafts chain; and two other specialty retailer stores: Majik Market, a chain of convenience stores; World Bazaar, a chain of stores specializing in imported goods. Munford, Inc. also owned a majority interest in United Refrigerator Services, Inc. (URS). Munford board retained fiancial advisors, Shearson Lehman Brothers (Shearson). Shearson researched and then opined that a sale of all of Munford’s common stock would afford Munford, Inc. the most desirable means of maximizing shareholder value while preserving its financial viability.
1988 May 2 – Munford, Inc. sold its Lee Ward’s stores to Prudential Bache because it had failed to secure a single purchaser for Lee Ward’s stock. sprinbrook emporium . For additional information see: http://www.law.emory.edu/11circuit/oct96/94-9046.opa.htm

Misc Threads: Dragon, Dyno,
Erin’s Pride, Excelsior, Forest, Fruit of the Loom, Geneva, Glasgo, Glasgow

Great Lakes Thread Co. – all brands listed separately