Locations:
Mercury Mills Limited: 1912-1916, Park Street North; 1916-1954, Cumberland
Avenue, Hamilton, Ontario
Chipman-Holton Knitting Company Limited: 1902-1954, Mary and Kelly Streets, Hamilton,
Ontario
Mercury-Chipman Knitting Limited: 1954-1955, Cumberland Avenue, Hamilton, Ontario
In 1868, John Penman (1850?-1931) founded a textile manufacturing company in Paris, Ontario, which later became known as the Penman Manufacturing Company Limited In 1906, Penman retired from active involvement, and the company was reorganized as Penman's Limited.
Six years later, desiring a return to working life, John Penman travelled to
Hamilton, Ontario, and founded the Mercury Mills Company Limited (M.M.) on December
20, 1912. The company, which manufactured hosiery and underwear for men, women,
and children, was named after Mercury, the Roman god of commerce and the marketplace.
M.M.
was located, at first, in a Park Street building formerly owned by the Eagle
Knitting Company. Production began with about 100 employees in early 1913. (Later,
during its best years, the company payroll swelled to over 1,100 workers.)
During World War I, M.M. found that its present location was not sufficient to handle the vast amount of production brought on by war demands. In 1916 it built a new, larger plant on Cumberland
Avenue, between Prospect and Gage Avenues. Manufacturing took place in a four-story plant with six acres of floor space. The most striking characteristic of the edifice was the 30-foot high limestone sculpture of the god Mercury over the main entrance.
By
1930, Mercury Mills Limited owned and operated three textile mills in Ontario:
Mercury Mills in Hamilton, Oxford Knitting Mills in Woodstock, and P-K Mills
in Listowel.
M.M. returned to the production of garments and hosiery for war use during
World War II. It also manufactured fabrics that would be used in military uniforms
and parachutes. After WWII, sales were steady; however, the 1950s brought increasing
competition from less-expensive imported products. 
To
expand sales and reduce costs, M.M. merged with the Chipman-Holton Knitting
Company Limited (C.H.) in 1954. C.H. had been established in 1902 on the corner
of Mary and Kelly Streets in Hamilton, and also manufactured hosiery and textiles.
After the merger, all of C.H.'s operations were moved to the M.M. factory on
Cumberland, and the new company became known as Mercury-Chipman Knitting Limited
(M.C.). Its products were sold across the country.
Unfortunately, the merger could not prevent the company from falling victim to the competition of imports. The Cumberland Avenue plant of C.M. was taken over by the bank in 1955, and in April of the following year the textile machinery was sold at auction.
The Park Street plant that housed Mercury Mills for the company's first four years is now (August, 2000) home to a mustard flour manufacturer. Chipman-Holton's Mary Street building was torn down after the 1954 merger to make room for a parking lot. Now standing on the lot is a fabric knitting and dyeing facility. Mercury-Chipman's Cumberland Avenue plant was demolished in August, 1983, and was replaced by apartment towers. Only the 1½-ton limestone head of Mercury remains - the rest of the sculpture could not be saved.
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