The shirt city: Wilson Brothers and the white dress shirt

1883 — 1975

The signature garment: If South Bend had a fashion good, it was a shirt — not a novelty but the white dress shirt itself, made by the thousand dozen. Wilson Brothers, founded in Cincinnati in 1864 and headquartered in Chicago, began manufacturing in South Bend in 1883 on the second floor of the post office building, and in 1887 bought its factory ground from J. D. Oliver south of Sample Street on a recorded condition: within ten years the plant would employ 1,000 women. Sewing was women's work at women's wages, and the plant was built on that arithmetic — 1,600 employees by 1926, 2,200 by 1929, and a reported capacity of 72,000 shirts in an eight-and-a-half-hour day. The signature line was the white dress shirt; the works added underwear, pajamas, neckties, and men's socks. A later site history puts the plant's Second World War production at about 3.5 million pieces of clothing for the armed forces; the figure is printed as that account's. The firm's South Bend end came by way of Kentucky: Wilson bought the Enro Shirt Company — a second account dates the combination to a 1957 merger, and both dates stand in the Businesses record — Enro's plant took the bulk of the shirt work, and South Bend sewed pajamas and bathrobes until the factory closed in 1975. The full corporate record is the Businesses section's. What belongs here is the standing of the goods: for two generations the city's largest single product of dress was a white shirt, and the census table that could not print it is described in this section's first entry.

The shirt trade was not Wilson's alone, though the record nearly makes it seem so. The 1921 city directory's classified heading "Shirt Manufacturers" carries exactly two names: Wilson Bros., at 1008 West Sample, and the Lamb Shirt Co., at 305–7 Hydraulic Avenue — a second shirt maker on the East Race whose firm history the sources reached do not otherwise carry. It is printed here at the directory's size: a name, an address, and a trade.

Sources:

1. Discover Indiana (Indiana Historical Society / IUPUI), "Wilson Brothers Shirt Factory," and the South Bend industries survey — the 1883 start, the 1887 land purchase and its 1,000-women condition, the product lines, the 72,000-shirt capacity day, the employment figures, the Enro purchase, and the 1975 closing; as carried in this build's Businesses section, where the 1949/1957 Enro conflict is printed.
2. Places That Were, "Wilson Brothers Shirt Company" (2017) — the wartime figure of about 3.5 million pieces, printed as that account's.
3. R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend City Directory (1921), classified business directory — "Shirt Manufacturers": Lamb Shirt Co., 305–7 Hydraulic av.; Wilson Bros., 1008 W. Sample.