Dominion Textile Company

Dominion Textile / Cosmos Imperial / Cosmos Cotton / Yarmouth Duck and Yarn Company

This textile plant in Yarmouth was a major Yarmouth employer and a significant customer of the railway from its start in 1883 to its end in 1991. Established as the "Yarmouth Duck and Yarn Company" in 1883 by local owners, it made sail canvas for local shipbuilders. It expanded in 1891 to make rope and fishing supplies. In 1902 the company was sold to an American company, Consolidated Cotton Duck Company (later International Cotton company) and renamed "Cosmos Cotton Company". It was renamed again after a 1925 merger as the "Cosmos Imperial Mills Ltd." By the 1950s, the company had evolved to produce cotton duck fabric used to make tarpaulins, awning and tents. Traffic in a typical year for 1967 consisted of 137 inbound cars of cotton and 96 outbound carloads of cotton products.^[1] About 1975 Dominion Textile bought out Cosmos Imperial Mills and operated the plant until it closed in December 1991.^[2] The plant employed 500 workers in peak years and thousands of carloads of cotton bales were delivered by rail throughout the mill's existence. Some employees beleived that it was the loss of rail service in 1990 that caused the plan to close as truck deliveries proved more expensive.^[3]