PROFILES IN BUSINESS: Stacy Manosh and Johnson Woolen Mills

Vermont Business Magazine, Mar 01, 2004 by MArcel, Joyce

It seems odd that a company founded when Andrew Jackson was president - and which hasn't changed that much since then - should seem so fresh and new. But in a world filled with huge conglomerates and suffering a glut of cheaply-made clothing from China, South America and almost every place but the United States, Johnson Woolen Mills seems close to radical: It's a company owned and run by the fourth generation of the same family, making by hand high-quality, long-lasting outerwear in Johnson using American-made textiles and thread.

The company is such a rarity that it was recently featured on a Travel Channel show called 'Made in America," along with such corporate icons as HarleyDavidson, Ivory Soap, Milton Bradley and John Deere.

There is a twist to the story, however. After being handed down from father to son for more than a century, the company is now owned and run by a woman. Her name is Stacy Manosh.

Ile woolen outerwear world is a man's world, but that doesn't faze Manosh, 42, who is small, blonde, knifethin, and filled with sparkling vitality. She talks fast and sprinkles her conversation with witty aphorisms. A former tomboy, it comes as no surprise when she announces - twice during one conversation - that she owns a purple Fat Boy HarleyDavidson motorcycle.

Johnson Woolen Mills was founded around 1836 by a man named Andrew Dow. The factory, with its retail store, sits in the center of the tiny town of Johnson,

on the banks of the River Gihon, a name plucked from the Bible: "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads... And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." (Genesis 2: 10-13).

Back when Vermont was a sheep-raising state, almost every town had a woolen mill like Johnson`s, where farmers brought their fleece for cleaning, dyeing, spinning and custom weaving.

After a time, Dow picked up a partner, Isaac L Pearl. Eventually Dow sold Pearl the company and retired,

"The old mill, a frame building, was burned to the ground in 1872, and it is likely that, with the disappearance of the old mill, the custom weaving for the neighboring farmers came to an end," reports the 1961 "History of Johnson, Vermont," which devotes a chapter to Johnson Woolen Mills.

In 1890, Pearl and his son started manufacturing heavy woolen clothing 30 ounces to the yard! - for loggers. "It has been said that the pants became so stiff with-use and dirt that they could stand alone," the book says.

The company was then advertising itself as "Makers of the Best Wearing Trousers in America." Even today, the distinctive red and green plod coats and vests and the heavy woolen pants are frequently passed down from father to son,which is great for the company's reputation, but of a questionable benefit to the bottom line.

The main idea was to make what is most effective to- the winter climate of northern Vermont, that which is especially suited to meet the needs of the out-doors' man, the farmer, the huntsman and truck drivers when the earth is deeply covered in snow," says the book. "These garments are good for forty degrees below zero."

In 1905, DA Barrows of Orleans joined the Pearls, bringing with him, according to the book, "new energy, new capital and new ideas." He soon became sole owner, and in 1926 he brought his son, Robert S Barrows, into the business. In 1930 they founded a corporation, and in 1955, grandson DR Barrows joined the company.

DR Barrows had a son and a daughter, but instead of passing the business down to his son, who "made other choices," Manosh said, he sold it - not passed it, but sold it - to his daughter.

"My great-grandfather gave it to my grandfather, my grandfather gave it to my father, and I had to buy it," Manosh said.

"Why? I'm a woman."

It seems that the Barrows were an oldfashioned family Even though Manosh's mother enjoyed a 23-year career as a teacher, she also cooked, shopped and ran her home, as the women of the family were supposed to do.

"My dad didn't think women belonged running businesses," Manosh said. "But I've always been on the adventurous side. I don't know if my father doubted my ability to run a company, or if he was trying to save me from the terror of it all. It's not for the faint of heart. There are hard decisions you have to make, hard choices, and you have to be able to live with them. So maybe he, in his own mind, was trying to save me. I don't know."

Manosh has always loved the woolens business. When she was a child, she came in after school to help her father and the seamstresses. In 1983, straight out of college, the only job she wanted was to travel New England as a Johnson Woolen Mills sales rep. Her father wouldn't let her; he already had someone on the job.

"He was an older gentleman, and he was doing the states of Maine and New Hampshire, which was what I wanted to do," Manosh said. "My father said, 'No, I have to wait until Mr Clark retires. 'I said, 'Dad, geez, I'm your daughter, I'm just out of college, I really want to do this.' My dad said, 'No, we're going to wait'."