Cyrus Wakefield (February 7, 1811 – October 26, 1873) was a manufacturer of

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of ...

furniture and carriage bodies, and the founder of the

Wakefield Rattan Company The Wakefield Rattan Company was the world's leading manufacturer of rattan furniture and objects in the second half of the 19th century. Founded by Cyrus Wakefield in 1851 in South Reading, Massachusetts (now Wakefield), it perfected machinery f ...

, the largest manufacturer of rattan products at the time. The town of

Wakefield, Massachusetts Wakefield is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, incorporated in 1812 and located about north-northwest of Downtown Boston. Wakefield's population was 27,090 at the 2020 census. Wakefield offers ...

, is named for him.

Biography

About 1827, Wakefield went to Boston, where he engaged in trade. He originated the

business in the United States, and discovered several methods of utilizing the rattan waste, while of the split rattans he made furniture and carriage bodies. He established a large factory—the

—for these manufactures in South

Reading, Massachusetts Reading ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, north of central Boston. The population was 25,518 at the 2020 census. History Settlement and American independence Many of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's original settler ...

, where his rattan works covered of ground. In 1868, South Reading voted to change its name to

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, in recognition of his benefactions, particularly the gift of a town hall that cost $100,000. He also gave $100,000 to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and left other large philanthropic bequests. In 1869, Wakefield and other business leaders petitioned and received a charter to open a savings bank that would serve the resident population of the town of Wakefield, numbering just over 4,000 people. The bank was chartered as the Wakefield Savings Bank, and was renamed to "

The Savings Bank The Savings Bank (formerly Wakefield Savings Bank) is a state-chartered mutual bank, headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts and founded in 1869. It is one of the oldest banks in the United States. The Savings Bank has over $720 million in ass ...

" in 1989 to reflect its broader geographic footprint. In 1872, Wakefield was one of a small group of Boston business executives who raised funds to start ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''. The following year, Wakefield lost his fortune during the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "Lon ...

. Wakefield died at his home in the town of Wakefield on October 26, 1873.

Sources

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wakefield, Cyrus 1811 births 1873 deaths Businesspeople from Boston People from Roxbury, New Hampshire People from Wakefield, Massachusetts 19th-century American philanthropists 19th-century American businesspeople