12 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
The seventh-generation Slade Gorton whose great-grandson was des-
tined to carry his name to Congress founded the legendary Gorton fish
company in 1883 after the Massachusetts cotton mill he managed burned
down, according to most accounts. Gorton, 51, and 240 others found
themselves jobless. The story goes that he was prodded by his enterpris-
ing second wife, Margaret Ann, to take up fishing and soon began to pack
and sell salt cod and pickled mackerel in kegs stamped “Slade Gorton
Company.” In the 1880 Census, however, his occupation is already listed
as “fish dealer.” In the 1870 enumeration, it says he “works in cotton
mill.” An account by Mathias P. Harpin, a prolific New England author,
says Gorton went to work as a weaver as youth, but bristled at the low pay
and long hours. “While in the company store one day his attention was
drawn to the salt cod hanging from hooks in the ceiling.... This gave
him an idea. He decided to become a fishmonger. He went to Newport,
met fishermen at Long Wharf, bought cod by the barrel and sold it by the
Taken in 1891 outside the Slade Gorton Company at Gloucester, Mass., this
photo was framed with wood from the wharf on which the men are standing.
From left: Thomas “Tommy” Slade Gorton Sr. (the senator’s grandfather); Slade
Gorton (the senator’s great-grandfather); an unidentified Gorton son-in-law;
Isaac Gould, a skipper and fisherman; Tom Carroll, the general manager, and
Nathaniel L. Gorton, the senator’s grand-uncle. Gould was lost at sea aboard
the fishing schooner Columbia in a 1927 gale. Gorton family album