William Francis Sayles

William Francis Sayles, 1824-1894, was a prominent Pawtucket, Rhode Island industrialist who founded the W.F. & F.C. Sayles Company, reputedly the world's largest bleachery for cotton textile cloth, located in Saylesville on the Moshassuck River. Sayles and his brother Frederick, the first mayor of Pawtucket, also owned the Lorraine Mill on Mineral Spring Avenue, a facility that first produced cotton and then woolen textiles. With the wealth he accumulated in the textile industry, William left the sum of $200,000 for a memorial to his wife and son, which was used as the major donation for the establishment of the Pawtucket Memorial Hospital in 1907.