Marple in the 1850s: Part Five — Manufacturing

Posted On March 14, 2022

By Sam Pickard

This is Part Five of an ongoing series on Marple Township in the 1850s.

Part Four focuses on Businesses in Marple during the 1850s.

Part Six focuses on Schools in Marple during the 1850s.

When picturing 19^th century industry in the United States, one might think of Lowell, Bethlehem, or even Kensington and Manayunk in Philadelphia. While these industrial centers could boast numerous firms with large mills and factories, in the first half of the 19^th century, it was not uncommon for more rural areas to have developed their own craft industry sectors.

Marple Township’s industry in the 1850s was largely the development of these traditional craft/cottage industries. Yet, even for Delaware County, Marple was never an industrial powerhouse. Marple reached a high point for manufacturing in about 1850, with saw and grist mills, tanneries, whetstone factories, and other manufactories. Unfortunately for the township, this high was followed by a rapid period of decline. The number of industrial businesses recorded by the manufacturing schedules of the census fell from 14 in 1850 to just nine in 1860, and then five in 1870.[1] This largely reflected the changing economic reality in the United States during the mid-19^th century as American manufacturing became more centralized, mechanized, and industrialized. Historian Daniel Walker Howe noted, this “played havoc with the artisan systems of production, though its effects varied according to their trade and rank.”[2] Smaller cottage industries in places like Marple—which at the time had no navigable streams or direct railroad connections—slowly went out of business or moved to more profitable areas.

This post will give a brief overview of the main industrial sectors in Marple Township during the decade, calling out some of the more notable firms and figures.

Mills

Saw and grist mills—which cut wood into boards and ground grain into flour, respectively—were vital components of most agricultural communities into the 20^th century, with Marple Township no exception. While grist mills are curiously not enumerated in either the 1850 or 1860 census industrial schedules (possibly due to low production or location), maps and histories indicate that these mills were located in and around Marple.[3] Mills (both grist and saw) were water-powered during this era, and thus were invariably located along streams. A mill dam would pool the water in the stream, which would then flow through the mill’s raceway and move a waterwheel connected to a shaft. In turn, the shaft would move the saw or grindstones inside the mill. Darby Creek and Crum Creek along the township’s borders were the primary locations of mills, though David Paxson was operating a one-man saw mill on Trout Run in 1850, producing 80,000 feet of lumber a year.[4] By 1860, however, neither sawmills nor grist mills were enumerated in the industrial schedules for the township.[5]

While not a sawmill per se, one Robert Noblet was operating a wooden shingle factory in 1850, possibly attached to one of the sawmills.[6]

Leather Tanning & Currying

The most prominent industry in Marple was one which was also connected to agriculture: leather tanning. The Rhoads family are most associated with this industry in Marple, and had operated a tannery on their property near the intersection of Sproul and Reed roads for several generations by the 1850s. In 1850, the Rhoads tannery, operated by brothers George and Joseph Rhoads, was the second-largest of three tanneries in the township, producing $4,200 worth of manufactured leather and employing four men.[7]

The largest tannery was on land owned by Samuel Bartram in the northwest of the township, but operated by the firm of Still & Bailey. The largest tannery by output and employment ($8,500 in manufactured leather and employing five), Still & Bailey is particularly notable as a Black-owned business, operated by 44-year-old Charles R. Bailey and either 55-year-old Rebecca Still or 21-year-old Albert Still. Four of the five men working in the tannery according to the 1850 census, were African American, with the only exception being 21-year-old German immigrant August Frank. The tannery appears to have ceased operations at some point during the decade, though it is depicted on an 1860 map.[8]

The last tannery, operated by James Lewis on Malin Road, was owned by Lewis and Rebecca Fawkes, noted in a previous post as one of the largest landowners in Marple. Employing three and producing $2,500 worth of manufactured leather in 1850, the Lewis tannery was not recorded in the 1860 census or the 1860 Lake & Beers map, but Ashmead’s 1884 county history reported that it operated into the 1860s.[9]

In addition to tanneries, there were at least three leather currier shops operating in Marple during the 1850s, further refining the leather produced by tanneries.[10] The leather currying process, as well as the currier shop operated by George McCluen and James S. Bell are discussed in further depth in the November 2021 post “Obituary for a Funeral Home.”[11] The other curriers were run by the Rhoads brothers (in addition to their tannery) and George S. Brooke on West Chester Pike.[12] By 1860, George McCluen was the only currier enumerated in the industrial census.[13]

Whetstone & Scythestone Factories

The other notable industry was the quarrying and production of whetstones (also called scythe stones)—used for sharpening knives and tools. This industry was centered along Whetstone Run in the southeast portion of the township, within the bounds of what is known today as the Don Guenella Woods tract.

The first of these whetstone factories had likely been built along Whetstone Run by the Rhoads family in 1842.[14] Stone, apparently slate or sandstone in this case, was quarried from the property and cut into smaller sizes until it could be ground by millstones into the desired size and shape.[15] The Rhoads family sold their stones under the “Darby Creek Scythe Stones” brand across the mid-Atlantic region.[16] In 1850, the Rhoads scythe stone quarry and factory employed three men and produced 27,000 stones annually, worth about $1,080. A second whetstone factory was located upstream on Samuel Pancoast’s property. In 1850, this factory appears to have been operated by Norris Worrall, employing two men and producing $600 worth of whetstones a year.[17]

Both the Rhoads and Worrall factories were in operation in 1860, as was a factory operated by Samuel Pancoast.[18] An archaeological report from the excavation of the Rhoads factory during the construction of the Blue Route in the 1980s asserts that Worrall and Pancoast were both using the same factory and quarry at different times.[19] Pancoast and Worrall’s operations were relatively small one- and two-man endeavors, producing 9,000 and 17,000 scythe stones per year, respectively. In comparison, the Rhoads factory employed five men and produced 38,000 stones.[20]

Other Industries

Beyond the above-mentioned industries, there were only a few other manufacturing concerns in Marple Township. Benjamin Jones operated a pottery factory on West Chester Pike through the 1850s, a topic that is discussed at length in a two-part post (Part One; Part Two) from March 2021.[21]

Near the Drove Tavern in what is now Broomall, Joseph Brown employed three people in a “tobacco + cigar manufactory,” transforming an estimated 10,000 pounds of tobacco a year into cigars and presumably chewing tobacco. Brown and his business had left Marple by 1860.[22]

While a “cotton factory” located on Trout Run in Marple had burned in 1848, that does not mean that there was not textile production in the township during the 1850s.[23] William Wiley, an English weaver who began purchasing property in Marple during the 1830s, appears to have run a handloom weaving operation in the north of the township near Media Line Road.[24] While not much is known about this, it appears to have been comprised of eight to ten middle-aged handloom weavers (all male) from England, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as several Irish women employed to wind the wool thread around bobbins.[25] Unfortunately, Wiley’s weavers aren’t listed in any of the census industrial schedules and the author has discovered nothing more about them, with even the late Rich Paul drawing a blank.[26]

Next time, as we continue to explore Marple in the 1850s, we’ll look at the township’s schools.

---

[1] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township; 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township; 1870 U.S. Census, Schedule 4.—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township.

[2] Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 537.

[3] Joshua W. Ash, Map of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Robert P. Smith, 1848); 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp.; Henry Graham Ashmead, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 582.

[4] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 242, line 6; Ash, Map of Delaware County.

[5] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp.

[6] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 242, line 2.

[7] Doug, Humes, “The Rhoads Tannery, The Oldest Business in the U.S.,” Marple Friends & Neighbors Magazine, April 2020, https://issuu.com/bestversionmedia6/docs/2004-m_2988_marple_friends___neighbors_web_april20/s/10395635; Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 582; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 241, line 20.

[8] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 241, line 14; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township, sheet 204B, lines 25-30; Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 582; Ash, Map of Delaware County; D. J. Lake and S. N. Beers, Map of the Vicinity of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: John E. Gillette, C. K. Stone, 1860).

[9] Ash, Map of Delaware County.

[10] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 241, lines 3 and 20; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., sheet 209A, lines 34.

[11] Sam Pickard, “Obituary for a Funeral Home: the McCluen House, ca. 1847-2021,” Marple History, 28 November 2021, https://marplehistory.com/mccluen-house/. 

[12] Lake and Beers, Map of the Vicinity of Philadelphia.

[13] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 5, line 14.

[14] George D. Cress, Michael Parrington, William R. Henry Jr., Tod L. Benedict, Philip J. Carstairs, and Daniel P. Wagner, Mid-County Expressway, Interstate 476, L.R. 1010, Section 400, Archaeological Data Recovery at the Rhoads Whetstone Factory Site (36DE76), Delaware County, Pennsylvania ER 82-0773-042 (Prepared by John Milner Associates/Commonwealth Heritage Group, West Chester, Pennsylvania, and Urban Engineers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for Federal Highway Administration and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 2021), 7.

[15] Cress et al., Archaeological Data Recovery at the Rhoads Whetstone Factory Site, 92-93.

[16] Cress et al., Archaeological Data Recovery at the Rhoads Whetstone Factory Site, 7.

[17] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 241, line 8, and page 242, line 1; Cress et al., Archaeological Data Recovery at the Rhoads Whetstone Factory Site, 8.

[18] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 5, lines 3, 5, and 7.

[19] Cress et al., Archaeological Data Recovery at the Rhoads Whetstone Factory Site, 11.

[20] 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 5, lines 3, 5, and 7.

[21] Sam Pickard, “The Jones Pottery Factory: Part One, 1842-1850,” Marple History, 19 March 2021, https://marplehistory.com/jones-pottery-1/; Sam Pickard, “The Jones Pottery Factory: Part Two, 1850-1869,” Marple History, 27 March 2021, https://marplehistory.com/jones-pottery-2/.

[22] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 5—Products of Industry, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 241, line 13; 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., sheet 207A, lines 24-38.

[23] Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 582.

[24] Delaware County Deed Book U:172; Ash, Map of Delaware County.

[25] 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., sheet 207A, lines 24-38; 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., page 105, lines 15-32.

[26] A. Richard Paul, email to author, 2 July 2020.