The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-20
The First Paner Mill in America.

Philadelphia letter to the New York Tribune
says:-ln 1850 the first paper mill was erected
in Pennsy sylvania, near a stream called the Wis
sahickon, about two miles from the location of
the works of the Wood Paper Company, in the
suburbs OF Philadelphia. The founder was Will
liam Rvttmghuisen of Holland, whose family
had for generations made paper for the Dutch,
and whose descendants to this day make paper
in Manayunk. A good family that of Ryt-
inghuisen-thritty and wise-who sensibly
changed their name to Rittenhouse, and
gave to science a granddaughter of William
named David, much addicted to seeing stars
among these high Wissahickon hills, and now
known to all mankind as an eminent astrono-
mer. ! have seen book made in the first MILL
over one hundred and seventy years since, bear
ing the Ryttinghuisen water-mark, "W. R.,
PENNSYLVANIA" )" with treoil encased in a scroll
a neatly formed tretoIl that any Irishman would
accept as the shamrock, and as evidence that
old William was a Fenian. The paper Is hard
of good teXture-browned by time, but showing
signs of careful make, and as strong and nearly
as smooth as the ordinary sheet of note-paper on
which these words are written. 1t was a noted
mill in those days, and the poets of the Pennsyl-
vania colony rhymed about it, something after
this fashion:--
"The paper mill is here hard by
And makes good paper frequently,
But the printer, as here doth tell,
Is gone unto New York to dwell.
NO doubt but he will lay up bags,
II he can get good store of rags
Kind friend, when thy old shift is rent,
Let 1t TO the paper mill be sent"
Let me state as an annexation, that the printer
thus recorded as leaving philadelphia for New
York was the celebrated William Bradford, who
spoke his mind freely about the Quakers, and
was accordingly banished, printing press and
all. This Punishment of Bradford being, as l
will here state, the origin of the remarkable
superstition among people of this State, that
when good Pennsylvanians die they go to New
York.
In those days all paper was manufactured by
hand Each sheet was manufactured separately.
The rags were made into pulp in iron or stone
mortars or trip-hammers, it requiring several
days to make a sample of dry finished paper.
The capacity of the mill was about 1900 reams a
year. You can now induce one of our best
clerks to tell how many hundred years it would
have taken honest old William to furnish one
| years supply of paper for the Tribune. The
business grew rapidly in the colonies. In
| 1863 there we're forty mills in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Delaware, annually pro.
ducing Sl33,OOO worth OF paper. In 1887
| and required $250,000 worth of paper In 1856
| it required fity-three mills to supply Phila-
delphla with Cab and Scribbe stuf (many
| gatherings of Congressmen, Conventions,
young statesmen and juvenile Pub. Docs, IN
| those days, at Philadelphia), the demand alb
| sorbmg n 900 reams. In 1910, there we're 426
| mills, with a capital of S4,745, ,239, and an an
| nual product of $6,l73,O92. In 1850, 43 mills /;
capital, 81 l66, 844; annual product So 1877, III;
in 1860, 500 mills; capital, $40 1000 600; annual
product, $2l, 900, ,000-being in the printing and
| publishing year of peace, 1860 before we took
| to throatcuttlng and windpipe-slittng arts.
| Total go, coo tons of paper or about 2,S00,0 900
| reams; or, to be minute, and at the risk OF Civ.
| ing the Herald people an approximate idea OF
| the Tribune circulation, over thirteen thousand
| two hundred million sheets. From zoe. 900 an.
/ nual sheets, as the labor OF honest William Ryt
! tinghuisen, to more than thirteen thousand
| million, the work of thia great Yankee nationl
This is the story of the American paper trade in
| sentence.