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 | ENGLISH AMERICA:
NOW
THE UNITED STATES. The history of printing in America, with a biography of printers, and an account of newspapers ... |  |
Paper-making.
The ancient Mexicans made great use of paper. They
manufactured it from the leaves of a genus of the aloe, or
the palm icxotl, and from the thin bark of other trees, by a
process not now known. They formed it into sheets of
various dimensions and thicknesses, so as to answer sundry
purposes; some of the sheets were similar, in thickness,
to the thin pasteboard, and press paper for clothiers,
manufactured in Europe; and some were thinner, but
softer, smoother, and easy to write on. The sheets were
generally made very long, and were polished suitably for
the use to which they were intended to be applied. For
preservation they were made up into rolls, or folded in the
manner of bed screens, and thus formed into books.[8]
preserved in Mexico, informs us, that on this kind of paper
the ancient Mexicans painted, in beautiful and permanent
colors, the representations of their gods, their kings, their
heroes, their animals, their plants, and whatever objects
their fancy dictated, or circumstances might require.
On paper they delineated, in hieroglyphics, painted with
colors which were appropriated to the subject, "the symbols
of their religion, accounts of remarkable events, their
laws, their rites, their customs, their taxes or tributes.
Some of these paintings on paper were chronological,
astronomical, or astrological, in which were represented
their calendar, the positions of the stars, eclipses, changes
of the moon, prognostications of the variations of the
weather; this kind of painting was called, by them, tonalamatl.
Other paintings were topographical, or chorographical,
which served not only to show the extent and
boundaries of possessions, but, likewise, the situation
of places, the direction of the coasts, and courses of the
rivers. The Mexican empire abounded with all these
kinds of paintings on paper; for their painters were innumerable,
and there was hardly anything left unpainted.
If these had been preserved, there would have been nothing
wanting to explain the history of Mexico; but, after the
conquest of the country by the Spaniards, the first
preachers of the gospel, suspicious that superstition was
mixed with all these paintings, made a furious destruction
of them."[9]
Humboldt mentions that "the paper made by the
ancient Mexicans, on which they painted their hieroglyphical
figures, was made of the fibres of agave leaves,
macerated in water, and disposed in layers like the fibres
of the Egyptian cyperus, and the mulberry of the South
"some fragments of the ritual books composed by
the Indians in hieroglyphics at the beginning of the conquest,
written on maguey paper, of a thickness so different
that some of them resembled pasteboard, while others
resembled Chinese paper."[11]
Paper similar to that of Mexico, it is said, was made in
Peru.
Clavigero says "the invention of paper is certainly
more ancient in America than in Egypt, from whence it
was communicated to Europe. It is true that the paper
of the Mexicans is not comparable with paper of the
Egyptians, but it ought to be observed that the former did
not make theirs for writing but painting."
In an account of Pennsylvania by Gabriel Thomas,
published in 1698, he mentions" all sorts of very good
paper are made in the German Town." The mill at which
this paper was made, was the first paper mill erected in the
British colonies. What was then called the German Town,[12]
was afterwards, and is now, known by the name of Germantown,
five miles distant from Philadelphia.[13]
The mill
was constructed with logs. The building covered a water
wheel set over a small branch of the Wissahickon. For
this mill there was neither dam nor race. It was built by
Nicholas (or as he was then called Claus) Rittenhouse,[14]
then the only printer in the colonies southward or
westward of New England, who procured the tract of
land, then considered of little, if any value, on which the
log mill and a log house for Claus were placed. Bradford
also procured molds and other furniture for the mill.
Claus was from Holland,[15] and a paper-maker by trade.
He was only twenty-one years of age when he arrived in
America. He was something of a carpenter, and did the
chief of the work of these buildings himself. This small
mill was carried away by a freshet.[16] Another mill built
stood. At length this mill was found to be too small for
the increased business of its owner. He built another of
stone, which was larger than the one already erected.
This mill spot was occupied, and the paper-making business
carried on, by the first Claus, or Nicholas, and his
descendants, from 1689 to 1798,[17] one hundred and nine
years, who from time to time made many valuable improvements
in the mills, and in the art of paper-making.
Appendix B.
From Claus, or Nicholas Rittenhouse,[18]
and his brother,
(Garrett) who came with him from Holland to America in
1687, or 1688, are descended all of that name now in
Pennsylvania or New Jersey. The late David Rittenhouse,
the philosopher of Pennsylvania, was the grandson
of Claus, the first manufacturer of paper in British
America.
The second establishment of a paper mill erected in
Pennsylvania, or in British America, was built with brick
on the west branch of Chester creek, Delaware county,
twenty miles distant from Philadelphia, by Thomas Wilcox,
who was born in England, and there brought up to papermaking.[19]
Wilcox came to America about the year 1712,
and applied to Rittenhouse for employment, but could not
obtain it, as but little business was then done at the mill.
For fourteen years Wilcox followed other business, and by
his industry and economy he acquired and laid up a small
sum of money, when in 1726, he erected a small paper mill,
and began to make fuller's boards. He continued this
business fourteen years without manufacturing either writing
or printing paper. He gave up his mill to his son
Mark in 1767. Wilcox the father died November 11,
1779, aged ninety.[20]
The paper-making business was carried on in 1815,
by the sons of Mark, who was then-living aged seventy.
He made the paper for the bills issued by congress during
the revolutionary war; for the bills of the first bank
established in Philadelphia; for many other banks and
good paper in the United States. In 1770 he was appointed
associate judge for Delaware county.
The third paper mill establishment in Pennsylvania was
erected by William De Wees and John Gorgas, who had
been the apprentices of Rittenhouse. Their mill was on
the Wissahickon creek, eleven miles from Philadelphia,
and built in 1728. They manufactured an imitation of
asses skin paper for memorandum books, which was well
executed.[21]
The fourth mill was also on the Wissahickon, nine
miles from Philadelphia, built by William De Wees, Jr.,
about 1736.
The fifth was erected by Christopher Sower, the first of
the name, about the year 1744, on a branch of Frankford
creek. This was on the lower end of his land.
The improvements in paper-making at Wilcox's and
other mills in Pennsylvania, were principally owing to an
Englishman by the name of John Readen. He was a man
of great professional ingenuity, and a first rate workman.
He had indented himself to the master of the vessel who
brought him from Europe. Wilcox redeemed him, and
employed him several years. He died in 1806, aged sixty.
Engines were not used in the American paper mills before
1756; until then, rags for making paper were pounded.
There were several paper mills in New England, and
two or three in New York, before the revolution.
About the year 1730, an enterprising bookseller in
Boston, having petitioned for, and received some aid
from the legislature of Massachusetts,[22]
erected a paper mill,
which was the first set up in that colony. After 1775,
paper mills increased rapidly, in all parts of the Union.
Clavigero's History of Mexico, vol. 11, p. 219, Am. ed.; Humboldt's Essay
on New Spain, vol. 1, Am. ed., p. 120.
This name of the German Town was not confined merely to what
is now known as Germantown, but included also Roxborough township
at present forming the Twenty-first ward of Philadelphia.—H. G. Jones.
The first settlement of Germans is stated to have been in 1692. This
mill, from many circumstances, must have been erected prior to that
period, and in 1688, with the log mill and log house of Rittenliouse.
Nicholas Rittenhouse, the first paper-maker, died in May, 1734, aged 68,
and was succeeded by his son William, who was born in 1691, and died
in 1774.
Mr. Thomas has fallen into error. The first paper-maker was not
Nicholas Rittenhousc, but William Rittenhouse, a native of the PrinciPality
of Broich in Holland. The mill was built in the year 1690, by a comPany
composed of such prominent men as Robert Turner, Thomas
Tresse, William Bradford, Samuel Carpenter, William Rittenhouse and
others. The mill was erected on a stream of water which empties into
Wissahickon creek about a mile above its confluence with the river
Schuylkill, in the township of Roxborough. This stream still bears the
name of Papermill run. The deed for the land on part of which the
mill was erected, comprising about twenty acres, is dated" the Ninth day
of the Twelfth month called ffebruary, in the ffourth year of the Reign
of Queen Ann 170 ⅚," and the grantee was William Rittenhouse. This
deed recites that in the year 1690, it was agreed between the said parties
"and others that undertook to build a paper mill upon the land," above
referred to, that said Carpenter should demise to them the said land, and
then proceeds as follows: "And whereas the said paper mill was afterwards
built, but no Lease, actually signed or executed according to the said Agreement."
—H. G. J.
Claus, or Nicolas, Rittenhouse was born in Holland, June 15, 1666,
came to America with his father, William Rittenhouse, who settled in
Germantown and afterwards removed to Roxborough, where he had
erected his paper mill. Nicholas was a member of the Mennonist meeting
at Germantown, and officiated as a minister in that society.—Ibid.
This terrible calamity occurred in the year 1700 or 1701, during the
second visit of William Penn to his colony. Barton, in his Memoirs of
David Rittenhouse, pages 83–4, says: "There is now before the writer a
paper in the hand writing of the celebrated William Penn, and subscribed
with his name, certifying that William Rittinghausen and Claus his son,
then part owners of the paper mill near Germantown, had recently sustained
a very great loss by a violent and sudden flood, which carried away
the said mill, with a considerable quantity of paper, materials and tools,
with other things therein, whereby they were reduced to great distress; and
therefore recommending to such persons as should be disposed to lend
them aid, to give the sufferers 'relief and encouragement, in their needful
and commendable employment', as they were 'desirous to set up the paper
mill again' "
The Rittenhouses rebuilt the mill in 1702, and on the 30th of June,
1704, William Rittenhouse became the sole owner of the mill, and in 1705,
secured the land from Samuel Carpenter on alease for 975 years.—H. G. J.
William Rittenhouse, the first paper maker in America, died in the
year 1708, aged about 64 years. Shortly before his death ho gave his
share in the paper mill to his son Nicholas, who carried on the business
until May, 1734, when he died. He deeded the paper mill to his oldest
son William Rittenhouse, and when he died the mill property fell to his
son Jacob Rittenhouse, also a paper-maker, who carried on the business,
and died in 1811. The mill was erected by a family named Markle, who
continued to manufacture paper there for many years. So that the
paper-making business was carried on by the same family for a period of
one hundred and twenty-one years at the same place.—Ibid.
It was not Nicholas but William Rittenhouse who was the progenitor
of the family in America. He arrived here about 1688, and settled in
Germantown. He had only two sons, Nicholas or Claus, and Garrett or
Gerhard, and a daughter Elizabeth who married Heiver Papen. Nicholas
married Wilhelmina De Wees, a sister of William De Wees of Germantown.
Garrett resided at Cresheim, a part of Germantown, and was
a miller.—Ibid.
The second paper mill in America was not that of Thomas Wilcox.
Dr. George Smith, in his History of Delaware County, Pa., says, that "the
old Ivy Mill of Wilcox was not erected until the year 1729, or very shortly
afterwards." He claims that it was the second place at which paper was
manufactured in Pennsylvania. But this is an error. The second paper
mill in America was erected by another settler of Germantown named
William De Wees, who was a brother-in-law of Nicholas Rittenhouse,
and, as Mr. Thomas says, had been an apprentice at the Rittenhouse mill.
This second mill was built in the year 1710, on the west side of the
Wissahickon creek in that part of Germantown known in early times as
Crefeld, near the line of the present Montgomery county. I have seen
papere which show that this mill was in full and active operation in that
year and in 1713.—H. G. J.
The first purchase of land that Thomas Wilcox made for his mill
seat was from the proprietors of Pennsylvania. The additional piece for
his dam he agreed for at one shilling sterling a year forever. This seems,
at the present time, to have been a small compensation; but lands were
then plenty, and money scarce. Lands were leased out at one penny an
acre; but this price was thought high. Quantities of land were afterwards
taken up at one shilling sterling for every hundred acres. The
state, about the commencement of the revolution, bought out the quit
rents from the proprietors for £30,000, but the proprietors still retain the
manors.
John Brighter, an aged paper-maker, who conducted a mill for more
than half a century in Pennsylvania, and who gave this account, observed
that this kind of paper was made out of rotten stone, which is found
in several places near and to the northward of Philadelphia, and that
the method of cleansing this paper was to throw it in the fire for a short
time, when it was taken out perfectly fair.
| ENGLISH AMERICA:
NOW
THE UNITED STATES. The history of printing in America, with a biography of printers, and an account of newspapers ... | |