MORAVIA SILK COMPANY

[Beaver Co., PA, 1838. Broadside, 36 x 24 cm. Cut of the area around Beaver City, Pennsylvania, showing railroad and canal routes printed on the upper third of the sheet, above the caption title; three columns of text below the title; followed by a paragraph of information listing the company's directors. Faint old fold lines, else a nice example.
According to the text, the Moravia Silk Company received its charter from the Governor on May 23, 1838, having acquired "several pieces of valuable property, in the vicinity of Beaver River, Beaver County, Pennsylvania," with the intent to "go practically into the growing of Mulberry and manufacture of (truncated) Silk....." The property consisted of some 900 acres, including three farms, 30 acres, 130 acres, and 626 acres; plus about 120 acres, equal to about 600 town lots, of 50 feet front, by 150 deep, in Beaver City. In addition to a ready supply of water power, coal, iron ore, lime stone, building materials, etc., the new town of Moravia had been laid out with 250 lots standing ready for settlement. "The town overlooks about 250 acres of most delightful plain, upon which it is intended to have the Mulberry Orchards of the Company - to give employment to such residents of the Town, as may wish to engage in the Silk business, whether members of the Company or not." Opportunities for stockholder investments were offered. A notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer for May 25, 1838 records a meeting of the stockholders of the Moravia Silk Culture and Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania, convened by Samuel C. Atkinson, Chair, and Edward Hoopes, Secretary. Articles of the association were read and adopted and a twelve man board of directors were elected, including Peter Wright, Samuel Atkinson, Charles Alexander, Allen Ward, L. Johnson, Edmund Shotwell, David Townsend, James Paul, George Ford, James R. Scott, Samuel R. Gummere, and T.C. Gould, all of whose names appear on this broadside.
It is unclear whether the enterprise was successful. We find no record of this company or this broadside on OCLC. The "boom" in mulberry trees and silk worms in the eastern United States seems to have reached its peak in the 1830s. A new type of mulberry tree was introduced from China that appeared to do better in the northern climates and Gideon Smith, a breeder in Baltimore and the Cheney brothers in South Manchester, Connecticut helped drive the market for trees and cocoons. The price of seedlings rose from $4 per hundred in 1834, to $30 per hundred by 1836. Demand outstripped supply. The Cheneys expanded operations to Burlington, New Jersey where it appears Samuel R. Gummere became an investor. By January 1839, a single mulberry tree was selling for as much as $5. Unfortunately, the trees did not do as well as predicted in colder temperatures and a blight in 1844 decimated most of the trees. [see: "Silk In America," an article on the NC State University website on Textiles History; and an article in the Farmers' Gazette and Cheraw Advertiser, Cheraw, SC, for April 24, 1840]. (Inventory #: 69990)