15 



appears to have been paid at a very early pe- 1 The worms were fed upon the native Mulberry 



until the White Mulberry could be reared, and 

 it is remarked that they thrived well and yield- 

 ed good silk. While this association was in 

 existence, many garments were made of silk 

 reared by its members ; but the war of the 

 revolution put a stop chiefly to their patriotic 



nod in South Carolina by the ladies, with 

 whom it was a fashionable occupation, and 

 who were in the habit of sending their raw 

 silk to England. As far back as 1755, Mrs. 

 Pinckney, a lady distinguished alike by her 

 patriotism, and excellently improved mind, 

 took with her to England a quantity of supe- 

 rior silk, sufficient to make three complete 

 dresses. One of these was presented to the 

 Princess dowager of Wales, another to Lord 

 Chesterfield, and the third being retained by 

 her, was a few years since in possession of 

 one of her daughters in Charleston. Even at 

 this early period, these American productions 

 were allowed by competent judges to be equal 

 to any ever imported into England. The dress in 

 possession of the daughter of Mrs. Pinckney, 

 Mrs. Horry, in Charleston, South Carolina, 

 was in 1809, still in a good state of preserva- 

 tion, and remarkable for its beauty, firmness 

 and strength. Though the quantity of raw 

 silk exported from this country was always 

 small, yet its quality according to the certifi- 

 cate of Sir Thomas Lombe, the eminent silk 

 manufacturer, was excellent, having as much 

 strength and beauty as the silk of Italy. 



In Georgia, at New Bordeaux, a French 

 settlement about 70 miles above Augusta, the 

 people supplied much of the high country 

 with sewing silk during the war of the revo- 

 lution. 



In the year 1770, we see it stated by the 

 editor of the Genesee Farmer, that a filature 

 was established in Philadelphia, and premi- 

 ums announced, and that in the following year, 

 1771, about 2,300 Ibs. of silk were brought 

 there to reel. The ladies in particular gave 

 great attention to the subject. As early as 

 1770, Mrs. Susanna Wright, at Columbia, 

 Lancaster county, made a piece of manlua, 60 

 yards in length from her own cocoons ; and 

 that, to give eclat to these colonial designs, 

 the Queen of Great Britain gave her patron- 

 age by appearing in a court dress made from 

 American silk. Grace Fisher, a minister 

 among friends, made considerable silk stuff: 

 a piece of which was presented by governor 

 Dickinson to the celebrated Catharine Ma- 

 cauley. It is also stated that many ladies be- 

 fore the revolution wore silk dresses of their 

 own fabrication. 



In the year 1771, the culture of the silk 

 worm commenced with considerable spirit in 

 the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 

 and a society was formed for that purpose. 



labors, and suspended, in a great measure, the 

 culture of silk. Some few of the more per- 

 severing of the members of the society, still 

 continued the culture on a small scale, pro- 

 ducing from year to year a sufficiency of sew- 

 ing silk for domestic use. In 1790 Nathan- 

 iel Aspinwall, of Connecticut, made a patri- 

 otic effort to revive the Mulberry culture 

 in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 

 and planted, and caused to be planted, thou- 

 sands of trees in those states, for which good 

 service, his memory deserves to be embalmed 

 in the grateful recollections of his countrymen. 

 Among those gentlemen who took an active 

 part in starting the culture in Pennsylvania 

 and New Jersey, in 1771, Doctor Franklin 

 and Dr. Cadwallader Evans stood conspicu- 

 ous, as they did in all other good works with- 

 in the range of their influence. 



During the last few years a spirit has been 

 revived in the state of Pennsylvania to engage 

 in the silk culture, and particularly in the 

 neighborhood of Philadelphia, where several 

 large establishments are projected and being 

 projected. One of the great obstructions in 

 the advance of the silk culture in this country, 

 from the earliest attempts to establish it, has 

 been the want of a market for the sale of the 

 raw silk, either in cocoons, or when reeled ; 

 and another is, the idea which prevails of the 

 immense difficulty of reeling it to advantage ; 

 but both of these have ceased to operate ; 

 markets in the eastern cities, offering fair re- 

 munerating prices, are already established for 

 any quantity of raw silk in any state in which 

 it may be offered, and the simplicity of the 

 newly invented reel of Mr. Gay has brought 

 the art down to the level of almost any capa- 

 city. For ourself we have ever looked upon 

 the difficulty of reeling as being much more 

 imaginary than real, and the success of the 

 lady of whom we spoke a few weeks 

 back, who, with an old thread reel, managed 

 to disengage the web from the cocoons and to 

 make as excellent sewing silk as we ever be- 

 held, shews that we were correct. We have 

 been taught, from our youth up, that no diffi- 

 culties are insurmountable when opposed by 

 willing hearts and industrious hands, and we 



