Part 3. MANUFACTURE OF PEARL BUTTONS FROM FRESH-WATER 
MUSSEL SHELLS. 
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDUSTRY. 
Neither the manufacture of buttons nor the abundance of fresh-water mussels in the 
United States is an occurrence peculiar to recent years. Nevertheless it is strictly a 
modern development for the fresh-water shells to be the material for button manufacture 
in any important way; for the making of fresh-water pearl buttons, now the principal 
branch of the industry, dates only from 1891. Buttons of brass and wood have been 
made in this country since about 1750, buttons of metal since 1800, buttons of horn 
since 1812, buttons of marine shell since 1855, and buttons of composition since 1862. 
Meantime, mussel shells eminently suitable for button manufacture, and readily avail- 
able, have grown abundantly in the streams of the Mississippi Basin through all 
historical times. 
Long before an effective beginning was made, it seems to have occurred to various 
persons that the fresh-water mussel shells might be made useful for button manufacture. 
Indeed, there seems to have been an early industry on the Ohio River in the carving 
of cuff buttons from mussel shells more than 100 years ago.* As early as 1872, it is 
said, a man in Peoria, Ill., conceived the idea that the pearly shells of the Illinois River 
should have a value for manufacturing purposes, and he accordingly collected some of 
them and shipped them to Germany. It is very interesting to note that to this fugitive 
idea, resulting in a single small shipment, the actual establishment of the industry 
some 20 years later may perhaps be traced. However, it is evident that the matter 
was entirely abandoned for the time. According to local reports, a shipment of shells 
was sent from Beardstown, on the same river, to a factory in the East about 1876, but 
the material seems to have been considered impracticable of use. A more practical 
venture was made about 1883, when a commercial plant is reported to have been started 
at Knoxville, Tenn., where it was endeavored to make buttons and novelties from the 
shells of the Tennessee River. Unfortunately, the factory was discontinued after a. 
short time, probably because of the lack of suitable machinery. It should be remarked 
that sometime in the late eighties pearl-button factories were in operation in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and St. Paul, Minn., using as raw material the imported ocean-pearl shells. 
Although these plants were located on the very banks of good shell-bearing streams, 
there is no evidence that the river material was even experimented with. 
@ Curiously enough, there is found in an early book of travels mention of a long-forgotten fresh-water button industry. 
‘The writer is indebted to Ernest Danglade for the reference. Dr. F. A. Michaux in 1802, under the auspices of the minister of 
theinterior of France, made an extended tour for exploration in the United States, especially through that part lying west of the 
Alleghanies, or in the Ohio Valley. His record of a button industry on the Ohio River is now of rare interest. He observes 
(translating from the French): “In the Ohio, as well as in the Alleghany, the Monongahela, and the other tivers of the West, 
there is found in abundance a species of mussel having a length from 2 to 5 inches. It is not eaten at all, but the nacre, which is 
thick, is used to make cuff (or sleeve) buttons. I have seen some of them at Lexington, Ky, which were equal in beauty to those 
used in Europe. ‘This new species, which I have brought back, has been designated, by citizen Bosc, under the name of Unio 
ohiotensis."” 
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