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 are occurrences peculiar to recent years. Nevertheless it is strictly a 

 modem 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 181 2, 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, 111., 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. 



a 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 

 the interior of France, jnade 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 rivers of the West, 

 there is found in abimdance 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 cufi (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, tmder the name of Unio 

 okiotensis." 



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