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Wanted to share this.
Connie LaFontaine
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Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 09:43:35 -0900
From: IRENE RUTTER <serenity(a)alaska.net>
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To: RONCONLAF(a)aol.com
Subject: CONNIE The Paper Makers
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This is something I typed a long time ago to send to someone else in my
family. I thought you might find it interesting. Jane Levis Carter is
still alive (in her late 90's I believe) and lives in Chester County,
PA. 3/30/99
THE PAPER MAKERS: Early Pennsylvanians and their Water Mills
by Jane Levis Carter
Published by KNA Pres Inc., Kennett Square, PA 19348
Pgs. 82-85
The 1803 Census lists Robert Carter, single man, paper
maker. The
earlier mentioned Tax List of 1806 for Middletown Township, shows him
with 20 acres of land, no improvements. Robert, born in 1778, was the
great-grandson of Jeremiah and Mary Carter, who settled on Chester Creek
close to Caleb Pusey in 1689. That same year, Mary Carter served on the
only all-woman jury ever convened in the coutnry. Their first child was
named for Lydia Wade, wife of Robert at Essex House. Lydia Wade gave
her infant namesake 50 acres of land, to be used by Jeremiah until the
child reached twenty-one years of age, at an annual quit rent of
one-half bushel of wheat.
Although Jeremiah was reputedly a "linnen
maker," or weaver, the family
appear to have remained primarily yeoman farmers for a couple of
generations, with side ventures on their land in a saw mill, copper
mining, pottery making. By 1800, Abraham Carter, potter, took his
business to Bridgeton, New Jersey. Son Edward continued the business at
then Carterville. A small family graveyard is still beside Concord
Road. Although there is no evidence that Jeremiah and Mary were
Quakers, their children became so and intermarried wtih local Friends,
attached to Chester, Concord and Chichester Meetings.
Curiously, an attraction into the medical profession
manifested itself
quite early. Dr. Elisha-Cullen Dick, another great-grandson, studied
under Dr. Benjamin Rush at Pennsylvania Hospital and later practiced in
Alexandria, Virgina. Called to the bedside of the dying George
Washington, he counseled an operation. His senior colleagues did not
agree.
AMERICAN PAPER MAKERS lists Robert Carter as being on
the West Branch
of White Clay Creek from 1811 to 1813. Evidence seems to point to his
having learned his craft with Levis and Lewis back on Ridley Creek at
the now Media Water Works. This first, London Britain Township Mill was
later sold by Robert to William Young. On the 1816 map of Chester
County, we find Carter's Mill (Robert's) tucked away on Octoraro Creek
in the corner of West Nottingham Township.
Around the same date, Robert Carter purchased the old
"Wallace Mill",
on the Little Elk across the state line in Cecil County, Maryland. He
turned it to the manufacture of hand made paper. The capacity was three
or four hundred pounds a day in what would thenceforth be called "Cecil
Paper Mills". Above the creek valley rose "Walnut Hill", the family
mansion for many generations.
The Little Elk provided many good mill sites.
Levises, Kirks,
Garretts, Carters virtually join hands along the stream on old maps. As
the Cecil Paper Mills prospered, Robert Carter bought Marley Mill,
downstream on the Little Elk.
This latter mill had a long history. In 1794, Col.
Henry Hollingsworth
of Elkton, and several partners purchased an old mill from John
Anderson. Thick stone walls were added to house imported textile
machinery. An additional 500 acres were bought as pasturage for sheep,
to assure an adequate wool supply. John Wilson, a Yorkshireman
experienced in the manufacture of broadcloth, joined the staff. A
length of their finest weave was presented to Thomas Jefferson. He had
it tailored into a suit to be worn when inaugurated President of the
United States.
In 1836, Cecil Paper Mills burned to the ground but
were immediatedly
rebuilt and improved upon. Around 1842, Robert Carter retired from
paper making and sold Cecil Mils to his sons Joseph and William, by his
first wife, Lydia Levis, a native of Maryland. Lydia Levis Carter had
died in 1820, after bearing seven children. Robert had remarried, this
time Mary Reynolds, who would add six more to the family. Among them
was Israel Day, born in 1826. It would be he who in time would carry on
the Cecil Mills, his half brothers continuing to manufacture paper at
Marley and other sites.
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