1850 Mill Districts
WHY | POs | Wrangletown
Click on the word "WRANGLETOWN" to learn about it. Scroll down to see all seven mill districts.
The first mills appeared in the early 1820s. 1835 was a boom year for wool and cotton mills. 1837 was a recession year. 1842 there were strikes. 1843 there were floods and widespread damage. 1848 there were labor laws passed to protect the mill workers. Frozen creeks meant no work. My great grandfather was born in 1840. My grandfather was born in 1868. The industry in these districts was fairly stable by the time they entered the workforce. Chester Creek flowed between Aston and Middletown, PA. There were seven primary textile mill districts in 1850 in Aston and Middletown. The color coded map below shows Lenni, Parkmount, Penn's Grove, Crozerville, West Branch, Rockdale, and Knowlton mill districts. Each district had one mill except Rockdale with two. The one near the Calvary Church was originally known as Larnemoore Mills. Other mills (Tyson's and Dutton's) are on this map. Dutton Mill was a grist mill. Tyson Mill was also a textile mill like the "big 7 districts". The West Branch Creek provided power for the Tyson's, West Branch, and Crozerville mills. Chester Creek provided the power for the others.
With a drop of 90 feet in three miles the flow of these creeks was rapid enough to power the water wheels with relatively short races for the headwaters of their wheels.

Notice how dams (marked yellow/orange) controlled a short parallel flow of water to the various water wheels for the 8 different mills (marked red, green, and purple).

My great grandfather (William Henry Yarnall) probably worked in the Penn's Grove Mill (purple square) around 1880 when he lived in the Glen Riddle section of Middletown because he was listed in that census as a weaver.

My grandfather (George Grant Yarnall) might have worked in the Penn's Grove Mill also around 1880 when he was 12 years old because he was listed in that census as working in a cotton mill.

By 1900 Grant worked at the Crozerville Mill (green square) when his family lived in the mill housing on Hollow Hill Road. He was listed as a beamer in that census.
Cotton first was fed into a picker machine and beaten with a beater bar, to loosen it up. The cotton was then fed through various rollers to remove the vegetable matter. The cotton, aided by fans, was then collected on a screen and fed through more rollers till it emerged as a continuous soft fleecy sheet, known as a lap.
After the cotton came off of the picker machine in laps it was taken to carding machines. These line up the fibres nicely to make them easier to spin. These consist mainly of one big roller with smaller ones surrounding it. All of the rollers are covered by small teeth. As the laps advance, the rollers have teeth that are closer together. The cotton will leave the carding machine in the form of a sliver (a half inch rope of fibres).
More mill details
Some History About These Mills
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