The first, the Mooney Paper Mill on Big Creek, remains in the name
The mill erected by John Sheets just below Manville, where the mill race can still be seen on the west bank of the Indian-Kentuck, had a much longer history. Sheets, who purchased a grist mill in the same location in March 1820, was operating a paper mill, probably by the end of 1827, as the Madison Courier of Jan. 12, 1828, described the mill as “recently built by Major John Sheets.”
A fire at one of his
The 1860 Census of Manufacturers reported Everhart had invested $8,000 in capital. He used 250 tons of straw and 200 cords of wood annually to produce twenty-four tons of paper, valued at $10,000. He employed four people, paying them $60 in an average month ($15 each). He had two engines, the main one steam-powered.
Debt also killed Everhart’s business and the mill was then sold to Harvey Foster via a sheriff’s sale on May 5, 1861 and by 1863, it was owned by Nicholas and Henrietta Manville. Nicholas, showed on the 1863 federal income tax assessment list as a paper manufacturer, sold the mill to Fleming and Andrew Siebenthal on July 19, 1866. But the deed excluded the papermaking machinery from the sale, which may have been transferred to Robert Manville, a partner in papermaking business in
Upstream from Sheets’ Jefferson Paper Mill was the China Paper Mill, which operated on a site about a mile downstream from
But on May 5, 1838, his grandsons William U. and Samuel B. Demaree, his grandsons, sold water and dam rights to Henry Jackman. The History of Papermaking in the
The property was sold to William U. and Samuel B. Demaree with the 1850 Census of Manufacturers listing W&S Demaree as a paper maker. The two had invested $2,000 in the operation, using 50 tons of straw and 200 cords of wood annually to produce 3,000 reams of paper. They employed four people, paying them $60 a month on the average.
The mill was then sold to Henry James on June 4, 1855, who was shown in adjacent to Samuel Demaree in 1850 as a papermaker, and perhaps was already running the facility. The 1860 Manufacturing census showed Henry James as the owner.
But James' business didn't last much longer. On Dec. 4, 1860, he sold the property to William W. Demaree. Whether Demaree operated it is not known, but five years later he sold the boiler and engine “at the Old Paper mill near the residence of said Demaree” to be used in a sorghum mill in Brooksburg.
2 comments:
Bob,
Is the data from the manuscript of the Census of Manufactures?
Hi Bob,
I am tracking down an ancestor, Isaac Mooney, who moved to Jefferson County, Indiana from Pennsylvania. He died here, "approximately" 1828. So I am wondering if the man you mention here, who committed suicide, could be him. It's a year different but since mine is only approximate...
Do you have more information about him that what's posted here?
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